We took a short spring break and traveled to mainland China to an area near Guilin.  I’ve heard some describe it as the “Grand Canyon” of China.  I don’t think it’s an apt comparison, though, because the mountains and terrain around Guilin are quite different from the desert environment of the Grand Canyon.  Nevertheless, the area is equally  picturesque in its own right. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.  This area is quintessential China and is depicted on its 20 yuan note.

The mountains are gorgeous, haunting, almost creepy at times.

We spent most of our time biking through the countryside enjoying the scenery.

Along the way, we stopped at an ancient village that dates back to the 1500’s.  I wish the Volkswagen hadn’t been in the shot.

And we hiked up to a rock formation called Moonhill.

This is at the top of Moonhill.

Webley acted as our translator while we were there.  She and Aaron have been studying Mandarin since we moved to Hong Kong and they have both done well with it.  Webley is more bold in her practice of it, however, so she is happy to chat it up whenever the opportunity arises.  I wouldn’t say she is necessarily fluent, but she can certainly hang.  And there were certainly moments where we would have been completely lost without her.

We also spent a lot of time in the city of Yangshou.  We stumbled upon a Chinese Muslim noodle shop.  For those of you who have never had Chinese Muslim food, you are definitely missing out!

This guy literally makes a fresh batch of noodles for each order.

He rolls the dough out, pulls the noodles and then slams them on the table.

I think the slamming part is meant to shake the excess flour off of the noodles.  Then they throw the noodles in an enormous pot of boiling broth.  Out comes a blazing hot bowl of goodness.

It’s so good.  Webley ordered the noodles with garlic shoots and beef.  Yum!

It was a great trip!

So, we moved from our tiny 900 square foot apartment to a house that is a total of 1400 square feet of living space plus a roof top.  We did this in December and I’m just now getting around to writing about it.  Sorry.

I know these pictures are so interesting (not), but here’s our living room.

and kitchen

It’s definitely not as modern as our old place, but I can live with the outdated kitchen and ceiling fixtures for more space.

Our new place is literally 300 feet from our old apartment, but it might as well be a world away.  Our old apartment was located in a gated complex with loads of expats like ourselves.  It was like an island unto itself and it was a good place to transition from living in the U.S. to living in Hong Kong.

Now that we are more seasoned expats, we decided to venture outside of the walls of our enclave to the little village next door where the rents are much lower and the living space larger.  Our landlord is a local Chinese lady, Mrs. Man, or in Canto, Tai Tai Man, and she and her husband live in the flat beneath us.  She speaks English OK, but not great.  Still, her English is much better than my Canto.  I don’t think her husband speaks English at all, at least he pretends not to.

Most of our neighbors are also local with very little English-speakers.  There’s this sweet old lady who says hello to me nearly everyday, but can’t speak a lick of English.  I try in my broken Canto, but as you can imagine, I don’t get very far.  She loves Aaron.

Another one of our neighbors has a parrot name Jai Jai.  Before we moved to this village, I’d see his owner riding around on his bicycle with a perch rigged onto the handle bars of his bike.  The perch lights up at night and it also plays music.  I’ll see them riding around town at night with music blaring, lights flashing and Jai Jai bobbing his head to the beat as he’s being wheeled around.  I know all of this sounds really strange, but it’s completely true.  No one else around here acts like there’s anything unusual about it, though.   To prove none of this is made up, here’s a picture of Jai Jai on his bike.

He’s not sitting on his usual perch, but on this wind visor thingy that his owner constructed out of an empty water bottle.  Jai Jai sits inside this visor as he’s being biked around.  It apparently protects him from the chilly air while he is riding.  You can just make out the mini speaker rigged to the bike and there are all sorts of zip ties and bungee cords holding everything in place.  In this picture he is patiently waiting for his owner who is yam cha (having afternoon tea) at a dim sum restaurant.

When we moved in, we were happy to find out that Jai Jai lives just next door.  We hear him on the roof top singing very loudly “Happy birthday to you…” and then he’ll say in Canto that he wants to be fed.  He switches back and forth between English and Cantonese.  It’s quite impressive.  I dare say his Canto is better than mine.  Sometimes, however, he can go on and on until late at night.  Webley says that on some nights his chatter keeps her awake.

