Minding our own business and stopped for a ginger and orange tea.
Staffed by teens doing karaoke (she’s a great singer, the boys much less so). No prizes for guessing which Celina Dion song they’re doing!
Tet (Lunar New Year)
Party on a boat. Our kind of New Year Party – all done before 9.00😃
New Year’s Day
Year of the snake.
The visit to the Imperial City really brought home to me my lack of knowledge of Vietnamese history.
Hue was the old capital city until 1945 when the revolution led to the end of the Emperors.
But during the French occupation the Emperors were essentially puppets, and built palaces a bit like French chateaux.
… with adornments.
Then the Imperial City was part of a huge US bombing campaign during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Bullet holes still visible.
Interestingly the guides in Hanoi (in the old communist north) seemed far more. Exercised by the French occupation than the US campaign.
It’s well known that we like to get to places such as airports a bit early, to keep stress levels down. Anyway, 6 hours early for our flight to Hue is quite impressive.
To be fair, it’s Tet, and so we were advised by everyone that everyone would be on the move to see their families.
Luckily we could check the bags in straight away and pay £15 each for the use of a very quiet and comfortable business lounge with unlimited food and drink.
And the weather wasn’t the best.
IWe’ve done really well weather-wise so far. Not many blue skies, but temperatures consistently in the low to mid 20s which is very comfortable indeed.
Plenty of other highlights to keep us entertained for a couple of days.
Hoa Lu (Ancient Capital)
Mua Caves
499 (very uneven) steps, 142m.
Crazy right at the top – gave up on the last 10m or so to let the “influencers” do what influencers do!
Bich Dong Pagoda
Amazing setting which I couldn’t do justice to.
Ecological Park
And we liked the monument to the old tractor used to set up the site. Old Russian model cobbled together with spare parts and scrap metal. Then they had to dismantle it to transport it into the marshland and rebuild it which took 3 months.
Fun Evening!
When you get your second “once in a lifetime memorable experience” in 3 days, you have to pinch yourself . But it happened.
Essential it’s just a ride in a rowing boat (along with many others – and it’s very quiet at this time of year).
And then just sit back and enjoy.
The girls are here as well (of course).
After 24 hours on the boat it’s time to move on. It’s a shame we didn’t get any photos of me and Eileen kayaking (we really did).
The logistics of the cruises are awesome. Out of about 40 people on our boat, 7 of us had opted for one night rather than two (it was enough). So we did our cave and kayaking activities early, and then we’re transferred to a sister boat that was heading back to port where we were then guided towards our different taxis/buses going to all different places. And it worked!
So we’re off to Ninh Binh for 3 nights. Here’s where we’re staying.
Uneventful 4 hour journey, apart from me paying £1.50 for 2 satsumas, which in hindsight was rather too much!
We’re moving on from Hanoi to Ha Long for an overnight boat ride. If you haven’t heard of Ha Long you’ll certainly recognise it. And it certainly hit 10/10 on the wowee scale.
Early start and a longish taxi ride to get to our boat.
With a lovely room.
And then a ton of photos to enjoy
A few reflections on Hanoi before we leave tomorrow.
Our hotel
But there’s been lots of decent stuff to take in and get used to Vietnamese way of life, so here goes
Trains get pretty close!
Water puppets
Lovely to see Wol and Di – amazing that we’re all in Hanoi at the same time.
Their travels certainly put ours into perspective!
And a quick hi from a (extremely chilly) NYC.
Here’s a bit of “normal ” stuff as we settle into Hanoi.
Here’s the rooftop bar at our hotel, but the important thing is that the road around the lake is closed to traffic on weekends. Because we arrived on Saturday morning it’s been lovely and quiet.
Now it’s Monday and we’re heading a bit further afield to sightsee, we’re beginning to understand Hanoi traffic – it’s crazy. Crossing roads is interesting …
Anyway, the highlight of Sunday was a walking tour of the Old Quarter, which was great. Melody is only 22 and runs her own business.
And being young and tech savvy (her not me) there was lots of stuff from her on WhatsApp. Main point of the tour was learning how to say cheers in Vietnamese and having a real-life practice at the end.
And then took her advice on a restaurant which, uniquely in our experience, only has one thing on the menu – essentially a fish stir-fry with a side of spring rolls. Again, fun.
