I am continuing to answer a reader's email questions directly in my blog so I can share with everyone. The other questions that I've answered this week were: Food and Eating in Viet Nam, Wait Times and Expectations, and Air Travel and Time in Viet Nam. I enjoy hearing from my readers, so if you ever have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below or email me at rebeccah@adoptionblogs.com.

Where did you stay? I noticed some of the hotels looked pretty nice.

We stayed at the Hang Nga hotel in Hanoi. They have a webpage with some photos and information here. We were really happy there; there were some minor issues, but we had our baby, so it would have taken a lot to dampen our spirits. Our agency handled all the travel arrangements, and families always stay at the Hang Nga, so they knew our director and were used to groups of adoptive families from the US. They also booked all four of us families together, and we had an entire floor all to ourselves. We really enjoyed the social and supportive aspect of our setup! The picture above was taken in our bathroom mirror after Ella's first bath with us.

Our room faced the street and it was fascinating to be able to see the hustle and bustle of a Viet Nam street scene right below our window twenty four hours a day. We couldn’t believe that the honking of cars never stopped. It actually came to be soothing, but took a few days to get used to. The location of the hotel was perfect; a quick cab or motorbike ride would get us just about anywhere we wanted to go quite inexpensively. Once we found a cab company that didn’t rip us off, we kept their business card with us so we could ask the front desk people to call cabs for us.

The Hang Nga staff was lovely. We were especially fond of the women who worked in the restaurant on the top floor. When we came to eat, they would take Ella (and any other babies who were there at the time,) and hold and play with them so we could eat in peace. Could you even imagine a complete stranger at home trying to take your kid from you in a restaurant? In Viet Nam, this is commonplace and we got used to it pretty quickly.

The minor issue I mentioned above, was that we had a gurgling toilet that would release sewer gas into our room. Lovely, right? It happened towards the end of our trip, and we didn’t want to move rooms, so we just dealt with it. Let me tell you that you learn to get on and off the commode real quick when there’s the danger of toilet water being bubbled up at you!

The internet connection in our hotel lobby was spotty at times, but they did have a separate dsl cable, so we could hook our laptop right up to their dsl line when it was working. Some of us in our group had brunch at one of the extremely fancy hotels in Hanoi one morning, and while it was lovely, I realized how happy I was that we were at the Hang Nga. We got a better taste of Viet Nam without all the unnecessary extras and glitz that was found in that fancy hotel. I hope that when we get to go back, they have some of the same staff because I really feel like they might remember us.

Photo © Rebecca Hess 2007

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