Vietnamese Eco Trip

In this post, I will discuss the Vietnam War from various perspectives. I will also be showing pictures where battles have taken place. As I mentioned in the first post about Vietnam, please do not read this post, if you feel this will cause any type of ill feeling. Mark and I, as well as the kids, learned a great deal during this tour; I hope all of our readers learn something as well...

We have had several friends go to Vietnam prior to us and they have all recommended the Jack Tran Hoi An Eco tours, so we signed up too. We selected the 4-hour fishing tour, as the longer 6-hour tour required some bicycling on the road and through rice fields, which we didn't think our kids would handle well. In full disclosure, I was scared I would be clipped by a van/taxi/motorbike while riding a bike as well, as traffic laws are merely a suggestion of safety vs. strictly enforced at this time. So, no biking for us!

Our van picked us up at the resort around 8:30 a.m.(with none-other than Jack Tran himself) and we were off for the 30 minute drive to the boat. Jack was kind enough to allow me to play tour-guide and ride in the front seat with his driver so I wouldn't get motion sick before our adventure even began. We had a total of 14 tourists on our boat plus the 4 or 5 employees, although the boat could hold around 30 tourists, so it was quite large. While we were waiting to depart, Jack explained that this was his family business. His father was our "Captain" and his brother-in-law also worked on the boat. Jack began the business because his family needed a safer income than fishing. He explained that his father was in his 70's and had been a fisherman for many years, however, he had several dangerous "close" calls with the seas. They started this business about 7 years ago and now it has grown quite successfully and he has purchased more boats and expanded the types of tours they offer. Throughout the tour, we could really tell they all had a passion for what they do and they genuinely enjoyed their jobs.

While we were driving out to the bay, we were all allowed to pose at the Captain's wheel.

Jack then began talking briefly about his village where he grew up and continues to live, Phuoc hai. This village was occupied by American troops during the war. Although Jack himself was not born yet, his parents and aunts/uncles were all affected. He did have family members that fought in the war. He shared that much of his village was destroyed in the battles. However, as you can see in the following pictures, it is built back up now. It remains a quiet fishing village, much as it was before the war. He also spoke very candidly of the opinions of his family, some villagers, and himself and I am going to briefly explain what we took away from his discussion with us...the war brought much devastation to Vietnam, many people suffered immensley, many lives were lost, people lost everything they possessed. The country was devastated for a very long time and there were a lot of hard feelings for America/Americans... However, in 1986, the Vietnam government moved toward a socialist-oriented market vs. the previous communist-government controlled economy. This allowed Vietnam to grow and begin to recover and move beyond the war. Had history not happened the way it did, who knows what state Vietnam would currently be in. Slowly, the economy has taken off, and tourism has increased dramatically. Tourism now has helped to rebuild Vietnam and employs many people. However, the new problem for the Vietnamese people is that with tourism (massive construction built for tourism such as golf courses, resorts, etc.), they are facing a loss of the culture and heritage that has been a source of great pride. However, given the other option, tourism is a good thing...

I would like to mention here, like anywhere we travel in Asia, people (locals) are always asking where we are from. Not once has anyone said anything negative toward us or given us a "bad look". We have received only smiles and sometimes questions. We also have been told many stories about how this one person they knew went to America, or they have a family member living in America, or they want to vacation there one day.

Background on the Vietnam War:
I wanted to provide some historical facts and background for anyone interested in more about the Vietnam War (or Vietnam call it "the American War"): The war spanned the years of 1954-1975. At this time, there was a North Vietnam (a communist mindset) and South Vietnam (more democratic). The Northern Vietnam forces had just defeated the French colonial administration and they wanted to unify the North & South into a one-communist nation. The French had previously claimed Vietnam as a colony after aquiring the region during the First Indochina War during the years of 1946-1954. The United States fought with the Republic of South Vietnam, Australis, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Thailand against "Viet Cong" which consisted of South Vietnamese guerrillas, regular military forces, and the Northern Vietnamese Army. The United States was heavily involved during the years of 1965-1968, having the largest military presence of all involved during this time. This war had a huge human cost across all nationalities: estimates are 58,220 Americans, 800,000-3million Vietnamese, 200,000-300,000 Cambodians, 20,000-200,000 Laotians, as well as many from Australia, NZ, S. Korea, and Thailand (wikipedia, historynet.com, and news.bbc.co.uk accessed 7/10/14)/

The next four photos are of the village Phuoc Hai.

Following our introduction, we boated over into the bay to climb aboard our fishing boats. There were two elderly couples, each occupying a boat a bit larger than a canoe. We split into the boats and were taught how to cast the nets. The nets are actually quite heavy due to their size and weigths at the bottom. Plus it is a bit dangerous as there are metal bits and other debri that can cut oneself. It was a very physical process and to think that the Vietnamese fisherman do this day in and out until their health fails is very eye opening. Anyways, the kids caught a few oysters and a shrimp, I caught oysters and a jellyfish, Mark caught seaweed.
The Jack Tran crew on our tour boat kept my camera and took tons of pictures to document our experiences.

