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!

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 3: Wat Pho

Following the Grand Palace exploration, we went on a short walk to visit Wat Pho or วัดพระเชตุพนวิมลมังคลารามราชวรมหาวิหาร in Thai (I had to copy and paste that one!) This is also located in the district of Rattanakosin in Bangkok. This complex was very interesting as it functions as a univeristy for Thai medicine and massage training as well as hosting the Reclining Buddha. In fact, this is said to be the birthplace of Thai massage. Although Mark and I are BIG fans of Thai foot massages and part-take in that cultural experience often in Thailand, we did not have time for a massage during this cultural visit. (Don't worry though-we were able to squeeze one in after dinner!)

Cultural lesson: I had to do some research here to save all of you from needing to investigate. I also think it's important to learn a bit more about the culture than just looking at my pictures :)

A traditional Thai temple consists of both a Phuttha-wat (an area dedicated to Buddha) and a Sangha-wat (the monks living area). The Phuttha-wat area has many parts to it and includes the main Buddha statue, an area for scriptures, an open pavillion, an assembly hall for visitors and monks to congregate, an Ordination hall that is the most sacred area, a bell tower, and many other special areas. The Sangha-wat area is basically the living quarters as you would think, only on a much more simplistic form. (Wikipedia and www.bangkok.com, 2/26/14)

Wat Pho is said to be one of the oldest, as well as, largest wats in Bangkok. You may wonder, "well how many wats can there be in one city anyway?"...good question, the answer is around 43. However, there are around 40,000 in Thailand!!! I had to verify that, but I feel that the Office of National Buddhism is a reliable source so I am going with it. However, not all 40,000 are active. Back to Wat Pho, this temple has approximately 1,000 images of Buddha but the claim to fame per se, is the Reclining Buddha. It measures 15m high and is 43m long!



This candle is in the hallway with other memoribilia from distinguished guests and nations. President Obama sent this candle from the White House. (On a side note, we were the only nation to send a candle and hurricane lamp...)



Mark standing at the end...those are the toes on the right side. Mark is 6 ft. 1 in. tall, for comparison sake.

The feet up close.

The feet measure 3m high and 4.5m long. They have mother-of-pearl inlaid which is creating the designs of 108 images of flowers, elephants, etc. These images, we were told, represent auspicious symbols of Buddha.

Buddha is a religious symbol and as such you must dress appropriately inside the temples. There are signs dictating the do's and don'ts. We knew ahead of time that our shoulders needed covered, you take your shoes off outside, no shorts, no PDA, etc. There are robes to slip-on outside if you are not appropriately dressed, as most visitors are wearing touristy clothes made for the high heat and humidity, so it's not a problem if you aren't previously prepared. Anyways, Mark and I thought "really, they need signs saying "no PDA" in a religious place". Well here comes Jen walking through the temple and talking to Mark about watching his wallet (as pick-pocketing may happen). He wasn't answering me though, so I turned as realized I was speaking to some other tall, white, European guy and not Mark. It was also at this time that I realized by entire left side of my bra and chest was hanging out. Apparently my camera strap is very strong and in 95 degree temperatures, you don't really notice a little skin hanging out! So no PDA from us, but I was basically flashing everyone...I apologized profusly to Buddha and we were on our way again.

Additional information was gathered from: http://www.watpho.com. I encourage anyone interested in this place to view this video and website. There are some gorgeous photos and you can see Wat Pho at sunset, which is stunning. If you look at the top right-hand side of the website, you can have it translated into English, after the video plays.

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 2: The Grand Palace

Outside the Grand Palace prior to walking through one of the main entrances. The white wall is part of the protective wall build around the Palace grounds.

On Sunday Mark and I set off to explore the historical and cultural sights of Bangkok. Our first stop was the Grand Palace, a must-see for anyone visiting the area. The first photo was taken prior to entering through the official gates, the palace is in the background.

According to what we read while there, the construction on the Grand Palace began back in 1782 for the King of Siam, who eventually became the King of Thailand. The Palace is not actually one large building, like how some might think of a castle or the main structure of Buckingham Palace, rather it consists of many buildings, pavillions, and structures. The structures were not all built at once, rather various kings added something here or there during their reign. It is truly a sight to see. It is amazing to think of how difficult the construction process had to be back in the 1780's, especially when you can see the minute detail and complex designs. There are many curved lines and individual mosaic tiles to construct the trim and framing. Also, there is an exetremely large amount of gold used in the decorations. We had read various plaques posted around the building and statues which detailed the originality of the pieces, although some have undergone remodeling, many of the original structures, tiles, and statues are original.

