MissTtravels

Day 15

Basically a day of shopping.

After an early-ish breakfast to say goodbye to most of our travelling companions, we used a Grab car to get into town. Vesna, our friend from the tour group, came with us.

Ruth had made an appointment to get a tattoo done, so we delivered her to the place so she could get started.

Vesna and I headed off down Clothing St and shopped for a few hours before going back to see how Ruth was going. Hanoi is just one shop after another, some organised with like shops in the same street, but basically everything mixed up together. You are never sure what is fake or real, but at these prices it doesn’t really matter. There are wonderful fabrics and ceramics.

When we arrived back at the tattoo place, Ruth was already finished. She was really happy with the result.

Somehow, Vesna got talked into having her first tattoo. It’s a tiny lotus and did not take long to do.

We had bang mi for lunch, in a quaint little street. Chatted to some American ladies , who shared some scary stuff about what it is like to live in the US right now.

About 4pm we came back to the hotel to sleep, as we were still tired from our police-stations-of-Hanoi tour of the night before.

Later we went back to the Lan Ong restaurant and had our last Hanoi dinner. Really pleasant. We shlepped around the Old Quarter for a while before grabbing a Grab. It costs less than $2 for these cars.

Hanoi is quite pretty at night, with lots of lights and lanterns. Still chaotic though.

We will not be leaving until late tomorrow, so there should be a bit more shopping time.

Didn’t take many photos today.

Day 14

Apologies for the delay. Yesterday got a little busy.

We were up early to watch the sun rise on Ha Long Bay.

There were fishing boats around us.

We went off in a boat at 7 am to visit a nearby cave complex. Sung Sao cave? Climbed a million steps from the water’s edge, but well worth it. Three chambers in total.

The view from the top back across the bay.

We had breakfast back on the cruise boat, and then left the area on our trusty little bus.

On the way back to Hanoi (a tedious four hours) we stopped at one of the charities Intrepid supports. It is a vocational training centre for people with disabilities.

I bought an amazing piece of embroidery.

Back in Hanoi, we moved back into the very grand Foreign Relations Hotel.

An afternoon of shopping was meant to end with our group farewell dinner, but somewhere along the way, Ruth’s phone mysteriously disappeared from her bag.

As a result we spent a couple of hours trying to track it down and ended up in the police station to report the loss. VERY educational!

Back to the hotel at 11pm. A really long day.

I am still hopeful the phone will turn up.

Day 13

Another quiet one.

We left Tam Coc and travelled by bus for about 4 hours. Lots of rice fields, and we finally got to see some of the enormous factories Vietnam is famous for. We were basically following the Red River down to its delta, so there is a lot of manufacturing here taking advantage of the shipping. Ports and container terminals.

We arrived at Halong Bay and boarded our floating hotel.

We are staying aboard the Halong Secret for one day. The bay is amazing, with weird limestone cliffs and islands everywhere. Also tourists.

On board we were served an amazing lunch. The afternoon was spent cruising about, and about 4pm we visited a very strange beach – Ti Tao Beach. The water was waveless and cold.

Back on our big boat we were served another massive meal. We are sharing the boat with another Intrepid tour group, but it is not crowded at all. Actually quite luxurious.

Day 12

A quiet and restful day

After breakfast, we went off in our little bus, and drove for about an hour. We drove through rice fields and many acres of pineapples.

We visited the Cuc Phuong National Park. The objective of the visit was to see the rescue and conservation work being done to protect Vietnam’s many endangered species of turtles, tortoises, primates and carnivores.

We saw the turtles and tortoises first. Many types are endangered because they are hunted for food, the pet trade and the traditional medicine trade. Any area of Vietnam bordering China has a particular problem with this. There is also habitat loss as a contributing factor.

This centre rescues animals from the illegal trade, and conducts a breeding programme to build up wild populations.

Next we visited the primates. There are many endangered species of langurs and gibbons in Vietnam. They captured and traded for their pelts and as pets.

One of the most important animals at the park is the pangolin, very vulnerable because the scales are used in traditional medicine. Pangolins are becoming rarer by the day, as they are very valuable when caught in the wild. The park is trying to rescue as many as possible (sometimes hundreds in one shipment) and captive breed them to build up wild stocks.

