Birthday Celebrations and my Passport safely back in my possession

So the last couple of days here have been pretty eventful.  Firstly yesterday was my Vietnamese birthday (we're 15 hours ahead of Vancouver)...  First thing in the morning all of the volunteers woke me to a chorus of Happy Birthdays!!!  During our group breakfast, my first breakfast of my 30's we had Vietnamese Baguettes with Peanut Butter and Nescafe coffee...  They presented me with a nice present of a handmade oil diffuser that the Korean girls bought for me a couple days prior in a traditional Vietnamese market in Hanoi. 

During the morning session, we were out in the garden again, picking weeds..  Was pretty uneventful until Philippe, Enrico, and Yasuto brushed their arms up against some plants (likely stinging nettles) which gave them all a rash on their arms.  A few of the other volunteers rushed off to get some medicine and came back with some sticky rice which the guys had to rub over their rashes...

After dinner, back in the room, Pooseung led the procession of everyone getting together for a birthday 'cake' celebration with me.  As we're limited for 'cake' options, it ended up being a stack of Choco Pie's (something I'm very familiar with from my days teaching English in Korea.  After our cake, we all went to the bar again to have a few birthday beers, and some Vietnamese "Wine"... Basically 35% rice wine... We had a 2 litre bottle which we played drinking games with... Pretty nasty stuff, but all in all, a pretty cool Vietnamese experience... The owner of the shop insisted that me, and a few of the guys try a traditional Vietnamese smoking pipe (I had already tried it the last time around), pretty strong stuff...

Early this morning, I awoke, and luckily went to check my emails on my phone when I got a few frantic emails from my family back home saying that they had received a call from Foreign Affairs Canada saying that a woman from Calgary had dropped off my passport at the Canadian Embassy in Hanoi and that our passports had been switched when we got off the cruise in Ha Long Bay back on Monday.  I hadn't even looked at my passport since, and if I didn't get these emails, would have surely shown up at the airport tomorrow with the wrong passport.  After getting a hold of the embassy staff, Kien and I set off for Hanoi to recoup my passport.  A 2 hour bus ride into town, and a short 15 minute walk to the embassy and I was all set again.  Kien's family lives close by the embassy, so for lunch we set off to his family's house for lunch.  It ended up being a restaurant owned by his aunt, and we had a delicious lunch of sticky glass noodles, pork, and nems (Vietnamese Spring Rolls).  We also had tea with Kien's 98 year old grandfather too, so the unplanned trip to Hanoi ended up being a great cultural experience.  As the Canadian Embassy is just a short walk from Ho Chi Minh's Museum and Mausoleum, we also walked past, however the Mausoleum was already closed, so we just saw it from outside.

The last great adventure of the day was getting off the bus and getting a taxi from the bus stop to the orphanage.  Kien asked me if I wanted to take a regular taxi or a moto-taxi (Scooter).  Seeing as the Lonely Planet guide said taking a scooter taxi was one of the top 10 things to do in Vietnam, I jumped at the chance... :)  I sat in the middle, Kien behind me, and off we went through the streets of Ba Vi on the drivers scooter.  It was an amazing experience, driving past flooded rice paddies with farmers in the field, and water buffalo everywhere.  Something I will not forget for sure!!!

The only disappointment of the day, was that I missed Breakfast and Lunch for International Day.  I was supposed to make everyone Canadian Pancakes and Maple Syrup, but as I had to go to Ha Noi, Philippe ended up making the pancakes for everyone (as the packaging had the cooking instructions in French, being a good Canadian product and all...)  Tonight we have a Korean and Italian, and Finnish dinner to round out the day of International foods... (Lunch was Vietnamese)

Tomorrow, we have our last day at the orphanage, and at 2pm, we will all set out to the Airport and the rest who are staying in Asia for more travelling around into Hanoi...  I leave Hanoi at 8pm local time (5am dec. 31st in Vancouver) and will finally make it back to Vancouver at 3pm Vancouver time...

See you all in just two days!!!!!!!


Jeremy