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Published: February 15th 2008
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Feb. 2, 2008
We took a short flight from Hue to Hanoi, Vietnam today. Hanoi is the current capital city of Vietnam and it is evident that there is some government money spent here.
On arrival and check in we spent the afternoon on our own exploring the city near our hotel.
This is a very interesting time to visit this part of the world as everyone ( we mean everyone ) is getting ready for Chinese New Year . This is by far the busiest and most important holiday of the year in this part of the world and anyone who can get home goes home to spend time with family and friends. The city decorations and the hustle and bustle of everyone shopping and preparing for the few days off makes for a very interesting time. The people all buy a small ( or not so small ) tree or branches of a tree to have in their home for luck. Similar to our Christmas Tree idea I guess . The trees of choice are Mandarin orange trees or cumquat trees ( with orange fruit ) or Apricot ( Yellow blossoms ) or Hoa Dao ( peach
with pink flowers ). Those with money buy a live tree and some by only a branch. They spend a lot of time and effort decorating everything and we enjoyed the lights and other decorations throughout Vietnam. Unfortunately we have to leave Vietnam for Laos before the actual New Year Celebration.
We stayed at the very good Sofitel Plaza Hotel, a short taxi ride to city center, and used this as our home base for a few days. We had a very good guide who was with us for most of the time in Hanoi and northern Vietnam. Our adventure here included a city tour of Hanoi, a visit to the Temple of Literature ( part of the University ) and a very important historical place as this was the first University in Vietnam, operated by the monks and a visit to the Museum of Ethnology that gives some good insight into the many different ethnic groups that make up the current people of Vietnam.
We finished the day in Hanoi with a ride in the famous CYCLOS, a bicycle powered , back driven, 3 wheeled kind of rickshaw. Believe me, this was an adventure considering the unbelievable
traffic situation and the hundreds of thousands of motor scooters on the road. This ride through the French Quarter of Hanoi finished at a very entertaining Water Puppet show. These puppets are operated from under the water and the whole show takes place on top of the water in a large tank. Very interesting and a must see for anyone visiting Hanoi ( Only in Vietnam ).
Feb 4, 2008
This morning we took a drive to Halong Bay on the coast of Vietnam. A very nice ride through the countryside and good conversation with our very knowledgeable guide. Halong Bay is one of the most famous pictures in Vietnam as it is where the thousands of islands jut up from the ocean . On arrival in Halong Bay we took a boat trip out to the Islands and enjoyed a very good lunch on board. It is very interesting to see the floating villages of the local fishermen and to stop at some very impressive limestone caves that were recently discovered in the bay.
Feb 5, 2008
Today we leave Vietnam for a new adventure in Laos. Starting in Luang Prabang. The short flight from Hanoi takes
you into the mountainous area of Laos.
Our special thanks to Mr. Tung, our guide in Northern Vietnam. Mr. Tung is a very knowledgeable and professional guide and we enjoyed our time spent with him in Hanoi and Halong Bay. We were amazed at the knowledge these guides have regarding local history, customs, politics and in particular with Tung. Thank you for a job well done.
All in all we can say we had a very good time in Vietnam and Cambodia. Our guides were terrific and we enjoyed their candid conversation and insight into how the real people live in these countries.
Our compliments to the people at V Explorer , the company that put together this portion of our trip and provided the guides and transportation. They did a terrific job. Besides a small incident with a missing camera, that was returned, we had no complaints at all about the service we received from them and there suppliers and would recommend their services to anyone visiting this area. Thank you Mr Nghia and your team.
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