Advertisement
Published: October 11th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Lots of places in Vietnam seem to start with H
Our journey on from Hoi An didn’t have the best of starts. The credit card machine at the hotel wasn’t working so Andy had to head off on the hotel’s scooter to get some money. In the meantime, the guy we had booked the onward bus ticket with had come to collect us to take us to the bus stop and insisted that I go with him and the luggage, and that Andy could follow on. No amount of persuasion was going to make him deviate from this plan and after the third time of me getting the luggage out of the boot of the car after he had put it in, I decided that the hotel receptionist (who had seen our pantomime and knew Andy was out to get the money) would understand what was going on.
The guy then dropped me with all four of our bags on the wrong side of the busy road and speed off. The sight of me with a rucksack on my back, one on each arm and dragging another bag behind me, must have been interesting to the scooter drivers and
passengers that swerved in front of and behind me! Andy eventually turned up and luckily we hadn’t missed the bus. We just set and off all of a sudden Andy leaps up out of his seat and races to the front of the bus - we had left our passports at the hotel!! In Vietnam you have to leave your passports with the reception of the hotel or guesthouse. When you pay your bill you get it back. In the rush and confusion, both Andy and the hotel staff had forgotten about it. Lucky that Andy remembered before we got to Hue!
Hue is an old imperial city with a World Heritage protected Palace and Emperor tombs. We decided to take an organised tour of the city as this would be the easiest way to see the most in a short time. The tour was really nice and took in the Imperial City, an old Mandarin house and several of the tombs. The tombs are really huge park areas that each Emperor picked out before he died. In their lifetime they would oversee the building of the tomb and other nice features; such as lakes, ponds and gardens, which
they would enjoy in the afterlife. Each of the tombs was very peaceful and interestingly had a bit of an alpine feel to them with fir trees - odd we thought for Vietnam!? We had a leisurely cruise back to the city centre on the Perfume River before catching another night bus to Hanoi.
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and on my last visit I had preferred it to HCM. The same was true this time. It’s so much nicer with its narrow, winding streets within the old city walls and the lake in the centre that comes alive in the morning and the evening with the locals running, walking or participating in one of the many group exercise/massage classes. We spent the day taking in the sights - a quick peak at the rather well preserved Ho Chi Minh himself (he looks just like his photo); followed by a look around the museum and wander to the old French built Opera House. We went to a water puppet show in the evening. I like it - it’s a bit strange, as the puppets are on long sticks and they splash around in a water pool, but it’s
Propaganda posters
These are all over Vietnam colourful and you also get a taste of traditional Vietnamese music.
Another Vietnamese World Heritage Site (and apparently a contender for the 8th Wonder of the World?!) is Halong Bay. This is the where the rocks shoot up out of the sea (Lynne’s explanation for Karst). We decided to go on an overnight cruise and got a good deal from the hostel we were staying at. It was great. The food was fantastic, the company very interesting and international, and the boat itself was really nice. The night before we had set off there had been a huge thunder storm so we weren’t optimistic about the weather but we spent our afternoons basking in the sun and enjoyed kayaking and jumping off the boat into the sea (Andy of course had to jump from the highest point on the boat!). It was a really nice way to say bye bye to Vietnam.
As you've probably noticed, most of the places we visited in Vietnam start with "H". HCM, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi and Halong Bay! Wonder why that is?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0303s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb