Home Sweet Disney Home

Well, after a 13.5 hour flight from Korea to Atlanta and a very naughty 2 1/2 year old, we were totally exhausted when we got to Orlando. We tried to force ourselves to stay up until evening. Kevin zonked out immediately, Brian made it to 6 pm, Rick made it to 7pm and I made it all the way to 9:30! We all slept through the night, which was great.

Of course, the first order from Brianthe next day was DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY so, after a day of catching up, we were off to Disney today. We didn't want to deprive poor Kevin of the Disney experience (after all, he'd been in the country 2 days and hadn't been to Disney World yet! So off we went to Epcot for a few rides. We went on Spaceship Earth, Nemo's Adventure, and Journey into Imagination. Brian requested encores of all three. Kevin looked around and enjoyed the sights and sounds but was not nearly as impressed as Brian during his first visit.

Yin and Yang

We are now in Incheon Korea, "land of morning calm". I can tell you this morning is anything but calm after a midnight flight from Hanoi with a 2 year old. We left Hanoi at 11:50 pm and arrived here in Korea at 5:30 am. Brian woke up after his 1/2 night sleep and is in a very cranky mood. While Rick and Kevin set up camp in the business class lounge, I took Brian over to the indoor playground here in this beautiful airport. I must say, the airport might have been designed with feng shui in mind, but not practicality. They put the "Kidz Zone" right between the "restful area" of comfy recliner lounge chairs and the "relaxing spa" where you can get a massage. Well, there was only one kid in the zone this morning (guess who) and he was not happy that Dad wouldn't let him tear the place apart. His blood curdling screams probably didn't contribute to the relaxation at the restful area or the relaxing spa.

We came back to the business class lounge where Brian has devoured 2 muffins and a can of apple juice. I needed to change a diaper and noticed the men's room does not have a changing table. I asked the 4 women who work at the entrance desk why there wasn't a changing table and they informed me that the changing table is in the women's room. I told them that in the United States, men's rooms have them, too. They all looked at each other and put their hands over their mouths and giggled. "That is for woman to do" one of them told me.

Okay, I am guessing Gloria Steinem is not an icon in Korean culture.

Hanoi Hilton

In my last blog, I talked about Brian's little rooftop playground at out hotel. While watching Brian play I would look down at the old building directly next to his playground and wondered what it was. As it turns out, it is the famed Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was incarcerated during the Vietnam war. I also found out that 2/3 of the prison had been torn down in 1993 to build our high-rise hotel. So we are right on top of where all this took place!

Naturally I had to go down and tour the place. The prison was originally built by the French to contain, torture and execute Vietnamese people who were trying to overthrow French rule. It was quite brutal...the guillatines are still in place; even the pictures of all the heads that were cut off there.

In this museum there did seem to be a definite propagandist bent. Although the Vietnamese were subject to horrible torture and execution there, they only dedicated one paragraph to the fact that it was used from 1964-1973 as a POW camp for American pilots shot down in North Vietnam. They weren't exactly treated like royalty there. I toured a couple of cells and then went to the well-stocked gift shop (any chance to make a buck!). There they had pictures of Ho Chi Minh with children and it said "All children love Uncle Ho". I thought that was hilarious.

I had the last appointment with Kevin this afternoon and went to the U.S. Embassy for his Immigrant Visa interview. We will have the visa by 5:30 this afternoon and have an 11:50 flight to Seoul, Korea. We have had a wonderful visit that we will never forget but we are anxious to head home.

The Playground

We have been in Hanoi two days now and have yet to leave the hotel (aparment) building. It is a high-rise of 23 floors of apartments. We have a spacious 3-bedroom with full kitchen and two bathrooms, much like we had in Saigon. The reason we really haven't gone exploring is it is quite chilly up here and we didn't come dressed for it. (highs around 68 and lows around 52). But it is quite foggy and breezy. The locals all wear these huge goose-down ski jackets...it's quite funny, actually. The people from Japan all enjoy laying arond the pool fully clothed because they think this is warm!

