Ringing in 2025 in Central and Southern Vietnam

January 26, 2025

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Well, the United States is literally on fire, and there is a cruel irony in Cecile Richards dying on Inauguration Day. I am back to both avoiding the news and struggling to look away. As we pass the halfway mark of our trip and enter into a new calendar year, there are so many mixed emotions as we prepare for our return home this summer. While we write about our adventures abroad, please know that our toehold in Washington remains strong.

Sara’s Thoughts & Recap

We arrived in Hoi An on December 31^st, just in time to ring in 2025. The city is beautiful, with colorful lanterns everywhere. I’ve spent many hours wandering the streets of the Old Town, usually with at least one child in tow, and typically stopping at one of the many local cafes for lunch. Mostly, we are enjoying leisurely, unhurried mornings so that we can get a little work and school done. We are staying amidst the rice paddies, and there are several coffee shops within walking distance. Like Koh Lanta, there is a vibrant worldschooling community here, so we’ve enjoyed several meet ups with other families. Jonah has attended both badminton and game night, and Simon went to a STEM event where he learned about fingerprints. During our last week here, we really stepped up our socializing; the kids have been to a farm (twice), to chess, and to both Rubix cube and Minecraft hang outs. Happily, we’ve even seen friends here that we originally met back in Thailand. While this may not be the most authentic way to see Hoi An, it’s perfect for what our family needs right now, before we resume traveling at a faster pace and without as much peer interaction. I love watching the kids make new friends. At the Rubix Cube meet up – to which I brought Simon and Calla – both kids quickly ran off to play, and I enjoyed two hours of adult conversation while Simon and his new friend, Devon, explored God knows what, and Calla skillfully navigated the sandbox and the tall climbing structures, occasionally pausing to help out some of the other kids. Jonah connected with another preteen at Minecraft, and later the same day, enjoyed several rounds of chess during game night. Lest the adults be left out of the fun hangouts, on our last night here we hired a sitter and met several of the other parents for cocktails at a local mezcal bar.

Of course, we have also spent time engaging in more of the typical tourist activities in and around Hoi An, though we were mindful not to prioritize seeing everything over spending time with other traveling families. One day, we took a trip to visit the My Son sanctuary, a complex of Hindu temples built over nearly 10 centuries (4^th – 13^th), followed by a tour of the local pottery village. We also took a Vietnamese cooking class which included an early morning tour of the local market. The class was a lot of fun, particularly learning how to make our own rice paper. We went on yet another food tour in Hoi An - this time by motorbike. On one of our first days here, we embarked on a full day farming and fishing tour, and like true Washingtonians, didn’t let the rain slow us down. Overall, we’ve really enjoyed our time in Vietnam. Justin is going to write more about some of our cultural observations, particularly in regards to hospitality and service. I guess what I will say is that I noticed a sharp contrast between interactions with service providers here in Vietnam - from tour guides to waiters to Grab drivers - versus interactions with service providers in other Asian countries to which we have traveled, in ways that sometimes felt awkward or uncomfortable. This is probably in part because the dynamics made me hyper-aware of both my New York-style Americanism and relative financial privilege in ways that were not quite as evident elsewhere. (Or at least, were evident in a different way; I certainly don’t mean to imply this hasn’t been noticeable at several other points in our 7 months of travel!)

At any rate…. here were some highlights from our time in Central and Southern Vietnam:

The Tale of the Tailors

One of the things I was excited to do in Hoi An was to visit one of the numerous custom tailor shops lining the streets and have clothing professionally made for me. Hoi An has a long tradition of tailoring, with craftsmanship passed down over generations. If you spend some time reading about this online, you will see that many people say things like “It only takes two hours to get a dress!” or “You need at least 2-3 days in Hoi An to have something custom made.” I see these people and I laugh at them because I was wholly unprepared for the magnitude of this adventure. There are over 500 tailors in Hoi An, which means the options are dizzying before you even walk in the door. Once inside, stores have hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of fabric choices in cotton, linen, silk, and assorted blends. But as the staff are tailors and not fashion designers, you need to have some idea of what you want to have made when you walk in. My ability to do this at baseline went more or less like this:

Me: I’d love to have a cute dress made.

 Tailor: Do you have a picture?

Me: Umm… I can google. But like, a dress. That’s flowy?

Tailor: Okay, come back soon!

