A brief review of July 2012...

We decided to celebrate by having a "Christmas in July" with the young missionaries on P-day.  They were so excited!  We put a $2 limit on gifts, then we had to draw names from a hat...no one was to tell who they had drawn.  Decorations were all handmade...especially since no store had any Christmas stuff on the shelves in July!  I had to make the stocking since I just can't do Christmas without filling stockings for everyone!  I made them out of construction paper and sewed around the edges using raffia (which I had on hand from cub scouts).  Finally, a typical Vietnamese hat is our tree topper. All of us spent the next few weeks humming Christmas songs!

July saw our Asia Area Specialists, Barry and Diane Treasure, visiting us from Hong Kong.  Again we toured the Cu Chi Tunnels.

This time our guide let Felix get into the small little entrance to the tunnels. He is holding the cap stone of the entrance...it blended so well with the earth that we could not see it until the guide lifted it out of the ground!  Below is one of the deadly traps that were set for those who did not watch carefully.  The leaves you see are the covering and they looked just like the rest of the jungle floor!

 At the end of the tour is a beautiful temple area.  The carvings all over the buildings are of dragons.  So fitting since 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.  Everything..the buildings and the grounds...are kept so immaculately.  Bushes are not allowed to grow in the 'natural state' but are trimmed neatly and, sometimes, trimmed into wonderful designs!  (see below)

Mekong River Boat Trip with the Treasures...about the 4th time for us!

Saying 'hello to the baby snake - yukky!  I won't touch it!

Crocodiles are alive and well.

 On 10 July we attended a wheelchair distribution ceremony by the HCMC Association for the Support of People with Disabilities and Orphans.  We gave away only 18 of the 36 wheelchairs at the ceremony.  Not all of the wheelchair recipients live close by so their wheelchairs will be delivered to them.

We had the ribbon cutting Hand-over Ceremony at one of the girl's shelters - the "Sunflower" Shelter.  It is always so heart-warming to visit with these girls who are trying to better their lives.  The girls here learn the traditional dances and are hired by others for business and government ceremonies to earn extra money.  We have seen them perform the Lotus flower dance and it is very beautiful.

The third week of July, we welcomed our new Mission President and his wife to Ho Chi Minh City.

It was fun to greet them and show them a little bit of the City.  All of the missionaries enjoyed a large lunch at Evita's which is a very western restaurant...very yummy food!  The young Elders can really put some food away!!


At the end of the week, we attended a Veteran Fund Wheelchair Donation Ceremony.  The people apply through different organizations to receive a wheelchair.  Their names are on government lists of who qualifies for a free wheelchair...and the lists are very long.  The Veteran Fund supplies wheelchairs to veterans and their family members.

The last week of July we flew to Tam Ky, Quang Nam province to attend the wheelchair distribution ceremony of The Sponsoring Association of Poor Patients (SAPP). 

Mr. Long, President of SAPP, Felix and I, Mrs. Kim, Foreign Affairs of SAPP and the chairman of Tam Ky people's committee.

 While we were in the Central area of VietNam, Felix wanted to visit Chu Lai, a place he was stationed at during the war from Aug 1970 to Aug1971.   We traveled with Quoc Nguyen, Production Manager of Kien Tuong Wheelchair Manufacturing and Mrs. Kim from SAPP.  We flew into the Chu Lai Airport and we picked up by a driver who Quoc hired to take us everywhere we wanted to go.  He drove to the area where the base use to be located.  However, the old Chu Lai Base area is now called "The Point" and is a coast guard-like military installation and NO ONE is allowed in.  So, not detered, we drove around the beach area and finally found a spot by a gravel yard where we could walk to the beach and see well enough to take a picture - way in the far distance you can see the point and beach area where the old base was located.  It brought back good memories for him.

Doesn't this look like Colorado??  Maybe a little more green with all the rice fields.  I wish I could have taken a panoramic view because this mountain range was so like the Rocky Mountains coming into Colorado Springs!  I felt so at home.

We left Chu Lai and traveled up to Hoi An where we would have 2 days at the Hoi An Pacific Hotel to vacation.

I am relaxing in the lobby of the Hoi An Pacific Hotel, a 4-star hotel that only cost us $42 a night...and that included a huge buffet breakfast!  The hotel offers transportation to and from their exclusive beach area and the downtown area - multiple times a day.  It was wonderful.  The swimming pool was very nice too.  We will definitely come back.

We wanted to actually feel the warm beach sand between our toes on this trip..anything that did not remind us of a large mega city.  Of course I was too busy putting my feet in the sand to take a picture!  What was I thinking?!  The picture above is one of Felix on the beach.  I took it before we even checked into our hotel since I was so excited to see the beach!

We also wanted to check out the many tailor shops and get something made.  Hoi An is known for its many, many, many tailors - over 500!  You can have a whole wardrobe made in 2 days!  We opted to limit ourselves to one 3-piece suit for Felix and two skirts and two blouses for me.  We were measured on Wednesday morning around ten, had fittings at 6pm and picked-up everything on Thursday morning.  I had visions of little old ladies sewing all night long just so we could have our clothing quickly.  I know they are just grateful for any work but still....

Felix wanted to visit the Cham Ruins since we were so close by the Duy Tan Commune, Duy Xuyen District of Quang Nam Province.  Mỹ Sơn Cham Ruins site is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa. The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva, known under different name, the most important of which is "Bhadresvara."  They are really crumbling but you can still see the way the buildings were constructed.  It is a miracle that they survived the many wars in this area over the centuries. It is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  

On Thursday morning we left for DaNang, population approximately 800,000 people, which is the third largest city in VietNam.  Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) area is number one with the official population at 10 million people but unofficially at 15 million people according to our newspaper last week.  Hanoi, the capital city of VietNam is second with 6.2 million people.

On the Son Tra Peninsula of the Monkey Mountains in DaNang, stands a 67 metre statue (remember 1 metre is equal to 39 inches) of the Bodhisattva of Mercy or Goddess of Mercy.  It is 17 meters in diameter and has 17 floors. Each floor worships a different Buddha. The 17th floor has a flight of stairs leading to the statue’s head.

You can see DaNang harbor from here. We walked all around the grounds of this Buddhist Temple.  The craftsmanship of the stone work is so detailed. 

We are standing at the base of the stairway up to the China Beach Goddess of Mercy statue.  And, NO we did no climb the stairs...our driver took us up to the top using the road that had many knuckle-biting curves on the edge of the mountain - maybe we should have climbed the zillion stairs!

This is the top of the stairway.  DaNang harbor is in the background.

The base of the Goddess statue was amazing!  Look at the cement work of those flowers!

As night started to fall, we said goodbye to these truly magnificent pieces of sculpture and statuary works in the tranquil place.

When we returned to our hotel, Mrs. Kim and I decided to stroll along the rivers edge on the nice pathway across from our hotel.  The pathway had many pieces of sculpture situated in different places too.  Many people were enjoying the cooler night time air and peacefully walking and listening to the music being played by speakers and by real musicians at many places along the pathway.  It had a very festival-like atmosphere.

We returned to HCMC on Friday afternoon, 27 July 2012.  It was a whirlwind of an adventure..but we really enjoyed ourselves!