Okay, Okay, a Vacation!
We have confused many of you in the past by posting some pretty cool pictures and making you think that we have been on vacation here in Vietnam. That, in fact, is NOT true. We have, however, made good use of our time and enjoyed the culture and country of Vietnam while working hard as missionaries. This past week though, we will admit, did have some vacation time embedded in it. We had a missionary purpose in our travels, but we were able to ensure that once that purpose was met, the Vietnam appreciation aspect set in.
Let me apologize beforehand for the plethora of pictures you are about to encounter! Scroll as quickly or as slowly as you wish! I have tried to limit the pictures, but to no avail!
(Jumping the gun--"America Beach" from our hotel room.)
Our visas and passports came through for us on Monday afternoon and we packed up to leave first thing Tuesday. That meant we missed out on one tour that the other couples got to see, but we made the best of it.
There was some craziness going on with an approaching typhoon and lots of rain, and we were just grateful to reach the airport and have our flight still on schedule!
It's only an hour or so to Da Nang, so we were there by noon. We were on the 30th floor of our hotel with a NICE view.
Allen and I walked around afterwards and enjoyed seeing a few more sights.
Day 4: Friday
We arrived in Hue after 2 1/2 hours and visited the citadel, then crossed over the outer wall and the moat and entered the Imperial City of Hue, also called the Forbidden City. There are only a few palaces and temples and gardens left; many are being re-built. It's beautiful and ornate and very interesting, and I wish I could remember all the things our guide told us about it all.
Day 1: Tuesday
We settled in, then started a walking tour of Hoi An, a beautiful town near Da Nang. We first visited a silk weaving factory/shop where we learned the process of raising silk worms, turning their cocoons into silk threads, and then turning that into beautiful silk art.
Newly hatched silkworms--3 days old?
These were 18 days old.
This guide was showing us how they get silk from the cocoons--you can see the cocoon suspended from her hand by the thread.
These cocoons were attached to the spindles and were spinning out silk threads.
These looms had different colored silk on them...
This woman was stitching a beautiful work of art (a lotus flower), and more art was displayed on the walls all around the room. We were not allowed to take pictures of the art--only the workers.
This man was weaving lantern frames.
The women who owned these carriers, and who thrust them upon us, only wanted a few thousand dong for a picture, but we were unwilling to pay. Sorry.
This bridge was of Japanese design.
We had our whole group of 6 senior missionary couples here in Hoi An, which included our Mission
Leaders.
Hoi An is famous for it's beautiful lanterns.
We enjoyed this pagoda a great deal! 
I love the dragons that are everywhere!
And the art was just beautiful.
After the walking tour of the silk weaving and the pagoda, we made it to the river in time for the boat ride at dusk, and the lanterns.
We were with the Anthons above...
And the Howells and the Websters below...
And we finally caught up with the Hanley/Harris and Smart group...
And then we walked around the night market.
This woman wanted 25,000 dong for a picture with her lanterns. What??!
Day 2: Wednesday
We joined a tour heading to Marble Mountains, home of the largest lady Buddha in Vietnam. This is a hard place to describe; it has beautiful pagodas and statues and trees and buildings, and I don't know for sure what they're all a part of. I guess I would just call them all a part of the Lady Buddha Pagoda--Linh Ung. (This is not her lying down...)
They start these bonsai trees from a seed, right around the pot. I think the guide said this one was at least 20 years old at this point.
It's good luck to rub the happy Buddha's tummy. 
President Howell and Allen were twinners today.
Here she is!
The Asian dragon brings life by bringing water...
I love that this Happy Buddha is sitting on the dragon.
Da Nang across the harbor from the Lady Buddha.
This is a manufacturing store that takes marble from the nearby mountains and carves hundreds of figurines of every kind.
These are different colors of jade and are very valuable.
This is the opening of the cave that leads down to "hell".
Every cave we see in Vietnam is huge and is filled with statues and decorations and things with which to worship.
Then the stairs take you down, down, down... And they've put ghouls in the crevices, and demons showing what happens to you when you go to hell. They get pretty graphic, so I didn't include those pictures. You're welcome.
Going down...
And now we're escaping!
And ready to start the ascent into heaven!
And more dragons!
I'm getting there one way or another!
Different arches, leading to different places...
Another cave... Another statue... Another place of worship... Another dwelling for monks.
Seeking enlightenment...
After our tours to Monkey Mountain, the place where the Lady Buddha is found, and the Marble Mountains, we had our Senior Missionary meeting at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Da Nang, which was the reason for our trip to Da Nang. And here you thought we were in Da Nang on vacation!! I told you we had a missionary purpose! (Didn't I??) It must be noted that this trip was NOT paid for by the Church--it was all financed by each couple.
We met for almost 4 hours to get to know each other and discuss missionary work in Vietnam. There are 5 senior missionary couples in Vietnam, other than our Mission Leaders, President and Sister Howell. Allen and I have been here the longest, having just hit our one year mark for our mission, and September 18 is our one year mark being in-country. Currently, there are only 37 young missionaries and the 5 senior couples. In 3 weeks, we will add 13 more young missionaries, and we will lose 3.