Needless to say, I cannot even begin to tell you what a process this turned out to be. First, I decided that all five of us should have coordinated outfits for the professional family photos I booked a few months ago through Flytographer. After lots of internet research, I selected a tailor called Bebe, and Justin and I put together a multi-page document of images of people in clothing that boiled down to “sort of like this but also not quite like this.” We decided on shades of blue for the males with matching khaki shorts, and pink and purple dresses for Calla and me with coordinating sashes. Despite how many times I said the word “casual,” at first fitting, my dress looked like I was going to prom, and thus several rounds of revisions ensued to the point where I did not have the final dress in hand until approximately 12 hours before our photo shoot (i.e., nearly 3 weeks after my first visit to the tailor). I bought Calla a two-piece outfit for her birthday (she requested a matching ensemble for her baby doll), which no number of fittings could make look the way I’d envisioned. She rocks it regardless because of course she does.

I had better luck getting dresses at a shop called Blue, mostly because I walked in with a very clear idea of what I wanted, only shifting my design when I discovered a stunning dress in the racks decorated with hand-painted calla lilies. The two dresses I purchased there still required three visits (design, first fitting, and second fitting) but I was very happy with them both.

At this point, I was ready to throw in the towel, but there was one more outfit I’d hoped to design, and since Bebe is stronger with suiting, I ventured back there for a pair of high waisted pants, some tops, and a jacket. These items came together more quickly, requiring only a couple of additional alterations visits. That said, all in all, I probably made a dozen trips to the tailors throughout my three weeks in Hoi An. This is where I need to thank my sister and mother profusely, but mostly my sister, who – despite a 12-hour time difference – jumped on FaceTime with me to approve my outfits. At my last few tailor visits, the ever-patient saleslady, Chi, was saying things like, “let me take a picture so you can send it to your sister” because I had made it abundantly clear that I am hopeless when it comes to my fashion sense. But seriously, what short lady can look at “outfit inspirations” online (featuring tall model-y people) and know what will magically look good on one’s frame?! Anyways, here is what I ended up with for our family photos. Please say nice things or say nothing at all and/or consider hiring my sister as your personal shopper/wardrobe coach. I won’t say anything more about our family photos except that they came out a lot better than the experience with melting down children - (and, consequently, the occasional adult) - felt! Please enjoy:

Birthday Celebrations

Both Calla and I have birthdays in January, and we were determined to find fun and unique ways to celebrate. On my birthday, I requested to have an afternoon to go to a local spa. I continue to marvel at the relative affordability of spas in Vietnam, though after chatting with one of my tour guides about the average monthly salary in Ho Chi Minh City ($300 USD), the cost-of-living discrepancies feel particularly alarming. I’d mentioned when booking my services that it was my birthday, hoping that this piece of information would increase the likelihood of a last-minute appointment. Instead, it resulted in the spa manager bringing me a small cake, decorating my massage room with flowers, and playing the “happy birthday” song on her phone. It was the absolutely sweetest thing, and when we returned a week and a half later for Calla’s birthday pedicure, she did the same thing! Since I was starting to worry that the manager thought I was inventing birthdays solely for the free cake, I obviously had to make one final massage appointment just for me just so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea. 😊

For my birthday evening, we hired a local teenager to babysit while Justin and I went on a Hoi An secret cocktail tour. The tour took us and several fellow travelers to four locations around the city for cocktails and small bites. We’d initially planned to do this tour privately and take the kids and were so glad we opted to get a sitter instead. It was nice to chat with the other adults on the tour, and the drinks were delicious. Afterwords, we returned to our Airbnb for a small family celebration and passion fruit cheesecake.

Calla was the first of our children to have a birthday during our world trip, and we wanted to make it really special for her. While trying to keep up other holiday celebrations during our trip has not been particularly important to us, we knew that birthdays without friends, parties, and gifts was likely to feel like a big loss for the kids. A few days before Calla’s birthday, I emailed some of her friends’ parents and asked them to help their daughters to send birthday messages for her. These videos put such a big smile on Calla’s face! We chose to spend Calla’s 5^th birthday at VinWonders, which somehow manages to be a safari, zoo, theme park, cultural excursion, and arcade all in one. We spent all day the park, and everyone had a great time. Calla was particularly enamored with the train roller coaster and the arcade games. The best part was that Calla walked around wearing a pink sparkly crown all day that said “happy birthday” and included a veil and no one even batted an eye. She picked out a souvenir stuffed mermaid, and then promptly decided she hated it on the car ride home and started sobbing. Recognizing the clear sign of exhaustion, we nixed our plans for a birthday dinner out and picked up food instead. Our AirBnb host, Nana, kindly bought Calla a strawberry red velvet cake, which we all enjoyed. Calla told me she had a really great birthday, and that made me very happy.

