Dat Vu at Stone Forest (Kunming, China)

To my friends and family:

1) Alone in the Naigu Stone Forest:

Stone Forest is Kunming's most famous attraction and it is 90 km south of the city. It is a giant forest of limestone rocks that were formed 270 million years ago when the ocean receded from the area around Kunming (Con Minh).

For million years, the tetonic plates shifted and rainwater carved out the soft parts of the limerocks and left the people of Kunming a gift from God.

There were 2 major Stone Forest in the area:

a) Shilin SF is where all the tourists go and the long waiting line and with the crowd inside the park jostling for space to take picture.

b) Naigu SF is the bigger, lesser known and quieter option. It predated the Shilin SF by 2 millions years. However, the park was closed at this time.

I became friend with a husband and wife German couple in the hostel. On the day before they left for Dali ( another Yunnan town), they told me they were able to get into the Naigu park for free.

With that tip in hand, I made up my mind that I will find the way to go to Naigu SF instead of being with the crowd at Shilin.

Sunday morning, I took the city bus to the South Train station. I ignored the touts who beckoned me to get on their bus, because their bus will stop at the shopping places on the way. I walked inside the bus station and bought a ticket to Shilin town for 25Y.

At Shilin bus terminus, while everyone headed left for the Shilin SF main entrance, I turned right and walked to the main road. I wanted to find a minibus driver who will take me to the Niagu, which is 8 km north of Shilin. I hailed a minibus and paid 30Y for the ride. I could not get any lower price, because the driver khew why I wanted to go to Naigu. The only reason to go there was to sneak in to park for free, while at Shilin, tourists have to pay 140Y.

The driver drove me on the backroad to Naigu SF and showed me the trail to walk to the park. Since this road was so remoted and had no car traffic, the chance of catching a ride back to town was very slim. So I told the driver to come back to pick me up 4 hours later.

Here was how I told him: '' Now, it is 11:03 AM, I'm going to take a walk around the park. I'll be back here at 15:00. I'll be here by the roadside. I pay you 30Y now. You come and take me back to the Shilin bus station, I'll pay you another 30Y. Agree ??''

And here was the action in sign language: I said ''wo'' ('' I ''), pointed at the forest, made a circle in the air. I wrote down ''15:00'', said ''wo'' and pointed at the roadside. I pointed at him ''ni'' (''you''), pointed at number '' 15:00 '', pointed at the ground. I gave him 30Y, and produced another 30Y, pointed at ''15:00'', said ''Shilin''. The smart guy, he understood.

After arranging the ride , I walked the backtrail into the forest.

From afar, the stone rocks looked just like a bunch of grey black chimneys tood tall together. Only when I got inside the rocks that when I began to appreciate the beauty. The rock formed a varieties of imaginary scuptures, which I was free to interpret the way I see. I saw an elephant with full legs and trunk, the Dalai Latma with praying hands, a turtle on top of a rock , a man gently kissing a woman on the nose, a giant mushroom, the head of Cleopatra with full egyptian crown...

There was nobody else in the park beside me. It was so quiet. The sound of birds chipping reverberated by the rocks. From one rock forest, I walked into another. I was glad there was the stoned walkway leading thru the forest. Without the walkway, I would be lost and could not find the way out. In some parts, the path was so narrow that only one person can pass through. Twice in the forest, I walked off the walkway to explore the lesser known area of the park, and almost got lost. I was scared and did not do it again. It was just like you was lost in a maze. You felt so disoriented in the jumbled rockpaths.

Never in my life that I had the whole park for myself, not even a small tiny park. Here, I experienced the solitudeness, no tourist, nobody. It was so eery. But at the same time, I felt happy and contended that I was alone.

At 14:30, the rain began to come down lightly. It was the time to head back to the road. The minibus was not there yet. I ducked into to the tree forest to waited out the rain. I smoked a cigarette and wondered would the driver keep his promise. At 10 minutes to 15:00 hour, he came.

I got back to city at 6:00 PM. It was time to have a chicken noodle (5Y) at the restaurant downstair.

