2017 Vietnam Ky Quang Pagoda: Tuesday, January 17th

Okay, okay I'm two days behind in posting ... maybe I'll catch up to Jules, maybe not (she is so good at this!)

Tuesday January 17

Jet Lag Oh Jet Lag

So Jules mentioned how a little modern medicine can help you to sleep when your ‘clock’ has been thrust ahead 12 hours and you are not quite sure what day it is. Although having a decent night sleep myself, I did awake around 3:30 and had a little trouble falling back to sleep. I got up to go to the bathroom and flashbacks to previous trips with Scott dealing with jet lag flashed through my head. So, to thoroughly embarrass him, I will share the text I sent him reminding him how he used to deal with jet lag.

Hey Scott - It's 3:30 AM here and I'm awake... just went to the bathroom, saw the tub and thought.... hmmmmm, where would Scott Wilson be hanging out if he were jet-lagged, couldn't sleep and everyone else in the hotel room was asleep??? 😍

He'd take his pillow and blanket and go read in the bathtub of course!!

(Scott - Rome Italy - his 18th birthday)

Do You Know When Your Kids Are Roaming?

Julie mentioned how I had to have a ‘chat’ with Verizon … and how every year, despite setting things up before leaving the US, something arises that has us spending an hour or two trying to ensure we don't have a $500 cellular bill when we got back to the states. I thought I was "cool with Verizon" having called and set myself up for the layover in Hong Kong, and then ‘a bit of data’ use in Vietnam if we found ourselves somewhere without wifi.

However, I knew I was in big trouble when I let one of ‘our kids’ use my phone and he handed it back to me with a quizzical expression on his face (he was just supposed to click and listen to animal sounds). Quite often they will hand it back because they have clicked in the wrong place and can’t find their way back to the game they were playing. So I didn’t think too much of it until I looked down at my phone and saw a message pop up saying something to the affect that I had just exceeded $50 of data usage, and then before I could even finish reading that message another popped up saying I had exceeded $100 of data usage, and before I could slow my heart racing from those two messages I saw a third saying I had just exceeded $150. HELP!!! Those of you who have followed our blogs know that when we are out with ‘our kids’ it is hectic (to say the least). I knew there was no point in panicking or even telling Julie that a certain favorite child of ours (he shall remain nameless to protect the innocent ….or maybe the not so innocent) had just spent over $150 in data charges. Although I do remember blogging about this same kid who in years past had inadvertently opened a bunch of apps like: tripadvisor, expedia, kayak, jet blue and others … I figured he was just a man after my own heart and wanted to travel. At that time I didn’t see any data usage messages so I just thought it was funny. Well now he must have clicked, clicked, clicked away and somehow turned on cellular data. Because I had called Verizon before the trip, I believed I had purchased an international plan for Vietnam (covering some data usage), so I couldn’t imagine how my phone was spitting out messages like I had won big at a slot machine in Vegas! I started imagining how I was going to explain to a poor Verizon customer service rep how I was in Vietnam, at an orphanage for disabled kids, and ‘yes’ I did let them play with my iPhone 7, and maybe – just maybe - he was browsing the internet, or planning a world-wide trip, or maybe even planning a trip for him and his buddies to come to the US to visit Julie and me. Well, as fast as my little fingers could fly I flipped that phone into airplane mode.

When I finally spoke to a Verizon rep I was told that Vietnam no longer had an option for purchasing a data plan. Excuse me? I was just on the phone with a rep a week ago who said she set this up for me. Sorry lady, Vietnam is now just ‘pay as you go’….. and you just “go’d” a long way. We settled on my paying the $$ I thought I was paying - for the program that no longer exists - and they agreed to erase the remaining difference. Phew!

Child's face has been blurred to protect him from a potential "Verizon collection agency" :-)

Cab Vs Bus

We had taken a cab to the orphanage this day because we were transporting the two strollers and we knew we would not have been able to manage them on the public bus. I thought this ride was going to be ‘special’ – just Julie and I in the back seat being driven straight from hotel to the front of the orphanage, no needing to stop at the 22 bus stops between our hotel and our orphanage stop. It seemed so blissful in my head.

I was so wrong. As soon as our cab ride began we noticed a “Number 3” bus in front of us. Feeling a little full of ourselves we figured we’d be leaving #3 in the dust as soon as they made their first bus stop. (vroom-vroom cab driver!!) But noooooooo, here’s the deal - the bus can ride in the motorbike lane, and everyone knows the motorbikes kind of do whatever they want. If they feel like stopping at the red lights they do, or they may choose to just keep going, or they may go up on sidewalks to go around other vehicles to avoid upcoming red lights, or any other creative bending of the traffic rules to get them to their destination quicker. This means that despite the bus having to make all their bus stops, it actually gets to its destination quicker because the lane moves so much faster.

So much for thinking we were ‘special’ taking a cab. (And to add insult to injury, not only did it take us longer to get there, but instead of costing us a little over a dollar for both of us round-trip by bus, the taxi cost us around $6.50, just one-way --- sheesh!)