Vietnam

Here’s more on our trip to Vietnam.
I will not say much about Hanoi – we covered that 2 years ago. Just to say, it is getting increasingly dynamic as time passes now. Booming does not do it justice. One picture however, that captured Hanoi streets for me, is the following one of the bikes. Note the guy on the decorated pink push-bike. Neat what?
We went to Tam Coc as a day trip while in Hanoi, and that is covered in my previous “post”. We then moved on to HaLong bay. This is one of those areas that you see extensively in the tourist pictures/videos. It is everything they say. Somehow made increasingly mystical by the permanent fog in the area. We spent a night on a Junk in the bay; cruising round the bay and seeing the sights for one afternoon and one morning. There are LOTS of junks, so it is quite touristy/busy, but that does not really detract from the scenery. Neither does the permanent smell of engine exhaust from the junks, nor the oil slick that covers the water . . . .
The Junk was fabulous. A smaller version of the ones available we had a passenger list of only 12 people. A brilliant dinner of Vietnamese food, with 5 other couples, made for an intimate and very enjoyable evening. The only thing missing, given the atmosphere, was the murder (and of course Hercules somebody or other).

These are pics of the bay . . .

. . and the boat

Next we went to an Island called Cat Ba, which is also in Halong Bay. We spent 2 nights there, but it was very wet and cold, and after the Junk quite a disappointment. Ah well – on to the next part.

We then flew to Danang to visit a place called Hoi An. This is a very old town that somehow managed to escape the ravages of (what the Vietnamese call) the American war. Hoi An is a beautiful old town that has now been preserved, but is becoming increasingly tourist oriented (to be expected). There’s a lot to see here, and it is also very close to My Son, which is another of those areas in SE Asia with lots of temples and which we also visited (and is the region in which Mai Lai existed); as well as being right in the middle of Vietnam so is close to what was the DMZ and many other military/war memorabilia places (which we didn’t get into on this trip – too much else to see).

Here are some pictures of Hoi An.

The Japanese bridge, built by the Japanese obviously.

Below is the back garden of one of the temples.

This where a fisherman on the river lives with his family. He has a big net under the water out from his home (to the left looking at the pic) that is tied to 4 poles that he can wind up and down using a crank which is in front of his shack here. He winds it with his feet. Mostly he fishes at night when he hangs a fluorescent light above the middle of where the net is, to attract the fish. It’s fascinating to watch.

Below is a garden restaurant – note the lady in the hat and au Dai (traditional vietnamese dress). These Ladies look really elegant in their dresses, and the hat is just a fabulous finishing touch.

A street market scene. These Ladies aren’t selling too much, so they are playing cards – gambling actually.
This is another part of that same market, but showing the way the goods get transported in and out for the stalls.