Tet in Laos (This really should have been a two-parter. Apologies.)

 We had less than two weeks of actual work between my parent’s departure and the start of our next two week vacation for the Lunar new year celebration, Tet.  Last year we didn’t really notice the lead up to Tet because we didn’t really live in Vietnam (our last apartment was basically Korea).  This year, the lead up was unavoidable due to the non-stop Karaoke party that seemed to be happening at all of our neighbor's houses.  While we weren’t up for a huge vacation again, we were definitely happy to leave.

We spent the first few days of our travel in Luang Prabang proper.  Like Hoi An in Vietnam the trajectory of Luang Prabang seemed to be 1.) be naturally beautiful 2.) get designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site 3.) promptly become overrun by tourists and tourism.  It was lovely, but it was also packed.

This was our fault really, sunset on a hill was a stupid move.

 Because we neglected to get a guide, we spent our time in Luang Prabang wandering (mostly aimlessly) to and from temples that we didn’t know much about and taking pictures.  Here are some examples...

 

Our favorite temple was Wat Xiang Thong (which I looked up on the internet using the search phrase "shiny temple, Luang Prabang"). 

It was built in 1559 and because of its location at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Kanh River, it served as a ceremonial entry point into the city.  Also kings used to be ordained there as late as the 70s.  And man was it ornate.  

 

After a day exploring the town, we took a ferry across the river to do a short  (also mostly aimless) hike on the other side - and of course to see more temples.  

Three days in LP left us pretty templed out, so we headed to a town about three hours north called Nong Khiaw and despite spending like four days there we never did figure out how to actually pronounce (or spell) its name (this speaks volumes about how invested in the trip we actually were).
  

Nong Kiaow was gorgeous.  There’s not a lot to do there except hike, sit on porches and drink beer, so, despite the strong backpacker vibe, we were pretty happy.  

From Nong Kiahw, we joined a trek to a nearby Hmong Village to do a homestay.  

Like the trek/homestay in Myanmar, this was one of the highlights of our trip.  Unlike Myanmar, it seemed like a much more sustainable experience.  The agency we booked through is the only tour group that goes to this village and they seemed really invested in bringing improvements to the community that wouldn’t leave it dependent on tourism.  Also there were children.  Tons of children.

Our group consisted of six people total, including our guide, and three of us were named Leah!  We considered it a good sign.  

Our homestay in the foreground.  It had no electricity, water, flooring or beds.  We shared blankets on raised pallets. 

On the first day, we arrived at the village around noon after hiking straight up a mountain.  We had a little downtime for lunch and then our guide left us to prepare dinner which had to be done early because you can't see anything after the sun goes down.   He connected us with a very local “guide” in the village who had no English and assured that if anything came up we could get by with hand signals. 

So we set off, village children in tow, to a waterfall.  The entire child population of the village came along for the ride and after about five minutes of being shy, every group member had at least one child attached to their hands for the rest of our stay.

Getting to the waterfall was no problem.  But then, our guide decided we should climb down the waterfall.  This was a problem (which should have been immediately clear to us as the children refused to follow as we began our descent).  
 

Part (!) of the waterfall we scrambled down.

 Because we were literally climbing down a waterfall, by definition the route was wet, slippery and steep.  Multiple times we tried to turn back only to discover that signing “please stop, we’re all afraid we’re going to die.” is very difficult to do.  Our guide would race ahead of us to machete out our next steps and then take pictures on his cell phone as we slid down on hands, knees, and butts.  

I gave up taking pictures after this because it got too ridiculous.

We arrived at the bottom of the waterfall after an excruciating hour only to see an actual path a few steps over on the opposite side of the river.  We (thankfully) took this up to collect the kiddos on our way back to the village.  As the children had not just risked their lives climbing down the fall, they were fully energized and ready to literally sprint up the hill back home. 

We were met at the top by our guide who explained that our dinner (which we were all really needing) was delayed because they were having trouble catching a chicken. He then walked off with a friend, net between them, to presumably to grab our dinner.  

We killed time by watching the sunset and accidentally encouraging children to tear up all the local foliage (one of us accepted a flower which set off a pretty crazy chain reaction of total plant destruction).  

This is just a tiny fraction of the deforestation

After a delicious dinner, our guide packed us off to bed early.  It was dark, there were no lights, and as he explained, it gets very loud in the morning.  What he meant was that at 3:50 am every single animal wakes and then yells for three straight hours. By about 7 am, we were all feeling pretty great about eating that chicken for dinner.

The next day of the hike brought us down the mountain pictured above and into another village, huge by comparison, where we had lunch and then caught a boat back the town.

Our last day in NK we did one last short hike that got us up above the morning fog and then tried to prepare ourselves to head back into Luang Prabang. 

