The start of the New Year 2013

New Years Day on the beach.

Friends that we met on our Australia Road trip, bumped into them again in Ho Chi Minh City airport last year, stayed for a few days in Hoi An and we had a great time catching up. The family has three boys the same age as our three boys! We spent New Years Day at Cua Dai beach.

The computers get a good work out over the holidays, with the boys playing their favourite game Mine Craft.

Our collection of ornaments is growing.

The beach on a big day. The boys had great fun with friends body surfing and being smashed in the surf. They loved it.

Bike ride with friends that we met in Cambodia who were passing through Hoi An

Cooking Pete style! The bench tops are so low that I have to sit down to do all the preparation and cooking. I crank up the music through the computer and enjoy entering cooking land!

Just down the road they sell pots. Not just any ordinary pots. Just how can we get one of these home?

 

One of the many paths to explore. This path leads to a small group of houses in the rice paddies and is the only access.

 

Pete & Al's 17th Wedding Anniversory.

13/01/96

 

Seventeen years ago we were here in Vietnam on our honey moon, travelling from North to South over three weeks. It was a fabulous adventure and one of the places we passed through was Hoi An.
This month we had our wedding anniversary and being here for it was great so we took the time to celebrate together - have even found a restaurant we have photos of us sitting in back then.

 

We had a nice family breakfast and relaxed around Hoi An which was nice. Our volunteer friend from Danang, Steph, joined us for afternoon tea and stayed to look after the kids while we went out for tea and stayed the night at the Hoi An Riverside hotel (10 mins up the road from our place).

 

Pre dinner drinks at the hotel overlooking the river with floating candles in the background.



 

 

Couldn't resist trying this cocktail! Very nice.

Yes that is a blue flame!

 

Riverside hotel room - and no Pete is not taking a leak.

January 2013

We are in the middle of the crazy lead up to Tet Festival or Vietnamese Lunar New Year. It all happens at the end of next week and everything has taken on a different feel much like our lead up to Christmas except this involves everyone putting things right and straightening things up in time to see in the lucky Lunar new year.
Houses are being painted, gates replaced, spring cleaning, new clothes, lots of burning of offerings & incense to ancestors and prayers for the new year, coloured rice tossed all over the roads, fruiting cumquat trees appearing on display, flowers ready to be cut and sold, big food donations rolling up on a daily basis to the outreach centres I work at, people calling in their debts, cooking like mad, shops overflowing with all sorts of strange and unidentifiable goodies - this week we are trying the toasted water melon seeds and today I was given a bag of black moosh to try (no idea what was in it but ate it anyway and am now hoping for the best).
Today the Lifestart workshop workers had  prayers for the new year and a celebration lunch which Pete and I went along to. It was lots of fun and great to be included in some of the rituals of hospitality around this time. I even had the elderly lady in the neighbouring shop sing me a Vietnamese Opera item which was gorgeous. Apparently she was a famous singer in her prime.

            The offering table and yes that is a whole chicken in the foreground

 One of my good buddies who comes 3 times a week to our exercise group and is just an all round good woman despite a lot of setbacks

         The exercise group girls and some of the team of makers at the workshop

            Our feast:  Banh Xeo (country pancake), shredded chicken salad number, pork bits, secret satay-ish sauce, rice paper, green bean & ginger pudding, mixed salad leaves including 'evil weed' - my nickname for one item I just cannot swallow.

      Receiving my impromptu Opera song gift - one of the great unexpected moments over here

In terms of my work I am not expecting anything to go to plan from here on and just as well as I found out today that only 2 people are planning to come in to see me next week, and even they may not show up.

Next blog entry should be interesting once Tet has actually arrived. We are going to stick around for the first few days to enjoy the festivities and then leave everyone to it for the week as we head to Thailand for another quick break for a week.
Another great highlight of the last couple of weeks has been spending time with the Smiths, our friends from home. We had a lovely few nights catching up and eating lots of meals together and hearing all about their daytine shopping escapades and also meeting another family they knew that was in town at the same time.

                                  Smith's first night in Hoi An

                                   Feasting at the BaLe Well Restaurant

It's usually Ok in Vietnamese restaurants to leave your used serviettes under the table. The kids took this to the extreme on this particular occasion (!!)

Christmas in Vietnam

After our world wind trip of Cambodia we had a few days to get ready for Christmas in Vietnam. 

As the majority of Vietnamese don’t celebrate Christmas it was quite a different experience. We managed to find a plastic Christmas tree and a set of flashing lights to drape over it and placed the tree in the corner of the lounge room along with some tinsel. The local kids were quite interested in the display. Presents appeared under the tree and we were all set for the day.

Early morning excitement ensured that we were up and going at 6am. It was amazing that even though we were in Vietnam and we don’t have a chimney Santa still managed to “deliver presents”!

We met our friends Ian, Karen, and Jess (friends from Red Hill Scouts travelling through Vietnam) for morning tea along the river in Old Town Hoi An and the festivities continued with an interesting twist on the Kris Kringle gift giving. It was quite fun.

We all then went to a beautiful Christmas lunch with some of the Greenshoots school families and spent the afternoon relaxing. The food was amazing with turkey, ham, roast vegies, salads, ice-cream, and delicious pastries. It was a great effort by those who organised the lunch and afternoon.

9kg Turkey being carved up!

Lunch by the pool

Siem Reap Day 2

Back in a tuk tuk heading out to the Landmine Museum

Passing scenery on the way out to the museum. We had a fantastic ride out there through the countryside an hours drive out of Siem Reap

Local rural style homes

Roadside stalls selling hand woven things, palm sugar lumps, bags etc

At the Landmine Museum 

The Museum was established by a former soldier who had been involved in laying many landmines during darker times but has since dedicated his life to not only the highly dangerous task of personally clearing landmines but has also set up a small orphanage to care for kids affected by landmines explosions and associated disabilities and loss of family. Most of the items at the museum are things that he has come across over the years as he has worked to be part of the solution to clear it up and make rural villages safe again. An inspiring life.  There is still an awful lot of unexploded ordinance lying around who knows where throughout the country. Still very unsafe for the locals in many areas.

 Next up we stopped in at a recently established Butterfly Farm. It is a small operation but we had an excellent local young guide who showed us everything and explained it all in great detail. they are also providing an income-generating opportunity for local villages to help supply the butterflies and to identify and gather some specimens.

 Tarantula up close - often found fried up for a snack for sale at many roadside stops on the way from Phnom Penh & Siem Reap

  

All sorts of Chrysalids !

Nearby to the butterfly farm, were several raodside stalls, many of them were making palm sugar like this lady. I bought a few packets from her and she happily agreed to be photographed in the process. From what I could see they have these giant iron pots that get heated up over a fire or on top of a big earth oven and someone sits for a long time stirring the mix constantly until it reduces down to the end product. Tastes, sweet, rustic,earthy and  bit smokey

  

Life in rural Cambodia

Back at the hotel

  

Siem Reap Night market - Fish foot 'massage'. 

Very ticklish but quite good once you get used to it and try to forget about what they are doing.

 Enhancing the Foot Massage experience with a massge from the "Seeing Hands" massage stall, operated by blind masseuses to assist with earning a living. She was super powerful and I was doing some serious wincing at times.