Now we’re off for the 3-4 hour drive from Hue to Hoi An. The weather is simply not cooperating. Of course it could be worse. Plenty worse. We say this to each other regularly to overcome the WhyWhyWHY that burbbles up every hour or so when you haven’t seen the sky for a few weeks.
They also have many sites such as pagodas, temples, and old residences, shops, and government buildings open for viewing. You buy a general ticket and then you can choose to enter any 5 of the sites – they punch a hole in your ticket to keep track.
And The Beach! for which Nha Trang is noted. I had to go back to my room for Sun Screen!
There are a lot of very charming buildings in Hoi An and the Old Town is kept up pretty well to tourist standards.
Begun in 1804 the Citadel is a walled fortress now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many of the buildings are in great disrepair and many have been carefully restored.
Last night the river flooded the bordering street well up past this small key.
Here is an example of the internet cafes around Vietnam. They still call them cafes here although they rarely have food but do offer beverages for sale. They are just open ‘single car garage’ type places and vary wildly in the quality of the equipment and connection.
Coming back, those are shrimp and lobster farms out there.
The next morning, today, the 7th, I got the bus to Dalat. The place I am in for tonight is the first by a mile bed that is not comfortable. I didn’t even check it because all the beds have been really clean and firm and nice. This one has identifiable springs and that is not a good thing. I’ll probably change hotels tomorrow.
Wow! It’s Lallo and Paola! They were our table mates on the boat in Halong Bay and we also ran into them at the Pagoda and here we are at the Citadel. More hugs and laughs and plans to meet up in Hoi An.
Tailoring is the thing here and there are no less than 100 shops that cater to ‘made to measure’ clothes. 100% of the guidebooks and online recommendations agree that this shop, Yaly, is the most upscale and professional.
Julie had a dress and jacket made that she is very happy with. Leslie got four shirts that he is very happy with. I got a copy of that shirt I wear every day of the week, which went well, but the dress I tried to have copied was shockingly wrong. They’re going to remake it and we’ll see, since as soon as I finish here I have to brave the pouring rain to try it on again.
And another island was famous for its monkeys. I skipped the dog-and-bear show and am very glad to have done that. Another of the islands we visitied featured lunch and a swim or a hike depending on your desire. I sat in an easy chair and read my book.
OK, that means I got up at 4am to go to the 5:30am train in Danang to get to Nha Trang before dark. It all went just fine. The train trip took 9 hours and this was the scene out the window the entire time. Nothing but this. Rice rice rice.
At one stop the attraction was to feed these ostriches and also they had some semi-tame deer.
Next we visited the Thien Mu Pagoda, an icon of Vietnam. It is stunning.
All these monuments are located along the banks of the Perfume River and the guide books all recommend you can ride down the river stopping off to see the historical buildings as you go.
This is an old Russian bike, a Minsk, that is hugely popular for touring around the country.
January 2-3-4
When I last wrote it was mid-day on the 2nd, L&J were on their way to HCMC, and the rain was continuing unabated. This is a picture of the river in Hoi An overflowing her banks from the night of the 1st.
So late the night of the 2nd again I checked our old friend cnn.com/weather and discovered that if I buzzed on down to Nha Trang, a resort town between Hoi An and HCMC, that it would be clearing by the next day.
January 6 and 7
I signed up for a group trip out to some islands around Nha Trang. There are just a few operators of these trips but hundreds of ways to buy them under any number of names. Every hotel and internet cafe and travel service wants to sell you tours.
This was our boat.
…beheaded.”
We also saw another tomb which had the same style and structure. It was bigger to begin with but had been extensively damaged in the various wars. Here in Central Vietnam somebody was always bombing the place.
We went across the street for dinner at 11 and watched the hoop-la from the balcony of this place. We’re talking Loooud music, street dancers, and shoulder to shoulder people – tourists and young local people who must earn tourist dollars to be able to afford this luxury.
And this was our group. Not too many but as always interesting. There was another big lot of Vietnamese people who had lived in Australia for a generation, like the crowd from the Halong Bay trip.
All these tourist areas have been working hard I think to spiff things up with plantings, paths, signs, and toilets, trying to make the visit an enjoyable experience.
