Some of the branches in Saigon and the mission branch we're a part of had a Temple Trip to Manila, Philippines. We took a short stop in Saigon to get a recommend for Reena and in hopes to renew three passports. In true VietJet Airlines fashion, the flight was delayed long enough that we missed our appointment time at the embassy and barely had enough time for the recommend before the mission president had to fly back home to Hanoi. Thuan took Reena to that while Dan took the other kids to the zoo for a lot of pictures. Thuan and Reena later. There was a little pool you can put your feet in for little fish to eat your skin (not piranhas). It feels odd, but is fun. We have a video of it posted on FB.
From Dan's Newsletter:
The temple trip was a special one. It was Reena’s first, as well as the first for Thuan’s two recently baptized cousins. All did baptisms a couple a couple of times, and Thuan’s cousins watched our kids so Thuan and I could attend a session. There was a bit of a scare one night when I left my laptop bag at a mall we had dinner at, but thankfully we returned to it still sitting in the same place. We had a hard time getting taxis at times. The night we went to the session took nearly an hour to find a ride home and that was only because a stranger saw us and gave us a ride. We had an early morning flight back to Vietnam, so we booked a hotel closer to the airport on our last night. This was a good decision. It took over an hour to get a ride, and again, not because taxi drivers like working, but because a counselor in the MTC presidency saw us standing outside for a long time. He took us to our hotel and that was almost a two hour drive. Traffic in Manila is nuts. He said he never met President/Grandpa Evans, but had definitely heard of him because he had left a legacy as a fantastic mission president. That was cool.
The temple trip was a special one. It was Reena’s first, as well as the first for Thuan’s two recently baptized cousins. All did baptisms a couple a couple of times, and Thuan’s cousins watched our kids so Thuan and I could attend a session. There was a bit of a scare one night when I left my laptop bag at a mall we had dinner at, but thankfully we returned to it still sitting in the same place. We had a hard time getting taxis at times. The night we went to the session took nearly an hour to find a ride home and that was only because a stranger saw us and gave us a ride. We had an early morning flight back to Vietnam, so we booked a hotel closer to the airport on our last night. This was a good decision. It took over an hour to get a ride, and again, not because taxi drivers like working, but because a counselor in the MTC presidency saw us standing outside for a long time. He took us to our hotel and that was almost a two hour drive. Traffic in Manila is nuts. He said he never met President/Grandpa Evans, but had definitely heard of him because he had left a legacy as a fantastic mission president. That was cool.
On our way back, we stayed another couple of days in Saigon and had church there with Thuan’s cousin that was baptized there. We love our little group in Da Nang, but it feels good to also have a somewhat normal church service, and by that I mean a small branch in a language only one of us speaks. We met missionaries and several families (a few are expats like us).
On the last day there we all got tired of Philippino food so we went to a French restaurant. Ummm...it was delish!! Philippino food was ok but I liked having my Philippino friends' food more than all that I've had in the Philippines. Maybe we just didn't hit the right places but I was not impressed. We were all so happy when we saw Krispy Kreme inside the SM Mega Mall shopping mall (One of the prettiest and biggest mall at Manila) and we got a dozen glazed of course!
Last night in the Philippines. It went by so quick. 4 days is never enough. Manila, Philippines was beautiful. It reminded us a lot of home. Everyone spoke English. The signs were all in English. People drove around in cars, It felt just like the USA. Manila is a big city full of skyscrapers and it's very wealthy, yet somehow things aren't as expensive as Hong Kong. Great place for anyone wanting a Western feel without leaving Asia. It was fun to see so many Saints gathered together for one purpose. I wish we had more time to go to the many islands that the Philippines has. We were told that depending on high tide or low tide there could be as many as thousands of islands.
Back to Saigon for church. Beautiful experience overall. Me and the hubby had babysitters (the cousins we gifted the 2 tickets to Philippines we figured since we gave them their tickets we could use a bit of babysitting from them) so we went to Dam Sen, a waterpark and garden Dan and I went to when we came in 2005. Also brought back a lot of memory, although some things definitely have changed. More on the beautiful pictures of this garden on our youtube videos.
No comments:
Post a Comment