Pallister Family Asia Trip: November 2014

2014-11-30-Day11: Hot Springs and site seeing

Poor Jenny was under the weather again, so in the morning I took the boys to the pool for a while. Then Tom and I did the intermediate course on the high-wire adventure course, and did the half-km zip line.

Alisa took the boys in the afternoon to see the Imperial Citadel and a famous tomb as well.

2014-11-29-Day10: Hot Springs

Enjoyed the resort here. Soaked in the hot springs, played in the water slides, whole family did the beginner-level high-wire adventure course.

2014-11-28-Day9: Travel to Hue

Took the train from Denang up to Hue, where we drove an hour up to the Alba Thanh Hot Springs, a resort built around, well, hot springs.

Alisa on the train with a very-much-under-the-weather Jenny

Here's the route thus far:

2014-11-27-Day8: HoiAn

Went back for final fittings, had clothes shipped home.

Toured some historic buildings.

Rode further out to another beach, where we enjoyed the waves a bit before biking via another route back to the hotel. ~10k all together.

Jenny taking the easy way to the beach while Tom pedals his own way.

I didn't get to complain about having to haul one kid around after seeing some other people's loads.

2014-11-26-Day7: Hoi An

More fittings, more shopping,

How Tom felt after too much shopping.

How I felt after even MORE shopping:

2014-11-25-Day6: Hoi An

Went had had clothes tailored. A suit and a couple shirts for me, a dress, shirt, and coat for Alisa, and a coat and skirt for Jenny.

Also walked around town a bit, checked out the shops, etc

Spent some time at the beach as well. It was a little ugly due to all the anti-erosion measures they put in place after they were last hit with a typhoon, but the water was nice!

Getting to the tailor required navigating some Hoi An traffic on bikes, which was an experience I'll write more about later.

2014-11-24-Day5 - Travel to Hoi An

Spent some time by the pool in the morning, then off to the airport wher,e we flew to Denang, then had a hired car drive us out to Hoi An, a historic town south of Denang on the coast, also famous for having a lot of custom tailoring.

Arrived late afternoon, had a lovely dinner at the hotel with a group of travelers all staying there.

Tom snapped this pic of the hotel pool and courtyard at night, reflecting all the colored lanterns they had up:

2014-11-23-Day4: Time with Friends

Met up with our friends the Spanglers today. Went to lunch together, visited a market, toured the city a bit. Then went back to their house. Kids played together, moms went and got foot massages, and I got to ride Jeff's 1966 Vespa around the neighborhood, which was a blast.

2014-11-22-Day3: Cu Chi Tunnels

We took a boat ride up the Saigon river today, which in itself was fun.

That took us up to the Cu Chi tunnels, a huge network of tunnels used during the Vietnam war. They are now a historic site, with exhibits on the tunnels, their engineering, traps against enemies, etc. Tour starts off with the viewing of an anti-American propaganda flick.

The boys posing on a bombed out American tank.

One of the examples of the nasty traps that were laid for American soldiers.

Matthew emerging from a camouflaged tunnel entrance.

Dad traversing the length of a several hundred meter tunnel. Tight fit and these were a few that had been enlarged for tourists!

In the evening I went for a beer with Jon Gilkison, a friend-of-a-friend expat who's been here a couple years.

2014-11-21-Day2: Taking it easy in Saigon

Everyone pretty wiped by the travel so we took it easy today. Walked the neighborhood, checked out the pool, etc. We have some friends from Portland who moved here and we met up with them for a short lunch.

Kids had some fancy ice creams in the evening.

2014-11-19 Day 1: A long day's journey

6:00 am out the door in rental car.
3 hr drive to seatac
couple hours at the airport
11 hour flight to Narita, Tokyo
3 hrs at Narita
6 hr flight to Saigon, Vietnam
1+ hr customs + taxi to hotel

Total door to door ~26hrs