Guess who knows their numbers? ……. and no it is not Luke!

A couple of evenings ago Luke put some plastic blocks together that had numbers on them and proceeded to ask Grandmama what they were.  As Grandmama answered with apparent confidence "that's a two, a four, a five" and so on and did it to in random order too.  Luke seemed quite surprised - turned and ran to his Mom and announced that "Grandmama knows her numbers".  We are so proud.  

All this and just a day or two before her birthday too.  The day before Grandmama/s birthday We all walked to a nearby mall, (not a problem as there are lots of them) and had a nice western meal at a somewhat famous restaurant.  More parties and cake and celebrations to come as there are multiple days of celebrations planned for Grandmama's birthday now that she knows her numbers.

Getting there involved the riding-of-scooters for the kids and they are good at it.  However making an excursion with them is a bit like that famous old super bowl commercial about herding cats.  Actually there is a lot about these five that reminds me of the difficulty of "bringing in a herd of longhairs" (quote is from the comercial)

It is fun to watch them sail down a road though and sail is a good word to use here as they move so smoothly and effortlessly across down a greenway.

and will come right at ya — but you already knew that.

nooo —mine — noooo—— Mama ——aaaahhhh—nooo———wahhhh—mine  ———nooo

Julianna, after much saving, discussion, debate and a little shopping tried out these roller blades.  Despite the obvious obstacle course in the store, she was successful in navigating around the store enough times to convince herself that indeed she would make the biggest purchase she had ever made.  So now at most every opportunity, she is outside roller blading instead of scootering.  Note Isaac in the background, he too is quite the roller blade aficionado.  His savings are a bit short as of current date.

and Grandmama gets some snuggle time with Luke who really likes to look at photos on her phone

Got here and it is so nice too.

We have, after a bit of traveling, arrived to see grandchildren and as is evident from the photo below we were warmly and enthusiastically greeted.  Lydia after being dismissed from class across the way, ran to see her Grandmama. sweeping right past John Paul.  

(Also finally got good access to internet for a brief while here.)  

Julianna was just a little bit older, and I enjoyed the interplay between older sister and youngest brother as they passed in the same "adult free" (mostly) zone for kids to move freely to get to parents around the pick up area — there are 2,000 or so kids to be let out.  Thankfully not all at once and there is a definite order to the dismissals.

Luke coming at you and John Paul going away can flat out ride a scooter.  Fast and somewhat without regard for whomever may be on the sidewalk.  Could in the future probably serve them well if they rode motor cycles in Hanoi.

Julianna and friend walking home from school,

At the end of the block is Laura and Matt's apartment complex of a bunch of buildings.  Some only 9 stories tall, some 17, and some 25.  These in the foreground are about 27 to 35 which seems to be about the norm for this area.  Yes it looks like canyons to me.  I do not know what it looks like to them, home I reckon.

Patt has some eager learners for a new craft — knitting.  Of course they are trying to switch hands as neither is lefty so it has some translating to do and Patt tries to knit righty so it is knitted brow time too.

Very eager students too.  They get a lot of attention and we are glad to share it too.

I went with the boys to their school with Isaac and such fun to watch the dynamics as they begin the day so differently.  John Paul is READY to be there, Luke, not so much.  Both boys have on Wake Forest shirts if you will note.  They saw what I was wearing and would have on nothing else.  Like I said earlier.  We are well greeted and received.

And Lydia and I went to Ikea and a "date"  and actually got out of the store!  We did go down and up staircase to accomplish the exit — being foreigners has its advantage from time to time and that was one of them.  (Going on dates with the kids is one of my favorite times here.  We do lunch and a walk around someplace)(sometimes it involves transportation, sometimes not- this time not as Ikea is walking distance away — if you are not afraid of a walk)

Halong Bay-

and that is Halong Bay, tourist destination with that I should have used all capital letters for.  On the highway from Hanoi to Halong, four hour bus ride— it was the highway and the towns - not the distance that made it four hours, we passed numerous tour busses— ours was the fastest (nanny nanny boo boo) (also perhaps the scariest?)(only to motor cycles and cars).  First day was overcast and threatening.

The bay has nearly two thousand karst islands and you have seen them in a movie or two or three.  They are stunning— and beautiful.

Our boat, the Carina, nine cabins, one of the smaller overnight boats I think, or so my unscientific guess would make.  There were hundreds of boats similar to this, hundreds.

Told ya there were lots of other boats.  Sometimes you could see dozens of boats.  and in the morning when the day trip boast came through it was like a train.

