On Saturday, Paige competed in a tennis tournament near her high school. The day was a bit cool, but it was nice tennis weather, especially compared to the weather elsewhere in the US this weekend.
Paige played three matches and she lost the first match but won the second two. It was good practice for her to get back in to the groove of things, especially as her school's tennis team is ramping up and she needs to get comfortable again with match play.
Our Vietnam adventure started with our flight from Tokyo to Ho Chi Min City on Christmas Eve for Day 1. The flight was 6 1/2 hours and we could feel the temperature difference the minute we stepped off the plane. South Vietnam was hot and humid, in the 90’s, which was a shock after spending a week in chilly Japan.
Going through customs and passport control at the airport was not as smooth as we’d hoped. The ABD representative wasn’t looking for us and thankfully Andrea found him sitting on a bench on his phone. He took us to a different area and line where we eventually got through to pick up our bags. We rode a bus to the hotel and our guides Dean and Henry were in the lobby to greet us. Dean took us to their greeting room and Grandpa Rick came down to meet the guides as well. Unfortunately Grandpa and Grandma had tried the exceptionally strong Vietnamese coffee a few hours before, and they both were feeling the effects. Grandpa was jittery and Grandma felt absolutely sick so she was laid out in their hotel room.
We checked in to our rooms and decided that the kids were getting on each other’s nerves after a week sharing a room in Japan, so we split the rooms between boys and girls. We tried to stop in to see how Grandma Alice was feeling, but she was not accepting visitors. Connor and I were intrigued to try the Vietnamese coffee, so we went downstairs with Grandpa to try it. Thankfully we both tolerated it without incident.
On Christmas Day, Day 2 of our trip, we met our fellow adventurers and then departed for a cruise down the Mekong River. We all received conical hats and enjoyed some fresh local fruits during our boat ride.
Lunch was fairly exotic, and very fresh. We ate some elephant ear fish and huge prawns which had been alive just moments before when we arrived. Connor enjoyed the huge shrimp, and we were all impressed with the huge elephant ear fish that came out fully intact and freshly cooked.
In the evening, we took a few quick pictures in front of the Christmas trees in the lobby, and then ate dinner at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed more Vietnamese cuisine.
December 26th, Day 3 of our trip, we checked out of our rooms early and set out at 7:30. We started at the Vietnam War Remembrance Museum and spent an hour looking at the captured American equipment, and looking at the Vietnamese images and perspectives on the war.
After the museum we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels where we could see and even crawl through some of the tunnels from the war. The tunnels were extremely extensive and not all of them have been preserved, but some parts of the Cu Chi tunnel systems were widened for tourists and there we exhibits showing traps, the cooking techniques used, and some of the work that was done underground. It was a fairly warm day, and the tunnels were cramped and even hotter.
Lunch was at a scenic area on the river, surrounded by lillypads and nature.
In the afternoon, we took a short flight to Da Nang and then a bus ride to our hotel near the beach. After freshening up, we enjoyed our Italian style dinner at the hotel, which was one of our favorites.
December 27th, Day 4, we departed early on the bus to Hoi A city center. A local guide walked us through the central food market. The tour was quite chaotic and a little difficult to enjoy at times. Although the market was crowded, the scooters are pretty much allowed everywhere, and they were zipping around us. It was drizzling rain and the puddles of water were sometimes mixed with fish blood and other things, so it was difficult to keep our feet dry and clean. There was a lot to see and there all kinds of fresh produce and freshly butchered animals.
We finished the tour at Vy’s Market Restaurant for our food tour and cooking class. A local guide showed us around the restaurant and the workers demonstrated how they made various dishes. Everyone tried their hand at noodle making, with varying success. We sampled a few of the odd dishes like frog legs and snails. None of the Vernons wanted to crack open and eat the baby duck, but a few others in our group tried it.
Our group went upstairs when we finished the tour, and we put on our aprons and got down to business with our cooking class. Moon, our instructor, walked us through preparation of a salad to begin with and then we moved on to our noodle dish. The typical dish was set up with fish, but thankfully they had chicken available as well. The preparation was more involved that I had expected, and the cooking in the pan with oil was incredibly messy and a little painful as it was splattering everywhere. We all managed to get through it with only minor burns and then moved in to the room nearby to enjoy our lunches.
