Grand Palace & Wats

We skipped school and headed downtown today. First stop was Wat Phra Kaew (a Wat is what they call temples here). This Wat is part of the Grand Palace complex. It was really incredible. There were all kinds of buildings, one more ornate than the next. They all seemed to have a golden glow to them and many of them sparkled as if they had gems in them. On closer inspection it is gold paint, mirror, and coloured tile and glass. It really was spectacular.


We then visited the Grand Palace. We couldn't go in, but we had a good look at the outside. It was sweltering hot and we felt pity for the poor guards dressed in their heavy uniforms.


While in the area, we decided to take in one more wat - Wat Po. It houses one of the largest reclining Buddhas in Thailand. It was huge! From the picture below you can see the gray toes of the Buddha and at the other end you an see a full sized door next to the head.

After Wat Po we were all feeling the heat and so we headed towards a market in hopes of finding some ice-cream. We found Old Siam Centre and looked around a bit in the air conditioning. We got our ice-cream and by then it was time to head back.

We got a tuk-tuk to the pier. We all thought it was quite funny because before arriving in Thailand we had only ever seen a tuk-tuk at Children's Museum at the Museum of Civilization back home. It was pretty funny to ride one for real.

We came home on a boat. It was quite a long ride, about an hour and a half, but it was a nice way to see the river and Bangkok from a different perspective.

CM

Elephants and more!

This morning we went out for a real Thai breakfast with Vaughan. We went to the morning market and had rice with fried chicken and sweet and sour sauce. We also had some sweet sticky rice with banana in the middle and some freshly squeezed orange juice. Over breakfast we talked about our plans to visit Dusit Park, but Vaughan said that there were still demonstrations going on near there as it is close to the palace and government buildings. The demonstrations have been very peaceful, but you never know... so we decided to alter our plans for the day.

We went west of the city to Samphron Elephant Grounds instead. The main attraction there was the elephants. There was an elephant show that described some of the history of elephants in Thailand complete with re-enactments of an elephant hunt, a parade of royalty, and a battle. They also had some tricks and stunts that the elephants could do.

The girls wanted to do the elephant ride. Unlike the rides around the circus ring that you might find in Canada, this was a 20 minute ride around a wooded park with man made lakes and gardens. It was a lot of fun and we all thought the awkward sway of the walking elephant was really neat. We had to stop a few times as the elephants kept pausing for a snack. I hope those flowers grow back quickly!

Another attraction at the park were Mr. Oil and Mr. Lift. We had our picture taken with them. It was a bit scary. I'm sure in Canada you couldn't have you picture taken with a tiger that close, let alone holding its tail! Nice kitty, kitty, kitty!

They also had a crocodile farm and croc show. We were amazed to see them pulling these beasts by the tail, and then putting their hands and even their heads in its mouth! I could hardly look. I'm such a chicken. Speaking of chicken... Yasmin and Roya fed some of the crocs. They got a bucket of chicken parts and used tongs to drop them into the enclosure. The crocodiles, which are normally almost as still as statues, went crazy for the meat.

By the end of the day, I think we were all thankful for the demonstrations near Dusit Park. I think this was much more memorable!

CM

Hello Bangkok

Everyone's feeling better and we were ready for venturing out. We headed off to an International Day celebration at Magic Years Kindergarten. The kids were a bit younger than ours, but it was still fun. The girls enjoyed painting an elephant at the Thailand booth, stringing beads at the Americas booth, making a star at the Israel booth, and having their hands painted with henna at the India booth. There was also all sorts of ethnic foods, which of course was Nadim's favourite part!

It was extremely hot today. We had planned to go downtown to see the Grand Palace and some temples, but we spent a little more time than intended at the school celebration and with the heat we decided to take in a movie at one of the luxury IMAX theatres and do a little shopping in the air conditioned centres instead.

From where we are, just north of Bangkok, it takes about 45 minutes by bus and sky train to get into town. Bangkok is another huge city, but it is much easier to get around in than those in Vietnam. I was afraid that it would be less organized and structured, but the bus and train systems are great. The prices in the department stores are better than at home in some places, but in others you can find dolls that are the equivalent of $400 Canadian! We thought we had the conversions wrong, but we asked the clerk, and we were right! OMG

CM

Day by day

Yasmin's fever was finally down today, but she was still having some stomach cramps so we stayed close to home for most of the day. The picture below is from the balcony.

It was another scorcher today. We eventually did make it out to the shopping centre down the road. I needed a hair cut, so that was our mission today. I'm fairly pleased with the cut, but it is a little shorter than I had intended - not bad though.

This evening we went to the Baha'i Centre next door. They had a little prayer meeting and then had some games and stories for the kids. In the picture below you can see Sunantha telling a story to the group. It's really very special what they have done with this after school program.

We're planning to go to a nearby international school tomorrow morning, if everyone is up to it. They are having a small fair and one of our new contacts invited us out. I hope it will be fun for the girls to meet some more kids.

