Trip to Hue, Hoi An and My Son

We took a trip to the middle of Vietnam a few weeks ago. We flew into Da Nang and enjoyed seeing the rainy South China Sea as we drove up the coast to the ancient city of Hue. It used to be the capital of Vietnam from 1802-1945 and 13 emperors of the Nguyen dynasty ruled from here. Emma and Alexander loved 'riding' all of the dragons they could find...and there were plenty in Hue! They all look so different too. Maybe each emperor had his own preference.

This was our first night in Hue...Happy Thanksgiving! They didn't have turkey and mashed potatoes on the menu, so we ate traditional Hue food, which is quite famous, and drank mango smoothies. Mom and dad learned the hard way that if the kids drink their smoothies first, they don't have any room left for dinner. It's just too tempting to wait for the food when there is a yummy drink in front of you. This restaurant was our favorite.

Jennie celebrated her birthday in Hue. We toured the ancient citadel, took good naps after lunch (a birthday wish come true), went on a Dragon Boat ride (Xander is still talking about Dragon Boats daily) and went to a traditional Water Puppet show. Emma exclaimed in her most excited way "Mom, this is just what I wanted to do for your birthday!" It was a happy day and I went out for a foot massage in the evening while Christian put the kids to bed. While I was away, some hotel workers knocked on the door and presented a birthday cake with "Marchant Jennie" written on it (just like my passport), flowers and a bottle of wine. Chrisitan kindly told them that we don't drink, but they left it anyway. Maybe the maid took it home when we checked out. It was very thoughtful of them and we took the cake to breakfast the next morning and shared it with all the hotel staff.

Below are a few pics of the citadel which we spent a half day exploring. The citadel complex was HUGE and many parts were in ruins. Christian commented that they were on the 100-year restoration plan. We enjoyed seeing both the restored and un-restored places.

Here is our Dragon Boat. I will post a movie of the water puppets later. The puppets were so entertaining. The kids loved it and even Christian and I left the performance thinking: "how did they do that maneuver with the girls lined up and twirling around each other?!?"

We took a day trip out visiting pagodas and tombs of past emperors. It was pretty cool. Our first stop was at a pagoda that had a monastery on the hill. There was such a peaceful feeling among the monks. They practiced calligraphy and one even climbed barefoot up a 100 year old star fruit tree to pull down a few fruits for us. We enjoyed speaking with the monks. Afterward we traveled on to see 3 other tombs and one other pagoda.

This emperor was into flair and the French style. It doesn't look that way from the outside, but the inside was all gold, flourish and extravagance on the inside.

This is one of my favorite shots of the kids. We hiked a million stairs to get to this tomb and Xander was cracking me up by the way he tried to copy Emma's pose for the camera. He was being so careful to get everything right. I'm surprised that I caught them both looking at me.

This was our last tomb for the day. We walked along a muddy trail with village mothers and children selling bananas fresh from the banana grove to the right. The kids were exhausted, but sooo thrilled to put on their rain ponchos. We walked on the wall surrounding the tomb to avoid the muddy path we were supposed to walk on. It was fun and a little slippery in places.

We took an awful bus ride to Hoi An. It's what most of the tourists do, but it was such a racket! It went so slow and stopped at places for us to buy things and it was just downright frustrating!!! This definitely made the top-10 list of our worst bus riding experiences.

Anyway, Hoi An is another ancient city dating back to the 1700s. It floods almost every year and was abandoned for a time. It was uninhabited during the Vietnam war and therefore was saved from destruction. It was neat to see some of the old canals, the famous covered bridge, temples and architecture, and even a traditional song and dance performance. We took a tour of an older house and saw lines drawn on the walls indicating water levels by year - one year it was flooded by 2+ meters! Merchants keep their goods downstairs during the dry season and then move it all upstairs during the wet season. We saw a picture of a man paddling a boat inside the main room of his house. I don't think I could handle that much moving and cleaning in my house every year.

On our last day we traveled to My Son to see some ancient 7th century Cham temples. There were 4-5 temple sites in the area and only 2 were still standing. The others were demolished with bombs, which is a pitty. Apparently some of these temples were used as a base of operations during the war and were therefore a target.

Emma and Alexander enjoyed playing 'house' and peek a boo with me inside this little temple structure on the left. They were laughing and playing and it was fun to see them having a good time while visiting a historic site.

