Saturday, March 17, 2012

Vietnam Day Six

We woke up in the morning and because we had finished all our work early we were able to spend 1.5 hours at the Water Buffalo Market. We drove up into the mountains where they sell every kind of item, fruit/veggies and of course water buffalo.
The ladies setting out their harvest.
Seriously, I am a sucker for these peanuts. Don't you just this little guy all wrapped up in a handmade baby sling? I think I should be in the postcard biz.
An old Ba, or grandma, selling some kind of ginger or something at the market.
Leaving the market- this is what it looked like as we drove away...
We headed to Sa's house for our final lunch. Kris, Kaitlyn, Alex, Annie, Angela, Natasha, Thao, Joedon and Sa's son.
Sa's wife, Thuy's, kitchen prep area.
Thuy cooking our lunch of sesame chicken, potato soup, veggies and rice.
Sa's son and daughter. Not sure what Sa's son's real name is because Sa called him about 4 different names since we were there. We called him Sa Anh, Little Sa.
And his yummy daughter Phoung Anh. I mean come-on could you be any sweeter!!! I gave this one some kisses, I could not help myself.
We packed up our things at the hotel in Bac Ha and we were able to walk around the city for a bit before we were picked up to head to the night train.
We found a banh shop. Like a bread/cake-ish shop. We had bread filled with cream, kinda like a big soft cream horn.
Half way through the drive to the train station we stopped and took an hour long boat tour. I think it is the Red River.
A boat going to pick up some passengers. Notice the long motor. The motors do not hang into the water because many parts are too shallow, so they stick straight out from the boat.
It was very relaxing. We all agreed that if the chairs would have had head rests, we would have all been asleep!
We took one more stop during the three hour drive to the train station. This time it was to see China across the border. The lady set up shop and of course itty-bitty stools for people to come and have her sweet tufo dessert.
Crossing the bridge from China to Vietnam. Three wheels, four guys and a million boxes.
The girls at the China border.
We also saw a dancer at a pagoda. She was giving money to a national hero in exchange for his luck.
You could go into the temple and leave money to also be apart of receiving luck from the hero.
We arrived at the train station at sunset.
We boarded the train at 8pm and got off the train this morning at 6am. We arrived back at our hotel in Hanoi. Checked in and loaded pics from yesterday. Today is full of serving children at two orphans. Thank you St. Joseph's and friends/family for orphanage donations. I have two suitcases loaded up, one for each orphanage.

I heard a quote by Jimmy Carter this week, "Go out on a limb. It is there you will find the sweetest fruit." Amen to that.

NHP

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Put me down for 10 postcards :) just now catching up on your posts. So good! The faces are absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to get the lowdown from you in person. Love you!