HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Watermelons make great Jack O Lanterns!

TRICK OR TREAT

OOPS!!!!

OK I WORKED REALLY HARD ON TRYING TO GET THE BLOGS IN ORDER ACCORDING TO OUR TRIP....BUT THIS ONE TIME I ACTUALLY TRY IT CAME OUT THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED. SO IF YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE BLOG THAT SAYS OUR TRIP TO HANOI....THAT IS THE FIRST BLOG! (I JUST WANTED TO CONFUSE EVERYONE!!! SORRY)

HA LONG BAY

The Red Dragon was the name of our boat. There were 6 other people besides the staff on the boat with us. The kids were shy for about 30 minutes and became friends with everyone pretty quick. Our new friends were from London, Australia and Germany. So we had a nice mix of people on the boat. We had excellent service and great food! The water was a bit chilly but it made it a great swim!!! We had a big room with a connecting room for the kids! We only stayed on the boat one night. We want to go back and stay on for a few days!

If you come for a visit we will make a trip North as well...

More Halong Bay

Floating village School

Cement boat??? how is it floating

The floating village

Our water taxi

The Cave

We left our nice big boat and got on a smaller boat to the cave! Not so long ago about 60 people were living in this cave. There was an area where they could get fresh water. There was a darker area in the back where they slept...and yes what comes with all caves...BATS. They continued to hang upside down and did not bother us! There were lots of stalagmites in the making. It was a neat lesson!!! If you have an imagination you can see the picture with the dragon in it. This is where people got married and had babies. The people that were living in the cave now live in the floating village. The government provided them with housing. The boat outside of the cave is always there with 2 men on guard to protect the cave.

The Village of the Black Hmong people

Little girl cutting some veggies

A house in the village

School

A pet monkey...he is missing his left hand :(

And he did not like us on his property

The Hospital

(my thoughts exactly)

These were a group of ladies

that walked the trail with us

My group of friends that were all saying

"Buy from me?"

A village from up above

Sapa

This is the town of Sapa. The girl to the left and her baby became my friends. I would have loved to take them back with me!!! This people live in a village in the mountains. The women come down to the market to sell the things they have made. I wanted to stay just so I could clean these people up. I wanted to line them up and clean their feet and the babies faces!!!! But this is what they are use to. We bought a purse a wallet some earrings a blanket, a hat for grey...so they gave us some bracelets they made. A little girl about 5 years old was walking on the side of me with a 6 month old baby strapped to her back. She wanted me to buy stuff from her. I had an American dollar in my purse and gave it to her. Her face lit up and she was so grateful and so excited that she ran off! So I definitely did my good deed of the day!!!!! The girl in the picture with Natalie was our tour guide. She was from a bigger village and learned English from her younger sister. Most children only go to school until the age of 9 (if that) then they have to go away for the next years and it is too expensive.

Our first train ride!!!

This was the Victoria Train that we rode on from Hanoi to Sapa. We left at 9:55pm so we were able to sleep the whole way there since it was an 8 hour ride. Well the object of having a room with beds was so we could sleep....if anyone has been on a train you know what i am talking about. The ride is not so smooth!

This was our room. As you can see it was pretty small

This was the bar! So we were able to spend some time here instead of our "large room" In the back left corner is our new friends from Chicago! We met them on the train and then got to chat with them the few days that we were in the mountains

Water Puppets

This is the theatre where we saw the water puppet show. It was very good! This started a long long time ago as entertainment for the king. There was a story but since it was in Vietnamese we did not understand the whole thing. But it was still very good!

These were the people singing and playing instruments during the show

The people came out from behind the screen to show how the puppets move

This is the crew that it took to make the show happen