We postponed our boat trip till tomorrow, everyone woke up this morning sick with something, all except Michael and Adam. It ranged from rashes, sore throats, congestion, diarrhea and one baby was taken in the middle of the night to the hospital and has pneumonia… so you can see why. We are hoping to do it tomorrow since we have already paid for the trip.

            We wanted to share some wild things we have seen the Vietnamese people carrying on their motorbikes… We have seen: 5 adults on one motorbike, a man carrying large slats of marble, 100’s of baskets, an entire wal-greens, glass sheets, 5 goats, one pig, infants and toddlers just hanging on for dear life and we have seen them with raincoats on in a heavy downpour. After a heavy rain the men were taken to get some paperwork completed; they were in a big bus and drove by two people on their motorbikes on the side of the road and the bus drenched them.

            We have heard that the two most common countries that adopt from Vietnam are Ireland and France. This explains why at our HCMC consulate interview the woman said to us, “I see the French hadn’t gotten to her yet… they only adopt healthy young baby girls.” We personally have not met any Irish or French people but we have run into several people from Australia and talked with two girls from Wales.  But it is a very culturally diverse place!

            We went to a water puppet show last night. It was amazing. They held people and animals up by sticks that were concealed under the water. They sang and had dialogue to go along with the 1 hour show, but we did not understand any of the plot since it was all in Vietnamese, but the children loved it, bright colors and fireworks too.

            I had one of my favorite moments today. We took a one hour cyclo-ride through out the whole city. A cyclo is a small seat that is pushed by a bike. Our driver was really nice and he peddled us around the whole city without tiring. It was an absolutely perfect way to see the entire city, we saw all the districts like the jewelry, meat, toy, clothing, woodworking, buddhist, and fruit districts. ALL the families were out in front of their stores eating dinner on the street. It was so beautiful seeing all the families together fixing dinner, talking, napping, playing games and running their stores all at the same time. The only draw back that we had to get used too is that we have always been on the inside of a car with all the honking and being in the middle of it for an hour was soooo loud! I had a noise headache when it was over, but it was a great time, we loved seeing the city on the cyclo.

            This is the latest we have stayed up, its 10:00. We have been going to bed at least by 8 and waking by 6, so we are off to sleep! (oh our laundry came back tonight from the hotel and we have someone else’s underwear in our bag!)