Back to the daily grind!

Since being back from Tet, we have been working hard to get the school ready for more students! We had our 2^nd Open Day for potential parents and are in preparation for another one in April. We also are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Natalie Friesen the end of April. It will be great to have someone to show around Hanoi and then we are off to the central highlands of Dalat! We also made a trip to an orphanage in Ba Vi. It is a very sad place with over 300 people, from infants to 70 year olds, with disabilities. But, it is amazing how happy they are for a visit and especially for basic necessities we take for granted. We are currently in the process of donating and trying to raise money to redo their sanitation building so they can enjoy showers. The sanitation building is in horrible shape and is in need of desperate shape. We are so thankful for a supportive family and home community to help us make an impact in the lives of the residences there. We look forward to telling you about our upcoming adventures with Natalie, along with our efforts at the Ba Vi orphanage!

We recently decided to rent motorbikes again, so that we are able to get to our evening tutoring that we have and not have to deal with dodgy motorbike taxis and regular taxis. The new bike we got is an automatic….and it is HUGE! When I sit on the back with Lance, my feet don’t touch the ground (which I feel unsafe in case we got in an accident!).  Besides being huge, it has another great feature….a horn that sounds like a truck horn! Lance has really enjoyed using it to let people know that our big rig is coming through!  The traffic here continues to amaze (and frustrate!) us.  You will be in complete dead lock and cars, taxis and motorbikes will be honking at you (as if you are able to move!). Even if you were able to move, they would get to move an extra 5 feet! Traffic here does not understand or put into practice the concept of yielding. When traffic is coming on to a side road….they do not look to see if someone is coming and it is safe to go…they just go! And YOU are expected to get over! Stop lights are observed….occasionally! Traffic will come at you head on and come from 12 different directions. You really have to be on your top game if you want to consider driving in this madness!  People rarely move for you, let you through or move over for you. You have to look out for yourself!

It has also been an interesting experience looking and applying for jobs back home as we continue to live and work here in Vietnam. It has been a unique experience for us and the schools that we have had Skype interviews with! 

We think about home often and about our farm and all of the things that we want to accomplish whenever we get back. We are definitely looking forward to the peace, quiet and countryside, although now that we are finally used to falling asleep with cars zooming and honking, construction sounds buzzing and the sounds of people, I fear that it will be hard to sleep in the silence of nature on our farm! 

I will include a few random pictures of Vietnam to make this entry a little more exciting!

Fishing baskets.

The mess of traffic that is Hanoi!

You can find ladies on bicycles on every street corner selling beautiful flowers!

The crazy electrical wires in the city.

A typical minority village house.

Catching the days food!

Tet - Part 2

We then got up early to head to the Vietnam/Cambodia border to stay in Chau Duc. On the way there we stopped at an alligator farm. It really was just a depressing site to see all of these amazing creatures caged up. But, the Vietnamese seemed to love this along with all sorts of alligator dishes served at the restaurant. They even had an area for young kids to feed raw meat to alligators using fishing poles. Needless to say, we were not that impressed and were soon on our way to the much anticipated Sam Mountain right on the border. We arrived late afternoon at Sam Mountain. It is a gorgeous view that overlooks scenic fields and has a beautiful sunset. We hiked to the top to get a better look since we had been sitting in the van most of the day. We took a load off on the top before heading back down to the van to enjoy the view some more. Later, we checked into our hotel in Chau Duc, and then ate a nice seafood dinner at a local restaurant. The Mekong Delta experience was great, but we were excited to head to Phu Quoc to enjoy island life!

                We were up and ready to go by 8am, as it was a 4 hour drive to Rach Gia to the Super Dong II express boat that would take us the island of Phu Quoc! We arrived at Rach Gia with an hour to spare, so we decided to catch a quick lunch and then board the boat. It was a crowded ride and Emily and Ben were able to experience the aggressive Vietnamese style first hand. It can be quite shocking as they will nudge and literally push, as they just can’t seem to wait! There was a nice observation deck up top, so we caught some sunshine and the view of endlessly seeming ocean. We arrived late afternoon and soon discovered that our first hotel, Ecological Inn, did not have an ideal location. It took a ½ hour to get to the hotel, and it seemed that any ride to the beaches or any activities was going to be a $25 taxi ride!

                The next day we were up early for breakfast and ready to hit the beach. Lacey was under the weather and had a rough night, but was a trooper and headed out with us. We didn’t really have a destination, but we stopped at a beach that was 99% Vietnamese and had a decent restaurant and ½ boat ride to Tortoise Island were we did some snorkeling! We had a blast and then headed back to the beach for some rays and a delicious lunch and some refreshing smoothies. Little did we know that we burned our backs while snorkeling for an hour or so! We headed back to Ecological Inn for some more Pinochle and supper.

                We were up early again the next day as we packed up and grabbed a taxi for our next hotel, Eden Resort! This hotel was fancy! It had a pool with a great ocean view and we were literally on the beach. It was very convenient to relax on the beach, swim in the pool and get massages on the beach! This is just what we needed to rest up! Lacey hoofed out to grab Aloe as Ben and Lance were also a bit red from snorkeling. The first Xe Om asked for an absurd price, but luckily a nice man came along to help our damsel in distress for no charge at all! We enjoyed the shade of the pool and some Aloe Vera massages before getting ready for a supper of Tapas down the road.

The next day was more of the same as we hung around the pool, beach and got massages during the day. We then headed out for supper that night to the night market, which had an incredible selection of fresh fish! Ben was on fire as he enjoyed this experience! We then headed back to the hotel room for our ritual of late night pinochle.