CM

Missing the park

Another day at "home". Yasmin started the antibiotics last night so hopefully things will improve, but she was up a few times in the night with stomach issues - poor thing. This morning she was still not feeling great, but by afternoon she seems to have improved.

We couldn't go too far today. We walked to the 7-Eleven for some bottled water, but that was as far as we made it. When we suggested going further, Yasmin asked, "Will there be washrooms there?", so we decided that maybe we wouldn't go after all. There doesn't seem to be any parks nearby, so we are feeling a bit stir crazy in our room. The girls built a fort in the bunk beds, but Roya really needs to burn off some energy at a park.

I'm glad we didn't book any of our travel within Thailand because now we can be flexible and a few sick days means that we'll just delay our plan to travel north until we're healthy and have seen what we want to see here in Bangkok.

CM

Getting better

This morning we did our school work, but by mid-morning Yasmin's fever was back and she really wasn't feeling great. Nadim and Roya went out to run some errands while Yasmin and I stayed around here and had a nap and read our books a bit.

We went back to the hospital to have the dressing changed on Yasmin's burn. It's looking very good and we don't have to go back anymore now. While we were there we saw the doctor again because the fever wasn't gone yet. They did a little blood work to confirm that it was NOT some tropical disease. It seems it is a throat infection. More antibiotics and hopefully Yasmin will be on the mend.

It was a private hospital so we had to pay $20 for the blood work, doctor's consultation, antibiotics, and other medications, but we were in and out in about an hour including blood work and waiting for about 20 minutes for the results. They were very professional and the hospital was spotless.

We had an evening in and watched a movie together. Now the girls are off to bed. I'm hoping that we can get downtown tomorrow. There's so much to see in Bangkok, and here we are having to stay put for a few days. I guess I should be thankful for the rest.

CM

Sick Day

Yasmin still had a low grade fever this morning and my stomach is still not 100% so we decided to take a sick day. We had planned to go into Bangkok to see the Grand Palace, but we opted out of that. We didn't even do any school work.

We took it easy in the morning. It ended up being a rainy day so it was a good day for lolling about. The kids read their books and Nadim and I did a little getting organized around what to do in Bangkok. We also did a few loads of laundry. It's amazing how quickly things dry here in comparison to Vietnam with its extreme humidity.

By afternoon, we were getting bored and I decided that the floor could use a good scrub. It had been swept and probably scrubbed before we got here, but it's a bit old and had a few spots that could use some elbow grease. I started scrubbing and before you knew it the whole family was into it. We have a dish washing counter and sink out on the balcony, that seems to be the norm here so we had some of us scrubbing with brushes, others wiping up with cloths and rinsing them at the balcony. We all seemed to actually enjoy the bit of work.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the hospital to change the dressing on Yasmin's leg. It's looking very good, and we could dress it ourselves, but they have a special cream to put on it, so we thought it was worth coming back for.

We stopped by the Baha'i centre where there were kids in a bit of an after school program. It really is a refuge for some of them as their home lives are not ideal. The girls coloured and did puzzles and other little activities with the other kids for a bit. It was quiet but enjoyable.

We just enjoyed a nice supper with Vaughan. We went to a restaurant not far from the apartment building. The price of food is so cheap, only about a dollar or at very most two for a whole meal!

Hopefully everyone will feel better tomorrow and we will be set to tackle school work and site seeing again.

CM

Temples & Elephants

We arrived safely in Bangkok last night. We were greeted by Vaughan Smith and a gaggle of Thai children. Vaughan explained that many had never seen the airport and were quite excited about a trip out to pick us up. Apparently they were also rather shocked to see foreigners kissing in public! Quite the experience for these kids. In any case it was great fun to be greeted by so many happy faces. We all piled into a big van and headed to Nonthaburi where Vaughan lives.

We have a room that was used as a dorm. It's pretty simple, but quite large and the beds are comfortable and clean, so that's what counts. We've got Internet access from the room, and another bonus is that Vaughan and his wife Sunantha are just down the hall.

This morning we slept in a bit to account for the late arrival. We started school work after breakfast (there is even a toaster here, so the kids are happy!), and then headed outside to find our bearings and make our way to Ko Kret, a small island which has no roads and has some temples and pottery villages. We took a bus down to the pier and went in search of the ferry to Ko Kret. After a few wrong turns, we found the ferry terminal with the help of a local.


It turned out that the island was pretty flooded (it's now the end of the wet season here), so we did not get to visit the pottery villages. Instead, we stumbled upon a couple of temples. An older gentleman saw us hesitate and motioned for us to go in. Inside a couple showed us how to light incense and wave it about, we then had to say a prayer with it held between our praying hands, then we could go into the temple, say another prayer and then shake a can filled with numbered sticks. We then selected a stick to find our number which matched us to a fortune. We all got different numbers and different fortunes. Really quite interesting.

