Vietnam..... Where do I begin?

Vietnam is a country I will be forever thankful to for allowing me to adopt a wonderful little girl.

In this I will share my opinion of our trip to Vietnam, I will stress that this is only my opinion.

Our trip to Vietnam was the first time Jon and I had been outside of America, needless to say it was a real eye opener.

We stayed in the Old Quarter so it was helpful as far as getting around, we could walk every place we wanted to go. We stayed at the Hoa Linh Hotel, it was a decent hotel and for $28 a night it made it even better. They are very friendly there and I would stay there again.

The draw back about the area we stayed in is it was very dirty and anytime you went outside you about had to beat off the people trying to sell you things. That gets old VERY fast, you get tired of them trying to guilt you into buying something from them.

We walked around a lot checking out all the little stores and we got to the point that if they were nice and friendly then we would buy from them but, if they were rude and pushy we would just move on.

The traffic is a bit hard to deal with at first but, I promise you that after about 3 days you will move around just fine. I got annoyed because everyone parks their scooters and some cars on the sidewalks so you have to walk in the street. Also, people will drive down the sidewalk to get around traffic, so you not only have to watch them on the road but, on the sidewalk too!!!

We took our Babyhawk baby carrier and it was a life saver! We did not buy a stroller while over there(it would have been great when we were out to eat) but, I would not push her in a stroller on the road, traffic was to scary for me to do that.

We basically ate at two restaurants, Bobby Chinns' and Mama Rosas' the food was good and safe.

I got very very sick while over there with stuff coming out of everywhere and also broke out in hives..... We had eaten at a local place and we think I got some food poisoning. I had more stomach problems over there then I have ever had in my whole life, I seriously lost between 15-20 lbs (I could stand to loose it).

The heat in Vietnam is like NOTHING I have ever felt and I have lived in Florida. We were in the north the whole time so I can not even imagine being in the south. Don't bother bringing cute clothes. By the end of the day all my clothes were just hanging off of me. I am not a sweater and over there I sweated through my shirts, you just feel nasty so when you shower at the end of the day you will feel like a new person.

Be prepared for all sorts of strange smells.... People are cooking lord knows what on the sidewalks. We saw a guy gutting live black birds on the sidewalk, so be ready for anything. You will notice that there are not stray animals running around and there is a reason for that..... People eat cats and dogs over there (a Vietnamese friend told me that). Also, if the restaurant has a picture of an animal on it that is what they are serving.... When we went to Nam Dinh we pasted a restaurant with a picture of a cat and a dog on it, and that's what was on the menu. (we traveled with a couple that spoke Vietnamese so they were able to translate stuff for us).

When we were shopping if I felt the price was fair they were offering I would pay it, I just got sick of trying to haggle over $1 or $2. I mean come on, I don't hesitate to pay $4 for a Latte and these people are so poor. I did buy several of the hand stitched wall art and payed $90 instead of the $120 she was asking.

Chances are very high that your kiddos will get sick when they come to stay with you, remember they have never been in AC and are not use to going from hot to cold like we are. Take lots of little people medicines.

Now onto the best thing out of Vietnam, our daughter!!! Cami is such a brave little girl, it took her about 2-3 days to really accept us once she did she wanted nothing to so with anyone who had taken care of her before we got there, she would not even look at them and would hide her face in our chest. When it was time for us to leave she let them hold her and tell her goodbye but, we had to stand right there or she would scream. She figured out right away who we were to her.

Our girl is scary smart, she inspects ans studies everything and everybody. She wants to know how things work. When we got home and we showed her how the toys work on her jumparoo and walker we only needed to show her once and she got it, not to bad for a little one who never played with toys until we got her!!

She loves the water and I am sure will be a great swimmer in no time.

Each day is better and better with this little girl and when she smiles at us it just makes everything better.