We thoroughly enjoyed the coral reefs at Tortoise Island, so we booked a day long tour on the other end of the island for some more snorkeling. This company took us to the harbor and got us and about 10 other people onto the boat for the day. They provided much better equipment and we were off for some fishing and snorkeling. We fished for an hour or so in the morning, stopped by a floating fish market to buy our lunch and then headed out to snorkel! We had some great snorkeling, but it was a little crowded and the pollution and dumping of garbage from the tour boats, didn’t exactly make the swimming more enjoyable! Either way, it was great to get out into the water and see what all goes on under the water. We then headed back to the hotel, a tired group! After catching a short rest and some pool time we headed out for Pizza! It was really good, especially compared to the below average pizza we find in Hanoi. We reminisced as our last night Phu Quoc was drawing to a close. What a great adventure we had so far!

The next morning we woke up and hurried to eat breakfast so that we had enough time to get an aloe massage on the beach before we had to catch the boat back to Rach Gia again. We boarded the speedboat again and were off across the blue ocean. We arrived in Rach Gia a hungry crew as it was 3 or 4 already and we hadn’t eaten lunch. We stopped fueled up and grabbed some snacks for the long van ride back to Ho Chi Minh city.
                Sunday morning we slept in before heading out for our last meal together. We ate at a local restaurant that had a Hanoi specialty…..Bun Cha! We eat this numerous times per week for lunch. It is basically grilled pork balls in a sauce with carrots, papaya and lots of fresh herbs. Yum! Then it was time for a few games of pinochle before we had to leave Emily and Ben to fly back to Hanoi. It was a great time catching up, reminiscing and just enjoying these two people so dear to our hearts. But, it was time to take the airplane ride back to the bustling city of noise that is Hanoi! 

Tet-tastic!

We started our Tet Holiday break by racing out of work early at 3:00 to get to the airport. We heard horror stories about the traffic and wanted to make sure we didn’t miss our flight. 

Some interesting fruit!

Lance found a little friend while we were waiting at the airport that was very interested in our card game!

 We were very anxious to get to Ho Chi Minh city to meet Emily and Ben who had been waiting for about half a day. After arriving at the airport and walking to get a taxi, we were off to the hotel which is only about 3 minutes away. However, our taxi driver was easily confused and took us to a similar named street……needless to say he was either confused or a crook. So, we arrived at the hotel an hour and a half later than we should have!! With all of the anticipation of meeting Ben and Emily it was rather annoying…….not to mention we hadn't eaten supper yet and it was nearing 10:00pm. Anywho, we arrived at the hotel and immediately see the two friendliest faces waiting for us. It was great to see folks from back home! Then the four of us headed out for a late night supper to catch-up! We knew we couldn’t be up too late because we had an early morning ahead of us, for we didn’t want to waste any time packing in fun adventures!

                We woke up at 7am because our tour guide was supposed to be at the hotel at 8am to take us on our tour of the Mekong Delta. We grabbed a little breakfast and introduced our 2 South Dakota friends to the famous Vietnamese iced, black coffee! We had about 3 hours in the van before our first destination and the caffeine kick helped us do some catch up talk in record time! Stories were swapped and we discussed the itinerary of our trip over the next 4 days in the Mekong.  Ben, for the first time, found out what was on the agenda (even though Emily sent him all the travel documents to inform him!).  He was coming to Vietnam to visit his brother and sister in law and that’s all that mattered to him!  It didn’t matter what we were doing!

                We arrived at the Ben Tre canals and took a lovely walk through some countryside that included pit stops at a coconut candy factory (which consisted of a few ladies in an assembly line in an open walled building!), getting the chance to hold an enormous python (which nobody did…the closest we came was Lacey touched it!), and we sat down to listen to some authentic Vietnamese singing with local instrumentalists, while enjoying a delicious spread of all the local Vietnamese fruits! We had mango, papaya, pineapple, jack fruit, dragon fruit and more. To top it off they gave us a tea that had honey and lemon (their lemons are small and green and orange on the inside, so more sweet)…..it was a treat to our taste buds!   

             

The trek continued until we stopped at the canals and hopped in little long tail boats and enjoyed beautiful scenery. After some boat hopping we made it to our lunch destination where we enjoyed some authentic Mekong food, including fish…..which basically looked the same as it had coming straight out of the river! We got back into a long tail boat to cross the Mekong where we got back in our van and headed for Can Tho.   After a delicious meal we went up to the rooftop of our hotel and played a game that we all loved….Pinochle!

The next day we got on a boat to go see the big, famous floating market….only to find it had already shut down for the Tet Holiday. Instead our fearless guide, Tee, found new plans! We got to take a tour of a rice paper and noodle factory (also under a wall less building with a handful of workers). The process was quite amazing.  We then found ourselves in the house of some locals and were instantly put to work! They were making a local favorite of rice mixed with bean curd and pork fat that is wrapped in banana leaves and then tied in reeds. We got to take turns with all of the different jobs. One included cutting the reeds in half; another was wrapping the reeds tightly around the filled banana leaves and making a braid at the end.  Emily found herself distracted most of the time because there was a well built German beefcake of a man that she couldn't keep her eyes off of!

 

   

  After our hard work, we were rewarded with a lovely lunch of ham, rice, vegetables and fruit. They also served us some Vietnamese coffee and we finally headed back to town. We stopped by a temple on the way back and got to see some locals dressed up and doing dances for the Tet celebrations. After our long day, we decided to treat ourselves to massages. Unfortunately, Emily’s first Vietnamese massage experience was more of a beating than a massage! Lacey had a good massage experience but it didn’t end well when her masseuse decided to help herself to a generous tip from her wallet!  That evening we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back up to the roof top of our hotel because we were told that there was going to be a big fireworks show in light of celebrating the Tet New Year!