Vietnam... and life back in Saudi

We followed up the week in India with a week in Vietnam.  Instead of traveling around, we spent the week in the capital, Hanoi.  We did take a short trip out of the city to the beautiful Ha Long Bay, an area of turquoise waters and enormous limestone islands.  The rest of our time was spent exploring Hanoi's Old Quarter... mostly the food scene.  Vietnam has some of the very best street food in the world.  Our days would regularly involve going to a site or museum, finding a crowded place for lunch, going to another site or museum, then finding a crowded place for dinner.  Our method of looking for and eating at restaurants filled with Vietnamese people did not fail us.  The food was delicious! Hotels were $20 a night, there was a different soup vendor on every corner and beer came in at $0.75. It was Brian's Happy Place.

Here's some pictures of our time in Vietnam:

Around Hanoi...

Gardens around Hoan Kiem Lake

Hoan Kiem Lake

Typical Hanoi street in the Old Quarter

The Temple of Literature

Creepy water puppets

Water Puppet show (where the creepy puppets would splash around in time to Vietnamese music)

Want to see the puppets in action?  Click here.  (not a video I took, but it's from the same show)

Statue of a bird standing on top of a turtle; it's supposed to represent helping others and karma.

"Uncle Ho" and Brian at his museum

For some reason the Ho Chi Minh museum also included weird artwork not at all related to Ho Chi Minh

We went to several museums that touched on the Vietnam War (or the war of American Oppression.) The official government museums talked about how proud they were that they defeated the American imperialists. Outside of the museum, all of our tour guides were 21-24 year old Vietnamese college students who were really excited to practice their English and totally loved America. They were super friendly and incredibly excited to show us their city and culture.

Biking in the outskirts of Hanoi

Vietnamese cooking class

John McCain's flight suit at Hoa Lo Prison

The trip to Ha Long Bay

Our boat for our Ha Long Bay trip!

Headed toward Ha Long Bay

Welcome aboard!

Lovely sunset on the boat

Jumping off into Ha Long Bay!

Cuttle (squid) fishing

Exploring a cave in Ha Long Bay

Beautiful!

Hooray Vietnam!

You know we had to...

Vietnamese Markets

Curbside fruit and veggie market

Farmers selling their crops

You can get everything in the market!

You can even get duck embryos!

Nom nom nom

One of us wanted to try it... the other said hell no

Chickens at the market

Vietnamese people love fresh food. They typically go the market twice a day and they often buy their meat alive. One of us was excited to stop and see what was for sale. One of us almost became a vegetarian.

Someone made a friend at the market....

Selling chickens at the market

We enjoyed Vietnam a lot.  But after Vietnam it was back to home to Saudi.  It's actually been quite pleasant outside (highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s).  Our compound is starting to fill up, so we're meeting new people.  I've been substituting in 2nd grade for the last two weeks, and that's been....umm... fun.  The kids were really sweet and there was definitely less singing than kindergarten, but I'm glad to be done and hoping to move up to higher grades soon! 

Yesterday I had the chance to visit the plant site that Brian is working on with some of the other spouses.  It was really neat to see how intricate and enormous the plant is going to be.  It's going to be the largest chemical complex in the world built in only one phase!  At least, that's what our tour guide told us.  Yesterday was also my first experience with a dust storm (or sandstorm?), which really reduced visibility and increased the amount of dust all over me.  #desertlife

This weekend we head to Bahrain to celebrate with all the folks who have worked for 5, 10, 15, etc years for Dow.  Brian has worked for Dow for 10 years... or "a decade of excellence" as he likes to call it.  We're looking forward to a nice dinner and some adult beverages. 

Our next trips are to London, England and Reykjavik, Iceland.  Stay tuned!  :)