next trip - Manado

Manado, ahah, and where is Manado you might ask.

I did too. I looked it up. It is at the northern tip of Indonesia, and hopefully a wonderful dive location. Tim has a lifetime licence for scuba diving (PADI) and I really wanted him to get some great diving in this incredible diving part of the world. So he found Manada, and we are booked for early May. For 5 days. The hotels are pretty basic, because divers are gone all day and come back exhausted to sleep long for the next days' dive.

I will not be diving. I had a blood clot in my lung years ago, and have lost the desire to dive. I am sure glad I had done it, though, because it is pretty amazing. I am assuming there will be snorkelling. I find to go out on a boat on the water all day in the sun unpleasant, so I hope for snorkelling off shore.

At any rate, I will bring a good book, and my yoga mat, and "make do" HA. In the sun at the ocean! In Indonesia! This trip will be early May.

Judy and Gord and Cammie just got back from Thailand. They had ablest. This has been good for them to come here and go off by themselves too. Today they have gone to the zoo. Singapore Zoo is really well done. No cages, only moats. Beautiful specimens of each animal. The climate is natural for all those lions, tigers, elephants and hippos that we see in zoos in N.A.

Tomorrow we leave for Vietnam. A 3 hour flight to Ho Chi Min City. H.C.M.C. or still called Saigon, too. It will be interesting to see Judy's reaction. She taught English as a second language when Canada was accepting the thousands of boat people from Vietnam. She has many lifelong friends from those days. And then Cammie who knows little of the American War, as it is referred to here, will have an untainted view.

I must saw I was moved deeply by the war museums in Saigon. I was so upset in one, I had to leave because I thought I would be sick. I was barely holding back tears. They show man's inhumanity to man. They do not spare telling a gruesome story. But it doesn't just have recoeds of the American atrocities. It tells the story of the Vietnames atrocities too. And portrays the frustration the Anmericans had of actually finding the enemy. The Chu Chi tunnels are still there and you see how the Viet Cong lived underground by day, in the tunnels, and came out at night to fight back to the Americans.

Below are some photos.

We went for a walk out the pier that we can see from our balcony. It was a hot but windy day. The pier was filled with fishermen. Some catching good sized fish, maybe 12"  long. And many were catching tiny little 2" silver fish that would be bait for someone else. This guy had a big one, that was taking him forever to reel in. You can see the ships in the channel in the background.

Tim on the computer helping Gord and Jude book the Thailand leg of their visit.

The two twins. Jude and I were out today to my little lady who does alterations for me. She speaks very little English, but another customer was there and she did speak some English. So she translated. She got that we were sisters but could not get that we were twins, and would not accept that the translation was accurate. Sisters yes, twins no. Well. And all these years we thought we were!

I didn't tell you about Cammie. She is a charming effervescent 12 year old. A highland dancer and she dances, and leaps, and twirls, and does point ALL the time. So we were on the balcony, sliding doors open. Lots of wind. So I shut one side of the glass doors. As Cammie lept, gazelle-like to the kitchen, time froze for me as I saw what was going to happen. And it did. She went right full face in to the glass. She had a sore bridge of the nose for days. I think you can see the print of her forehead, nose, lips, and chin, on the glass door. It was awful. Poor dear.

Till next time!