Hoi An

When we left Cambodia it left a huge hole in my heart.  I'd love to go back and see more. The people were lovely and we only saw 1 little dot of the country.  It was so beautiful.  But if you don't move you'll miss what is next.  Next is Hoi An Vietnam.
We were going to Hoi An for the Full moon lantern festival.  It was a BUSY town!
We stayed at the La Terrazza Guesthouse.  It was on the out skirts of town.  So tranquil and beautiful.  We got there in the dark.  We walked around the outside of the house. Heir and Dacey were left at one door and we were taken around and up stairs to another door.  I got a bit anxious and our phones didn't work and I had NO clue where we were and how to get to Heir if something went sideways.  NO CLUE why I got upset, that really isn't like me.  But there were no phones, no tv so just very rural and in the end LOVELY!  In the morning in the light of day I was fine!  It was just a moment. Heir knew and told me if we didn't like it we could move.  NO WAY.  It was fantastic.  Our host was super nice. He was from Italy and his wife was from Vietnam.  We asked him if he spoke Vietnamize, he said no not really and even if he did no one could understand him because of the accent.  LOL  They had 2 daughters.  One was named a Vietnamize name and the other an Italian name.  So cute. They had 2 little dogs that reminded us of home and the smallest mama cat with babies almost her size.  They were just sweet.  We were served the best breakfasts on a beautiful deck over looking rice fields.  Dacey did so much work in planning for us.  We would have never had the same experience if we had booked it.   I can only hope she enjoyed it all as much as we did.  I know Heir did because he had the same grin on his face that we did.  There was not a moment of this trip that we didn't love.
While in Hoi An we had some shoes made.  I would go back to Vietnam to do that again!  Clothes and shoes... It was so fun.  Dacey did our bargaining.  We were willing to walk if it wasn't a good deal.  We all thought it was fair for all.  We also had things being made in Saigon that would be ready when we got back.
We spent a lot of time at the beach in Hoi An.  The South China Sea was so warm!  DH who doesn't love the water went out with me and let the waves wash over him.  It was so beautiful.  We saw people fishing in round boats that look like giant cereal bowls.  I have NO clue how they made them go any where!  Then there was people fishing with nets.  A school of something came through and people went running to catch them.  It was so interesting to watch.  We laid on our beach chairs and waitresses would come buy and ask if we wanted anything.  Dh said it was the best hamburger he'd ever had!  Between that and the 50 cent beer he was a happy camper.  It was so relaxing and fun.  We did that 2 different days.  OH!  It may not be so, but I thought the South China Sea was way more salty then the Ocean here.
 One day Dacey and I went to Vy's Market and Cooking School.  While we did this, Dh and Heir took bikes and road all around Hoi An.  
Dacey and I got to take a tour of the local markets and then a tour of the restaurant and then went to our class.  SO MUCH fun!  I wish I could tell you I've made the recipes again once we got home, I have not but I still have tool that we got to keep and I have the recipes.
DH was VERY worried about eating on this trip.  He doesn't like to eat out as it is.  BUT he was a great sport about it.  He mostly only ordered fish.  I'm pretty sure he never had the same fish twice.  He loved every one of them!  The only thing he wouldn't try was Pho.  Heir and I LOVE it, Dh wouldn't even try it.  He's not a huge soup fan anyway but....
The lantern festival was so beautiful!  It was good weather.  You buy your lantern's and light them and make a wish, a blessing or whatever you'd like and send it down the river.  It was GORGEOUS.  I can't think of the litter in the water though.  Hopefully most get caught up in a curve and get picked up.   Before I saw how it worked I thought it was the kind of lantern you light and let go into the sky.  I loved it on the river.
We saw several couples getting married.  It must be a popular day to get married.  Maybe good luck?  We also went to a night market.  Those are different then the ones in the day time.  Different venders and such.  I'm not sure why it changes out but it was sure fun to walk through.
We were sad to have to leave.  But again, if you don't move on there is something else you won't get to experience.  Back to Saigon.

These pictures didn't load in the right order.  I'm  not going to wrestle them around.  LOL Also so much for not loading a lot of pictures.

