Winter Trip--South VietNam

We arrived in South Viet Nam and took a trip down to the Meking River Delta area. We went out to a little island and got into some small sampans and were poled down a canal which led from one side of the island to the other.

To give us the "real" Vietnamese experience, we were given the pointed hats to wear while on the boat. I don't think Trent thought it was "cool" to wear a pointy hat, so he shed his and went bare headed.

This bridge was just completed and had only been open for a few days. It is actually three parts. This is the first one which leads to the island--out of sight on the left. Then the other two are on the far side and cannot be seen. n One is a tunnel so the boat traffic can go over the top of it. The Meking River is VERY wide. No one could tell us how many miles across, but we never got to see the other side.

Next we visited the tunnels where the Vietnamese and the Viet Cong in particular hid out during the war. They would come out of hiding, attack the US and then melt back into their holes. As you can see, the entry was small--but then the Vietnamese are small people--so it was difficult for the Americans to follow them--even if they could find the entryway.

Going on down. Kevin and some of the boys followed the tunnel for about half a mile. I went a short way and was glad to get out--dark, no light, shoulders brushed both sides, tunnel curved--very claustrophobic.

From hiding out to eating out. We had dellicious food in South Viet Nam. And it was presented in such artistic ways. I know this looks sort of gross in the picture, but the fish was actually quite tasty. We have learned to eat things that look back at us--not the heads or eyes though, just the meat.

In case you can't tell, this is fried rice shaped like a dragon. Not only did it look good, but it was quite tasty.

Here are a couple of ways to decorate with pineapple. This is a fruit bowl that looks like a chicken.

Here is a pineapple that looks like a rooster. And, yes, those are onion rings. They were quite tasty.

So now you have a taste of our winter trip--just in time for our spring trip. We leave this week for a 4 day cruise on the Yangtze River through the three gorges area. We are looking forward to that.

Winter Trip--Cambodia

After Viet Nam, Cambodia was a breath of fresh air. We loved it. The people were friendly--although they were all over us to "buy" things. Many children were selling goods. I was amazed that most of them could speak relatively good English. I finally asked one girl why she wasn't in school. She said she went in the morning and sold things in the afternoon. I later found out that schools in Cambodia only last a half a day. Too bad.

We stayed near Angkor Wat. I had assumed that it was one temple, but there were dozens of temples in the area. We visited several. This is the first one we saw. The statues are impressive, as are the carvings on the walls.










Sometimes you run across interesting things. This brings a whole new meaning to the term "nose to nose."









One area we visited had huge trees growing through and around all the walls. This particular temple was the site of the movie Tomb Raider with Angelina Joli. The guides were sure to tell us every place that was in the movie. Since I haven't seen that particular movie, it didn't mean much to me, but some people were suitably impressed.

We finally made it to the "real" Angkor Wat. This is take on the way in. It is a huge structure! We are quite far away.

Now we're getting closer. As you can see, there were people everywhere. In fact some places were so crowded that it was hard to move through the area. I had no idea that we would find so many people visiting the ruins. To show what a small world it can be, here we ran into two families from our church district. They both live in Shanghai, but we are acquainted with them.

The moat surrounding Angkor Wat was almost as impressive as the temple itself. I thought it was a river when I first saw it. Now it is peaceful and calm, but when the temple was in use, the moat was filled with alligators, making a good barrier for those who wanted to get into the structure.

We were told that the sunset was beautiful from another ruins at the top of a hill. Since it was almost time for the sun to go down, we, along with a thousand other people ran (well, hurried anyway) to the top of the hill to catch this sight. It was a little hazy, but still quite spetacular and worth the climb--not sure about the walk back in the dark, however.

The next day we visited my favorite temple. I think I liked it because of the red stone and the intricate carvings. At any rate, I could have spent more time here. It wasn't so crowded as the other places and one could get a real sense of history. I liked the leisurely pace better.

On the way back to town, we stopped and our tour guide showed us how they get sugar from palm trees. They cut this fruit and let the sap drain out. Then they boil it down and get sugar. Not quite like sugar maples in New England, but a new idea for me. I didn't know there were some kinds of palm trees that were grown for their sugar content.

The sugar was a family affair. For $1 they let me take my picture with the grandmother and the children. The inside of their house is in the background. Many of the houses were up on stilts. I hadn't seen houses built that way since we lived in Guyana.

Our last stop in Cambodia was a village built on the water. The people are mostly Vietnamese who settled here when the Vietnamese drove Pol Pot from power and sent their people over to Cambodia. Everything is on the water--houses, churches, schools, stores, etc. Here is someone out mending his net.

This was one of the better decorated houses.

Here is the basketball court for the school. It is on the water and is surrounded by wire mesh to keep the ball inside.

We visited an alligator farm in the water village. They are grown for their skin as well as for food.

A fisherman and his net. I'm not sure I'd want to eat something from this water, but it is a good way to feed a family and maybe sell a few fish on the side. Now on to South Viet Nam.

Winter Trip--North Viet Nam

We arrived in North Viet Nam on Chinese New Years. The trip in from the airport was uneventful, but we could tell we had left one country and were in another. The rice fields had been planted and you can see they rice growing.

The architecture had little Chinese influence and owed much to its former status as a French colony. The houses were colorful, had balconies, and were very narrow. The narrow houses reminded me of the houses in Holland--also high and narrow. And the reason was the same--houses were taxed by their frontage area. So if a house was built very thin and tall, the taxes were not so high--only the buildings were "high."

One of the first things that struck us was the wiring for lights and telephones. I have never seen so many wires strung along the streets--dozens of them all hanging from the same poles. It made me nervous, but I guess it is all right, if that's what one is used to.