While enjoying our lunches, Henry and the staff brought up a durian fruit and we all got to experience it for the first time. It is notoriously stinky and it did indeed smell bad, to me it smelled like wet socks. The taste was sweet and not unpleasant. However, I wouldn’t say that any of us loved it.
The next stop was at a tailor’s shop where Connor and Paige got measured for some custom fit and tailored clothing. Connor was in need of a new suit, so he picked out some navy wool for the outer layer, a deep green for the liner, and talked through the design with the lady helping us. Paige picked out a dress and a pretty floral fabric.
Our next stop was a lantern shop where we all got to make custom lanterns. We were able to pick between a spherical or pear shaped structure, and then between dozens of fabrics. A lady sat with each table to help with the glue, to make sure we stretched the fabric on to the frame correctly, and to repeatedly tell us to “No cut string” when we were cutting the excess fabric. It was surprisingly tricky, but we all managed to get some lanterns together and they were very pretty when we put bulbs inside for our posed pictures with them.
After our long day out, Andrea and Paige weren’t interested in riding the bus again back in to town for dinner, so it was just Connor, Grandma and Grandpa, and me. The dinner was a typical Disney and Vietnamese affair where the staff brought out many strange dishes with little explanation. We would try to ask what it was we got, but typically they would just say something like “Egg Roll” and you would just have to decide if you wanted to try it. Most dishes were tasty, and the coconut ice cream dessert was wonderful.
Dean made an announcement that we were celebrating Rick and Alice’s 52nd wedding anniversary, and he presented them with a nice card and also welcomed them to be the first to light the floating lanterns. We walked down to the dock and everyone took turns lighting their little paper lanterns and then releasing them in to the river.
December 28th, Day 5, we departed at 9am and started at the Marble Mountain temple. We rode an elevator up and then climbed quite a few steps to see a few different temples and a huge cave temple as well. After all our stairs, our guides let us pick out some drinks from the local vendors. The fresh cut coconuts were good, but the fresh squeezed green skinned orange juice had an amazing flavor.
We made our way down the mountain and then rode our bus to a marble shop. There were lots of beautifully carved stone decorations. Grandpa Rick bought an orange jade pendant for his necklace, Connor got a bracelet, Andrea bought a little statue of a family on a Vietnamese raft.
We stopped off at the tailor to try on the freshly made dress for Paige and suit for Connor. The workers checked the fits and marked them for some final alterations.
We did some shopping afterwards and Connor found a red Vietnam flag shirt and we also bought our Vietnam magnet and a few other odds and ends.
For dinner, we met our group for dinner under the stars on the beach. The setting was stunning, and the weather was perfect with a very slight breeze and no bugs. There was a menu at the table with 15 different things on it. I thought we would be asked what we wanted, but it turned out that they just brought out everything on the menu. It was way more food than we needed, and there were a lot of various things to try.
The highlight of the dinner was the ALICE moment. We were all chatting with the other families at the table, when out of nowhere, Grandpa Rick shouted “ALICE” in a deep and menacing tone. Everyone fell absolutely silent and stared at him, and then he pointed to the lady sitting next to Grandma Alice and told Grandma that the lady wanted her to look at a picture. Everyone in the family knows that it’s a habit of Grandpa to speak either softly and inaudibly, or unnecessarily loud and aggressively, and we were all cracking up about it for the entire trip.
December 29th, Day 6, we were up early for our flight to Hanoi. We stopped for pics at the Dragon Bridge and then went to the airport. Once we landed, we went to lunch at KOTO restaurant, visited another temple, and then checked in at our hotel Sofitel Legend Metropole.
After a few minutes freshening up in our rooms, we boarded some little electric golf cart sized cars for sightseeing. The streets were unbelievably busy, with bicycles, mopeds, cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians. The intersections were chaotic with no stop signs or stoplights. People just randomly decided when it was their moment and somehow it seems to work.
The electric cars dropped us off at the Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre and we experienced the Vietnamese traditional puppet show. After the show we went backstage to see how the performers worked, and had a chance to lift the heavy puppets. Each party was given a puppet souvenir and since we have two bookings, we got a couple of cute little Vietnamese women puppets.
