The Countdown begins!

View from Hotel Room
Back Beach hotel room view
Entrance to Siem Reap Airport
Siem Reap Airport

Monday March 1st 2010, Nancy here.

Its 10 oclock in the morning and 27 degrees and hazy. Exactly one week from today Maeve and Nina will be at school, I will be at work, and Brian will be unpacking, or maybe shovelling snow.

It is hard to believe that while I gaze out at the ocean in Vung Tau.

We left Cambodia on Saturday am and flew to Ho Chi Minh City. The flight was a short and bumpy one hour. We arrived in the crazy, crowded, and noisy HCMC, quite a change from the relative quiet of Siem Reap but still a lovely 35 degrees! We went to our favourite guesthouse there, the Red Sun, and stayed for one night. We had to stop at the market to buy another duffel bag!!! to store our ever increasing "stuff' . I think Deb will need to rent a cube van to come and get us!!!!!

We took the Soviet diesel express of a hydrofoil , we are veteran hydrofoil riders now, and zipped to Vung Tau in just 1 hour. We are spending a few days here to visit the orphanage, the babies, and our friends here , before heading back to HCMC and home.

Craig and Kelly from Vancouver are also in Vietnam and will fly to HCMC to rendevous with us before we leave ! Hurray!

The girls and Brian are in the pool, and I am packing up the suitcases to switch rooms. We are off to the orphanage this afternoon !

Talk to you soon

oxoxox N

Cambodia

Hi everyone! Maeve here once again!

We were in Cambodia for the last week. We took a "fast" boat to Phnom Penh and stayed in the Goldiana Hotel was really expensive especially for a place with no wifi in the rooms and a really bad TV signal but it had a pool. We stayed there and just walked around and explored etc. Then took a 6 hour bus to Siem Reap and stayed at the Mekong Angkor Palace which also had a pool. We went to Angkor Wat and there were lots of beggars. I have to go 'cause Dad wants to see the Hydrofoil times for tomorrow. See you 5 days!

Maeve

P.S. The picture of our feet in the water was a fish massage and they fish "licked" our feet!

Siem Reap

Friday Februay 26^th 2010, Nancy here,

We leave in just one week, I can hardly believe that time has gone so fast!!!!!

We are still in Cambodia the town of Siem Reap. It has been 31 to 35 degrees every day as well as being humid. After the sun goes down at about 6, the breeze is beautiful but the temperature feels about the same.

We have been to the amazing Angkor Wat 2 times so far and Brian is there now too

( time number 3). It isn’t far from the town – and you can buy passes from1 day up to seven days. Kids under 12 are free but poor old Maeve is so tall no one believed us, and we had to show her passport at each separate site! Even then they looked at us suspiciously!.

The enourmous site that is the Angkor also has some of the last remnants of a tropical monsoon forest. Many of the trees here are 400 to 500 years old. Some may be older. Despite all of the hardship and civil war no one touched this forest. Something of a miracle when the rest of the countries vegetation has been decimated for firewood and other things.

Last night we took a tuk –tuk (a little covered carriage pulled by a motorcycle) out to Ankgor to watch the sunset and to see the monuments in the evening light. We four and a friend we met squeezed on the tuk tuk and out we went, the friend got stuck in the temple somehow avoiding the security guards . Eventually she emerged and we were almost the last ones out of the complex , she was thrilled to have been stuck there because she got to see the moon rise!?

Yesterday we discovered a wonderful little spot that was reviving the lost art of Khmer traditional textiles. The knowledge has almost been completely lost due to the fact that almost anyone old enough to know it was killed in the many years of war oand genocide here. A Japanese man came here and individually searched villages for the old women who had experience with the art. He has an amazing spot here that trains and supports anyone wishing to learn the spinning, weaving, and dyeing skills! I could have stayed there all day.

Tommorrow we fly back to HCMC-leaving the peaceful pace of this country behind. The people are very friendly and full of smiles even the super persistent (ie pestery) kids trying to sell postcards!

Will write soon xoxoxo I hope snow is all finished by the time we get there!!!!!

Hey everyone! Maeve here.

I seem to have caught the cold Nina has and I feel pretty

awful! 2 months is going WAY to fast! I have to eat breakfast

but I'll see everyone very soon!

Maeve

Nina's post

Hey everyone!!!!

Nina here!!!We are going to Cambodia!!!We have less than two weeks left before we leave.Right now I am sick.

We stayed at a nice hotel called the Kim Lan Hotel two days ago!!!

Guess what, I learned how to play chess!

Bye for now!

Feb 20, 2010 en route to Cambodia

A family ferrying wood to sell at a local market
Aunt of our friend feeding her grandaughter, Thau.
A man gathering empty cans to sell.

The photos are from our village trip

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday Feb 20th 2010

808am

En Route to Cambodian Border via “fast boat”.

