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After four great weeks in Japan, we have arrived at our next stop: Vietnam. We'll have about a month here, too, but we'll be on the move much more than the countries we've visited so far.
Our first stop was four nights in Hanoi. After the quiet and calm of Japan, the hustle and bustle of Hanoi was an invigorating change of pace. The streets are full of motorbikes, cafes spill out with small plastic tables and stools on the sidewalks, and the food is just as delicious as we hoped it would be.
The girls aren't going to be doing independent research projects in Vietnam, since they won't have as much time in one place to really dig into researching an individual topic. Instead, Wade has put on his teacher hat to give them a more traditional history class - lectures, readings, document analysis, documentary viewing, and essays.
Our first full day in Hanoi included a trip to Hoa Lo Prison ("Hanoi Hilton"), where we took our time with the audio tour to learn more about the imprisonment of nationalists under French colonial rule. It also touched on the US military members who were imprisoned in Hoa Lo during the Vietnam War (or, as it's called here, the American War).
Our next stop was the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long. In addition to the remnants of the thousand-year-old imperial buildings, the citadel houses the bunkers and offices of the North Vietnamese army from the Vietnam War, when it served as their headquarters for twenty years.
On our last day in Hanoi, we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum - it reminded us quite a lot of our visit to Lenin's tomb in Russia back in 2008. It's also the site of his stilt house, the unassuming house where he lived for the bulk of his time in Hanoi.
We tried to make sure that we didn't end up with kids who were too museumed-out, so we also enjoyed visiting a great English-language book store, popping into lots of great cafes (including an excellent board game cafe), and wandering through the old quarter... and, as you may have noticed in some of the photos, a visit to a local salon for some brightly dyed hair for Annie and Eliza.
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After our adventures in Hanoi, we haded south to the outskirts of Ninh Binh. We had an amazing time biking, going on long walks, and even on a boat ride through caves and around mountains! Dad, Anne, and I got rowed around by an old lady that could probably be our grandma. She was very concerned about where our mom was. Ninh Binh was a beautiful place to spend Anne and my birthdays! All of us (minus dad) got a hair wash and massage -- it was very relaxing. Dad also had his first smoothie bowl and was instantly hooked..jpeg)
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