Dat

Cynthia's Group December Charity work with Homeless

Dear Teammates,
On Behalf of the Cold Weather Shelter program and the homeless, I would like to thank you for making the "Feed the Homeless" event at the Santa Ana Armory another success on Sunday, November 18, 2007. This was our first Sunday event in many years but we had the largest volunteer group ever. As always, your support was greatly appreciated.
Special thanks to the Iron Chef teams: Tuu Bui, anh Dac Buu Cao, Trang Hoai Pham, Khanh K Nguyen, Mai Vu, Viet Tran, Alison Huynh, the Nguyen family (Jason Nguyen, Annie Nguyen, Alan Nguyen, Pauline Nguyen), another the Nguyen family (Kim Phan Nguyen, Quang Minh Nguyen), and the Dinh family ( bac Hoa Truong, chi Be Pham, Jennifer Dinh) who cooked all the food.
Also, thanks to the serving teams: Tuu Bui, anh Dac Buu Cao, Mai Vu, Ann Lam, Lanh Nguyen, Ty Duong, Kevin Cheng, co Thanh My, chi Cam Nhung, Trang Hoai Pham, the Luc family (Luc Luc, Christopher Luc), the Nguyen family (Jason Nguyen, Annie Nguyen, Alan Nguyen, Pauline Nguyen), the Nguyen family (Kim Phan Nguyen, MaiVy Nguyen) and the Huynh family (John Huynh, Alison Huynh, and Alfed Huynh) who were very nice to our homeless brothers and sisters. I gave priority to the children to give them the best opportunity to care for others.
Special thanks to Thanh My/chu Khai who brought the ROF band, anh The My (guitarist and singer), chi Chau, Trang Hoai Pham, anh Tuan and other brothers and sisters who sang many lovely songs to the homeless and our volunteers. Everyone sang very well, including the homeless.
Thank you for entertaining the homeless again with your guitar playing, anh Brian Phan. (Raytheon).
There were 168 homeless (this is actual number from the shelter) who enjoyed our food and entertainment. As you know, less than $1.20 can't buy much today. But with this, we were able to provide good and healthy food: Lasagna, baked turkey, curry chicken, soup, turkey with veggies, fried rice, mashed potato, garlic bread, cake and orange/apple/grape juice. "Mot mieng khi doi bang mot goi khi no", " La lanh dum la rach".

Special thanks to Jason Nguyen who got his family and friends to help at this event. He doesn't want me to leave the homeless to go back to my previous job in Houston. He has been trying to help me to get a job and work for Northrop or within Boeing :=). God bless you, Jason.
Special thanks to anh Dac Buu Cao who arrived very early (8:00 AM) in the morning to bring food to the shelter and cook. He also donated a turkey.
Special thanks to Kim Phan Nguyen, Mai Vy Nguyen, Khanh Nguyen, Annie Nguyen who helped clean the trays.
The oldest volunteer was my mom, Tuu Bui (79 1/2 years) and the youngest was Pauline Nguyen (12 years old).
During check-in time, I had a chance to talk with some Vietnamese homeless. I met a young Vietnamese homeless sister, Thuy Nguyen, who was missing last winter. I was worried about her and was glad to see that she was okay. Thuy told me that she went back to Vietnam for a couple of months. I wonder how she could travel back to Vietnam. Even though we gave a monthly bus to her, she never used it. She was afraid that if she took the bus somewhere, she wouldn't be able to get back to the shelter at night. Therefore, Thuy Nguyen only goes to Main street during the day. I asked Thuy Nguyen if she still remembered my name and was glad she still did :=)
I also met two other young Vietnamese homeless brothers, Cuong Tran and Hai. They have been in shelters for 10 years. I asked them why I haven't seen them before and they told me that they have been staying in the Mission. They also told me that they have breakfast and lunch, but not dinner. They want us to bring food to the Mission next time. Cuong recognized my special accent when we were chatting a bit. He came from my area. He told me that he wants to go back to Vietnam to visit his family, but he doesn't have money to buy a ticket.
Cuong and Hai enjoying the music and dancing.
A little homeless girl was dancing with co Thanh My
Another little homeless girl was so happy to wear new clothes from co Thanh My. She is so cute. She was smilling, but my heart was broken.