Still the number of wires and the way they were connected and looped together was amazing. Question--If there is a power outage, how do they know which line has the problem?

Our first excursion was to Halong Bay. Those of us over 50 know it as the Gulf of Tonkin and remember the part it played in the Viet Nam war. However, today it is peaceful with the same kind of limestone cliffs that we saw on the Li River in China. Our boat chugged along among the various rock cliffs, occasionally coming across little water hamlets like this one.

Many of the little boats came out to sell us fruit or souvenirs. The people just climbed on the roof of their boat and sold their produce from there. This boat had a little girl--maybe 2-3 years old--helping her parents. She wandered around on the roof with no safety harness and the parents did not seem concerned about her. She probably caused people to buy her parent's fruit because she was so cute. I think I would have been nervous if one of my grandchildren was out there and been constantly on the alert in case of an accident. I'm rather conservative that way. Maybe it's my age.

The day we visited was cool and overcast but, as you can see, we did get some good pictures of the cliffs. Even in the mist they were spectacular. The cliffs are limestone and are riddled with caves.

This is inside one of the caves. Kevin and his family joined our tour to travel with us in Viet Nam and Cambodia. We surely enjoyed having them with us. The rest of our tour group thought it was great to have children along. They were all missing their own grandchildren. On the other hand the kids loved having 40 grandparents to spoil them!

When we arrived in Viet Nam, everyone was gearing up for the Chinese New Years celebration. There were balloons everywhere. We did go to a water puppet show which was very interesting--no pictures as it was indoors and we sat on the back row. I think if you go to Kevin and Effie's blog, they posted a few pictures. (Kevin has a much better camera than we do and was able to get some pictures.)

A lady had built a fire right on the street. I'm not sure what she was burning, but I guess it is legal to have a fire in the middle of the city.

The next day we made the obligatory stop at Ho Chi Minh's tomb. He is revered in Viet Nam like Mao is in China.

Did get a good picture of the changing of the guard, however. Reminded me of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the US--very formal and serious.

Also went to the "Hanoi Hilton" where American POW's were held during the Viet Nam War. That part of the buildings has been torn down, but the original buildings, which were a French prison, remain standing. The display shows how bad the French treated the Vietnamese prisoners(believable) and how "good" the Vietnamese treated the American prisoners (unbelievable). It made me mad that nothing was said about the torture, etc. But, as Jim says, "History is written by the victors." I was happy to get out of there and out of North Viet Nam headed to Cambodia.

Winter Trip--Dali

We went on a bus from Lijiang to Dali. The country was wild and beautiful. Small terraced farms dotted all the hillsides. I had to take pictures out of the bus window because the road was narrow and it was impossible to stop. It makes for some interesting photos--note the reflection of the camera.

This area is home to the Bai people. Bai means white so many of the homes, like this one, have white on them. We loved Dali. It is high in the mountains with clear crisp air. Despite the fact thaat we were there in January, much of the land was still green. It is a temperate climate because even though the altitude is high, the latitude is low.

One of the most fascinating things about this area was that many people dressed in the traditional way. This was a lady who was walking by the bus on her way to market.

Dali is located on Erhai Lake. That means Ear Lake because the lake is shaped like an ear. It is a rather large lake and we took a boat trip on it out to see a small island. Here is a boat like the one we took. The trip out was very nice, but by the time we returned a strong wind had come up and the ride home was rather rough--some people were seasick.

As we disembarked this is one of the first scenes that greeted our eyes. I took a series of pictures and have put three of them here. The boat had many large rocks as its cargo. You can see the man on the left has put the chain around the rock. The person on the right is turning a wheel which lifts the rock up--a rather primitive pully system.

Next the rock was hoisted off the boat and onto the land--a very tedious job--and probably a heavy and difficult one as well. You can see the men trying to get the rock to settle lightly? on the ground at the end of the gangplank.

Soon a cart came along, the men hefted the rock onto it and then they wheeled it away. It was a very interesting display.

We turned around from the rock lifting and saw many tables spread with various foods. This is the table which had dried fish on it. Fun to look--but we didn't buy.

As if the fish weren't enough, there were also some dried lizards for sale. We passed on these also.

Back in the town of Dali we visited a tea house. They told us about three kinds of tea--can't find my notes on the details. However, one kind was bitter, one not so bitter and one rather sweet. Each had its distinctive and traditional use. I did not sample them, but their aroma was truly interesting.

While we were waiting for the tea to brew, we were treated to some local entertainment. Young men and women played instruments and sang and danced while wearing some of the local costumes.

Here is a sample of the costumed women as they danced.

We also visited a batik factory--although factory is too glorified a word to describe what we saw. They showed us how they tie up the material and then dye it. After that it is hung out to dry. Eventually when it is completely dry the string is untied and the pattern on the cloth is revealed.

This is a vat of dye and the cloth coming out of it.

The woman on the left is hand tieing the natural material to get it ready to dye. The woman on the right is untieing the cloth after it has been dyed and hung out to dry.

Here is a sample of the cloth that has been partly untied. You can see the flower pattern. We were told it takes weeks to tie the cloth and make it ready to dye--a very interesting and labor intensive procedure. They did have some beautiful table cloths, dresses, scarfs, etc.

The hotel we stayed in here was the most elegant hotel of our whole trip. The lobby was amazing with carved wood furniture and the bedrooms and bathrooms were like suites--large and beautiful. However, as is the case in all of southern China, there was no heat in the room. So here we were in this elegant hotel, shivering and shaking. We just could not enjoy the place and be as cold as we were. Too bad!

Our final view of Dali was of the three pagodas. They are among the oldest standing structures in southwestern China and a sort of symbol of Dali. We did not have time to go into them, but did stop for pictures. A good view for our last one in China as we went to the airport and headed for Viet Nam.