countdown

This is it. Our last 24 hours in Asia (for now). I can't help but be melancholy, though I am struggling to hide the sadness from the kids. Audrey, especially, feels sad and angry knowing that I don't want to leave, but she does. She is eagerly awaiting our arrival and I'm happy for her. Stuart is glad to be going back as well, though he, too, looks forward to our return to Viet Nam. It's a odd mixture of emotions as I prepare to go back. It's hard to not feel a bit of a failure. There's so much more I could have, should have done. Maybe it would have been better to take the tiny house and stay in Ha Noi back in March. Maybe Audrey would have liked it better. Maybe either way would have been difficult. Maybe this was what it was supposed to be. Either way, it's coming to an end. Or a pause? I don't know. I know what I want, but I'm not sure what the next step will be.

I will be doing more writing; I'm currently working on a piece I'll post next week about toilets. Funny how we've become so opinionated on the various aspects. Silly, but important here.

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Audrey has done some writing (and loads of drawings) and is getting one of her pieces published at the end of the year. Yea for her! I'll post more info when we get the specifics, but it's about our volunteer work there and should include some photos. Looking forward to getting some more stuff published, including a couple of comic-style booklets that she's made as well as an awful lot of writing that needs to be edited.


Thanks to everyone for your support. You'll hear from us again in a couple of days. From the other side of the Pacific.

world travels

Today we visited the One-Pillar Pagoda in Ha Noi (or as it is labeled here: Single Column Temple):


Then we checked out Angkor Wat in Cambodia:


And rode the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower:


We also visited the Acropolis in Greece:


And the ancient pyramids of Egypt:


We also saw Mount Rushmore, Easter Island, the White House, Manhattan Island before 9/11, the Sydney Opera House, Niagara Falls, the line drawings in Peru, The Versailles Palace, the Kremlin, Buckingham Palace and Stonehenge, the Grand Palace in Thailand and Notre Dame, among others. This is Window of the World and you should come if you ever get the chance.

Happy Valley

This is it.. the big Happy Valley amusement park, a la Disneyland (but bigger than the one in Hong Kong). It was very reminiscent of the California Disneyland and would be impossible to do all in one day. We went yesterday and wore ourselves out enough to decide to simply stay home today. So, here's some photos for you:
Audrey rocked at this game; we played it first and last during our time at the park. She ended up winning nearly a dozen little prizes, but kept getting 4 out of 5 necessary to win the big prize. So the girl that ran the booth gave Audrey a few extra chances and, sure enough, she did it. Won a big ol' stuffed kitty that I have no idea how we'll drag back to the States, but we'll give it a valiant effort.

One area of the park consists of a large tree-covered hillside with myriad climbing structures. In fact, it was called the Climbing Forest (clever, eh?). Stuart and Audrey climbed over, through and across as many as they could find. Tommy, still not feeling very well, remarked on their seeming love of climbing and I realized, yeah, they hadn't been able to do it in a while. This was a rope tube that twisted up and around before letting you out on the other end. Audrey remarked that it was fun, but "kinda claustrophobic."

The day was quite hot and all the standing around can get to you, but luckily Happy Valley is full of water rides. We hit our first one, Gold Mine River Rapids, within the first hour (and managed to stay in varying degrees of wetness for the remainder of the day). You pay an extra 5Yuan for each poncho/raincoat, and it's definitely worth it. Even with the so-called protection, we were soaked from thighs down and completely down the front of our shirts.

We might have looked silly, but it was a lot of fun. It starts slowly, but soon you are rocking through fake rapids and getting sprayed on, bumped around and soaked. Loads of fun, of course. Then as you come around to the end of the ride, Surprise!, there are people waiting to shoot you with fairly high-powered water hoses. We left drenched, but smiling.

Later we went on Shoot the Chute, which makes no phonetic sense, but it was fun anyway. Stuart and Tommy rode ahead of Audrey and I as we floated through a flooded town from early America, heading around and then up, up, up until you reach the top, then come around a corner and then down as a freefall into the water. Oh my!

This one is impossible to escape from being completely drenched. The water sprays so high that it comes up and over the boat. In fact, when we first got into the boat, it was already so full of water that it covered our shoes. (My supposedly-leather flip-flops/thongs/jandals are dying so very quickly.)

And, of course, we got the "Could you pose with my kid?" requests. They are very familiar for Audrey and she's a pretty good sport about it, especially if someone asks (rather than just grabbing her like she's an inanimate object). She got a few requests, including this one where the mom wanted them to hold hands. Audrey's comment: "His hand's so skinny."
Then later, Stuart was asked, too. Less common for him, I'm assuming because he is a boy and older. This time they had a kid the same size (age?) and they posed. It's quite funny at times, but I figure if the kids every became famous, they'd have some clue how to deal with it. Though neither aspires to it; the attention can be disturbing at times.

Then there was this ride. I really really wanted to go, but the line was upwards of an hour's wait and I was the only one that could/wanted to go. So... I didn't go. But darn it, someday I'm getting someone to go with me. (Which reminds me that Audrey told me it's time for me to find a boyfriend because she likes that, but she decided she really doesn't want a stepdad. oh, okay, honey, I'll just head out and pick one up. Wait. According to the fortune teller, I'm due for a Chinese husband. Hmmmm...) Looked scary-scary, but a lot of fun, too. It was huge and flipped all over. Yeah, someday, before I'm too old, I want to do that one.

So, all in all, it was a great day. So tiring and my feet are too old to deal with all that walking in lame beach shoes, but it's all I have now. It worked, though, and we all had a good time just having fun and being together someplace new. Tommy was a fantastic tour guide and is a great friend. He'll be tour-guiding again on Thursday when we hit Window of the World.