It was kind of sad to see the animals caged, but the park is doing important work in saving critically endangered species.

After spending a couple of hours there, we headed back to Tam Coc and had lunch (banh mi) in the town. Tam Coc is heaving with tourists so I am glad our hotel is a bit out of town.

I spent the afternoon and evening relaxing and sleeping, and only emerged from the room for dinner.

We are off to Halong Bay tomorrow.

Day 11

After leaving the hotel this morning, we spent a pleasant couple of hours learning about traditional Vietnamese water puppets. We went to the home of a famous puppeteer Mr Lim, in the minute back streets of Hanoi.

He did an amazing puppet show for us, and let us have a go at playing with them. Really difficult! He also showed us how the puppets are made: carved from wood, then coated with resin and paint to keep them waterproof.

We headed out of Hanoi in our little bus. Crazy traffic. We were a few hours on the road.

We visited a beautiful temple called the Dinh temple, which was built in the 17th century. It also included an archaeological site, where 10th century artefacts have been found. Pouring rain again!

Really interesting.

We visited a private home for lunch. Mr Wang made us some superb food.

We arrived at our hotel mid-afternoon. It is in Tam Coc, part of Nimh Binh. Rested up for a while.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a local bird sanctuary. Because Nimh Binh has a lot of limestone in its rock formation, there are some great caves. We went through the caves in a little boat rowed by a woman using her feet.

After the cave, we walked further into the park, and got into bigger boats to visit the birds. There seemed to be 2 or 3 species of egrets or herons, all coming home to roost in trees on little islands . It was lovely watching the sun setting over the weird limestone mountains while birds swirled and swooped around. Quite primeval.

Dinner back at the hotel.

Day 10

Th day we first arrived in Hanoi…

We were up very early to leave the hotel at 6.30. We caught a flight from Hue to Hanoi.

Hanoi has 10 million people, so it is large and sprawling. There doesn’t appear to be much zoning of land as there are market garden areas right into the city. There are separate lanes on the roads for the estimated 6 to 7 million motor scooters! We are still marvelling at the numbers of people and things that can fit on a scooter.

Our first stop in the city was the Temple of Literature, an 11th century complex of worship halls and other buildings. First built to honour Confucius, it became a university in the 13th century. Doctors and other intellectuals were trained here until the capital moved to Hue in the 19th century. It is believed to be the root of the Vietnamese people’s dedication to learning. Amazing place.

In addition there was a display of some amazing modern art.

For lunch we went to a social enterprise restaurant called KOTO ( know one, teach one). The restaurant trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and minority communities to work in hospitality. Really great food.

After lunch, it was planned that we would visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. However, one look at the length of the queue changed our minds. I was pleased, as I have no real desire to look at someone who has been dead since 1969.

Obviously HCM is very important to the Vietnamese. He is buried on the exact spot where he declared independence for them in 1955.

Instead our bus driver squeezed our bus through the tiny streets of the French Quarter of Hanoi, which was really interesting. Hundreds of tiny shops in tiny streets over 1000 years old. Hanoi was established in the year 1010.

We are staying in the Foreign Relations Hotel, a very grand establishment in among the embassies and posh shops. A bit upmarket compared to where we have been the last few days!

After a nana map, we went off to Old Hanoi and had a really nice dinner.

As a special treat, we also went down the famous Train Street and watched a train running down between the shops. Hilarious. They wheel out barriers to stop the traffic on the cross street. A sort of temporary DIY level crossing. Then the train rumbles down between the cafes.

Day 9

A day of monasteries and temples

Still raining most of the time here in Hue. Apparently Hue is the rainiest place in all of Vietnam…

This morning we visited the Thien Mo pagoda, a Buddhist temple north of the Perfumed River. Built in 1601, it includes a number of temple buildings. Really lovely gardens and amazing ancient bonsai.

We then went to a coffee place near the river and enjoyed Hue salt coffee, which was surprisingly good. Lovely views of the river.

Next we went to a temple complex built by the 4th emperor in the 19th century. The Emperor used this place as a retreat during his life, but is also buried here. He died in 1884. Again, lovely gardens and buildings, showing clear Chinese influence.

