Dragon Boat Birthday

Today we hired a Dragon boat and celebrated Mom's 80th birthday on the Perfume river.

Dragon boats are a tourist attraction, but the big ones are also a great place to have a party.

Loading the boat.

Big man made lotus flowers.

Heading up river, we will pass under the Trang Tien bridge.  This is a famous landmark in Vietnam.

Most of the river traffic is sampans loaded with sand rock or gravel.  Cement is the main building material in Hue and all of the admixture comes from dredging the river bottom.

A large rock dredging operation. As in large rocks, not sand or gravel.

Back to the party.  We sang Happy Birthday, the kids of course were the most enthusiastic. 

Before lunch Helen did a fan dance.  Just kidding, it was hot today even moving on the river.

Mountains and forest/jungle looking up river.

Is that a sampan or a submarine?  Not much of a margin for error, as in, a big wake could swamp that thing.

Riverside jungle.

Back to the bridge.

Elephant Brook

Yesterday we left Lang Co.  The US families decided the kids would like Elephant Brook, and since that is near Lang Co, they picked us up along the way.  Elephant Brook is like the Oak Creek of Hue.

On the lower part of the brook we found some water buffalo.

Walking to the brook.

Any flower print works as camouflage in the jungle.

Helen temps fate on the scary bridge.

The Great White Water Buffalo blinds local Vietnamese.

A brief rain.

Where the brook comes from.

Down Stream.

Lang Co

Lang Co is beautiful, but not much cooler than Hue, as the heat is back.

We are here.
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Undeveloped beach as far as the eye can see.

Killer grilled clams.  Usually we save the food for another forum, but damn these were good.  Fresh and alive then grilled to perfection with onions a bit of oil and peanuts on top.

Our dining companion.  It is not unusual to see a lizard around here, but this guy has an exceptionally long tail.

Hue Skyline

We are in Lang Co, but we don't have a lot of pictures yet.  Here are some shots of the Hue skyline for now.  Click on pictures to enlarge

And Mom's roof top garden in the rain.

Reunion Lunch then to the Beach and the Tolet

Last night a storm moved in and the heat broke at last.  Which is great because we had a family lunch at Mom's house and all 6 sisters were in the same place for the first time in 27 years!

After lunch Helen suggested we go to see the beach she and her sisters left from when they escaped.

But first the monkey.  This poor thing is chained to a tree down the street from Helen's Mom's house.

Here is a car monkey called Emily.

Thu An beach where Helen and her sisters escaped from Veitnam.

The hawker kids swarm.

Helen in paradise.

Helen, Brandon and Trang.  Helen discovers her white pants are see through when wet.

And after your drinks run through, you may need to use the TOLET.

Here is where the arrow points.  Just a cement floor with a bit of privacy.

After the beach excursion, everyone but Trang was too tired to eat.  So we took her to a popular sea food restaurant near the hotel.

Visiting Relatives

On Tuesday we went to visit relatives both living and deceased.  First we drove to the country to pray at Helen's father's family temple.  It is a beautiful place but this had the be the hottest day yet.

On the way to the temple we crossed over the Perfume river.  Hue is getting ready for their annual city festival.  These are huge lotus flower sculptures that have been placed out in the river just for the festival.

Rice fields on the way out to the family temple.

The family temple.  It is really a house with the main living space devoted to altars.  

The altars.

Praying at great great grandfathers alter.

Then we traveled back to Hue to see Helen's aunt.  She is the lady in the middle of the picture.

The formal room in Helen's aunt's house.  The craftsmanship of both the structure and the furniture are exquisite.

The is the river out in back of the aunt's house.  Helen grew up just down the street.  This river would flood their house almost every year.

Helen's grade school.  Right across the street from her aunt's house.  

All Have Arrived from the US

All three US sisters and their respective kids are now in Hue. The young ones were not happy with the heat. There were a lot of "I want to go home" comments heard. But now they are in a nice air conditioned hotel room so happiness has returned.

The three US sisters Helen, Loan and Nyung with Mom on the way to the market this morning.

The market.

Three sisters and mom buying fresh pork.

The pork selection.

Big white guy alert. Which one of these things doesn't belong here?

After all the "grocery shopping" we cooked the food at Mom's house then took it back to the hotel where Ngan's oldest daughter Trang (14) was babysitting the rest of the kids. The hotel is close to both the market and Mom's house, but it is just too damn hot to walk. So we take taxis with A/C for about 75 cents with tip per trip. Lunch is better when not sweating bullets. After that it was use uncle Matt as a monkey bar time.

Crazy kids attack uncle Matt.