There’s also a lady not far from us whose favorite pastime is karaoke.  She sits all alone in front of an enormous TV and belts out Canto pop songs.  The windows are open and anyone who lives nearby (like us) can hear her, but she doesn’t seem to care at all about that.  I know I’m going to look back on all this one day and get a good chuckle.

So here are a few more shots of our new digs.

Webley’s room

Aaron’s room

Benjy’s and my bedroom

Homeschool area

Webley’s rooftop craft room

And the best part of all is this view.

I think it’s worth the price of admission.

The Woods Academy is two-thirds finished  with its third academic year (not that I’m counting down the weeks or anything).  I can’t believe that I have almost completed 3 years of homeschooling and I have neither duct taped my kids to their chairs nor resorted to any controlled substances to maintain my sanity.  I’m kidding…sort of.  <Sigh> Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, not for anyone, anywhere, but particularly in Hong Kong, where academics is worshipped like a god.  There’s a tremendous amount of pressure placed on going to the right schools, then having the right tutors, then participating in the right activities.  It’s a grind and the kids are dumped into it when they are just barely toddlers.

We began homeschooling in the U.S. before we moved to Hong Kong, not in anticipation of the move (we started before we knew we were moving), but for a lot of reasons which are a little too complex to describe in this post.  When we learned we were moving to Hong Kong, we decided to keep an open mind about putting the kids back into conventional school.  The schools in Hong Kong have an excellent reputation internationally.  Plus, we thought, the kids could benefit from the cultural experience of going to school in a foreign country.  Ultimately, we decided against dropping them into a local school and continued with homeschooling.

Homeschooling is quite uncommon in Hong Kong and when you tell people (even “western” expats) that our children are homeschooled, I immediately get a look like I have  grown 3 heads.  I remember one time I was talking to an Irish fellow who was a teacher at an international school.  He asked me where my kids went to school.  When I told him I homeschooled them, his eyes widened and he said to me in his thick Irish accent, “I admire you Americans.  You aren’t afraid to just take charge and do what you want to do.  In Ireland, people would be afraid to do such a thing, thinking it was against the rules or something.”  I looked at him oddly and said, “oh, I’m not trying to be a rebel or anything.  I just think it’s best for my children.”

I usually don’t get that kind of reaction, though.  Mostly it goes something like this:

“What do you mean you homeschool your kids?”  “Do you mean YOU teach them?”  “Do you have teaching experience?” “What do you teach them?”  Where do you get your curriculum?”  And then there’s the uber popular “But what about their social development???!!!!”  Oh so much concern for the social development of my children.  Those who ask such questions obviously do not socially interact with my children much.  Their social abilities are just fine, especially my daughter who is at ease (and almost prefers)  holding conversations with adults and to a lesser extent, my son, who charms just about everyone he meets in an instant.

 As counter-culture as homeschooling is in Hong Kong, I have slowly developed such a wonderful network of both local and expat families who are bravely, but discretely, bucking the system.  I’m especially intrigued by the local families who grew up in the Hong Kong education system (and who, I might add, were extremely successful in that system), but are now turning away from it.  It’s curious to me and also inspiring.  They recognize the failures of a “one size fits all” paradigm (notwithstanding their personal successes within it) and the needless oppression it can place on children.

We are part of a Christian homeschool group that is through our church, Island ECC.  I am so grateful for the gift of friendship of these lovely ladies!

Each of us slogs it out daily teaching our children not only academics, but more importantly Christian discipleship.  It can be ugly and messy and I haven’t met a homeschool mom yet who pretends her days are filled with crafts, baking cookies and doing fun science experiments.  Although now I will show you the edible cell that we did on one of our Science Fridays.

And our field trip to plant rice

And OK, I guess we do a little crafting…sometimes

What’s great about our homeschool group is that we are all painfully aware of how difficult all of this is.  In my opinion, there is nothing more revealing of the condition of my own heart than homeschooling.  It can truly be an instrument of His sanctification.  So, we encourage one another, provide advice and support and most importantly, we pray for one another.  I love how we pray for one another and for our children, our husbands and families.

