Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 8

This morning we were up and at breakfast by 7.15am. A great spread of eggs, toast, fruit, crepes, Oreo biscuits, sausage, ham, juices, tea and coffee. Dani made herself a delicious crepe with condensed milk and crushed up Oreos all over it. Yum! By 8.15am we were out waiting for our tiny little boat to take us back to Cat Ba Island. It was rainy and cold. The boat ride back to the island was not very comfortable at all. We were all getting wet form the rain blowing in. We kind of huddled as much as we could. On our way back to the island we stopped at a local fishing village and picked up a still live fish. It was hit over the head, put in a plastic bag and thrown onto the ... read more

This morning we were up and had brekkie at 8am. Breakfast was toast, eggs, fruit and sausage as well as tea and coffee. Not long after breakfast the boat took us ashore Cat Ba Island where we boarded a shuttle bus for a 40min drive to the other side of the island where we hopped on another small boat and were taken to Monkey Island. The boat ride was breezy and cold but we putted through floating fishing villages and past other small and large islands of Halong Bay. After about 30mins we arrived at our little island of paradise. Monkey Island Resort is a humble resort that isn’t flash but has everything you could need. We were shown our bungalows which have a perfect ocean view. After settling in we were treated to a ... read more

The longevity of fish I saw a tasty fish. Not one of those who live in a mud pond and taste of mud. I knew it would be more expensive but I wanted a delicious dinner. Well, his head was long gone and another cut had been sold. When she cut the piece I requested the fish started wagging his tail. You could say that the North Vietnamese are, at best, insensitive but the Americans did worse when introducing the electric chair. “Oh, it’s not strong enough. Bring that nigger back and let’s try a few more volts”. British scientists sawed the top off of monkeys’ heads to see if they could get a nobel prize. If I have to choose between Vietnam and the civilized west – here I am.... read more

Breakfast at our Hanoi hotel in their Japanese restaurant. This time we opt for the ramen noodles. We are soon on the bus and headed for Halong Bay, situated east of Hanoi on the ocean. It's a 3 1/2 hour trip. We make two stops along the way. The first is a enormous roadside gift shop catering to tourists. It is a football field-sized store that covers all the types of handicrafts we have seen so far and other besides. As usual, you immediately pick up a shadow, but we are not much interested in shopping. We do pick up some snacks, including cashews. Digression: Vietnam is the worlds's largest producer of cashews. They grow on large trees in red pods. The second stop is alongside a large, beautifully maintained vegetable garden, growing lettuce, onions, herbs ... read more

This blog about the wonderful Sa Phin markets will be short. These vibrant markets are held every six days, falling on the Chinese Lunar calendar day of the Monkey or the tiger so the actual market day changes week by week. Many of the ethnic markets in China follow this same pattern so it can make it hard to plan your travel to coincide with them. Tuin left the car on the main road above the village which is only 2 kilometers from the Chinese border and we walked the kilometre down into the valley towards the mass of blue plastic tarpaulins which were covering the market stalls. The road was busy with groups of people coming form or going to the hive of activity below us. Many women were perched on the cement road markers ... read more