Vietnam.. Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City

Next up... Vietnam

The bus ride into Vietnam was great. The first part of it I was pretty influenced by my motion sickness meds, luckily they wore off by the time we had made it into the country side of Vietnam. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. You see pictures and hear stories but I didnt fully understand until I saw it myself. Although, I do not have any pictures the country side was literally like driving through a painting. Gorgeous.

While on the bus we also met two fellow teacher (in China) friends! They are both from the states and were traveling into Vietnam for their Spring Festival as well. We all ended up staying at the same Hostel and going to dinner together to celebrate our arrival into Hanoi. The man at the end had been sitting by himself at another table and he had been laughing at us so we invited him into the picture. :)

Little did we know that we would become millionaires once we exchanged money in Vietnam! haha. Their currency has way too many 000000's! It was so funny, you'd look at a price tag of 250,000 and then have to remember where you were.. it took a while to get used to.
This is the city of Hanoi at night. The city was cool but really tight. There were people, motorbikes and cars all on top of each other all the time. You had to constantly look out for your life while on the street.

Hanoi during the day...

Some of the monuments we came across in a park. We attempted to translate on my ipad but it never seemed to come out right..

This is what in the past was called the famous "hotel" for American prisoners during the war... this aspect of Vietnam as you can expect was rather difficult. Many people were hurt by the war, things that were out of everyones control.. There was some hostility towards us, not physically but just something you can see and feel. Hostility in my ignorance I didn't expect but I understood. Being there I did my best to respect the people and the place, knowing the wounds, hurt and corruption the people of Vietnam have been through, along with many others as a product of the war.
This was beautiful rather famous Catholic church located in Hanoi.




The next photo is from when we went to see Ho Chi Minh's body.. He was the leader of Vietnam and was held in the highest esteem, seen somewhat as a savior to his people. The place in itself was as if you were on holy ground. Everything was quiet, you had to walk in a line and there were guards everywhere... It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before...
Afterwards we were all tired and indecisive.. we eventually ended up stopping at a random hole in the wall noodle place which was well... less than appetizing. ha. We were pretty certain we were served dog noodles.. but the mystery meat will forever remain just that, a mystery, which is exactly why I picked around it.
This was at a random restaurant we found and fell in love with.. always fun faces...

We were definitely a fan of this place... :) Pizza, Burgers, shakes and real chocolate pancakes..
This is the famous Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, here it is said that the Emperor handed the magic sword, which brought him victory against the Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle god. There is a tower built called the turtle tower where the event is said to have taken place in the middle of the lake.


And this is where my camera was stolen... we were walking in the park and I had just taken a picture and not thinking I put my camera into an open pocket knowing I would grab for it again in a minute.. we walked through a small crowd of men trying to "sell" things and the next thing I knew it was gone. At the time I was really upset and it was really hard for me to not be angry. I knew exactly who had taken it and watched them mock me as I looked for it. I realized through this how much worth we put on things... For me it wasnt just the camera but the memories I had on it. After the walk back I cooled off but was ready to get out of that city. I realized that nothing could take away from the experience I was being blessed with and letting a camera pull down the whole trip was definitely not worth it!
Then we headed off on a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Southern Vietnam. We were ready to be some place warm and sunny.

Yay!! After a really long night of dealing with frustrating hostel owners we found a place to stay and were ready to enjoy sunny, warm, beautiful Saigon.

I was told the spring rolls were famous, so of coarse I had to make everyone try them. :) They were yummy!


After we ate we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels... This is where the Northern Vietnamese army had set up tunnels in the jungle to invade Southern Vietnam (where the American and other foreign troops were).
One of the traps they would set up in the jungle....
This was the entrance to one of the holes they would climb into when a bomb was going off!! They were so tiny. Many people got down in.. but I'm WAY to claustrophobic for that.
For example my crazy, beautiful friend Melodie who just wiggled her way in... I just cant imagine living in one of these for a long period of time..
An American Tank..
Here were the range of guns you could choose from to shoot..
Of coarse we choose the AK47...

Then they fed us the food that they would eat while they were in the jungle. It was some kind of root. It had the consistency of potato. It wasn't the most flavorful thing I've ever eaten but was dense, so I can understand how it would fill them up quickly and keep them full longer.

That night we went out to the night Market (which was always a blast) and we found Tutti Fruity FroYo!! I was so excited incase you cant tell... YUM!

Then we were off again... This is what I looked like when we were headed for the bus to Cambodia. Loaded up and ready to go! Ridiculous.. maybe... :)
Over all Vietnam was an interesting experience. Because we had so many places to go we didn't get to spend a lot of time in any one place which made it a little difficult to get a complete feel for the cities and made us limited to the places we could go and see within each country. I was actually looking into teaching in Vietnam before I found ZR (the company that got me to China:)) and I realized how specific of a calling you must have. How important it is to go exactly where He leads you. Vietnam was a difficult place in some aspects and being there gave me more of a heart to press in for my brothers and sisters who are there serving and loving on those people. I was so grateful for the time we did have there, for the experience to see and explore what we could and to get a feel first hand of the culture!

Next stop... Cambodia!!

