weekend at a glance

I haven't written that last few days because my poor fingers were just so tired of clacking away on the keyboard. That's what happens when you are in the midst of writing your fourth paper in a matter of weeks anticipating the fifth the next week. Thankfully, I was able to get away for a short time on Saturday. Where I went is actually still a mystery to me.

A handful of us got up and caught a number of buses out to the Perfume Pagoda. The Perfume Pagoda, as I now know, is not a single pagoda but in fact a complex of pagodas. I'm not sure exactly where it is, but I know that it isn't in Hanoi and that it took us three buses and four hours to get there. The bus rides were so wonderful. It was the first time in a while that I had time to do nothing. I didn't worry about what I was going to come back to, I just sat, enjoying the scenery out the window. So many rice fields. The other thing I noticed was that everyone dries their harvested rice in the streets or in driveways. It all gets laid out and raked over and over until it is fully dried out and is then put into large bags in anticipation of the next step of processing.

On one bus, a group of school kids got on to ride it home. One of them was a major flirt. If I had to guess, I would have said that he was nine. With a little bit of English and a little bit of Vietnamese, we discovered his name and that he is twelve. We continued to flirt and make faces at each other until he got off the bus. 

When we did make it to the right place, we jumped off the bus and found a boat to leisurely row us down the river until we got to a small pagoda. It was absolutely beautiful. The pagoda was surrounded but so much green and so many trees. The backdrop was all mountains. This picture shows only the welcoming structure. It was impossible to get a picture of the full building because of all the trees.

We saw a floor where it looked like various herbs and spices were laid out to dry. These may be used for teas, medicines, cooking or medicine. I actually have no idea what they were specifically for. 

There was a set of stairs that led up the small mountain right behind the pagoda. We climbed them to get a better view of the city and of the mountains around the pagoda. Though the stairs were incredibly steep at times, we managed to get to the top of this little trail, where we met a family. The dad may have been speaking Russian, but I think they were all Vietnamese. Regardless, they were a fun crowd and we chatted in broken Vietnamese all the way back down the stairs. 

We got back to Hanoi by another series of buses, and a good time was had by all.

Yesterday was spent writing a paper on vector control strategies to limit Dengue Fever infections. Glad that's over.