Vietnamese’s main form of transportation is the motorbike and there are over two million of them.

In Hanoi, there are very few traffic lights or signs. To cross the street you walk slow and steady through the traffic to cross the street. The bikes are not traveling extremely fast, like they would in the U.S., but they are not traveling extremely slow either.

(I have a video to upload to Youtube once we get back. Crossing the street became an art.)

Entire families would travel on one bike. The only real cars you’d see on the street are those of taxi. Even if you had a desk or lumber to build your house, you would see it strapped on the motorbike or in the case of the woman selling cleaning supplies, her bicycle.

Ho Chi Minh (meaning bringer of light) is the holiest of the holies to the Vietnamese. He lived from 1890-1969. He was the founder of Vietnamese Communist Party, founding member of the French Communist Party, he helped found the Viet Minh the goal of which was independence from French colonial rule and Japanese occupation and was the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1946 until his death. The mausoleum is an important place of pilgrimige for the Vietnamese.

The presidential palace (as seen above) was constructed in 1906 as the Palace of the Governor General of Indochina.

The One Pillar Pagoda was built by Emperor Ly Thi Tong (1028-1054). According to legend, the heirless emperor dreamed he met the Goddess of Mercy, who, while seated on a lotus flower handed him a male child. Soon after he married a peasant girl who gave birth to his son. In honor of his dream he constructed the pagoda in 1049.

The Temple of Lierature (built in 1070) honors Vietnam’s finest scholars and men of literary accomplishment. Vietnam’s first university was founded here in 1076. In 1484 Emperor Le Thanh Tong ordered that stalae be errect (see above) to record the names, places of birth and accomplishments of its scholars. 82 stalae remain standing and are in excellent condition.

A Vietnamese fable says that the towering limestone-karst rock formations were formed with the crash landing of a dragon sent by the prehistoric god of early Vietnamese animism to protect the country from any invading navy.

The bay is 604 sq. miles and home to many floating fishing villages where people live year round raising fish for food to sell, cultivating pearls from oysters and catching tropical fish.

Because getting to shore takes 2 hours by boat, children in the bay attend school at a near by floating school house. Electricity in these floating villages is created by generators.

Students are doing there work in their class room which looks very similar to an american classroom including laptops. (look up story on CBS’s 60 minutes about laptop program to third world countries, these children are part of that program that brings technology to young children.)

Halong Bay was a wonderful experience and very relaxing. We encourage you to google more about the fable and the floating fishing villages that exsists in the bay.

Angkor Wat at sunrise. (Yes, I said sunrise!) Angkor Wat is believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. Google it to learn more…

This picture represents the 1000’s of people who showed up between 5:30-6:30 am for the sunrise. This was only one location, there are several.

This is a picture from Banteay Srei. This is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It was built in 967 AD and has the best preserved carving of all the Angkor temples because it was built out of pink sand stone.

And my favorite Wat of all is Ta Prohm! Built in the 10th century, this temple has been left very much as it was found. The ruins were never built back and the jungle of banyon trees was left growing out of the temple walls. It is amazing and by far our favorite. You felt like a true explorer as you walked through the ruins.

No blogs for a few days as we will be sailing HaLong Bay. Talk to you when we get back.

The Angkor Temples are located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Angkor literally means “Capital City” or “Holy City”. Created by the Khmer empire between the 9th and 12th centuries, it represents the pinnacle of ancient Khmer architecture, art and civilation.

The Angkor temples are not just on but multiple temples of all shapes and sizes. The first one and our toss up for favorite was Angkor Thom. It is a 3 km walled and moated city and was the last capital of the Angkorian empire. There are five entrances to the city and the coolest one is the south gate seen below.

The faces, detail of south gate below, a repeated in many of the temples around the Angkor temples.

Bayon in the center of Angkor Thom (first pic in this blog) was created in the late 12th century. There are 37 towers, most if not all sporting 4 carved faces oriented towards the cardinal points.

Who the faces represent is a matter of debate… it could be Buddha, Jayavarman VII, king at the time Bayon was built.

Inside every temple in multiple places people pray to Buddha. The smell of incense and burning candles lingers throughout ever temple.

Okay, so the last pic on the blog is me so my friends and family know I am here and alive as well as it is pretty cool. I have felt like Indian Jones every time I start climbing around the temples. Oh, by the way Tomb Raider was filmed here.

Day one was crazy because it was the first day! President Carter and his wife Rosalynn built on site all day. Very impressive considering their age and the excessive heat. They are a very dedicated couple.

(US Actress Emily Bergl)
Monday began with laying interlocking cement blocks and grouting the blocks. The houses here are small, but are made of block and more stable than the current housing the home owners are currently living in.

Mrs Thailand works with volunteers to stack interlocking bricks. We loved Mrs Thailand, she was cute in her full make-up, shoes and her sash working all day.

Actor Jet Li worked hard for two full days before heading on to another site to build. Jet Li’s Foundation One signed a memorandium with Habitat to work together to eliminate poverty housing.

(Former President Carter holds a painting for Habitat made by an elephant)
Sunday night was the opening ceremonies for the 26th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project for habitat For Humanity in Chaing Mai, Thailand. The project itself covers 5 countries across SE Asia and will build more than 150 houses.

The evening include 2 hours of traditional Thai performances. It included dancing, candles, fire blowers and much more.

The evening include a huge fireworks show. It was amazing!

I’ll blog more pictures later today! So check back to see how the build has gone.

Wat Pho is the oldest temple in Bangkok and older than the city itself. Here is housed the receclining Buddha, a 45 metre long (half the size of a football field) gold gilded statue made of plaster covered brick. It depicts Buddha entering Nirvana, a common motif in buddhist iconography. His smile measures 5 metres in length.

Wat Arun, also known as temple of the Dawn. The temple was decorated with broken peices of china from China making it what is called a tea cup temple. The temple once served as the King’s Royal chapel and housed the emerald buddha for several years before it was moved to its current location.

You can climb the very, very steep stairs at Wat Arun to get a better view of the Grand Palace complex and Wat Pho which both reside accross the river from this ornate temple.

They have a different type of massage over here called a fish massage. We saw it a few episodes ago on the Amazing Race when they were in Bangkok. Tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet, turning them baby soft. It looks really creepy, but it was fun. It tickles at first but after about 5 minutes you get use to feeling them on your feet. They were right, my feet feel extremely soft, better than a pedicure. I wonder when this crazy will make it to the US?