Philippines Trip

Manila

Our plane to the Philippines left on Tuesday morning at 1 AM, the only good thing about leaving then was that we got to the airport in 10 minutes. I have never been out that late here and it was great not having to battle the traffic. The flight was only 2 hours and 15 minutes and actually left early. We took a taxi to a hotel that a friend had booked for us. It was run by Christians. There were verses posted on the walls and christian music playing and they even gave you a verse for the day. The workers were so friendly. It made for a wonderful stay. We went to check out the bible college that the Foursquare Church has there and we were even able to attend a retreat in a mountain city. The grounds were beautiful and they had three swimming pools. It reminded me of our college retreat days, games, competitions etc. We had to take the MRT from our hotel to the church and other areas and they all seem to be connected to malls. There were four malls within a 5 mile radius of our hotel. We actually saw at least 10 different malls as we rode the MRT. I got to go into several and one was a woman's paradise. They had one whole floor devoted to women's shoes and purses, it had to be at least a 1/2 mile long. I could only walk through it as we had to get back to our hotel to catch our flight home. Maybe next time. We also got to ride in their version of taxi's called jitney's, they remind me of large hummers and they put all kinds of advertising on them. Some even said, God Bless or Jesus saves. They were very cheap to ride in but the fumes and pollution were bad, even worse than Thailand. They also had every kind of restaurant that you see in the US, Outback, Tony Roma's even a new Spaghetti Factory. We did try some Philippino food which is similar to but different than the Vietnamese. Our friend likes to say, same, same but different. The best part of the trip for me was to reconnect with some friends that we had been through training with in the US and catch up on their lives. We also attended a cell group. I really miss these things in Vietnam.

Vung Tau

Vung Tau Province

On Sat we left our home for a 3 hour van ride to the beach. I should have known that 3 hours is never really three hours. We arrived 9 hours later. In order to have the van paid for our friends, girlfriend did some business on the way. These people love to save money. We did not mind as we got to see some very beautiful towns. It was not like HCMC at all. It was country and very well kept up roads and beautiful flowers and landscaping. Our friend kept saying I sure wish HCMC looked like this. We did too!! We arrived and checked into a very quaint and rustic cabin type hotel near the beach. Rooms were only $35.00 a night and we had TV and Air con. Mark and I took a walk along the beach. It reminded us of Cambria. Many rocks and tide pools. The beaches here have a ton of shells and they are all different colors and most are in tact. I have a good collection going from our two beach trips. We were able to watch the youth group, college age, play a tug of war game and later in the evening they had a bon fire and skits and music. We left around 9 as company arrived !!! Mark did not get his chance to speak. Oh well we go with the flow. On Sunday we had a great western breakfast, omelet and bread. Then we were entertained by a parrot that was speaking Vietnamese. That was too much fun. Then as we were waiting to check out I saw a family of four also leaving. It was the typical way to travel for Vietnamese. The father had one motor bike with a large Styrofoam container, probably of fish on the back and then he put a suitcase in the front. He then proceeded to plop his 3 yr old daughter on top of the suitcase. See my picture. Mom had her motor bike with their son on in back of her. No car, no problem !! After leaving the hotel we headed to another beach area and had a great seafood lunch. They had all kinds of live seafood that you choose and they take it in the back and cook. I wanted lobster but at $40.00 a kilo I opted for salmon. It was good. This city reminded me of Catalina Island. Again all landscaped and modern hotels and shopping areas. The tour buses came in by the groves. Oh, did I mention that on the way up and back we stopped at a place that Mark and I call dairy land. This area has tons of dairy cows. They sold everything having to do with milk, low fat, skim, whole, yogurt, ice cream, pancakes made with their milk, candy and then on course there were the miniature cows that when you pull there sting there utters move like you are milking them. That gave us a good laugh. We arrived home around six pm and today I am trying to get the kinks out of my back and get my legs circulating again. Tonight we head for the Philippines. Will write more about that later.

Grand Opening

Celebration Day

They closed a restaurant in our building last Nov, I don't think it did much business. They began working in that room two weeks ago and on Sat they had a grand opening. We only know this because we were leaving for our beach trip at 8 AM and the driveway was packed. We were told that it is a Chinese restaurant. They had dragons and drums and all kinds of activity going on, also beautiful flowers. I got some pictures. They began beating the drums at 8 AM, not sure how long this went on. I am glad we were headed out of town. Now we will see if they have a menu in English and how the food is.

The North

Halong, HaiPhong, Hanoi

We had planned on being able to come home from the south and do some laundry and then leave the next day for the north. Since we flew back from the south, and the only plane available was Tuesday, we only had 3 hours to unpack and repack, no time for laundry to dry, and return to the airport to catch our plane to Haiphong. We got back to the airport only to find out that our plane was delayed due to a storm. We waited another two hours and were finally able to take off. I have found that it is always good to have something to read since you never know when delays will occur. We arrived in Haiphone and took a van to Halong bay and arrived around 8 PM. There was a youth camp going on in the hotel and the worship could be heard in our room on the floor above the meeting room. We enjoyed it. That night we were taken to dinner late. We found a sidewalk cafe, not quite like you would imagine, those here are small tables set up on the sidewalks with even small plastic chairs, think kindergarten size. Then you have several fish tanks to choose your fish from. Our friend choose a large fish, they took it from the tank and put it in a plastic bag and try to weight it there in front of you, you pay by the kilo. They then took it somewhere in the back to cook. Twenty minutes later we were brought the fish, head and all to enjoy. It was good along with the rice and lemon, (really lime) juice that we love.

