I have a friend called Moca Cafe

The title is funny, but it's the truth. The Moca Cafe is a restaurant and is one of the best restaurants that I've been to in Vietnam. I ate some french toast and bacon, one of my favorite meals. It was like half a pig of bacon. Very yummy indeed.

Today we visited the Ho Chi Minh complex. Ho Chi Minh was a famous leader in Vietnam. We went to his Mausoleum and saw his body even though he has been dead for over 40 years. That was kind of neat. They had a very long line and army guards everywhere. We also went to the Ho Chi Minh museum too, but we didn't understand very much about it.

Make a silly face for your family,

Thomas

A few days...

It's been a few days since I blogged. I got an email today from Mrs. Dusek. Thank you for sending the email, Mrs. Dusek. Mrs. Dusek told me that the class went to the orchestra hall to see Nutcracker. And actually, we have been listening to that music here. My mom brought a CD with Christmas music and that is on the CD!

My mom checked the Dusek Digest to see what was going on at Wildwood Elementary, and she saw that you were talking about holidays around the world. I asked Mr. Hien about Christmas here in Vietnam. I learned that they have Christmas here but not many people celebrate it. Only the Christian people here celebrate it. The people here who celebrate Christmas celebrate on December 24th. I am seeing Christmas decorations at many places here, but we haven't been at people's houses to see if they have Christmas decorations.

Our friend, Mr. Hien, said that the biggest holiday in Vietnam is Tet. It's new year celebration and it is in the winter (but not January 1st). It lasts one week and everyone turns one year older at Tet, because they don't celebrate regular birthdays in Vietnam. I'll try to learn more about Tet and I will report more facts back to you.

Goodbye!

Thomas

p.s. For a souvenir, I got a Chinese lantern last month here in Vietnam. It is made out of silk and it is red. I'm going to hang it up in my room.

A fews day after Ha Long Bay

I forgot to tell you. I ate a chicken foot at Ha Long Bay. It was weird. I don't think I'll have another one.

We lost our camera at the Silk Village and lost all of our pictures of Ha Long Bay, but we saved lots of them. We were also able to get pictures from Granny and Gramps and Auntie Heather. They almost have the same pictures that we took, but there are some different pictures, too and one is of a dragon. It was was grass and it was on this huge mountain. My dad bought a new camera in Vietnam last night while Helen and I stayed with Granny and Gramps and had bread and french fries for supper. We thought we were having barbecued chicken delivered to our room, but it did not come. We ordered twice and it didn't come. Maybe they didn't understand English very well.

We saw how silk was made at the silk village. First you have worms that make cocoons. Then the cocoons get made into thread. Then they have a machine called a loom that makes the threads into material with fancy designs.

Well, that's it. Love and kisses from Thomas. Do extra special comments please including comments on what you're doing. I want to know what is happening, especially at Wildwood Elementary!

Ha Long Bay Part 1

I went to Ha Long Bay today. Ha Long Bay is part of the South China Sea and there are tons of rocky islands that look like mountains. One of the rocky islands had a cave and it was very neat. It was a humongous cave. Some of the walls looked like stuff, like a lion, a dragon, and a tortoise.

We got around the bay by a boat. The boat was called a junk. I had to spend almost all my time upstairs on the boat, which I did not like.

Well, that's it.

Love and kisses.

From,
Thomas

Circus and water puppet show and museum

First, Friday we went to the water puppet show, Saturday we went to the Museum of Ethnology, and Sunday, which is today, we went to the circus.

At the water puppet show, I liked the Dragon Dance best. The dragons shot fire, smoke, and water out of their mouths. I liked it best because I like dragons and I like dance of the four holy animals because it also had dragons. Water puppets are puppets that people go behind a screen in a pool and use rods or ropes to move the puppets and the water becomes the stage. That's how water puppets work.

The inside part of the museum was mostly boring, but the outside part was kind of cool. The outside part had houses of different tribes of people who lived in Vietnam. There was a house that was on stilts and it was hard to climb up to it and even more difficult to climb down. Grandpa helped me climb down the the ladder that was made out of a log.

There was all sorts of tricks at the circus. I liked the clowns and the first trick best. At the first trick, there was people inside these circle cages, and they rolled around in the cages and fell like a hula hoop but didn't even get to the ground. The clowns were kind of funny. They were the only people who came out more than once. They came out three times.

Actually, Julia likes riding in taxis.

I hear you got a lot of snow in Minnesota. Is there a blizzard? The weather here is kind of cool, but just right. I'm wearing a t-shirt and long pants and sandals.

Well, goodbye for now! Send in more comments, please.

Thomas