Day 9

A few goodbyes and a hello to Thailand

We were awoken by the sound of trumpets and drums at 6am. A little too groggy we did not make it out of bed in time to catch a glimpse of the parade marching past our hotel! The sound of chanting and religious singing continued to fill the air far after the last horn was heard. It was a holy morning. There was no going back to sleep after that, so we started our preparations for the day. We were skipping over to Thailand for a week and saying goodbye to our cousins who are heading back to Florida. We’ll miss them.

Grandfather had setup another Skype chat for 10am this morning knowing we’d have the DSL from the hotel on this final day, but this time it would also include our tour buddies. He arrived 30 minutes early with his youngest son-in-law, Uncle Thong (who’s only a year older than Oanh). He wanted to ensure some quiet time with Oanh’s Mom and Dad. He told them that when he came home from his first call, he felt as if he had just gotten back from visiting them from down the street and not from the other side of the world. It made him very happy to feel so close to them. They felt the same way. At 10am our tour buddies showed up, and the whole family was together in our hotel room talking to Oanh’s parents on a laptop screen. Uncle sat down next to Grandpa and they spent the next couple of hours chatting about how much they missed each other, everything and everyone they know or knew, about our latest visit to Dalat and Nga Trang and how they have been checking our blog site multiple times a day and were beginning to get concerned for our safety. Luckily Uncle was able to convince them that all was fine and we had a lovely time sans internet. J

During this time, our cousins, who have also been reading the blogs, asked me to take them to our little lady in the alley for breakfast. Oanh stayed behind with the grownups while the 4 of us headed out into the street to get some yummies. This was new for me, leading the group. Now what alley was she down? We take a turn… Uh-oh, not this alley, a quick cell phone call out to Oanh and we were back on track. We found her and she’s still making noodles, so we all sat down. Slurping away, we were content. Our cousins wished they had come sooner! It still is one of the best meals we had in Vietnam and it was seriously only one dollar.

On our walk back we headed into a few shops to check out the wares and came across a really cool shop that makes custom Vietnamese Character paintings. We partook. It was going to take a couple of hours for the “architect” (as our translator called him) to do his thing, so we went back to the hotel to find Oanh and Uncle. Grandfather had slipped away without my saying goodbye. But not to worry, we are coming back next week for birthday dinner for an Aunt. We grabbed Oanh and Uncle and took off towards the market for refreshments and final shopping.

We went back to the Ben Thanh market to find more treasures. Uncle had told us to be sure to negotiate a better price. I bought a jade bracelet for $20! (The merchant originally asked for $35. I hope it’s real.) Hanh bought clothes and a set of white gold traditional bangle bracelets. In the end we all were happy with our purchases. We drank grass jelly refreshments at a nearby stall to cool off from all the haggling. I did not partake in the grass jelly. There are some things that just don’t translate. I had iced green tea with lemon instead.

Back to the hotel to pick up our Vietnamese Character paintings, check out and head to the airport. Everyone else’s paintings were gorgeous. As a result of my inability to speak Vietnamese, mine was not so much. My cousins helped me clear it up and the shop lady promised to have it ready for us when we get back next week. Uncle and our cousins accompanied us to the airport and during the 20 minute drive the conversation stayed light, but we all knew it was about to end. We got our bags out of the cab and then the hugging began. I think we all hugged each other twice, said goodbye, hugged again, and thanked them for allowing us to join them on this little adventure. We love them a lot and it was very hard to say goodbye.

On our hour long flight to Bangkok, we met some groovy people. Melinda with the buff arms (she was doing pull ups on the bus ride over to the plane) that worked for the U.S. National Intelligence but was on a bit of a hiatus walking the Earth in search of a higher purpose. We met her when she overheard us speaking to Don, a nice strapping fellow we met at the check-in line that works for Microsoft and lives in Laguna Niguel. It truly is a small world. He convinced us to not switch back to XP and wait for the service pack. And finally Jan (pronounced Yan) the commercial pilot from Sweden on vacation that was sitting next to us on the plane. Apparently there is a shortage of pilots all over the world, so if you’re thinking about a new profession, you might want to consider being a commercial Pilot. Some of the best parts of traveling are the people you meet on the journey.

The flight was quick and easy. Although I should mention that we were served drinks AND dinner for this barely 1 hour flight! Free! Hello American Airliners!

We checked in at a familiar place, the Amari Airport Hotel. We stayed here five years ago when Oanh was shooting the film “Two Brothers”. We thought this would be a convenient place to rest ourselves since it’s connected to the airport and we’d be jumping on a plane tomorrow afternoon to Chiang Mai. The down side to that plan? Five years ago, there was only one airport in Bangkok. As you can tell from my tone, the Amari was not connected to the one we flew into or will be flying out of. Moral of the story, ALWAYS buy the latest version of the Bible “Lonely Planet”! Oh well. It’s a HUGE 4 star room with a feather bed, bathtub, separate shower, balcony, sitting area, two desks, and we got it at a good price. We were thrilled.

Tomorrow we meet up with John and Jenn and head to Chiang Mai. We can’t wait. Can we bring our hotel room with us? ;-)