VIETNAM: HO CHI MINH CITY

When we moved to Indonesia, we decided one of our vacations would have to be to Vietnam.  Tanner served a Vietnamese speaking mission in Houston, Texas, and he has always wanted to visit the country so many of the people he taught had come from.  We flew directly into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and spent the first couple of walking and touring around the city.  The place we stayed was within walking distance of some interesting sites including the Reunification Palace.  When the communists took over Saigon, they renamed it Ho Chi Minh and also renamed the palace as a symbol that the North and South had been “reunified”.  There is quite a lot of propaganda and it was interesting taking a tour as an American since so much of it was about defeating the American ‘invaders’.  The kids had fun talking with some of the locals, and of course they had to stop and pose with some school kids for pictures.  They are kind of used to it from being stopped all the time in Indonesia too.

 

And what boy does not love a big ‘ol tank! 

This is what Andrew thought of the tour.

The palace wasn’t anything too special…mostly full of 1960s and 70s era furniture, but I did take a pic of the radio equipment that they have kept in the basement of the palace from the U.S.  We gave it to the South to help fight against the VietCong. 

After the tour of the Reunification Palace we headed over to Ben Thanh Market.  They have tons of trinkets and souvenirs.  Tanner just had to buy the boys and himself a hat.  We went back at the end of our trip and I bought a jewelery box.  Then we headed over to a Pho 24 and had lunch.  It was YUMMY!  The kids loved it too and really liked the coconut milk!

(Yummy looking fruit stands outside the market)

It rained most of the rest of the day so we headed back to our hotel and later that night we went out and walked around for a bit.  Good first day!!!

Jakarta Scenes

Tanner and I went for a walk around the city today, and took some pictures of some classic scenes we see everyday as we commute around Jakarta. 

The Blue Bajaj:  Most Bajaj’s in Jakarta are orange, but if you happen to get a blue one, they are like the Cadillac of Bajajs.  That means they probably don’t have ripped seats and you are a lot less likely to catch a disease than in the orange ones.  Also, unlike the orange bajaj where you usually prefer sticking your head out the side to breathe the still polluted and stinky Jakarta air over the internal orange bajaj air, you can actually breathe regularly inside a blue one.  BONUS! 
 
Have I mentioned there are KFC’s EVERYWHERE here…I mean E V E R Y W H E R E.  The Indonesians like them some fried chicken. 

Most of the locals eat their meals from street stalls like this one.  We don’t.  Anyone who does usually ends up taking multiple stool samples into the med unit within a few days. 

Look at that lovely sidewalk….err road…yeah, there are almost no sidewalks here. 

This is what I love about Jakarta.  Just when you begin to think there could not be any more of a disorganized, dirty city in the world, you see a scene like this in the middle of all the madness.  I love the diamonds in the rough. 

Hey look!  A sidewalk!  We found one…WITH trees!  Pay no attention to the main road next to it, but you better pay attention to that grate in the middle of the pavement because there are 4  iron handles literally sticking up above the level of the sidewalk.  I have hooked my foot on one of those far too many times.  But I should count my blessings. At least it isn’t just a big square hole in the middle of the pavement which also happens quite frequently.  As a member of our ward unfortunately discovered:  if you step into one of those holes, you will break your arm. 

If you even attempt to speak any amount of Indonesian to a random citizen on the street, you will probably get a reaction like we did from this guy above.  Indos LOVE it when Americans speak their language.

This is a street that comes off a main road into a small residential neighborhood in the heart of the city.  No car could ever fit down that street (maybe a mini?), but no one owns one that lives here.  If they own a vehicle, it is a motorcycle. 

If I had to pick three pictures that encompass the Jakarta landscape, these are the three.   
All in all, Jakarta definitely has some good, bad, and ugly, but we are happy here.  If you wanna see the bad and the ugly you will, and it will put you in a bad and ugly mood for sure.  We’ve all had those days.  But mostly we try to find the humor where we can and try to help where we can, and recognize the good, because it is there. 

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Almost to double digits!  We kept it pretty low key by just going out to dinner since we had our big trip to Vietnam coming up!   You know you’ve been married a long time when you have trouble remembering anything from before you were married!  Tanner and I both saw this quote when we were in Singapore on the metro and we liked it: 

“Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths.  No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.” Mark Twain - 25th Wedding Anniversary Quote

Guess we still have a ways to go according to Mark Twain, but at nine, we think it is pretty great. 

Clark Starts Soccer

In Kindergarten here, they don’t offer school sponsored after school activities, but they do have quite a few well organized parent sponsored activities that the school also supports.  We signed Clark up for the U7 soccer league here and Tanner also signed up to be an assistant coach.  It has been really great to watch Clark learn and grow as he has started playing sports.  It is great to see him enjoy being part of a team and working together.  It is fun to see his skill improving steadily and even nice to see him work through disappointments.  It is the worst as a parent to see your kid put in as goalie and then get scored on.  They are so disappointed, but we are so proud when they can take it in stride and keep working hard.  They have practice once a week and then games early Saturday mornings.  It has been good to get the family going on Saturday, and I enjoy taking the whole family to watch Clark.  I really think it is important for siblings to support each other in the activities they are involved in and Andrew in particular likes to watch Clark and cheer for him. 

