a visit with the Pollacks

After saying goodbye to my wonderful tour group, I hopped in a cab and headed to the beautiful home of my friends Amie, Todd and Oliver Pollack.  Amie is a dear friend of mine from college so when I discovered that she was now living in Hanoi with her family I jumped at the chance to see them.  Last time I saw Amie and Todd they were moments away from welcoming little Oliver into the world.  Now here we are almost 3 years later and I’m catching up with them in their home in Vietnam.  How fantastic!  Say hello to the Pollacks. 

Todd was a total trooper and watched after Oliver while Am and I popped into the city to do a little sightseeing, shopping and major catching up!  Here we are in the Temple of Literature, which was the first university in Vietnam.  The classes were notoriously difficult so the students used to rub the heads of the turtles for good luck on their exams.  Even though this is no longer an active university, students still come to rub the heads of the turtles for good luck before their exams.  Just in case the good luck extends beyond exams, Am and I gave it a go. 

We also took in a water puppet show, which I highly recommend.  Yes, the puppets are actually in the water. 

Here are some of the puppets off duty.  My brothers got hooked up with some of their very own water puppets so I’ll be treated to many water puppet shows in the future….Bring it! 

Here are some more sights from Hanoi.  Feast your eyes on the one stilt pagoda.  Oooh pretty…

Next up is Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. 

Here is Uncle Ho’s house.  He chose to live in a house amongst the people of Vietnam instead of the royal palace.

Here are Am and I with Uncle Ho at the Ho Chi Minh museum.  It was a visually interesting space in addition to being very informative. 

And one more pagoda we happened upon on our way back to the house.

It has been so wonderful to be with the Pollacks these past few days and see how well they are doing in Vietnam.  Here is a pic of Oliver with his nanny and BFF, Hoa.  She is adorable, intelligent and a superb cook.  She is giving Amie cooking lessons once a week.  I’m totally jealous!   

One, two, three……..Crazy face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A huge thank you to Amie, Todd and Oliver for welcoming me into your beautiful home, feeding me delicious food, and showing me the sights of Hanoi.  I loved every minute of our time together!  I just received word that some of my DC crew has booked flights to Bangkok and it just so happens that the Pollacks are going to be in BKK around the same time so it looks like the stars are going  to align again and we’ll be seeing more of the Pollacks in January.  Woo Hoo!  Ams and Todd, get fired up because it is on!