Our last two days have been filled with one thing and one thing only...THE PLAYGROUND! Brian is an addict. We get up, go to breakfast, then straight to the playground. It is located on the fourth floor terrace of our hotel. Brian has become friends with two little Irish boys and an Austrian girl. The four of them are pretty much by themselves until what we call "rush hour" when the Kindergarten in the building lets out for recess. Suddenly, a swarm of about 40 kids comes and ransacks the playground...they are WILD! There are two teachers but it makes no difference. Brian doesn't get intimidated, though and takes them on with his shovel! There is a garden on the deck with a lot of dirt and little tools and other toys. Brian has taken to the shovel and we joke that he is being groomed early to become part of the worker's party! He tells the others what their job needs to be!

Kevin is so mellow, he just wants to sit in our laps with a bottle and take it all in. Nothing seems to bother him. Even when Brian takes things away from him. And talk about a sleeper! He went to bed at 8:30 last night, woke up for a bottle at 4:30 for 10 minutes and is still asleep! He took a 3 hour afternoon nap yesterday!

Well, Brian has just announced that it is time to go to the playground (it's not even 8 am yet) so I had better get going. Hope to see some of the city today!

A Change of Scenery (and Seasons)

Yesterday, our "facilitator" made us check out of our beautiful apartment in Saigon and led us on a forced march to Hanoi. Our place in Saigon (which we found ourselves...we refused to stay where they made all the other families to stay) was a beautiful tropical paradise with a great outdoor Hawaiian-style floor plan, a huge 25 meter pool, baby pool, large playground outside (plus an indoor playroom in case of rain) tennis courts, poolside open air restaurant and bar. Plus Saigon is warm and tropical and vibrant. We had planned on staying there until Tuesday and then coming up here to Hanoi and having the Embassy interview on Wednesday at 2:00. Well, our facilitator had gone ahead and bought plane tickets for us on Saturday night along with all of the other families and so we were kind of stuck there.

We left our hotel and the wonderful staff there and headed to the airport. Of course the facilitator woman wanted us to meet at the Kim-Do hotel where the others were staying and take their ground transportation for $10 a per family (and they cram 5 families into a van) By now, we had caught onto the whole scam and got our own private new Toyota van to the airport, which cost us $6 including a nice tip!

When we got the Saigon airport, there was a HUGE line to check in for the flights. Luckily we gave ourselves 2 1/2 hours lead time so I just got into the line with our giant trolley of bags. I waited about 20 minutes in line and did not move one spot. I noticed it was because there were no stantions and people just cut in wherever they please. I looked over to the first class line and noticed there was no line. All I knew was that I was NOT going to stand in this free-for-all line for 2 hours so I went to inquire about first class. The lady told me it was going to be $90 difference for us to upgrade to 1st. OH YES! I would pay any price not to stand in that "line" over there. She reticketed us and then took all of our bags. We would have had to pay $75 in excess baggage charges but they were waived since we were in first (CA CHING! Already a payoff), she then gave me our boarding passes and and invitation to their private first class lounge! We went up to security where people were hoarded into another "line" but there was a separate lane for first class with no line. We breezed through that and went to the gate area. Naturally there were just hard plastic chairs there and TONS of people. Luckily, the first class lounge was right there and we went in and sat down on two of their over-stuffed sofas. We were delighted to discover the buffet of fresh fruits, salads, and hoer d'ouerves, not to mention crackers, cheeses, and cookies for Brian. What a difference from the Delta Crown Room! A lady would then come and tell you when your flight was departing.

Once on the flight, we settled into our big comfy seats and noticed the rest of our group crammed into the oversold smaller seats in the back. Of course they all were asking how we ended up in front....right before the flight attendant gave them a sneer and whipped the curtain shut. The onboard service on Vietnam Airlines was great. They serve meals (even in coach) on every flight. They are dressed to the nines and are very gracious and hospitable.

Kevin did great on his first flight. He drank a bottle and went right to sleep in Rick's lap for the rest of the flight. I was with Hell-boy and he wasn't about to get into his car seat. He was used to flying around the streets of Saigon in a taxi without being restrained. He just said "NO! Play with toys!" and proceeded to dump out his backpack of toys on the floor. Whereas at home, he would have been greated with a spanking, we have been doing everything possible not to let him make a scene (not taken well in Asian culture) so I coaxed him into his seat with a cookie. Two minutes after takeoff he was out. Oh JOY!

We landed in Hanoi about 9:30 pm and claimed our bags (first ones off because we had the first class tags on them). As soon as we went outside, it hit us (the cold). Vietnam is a very long country and flying from Saigon to Hanoi is like flying from Orlando to Cincinnati. Although it wasn't cold by U.S. standards, we went from 89 degrees and sunny to 64 degrees and foggy. I wanted to get back on the plane and head back to my wonderful, tropical Saigon!