Copy and paste the following into your browser:http://picasaweb.google.com/huacynt/Feeding_the_Homeless_11_18_2007
Then click on "Slideshow" to see more pictures
Let me tell you a story of a special person, Christopher Cheung. When he was nine years old in China, he saved $20 of his breakfast money for the whole year. This $20 bill was a lot at that time. It was a whole month's salary for one person. There was a homeless woman who asked him for a little money money to buy food. Chris had only one $20 bill in his hand and thought very hard if he should give it away. If he didn't give her the money, she would go hungry, so he eventually decided to give her the money. He smiled and told me that he was happy when he went home. (Even as a little boy, you were so generous, Chris) The next day, he saw a chicken holding a small roll of paper in it's beak. It knocked on his foot. He looked down and picked up the roll. He unwrapped the roll and saw a $20 bill.
Let me tell you about chi Jeny (Hang) Nguyen (manicurist) who donated money after she read the "Feed the Homeless" article from anh Hoc/chi Luu (Thang Mo’s New paper). Chi Jeny Nguyen told me that she tries to save her hard earned money of every month to help buy food for the homeless. She's happy when the homeless enjoy the meals that come from her contributions. I told her that I don’t want to receive money from her because I don’t know where my job will end up. She still sends money to me every month (total of $140). You have a big heart. Thank you so much for your donations, chi Jeny (Hang) Nguyen. You seem happy when you do good things. You will have good health :=).
Also thanks to anh Hoc/chi Luu who wrote the "Feed the Homeless" highlights to publicize this effort more.
Thank you to Van T Nguyen (Boeing, Long Beach) who donated 20 lbs of chicken quarter, 10 lbs of ground beef, and 2 lbs of tomatoes. Are you a owner of a meat store, Van :=)?
Thanks to ba My Thi Luu (Cindy Hua's relative) who donated 20 lbs of cheese, 10 vegetarian cans, and 2 lbs bags of spaghetti.
Thank you to "Quan Am Temple" who donated 60 cans of veggies and 10 lbs of rice.
Thank you to Saint Angela Merici Church in Brea who donated bread and 1 big birthday cake.
Thanks to chi Giang Le who donated 5 big cans of tomato juice and 20 cans of vegetables.
Thank you to the Thang Thieng restaurant owner who donated an used stove and 2 big used pots.
There were many people who couldn't help cook and serve, but they contributed their money. Below are the donors for this event, 11/18/2007
Bach, Jennifer $20.00 (ULA, Huntington Beach)
Bui, Tuu Utilities (Cindy Hua's mother)
Cao, Dac Buu 1 turkey (UGS, Cerritos)
Huynh, John $20.00 (Nguyen, Jason's friend)
Le, Giang 5 big tomato juice+20 vegetarian cans(Dentist assistant, Wesminster)
Le, Nhung $50.00 (Boeing, El Segundo)
Le, Thiep $40.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Luu, Anh $50.00 (Boeing, Hunting Beach)
Luu, My Thi 20 lbs cheese+10 vegetarian cans+2 lbs bag of spaghitii
(Cindy Hua’s relative)
Nguyen, Bac $50.00 (Boeing contractor, Long Beach)
Nguyen, Jason & Annie $40.00 (Boeing, El Segundo)
Nguyen, Khanh 15 big can of apple/orange/grape juice+ peanut butter+
(Boeing, Long Beach)
Nguyen, Jeny (Hang) $140.00 (manicurist, Thang Mo newspaper's reader)
Nguyen, Van T 20lbs chicken legs+10 lbs ground beef+ 2lbs tomato
(Boeing, Long Beach)
Pham, Be $20.00 (Dinh, Phil, Boeing employee's sister-in-law)
Pham, Trang $40.00 (Behr)
Quan Am Temple 60 vegetarian cans+10lbs of rice(Temple, Garden Grove)
Saint Angela Merici Bread +1 birthday cake (Parish Church, Brea)
Thang Thieng 1 used stove+2 big used pot (Restaurant's owner, Wesminster)
Tran, Khiem $40.00 (Raytheon, El Segundo)
Truong, Hoa $20.00 (Dinh, Phil, Boeing employee's mother-in-law)
Thank you for trusting me with your hard earned dollars to do the right thing for the homeless. Be assured that we will make excellent use of it.
Please welcome these new volunteers to this event: anh Luc Luc, Christopher Luc, Mai Vu, Viet Tran, Alison Huynh, Alfed Huynh, John Huynh, bac Hoa Truong, Kevin Cheng, chi Cam Nhung, and for the first time cooking: Jason Nguyen, Annie Nguyen, Alan Nguyen, Trang Hoai Pham, Pauline Nguyen, Quang Minh Nguyen .
We also lost a good volunteer, chi Lan Bui, who accepted another new challenging assignment opportunity with BCA, as a Validation Chief Engineer for the (BCA) Military Derivatives Program.
Chi Lan,
Thank you so much for your support. I wish you all the best in your new job in Seatle. We miss you.
