Vietnam

Finally, pictures of Vietnam. And in no particular order - completely random as seen by the first picture which is the last one taken on my camera! Here we are dining at the Gecko restaurant, a third floor place we found that served amazing drinks, Western and Vietnam cuisine. Bronwyn joined us for the trip - she's an elementary teacher here at the school who was on my Thailand trip earlier this year. I fell in love with Hanoi - the people, the sights, the sounds and the great deals on silk and artwork. It was cool and rainy while we were there and although that meant wearing layers, it was a nice change from the oppressive heat we had been having in Penang. Have mattress, will travel.....

The trip to Ha Long Bay was absolutely amazing, even if we were a bit chilly and it rained a lot.

On the boat trip, we stopped and toured through a HUGE cave. It was absolutely beautiful inside.

Annie, Bronwyn and I climbed to the top of this mount while the guys went sea kayaking through some caves.

Isn't this gorgeous?

This is our 3 star boat - The Victory. Quite appropriately named we thought considering Easter was only days away.

There are many floating fishing villages in the bay - about 1500 people live on floating houses. Also in the village are a school, a bank and a temple.

Ahoy mateys! Are you going to scrub the decks?

We stopped at an embroidery factory and watched the workers making gorgeous pictures. I bought one and am having it framed.

Just a few of the five million motorbikes in Hanoi!! The traffic was insane and the horn honking was wild and loud but, as we came to realize later, actually had a purpose to it, the same as we found in Indonesia. Someone should publish a guide to horn honking and use it in Canada so people would stop honking out of rage. To cross the street here, we walked slowly in and around the moving traffic.

We walked miles down in the Old Quarter with our other friends, Kerry and Robin and their three kids, whom we met up with on Tuesday. We found this store with "Canada" on the window and had to have our picture taken. The two ladies in the store refused to come outside to take the picture so Riley, Kaleb's friend and fellow senior, took it for us.

We toured the Temple of Literature - the university in North Vietnam from 1200-1800's. It was beautiful and serene.

These tube houses are very popular. The communists gave out a small tract of land to each man in a family and as children were married, they built up! They are also taxed by street frontage so unless you are wealthy, you cannot buy more land. The Vietnamese folks who helped plan our trip used to live in one of these houses but said it is very dark and stale inside with three sides enclosed.

This is the view from Kerry and Robin's apartment they were renting. It was within walking distance from our hotel and is in the area of the 29 embassies so many apartments are rented for months at a time by foreign diplomats. They had a great grocery store on the main floor of the facility so one night we bought eggs, ham and cheese and ate supper together there.

Some more of the wonderful tube houses. I loved the colors! The streets in front of the houses are porches for visiting, offices for doing work, restaurants to eat at, playgrounds for kids and so much more. I think this concept of community is one of my favourite things about Asia.

Ladies use these bamboo carriers to transport and sell goods of all kinds along the streets. Of course this picture cost us some money!

Bronwyn eating noodles with chopsticks - not bad for a South African born, Canadian raised girl who emigated to Malaysia from England!

More picture of the beautiful limestone rocks of Ha Long Bay.

And again the cave....

On the boat, the meals were nine courses over two hours. We ate steamed crab, stuffed crab, squid balls, deep fried squid, steamed fish, several kinds of prawn and shrimp plus the most amazing Vietnamese spring rolls.

The might duo coming in from nearly two hours of kayaking.

This is one of the hardware stores all along the same street!

Again more houses and shops.

At the Temple of Literature.

Remember the Canadian girl who became Annie's pen pal from Dalat and who corresponded with Annie long before we ever thought of moving? Here she is! Annie and Khalie plan to live together after graduation and then marry rich men.

This is 'Hanoi Hilton', the prison that Senator John McCain lived in for five years as a POW in the 'American War', as the Vietnamese like to call it. Before that war, it was used as a prison for those who rebeled against the French occupation of Vietnam. Some escaped through the sewer system.

I just loved the bright color of this place!