At the next temple we saw there wasn't incense, so we went in and looked around. It was really quite beautiful and very peaceful with no tourists around.

On the way back we spotted a grocery store, but much more exciting were the two elephants just outside the entrance doors. There was a large elephant and a baby elephant and we bought some bananas and sugar cane that we could feed to them! The elephants were quite nosey and kept trying to put their trunks in our bag of treats for them.

The food is very inexpensive here. We bought two rice and curry dishes for the equivalent of a dollar and had them at lunch time. A bit spicy though!

Tonight we went off to a Baha'i gathering. It was great to hear some prayers and be in the company of so many friendly people.

By the end of the evening we noticed that Yasmin was running a low grade fever. We were concerned because she had a minor burn on her leg from where she had touched a hot motorbike exhaust pipe a few days back. We were afraid that the fever meant that she was getting an infection, but after a quick trip to the hospital, we were assured that the two were not related. We still came away with antibiotic pills just in case. They cleaned and bandaged Yasmin's leg and said several times in answer to our concerns that it was not infected.

Hopefully Yasmin will be feeling better tomorrow.

CM

Health & Beauty

This morning we headed off in search of pedicures and massages. We found a nearby hotel that offered both, so the girls went for pedicures and Nadim went for a back massage. We ended up getting manicures too. The girls felt very proud of themselves and thought it was pretty cool.

We're now about to head off to the airport. We're heading to Bangkok where we'll be staying with a contact we've made through the Baha'i Faith. Off we go to a new country again! Thailand here we come.

CM

Saigon

We arrived in Saigon at 5:30 this morning. We decided to take some risk and not book a hotel before arriving! We had some tea and juice in the railway station and picked up a map. From there we grabbed a cab to Pham Ngu Lao, a street that is supposedly known for budget hotels. We were dropped in front of a nice enough looking hotel. It was raining, but there was an overhang so I stayed with the bags while Nadim ran in to check the room and rates.

They wanted us to stay in their largest room for $60 a night, but Nadim said it was out of our budget and could they perhaps recommend another hotel (hee, hee, hee)... They quickly found us another room, slightly smaller, but still plenty enough room, clean and comfortable, but for the price of $30 a night! Gotta love Nadim and his bargaining!

We settled in and cleaned up and then headed off to see the Reunification Palace or Independence Palace. This is the palace where the north Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates in 1975 to force the surrender of the south and end the war. We had a great tour guide and learned fair bit about the Vietnamese history, particularly the Vietnam War, or as they call it the American War.

The orignal palace was built during French occupation, but it was partially bombed and they rebuilt the palace in the 1960's and you can really tell! Gold carpet, orange curtains, lime green chairs! It was kind of odd to step back in time and see where the president would have conducted affairs. I got a kick out of the command center with its paper maps, old mobile radios, and rotary telephones. We've come a long way!

It was steaming hot here, so given our lack of sleep we decided to spend a quiet afternoon at the hotel. My stomach has been a bit uneasy again, so it was good to just relax.

CM

Happy Halloween!

The girls are really disappointed to miss Halloween this year. Their good friend Kendra is having a party and they wish they could go. They don't celebrate Halloween here in Vietnam, but we had some spooky pictures from Disney in Hong Kong. We thought we'd share them with everyone back home and wish them Happy Halloween!

We will be on the train to Saigon tonight so we talked about getting into my makeup bag and painting funny faces. I think I underestimated the value the kids give to some of our traditions.

We're off to Saigon, or should I say Ho Chi Minh City? We're taking an overnight train again. We are only there for a day and then we will be taking a flight to Bangkok, Thailand.

CM

China Beach

Sunshine! We were so glad to see the sun that we skipped school work and headed to the beach. We rented motorbikes and rode them for the half hour trip to China Beach. The waves were high, but it didn't get deep until you went quite a way out, so the girls could swim on their own.

After the beach we headed back to Marble Mountain and the caves. The caves were still pretty wet, but not like it was a few days ago. This time we went to visit Hell Cave (it had been closed the last time we were there). It was kind of spooky. There were some carvings in the walls that were a bit creepy and the way it was formed just seemed a bit eerie. I think we heard bats, but the girls thought they were birds and we didn't tell them otherwise.

CM

Cooking Class

It poured rain again today. The swimming pool over flowed again, which means at least 15 cm fell! I guess it's better than snow though.

We didn't do much other than school work during the day. We stepped out for lunch and on the way back Nadim decided to get a couple of shirts made, so we stopped at a shop and looked at some fabrics. Hopefully they will turn out okay. My shoes turned out quite well, but not so well that I wanted to order more. Phew!

At 4:00 we had an appointment for a cooking class. We trudged off in the rain and our way to the street that runs along the river. It was flooded, and we couldn't go in the front door of the restaurant! We went in a side door and she had opened just for us. We felt bad but she seemed happy to have us come. Not much business on a slow day, I guess.

