Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

The influence of Chinese culture has grown as we've moved north through Vietnam, as we were told it would. Upon arrival, we were told it was an auspicious day: The eighth day of the lunar calendar, the first day of the month of March and a Sunday. As we drove in from the airport, we saw cars - even those traveling on the highway - festooned with flowers. And I mean hundreds of flowers in elaborate patterns! When we went for a walk around the nearby lake (a novelty in the middle of this crowded part of a crowded city), everywhere we saw people dressed as if for prom, or a wedding but really just for the eighth/first; I haven't yet found out why but the dressed up people were almost all wearing black and white. I'm sorry I took no pictures of this but here are some shots from our walk. We passed this about three-quarters of our way through the one mile loop around the lake. Henry was very eager to reach it. Lily's "12 on 6" face was inspired by ...

The sign says "Please do not leave your children unattended." We're smiling because, technically speaking, we complied with this rule. Read on for more. On Tuesday (2/25), we were on a bus at 6:30am to the Ho Chi Minh City airport for a short flight to Danang for the next segment of our itinerary. We were glad to be done walking on the semi-existent sidewalks of HCMC.  Without customs to navigate, our arrival in a second Vietnamese airport lacked all the drama of the first. We easily met our guide, boarded a bus and drove about 40 minutes to our hotel in the beach community of Hoi An. Along the way our guide offered interesting commentary on all sorts of tours and activities available to us during our stay. After checking into our hotel, we rode taxis to the old town. Most of old town Hoi An is closed to cars so we had a few blocks to walk from the taxi stand to a restaurant. After eating, which included some local specialities, we began a short walking t...