Dinner was on our own and we had been craving Mexican food. There are not many options for Mexican food, but there was a restaurant called Take Taco that served Vietnamese food alongside Mexican dishes. We ordered chicken tacos, beef tacos, chicken quesadillas, beef nacho, along with smoothies and sodas to drink. The food was incredibly inexpensive and our entire meal was $36.
December 30th, Day 7, we boarded our bus and went downtown to view Ho Chi Min’s mausoleum. We had to dress conservatively and show proper respect as we were observed by many armed soldiers. Henry warned us not to put our hands in our pockets, take pictures, or to speak while we went inside. We snacked on some ice cream and drinks sold by local vendors before departing.
After the mausoleum we went to a museum for the different ethnic groups of Vietnam and then to the Hanoi Hilton prison.
We were free to do whatever we wanted in the afternoon and there was an optional bunker tour, which Grandma and Grandpa signed up for. Andrea and I walked back through the town so she could get a snack and then we hired a cute old guy on a bike to pedal us back to the hotel.
Andrea stayed in for the night, and the rest of us ate dinner at a French restaurant with the group.
We took the bus to the airport and after getting through security we relaxed in the lounge and ate the food there for our lunch. Our flight to Laos was short and we rode a van to the new hotel La Residence Phou Tao, Luang Prabang. The hotel staff greeted us with flowers, live music, and a brief presentation on the hotel and our plans in Laos.
We went to our rooms and were blown away by them. Each room had comfy beds, fresh snacks to eat, lots of room, a balcony with a view, and a mini-fridge packed with complementary drinks and more snacks. Grandma and Grandpa’s room even had a “Happy Anniversary” message on their bed, along with a handwritten note, and a bottle of champagne.
We rested briefly before boarding a tuk tuk, which took us to the night market. The market was packed with people selling mostly locally hand made goods. Our guides gave us each 100,000 of Lao Kip, which was roughly equivalent to $5, and we were to use the money to purchase a white elephant gift for the gift exchange the next day.
We all enjoyed the market, and although we only had an hour to shop, we probably would have enjoyed staying longer. I would estimate we only got to browse through half the stalls before we ran out of time, and we never got to look at the food or the local stores. That said, after we’d looked at a few of the shops you would start to see the same things, or similar things, in the stalls so I’m not sure we missed much.
Connor found a painted Laotian scene on canvas that he wanted for himself, and he tried to buy a similar painting for the gift exchange. The painting was initially too much and I was impressed that Connor made a deal with the lady and got the gift within budget. Paige liked a couple of shirts and used her gift exchange money for them, intending to get them for herself. Andrea bought a little serving platter for herself that was more than the budgeted 100,000, but when she found another set of platters she liked better she decided to use the first platter for the gift exchange. Stuffed animals are usually a hit with the gift exchanges and there were a lot of stuffed elephants, but we weren’t doing anything with elephants in Laos. When we found a lady selling some stuffed water buffalos we figured that was perfect and we bought two, one for the gift exchange and one for Paige. Grandpa used his money for a bowl and a water buffalo keychain. Grandma bought a lantern that collapsed nicely for storage and was quite different than the ones we made in Vietnam.
The typical schedule for our tour wouldn’t include dinner, however since it was New Year’s Eve, they set up a really nice dinner for us with entertainment along with a photographer.
There were musicians, dancers, and performers all dressed in the traditional Laotian costumes. The dinner was delicious, however it started late at 8:30 and it was moving slowly. Andrea was the first to leave, and then Connor called it quits. Paige and I wanted to hold out for the beef Wellington, but we gave up a little after 10pm when we saw there were still multiple things to be served before the main course. It was a beautiful evening, but we all retired early and were asleep when 2025 ended.
January 1st, 2026, we started the day early with a ride out to the countryside. We put on some conical hats, took off our shoes, and stomped out in to the squishy mud to plant some rice.
A local Laotian farmer showed us how they pick the good seeds for planting and we scooped up big handfuls of mud to make perfect spots for them to take root. Next, we met Billy the water buffalo, and we all took turns working the plow with him. He went faster than we expected, and it was tricky keeping your footing in the knee deep mud, especially when Billy is dropping poops in your path.