Very very few of the islands had anything like a sandy beach, like two. Well perhaps more, but not many.

We make several stops, one was to go on a hike up one of the islands into a rather large to me cave that had multiple caves. It was well illuminated and had only a few narrow passages.  It did have a lot of people in it.

Some of the rooms were full of stalactites and stalagmites that were large and small.  The ceiling, roof, top? of the cave was an impressive wavy configuration.

the view from the exit of the cave.  The entrance was also high.

Patt climbed 400 steps to the top of another of the islands, I stayed below to swim. Ultimately I only got knee deep into the water after confirming that what a guy I met at the little beach at this island told me - that the water was a bit chilly "but it was alright after you got in".  I asked him where he was from and he said New York and I said it was probably going to be too cold for me and it was.

Our shipmates, less one Londoner who did not make this excursion. The rest include another Britisher, left to right four Australians, Patt and I, four from Mongolia, and two Germans.  An interesting group and I'm sure glad English is the common language! Of the crowd, only the Mongolians and one German had been to the US.

Our ship had sails,  I think for decoration purposes only. It did have a polished wooden
 upper deck which we enjoyed.

The first day was quite overcast but as is obvious, the second was very nice.

Hanoi 2015

Patt did it again, chose an excellent hotel and hotel location. This is the street we are on. Hang Hanh Street near Hoan Kiem Lake. We are talking Old Quarter, beside the French Quarter and quaint begins to describe it. And hard to believe, well not so hard actually, but this is the first place we have been that is not actually a genuine high traffic lots of tourists place--- though there are tourists here — and t-shirts to buy. and souvenirs too. It is after all the capital city and Raleigh has t=shirts and souvenirs too.

The trees are the rule, not an exception, for streets in Hanoi.

Just a street and actually I don't know how we got one with so few motor cycles. You will notice the pedestrians are in the street — risking life and limb due to the high speed of motor cycles and ruthlessness of the cars. Bravery is what it takes to cross a street. We saw no one get hit and did cross several streets ourselves.

Tall buildings are not the standard, just lots and lots of small ones.

and right in the middle of the old quarter around a corner is Maison Centrale also known as the Hanoi Hilton. Most of the prison has been torn down but a portion remains. It serves as a monument to the inhumane treatment of Vietnamese prisoners by the French who built the prison and the wonderful treatment of the Vietnamese of the American pilots who were there briefly during the American brutal war on the population of Vietnam. The American pilots played basketball, opened gifts from home and decorated Christmas trees. We know, we saw the photos.

These are the rooms the Vietnamese prisoners stayed in, no photos were shown of the rooms the Americans stayed in. I assume while the Americans were here these rooms were empty?  Not likely, perhaps they put intractable or troublesome Vietnamese soldiers in them, surely not the American pilots. At least according to the story here at the prison, now museum.

Anyway, back on the street, in this land of small business enterprise, everyone it seems is selling something. We were offered an endless array of items.

We did like this tourist - ride rickshaws and enjoyed it greatly, despite the frequent near misses that occurred as shown here. Neither Patt nor I leapt forward as this person did to take a photo. I like to think we were a little more subtle than that.

A buddhist pagoda as it was called here. This one was locked, but we went into one large one that was not and had several devotees praying and burning incense and making offerings.

This, surprisingly was one of the few bakeries that we found. I was all excited thinking we would be eating lots of French pastries and breads. Unfortunately we found it hard to find bakeries and when we did, I was inside - spending dong and looking over the offerings.

No shortage of people selling single vegetable offerings from bicycles or setting up small shops on the sidewalks which were either motor cycle parking lots, store extensions, restaurants, play areas, storage units, or individual shops. Pedestrian byway would be an incidental activity.

See what I mean. Any pedestrian movement through here is purely a matter of inconvenience to the women who have set up here to visit and snack, the motor cycle parking, and I forgot what the men were doing, probably not much. Seeing groups of people like these women was a frequent occurrence on the sidewalk - sitting on low stools around a single table drinking tea and perhaps eating something.

If you were to go by the museums of "history" that we found there was no history prior to the French occupancy of IndoChina. However, we found evidence that there is recognition of the fact that there was at least one famous Vietnamese person prior to that time. Here is Patt in the huge plaza leading up to the large statute of Ly Thai To who founded the Ly dynasty and more importantly, I reckon, also established Hanoi by moving the capital city here about 1022.

