The Adams' Mission Adventure - Phở real

 We were not sure what to do for our p-day adventure this week, but to make sure our young missionaries wanted to come, we offered them Thanh Chuong's Viet Palace (see November 17, 2024). This place is just so amazing that we wanted to make sure our junior associates had the chance to see it, so we (easily) talked them into it. And to hear their exclamations of delight was all we needed to know that it was well worth it. As a brief reminder: " A Vietnamese artist named Thanh Chuong built a 2.5-acre open-air complex that was originally intended as a personal sanctuary. As an artist, he created a museum of priceless cultural relics in a natural environment similar to the life and culture of the people thousands of years ago." I loved showing what we had found to the young missionaries and to hear the awe in their voices as they continued to remind each other that "we get to LIVE in Vietnam!" I can't have a blog without at least SOME pictures, but I'll do m...

 Let it be known that Allen is THE best finder of adventures in Hanoi! We haven't yet had the opportunity to venture far outside of the city of Hanoi, but he searches and investigates and discovers places that most tourists don't seem to frequent.  His latest offering was to the Lim Festival in Bac Ninh, about 20 km (about 13 miles) across the river and north of Hanoi. The travel websites do say that "thousands of visitors go on a pilgrimage to this festival", but they must be Vietnamese visitors, because Allen and I seemed to be the only people with white skin there. We may have spotted one other person but from the reaction of the people, you'd think we were the only ones. More about that later; I'm getting ahead of myself. The schedule (what little schedule he could find) said that the festivities began early, so Allen wanted to leave by a little past 7 am on Monday. Having not slept well for 2 nights, I felt that sleeping in may have been more beneficial, ...