The *free* massage chairs in the Taipei (Taiwan) airport
Hanoi: Communist-style posters are seen throughout the country
Hanoi: How many people can fit on one motorbike?
Street scenes in Hanoi
Rice harvesting outside of Hanoi
How many chickens can fit on one motorbike?
On the way to the Perfume Pagoda, about 2 hours outside of Hanoi
The boatride there takes an hour.
How many people can fit into one rowboat?
Lunch time
Leading up to the pagoda
The way back
On the way to Sapa, school children exercise.
In the market for a water buffalo?
Market scenes (the colorful clothing indicates that these people are part of one of 57 ethnic minorities in Vietnam.)
Pig head anyone?
Our guide, Tien, buys a live chicken to bring home. It sits in the back of our van the rest of that day.
Downtown Sapa
Our 3-day trek begins
The father at the homestay making us french fries
The mother chopping vegetables
The mother encourages Paulie to drink a lot of their homemade brew, rice wine
Alix's guide for a bit, where the trail gets especially muddy
snake/scorpion wine (for the tourists)
"You buy from me?"
Alix makes friends at the Chinese-Vietnam border (China is behind)
Typical Hanoi traffic
Halong Bay, in the running for one of the Seven New Wonders of the World
Our home for the night
We spent the night here
Truly breathtaking scenery
Definitely a highlight of our trip
Bananas for sale
A cave on one of the islands
On the way to Ba Be Lakes, we stop for this lunch, where a claw is sticking out of the bowl of chicken parts
Our homestay for two nights
Village life near the lake
One of the best lunches we had on our whole trip!
Eating dinner with the family (four generations live under one roof!)
Adam from Rochester, NY, who was touring Northern Vietnam by motorcycle
The pig series: Two live pigs are strapped to the motorbike
Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum in Hanoi
Our last day in Hanoi
The remnants of a French fighter plane at one of the museums devoted to Vietnam's long history of being ruled/invaded/fought against by the Chinese, the French and the Americans
A couple getting married poses for a traditional portrait
Traditional art form: water puppets
How many boxes can fit on one motorbike?
Bras for sale
How many noodles can fit on one motorbike?
A funny looking dog
Hue, in central Vietnam
"You buy from me?" (Actually, we didn't this time)
More market scenes
The Ancient City
Menu with "Boarted Pord" and other such delicacies
Paulie crashes a wedding and meets the family
How many ??? can fit onto one motorbike?
Another happy couple, this time getting photographed in Hoi An
Hoi An: The Japanese bridge
Our cooking class! Ngoc, our chef, first takes us to an organic farm
Then to the market, where we shop and learn what a banana flower is (yes, it's edible)
Then on to the Red Bridge Cooking School
Spices
Making rice paper for noodles
Pho, the national dish, but Alix's vegetarian version
Alix feels right at home
The class consists of an Austrailian couple, a German woman, and us. Here we are making another national dish, fish in a claypot.
Ngoc wraps shrimp in a lemongrass ginger paste in banana leaves before grilling
Salad with banana flowers, green papaya and other yummy things
How's that for presentation? Paulie did that!
We now can enjoy what we've made.
Fisherman series.
Too bad we had to pay for this after the fisherman finished his poses (only 5,000 dong, or .33 cents)
At this point, he came up to the side of our boat to collect.
We spent way too much time in Adong Silk Shop. We came away with two suits and several shirts for Paulie, and numerous items for Alix.
Hoi An lanterns
Carving just as they have always done it
Folk dances
These incense coils burn for an entire year!
An American jeep leftover from the "American War" takes tourists up to My Son, ruins from the 8th century
My Son ruins
Many of these ruins were destroyed by the Americans during the war
We ride the boat back to Hoi An
and see this on the way: men washing their boat
A boat "factory"
Hoi An from the water
These small edible treats are made from the cassava root
We rent bikes and ride around the outskirts of Hoi An
and find this ceramic village
Our rare time at the beach, even there you are not left alone. "You buy from me?"
Now in the Mekong Delta: a woman makes rice paper for coconut candy
Lunch is at this restaurant
Where we eat the "elephant ear" fish, rolled in rice paper with fresh herbs and fish sauce. Delicious!
Scenes from the Mekong Delta
Our hotel room in Chau Doc has this sign: No protitudes are allowed in our room. Paulie thinks this is hilarious.
Pigs are the sacrifices here, so many places offer them
At night we deal with more gnats or insects than we've ever seen in our lives
Luckily this is only the display
Offerings for the temples
See the pigs being offered?
More scenes from the water
A Muslim village
These homes all have cages under them, where they raise catfish for export
This man is making the food for the catfish. Stinky!
This sign is for a restaurant, but Paulie found it hilarious.
Incense sticks drying in the sun.
This is a stork sanctuary. No one knows why they are drawn here, only that they are. You climb up a spiral staircase to get to the viewing platform.
Our guide in Can Tho takes us to a disco.
Floating Market: Whatever hangs on the pole, is what they have for sale.
Our friend who raises snakes and makes his own snake wine.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) An American tank at the War Museum
The symbol as seen throughout Asia
Typical Saigon architecture
Notre Dame Cathedral
Drinks on the roof of the Sheraton in Saigon.
We run into Sarah and Mark from our cooking class and join them for dinner
The Vietnamese are amazing at carving animals out of vegetables. Check out this carrot-dragon.
Ice-cream in a melon
The tunnels at Cu Chi were built by the Viet Cong during the war. Many people lived underground here, safe from the Americans.
This is one example of the awful booby traps the Viet Cong built.
Paulie shot an AK-47 here.
Coming out of the tunnel
Now we are at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, for the last two days of our trip. Alix had been here before so we didn't take so many pictures, but here are a few. These women are part of a wedding party.
And here is the couple.
Carvings on the temple walls
A monk
Making palm sugar at the side of the road
Angelina Jolie made this temple famous in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"
Our wonderful guide and driver (if anyone is headed to Cambodia, let us know! We highly recommend our guide!) The End, thanks for watching!