Detour to Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta

Halfway through our Hoi An stay, we took a 5-day, 4-night mini trip to Southern Vietnam. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), napped, and went for a walk before being whisked through the city by four young women in ao dais (traditional Vietnamese dress) for a food and sightseeing tour. While the food was delicious, the real highlight for me was getting a comprehensive tour of Ho Chi Minh by night. Food stops were alternated with experiential activities; for the first one, we visited a local market where our lead guide, Ngu, picked up several types of fruit for us to try. Our second sightseeing experience involved allowing the kids to ride mini electric bikes. Calla refused all offers of help, whereas Simon begged to go on the large green mini motorbike that one of our guides deemed “not so safe.” He eventually opted for something else, maniacally pushing the gas petal while being joined by the guide who drew the shortest straw, probably. As always, Calla decided that the tour guides were her new besties. During our second restaurant stop for BBQ, we played a game in which we split into teams (Calla, me, two guides; the boys and one guide) and completed a relay race, using chopsticks to pass a peanut to the person next to us with the final person placing the peanut in a cup. Our team won, primarily because we had a higher concentration of Vietnamese people and Simon insisted on using chopsticks even though the children were offered the option of using a spoon. But everyone got the same prize (a button), which Calla and I thought was a load of participation trophy BS.

The next day, we drove four hours round trip to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels were used during the Vietnam War as hiding spots for the Viet Cong soldiers. The lengthy network of connecting tunnels also functioned as communication and supply routes, whereby soldiers could attain weapons and food. It was interesting learning about the history of the tunnels, though we all felt uncomfortable with the level of commodification. The kids posed in underground hiding spots (a common photo opp) and we were all horrified to discover that there is now a gun range on property where people can practice shooting AK47’s, the same weapons used in the Vietnam War, even though guns are illegal in Vietnam. I really wasn’t interested in quite so much realism from the experience. The big highlight of the Cu Chi tunnels is exploring underground. I made it about 20m while everyone else completed all 100m; my claustrophobia continues to be a self-fulfilling prophecy as I age. Later in the day, we visited a secret weapon bunker house, which looks like a regular house, but was actually the operating base of the Saigon Commandos’ Security Unit. Finally, we made a quick stop at the Saigon Central Post Office, which is both a tourist attraction as well as a fully functional post office.

After a long day of touring, everyone was tired, so we embarked on one of our family’s favorite activities and returned to the three-story bookstore we’d stumbled upon the day before. During the motorbike tour, one of the guides gave Calla a sticker book that she went nuts over. I was thrilled to find a mountain of similar sticker books for only $1 a piece and bought a dozen. They have all sorts of themes (pets, dress up, restaurant, mall) and are amazing at keeping her occupied during long waits and car rides.

 The next day, we left our hotel in Ho Chi Minh and drove to the Mekong Delta region. We were told we’d be doing a homestay in Vinh Long, which ended up just being a bunch of utilitarian guest rooms on a nice property. This was disappointing, particularly since when Jonah got sick in Sapa, we opted to stay at a hotel instead of at the home with a family as originally planned. At that time, I promised we’d get another chance for a similar experience later in the trip. But our “homestay” turned out to be a bunch of other tourists being churned through the same activities. For example, we thought we’d get to cook dinner with a local family, but this just meant that – along with other guests – we put some pancake batter in a pan and tried to flip it. The place was lovely, and the food was some of the best we’ve had in Vietnam, but after talking our kids up for a stay in someone’s house – including many conversations about behavioral expectations – it was a bit of a let down. Again, the place was lovely; it just was not what we had anticipated. We were all happy to do some bike riding, though. On our first day in Vinh Long, we rode to a small factory that makes rice paper, popped rice, and coconut candy, and on our second day, we rode to the local market. (But not before re-tracing our steps from the day before, as someone-who-was-not-me lost their wallet; we were relieved that a local woman picked it up off the side of the road and hung onto it for safe keeping.) The back roads were bumpy, and at times, hard to navigate. I was really proud of the kids for doing so with minimal falling. Next, we drove to Can Tho. We arrived around 2pm and had no plans for the rest of the day, so we hung out at the hotel and then decided to explore the city. I’d wanted to hit up the local night market scene, and was committed to eating Com Chay (Vietnamese scorched rice) for dinner. We did, and then continued to wander the market for other assorted dinner and dessert items for the kids. Afterwords, we returned to the claw machine arcade we’d passed on our way and bought 52 coins so that everyone could play 5 rounds a piece (2 coins/play). Obviously, it was more like 8 rounds/kid, 2 rounds/adult, but whatever. Combined, we won 3 stuffed animals that we now need to squeeze into our luggage because no matter how much we purge, somehow we always end up with more than we came with.

