Trip One To Hanoi, Vietnam to Meet
Emily
March 10-17, 2002
Day One - Monday
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The Somerset Hotel in Hanoi Excellent hotel Nice living area Large dining area Two bedrooms Two baths Kitchen with laundry Great views of Hanoi Pool, tennis courts, etc.	Living Room
Dining Area	Second Bedroom
Master Bedroom	View of Office Tower Next Door
Kitchen	Laundry
View from Pool area	Pool
Pool	Back Porch
No cars	Typical traffic
The weather this time of year is mild with temperatures in the 70's.  Humidity is fairly low and comfortable.  The sky is very hazy, not sure if it is fog, water vapor, pollution or what.	The city
The Somerset Hotel was constructed on the site of the former Hoa Lo prison.  Known mostly as the "Hanoi Hilton", an infamous prison last used to house US POWs from the Vietnam War.  Part of the prison remains as a museum.	Built by the French in 1896, the prison was originally intended to hold 450 inmates. Records indicate that at times there were close to 2000 prisoners inside.
	Note the broken glass and electrified wire atop the walls CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES
Typical Hanoi traffic on the way to the Cau Giay Orphanage to meet our new daughter.	Like most of Asia, the typical mode of transportation is the motorbike although there are still many bicycles in use.  Car and motorbike drivers constantly honk at each other and the cyclists, as a warning or to say "move over".  No one seems to listen.
Finally! We get to meet little Nguyen Thi Ly  ("qwin tee lee") and talk things over with her.
	Images of the Orphanage
Bobo from IMH	Dr. Quy at the Orphanage (it's really called the Cau Giay Center for Orphaned and Malnourished Children)
Two other families were there to meet their children also	Tom from Toronto meets his daughter
Danny and Tami meet their son.
This is the Justice Department where we signed all remaining Vietnamese documents required to complete the adoption.
	«-"Emotion CyberNet Cafe", our primary link to the outside world. It is a typical bandwidth starved operation with about 20 systems competing for a dial-up connection.  There is also no air conditioning in the room with the systems and people.  It gets REALLY HOT in there.           Click HERE for picture. The staff, however, was very helpful an even helped me connect my portable to their network so I could mail out some images of little Emily.
Images of Hanoi