Hi again Nancy here

It feels like a long time since we added to the blog! We have had so many adventures it is hard to keep up sometimes!

We spent a week in the village of My Huong Le, a friend we made while visiting Nina’s old orphanage in Vung Tau. I think Maeve is telling you that adventure.

It certainly was a remarkable experience and an amazing window into a part of the country we would otherwise never see. The poverty was eye opening and the generosity humbling.

The fast boat takes 5 hours and is really very comfortable – a great view along the enormous Mekong river. Little boys and girls are washing and scrubbing their cattle right at the edges of the river! Right away you can tell when you have crossed into Cambodia, much more rural and much less populated. Still hot tho!!!! 38 degrees in Phnom Penh today.

We plan to spend a few days in the capital and then take a bus up to Siem Reap where the famous temples are. We hope to rendevous with Craig and Kelly from Vancouver but we are still trying to co-ordinate schedules.

Talk to you soon!

Picture from the village

Hammocks in a coffee shop
Nina and the lady's. Tau
Maeve, Nina, and Quan Anh
Unknown, Nhum, Duy.

Our Tet week in the Village

Hey everyone! Maeve here .

The last time I blogged I only had a little time so I have decided that I will not tell you about Dalat and instead tell you about Tet in the Mekong. We took a 8 hour stinky, hot,

and cockroach infested bus (the brochure said it was the best!) and finally arrived at 10:30 pm in Can Tho, the 4th largest city in Vietnam.

We stayed the night at the Kim Lan hotel and the next day was picked up by our friend My Huong Le and her son, Daniel. We all took a taxi to Metro, an enormous shopping warehouse that had EVERYTHING in it. At the doors you have to show you Metro ID, which you only can get if you work somewhere in Vietnam. They have this height thing so they wouldn’t let Nina in but we pleaded with them so they finally said OK. Since My Huong had to buy food and presents for all of Trong Long village we had about 5 carts. We walked around pulling HUGE containers of 7-up, Fanta, , and Mirinda off the shelves. We bought pretty much whatever we wanted which included my new fave cereal. When we got to the milk section we had to buy gallons and gallons of milk. At the checkout Nina, Dad, and Daniel played slide the milk down the checkout while the helpful ones (me, Mom, and My Huong) loaded everything on. Once outside we met up Tran, My Huong’s cousin. We had to hire 2 mini-vans to get all the food in plus us.

It was a hour drive to Trong Long village and when we got there all we saw was a little marble stone house. We jumped out and My Huong led us down a path to her house, a small blue concrete building. My Huong led us inside to our room. It had a little couch in the front and 1 bed in the back(me and Nina slept on the floor on mattresses). Its not what I call the Sheraton but it was lovely. Mom and Dad looked around and I went to see the river. There was a stick supported by only 4 other sticks leading to 2 boats. Some of the kids were walking on them and jumping onto the boats(did I mention there are hundreds of kids). I grabbed the pole they had hung onto and walked across, then came back and wanted to the see the

river close up. It looked solid because the tide was in and there was only mud so I jumped(I know that was stupid) and sunk to my knees in sticky mud. I got out and wiped the bottom of my feet and and started to walk in the take a shower and as soon as Mom saw me she screamed “Maeve, what are you doing!” because she thought that I meant to do that. A young lady called me over and cleaned off my legs.

After that affair we had lunch with an American couple who were staying with My Huong too. The couple(Richard and Judith) were from Alburqerque. Then we went to our rooms and rested and did homework. My Huong had told us that you call you aunt and uncle etc. by in which order they were born i.e. uncle 6, aunt 5. We were introduced to some of the many relatives including Quan Anh (pronounced Win ann), Nhum, Duy ( pronounced Yey)

and Uncle 6 and Uncle 9/ Richard’s bodyguard. The lady who cleaned my feet was Quan Anh’s mother and Duy is her older brother. Quan Anh is 2 and is the cutest thing in the world (she kinda looks like Tessa).

The next day we went on a boat ride with Phoung, a cousin or something and met her 2 sons Tau and Giang and also there goats. The rest of that day was pretty quiet. I can’t really remember what order everything happened in but we went on a 2 1/2 boat ride to another village and got back in the dark. The night before Tet was the Lotto night were we played Bingo. I fell asleep so get the details from Mom or Dad. On Tet we hung around and ate junk food and that night was “Trong Long Idol” a singing competition. Right before it started people were playing table tennis and the table fell on Dad’s foot. He was yelling at Mom to get the people to stop touching his foot. He said it was broken but Mom, the ex- nurse said it was probably just a very painful bruise and he can have it X-rayed when we come home. My Huong’s mother did the village treatment and now he’s walking around just fine. On Mom’s birthday everyone from the village who lived near us gave her presents!The day before we left we went on another boat trip to a market. We bought Quan

Anh some hair clips and Tau and Giang a toy each. After we went to Phoung’s house. She live’s in government housing and you only get government housing if you own NOTHING. Phuong live’s there with Giang and Tau and her husband. It was awful leaving and I just want to stay there forever (no offense to Canada).

