Hue

Pronounced "whey," Hue was formally the capital of Vietnam. After traveling by car for about 3 hours from Hoi An to Hue, we only had the afternoon to explore the city and history of the cultural city.

Our guide came to pick us up at the hotel and took us to Khai Dinh's tomb, one of 13 emperors from the Nguyen dynasty from 1802 until the end of their reign in 1945. It is the most intricate of the 13 tombs, rather funny considering he was a "puppet king" as the French controlled the country at the time of his reign.

Intricate mosaic work - there is an entire room full of mosaic tiles, unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures.

Our next stop was the Citadel and the Imperial City, the city's main attraction. Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1945 and during the Vietnam War in 1968, sadly not much is left standing.

The Citadel:

Fish pond at the entrance of the Imperial Palace - one of the tour guides brought some food and the fish went crazy:

Imperial City:

Our next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda which also serves as a monestary. On display is the famous Austin car monk Thich Quang Duc used to drive himself to Saigon before setting himself on fire to protest against the president's policies in 1963:

The famous picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Burningmonk.jpg

We took a boat ride down the Perfume River, went back to the hotel to freshen up, had dinner and called it a night.

Hoi An

We left Hanoi and boarded a plane for a short 1 hour, 20 min flight to Hoi An, in central Vietnam. Known for custom clothing and shoes, this town is a mecca for shoppers - perfect for Stephanie (Steven only let her buy one dress:/)!

Our lame guide (more on that later) picked us up from the airport and we checked into our hotel. Since it was smack in the middle of the day and ridiculously hot, he suggested we do our walking tour of the town in the afternoon. Fine by us.

He came back to the hotel a few hours later and basically showed us nothing. We walked, he tried to explain things to us that didn't quite make sense, and that was our afternoon. At least we got some exercise?

A view of the river that runs through the city:

We did have a really nice dinner at the Mango Rooms, a restaurant recommended by the Australian ladies we met in Halong Bay. The chef, native to Hoi An, traveled around the world for a few years and had some really interesting dishes, such as duck with chocolate sauce - it was yummy! The chocolate sauce wasn't very sweet, not the typical idea of chocolate, but it worked.

We woke up early the next morning to try and beat the rest of the big tourist buses to the ruins of My Son Sanctuary, Hindu temples built between the 4th and 13th centuries by the Champa Kingdom. Read more here.

Even though there are several groups of ruins in different areas, our lame guide only took us to one because he said the other sites weren't worth it - some had been destroyed in the Vietnam War, others didn't last through the centuries. Would have been nice to see, but it was starting to rain so we decided to trust our guide.

The afternoon was spent walking around town before meeting up with the German couple we met in Halong Bay for dinner. And where else to go for dinner in Vietnam but a crepe place! The chef is French, but sadly the crepes are far from being the real thing...we'll just have to wait another month or so when we go to Brittany for the authentic ones. We can't get upset about a so-so meal when it was only a few dollars.

Hoi An is also known for offering cooking classes to tourists and we thought it'd be fun and different. Our group of 22 was divided into 3 groups and we walked through the market to learn about native fruits and vegetables.

Making fish cakes:

This picture made us chuckle - notice the heels while hacking some meat with a cleaver...all while trying to avoid fish guts on the ground:

After the market, we took a boat over to the cooking school/restaurant where we learned some traditional Vietnamese recipes, including spring rolls, pancakes (salty, not sweet), Asian eggplant in a clay pot, and seafood salad. Conclusion? It's much easier to just go to a restaurant. Kidding, sort of, but making the rice paper for the spring rolls gave us a new appreciation for anything involving rice paper.

We had a great time - our chef was really funny and made us work for our lunch!

Steven also wanted everyone to see his beautiful tomato rose and cucumber hand fan:

Stephanie's didn't turn out quite as well as Steven liked to point out, but it wasn't that bad:

Part of History!

It's our last night in Vietnam (yes, very behind in blogging) and we didn't know the Olympic torch relay was in Ho Chi Minh City tonight, April 29!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080429/wl_asia_afp/chinaunresttibetrightsoly2008torchvietnam

We walked around a bit this afternoon, picking up some last minute things and the security is out of control. No Tibet protesters to speak of, but we did see quite a few pro-China flags and massive amounts of people.

Streets that normally look like this:

...were closed off to look like this:

We've been lucky to be able to follow most current events on BBC or CNN so we've heard of the craziness following the Olympic torch.

Halong Bay

How easy it is to fall behind on blogging when traveling:/

We left off as we were about to board the night train from Sapa to return to Hanoi. The next 12 hours were...interesting.