The total monetary donation remaining from April 14, 2007 was $209.66. We received more donations this event totaling $530.00. Total funds available was $739.66. We spent $196.36 to prepare meals, buy propane, and buy aluminum trays for the homeless. We still have $544.30 left for future "Feed the Homeless" events. All receipts will be given to Khiem Tran. Please let me know if you need a receipt and I can tell the shelter issue one.
From December 2, 2006 to April 4, 2007, I received these donations:
Name Amount Location
Anomynous $20.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Bui, Tuu Utilities+Others (Cindy Hua's mother)
Do, Andrew $20.00 (Student, Hoc Do’ son)
Do, Hoc& Luu $100.00 (Thang Mo Newspaper Writer, Cindy Hua’s friend)
Do, Kevin $20.00 (Student, Hoc Do’ son)
C & K Vision Optometry $50.00 (Bolsa, Westminster)
Grossman, Kurt&Ann 1 big bithday cake+chicken pasta+ Spaghetti and cookies
(Real Estate Services)
Fame, Helen 25 lbs rice (ULA, Huntington Beach)
Ho, Thomas $100.00 (Nguyen, Khanh's friend, Boeing Long Beach)
Justinani, Roger Cookies (Boeing, Huntington Beach)
Khuat, Tien $20.00 (Boeing, Anaheim)
Lam, Ann $100.00 (Imigration Employee)
Lam, Van $50.00 (ULA, Huntington Beach)
Le, Tan B $200.00+Gas stove+ 100 Big Aluminum trays+ Breakfast for the volunteers
(Former Boeing, One Dollar superstore)
Le, Thiep $40.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Lien Hoa Temple 10lbs potato powder (Temple, Garden Grove)
Luu, My Thi 34 lbs cheese (Cindy Hua’s relative)
Ngo, Jennie $50.00 (Boeing, Anaheim)
Nguyen, Bac $20.00 (Northrop, El Segundo)
Nguyen, Jason & Annie $40.00 (Boeing, El Segundo)
Nguyen, Hao $50.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Nguyen, Khanh $30.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Nguyen, Linh Cat $50.00 (Boeing, Anaheim)
Nguyen, Mary $25.00 (Nguoi Viet Newspaper Reader)
Nguyen, Paul $20.00 (Boeing, Long Beach)
Nguyen, Phu $100.00 (Boeing, Anaheim)
Nguyen, Phuc& Ai Loan, Dr. $200.00 (M.D.,Advanced Skin-Laser Clinic, Westminster)
Nguyen, Dinh Tong 12 lbs cheese+3 big boxes of Apple and Orange Juice
(Former President of Tay Son, Binh Dinh Associations, Tuu Bui 's friend)
Nguyen, Truong $30.00 (Student, Hoc Do’s nephew)
Nguyen, Tuan H. $40.00 (Boeing, Seattle)
Nguyen, Van T 15 lbs pork meat+40 lbs chicken drumb sticks
(Boeing, Long Beach)
Pham, Be $40.00 (Dinh, Phil, Boeing employee's sister-in-law)
Phan, Brian Sugar and salt (Northrop)
Phan, Joanne $100.00 (Realtor)
Saint Angela Merici Bread, cookies, Stuffing, birthday and pie cakes (Parish Church, Brea)
Tran, Gwen $40.00 (Boeing employee's friend)
Tran, Khiem $20.00 (Raytheon)
Tran, Minh Thao $30.00 (Boeing Seatle)
Tran, Mui 5 Pearling knifes (Kiem Tran's sister, VietNam)
Tran,Vincent's family Cookies, oil and other stuff (Family Doctor, Tan Le's friend)
Van, Yen $10.00 (Bristol)
Vo, Nam $50.00+1 Propane bottle (Boeing, Long Beach)
Vo, Robert & Hue $200.00 (Imigration Employee)
Vo,Tom/Nguyen, Anh $200.00 (Home Land Security)
Vo, Vincent $250.00 (Siemens,Texas; Robert & Hue Vo's son)
Vo, Yen Thi (Di Mui) 2lbs cheese (Tuu Bui's friend)
Wong, Vincent $145.00+ 1 big cookie box (Boeing, Huntington Beach)
Last Winter donation and spending to feed 1757 homeless.
Here is a detailed breakdown of our spending:
1) We spent $326.92 to prepare food for 200 homeless December 2-3, 2006.
2) We spent $216.71 to prepare food for 158 homeless December 16, 2006.
3) We spent $223.74 to prepare food for 160 homeless January 6, 2007.
4) We spent $256.85 to prepare food for 195 homeless January 20, 2007.
5) We spent $223.19 to prepare food for 178 homeless February 3, 2007.
6) We spent $224.16 to prepare food for 177 homeless February 24, 2007.
7) We spent $227.75 to prepare food for 186 homeless March 3, 2007.
8) We spent $222.01 to prepare food for 171 homeless March 24, 2007.
9) We spent $191.70 to prepare food for 160 homeless April 4, 2007.
10)We spent $192.43 to prepare food for 172 homeless April 14, 2007.
This year we also helped at the Orange County Foood Bank to deliver the food boxes to the poor people:
1) We donated 38 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $133.00 on November 3, 2007
2) We donated 50 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $350.00 on October 13, 2007
3) We donated 46 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $322.00 on September 15, 2007
4) We donated 62 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $434.00 on August 11, 2007
5) We donated 54 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $378.00 on July 14, 2007
6) We donated 52 hours to tape, load, and unload food boxes. We also donated $364.00 on June 16, 2007
We donated a total of 302 hours and $2,114.00. Wow! That's a lot of money.
Y’ALL made a big difference in the lives of the homeless.
Please accept my gratitude for your generosity, donations, and assistance.

