den Haans in southeast Asia

Singapore!  What a city! Here it's all about big buildings, shopping and food. The architectural skyline is vast and sublime.  Get this, the opera house is a giant durian!  Now durian is a fruit from the durian tree but it is stinky and nasty to the max.  It wrecks every fruit stand and is actually banned on the transit in Hong Kong.  To like it is an acquired taste and Singaporeans pride themselves in this.  So much so they mimic durian in their architecture. Our Singaporean friends took us for lunch, set us free for the afternoon and then took us for supper to the waterfront and a light show.  Wow! I've not seen anything like this.  Water, lights and pumps.  And music.  It was glorious and the crown of Singapore. After our friends insisted on dessert.  Shaved ice with drizzles of sauces and fruits (no durian). Tomorrow--last day.  :(

Ah yes.  This city never sleeps.  Some streets literally convert from a red light district to tourist/shops/stalls between 6 am to 6:30.  One moment there are drug dealers and escort services along with beer cans and garbage lining the streets and the next it is open for tours, mangoes, ca phe and the street itself is clean ready for the endless stream of scooters. We walked an upscale street that shut down in the evening for pedestrians.  I am still amazed at what I saw.  A fashion show with at least 50 girls modelling traditional viatnamese dress.  Beautiful music, gorgeous colours and lighting.  The biggest outdoor sceeen I have ever scene and then dancing.  The models joined with men and began a fantastic dance.  Everybody on the streets was enjoying themselves.  It was beautiful and warm and stunning.  I could have stayed out all night but we had a 7 am departure in the morning. The entire scene makes Vancouver feel like a ...

We are 2 days into this city.  Very similar to Hanoi.  A little less dirty.  A little more upscale.  But just as chaotic and busy.  15 million people live here--half the population of Canada. We moved to a quieter hotel. Yesterday we did a Meekong river tour.  This river starts in Tibet and goes through 6 countries--China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malasia and dumps into the ocean via Vietnam.  Vietnam has a river culture and we learned all about it.  At one point we loaded into smaller boats and trawled up some tributaries.  We were reminded that this is how the war was fought. Today, after church John, Siebe and I toured the Cu Chi tunnels.  These are tunnels made by the Viet Kong in the civil war.  20,000 soldiers lived in this maze of 260 km along the Saigon river.  Fascinating in their tactics to elude the americans.  They made booby traps with spikes, made booby traps to catch american dogs, went to great lengths t...

Well here we are back in Vietnam.  Good grief!  who booked this hotel?  It is 1 a.m. and we're next door to a street party that goes until 3 a.m.  Right now it's blaring "Happy Together"  Some irony in that.  Boom boom ta da boom boom.  At least the air conditioner works. Airplane ride was unique.  Somehow I believe we paid twice. Our luggage suddenly was too heavy so we all had to check them in (for a price) and then we weren't even offered a glass of water on the flight.  Oh well, we've had first class treatment until now.  This knocks off our sense of entitlement.  Probably good for us. We did encounter a divine appointment on the streets of Hong Kong.  More about that later... So here we are on the streets of Hong Kong.  Only 6 million people live here and who should we run into but Glenn and Carolyn Noort!!  Friends from church.  Now just how does that work? We finished Hong Kong by riding the travelat...

It is almost 6 pm Hong Kong time and we've already figured out transit!  Like I said this is Vancouver on steroids and that includes the transit system. So..we've been shopping, went for dim sum (my first ever) and then visited 2 more Bible colleges. At one of them I met a woman who was converted through English Language Institute China .  That's the organization that Alice Laarman worked for!!!  This woman is now getting her PhD and spreading the gospel in mainland China.  I find this exciting.  Her own home church has recently been shut down by the Chinese government.  Hong Kong enjoys many freedoms but in Mainland China doors are closing. More later about evening activities... Hey, not every moment has to be high octane.  Went to an Asian restaurant and then walked the streets.  Night life here is intense.  Streets are cordoned off and vendors set up shop.  Lots of i-phone cases and electronic gadgetry for sale.  Now if only...

Have you had to haul out your map yet to track our travels?  We are now checked in at the Holiday Inn in Hong Kong.  A city of high rises.  More to come... Phew.  Back in for the night.  One of the Singaporeans that we are travelling with used to work here as a banker and speaks Cantonese.  Lucky for us. We took transit into downtown and then went to "The Peak".  A little like Grouse Mountain.  Involves a tram ride up a mountainside and gives you a glorious view of the city.  But it was us and 100,000 others.  Took us 2 hours of lineup to get up and once up, it was crawling with people.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely.  Another big, bustling, crowded city but definitely 1st world.  The skyline up there is amazing.  You can google it.  This city is Vancouver on steroids. Well, by the time we got to the top, we were starving.  Where did we eat but Burger King!  Everything else would have broken our...