We stared with making Hoi An spring rolls. It was really pretty easy because all the chopping work was done for us. It was more like a demonstration than anything else. None the less we made all sorts of notes on how to make them and what to put in them. Next was Saigon spring rolls. Both were very good and we figure we can probably put whatever we want in them and it will turn out okay.

Next we made Cau Lau, which is a dryish soup with noodles, bean sprouts, fresh herbs and pork. I'm pretty sure we'll make that again at home. Next we fried morning glory, which is similar to spinach. Then we made a grilled fish wrapped in banana leaf. It was good, but I'm not sure we would find the ingredients at home. We finished with making fried rice with vegetables and pork and shrimp. That was pretty easy too. The girls had great fun stirring things from time to time and they were very proud of themselves by the end of the meal!

On the way home I couldn't resist stopping to buy some lanterns. They are so beautiful. Now we have to find a post office tomorrow to send a bunch of things home!

CM

My Son and Marble Mountain

We hired a car and driver today to go to My Son (pronounced Me Sun) and visit the remains of the Champa civilization. It looked like rain, so we took our trusty rain "coats" with us. We got picked up at 7 a.m. after a quick breakfast at the hotel, and headed off. We arrived in My Son by 8, and had the place pretty much to ourselves for about 45 minutes before the big tour buses started showing up.

It was very quiet and peaceful, standing among the ruins, the morning mist hanging on the mountains, the only sounds those of the bullfrogs, crickets, and other insects. The girls used their imagination to think about how it would have been like to live there many hundred years ago. They said it was similar to the secret garden story. My Son has been declared a world heritage site and some of the archaeological finds are on display. In fact, we were able to touch the artifacts and admire them up close. We were holding parts of history - items that these ancient people used in their daily lives! The buildings have mostly been grown over with vegetation, but they are amazing to see.

After My Son we went to Marble Mountain, which is across the road from the famous China Beach. The mountain is made of marble (hence the name) and there are numerous stone carvers in the town at the base of the mountain. There are many large caves in the mountain, and some of these were used as shelters and even a hospital during the "American War".

The passageways inside a couple of the caves were quite dark, but a couple of snack vendors loaned us flashlights on the condition that we buy a drink from them aftrward! There were lots of shrines and statues of Buddha and other, more scary characters, inside the dark caves. We felt like Indiana Jones, exploring the shadows, expecting some creature to come leaping out at us! Lots of fun. We found a sheltered area outside one cave and had our lunch. The picture below was taken from our lunch spot.

It had started to rain a little when we started climbing the mountain, and we were glad to have our rain coats. By the time we came back down, the rain had really picked up and a steady stream was flowing down the mountain and into the town below. We felt like we were being pushed down through a waterfall! We made it down to street level, and found the roads flooded and the water was ankle deep in some areas. All this water in about an hour and a half! Check out the water running down the steps in the picture below. Needless to say, our shoes and socks were soaked through and through. We had planned to go to China Beach for a swim after the mountain climbing, but decided to postpone that to a more sunny day!

We arrived back in Hoi An around 2 p.m. and changed into dry clothes. The girls did their school work, and then we headed off to supper. Our wet shoes are now in front of the fan in the hotel room. Hope they dry before we go on the next leg of our journey in 3 days' time :-)

NM

The River

It's Monday again and time for school. With so much fun yesterday, the girls didn't feel like doing school work. It went down a bit better with our morning recess spent in the pool!

After lunch we headed into town and made our way to the river. We did some negotiating and settled on a boat to take us for a ride along the river. It was a little cooler today and the breeze on the river felt great. The girl running our boat told us about a flood they had last year. The river was up 3 meters! Many houses had been flooded. We are nearing the end of the rainy season in Hoi An and the river is up only one meter.

Along the river we saw boys fishing, house boats (amazing that you can call them that because they aren't much more than a large canoe), and all sort of houses. It's very poor here, and it made me so thankful for all that we have. We are so lucky.

After the boat ride we went in search of a restaurant that gave cooking lessons. We eventually found one that was reasonably priced, but by this time it was too late to get supplies for the cooking class, so we arranged to do it the day after tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it.

We did a little shopping too, and I couldn't resist the custom made shoes. We'll see how they turn out tomorrow. For those of you who know how many black shoes I have, you'll be glad to know that I asked for red! Although I do confess that if they turn out well, I might order another pair in black!

We had an early supper and Yasmin and I played Roya and Nadim at a game of pool. It took us quite a while to complete a game because none of us is very good. Still fun.

Now the girls are having a quick dip in the pool and off to bed early tonight. We're planning to go to some ruins and marble mountain tomorrow and will be getting an early start.

CM

Cu Dai Beach

We woke up and decided to go to the beach rain or shine! We took along our rain gear, but had no need. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We rented bikes and headed off to the beach arriving around 9:30. Along the ride there, we saw water buffalo by the side of the road. We also saw chickens and fields full of water, which we assume are rice fields. It's amazing how wet this country is.