Our shuttle bus was to pick us up from the hotel at 6pm; by 6:30pm we were stressing a bit as we really needed to catch that train or it would have thrown everything for a loop. Our hotel was able to get us a private car for $20 so we went with plan B and thankfully arrived at the station with plenty of time. We entered our 4 person cabin and met a really nice lady from Canada who was traveling alone - perfect, we thought, we lucked out and had a "normal" person and we even had a spare bed. We should have figured we wouldn't be so lucky! About 30 minutes after the train departed, someone knocked at the door - we opened and an older man made some gestures, showed us his ticket, and hopped onto the top bunk. Still, no big deal...until he proceeded to snore. Loudly. The entire 9 hours of the train ride.

Needless to say, we were exhausted when the train finally arrived in Hanoi at 4:30am. We wanted a taxi with a meter so we wouldn't get ripped off, not so lucky. The driver took us the long way, around the lake which we didn't do the first time, and we arrived at the hotel pretty pissed off. The fare was double what it was when we went from the hotel to the train station a few days before! In reality, we were only out a few dollars, but it's the principle.

Funny, once the taxi pulled up to the hotel around 5am, the door was locked and lights turned off. We thought we'd have to wait outside until 6am or so when employees would start arriving for work. In the meantime, a few other tourists who were on the same overnight train also arrived; we peered into the windows to see about 20 employees sleeping anywhere and everywhere in the hotel lobby and restaurant - along with parked motorbikes also in the lobby. They were nice enough to unlock the doors and let us come inside. Within an hour, motorbikes were back on the street, floors were mopped, and no one would have ever known. Apparently, it's pretty common for employees to sleep in the lobby (or wherever) since other tourists we met had similar stories.

We had a few other mishaps that made us feel a little scammed, or maybe it was because they all happened within a few hours of each other. Whatever the case, it's over with and we've moved on. Nothing will go perfectly when traveling and we have been really lucky so far (knock on wood) that nothing major has happened.

After breakfast, we waited for our shuttle to take us to Halong City where we would catch our boat for our two day excursion around Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a group of over 3,000 limestone isles off of the east coast of Vietnam. Listed as a World Heritage Site, it's currently in the running as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Hopefully this will give the bay some recognition and something will be done about the massive amounts of trash we saw. :/

Our junk boat, the Lagoon II:



We learned from our guide on the boat that all the boats in the bay are called "junk boats" because that is the literal translation in Chinese. Whatever.

Our boat was considered to be one of the best and we weren't disappointed - we figured if we could handle 3 nights in the small cell sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, we could handle almost anything. Our room was huge in comparison! Sorry, we forgot to take pictures. And there were only 8 people on the boat - a German couple, a Spanish couple on their honeymoon, and two older Australian ladies. Everyone was really friendly and we had great conversation.

We had lunch on the boat and then took off for our first destination, a floating village. It was a complete eye-opener to see how a few hundred people are able to survive in such small spaces basically in the middle of nowhere.





The villages are a few hours by row boat from the mainland, so the government sends a large boat out every morning with fresh water, food, and picks up trash and brings it back to shore. The government boat also brings back seafood the fisherman catch to sell on the mainland.

We visited a school in one of the villages, there is a primary school on-site, but anything above needs to be taught on the mainland. Volunteer student teachers live in the village a few months at a time to teach the kids. We would have had pictures if our camera hadn't freaked out and fogged up - the camera is not a fan of the humidity. :/

We sailed around for a bit and soaked up the peacefulness of the surroundings - we were told we could go swimming, but seeing this made it pretty unappealling:



And there were HUGE jellyfish! Swimming was definitely not happening.



A few other pictures:







It was cloudy/foggy both days, which was somewhat of a bummer, but it would have been unbearably hot if the sun was out in full force. And the clouds added a mysterious element to the islands.

We had a great dinner, way too much food as usual, and were just sitting around chatting when the German couple gave each other a funny look and whispered something. Turns out, they saw a rat on the boat just run past the table. Ack!! [We've seen a few rats in various places since, i.e. restaurants, so we guess it's just the way it goes?]. Needless to say, it freaked us all out a bit.

The next morning, we headed towards Hang Sut Song, aka the Amazing Caves. As usual, our pictures didn't turn out so great, so click here if you want to see some that we found on the web from a person with a much better camera.

We cruised back to port, boarded our shuttle bus again, and headed back to Hanoi.

Sapa

We arrived in Sapa at 5:30am after a rather sleepless night on the train. Fortunately, our travel agent put us in the "Deluxe Cabin" - we can't even imagine what the regular cabins look like. Sharing the cabin with another couple from Australia (there were 2 bunk beds), we exchanged travel stories as they had been in Cambodia for a week before beginning their 3 week stay in Vietnam.

Sapa is in northwest Vietnam, close to the China border, with an amazing mix of ethnic minority people. There are 17 small villages, each village having their own language and producing their own handicrafts. the older generations do not speak Vietnamese but the younger generations now speak some Vietnamese due to an increase in education.

Our guide picked us up after breakfast for a trek around the area and to visit 3 of the local villages.

