From Hanoi to Halong to Hue...!

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Hi to everyone!

Greetings from the old imperial town of Hue on the coast of Vietnam.

We have been in the country a week to the day now and we have already seen some of the most impressive sights that Nam has to offer.

In my last blog we had just arrived in the buzzing city of Hanoi. Some of the highlights that we saw there were the Hao Lo Prison Museum- nicknamed ‘The Hanoi Hilton’ by US POWs who were detained there during the Vietnam War.

The history behind the prison was both fasciniating as it was grim. Most of the exhibits focused on the Vietnamese struggle to gain independence from the French colonists who originally built the prison. One ominious exhibit in particular, was the French guillotine that was used to behead those who rebelled against their regime.

The second half of the exhibiton focused on the Vietnam War, as US pilots where held prisoner there. This selection of exhibits was very informative. I was most impressed by the fact that the musuem housed the airforce uniform of the now US Senetor John McCain, who’s aircraft had been shot down in the war. He was incarcerated in the prison for a number of years before his release. He later took a trip back to the museum in 2000. Another story that comes to mind was, a POW that was held there became the first US ambassador to Vietnam.

We also visited the Army Musuem in Hanoi. This projected everything about the Vietnam onto a grand scale. There were helicopters, fighter jets, tanks and other vehicles used during the war in the courtyard of the museum. The exhibiton spanned over several different buildings and it portrayed Vietnam’s history of rebellion against the French very well also.
It was great fun taking pictures standing beside tanks etc!

As the humidity was very high in Hanoi, almost reaching 90% on some days it made walking around and sightseeing quite a draining process. We took it easy and only committed ourselves to seeing one main attraction a day. With this in mind, one evening we took it easy and went to see a water puppet show. This was a lovely way to escape the madness of the streets for a few hours. Water puppetry is an ancient tradition in Vietnam as it is 1000s of years old. The farmers in the rice fields created this art form during the wet season to entertain themselves while planting their rice crops. The tradition has been kept on by generations and you can now see a performance in a theatre. It was lovely to watch as it was accompanied by traditional music as well.

After a few days in Hanoi, we had pretty much seen all we wanted to see so we decided to book a one night cruise to Halong Bay!!! This for me was something I had been dying to see even before leaving home and I have to say it surpassed all my expectations by far.

The shipped we booked the cruise on, (instead of the 100s of regular Junk Ships you see everywhere in the bay) was a 105 year old French converted steamboat called the Emeraude! It was really lovely and had a ‘Titanic’ feel to it as the interior and cabins where based from around the same era. Between the endless limestone cliffs surrounding the ship to the fabulous all you can eat 5 star buffet, it seriously was the best dining I have experienced. We also had the pleasure of swimming and kayaking in the bay as well as visiting a cave in one of the limestone cliffs that had a fresh water pool inside as well as a 200metre cavern! It was spectacular as were the views from the cliff itself.

When the evening came we had the view of the moon on the portside and the sunset on the other- stunning! I think it will be very hard to top that kind of scenery for me now. I am going to be very biased!

Anyway, not to bore you (or sicken ) you anymore, we have arrived in Hue this morning. It was great only a short 55 minute flight from Hanoi. We plan on spending three nights here before travelling to Danang.

I hope everyone is keeping well back home.

Take care and blog you soon.

-Jen.X

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