At the beach, the wave were quite high. Probably from all the rain. It made for great fun playing in the waves. We held tight to the kids and got tossed and turned around in the ocean. The water was great. It was cool enough to feel refreshing, but warm enough to just walk in.

The girls had fun in the water, but when we got tired of that they played in the sand, found all sorts of shells and made a shell garden. We ate lunch at the beach and then biked back to town and explored some more of the town. We had to get full value from our dollar/bike daily rental cost!

After the bike ride it was time for another swim, but this time it was at the hotel pool. Now we're all cleaned up and planning to head into town soon to find some supper.

CM

Shopping

Hoi An is known for its shopping and especially for its tailor made clothing. It's very tempting as we walk through the streets and think of all the things we could have made.

It was raining very hard this morning. The pool filled to overflowing, and the streets were flooded with water. Again, it wasn't a day for the beach. Instead the kids went swimming at the pool at the hotel. They were proud of themsleves for fishing out one of those little lizards. It looked pretty lifeless but later in the day it was gone, so we chose to believe it got better and ran away.

We went into the town again. We bought some whistles that were handcrafted by the locals and also some lanterns. It's nice to see them making the items in their shops. You know that they really are made here in Hoi An.

The rest of the day was spent around the hotel. The girls playing with their toys or swimming and Nadim and I reading our books, checking e-mails, drinking tea... Another restful day.

CM

Relax!

We started the day with a really nice buffet breakfast. Then did some school work. The girls had an English test today and they both got A+! I was very proud of them. They also did their spelling test and a test on the provinces and their capitals. They did very well on those too.

Then we moved hotels, just two doors down. The new hotel has a little extra room which is great. We had a swim in the pool and headed off for a late lunch and to pick up some things in town.

Our first stop was the tailor shop where we had the girls measured up for new bathing suits. You can see that their new suits fit quite well! We also picked up some snack items at the store and then went to pick up the sandals.

I'm amazed at how quickly they can make them! You can see the girls have their new sandals on too. After some browsing in town, we headed back to the hotel and the pool. It was sprinkling off and on this afternoon, so we decided to save the beach for another day.

It started to pour rain around supper time. We dashed across the street for some supper. It is still raining quite hard at times, but the weather is still very warm. Hopefully it will clear up tomorrow.

CM

Hoi An

We jumped on the train at 7:00 pm and arrived in DaNang today just after lunch. As we got off the train we were mobbed by cab drivers wanting to give us a ride to Hoi An. We eventually settled on a ride for the 30-km trip to Hoi An, where we had booked a hotel for just one night. They didn't have space for the following night so we took a chance and just booked for one night.

We jumped in the hotel pool, which was very refreshing and then got cleaned up and headed out to find another hotel for the rest of the week. We were quite fortunate because we were on a street with many small hotels so we just kept asking who had a room and then settled on one that was right next door. We were quite happy because it was a nice hotel, it had a pool, breakfast was included, they had Internet access from the room (this hotel doesn't), and all of that for the bargain price of $32 per night! I'm so cheap!

Once we had the hotel settled, we decided to go for a walk in Hoi An. It is a fairly small little town that is full of tourist shops, restaurants, and many tailors. We saw a shop where they made leather sandals and couldn't resist. Yasmin was in need of slip-on shoes because her old Crocs had started to fall apart. So both girls got measured up for some sandals. They even got to pick their own colours. We pick them up tomorrow afternoon.

We had really been looking for bathing suits for the girls because the elastic was going on their suits. We walked by shop after shop, but nobody seemed to sell them. As we were heading back to the hotel we stopped at a shop with women's suits on the mannequins, but it turned out they were a tailor who made swim suits as well as many more things. So the girls got measured up and are very excited to see how they turn out. We can pick them up tomorrow afternoon. I'm pretty curious too. Roya is always hard to fit into the off-the-rack suites because she is so slim. We'll see how this goes.

We found a little restaurant on the same street as the hotel. The food was great and unbelievably inexpensive. A whole family can dine for about ten dollars! After dinner, the girls had fun counting the little lizards that were on the outer wall eating bugs. At one point they had five different ones in sight! I guess you can't say you did that in a restaurant back home! The lizards are really harmless and they do keep the bugs down, so they are actually a welcome sight and didn't bother us at all.

We're now settling in for the night and the girls have gone off to bed. Sleep on the train is often interrupted and so I think we can all use an early night.

CM

A Day in Hanoi

We did our home schooling and packed up this morning and then met Scott and Hien for lunch at our new favourite restaurant. We had noodles with fresh herbs, peanuts, bean sprouts, beef and broth. It was great. They were great about helping us find our way to Hoi An via train and helped book the tickets for us. They were so helpful and friendly.

After lunch we walked through the old quarter a little and dodged mopeds while browsing in some of the shops and just enjoying the sites. We then made our way to Ho Chi Minh's house. He had a very simple way of living and dedicated his time to liberating the nation. I've got to read up on my Vietnam history I think.

