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| Cousin Love |
Where to begin?? Not sure where we left off last time and I am too lazy to look it up, so we've just been chugging along doing what we do - Soccer on Wednedays and Friday's, Learning Journey's at School, etc - and spent the better part of March in anticipation of the Barch Family visit to HCMC! Graeme started every morning with a daily Skype call to them, as he ate breakfast and they ate dinner or did homework, just to chat and keep in touch leading up to their trip in April.
Finally the day came and we met them at the airport to kick off their 2 week adventure! I have to admit, I was not sure how they were going to handle it. This kind of a trip is not for everyone. It's is a whole lot easier to just hit a resort pool or a beach somewhere a bit closer to home rather than traveling 26 hours to throw yourself into the middle of a culture and environment so foreign to your norm it makes your head spin. Well, the Barch Family met the challenge head on and they were "all in" on any and all possible adventures that Saigon and the Mekong Delta had to offer them.
We spent most days limited to one adventure then an afternoon in the pool. As it is our hottest season right now, this seemed like a good idea to keep body temperatures in check and to also give them some time to process some of the sights, sounds and tastes they were taking in. Sensory overload can be just as potent as the heat from the tropical sun at times....plus, who doesn't love throwing your little cousin around the pool for a few hours each afternoon?
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| "Lemme show you how to drink a coconut..." |
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| Front flip |
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| Looking tough |
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| Just a short bike ride thru Saigon traffic and you see cows! |
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| Biker gang |
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| Hitting the alley ways... |
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| Just another fantastic Vietnamese meal |
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| Fitting in... |
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| Sammy likes it! |
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| "The Claw" chopstix grip - redefining 10,000+yrs of culture |
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| Deez are very expensive coconuts |
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| Tackle! |
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| No beach ball? No problem! Cousin Tossing! |
What didn't we do? Graeme played hookey from school for a few weeks and we jumped right into it.....throwing everyone on bicycles and into the hectic streets of Saigon we cruised through alley-ways checking in on the local populace, cruised south to the "country" area and woke up the cows, ate tons of Vietnamese meals (not all of which we were exactly sure what we were actually eating), hit up all the museums downtown, perused local markets getting yelled at by crotchety vendors for taking their pictures without asking, overpaying for coconuts on the streets of D1, Vietnamese cooking classes (where "healthy" recipes with "balance" mean adding sugar to everything then frying it), scooter tours, shopping for new Snowboard outerwear gear (hey, it's made here and sometimes it "falls off the truck" and into the markets for pennies on the dollar compared to USA).
Most importantly Graeme got some much needed cousin-time in and I think it is safe to say he enjoyed it to the max! Also, it was also great for us to be able to show them how we live on a daily basis and how normal our lives actually are (OK, maybe "normal" is not quite the correct word). We got to take them to the Easter celebration that all the Western Teachers' families had at the school and hunt Easter eggs and have a picnic (as well as testing the strength of the furniture - ask Keith about that one!), eat at our favorite restaurants or order in and watch movies, tour Graeme's class and school, relax with friends, etc...all regular stuff that living so far away was a pleasure on our part to share with them.
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| Easter Egg Hunt Crew at SSIS |
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| Pony Rides at Family Fun Day at SSIS |
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| How many times can you flip a cousin? |
We had a trip planned for a weekend in the Mekong Delta with everyone but Erin fell ill with a SE Asian bug so we stayed behind. From the stories and pictures Uncle Keith posted on FB we definitely missed out, but Team Barch dove head first into the experience, and with some help from our friend and local guide Phuc Tran they had a blast!
