Becky Bowen Says. . .: Monday on a Motorbike in HCM City

Monday morning was to be Jenny's first day back at school. Did I want to go? Of course I did. I thought we would get a taxi and head to school. Wrong. We ALL got on Van's motorbike to take Jenny to school ---- it was much faster.

Getting Jenny "motorbike" ready

Oh, boy! This was going to be my first experience in busy HCM traffic on the back of a motorbike. Well, when in Rome as they say --

Van said, "Don't worry, I'm a good driver." It's not that I'm worried she's a bad driver; it's just the way that ALL Vietnamese drive on motorbike!!!! Later in the afternoon as I felt a little more comfortable, I took out my video camera and shot a little traffic cam which I'll post on my blog. (I tried couldn't get it posted) That way you can also "hear" the traffic.

Climbing off and on the bike also presented me with it's own set of challenges. My short little legs were lacking just enough that I couldn't quite swing that leg all the way over to "hop" on. By the end of the day I'm so achey!!!

After we dropped Jenny off at school, Van and I motored all around town for the entire day, until time to pick her up at 3:30. We first went to breakfast at a local sidewalk cafe (I call it a cafe for a lack of a better word) for some shrimp noodle soup--- yep, breakfast!

Entrance to Jenny's International School

Next stop was the market where we did a little local browsing and then we went to the bank and then to the coffee shop. Then next we went to get our hair washed. Now that's not as simple as it seems. It's more like we went and had our head neck and shoulders massaged, and a facial that lasted about an hour. After than Van's friend joined us and we went for drinks and coffee at a local outdoor cafe until time for school to be out. As I looked around at the cafe, I noticed I was the ONLY American in the place. Kind of an odd feeling.


I'm sitting on a bike in the middle of this. Notice the "overhead" power lines.

As for the kids, Jenny doesn't really like me very much. She didn't like me when she was 18 months and she didn't like me at 3 years. I'm not forcing the issue, but the only time she has anything to do with me is when she doesn't want me to pay attention to Kristen. Yeah, I know-- sibling rivalry. But at least Kristen likes me.

This is Kristen sucking on a crab leg at dinner. It's kind of blurry because the child is always moving. I'm going to have to find "action sport" setting on this camera when I take a photo of her.
She is still on "coji" (homemade Vietnamese babyfood) but she basically will eat anything. And happy all the time.

Here are some various photos from around HCM: