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Published: October 6th 2007
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Hi all, Once again it's a bit behind as we have just been having too much fun to stop and type up the blog, oops!!
From Hoi An we take a bus to My Son another of Vietnam's overgrown World Heritage listed Cham ruins. Interesting but once you have been to Angkor nothing quite compares. We then head on to our next destination, Hue, on a 4 hour bus journey through the Vietnamese countryside, rice paddy fields and fresh fruit in abundance. Hue is a small city, full of lakes, canals and is set on the Perfume River. Although I'm not sure why it gets that name???? We arrive at our hotel and as we only plan to spend 2 nights here we immediately go exploring. The main sight here is the nineteenth century walled citadel, which was once the magnificent Imperial City. Having explored by foot for many hours we then opt to charter a boat along the Perfume River and take in the sights of life by the River. The boat is run by a sweet family with a small 4 year old boy who immediately befriends Humphrey. He won't leave his side. We stop down the river
at the Thien Mu Pagoda, the oldest Pagoda in Hue. We are escorted by the 4 year old who won't leave Humphrey's hand. As it is still a working Pagoda, lots of monks are milling around, it feels so peaceful. As the sun goes down we return by boat to the city being sold everything from paintings to hand crafted ornaments. Spoils the tranquility of it all however it seems to be the way here in Vietnam, the people just need to make a living!!
Our flight to Hanoi is in the afternoon so we decide to take a cyclo around the walled city. Our cyclo driver is willing to take both Humphrey and I, poor guy. He then offers to take us by moped on route to the airport to the Emperor Tu Duc's Mausoleum. We travel though small villages by moped. It is just amazing as we see how life really is in the more rural parts of Vietman. Just about every woman/girl in Vietnam spends their life in pyjama's. Yes both day and night. The Du Tuc mausoleum is another astonishing piece of history built in 1847 this mausoleum is tucked away for Emperor Tu Duc
to write his poetry, fish and mediatate. It has lots of lakes, pavillions and lush vegetation all around. Sad to leave we head by moped to the airport to fly north to Hanoi. Hanoi is a smaller version of HCMC, completely overrun with mopeds and traffic. We take a taxi to a hotel which we had received a flyer for at the airport in Hue however on arrival the hotel is literally a building site. I can't quite believe that anyone in their right mind would want to stay here. So by foot we search for a hotel. We are in the heart of what you could describe as the Kho San Road of Bangkok. It's jumping with lots of agencies, stalls, shops and small hotels and many tourists. We find a newly opened hotel and manage to negotiate a good price and arrange our tour to Halong Bay with them for the following day. Our first evening in Hanoi and we both crave an Indian curry so off we go to sample the local Indian cuisine in Vietnam. Not quite the real thing but pretty good nonetheless.
Up early we are taken by bus to Halong city to
catch our junk for the 3 day cruise of Halong Bay. At 1230 we are onboard having a seafood lunch as we set sail through the bay. It is a spectacular world heritage sie crammed with jagged limestone outcrops jutting out of the sea. It is also slightly mistly so feels very mystical and mysterious. We visit an amazing cave, biggest both Humphrey and I have every seen. Then its into the bay for a swim to cool down. We spend the evening on the boat having dinner, chatting with the other fellow travellers. A real nice group of people of all ages from Australia, New Zealand, Estonia and London. The next day we head to Cat Ba Island and so some kayaking around the bay, Much more successful than our experience in Kanchanaburi. Lunch on board and then some cycling and trekking through Cat Ba national Park. Apart from the rickety old bikes the scenery is just amazing. We then get to cool down in the sea on Monkey Island. That night we spend on cat Ba Island. Next day it's back to Hanoi. We decide to spend 2 days in Hanoi as it's my birthday and just want
to chill, squeeze in some shopping of course and a bit of pampering. All of which we achieved admirably!
From Hanoi we take a trip to the north of vietnam to Sa Pa, the perfect mountain base for trekking through the paddy fields and villages of the Dao and Hmong minority peoples. We take an overnight train sharing a cabin with a lovely Aussie couple on their honeymoon. Arrive in Sa Pa at 6am, the weather is rainy and misty. Unfortunately the bad weather delays the start of our first trek until 2pmin the afternoon in the hope the weather clears. Humphrey and I feeling adventurous decide to do some exploring on our own rain or no rain. We are guided by some local minority people who escort (and i mean literally hold our hands) on this muddy trek down the valley to their minority village. We travel so far that there is no way to go back. We are at this point knee deep in mud and soaked to the skin, it's hilarious. Eventually after 3 hours trekking we finally reach the road and ask 2 locals with mopeds to take us back to the town. Soaked and
covered in mud we make it back to the hotel with minutes to spare. What an adventure! The best of it is that on return to our hotel, the guide asks where we have been to which she informs us that we go there tomorrow as part of the tour. Yikes!!!!!!
Our tour guide is an 18 year old local who is the sweetest girl, fun loving and keen to improve her English. She shares all her tales about life in Sa Pa growing up. It's just fascinating. We take her for dinner and treat her to pizza as she has only had once and that was last year so she is full of gratitude. We both love Sa Pa, the experience has been one of our favourites in Vietnam. With muscle aches after all our trekking we board the overnight train to return once again to Hanoi to catch our flight to our next destination, Laos.
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aunty pamela
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ROBERT'S WEE BABY REECE
wENT UP TO SEE REECE TODAY HE IS LOVELY WHAT A WEIGHT TOO 8LBS 14.5 OZ HE HAS KERRYS NOSE BUT LOOKS LIKE ROBERT. YOUR BOTH HAVING A GREAT TIME, SEE YOU SOON AUNTY PAMELA