Goodbye Vietnam!

Our Vietnam trip is coming to a close! We leave tonight to fly back to Dallas and although it would be nice to stay longer, I think we're ready to come back home. We visited the Temple of Literature before leaving and although it was interesting from a historical perspective, I think the best part was our interaction with the children (more on that in a bit). The Temple was dedicated to Confucious and was founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong. In 1076, Vietnam's first university was established there to educate Vietnam's administrative and warriors class. I must admit, I didn't know much about Confucious but the more I read, the more interested I became in his principles and teachings. It gave me more insight into the Asian culture and I wished the ideals I read about could take hold with some of the American population. Could be a great benefit to our society!

Ok back to the cute little children! It must have been temple field trip day because there were about 100 children visiting the Temple. All of them wanted to say hi to us and ask us the few questions they knew in English.

 At one point, things got a little interesting when we were mobbed by about 50 children wanting us to sign their hands. You can see my arm, all that was visible, trying to sign hands the best I could. It was a very interesting experience!

As we were strolling through, I turned around to find a little Vietnamese girl had Steven by the arm and was trying to lead him to something very important. Sadly, we assumed she was leading us to a shop as many children in Southeast Asia are used to bring tourists into shops. We followed her cautiously and after winding through a few doorways and around the courtyard she stopped, with a big smile on her face, in front of a huge turtle figure gilded in gold. She was so pleased to show us this wonderful photographic opportunity! It just melted our hearts. Without knowing anything about us, these strangers to her world, she wanted to show the two of us something she was sure we would be very impressed with. It was a wonderful ending to our journey. Vietnam has been a great experience with memories that will last a lifetime. We feel very blessed to have this opportunity. Tam biet Vietnam! We heart you!