Halong Bay

After an adventure in Hanoi, Jenny and I headed out to sea for a trip to Halong Bay! Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the natural wonders that Vietnam is most proud of. There are hundreds of these giant, moss-covered limestone rocks jutting out of the ocean for as far as the eye can see. We were convinced that this is where James Cameron found his inspiration for the floating mountains in Avatar. Jenny and I took almost 100 pictures during our trip to Halong Bay - here are the highlights! Enjoy!

Fishing village amidst Halong Bay

Kayaking in the bay - which we did!

View of "Chopstick Rock" from the boat

This is next to the giant cave that we explored. This rock formation looks like a guy dangling his feet off the edge!

This rock formation is supposed to represent two chickens fighting...

It was very, very cold when we were there! It was very misty and drizzly while we were on the bay - but we still spent lots of time outside!

Sailing away from the boat where we lived for two days...

Hanoi!

Jenny and I arrived in Vietnam on Christmas Day for a 10-day trip throughout the country. We started our journey in Hanoi, which is the government center of Vietnam and is also known as a "little Paris" in Asia. The French used to control Vietnam between the 1860s to the 1940s, and you can still see the French influence all over the city, from the buildings to the food. We got to see a lot of fun sights in our time here, and we had so much good food! Here are our pictures, hope you enjoy!

This is at the Temple of Literature, also known as the first university in Vietnam. It is over 1,000 years old! Students used to come to the university and sit around the water, listening to their teachers tell stories and spread wisdom.

This center walkway was reserved for the elite in society, mostly kings and top scholars.

I took a rest at the entrance to the temple.

After the Temple of Literature, Jenny and I sat down for some "pho bo" - a warm noodle soup with beef - and Vietnamese spring rolls. It turns out that Pho Bo has the same ingredient that is used in Tamiflu, so it helps you when you are feeling sick! Which was very good, since Jenny caught a bad cold while in Vietnam!

This is me at the Hanoi Water Puppet Theatre. The water puppets are a famous folk art form in Vietnam. They perform three shows here a day. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

These are the water puppets doing the "Fairy Dance."

More from the water puppet show.

This is a very famous historical landmark in Vietnam. It is called the Maison Centrale, or the Hoa Lo Prison. Most Americans know it as the "Hanoi Hilton." During the Vietnam War (or the American War, as it is known in Vietnam), this is where the Vietnamese held the American pilots whose planes had crashed over North Vietnam. Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain was a prisoner of war here from 1966 - 1973.

This is the beautiful Hanoi Opera House. This was built during the time of French rule in Vietnam, and looks very similar to many of the buildings in Paris. Many government buildings, houses, and nice hotels are built in this same style.

After a day in Hanoi, Jenny and I left for Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Sight just off the eastern coast of Vietnam. I will post pictures from that trip in my next post!

Singapore!

Hello again everyone! Jenny and I just got back from a whirlwind vacation all around Southeast Asia! I have so many stories and pictures for you from this trip!

We started off by flying down to Singapore for a week in mid-December. Singapore, like Hong Kong, is both a city and a country of its own. It's a pretty small country! It has 4.5 million people, but it is only 10 miles long X 25 miles wide. From one area, you can see not only all of Singapore, but also the border of Malaysia and the coastline of Indonesia. Almost everyone in Singapore speaks English, though the city a population made up of people from China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Australia, America... they come from all over the place! This makes for great food.

Here is the Singapore skyline. It's not as big as Hong Kong's skyline, but it still has lots of skyscrapers! Most of the buildings are banks.

Singapore loves their Christmas decorations. This is the Christmas Arch on the famous Orchard Road, the most popular shopping area in Singapore. At night, the whole city was lit up with twinkling, multi-colored Christmas lights. It would make any Texan proud!

Here's an idea of what the Christmas decorations are like at night. Very crazy and colorful!

Here we are at Sentosa Beach. Because the original beach in Singapore was not so pretty, the Singaporean government actually built new land where there used to be water and called it Sentosa. The sand is from Thailand, and we think they might put dye in the water to make it more blue! Real or fake, it was still a very pretty beach!

Sentosa is at the very tip of Singapore, and Singapore is at the very tip of Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asia is at the very tip of all of Asia, so we got to see the farthest southern point of the whole Asian landmass. It's not the southern most point of all of Asia, though - that would be in Indonesia somewhere - but continental means "belonging to the major landmass" so this is the farthest point south that is still connected to the main part of Asia.

That's all for now! Jenny and I mostly relaxed in Singapore, so there aren't many pictures here, but we were storing our energy for Vietnam! I will post pictures and stories from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in the next few days!

