Oh, The Places You'll Go...

 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 come to visit, 99% come to pray and 1% come as tourists. We were tourists today.

One of the amazing drums found in most pagodas...

I believe this is a phoenix fighting the dragon; I may be wrong...

Notice the huge bat under the upper eave. I still haven't learned the significance of bats in Vietnam.

Here are some of the things for sale that they tried to tell me I wanted. I was able to resist this particular shop.

And then we continued up the river. It was a very busy day with many other boats, but our guide showed us pictures of what the REALLY busy days looked like on the river! Wow! I'm glad we weren't there on one of the BUSY days!

All of the foreigners on this tour were on one boat for English translation; we had people from Germany and Belgium and Australia and us from America. And as we had seen in the past, foreigners attract a "boatload" of attention. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) The boats we saw coming up the river with us or going back down the river were filled with waving, smiling Vietnamese people. Everyone likes to say "hello" to the foreigners!

Even the river had boats filled with vendors!

It is a beautiful place. It would perhaps have been peaceful, too, if our guide hadn't brought a large speaker along in the boat so he could play music for us, and even sing. That had it's own charm, though. 

And then we arrived.

We left the boats behind and walked to a restaurant where we had a delicious and very typical Vietnamese meal. Along the way, we passed some interesting food items... Can you say "porcupine"?

Luckily, our lunch did not include the interesting animals... at least, I don't think it did!

Thien Tru Pagoda, at the base of the mountain, near the river, was beautiful, and we had an hour to explore before heading up the mountain.

Photo-bombing is a way of life for us with the Vietnamese. Fun. Usually.

The streets around the pagoda are filled with vendors of every kind, selling anything and everything you never knew you wanted or needed. It was fascinating. And the road up the mountain--all 2 km of it--is completely lined with more vendors selling more of the same things.

This is the starting point of the hike up stone steps and cobbles to get to Huong Tich Cave at the top. It can be reached by hiking the stone road, approximately 1 1/2 miles, or taking an aerial tram up to the top. We took the tram up and walked the road back down.

Another pagoda that we saw from the tram. We didn't have time to visit this one.

This is a view of the covered road that had vendors all the way up to the top!

The mountains were beautiful from way up in the air.

Once we had reached the top, we began the climb down some steep steps to the Huong Tich Cave, where many people come to pray for the coming year. It was an impressive cave, and was filled with worshipers, altars, offerings, and statues, as well as stalactites and -mites. 

The mouth of the cave is shaped (loosely) like a dragon's mouth...

And this is the tongue of the dragon.

Once we had climbed back out of the cave into the shop area, we had a few minutes before our hike back down. There were cages filled with birds for sale so that you could let them go free--give them their life back again, basically. One bird for $1.

Nope; sadly, I passed on the opportunity.

And then we began our hike back down the mountain past 1-1/2 miles of vendors.

Into the covered path...

Bongs for sale...

All kinds of Chinese medicine for whatever ails you!

This man was carving a fish from wood and sanding it down. There is amazing talent and skill in some of the Vietnamese people.

And then it was back to the boats to begin the journey home again.

This photo-bomber was our friend, half of the other senior couple we invited along for this adventure.

More music...                                                               

We had the bus drop us off as we crossed the main street near our apartment, saving us an hour of travel time and the fare for the Grab ride home. It was a short walk home (1 mile).

Our week continued with Zone Conference on Tuesday, which is actually a very fun and interesting experience. We like Zone Conference! The young missionaries trained each other on how to counsel together and plan their days, weeks, and months. And we participated in role plays and question/answer sessions and... lunch! It's fun to be a part of the young missionaries' lives. And our Mission Leaders are so great in the things they teach and do. It's an honor to help them with their huge task. Before we came, there was only one other senior couple, and they were in Saigon. Then we came to help in the north, and since then we've had 3 other couples come--one was the office couple, as I wrote about before, and when they left, we all took up their assignments so the Howells (Mission Leaders) didn't have to. There is also 1 humanitarian aid couple, but the government is very strict on their activities; they can't associate with the missionaries except at church or at parties.

This is our District these days: Elders Felt and Tuong; us; Sisters Ngo and Chung. All are from the states, and 3 have Vietnamese in them somewhere--some more than others. Not us.

Tuesday night was again game night; we have a lot of interest in that from the young single adults. Our 4 recent converts really like coming to that, and we have another man who comes who will be baptized next week.

Allen is teaching his group how to play Monopoly--Vietnamese-style!

We've got some Jenga going on...

And some pretty wicked table tennis.

Wednesday was my Mission Health Council meeting in the morning, and then District Planning right after that. And errands and chores after that! We needed a shopping trip, and spent almost 3,000,000 dong! (That's supposed to sound impressive...)

Thursday we worked on 1. Allen's talk; 2. my Relief Society lesson.

In the afternoon we took a break and went for a long walk through the streets of Hanoi--one of my favorite things to do. 

And the evening was taken up with the English activity, which I missed this week due to me not feeling well.

Friday morning I had the Asia Area Health Council Meeting, which was interesting, and then we had the chance  to help the missionaries with a lesson. This friend they taught has attended church for 2 years and has 2 young sons. He has wanted to join the Church, but his family is Buddhist and it would be difficult, so his plan was for his oldest son to be baptized first; then his family would see what a good effect the Church had on his son and they wouldn't mind if HE was baptized. But I guess he spoke with his family and they didn't mind if he was baptized. He said that the example of Allen and I was one of his motivations for talking to his family to get their approval for him to be baptized. So the Elders got a phone call one day from him saying, "I want to be baptized." Now THAT is golden!

After that lesson, we had another chance to go walking before we helped the Elders with another lesson. We took advantage!

There are SO MANY coconuts in Vietnam!!

And sugar cane ready to be crushed to make juice to drink. They add a kumquat (I think that's it) when they crush it so that the bitterness(?) will keep the juice from fermenting.

What appears to be an outdoor barbering school...

How do I look in red?

We can buy 10 eggs for $1; how does that compare to the U.S. now?

Creative use of materials at hand...

And a busy, busy walk back to the church building.

The next lesson we helped the Elders with was at this sister's (Hoa) home, where they are teaching Hoa and her husband Dat. They are such sweet, loving, kind and humble people. They are among my favorite people. Hoa's mother helps them with their little girl (almost 2) and son (7 or 8). And Hoa is a good cook; she is also my star music pupil and has learned how to lead music. Now she is learning to play the piano.

Saturdays are always busy. Allen has his meeting with the Branch Presidency, and I've begun opening up my music room at 2:00 pm for new students, and for Hoa who wants more time to practice. This Saturday, when there were just 10 minutes left in my class, I had 3 more young men who decided they want to learn to play the piano, too. That made things interesting! And then I was saved by the bell--English activity started and we all went downstairs.

That evening, we had a missionary correlation meeting from 6-7 pm, then we had to go find dinner, and then we crashed, after working on a talk and a lesson again.

Which brings us to Sunday! Our day of rest after our days of busy-ness. It's been a beautiful day, and the weather right now is delightful. We're afraid it's the calm before the storm, as the rest of this week is supposed to be in the high 80s. We've been enjoying the cooler weather too much! But the sunshine does feel and look pretty good, as well (we have only had two or three days of sunshine in the past two months).

We hope you all have a wonderful week! We plan to!