I believe that wikipedia does an excellent description of the history of the Grand Palace and the construction, so I am adding the link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace

Since we are discussing the Grand Palace it is fitting to state that the King and Queen of Thailand are VERY well loved and respected by the Thai people. It is considered disrespectful to speak ill of them. In fact, when you look around stores, taxis, restaurants, street vendors and such, many of them have pictures of the Royal Family posted. This is not to be confused with the reasons various countries post pictures of their dictators/prime ministers/etc. within a communist society. Finally, the Thailand Monarchy no longer reside in the Grand Palace, it is still used for various official and special ceremonies several times a year.

An additional tidbit of information: Thailand's Royal Familiy have a constitutional role, while elected officals serve in the governing body. Recently, you may recall the riots in Bangkok due to the upcoming elections (held Feb. 2). This was for the parliment positions and political governing bodies, which did not have anything to do with the Royal Family.

Wondering around the grounds, we came across a building where monks gather to meditate and pray. As we were walking around we could hear their rhythmic chanting, which was very awesome! Mark audio recorded it, but I am not able to upload (download?) it to the site due to my complete technological handicap.

All of the work is actually individual small mosiac tiles placed in that pattern. The sun creates a gorgeous glimmer off of the glass and gold.



If you look close, you may see the layers of tiles and gold. This was actually only about 1.5' high. Many of these surrounded the buildings.



Here is a close-up of the ceramic flowers. These flowers adorn many columns in the area-some columns reach of 20-30 feet with flowers all the way up!

Paintings down the many hallways. The detail of these paintings was very impressive, I'm not sure the picture captures its' beauty!

This is a minature replica of Angor Wat, Cambodia cast out of concrete. Once again, the detail is exquisite! You can look down the hallways, into the windows, and such. I should have held my hand next to it for a size comparision, but I would guess it's not much taller than 2 feet at it's highest peak.

The Emerald Buddha. Despite it's appearance, this Buddha is actually quite small, I would guess 2 feet. Buddha's clothing, which is made of gold, is changed 3 times a year in accordance with the seasons. The King or an official diplomat must change the garmets. This picture was taken outside of the temple, as you may not photograph inside and must show respect at all times. You may photogrpah outside according to the guards so please do not think I broke any cultural or religious laws here.

The Emerald Buddha dates back to the 15th Century and is carved from a single blcok of green jade. This Buddha has a rather interesting history intertwined with myths and fables. It appears that it actually may have originated in either Northern Thailand or India, but then traveled around many parts of Asia before finally resting in The Temple of the Emerald Buddha in 1784. The official name is Wat Phra Rattanasatsadaram.

Here is just another picture of one of the buildings. Those are full size doors several feet in the air. I have no idea if they open or not, but they are very fancy and absolutely gorgeous in person!

Bangkok, Thailand: Part 1

It's about time I update this blog, don't you think?!?!

This year's October school break happened to fall during the same week as Marks' global meetings hosted by Hong Kong. This meant no week-long, island vacation for the kids and me. However, we were fortunate to have wonderful friends come over for a visit during that week! Actually, one of them was coming over for the work meetings and his wife came along. Andrea and I spent a lot of time relaxing tai-tai style in salons, restaurants, bars, and at the pool, while the guys were stuck in boring meetings all day!

However, I am a girl that enjoys vacations, so by November it was high-time to break out of Hong Kong for a bit. Mark and I decided to try a long weekend in Bangkok, Thailand. It just so happened that one of our very good friends from HK coincidentally had the same idea, so our weekend was double the fun!

On a different note: I have tried to get these pictures to download into the text as I discuss them. However, it is very difficult to manuever them around. If anyone is an experienced blogger via this website and has any great tips, I'm keen to hear them!!!



Overlooking Bangkok @ The Sky Bar



Above Eleven, Japanese-Peruvian fusion food and drinks.



