Vietnam

So here we are in Vietnam, this place is beautiful and full of surprises.  We have been making our way north along the coast by bus, stopping along the way at some of the major cities.  Ho Chi Minh was our starting point and as we wandered through the city trying to decide which tourist attractions to avoid, we ended up right in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral.  Megan and I heard an organ and a choir singing and without saying anything we both looked at each other and started for the door.  We sat along the side which I (Tad) was happy about because I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay for the entire service and I saw that we had a perfect escape route.  The harmony of the organ's pipes and the singing people filled the cathedral and created that amazing sound that only seems possible in that type of enormous space.  I looked at Megan and saw her appreciation for the music welling up in her eyes and she returned my gave with her beautiful smile.  We both enjoyed every second of the music as it filled our ears, but once it stopped and the priest began to speak in Vietnamese I was reminded of my escape route.  I nudged Megan and whispered my plan as though it was a top secret mission but she just said no and that she wanted to stay a bit longer.  I knew that I could be patient and so I sat back for the long haul, because I knew Megan meant that she didn't want to leave until the service was over.  It was at that moment that a younger Vietnamese girl sitting next to Megan slid over the tithing envelope with a note reading "Miss, You look so nice :)"  I could read it from where I was sitting on the other side of Megan and it seemed like a cute and kind gesture for someone to show a complete stranger.  As I suspected Megan didn't want to leave until the last words were spoken.  As we got up to leave we started to talk to the girl and found that she was going to a college close by for learning English.  Her name is Lien and she was just a few years younger then us.  She was so kind and outgoing.  She invited us to get coffee and a snack in the park across the street from the Cathedral. 

We ended up spending the whole night with her and her friends wandering to her school and seeing some of the student's art projects as we avoided the tropical rain.  As we continued to explore we were led upstairs and started to hear some dance music.  We got to the last set of stairs and saw two manocahns dressed in ski and ice skating gear. Not thinking too much about it we reached the top of the building and saw colorful strobe lights.  We walked inside an over air conditioned room and found that it was an "ice-rink".   We sat for a while watching as people skated around on the man-made plastic ice but denied the offer to try ourselves, that is until the owner spoke to us.  He looked at us with so much excitement and pride for his ice-rink, telling us how the plastic came all the way from America.  He told us we had to try and he was so insistent that he let us try for free. So we all put on the skates and made our way to the sticky, oily floor.  

It wasn't easy by any means but we were able to get our balance enough to let go of the wall and even twirl in a circle.  As our ankles and feet started to ache from the over-sized or under-sized skates, we decided that we had enough.  Just before we were leaving the owner had us pose for some publicity photos, holding hockey helmets as if we were experts from the states visiting his high-end ice rink. Afterwards, we went to the market and then got some dinner before the night was over.  It was such a beautiful welcoming to Vietnam and a refreshing experience amidst the normal day to day stuff that a we as tourists-in-denial usually experience.