Living the Dream 2012 -Yuangshou/Nanning

Let the the blog marathon begin!! Its been a month since Spring Festival and its about time I updated on all of our adventures. There will be lots of photo's and stories to walk you through the amazing trip I was blessed to go on last month. All of the photo's are thanks to the amazing Melodie Chandler, seeing as my camera was stolen (dont worry we'll get there eventually).

And we're off....

We left from Wuhan and traveled first to Yuangshou, China. We were so excited and ready to leave when we caught the bus to the train station...

Little did we know that traffic was going to be so awful and it was going to take us forever to get to the train station giving us only 10-15 minutes to find and get on our train. So, with everything on our backs and in our hands the only foreigners in the station took off running in all directions trying to figure out where we were supposed to be. Needless to say it wasn't the way we saw the trip starting off but it was hilarious once we actually made it on the train. I cant even imagine what the Chinese people were thinking as they watched us sprint through the station with all of our things, not really having any clue where we needed to go. This picture is us on the train in our hard sleeper beds.
The train ride was pretty smooth although it did feel like we were taking forever and stopping at every city imaginable. ha. Not to mention the Chinese people who are up at 4:30am playing their music and having a great time rising WAY too early. But we made it to Yuangshou!!

It was colder than expected and cloudy but SO beautiful.
We found a place to stay for a great price as soon as we walked into town.
The mountains that surrounded the city were beautiful! It's difficult to put into words how unique this city is. It felt almost as if we were in a little mountain get away. We spent most of our time walking around checking out the city and of coarse shopping.



On our last day in Yuangshou we took a bike tour, we treated our guide who's english name was Peter to McDonald's before we set out for a 16 mile ride through the country side and villages.
The bike tour was one of my favorite things we did the entire trip, it was incredibly beautiful and Peter was an awesome guide!



Family photo..

Oh these three... there was never a dull moment with these guys around! :)

Along the way we stopped at the Gold water cave. Here we had a chance to explore the caves, roll around in some mud (which was FREEZING) and then enjoy the hot springs.
Our guide through the caves was really kind but if we would have had money for every time she said "Be careful" we would have been rich in a matter of minutes. She was apparently very concerned for our safety.
We came across Buddha in the cave.... naturally formed... or man made... hmmm... Oh and please notice the technicolored lights. The Chinese really know how to spruce up a dull cave... haha.


MUD!! This is all of us freezing and trying to collect our things so we could rinse off and go get in the hot springs. And although it was cold, it was a really fun experience. The Chinese people had a great time laughing at us too.
After the caves we biked to Moon Mountain. Here we got off and hiked up the stairs to the top. Once again, it was so beautiful. There is just no other way to describe it. The whole day was incredible being surrounded by His creation. It was a blessing away from all of the pollution and noise we're used to.



This was a restaurant we found and kept going back to... how awesome to have such a light in this little town!

Now we come to Nanning.... I am going to put out a disclaimer now, we were only here to get our visa's into Vietnam and were only able to see/be in a very outside part of the city.... with that being said... Nanning was well, definitely not the highlight of the trip. There is honestly not much to say because we were pretty much bored out of our minds.

We arrived in Nanning after the WORST train ride imaginable.. it was an overnight train and we had to get seats instead of beds, which meant lights on, loud people, funny smells, and no sleep. Once we arrived at 7am we then had to walk around the city in the cold rain to try and find a place to stay.. haha. Looking back it really does make me laugh at how tired, frustrated, sleep deprived and irritated we all were. BUT we did finally find a place to stay. I think the hardest part about Nanning was that we had nothing to do... it was cold and rainy without any type of entertainment.. so we hung out in the rooms...

Jac, Paul and Beau played their never ending battle of Temple Run...

This is how Mel and I felt about the game......

But there was one wonderful day where Melodie and I decided to venture out, eat Pizza Hut and go see a movie! It was the saving day for Nanning...
Finally we were on our way to Vietnam riding in style in the very front on the bus. (we had such incredible favor on this trip, even in the small things. I have really bad motion sickness and we were some of the last to get tickets yet still landed the front seats.!! :))
Just some more random "favor facts" from the first part of the trip that I think are more than note worthy...

1.Peter our bike tour guide was not only super sweet, through conversation we found out he has good friends who live in his city that are believers. People who have spoken with him, invested in him and given him the Word. This was so encouraging for the simple fact that it was proof of Dad moving in His body. That there are others out there spreading and investing in His Kingdom!

2. The main reason for us being in Nanning was to get our Visa's into Vietnam, seeing as we didn't plan ahead for anything on this trip we just showed up trusting there would be a way...We had looked online at around how much it should cost and how many days it should take first then we spoke with the woman at the front desk of our hotel (she spoke some english) and asked if they could take care of it at the hotel. She ended up calling her friend "Joe". Joe (his english name) came and met us and told us he could get us our Visa's a day sooner and for less than the prices online.... we all realized this was going to be a risky decision seeing as we were about to hand this man our passports but we went with it. Joe was so helpful and arrived exactly when he said he would with our Passports in hand! :) (Also fun fact, Joe was originally from Huangshi, the city I live in!)