1) Saturday, December 1, 2007 event was cancelled
2) Sunday, December 2, 2007. We need volunteers to help and/or entertain patients in the Nursing Home.
Address:
French Park Care Center(FPCC)
600 East Washington Ave.
Santa Ana, CA.92701
9:00 AM - 11:30 AM
3) Saturday, December 15, 2007. We need 10-15 volunteers
Address: (Serving)
Fullerton Armory
400 S Brookhurst
Fullerton, CA
Time: 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
(Corner Valencia and Brookhust)
Feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you think would be interested.
For questions and additional information, contact me at my cell (562) 746-2263
Thanks,
Cindy Hua

Chi Duyen's trip Day 2/3 and Atacama, Chile

San Pedro De Acatama is a town where people use as a
base to explore the Acatama desert and Bolivia. The
town is old colonial and the streets are lined with
adobe. At night the streets are flooded with young
backpackers giving it a youthful feeling. We do not
see many american tourists here, they are mostly from
Europe espcially France.
On day 2, we hired a guide to give us the tour of the
Salar de Tara (salt flat). Salar de Tara is not as
large as Salar de Acatama but we want to go there to
see the unsual rock formations. It is 150 km from SP
to Salar de Tara, 50 km is off-road. The guide is also
the driver. I admire him for his sense of direction
and ability to drive off-road. There is no road
whatsoever and the terrain is immense with tire´s
print going in all directions. I do not see how he got
the right direction. On the way we saw the Lincancabur
volcano up close. It is grey and red. The off-road
terrain is flat and immense and there are rock
formations that look like statues or monuments all
over the places. The rock structure is very different
from the ones in CA desrt because these are volcanic
rocks. We took many pictures. We are sending 4 this
time. The first one is one shape of rock. The 2nd one
is the Monk of Pacana, the background is the Salt
Flat. The 3rd one is called the white monk of Pacana.
The 4th one is cathedral rock, it is very close to the
salt flat. Notice how blue the sky is. There was no
cloud and you can see (in the picture)the moon in
broad day ligth. When we got to the Salt flat and I
had minor altitude sickness because it is 4600 meters
(over 14,000 ft) above sea level. There were many
flamingo at the salt flat. We had lunch at salt flat
and visit the milky lake. At 4PM we went back to the
hotel, I stayed there and anh Vinh continued on with
another excursion, swimming in the salt water lake as
salty as the Red sea (we forget the name of the
place). His body was floating he said. The sky is so
clear in SP that we saw so many stars, there were so
many that they look like Christ mas lights in the sky.
Until the next e-mail.

Love,
Vinh and Duyen


Day 3
On day 3, we left at 4:30 AM for the Tatio Geyser
tour. We had to get there at sun rise when the Geysers
are most active. The road was unpaved and very bumpy,
it was dark outside we could not see the landscape.
When we got there (before 7 AM) it was 17 degree F.
Inside the office building near the entrance, there
were beds set up for people who has serious altitude
sickness because the Geyser field is at 14,600 ft ASL.
I did not get sick this time. The geyser field is 10
km square and has over 100 geysers, these are geysers
who produce steams. We are sending 4 pictures. The
1st one is the Geyser field. 2nd and third ones are of
the thermal pool where people can swim. The water is
very warm. We saw a dozen people in there. The 4th one
is the biggest geyser in this field. On the way back
we could see the landscape and the animals who live
there. There was a portion of teh landscape that look
similar to Arizona desrt with cactus.
We will fly home tonight, the trip was a wonderful
experience. Chile has such diverse lanscsapes, they
are amazing. We did not have time to visit Valparaiso,
the lake areas and the wine country. We will have to
wait for another time. We already are looking forward
to another adventure.

Love,
Vinh and Duyen

Tan Le & famille in Cancun... routine retiring activity..

We will be here for two more days.
Lauren went swim with the dolphin yesterday.
What’s a life.
We will be back Tuesday, Dec 4th, evening.
See ya.
Best Regards
Tan B. Le
714-697-3808 (Cel)
714-751-8382 (FAX)
email: tan.le@sbcglobal.net