The next morning, we awoke early and visited the Can Tho floating market before returning to our hotel for breakfast and embarking on the long drive back to the Ho Chi Minh airport. It took more than four hours, during which Simon regaled us of tales of the backstory of Snucky, his new stuffed snake. It was dark, guys. Really dark. I’d expect nothing less. I think we officially terrified our tour guide, who whispered to me as we exited the car that his wife only wants to have one child.

The combination of a new calendar year as well as the halfway point of our trip has suddenly spurned in us the need to start planning our return home. We have a firm end date (July 15^th) and I’ve already started signing my kids up for summer camps. In general, I thought I’d have more time to think and reflect on this trip; specifically, about how I envision my work life upon my return to Kirkland. I suppose it’s fair to say that I’ve been using my brain space and downtime elsewhere: ongoing trip planning and maintenance, reading novels, massages. Perhaps I’ve felt willful about using my sabbatical to pontificate about my practice. At the same time, I know I don’t want to come back home and pick up exactly where I left off. As the back half of our trip unfolds, taking small steps towards returning to work will likely inoculate me from feeling overwhelmed by the process. I just need to get myself to take that first step…

Our family has absolutely loved our time in Vietnam and look forward to spending 10-days in Taipei before saying goodbye to Asia and hello to Oceania!

Sara’s Stats:

Flights: 19 (including two seaplanes)

Accommodations: 46

Countries: 11

Books read: 59

Massages in Hoi An: 9

Justin’s Soapbox

Staying in Hoi An for 3 weeks at this time has allowed us to see the rice planting season play out in real time. When we arrived, the fields were mostly just mud and dark water. In the past week they have sprouted around us into a beautiful verdant green. We've walked past these fields each day here, and it's been a calming way to mark the not-so-slow passage of time. 

It's been hard to claim that we've "come to understand" any one place we've been to on this trip, and foolish to think that we can fully "get a sense of what life is like" simply by staying and touring in one place for a few weeks. If anything, this trip has provided a humbling experience for us by showing just how challenging that can be. But there are aspects of life in Hoi An I can't help but notice and reflect on in ways that feel new to our experience traveling. 

Maybe it's the fact that red flags and hammer-and-sickle iconography is quite prominent, especially in the bigger cities. This always triggers a kind of dual internal response in me, because it evokes both the silly reference points I have for it (outdated propaganda, movies and video games, simpsons jokes, etc) as well as the real-world history of it all, in equal measure. I'm probably not the best suited person to be able to unpack this all, coming in as I am loaded with just as many if not more inane pop culture references to socialism as genuine historical ones. But I think it did have a background effect of continually reminding me to pay a little closer attention; notice the differences, think on the history, and generally take a few extra mental notes on the society around me.

It certainly made me think a lot about being an American in a country we invaded and how we should consider that. Sara and I made a big point about stressing the importance of being respectful, especially at the war memorial sites which we visited around Ho Chi Min City. Incidentally, I found that it was still referred to by locals as Saigon about 50% of the time, and it seems like the names are equally acceptable for the most part, which I hadn't expected. Anyways, as Sara described above, visiting the Cu Chi tunnels was pretty eye-opening, especially in terms of how visceral it was. Not really in a blood-and-guts type of way, but just how matter-of-fact it was about aspects of the fighting, like how there was an exhibit of the various kind of spike pit traps (punji sticks) they would deploy and the attendant gave a little casual demonstration of each on - "this one spins like this and so you'd get your leg caught in it, that one has the spikes facing down as well as up so you're more likely to lose the limb, here's one that would spring out from booby trapped doors and hit them in the chest..." The recency of the war and its obvious importance to the identity of the country was generally unavoidable, and seeing these war museums hammered that home.

