Archive for May, 2009

After flying and being in transit for 24 hours we arrived at our airport where some of our family members were waiting. This was also Gem and Tuan’s first encounter. I think she was more concerned about him wearing her old sandals, and he didn’t think much other than another someone new.

When I held Gem it was a really good feeling. She just busted out crying and held tight. One of those rare moments you get where you truly know your loved. But after all the flights and airports being photographed is not what you want. So please forgive the tired greasy look.

Our last day in Vietnam was not spent moping about. Oh no, we decided to take a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda (the birth place of Buddhism in Vietnam). It involved a 2 hour drive out to the country, 1 hour boat ride, 10 minute gondola, a monstrous stair decent and climb, lunch that included stir fried dog, and about a bucket of sweat.

During the lunar new year this place is crawling with thousands of people, but our journey was during the off season and consequently it was strangely quiet. All along the path way to the pagoda (which is actually more of a cave (I think there’s something lost in translation there) there are vender stalls which the majority were empty, but the evidence of thousands of people hiking the trail and sleeping along the trail are totally visible (like in most parts of asia people just through their trash all of the place—Imagine Yellowstone, Zion canyon, or Yosemite with trash dumped everywhere and you get the idea). Despite the trash though and the stir fried dog it was amazingly beautiful and a great chance to see more than just he city.

We’re home now and I’ll do another post about that soon but wanted to get our last day of the trip up before too much time passed.

We went back to the temple of literature the other day with Tuan and the other adoptive families traveling with us. One of the things we’ve discovered with Tuan lately is that he’s a narcoleptic the minute we get in a moving vehicle. I’m starting to think the plane ride home might not be so bad.