Sunday, February 15, 2009

Vietnam

We have arrived!

Quite the adventure so far. There was no-one to meet us at the airport, but luckily with all the blog reading I knew this could happen, so we didn't panic, just got a taxi to our hotel. That also was an adventure, because while we knew the name of the hotel was the Somerset, what we didn't know was that there is more than one Somerset in HCMC. We were happy when the first one we tried had reservations for us!

It is a lovely suite, very big, immaculately clean, toiletries, bathrobes, slippers, full kitchen, 2 full bathrooms, pool, and indoor and outdoor playrooms. Really the perfect place to get to know our children. (And so it should be for $200 a day.)

The costs are still surprising us. A big bottle of water here is $19 American (and you can't drink the tap water). We need to find the non-tourist district.

Which should be soon - Loan, our agency contact in Vietnam, is coming by. She thinks we will go to Tra Vinh on Tuesday (it is now Sunday 2:15pm). We still don't know if that will be just a visit or for the Giving and Receiving ceremony.

I'll keep you posted!

PS I can't seem to open my hotmail messages here - so Carla I don't know what you are laughing at... But I can guess!

3 comments:

Dawn said...

I know from other APs that you can get a BIG water cooler for your room at the Somerset in Hanoi. You might want to look into that for your room in HCMC, esp with twins.

Jules and Danny said...

$200 a night seems pricey... but if you're comfortable and cozy while you get to know your boys it is all worth it. I'm glad you got the hotel right on the first try.

B said...

I paid 17000 dong, about a buck USD for a 4 litre jug of water about every second day. Just picked it up from a lady on a sidestreet who ran a little shop in front of her place.

Go looking and find a nice family that wont rip you off and then go back over and over to pay them back for their kindness.