Did I mention that the bay was across the street from our hotel and there was a walkway that we took into town along the water. It was beautiful. The bay is known for its rock formations. They even filmed one of the James Bond movies here. The next day we took a boat tour out to the rocks and got to go through one of the three caves out there. The area has been nominated for being one of the natural wonders of the world. Our boat ride continued out to an area where they store the fish they catch to sell at the market and finally we just stopped in the middle of the bay and people started jumping off the boat and into the water. Only the crew and a few younger kids jumped in, the water, even though it was hot, was not that appealing, knowing what all goes into the bay.

The next few days we spent touring the town and the night bazaar, they had some beautiful embroidered pictures. I bought a colorful one to frame. We even found a restaurant that sold some European foods and pizza. We indulged.

On Friday we checked out of our hotel and took a van ride back to Haiphong where we spent the night and were able to attend a study. We were blessed.

On Saturday we took a local bus to Hanoi. The ride was two hours, could have made it in one if we did not have to make so many stops at the oddest street corners to pick up folks headed to Hanoi, I am not sure how they know when to be there or where, no terminal or bus stop that I could see. They showed a movie in French and of course the seats were made for short people.

Sunday we were able to meet some folks and share and then they took us out for what else, pizza, I think that the word is out that we like pizza. It was great to be able to talk to this one couple who had been to Russia to study and Australia. They speak several languages. They had an eight month old daughter who was adorable.

Monday night I got sick and was down for a couple of days, by the end of the week we were able to see some sights, visited a prison and a nearby lake. We were staying in the back packer area so there were many vendors selling their wares. We even found a non profit organization helping the community sell these beautiful quilts. I really wanted one but had no room to get it back home. They do have a store in HCMC so the hunt is on to find it. They do, after all, help the community !!!

We flew back on Friday to find our monthly bills either taped to the front door or under the door. Our electric bill is due and since we missed the bill collector we have to go to the electric office to pay it. Thank goodness for our friend, he is a life saver. The water was also off for several hours on Friday, I thought Mark had not paid that bill but later learned that they are cleaning the pipes. It will also be off some today and tomorrow. Only in Vietnam !!!

Phu Quoc Trip

The Island of Phu Quoc

Our second journey with out friends began at 5 AM on Thursday morning. We had decided that one van would not do for the five day trip, the seats were made for Asian people not us large Americans, so we were now riding with some extra space in two vans. Our guide thought is was best to get out of town before the traffic jams began. It was a breeze even over the pot holed road and one lane of traffic. At 9 we stopped for breakfast and at noon for lunch at a very exotic restaurant. This first day we were headed to a place on the Mekong that our friend had told us about that needed help building a new bridge. The bridge was wooden and was rotting and the government wanted the home owners to build another one. These people live in homes much the same as the bridge. We had to take a ferry ride to get to the town where we were met by the home owner who then took us on his small boat. It was a 30 minute ride and on the way we stopped to buy some coconut and other fruits. The people make their living by going up and down the river and selling their wares. We were met at his home by many children from neighboring homes and the man's friends and family were there to greet us also. We shared coconut milk, straight from the coconut and wonderful, sweet watermelon with them and took pictures of the bridge and their home that had a big gaping hole right over their bed, which happened to be in the living room. The family had a granny who was serving us, her husband who drove the boat and the husband and wife and I am not sure how many kids. They all lived in the one story room which was divided by a small wall. The group and this family had something in common, their faith. It was a blessing getting to spend some time with them and share some food. The grandpa headed us back down the Mekong to town and as we passed all the families that were doing their laundry in the river or bathing in it or washing their dished in it we were all reflecting on the many blessings we have in our lives. Our journey continued in the vans for the next three hours to the coast, where we were to stay overnight to take a 3 hour boat ride to the island of Phu Quoc. It had been raining most of the day and we were told that instead of the boat leaving at 8 Am it would leave at 1 PM. We knew that there was a typhoon off the coast but thought that if the boat was still going it was ok. Well the ride started out very smooth, then we hit the open seas. They had passed out plastic bags which I thought was for garbage but turned out to be for all the sea sick people, which was over half the boat. Mark, our guide and another lady from our group were deathly ill. I was getting sick just hearing the sounds coming from all the people throwing up. It was worse than any roller coaster ride any of us had ever taken. The waves were crashing over the boat and then we would hit the water hard coming down. That was the longest three hours for all of us. At the dock we were met by a vans to take us to the hotel where we were staying. Not to many of us were hungry for dinner that night. On Saturday we visited some places that sold pearls, they dive for them off the coast and had a beautiful selection then we hiked up to a water fall. Muddy but beautiful. On Sunday after everyone had recovered we spent the day on the beach. We had lunch and rented kayaks and a wave runner. The day was beautiful and fun was had by all. We were to leave the next day but Mark and the lady who were so sick and I decided to fly back instead of chance the boat again. We had to spend an extra day on the island as the plane on Monday was full. It turns out that the boat ride back was not as bad but we had no way of knowing this and no one wanted to take an 8 hour van ride back to HCMC after the boat ride, if they were going to be sick. Better safe than sorry.