New Years Eve day was all about rain rain Go Away and then we had a major New Years Eve Festivo. We went to The hot spot in town where it turned out we hooked up with the crowd from the train and had a grand old time.
He isn’t actually interred here though. (btw This is a very cool horse.) From the Lonely Planet:
“The site where his remains were buried (along with great treasure) is not known. Because of the danger of grave robbers, some extreme measures were taken to keep the location secret…
Hello! Hellooo! I asked the first brave one ‘how are you?’ and when she replied ‘fine, thank you’ and I told her ‘excellent answer!’ she ran off to get more of her friends. Helloooo…
Our Travel Agent cutie also arranged for a car and driver to pick us up in Hue, drive us around for sightseeing and then drive us down to Hoi An. It was a great plan because otherwise we would only be able to see Hue if we schleped our bags.
Our first stop was the Tomb of Tu Duc constructed between 1864 and 1867 for the longest reigning Nguyen monarch, Tu Duc.
This is the Nha Trang Cathedral built between 1928 and 1933. I love these contrasting images -the commie flag, the Catholic cathedral, there’s a giGANtic Buddha visible from all over the city located at Long Son Pagoda, and then there’s the whole cult of Louis Pasteur to talk about.
Life on the overnight train.
The fourth in our cabin was a member of a hoppin’ tour group. We crashed their evening festivities and much beer was consumed by The Boys including Leslie, a Kiwi, and two Auzzies. The Brits went to bed.
I’ve been st*lk*ng these guys for weeks trying to catch a picture of that incredible color. The guys who wear this color are the most serious of all police presence. Maybe they’re the Federales. When you see a guy in this color the situation is usually such that you want to just Back Off.
Not scary really, just not a welcoming photo-op. I was on the balcony of a restaurant and the police were making the operators move the displays and cooking stations they had setup on the street. There was much HubBub and gesticulating and then the guy in the bright green tore off in the jeep and the plain green guys stayed around to watch.
In Vietnam Uncle Ho is still a figure of respectful veneration and his advice is much in evidence although not as omnipresent as before I’m sure.
December 30
We’re back from Halong Bay at the office of the woman who booked the Halong trip as well as all of L&J’s onward air. We called her The Closer. She could sell sand to the Saudis. We loved her. Unfortunately I cut off the top of her adorable brother’s head. She ran that business entirely which included running her brother’s life. What a gal.
She also arranged our train tickets and got her brother to escort us through the formalities – not necessary but a good thing for her to offer and we’ll be recommending her wildly.
Then I went to this Mud Bath place and it really was cool, very worth it even though the massage people were all booked up which (the massage) is what I was hoping for.
…they use these babies as transport between the fishing fleets and as shuttles to shore.
I’m really glad to be back in Vietnam from Cambodia and really Really liking Hanoi.
Our goodbye lunch at a hotel across the street from the marina. This place ran a catering service for the boat tours with a gigantic banquet room full of these tables.
This is an example of the grave yards. They put the dead body in the ground for at least three years, then dig it up and inter what’s left in these fabulous grave sites. I hope to stop in one to get a better shot than from a speeding car.
I met up with Leslie and Julie in Cambodia and we’re going to do a little touring together.
We are staying at the Sheraton, a tres-chic-chic joint courtesy of L&J’s son but it is 15 minutes by taxi from town. On our first foray we took exactly two steps from the taxi and Julie is Shopping!
More. There were many stories around these formations in Halong Bay, what they looked like and what mythology worked up around them.
If you can’t remember the movie Indochine I recommend it highly for the scenery alone. There are wonderful segments set here as well as in the old Saigon so check it out if you want to see these bits in gorgeous living professional technicolor.
December 28 and 29
A view out the window of my Oh-So-Swell room at the Hanoi Sheraton, one night’s rack rate being my entire budget for a week but as I was on the Friends and Family Plan all is well.
And after this, we’re off for the 2 day 1 night $36 per person boat trip in the World Heritage site of Halong Bay.
I could have brighted this but wanted to give the real impression of a moment of very low sky. It would brighten periodically but never really clear.
The Martyrs’ Monument, built in honor of the country’s freedom fighters.