The other father and son in our boat actually caught a bit bigger fish, so they let our kids hold it for pictures :)

Next, we headed over to the bamboo basket boats for our jungle tour. These boats came with a crew as well. They met our tour boat and did an introductory dance to "Gangham Style"- of course the kids loved this! These boats are apparantly very sturdy and bouyant, these guys basically had the boats tipped onto the edge without flipping over. We climbed in and I was given an oar to paddle while our driver made cute little animals, sunglasses, hats, and other jewlery out of the bamboo leaves. Unfortunatly, steering a circular boat is not as easy as it appears, and our guide had to eventually take over that job while he continued to make things for the kids at the same time!

So this jungle is probably what you may have seen dipicted in textbooks, on movies, and television, or at least a good representation. This particular jungle is right across from the village I was talking about earlier and was occupied by Viet Cong. Bamboo grows very quickly so every so many years, it is cut down. This growth is around 5 years old, I think, but don't quote me on that! Jack had explained to us that Viet Cong soldiers would submerge themselves under the shallow water, which was anywhere from 12-36 inches or so, and breath throw straws while waiting to attack enemies (Americans and the allied forces). The bamboo vegetation is quite thick and he explained the canals were very difficult for the inexperienced soldiers to navigate. He shared that many lives were lost in these jungles as the submerged soldiers would then throw grenades under the boats of the Americans and allied forces. It was a very surreal experience to go through the jungle knowing the significance of it in our history. However, a very educational experience and one I don't think we will forget.

A little side note about the bamboo basket boats. I noticed I had some black sticky stuff on the bottom of my feet because we had to go bare foot into the boats. It was then explained to us that buffalo dung is the "glue" that holds the woven bamboo together and makes it water tight. Apparently this stuff is like cement when it dries. It took about 30 minutes, a butter knife, soap, and eye make-up remover to get that stuff off my feet, I lost about 5 layers of skin I believe. Somehow, I was the only lucky one with this problem...

We then headed over to a beach area where the fishing couple lived to meet for tea and to practise our net casting skills once more. This time they provided us with different sized nets based on our ability to handle weight. You can see in the one picture of me that there is actually a specific way to wind the net around your arms and you must keep your body frame in the right direction or you cast yourself with the net or risk losing a finger or something. The kids actually had a pretty good handle on it though! They thought it was easier to do on land than having to balance on the boat.

During the tea with our fishing couple, Jack answered and questions we might have had. The kids ran around and pumped water from their well, chased some chickens around, and played on the beach. The couple had made us a traditional hot tea with various herbs, which were quite strong. Carson was brave and graciously accepted his cup and drank it but Evie was not so easy going about the situation. Lucky dad had 2 cups :)

The final picture is everyone in our group preparing to have our fishing feast! The crew was busy preparing our meal during tea time. We had various steamed fish, vegetable, a type of omlete, rice, noodles, biscuits, and chicken. Everything was amazing! However, if you know us, you know our kids' can't eat many of those things, so Jack had prepared special food for them, which was really above and beyond!

We truly had an amazing day and I hope everyone can take a little something away from this experience.

Thanks for reading!!!

Bicycling through Hoi An, Vietnam

Following our silk lantern experience, we hired two bicycle taxis to take us on a tour of some of the local spots. As you can see, it was a bit of a tight fit in the bicycle! It was also around 95 degrees and sunny, so it was also a little uncomfortable. Spoiler alert, we ended up only visiting two locations out of the 6 because the kids couldn't take the heat and needed to get back to the resort pool.

We first went to a shrine, I believe it was called the Tran Family Home & Chapel. We were given a brief tour and allowed to take pictures of everything. Basically, this is an old family home and is a good demonstration of ancestry-worship. There was a wall that had the names of the deceased family members hanging on the wall with incense and food offerings below. We were also shown coins that were used for "good luck". The coins were dated by the various dynasties that ruled throughout Vietnamese history. We were given the opportunity to toss the coins, with the goal trying to get a ying & a yang, meaning "good luck". We all achieved the ying & yang in our 3 alloted throws, so it looks like we are destined for great things :)

We then hoped back into the bicycles and headed towards the Japanese Covered Bridge. This bridge was built in the early 17th century by the Japanese to help with trade. It is said to be a symbol of cultural exchange between the Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese people. It now has a temple inside for worship for local people. The one end of the bridge is guarded by monkey statues and the other end of the bridge is guarded by dog statues. I read one account that stated this was because the bridge construction began in The Year of the Monkey and ended in The Year of the Dog, but I can not say that is a true fact with certainty. The architecture of the bridge represents both the misfortune and happiness of the local people, or ying & yang, according to the signage outside of the bridge.