Now this is more like it, though a bit orderly with only one motor bike breaking the line. Actually this is a major stop light intersection and more minor ones just operate on a good-luck-to-you system. Patt and I were crossing this one with the light. The minor ones, we cross with the wish-us-luck system. We actually like jaywalking on one way streets because then you only have to look two ways.

We did go to the Vietnam History Museum and yes it did only start with French Colonialism. The great peoples struggle and development of the peoples party with their involvement with the Paris studies and trips to Moscow went on and on with documents and photos of the heroes of the revolutions and struggles. There were also various photos and heroic paintings of the fight against the French in the early 1950s.

These are relics and a photo taken from the fall of the French Fort Dien Bien Phu, one of the great Vietnamese victories over the French during the French IndoChinese war in 1954.  This was a major battle in the fight between the French and the Vietnamese and marks a major strategic mistake by the French of trying to build and maintain isolated forts.

When I was a boy of about 11 or 12 years old I read a lot about the French Foreign Legion and was a great admirer of that unit and what they had done in their "romantic history".   The Legion had a significant role in the defense of the fort at Dien Bein Phu.  There was a listing of regiments involved in the surrender and I found the list very interesting in its composition.  Though defeated, the Legion presented this defeat, as noble in their histories, as they volunteered to parachute into Dien Bien Phu late in the battle to reinforce the surrounded regular French army there.

I never imagined that I would ever actually see relics of that battle or of French Foreign Legionnaires  from that battle, much like I never imagined I would ever be in Hanoi.

              A lot has changed in forty years — a lot has changed.  

Ho Chi Minh City

Good to be back on line. This is a catch up. Below is a street corner in Ho Chi Minh City. Forty years ago known as Saigon, airport code still SGN. Patt and I got to Hanoi yesterday evening and internet here is mucho better-o.  

Ho Chi Minh City has, according to the internet, about 8.5 million people which puts it among the top thirty or forty or so largest cities in the world. Most of those 8.5 mil ride motor cycles and about half of them in pairs (some 3s), weaving in and out with little regard for directional flow of traffic or stop / go lights and yes we did see an occasional bike and rider down in the road— not often though.

And most street corners looked something like this with a rounded building, just like you thought it would.

We were a block and a half from their famous night market. Huge day and night time affair geared for both Vietnamese and tourists apparently, but tourists were definitely appreciated and sought after customers.

And the view outside our hotel balcony at night.  It was a pretty view over the city.

The above was from our hotel room balcony, below is daytime. Go to the intersection, turn left, go one block and you are at the market. Great location.  

I never did catch the intersection chaos like I wanted to with the traffic. Patt got a couple of great videos, one of a traffic circle that is awesome, but my uploading to a blog of videos has one success and multiple failures.

You've seen this before, the former Presidential Palace, now "Re-Unification Palace"

It has been remarkably well preserved like it was in the 1960-75 time period. Information about famous people who have been there like Kissinger, Patt and others.

This rather elegant hall was for receiving ambassadors, and distinguished quests. It is very well appointed.

Lots of photographs and written documentation to support that fact. Each room had details of what the room was for and information about activities that occurred in such room. As for example, Nixon meeting with Cao Ky in the room above.

They also had photos of other events regarding the palace, like this one of the South Vietnamese Air Force Pilot who bombed the building on April 8, 1975. That 40th anniversary just occurred for those of you who are math challenged. And this week will mark the fall of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country.

We also went to the War Remnants Museum. We read that some of the displays had been "toned down" since first opened after the war.  I am glad they had been. We still did not see all of the museum, omitted several rooms.

In the yard beside the museum there was enough artillery, tanks, helicopters, and other aircraft to outfit a small American task force. Each piece had an information sheet regarding the number of pieces of this particular type of material that had been deployed in Vietnam. Someone had done some homework.

Inside there was a fairly complete history of the post 1945 wars of Vietnam, starting with the French and then with America. They had all the American Unit insignias marked, bases and such on various maps, charts and graphs.

Also there were short unit histories and location of assignments of various units in Vietnam. Here is the 1st Army's assignment area and information about that unit.

One thing we did enjoy, if that is the correct word, was the large collection of photographs from war photographers from around the world who were covering the war. Of course many of the photos were those we had seen in Life Magazine or Time, Newsweek and so on. Many however were new. All carried an impact.

The short stories on many of the photographers were also quite powerful. A very large number of the photographers were killed or "disappeared on the way to …."  during the war. Several of the photos displayed were the "last frame shot on the camera recovered….".