I wake up at 3.45am. It sounds like the shower is full on in our bathroom, and I get up to look. Joe mumbles “don’t worry about it”, but by now, our bathroom is hot, steamy and very, very wet. I realize the least I can do is turn off the hot water to the bathroom, and that lowers the temperature on the water, slowly. I guess it has to fully empty the hot water reserve it has built up.
As much as he tries to ignore it, now Joe is also up and inspecting the scene. At 4.15am, he finally agrees I should go downstairs and get security to at least turn off the water. There’s a brightly coloured valve inside our bathroom, that does absolutely nothing for the water pressure.
I elevator downstairs, for once the elevators are quick and respond immediately. With roughly 720 units in the building, these things are never quick, and you never get to ride alone, without stopping. Downstairs, a literally laid back security guard, bare feet and watching videos on his phone, sits up and pays attention when I show him my Google Translate screen which reads “Please help! Water leak in (unit number), how do we turn off the water?”. He grabs a meter of keys, and leads me to the locked off elevator for his personal use, and we go back up stairs.
Luckily, he knows exactly what to do, running to a locked off room on the other side of the elevator banks, and turns off our water. ALL our water. We have no kitchen water, no flushing water, no 2nd bathroom water. Fair enough, it’s the middle of the night. He says something (no translation app), gestures to his phone and his watch, and we understand something about 6am. Will it be fixed then? Is that when the resident plumber shows up, on a Sunday morning?
The guard leaves, and I start putting on the kettle, figuring that 4.30am and 6am are too close together to go back to sleep, but Joe convinces me to try getting more sleep. I finally fall back asleep, and we both wake up at 7.30am. Nobody came at 6am. We get on the AirBnb app to message our host again, and this time he finally replies. “We are on our way”, he says. A lone technician shows up an hour later, and then disappears again. Our AirBnb host messages back saying the technician had to go get the right “utensils”. Equipped with the right tools and parts, the technician is back and has our new shower faucet installed by the time we’re all done with breakfast.
After such an exhausting and eventful night, we’re now at 9.30am, with a completely open and available Sunday ahead. Joe finds a destination, and I think it’s a great idea. I think we both spaced on the fact that it’s a weekend, and it will be a busy place! We hop in a taxi and go further south than ever before. The girls get excited when we pull up and read the sign: Museum of Oceanography.
We’re a family well versed in aquariums, and we know that this is not that. This is a museum, and after seeing this beast of a skeleton first thing, we wonder what else we will find.
I will save you the images of the crocodiles. One had a large cut on his back, and the other laid in water that was the colour of dirty milk. There was a peaceful small stretch of beach right next to their enclosure, which looks across at the VinPearl island. There are cable cars going across, to an amusement park we don’t plan on visiting. We may do the cable cars one day though, if time allows.
Next we see signs for the aquarium. Ooooh, an aquarium! We get our hopes up. Then there’s a sign promising a tunnel, and we loooooove the tunnel at the Ripley’s aquarium in Toronto. We have fond memories of the aquariums in both Tokyo and Osaka. We follow the stream of people (it is a proper weekend, and the museum is busy) towards a building and … the “tunnel” is a narrow corridor with separate tanks on both sides of the path. It’s very crowded, and the crowd is a healthy mix of local and tourist. It’s loud and pushy, and overwhelming for short 6 year olds who get swallowed by the crowd. I keep Maylin close, and we marvel at some of the fish.
After the disappointing “tunnel” that wasn’t what we expected from a tunnel, we are once again outside. There’s a display about ocean garbage, which is nice to see, hoping that people will think twice before purposedly leaving their trash on the beach, or dumping it in the ocean.
It’s hot and we’re at that awkward time between breakfast and lunch that requires a snack. There’s a tiny snack vendor with an ice cream freezer and a drinks fridge right in between the tunnel and the next feature, so we stop for a treat. There also happens to be a tank of turtles right there. Maylin’s favourite animal prior to this trip was a turtle, so we love them already.
