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!