Holiday in Vietnam

The kids had a week of school off for the Autumn Moon Festival, a Chinese National holiday, so we took the opportunity to travel to Vietnam.  We flew from Beijing to Seoul, South Korea and then down to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  We stayed in Ho Chi Minh for a night and then left the next day to fly up to DaNang.  DaNang was home to one of  the world's busiest airport during the Vietnam War.  There was a US air base there and it was also where many soldiers would go for a little R and R.  

We stayed at the Intercontinental Sun Peninsula Resort.  It was absolutely one of the most relaxing and beautiful places that I have ever stayed.  The kids got to enjoy one day of swimming before all hell broke loose and we were hit with a Typhoon. 

The resort took proper measures and had most of the lower level rooms and restaurants boarded up, and moved us to a villa on a lower point of the mountain side just in case the wind speeds got too high.  There was a lot of rain and huge waves rolling in, but nothing that kept us from losing sleep over.  Yep, we slept right through the worst part of it.  Oh well!  We still had a lot of fun relaxing, playing games, hitting the gym, and catching up on some TV shows and movies until the storm passed by.

Once the storm passed, we hit the beach for some swimming, fishing, and beach football (soccer) with some Aussie friends we made.  It turned out to be a great time but I wished we could have stayed a few more days to actually catch some sun rays (this white girl needs a tan.) but we had to head back to Ho Chi Minh City.

When we were back in Ho Chi Minh it started pouring down rain again.  (I swear those rain clouds were following us around!)  We still tromped through the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh to go visit the "American War Remnants Museum".

It was interesting to see the war from their perspective.  They call it "The American War" and it was definitely a bit biased against Americans, but I guess that was to be expected.  It had a lot of graphic pictures from the war.  A whole section was dedicated to the after affects of Agent Orange and outside there were US choppers, planes, tanks and artillery that were left behind.  You definitely did not leave feeling all light hearted and happy.  We had to take the kids back to the hotel and give them, and ourselves, a bit of a history lesson to help them understand why we got involved, and to hear the US's side of the story.  I have always heard the saying that "war is hell" and now they know that it goes both ways and there are always 2 sides to every story.

The last day in Ho Chi Minh we had fun strolling through the streets, watching the thousands of motorbikes whiz by.  It is a very busy city and there are people everywhere.  There is also a lot of good shopping so we headed to their market place to see what we could find.  Market places are always interesting and Ho Chi Minh's didn't disappoint!  I almost bought a bottle that had a disgusting snake preserved in it and one with a huge scorpion in it.  Why????  I don't know exactly.  I think it would be a really interesting conversation piece sitting on my kitchen cupboards with my bottles of wine and decorative peppers in a bottle.  Unfortunately, we weren't checking our bags so I am pretty sure it would have been confiscated.

We headed back to the airport after eating some pho (traditional Vietnamese noodles) and spent the night sleeping in an airplane.  We had a great trip despite the weather and the best part was the last day we were there, my beautiful eldest daughter turned 13 years old.  YIKES!  We have a teenager.  I don't look old enough to have a teenager, do I???  (Don't answer that unless you are a good liar!)  Not many 13 year olds can say they were in 3 different countries on their birthdays.  Vietnam, Bangkok, Thailand and then Beijing, China. 

 

Seoul, South Korea  (taken by Ella out of airplane)

Ella in the pool in Ho Chi Minh

Sweet sisters

Roof top pool with glass enclosure made for some fun pics.

Sisterly LOVE

Checking in at Intercontinental Resort in DaNang.

Our room

Checking out the view!

Girls in the hot tub.

Catching some pool time in the rain.

My littlest sweetie is all tuckered out.

They had these lifts to take you up the mountain side to get to your villa.

The very nice Gondola driver.

Red flags blazing for 3 days of our vacation.

The typhoon is starting to bring in some rough waves.

Workers boarding up one of the restaurants on the beach.

View of rough water from our room.

This resort is prepared.  What do you do when there is a typhoon??  They had pool, chess, wii, x box and all kinds of board games to entertain.

Ella

Julia

I practiced some photography while we were waiting.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil
(probably my fave pic)

Hallelujah! we have sun and a yellow flag.  Lets hit the beach!