Overall we had a very nice trip and felt like we got to see and do everything we wanted to, except play in the sand and dip our toes in the sea...which is what most people do when they travel to this area. I guess we have our beach-time on a slightly different priority level than most people.

Lots of things...

I've had so many things on my mind to blog about. My problem is finding time when the creative energies are flowing. Usually by the time I "have time" I'm ready for a nap or there is something else needing my attention.

1) Merry Christmas everyone! It seems like Christmas is so far away, but it's not. Sometimes it's hard to get the feel of the season when it's 60 degrees and sunny outside (this is Utah girl talking here). We will be gone over Christmas and New years, but we'll send out a "Happy Holidays letter" when we get back.

2) I just got off the phone and thought it was pretty amazing that I could be sitting here in Hanoi using our American phone (Vonage) to call next door to Laos to book a hotel for our upcoming trip. Isn't the internet amazing?!? Aside from the language barrier, the connection is good.

3) I made Christmas cookies to hand out to friends in Hanoi - stop drooling all of you on the other side of the globe who wish that you had a plate : ) As I was baking I really came to value precious resources - it sounds funny from a kitchen point of view, but that was my a-ha.

Cranberry-pistaccio biscotti, Truffle cookies, Mint brownies, Spice sugar cookies, Annee's chocolate chip cookies, Mrs. Field's cookies with a Marchant twist cookies, Gingerbread cookies with lebkuchen glaze. Is that all?!? I promise I was in the kitchen for DAYS!

Olive oil for the biscotti: I almost used the last of our olive oil from Italy (most people fill their suitcases with wine from their time spent in Italy, but we brought back bottles of olive oil). This bottle went from Italy to Prague to DC to Hanoi.

Butter: All butter is imported to Hanoi. French butter seems to be the least expensive, so that's what we buy. Before my baking fest, I went out shopping and spent 600,000 VND (36 USD) on butter, flour and eggs. The butter cost $4.50 USD per cup - crazy! Oh well, anything for keeping a tradition alive, right? I've discovered that I love to cook and bake for those I love and care about. I discovered this passion a few years ago, interesting huh?

Other resources I used up: almond extract, molasses, ground ginger, white chocolate chips. I guess I'll be stocking up on a few things when I return to the States in the spring.

3) I went to see Twilight. I went to the 10:00 a.m. showing on Wednesday. I thought I would be the only one in there, but to my surprise it was packed with every teen girl in Hanoi. My thought: aren't they supposed to be in school or working? All of them giggled when Edward made his entrance onto the big screen. I had just as much fun watching and hearing their responses to the film as I did watching the actual movie. I laughed out loud in some parts due to the cheese factor, and other parts I was impressed. My friend Natasha was disappointed that I went without her, so it looks like I will be going again when we get back from Laos. I think it would be fun to see it again with someone else who has read the books.

4) Admission of guilt...I need to blog about our last trip. It was fun and I just haven't put it together yet. I'll add that to the "to do" list before we fly out for Laos tomorrow afternoon : )

Christian and the Catholics

I don't plan on blogging a lot about my work at the Embassy, but I've been meaning to post something recently about all my interactions with the Catholics as of late. Since I've been in Hanoi, I've had a lot of exposure to the Catholic Church in my role as a political officer following human rights and religious freedom. In the past two weeks alone I've attended the installation of the new Auxiliary Bishop of Hanoi, met with the Archbishops of Hanoi and Hue, attended the trial of 8 Catholic parishioners in Hanoi and visited two dissident Catholic priests in Hue.

The installation ceremony was held 2 hours outside of Hanoi in the city of Nam Dinh. It was held outside in front of a large church there in order to accommodate the big crowd (about 7,000 people attended on a Friday morning - including a brass band and traditional Asian drummers). The ceremony lasted about two hours. Half of the Catholic Bishops from throughout the country attended the moving ceremony. Immediately afterwards, I was invited up to take my picture with Bishop Minh (above). I've had several meetings with him in his earlier role as head of the Catholic Seminary here in Hanoi and right hand man to the Archbishop of Hanoi. The Catholic Church in Vietnam has somewhere between 6 - 8 million adherents with 3 archdiocese in the country. I have now met two of the three archbishops and only need to meet the Cardinal in Saigon for a trifecta. Above (top) is a picture of me with the Archbishop of Hanoi.

