Moving the Blog

This will be the last entry here.  Please visit swansonfamilytravels.com for all future blog updates.  This site simply does not offer the formatting that I would like to have in a blog.

Nha Trang

We were more than a little bummed out that our vacation to the beach ended so abruptly, and the boys were sad that they didn't get to swim in the ocean as we had promised.  So after moping around a bit Tuesday morning, we decided to head to a different beach.

We flew out of Saigon Wednesday morning headed for the beach town of Nha Trang.  We booked a last minute deal on an island resort just off the coast called Hon Tam Resort on Silkworm Island.  We stayed in a bungalow with a huge deck (with a view of the ocean) and an indoor/outdoor bathroom.  The bathroom had a giant, solid marble bath tub that the boys loved "swimming" in every night.  There were beautiful flowers, banana trees, an no motorbikes (or as Oliver says "mo-cos").  We fell asleep to the sound of the ocean waves methodically rolling up the beach and woke to the music of tropical birds.  I didn't realize how much I missed nature.  Living in a high rise apartment is fine and all, but this girl grew up in the mountains.  Big city living does have a few drawbacks I suppose.

Now as this was a spur of the moment trip, I didn't have it nearly as planned out as our trip to Hoi An.  Actually, I had nothing planned.  I didn't even really know where the resort was in relation to the main strip in Nha Trang.  This was a bit stressful for me--I'm kind of a planner if you haven't guessed.  But it was also very exciting and liberating to just go with it.  Derek is very good in these sort of situations.

The flight landed in Nha Trang at lunch time on Wednesday, and we took a taxi right to our hotel.  Or, rather, to the hotel's dock where we waited for a
boat to come pick us up and take us the rest of the way to the resort.  The drive in was remarkable.  The mountain views and curving road in to Nha Trang from the airport reminded Derek and I very much of Colorado.  You know, Colorado but with coconut trees and dragon fruit bushes.  I particularly enjoyed hitting the top of the "mountain" and catching my first view of the turquoise blue ocean under a bright blue sky with bright green islands scattered around.  Breathtaking.












The boys (yes, Derek too) and I loved the boat ride to the island.  It was scenic, quiet, and the water was just wavy enough the Owen and Ollie thought they were on quite the ride.  We docked, checked in, and went to the resort's restaurant for a bite to eat.  After lunch, we got changed and played at the beach until the sun set.  We had fun discovering little crabs, riding the waves, building sand castles, and burying our feet in the sand.  It was a great afternoon.

Thanks to Facebook, we learned that some friends of ours were in town as well.  They were going to check out the mud baths and mineral springs on Thursday morning, so we decided to tag along.  (They have kids too, so we figured it would be at least somewhat kid-appropriate.)  Our whole family soaked in mud together, soaked in some herbal concoction, and then played for hours in the mineral spring pools.  These weren't just any pools.  There were waterfalls, and slides, and all different temperatures and depths.  The kids weren't too keen on the soaking in a vat of mud part (it was only fun for about 5 minutes), but they loved the pools.  

We had lunch there and then took a taxi to The Po Nagar Towers located downtown Nha Trang.  These towers are temples built by the Cham People around the year 780 AD made to honor the goddess called Yan Po Nagar.  While there, we got to see some Cham people doing a traditional dance complete with clay pots on their heads.  I really enjoy these historical sights, so this was great for me!

For dinner we hit up a brewery called Louisiane.  I got to have sushi (very fresh fish in beach towns, you know) and the boys had a great pizza.  Best of all was the beer.  Actual, good, beer.  I think we might have to fly to Nha Trang once a month just to go to this restaurant for a liter of their witbier.

Friday started out a bit rainy, but we decided to go to Vinpearl Land anyhow.  Vinpearl Land is an amusement park on an island off the coast of Nha Trang (different than the one we were staying on) that is accessed via gondola.  We had a great morning riding rides, visiting the aquarium, and eating next to the ocean.  They have a water park too, but it was too rainy for us to dive in this time.  We've decided we will be back.  Maybe next year... maybe sooner!
The rest of Friday was pretty low key: naps on the island and back inland for dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant.  A lovely day.

Saturday morning we woke up early and hit the beach again.  We attempted to do some beach side snorkeling, and managed to catch a shot of fish near the rocks by the dock.  Very fun!  Maybe next year the boys will be old enough to go on a real snorkeling trip.  At 10:30 we boarded the boat for our return trip home.  It was much less eventful than the trip home from Hoi An, thankfully.

It was a great break albeit not the one I had planned.  I can't wait for our next adventure!

 
 
 

Hoi An and Typhoon Nari

I had spent months planning a great vacation in Hoi An for our October Break.  It had everything: beaches, mountain hikes, shopping, a list of restaurants, even a tour of a traditional Vietnamese farm with a cooking class.  But it turns out Mother Nature had other plans.