Beach soccer with some new friends.

This is a basket boat.  We were supposed to go fishing in one of these but to much current.  If you looked at the hand woven boat you would have question it's ability to stay afloat!

Our balcony.

I could never have gotten tired of this view!

Tea time.

Kelly and Ella watching ships in the distance.

Tea time on the balcony.  We ate all of our meals out there.  Nothing better than really good food and an even better view.

See what I mean about the view???

Julia shore fishing.

Ella giving it a go.

Biggest catch of the day!

Kelly

At the long bar for some drinks and dinner.

Dinner on the balcony.

Julia in her Vietnamese non la.

Ella in hers.

Panoramic view of the resort from our balcony.

Ho Chi Minh City.  Vietnamese Presidents house.

Walking the streets of Ho Chi Minh in the rain.

Images of Vietnam War from the Remnants Museum.

I took pictures of some of the images that I found interesting.

Ella wanted to donate money to the fund for people with medical conditions caused from Agent Orange.

Our boys!

I know this picture is bad because you can see me in it but the soldiers last name was Wilson (my maiden name).

This image was somehow so sad but so beautiful at the same time.  I just wanted to snatch that girl from the picture and hug her.

US choppers

Again, not the best quality because of the glare, but my heart ached for this guy.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Wondering the streets of Ho Chi Minh.

Not that you can't find some Vietnamese people in the US to do your nails but when in Vietnam.  BTW.....they were good!

Family of 4 on the family scooter.

Scooters EVERYWHERE!  It is great!

Waiting to board our flight out of Bangkok.  Ella is wiped out!

Ella playing China Club Football!

It's that time of year again.......soccer time!  Ella once again made the China Club Football team and is the only girl on the team.  She is friends with a lot of the boys on her team so it was a lot easier adjustment this time around.  They had some friendly matches and she did great.  We are super proud of her!  Take a look!

Weekend in Xian, China

The kids had an extra day off of school so we decided to go with 2 other families and site see in Xian, China.  Xian was the original capital of China until the last 300 and some odd years ago when they made it Beijing.  This area is also famous for the Terra cotta warriors. 
The Terra cotta warriors are a massive army of life sized clay statues that were discovered accidentally by a farmer back in 1974 when he was digging a well.  It is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world.
So here is your history lecture from Professor Val:  Emperor Qin took the throne in 246 B.C. at the ripe old age of 13.  Shortly after he took the throne he had his people start making a mausoleum for him.  (I find this morbidly odd for a 13 year old to be thinking about these things but so be it, It was like thousands of years ago)  So the story goes he had more than 700,000 people working to create this clay army to accompany him, as the first Emperor of China, into the afterlife.
Emperor Qin didn't live very long but did a lot in his short time as Emperor.  He unified a collection of warring kingdoms, standardized coins, weights and measures.  He also interlinked the states with canals and roads and is credited for the first version of the Great Wall.  Not bad for a prepubescent boy who evidently like to play with life sized toy soldiers!
So here is the amazing part.  These Terra cotta warriors are almost 2,200 years old.  They say that there are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority are still buried in the pits.  They are still trying to figure out how to preserve them better as they dig them out.  The paint disappears off of them in only a matter of minutes when the air hits them.
The whole thing was truly amazing to see!
Thank goodness they haven't dug up the Emperor tomb, (because I find that disturbing on so many levels) but if they ever did, it is said there are ridiculous amounts of jewels and priceless things buried with him.  I think it will be safe for a long time because part of the reason the guy died is because he thought that by eating mercury it would make him live forever.  To this day the mercury count is so high around his tomb that people are not allowed to be around or dig within a certain parameter of it.  So listen up kids...Marvel Comics are purely fictional.  Don't eat crazy things and think you are going to become Superman or The Hulk.  You will end up taking a dirt nap and we all know you kids don't like naps!!!
We also visited some other touristy spots in Xian like Temples and Pagodas.  The kids all had fun together and were sure to attract many Chinese admirers everywhere we went.  They all now have a taste of what it would be like to be a celebrity.  There are always people trying to take pictures of us on the sly.  Some are brave enough to politely ask, and then some are just bold and will come plop themselves between the kids and just start snapping away!  Oh, it's always an interesting experience!

