What a day!

I will only write about the first half of the day because it was jammed.  The band was playing again this morning in front of the opera house, and my roommate is not much of a music person so closed our balcony door; I went outside and stood among all the Vietnamese who were jammed together on their motorcycles.  Kids were on stage singing, and as always, an English speaking student came up to me to chat; before I knew it, I was yammering with a group of students, their teacher and their mothers..  First, a photo of a family of four, listening to the music, all crammed onto one bike.

Some of my friends who were also there but chatting with me instead of giving our full attention to the show.

I couldn't resist Mr. Coiled Wires, sitting so suavely on his motor bike.

Then, we went to the REAL Chinese market, which is actually the one I thought we had gone to yesterday.  This one is a wholesale place, selling enormous packages of plastic shoes at one go.  Below are red, yellow and green rice noodles that looked like Easter basket filler.

I was not able to get the name of whatever the heck this dried stuff was, but it certainly looked like offal of sorts, with some critters' feet jumbled into the mix; it was probably something ghastly, but I was fascinated nonetheless.

These are different colors of sugar and the flies were only on the white one; go figure.

Who could over look the links of sausage dangling everywhere?

I really hate to admit this, but these were freshly SKINNED but still hopping frogs - except for the ones with their heads cut off.  OMG, was this a stomach quease.  

Theses delicate, chewy little things were just a rice batter boiled in oil which turned them into these little hats that were SO tasty and delicate and sweet and chewy and lovely! 5,000 dong for one.

A second story window, this little place smacked of paradise to me.

Then, the bus took us to the Tien Hau temple, which honors the goddess of the sea who made sure the overseas Chinese got safely to their diaspora destinations.  The temple was built in 1706 and was also a pagoda for women who prayed for children, families and maternal issues.

Here is a high mural of the goddess herself.

Coils of burning incense, each marked with the name of someone for whom we were praying, were hanging above the altar.

This man was REALLY praying for something wonderful.

I hope you can see this delightful little man who seems to be dancing with his sword (machete?) in the air.  This was a small bas relief carved into the large wooden structure at the entrance of the temple.

After we finished here, we drove to the FITO, the museum of Vietnamese herbal medicine, which encompassed acupuncture, acupressure, herbs, massage and something else that I cannot remember.  I will post more later, but this is enough for now.  I'm tired, ready for a beer and eager to go out into the WARM air instead of our COLD room!!!  

So long for now!  More on the FITO and the Fine Arts Museum later.