Much of the economy and food still operates in an old-style fashion, and the transition to more "modernized" forms of industry is visible. For example, during out trip up the Mekong we stopped at a clay and pottery factory that was producing bricks, pots, and other general use building materials at scale. During this time we also visited the floating market, which was where farmers from the provinces would bring their goods up river for sale to local store owners who would then resell at retail price. Our guide remarked that the market was growing smaller every year as trucking and other transport systems were making the market obsolete, but it still operated and was rather sizable. As Sara recalls above, we bought some decent crispy noodles and other rice flour items from here, and we got invited on a boat to eat some fresh pineapple with chili salt - tasty! 

From a more personal perspective, Sara and I both noticed a pattern in some of our interactions with local guides, store owners, and others which we had not experienced to the same extent in Thailand, Malaysia, or other countries. To be sure, we've felt an extremely hospitable sense of welcome and kindness in just about every place we've visited here, be it in Hanoi, Hoi An, Sapa, or Ho Chi Minh. The effort put into personal attention towards us is very noticeable, but we routinely encountered a subtle barrier to mutual understanding in many situations, which might be described as the difference between personal attention and personalization. In a nutshell, we found many of our guides were very diligent about ensuring we got the direction and information as required by the tour, but had limited flexibility when it came to being responsive and adaptable to the choppy dynamics of leading three kids through the some pretty long days.

I want to stress that this is not intended as a complaint or criticism, or meant to suggest that anyone ought to do anything differently. Rather, it's an observation about where our own personalities, family dynamic, and cultural biases were revealed in contrast to more local norms here. It's something that we've tried our best to be attuned to, often worrying about how to strike a balance between the needs of our children in the moment, and the need to be respectful and conscientious towards our hosts. Noticing these differences in communication styles has in itself been instructive for us.

Another thing I've been taking notes on throughout this trip is how people are socializing in the cities and how it compares to our life back home. As some of you may know from previous posts, I've become really interested in examining the apparent epidemic of people becoming less social in recent years (spoiler alert, it's the phones and social media's fault) and how I can do better at that when we return both for myself and the local community. While out at night in Saigon it was eye opening to see how many people were out in the small restaurants and corner hangouts late in the evening on weeknights - a bit livelier than you would expect in a city like Seattle. And in the rather small city of Hoi An it's common to hear the echo of karaoke through the night. which is usually coming from a small group of friends or family with a little speaker setup on a patio. Casual socializing like this has felt harder to find at home recently, at least for me, so I've resolved to try and bring this spirit back home with me, even if its only for more karaoke. 

Jonah’s Musings

For the past few weeks we have been staying in Hoi An, Vietnam. I have loved this place so much for many reasons. In this blog I will talk about the things we have done here in Hoi An. This has been one of my favorite - if not my favorite - places we’ve stayed on this trip.

The first thing that I love about this place is just purely where we were staying. This place is called May’s Villa, and it is amazing. There are 3 bedrooms, the first room with 1 bed, the other with 2 beds, and one with 3 beds. I got the room with 2 beds to myself, my brother and sister slept in the 3 bed, and my parents in the 1 bed. 

Each bedroom also got their own bathroom and TV which I thought was really nice. Other things we’ve done include celebrating my Mom and sister’s birthdays. For my Mom’s birthday, I gave her a picture of us in front of Tiger’s Nest, a place we went in Bhutan.

For Calla, I made a drawing of a little rabbit. I’ve also really loved the food here. We went to a restaurant called Morning Glory and we had dumplings and spring rolls and noodles. All very delicious! Also, my Dad and I went fishing. We caught some pretty big fish called basa fish. We ate a little bit of it, but it’s known to have mercury in it so we only had a few bites. It was really good, and we’re fine, though.

We actually left Hoi An for a few days and went to Ho Chi Minh City were we learned about the Vietnam War at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We saw many interesting things, such as the traps the Vietnamese used and where they hid.

Some of the traps were really brutal, like the bamboo  trap, an extremely deadly trap. The trap is almost like a see-saw covered in grass that makes it camouflage into the ground. When an enemy stepped on the trap, the see-saw flipped downwards and the enemy soldiers would fall onto pointed bamboo.