Lots of people in Hue get dressed up in ancient costume and have professional photos taken. We have been seeing them everywhere.

We had a delicious vegetarian lunch in a Buddhist monastery. Beautiful food, and again a lovely garden.

We spent part of the afternoon looking at an exhibition of the work of Vietnamese artist Lebadang.

Another great dinner with part of the group. We were commenting on how delightful the presentation of food is here.

Day 8

The day we got to Hue…

We left Hoi An at about 8.30 and travelled up the coast past Da Nang, with its famous China Beach. Lots of resorts. We stopped briefly to see the Dragon Bridge.

The coastline is quite pretty.

We ascended a high mountain pass on a very windy road, which occasionally gave us a great view of the train line from Hanoi to Saigon. Tuyet gave us lots of information about the history of Vietnam along the way, as we passed sites that were related to Ho Chi Minh and the wars.

We stopped at a little village called Lang Co. Lots of fishing boats and oyster farming. I should note that it has been raining most of the day.

Eventually we arrived in a soggy Hue. Hue was the Imperial capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945, and contains the Imperial Citadel. We visited the Citadel, a moated fortress and various palaces, in the pouring rain. Tuyet guided us through, filling in more historical details as we went.

I think the most impressive thing amongst it all was the nine bronze urns, representing Vietnam and its peoples.

The complex was impressive and would be really pretty on a good day. The things we learnt helped fill in some of the details of the transition from Imperial rule to the French Occupation, and also to explain the longstanding influence of the Chinese in Vietnam.

We arrived at our hotel drowned rats.

Day 7

A day of learning things

We had a very relaxed start to the day. A late breakfast and a chance to chill.

We headed for town (the hotel is a little bit out of Hoi An old town) about 9.30, and went a cooking class at the Green Mango restaurant. We learnt 4 Vietnamese dishes and a dessert.

The class began with a trip to the market to pick up herbs and vegetables, which was a learning opportunity in itself.

We (5 people) did all the prep and cooking under the guidance of chef Pinky. Pho, spring rolls, banana flower salad, fish in banana leaves, followed by mango sticky rice.

Of course we all enjoyed eating it at the end.

Back at the hotel we had few hours of chill time before attending a lantern making lesson. Silk lanterns are a very Hoi A thing, and we got to make one each. Just Ruth and I and a teacher called Ha. Mine is pink/purple and Ruth’s is green. Not difficult to do, and really fun.

Later on we joined some the other members of our group for another dinner by the river.

Day 6

A day of learning about things…

Today we went out to one of the islands near Hou An to see how people make a living from the land.

The first home we visited was a rice wine distillery.

We saw how rice is ground and roasted and then fermented with yeast for a week.

The liquid the gets distilled and is stored in glass bottles with various fruits and other flavourings.

The leftover rice is fed to the pigs, who then provide the methane for the still!

The man who runs the place is a former soldier who lost his leg to a landmine fighting in Cambodia. He is called Mr Dau, and is a really delightful smiley man. The rice wine business supports his extended family.

It actually tastes OK. 30% alcohol or more.

Next we went a house where an old couple were weaving sleeping mats out of water reeds. Really amazing to watch and a great skill.

Our next stop was a noodle-making place, where we learned how they husk and grind rice to make a really fine powder before mixing it with water.

We all had a go at spreading the mixture on the drum where it cooks over a rice husk fire for half a minute.

It is then chopped up, which we also did. Our lunch was various delicious noodle dishes.

During the morning we also looked at prawn farming, rice fields and a peanut crop. In the afternoon we did some more sightseeing and shopping in the Old Town.

There is a 17th century Japanese bridge which is incredibly beautiful.

We had a bit of time in the afternoon to relax back at the hotel.

In the evening we attended an amazing performance the Teh Dar Bamboo Circus. A combination of dance, acrobatics and story telling. Sensational. No pictures allowed unfortunately.

Hoi An at night is heaving with tourists. The river is full of little boats carrying lanterns. People float little paper lanterns on the river for wishes.

We went for a delicious dinner at one of the many riverside restaurants, and out on a little lantern boat ourselves. A great night. We also floated our own wish lanterns.

Some selected scenes around Hoi An today.