The above photo was outside the palace. It was very beautiful, but Ho Chi Minh actually lived in a very simple house. It was built on stilts and so is called the House on Stilts. It was built in this style to honour the simple way of life that he was brought up in.

Now we are just about ready to head off to the train station. We are catching a night train to Hoi An. We hope Hoi An will be a little quieter and plan to stay there for about a week. We will now try to say our good byes to some of the Baha'is. I hope they are around for our last visit.

CM

Halong Bay

Amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, awe-inspiring, heavenly, wonderful... words can't describe, and the pictures don't do it justice!

We splurged a bit and went for one of the nicer tours of Halong Bay. We were picked up at our hotel at 7:30 am and did home schooling on the three and a half hour mini bus ride there. We took a tender out to the larger boat and boarded the Victory around lunch time.

We had great cabins with air conditioning. A real plus, because with the humidity it always feels like it is close to 40 degrees Celsius. We had an amazing lunch with several courses including crab, shrimp, spring rolls, fish, rice and more.

We sailed through all the little islands for the early part of the afternoon, and stopped at a little beach in late afternoon. Nadim climbed to the top of the island for the above picture while the girls and I started swimming. Nadim joined us, but by that time Yasmin had been stung by a jellyfish and wasn't in the mood for swimming anymore. It was not a poisonous one, so it was a little painful for a short while, but was fine after a couple of hours.

The picture above was taken from the beach just before we returned to the boat. We anchored near the beach for the night, and once again had a magnificent feast - stuffed crab, prawns, fried squid balls, rice, vegetables and more. The service was really excellent. It was late by the time we finished dinner and the girls headed straight to bed.

In the morning we woke early and went to the top deck to do a little Tai Chi. Mr. Hoa, our host, was doing the moves and we just quietly followed along. It was very serene.

By 8:00 am we were boarding the tender again to visit the caves. Mr. Hoa had told the girls that there were dragons, dinosaurs and crocodiles in the caves. They weren't sure if they should believe him. He guided us through the caves and, sure enough, there were all sorts of animals! Many of the limestone rocks were shaped like animals, or people.

He told us the legend of Halong Bay.... Long ago Vietnam was being invaded and the Vietnamese people were in trouble. A dragon came down from heaven and lay in the bay. She breathed out so many pearls that it formed all the islands and the enemy ships that were rushing the island crashed into them and the people were saved. But the dragon did not go back to heaven. Then he showed us the ceiling of the cave and sure enough there was a formation like a dragon! He whispered to the girls, who were quite taken with Mr. Hoa and his stories, that the dragon is a very lazy dragon because she is always sleeping there!

After the caves we had a buffet brunch and relaxed on the top deck for the sail back into the harbour. The girls had great fun with their Littlest Petshops, while we enjoyed the scenery. We headed back to Hanoi after lunch. More home schooling on the minibus. I guess we have to think about what's for supper now.

CM

Hanoi

The Internet is now fixed, so we are feeling happier about our hotel. You can see the picture below. It is really a budget hotel, but we are only here for a few nights.

This morning we met many of the Baha'is in the community as they were having a reflection meeting. It was a very nice time with one nice young lady translating many stories for us. Of course Nadim had to have a group picture! He's famous for that.

We stayed for only an hour and they wanted us to come back for lunch, but we had already made plans with Scott, and friend of a friend from Canada. He is a travel agent. We met Scott and his wife at a little noodle shop. They had a really great beef noodle dish with peanuts and fresh herbs. Very nice!

After lunch we went for a walk and had some cool drinks on a third floor patio. We talked about some of our plans and they helped make arrangements for our overnight trip to Halong Bay. We will be leaving to do that tomorrow.

After our discussions we went to the Water Puppet Theatre. It was unique to see the performance on water! They did many scenes but there was not a real story with it. They had a fishing scene, one of dragons, another of water buffalo, and the one above was of dancing fairies.

We are off to Halong Bay and a night on a boat tomorrow, so we will be out of contact for a day. It is supposed to be very beautiful and I'm really looking forward to having a swim and some beach time!

CM

Hello Hanoi

We made it safely to Hanoi, but the Internet wasn't working at our hotel! I'm at an Internet cafe now so I can at least let everyone know we are okay.

The hotel room is bigger than the one we had in Hong Kong, but the bed is a bit lumpy and we face a busy street.

We had thought Hanoi was a smaller city, but found out that it is still about 3 million people!

We were met at our hotel by some Baha'i contacts we had made. We ended up going next door to their house for dinner. They have four children, so Yasmin and Roya were happy to play. We chatted with the adults about their community and Vietnam and our Baha'i community in Ottawa.

We are planning to go to Halong Bay as soon as we can arrange it. It is a beautiful beach and ocean area with thousands of islands. I can't wait to get out of the city. Hanoi is full of mopeds! Everyone honks to tell each other that they are coming and to fight for space. No one stops for you to cross the road. You just venture out into the road and they go around you!