Erin healed, the Barch's returned from the Delta and sadly it was time for them to go. Armed with the plans to reunite in only 7 weeks in NJ, saying goodbye was not easy but not as hard as in times past. I have to say we were impressed with the openness and vigor that they put into this trip and experience. I mean, at one point in my life I only knew Sammy to eat banana's, ketchup and chicken fingers. In a 2 week time span he dwarfed the types of food that I have eaten here in almost 2 years! It got to the point where a waiter would bring out something that everyone thought would get a rise out of the table and Sammy and Noah would be like, "half-hatched quail eggs again? Aw, c'mon!" I also think Noah's skills in the traffic will come in handy the next few months as he acquires full driving privileges on his license! Best yet, they now have passports and an open ticket to the world and all it has to offer! I did not get my first passport until I was 30 years old. None of which would be possible without their parents who had the foresight, courage and sense of adventure to pull them out of school and make this all happen for both of our families and for that we are more than thankful and cannot wait for them to return!
For a look at all of the Barch Family Visit pictures click HERE.
Spring Break in Kampot, Cambodia
So with the Barch family gone we had some spare time on our hands in the form of Spring Break. Spring Break was scheduled for the same time as the Kings Commemoration Day and Reunification Day (40th Anniversary) here in Vietnam, large national holidays and a time where internal travel and accommodations become overcrowded and expensive. This in mind, we grabbed some friends and high-tailed it out of the country (and by "high-tailed it" I mean hopped on a bus and never drove over 40KPH) over to Cambodia. We love it there. The overall vibe, friendliness, low-cost and easiness of life is very attractive to us.
We posted up in Kampot, which is a town on a tidal river only a few kilometers from the Thai Gulf and known for their pepper. Kampot is also the gateway to Bokor Mountain, which we had the pleasureful view of our entire stay. Such a great space to relax. Riverfront, pool, views, just enough activities to partake in if you want to but not too many to feel as if you are missing out if you do not, history, etc....really a special spot.
Bokor Mountain was a French Hill Station during their colonization period that later became a Khmer Rouge hold out as late as the early 1990's. Up top there are several Wat's and old burned out buildings as well as a lone Catholic Church that have all seen their share of battles and bloodshed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. The damage done by the Khmer Rouge to this country and its people will take generations to repair, but to see the Cambodian's persevering a bit at a time is heartening and hopefully with a bunch of help from the rest of the world they will one day flourish. For now, the mountain has 1 mega-casino with 2 more slated as well as a golf course and enough high end residential housing for 100,000 people. Huh?? Gotta love 1st world development in the 3rd world!
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| If these walls could talk.... |
Graeme was in heaven as we were traveling with two of his best buddies (and possible first crush?) Kade and Brooke and their parents. Also along for the ride were our friends the Georger's, and let me tell you it never hurts to be traveling with a Kindergarten teacher when you have a 4 year old!
Graeme went hard trying to keep pace with the older kids, swimming in the pool and river, sunset cruises, visits to town, amusement rides, you name it he did it all without missing a beat. We had to bow out of one day adventure as he fought a little fever for a day or so, but other than that he hung tough with the older crowd.
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| Busy day in Kampot |
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| Riverboy |
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| Happy Hour! |
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| 1st Amusement Park ride! |
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| Sunset Cruisin.... |
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| Motley Crew! |
After a great week of relaxing with great friends we spent the day and night in Phnom Penh, getting over stimulated, well fed and more swimming!
For all of the Kampot pictures click HERE.
Glad to be back home but we are already looking forward to our next adventure! After a quick 2-day stopover at Disneyland Hong Kong, we are hitting New Jersey June 14-30 and California July 1-30! Get your slip-n-slides ready and book some time with us because it will come and go before we all know it!
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| What? You thought I'd write a blog post with out a sunset pic? Come on! |
Sadly, while in Cambodia, Graeme lost his Great Grandpa Bill Johnson. We should all hope to be able to live to 93 years old as he did and retain such a liveliness, vivaciousness, and grasp on life that he had. Graeme will add him to his discussions when he visits temples and pagoda's on his travels. Godspeed Bill!
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| Great Grandpa Bill in back left.... |
Hoà Bình,
The Hawken's in HCMC
#thetaoofgraeme
