Children's Park

Whew.  There’s something about relocating your family across the planet with a 2 and a half year old and a 2 and a half month old in tow that makes a person want to lay down and sleep for a month or two.  Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s there.  But with two beautiful little ones like this, it's all worth it.

We are, in fact, back in Quy Nhon with TWO kids now and we’re happy to be here.  The process of getting here went rather smoothly, despite the fact that we had a veritable mountain of luggage.  Micah was a great traveler as usual and our wild-card unknown, Sedakah, proved to be a fantastic traveler too.  She seemed to enjoy being on an airplane more than she enjoys most things, and was content to lie in her bassinet and smile at the ceiling for most of the trip.  Getting settled has taken a bit longer and been more stressful than usual due largely to the fact that Micah picked up a bad cold or flu bug on the way over and was sick for probably 10 days.  He was a fairly grumpy, needy kid for a while which made the rest of life more difficult.  He’s feeling better now, though, and we’re happy to have our joyous, funny, smiling little boy back.

We decided to celebrate finally getting settled (and mostly healthy) by a trip to the Children’s Park yesterday afternoon.  Now, the Children’s Park is a place we have been many, many times.  It’s on the beach right across from the university, so we tend to at least pass through it with some regularity.  But it’s only this year that Micah has really gotten to the age where we figured he would enjoy more of what the park has to offer.

If you’re an American and you hear the words “Children’s Park” you might imagine a grassy, treed area with some swings and slides and a ball field or two for the kiddos to go entertain themselves with.  Apart from the grass and trees, you would not be imagining Quy Nhon’s Children’s Park.  Think “Permanent Carnival, Set Among Trees” and you would be getting closer to the truth.  It really is a nice setting, with big shade trees and a cool breeze off the water.  For Micah and his buddy Ezra, it was Shangri-La.

Our first stop on our Children’s Park odyssey was the fish pond, where you use a plastic fishing pole with magnetic “bait” on it to catch a whole bunch of plastic fish, turtles, alligators and various other aquatic creatures with screws in their mouths.  Micah tried his hand at spear fishing a few times, with little to show for it.  Fun, but really just a warm-up for what was to come.  Cost: 7,000 VND or about 33 cents for a pole and unlimited plastic fish. 

 

Right next to the fish pond was a small paved area that was just perfect for driving little electric cars around.  As Micah started to tire of the angler’s lifestyle, he began longingly eyeing the cars with their youthful drivers zipping back and forth next to us.  It was only a matter of time before we seated him in a plastic jeep with laser turrets and let him go.  I (Steven), ever the watchful parent, followed him around to make sure he didn’t drive into a tree or go off the embankment onto the beach.  Ezra got stuck with the pink and purple Barbie car, but didn’t seem to be too fazed by it.  Cost:  12,000 VND or about 57 cents for perhaps 5 minutes of motorized joy.

After the cars, Micah was really keyed up and ready to go.  He strolled through the park asking to go on every single ride.  Miniature swan boats that had to be paddled by hand.  Big pit full of dirty plastic balls.  Spinning spaceship ride.  We finally settled on what seemed to be the tamest option, a mini roller coaster that went round and round a small oval track.  When I say “mini,” I mean mini.  I went along with Micah to make sure he didn’t get bored and try to climb out midway through the ride.  It required some serious folding of my 6’ 4” frame to fit me into the roller coaster.  Apparently they don’t make these things for adult male Americans. 

Whatever the case, we got onto the mini roller coaster with little Ezra and his dad, Will, as well as a couple of Vietnamese dads with their sons, paid our money and off we went.  Around and around.  And around and around.  And then around some more.  Pretty fun for the first six, seven, eight times.  Started to get old after 12, 13, 14 revolutions.  How long does 50 cents buy me on this ride? I started to wonder.  Then I looked around and realized that the ride operator had just up and left us to ourselves.  And I mean left.  He had gone down the way to let some people onto a bigger roller coaster and seemed in no hurry to get back to our ride to shut it off.  Micah—the kid who gets motion sick and upchucks within 20 minutes of climbing into the back seat of a car—was not the ideal child to be riding with on an endlessly circling roller coaster.  I kept asking him how he was doing and he kept replying, “Fine.  Fine,” but I didn’t necessarily trust his answers.  Finally Will’s wife, Kristin, saved us by going and flipping the kill switch herself.  We all climbed out and sauntered away as the operator continued AWOL.  Cost:  10,000 VND or about 48 cents per person but be prepared to stop the thing yourself.

One of the best parts of the whole roller coaster experience, in addition to the operator's disappearing act, was this guy.  Wow.  Just wow.  He stood and gawked at us while we returned the favor.

As we prepared to leave the park, Micah started his whine/crying and “I-don’t-want-to-leave”’s to let us know that, yes, he had had a good time and yes, he wanted to come back again sometime.  All-in-all it was a fun, refreshing experience for everyone and a sort of rediscovery of a very familiar place.  For all the times I had strolled through the Children’s Park, not once had I stopped to fish or drive cars or go on the roller coaster.  Not once had I looked at it through the eyes of a toddler.  Now, I have.  And it is indeed a wonderland.  All for less than 2 bucks.