For the record, I am not one of those homeschool moms who loves, loves homeschooling my kids.  I enjoy the time I get to spend with them (usually) and I am proud of the work they produce (most of the time).  But I am quite sure I am one of the most boring homeschool moms  out there.  I stick closely to the scripted curricula because I’m too fearful of missing something and too creatively challenged and pooped to come up with anything original.

Despite all the tears (and there have been buckets of tears shed by both me and Benjy), gray hairs (which are multiplying by the day if they haven’t already been torn out) and feelings of inadequacy and failure, we press forward because we believe that He has called us to it.  Most of the homeschool moms I know feel this way.  We die to self each day because it’s what we are called to do.  “For [the Lord’s] power is made perfect in weakness….For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I am reminded of this quote by Theodore Roosevelt:

     “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Over Chinese New Year, we went back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on a short term family mission trip with our church, Island ECC.  This year Benjy and I acted as co-leaders along with our friends, Jeff and Deb Holcombe.  The mission team included 23 people from 7 families, with our youngest team member being only 14 months old.  We partnered with two mission groups on the ground in Phnom Penh who have been faithfully doing their work there for several years, the Jehovah Jirah Center and Children at Risk.

As we did last year, we spent the bulk of our time with the JJ Center who ministers to children whose families work in and live around the city’s trash dump.

At the JJ Center, we held a vacation bible school for the kids.  They really enjoyed the games, crafts and coloring, which all centered around the Bible story in Mark 8 of Jesus healing the blind man.

The JJ Center provides one meal a day to the children and sometimes its the only meal a child may get.  After the games and crafts, we ate lunch with them and then had a birthday party with cake for all of the kids.

I was so proud of the kids on our team.  Most were between the ages of 8-12.  We provided the kids at the center tie-dyed t-shirts.

It is no exaggeration when I say that Webley tie-dyed every single shirt herself with no help from anyone, a total of 55 of them.  We were knee deep in tie dye!

As part of our ministry, we washed and de-loused the hair of the children at both Children and Risk and the JJ Center.  This is where I saw our kids really show their care and concern for their Cambodian friends.  Not just my kids, but most all of them on the team participated in the de-lousing with not a single complaint or hesitation.  And on some of the children, there was a lot of lice to deal with!

It was really sweet to see them work so selflessly.  After the hair washing, we took a tour of the area surrounding the JJ Center.  The JJ Center kids so wanted us to come visit each of their homes, but of course we only had time to visit a few.

We saw where the workers sort the trash.

Sometimes it’s easy for me to feel discouraged when faced with the plight of the people in Cambodia.  There’s so much corruption, poverty and hopelessness.  It makes me appreciate the work of the missionaries on the ground.  They battle it out day after day, week after week and year after year.  I am in awe of them and I pray for their support and encouragement.

“Christ has no body but yours.  No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ’s compassion to the world.  Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world.  Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body.  Christ has no body on earth but yours.”  –Teresa of Avila

December 4th was officially our 2-year anniversary of living in Hong Kong and I have to say that those 2 years went by in a flash.  The memories of our last weeks in our previous home, Jacksonville, Florida, are still fresh in my mind.  We were packing up and tearfully saying good bye to friends and family.  I can remember telling everyone, “we’ll be back in 2 years.  The time will go by quickly.”  Well, I was right about one thing.  The time did go by quickly.  But, here we are, two years later and we are still in Hong Kong.

Within in a year of us relocating, FedEx notified Benjy that they would be changing the airplanes based out of Hong Kong from the Airbus to the 767.  Benjy had to be trained on the 767 and long story short, it extended his commitment to stay in Hong Kong at least another 2 years.  We took the news in stride and we are actually excited about staying longer.  We just aren’t ready to leave yet.

I feel like we’ve come a long way since those first few months.  I’m no longer terrified of getting lost in the city; I can use public transport like a champ and my Canto skills are a little better (but not much).  The thing that has probably made the most difference is that I have made some really nice friends over here and our church is really awesome.  Hong Kong feels more like home now.

Here are some random pix taken around the city this past year that didn’t really fit into any particular post.

An enormous worm we saw near the water front.  Even Aaron wasn’t interested in picking it up and using it for bait.

