Category: Living Simply

In the rural areas, families lived in Hakka houses. Each house bears a family name like the Huang family hakka that we visited today in Nanjing County, Fujian province in China. Each new generation and addition lives in the hakka. They have withstood centuries with very thick walls and a round structure for security and durability. They originally started with a square hakka and realized there was too much fighting over who had the corners. They then built the round hakkas around it. There is only one way in and out of the hakka, small windows, and thick walls. Until the last 20 years there was not much development in the area and no police presence so this type of building was necessary.

This picture was taken above the valley where the hakka houses are. They are built in a valley at 700 meters above sea level. It is protected by the mountains around. The bus could not get down into it so we took steps all the way down and of course all the way back up the other side to meet the bus again. All I can say is everyone moved slowly as almost everyone on the bus ran the half marathon or marathon the day before (this tour was part of the package for the race including hotel and meals) . My quads were screaming.

Inside the hakka a family unit has a section that runs all 3 floors. The bottom floor houses the kitchen and many have stove “units” on the patio. The second floor is for food storage and the top floor has the bedrooms.

The centre is a communal space. Since it is open to the air, many have trees, animals like chickens, wells, etc. The well looks as if it is spring fed.

It was fabulous to see where the fruit comes from and see the care they have for the land and the produce.

Families were working and children playing. They had nesting dolls.

To help make a living some of the villagers sell local produce. Teas, dried persimmon, bamboo shoots, etc.

When we walked in we were invited to tea. The chrysanthemum tea was so much better there than any other I have had. To date it is now my favourite tea. I did buy some from them as well as dried persimmon and ginger chews.

Around the hakkas can be seen other kind of houses. But what is worth seeing is the terraced fields. We saw rice terraces as well as tea terraces. These are used to make green tea or flower tea (chrysanthemum).

This is a picture taken from the bus and is a tea terrace.

We also saw pommelo trees in the picture above. The fruit is so heavy it is hard to believe the trees can hold the fruit up. On a personal note, I love how the local wet Market has change in produce. Now citrus is in season and pomelo is something I buy every week.

The views around the hakka house are amazing. We saw large wind turbines on the ridge.

After the bus picked us up we traveled a little bit down the road and stopped to take a picture. This is the view of the hakka houses we visited from below.

And… Another picture from the top of the mountain.

A close up of the inside from the top of the mountain.

Note: if you ever come here, book with La Pinta cruise to Halong Bay. It is 5 star and unbelievable service.

A tour I booked before I left was to Halong Bay, which is along the coast. Three are 1969 karst islands there. The karst topography was created from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum over time. The drainage systems created sinkholes and caves as a result. The remaining rock is quartzite.

They picked us up from our hotel in the old quarter in Hanoi. The 3 hour bus ride was in a very comfortable coach bus (WiFi, charger port…).

At the harbor, we boarded a ferry to take us to the boat.

Our room was ready after we finished the elaborate lunch and we were given some time to talk around and settle. Balcony to sit and look at the scenery was incredible as week as the amenities of the room.

We met to take the ferry to an outfitter boat that had kayaks ready for us. We kayaked for about an hour around the karst islands and learned about the history of halong Bay and the lives of people there. There is one island where people live: cat bau island and also in floating fishing villages.

When we were done kayaking, we could swim. It was only 20 meters deep but I am not a strong swimmer. After the assurance of the crew and other passengers they would save me, I decided to brave even more and go to the top of the ferry and jump off into the water. For some people that is no big deal but I am also afraid of heights! I did it and loved it. The salt water made you very buoyant so it was not an effort to swim. Every time though I was nervous. I am so glad I bought a go pro the day before we left Hanoi. I jumped once with someone filming me and another time holding the go pro.

After we returned there was time for a shower and then a 6 course dinner.

But before dinner there was a cooking class on how to make a spring roll. I’ve been doing it wrong. You wet a towel and you massage the spring roll paper while on the towel, turning it over and massaging the other side. It does not get completely pliable. You fill it and roll starting at one end and tucking the sides in. And then it ends up perfect. Who knew?

Dinner. So much food. Afterwards we could go squid fishing. I actually caught one and it squirted water as I pulled it up but it got away. One more lives another day!

This squid was caught from a member of the crew.

The next morning we woke early to view areas of the bay as the sun was rising. Beautiful.

