Catching up.

It's hard to believe, bet we have been back from SE Asia for a month now! Time does fly when your not having fun as well as when you are! Back to the grind of work, and a bathroom remodel.

In the rush of travel, and spotty computer and internet access I did not get a lot of our travels up on the blog. Much happened between our leaving Ha Noi and our 'epic' trip home from SE Asia. Over the next week or so I will try to catch things up for everyone!

A few days before New Years we left Ha Noi via train, heading south along the Vietnamese coast. Our departure was in the evening, and we spent most of the trip south to Da Nang sleeping, but in the morning we got some great views of the S China Sea.

We arrived in Danang and were picked up at the train station for a short drive to Hoi An. On the way we stopped at the sculpture works near marble Mountain. There is an amazing array of carvings of all sizes, whcih are sold and shipped all over the world!

Shortly we arrived at our hotel in Hoi An. It was quite the place. Between the wonderful hotel, the food, and the wonderful port city I wished that we had planned to stay longer than one night!

We got ourselves situated in our suite and then headed to the hotel restaurant to eat. The service was very good and the food was wondererful! Linda & Epiphany enjoyed a variety of local seafood, for which Hoi An is well known!

After eating, Linda went back to the room. (Linda got her money's worth on this luxurious room, as she spent most of our two days in the room as she was not feeling well.) Epiphany and I grabbed cameras and went out to explore the town. We wound up out well after dark, a beautiful time to be on the town in Hoi An!

The next morning Epiphany and I headed out early, to make the most of our half day in town. Unfortunatly Epiphany's camera had died and was not working. She elected to head back to the hotel and I had the morning to my self. It was pretty much the first time during the trip that I had to myself.

It was a pleasant monring, making my way at my own pace and I enjoyed my 'morning on the town' visiting the market, Japanese covered bridge, and other sights, returning to the hotel in time to pack and meet our driver to head back to Danang and the train which would take us south to our next stop in Nha Trang.

Hanoi - Old Quarter

Hanoi is a frenetic, noisy, chaotic place!

Yesterday Linda & I explored the Old Quarter of Hanoi, which is where our hotel is located. It is filled with small shops, people, cars, and motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes!

Consumerism flourishes here in the Old Quarter! There are countless shops selling everything you can imagine - textiles, clothing, shoes, wallets, purses, bags, belts, watches, electronics, dishes, pots, pans, gifts of all types, and countless varieties of produce, food. Motorbikes bicycles & trucks run back and forth transporting goods to the shops. Shoppers walk, bike, motorbike and wander about. It is pretty much total chaos, and crossing the street is an adventure in and of itself. It is amazing that there are not more crashes.

We wandered the narrow streets and alleyways, getting totally lost and then worked on finding our way back to our hotel. It was a frenetic and exhausting adventure!

We also spent time today on a stroll around the lake beside our hotel. While we were exploring our little part of Hanoi, epiphany was moving from the dorms at school to the Opera Hilton Hotel and finishing here last paper. We joined her in the evening for dinner at a small restaurant.

We have not yet made out plans for today, but I am sure it will be another adventure. If it does get dull or boring, there is always going out and trying to stay alive while crossing the street!

Christmas in Vietnam

It has been an odd Christmas season for Linda & I. Our house has no Christmas lights, no decoration, no tree, not even the most important part of Christmas, hanging the stockings! We have done virtually no Christmas shopping. We did not throw our annual Christmas party this year. From all appearances we are skipping Christmas this year. We did dig out the Christmas records and CDs, but that is it.

Linda & I are headed off to Vietnam to spend 3 weeks visiting with our daughter Epiphany who is with the UPS Pacific Rim study abroad program. We will be leaving Sunday. (if we can get to the airport, and the planes are flying!) We will be spending the Christmas and New Years holidays in Vietnam with Epiphany. It just didn't make sense to put up the lights and decorations, buy a tree, and do all the regular Christmas stuff when we won't be here.

We will be celebrating Christmas eve with the PacRim group. Christmas morning we will do a small celebration in our hotel room - we are bringing Christmas stockings with us. For the rest of our Christmas celebrations, Epiphany is in charge and is planning a day out in Hanoi.

It has been a bit odd to not be involved much with all the holiday preparations this year. Any Christmas shopping we do will be in SE Asia. We will also be missing our daughter Rachel & her husband Josh's first Christmas in their new house in Portland, something I regret, but one can't be two places at the same time.

Linda & I are certainly looking forward to our vacation, we have not had one in a long time. Merry Christmas to everyone, hope you have a good one. I will try to write from Asia. If not I will update you all upon our return in January!