Sightseeing

Finding beauty close to home

/ edebock / 4 Comments

When we’re on vacation or far from home, we seek out interesting or unique places to visit and things to do but we sometimes miss out on the gems that are closest to home. Until today, we had never been to the Devonian Botanic Garden just two hours away.

After taking some friends to the Edmonton International Airport to catch a flight, we spent most of the afternoon exploring the nearby garden. I lost my pedometer before we got there 😦 so I have no idea how far we walked but my feet are telling me that they had a good workout! With 80 acres of display gardens and another 110 acres of natural areas and ecological preserves, there were lots of paths to follow and areas to explore!

It was the Kurimoto Japanese Garden that I most wanted to see. During our year in Japan, I fell in love with its beautiful strolling gardens. In fact, I’ve often teased Richard, telling him that we should turn our backyard into a Japanese garden. He just laughs and I doubt that it will actually ever happen but I was curious to see how this style of garden could be replicated in our climate, so different from Japan’s. I wasn’t disappointed. With its meandering paths, reflecting pond, stone lanterns, pagoda and bridges it definitely captured the tranquility and the simple beauty of this unique garden style.

After exploring the Japanese garden, we moved on to the indoor displays. The tropical butterfly greenhouse was my favourite. It was fun picking out plants that we’d become familiar with during our recent stay on Saipan.

Moving back outdoors into the bright September sunshine, we set off to explore the rest of the outdoor displays. Though it’s late in the season and many plants are no longer in bloom, there were still lots of splashes of colour to enjoy.

  

After wandering through the various displays of annuals and perennials, the herb gardens, the native peoples’ garden, the alpine garden and many more, we returned for a final stroll around the Japanese garden before heading for home. After all, who knows how long it might be before I visit another one.

 

Bird Island hike

/ edebock / 8 Comments

With this morning’s hike to Bird Island, we crossed the last item off our Saipan Bucket List today! Yes, we actually did write one! I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

Bird Island from the viewpoint

According to the atlas, we’d drive to the end of Bird Island Lane and then hike down to the water’s edge. It didn’t look very far.

Isn’t this where you’d expect Bird Island Lane to begin? Me too. Pretty easy. No yellow shorts this time. The only problem was, there wasn’t a lane there. No road of any kind. There was the beginning of a trail though so we guessed we’d have to walk a little further than we’d anticipated and set off. It was an easy, well marked and mostly level path through the jungle. We knew we were going in the right direction because we could hear the ocean in the distance.

Suddenly, after walking for awhile, we came upon a road! Apparently, Bird Island Lane did exist, just not where the sign said it was! Weird! Sure enough, there was the actual trailhead too.  From that point on, it was a fairly steep descent but, like the trail to Old Man by the Sea, there were ropes to help us down the steep, slippery parts.

Soon, we emerged on the beach. The tide was high so we couldn’t get close to Bird Island itself but we walked the narrow sandy beach from one end to the other, explored a small cave at one end and climbed over rocks at the other. What a beautiful spot!

   

We’re close to the equator here and with the tropical sun beating down on us and it’s heat reflected back at us by the white coral sand, it was really hot on the beach! We cooled off with a dip in the Grotto on our way home. This time we had our masks and snorkels with us so we could actually see the fish and watch the scuba divers deep below. It amazes me that there are lots of people living on the island who have never swam in the Grotto and we’ve been there three times already!

Though this is a tiny island and we’ve explored it pretty extensively, I know that there are still more hikes that could be done and beaches that could be seen. With close to two weeks left, though, we’ve seen and done all the things we most wanted to do which is good because we’ll be busy with Vacation Bible School every day next week. Ministry is, after all, the main reason we’re here!

Mount Tapochau

/ edebock / 1 Comment

This morning we stood at the highest point on the island of Saipan, the top of Mount Tapochau (pronounced top-a-chow). Rising 1554 feet (474 m) above the coastline just a few miles away, the lookout point at the top offers stunning views of the entire island and the azure ocean beyond. This amazing vantage point made it a strategic location during World War II. Several informative plaques at the summit describe the views below and explain what occurred in June of 1944 when the Americans captured the island from the Japanese.

Unlike our climb up Mt. Fuji almost exactly 3 years ago, we were able to drive most of the way up Tapochau. Sixty-five cement stairs took us from the small parking area to the top. I’m glad we waited until we’d been here awhile and had explored the island quite extensively before venturing up Mount Tapochau as we were able to identify many of the sights spread out below us.

