Blogs from Hué, Thua Thien - Huế, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 70

The beauty of Vietnam is real and in so many ways it is enhanced by the people. In someways, they live as they did one thousand years ago. In other ways they are as high tech as the most modern as people of the so called advanced countries. One thing for sure, the country is changing fast. But, the old ways are still there. For some reason this blog will not let me edit all the photos. You can see sometimes its a long road ahead. ... read more

As I ride along the rode I am greeted with a constant "Hello, Hello." You answer back and you get the same"Hello, Hello." Vietnam has some of the most beautiful children in the world but Hello, Hello gets real taxing after a while. A lot of the kids can say more, Like: How are you? Where are you from. How old are you. They don't understand the answer generally so they just keep asking over and over the same questions. Kids are everywhere in Vietnam and its hard to get away from them. A lot of the kids want me to go home with them to "see their house." I generally refuse but once this little girl and her girl friend invited me a I said: "Is it far from the road?" O know, it is ... read more

HEEELLLLLOOOOO!!!! It is Christmas here in Vietnam as we are 15 hours ahead of California time. the last two days in Vietnam have been some of the most amazing in my life. We took a night train to central Vietnam to a place called Hue (pronounced Hway.) In Hue, we rented motorbikes and cruised around the countryside to visit the tombs of the emporers and some pagodas (buddhist temples). I must admit, it took me a couple minutes to get the motorbikes down...did you know you have to shift gears?!? In those minutes I managed to crash into a few parked motorbikes. No pain, no gain, right? Fortunately, the Vietnamese have a great sense of humor (and accepted 100,000 dong ...which is a little more than $6...for minor damages). Once I got into the open road ... read more

After a grueling 10 hour train ride from Sapa to Hanoi, we arrived at our glorious Metropole Hotel and our French rooms. While horribly long a ride, the country side of Vietnam was fascinating: neat and clean rural gardens, rice paddies, waterbuffalo pulling carts, everyone works, even the children! School is only in the morning so afternoons are for working on the farm or at the market. We had a cabin on the train which was lovely but claustrophobic and so naps and reading were our alternatives to watching the countryside go by. The next day we were off to Halong Bay, by car but only a few hours on a good road, through villages and more countryside. Amazing sights on the back of motorbikes: a live water buffalo strapped on, pigs in cages, and dogs ... read more

Right, well, brace yourself, this a bit of a long entry. It starts all the way back on 13th November, back in Chiang Mai, Thailand. ooh, well, it was just lovely to have a long lie in, and no cockrels to wake us up- woohoo!!! Our last day in Chiang Mai is a day of organising ourselves for our trip to Laos. We book our transfer with our GH, Eagle House (incl. accommodation, transport & 3 meals). We then try, in vain, to get hold of some kip (Lao currency), but no banks seem to have any, and the local ones have run out of US dollars (also accepted in Laos). So, off we wander in search of dollars! I hear someone shout "Amy!" as we are walking along. It didn't sink in for a minute ... read more