When we were out kayaking a lot of folks from the other boats went swimming. The water was nice I heard, warmer than the air, which was nippy when the wind kicked in, and quite salty.
December 24 and 25
I’m going to copy some text from Lonely Planet because it says it just right:
“The capital of Vietnam is a city of timeless grace, a grand old dame of Asia who is aging better than most of her contemporaries… Hanoi’s center today is a quixotic blend of Parisian grace and Asian pace, an architectural museum piece evolving in harmony with its history, rather than bulldozing through it like many of the region’s capitals.”
On the second day we stopped for a hike waaay up a hill for a nice view. It was good to get out for a stretch.
At the edge of The Old Quarter we find the large and gracious Hoan Kiem Lake. You can walk across Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple. It is crowded with local visitors and I was happy enough with a picture.
…Bien. A real sweet cutie not yet up to 100% perfect guide standards since often whole paragraphs would go by and we’d catch a few words. But still, sweet and cute go a long way. He was very good at pronouncing this however: “After we defeated the American invaders…”
We also visited the fabulous Museum of Ethnology and the Ho Chi Minh Memorial and Mausoleum which we also entirely enjoyed.
What you’re looking at is a Bike – see the front wheel – used by a guy who drove around the countryside selling those fishing baskets. Looks a lot like my Santa bike from HCMC don’t you think?
Night at anchor amid the karst of Halong Bay. We were a fleet of 15 boats just in this one place and I could see lights far in the distance.
There was a small band of minority people playing their own music on hand-made instruments and it was cool.
We also stopped at a floating fish farm and climbed out of the boat for a closer view and some snaps with the operators who were charming as ever.
Then we went kayaking! No pictures! Bummer. It was a lot of fun but I was on my own and not up to taking my camera out there. I should have got someone else to take My picture!
We stopped on the first day for a nice hike up to a cave. It was an odd-ball but entertaining hour with our guide…
Following are some views. As you can easily imagine I have about a ga-billion more.
We visited the Temple of Literature established in 1060 as part of a university and in honor of Confucius.
We shared a table with a couple from Italy. Here is Lallo and The Cat. The Cat was Everywhere for the first few hours on board getting passed from happy hand to welcoming arms and then she disappeared. Vanished. NO, we did not eat the cat. But where did she go?!
The streets in the Old Quarter are all named for the goods that are sold there, for example china bowls, rafts, onions, shoes, barrels, salt, combs, brushes – it goes on and on. This also means the street names change every few blocks. It is a huge challenge to follow a map!
This is where a street widens on to a boulevard.
Hanoi is really wonderful to look at however you will not be able to get the full expression of its wonderfulness from these pictures because it has been RAINING for all but a few hours the entire time I’ve been here and the whole camera ordeal can get so time consuming in the rain – get it out pack it up get it out pack it up – that I’m not doing.
Quite a proliferation of flags I’d say. We are here ready to board our boat for the tour. We, a very congenial group of 15, filled one of these boats. There are fleets of these guys all pretty much the same except for a few higher-end offerings and a few that you would would hesitate to use but basically, they were the same.
Another happy guy who’s really loving his greens. Taste! Taste! he called out, which I did of course, and it was yummy.
I’m not sure if these stores full of lucky red items are because Tet is coming up in a few weeks or if they are always a part of the neighborhood.
On the long bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay we made a toilet stop with the inevitable Shoppping Opportunity.
December 26 and 27
An evening’s entertainment at dinner. I’ll be with L&J for the next 7 days or so and they eat dinner Late and Delicious and since I never say no to Delicious I’m eating Late too. And then going straight to bed just to be absolutely sure of the maximum calorie benefit. I’ll be on my own again around the 2nd so I’ll have two more weeks on the road. Maybe I’ll not come back fatter than I was when I left. Maybe.
The housing in the North is very different from the South and here is the guide’s story:
“People in the North earn money to save and people in the South earn money to spend so the people in the South never have any money for big things. People in the North save their money so they can build these very tall houses which is the evidence of doing well in life. An extended family lives in them and since there are no elevators the younger families live on the top floors and as you get older you move down until the real oldsters are on the ground floor.
Since land is so expensive in Hanoi the style became to build these houses tall and very narrow and now even in the countryside they build them in the same style.”