The Sky Bar



We began our adventure Friday night with a Japanese-Peruvian dinner at Above Eleven roof-top restaurant located on Sukhumvit Soi 11, a world-famous party area of Bangkok. We enjoyed fantastic views of the city nightskape as we were 32 stories above street level! In the spirit of keeping this blog mostly "G" rated there is nothing else left to report on this night!

Saturday we ventured to the Chatuchak Weekend Market for some serious shopping and cultural experiences! This particular market is touted as being the largest, open-air market in the world. I had to do a little internet research here: the market is over 14 hectares and hosts around 200,000 people plus per day. For the hectacre challenged, 14 hectacres is approximately 37 acres! There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,ooo-15,000 stalls for your shopping pleasure. Keep in mind, that Bangkok is around 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity at this time of year. That's a lot of stalls, people, and smells crammed into a very hot and humid space! I was a bit skeptical about dragging Mark to a place this size when a visit Easton Towne Center causes distress, but our friends were sink-shopping, so Mark had no choice but go and suffer along with Chris...more on the sink in a bit!

Mark and I were scouring the stores for a traditional Thailand wood carving for ourselves and trinkets for the kids. Going to the market with a goal in mind helps with the organization. The market is divided into "districts" such a animals, furniture, clothing, soaps, clay, etc. We wondered around aimlessly for a bit until we discovered the areas we needed. After a while of negotiations, our friends had bought a beautiful mosiac sink and we had purchased our wood carvings. I forgot to mention that we had a driver and van arranged to transport us to and from the hotel, along with our packages. My girlfriend and I decided to have a drink and snack while the guys carried the stuff to the van. One hour later, we still have not had any sightings of the guys, when alas they surface laughing hysterically. Super long story short, at one point when trying to locate the van, a police office driving a moped called our van driver to clarify the location of the parking lot. At this point, the officer offered to bring our friend to the van. Chris hoped on, holding the sink, when the officer, then pointed at Mark and gestured for him to hop on as well. If you are keeping track, you are correct in the fact that there are now 3 grown men riding on a moped, holding a rather large ceramic/mosiac sink off to the side weaving through Bangkok traffic in serch of a van! Unfortunately we were no where around the guys to snap a picture of this! After we reunited and regrouped we headed to lunch at the market for some traditional Thai. We dined on: fish cakes (similar to crab cakes), a hollowed out pineapple stuffed with rice, chicken, and cashews, mango and sticky-rice, deep-fried spring rolls with sweet and spicy chili sauce, and Singha (Thai beer). All of the food was excellent! We then headed back to the hotel to wash-up for the night.

Following dinner at an Italian restaurant, Mark and I decided to head to The Sky Bar rooftop at Lebua State Tower, which is where The Hangover II was filmed. This bar is on the 63rd floor (or 820 feet in the air), making it the tallest open-air bar in the world (per the Sky Bar). Mark and I grabbed a table along the edge to enjoy the views and listen to the jazz band playing above us. The views were simply stunning. Not only was Bangkok city full of lights and life, but the ombiance of the bar with the uplight gold and cream pillars, perfectly manicured topiaries, jazz band, and the hustle and bustle of people dressed-up for a night on the town made for a very enjoyable night. After enjoying our two-drink minimum for the table, we walked up a few steps to the circular bar for pictures. Staff are readily available and offer to take pictures of guests, free of charge. Our staffer was superb and had us doing all sorts of poses and he worked very hard to capture as many views as he could!

We then taxid back to our hotel to rest up for our busy day of sightseeing on Sunday. Taxis in Bangkok, well I believe most of Thailand, are an interesting experience. There are meters in the cabs, however, it is up to the cab drivers discretion to use it. It is very important to negotiate your rate prior to getting in the cab or insist/refuse to ride in the cab without the meter running. Most hotel and bar/restaurant staff will help give you a ballpark of a reasonable cab fare. Saturday we had quite an interesting cab ride with our friends as we had negotiated our fare quite easily. The driver had problems finding our hotel so we had a nice little tour of Bangkok at night for a very reasonable price! Luckiily our driver was very nice and just laughed as he called himself a tour guide & driver in one!

I will be publishing the sightseeing from Sunday in Part 2 due to the number of pictures I hope to be able to post.

This is the view from our table. You can see the jazz band playing towards the right side. The Sky Bar

The weekend market minus the crowds!

The Sky Bar