Mekong Delta

Posting has been difficult . Vietnam very wired but on ship WiFi is very iffy and with everyone trying to get on it at times is nonexistant. And not at all while sailing. 

  We arrived in Phenom Penh this morning early. Be here overnight and out on tours all day. Delta travel interesting, one would not call the Delta particularly postcard scenic but certainly interesting. Visited Floating market where small boats come from all over Vietnam to buy wholesale all kinds of commodities from other boats and take it to home village to sell.  All transactions on boats. Visited small village where homes on stilts, markets, all manner of river traffic.

Boats on the delta all have these painted "eyes"

 to protect from bad spirits 

Children curious everywhere we go.

Cruising the Mekong

Motor coach from Saigon to port on Mekong River to begin river cruise.

Boarded our River Cruise Ship and continued our tour on the Mekong Delta.  Internet is sporatic here so will be posting sporatically. We are in good hands, quite comfortable especially aboard ship, taking every possible shore excertion.  

Good Morning Vietnam!

View of Saigon (HoChiMinh City) from our room on the 15th floor of the Sofitel Hotel early morning.  Arrived here last night after dark so we got to see how this city is lit up with Christmas lights on cab ride into town.  Day one was tour of interesting spots like new Palace, and War Remnants Museum, Cathedral, Post Office. We skipped the afternoon bus tour and opted to explore on our own.

The museum was a sobering three floor collection of mostly journalists photos showing suffering and distruction of the war. 3 million Vietnamese died, of which 2 million were civilians. Also big exhibit about what Agent Orange did to the land and to generations of people. Not a pleasant display.

   Several war locations were pointed out to us during tour, like the location of the final evacuation of people from rooftop when Saigon fell in April of 1975. That building still remains as it was on that day, immortalized in famous picture.

                  

 

 Dont know how to flip this picture, but we paid 45,000 Vietnamese Dong for this cup of iced coffee.  Having a hard time getting my head around currency exchange.  Its something like 22,000 Dong to US dollar--which means the coffee was a whopping two dollars, US.
 
 

 
 

Pedestrian mall full of people enjoying the warm evening.  Tallest building in Saigon in the background, the Skydeck is 

a beacon into the night sky.  Statue of Ho Ch Minh watches over it all.

City Hall at night

Some catchup pictures

We found another urban park in Shanghai to spend several hours exploring and especially wanted to post what we found. This is Century Park, actually on Pudong, very large. . .I compare it to New York's Central Park.  Another dark, threatening day but we enjoyed it.  I imagine it very busy on weekends or a nicer day.  We had it practically to ourselves.

We found this great bird.  Watched him for a long time! Lots of bird song here also.  Need to return with our binoculars.  First place we have found that we could actually do some urban birding. Maybe next spring.  I need to find out what this bird is.

Then we found this great botanical sculpture.  All in various living greens. Wish I knew what the story is that is being depicted. Quite amazing.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet but nice Thanksgiving by ourselves. Doug had business in Soule so the whole family went for weekend in Korea.  We had the house to ourselves for last day before we left for our getaway to Vietnam.
  We had reservations for a traditional American turkey dinner at a place called the Boxing Cat.  A sports bar and restaurant that puts on a great Thanksgiving feast every year.  This year was especially tasty.
    It's a cliche but just so overwhelmed with all we have to be Thankful for this year.  Leaving is full of mixed feelings but we had such a great adventure and absolute precious time with Lia and Doug and all.  And thankful also for friends and family that we are anxious to return to.  It's been gloomy and rainy the last few days which adds to my melancholy/soulful mood.

We are counting down the days

This was our last weekend in Shanghai. We had our family Thanksgiving brunch at a local Dim Sum restaurant.  Was recommended to Doug and was a great choice.  Some unfamiliar dishes, even to Doug and Tammy.  We saw what looked good at other tables and Doug politely asked what it might be called so we could try them too. Even the girls ate a lot.
 

Came home and did another Thanksgiving tradition in this household--decorating the Christmas tree.  All the ornaments are at 2 1/2 ft level but Daddy can reach Lia up to put star on top.

And then there is the Christmas shopping.  We will, of course, be leaving presents under the tree for them when we go. Toys-R-Us is big here also.

