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There are two albums here of our trips to Hanoi and Sapa (in northern Vietnam). If you are interested in scenery and local culture (of which Vietnam has much to offer), but not in difficult history (specifically the war in Vietnam) then just skip over the last section of each.

Living Dangerously?

Don't try this at home.

Liz does appear to tempt fate on this crosswalk in Hanoi. However, fortunately motor-bike drivers there seem to be pretty good at swerving and avoiding pedestrians. This then makes it possible to "part the waters" as Liz does here.

Another good thing is that these motor-bike drivers don't drive as fast as people in Taipei. Perhaps that's one reason why nobody wears a helmet in Hanoi. However, we did witness a few minor accidents.


Here's the scene of one accident where two motor-bikes collided because their view was blocked by a taxi. Fortunately, no one was badly hurt. The riders (3 or 4 of them) all got up pretty quickly and later drove away. We witnessed this scene from the second floor balcony of a nearby restaurant while having dinner.

Taiwanese Aboriginal Students

With aboriginal students at a school in Taitung (Tai-dong). Most of the kids here in this picture are from the Paiwan group. You can see that they look very different from the average Chinese (or Han people).


Jason and some more students at the same school in Taitung. Jason is part Ami (pronounced Ah-May). The Ami are the largest aboriginal group in Taiwan. They are centered in eastern Taiwan, especially around Hualien. The girl on Jason's right is also Ami. Further to the south here in Taitung, there are more people from the Paiwan group. They have darker skin color and are more Polynesian in appearance.


See what I mean by darker skin color? Check out the girl in the lower right corner. Yes, she speaks Chinese. No, this is not some Pacific island like Fiji or Samoa. It is Taiwan. I love seeing this kind of ethnic diversity here. It makes me feel that Taiwan's not such a mono-cultural society after all.

Vietnam

Fruit or drinks anyone? Curbside service in Hanoi: Phil plays the part of a banana vendor while Liz orders a drink at the window.


Liz shows off one of the reasons why she wanted to come back to Hanoi - to shop for more traditional Vietnamese ao dais. And if she dresses like this, it's no wonder some people mistake her for a local. In fact, some do try to speak to her in Vietnamese. I(Phil), of course, don't have that problem. People there (especially cyclo and motor-bike drivers) have no trouble spotting me as a tourist. In the Old Quarter of Hanoi, it seemed I had to say "No thank you" to ride offers several times every minute.


Liz also enjoys the good food and balcony seating available in many of the local restaurants.


The French colonial charm of Hanoi is nice too. This can be seen in the architecture of many buildings. Here Liz poses on the front steps of the Opera House.


With a group of young school girls next to the "McCain memorial". It marks the spot where Senator John McCain was shot down and captured at Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake in 1967. He parachuted into the water and was plucked out by a group of fishermen.

Liz and Liz

Hey, who's the beautiful lady on TV? If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were having a tele-conference with each other here. It does look like they're making eye contact with each other.

Liz is happy that she finally gets to see one of her "Usage Tips" on the Studio Classroom TV program.

Do I really look like that? Yeah, with lots of make-up, I do.

Zhong-li H.S. Students Visit ORTV

Rachael Sawatzky and I with some of the students that visited ORTV recently. After they took a tour of our office and studios, we did some English activities with them in the chapel.

Evangelical Free Church in Nei-Hu

Lisa Holl and I goofing off with some of the students in the English Fellowship at EFC Nei-Hu. We visited their Thursday night group, did an English activity, taught a Studio Classroom lesson, and shared our testimonies. By this time, you can see we'd gotten pretty comfortable (or crazy) with each other.

Heavenly Frogs

Thanks to our ORTV photographer, Jeff Chao (Ah-liang) for these pictures of the Heavenly Frogs at Spiritual Emphasis Week in Wan-li.

From left to right: Steve on guitar, Phil, Dale - the spiritual leader and director of our group, Vance and Bryan.

Now we're really into the motions. And Doris has a front row seat. Wonder what she's thinking. Oh well, if the ship goes down, we've got Dale as our captain. :)


Dale looks like he feels something welling up from within. Hopefully it's a spiritual thing and not something left over from lunch.

And thanks to Marci Fry for these photos of the Heavenly Frogs.

Steve plays while the others go through the motions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "I'm Gonna Sing, Shout and Praise The Lord", plus "When The Saints Go Marchin' In".


Steve continues playing while the frogs go marchin' in behind Boogie Bullfrog Bryan as he does a "ribbet rap".


Looks like Slimey Steve tries to catch a mosquito with his long tongue while Froggy Phil rests on his webbed feet.

College Guy at a Wan-Li Hotel

No, it's not "Spring Break". The actual event was ORTV's "Spiritual Emphasis Week" retreat. We spent two and half days in Wan-Li, on the northeast coast of Taiwan. Here's a photo of Bill Quinn and the view from his hotel balcony. Bill's enjoying the view and thinking we should have more retreats in places like this. He's quite the traveller as well as an avid collector of college tees. From Pittsburgh to Princeton to Portland, the Pacific and beyond!