The Adams' Mission Adventure - Phở real

 This was a less-exciting week, as Allen wasn't feeling well on our p-day and opted to sleep all afternoon rather than go adventuring. It was not a bad thing to take a day off from traveling here and there, although it did make for less pictures to show on our blog. I did manage to leave him alone for a few minutes while I went to check out what was like a street fair in front of the nearby mall. There were 2 long blocks of vendors, some selling food and some selling clothing, and some selling all kinds of accessories. I happened on a booth where a young man was pounding rice into a gelatinous substance in a big pot on the sidewalk. I'd like to have known the story behind it, but didn't ask. The weather here in Hanoi has been interesting; summer doesn't know if it's coming or going. We've had days in the 60s, and then suddenly the days were in the 90s! And today, we're back in the 60s. I gotta say, I don't mind the cooler weather because I know what'...

 Allen has once again discovered new wonders here in Vietnam. The area we explored on Monday of this week is called Perfume Pagoda: "Perfume Pagoda is a striking complex of Buddhist temples and pagodas built into the limestone cliffs of Huong Tich Mountain" (Vietnam trip website). My Vietnamese friends will need to forgive me if I get the names of the pagodas and different places wrong: I only have Google to guide me, and I don't think it's trustworthy. The festival here lasts 3 months and is the reason we came here when we did.  It is about 70 km outside of Hanoi, so first we rode the bus to a small village, then electric shuttles to the river, then a boat ride up the river for about 4 km to the Thien Tru Pagoda, where the road up the mountain to the main attraction begins.  Just up the river from the starting point, we stopped at Trinh Pagoda, which during the festival is filled with the pilgrims who have come to pray. Our guide told us that of all the people who co...