Cambodia or Bust

Before we left for Saigon we had sent our passports to San Francisco to get our visa's a head of time.  That wasn't necessary for Cambodia.  It's a very short flight to Phnom Penh.  When we landed we needed to get Visa's.  The gentleman at the desk was very friendly and nice. It went very quick.  Dustin said Saigon's would not have been.  No one was ever rude to us, but very business like.  So the friendly guy was a nice change. We stayed at a very nice hotel.  We took our first tuk tuk ride.  So fun.  Again it rained on us after Dustin promised it was the dry season and no rain.  HA!     Our plan was to see the Ankor temples and then  Kompong the floating village.
We saw 8 temples in all.  It was an all day tour.  Dacey had hired us a private guide.  I cannot remember his name but he was so good.  The temples are beautiful!  Some are almost gone.  Some are in a state of repair/restoration.  Dacey had on shorts and I had a tank top on.  Both of us had to buy clothes in the giftshop to be allowed to go in the temples.  New rule... Heir was in shorts but that was ok.  hmmm.  Our first temple was Ankor Wat for a sunrise tour.  It was SO HUGE and so beautiful.  Everyone seemed so respectful and interested in the history.  We saw monkeys just hanging out. We were told to keep all things away or they would steal them. Such as sunglasses and camera's in your hand.  They barely looked up at us.  I was THRILLED to see them wild.  Dacey was blessed by a Monk.  It was very moving to watch.  I walked around most of the day wanting to pinch myself.  I could not believe I was there!  We saw the temple where Tomb raider was filmed.  SUPER COOL!  I guess there are more temples buried in the mountain jungles that they haven't even started to clear out yet.
Let me sidetrack...  In all the traveling and all the millions of people we saw, we only saw a handful of panhandlers.  MANY MANY people were trying to sell you something.  A magnet, a cup of lemonade, sandwich, pencil.  You name it they were selling it. They absolutely were willing to work for the money.
Our guide told us not to engage with them.  Dh made eye contact with one outside of one of the temples.  He did not believe Carmen's No thanks.  He persisted to the point of annoyance.  Heir had to go walk between Dh and the seller and firmly tell him NO.  That was the only time in the millions of people that they were aggressive.
It was an amazing day.  One I will never forget.  The temples were AMAZING.
The next day....
 We were going to Tonle Sap lake and a floating restaurant for a sunset cruise. Again it was the dry season so the village is 30 feet up in the air.  The host/guide Khut Vanna did an amazing job.  He took us to his home and introduced us to his sister and niece.  We are so fortunate just being born where we have been.  Unless you've traveled outside of the states you really have no clue.  I spent a good portion of the day wearing sunglasses.  I was crying behind them.  I've never seen naked babies playing in the dirt before.  I wanted to gather them all up.  The people we met and saw were so happy.  It was a huge reminder to me.  Gratitude can always happen! The mango groves were to shallow for us to go into like they do when it's the rainy season.  It was ok.  All I saw were snakes and spiderwebs.  Nope I'm good folks.  At the floating restaurant there was snakes and gators in floating pens.  You could order super fresh food.  Ummm no thanks.  The kids and Carmen had beer I had a water and we waited for the sunset.  I guess the water was only about 3 feet deep at that time of year.  Then it goes to 30!  It was such a fun day.

Touring Siagon

Heir Apparent and Dacey had made all the plans for our trip.  We were going to have a few days in Saigon then we are going to Cambodia.  We walked as much as we could and took Grab taxi's when we needed to go further.  We went to one of the biggest markets I'd ever seen. Ben Thahn Market.  Similar to Pike's Place Market in Seattle but HUGE!  Way bigger.  You could find anything you'd like.  And things you hadn't thought of.  We went to a roof top bar while waiting for Dacey to get off work.  They were filming a movie there.  It was interesting to watch.  It was so pretty seeing the city from way up there.  We never ate at the same place twice.  We only ate at Heir's house twice.  LOL

I could add pages and pages of pictures.  I just want to keep it to normal amount.  LOL  

Next is Cambodia! 

Peace

In which I try again...

In an effort to remember...
In Sept. of 2015 we were celebrating Bug's birthday out at the sound.  Heir Apparent came and sat by me and wanted a private moment.  He told me that he needed to find out if what he had with his friend was something real or not.  She had asked him to come to Vietnam to live/work and to really get to know each other.  He said he was seriously considering it.  I about choked inside but knew he'd been close to home far longer then I'd thought he'd stay.  I began immediately saving money.  Where ever my kids go, I'm going to visit!
  So the beginning of 2016 Heir moved to Saigon.  He loved it!  He worked at learning the language, the money, the customs, driving there (OMG!) He came home several times for different things.  We always talked about when I came to visit.  Dh made it very clear from the beginning that he would not be going.  Dacey and Heir came for Christmas.  We missed him but he really was home as often as he could.  When he was home for Christmas he asked his daddy "Are you sure you are ok with Mom coming to visit me without you?"  Dh said Yup, I'm good.  We continued with our conversation making him very aware I was going SOON with or without him.  About 2 weeks into January Dh came home and said I'm taking Tuesday off.  ODD I think..  Why?  I asked.  He replied I'm going to go get my passport.  HA!  He was coming with me.
Plans were made and tickets were purchased and we were off to Vietnam.
Dh of course found someone to talk to in Soul Korea.  Our flight was delayed so we arrived in the middle of the night in Siagon.  It was so good to see Heir!  I squeezed and squeezed him.  He filmed our arrival, it was so funny!  Because we got there in the middle of the night it looked so strange,  Hardly any traffic, all the building closed up.
When we got up later that morning Heir was so excited to show us around.  We started by walking up to the busier part of his area.  District 2.  We walked for blocks just looked and taking it all in.  It was so warm and beautiful.  We had coffee, tea for me in a open side walk coffee place.  Dh took his first selfie ever.  Later that afternoon we went into Siagon.  OH MY WORD!  There was sooo many people and so much traffic.  We were shocked!  Where had all these people come from??  We went to the big touristy post office to get postcards and get them in the mail.  It would be weeks before they arrived in the US.  Then we went and saw some of the area while waiting for Dacey to get off work.  Heir had informed us it was the dry season and we would not need jackets.  We were walking down the street and a HUGE black cloud came and hovered over the city.  It started to POUR!  Thundered and lightning.  We ducked into a bar to have a drink and to wait it out.  It was AWESOME!  Heir was so disgusted but we just laughed... Just like home.
To be continued...