Last FULL day in Vietnam :(

Mom and I were both tired when we woke up this morning. Just “being” is tiring here. Between the heat, the noise, the language, etc. daily living becomes exhausting! We headed out to breakfast and then to drop off our last things of laundry. It was about 7:45 when we got to the laundry place that opens at 7:00 and he literally just pulled in and was opening up shop! Oh to own your own business!

We then found a motorbike man. If you are in Vietnam, you have to experience riding a motorbike. Last year I had the oh-so-fun experience of taking a motorbike when there was a traffic accident in Hanoi. Kahly and I had gone for the weekend and there was a huge accident on the highway and we were going to miss our plane. However, our driver from our hotel got us some motorbikes to weave through to get us to the airport. But, we had a couple of bags (that don’t fit easily on a motorbike) and I didn’t really understand what was going on. My driver literally took me down a mountain (ok, ok maybe a hill) but still we ended up tipping over (not cool). I very quickly lost sight of Khaly and had no idea where my man was taking me as he did not speak English. I was more than relieved when I heard airplanes and I made it there alive (and eventually caught up with Kahly). So anyway we hired two drives to take us to the war museum and made it there in one piece. I think I have become a little too confident because on the bike I realized I needed to take some pictures of mom. In order to do this, I had to take off my backpack, unhook my water bottle, unlock the pocket with my valuables, take out my camera and put everything else back. I think my legs and core will be sore tomorrow since those muscles were working overtime to keep me from falling off!!!

We made it to the war museum safely and it was nice because nobody else was there! I suggested we go in the morning to avoid the crowds and beat the heat so I was impressed with my tour guide skills! The war museum is very interesting and I think an important thing to see while in Vietnam. Mom and I were talking about how people just believe what they are taught and told. It made me think about how Long was saying it wasn’t until he started meeting tourist and learning about different ways of life that he began questioning his own beliefs and what he was taught, another reason why education is so important. The museum consists of a lot of pictures (many of which are hard to look at) but again, very important to see.

When then walked a few blocks to the Reunification Palace (where the South set up camp and where the war ended). Since I had already been (and wasn’t overly impressed) I sat in the park to write postcards and mom went in. We made our way to the cathedral and to the post office, where we saw the cutest Vietnamese kids on a class fieldtrip! They all had matching outfits and more tourists were taking pictures of them then of the post office!

We had to make a stop by Liberty Mutual (where my mom used to work) because a few days ago on the bus she spotted their sign (apparently she can find those signs anywhere!!) We also did some “hotel hopping” on the way back since we were in the area of the nice hotels. I found it interesting because those are the type of hotels we would usually stay at (we are very blessed when we travel to be able to stay at those type of hotels) but to be honest I felt uncomfortable in these hotels. I felt like they were too fancy and everything seemed wasteful. But I know if I was in another country (Australia) I would feel like it was a great hotel and very comfortable. I don’t know if it is because I know that 45 minutes away “my” kids are in the orphanage with nothing, or what it is, but I have never felt that way in a “nice” hotel.

We stopped at a western grocery store to “stock” up on some snacks since they are reasonably priced here and very expensive in Australia. My mom asked if I was ready to leave and I said no, but wondered why. Last year I was here for a month and this year only 2 weeks, so wondered if maybe I didn’t have enough time. I came to the conclusion that I feel like I was “jipped” last week as I spent 3 days in bed and about a whole week just not feeling well, so I think that’s why I feel like the time has gone by so fast!

After a quick lunch and a little AC to cool down, we met Long at the park to head to an appliance store to get some fans. There is a room in the orphanage for older blind boys (12 boys in a room on the 3rd floor) so needless to say they need some fans!

We were able to get 5 fans and a taxi to take us to the orphanage since taking the bus was out of the question. The man/monk who works with the boys speaks a little English (before this year I had not been upstairs) and said how thankful they were. It was very nice to hear thanks in English!