Benjy as a terra cotta warrior.

We’ve taken the time to explore different parts of Hong Kong.

We visited the goldfish market where you can buy just about anything that goes into a tank, like salt or fresh water fish, turtles and hermit crabs.

There’s also a flower market with stalls and stalls of fresh flowers and plants.

And the bird market with a multitude of birds for sale.

And for my final picture of 2015, I saved one of my favorite photos for last.  It makes me giggle everytime I look at it.  I just had to share.

Clothes driers aren’t widely used here.  Most people hang their wash outside to dry, skivvies and all just flapping in the wind for the world to see.  Only in Hong Kong would you find panties juxtaposed alongside dried fish.

Happy New Year from Hong Kong!

Benjy’s mom, Karen, and her husband, Rob, came to visit us for two weeks.  We did the typical tour guide thing of Hong Kong, which of course would not be complete without a stop at the Peak.

It was a good day to visit the Peak.  The weather was cooler and the air was clear.  The views were stunning.

Rob and Karen were with us for two weeks, so we decided to visit the Philippines while they were in town.  We went to Palawan and spent a relaxing week at the beach.

We stayed on an island near Port Barton. To get there, we had to drive 2 hours from the airport on this “road” that seemed like it was straight out of the movie “Romancing the Stone.”  It was late at night and pitch black outside.   I was pretty sure we were going to get stuck in the mud  in the middle of nowhere and have to walk the rest of the way in the muck.  But, somehow we made it.  Then we hopped on a boat and took a 30 minute ride to an island.  Our travel adventure dramatically concluded when we arrived on the island and Karen slipped and practically did a cartwheel off of the boat into the water.  There was dead silence for a few seconds until she surfaced laughing hysterically.  We all breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn’t hurt and then gaffawed right along with her.

The kids were extra tickled by the name of the place.

Webley and Aaron have all of the seasons of Gilligan’s Island on DVD and they love the show just like Benjy and I did when we were kids.  On our first day, they spent about an hour singing the theme song over and over.  We pretty much had the whole island to ourselves.

This is the little house we stayed in.

True to the theme song from the show, there was no phone (not to mention wifi or internet access), very little lights, definitely no motor car and few luxuries, except the soft sand, gorgeous view and the constant sound of the waves breaking on the shore.  That was luxurious enough for me.

The house did not have air conditioning; it did have, however, hot running water, but during the day electricity for the house was generated by solar panels.  At night, an electric generator would turn on at around 6:00 p.m. to run the lights.  At 10:00 p.m., the generator shut off completely leaving us pretty much in the dark.  We slept under mosquito nets and battery powered fans.

Most of the days were spent doing beach stuff like shell hunting…

Kayaking…

and exploring the island.  There were a few locals who lived on the island, including 2 hosts who did a great job of taking care of us during our stay.

We also had a few chickens who kept us company

and a resident pig who I believe acted as our garbage disposal.

Of course Aaron got to do a bit of fishing.

We ate coconuts from the trees around our house.

Obligatory feet shot.

There was also a volleyball net and a giant, soft soccer ball (about 3 feet in circumference), that was more like a balloon than a soccer ball.  Rob, the kids, Benjy and I decided to play a few rounds of volley ball.  The first few matches were the kids and Rob against Benjy and me.  Benjy and I always came out victorious, no thanks at all to me.

Let me just pause here to say that I have no athletic ability whatsoever.  In addition, I absolutely hate volley ball.  I have flashbacks of being forced to play the game during P.E. in middle school, suffering jammed fingers and bruised arms.  I hate it now as much as I hated it then, but there just wasn’t much else to do and we needed a little bit of entertainment.  Plus, the “ball” was much softer than the ones I remembered from middle school.

Polar opposite to my lack of athletic ability is Benjy who is actually quite athletic and hates to lose.  Rob is also fairly athletic.  We decided to have a match with Rob, the kids and I all against Benjy.  Sure enough, Benjy won every time.  We did different iterations.  First there was Benjy against me with a something like a 10 point handicap.  He still beat me.  Then it was the kids and I against Benjy with a 10 point handicap.  He beat us.  Benjy then proposed that I play against Aaron with a 5 point handicap.  And yes, I got beat by my 8 year old son.   And no, I did not let him win!!  The boy hasn’t let me live it down since.  He’s still talking about it weeks later.  The 2 sentences I keep hearing repeated over and over since our trip are:

“Remember when Mimi did a cartwheel off the boat?” and “Remember when I beat mommy in volley ball?”  Yes, yes I remember both of those things.  The giant sea turtle we swam with seems much more memorable in my mind, but what do I know?

