Blogs from North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 6

Sometime during the night I was awakened byClaudette’s purring (a polite way of putting it) and I reached out to give her a nudge. Icoudn't reach her. I tried again, this time with my foot. Nothing. Igads this bed is big! Today’s number one project was to plan the next asix Day’s itinerary. We had mostly decided where we wanted to go so we asked the folks here at the hotel to put a trip together a trip for us. We thought that on our way to the ethnology museum we would stop at a travel agency to get another price. That never happened so for the price of a weeks all inclusive in the Caribbean, we have 8 days of the same in northern Vietnam. The museum was a wonderful introduction to the various cultures ... read more

I was woken at 5:50 this morning by exhortations emanating from the Party Committee building not far away. (These buildings are quite distinct – austere, yellow and white, fronted by a wide red banner.) Later Thuy explained that this loudspeaker service combines news stories for the illiterate and public announcements. (The literacy rate is high in Vietnam.) At breakfast a few of us got talking with a woman who was a professor for an international school teaching a course on environment to 31 students. The course consists of time studying in San Francisco (already done), this month in Vietnam, next month in Morocco and another month in Bolivia. She was startled to learn from us that Hoi An, their destination today, has even more tourists than Hue, not that we had seen much of Hue yet. ... read more

Tina Writes We were up super early for the bus to Hue (pronounced ‘Way’). This would allow us to test out the sleeper buses used to travel through the country as the journey was only meant to take 2.5 hours. These buses are weird. They have bunk bed like chairs built in a row along the windows and one down the middle, each with a top and bottom bunk. There was no choice, this was the only bus you could get. We would not be sleeping though. We both choose a top one with me at the window and Rob in the middle. Climbing up was a bit of challenge. I had read many blogs about these buses and they were rarely good. It wasn’t so bad for me as I am just wee, but Rob ... read more

We originally had organised a tour with the stop and go cafe to go around the outside of the citadel in motorbikes but as the weather was so wet, we decided to change the motorbikes to a car instead!slightly disappointing but definitely the sensible thing as the rain was so heavy it was hard to see anything! On the tour, we visited the royal tombs, dieu de national pagoda and went out to the countryside to see an old village!on our way-we stopped of at a family temple which the caretaker offered us some Vietnamese tea and ginger sweets just because we were passing!the Vietnamese people especially in the countryside are very friendly!! After the tour we sampled more local Hue food (shrimp in banana leaves and beef noodle soup) and then walked around a bit ... read more

Arrived Hue and proceeded directly to Saigon Morin Hotel. Checked in and had a delicious dinner at the hotel. My local guide here is Dai and he will be back at 9 a.m. Crashed, body is finally in sync with new time zone. Sleep and other body functions are right on schedule, if you know what I mean. Morning arrives and it’s misting, overcast and dull. We go directly to a dragon boat on the Perfume River. The family that owns the boat lives on it. It used to be a fishing boat but now is used for tourists. They family consists of husband, wife and two sons, ages 11 and 15. The kitchen is a hot plate and a few dishes. Didn’t ask to see the bathroom, but am sure that it is rudimentary at ... read more