Experiencing the culture

We're adjusting to the culture here. Friday was a big culture shock to me and all I could think about was 'I want to go home.' I think it was a combination of lack of sleep and the culture. I felt out of place and was definitely out of my comfort zone. We adjusted to the time change very quickly. They started preparing us for that on the 14 hour flight from LA to Hong Kong. They served dinner at 3am Wisconsin time and breakfast at 3:30pm Wisconsin time, which was 3:30am Hanoi time. Then on our flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi we were again served breakfast at 9am Hanoi time. We arrived at the airport at 10am Hanoi time and had to wait a long time for our luggage. They only have 1 baggage claim and there was a lot of luggage on it. It was about a 1 hour ride from the airport to our hotel and it was during that ride we first experienced the culture. The first thing we did after we checked in and unpacked was walk down the street to buy bottled water. It is very inexpensive. 4 1 liter bottles were about $2. We scheduled a day long tour of the city, thinking that was the best way to see all the sights. The restaurant at the hotel did not open until 6pm and we wanted to eat earlier, so Mark ordered some Vietnamese spring rolls off the snack menu. I didn't like them, so I had a couple of crackers when we got back to our room. We went to bed about 7pm, we were exhausted.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. It is a breakfast buffet that is included in the price of our room. It is very good food, a combination of Western and Vietnamese. We filled up. Our city tour started at 8am. We had a private Vietnamese woman as a guide, who spoke English. Some of the things we saw were One Pillar Pagoda, a water puppet show, HoChiMin museum and mauseleum (which is closed in November and December for restoration), the Temple of Literature, the Hanoi Hilton, which is where Senator McCain was held captive for 6 years, the remains of the B52 bomber in the water, and we also rode on a cyclo, which is a 3 wheeled bicycle where passengers ride on a bench seat in the front. The tour also included lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. I only ate the fried rice with vegetables. By the time our tour was done at 4pm, we were exhausted. We ate at the restaurant at the hotel. Mark had margerita pizza and I had vegetable lasagna, which included eggplant, zucchini and tomoto. It was more than enough food. Next time we will order 1 meal and share it. We made sure to finish the lasagna because the pizza would be easier to take back to the room. We asked for something to put the pizza in and it seemed to confuse the waitress. They provided us with a cake box for our pizza.

This morning we took a taxi to the old quarter of the city where the majority of the local shops are located. We walked the streets absorbing some more culture and did some shopping. This was the first time we ventured out on our own, other than walking down the street to get water. I now feel more comfortable with the culture since we have had some time to adjust to it.

Tomorrow we meet our daughter!