Walking Around the Ba Dinh District

This morning we walked around the area near our hotel, previously referred to as the Home Depot of Hanoi. We stopped at a bookstore, and guess what, Doug loved it. No purchases made yet - we are waiting until we return from Danang on Wednesday and are in our last hotel room.

We also visited the Temple of Literature, a Confucian institution, known as Vietnam's first university.

We then dined on pho (noodle soup) at Pho 24, a "chain" restaurant here in Vietnam that Doug heard about on NPR. Delicious!














































This shot reminded us of arriving late on Friday night and having to stop in the middle of a road because a large delivery truck had to take down the power lines in order to drive through the street......note the many, many power lines tangled together in this photo.

The temperature here today is 85 degrees and very humid - and this is still the cool season. We are certain that Danang will be much, much warmer, so perhaps it's a good thing we won't be there for more than one night.

I realize this post is a bit out of order, but Blogger is very slow at times.

Off to cool off with a cold Orangina and the newspaper!

Photos

This is a snapshot of the Korean specialty BIBIMBOP on the flight from O'Hare to Seoul. Doug also had a bowl of seaweed soup with that meal, which he said tasted just like "eating low tide." Yum.

I just uploaded the few photos we've taken, and this is the view from our hotel room. There is a heavy combination of fog and smog, and the smell of exhaust and diesel fuel makes you realize why so many people wear surgical masks.

JETLAG

We cannot seem to adjust to local time.......it is 6am on Sunday, April 1 and we've had about 8 hours of sleep since we arrived.......not good. We are trying to drink a lot of water and eat as "normally" as we can, but our stomachs are also a bit queasy from the time change, lack of sleep, nerves,etc....Help - how do we get over this jet lag?!

Yesterday we roamed around the area near our hotel, which is kind of like Home Depot on the street.....little store fronts all along the streets selling lots of toilets, bidets, and plumbing supplies. In the afternoon we took a cab ride to Hoan Kiem Lake, the main tourist area of Hanoi, and walked around the lake for a bit. The traffic was crazy and we just looked down for fear of gasping each time the driver stopped on a dime behind a cyclo. We did successfully cross the street a few times, so we do have one thing down!

We have met several American and Irish families who are also here to adopt their children. Two of the families staying here from our agency are hoping to depart within the week, which gives us hope that we may be here just 2 weeks, or a day or two more.

We're heading to breakfast soon and then walking to the Temple of Literature, which is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

Happy Palm Sunday to everyone.........Tara and Doug

24 Hours After We Departed O'Hare

We are in Hanoi, and arrived about 24 hours after our first flight left O'Hare. The 13 hour and 40 minute flight to Seoul was amazingly smooth and easy...they had a huge selection of inflight movies and a personal TV monitor on each seat, so that was nice. I will post pictures later of some of the food we had on Korean Air - Doug is now a big fan of their tube o' hot pepper sauce. It looks like tomato paste in a small toothpaste tube.

It is 1:30 am in Hanoi - exactly 12 hours ahead of Chicago time. Doug has just ordered a club sandwich from room service - should be interesting!

Signing off for now,
Tara

Leaving on a Jet Plane

All of our bags are packed and we are ready to take off! We hope to check email during our 4-hour layover in Seoul on Friday, but if not, we will be online once we are in Hanoi.

Please keep in touch via email and here's to a safe flight and an awesome adventure ahead!

One Week from Today

This is what our guest bedroom currently looks like - combination travel store and drugstore. The suitcases are nearly full, and we are down to the very last minute items......we take off in less than 48 hours!

In one short week, we will have our son with us in Danang.....we will fly from Hanoi early next Tuesday morning, meet the baby and his caregivers, have the Giving and Receiving Ceremony, and return to the hotel in Danang all in the same day....we will then return to Hanoi the following day and be there the remainder of the trip. One week - yikes!