Hoi An City... a busy place!

The beach in Hoi An, Vietnam is beautiful... and so is the little town. Janet and I got to spend a day shopping the streets of the city... wet markets, street markets of all kinds... lots of textures, lots of color, lots of smells, and TONS of people... what an experience and I of course had to play around with my camera and take a couple of interesting shots....
A small child that we saw doing homework with the TV on while we were walking to dinner...

At dinner... Pierce was fast a sleep in good hands with a babysitter...

Here is a gong that I had to have... this will some day sit on my kitchen counter at home... Pierce's school uses a gong to call the children to the table for lunch... I will do the same in my house in Houston some day... what a great memory.

Vietnam is famous for their water puppet shows... I fell in the love the water puppets the first time I saw them... Janet and I found a shop and I had to have one... so I bought two small ones.... I have not taken a picture of the ones that I bought but below is a one that was being used...

Every country I go to I HAVE to get a painting... someday our house will be full of oil painting from around the world... this is the painting that Blake and I picked out in Vietnam... it is now rolled and tubed and waiting for a frame...

We stayed in Hoi An 2 nights so we got to go out 2 nights in a row... the picture below was taken in an Italian restaurant in the heart of Hoi An... the Chef here studied in Italy for a year and he was the head Chef, the waiter, the hostess and anything else you can imagine... his energy and excitement was contagious and we all decided this was one of our favorite meals of the entire trip... yummy.

Goodbye Hoi An... and then we are headed to Hue... stay tuned to see the Forbidden city in Hue, Vietnam...

The beach of Hoi An...

Check out this amazing beach... it was to cold and rainy to get in and really enjoy it... but that did not stop Pierce... and somebody had to go in after him... and daddy got that job...

All the running around made Pierce go poo poo in his shorts... Blake was the first one to come up with the "cleaning" plan... the ocean... and it worked well...

Took one man to get him clean... and an army to get him dressed again...

Now Grandma had to get in...

What a beautiful beach... we will have to go back when the sun is out for sure...

Next Stop... Hoi An... for 2 days!

The next day we woke up and headed out to Hoi An... we flew to Danag and then drove to Hoi An which is central Vietnam located on the China beach...

Pierce got an iTouch for Christmas and this was his best friend (and mine) on all the plane rides and car rides...


We made a little pit stop at a marble structure factory near the hotel to get some pics of the Marble Mountains...

We grabbed a bite to eat when we got there we were starving and Pierce was still very happy with his iTouch.

When we made it to our beautiful rooms at the Victoria Beach Resort (the oldest hotel in Hoi An)... I found this hat and could not resist.

Pierce loved his bathtub...

This is a pic of the hotel at night... all ready for Christmas.

A pic of the back from the beach... beautiful...

Then we found these really cool Santa Vietnamese hats.... and had to take a picture with Santa.

Playing in the hotel was so much fun for Pierce... this was Blake's first vacation in months (almost a year) so we had alot of relaxation time in the hotel... and all the rain outside helped us do that too.

Pierce admiring the waves...

Last year we got our family Christmas pictures with reindeer antlers on our couch in Singapore this year we got our picture on the China Beach in Vietnam with Santa Vietnamese hats... I can't wait to see what next year holds...

Another great destination... wish there was more sun but since it was raining we got to relax alot and even a rub down at the spa... so nice...stay tuned for more pics of the city and beach...

Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels...

Our first day in Vietnam we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels about 45 mins outside of Hoi Chi Minh City...The tunnels are a network of underground passageways that the gorilla's used in the Vietnam war against the Americans... there were many mixed emotions about this tour... Grandpa was with us and active in the military at the time of the Vietnam war, seeing traps and tunnels that were used to fight Americans was a bit interesting and sad at the same time, and then I found myself occasionally thinking about the current war that we find ourselves in and the men and women that die everyday.... but on a happier note enjoy the pictures...

On our drive out to the location we got to see lots of village life and rice fields... a different site from the city.

Rubber trees... and lots of them.

Headed into the tunnels... Grandpa got a picture of me taking pics... the only thing I seem to be doing these days with my new toy...

A entry point for the tunnels... a bit small... do you think we could fit in it?

Blake was the brave one and tried it out...

This working station was under ground at one time but they opened up so we could breath :-).

This section is where the traps start.. this is a common trap that they used... a person would come along and walk on the green patch (obviously it would be surrounded by green not brown).

and this is what they would find on the other side....

Ouch... alot of the traps were meant to mangle not to kill...

Another entry... a bigger one... that has been reinforced due to erosion.

Pierce taking a picture with a lady gorilla.

This was an American tank that was stopped here due to a bomb that killed 4 Americans...
They make shoes out of tires and tubes just like in the old times... the guy that was making them had a pair on his feet that he has had for 7 years... they last for 20.

we got to go inside the tunnels... Pierce fit perfectly the rest of us had to crawl around like the tour guide.

Finally we get to come out... we see light... and fresh air...

On our way out we grabbed some more hats and took some pictures...

A great first day... what will the rest of our days look like... come back for more... please!