[DreamingAzure]

Morning everyone

I'm kind of in a unique position when it come to my travel to VN next year(I HOPE & PRAY). I'm in the process of starting up my own home daycare and have 2 wonderful assistants both of whom are able to TOTALLY run the business while I'm gone(AND are willing to!!).

SO...I'm looking into taking some extra time while I'm in VN and doing some LIGHT sightseeing probably after the G&R and I have their visas(maybe????).

I'm afraid that this will be my one and only trip to VN and I want to see and do as much as I possibly can while I'm there. I want to be able to tell my children as much info as I possibly can about their birth country.

Has anyone else thought about spending any "extra" time in VN? I'm currently looking into the Seaside resorts that I've read about other Aparents staying at. I'm thinking maybe it will be a quiet bonding period with baby away from family and friends before I have to head home on a 24 hour plane ride

Whatcha think??

[myworldisdmb]

I haven't been to Vietnam so I can't tell you for sure but I'd say if you can afford it go for it.
I also own a home daycare. Are you taking paid leave? I couldn't afford to spend time on top of the 2 weeks in Vietnam plus maternity leave!

[beccakinn]

Totally with you on that - we hope to stay at least 3 weeks. It's easier for us as we have lived and worked in Asia, although we never quite made it to Vietnam (trip was planned but I got so morning sick when I was pregnant I went home to the UK instead!)
It's pretty easy to check out what's there online. We were going to spend time mainly in the North on various beaches.
My favourite site for checking out locations and hotels is TripAdvisor.com - it's a wonderful resource.
I shall get in touch with a mate of mine who lives in Bangkok and has just done several big trips in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia...I'll PM ya with any suggestions!
If we adopt from Vietnam, we'll try to go work there!
Always good luck to all
Becca

[DreamingAzure]

With the business set up as the solo owner, I pretty much get to do what I want lol For accounting/recordkeeping purposes I'm going to be taking "paid leave".

I have a great friend who is retired, but meets all the state requirements to be a licensed operator of a home daycare, and she has agreed to run it for me during the time I'm out of the country, and the first month or so I'm home she will work part time.

I'm figuring that my salaries will go up by about $50 a week for the 4 or 5 weeks I plan to be out

[myworldisdmb]

That's great!
Right now I've owned my daycare for 2 years and I haven't taken ANY vacation (other than sick days or holidays) so I'm planning on taking a month off when the baby comes home AND cutting my numbers down to only 3 or 4 children so that will cut my income in 1/2! It's worth it though I guess for at least the first year our baby is home.

[Kato]

It doesn't have to be so expensive to travel in VN. The airfare is the largest expense. If you stay in a Vietnamese hotel (hotel for VN rather than foreigners) you can pay as little as $10-15/night. For this, you will have a private bathroom, a clean, although old room, and you can order food for meals through the hotel owner. Sinh Cafe is a government owned travel agency that is really cheap, although not really "customer friendly." (They have a long way to go to understand customer service.) Sinh Cafe books short day bus trips/tours, overnight and multiple night trips that are safe and sound. They are located in Saigon in the "backpack area" where cheap hotels for students and travelers are located. Most taxi drivers know exactly where it is. They can book tours, hotels, etc. up north to Hue area. I went on many short trips first with them to get comfortable with knowing the cities and area, then took off on my own afterwards. Stay away from the glitzy hotels, and you can also avoid the other problems of exaggerated prices and government intrusion.

What I want to know if whether one has to utilize all the adoption agencies services as part of the package. For example, we are bilingual, so we don't need translation services, and we can make our own travel arrangements much cheaper and easier. I know that we have to use an adoption agency,but couldn't we circumvent some of the expensive costs? We cannot afford to pay the costs you have mentioned. But we really want to adopt. My sister-in-law who lives in France did a private adoption in Viet Nam several years ago, and I wish that we could do that through the US, but it doesn't seem so. Any ideas?

[DreamingAzure]

Kato,


I dont' know if you can or not...it seems like all of the agency say that THEY will make all your travel arrangments for you...I thought the same thing when many of them are saying $100 a night for a hotel room...that seems just outragious to me. I do want to stay at a nice hotel that is familar with adoptive families...but I just can't get over the price. I don't pay $100 a night for a hotel here in the US!!(I admit it, I'm a cheapskate...I just can't help it!!)

That is one of the things I'm going to asking my agency SOON. I'm hoping that I will be able to get by without a translator while I'm playing tourist, but I still can't imagine that it would be as expensive as the agency makes it out to be. I kind of figured that I could hire my own translator in-country if I found I really needed one.

I have found several sea-side resorts that are listed as 3stars for under $60 a night...there was at least one that was listed at $25 but I think it was a 2 star. I'm going to keep researching it.

Anyone else with money saving ideas??

[soontobethree]

My advise would be to do your 'extra travel' BEFORE you get your child. Especially with very young children, the Vietnamese people expect you to stay in with a baby. We went to one tourist attraction in Hanoi with our son (then six weeks old) and we were scolded by some people telling us to take the baby inside. Even though we may not do it the same way at home, we chose to "do it their way" out of respect for them.

I know some people who went ahead and took their baby out but I observed lots of critical eyes on them. Once we got our boys, we chose to only take them out when it was something the baby had to attend.

Melanie

[1moretime]

Popping in from Russia, I think the agencies like to make the arrangements because if you are traveling with other families it makes it a heck of a lot easier on the coordinators. If you want to travel while in country, which I think it fantastic we went a few days early to do the same thing, use the agency's arrangements while in the adoption process and then do your own thing either before or afterwards, MHO. It just makes things run more smoothly for you and them. At least for us in Russia, things were down to a pretty sound time table so they wanted everyone where they could access them quickly and easily. It made it easier for us also because we got business done in quick, organized, and efficient order. Also by staying in one of the recommended hotels we got to talk to a lot of other folks who were adopting which made it nice. Not only to share the anticipation but to also show our loved ones off when we got them.

These are just my opinions.

Nancy