This Is What We Do To Children In Danang (Oh, And Angsana Lang Co’s A Pretty Good Stay, Too)

Kings has been (and will be) away a lot, and so when the Mountain has to travel, Mohammed strives to follow, if only to change a few diapers and make sure the kids get some Daddy time… We didn’t actually do much, it was such a short trip, BUT because Rockstar had a holiday homework assignment involving transportation, the trip came in very useful (one of the reasons we went with – I couldn’t make Rockstar’s big school field trip where they travelled all over HK taking all manner of public transport – mums in other schools even asked me about it and… I had not much to say <hangs head> because I couldn’t go <hangs head again>; with the Miss taking up my mornings I could mostly only give Rockstar afternoons, not whole day field trip attendances.)

Idly, I remember for the umpteenth time one of my RMs telling me his reason for having just two kids is because unless they are more widely spaced out in terms of age, you are going to be hard-pressed to give more than two enough attention. (Interesting fact, my mum once wrote me nicely, asking “Would 4 grandkids be too much to ask…?” :D) Well I know several working mums who can’t swing regular weekly volunteering and so apply for leave on trip days and give their kids the whole day instead; I used to do similar when Rockstar was sick etc…….

You see, ladies and gents, swimming is for peasants, huge plastic balls are the only way to transport your elder children

…..But no, I didn’t ultimately send the Rockstar In Huge Ball pics for his project because I thought people didn’t really run around in large plastic balls to get places while in/on water, they used umm, boats……

We did this instead

Like, we totally lucked out, because those paper-cutting cards were in the hotel gift shop and the nice lady at the counter took out a whole box from the store for me to dig through to find all the transportation ones. They even let me unwrap and open the cards so I could see which had transportation-related insides… And Kings was conveniently busy with work while I was putting stuff together… His quip is too good not to post, “Buffalo also transport, what.” Yes, we got the buffalo card 😀

Seriously, how awesome are these cards??

As for the Angsana Lang Co in Danang, there is one thing in particular I really appreciate:   Best is to illustrate via Room Service. We had an order form for in-room breakfast packages at about USD 20 per head. I couldn’t find any suitable permutation or combination that didn’t have a lot of stuff we didn’t particularly want to eat (I didn’t like over-ordering when we were both bankers; when Kings is doing business I am even more against it*), and after putting together an a la carte order, breakfast for the 4 of us on one room service order (I also pack basic oatmeal porridge “just in case” – and luckily I also packed all the diapers, wipes etc we needed because otherwise we’d have been hard-pressed to find all the stuff we were used to)……. came to less than USD 20 in total.

Things that make ya “Mmmmmmm” – Picture-worthy meals

Our coffee supply was free with the room, there was a steady supply of drinking water and fruit also free – someone knocks on the door with a heavily laden cart filled with plastic crates and fruit (mango, dragon fruit and Vietnamese Apples)….. both Rockstars now love Vietnamese Apples. We all do. I have to hunt them down back in HK someday.

Vietnamese apples – pic from notquitenigella.com

My point is not that it’s all “cheap”. My point is the staff don’t push you to over-order/spend, unlike not a few places in HK. They are generous about “extras” in a way that puts many “nice” places in HK to shame.

There is one particular place we frequent (when Kings is around) mainly because they have live music and comfortable changing facilities both of which the Miss particularly appreciates, where I have told off staff at least 3 times – because they always clear away drinks and food you have not quite finished with, and push your kids to repeatedly order juices or etc.

If you say “I’m not finished,” 10 mins later someone else will ask. And 10 mins after that. I lost it once, when a fifth person tried to clear it away. Another time, Kings thought he was ordering a scoop of ice cream for Rockstar but I think he said something like “do you have ice cream?” and the waitress simply said “yes” – what came was a huge dish with 5 or 6 scoops, wafers and various other trappings. And we had already eaten our lunch there, Kings just thought to offer Rockstar a simple scoop of ice cream before we left.

Kings was on the laptop and I was away with the Miss so we couldn’t even send it back when The Girls got back to the table because it was half melted. Rockstar had had his usual half-scoop and said he’d had enough. Only Kings and Rockstar on the table, they put the order in for the massive ice cream order without asking for clarification.

Now, I HATE wait staff who do this. It’s not like they are on commission, even. And wasteful over-ordering of food or drink in particular has long been a pet peeve of mine. I consider it to be a disrespect and lack of gratitude at one’s pecuniary good fortune, which is why even when I pulled good salary I feel very bad about extreme over-ordering. It denotes to me a lack of thankfulness at what you are blessed with, that many in the world do not even have. People who take advantage of this, what with all the other people in the world who are in poverty, should just be doomed to poverty themselves. (Seriously, why all these people no conscience, life so certain meh?)

Ok I shall stop the rant – basically this is why I really recommend Angsana Lang Co. The whole staff attitude is SO NOT pushy. At the gift shop where I was digging for Rockstar’s cards, they sell insect repellent. I ask the lady if we need it (Rockstar gets bad welts). Her answer? “Probably not. But we sell it anyway because some people still feel more comfortable if they’ve got it on. Can I show you anything else instead?” We still ended up with a membership discount card. And we are happy with that.

So, LOVE Angsana Lang Co. And they even did wonders for Rockstar’s school project.