Still Among the Living

Apologies for the huge delay. And, if you're reading this, thank you for not giving up on us. The long delay was not for a lack of trying. For the last three weeks, Eric has had us (Jane and David joined us two weeks ago) travel over 2500 miles through three countries via bus, taxi, cyclo, motorcycle, tuk-tuk, sled, sampan, longtail river boat, speedboat, plane, hot air balloon, helicopter, wheelbarrow, space shuttle, human sling shot...OK, the last few are exaggerations. But there hasn't been much time for blogging. And the few moments I have had free, we were nowhere near an Internet connection.

I'm writing this from a small island called Don Khong in the middle of the Mekong River. It's located in Southern Laos's "Four Thousand Islands" area near the Cambodian border. It's about as isolated as I've ever been. But, amazingly, it boasts a great Internet connection. Hopefully I can play blog catch up.

I left off with us traveling to our friend Chien's country wedding. "Two kilometers that way," finally came true, and we made it to his village about two hours outside of Hanoi. His village's designated profession is carpentry. His uncle manufactures wood furniture. The festivities and ceremony took place in this cleared out wood shop, with hundreds of wooden bed frames lining the sides. Bright colored fabrics decorated the space making the dim factory come alive. The cutting saw table and blade were used to hold cocktails. Chien's Uncle (one of the only english speaking wedding attendees) remarked that this was probably the only wedding we have attended that had giant saws as part of the decor. Honestly, that is what I loved about this wedding and why it stands out among the hundreds I have attended.
Eric hang'n with the elders of the family.

Feeling a little low? Get in line and feel a little high.

Pearce entertains the crowd, playing Kung Fu Panda using a giant fan for special effects.

Pearce making friends. No speaking needed to play.

Beginning the preparations for the wedding meal, washing the rice at 11pm. This rice was probably picked from the fields just that morning.

Around midnight the party started to slow down and Chien took us to the only guest house in the town. Vietnam has Orwelian polices to keep track of every move you make...especially foreigners. You must have a passport and permission from the local police to stay the night in a hotel or residence. We "absent mindedly" forgot our passports and could not stay in the village overnight. We tried to bribe the owner of the guest house, but he was too afraid of being caught, so we had to wait an hour for the only cabby in town to wake up and drive us back to Hanoi. Driving at night through Vietnam's countryside was slightly more safe than Russian Roulette. First, there were no street lights. Second, obstacles such as 500-pound water buffalo like make sudden appearances on the narrow pot-holed roads. Third, only one of our cab's lights worked (and even it was on it's way out). Fourth, our driver was trying to break a land-speed record. And Fifth, Eric and I might have broke the Word of Wisdom just by smelling his breath.

We said a lot of prayers, though, and safely arrived back at our adopted Hanoi home (Intercontinental) at around 1 am. The next morning we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to meet the bus full of wedding attendees from the Intercontinental. This time, however, we were confident we'd get to the wedding without a hitch because we were cruising with the locals on a chartered bus. No more "two kilometers that way" incidents.

We were wrong to assume. We got lost. The bus driver asked for directions several times. We finally found our way but stopped dead in our tracks at a bridge that was too small for the bus to cross over. There was no where to turn around so the bus had to drive in reverse through an entire town barely the width of the bus, brushing inches away from the shops and homes. We had only 15 minutes to find another way into the town. It took 30 minutes. We missed parts of the wedding. Oh for the love!

The bus could not fit down the narrow streets to Chien's parents house so we hitched a ride. Sitting on a motor bike side saddle with a skirt in high heels while holding Pearce was not a ride of ease.

The bride and groom. The bride is wearing a traditional Vietnamese red and gold ao dai.

A traditional Vietnamese Wedding goes like this; early in the morning the groom's wedding party travels to the bride's house to ask her ancestors for permission to marry the groom. Both bride and groom wedding parties then go to the groom's house to ask his ancestors for permission to marry the bride. I wonder if the ancestor ever says no? The ceremony begins and they are now husband and wife. And the bride and grooms wedding parties return to the brides house for a celebration that includes the whole town. Finally the bride and groom wedding parties return to the groom's house for the wedding dinner and entertainment. The bride and groom sit and serve welcome tea or rice wine to all their guests at each home, at every stop. That is a lot of pouring. We had to refuse rice wine about a million times. Finally we faked it by putting water in our cups to make the traditional cheers with everyone else. There were TVs playing either snap shots of the bride and groom in American wedding digs, or techno/disco pop seventies music videos. Very loud. A wedding singer sang to the bride and groom in Vietnamese. Very entertaining.

The dinner was amazing. Everything freshly killed the night before. Duck, chicken, pork, and fish served with rice and vegetables. The amount of work that went into the food alone, I can't imagine. Three cheers to the ladies of the house who prepared such a feast.

I hung out with the elderly ladies. With the elderly group, the women sit with the women and the men sit with the men. But the young (under 70) intermingled.

Pearce was a hit.

The drive home was not any better. The bus driver couldn't find his way home. I just could not believe that our bus driver was a professional tour guide driver? We decided to buy him a map as an early Christmas gift.