We then went back to the main room to spend the afternoon with the kids and as we walked into the room, I noticed a face I hadn’t seen before..Cho Con! Cho Con is the boy I spent a lot of time with last year. He is about 4 years old and blind, but he loves to sing (in English). My mom fell in love with him from the videos and I felt awful because he hadn’t been at the orphanage. He is a day students..which means he has a family but they are too poor to take care of him so they send him for the day. We brought a lot of kids outside to play and Thoung (I haven’t said this, but it is pronounced Tung) loved his new golf club. He was so funny because he was seeking out rocks and stones that looked like tees so he could tee off! Watch out Tiger Woods! Cho Con (which is his nickname and means little dog) was in a stroller, and he would yell mot, hai, bat (one, two, three) and then someone would push him really fast and he would start laughing. Lisa (from Nantucket) had one boy with her that is very hot and cold. One minute he is hugging and cuddling and the next he punches and kicks. It is sort of sad to witness and makes it seem like he is bipolar. It was really cool to see Long talk to Cho Con (in Vietnamese). Long said some of the times he really wasn’t making any sense, but I remember Khaly saying the same thing last year. At one point Long started laughing and said Cho Con told him he needed to go to the bathroom. So Long put him in the stroller and said he would take him inside. But, a second later Long and Cho Con were back and Long told us that Cho Con said he wanted to go play with his friends and he would go the bathroom tomorrow. We all laughed at that! Needless to say it was a pretty crazy time outside and we were all ready for dinner time!

There were enough volunteers to feed the kids which was nice because I was able to take some pictures and scope out the scene. Mom ended up feeding the bipolar kid and she said he was great until he got upset, threw rice at her and punched her in the face (her glasses went flying). I am sad to report I did not witness this event.

It was another crazy, but, great day at the orphanage and after dropping off our stuff at the hotel we headed out to dinner. Since it was our last night in Saigon we also treated ourselves to a massage! I don’t think I have mentioned this but massages are $6 per person for an hour..which is a splurge in Vietnam but is NOTHING compared to at home!!!

When we finally made it back to the hotel room I was ready for bed, but I wasn’t so lucky! I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about my gym fiasco yet! Here is the story. I wanted to work out while in Saigon (I have a tendency to eat A LOT while traveling so I needed something to counter this..). I found a western gym and signed up so I could use it for the two weeks. They charged my credit card and we were good to go. However, (I check my credit card daily to make sure I don’t have any problems) I logged on last week and it said the gym charged me my fee (no problem) but they charged me a second time for $1,146. Yes, that’s US dollars, NOT OK! So I went to the gym and tried explaining it to the woman (who DID speak English) but she really did not seem to understand and kept saying, “You signed it, you know I didn’t charge you $1,146!” I explained that I know it was an accident but it needed to be taken off my credit card. The problem was it was the weekend (banks were closed) so she took my phone number and said she would take care of it. And that’s when it all began. In the course of the week this woman must have called me 60 times and I am NOT exaggerating. It is SO hard to understand her over the phone, but at first she would call to tell me she would take care of it (great!) Then she would call and say she was talking to the bank, etc. Then when I stopped by the gym to ask she talked about giving it to me in cash, but I said I didn’t want it in cash I just wanted it refunded. On Tuesday she called when I was with Long so I asked him if he would mind talking to her. He said that she said she couldn’t give it to me in cash (apparently she thought I wanted it in cash) but said the bank would refund it..perfect! I thought I was all set, until she called me Wednesday morning saying she had no idea I was so worried (yeah because $1,146 is chump change). Since all this was going on I contacted capital one to put in a formal dispute claim. They said they would mail something to my home address and I would need to mail it back or the claim would be dropped and considered closed. I emailed them back saying I was out of the country, to which they responded “call this number”..great! Wednesday night my gym lady had called me a bazillion times (I might be exaggerating on this one) and I honestly just didn’t feel like talking to her so she finally texted me and I thought that would be good because I could understand her. She said she had contacted the bank and gotten me the money. Now I did not want it in cash, but just wanted to be DONE with it, so we talked about meeting at the gym tomorrow to pick it up. Then I realized I had no idea if she meant USD or VND and when I asked she responded VND. This is when I started to get frustrated. I appreciated her trying, but we both knew I would be losing money if I got it in VND. I told her if she wanted to give me cash then she would have to do it in USD because that’s what I was charged. She said this wasn’t possible and then said we could go to the bank together to exchange it but I might lose money through the exchange (which I already knew). She said it would cost money to have it credited on my credit card. At this point I called capital one and went through about 4 different people trying to explain the situation and explain I wasn’t in the country to be able to check my mail (I did email to my dad to keep his eyes open, but they needed copies of my receipt that obviously isn’t at home). After what seemed like forever, I finally got a woman who said they would extend my deadline (I would have to fill out paperwork when I got home). I texted my gym lady to say I was going to deal with it with my credit card and they would credit it back, to which she responded, “goodnight”. Oh well, I just hate wasting this time dealing with something that isn’t my fault!!!

On that note, I am sad tomorrow is my last day in Vietnam, BUT I am excited because I know I will be back!

Hugs and kisses from our last full day in Vietnam!