We ate breakfast and then it was time to board the ferry to one of the floating fishing villages. From there we boarded bamboo boats that were piloted by a villager through the caves under one of the karst islands. They are very skilled as they maneuver through the stalactites in the cave.

Here is a fast tour of the bamboo boat tour through the caves :

Afterwards we had another six course meal: stir fry veggies with rice crackers, fried squid, fish, sticky rice with stir fry cabbage/carrots and stir fry prawns, flan with mango.

We then checked out and boarded the ferry to go back to the harbour and board the bus. I had a fantastic time and hated to leave. If you ever go to vietnam you must do this tour. La pinta cruise was the best.

The past week was pretty emotional. I woke up in China to news that my dad had passed away. I was able to get a flight within 4 hours which my school pays for bereavement.

It was good to see my kids, brother and sister in law, and my mom. It is hard to believe he is gone.

Helping my brother move his shop equipment, I remembered so much about the vise on his bench. I used to help him with work or when he was helping me fix something of mine.

While I was home I ran a 5k with my daughter as that is how we work through things.

In time the regrets and the good things I remember will be worked through.

My apartment has a Japanese toilet which is a bidet. However, it is variable about what you will be using when you are out. I learned quickly that you carry wipes or a pack of tissue to use. They do not flush paper as it clogs systems. Many toilets are squatty potties. A large hole in the floor where you squat to do your business. Then you flush. Handicapped bathrooms have Western toilets.

Here in Thailand they have squatty potties you but you use buckets of water to flush. Where there are Western toilets you will see this sign :

Funny.

At the hotel the western toilets have a spray hose for the bidet.

I am sure I have yet more to see.

There are many funny things you see in the grocery stores here. Of course to outsiders in the US that is also true. Mostly is the combination of flavours or how the original title is translated.

This was just a stroll down the chip aisle. I actually did buy the seaweed flavour. What I haven’t bought is the bags of dried shrimp mixed with nuts. But I probably will in the future.

Occasionally someone on we chat will share a picture from translator where the English translation is written over top of the Chinese symbols. These are hilarious and end up with everyone sharing from wherever they are. If I can figure out where these are saved I will share them.

I have been biking to school and taking a trip on most weekends since I bought my bike. There are bike paths along the river and beside some major roads, but where I bike to school does not always have that. It can be a little dicey but riding with others brings safety in numbers. It is actually tougher to get around the other bikers and pedestrians as it seems that anything goes with them and they don’t follow any rule.

Here are a few images from the bike rides. Exercise classes (usually Qi Gong) and dancing you can see in the parks and under the bridges.

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To get on the bridges you need to sometime take stairs. They have a ramp on part of the stairs where you push your bike up as you walk. Sometimes it is in the middle and others it is on both sides. Here you can see the not very wide ramp along the side. It actually is pretty ingenous, does not take much space, and is efficient. You can see the ramps both on the left and the right.

Since I bought my bike I also had them put on a rack over the rear tire and bought one pannier messenger bag that can clip to the side or be tied down on top which gives me better options than to put everything in a backpack on my back. It was incredibly cheap with both costing a total of $40 USD.

A few weeks ago I went to the plant market with one of the seasoned teachers. It is easy to find someone who will help you here when you are looking for something. You pass on your information. Since I had never taken long metro rides this was something I also wanted to do. This is a big place and any tips for getting around is great.

On the way to the market we saw a fruit stall that had fresh coconut. They crack open the top so you can drink (I took it home to scrape out the coconut later).

There is a market for everything here. The plant market is huge and took hours to only look at a small amount of it. I went with three others and we were each looking for something specific. For me, I wanted a few succulents for my apartment but also wanted to grow leafy vegetables. I looked around for some time and found the places I wanted to buy from then set out to get those items at the last minute as they were pretty heavy.

Here are the succulents and planter I bought:

It seemed that we would not be getting on the metro with everything as it all had to go through an xray before we could enter so we called a DIDI (like Uber here). We manage to fill the trunk and also fit the tree that one person bought in the back seat with us. That person in the front seat bought some of the most beautiful orchids I have seen.

My plants are starting to grow. I am not sure exactly what I planted but have seen these greens at the wet market and eventually will translate the packages (though translations are never exact).

I have a second planter and those are taking a little longer to come up. As a capricorn, we love to dig our hands in dirt!