Most recently, I also met with two dissident Catholic priests that have spent several years in jail for expressing their political opposition to the government. Above is a picture of myself and our Deputy Chief of Mission meeting with Father Loi and Father Giai at Father Loi's home in Hue. This picture has been zipping around the Vietnamese blogosphere which is amazingly active. What has kept me most busy since my arrival has been land disputes between the Catholic Church and the government. The disputes resulted in large-scale prayer vigils with thousands of Catholics participating. Eventually, eight Catholic parishioners were arrested for destroying public property and disturbing the public order. Attending the trial of the eight Catholic parishioners as a diplomatic observer was fascinating to say the least. My strangest experience of the trial had to be when as soon as I exited the courthouse the thousand or so Catholics that had been conducting a prayer vigil outside the courthouse erupted in applause for "Mr. America." I am frankly quite surprised that they knew who I am. For more background on the specifics of the trial, I recommend you read the following AP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hFaNWDuuQ4A1hcYeEtbf3GoGu5AwD94UG40G2

Two pickles and a plain pancake please...

Two pickles and a plain pancake please...I guess it's what our little girl wanted. She's been craving lots of apples and pears, tomatoes (fresh and canned...she can't get enough of them!), potatoes (this is a new one), and green olives (this helps keep the nausea feelings away). She loves drinking milk, and thankfully doesn't have much of a taste for sugary things.

The little girl I'm talking about is growing and kicking and due in the middle of March! Emma couldn't be more thrilled to have a new baby sister on the way. Xander is still trying to figure out if he has a baby in his tummy too?!? We had a 4D ultrasound last week and to be honest it takes a little getting used to. I'm so used to seeing the regular 2D print outs.

We're so excited for our baby girl to join our family. The plan is that Xander and Jennie will fly to Utah at the end of January and return to Hanoi in May with our new little girl. Emma and Christian will come for the month of March and then get back to Hanoi for work and school.

Trip to Sa Pa

Aaaaaaah, Sa Pa. We just got back from 5 days in the mountainous North of Vietnam on the border with China. Sa Pa is where many different minorities live. The main groups are the Black Hmong, Flower Hmong, Giay (pronounced "zai") and the Red Dao (pronounced "zao"). All the minority women colorfully embroider their traditional clothing and wear it proudly. The Black Hmong weave fabric and dye it with indigo. Then they embroider the trim with lots of color. The Giay are more reserved in their dress but all the women wear colored scarves on their heads. We noticed that the Hmong men are the only ones who wear traditional dress.

The older Dao women wear big beautiful head wraps with beads, etc. The younger women wear more simple scarves and one woman told me it is because the beautiful head wraps are heavy and hard to work in. The younger women work hard and therefore need more simple, light-weight head wraps. The woman on the left is younger and wearing a simple head wrap.


Here are some other minorities we saw at the market. On the left are the Flower Hmong with their beautiful bright clothes. On the rights are some Thai minority women.

We loved interacting with the people and seeing the incredible terraced rice fields, animals and mountains. Amazingly, it didn't rain the entire time we were there. We had cold nights and mornings and cool days with a bright sun. We visited 8 separate villages, including Sa Pa, and loved interacting with the people. We hiked all over the place and Emma kept up with us step for step - she is such a trooper! The Hoang Lien National Park had stunning terraced rice fields that covered the entire mountains on both sides - even up to the top. It was a beautiful example of man's coexistance with nature and harvesting every last resource.

Emma's and Xander's favorite parts were seeing all the animals. Everywhere we went, Christian and I were pointing out ducks, baby chicks, pigs, water buffaloes, goats, dragonflies, butterflies and anything else that moved or made noise. Xander had a particular interest in the machines used for road construction "Scoop!" "Dump Truck!" "Big Truck!" etc. We saw lots of water buffaloes, but not many people riding them.


We met a Giay minority woman (bottom right) and her family as we were exploring one village. We went off the beaten path and it was worth it. She was the grandmother and brought out all her family. She and Christian had a nice chat. She has 12 children - she doesn't look like it, does she? She was very nice and Emma loved running around the pathways in front of the house with the other little children. Neat family, good memory.

