Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year.  We had a ward party at our friend’s house, and Tanner dressed up as Anakin Skywalker because Andrew wanted to be Darth Vader.  Clark was Iron Man and I was Lightening McQueen.  Audrey was a cow and she was cutest little cow you’ve ever seen.  She even had a cow bell so everyone always knew where she was.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of my kids (worst mom of the year award), but I do have one of Tanner with some of the other members of our ward.  It was pretty hilarious to see how many adults showed up in some kind of muslim/middle eastern attire.  Our Relief Society President showed up in a full Burqa.  Yeah, it was awesome. 

Andrew decided he wanted to change it up for his school party and he decided he wanted to be Mario. 

Sushi!!

Yeah that’s right peeps, I learned how to make Sushi thanks to my awesome Japanese neighbor Kaori.  We made tuna rolls, salmon and avocado, and even some fried eel!  They were all super yummy, and it is surprisingly easy, once you know what you’re doing! 

Mekong Delta

For our last day, we took a trip out to the Mekong Delta to see the floating market in Can Tho and take a tour of some of the areas within the Delta.  It was a beautiful day, and it was an interesting drive out there seeing all the rice patty fields.  Once we arrived, we hopped aboard our boat to take a ride out to the floating market, which was kind of a disappointment.  I think it is a lot busier on Sundays.  Apparently, these boats bring in their specialty crops and the come to trade crops with other boats.  It seemed like it could be interesting to watch if it was busy, but there just wasn’t anything going on, so we just enjoyed the ride.  Next, we stopped at a place where they make pop rice and rice candy to ship all over Asia.  It is amazing to me that in these small tiny little villages, people are working away and then their product shows up in a store in Thailand.  The candies were really good and we ended up buying quite a few packages to bring back as gifts for friends.  The kids loved seeing the rice literally pop like popcorn and it was fascinating to watch and learn how they make rice paper and how they use coconuts. 

Rice Paper

Candy

Pop Rice

After that, we took another ride and on the way had some of the best fruit ever!  Audrey particularly loved the coconut water!   But I am not sure Andrew loved everything he tried, but we ALL loved the mango. 

We also had fun lounging in the hammock on our boat.  There was a nice breeze and very relaxing!

When we arrived at our next destination, we hopped on a smaller boat and rowed through some canals and areas that were beautiful. 

We stopped and walked around for a bit and then ended with lunch at a small restaurant.  We were a bit nervous when we saw what they served us.  HUGE prawns and this fish,

but it was actually quite delicious…and none of us got sick so YAY!!  It was a full day out on the river and it was beautiful last day of our trip in Vietnam.

 

When we returned back to our hotel that evening, the sunset over the city was awesome.  It was a fantastic trip! 

 

Chu Chi Tunnels

We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh and this time stayed at a different serviced apartment.  It was also really nice and had some phenomenal views, but it was further out from the city. 

The next morning, we were greeted by our tour guide who was going to take us to see the Chu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple for the day.  It was a lot of driving, but we got to see some of the countryside and at least we had our own private van instead of trying to wrangle with 3 kids on a giant tour bus!  The Chu Chi Tunnels is the underground tunnel system that the VietCong created during the Vietnam War to help smuggle supplies and people throughout the area.  It is in a densely forested part of the country, and they were pretty successful in thwarting U.S. forces there  initially.  These tunnels were teeny tiny and it is amazing how they were made and that people actually lived in them for quite some time.  We were interested in seeing them because of the historical aspect and also because we knew the boys would love to crawl around some tunnels!

Tanner tried to get into one, but his shoulders wouldn’t fit.  At first the boys were freaked out by it wondering what they were climbing into, but after seeing both mom and dad do it, Andrew was game…and then so was Clark. 

After exploring a bunch of tunnels and seeing some areas where the U.S. was able to bomb out the tunnels, we headed over to where the gun range was.  We weren’t allowed in the area where people were shooting targets, but Tanner went and had someone take a picture of him while he had a go!  They had an area where you could watch a movie about the role of the tunnels during the war, but we skipped it.  We decided we had had enough of the anti-U.S. propaganda. 

That tunnel was barely taller than Andrew, so the rest of us were hunching over to get through! 

After Chu Chi, we drove to Cao Dai Temple.  It was an interesting place, but I am not sure if it was worth the drive.  The religion is pretty fascinating.  It is pretty much a mesh theology from 4 or 5 religions…and it’s SUPER colorful!  We arrived just in time to see them doing their prayer service that they apparently do 5 times a day.  It’s like a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese, Christianity, and Buddhism.  They also have 3 saints:  Sun-Yat-Sen, Victor Hugo, and a Vietnamese poet.  Random, I know.  If you want to read more about Caodiism, see here!

By the time we got back to HCMC, we were all tired, so we ordered in, and just took it easy.  Fun day out! 

HOI AN DAY #3

So our flight (thank goodness we had booked a flight back to HCMC) back wasn’t until later in the afternoon, so we decided after checking out that we would start to head to the airport and stop off at “The Marble Mountains”.  I had read mixed reviews about the place, but in the end we were glad we went if only for this one picture. 

So we hiked up just a little ways (and by hiking I mean climbing these stairs…yikes)

and then when we would come to each small mountain with its own cave. Anciently the people built Budda’s in the caves and that is where people came to worship.  The first one we went to was the most spectacular because it had the openings up above and the light was hitting perfectly so that rays were streaming into the cave.  It was pretty spectacular. 

  

Also, along our way, we came across this creature.  The locals around us were totally freaked out and wanted to make sure we kept our kids away.  After reading up later about The Vietnamese Centipede, we were glad they told us to stay far, far away, although it’s not like we were looking to cozy up to it!

Audrey missed all that action since she was doing this:

It looked super uncomfortable, but she was totally konked out.  After visiting a few more pagodas and seeing some cool Budda statues literally carved out of the marble in the mountain, it was time to head to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport, our flight was delayed…a really long time.  We had arrived pretty early too, so I asked if we could get on the waiting list for the next flight.  We were the 2nd on the list, but we needed 4 seats, so it wasn’t looking too good.  The whole family was exhausted and we all fell asleep in the only available place…outside (it was hotter inside). 

We were able to get on the earlier flight, a mere 6 hours after we arrived, but at least 1 hour before our original flight finally took off.  We loved Hoi An, even with the struggles getting to and leaving from, but we were also excited to be back in HCMC because for our last two days we had a few fun things planned.