April 6, 2008
Uncle Ho
Here in Vietnam I can kind of direct what will happen but I don’t apparently have the last word. I have got up to have an American breakfast of bacon and eggs at a hotel nearby. I had thought I would walk by St. Joseph’s Cathedral to see if it would be open on Sunday morning. However, as is often the case you can get turned around on the streets (The cab drivers have the same problems.). I found that I had made my way over to the Citadel; which a walled military fort that was started about 1000 years ago. The area was very pretty, with wide boulevards and trees that are cool to walk under. I realized that I was walking next to what looked like a church and that there were a lot of people going in. There were not signs on the outside but it turned out to be Cua Bak Church; which means North Gate. It is one of the few churches in Hanoi and is the one the foreigners attend if they go to church. There were probably about 1000 people there and 80 percent Vietnamese but the service was in English and Vietnamese and some of the one of acolytes looked like she was European. I talked with some of the people and they were there with the World Bank or a NGO or some business and some had lived here for a few years.
Later I was walking along and a toddler was on the sidewalk with two older women, maybe a Grandmother and Aunt, trying to get the child to eat. I said “em be dep qua” what a pretty baby. They were so pleased and then prompted the toddler to say hello. He was saying hello in English and of course they are proud that he is smart too.
I turned a corner and then I saw something from TV many years ago. This was Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. I walked on over and there were many visitors and the guards. I did not get to go in to see him. Apparently he is being refurbished and so his body was not present. In about a month we will have Unification Day and May Day and this is where they have a lot of the parades and activities. This is also where the One Pillar Pagoda is. This was built about 1000 years ago to look like a Lotus blossom and there were several monks and nuns there to greet us.
I have taken some interesting pictures, dragon fruit, flowers and a number of street scenes and will try to put some up for you all to see.
3 comments:
First question did you get Breakfast of any kind. I hope so for if not you must of been starved. Second are you the Uncle Ho, I am talking about the young child. You know all Mothers are happy when someone says ( you have a pretty child.) So you got to go to Church and the people seemed to be friendly, seem like most everyone there is nice. I have not looked at the new pictures yet, should of done that before I sent this. I am late today reading your blog. 3:33 PM here. I over slept this morning so had to rush to church. Mom
See I told you I should of looked at your pictures first.
I really like picture # 4408. How much did you sell and how heavy was it. Great picture Amos. Mom
Your spikey fruit is a durrian. They sell them here but they are way to big to eat by myself so I have never bought one. Also, they would be hard to bring home on the bus. They are very stinky.
Post a Comment