Tony and driver picked us up early, but we had time for an excellent breakfast first. Long bumpy ride via a stop at a marble, ceramics and silk goods factory. Arrived at boat dock around midday and boarded out a Bhaya Cruise boat at 12.30 along with a mixed bag of mainly Western tourists. Germans, Geordies, Aussies, French, Chilean, Indian and Japanese! The boat was nice the bay was outstanding and spectacular, looks similar to the Li river in China with foliage covered limestone islands dotted throughout. There are 1969 islands in Halong Bay. Weather… Read Article →
Our guide Tony is very hard to understand and not the most informative guy, But on we go to see Hanoi We first tried to go to see Ho Chi Minh’s body as it lays in his tomb but the line was several blocks long with a few hours wait so we decided to come back later after the crowds have left, the tomb is only open for a few hours every day. The Russians built the tomb in the tradition of Lenin, Stalin and Mao. We moved on to Truc Bach lake the place… Read Article →
Up early around 6:30, we went down for breakfast only to discover it was outside in the garden which would be ok but there is a heatwave in Vietnam, sweating while we have our morning coffee was not the way we wanted to begin the day. We requested serving trays and took our breakfast back up to our room. Checked the weather report and it’s going to be over 100 F today, so we will be sweating our way through the sites today. Short river cruise on the perfume river. Wondered about the pieces of paper in… Read Article →
Off to Hue with our driver Vu and guid Hao. First stop was China Beach ,then on to see the bunkers, first built by the Nugyen dynasty in the early 19 century followed by the French in the early 20. Used during the Vietnam war at Cloudy ocean mountain. Another small detour to see oyster and mussel farming and harvesting in the local brackish inland lacks. Cleverly done – letting the mollusks grow on old bicycle tires. Then off into the hills around Hue, which have many tombs of the Nguyen dynasty emperors. These were built… Read Article →
Low key day today, relaxing river cruise on an little old wooden traditional boat to Hoi An. Warm, humid, Florida summer weather! Browsed around local market with our guide, fruits, veggies, fish and meats geared to locals. Certainly no health inspector has ever set foot here! Lunch at recommended restaurant, Ms Ly’s cafe and then back to Hoi An boutique resort for some r & r at the beach and pool.
Arrived in Da Nang and were met by Hao our guide and Vu driver who took us to the Cham museum of sculpture which is near the Dragon Bridge. Inside the museum, there are many sculptures from various centuries mostly 7th to 12th and taken from several nearby historical sites such as My Son sanctuary. The museum houses the world’s largest collection of Cham sculptures. Many of the sculptures have Hindu-like statues of gods, goddess, dancers, elephants, birds etc. which were part of the art and culture religion during the Champa kingdom from 192 through 1832. Our… Read Article →
Off to the tunnels. Watched short propaganda film from 1966. The visit was an informative education about the nature of the Vietnam war, obviously more from the point of view of the Vietnamese. The majority of the Viet Cong had little concept of the political ideology that they were being forced to fight for, not dissimilar to the Americans. Unlike the great world wars in Europe where you wanted and were proud to fight for your country, no one on either side had the same sentiments in the Vietnam war. The actual soldiers were only… Read Article →
Early start yet again, up at 5 something. Wendy and Mr Tang took us to the airport in Guilin. Check in story: China southern and China eastern are Sky Team members. Sad Delta is in the same group, as both China airlines are in the dark ages as far as customer service to non Chinese are concerned. Their baggage policies vary with no consistency. We were expecting to pay an excess on this flight, however the lackadaisical incompetent member of staff took her sweet time understanding what she was supposed to do, despite our Chinese… Read Article →
Off to do a 3 and a half hour boat cruise on the Li River today, along with several other tourist boats in varying degrees of rust and disintegration! Our boat seemed sound fortunately. Perhaps because there were quite a few non Chinese! Germans, Kiwis, Aussies, and a large group from Argentina. Weather looked dodgy with some rain and mist but by the time we boarded the rain had gone and the sun peeked out later in the afternoon. Stunning scenery, nothing like anything we’d seen before. Lovely and peaceful standing on the top deck… Read Article →
Bloody early start, again, up before gnats fart at 4am. Got to the airport, all a bit rushed to find a full flight of loud pushy natives, but thankfully only a couple of hours. Surprisingly (from a US point of view), all the short haul flights give you a full meal and beverage service. This morning it was a type of rice pudding porridge, fruit, tea boiled egg and some kind of steamed bun, not too bad. Arrived in Guilin, a city of 700,000 with 70% of the population working in the tourist industry. They… Read Article →