Aside from the volley ball, we spent a day touring around in a boat and we snorkeled at a few spots.

We swam with sea turtles and saw many colorful fish.  The sand was warm and soft.

Here’s a picture of our boat.

and us with our boat drivers.

It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

We took a day trip to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.  It is one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” and is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.  The underground river is 8.2 km long and it flows directly into the ocean.

The photos I took don’t do it justice for obvious reasons.  With the exception of the flashlight on the boat, it was pretty much pitch black.

There were also a lot of bats and lots of bat poop.

On the drive back, we stopped at a location of one of the challenges for the TV show, “The Amazing Race.”

We had a wonderful, relaxing time and it was so nice to just be with family!

I know I have been seriously slacking on posting on my blog.  Sorry about that!  I need to get back into the swing of things.  So, to kick off my recommitment to post more regularly, here’s the latest Dog of the Day picture, or in this case, it’s the Dogs of the Day picture.

I call this one “Poodles Mit des Lunettes de Soleil,” or

Poodles with Sunglasses, perfectly coifed and taking up a whole bench on the waterfront….only in Hong Kong.

More to come soon!

The second and third legs of our trip were in Sri Lanka.  Although we hated to leave the Maldives, we were excited to see what Sri Lanka had to offer.  Our first stop was a boutique hotel called Casa Heliconia located in Kaleliya, just outside the capital city of Columbo.

Benjy had planned our trip to be a relaxing one, so instead of going on tours or activities, we pretty much laid around, ate a lot and relaxed–something we haven’t done much of post-kiddos.

For this leg, Casa Heliconia was the destination and it was definitely an experience!  It was pretty much in the middle of a jungle with not much around it.  The website describes the hotel as “jungle glam.”

When we arrived it was dinner time and we were greeted with a traditional Sri Lankan meal.  Lots of curry!

This was our bedroom.

Our sitting area.

The shower, which was outdoors.

The hotel was really small, only 2 bedrooms.  Here are a few shots of the other bedroom.

The hotel had a small pool.

And its own bull.

I couldn’t figure out what he was for.  Being a bull, he obviously didn’t provide fresh milk. Neither was there any indication that he would eventually end up as dinner.  I think he was a sort of pet/lawn mower/decoration.  The hotel staff told me to steer clear of him because they said he wasn’t very friendly.

There were lots fresh fruit trees on the grounds.

Jackfruit

Mangos

Rose apples

We got to eat lots of fruit for breakfast.

More shots of the hotel.  The décor was quite eclectic and charming.

We hired a tuk tuk to give us the tour of the surrounding area.

We did a little shopping in the local economy and purchased coconut drinks and cashews.

After two days in Kaleliya, we boarded a train to Kandy, the third and final leg of our trip.

At the train station, Benjy was the only white guy probably within a 30 mile radius.

Kandy is located in the mountains of Sri Lanka.  We stayed at hotel called Taylor’s Hill.  Sri Lanka was formerly a British colony and as you can see the house reflects that style of architecture.  The house was built over 100 years ago by a British tea planter.

Staying there, we definitely got the English manor vibe, complete with the English gardens

stone architecture

and billiards room.

The décor was cozy and inviting.  Here’s the living room.

Dining room

and sun rooms.

There was also a pool.

And stunning views.

Here are some pictures of our room.

The hotel workers were all young men, probably in their 20’s.  They were so friendly and kind.  They invited Benjy to play cricket, which is not a sport he has ever played, nor a game he has ever been able to figure out.  He said that once while on deployment, he fell asleep watching a cricket game and there was a guy a bat.  Four hours later when he awoke, it was the same inning and the same guy was still at bat. Talk about a slow game! But cricket is quite popular and Sri Lanka.  Their national team is one of the best in the world.  Benjy was a good sport and played with them for almost 2 hours.