Following the bridge, we hired a taxi to head back to the resort. I don't think have mentioned it yet, but we were very fortunate to be vacationing with our dear friends that we met in Hong Kong. They are actually relocating back to Ohio in a couple of weeks, so this was their last big vacation in Asia. They had rented a pool villa, so we hung out there swimming and chillaxin' in the afternoon. They have 3 kids that are older than ours, however, their kids are troopers and endured hours of playing and talking sports with ours :)

We then cooked and shared an Easter dinner with them in the evening. It was very nice to have a "holiday feel" and be able to spend some time celebrating with great friends. We absolutely love our life here, but it is difficult to be so far away from family and friends. Holidays can be a little bit of a let-down. We know that our families and friends are all together celebrating, while it's just another day here. However, this year we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Janelle and Easter with our friends, so it wasn't so bad!

Easter in Vietnam: Introduction

Happy (Belated) Easter! We ran into the Easter Bunny at the airport before leaving for Vietnam. The Easter Bunny had just filled our Easter baskets the night before, but we didn't catch sight of him, so the kids were very surprised to see him hopping around the airport!

I am going to skip blogging about our Phuket, Thailand vacation over Chinese New Year, spent with my parents, to write about Vietnam, for now. I have already posted quite a bit about Thailand, so it's time for something a little different. But let's face it, our kids have a lot of vacation time here! They were only in school for about 5 weeks before having another 2 week break. I am constantly reminding them that when we move back to the USA, we won't be visiting another country every 2 months! (however, xxxfingers crossedxxx, I am hoping MY traveling doesn't slow down too much!--that is a hint to the husband)

Throughout the posts about Vietnam, I will continue, as always, to share what we have experienced and were taught along the way, I will also provide research that I have done on the various places. Please note that I will talk about the Vietnam War, as this is an important part of both Vietnam and American history. Mark and I both feel very strongly that while we are in Asia, we should learn and experience history and culture for ourselves and our children. We understand the war, was, and continues to be, a difficult subject for some. I will be sharing pictures and dialogue we had with Vietnamese people regarding the war. We do not want or wish to cause distress or offense to anyone, so please do not read these posts, if you feel this may occur. However, the war took place before Mark and I were born, and we felt, for our family, we had an excellent learning opportunity given our location. Please know that we do not put our children, or ourselves, into dangerous or unsafe situations. Finally, we fully support and greatly appreciate all of our American Veterans and Troops!

A brif introduction: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established on July 2, 1976. I want to clarify this, as quite a few people (from America) have asked us if we went to "North Vietnam" or "South Vietnam". There is only the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The country had reunification of the North and South on July 2, 1976. The fall of Saigon, where South Vietnam officially surrendered to North Vietnam forces occured, on April 30th, 1975.

Geography Lesson: Vietnam has a "S" shaped appearance and is located on the Indochinese penninsula of Asia. It shares borders with China (north), Laos (west), and Cambodia (south and soutwest). Coastal borders include the Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, and Gulf of Thailand. Vietnam is a little over a one hour flight from Hong Kong. We stayed at a resort in the town of Da Nang, which is centrally located and on the coast of the South China Sea. The town itself is a little more of a local, small-scale city, so not a lot of stuff to do there off the resort. The town that has more of the cultural experiences, restaurants, bars, and sightseeing is Hoi An, and that is a 30 minute cab ride away. We took the kids there on 2 of the days.

Hoi An Ancient town was designated as a UNESCO city in 1999. It was awarded this title because it is a great representation of a historical and traditional Asian trading port and has a rich blend of many cultural influences of Asia. In simple terms, the town is just plain cute and has been cute for a very long time! It's history can be traced back to 2nd century B.C., although much of the architecture we saw dates around the 19th and 20th century. According to what I have read, Christianity was brought into Vietnam through Hoi An (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/948). However, Vietnam offers many religions and beliefs, with one of the most common being "ancestor-worship". Buddishn is said to be the largest "mainstream" type religion. Ok, back to Hoi An...

We took our taxi into Hoi An without a specific destination in mind and ended up at a local "artisan village".

Silk fabric is one of the famous trademark crafts of the Vietnamese. At the village, we were able to take a tour and watch silk production. They had an entire mini silk factory set-up for people to view, including silk worms, weaving looms, and spooling of the thread. We were told about the life cycle of a silk worm, but apparently the kids have already been educated on that in school, so it was old news to them.

Here are the silk worms in their bamboo baskets. Each basket has a different stage of the life cycle.

Here are the cocoons

You can see the small yellow dots floating in the basket, those are the cocoons waiting to be placed in the loom. These particular cocoons are producing yellow silk thread. If you look at the backgroun you can see green silk on a bolt on the loom. That is produced with the yellow and blue threads.