To the left of the turtle, there’s another “tunnel”. It’s a dark and depressing work in process. Some of the murals are beautifully done, but overall the impression is unfinished, dark and empty. There’s a round tank at the end of the space, and people stop and take pictures in front of it. Only when we get right up to it, do we realize that it’s not the end, the path continues on the left. The right is barred by a construction door.
Further down the hallway we actually do find what we were expecting from an aquarium tunnel! Or at least somewhat? This tunnel has sand on the bottom and some small sharks. There doesn’t really seem to be room for much more, the outer walls of their tank seem too close to our human tunnel, and there are no other animals. No other plants. Some of the sharks swim alongside us, but none above. Is there even enough water up there for them to cross?
The tunnel leads out to another area, and from looking at Google Maps, we’re actually on the other side of a small mountain! There are more buildings, and we take a look inside more of the museum. Lots of animals in various stages, but we ask ourselves – are they real and stuffed, or are they recreations? They don’t quite look real, but they could also be really badly preserved?
The second floor has images of smaller animals and their skeletons. I ask myself – are they really purple and teal, or is this art?
Joe is not feeling good at all. Whatever knocked him out yesterday is back, in full force. He takes a painkiller for the headache, but does not want to delay getting home, no lunch out, just home to bed please. We book a taxi, and head for home.
Joe heads right upstairs with Téa, while Maylin and I got to get his “medicine”, the beef pho from Pappa Roti. I am ravenous by now, and Maylin and I eat the entire Pappa Roti bun ourselves. The girls have begged me to eat at KFC since discovering it is so close, and even said that we don’t have to try Vietnamese McDonald’s if they can only eat at KFC once. Fair deal, I think, and Joe won’t eat here, so why not indulge the girls, again…
The girls and I take our time at KFC. We eat, pick at the food, then order desserts. Joe even messages to check, who spends more than an hour at a fast food place? Actually, when we arrived, the place was packed! By the time we leave, it’s only us and a table where the main activity is applying makeup, with a giant cardboard box containing an elaborate pink wig. We head back home and the girls play for a bit. Joe goes to bed. It’s 2pm. I blog.
At 4pm, I tell the girls to come for a walk with me. Joe still sleeps. When we get outside, they tell me they need a snack, and Téa has never set foot inside Bakeboy. They decide they want to share a chocolate cookie, the easiest walkable snack. (Maylin wanted the carrot cake, which looked amazing, but we are here for a walk, not for another sit down dessert experience!) The chocolate cookie is the largest, dryest, least sweet chocolate cookie I have ever tasted in my life. We’re glad it’s just the one cookie, split between the three of us. It crumbles like sawdust.
Across the road by the beach, there is an entire class full of ladies recording a TikTok dance video. There are so many people out and about! The beach is full, the ocean is packed, and the sidewalk is crowded.
The girls and I walk for about an hour in the end. We go up along the beach and then take a left. We pass the koi café from the other day, and the one directly across the street from it. Neither looks open from the outside, but both have tiny lights in the back where the bar is. We find a back alley to walk back towards home.
Joe takes two more painkillers, and an allergy pill, and I make him a cup of coffee. It’s dinner time, and I’m not sitting through another fast food, steamed bun and banh mi dinner tonight. I research and find a small local place very close, and Téa comes with me to go get dinner. Just when we’re about to go into the restaurant, she takes a tumble and scratches hands and a knee. It hurts. She wants to go home. I walk her home and switch daughters at the door. Téa heads to rinse off in the shower, and Maylin comes back out with me.
This time we make it to the restaurant. It’s a crowded place, obviously popular with the locals, and we awkwardly wait for our food.
When we finally get our three dishes, I’m amazed at the size of them. We bring them home and open them up, there are mountains of egg fried rice, seafood fried noodles and a plastic bag full of ground beef congee. We eat good and long, and really enjoy the change from our downstairs options.
Because by now I’m the only one not in PJs, I head back downstairs to the grocery store. We’re out of oatmilk and water, and the girls want candy. I want salty snacks, so I pick these fun options:
It’s been a long day. It started in the middle of the night, and I’m exhausted. For once, the girls are told to put each other to bed, and I crawl into the covers before they’re even asleep. I hope to get a good night’s sleep.