We drove back to Can Tho and stayed at the Kim Lan hotel again and looked around for a way to go to Cambodia. We couldn’t really find one so we went to Chau Doc by taxi. We looked of a place to sell us fast boat tickets ad found one. We had 2 rooms at the hotel so me and Nina watched TV all afternoon. Nina’s didn’t feel good at dinner and is not feeling good now. We are on a boat in Cambodia currently and I am going to play on the computer now but I have to get to 1000 word so BYE!

Maeve

Dalat-HCMC

Hey everyone! Maeve here.

We were in Dalat for the last week. We arrived on Tuesday from Hanoi

and took a hour taxi ride from the airport to the Golf 3 hotel. The Golf 3 was

a pretty nice place but way to expensive so we moved to the $12 dollar a night

Peace 1 Hotel. I really didn't like it at first but now I love it. We wanted to take

a half hour train ride to see the giant Budda but we missed the train so we went to

the cable car and went over to the monestary and looked around. The next day we

went again but with homework. I have to go cause we are going to My Huong's village.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Maeve

Some pic's of Dalat

Dalat - Monday Feb 9th 2010

Monday February 9th 2010 230 pm, 25C and clear!

Hello everyone! Nancy again!

We are still in beautiful Dalat! We decided to make it a bit of a home base for a while. A little bit of absolutely perfect weather before descending into the heat and humidity of the Mekong Delta on the 12th.

We are in our favourite place - the monastary at the end of the cable car ! A haven of quiet and bamboo trees! There is also a man made lake at the base of the hills.

Yesterday while Brian was off riding around visiting old military sites on the back of an “Easy Rider” motorcycle, we decided to rescue some turtles that were for sale on the back of a motor bike in the blazing sun. The turtles and many varieties of fish were in bags of water waiting for the Tet holiday(as pets - not food). They had been out in the hot sun for 2 days! At the girls insistence we approached the vendor and bought all 8 of the turtles - there were 4 tiny baby soft shell snout nose ones, and 4 medium sized Cootes paradise types. The man, and his buddies who were watching this amusing interaction, could not believe we wanted any turtles at all let alone all 8 of them!! It probably made a good story to tell at dinner - Crazy Canadians who didn’t know what they were doing!

After we bought the creatures we hailed a cab and set off for the cable car! We disguised the clear plastic bag within a dark one just in case the turtles didn’t meet the height requirement of the cable car. We hopped off at the end and took the path through the pine trees on the monestary grounds to the lake. I have no idea really if the lake is the right habitat for the turtles but I figure they had a better chance there than cooking on the motorcycle! Of course the lake front is populated by boat rides little shacks that sell pop and water and various souvenir stands. We chose the least populated cafe and bought some drinks as cover . We then let them out one by one with a little prayer for there survival! They all swam away and I hope they fine a safe place to hide. On our way back we passed some very sad and hot monkeys in cages that screeched very menacingly as we passed. We still had a few cashews left and as we tossed them to the monkeys, one reached out his paw and hit my hand so hard I thought I would be off to Singapore for rabies shots post haste! However he didn’t break the skin and my blood pressure eventually returned to normal!

It was probably some sort of weird payback for Tamio biting our neighbour this fall !

We also met a young women who had a little booth selling handicrafts and actually had a little loom set up at the front of her shop.e and She was weaving a beautiful red silk and cotton panel that would eventually be made into a table cloth. We started chatting and she told us that while studying” Tourism” (which seems to be very popular) at University she visited a minority village. The minority people here are very poor and marginalized it seems. While at the village, which was a weaving village, she hatched an idea to open a shop and sell the weaving for the women who wove it. After she was finished school she returned to the village and the women taught her to weave . They also built her 2 looms . The looms were amazing - very basic, primitive and effecient. She showed us what she was making and explained the symbols in the cloth. The style was of the K’ho (?) people, who live not too far from Dalat city. I may try and visit tommorrow.

Bye for now

N

Dalat is Delightful

Brian here. Well we're in delightful Dalat where the weather is great and the town is beautiful. It's about 25 C, blue sky and dry and has been for the past 4 days. The town has many hills with a central market that sells every type of vegetable, fruit and beast. It has a real European feel to it with good coffee, breads, amazing creme brulee (50 cents) and pancakes which all of us have been enjoying. The town is at the top of a mountain and has many other mountains around it. In the countryside around the city, vegetables, fruits, tea, coffee etc grow in terraced fields that climb the hills.

