The Champa kingdom is gone but not forgotten!

Pet bird at at restaurant

We are on a road trip to Nha Trang, after our stop at Mui Ne. This whole area was once controlled by the Champa, and was taken over by the Vietnamese slowly over centuries. Their culture was much more heavily influenced by India, and you can see that in their statues and stele. Sometimes I wonder about my own heritage, how much Indic heritage I could have.

Roadside Champa ruins

How they keep their chickens from running around.

Kid powered devices! No padded surfaces for these kids.

Kids love to play under the mosquito net.

Putting up holiday decorations.

Sitting in the park in front of our hotel in Nha Trang.

Monkey in the park

More Champa ruins in Nha Trang

Tháp Bà Po Nagar - Temple to Lady Po Nagar


This is still actively used as a place of worship, for Buddhists now, but it was a Hindu temple. The Hindus seem to have a fondness for phallic objects, which I did take pictures of. Also there are plenty of breast sculptures too, and I brought home a souvenir for hubby that is both phallic and mammary.

Unknown fuzzy critter

Mui Ne - Beachfront relaxation

I had a hair to learn to kiteboard and this was the best, most reasonably priced place to do it. Mui Ne is know for fairly constant winds, and is a windsport mecca. So we looked at several hotel before picking one. The one at the right was pretty, but a little too pricy. Finally we found one and I found out that they had a kiteboarding school right behind them.

Mini girl in mini pool

Yummy snacks for the beach

Outside of our room

Getting the sand out

My Food was moving before I got here!

The food in Vietnam has got to be the freshest food you can get. The seafood restaurants keep tanks for the animals so that they are fresh, I guess it might be cheaper than putting in big freezers.

Bargaining for Dragonfruit

Looks like some kind of lobster

Snail/escargot

Crabs

Looks like some kind of grouper

some kind of shellfish

Arrival Day in Vietnam

Do you know that there's a ton of food on international flights! We had dinner and breakfast, and since we are in the wrong time zone, the foods are completely out of synch with your meals.

Lovely breakfast meal on Cathay Pacific.

Happy on the plane

Grumpy off the plane

This is inside of our relative's house in Ho Chi Minh city that we'll be using as our base for a few weeks. Simple, typical, not too large place. There's a loft bedroom upstairs, a bedroom downstairs, a front room and the back has a kitchen and bathroom. No hot water, no AC, although it wasn't that bad. It was warm enough that cool water showers were good. That thing in the picture covered in fabric is the tv. The front room is also where they park their mopeds at night.

Outside of the place

Found someone to play with already!

One night layovers are fun!

Our trip involved a layover in Tokyo anyway, so we added a night and spent some time in Tokyo. Cowgirl was very fascinated by all the different memorials and how they are decorated and how there's a little donation box for your favorite personage. We also tried some street foods and stayed in a lovely Ryokan, which is a traditional style inn called Homeikan Ryokan. On our way to the Ryokan, Mom accidentally left her camera in the taxi, and the taxi driver actually got out of his taxi and ran to give it to us since the Ryokan wasn't on a car accessible street. It was so very representative of the honesty of the Japanese people. They'll go out of their way to be honest.

Bibs on these statues. Not sure why.

This statue has clothes.

This is some version of a lollypop, freshly made with a piece of fruit inside, with a crunchy little cup to eat. Very sticky and sweet.

The Ryokan was gorgeous. The bathroom is a typical communal one, and really nice, but of course we didn't bring our camera down. We had breakfast in the room in traditional style, although I forgot to take pictures then. Probably my mom did, she had the camera out all the time.

Entryway to our room.

Hallway outside our room

 Our flight out was a late flight, departing around 11pm, so we had a full day. It was cold though, and I had to layer all the clothes I had, since I was going from a warmish climate to a warmish climate with a single day in a coldish climate.

This little hanging toy was something we bought out of a vending machine. There are vending machines everywhere. Street corners had drink vending machines, for both cold and hot drinks. What you can't see very well is that the little girl has a cigarette in her hand. I couldn't believe it. Kids toys representing smoking so casually. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and later on we managed to lose the thing anyway.

Airplane food never looks this nice in the US!

On our way to Vietnam but stopping in Japan

It's nice to be small enough to sleep across the seats in a plane

A Tokyo temple

Just wanted to make sure she doesn't fall off the railing

The absolute cleanest squat toilet we will be seeing on this trip.

Holy smoke, to purify temple goers.

Visiting Vietnam

We're going to visit Vietnam. This is the first time for my daughter and I, but unfortunately dear husband cannot take enough time off to go. It's amazing that it's taken me almost 40 years to go while she's only going to be 5. This will also be the first time my dad will have been back since he left as a teenager, so long ago. Mom went back last year by herself, and now wants us to all go but unfortunately my sister can't make it this time.