Vietnam

Mom and I had a wonderful night celebrating her birthday. We went to the beautiful Sofitel hotel here in Hanoi. Since we had a heavy Veitnamese lunch, we had a light salad & fine cheese dinner. She had champagne while I had port (mmmm) followed by a wonderful dessert sampler. The restaurant had a little classical guitar and violin duet which played happy birthday as they brought out her dessert with a candle and all the beautiful little Vietamese women sang happy birthday to her. (they even turned out the lights in the restaurant. it was really nice!! (and GREAT food). I had gathered cards from our family prior to coming to Southeast Asia in order to give to her on her birthday. She was very touched feeling like her whole family was able to celebrate with her.

I've enjoyed exploring Vietnam. My favorite things are absolutely the ceramics !! Any of you who know me well know my facination and OBSESSION with dishes. I LOVE DISHES. Its a big weakness. I find myself loaded down every time I get on a plane coming home from Southeast Asia. Most of the time I've busted my 7 kilo carry on limit so I'm toting a couple of cups in my pockets and dishes stuffed somewhere inconspicuously. I will just DIE if they ever decide to weigh ME. I befriended the dish ladies here at the Ben Thahn Market in Saigon. It was a fun market, full of bizarre things: snake wine, candied crayfish, silk EVERYWHERE, exotic coffees and teas, every kind of rice imaginable and lovely lovely people.