Looking south toward the airport with Tinian in the distance

Lao Lao Bay on the island's rugged east shore

Looking north

The western side of the island is lined with sandy beaches and an offshore coral reef which creates a large lagoon. Beyond the lagoon, you can see US Navy ships on stand by. A concrete statue of Jesus overlooks the western shore.

There are a number of beautiful homes along the dirt road that climbs Tapochau. The road is in very rough shape but I’m sure that the spectacular views make up for the difficult access. One would hardly know it but approximately 55 loads of coral were hauled up the mountainside this spring to fill potholes and prepare the road for the annual Good Friday procession to the peak. Deep gouges are the obvious results of recent heavy rainfalls but I reminded myself that at least they never have to deal with snow! Once again, though, we were happy to have the use of a 4-wheel drive vehicle!

Halong Bay

/ edebock / 6 Comments

We awoke very early Christmas morning to the sound of roosters crowing. This might not have been unusual had we not been in the middle of Hanoi, a city of approximately 3.5 million people but we were quickly learning not to be surprised by anything!

After eating breakfast at our hotel, we were picked up by a 14 passenger van for our trip to beautiful Halong Bay. The trip took longer than we expected but it gave us an opportunity to see more of the countryside as well as many small img_3116towns along the way. We also stopped at a very large souvenir shop that sold local pottery and a wide variety of other handicrafts. At one end of the building, a workshop had been set up where embroidery pictures were being handmade. This was a work project for disadvantaged people, many of them quite young.

img_3125We arrived at the busy Halong Bay tourist wharf and boarded our junk around noon. As this was our Christmas gift to each other, we had booked the deluxe tour. After a welcome drink, we settled into our small but comfortable cabin then made our way to the dining room for the first of the four fabulous meals that we’d be served aboard. Though the food was incredible, some of us jumped up several times to rush out on deck and take photographs of the amazing sights that surrounded us.

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More than 3000 rocky islands rise from the waters of Halong Bay which is both a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Vietnam’s natural marvels. At about 3 o’clock, we docked at one of these unusually shaped limestone formations and climbed up well over 100 steps to the mouth of a massive and fascinating cave which is made up of three enormous caverns complete with stalagmites and stalactites. The cave has been well developed in recent years with lights and a pathway so that it can be safely enjoyed by the many tourists that pass through it. Apparently there are countless other caves throughout the bay area but entrance to most of them is forbidden in order to protect them from damage.

Sea kayaking was one of the options that was available to us when we booked our tour but Richard and I were the only passengers on board our junk who chose to take advantage of this. After exploring the cave, the other passengers boarded the junk again while we and our guide set off by kayak. We met up img_3159with them just outside a fabulous lagoon with just one entrance, a tunnel through the rock. As we kayaked through the tunnel, we sang Silent Night and listened to our voices echoing off the rock walls around us. We enjoyed a peaceful paddle around the lagoon while our fellow passengers boarded a small boat and came in for a quick look around then we all returned to the junk which was now anchored for the night. As the sun set over the bay, we relaxed on board until supper, another wonderful feast, was served by candlelight. The water was dead calm and the lights of several other junks reflected off it beautifully.

We shared the junk with fifteen other passengers, mainly French, including two families with children. Our Vietnamese guide, however, spoke fairly good English. He seemed to take quite a liking to us and as we visited that evening, he willingly shared his concerns about the corruption of the Vietnamese government and the plight of his people. We learned that in his youth he tried to escape Vietnam as one of the boat people but after reaching Hong Kong, was sent back and endured many years of regular interrogation by the police. He talked of how difficult it was to decide to bring children into such a world. He now has two, aged 8 and 10. What impressed us most was the fact that this young man constantly had a smile on his face and whistled and sang as he paddled his kayak. We saw this repeatedly throughout our trip; people who have so little and who truly don’t know what their future holds living for the moment and doing it joyfully.

Following a good sleep and an early breakfast, we set off again by kayak rendezvousing with the junk and our fellow passengers at a sandy beach on one of the islands for a climb to the top where we were able to enjoy spectacular views of the bay. North Vietnam is a bit too chilly for swimming at this time of year but I did go wading before climbing back aboard the junk!

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After an early lunch, we arrived back at the wharf, transferred to another van and headed back to Hanoi. That evening we attended a performance at the Water Puppetry Theatre. This unique art form originated in the rice paddies of North Vietnam more than 1000 years ago. The large wooden puppets are manipulated by puppeteers who are themselves standing in water but hidden from view behind a curtain. The performances are accompanied by music played on traditional instruments. After the performance, we stopped at a nearby KFC (the only North American fast food chain that we saw in Vietnam) for a snack then took a cyclo, a bicyle powered rickshaw, back to our hotel.