A Smattering From Hanoi

Our crew! We are in Vietnam this week with our friends the Allens. Their children attend Concordia also, and are ages 17, 15, 12, and 10. The kids are having a ball being together on this trip!

A load of harvested rice. This mama has a full load on her bike... she was riding, but at this hill had to get off and walk to make it all the way up. Note the baby in the basket!
Harvesting rice
Boat we took across the Red River to begin our bike ride in the village area... we weren't sure how sea worthy it was, but we made it!
Riding through the fields of rice ready to harvest.
Village children riding home from school... all waved and called what is likely the only English word they know~ "Hello, hello!" to us as we passed them on our bike ride.
We found this amazing tree inside the grounds at the Temple of Literature, the first university in Hanoi. Madelyn admires its twisting and winding roots and branches. Wonder what history it has seen!
Scott checks out a bonsai in a courtyard in the Temple of Literature.

Love the contrast of the bus with this woman carrying her wares to market.

Gwen and I ready for our cyclo ride to begin... being pushed from behind by a bicycle. Kind of a rickshaw idea.

See all these wires? It's no wonder the electricity fades in and out during the day!

So we've been in Vietnam now for four days. We've taken hundreds and hundreds of pictures, and every day we've seen and experienced different things. Tomorrow night we leave to go back to the land of blocked blogging, so I feel just a little pressure get a few posts done here tonight, as I sit in the hotel lobby. No wifi in the rooms. :-)

Our time here has been awesome! First of all, rain was predicted for this whole time, due to the storms that have beeen rolling through Asia. Yet we have had sunshine every day... heat even. Vietnam isn't a place normally on a vacation wish list... but how cool to see again that God has beautiful spots everywhere in the world. It's been interesting to see that although this is a gorgeous place with tons of potential, Vietnam is still a developing country and is still catching on to the tourist thing. We've felt several times on this trip that we've stepped back in time, seeing people plowing with water buffalo, harvesting rice by hand, living in tiny fishing shacks out on the water.

Tonight I am leaving you with a random group of pictures from our first day here, which we spent in the city of Hanoi, doing some touristy, historical things in the morning, a cyclo ride around the Old Quarter area after lunch, and then in the late afternoon a bike ride in the countryside. Sorry they are a bit out of order, but I am struggling with the slow internet and need to do what I can! Since then we've been on Catba Island... but I will have to save that post for tomorrow.