We rented motorbikes with drivers for a few of our trips out of town and I was able to catch this photo of Christian and Xander on the road. We would have tried to drive ourselves but the roads weren't remotely marked and we were traveling deep in the countryside. Our last day, we took a trip up to the Silver Waterfall.

The only trip we regretted was out to the Bac Ha market. We spent 4 hours on a bumpy dirt road squished in the back of a bus. Amazingly, the kids did really well. The trip should have taken 2 1/2 hours each way, but the entire road was under construction and there was even a landslide that wiped out part of the road and some busses were stuck deep in the mud. It was quite a site to see heavy-duty road equipment towing the busses out. We finally made it to Bac Ha and were told we had only one hour to spend at the market - what...that's all!!??! Afterward, we went inside a few people's homes. Then back on the bus for a 3 1/2 hour drive back to Sa Pa. This was our least-favorite trek. The market was good, however and we got to see many more Flower Hmong women shopping and living life. These women are carefully inspecting and buying thread to ebmroider with.

Back in Sa Pa many people sell their wares and textiles all day long. This is a family eating dinner as they oversee their blanket of goods for sale.

Others just walk the streets selling trinkets of all kinds. We were surprised to see so many Black Hmong children out selling on the streets, when they should have been in school. We didn't see many Red Dao children, but the Red Dao women were more tenatious and persistent with their selling methods...to the point of being obnoxious!

We loved our trip. We hope you enjoy the photos too : ) Here are some of our kids at some church ruins and our family at the Silver Waterfall on our last day.

Shopping in flooded Hanoi

This morning I needed some groceries for a dinner I am preparing tonight. Some friends from the Australian Embassy are coming over and it's just not like America when you plan a menu. I have to make several contingency plans depending on what I can find at the store. Things happen to be worse right now because the outlying areas of Hanoi are completely flooded! So, nothing fresh from the countryside is coming in. I noticed this on Saturday morning as the selection in the alley market next to our house was really picked over. I extra-bleached everything when I came home : )

So, I just drove for 2 hours through flooded streets trying to get to the "Costco-type" stores of Hanoi. There are two. I went to "Metro" first only to find the parking lot was a lake, literally. There were about 5 people wading through the water that was up to the top of their legs. Crazy!

So I headed off to "Big C" only to find that my one-way road was flooded and there was only one way to get through...drive. Today I am very grateful that we have a SUV. I got to Big C only to find that their parking lot was a lake too, and the road that leads back to my house was totally closed off. I finally found another street to take me home, which was fine except for one part had the deepest water I've ever driven through. I pulled over to watch other brave SUVs drive through it. I also saw many turn around to find an alternate route. After watching a truck stall in the middle of the water, I made sure a few more SUVs made it through before going myself.

I am happy to say that I'm home, I'm dry and I was able to go to 2 small grocery stores and our local alley way to get enough ingredients to pull a somewhat okay dinner together for tonight. Want to come? We're having carrot soup, homemade pasta with creamy tomato sauce, and steamed zuccini for our veggie. The zuccini was plan D, but it looked fresh, so I guess we can be glad for that. Random thought, but let me say that the first thing I am buying when I get back to America is a bag of frozen chicken breasts at Costco! Oh the joy of that!

Rain is falling all around...

We are recovering from a typhoon that has been hitting Hanoi since Thursday night last week. Friday was unbelievable! I sat through my language class and could hardly believe gigantic black clouds that rolled in and made the sky even darker. This was seriously "curl up in pajamas and drink hot chocolate" weather. I love a good storm and this was fun to watch and made me really grateful to be dry in my home. I'm glad we weren't having to be tourists during this storm! Here are some cool photos Christian downloaded over the weekend... The worst-hit area was right in front of the embassy. The papers called it "the river of Lang Ha." They ended up shutting down the embassy at 3:30 and sending everyone home last Friday.


Our balcony has been leaking water in the middle of our living room through the fire alarm. Crazy huh! This has been happening for months whenever we get a good rainstorm. Well, last week they removed all the tiles and have begun the month-long process of re-tiling the balcony. With the lack of tiles and the abundance of rain, we've had our very own private waterfall inside our house: ) We're choosing to laugh about it rather than cry. We've upgraded from buckets to our American-sized trash can which seems to catch all the drips for a few hours.