Happy New Year!

The Big Buddha

Hello everyone! So for my last post from Hong Kong (at least for a little while), I wanted to show all of you pictures from our trip to see the Big Buddha! The Big Buddha is on a very high mountain in Hong Kong on an area called Lantau Island. Lantau Island is known for its rolling mountains and green areas as well its beautiful beaches (and the Hong Kong airport, rated the best airport in the world!) On this day, though, our focus was on seeing the Big Buddha, or Tian Tin, as he is known here, and the Po Lin Buddhist Monastery. To get to this place, we had to take a cable car over several mountains! We were very high up! At first it was a bit scary, but it was also very exciting. It is one of my favorite parts of Hong Kong, which is why I took so many pictures!

I hope you enjoy!

Jenny and I getting ready to board the cable cars. We ordered tickets for a "Crystal Cabin," meaning that the floor of the cable car was made of glass, so you could see the land and sea below you!

Jenny, Ellie, and I in the cable car!

The journey ahead... (the little dots in the distance are other cable cars)

Starting to go across the bay and up the mountain...

Me on the glass floor! That's the South China Sea below me!

Look how high up we already are!

Jenny decided to lay on the glass floor too, just like me!

There's the Big Buddha in the distance!

Getting really close now!

After walking through the little village that surrounds the statue and the monastery, we only had a little bit to go before getting to the statue.

Me in front of the entrance to the Po Lin Monastery.

About to start climbing the stairs to get to the statue.

Half-way up! Just a bit longer to go!

There he is! He is a BIG Buddha!

There were also several smaller statues, in addition to the Big Buddha. Legend has it that if you get a coin in the palm of one of the smaller statue's hands, you will have good luck for the rest of your life!

After exploring the statue for a while, we went down to the Monastery to look around. It was beautiful! So many beautiful carvings and sculptures.

After exploring the monastery for a while, I took a rest by the flowers outside. It was really pretty at the monastery, with people coming to pray and pay their respects.

This is the sunset from our cable car on the way back from the Big Buddha! It was a wonderful day!

There is still much more of Hong Kong to see, and I can't wait to come back and explore more of the city! Until then, though, Jenny and I are leaving tomorrow to travel to Singapore and Vietnam! We'll be sure to take lots of pictures over our vacation and send them to you in the new year! Happy Holidays everyone!

Meeting Jenny's Students!

Hi everyone! I hope you've enjoyed the posts so far!

After getting to explore downtown Hong Kong for a night, I had an even more exciting night the next night! Jenny took me to meet some of her students! Jenny is a teacher in Hong Kong, where she teaches college students English and History. We all went out to dinner together in an area called "Tsim Sha Tsui," or "TST." TST is famous for having lots of good restaurants and good shopping areas, but most of all for its view of the Hong Kong Skyline. This is Jenny's favorite part of the city, and I think it is my favorite part too!

Here are pictures with all of my new Hong Kong friends:

Jenny introducing me to her students. We had a delicious meal at an Indian food restaurant that night!

Half of her students: (from left) Vina, Luisa, Felix, Me, Billy, Alice, Jacqueline, and Betty.

Jenny wanted to pop in for a picture too.

The other half of her students, plus two of her best friends from college who were visiting Hong Kong: (from left) Joyce, Crystal, Max, Me, Ellie, Martin, Shelley, and Grace.

Jenny and I told everyone all about Texas and how far I had traveled. They wanted the chance to say hi to all of you, so we made a video for you! If you listen carefully, you will even hear some Cantonese! Jenny managed to hold the camera right side up this time, but she apologizes for her loud laughter in the background!

After dinner, we walked over to the lookout over Victoria Harbour (the body of water that separates Hong Kong Island - where we were yesterday - from Kowloon - where we that tonight).

This is Jenny and I in front of Nathan Road. Nathan Road goes all the way through Kowloon and into the New Territories, another region of Hong Kong. It is one of the longest streets in Hong Kong, as well as one of the most famous!

Here we all are in front of the Peninsula Hotel, the most beautiful and most famous hotel in Hong Kong. They have their own luxury shopping mall inside (you can order diamonds from your room!), and they have their own army of dark green Rolls-Royces, one of the fanciest cars on Earth! It is a pretty fancy place!

Here is the Hong Kong skyline and Victoria Harbour! This isn't even the entire skyline, just about 1/3 of it. It would be impossible to get the whole skyline in one picture!

Here is the whole class together in front of the skyline! It's very blurry, but that just shows you how fast everything moves in Hong Kong!

I hope you have enjoyed meeting Jenny's students with me! See you again soon!