Hello Everyone,

This is going to be my last post from Vietnam, because we leave tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about leaving because Vietnam has become really familiar to me. I hope I'm not shy around all of my friends when I get back to New York, but even if I am shy I'm really excited about seeing everyone again.

As you know, I've been traveling with my family the past few weeks. We went to Hanoi, Bangkok, and the island of Penang in Malaysia. It was a really neat trip. Sneetch liked it too!

In Hanoi we got to see these really neat water puppets. The puppeteers are behind the screen and they maneuver the puppets with bamboo poles that go under the water.

In Bangkok I got to see all kinds of temples that aren't like anything in Vietnam. They are really big and covered in gold and in colored glass. They call them "wats."

On Penang we went to a butterfly farm, which had over 300 different kinds of butterflies as well as creepy things like snakes and scorpions. It was fun.

Mostly, though, we hung around our hotel. I learned how to swim without my arm floaties, and I went swimming in the ocean (arm floaties on!), and I went out on a jet ski twice, once with my mom and once with my dad.
I hope everyone still recognizes me when I get home. I can't believe I'll be home on Monday!

I love you all and can't wait to see you again.

Love, your friend,

Hudson

Well, it's time for me to say goodbye to Can Tho. We are leaving tomorrow for Saigon, then will travel for almost three weeks before we finally go home to New York. We're going to go to Hanoi, Thailand, and Malaysia.

My dad asked me what I would miss about Can Tho and what I would be glad to get back to. Here they are: I'll miss the water park, riding on the ferris wheel, my friends (Linh, Ha, and Nalie), riding my bicycle at my dad's campus, and avocado milkshakes (called "sinh to bo" here).

Here's what I'll be glad to get back to: nice American food, my friends (all of them), cooler weather, my own bedroom, and walking along the Erie Canal.

(Mark writing here): Hudson will also miss the countless hours spent lounging in Anne's and my air-conditioned bedroom, cuddling under the covers with Lily, watching cartoons. . .


p.s. Hudson will continue to post on our travels, so please don't tune out just yet. . .

Hi everyone. Well, it's official. I'm now 6 and Lily is 3. I had a two-day birthday bash here in Can Tho and Lily celebrated in Taipei, Taiwan. She even got two cakes since my mom ordered a really cool chocolate one with an elephant on it that we ate in a really cool Japanese restaurant, but then the hotel we stayed at found out it was her birthday and also brought one to our room later that night.

I really loved Taiwan. Even though everything was in Chinese, it seemed easier to figure things out there since it wasn't so hot and things tended to be pretty organized. We roade all over on the subway and tram and they had these cool blue plastic tokens that you magically waved over the gates and they let you in. My favorite part of the trip was Sun Moon Lake. We stayed in this Japanese style hotel with 2 bedrooms and Lily and I slept on tatami mats which are made of straw. We went for two boat rides, and also went to this cool place called Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village which was sort of like a Taiwanese Disneyland. Wow. It was sad to leave the place. We really fell in love with the place. Plus, I got to wear pants with shoes and socks! Which I never get to wear in Vietnam because it's so hot. SO HOT. I sweat pretty much every day, all day, no matter what I do or don't do. I won't miss that.

It turns out my school here in Can Tho is taking a summer break for the next two weeks, so me and Lily are officially done with school there since we have various trips and things coming up and also we will soon leave Can Tho for good, on June 13th. I have mixed feelings about it. There are things I will miss, like all the great fruit shakes and Yo-Most drinks, but I think I will be ready to get home. When my mom and dad asked me what color our house was at home, I couldn't even remember! That's how long it's been!

Anyway, thanks for the cool presents, Grandpa and Grandpa Rice in Washington, and thanks to my kindergarten class for the card. That was really sweet and made me miss you all a lot.

Tomorrow we head to Saigon and then to Vinh, Vietnam, which is in the north on the coast. My dad has some work presentation there. We travel a lot and my mom and dad said that we are getting pretty good at it, considering we're so little.

love to everyone,

Hudson

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday. I can't believe I got to turn 6 in Vietnam!

We had a big party at my house for my birthday. I invited a bunch of my friends (Linh, Ha, Vi, Nhi, and Thu), and my teacher, Miss Vang. My friend Nali couldn't come because she's on vacation. We put up balloons and streamers and had pop and Yo-Most yogurt drinks.

My mom and dad bought lots of pizza (I like "Pizza Margherita" the best--it's just plain cheese pizza) and springs rolls (which are called cha gio here) and a bunch of fruit like watermelon, mango, pomelo, and apple.
I also got to choose whatever birthday cake I wanted from the bakery, so I chose the hugest one with lots of frosting and flower decorations.


My friends and my teacher gave me lots of neat presents, like a little battery-powered robot, a pair of shorts and tee-shirt, a big backhoe toy that I got to put together by myself, and some books.
The only thing that could have made my birthday better is if I could have had all of you help me celebrate it, too! (At least I was able to open some presents from some of my USA friends, which was really nice.)

Love, your friend,

Hudson


p.s. The day before my birthday party we went to a cool place called My Khanh where we spent the night, but I'll write about that in another posting.

p.p.s. Being 6 doesn't really feel much different from being 5. I still have all of my baby teeth, but I've learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels, which is pretty neat, and I can read lots of words now.

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I posted to my blog, but we have been very busy traveling. We just returned from Singapore, which was so great! Everyone speaks English there and we went to the Singapore Zoo, which is the best zoo in Asia. It was so cool because we got to ride elephants (sorry, no photo of that because we were too busy holding on!) and we also got to ride the tram around the zoo and see white tigers. One day we took a tour of the city on an open-air double decker bus. We also stayed in a hotel with a rooftop pool and swam until the moon came out.

Now I'm back in Can Tho and I'm back in school, doing lots of learning. I miss you all and look forward to seeing everyone when I get back.

love,

Hudson

oh, by the way, the Easter Bunny found us here in Vietnam and we got some great big baskets of treats!

Hi everyone,

My mom and dad have some new friends named Trinh and Frank (he's from Germany). Last weekend we went to the big ferris wheel park and had fun.
I rode in the bumper car with Frank and Trinh's daughter, Nalie, who is really nice.
Lily rode with my mommy and wanted to do all the driving. She shrieked whenever my mommy tried to steer. Lily liked crashing into me and Nalie.
I can count to 10 now in Vietnamese. When I see you this summer I'll teach you how to do it, too.

I miss all of you and can't wait to play with you again when I get home.

Love, your friend,

Hudson

Dear friends,

My family and I went to visit temples this weekend. It was really cool to see all the different buildings. We lit a stick of incense at every one. One temple even had a big gong that the monk let us pound with our fists. After we got home, it rained and stormed like it never has here before. Today we went swimming because it was really hot. It was a fun weekend. I miss everyone and sometimes we talk about how fun it will be when we come home. But I decided there are lots of things I'll miss from here too.

love,

Hudson