One more thing...we have five de-humidifiers in our home. I've been meaning to blog about this fora while because it is so baffling to me, but I empty them every morning and night, which means we remove about 10 gallons of water out of our household air per day.

Deodorant

While sitting at the kitchen table working with Emma on her reading words, we realized that Xander was all too quiet. We went on a search and found him in the bathroom putting on deodorant! He's a little too young for it, but just copying what he sees mom and dad do.

Driving

We've been driving our car in Hanoi. The first time we drove to church, Christian asked: "doesn't it feel like we're going fast?" I answered: "Yes, it really does, how fast are we going?" Answer: 20 miles per hour!

It's just that crazy here : ) It's like driving amidst a swarm of bees. People weaving in and out of both lanes and driving all over the road. Nobody drives in a straight line. At a stoplight, (especially during rush hour) people cram into every available inch of space in order to make it through the light when it turns green. When we were driving home from parent teacher conferences last night I felt closter phobic in my own car!

It's actually polite to honk here as a courtesy to other drivers on the road - people just DON'T look around them when they drive, even when merging or turning. I rarely pass a motorbike without honking. Somehow I feel that if I honk 2-3 brief times it is more polite. I remember in the States, if someone would honk at me, I'd often get tears in my eyes because it was so offensive to me: "What? Are you saying I've done something wrong???"

These are some funny things I have seen in the past few days. A motorbike loaded up with mannequin parts. Bodices, heads, arms, etc. were strapped all over his bike, but the thing that was hilarious was that he had the long legs sticking out over his handle bars with the hips resting against his own stomach. From a side view it looked like he was driving his scooter with his own legs sticking over the handle bars. I wished I had the camera!

Today I saw the biggest "banana boat" of a scooter in my life. Imagine a skinny scooter with two ladies perched on it with huge three-foot round, four-foot tall baskets loaded FULL of green bananas on each side, and one strapped on the back. This time I did have the camera, but even going 20 mph it is dangerous to attempt to take a photo while driving.

Here are a couple photos from a blog Christian likes called HanoiJake. We love Vietnam.

Playing Cards & Goldfish

Tonight as we were brushing teeth, Emma said: "Mom, Satan is bad and Jesus and Heavenly Father are good. When they play cards, Jesus and Heavenly Father always win because they are stronger." My response with a straight face: "...humm, I bet you're right."

I love my kids and I must apologize for not keeping up with our blog. My intention was to post a little something every day, but obviously I haven't met that goal lately. I'll do better.

On the way to church last Sunday we passed a bike peddler selling pet fish. I was able to snap this photo of him. He looked at me as if he had no clue as to why I found him so interesting. I smiled and waved a thank you to him.

Visit to Special Needs School in Danang

During Christian's recent trip to Danang, the main highlight of his trip easily was his visit to a special needs school for mentally and physically handicapped children run by the Catholic Church. The school cares for children with all types of disabilities, caring for kids with disabilities from cerebral palsy to being hearing impaired. These children are largely at the margins of society and are neglected and ignored. They are prohibited from attending "normal" school.

It was truly touching to see the love that the nuns give to the 150+ children that attend the school. Some of the children live far outside the city and only go home one or two weekends a month. Christian was lucky to meet each of the children individually in their classrooms and to interact with them. Above are pictures of some of the students. On the left are some students practicing writing. Above right, Christian is interacting with some deaf high school students. They were very sharp and loved asking Christian questions about the United States. The school is really lacking in financial support since it is completely self-funded. The Embassy this year gave a small grant to assist the school but it really functions on a shoe string budget.

Christian's Travels

Sorry for not updating the blog more recently, Christian has been traveling for the last couple of weeks and life has been a bit hectic. A little over 2 weeks ago, Christian went to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for work meetings. He loved the vibrancy and beauty of the city and looks forward to going back sometime soon. Above is an example of some of the magnificent French architecture that still stands in Saigon (above left). His travels also took him to Danang where he met with local officials and religious leaders. Since the war, Danang has really thrived and is a large and growing city (above right). During his meetings, Christian had the opportunity to tell city officials of Grandpa Bitter's history of being stationed in the area. All in all, it was a fun trip for Christian. He is packing his bags again as we speak and will spend a couple of days this week in the Central Highlands in Pleiku meeting with local officials and more religious leaders. He hopes that his travel schedule calms down a bit after this next trip.