We flew into Danang, and were taking to our resort in Hoi An.  We had some lunch and then changed into our suits to play in the amazing pool at the Golden Sands Resort.  The pool was HUGE, and the kid's pool had a play structure turning it into a mini-water park.  We had a blast taking pictures of the boys with our new underwater camera, and both of the boys loved being able to freely splash around at such a cool kid pool.  The bar has been set pretty high for our little dudes.

Later that day we learned of a potential typhoon heading straight for us.  We were told not to worry as it would most likely blow north.  So we went about our business with our Day 1 plans (while still keeping a close watch on the storm).  We went to Old Town Hoi An to do some shopping and visit the world renowned tailors.  We had fun perusing the shops and ordered some clothing.  We bought some silk lanterns, souvenirs for our families, and trinkets for the boys.

We also got to visit a shop and tea house owned and operated by Vietnamese people with disabilities.  They make all of the goods right there in the shop and are incredibly friendly people.  I bought a tea set, a couple of Christmas presents for the boys, a very nice silver necklace with matching earrings, a couple bags, and a table runner and placemats.  What can I say?  I loved the shop!

Back at the resort we learned that the storm was indeed headed for Danang.  We asked to be moved to the second floor for the night just in case and found a flight out the next day as soon as possible.  The earliest plane we could get with three seats (Ollie still sits on my lap) was at 4:45 in the afternoon.

On Monday morning, we went back into Old Town to collect our clothing items from the tailor.  We went back to the resort quickly and discovered that the Vietnamese government had mandated evacuation for that resort and many others down the strip.  The shuttle to us to the airport in Danang a bit early, but I was glad to be farther away from the coast.

At 3:00, two of the three airlines canceled all of their flights.  Our airline, thankfully, was still willing to fly.  Our flight at 4:45 was the last flight out.  It was pouring rain and extremely windy.  It was a bumpy ride back to Saigon, but we made it safely.


  

Emperor Jade Pagoda

Oliver has been all about turtles lately, so when I found the Emperor Jade Pagoda, I knew we had a weekend activity ready to go.  We invited some friends with kids the same ages as the boys.  When we got there,  this was Ollie's reaction:

Outside the grounds for this particular pagoda, people can purchase small turtles.  They write messages or prayers for loved ones on the shells with white paint, and then release them into this pit of turtles.  We got to see one older woman with her grandson release a turtle into the water.  It was a treat to watch the tradition in action and hear the chant she said before the child released the animal.  As we went through the pagoda, the four blonde haired children received a lot of attention (as usual).  One kind man even gave them each a stem of logan berries.

 

 
 


 

 

It was a nice pagoda, and the busiest we've seen thus far.  After lunch, we braved our first "street food."  Derek even mimed, pointed, and grunted enough to get us some vegetarian phu.  Then we went to a mall in D1 called Vincom Center B, the kids did bumper cars, rode a train, and had fancy ice cream.  It was a great morning.

 

 

Shoe Street and Cyclo Rides

Derek needed trail shoes for the field trip to Hoi An that he is chaperoning this coming week.  The trouble is that he wears a size 12, and shoes that big are pretty much impossible to find here--especially if you are looking for quality, comfortable shoes.  He started by going to Crescent Mall with both the boys.  No luck.  Then he went to Viacom.  No luck.  And those two excursions took nearly the entire day on Saturday.

On Sunday we went to the Binh Thanh Market area to locate the infamous "Shoe Street."  You see, here in Vietnam (and most of Asia, I'm told) all of the competitors are located on the same street.  So if you want shoes, you go to Shoe Street.  If you want a drill, you go to Drill Street (near the pagoda we saw last weekend).  If you want dishes, you go to dish street (near the train station).  And so on.  It doesn't make any sense to me, but that's how its done.




Shoe Street is exactly what it sounds like: a street where people sell shoes.  There were also hand bags, backpacks, and some heavy winter jackets (???).  And LOTS of people trying to sell you who-knows-what.


Derek got lucky and found some pretty nice trail shoes in a size 12.  They are "Northface" and fit perfectly.  He also found some new work shoes.  Apparently Clarks (and Northface) shoes are made here, and occasionally a few pairs "fall off the truck" so to speak.  Those are his favorite kind of work shoes, so he was pretty pleased.  They might be real, they probably aren't, but they look pretty darn good.

After Shoe Street, we took a ride on some cyclos.  It started to pour a mere few minutes in to our journey, but Owen thought the way that the guys covered us up was the best part.  The boys had fun, but I still prefer a taxi in the downtown traffic shuffle.

(We also went to one of the boys' friend's birthday party on Saturday afternoon.  I never thought a late September kid could have a pool party for their birthday!  Ah, living in a tropical climate...)






Oh, and here's a super cute picture of Ollie riding a bike with one of the little kids in our apartment complex.