In keeping with the whole English manor theme, we enjoyed high tea every afternoon.  I have to say that I’ve grown quite fond of taking tea.  There’s just something so endearing about sitting down, having a cup of tea along with little fancy snacks and enjoying each other’s company.

And speaking of tea, we went up to one of the tea plantations to have a look around.  There were acres and acres of tea bushes.  Just gorgeous country!

In this picture you can see the workers picking the tea leaves.  All of them are women.

And this is what they look like up close.

Aren’t they simply beautiful?  I love their brightly colored clothing.

The pictures of these ladies are my favorite photos of the trip.

Our next stop was Loolecondera tea factory.  It’s the oldest tea factory in Sri Lanka.

 After the tea leaves are brought from the field, they are laid out to dry.

There are many stages to the tea making process, but I won’t go into great detail about it.  Here are some pictures of the process.

As you can imagine the air inside the factory was saturated with the scent of tea.  It smelled so lovely!  And yes, those are piles and piles of tea waiting to be bagged up.

And that was our anniversary trip!  Benjy did a great job planning it and we had a wonderful time!  Here’s to another 20 years and more!

This year Benjy and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.  The actual date isn’t until November, but because of some conflicts in the fall, Benjy decided to plan a big get away for us in April.  I knew the date of our trip and the length of it, but I didn’t know where we were going or what we would be doing.  He revealed to me at the airport that the first leg of our trip would be an overnight stop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but we would be proceeding early the next morning to our initial destination, the first of three.

The big reveal came at breakfast where he told me The Maldives. I must have had a blank stare on my face because Benjy asked me if I knew where the Maldives is.  I said, uh, no, but I think I’ve heard of it…a romantic island place with those fancy rooms on the water, right? Well, if the lavishness and extravagance of a vacation destination is an indication of how much a person’s love is for another, then Benjy’s love-o-meter for me must be off the charts!!  This place is NICE!! Fair warning: I took a lot of pictures which I know gets boring to look at, but the purpose of this blog is to keep a record of our adventures, so please indulge me.  Also, you’ll have to excuse the fact that at times I might drone on and on about how wonderful our trip was, but it was our 20th wedding anniversary celebration and Benjy put a lot of thought and effort into planning it.  I deeply appreciated everything he did and I want him to know it! ;0) So, we flew from Colombo on one of those small prop planes.  All I will say about that part of the trip is that we got there and back safely, so really what more can you ask for?

This was the view from the window.

The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean consisting of about 1,000 islands grouped in a chain of 26 atolls.  Many of the islands are privately owned and serve as vacation resorts. We landed at the airport in Male, the capital, and the view from there was itself stunning.

To get to our island, we still had to take a 45 minute boat ride.

And then we arrived…

Ahhhhh!  Each of the rooms at the resort was its own little cabana.  The room we stayed in for the first 3 nights had its own pool and

a private beach access.

The room itself was divine.

…with indoor AND outdoor showers and an outdoor tub, too!

The resort was, of course, spectacular.

The island was pretty small.  It only took us about 20 minutes to walk the perimeter of it.  It’s covered with these trees which provided cool shade for our strolls.

We enjoyed lovely sunsets and sunrises.

The last 2 nights of our stay we sprung for an over-water room.  We actually quite enjoyed our beachfront room with its private pool, but we figured this may be our only trip to such a destination, so we better take the opportunity while we had it.  And of course that room did not disappoint either.  There was a back deck with a huge sofa hanging over the water.

Obligatory feet shot from the sofa.

The room had floor to ceiling windows on 3 sides which opened fully.  We opened all the windows and let the ocean breeze blow through.  Here are some shots of our room.

There was a ladder going down from the deck directly into the ocean, so we could easily snorkel whenever we wanted.  And speaking of that, the snorkeling was spectacular.  The minute you would put your mask on and look into the water you could see beautiful, brightly colored fish and coral everywhere you looked.  We snorkeled everyday and saw sharks (there were reef sharks which I think means they don’t eat people; they seemed completely uninterested in us) and swam with a sea turtle.  I’ve heard people say that Maldives has the best snorkeling and scuba diving in the world and I believe it.