As a reminder, I am the Mission Health Advisor and help keep the young missionaries healthy, or arrange for them to seek medical care. I also take care of the mission Facebook page, and invite all new missionaries to join this page, which gives important information about serving in Vietnam. Allen helps young missionaries get reimbursed for expenses that meet certain requirements of the mission, such as travel for mission meetings, or approved healthcare. He also helps ensure each missionary has a working bicycle. Beyond that, Allen is 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and I am 2nd counselor in the branch Relief Society Presidency. And we are best known as Ong Ba Adams--Grandpa and Grandma Adams. In Vietnam, once you are of a certain age, you are called Ong Ba, and that is us. We called a Grab car while on our trip to Da Nang and the driver said to please wait--he would pick up the grandparents. I was ready to be huffy that he was making us wait while he stopped to get his grandparents before picking us up, and then I realized he meant us--WE were the grandparents he was picking up. Then I just had to laugh. With age comes respect. When our branch has potluck dinners, I am not allowed to help clean up in the kitchen; that would be horrible if they were to see me working like that--that's a job for the young people. You know, I can get used to that attitude!
After our meeting ended, the 12 of us went out to dinner together and had a wonderful evening.
Allen and I walked around afterwards and enjoyed seeing a few more sights.
Back to Da Nang, to the Love Locks Dock, I believe. You can buy locks of love to put on the fence.
This is the famous Dragon Bridge.
And this is the famous Da Nang Carp Fountain.
Day 3: Thursday
Half of our couples needed to head home today, so before they left, as many as could headed out of town to Ba Na Hills, which was about an hour's drive away. This is something similar to Disneyworld/Epcot Center, but built in the tops of the hills and accessible only by cable cars. Sun World is the designer/creator, and they have multiple recreational centers all over Vietnam. We visited a place they created near Sa Pa, on Fancipan Mountain. Ba Na Hills is famous for the Golden Bridge--the 2 large white hands which hold up a pedestrian bridge, purely for photo ops, which are pretty fancy things. Ba Na Hills includes multiple castles, gardens, a French village, Alpine Coasters, amusement park rides, and lots and lots of food. We spent all day up there, and could have spent more time.
Amazingly, they're building much, much more up there!
This is the moon--a part of the Moon Castle.
A very welcome pizza dinner at the Kangaroo Bar that night.
Today, the 3 remaining couples took a rainy tour to Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam. We were hoping to avoid the rain, but it caught up with us. We were taking one of the most scenic coastal roads in Vietnam over the beautiful Hai Van Pass; fortunately, the clouds broke enough to get at least a short view of the East Sea below.
We arrived in Hue after 2 1/2 hours and visited the citadel, then crossed over the outer wall and the moat and entered the Imperial City of Hue, also called the Forbidden City. There are only a few palaces and temples and gardens left; many are being re-built. It's beautiful and ornate and very interesting, and I wish I could remember all the things our guide told us about it all.
The gate on the far left was for horses and other animals to go through. The next gate, in the center, is for common people to walk through. The big one on the right is for the royalty.
Pots for water--when there is fire during wars!
This palace and all it's decorations were so intricate and ornate, with mosaics and tiles--it was all amazing.
We left the Imperial Palace and went to the Thien Mu Pagoda, one of the oldest and most iconic pagodas in Vietnam. We were fighting the rain again a bit, but it could have been worse.
We must always take off our shoes as a sign of respect when entering a pagoda or temple.
The last place we visited in Hue was the tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh. Again, it was extremely intricate with mosaics, detailed carvings, and ornate decorations. It took 11 years to complete, and wasn't finished until 5 years after his death.
Back to Da Nang for dinner, we went to the same Italian restaurant as our first night there: Riverside Terrace. Here is where I came closest to breaking mission rules--the closest I've been to riding a scooter.
The famous Da Nang Dragon Bridge has a fire and water show on the weekends; the dragon will shoot out fire and then water for about 10 minutes beginning at 9:00 pm Friday through Sunday. It was fun, even in the light drizzle.
Day 5: Saturday
We were forecast to have heavy rain all day today, so we packed our bags to leave them in the hotel, hoping for at least a short walk on the beach. Instead, we had gorgeous weather all day and no sunscreen, as it was packed in our bags in the hotel. I paid the price, but it was a beautiful day. Allen and I decided that after our walk on the beach we would get a Grab car to take us back to the Lady Buddha on Monkey Mountain so we could explore without a guide to slow us down. It was a great chance to see more of the beautiful gardens, views, and pagodas, and this time we got some good videos and pictures of monkeys! I won't post too many pictures, as I put most of these pictures on day 1 of the trip.
Mother and baby... ...and Dad
We discovered why the rat is such an important animal in Vietnam--and I probably wrote this somewhere else. It's because if you have plenty of rice in your home, then you'll have rats. In other words, if you're prosperous, you'll have rats, so rats are a good sign of prosperity.
This is inside the base of the Lady Buddha.
I hope you've enjoyed being armchair tourists with us! We've loved exploring Vietnam, and now we're happy to be back in our apartment, working on lessons and language studies and marveling at how quickly the time is passing by. We love to testify of Jesus Christ whenever we can; that is our favorite thing to do here in Vietnam. We love our young missionaries; we're looking forward to meeting our new group coming in 3 weeks.
We love you all and pray you'll all stay safe and well! Tam biet! Gap Lai Sau!
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