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.