We cut some rice stalks, smacked the stalks against some boards to separate the seeds, sorted the seeds, loaded them in to carrying baskets, and then hammered the seeds to remove the husks.
There were 14 steps to the process, and we got a hands on lesson on each step. When we finished with the rice, we worked a manual press to squeeze the juice out of some sugar canes and then drank the fresh juice with lime. Once we cleaned up, we went upstairs for lunch. We had a beautiful view of the fields while we ate, and the meal was fresh and delicious.
Our next stop was at the Kuangsi Waterfall Park, where we snapped some pics at the waterfall, and then swam in the cool blue water. The group ended up split for some reason, so Connor and Andrea swam at one place while Paige and I went further down to another. The water was cold, and we didn’t end up swimming very long.
Back at the hotel, we cleaned up, and then met the group for the White Elephant Gift Exchange. We were strategic with our picks and colluded to lock in Andrea’s serving tray and Paige’s t-shirts. I stole the water buffalo I bought from another family when it was my turn, but unfortunately it was stolen away from me. When it was our guide Dean’s turn, he opened a wrapped gift which contained some flashy asian pajama pants. He was funny about trying to encourage people to steal it from him, and it was quite a surprise when Connor stole it from him. We were happy that all the gifts we bought were stolen the maximum number of allowed times, and we all ended up with things we liked.
January 2nd, we had a very early morning at 5:30am to start our day by feeding the monks. The monks eat only what is donated to them, and each morning they walk through the streets to receive alms. Our group had a spot reserved on one of the streets and we each had a basket of cooked sticky rice to offer. We took off our shoes and hats as a sign of respect and the girls were a little disappointed that they were directed not to make eye contact with the monks lest they tempt them with their womanly beauty. It was not something we knew about and we enjoyed taking part in it.
A few monasteries passed by, and once we were running low on rice, we consolidated what we had left and went to a nearby temple. The monks at the temple said a prayer and blessed the food and then one of our local guides talked to us about their traditions and their daily lives. Kit, our local guide from Laos, had been a monk for about eight years and had some stories and insights that he shared with us.
Our next activity was a hike up the hills to a temple that we had been able to see far off in the distance when we stood by the pool at our hotel. The hike included many different series of steps, and some of the steps were quite steep and uneven. It was a difficult climb at times and sadly the payoff wasn’t the best. It was a foggy morning and we didn’t have the stunning view we had hoped for. We snapped a few pics at the temple and then went down again.
We ate breakfast and cleaned up at the hotel and then set off for a city and Imperial Palace tour by one of the local guides while our bags were transferred to the airport. We had been aware of the strict dress code throughout our time in Laos, and unfortunately the ladies working that day were very strict about the men that were wearing shorts. A few of us, including Shawn, were prohibited from entering the palace due to our tantalizing knees showing.
At the airport, we had an easy flight and the process for entering Cambodia was smooth and easy thanks to our guides. We arrived to live music and dancers when we arrived at our hotel the Sofitel Angkor Phokeetrhra Golf and Spa Resort.
Grandma and Grandpa had another special Happy Anniversary message in their room along with a chocolate cake. They stayed at the hotel for the evening, with cake for dinner, but the rest of us got a tuk tuk and went to the night market.
As we were pulling up, Andrea said she wanted some pizza and Paige wanted pasta. The first restaurant on the corner had a big sign advertising their brick oven pizzas and there were musicians playing across the street from the outdoor seating. We grabbed a table and it was one of our favorite meals of the trip. We ordered edamame beans as an appetizer, but the staff also brought some snacks and tea as a complementary welcome gift. Andrea and I got pizzas, while Paige got a spicy pasta and Connor got a shrimp and rice dish. We all enjoyed smoothies and drinks, and we were given another complementary dessert dish with banana and a coconut sauce. We loved the meal and it was all less than $50 which was wild considering the service and for how nice it was.
We walked though the market for a few steps after dinner, when Paige spotted a spa that offered the fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. She begged Andrea to do it with her, but it was too weird for her. I decided that I’d rather chill with Paige and the fish instead of shopping for another suitcase and I went in and paid $6 for an hour with the fish for two. We stepped in to the fish tank and dangled our feet in the water, trying to tempt the fish with our tasty toes. It turns out that our timing wasn’t the best and after a long day, the fish had mostly eaten their fill. There were a few that tickled our feet and snacked on us. Most notably was “big chungus” as I called him, a larger dark colored fish that diligently nibbled on my feet for quite a few minutes. At one point I felt him stop and I may have cursed at Paige when I realized that she had stolen him away from me.