Here are some more shots of the over-water rooms.

It’s hard to believe that Benjy and I are old enough to be married 20 years.  We’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but looking back on our journey together, I have to thank the Lord for not only bringing us together, but for keeping us together.  The Lord and His word is the glue that holds us together.  It’s been a wonderful, blessed adventure and it just keeps getting better!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

We went to Hanoi for a few days to experience Northern Vietnam.  When we were in Ho Chi Minh City we were told by one of our tour guides that people from Hanoi are less friendly and much more serious than them.  He also said that Hanoians don’t like Americans as much because they were “the enemy” during the Vietnam War, referring to the fact that during that time Hanoi was communist and allied with the Soviet Union, while Saigon sided with the Americans.  I didn’t really find either to be true.  The people of Hanoi were just as friendly and kind as the ones in Saigon.  To casual observers like ourselves, we didn’t notice anything tremendously different about the two regions.

We saw much of the same as we what we saw in Ho Chi Minh City, like markets with fresh fruits and vegetables. I thought these baskets of produce were really pretty.

There was (very) fresh poultry and the not so usual ingredients like…

frogs…

eels…

…turtles….

…and idol offerings.

We went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where Uncle Ho himself is preserved and on display.  They have strict rules for visitors such as no talking, no hands in pockets and no uncovered legs or shoulders.  Photo taking is strictly prohibited (otherwise I would have included a shot of him here).

It was a bit creepy to see this dead guy lying in state.  The mausoleum is kept frigidly cold for reasons easy to guess. So there he lies pretty much year-round except for two weeks when his body is annually shipped to Russia to be freshened up.  I guess the Russians are considered to be the experts in the field since they put 2 former leaders, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, in such a state.  Stalin is no longer on display, but Lenin has lain in state since 1924.

This led Benjy and me to a discussion of how many former leaders are likewise preserved.  A quick google search reveals that there are 8: Russia’s Lenin and Stalin, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, China’s Mao Zedong, North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong Il and the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos.  The conversation then devolved into a discussion of whether we should create a bucket list that included viewing all 8 embalmed leaders.  We already had one marked off the list and it seems most are in or around Asia, making it theoretically possible for us to complete the list with relative ease.  But it might prove to be a bit tricky getting into North Korea and, darnit, we missed our opportunity to see Chairman Mao in Bejing when we were there last year.  I’m not sure why we bypassed it.  The line must have been too long.

Anyway, here’s a picture of Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum from the outside.

And here are some shots of Ho Chi Minh’s house

and tree house

Nice, huh?  Seems odd that a Communist “man of the people” would live in such grand accommodations, especially compared to the average Vietnamese.  But, no one seems bothered by the contradiction.

We also went to Hoa Lo Prison, derisively named the “Hanoi Hilton.”  The prison was initially built by French colonists to hold Vietnamese political prisoners.  These were the prison uniforms.

“MC” stands for Maison Centrale, which was what the French called the prison.

During the Vietnam War, American prisoners of war were held there.  Here is a picture of John McCain’s flight suit.

It was interesting to observe that most of the information at the museum dealt with its use by the French.  Much discussion focused on the poor treatment political prisoners suffered under the French.  There were only  2 small rooms devoted to the discussion of its use as a prison during the Vietnam War.  In those rooms are pictures of the American prisoners who were held captive.  Their lives were depicted to be quite nice and comfortable, in stark contrast to the lives of the Vietnamese political prisoners held by the French.  Much was made of how well the Vietnamese treated the American prisoners.

I suppose if you win the war, you get to tell your own version of the story.

One of the things that Benjy and I have grown to love about Asia is the street food.  It’s cheap (the operative word for Team Woods) and it’s soooo good.  I know the thought of eating food made by some random hanging out on the street would make a lot of you germ-a-phobes cringe, but we’ve never gotten sick (well, not that sick) and it’s fun to just try all the stuff that’s out there.  So, we wandered around the city sampling Northern Vietnamese cuisine.  We got our first sampling of egg cream coffee at this shop.

MMmmmm!

Bun Cha (barbequed pork meatballs with rice noodles).

loads of rice and

bun bo nam bo (beef noodles).

Yummy!