 

The week before Soccer started, a few families from our ward all got together and went over to the school on a Saturday and played together.  It was really fun and all the kids schooled the parents playing capture the flag afterward! 

 

Clark is on Team Spain.  They have a lot of team pride and apparently a lot of pride for Burger King and McDonalds too since for some reason they do a team cheer for them too every week (maybe they are just hoping that’s where their parents will take them to lunch after the game?).

Q-Tip

So we had some friends that lived here in Jakarta and they ended up having a job transfer sooner than they expected.  They had bought an albino hamster when they first moved here, thinking they would be here a good 3 years, but had it shortened to just one.  They couldn’t take Q-Tip with them and we offered to take him.  Our kids love animals, but I grew up in an “animal-free” household.  I thought that a hamster would be a good start for us (read: me) getting used to having pets around the house.  He is really cute and the kids all love playing with him.  We just had to watch Andrew carefully so that he didn’t try to kick the hamster ball like a soccer ball when Q-Tip was in it, but all in all they are very gentle with him.  I end up cleaning out his cage and making sure he has food and water, but it isn’t too much work so I am okay with it.

Andrew Starts Preschool!

After we dropped Clark off, we hurried home and got Andrew ready for his first day of Preschool!  He is going three days a week just like Clark did his first year.  He has been really excited to go to school “just like Clarkie!”  When I asked Andrew if he wanted to go to school this year or if he wanted to stay home with Mommy, he said immediately…”BOTH!”  I am glad he gets to do both because him and Audrey are pretty good buddies (when he isn’t trying to steal her pacie!) and I wanted to make sure they still get some together time during the days. 

Clark Starts Kindergarten!

Well, it's official! Clark started Kindergarten, and we were all really excited! I have very fond memories of my elementary school years. I was worried that being overseas, it wouldn't quite feel 'the same' as being in the U.S., but after I went and toured the school, I got so excited for him. It was so nostalgic going into the school and seeing the library and the classrooms. Everything felt the same if you don't count the SmartBoards that are in every class (those things are seriously cool). Clark loved getting on the bus the first day. We actually live really close to the school, but since it is a busy street, they send a bus to pick up all the kids in the neighborhood. One of the great things about Clark is that you see ALL of his excitement. He holds little to nothing back, so for big moments like this, it is super fun to experience it with him.

Summer Roundup

So the rest of the summer after we returned from the States was spent swimming and enjoying the relative quiet here in Indonesia as most other expat families were away for the whole summer.  We ended up sponsoring a few new embassy families who arrived this summer.  It is something I enjoy doing but it is a lot of work.  Tanner was getting used to the whole Bishop thing, but that was difficult since not a whole lot of changes could be made or callings issued since most of the ward was gone for the summer as well.  Just before school started in the middle of August, we took a little family getaway to Singapore.  It was a good trip, but it is also difficult to try to relax when you know what you are coming back to.  School starting, new people to welcome, and lots of work to be done in the ward.  Singapore is an interesting place.  The official language is English there and it is quite a melting pot of cultures and people.  It is a very clean and very expensive country.  We stayed in a nice hotel, The Fairmont, in downtown.  It was really great because it was right next to a big mall and we just went downstairs every morning to the food court and got yummy doughnuts for breakfast!

We rode the subway EVERYWHERE, and went out to Sentosa Island a couple of times.  Sentosa is a fun family place to go that has beaches, an aquarium, and even a great luge ride (see below).  Tanner wanted to try the indoor skydiving, but for whatever reason, it didn’t end up happening.  The aquarium was super small but they had a dolphin show that was cool and they had a movable walkway through a tube surrounded by marine life that we all really liked too. 

Everyday after we would get back to the hotel, we would go swimming with the kids. 

They had a great kiddie pool, and when everyone was good and tired, we would go to dinner.  The second night we were there, we decided to try this yummy looking Italian restaurant that was in the hotel.  It was REALLY REALLY good, and it was really busy.  The kids were so tired and started dropping like flies.  First, Audrey fell asleep in her chair, followed by Andrew, who just laid his head down on the table and zonked out.  Clark just kept zoning out, and Tanner and I were loving the peace and quiet!

The next day, we spent the morning at Pasir Ris Park.  It had a few great playgrounds in it, and we rented bikes for the whole family and we biked around the park.  We all loved it!  The next day we went to the beach at Sentosa and also rode the luge ride.  It was a total highlight.  You take a ski lift up to the top where you are given your ‘sled’.  It was super fun.  Tanner went with the boys first and then I got to go with them a second time around. 

Overall, it was a great quick little getaway and a good way to round out our great summer!