The weaving of the silk was very interesting to me because we were able to see different colors of fabric being produced. For instance, to make the orange silks, they used the red and yellow silk threads. The worms can be fed different diets to help dye their ultimate silk fibers. Another interesting tidbit was how strong the silk thread was, I always picture silk being rather delicate. However, the thread itself is very tough as the young lady demonstrated.


After learning about the silk process, we were led through the shopping section. They sold individual silk fabric bolts, table linens, scarves, and dresses, however, the most impressive was the artwork. They do amazing embroidery work with the silk threads. The artist told us that to master the basic embroidery, a student attends school for 6 months, but the intricate and detailed pieces are produced by artists that spent around 3 years in education. It was then our turn to try our hands at crafting Vietnamese silk lanterns.Hoi An, and many places in Vietnam, have gorgeous silk lanterns hanging around. I will show more pictures of them later, but you will see the mini version here.

The shell of the lantern is made of bamboo. We then used what smelled like industrial rubber cement to glue silk piecees onto the bamboo. The process took about 30 minutes in total. Evie now has her lantern hanging in her bedroom. Mark has fashioned it into a nightlight. Of course, we don't use it as a nightlight because I do not really think it seems fire-retardant, but she likes the idea that it can "glow" if she wants. Carson's lantern functions as a dream-catcher by his bed. (Just so you know, he picked the colors red and yellow for his favorite football team, Real Madrid...that's a soccer team for you Americans.) Of course, both kids loved doing this activity, Evie slightly more so, but Carson had a great time too. Unfortunately, Carson had to work with me as his "expert" while Evelyn had our Vietnamese professional lantern and silk creator, so the experience was a little skewed.

More to come!

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 4: Wat Arun

We wrapped up our sightseeing on Sunday with a visit to Wat Arun and a ride down the "Vienna of the East".

Wat Arun is commonly known as "The Temple of Dawn". If you have read my previous posts on Bangkok, you might remember that the word "wat" means a Buddhist temple. Wat Arun earned was fittingly named after the Indian God of Dawn, Aruna. The significance of Wat Arun is that the architecture was modeled after Mount Meru, which is the center of the world in Buddhist cosmetology (www.watarun.com 2/26/14). Mount Meru is not an actual mountain as one might thing, instead it is a symbolic representation of the center of the universe, perfection, a way of thought, and transendance, which is sought by Buddists (watarun.com 2/26/14).

We visited here in the afternoon and unfortunately the beauty is really demonstrated at sunset, despite being the named after the God of Dawn. I am going to upload a picture a picture from the internet so you can see the true beauty.

The main prang is 79 meters in height (a prang is a characteristic of Thai temples). On picture, I believe the concrete stands out. However, up close we were able to see probably millions of tiny ceramic tiles that decorate the prangs. In addition to the tallest prang, there are 4 smaller prangs, representing the God of Wind. There are also various statues of demons, other goddesses, elephants, as well as things i am forgetting.












Visitors are able to climb up and down VERY STEEP steps that are not in outstanding condition to the first level for views of the Chao Phraya river down below. These pictures were taken from that first platform. I hope the picture of me climbing down the steps demonstrates how steep this climb really was. I am not overly fearful of heights, but I was pretty nervous and had sweaty palms doing this. You had to walk up sideways because the steps were obviously not designed for big western feet. On the way down, I made Mark walk first so if I fell, at least he would stop me before I flew off the balcony and plumeted to my death in front of hundreds of tourists.







This picture shows The Sky Bar in the background. It's the golden dome. We visited there on Saturday evening.

After our tour here, we walked around the grounds for a bit before decided to ride on a motorized gondola, for lack of better word, back towards our hotel. Apparently, the Chao Phraya River and parts of Bangkok are known as "The Vienna of the East". We flagged our boat down and climbed aboard this 22 ft. long vessel. We are all about the "experience" when we visit places and sometimes this requires one to take a bit of a leap of faith. You can see from the picture that this boat is very long and then has a tarp-strapped diesel engine on the back...the driver uses a broomstick to steer this rather large engine through the waters, while a zillion other boats are doing the same thing. We were cruising at a pretty fast clip and we had to keep our mouths shut as to not get any of the water splashed in. I am sure if we swallowed any of that water, we would become ill within minutes! Anyways about 5-10 minutes into our little adventure we realized almost every other boat we passed had their passengers wearing lifejackets. We looked at our driver, he just smiled and waved...safety isn't always a big deal in Asia...Ten minutes later we arrived at our destination all in one piece. We were rather suprised at the ability of the boat "captains" to parallel park these boats with such little to work with, but ours did it like a champ!

Then it was back to the hotel via a 10 minute train ride, a delicious Thai dinner (which is probably both of our favorite types of foods), and footie massages to wrap the evening up.










I hope you all enjoyed our Bangkok trip as much as we did!