We are meeting a Canadian contact for some lunch. He will help us with the Halong Bay trip. Hopefully the Internet connection will be fixed soon and my posts will be more regular again.

CM

The Markets

Normally Friday is a review day for home schooling, so it’s pretty slack, but today we were making up for missing some of our lessons during our busy week. We got all that out of the way in the morning and headed off to the markets and more in the afternoon.

We are in a perfect location for the markets. We walked up our street a little way to the Goldfish Market. There they sell aquariums and fish of all sorts. We saw goldfish that had bags under their eyes. It looked like they were carrying around balloons on their faces! We saw some beautiful Beta fish with fins that were longer and shaped differently then what I’ve seen back home. There was also some other animals like hamsters, rabbits, puppies and kittens, but mostly fish. Who needs a zoo?


A little farther up from the Goldfish Market is the Flower Market. They had all sorts of flowers including every type of orchid imaginable. The smell was so fresh! We stopped at a bakery and picked up some lunch. We had little rolls that had ham and cheese backed into the middle and pizzas that had corn as a one of the toppings and another roll that had a mini sausage, kind of like a hot dog baked into it.

From there we found the Bird Garden where they have all sorts of little birds and big birds too. They also had some pretty ornate cages. It was funny because they were all squawking and screeching and making quite a commotion.

We then decided to head back towards the hotel to the nearby Ladies’ Market. You don’t buy ladies there, but there is a lot of women’s clothing, wall hangings, accessories, pillows, belts, and tons more. We did a little haggling, but weren’t so motivated to buy so we came away with only a couple of Chinese outfits for Barbie! The girls couldn’t wait to go back and play.

We grabbed the subway down to the harbour and took a tour of the city with Star Ferry. It was a cloudy day, still quite warm, but bearable. We opted to stay at the bow of the ferry outside in the breeze rather than go in for the air conditioning. Once again we marvelled at Hong Kong and it’s thousands of sky scrapers.

We’re off to Hanoi tomorrow. I think we’ll be glad to be out of the mega cities for a little while. Hopefully Vietnam will be a nice break from it.

CM

Victoria Peak

It was another blisteringly hot day today. After doing some school work in the morning, we had lunch at the hostel and headed off to find Victoria Peak, the highest spot in Hong Kong. It was a steep walk from the subway stop to get to the tram. The tram ride itself was very exciting, and almost felt like a roller coaster ride. The tram climbed the mountain at a very steep angle, which made the buildings on the side look like they were leaning! Our ears even popped as we got closer to the top.

The Peak Tower at the top had a bunch of souvenir shops and restaurants, so we found our way to Lugard Road, which winds its way around the peak and provides great views of the city and harbour. It was quite a bit cooler up there because we were up so high and also because we had the shade of the trees on both sides of the path. We stopped a few times for snack and water breaks and to take some pictures. The views were great, but made you realize what a concrete jungle Hong Kong really is. At one point we saw a helicopter flying over the harbour, and it was below us! We could see the tops of the skyscrapers, which we had walked by on our way to the tram and which had seemed so huge from ground level.

We made our way back to the Peak Tower and had a look at the shops for a while. We wanted to stay until sunset so we could see the lights of Hong Kong from our vantage point. We had McDonald’s for supper (we could blame this on the kids, but in touristy spots, McDonald’s is a good option because they don’t inflate their prices 10 times!) and went for a walk to the lookout to check out the view. The lights are pretty cool, and different colours, and some buildings have lights that change colours every few minutes. After taking it all in, and taking some pictures, we decided to return to the hostel.

The ride down on the tram was also interesting because the benches all faced backwards. The way down is so steep that if the benches faced forward, we would all go flying out of our seats! We got down safely and found our way to the subway station. It was only a 15 minute ride back. We all had showers and the kids went to bed exhausted but happy.

NM

Disneyland!

The Dragon Hostel is very clean, and fairly comfortable, but we’re missing the space we had in Beijing. The room is pretty small, and the beds a little harder. Not bad for the few nights that we'll be here. The location is great though. Shopping is close by and the subway is a two minute walk. We also only have Internet access in the lounge area, so we'll likely not be doing as many webcam chats!

This morning we went to Disney! The metro was easy to get around in and Disney even has its own line. That line has Mickey shaped windows and handles, and stars on the ceiling.

The girls were so excited and had a really magical day. We started in Fantasyland where they enjoyed Winnie the Pooh, It’s a Small World, and Mickey’s Philharmagic, a 3-D movie that even had us smelling pies, feeling a gust of wind, and getting wet by a spray of water!

From there we made it to Tomorrowland. The girls went on Space Mountain. Yasmin of course loved it and wanted seconds, but Roya had had enough with going once. They also shot space robots with Buzz Lightyear, and drove cars around a track.