Our first stop was the Lao Chai village to visit the Black H'Mong people. They all wear indigo-colored dresses with intricate embroidery - our guide is in the middle:

We were immediately swarmed upon exiting the car, greeted with big smiles, and bombarded with repetitive questions:

"Where are you from?"

"What is your name?"

"How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"How long do you stay in Sapa?"

"How old are you?"

We give them credit for learning some English and trying to converse with us, but we couldn't buy something from everyone.

We walked through some amazing rice paddies to get to our next village, Ta Van, to meet the Zay people.

Known for their red hats, the Zay people are not as primative as the Black H'Mong people. Their homes have better construction, complete with the requisite satellite dish. Go figure.

Our last stop was at the Ta Phin village to meet the Zed Dao people. They lead a similar lifestyle to the other 2 villages, including using water buffaloes to plow the rice paddies. Sadly, these animals cost about $600-$1000 USD, very expensive for the average minority person living in one of these villages.

A few other pictures of the village, it's not unusual for a young child to take care of his/her sibling while the mother is working. Our guide told us this boy is about 5 years old, his sibling less than a year.

The Vietnamese government has given much aid to these villages, built schools for the children, etc. It's great to know they are being helped somewhat.

We spent our second day in Sapa walking around town, checking out some of the shops and generally taking it easy before our second overnight train.

And we are finally caught up on blogging!

Hanoi, Day 2

We had another full day with the tour guide today, this time traveling an hour outside of the city to visit Hoa Lu, the original capital of Vietnam back in the 10th century.

There are two temples at Hoa Lu - one for the original king and one for the queen's 2nd husband after the king died. Sadly, neither temple is well-maintained.

After lunch, we went on a canoe ride down the river to see the Tam Loc Caves (Three Caves). The entire journey takes about 2 hours and for some reason, almost all of the rowers are women. Hmmm.

Regardless, the scenery was breathtaking - huge limestone mountains surrounded by rice paddies:

Unfortunately, it wasn't foggy on this particular day, it's just the usual air pollution. Not good for the allergies or sinuses. :/ Although we haven't seen much litter, or at least much less than in Bali, the air pollution is horrific, even an hour outside of the city.

And when the rowers get tired, they use their feet:

Never at a loss to sell us something, even in the middle of nowhere:

We headed back into the city and went to dinner at the Cyclo Bar, a French-Vietnamese restaurant where you sit in old cyclo chairs. Apparently, we just couldn't get enough of the cyclo!

And then we were off to take our overnight train to Sapa.

Hanoi

What madness! This huge city is crazy but it's a great introduction to Vietnam and what the country has to offer.

We left Bali, flew to Hong Kong where we had to spend the night in the airport. Unfortunately, the Business Class lounge closes around midnight, but the HK airport has another pay lounge with a sleeping area. We paid way too much money for a place to shut our eyes for 6 hours, but the hotel alternative would have been more expensive.

The following morning, we caught a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, then another flight to Hanoi. We were so happy to see our driver at the airport and to finally check into our hotel.

If we had one word to describe Hanoi it would probably be motorbikes. They are everywhere, going in every direction, doing whatever they please.

Now try crossing the road. :/

Our guide told us cars made in China are relatively cheap, however the Vietnamese government imposes a large tax on Chinese cars to dissuade people from purchasing them. Imagine replacing all of the motorbikes with cars and the city would come to a complete standstill.

We guessed some people spend the extra money they would have used for a car and pimp out their motorbikes instead:

It's also a great way to transport a large number of ducks in a really small cage:

Ok, enough about motorbikes, the city does have other things to offer. Our guide picked us up the following day for a full city tour of the major attractions.

First stop: The Confucious Shrine, or the Temple of Literature. Vietnam's first university, it was built in the 11th century to educate the warrior class.

The inside, very ornate:

The next stop was the Mausoleum, the resting place of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's president who established the communist party, defeated the French in the '50s, and lead the country during the Vietnam War before his death in 1969. No cameras are allowed inside, so we give you this picture, courtesy of wikipedia.

His body is on display in a similar fashion to other communist leaders, a la Stalin and Lenin. Frankly, it's a bit creepy.

There were large groups of school kids walking around - it was really cute to hear them all saying, "hello, hello, hello" to us as we passed by. We're guessing they were about 10 years old.

Our guide took us to visit a few pagodas in the city, Vietnam's version of a temple.

We ended the day with the guide after he dropped us off with two guys peddling cyclos - basically, a cart attached the front of half of a bike. Ha! We thought we were going to die a few times, but it's all part of the experience, right?

::Steven almost looks like he's in a wheelchair - really, he's not::

Speaking to other people who have visited Vietnam, we were told a must-see is the water puppet show. We ventured out after dinner and had a good chuckle at the story even though we didn't understand what they were saying. The visuals were so colorful and pictures really don't capture the detail. We tried. We blame it on the camera.

The group of about 8 people behind the curtain, in the water, controlling the puppets. Sorry for the blurry picture.