Hanoi II – Halong Bay

Dear Class,

This is Halong Bay in the early hours of the morning. Let me fill in on why we are here. A few days before we came to Vietnam we chose a boat that we would tour Halong Bay in and spend the night on. 

 

We had two choices. The first one was your classic neon cruse ship with 101 rooms. The second was an old Vietnamese junk. You could probably figure out which one I chose if you thought hard enough but since you're half way around the world I will spare you the effort. For old time sake I chose the old one.  

To get to the boat we took a smaller boat to spare the danger of sand bars.

Here is our boat the Red Dragon.

Check out our uber huge room with a bathroom and a shower (batteries not included) ((do a barrel roll)).

After lunch I thought that I would chill out on the sundeck.

Here is your basic formation of rocks. There is a story on how these were made scientifically and fictionally. Scientifically they were formed by the clashing of our infamous Tectonic plates and some erosion here and there. It only took like 20 million years. Fictionally there was a dragon up in the mountains and one day it got homesick and ran down the mountain to the sea and its tail smashed rocks out of the mountain and they landed in the bay as these beautiful cliffs.

Oh hi just workin' on my tan.

After about an hour and 57 minutes we arrived at the island we would tour.

 

Wow great view.

Uber stalactite.

Cave system. Some of the fishing families living in the bay used to live in these caves.

I had to pull mom back to the shore.

Does that island look like a whale? A lot of the islands have names, like elephant or fighting rooster.

Dinner table.

Our chef is also an artist.

Chilin'.

By the light of the silvery mooooon.

I was up in the early hours of the morning water coloring.

 

We shared the boat with two couples. One was from the Netherlands and one was from the U.S. The lady next to the guy sitting on your left reminds me of Jonica.

We went to see a floating village. The people who used to live in caves now live in floating villages.

Uber rock face.

This is your basic floating house.

 About 200 people live in each floating village.

This fishing boat attracts fish at night using light.

They have floating schools too. One room for all the kids in the village. 

 

Ring around the rosey.

Mini junk.

Uber cave.

These are pearl farms.

To make a cultured pearl they cut a piece of an oyster.

They then take the cut out piece and put it in a different oyster along with a pearl seed made out of shell.

Then after a period of two years in the water the oyster yields a beautiful whole pearl.

 

I like painting.

Here is our crew in all their tiny splendor. The bartender was the part time captain :-).

You know I will always remember this boat ride all my life and maybe in death.

Hope you are doing well.

Parker
 

P.S. this letter will not be fully released to the public until the next class letter is sent to me. Any other spectators I apologize for the delay.  

Hanoi I – Scooters, Ice Cream, Turtles

 Dear Class,

Last week we made a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. There is always a hustle bustle in Hanoi and the guys on motorbikes like to graze your shirt with their rear view mirrors.

If you asked me what the most dangerous thing I had done in my life? Well it was probably crossing the street in Vietnam. The key is to walk as slowly as you possibly can that way bikers see you and swerve out of your way. 

Trust me it makes you feel like a living security cone.

They have restaurants that I like to refer to as police stands. You sit on these little plastic chairs like the ones we used to have in kindergarten. Why? Because in Hanoi it's illegal to sit on the side of the street. Why? I have no idea. So back to the plastic chairs, it is easy for the owner to pick them up and away when the police come. Why? I already told you. So after the police pass every one gets their chairs and food back out and they continue to talk and eat and continue to have a good time. Why?-~--~-Will you cut it out with the why stuff already!!!     

Hanoi in the day time is still wonderful even without all of the fancy neon snowflakes. We have a favorite ice cream place called Fanny. Fanny is a French ice cream place with stuff as weird as coffee sushi ice cream or the alcoholic Amazonia shake with green crème de menthe.

Speaking of Fanny right next to it is the Hoan Kiem Lake or Restored Sword Lake. 

I will give you a quick summarization of why it is called this. (The time period of this was 1406 so boys don’t be expecting guns)  So this commander named Le Loi finds this magic sword and he uses it to beat the Chinese solders of the Ming dynasty who are currently occupying the country. Once he beats them a turtle comes to Le Loi to retrieve the sword while he is taking a leisure ride on the lake. There actually are turtles in the lake like that, colored like obsidian and as big as me.

   

Le Loi's memorial in a dragon temple by the lake.

Well if you're not satisfied then that’s ok because I will be writing three more blogs on Hanoi and its leisure tours. The three different tours are on Halong Bay (beaches), food tour (I ate silk worms) and village tour (MSG).

Sincerely,

Parker

P.S. If you don't write me a class letter within the next three days I will stop writing you. I am tired of talking to nobody. 

P.P.S. (Pam) Yes, that's Parker with Anthony Foxx. Mayor Foxx was visiting China to promote Charlotte to Chinese businessmen, and we got a chance to see him when he was in Shanghai. Parker tried to give him bunny ears, but said that his head was too big, so only the tip of one finger showed. We liked the name tags because they all said VIP.

Cats of Shanghai

Oh, how cute. 

Dear Class, 

Cats are one thing that aren’t considered food here. In fact the people here love cats. There are cats on roofs, cats in bike baskets, cats in mouths hey if there is a comfortable structure here there’s probably a cat on it somewhere. 

The guy downstairs I mentioned to you in a previous blog I think is starting to like his cats more than his wife (so maybe that's why she was yelling at him the other night). He gives them a lot of attention and pets them and scratches them behind the ears and stuff like that. 

I have an extremely deep connection with cats here in Shanghai. The cats know that I am fond of them. Every time I walk up to a cat it starts purring and rubbing up against my leg. All of the cats downstairs like me except for Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll is a white scurrying fur ball that runs so fast he seems like he is teleporting and he is so shy that he only goes near the man downstairs and I swear he has laser vision cause he can see you from a mile away in the dark. Anyway let's meet some of the cats downstairs. 

Say hi to Tab. Tab is called his name because he is always sitting by the computer in the house of the old man. 

Assassin. 

Dr. Jekyll 

Cats like bushes. 

The man downstairs also made little houses out of old furniture for his cats.

Button looks like my cat Butterscotch. 

Are they dead? (taken from the window on the terrace) Assassin likes it up there too. 

I have a friend downstairs named Zhou but I just call him Orange. 

This is when I first met Orange. He was a little bit of a strange kitty. 

I have an extremly special conection with Orange. Today he took me on a walk and introduced me to some of his friends and toured me around the kindergarden in the complex. Orange is one thing I don't want to leave here in China. He expresses his connection by sitting in my lap and purring and I express my part of the connection by leting him do this and doing whatever I can to make him more comfortable. 

Mow mow purr. Translation: put me down! 

Wow. Warriors made it around the world. 

This is a new kitty that I found yesterday at my favorite corner store right outside of the complex. I decided to call the cat Tiny.

This kitten lives at the fruit stand below our apartment so I call her Apple. 

 

Kitty in the PARK!!!!!! 

Meow meow purr hiss. Translation: Is that boy holding a snowball? This cat lives at an art gallery we enjoy going to so his name is Picasso. 

Newly weds. 

Cafe Kitty. 

Well as you can see cats are almost every where except where we think they should be. Also keep checking my blog site because we will be doing a two part blog in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

Stay posted, 

Parker