How We Spent the Remainder of Our Break

Quiet and lovely Phu Quac Island is about 350 km west of Saigon and only a 40 minute flight but it is a world away from the blaring horns, poverty, stink and claustrophobia of the city. In six days of ultimate relaxation we didn't move far from our beach loungers.

Break to the Mekong Delta

Liz and I got a break from Hanoi and traveled down south to have a brief 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta. We chose a group tour since it afforded the best access in the most efficient way. Fellow travelers and local people we met were great company and a welcome change from the cold shoulder we generally experience up north.
My birthday fell at the end of the tour and amazingly Liz surprised me on the bus trip with a birthday cake she bought on our last market stop as we headed back to Saigon. By far the most unexpected birthday cake yet!

Ba Trieu Diva

Vietnam ain't no backwater anymore.

Dragon Attacks Local Woman

There was a dragon hanging around our neighborhood during festival week. Liz had a friendly run in and as it turns out the fire breathing varmint was a harbinger of good luck. He (or she, we never found that out...not even sure how dragons work that way) was taken through the neighborhood and paraded in courtyards to bring good fortune. Later that day we found a really great bonsai for sale on the street for a song, so I guess it worked out.

Laboring on the Red River Flats

Etc. Laos

Sunday Prayers

Last Day at the Abattoir

It was a bittersweet day as I packed up our temporary apartment on "cuisine street" and moved us into our new pad on West Lake. As a last look from our bedroom window, looking down into the neighborhood where Liz and I had eaten many delicious meals, a pig was slaughtered and sectioned for dinner. Now Liz will never give up her vegetarianism.
Edit 3/9: Liz has chosen the headless pig (head located at the hind quarters) in hopes of satisfying our more graphically demanding family members.

Novice Monk in Luang Prabang, Laos

Neighborhood Game

Hmong Ritual in Laos

Just back from Laos where I had the good luck to wander into a Hmong village during a string tying ceremony led by a village shaman. I had rented a motorbike and was going around the countryside and during a brief rest under some shade was invited into a hut to take part in, and photograph the ceremony being held for a sick 3 month baby boy named Khang Vu. My very basic understanding of the ritual is that it is peformed to call the ancestral spirits with food, drink and gifts to the celebration and to implore their aid toward the good health and fortune of the sick relative and for the family and village.

the offering of gifts to the ancestors, Hanoi

Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy Lunar New Year) Comrades

Happy Kitchen God Ascension. Here is a brief explanation of the day courtesy of http://www.haivenu-vietnam.com/vietnam-culture-festivals.htm and a photo that shows just such a release into Hoan Kiem Lake in the center of Hanoi...
The Kitchen God ascends
A week before Tet, the Tao Quan, (a trinity of spirits collectively known as the kitchen god, or the god of the hearth) ascends to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor on the past year’s events. To ensure a good report, the house must be thoroughly cleaned and the Tao Quan plied with food and gifts. As the Tao Quan makes its journey on the back of a fish, it is traditional to release live carp into lakes and rivers.

and also delicious pho bo...

A Visit to Hue

Our brief visit to Hue was a nice respite from Hanoi. Hue is a much more relaxed city, as its location along the Perfume River suggests. It is easier to get around on foot and motorbike, with a delicious cuisine specific to the area. It is known as the Imperial City because it was the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty in the 19th and 20th century. As such it is home to many temples, royal mausoleums and monasteries. It more closely resembles what we thought Vietnam might offer us, a tranquil and exotic setting among the vestiges of a magnificent past. It is also where US soldiers spent there R&R and came under massive bombing campaigns as the war progressed (photo above is a composite of a US gun turret and the street it looks out on).
Liz was down south to visit a Save project area in the Quang Tri province. For myself, it was an awesome time to explore the countryside by motorbike, finding random crumbling temples and cemeteries that were being swallowed by jungle.
The market food offered delicious dishes like banh khoai, described in our guide book as a crispy yellow pancake of egg and rice flour, fried up with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts and eaten with a peanut and sesame sauce, plus a vegetable accompaniment of star fruit, green banana, lettuce and mint. There was a great snack known as banh loc, a thin translucent parcel of manioc flour that encases shrimp, sliced pork and spices steamed in a banana leaf and eaten with a rich sweet and sour sauce. I worried though as I sat with a group of truck drivers in the far corner of the market eating a steaming bowl of broth with chunks of a dark gelatinous something. When I asked the guy sitting next to me what it was he pointed to his wrist...yummy mashed wrist tendon perhaps? If so it was not as bad as I imagined, though I imagine he didn't know what I was asking. In any case I have yet to choke up my intestines...so far so good.

Waiting for a home...

As we go into week number five in our temporary apartment located in the center of Hanoi we await word of whether we will be able to sign a contract on a nice lakeside 5th floor place we found about a week ago beyond the chaos of the city and on the shores of West Lake. Unfortunately we are contending with a counter bid on the apartment from the second ambassador to Venezuela. We have a backup rental possiblity also located on the lake shore. It is an older home rather than a new apartment and there is road construction in the front of the place, between the garden and the lake, but it will be worth another look if needed.
So we'll see what happens. With fortune on our side the next post will be from a lakeside apartment that has legitimate blog access.

Posting from Cafe Trung

I am settled in at my favorite outdoor cafe, where the scooter choked streets and pounding of construction is alleviated only slightly by being off a smaller street. The coffee is delicious though and  that's a benefit as we are forced to update the blog from a remote location beyond our apartment. Seems the internet provider there is the State and as such blocks all access to unsavory blogs like ours. Oddly enough we can access it via a proxy server, but it is far too slow to bother with, so I'll just feed my caffeine addiction while I amuse myself here.
Liz and I are still hunting for that perfect apartment that has the best of Hanoi, set beside a lake with gardens, terraced areas and balcony. We are willing to settle a bit but have the unsettled feeling that there does exist such a place, or close to it, and so far we have passed on the dozen or so apartments and houses we've seen. The temporary apartment we are in is a good place for now. It is on the second floor of an eight story apartment building in the heart of what is described as "cuisine street". It is a pedestrian walkway lined with food stalls and restaurants serving all types of delicious Vietnamese dishes.
We are getting used to the market at last. Learning some of the basic prices for staple items, bread, eggs, beans, tofu and coming to grips as various fish, pigs, cows and dogs are eviscerated along the way.
We are off tomorrow to the south for a week to visit the ancient city of Hue. Liz has a program site visit nearby. I am looking forward to seeing more of Vietnam.

Here we are...