Saturday, November 17, 2007

A long but fun day

Words can't describe how much more relaxing and fun life after Visa approval has been. We are just beyond excited that we got approved and know that we'll be coming home soon. Just a great, great, great feeling.



Today, we got up early and headed off for a day-trip to Ha Long bay.


Ha Long Bay is a beautiful bay on the coast, about 3 hours from Hanoi. The bay is full of 3,000 little lime-stone islands that pop out of the water (see photos below). Our tour guide tells us that in Vietnamese legend, a dragon was sent from the Gods to Vietnam to protect the country from invaders. The dragon then gave birth to a bunch of little dragons (the islands) and left them there to protect the shoreline.

It was a long ride to get out there, but well worth it. Its a beautiful place - gave our travel group a perfect opportunity to finally relax for the first time in weeks.

Along the way, we were speaking with our Vietnamese tour guide who was telling each of the families what their baby's name means. After we went through all the babies, Tallia asked what her Vietnamese name meant, and Phuong (our guide) told us that it means 'a Vietnamese person that leaves the country, but comes back'. So it was fun to learn that Tal's return was meant to be.
Lola was great on the trip. She does very well in the car, and magically timed her diaper-presents to coincide with great opportunities to offload her stink-bombs. She dealt with the long ride, the boat trip, the cave adventure and being held by a number of Vietnamese ladies like a real trooper. We are very lucky to have her.

In other news, we heard from our travel agent that we are on the "wait list" for a Tuesday flight home, which would be ideal. He is working hard for us to get us on that flight -- we'll see what happens.

We will post updates on travel as soon as we can. Here's photos from today:










































4 comments:

Angela said...

Wow, what a beautiful place. The pictures look breath taking, I can only imagine what it looks like in real life. I am so glad you are relaxing and taking in some of the culture. Looking forward to seeing you.
Love, Angela and Mike

jtown42 said...

Mark,

Why didn't you post a picture of the short shorts you wore on the boat? Come on now...that's the picture that EVERYONE really wants to see.

Townsleys

Anonymous said...

That picture of Tal reminds me of Mikey Jackson holding his baby out the window here in berlin.
CUTE!!

-A

'Deni and the Smallies' said...

The meaning of Tallia's Vietnamese name just adds to the already wonderful story... Book worthy, if I do say so myself. :)