Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 1295

What a treat Halong Bay and Sapa were! Both very different but both spectacularly beautiful - after Hanoi it's like being in another place altogether. I don't think words can do either place justice - anyone who's been there will know what I mean - but I'll give it a go! After just a few minutes from boarding the boat for Halong Bay you quickly realise how beautiful the area is. We sailed around for a few hours taking in the scenery, visited a cave (nothing to write home about), a river village (where they asked us to make a donation to develop the local school which was a very small hut on the river!) and a fish farm which had some type of shark, manta rays and eels. Then we sailed between the skarsts (rock ... read more

After a short and painless bus ride, we arrived in the Vietnamese city, Hue. Hue has played an important role in Vietnamese history, in that it was once the capital of southern Vietnam and was home to many emperors (most notably, those in the Nguyen Dynasty). The city today, is full of historical artifacts from the Citadel to the numerous tombs and pagodas that line the Perfume River. However, many of these ancient remnants narrowly escaped the destruction of war and bare the hardships they faced. Unfortunately, the structures weren't the only things shattered. In 1968, Hue was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Tet Offensive and was the only city in South Vietnam to be held for a substantial period of time by the communists. During the period of time (about ... read more

So it has been a little while since I have written... The internet here isnt that good here in Viet Nam. Really slow and half the time I cant get the page up to search for msn.com! Anyways... We went to FB Blaze and FB Bastogne but I think I already told you all about that. So... Mr Chien took us to these caves abuot 100 miles from way. These caves were just like the Carls Bad Caverns except the things inside were huge. The cave was an old hiding spot for the VC during the war because they knew that we couldnt bomb them if they were in there. We did attempt because you can see craters and scars on the rocks from the bombs. Then we walked to the next cave which was 600+ ... read more

Wednesday 13th September 2006 We got up early and headed down to Café on Thu Wheels were we’d organised for a couple of locals to show us a bit more of Hue. Heading off on the back of their mopeds the first stop was Thien Mu Pagoda, which overlooked the river and had spectacular bonsai tree gardens. The temple is famously known for being the home of the monk Thich Quang Duc. In 1963 he drove to Saigon and preceded to burn himself alive in protest of President Ngo Dinh polices. His car is still on show in the gardens behind the Pagoda. From there we sped back through town, then rode around some of the surrounding villages. All villages are linked by networks of rice paddy fields, narrow paths (which are just wide enough for ... read more

Never, never, never get your Hanoi train ticket from the smiling lady who has the travel concession in the Vietnamese passport control building. True to her word, the minibus with the screaming banshee did pick us up from the hotel (our earlier telephone call may have helped in this) and she did meet us at the station with some train tickets. However, not until we boarded the train two and a half hours later, did we find out that our soft sleeper tickets where in fact hard sleeper tickets. We don't mind hard sleeper but when you pay extra for soft sleeper you want soft sleeper. Added to this, even though we had middle bunks, a Vetnamese family had moved in to them (mother, baby, grandmother, small child and two able bodied middle aged men) and ... read more