Ha Noi and Ha Long Bay

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We haven't had a decent internet connection in forever. I'll try to get a little caught up...

Hue

In Hue we visited the Hue Imperial Palace, which was home to emperor's from about 1800-1945. It's like a city inside of a city...it has a huge wall around the entire area, which I seem to remember being about 1 mile x 1 mile in size. Then there is a another wall inside that one...to protect the emperor and his family.

I asked everyone in the group if we could just go eat a normal lunch instead of the 5-6 course spread we had been eating. Everyone was in agreement so we had our driver, who was born in Hue and visits all the time, take us to a local bun bo hue (a noodle/meat dish that I like a lot). We hit up a little cafe on a back street and the bun bo hue was the best thing I had eaten so far...😊

We got on the road and started our 3 hour drive to the next town. Along the way we took a detour to see a large Catholic shrine. The story is that about 200 years ago the Catholic religion was being banned in Vietnam and everyone went to the jungle to hide. They were sick, short of food, etc. and the Virgin Mary appeared to them and told them how to make medicine, etc. They refer to her as the "Lady of La Vang". It was pouring down rain and pretty chilly when we were there but even so, there were around 100 people praying outside. The original church was destroyed during the war in 1972, only the front was left...so they just kind of added on to it, no money to rebuild.

Got to the hotel after dark, plus it rained all day. Went out to eat and crashed early. No internet at the hotel, tomorrow we visit some river/caves and then catch a flight to Ha Noi.

Ha Noi

Got up early, had breakfast at the hotel, the usual buffet spread. We took an hour or so drive out to the country to Ke Bang National Park. It's a fishing village on a river and our guide, Ly, says the caves are similar to the caves at Ha Long Bay.

We got our own boat, see pics, to take up the river. There were a ton of boats there and a lot of tourists. It was about a 30 minute ride to the caves and the weather was nice. A little cloudy but it was only about 80 degrees, which was a nice change from the heat. We have to catch a flight around lunchtime, so we only toured two of the larger caves. There was a professional photographer with us on the boat and he took some good pictures of everyone but they are prints, so I can't upload them w/o scanning them first.

The caves were cool, like what you see at Carlsbad Caverns, etc. The NVA used these caves to hide in during the war from the U.S. There were spots that had been cut out and you could see where they had meetings, etc.

After the tour we went back to town and had lunch, another multi dish affair but the restaurant was a small, mom/pop type place so it was a little more fun than the fancier places we had been eating in lately.

Got back in the van and headed to town to catch our flight. We got to the airport and it was one of the smallest I've ever seen...about a block wide at the most. It was actually closed when we arrived at 12:30. We had to ask the guard to open the gates for us and then it was about 15 more minutes before anyone arrived to "OPEN" the airport...:-)

Caught our flight to Ha Noi easily. The airport just had two flights coming in...one from Saigon and one from Ha Noi, then returning to those cities. The plane was a dual prop that sat about 40-50 people max. We rode a little shuttle bus out to the plane to board. When we arrived in Ha Noi, took about an hour, we took another shuttle bus to the airport. The Ha Noi airport is nice, good size and tons of visitors. Met our guide Dung and our driver, Tuan. They took us to the hotel, Hanoi Hotel, to check in. It's a big hotel and looks like anything back home, here's a link:

http://www.hanoihotel.com.vn/en/Hanoi-Hotel/

It's kind of funny...we leave this big, newer airport and right outside the airport I see manufacturing plants for Panasonic, etc. and then right beside them are people working in rice fields and there are people driving cattle across the highway...all this right in the middle of a city of millions.

On a side note, the average property in Saigon goes for about $16k per square meter and the property in Ha Noi goes for about $20k per square meter. A square meter is about 10.7 square feet, so property in Saigon is almost $1500 per square foot and almost $1900/sq foot!!! The average shop you see in the pics about the city is worth a million dollars!!! Yes, lots of people know this and they are waiting to sell until they retire...:-)

While the hotel was new and nice, it had turned off cold that day, about 60 degrees and the mini-split in the room wouldn't run in heat pump mode, so we had no heat. Our room was a suite, it had a living room with half bath and a bedroom with a full bath. When we went downstairs to meet our guide for supper, we spoke to the front desk and they sent up a oil filled type of heater, which at least kept the bedroom warm. They also didn't have any internet except the pay kind. With Ha Noi being a large city, everything was more expensive so we passed on paying for the internet, hoping for a free wi-fi spot somewhere but we never went anywhere that had one.

Supper was at a very modern looking restaurant...it had a Japanese feel with the low seating/table arrangements but it was mostly open air. They had heaters going so the temp wasn't bad and the restaurant was very cool looking. It was the kind of place you would see in any big city back home from Dallas to LA. The food was good but the food in the North area of Vietnam is different than the south...just like back home. Went back to the hotel and I noticed a pizza sign, so we ordered a small pepperoni pizza. It cost about $6 and was good but the pepperoni was definitely not the type of pepperoni you get back home...good but different.

Ha Long Bay
Got up early to go to Ha Long and see the sights. It's about a 3 hour drive out to Ha Long. We stopped about halfway there at a little cafe and took a bathroom break and got a Vietnamese iced coffee and a snack.

We arrived in Ha Long early, around lunchtime. We ate at a little restaurant on the edge of Ha Long and being next to the ocean, it was primarily seafood of course. Everything was great...when its cooked hours after being caught it just tastes better...:-)

Checked in our hotel, took a couple hour break and then went on a driving tour of the city and to a restaurant to eat. It was on the far side of the bay, there's a big bridge that goes across now but a few years ago everyone had to take a ferry across. It was a huge, beachfront restaurant. Tons of good seafood. The restaurants in Vietnam, everywhere you go, if they offer seafood all have big saltwater fish tanks with everything alive. You can pick the clams, the lobster or the fish you want and they will cook it. I know back home we have a few places that kind of do this...but over here, it's just the norm...everyone expects it.

Got up early the next day, breakfast at the hotel...lots of Japanese tourists here...then off to catch our boat to tour the bay. We had our own boat, just us, the guide and a photographer. We toured a couple of caves then took a 2 hour ride through the bay. It was overcast that day but didn't rain. The weather was warmer in Ha Long than Ha Noi, about 80-85 degrees.

The caves were similar to the ones in Ke Bang but these have been used by fisherman caught out in bad weather for hundreds of years. They also have a lot of ceremonies and parties out in the larger caves...like during the new year, etc.

The tour around the islands was very cool. Saw a couple of the floating fishing villages which have schools, etc. on them and the people only go to land to pick up supplies. It's definitely one of the prettiest places I've ever seen and if you get a chance, it's a must see spot.

After the tour through the bay, we headed back to shore and went to visit a local pearl manufacturing company. They show how the oysters are prepped and grown and have a big showroom selling lots of pearl jewelery. After that we went to a nice local spot and had a hot pot with fresh seafood. Everything was really good and you get a waiter assigned to your table to do the cooking. That was a first because everywhere I've had hot pots it's always been a do it yourself thing.

Got up early and headed back to Ha Noi to catch our flight. We ate at a restaurant at the hotel while the guide got our bags checked and picked up our tickets. For a airport restaurant, the food was pretty good.

Our flight arrived on time and was smooth going back to Saigon. It was nice to get back to where the weather is warm!!!

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Photos

La Vang church
This is what's left of the church afterthe war. I have another picture which shows what it looked like back in the 50's before the war.

walking the grounds
This whole area around the national park is covered by groves of rubber trees.