New Flowers

This week some new flowers poked their blooms out of the greenery on our fence. They greet us with a beautiful fragrance when we come and go through the gate. 

Home Delivery?

Most of the items we purchase at various stores get delivered to our home by motorbike. But sometimes we just have to carry it ourselves...... We purchased a couple of folding chairs and metal racks for our home. We went directly to the carpenter and the metal worker on a street about 2 km from our home. There was no delivery and we were feeling strong so we walked home.

Pink, naturally!

People often refer to this well-known landmark when giving directions downtown. We had not seen it until this week when walking to the tailor. It is "the pink cathedral", a functioning Catholic church.

This week we also saw pink lotus flowers in bloom near our home. The Vietnamese name for these water lilies is hoa sen. The lotus is the national flower of Vietnam and represents purity and determination because it grows in muddy water but rises above the surface remarkably beautiful and delicate. 

Guests from Myanmar

This past week we were thrilled to host friends now living in Yangon, Myanmar. We met the Hedgers in Doha and have stayed in contact with them for the past four years while they lived in Venezuela. They recently moved to Yangon and we were delighted that they chose to visit us in Vietnam this Spring. Their days were busy with tours of the Cu Chi Tunnels, Street Food on a Back-of-the-Bike, the Dam Sen Water Park, and a River Cruise to the Mekong Delta. We spent evenings relaxing, catching up with old friends, and meeting their newly adopted son, Max.

Bali Break

During Spring Break we spent 6 restful days on the island of Bali, Indonesia. We traveled with friends and rented a villa in the village of Kuta near Double Six Beach.

We spent our days lounging by the pool, browsing in quaint shops, dining at delicious cafes and restaurants, walking the beach, reading in the sun, and getting massage therapy. We laughed a lot. We ate a lot.

Tim, Simon, and Andy took a refresher course then joined a group going diving at Blue Lagoon.

Soccer in Thailand

This past weekend Lisa and Simon traveled to the MRISA Varsity Soccer Tournament in Burapha, Thailand to support the SSIS soccer teams. The host school, International School of the Eastern Seaboard, is a wonderful facility for soccer and located about 2 hours from Bangkok. It was unfortunate that the weather did not cooperate so that we could enjoy the full facilities of ISE.

The first day of the tournament started out beautiful, sunny, hot. But at noon it began to rain hard (which was very unusual for this time of year). After an hour of rain the fields were flooded. After another hour of pumping water from the field and using squeegee to dry the fields, play resumed but it was muddy, messy business.

Therefore, Day 2 of the tournament was moved to Planet Football which played on AstroTurf. Complete with a foot-cooling pool and four playing fields, this new facility finished the tournament in record time. The SSIS Boys and Girls both played in the Final games of the tournament. In the end both teams earned Second Place.

Simon and Lisa stayed at the Golf Resort next door to the school and had fun watching golfers (mostly from Korea) and their pink clad caddies.