family of four: Vietnam (Yona's post)

trip to vietnam

flight started at about midnight, and the bright lights were on and they served beef stew or bibimbop (first flight was to Korea, then we changed planes to go to Vietnam)
after many hours, they started turning back on the lights and they brought pretzels to help wake people up
asiana airline stewardesses (and mostly generally all women) are skinny
when starting to land, they showed a video with stretches and their benefits. one particular stretch was told to have a relaxing effect on your lower body

saigon

aviva packed silver clanking ball and snap bracelet and loose teeth and legos
10 million people
so many scooters, sometimes 5 people on a scooter
grab is like uber but with scooters as well as taxis
we went out walking at night to see a food street we'd heard about. there was different street food we tried, like dalat pizza, which was rice paper with fish and different things folded and cooked
generally is super-exciting and also exhausting, with all the people and noise and stuff to look at
so many people outside on the streets with families also.
it started raining but wasn't so hard and we kept walking. got 2 umbrellas at a 7-11 we passed. then it started raining really really hard and we sort of clustered around an umbrella with a stove, and finally walked back to the hotel. aviva was mad about something and crying, we were all wet and sort of cold, we had to keep crossing the crazy streets, it was dark, we weren't exactly lost but we turned down some wrong streets and then we were using google maps. it took us to the Cherry Hotel, but it was a different Cherry Hotel. aviva's still crying and mad. i was holding some chicken we got her for dinner, but she didn't want to eat it until we were at the hotel. so it's getting rained on and cold. finally made it back to our room and got dry. she wasn't hungry. it was late so we went to sleep
So we spent a few days in Saigon. One day we got a tour guide who took us to the Cu Chi tunnels - tunnels used during the Vietnam war by the Vietnamese civilians that were miles and miles long, and as many as 6 layers deep. It was really incredible and a crazy thing to be walking through the tunnels. They were the right height for Aviva; Josh had to hunch over. Then we saw how rice paper is made and got to try it.

dalat

lake house is on lake and quiet and peaceful

dogs and a kitten and spiders to watch (they) and hammocks and mosquito nets
10 minutes outside dalat
mad quacking ducks and dogs and other weird sounds all night
josh took kids on scooter ride this morning

night market last night

kang told us about wine w/virgin's spit, imported strawberries,
crossed lots of streets with us
we had some pho and fried rice and corn on the cob and drinks with stuff in them like giant boba, hot and cold. somewhere else, i saw a sign for stirfried milk tea. two different things?

crazy house - google it
We did some hiking and rode on a rollercoaster through the trees where we controlled the speed ourselves. We also went to a waterfall and saw people “canyoning” which was actually just repelling. But there were a lot of interesting plants and it was generally beautiful. Our lake house had some common space and we talked to a lot of people which was really nice. We heard frogs one night, and they were incredibly loud.

kids

are mostly doing great but are both having their fusses and refusals and fighting between them also (she hit my butt, so i hit hers. that's fair)
noah refuses things and wants to negotiate and make deals. instead of brushing his teeth before breakfast, he wants to brush after and if he doesn't he says he'll lose all his screen time for the day. i don't want to bargain so my answer is no. he asks why repeatedly, and asks "well what if..."
aviva wants to play like we're 2 puppies but now i'm the mama puppy and i'm teaching her how to drink water, and here is the bowl of water, and she did it so nicely that i'm going to give her a puppy treat and snuggle and wrestle her, but wait now we're kitties.
any random thing he touches or shows interest in (like a rock) - she wants a turn and it's not fair that he has it and she doesn't and when can she hold it? and noah points this out to me or josh and wants her to have a punishment because of it. because she didn't have any interest until he did, and that's so obviously bad and needs a punishment, he says. and if we won't give her a punishment then he will, and he takes the thing away and also gives her a light push. which she reciprocates but harder, and then he does it harder back to her, and she doubles over and screams and yells "OW!!!!!!" (Josh, I'm not saying this in a complaining way, rather a documentation way) but i will say that traveling with children is a very different activity than traveling as childless adults.
she picked up a flower, and dropped it at the same time that noah asked to see it. he's furious. i think we should walk away. he thinks and josh also, that there should be a punishment. ask others for opinions
aviva's temper - when there's something totally minor, she gets disproportionately upset. she's writing a journal and asked how to spell "papaya." she write "papatya" by mistake and was really really mad and mean and frustrated for like 20 minutes. using a snarly voice and so mad at me.

Our guide in the back. Coconut was a dollar or less