Some of their traps were similar to a bear trap, where a person would step on a metal object that would have spikes from both sides snap shut on their ankles. The Vietnamese army hid underground while this would play out in underground tunnels. These tunnels were called the Cu Chi Tunnels.

These tunnels could be over 30 feet deep and 200 kilometers long. The tunnels had everything from food, water and sleeping areas. Entrances to these tunnels were small trap doors in the ground that were camouflaged with mud, dirt, and leaves, making it blend into the background of the forest. We even got to go in the tunnels. They were very long and narrow, and damp, too. My Mom was a little scared to go in because she got too claustrophobic. 

Vietnam has been a very new and interesting experience, mostly because it is very culturally different. A big thing actually has been dogs, which their owners let run loose. It gets a little frightening sometimes because the dogs on occasion will growl and start barking at you. Luckily they're pretty easy to scare. Other than a few little downsides like that, I’ve loved Vietnam so much but am excited to go to Taiwan, the next place we’re staying.

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Simon’s Reflection

I am currently in Hoi An, Vietnam. Since we got here, I’ve been doing a lot of activities, like a Rubik’s Cube meet up. At the Rubik’s Cube meet up, I didn’t really use a Rubik’s Cube, but I hung out with a kid named Devon, looking for weird stuff and fixing it. We also found some puzzle pieces. We couldn’t finish the puzzle but we were close to finishing it! I also went to a farm meet up where there were super cute kittens that were clawing my shirt. They also bit me, but they were so young that I couldn’t feel anything, so I could just let them bite me. I held them so they wouldn’t even hurt me. Afterwords, I went to my new friend, Jeremy’s house, and we did Legos.

 One day, we went to My Son. My Son is not like a son, it is a place with a bunch of old ruins everywhere and has incense everywhere.

For my sister’s birthday, we went to a place called VinWonders, which was a water park/zoo/theme park. We couldn’t do the water park because it was too cold and we didn’t have our bathing suits, even though it looked awesome. I went on this mountain roller coaster with everyone else; Calla was just tall enough to do it! Later, Dad and me went on this giant roller coaster, and then Mom and me did it, too. It was very fun.   

We also went to Ho Chi Minh City, which is in the south of Vietnam. Before we went, my Mom and I read a book about the Vietnam War so we were prepared. Take it back – I was not prepared. At the Cu Chi tunnels, people were literally shooting real guns. I was getting scared. If you excuse me, I may not really want to talk about this part, so I’m going to move on. Anyways, at the weapons bunker (and at Cu Chi tunnels), it showed all these weapons going from bayonets to anti-tank weapons to machine guns able to shoot for miles. There was also broken tanks, high artillery cannons, and some big remains of bombs and holes from the bombs.

The first night in Ho Chi Minh, we went on a food tour by motorbike. The motorbike was kind of fast; I didn’t like how fast it went, but it was pretty good. We got some pretty good food. We went to a night market and there was fish and fruits. We also played on these little electric bikes. I was too “small” to do it alone, so someone had to come on with me. It ruined my fun with the guide screaming! And, they weren’t scared of going on a real motorbike! Just riding with me.

My favorite thing about Hoi An is spending a great time with my favorite family. 

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Calla, I heard you had a big birthday while we were here in Hoi An. Can you tell me about it? 

Calla: So, I had my birthday. I like that it was so much fun. I just liked the rides and the arcade. About the arcade, there was like a gymnastics thing and there was a good place for somersaults. And I just would like to say that my birthday was too fun, I couldn’t even feel it!

Mommy: Can you tell me about the cake and presents?

Calla: About the cake, it was strawberries, cheese, and my Mom’s [birthday cake] was passionfruit cheesecake. My presents were fun, but they weren’t wrapped up.

Mommy: How old are you now?

Calla: FIVE!! 

Mommy: Can you tell me about anything else we’ve done in Hoi An or or in Ho Chi Minh City?

Calla: The motorcycles I was on went vroom, vroom, vroom. The helmets were so cute on both of the tours, and there were mini motorbikes that were so adorable. And the people were so kind. That’s it.

If we haven’t spoken in a while, we’d love to hear from you!! (Or even if we have, we’d still love to hear from you.)

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, & Calla