On Wednesday the girls and I went to what is called the Crazy House, built by a Russian educated Vietnamese woman who's father succeeded Ho Chi Minh as president. We actually met her as she sold tickets to enter the house ( 75 cents each). This 4 story structure is made of concrete with 9 different themed rooms (which people can stay at) based on animals and trees. It is a wild concoction of concrete, colour, wild shaped rooms, ladders etc. We will try to post a picture of it because words do not describe it. On thursday we took a cable car that goes high above the pines to a pagoda nestled in the hills. Again a knock out. We promised the girls that we would return to the pagoda - this time with their homework.

Yesterday I rented a motorbike for 8 hours and drove through the mountains to a waterfall and a small family run silk factory. What a beautiful part of Vietnam this is. Of course I drive at half the speed the Viets drive. They are very skilled and sometimes a bit crazy. Drove down a mountain pass and into a valley. Nancy is doing it right now, but for her, she decided to do it with what is called an "Easy Rider" which is Dalat's very own motorbike touring club. She will no doubt give an update on this.

We've found the people in Vietnam very engaging. Of course there are a few scammers and we westerners, with all our toys, stand out. But usually people are very kind and take the time to find out who you are even in the most remotest places. Now that we have been here for a month, we try to eat on the street a lot more. This way you get to sit with people, on their little plastic chairs and drink tea or sip Pho. We have also met many people from other places, especially Australia. We have had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with them on occasions and this has been great. Last, but not least, we keep bumping into Derek, a 78 yr old English man from Southwest England who travels for 2 months each winter. He has been doing this for the past 18 yrs since he retired. He is in great shape and is a very good historian. We first met him in Hanoi 3 wks ago, then Bac Ha 2 wks ago, then Hanoi again and now Dalat. I'm sure this will continue.

Well, were off to the pagoda via cable car for homework and meditation. Till next time

Brian

Wednesday night in Dalat

Well here it is Wednesday night and the laundry ladies just delivered clean clothes!!!!! I hate to admit how exciting it is to get this delivery!!!

It is about 730 pm and we are thinking about supper before we all fall asleep. The food here is truly wonderful and this is from someone who isn't overly excited about food. The climate and terrain is the best for growing vegetables and the vendors on the streets and markets have a huge array of avocados , artichokes, cauliflowers, sweet potatoes and strawberries among a zillion others. Not only that- they also dry them to sell. My current favorite snack is sweet potatoes with sugar and ginger! The mangos with chili peppers and salt are good too!

We had great peach jam for breakfast, and I am still looking for the blackcurrant concoctions!

We have had a few computer problems and had to buy an external mouse. After wandering around these fascinating but circuitous streets I found a computer shop. The young lady sold me a mouse"guaranteed for 1 million clicks" for 50,000 dong, about$2.75. I hope it works.

I wanted to post some of the great shots that Brian took of Halong Bay and area before we get into the pic's from the Central Highlands.

I cant figure out how to put them in after the text so they are the ones above!

bye for now N xoxoxo

Hey everyone!

We went on a three day trip to Halong Bay and Monkey Island. So we are on the bus and it is bumpy and hope to got out of bus very soon or hope this bus will run out of gas!!!!Hey we stopped at a gas stop!

Monkey Island was so fun we went for two days and went kayaking,it was fun because I made Mom row.Try it!!

See you soon!

Nina

Hey everyone!!!!

We are in Dalat.It is very Hot out!!!!!!We are at a Very good hotel the Golf 3 Hotel.I got a heart jade necklace too!

It is so fun here!!!

See you soon!!

Nina

Feb 2nd 2010

En route to Dalat from Hanoi

(In the air)

Hi Everyone Nancy here!

Here we are on another travel day. We rather sadly left Hanoi today. What an amazing city and we just brushed a tiny touristy portion of it. Brian was more successful with his early morning explorations, and discovered lots of secret spots.

Hanoi was just gearing up for Tet, the annual lunar new year celebration. This year is the year of the Tiger (-Maeves sign, Emmas too.) The city is being decorated in the most amazing displays of flowers! Motorbikes, bicycles, trucks and handcarts are pouring down the streets all heavily laden with all shapes and sizes of trees and flowers. On the way to the airport we passed acres of land all planted in same green tree with little orange fruits. Also bare branch shrubs with the most delicate pink peach blossoms filled nurseries and fields. Tet Nguyen Dan is considered the most important festival of the year, a period of rebirth and spring. It is supposed to be a spiritual time that affects heaven and earth as well as each person and his /her destiny. I hope we remember to do all of the right things or we may have a rotten “destiny” for the next year!!

Maeve and Nina are sitting beside me industriously doing their homework through all the turbulence and Brian is wandering around looking for a free window seat to peer through.

Oh I feel the plane starting its descent! And soon the Jamaican accented pilot will come on and tell us to fasten our seatbelts so I had better log off now - talk to you later!!!