Adventureland was fun too, but by this time the 30 degree weather and humidity was getting to us. We made it through Tarzan’s treehouse and took a jungle river cruise. We tried a haunted jungle, but it was a bit too scary.

By late afternoon we were thinking it was time to go, but we decided to catch just one more show. Some of the rides and the shows were air conditioned so it gave us extra incentive to stay. We ended up staying for that show and one more and then watching the Glow in the Park Parade which was going on especially for Halloween.

We got home late, the kids were really tired, but everyone was happy. Walt Disney really does do it up right!

CM

Hello Hong Kong

We made it safely to Hong Kong!

We were a bit worried about getting to the train station on time. We had heard that the traffic could be quite bad and it might take up to two hours to get to the station. We were up early enough and ready, so we got a taxi at 8:30 am. We were worried for nothing because it only took us half an hour to get there! We had to wait for an hour before they even opened the customs line. At least we had the time to find the customs line! We ended up being one of the first to get through to a customs officer and I think we were the first to board the train!

We had a nice little, and I mean really little, room. It had two bunk beds and not much else. We had hoped for showers on the train, but we only had sinks. Oh well, we made due. Yasmin was very happy to see that they had a western style toilet at one end of the car. We did some home schooling while we waited for the train to depart and also for the first little bit of the journey. The girls were very excited about the bunk beds and the train as a whole. We’ve walked to one end and the other. Some rooms have triple bunks in them so they fit six people!

The scene outside wasn’t too terribly exciting on the first day. There was a lot of flat countryside. The view in the morning was better. You could see lots of hills and mountains. You could see that the rural areas of China aren’t nearly as well off as those in Beijing. None the less, we all felt that train travel is a fun way to travel. The beds were pretty hard so we didn't get a great sleep, but still fun.

We made it to our budget hotel. It has a great location. We walked through a shopping street. It's similar to Morocco with it souks. The stalls are jam packed with goods and lots of haggling going on. We said we wouldn't buy anything on the first day, but we ended up breaking our rule and buying some place mats, napkins and chopsticks. We bargained them down to about half price and paid only about ten dollars for a set of twelve.

Although we thought we did fairly well to pack all our things for the year into three suitcases we are already talking about sending some of it back. Too much baggage to carry around! We'll see...

CM

Bye Beijing!

Arthur's back! He had gone home for the national holiday and came back last night. He arranged to pick us up this morning and off we went. We stopped at an area famous for it's coffee shops, bars, and shopping. We had rickshaw ride through the area and also through nearby streets that were the homes of people. They often have walls along the alley way and a door through the wall into homes or multiple homes. It was a great way to see real Beijing life, although I did feel a bit sorry for the guy cycling and pulling us along. I was riding with Yasmin and Roya and Nadim and Arthur road together in another rickshaw.

After that we headed out for lunch. The Chinese food we get at home is definitely not the real thing! We had all sorts of traditional dishes that Arthur ordered from the local menu. There is another menu that they provide to tourists with inflated prices and dishes that are not really traditional. We had a sort of bean and flour dough roll, pork lungs (kind of chewy, not my favourite), something that looked like french fries, but wasn't (still good though, especially with the sauce), some fried and crunchy stuff (kind of like wantons), and two different kids of noodle dishes, one of which was typical of Beijing. We had never had Chinese Hotpot, so Arthur said that although it was usually done as a separate meal that we should try it. It was kind of like a big broth fondue, except you make a soup out of it. We added lamb, vegetables, tofu, and noodles and let it cook, then scooped it out and ate it with some delicious sauce. All was very good and although we wanted it to be out treat because we wanted to thank Arthur so much, he wouldn't allow us to. Arthur is an amazing host. I kept waiting for the catch, but there was none. He's just a super, amazing guy!

After lunch we headed off to Jingshan Park. It is a park that is in line with the main buildings of the Forbidden City and it is on a hill, so you can see the Forbidden City and the rest of the Beijing quite well. Beijing is centered around the Forbidden City and the buildings are not tall in the center, but as you go out, in every direction you can see tons and tons of skyscrapers. This is the largest city I've been in (over 16 million people) and it is quite amazing to me.

In there park there were people singing and some telling stories, or playing music, or dancing. The above picture is of a couple putting on a little show for everyone. It was quite cute.

We made it home by 4:00 which is when we had planned to meet the kids at the park. Some of them came bearing gifts. The girls went home with suckers, sticky balls, oranges, a toy car, and crowns necklaces and bracelets made from a nearby willow tree! I had run off to the photo shop to get prints of a family picture and one of the picture of the all the kids climbing on the play structure. So our gift to them was a couple of photos each. We left them our e-mail and regular mail addresses so who knows, maybe our paths will meet again one day!

We got home to the apartment late because the kids played so long at the park. We've been packing up, which is a task that I hate. It's pretty much done now, so we can relax for a bit before we head to bed. Tomorrow we leave for the train in the morning and don't arrive until the following day. I hope we have a good Internet connection when we get to Hong Kong.

CM