Can Tho

Next our travels took us to Can Tho. This is a large city of about 3 million people. It has the Mekong river running through it. 

We enjoyed this city because it offered many opportunities, but was not as crowded at Ho Chi Minh City. We both felt like we would actually be comfortable driving a scooter here. :) 

While here we were able to visit two parks; one along the river and the other in town. The one along the river seemed to be a night time place with some tourists. The other was more daytime and only Vietnamese. Mitchell and his cousin Naldo had a good conversion with a lady that was people watching at the park. We are finding that parks are a great place to strike up conversations and the boys make it super easy to do. Everyone wants to touch them and say how cute they are.

Elijah decided he wanted some fruit while we were there and we walked to a little fruit stand. The man who owned the stand had a young son that was just learning English. He had his son speak with Elijah. Elijah still doesn't know what to do in those situations, but he is getting better. The man also said Elijah had a good eye for which fruit was ready since Elijah picked out his own food. That was a fun experience for Elijah. 

We also visited a shopping warehouse called Metro. It is German owned and offered us some comforts from home and gave us another opportunity to see what we an purchase here. Elijah's favorite...chocolate muffins.

Isaiah was back to his normal self in Can Tho and was staring to eat us out of house and home. Mitchell's aunts love how much he eats and just keep feeding him and feeding him.

Hotel viewing Can Tho

My Tho

Our next stop on our trip was to a small town south of Ho Chi Minh City called My Tho. Small is relative. It's population is around 500,000. According to Vietnam standards this is small.

We went to the park each morning and this was a location where Mitchell had an opportunity to speak to a teacher of English two mornings in a row. The man had retired from teaching and went to the park each morning. Mitchell had great conversations with this man in English and hoped it would lead to more, but it did not.

While in My Tho, we were also able to visit a market, much like our farmer's market with the addition of raw meat hanging in some stalls, grains being measured out in others, and clothes being sold in others. We even found a "pet store" stall. This is also were you should always be aware of your surroundings because you might just back into a hot muffler from a scooter!

Ho Chi Minh City

For the next leg of our journey, we traveled to Ho Chi Minh City. For those that don't understand, Ho Chi Minh is like the New York City of Vietnam.

We would be staying here by ourselves with no translator. Which worked out well since the city is where the most people speak enough English to converse. This is also where many of the colleges are located and many of their students wander the city looking for foreigners, mostly Australians, to practice their English. In Vietnam knowing English equals a better paying job.

We stayed in District 7, which is one of the safer areas of town and we were blessed enough to find a hotel right across the street from a park. This allowed the boys to get out some energy and surprisingly enough there was even a splash pad there. It also made for a great meeting place for Mitchell to meet with some contacts we had in Ho Chi Minh.

We spent our days here in meetings, walking and playing in the park and wandering the streets to get a feel for the people. Vietnamese are very friendly and will openingly come up to you and start speaking. In one restaurant the waitress actually picked Isaiah up and walked around with him. 

Ho Chi Minh was also a chance for us to eat some comfort food. We had pizza, burgers and even Mexican food. Were they as good as back home? Did some of the recipes get lost in translation? No comment. But I do have to say I was pretty impressed by their attempts using what they can get here.

Our last day in Vietnam, Mitchell's aunt took us to a nice grocery store so we could see what items we would be able to purchase there. I was pleasantly surprised by what we could get and the price of the items. Most of them were about the same as America which is very expensive for here. Probably not going to be buying maple syrup here since it ran $12-$15 dollars! 

Here are some photos from our stay in Ho Chi Minh City: 

At the splash pad one morning.

Vietnamese high chair, these are rare.

Power lines

It is an adventure trying to cross the street with no cross walk lights. You just go for it, and they will move out of your way.

Family

We are blessed to have Mitchell's family to help us in Vietnam.

When you arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, no one is allowed in the airport without a ticket. So, when you walk through the airport doors, it is like getting bombarded by the paparrazi. It was so nice to see some familiar faces in the mass of people. Several of Mitchell's aunts, uncles and cousins were there to greet us.

Mitchell's aunt, Co Bi, has let us stay at her home throughout our stay in Vietnam. We will be traveling to different places during our stay here, but she will be our home base. Thankfully, she is also letting us do laundry at her home, too. And, serving us good food.

Also, Mitchell has two cousins, Tao and Naldo, that speak English very well. They have been our translators. Naldo has volunteered, or his mother volunteered him, to travel with us and translate.

The second day we were here, we had the opportunity to visit with Mitchell's family at what they still call Grandfather's home. Mitchell's grandfather and grandmother have both passed away, but some of the family still own the home. This was just a day of family fellowship.

We are thankful for family that can help us out.

Our Flight

We headed out on our adventure Thursday morning at eight a.m. with Papa, Nana and Grandma in tow. 

We made it to Dallas, through security and on the plane with no problems. The first leg of our flight was from DFW to Hong Kong and lasted 16 hours. This had us on the plane through the night Dallas time. Of course things were about to get really confusing with time change. Our flight went smoothly minus the time Isaiah threw up ALL over me (Amazingly enough he didn't get any on himself, just me.) and the fact that I somehow lost my glasses on the flight. How do you do that??? I did. (Also, I learned from the flight attendant club soda is a great stain remover.)

Sleep on the flight was come and go. Elijah slept the best of us all because he had put his sleep mat on the floor of the plane. Isaiah slept on us, so our sleep was come and go. Really I don't know if Mitchell slept at all.

We made it to Hong Kong at 5:00 p.m. their time, 3:00 a.m. Dallas time.

We were quite surprised and excited to see that all their signage was also in English. This made our trip so much easier! We easily found our gate, but had a 5 hour lay over. That gave Elijah plenty of time to ride on the moving walkways. He LOVED those things.

We finally made it onto our plane for Ho Chi Minh city at 11:30 p.m., 9:30 a.m. Dallas time. This flight went smooth as well, but Isaiah let us know several times he was finished using his sign language. Thank goodness for in flight entertainment on this flight. Isaiah was exposed to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins. 

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at 12:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m. Dallas time. Thankfully we made it through the customs area, security, and all our luggage made it. 

Mitchell's family came to pick us up at the airport. We stayed with his aunt that night, but she lived in another city we had to travel to her home. When all was said and done, we layed our heads on the pillow at 3:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. Dallas time.

31 and half hours after we left our home.

Whirlwind

The last week has been a whirlwind. I meant to post much sooner, but we are just now getting on a schedule and I was unable to get Blogger to work the first few days. Because of that I may work my way through the last week in several blog posts. 

Here are some of the posts you can expect to see on the next few days. (Hopefully!)

1. Our flight

2. Family

3. Ho Chi Minh City

This is my plan. We will see if it comes to fruition. 

And We Are Off....

Tomorrow we leave for Vietnam....

It has been a whirlwind the last two weeks. The boys and I returned from Maine late on June 30th. Two days later, Mitchell and I were headed to Plano for some training and the boys were headed to Papa and Nana's for a few days. We returned from Plano late Sunday night and Tuesday morning the stomach virus began. Over the last week it has made it's way through the entire family, hitting the little one the hardest. He is still rebounding from it.

With all that said, we are still packed and ready to head out tomorrow. We are leaving bright and early for the airport with Papa, Nana, and Grandma in tow. Notice I didn't say our parents in tow because we all know why they are really going to the airport (Can we say "grandchildren"?).

Can you pray for us over the next 36 hours? We leave DFW at 12:40 p.m. and will arrive in Ho Chi Minh city at midnight (12:00 p.m.) the next day.

1. Pray that Mitchell and I will sleep well tonight and can sleep on the plane when we have a chance.

2. Pray that everything will go well with tickets, security, and customs.

3. Pray that the boys will be able to sleep on the plane.

4. Pray that the boys will have a good flight.

5. Pray that we will have a safe flight.

6. Pray that things will go well in Vietnam after we land and that we will recoup from our flight quickly.


Thank you all for joining us in this journey and I hope to keep you guys up to date with our adventures in Vietnam and Thailand.