Out shopping Will and I went to Fuxing Road to where all the book stores and paper/stationary stores are.  Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore is 8 floors of books of every type and so fun to browse at all the materials IN ENGLISH!!  Like a huge Barnes and Nobles, even has a coffee shop on first floor.

A night out

I will have to say that we are not much for night life, grandparents and old people that we are.  But last night Doug took us to a nice Sichuan restaurant for dinner after the girls were in bed. Tammy was buzy too, with a cosmetic conference but the rest of us met Natalie who just happened to be in town from Singapore attending a leadership conference of her own. Went to XinTianDi which is an upscale, shopping/entertainment area that we have watched expand and mature over the years.  We remember it from 2000 when one of the first Starbucks in Shanghai opened here.  We need to do this more often.

Time is moving on.

Noticed that the ginko trees in the complex are finally turning yellow as season changes here. That seems to be one of the few clues that it's fall.  It has gotten colder but still amazingly warm. Just a light jacket and this weekend it was back up in the 70's.  Will and I both remember it being a lot colder last year when we were here for Thanksgiving.

Steph left yesterday and began her arduous 18 hour trip back to Bloomington.  Great to have her here. We were all together for a short time and loved it.

 Which by the way, Thanksgiving is only a week away.  Which also means we will be leaving Shanghai.  Can't believe we have been here this long.  Am going to definatly have grandbaby withdrawal!!  We have memories for a lifetime.  

Plus our "China experiences."  Fun, exciting, confusing, frustrating, hilarious, annoying, amazing, beautiful,  interesting. . .and all that and more. I will be boring everyone with my stories for a long time. Along with pictures of the girls.
  

Family time

Everyone gets to play with Aeri!!

We went with Steph to the Performance Museum .  It's the Ming Contemporary Art Museum where Steph was interested in seeing some video art instalations. Nice outing.

Sister reunion

Do you think they were happy to see each other!

They have been giggling non stop since they arrived.

Marriage Market

We went to the famous People's Park of Shanghai for a few hours to stroll around and enjoy this big urban green space.  Its a busy and active park especially on a Sunday afternoon but we came upon this gathering and were baffled as to what was going on.  Wasn't until we got home that Doug explained to us what we had seen.  The following article is straight out of Wikipedia.  Had to share it.  This is serious business!!  The umbrellas were used as display tables.

The Shanghai Marriage Market  (People's Park blind date corner") is a marriage market held at People's Park in Shanghai, China. Parents of unmarried adults flock to the park every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. to trade information on their children. The primary goal of attending the Shanghai marriage market is for parents to find a suitable partner for their child. The standards of finding the right match may be based upon (but not limited to) age, height, job, income, education, family values, Chinese zodiac sign, and personality. All of this information is written on a piece of paper, which is then hung among other parents' advertisements for their children. The parents walk around chatting with other parents to see if there is a harmonious fit only after their children's standards are met.

Many parents do not have permission from their child to go to this event.  It has been described as "match.com meets farmers' market" with a low success rate. In many parents' eyes, parent matchmaking gatherings such as the Shanghai Marriage Market are the only way to uphold a traditional dating style for their children in modern China. China's long idealized tradition of continuing their family lineage is very important within Chinese culture. As the children of the One Child Policy become of typical marriage age, the so-called marriage "market" of China has wavered in stability, particularly for males in China. The University of Kent predicts that by the year 2020, 24 million men will be unmarried and unable to find a wife.

Recently, well-educated women in China with established careers are in less of a hurry to get married. They have more options than women in past generations and are not afraid to put their career first. This change in marriage ideology puts the women in a higher position of power within a traditionally male-dominated society. Now more women seek to find a responsible man with personal integrity instead of just a high paying job. Many men's standards have changed with the progression of women's status in the work industry as well, they expect a woman that has been educated and well on her way to a career path. But what has drastically changed the two most important qualities in a wife being "elegance and a decent career path," quite a change from "diligence and the willingness to suffer the burden of life.” A sociologist from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill expects China's gender gap to widen by the year 2020, with 24 million more men than women.

    Here are more pics of People's Park, the National Museum and Music Hall in People's Park.