Oh well, we are here and are going to make the best of it!

Apocalypse Now?...

I guess it is hard to blog about a trip to Vietnam without discussing the war and the whole role of communism in this country.

Brian and I went to the American War Museum (what it is called here) today while Rick and Kevin stayed back at the hotel. The experience was shocking and powerful. When you first walk in they have a courtyard full of U.S. Army tanks, U.S. Air Force planes and helicopters, and various artilery that were captured during the war. They were all interesting to look at but the most disturbing things came inside the various buildings where they had the artifacts and the photographs from the war.

Many Americans will say that the war museum is just a propoganda opportunity for the communist government but there is no way you can really spin a picture of 25 school children burnt beyond recognition by napalm. There were horrifying pictures of mothers with their small children who had been shot at point-blank range, the torture and rape of peasant villagers and their children. Then there were the pictures of all the deformities caused by agent orange....truly horrifying. The U.S. sprayed the poisonous chemicals over thousands of square miles of tropical rain forest, killing all the vegetation and animals. Much of the contamination is still in the soil and water.

Of course, there is a museum gift shop and Brian, being a hat freak, decided he wanted a U.S. Army camouflage hat, which he wore as we looked at pictures of U.S. Army soldiers wearing the same hats while killing women and children.

When we walked outside the museum, we walked onto the sidewalk of a busy Saigon street, bustling with merchants, motor scooters, street vendors, and people decorating for the upcoming Tet celebration. Everyone seems to be so happy in this city. Nobody gets upset when they are cut-off in traffic (which is all the time) and people seem to be very content and easy-going. The strange thing is that they hold no resentment towards Americans. They say that was a long time ago and they look toward the future.

I learned so much about the history of the Vietnam war. I hadn't realized that after WWII, France wanted the U.S. to help them in their recolonization efforts in Vietnam (which they had lost to the Japanese in the war). The Vietnamese had asked the U.S. to help them with their independence from France and wanted to model their country's constitution after the U.S.. The U.S. declined and Vietnamese turned to the communists to help them with their independence. So the Vietnamese were fighting for independence from foreign rule and not that they loved communism or anything.

So I guess it comes down to the question: Why did we sacrifice hundreds of thousands of American lives? What was the goal? We lost the war and look at Vietnam now. They are happy and prosperous. Although it is certainly not a high standard of living, I have seen no poverty in this country. "Democratic" countries like Mexico and Brazil have far more poverty than this country has. Of course I would not want any form of socialism in my country, I can't help but wonder: If a country WANTS to be communist and it works for them... why do we need to sacrifice American lives to stop it?

Anyway, for those of you Nebraskans reading this post, you will be happy to know that Bob Kerry's picture is hanging in the museum. A little bit of fame for Nebraska!

Scooters, Scooters Everywhere! (video)

Saigon is really an amazing city. Where else can 4 million motorbikes clog the streets going every direction without traffic lights and almost never get in a wreck. (Please click on arrow button to play video I took above) I say "almost" because I managed to be in one of the few wrecks with a motorbike. Luckily I was in the taxi and not on the motorbike! I had caught a taxi downtown to go back to the hotel to catch up with Rick and the boys. As usual, I just held my breath as the taxi driver headed upstream into a river of motorbikes and buses headed straight at us. I have become accustomed to this and it didn't worry me as much as it did at first. This time, though, I saw us heading right for a bus and the taxi swerved to the right and BAM! headon into a motorbike. The rider flew onto the hood of the taxi. The bike was pinned between the bus and the taxi. So the guy riding it gets of the hood and starts to limp over to pick up his bike. The bizarre part started there. Suddenly everyone gets off the bus right there into this huge intersection between what would be two 4-lane streets (if they had lanes) and they all start pointing and yelling different things in Vietnamese. Apparently they were holding court here. All of the bus passengers were discussing who was going to be at fault and apparently they were going to award punitive damages to the motorbike driver. The taxi driver, apparently at fault, was going to have to fork over some bucks right there to the motorbike driver. At this point, I decided that Jim had better get out of here before they decided I had some sort of contributory negligence! So I slipped out the other side of the taxi (in the middle of thousands of cars all driving around us) and slipped into another taxi that was sitting right there stuck in traffic.