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We went to the museum…..

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Hanoi, Vietnam 

 

As our children’s friends go back to school after the summer holidays, we remember back to the annual obligatory “What I did in the holidays” story that had to be written. Our story today would start “We went to the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi.”

Just getting to the museum was fun – there’s something adventurous about travelling on local busses where you speak only three words of the local lingo, have no idea where you’re going and every street seems to have a phong, kim, nyang or hang in it.

The museum was great. Well, actually the building itself is pretty ugly, but outside is a large area with fascinating house reconstructions from various people groups in Vietnam inviting you to walk through, climb up, inspect closely…..we wandered around gathering ideas for our own dream-eco-sustainable-home in NZ….carvings on timber, decorative window-frames, thick mud walls, sleeping lofts accessed by a ladder, removable screens made with posts set into grooves in the floor and roof overhang…..

The indoor displays (with explanations in French and English as well as Vietnamese) were comprehensive (and our kids wanted us to read ALL of them IN FULL so it ended up a very educational visit!)…..and we marvelled at how much we have seen in real life. So much that was on display we have witnessed in our travels – it really struck home, what a rich experience we are living.

We even managed to take a photo of all the new boots beside the village cobbler!!!!

even stevens

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Hanoi, Vietnam 

In three weeks we are renting an apartment in Guangzhou for a week. Today we had to tell the lady how old our children are: 2 – 4 – 6 – 8 – 10 – 12 – 14 years, and a 13 year old as well. Tidy, don’t you think?
Well, that’s what we told her. Then pedantic-number-cruncher-who-has-a-great-eye-for-detail-Jboy13 pointed out that the 12-year-old is actually still only 11. And by the time he is 12, the two and four year-olds will be 3 and 5, so it’s never going to be that nice-n-tidy!
Never mind, as we are told every day here, we are lucky, we are happy, we have many children. I’m not expected to know how old they are, am I? (I have a piece of paper with all their serial passport numbers and birthdates for when we need that info – as you can see, my head isn’t big enough for all that minutae!!)
Here they all were on our last day in Saigon:

 


He can’t remember them all either! <wink>

there was an old woman who lived in a shoe…..

Thursday, February 5th, 2009
by the Mama, who remembers how much she dislikes shopping Hanoi, Vietnam "Just wait till you get to Asia and buy what you need there", we'd been advised, advice we took regarding hiking boots, which we did not want to carry ... [Continue reading this entry]

theatre on the rice paddies

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
by Tgirl4 Hanoi, Vietnam

 

Actually I liked it all. The building looked like a church with all the seats. We sat in the very front row. Just in front of us was the water. Next to ... [Continue reading this entry]

food for thought

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
by the girl who likes the type of cooking that consists of saying "Where shall we eat tonight?" Hanoi, Vietnam

 

In Vung Tau we ate rice soup with beef for breakfast, noodle soup with beef ... [Continue reading this entry]

refugees

Monday, February 2nd, 2009
by Rachael Hanoi, Vietnam

 

We had been expecting to hear a bit more English in Vietnam. Not sure what gave us that idea, but we had it all the same. And it was wrong. In our ... [Continue reading this entry]

P is for….

Sunday, February 1st, 2009
by Rach onwards to Hanoi, Vietnam Prince (and Pauper) We are the only Westerners on this train. It would seem the majority take the advice we were given to take the more expensive and much faster express train. But as our dollar ... [Continue reading this entry]

43 hours and counting…

Saturday, January 31st, 2009
by Rachael from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam....heading northwards

 

A smallish hill rises steeply in silhouette from the vast flat rice paddy plain. But it's the background that grabs my attention and takes my breath ... [Continue reading this entry]

learning

Friday, January 30th, 2009
by one of the children's primary educators Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, about to travel north Before we set out, one of the frequent questions was, "What will you do about the kids' schooling?" It's hard to answer that question honestly ... [Continue reading this entry]

surely

Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Vung Tau to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam  Boy was Vung Tau buzzing this morning! People were arriving by the minute. Breakfasters spilled out of eateries onto temporary tables set up beside the road. Walking along the street felt like ... [Continue reading this entry]