This was our "party van" for the weekend. 

The kids posing in front of the monk that brought Buddhism from India into China.

Literally seconds after I snapped the last picture, the kids were mobbed by this crowd of Chinese people trying to snap pictures of the them.  CRAZY!!

Ella, Julia and Jane in front of the Big Goose Pagoda.

We better move quick!  We are starting to attract a crowd.

The whole group of kids in front of the Big Goose Pagoda, which is a Buddhist tower built in the year 652 during the Tang Dynasty.  They told us this things bricks were held together with sticky rice, kiwi juice and mud.  Go figure!

One of the rooms at the Pagoda had walls made of different colors of jade that told the story of one of the Emperors wives.  They said she was the only "full figured" Empress or their terms "fat" Empress.  She looks like a real buster, huh??

A self proclaimed famous calligraphist did a scroll of Ella's Chinese name.  "De Ai Lan"

And for Julia, "Du Ju Lin"

Out in the streets, across from our hotel, there was a huge area were people all gathered to play.  This was one group that was doing a traditional Chinese dance.  I so wanted to jump in and bust a move, but I'm not sure China is ready for that much of me yet!

This was the ceiling in the outside mall.  It had huge movie screen on it and thousands of people were standing there watching.

One of Ella's admirers.

What in pray tell are those furs of hanging in the back round???  Take one guess??  I'm pretty sure the tan and black one is a German Sheppard. Wow, PETA would have a hay day here! 

Ella is so good natured about little kids wanting their picture with her.  Here is another photo op.

Inside the first pit of the Terra cotta warriors.  This was just amazing!

Kelly, Ella and Julia taking it all in.

These are some of the statues that they are trying to put back together.

This is an archer and he was the only statue that was 100% intact.

This is what it looks like when the dig.  They have to gather the pieces and try to put together the world toughest jig saw puzzle.

The crew of kids.

Whoop, wait a minute.  The Asian Sharron Osbourne wants a pic with the kids!

This was the city center wall.  It is a mini Great Wall built all the way around the center of the city.  We rode tandem bikes all the way around it which was about 10 miles!

Traditional Chinese dinner.

Oh, wait.  I didn't realize that Spicy Ass Ligament was on the menu. Nothing like a little stewed sphincter to hit the spot!

Me and my extremely tall friend Kasey.  She said this is what it looked like at all of her middle school dances too!  Did I ever mention she played Division 1 basketball for Oregon State and received a Great 8 award along side none other than Tennessee's Peyton Manning.  How freaking cool is that!

Yep, we went into the Aston Martin Dealership.  We got to see James Bond's wheels.

Heading home, selfie on the plane!

Girls night out in honor of one of the greats!

One of the best parts of this whole experience has been meeting people from all over the world.  I have met some really neat people and have made some amazing friends.  The only problem is, people are constantly moving in and out of the neighborhood, which means it feels like every few months we are saying goodbye to someone.  This time it was my good friend Yvette.  She and her family are relocating to London, so we will definitely be going to visit her. 
We went out for dinner and drinks with the girls and celebrated our good friend.  Yvette, you will be missed more than you can imaging!

Me, Yvette, Jen, Hilary, Kasey and Joy

The DeSmet girls singing Radioactive

Although it may look like it......I did not have them at gunpoint to do this.  It was a quiet night here at the DeSmet house and the girls started playing and singing.  I didn't even know they sounded this good.  I was pretty impressed, so unbeknown to them......I'm sharing this video.  Julia had a Ukulele class at school and she has gotten pretty good.  Have a listen.
Double click link below!

http://youtu.be/UxfCfr-yArg

Shengri kuaile Kelly!

It is Kelly's Birthday and we haven't seen him all week.  He has been traveling China this week and working hard.  His coworkers didn't let the day go by unnoticed though.  I received this picture and just had to share.  I see he has pijiu (beer) and dangao (cake) so he at least got to celebrate.  Hurry home honey.  We miss you and love you!