Somehow James managed to coax us out of bed at five a.m. in time to deliver us to the airport for our 7:30 departure to Hanoi. All went according to plan and we enjoyed the day touring the Old Quarter before catching our overnight train to Sapa in the northern, mountainous region of Vietnam. We will be returning to Hanoi later in the month, so we’ll have more time to visit its museums and antiquities. However, we did have time to visit one of the government restored homes of turn-of-the-century Hanoi and our guide filled us in on its residents over the years (rich was the common denominator).
We also went to the St. Joseph Cathedral, a rich reminder of Catholicism’s hey-day during the French occupation of Vietnam. The cathedral, although in need of a facelift on the exterior, was beautiful on the interior and we were amazed at the terrific following this Church had for mass. Afterwards, the boys joined a number of other boys outside on the road for an impromptu soccer game. It was great. Remarkably, some of the kids were playing on the pavement in bare feet. One boy in particular could manage the ball like it was on a rope. Notwithstanding that, Ryan and Brendan were no match for the others. After building up the sweat, we went to local street vendor for cold cokes (8000 dong each, about 50 cents Canadian) and Tiger beers (500 ml for 14000 dong, less than $1). We chatted with the locals who were impressed with the size of the boys, given their ages. We managed to use the Vietnamese phrase book quite nicely. It works well when one of the locals also speak English).
We also went to the St. Joseph Cathedral, a rich reminder of Catholicism’s hey-day during the French occupation of Vietnam. The cathedral, although in need of a facelift on the exterior, was beautiful on the interior and we were amazed at the terrific following this Church had for mass. Afterwards, the boys joined a number of other boys outside on the road for an impromptu soccer game. It was great. Remarkably, some of the kids were playing on the pavement in bare feet. One boy in particular could manage the ball like it was on a rope. Notwithstanding that, Ryan and Brendan were no match for the others. After building up the sweat, we went to local street vendor for cold cokes (8000 dong each, about 50 cents Canadian) and Tiger beers (500 ml for 14000 dong, less than $1). We chatted with the locals who were impressed with the size of the boys, given their ages. We managed to use the Vietnamese phrase book quite nicely. It works well when one of the locals also speak English).
I added a photo of the boys doing their daily morning dose of pushups, too. The staff had quite a giggle watching how hard the boys push themselves!
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