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Halong Bay, VietnamMay 2, 2005
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The "Heavenly Gate" at a Cave in Halong Bay Vietnam
Cave in Halong Bay
Fishing Family in Halong Bay
May 2nd Halong Bay, Vietnam
Natalya
In the evening after the conference dinner and presentations we joined a group of Vietnamese friends for a stroll along the beach. We stopped at a small café on the beach and enjoyed fresh coconut juice served right in the coconut. The air was cool, the sky was filled with stars and we could hear the gentle waves of the bay. I was sitting beside Tam, who taught us a Vietnamese language lesson as part of a workshop earlier. I asked Tam if she was married and we ended up talking about wedding traditions. In Vietnam on the day of the wedding the bride and groom spend a lot of time with older family members asking their permission to marry and praying together. Usually the bride is given some sticky rice as a gift offering, which is used as part of the praying ceremony with the bride's grandmother. In Vietnam it is important that the bed for the newlyweds is made up by a physically healthy woman who has at least one son. Tam told me that it was her sister who prepared the bed for their wedding night.
After we finished our drinks at the café we walked back to the hotel and another Vietnamese friend kept us entertained with several Vietnamese jokes which I found very dirty and at the same time very funny mostly because of the way they were delivered.
Natalya