Andrea and Connor wandered through the market and found quite a few treasures. Connor got a couple new Cambodia shirts, and they also found a big suitcase. They really liked the area and all the vendors in the market. There were so many people selling souvenirs and all kinds of things.
January 2, Day 11, was our one and only full day in Cambodia. We started out riding a convoy of tuk tuks to Angkor Wat. Our local Cambodian guide gave us an extensive explanation of the grounds, history, and construction of the site. It was more impressive than I had expected, and I had expected it to be awesome. My favorite part were the carved scenes of battle on the walls. Each inch was meticulously detailed and each wall was incredibly tall and long. The scale was massive.
The schedule for the day included the Bayon Temple and Ta-Prohm, however our family decided that we had enjoyed enough temples on our vacation. Our tuk tuk took us back to the hotel, where we cleaned up and then took another ride back to the market. We hadn’t had Mexican food in a while and I found a few promising options. We went with Viva Angkor, and it was just what we all needed. We did some more shopping and then went back to the hotel to rest until it was time to meet back up with our group.
In the afternoon, everyone rode on our tuk tuk convoy to Ankgor Wat where we boarded some gorgeous gondolas for a relaxing float in the temple’s moat. There were drinks and a large snack platter for us, and our family had one to ourselves. We all thought it was a great time and a relaxing way to end the day.
For our farewell dinner, we met our group by one of the pools, where they had a stage and screen setup. The resort had a grill setup for meats, a large selection of salads and vegetables, a number of dishes and desserts. The musicians and dancers entertained us with four different performances during our meal and then we all had a chance to take pictures together. As is tradition, our guides played a slideshow of our trip and thanked us for joining them on for our Asia vacation.
January 3, we had to wake up early and put out our bags by 6am for our transport to the airport. After a brief breakfast, we saw Henry one last time in the lobby and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Our flight to Thailand was a little stressful because we were worried about running late for our elephant encounter that Andrea had planned for us. If everything went without a hitch, we should theoretically have enough time to get to our hotel room and then to the transportation to the elephant sanctuary. As we were landing, the tour representative offered to pick us up outside the baggage claim area to save us time, and we accepted their offer and piled all our bags in to the van instead of stopping at the hotel first.
The elephant encounter was something Andrea had researched and planned for us to take advantage of our long layover in Bangkok. To be honest, after our time in Japan and after a long Adventure with Disney, I was tired and not especially looking forward to it. Once we showed up at the sanctuary on time, saw the elephants, got changed in to their goofy provided outfit, and had a snack, I started to change my mind.
I had been expecting that mostly we’d watch some handlers with the elephants and maybe get a few moments near the elephants to take some pictures. Instead, it was a very hands on experience. We were given lots of treats and food to feed that elephants, and right off the bat the staff were eager to push us right up to the elephants, to touch them and give them kisses. We were a bit intimidated at first, but after a while with the gentle giants, we were happily rubbing their faces and smacking their thick skin affectionately.
Once we had fed them everything, we took them on a walk to a mud pit where they waded in and threw mud all over themselves. Then, we hosed them off and jumped in a big concrete pool with them to scrub them and play in the water with them. The babies were the most dangerous in the water because they loved to just flop over and to go under, and if you weren’t careful they could easily crash in to you. The kids were washing one of the big elephants when one of the babies suddenly appeared between the big elephant’s legs out of nowhere and squeezed right between them. We did have one gross moment where I was scrubbing an elephant that was lying down and suddenly some giant yellow turds floated to the surface next to me. The staff removed the poops from the water, and we avoided standing too close to the back ends of the elephants after that.
We washed ourselves up, took the van back to the airport and our hotel room, and then cleaned up again and prepared ourselves for our long flights home.
Our first visit to Asia was an experience of a lifetime and we are so thankful that everything went relatively smoothly, that we were all healthy for the duration, and that we were all able to share such a wonderful time together.
