Itinerary:

March 17 (Saturday morning): Leave Honolulu for Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

March 19: Arrive in Ho Chi Minh City in the morning (spend a night in Taipei, Taiwan)

March 19:
*Morning: Take a short excursion to visit The Unification Hall (Old Presidential Palace), The War Museum. And Notre Dame Cathedral built in the French occupation.

*Afternoon: Mai Lien Orphanage, the orphanage founded by Catholic nuns and later visit Thien Hau Pagoda dates 19th century and is believe to be one of the oldest pagodas in Viet Nam.

March 20:
*Morning: Visit Ben Tre on the Mekong Delta, in the South. This island is not only amazingly beautiful but it is also the rice basket of the country with its rich agricultural soil. The area is peppered with paddies and orchards with all kinds of fruits. Visit markets, rice corn and coconut candy factories, and have some horse-drawn carriage rides.


March 21
*Morning: Visit Vuon Xoai (Mango Garden) – ride ostrich and visit crocodile farm.

*Afternoon: Phuoc Thien Orphanage in Binh Thuan Province, the orphanage founded by Buddhist nuns.

*Late afternoon: Arrive at a resort in Mui Ne, a small fishing village in the district of Phan Thiet (about 180 km north-east of Ho Chi Minh City). We will spend 2 nights at the resort.

March 22: Visit the Sand Dunes in Mui Ne

March 23: Back in Ho Chi Minh city, visit Ben Thanh market (the biggest market in Viet Nam), the Art Museum, and do some shopping.

March 24: Leave for Honolulu via Taiwan very late in the afternoon of March 24 and arrive in Taipei in the evening (spend a night in Taipei)

March 25: (Sunday morning): Arrive in Honolulu in the morning.




Monday, March 19, 2012

Day 2 in VN

I could hardly had a coherent conversation by 8:00m pm. My body was telling me to go to sleep now. The day was started minutes when we landed in HCM City, we checked into the hotel around 11:30 am, I told the girls "you had 30 minutes to be down in the lobby before we went out again".
we left the hotel to have lunch at Quan Ngon on Pasteur Street. The girls had so much food that I thought they had to be be rolled out of the restaurant. My guess is each girls must have had at least 5 dishes plus 2 desserts (steam bananas + baked bananas with coconut milk) plus 3 different drinks (water, lime soda, and bubble mung beans coconut tea). After lunch, we walked to the War Museum. The girls spent about an hour walking around and reading the one sided propaganda from the victors' point of view.
The orphan visit, this time, was a memorable one. The head of the orphanage greeted us with smiles and a warm welcome. All the girls came home from school...I immediately set up the stations and our girls started with the projects (lots of pictures are to come). At one station, Ms. Steven enjoyed her interaction with the girls by showing them how to use the printer. Other station, Kelly, Molly, Sam, Jennifer, Sarah, Tiff Tan were working making some kind of art project. Miranda, Tiff Li taking pictures and showing them how to make butterflies. Sophie and Johanna were so involved in putting the legs of a keyboard that Noel Lee donated to the orphans.
It was hard to say goodbye to our orphans, but we had to go. Our day was ended with another delicious dinner with 3 Punahou Alum (James, Baron, and Butch).
This morning, the Mekong Delta.
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