Day 10 - May be the limit

Today was a really long day! Van came & picked us up at 9:00; I thought we were going to her dad's factory but we ended up going on a boat ride with one of Van's dad's customers. People don't really do business here the same way we do in the USA. Van's dad spends a lot of time having fun & doing things with his customers and they never talk business. But, they end up spending some serious $$$ with his company, so whatever works! Here is a ship that is out in the harbor at Nha Trang. We passed right by it on out boat outing.
We met up with a glass bottom boat and went to take a look at some sea life on that for about 20 minutes. (Van, Van's dad, Van's dad's customer in the photo)

Then we stopped at this really cool island where people go to just get away from people, do fun things like jetski & parasail, and lie in the the shade drinking beverages with umbrellas. Van & Hai went parasailing. They wanted me to go, but I didn't have my swimsuit with me...I thought we were going to the factory, after all!

Ready...

Set...

Go!

Hai forgot to take his glasses off and lost them when they landed. Yesterday, Van's cousin lost his when they were on the waterslides at Vin Pearl Land. This afternoon, they both went and got new ones so they could see again!

Next, they tried the jetski. Neither one has ever been on one before.

Meanwhile, Holly and one of Van's dad's drivers had a long conversation about boats in English/Vietnamese depending on who was talking. Holly also looked at the photos from scuba dives that they use to talk people into doing that.

Then we went to lunch. Here is Holly at lunch...

And later at naptime!

Hence the name of the post. I think 10 days is the absolute upper limit of days to be in a foreign country with a 2 year old who gets unpredictable naps and unreliable bedtimes every single day. Despite the pictures, she is SO CRANKY!!! And rightly so, since I'm dragging her everywhere every day without a quality nap ever. And we still have a week to go. Yikes!

This afternoon, we did go to Van's dad's factory. Van kept telling me he was the manager of a textile company, which is true. In reality, he manages 6 textile factories (weaving, spinning, and garment making) in Nha Trang, and is the Vice President at a higher level of the company in the office in Ho Chi Minh City. Here is his office building in Nha Trang.

He took me through all of the factories except the weaving one because the humidity is so high that it smells like mold in there, I guess. If you ever worry about only wearing clothes that say "Made in Vietnam/China/Cambodia/..." you shouldn't lose any sleep over the fact that it's not made in America. The cotton that those clothes are made from is from Texas and other US states that grow cotton as their major export crop. Van's dad says he imports something crazy like 100,000 tons of cotton a MONTH from the US.

Here is the first step in the spinning process (to make cotton thread). That's cotton in that machine.

Step two. The cotton goes from being fluffy hunks to thick strings that are really soft to touch.

Step three. The thick strings are made into thinner and thinner threads, then put into this machine where eight strands of the thin strands are spun together to make one really strong thread. The spools on the top are the finished product that they then export or send to wherever massive quantities of thread are used - like to sew clothing.

This is just one row of machines, all spinning cotton into thread. There are about 10-12 rows in the width of the building, and they just go on and on and on. These machines are some of the older ones, so they are really noisy, too. The newer ones were noticably quieter.

Here is the one garment factory in Nha Trang that they have. They were making shirts with the Port Authority label on them. They also make LaCosta and other high end shirts, too. The entire factory would have taken me 5-7 pictures to get it all. It was huge!

I'm glad that I asked to go see where he works. The whole tour was incredibly fascinating and I got a lot better idea of what Van's dad does exactly. He gave me some free towels that their company makes, too!

Holly did not go into the factory with me. She stayed with Van in the office. Maybe she will be their next CEO or something. She looks right at home at Van's dad's desk, doesn't she?

On the way back, we stopped by Van's grandmother's & uncle's house, where they are staying while we are here. Holly and Wong (Van's youngest cousin) were playing while we visited, but Holly wasn't sharing very well, even though the truck wasn't her's to begin with.

Here is Van's family. To my left is her dad, to my right is her aunt, clockwise from there are her uncle, grandmother, Van, and Wong. Van's grandmother invited us over to dinner tomorrow night, so we will go back then to visit some more.

After a short rest at the hotel, we went on a dinner cruise in the harbor. Here is Van facilitating some good will between Holly & Wong.

Holly was mostly tired and grouchy the whole time, but was happy to have some milk to drink.

We didn't get back to the hotel until close to 10:30, but Holly is finally asleep. I hope she sleeps in tomorrow some. It was another great day, even if it was long and exhausting. Tomorrow, I think Van & I are going parasailing again and I don't know what else. To be decided, I guess!