Great plans to wake up early to make it to Cau Dai beach...as all plans do, we need the sleep. Morning agenda is to get the dresses and look around in the market a bit. I love my dresses, Tupur not so much. We shop around and look around a little bit and then head for the hotel to pack up and check out. The bus is supposed to pick us up from the hotel at 1.45 and Tupur gets a quick pedicure from next door for 30 dongs. We familiarise ourselves with Hue and hotel locations. And thank goodness for [View Full Entry]

---

---

We make a rush out in the morning to catch all the sights. Quick breakfast at the patisserie with croissants and chocolate croissants - great bakery stuff again. We walk up to the Japanese Bridge and the Assembly of Phu Kien. We need to get the combined tickets for the old city which is available at street corners. 75 dongs for 5 places with an 'intangible culture' option. We clutch our maps and make way to the nearest sight - but on our way find ourselves in a quite and beautiful pagoda. The forecourt is full of interesting bonsais and a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Mornings in trains are always interesting. People of all shades and shapes wake up ane perform the same functions. Its like the great leveller. The good thing about these trains are that the attendant sees to it that the toilets are clean. And food comes in trollyes. Tea and coffee. Lunch on order. An old lady sleeps in our cabin. She is fascinated by our family and puts up with a lot to continue sitting in a cabin going berserk with two kids on the rampage. Sometimes we can be a bit too much. I am quite happy with the trains [View Full Entry]

---

---

This was supposed to be an early day, as we wanted to catch the Cai Rang Market. So out at 6.30 in the morning and rush through breakfast to leave at 7. We boarded into small low boats which would take us to the market and then into the backwater canals. We weave through an entire market on boats - trading fiercely between each other - yet, I feel 7 o clock is too late. We should have been here at 6 to catch the action at its height. But still its unique. An entire life on water. Families with children. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Morning rush to reach the Sinh Cafe booking office. Thankfully we can keep part of our luggage here, so we carry one bag with us and leave the rest here. Good airconditioned bus, a nice guide - its comfortable even if both Anu and I hate package tours. 3 hours to Cai Be and the rain god plays with us. We buy very flimsy raincoats - 7 dongs each. On to a boat in Cai Be and on the Cai Be river, passing the Cau Be floating market. The banks of the river are houses, with stilts into the river, and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Disaster! Tupur and family are scheduled to reach by 11 ish, so we had thought that we would grab some breakfast at our favourite ABC Bakery (trying to keep the costs down - its so easy to blow away 150 dongs in that place!) and then get the train tickets and the Mekong tour in place before they arrive. I had spoken to our landlady that we need 2 rooms for the night of the 30th. When we come down and just thinking that its a good idea to just check it up, we find that no, they dont seem to [View Full Entry]

---

---

What a full day. What a day of myriad impressions. We woke up late, and by the time we got going it was already 11. Off to breakfast at the same bakery, and we hogged great sandwiches and Sanaa lopped up a Tiramisu. A good way to start the day. Free wifi at the coffee shop, and though we ended up spending quite a bit more than what we intended - a good beginning to the day all round. So we decided to walk down to the war museum. Vietnamese streets are full of two wheelers and tha traffic has its [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 0 Chennai Airport Okay, quite crazy. Several international flights leaving at the same time, and only one screening machine in place. Chaos and confusion and tempers running high. And piling crowds everywhere. Long long queues. It helps to travel with a kid - we get preference queue positions, shortcuts to counters, special lines meant for only families with young children. Who says travelling with kids is difficult. The mistake we made is not doing the web check-in. So we actually dont get seats together on either flight. Lesson to oneself. My apprehensions about [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bursa So the next day we rush out in the morning to catch the ferry to Bursa. It is getting freezing cold here, and its supposed to be colder there. The ferry which people do not really know much about it seems is a very good option. 20 liras all the way to Guzelali and then you catch a bus to the metro station to go into Bursa. We were fixed up in a small little old house with a really nice old couple and very very antique plumbing. Thankfully the blankets are warm, the rooms are clean and the heating [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Saturday was brilliant. First we went to the toy museum. It was biting cold, and rainy, so we were glad with the lift we got from Kemal's boss, a two door salon car with a stick shift gear and driven like a maniac. And there we were, aross the Bosphorus to the Asian side. As Kemal said, we had come home. Across a beautiful suspension bridge, one of the longets we have seen, and into the very residential quarters of the Asian side. The toy museum is a five floor house converted to a veritable toy gallery, surely almost one [View Full Entry]

---

---