Hanoi's Turtle Lake

Here is a sculpture of the turtle who saved the people of Vietnam.

Many years ago Hanoi's king was under seige by China. He went to the Lake and a turtle provided him with a magical sword with which he saved the city. After victory he returned to the lake and gave the sword back to the turtle.

We walked right to the edge of the lake. It was very green.

Linh's parents

Linh's mom and dad met us at the airport. Here is a photo of the four of us.

We've arrived in Vietnam!

We arrived last night in Vietnam. Linh, her mother and father picked us up. We are safe and sound and having fun. Will write more later.

This morning we got up and went with Linh and mother through the winding and twisting alleyways of Linh's neighborhood which is a suburb of Hanoi. We had Pho and a iced coconut drink which were very tasty. Going to the market was a true adventure, unfortunately we forgot the camera. We hope to go there another day and take photos. We were the only non-Vietnamese there.

We took a nap this afternoon and in the evening Linh's parents drove us around the downtown city. We saw West Lake and Turtle Lake. Turtle Lake possesses a folkstory. We'll talk about that in a separate post. We also saw the outside of Ho Chi Minh's tomb and got pictures there.

The electricity went out twice today. Once for 10 minutes around noon and once in the evening around 7:30 pm when it was out for 30-45 minutes. It has rained twice today. Once around noon (not sure how long as we fell asleep) and it is now raining at midnight.

Up, up and away!

We have arrived at the Tokyo Narita Airport safely. It was a long flight (14 hrs) from Chicago here but we fared well and slept some. Saw two movies. Food on the plane was good and we didn't get as cramped as I expected.

We didn't have a lot of turbulence but a little--particularly starting out and then again upon landing because there were 40 mph winds in Tokyo. It never got dark outside. I suppose because we were so far North. I had expected we would fly over Europe but we did not. We flew up over Canada and then Alaska. We were traveling 500-800 mph at 33,000 feet elevation. OUtside it was sometimes cold (as low as -45 degrees as we were very far North and flew just to the right of Siberia.) We were comfortable in our cabin.

In addition to the airline food (we had chicken with rice, sushi, salad and numerous other things--cheese and such) we've been chowing down on Jake's special trail mix. We're pretty full and staying hydrated. We will get some more sleep on the next 5 hour flight which will take us to Vietnam and Jake says he might look into learning how to operate the camera better so we can add pictures. :)

Thank you for your prayers.

Halong Bay--A World Wonder to Behold?

Halong Bay has been recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a world natural heritage twice for its values in terms of landscape and geology. It is considered one of the world's wonders.

While we in Minnesota tout out 10,000 lakes, Halong Bay has some 3,000 islands and inlets. I suppose it is similar to our Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in Northern MN in that it is uninhabited by people.

The history of the place tells a story by locals:
The legend of Ha Long has it that, “Once upon a time, soon after the Viet people established their country, invaders came. The Jade Emperor sent Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons down to earth to help the Viet people fight against their enemy. Just as the invaders’ boats were rushing to the shore, the dragons landed down on earth. The dragons immediately sent out from their mouths a lot of pearls, which then turned into thousands of stone islands emerging from the sea like great walls challenging the invaders’ boats. The fast boats couldn’t manage to stop and crashed into the islands and into each other and broke into pieces.
After the victory, Mother Dragon and Child Dragons didn’t return to Heaven but stayed on earth at the place where the battle had occurred. The location Mother Dragon landed is nowadays Ha Long Bay and where Child Dragons descended is now Bái Te Long. The dragons’ tails waving the water created Long Vĩ (present Trà Ce peninsula) and formed a fine sand beach over ten kilometers long.”

Linh's family has told us we will be visiting this place! Wow!!!!

Ready to leave?

Tomorrow at 9:40 a.m. we depart!

Jake and I have a litany of lists containing things to do before we leave. Still we've accomplished a lot and made a lot of progress!

I recently came across the historical meaning of the word 'honeymoon.' I thought I would share it on this blog since Vietnam will be our honeymoon trip.

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago

that for a month after the wedding,

the bride's father would supply his son-in-law

with all the mead he could drink.

Mead is a honey beer and because
their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the
honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon..

Counting down...4, 3, 2, 1

On this Friday morning it's hard to believe only four days and we'll be on our way to Vietnam. My estimate tells me that we will be traveling for 24 hrs to cover 9,000 miles which is half-way around the world. What an adventure we have ahead!!!

Today Linh and her family told us we'll have two days to adjust when we arrive and then we'll take a French train to a vacation area. :)