Uploads, downloads and Backwash.

Hey hey this blogger app is weird and I think I've deleted some of my old posts trying to post the last post!! Haha you'll have to wait for photos because I can't upload on this connection via iPhone - my storage quotA is full?! Haha...

As a disclaimer please excuse all typos and nonsense blame phones that pretend to be computers, auto correct and the fact that I started this at 2am!!
Before I forget, I managed to get onto Facebook earlier and read my messages replies are harder coz it won't work as well... So I'll just do a Small response here n say Jany!! Thank you for the call before I left and for some reason I only got half of your Facebook message but it was an awesome half!! Haha - I'm blown away by your efforts, your courage and strength and I really am looking forward to getting home and seeing you all. I'm sure we're due for a super bumper edition of group catch ups!! *licks u all*

Wow, I have sooooo much to catch up on and very little free time or Internet access here hehe I wish I could upload some of the photos so I could talk about the hundreds of amazing things we've seen.

I know everyone's travelled and seen these things for themselves and they aren't so amazing anymore to most of you. For us though, this is the first time and it's awesomely exciting.

First and foremost I'm thankful for family, the ones we are travelling with, for the laughs and lightheartedness that has been at the center and surrounds of this trip. To the kids who have taken in everything, who do not ask to go home when they are presented with buckets for toilets, no running hot water, strange foodstuffs, people who stare, touch them and try to pick them up. Haha for them home is always where their family is, and we do what we always do best together, we eat and are loud, and laugh at each other.

Thank you to all the people we've met here, family friends we've never known who go above and beyond to make sure we are overfed and well looked after. To Ei (don't know the spelling) Be and Chu Tuan who have made sure we've travelled together in comfort and style. To the drivers, who've put up with our noise, our pickiness and messes... Haha we're a lot to take in all at once so the 6 hour drive down to Bac lieu must have been hard!

To aunty and uncle 9 for the delicious coffee and the hospitality. We tend to take over any place we stay at so I'm sure it's been a hard 4 days for you all. Thank you for going out of your way to
Make sure we have everything we need! Sorry for sucking up all the electricity with our insane amount of laundry and our love of air conditioning in this humidity!

Ong Noi, you were the reason we wanted to do this trip this year, and although we've not hung out too much at home, we made it here!! We made the intense pilgrimage to Ba Noi's tomb- walked the streets of your hood with you, eaten at your local haunts and slept in the house where our parents grew up. Thank you for giving us this extraordinary opportunity. You are indeed the cutest grandpa around even if you told us we weren't allowed to flush paper down your toilet and made us grossed out for days and sent a barrage of complaints to dad who overruled with a disgusted 'just do it!!' lol

Thanks to the locals - of everyplace we've been to for not running us over in your crazy ass traffic. All the beeping and swerving will definitely soundtrack many of the memories the kids have of Vietnam. That along with the curious open stares we gather, the random strangers touching their cheeks and the now familiar phrase 'waaaa dep qua.'. For tolerating our pulled faces, screeches and giggles at all the oddities we encounter, and our inexperienced haggling attempts. To the staff at Ha Hien 2 in Saigon who put up with us trollopping up and down the elevator 50 times a day and running riot on the 7th floor. Haha who entertained our kids while we ate, and carried our luggage as each family arrived, gathering in number and in decibels!

Mostly, today I've been thankful for the family I've never before met, the ones that you know by feeling and not names or faces. For the cousins who I never knew existed, but are instantly comfortable, warm and unconditional. To the uncles familiar by similarities - in personality and humor and aunties who are more than marriage bound to us, who despite the years and all the distances in miles between us, connect in ways we will never quite be able to explain. For the chefs who cook incredible meals in servings big enough to feed the neighboring villages, who coax us to eat til our clothes barely fit. Thanks. For the fish. Haha... And the duck for those who don't eat fish, and the crab for those that don't eat duck, and for the pork for those who won't eat crab and rice for everyone! Haha...

It seems corny to say that it feels like returning to a place you know by heart not by travels.... But it's true. Sitting in the house where my grandmother the midwife, birthed us (all except vinnie) felt- like home. Mum told me stories, now I see the scenes, not as she saw them, but as she would have liked me to see them, all the memories good or bad, melted into nothing but a common ground upon which we celebrate family- love and laughter, of course always over food- insane amounts of food.

I have loved every minute of it, from the villages poor and mind blowing in simplicity and ingenuity (that abundant Vietnamese ingenuity, in all it's splendor and hilarity) - to the hectic city with its flowing currents of traffic and noise, littered with eyes,smiles and wares of all sorts.

I have loved watching the children play, oblivious to their surroundings, without any real complaint, asking to hear stories of pirate ships and refugees.

We created our own lingo to make the seemingly unbearable hilarious, our made up games and rituals of aerogaurd, sunscreen and packed foods for even the shortest of trips, have become habit.

It's been (almost) a week since we headed off and we've seen soo much, eaten so much more, and taken with us some amazing memories.

I know the kids won't remember much of it, like we don't when asked by random strangers who knew us in that lifetime ago when this Was our reality, Recognize those kids still. To us it's all a blur of someone else's memories .

For Zane and I, (he'll have his own stories to tell I'm sure) it's been an accomplishment, a priceless experience, a seed to something new and extraordinary.

We will be back one day, or I know They will, they will roam these streets, discover these things, be amazed at it all. Vietnam is in their blood, weaving through their veins like motorbikes in its streets. Haha I love the way it's cheesiness is charming, I love the way I love it.

Thanks Dad, for being our guide, sponsor and planner!! Hehe and for agreeing to come in the first place! In my entire 31 years I have never seen you take this much time off!! Awesome! :)