Hasta la vista Hanoi

Ladies and gentlemen, the Duke has left the country. We took off this morning with much joy and relief. We're now on our 7 hour layover in Taipei. We're just so darned pleased to be headed east, that we don't even mind the lay-over. The airport is quiet, clean, and air conditioned. What more could we ask for?

Next stop Seattle.

Hooray - we got the visa!

Randy just walked in the hotel room with Tyler's visa. We can leave tomorrow!

For the sake of a printer

The printer at the US Consulate is down, which means Tyler's visa didn't get printed. Which means we'll probably be delayed another day, or two. For the sake of a printer, we'd be leaving tomorrow.

Everyone woke up happy today

Perhaps it was the hot dogs and hamburgers we had for dinner last night, but I feel great today. I have an appetite for the first time in a week. In fact, not only did I eat breakfast, but I kept it all down. Hanoi is a much happier place to be when you're not dehydrated.

And as Randy said this morning, "only 48 more hours to go".

Hanoi Hillybillies

We have been doing our own laundry in the hotel room because we were losing clothes and getting other peoples through the laundry service. I lost a t shirt but got a really comfy mu mu, not a bad deal. We are coming into the home stretch and taking things a day, minute and second at a time. We are all imploding in our own special ways. Anna seems to be the most creative. We are shamelessly bribing, cajoling and filling her with all the junk food we can purchase. The locals love to see our lame attempts at parenting while Anna throws tantrums on the streets/restaurants/museums, etc. We should be wearing costumes to make it more intesting. Maybe next time we will put out a tip hat for some extra cash.

We did go to the Hanoi "zoo" the other day. I think it was 111 degrees with no breeze. The animals are in filthy concrete and steel cages and look miserable. There are really creepy and old carnival rides made for nightmares and severe head injuries. Anna decides to throw a world class fit, tyler is crying, laura and I are dripping sweat and being eaten by mosquitos and the locals (we were the only foreigners) decide that we are way more interesting than the animals. They all gathered round and stared, laughed, touched the children and other really helpful things. I decided it was not the time for a life lesson and saved the situation with 2 lolly pops, an ice cream cone and a pepsi. Amazing what a buck fifty can do. We continued throught the zoo and I saw a woman feeding wrapped taffey to the monkeys (see photo). I walked onto this scene and instinctively said "NO". The group poisoning this particular primate stopped, looked at me like a freak show and continued. I decided that I couldn't change the situation so I just documented it with photos and everyone was happy. Apparently the monkeys were accustomed to this as their cage was covered with empty wrappers.

A couple of closing thoughts/observations: cuban cigars really are the best, king size beds are perfect for a family of four, well done meat is not always a bad thing, exchanging $100 in US dollars for 1,670,000 Vietnamese is very cool, and baby poo should be considered a weapon of mass destruction. Hopefully we will be home on tuesday night.

More things we saw ...

We've actually done a lot more than shows up in the blog. Here are a few highlights -

-Water puppets. This was really cool. The puppets are in water and are operated by sticks under the water. There were puppet fisherman trying to catch fish, dragons chasing each other, a procession of dignitaries - just an amazing variety of puppets, all in the water.

- Fine arts museum. This was our favorite museum. It had an excellent collection of artwork from ancient art to modern day. We found it so interesting that the military showed up in many pieces of art. In fact, a good third of the artwork contained soldiers - fighting is such a part of their history and culture. And there was hardly anyone in the museum, so we had all the time to browse and enjoy.

- "Our restaurant". We found a great restaurant right near the hotel and it has become our spot. When we arrive the waitresses take Tyler and play with him until we're done eating. Tyler loves it! We've had eel, rabbit, crocodile, black fish (whatever that is), and lots of squid. It kind of feels like it's our own dining room.

Grandma, oh grandma, wherefore art thou grandma?

Our usually well-behaved, charming daughter departed with grandma. She's been replaced by a child who can have multiple fits in an hour. We gave up on discipline long ago, and are now just trying to indulge her and get through these last few days. If we had left this week, per our original schedule, Anna would have been fine. But, staying a full extra week is taking a toll on all of us. There's only so much to do in town, and in the hotel.

On the other hand, I had a fabulous massage this morning, at Randy's insistence. It really worked out the kinks of travel. I've decided that I'm getting one every day until we leave!

OK, just had to check in - the day got much better. Anna had a good day, and this time it was Tyler who was fussy. I'll take a fussy 7 month old over a fussy 4 year old any day!