Because we're us, we missed the message to book a private minibus back the city so we and a bunch of other equally confused white people ended up on a local bus that turned what was a three hour sprint coming out into a 6 hour amble back.  

View from breakfast

Our last few days of vacation we spent at a resort that almost lived up to its name just outside LP.  The porch was incredible and it was – with the notable exception of the elephant village next door and the occasional fisherman rocking out to some folk tunes – quiet, which was all we needed.   

We’re back in HCMC now, two weeks in to our last semester here.  Already time is flying.  Because our last sentences should never be about school, we'll close with just a few of the thousand chicken/rooster pictures Matt had me taking throughout the trip.

And, of course, some water buffalo:

The Harrells - and Christmas - In Vietnam

The family's first trip to South East Asia was - as we all kept remarking to each other in various tones of surprise and enjoyment - a great success.

We joined mom, dad and Jake in Hanoi (which is NOT where the above picture was taken) right after wrapping up our first semester at school.  Christmas in Vietnam, given its significant Catholic population, is kinda a thang.  Aaaand our hotel was located right in center of one of Hanoi's biggest celebrations.  Hooray.  For two nights, the Cathedral next door played booming Christmas carols (both English and Vietnamese) while incredible crowds gathered.

As the taxi indicates this is a working street in front of the cathedral.  It was packed!

On Christmas Eve the staff at the hotel - who were really really really lovely - threw everyone a Christmas party with the usual homemade Christmas fare of eggrolls, fried chicken, beef wrapped around veggies, fruit, and wine. They even made homemade cards.

Mom elected to wear her card around her neck.  Also check out those sweet Christmas hats.  The whole family had them.  And wore them.  In public.

As there was so little lead up to Christmas at our school, being a part of such productions (at least for a few days) made the holiday feel special. 

Christmas day we celebrated with a food tour in Hanoi (one of our favorite parts of the trip).  We had about five meals in three hours starting with incredible fish soup, followed by chicken cooked in a beer can (full of medicinal plants and herbs - obviously Jake requested the recipe), coffees with homemade yogurt, fried shrimp pancakes, and noodles with grilled pork.

Of course, our family is nothing if not ambitious when it comes to food so we finished off the tour on our own, with unbelievably rich egg coffees (a specialty of Hanoi).

From Hanoi, we went to Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam.  Hue is known for its tombs, and on a rainy rainy rainy day we visited three with our guide.

The first one (above) was remarkable for its downpour well preserved tombs.

The second was remarkable for its over the top Gaudí decoration, sourced from all over the world.  And the third tomb was remarkable for its ruler...and the fact that this picture graces the cover of almost every guide book of Hue. 

The next day, we went to the citadel where instead of learning about anything Matt and I took about 100 stupid pictures of Jake.  We'll probably do an entire blog entry devoted to them, but here is one that I particularly love. 

That same day we ate Dad's favorite meal of the trip, a dish called 12 Differentiated Affinities or something weird like that.  We really should remember the name better as he talked about it every single meal for the rest of the (long) trip. 

Hoi An - known for lanterns, food and tailors - was our next stop.  It was in Hoi An that we connected the dots and discovered that Vietnam has different rainy seasons in the north, middle and south.  Obviously, we had booked our trip for the middle of Hoi An and Hue's. As a result, our explorations in Hoi An were fairly limited. We had some beautiful night and early morning strolls, but definitely took it easy overall.

From Hoi An, we flew to Saigon where our family realized  (pretty quickly) why this city is not a sustainable place for us to live.  It was the first time any of us had seen the sun in a week and no one handled it particularly well. This picture more or less sums up our activities:  sleeping, reading, and taking advantage of A.C.

We ended our trip together in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is known for Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Here we are at the main temple complex.

We hired a guide for this portion of the trip and it was one of the best decisions any of us have ever made.  Sarom, our guide, was incredibly knowledgeable...and incredibly kind...answering all of our questions (which were either repeated because some member of the family had missed it the first time or was distracted by birds) with patience and care.

This is probably my favorite picture of the family.  There are incredible ancient temples all around us and we're standing in the middle looking at birds. 

Sarom was quick to adapt the plan when we proved too slow (because birding) and/or when we decided that we NEEDED to see a butterfly garden that was lovely, but also clearly designed for five year olds. 

He also facilitated the buying of coconuts and weird rice treats, which were a big bonus despite being somewhat tricky to access. 

None of our explorations got us off the beaten track, but nonetheless, we were still floored.

In Cambodia, Jake left us for a much more spiritually focused trip in India.  The four remaining members of the family headed back to HCMC for one final tour  (an art tour that told the history of the country though art) and preparations for the rude return to real life.