Days 11, 12 & 13

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Geo: 14.0583, 108.277

Day 11: Hue. The drive to Hue was breathtaking. We traveled by air conditioned bus through the mountains of central Vietnam stopping at various locations along the way. At one point, we were high up overlooking a deep valley and the China Sea. A small stand (selling souvenirs, imagine that!) at a bend in the road was one of our stops. Three or four older women (by that, I mean they were probably around my age) were selling trinkets, cold drinks, and snacks.

I want to point out here that all of the places that sell snacks don't just sell the typical Vietnamese snacks of some sort of peanut brittle or coconut “cookies” but Pringles, Oreos, Ritz Crackers--they're everywhere in these little packs.

Anyway, back to these women…they all came over to me. I haven't mentioned this before but this seems to happen everywhere and my thought is that single “older” women tourists may be somewhat of an oddity. I really don't know but I do find when I walk down the street with some of these young British girls I've met, I am the one approached most often by the people trying to sell stuff. Anyway, one of the women started telling me that she cooked for American soldiers back during the war. Then, she told me her husband was killed in a motor bike accident. She took me around a fortress that Americans used during the war. All of a sudden I realized that here I am in the middle of the country and this woman spoke better English than any other person I've encountered. Amazing.

We got in to Hue and went to the Citadel and the Imperial City. That is where the emperor used to live. A lot of it was destroyed during the war but is being restored by the people. I also went to one of the markets. These markets in all of these cities are where you see the most action. Everything you can imagine is sold there--clothes, household items, furniture, vegetables, meat, toys, flowers, fish. Pretty much, anything you want. They're better than the malls because you can haggle. If you don't like the price, offer them less, if you still don't, walk away and they'll lower the prices even more. I'm actually not very good at this but I find I'm getting better. It's going to be hard going to Dillards or Publix and paying the sticker price because here in Vietnam, everything is negotiable.

Day 12: Hue. A few of the people I am traveling with decided to take a motor bike tour but I really wanted to be on my own. I've pretty much done my own thing throughout this trip and just met up with some of the group for drinks or dinner. Yesterday I spent pretty much the whole day with the group so I wanted to explore on my own. I like walking around and going into the odd little café for an iced coffee. I usually find that I can strike up a conversation with one of the locals. I slept a little later than usual and didn't get down to breakfast until about 8:30.

I had a wonderful time. I walked along the Perfume River, browsed in some of the shops, and talked with several people. Hue is a busier town than either Nha Trang or Hoi An.

We had to catch the night train to Hanoi at 3:00 so it was a short day. What a pleasant surprise when we boarded the train--we got first class! The first train we had taken was pretty nice, the second was not, this one was beautiful. Once we were underway, a steward came around to our cabins and poured tea, gave us little biscuits, and a bottle of water. We had fresh bedding, including blankets (it gets very cold on the trains--they like their air conditioning) and pillows. It was also nice to be on the train when there was still daylight. The other two didn't depart until after dark. We passed LOTS of rice paddies and we saw water buffalo.

Day 13. Hanoi/Halong Bay. We arrived in Hanoi at 5:00 am and transferred to a bus to our hotel in the old quarter. When we got there, we had breakfast but had to wait until 8:00 am for our transport to Halong Bay. This was the only time that made no sense to me. We weren't checking into the hotel but we were told to pack a day bag for the overnight in Halong Bay. Our main bags were going to stay here in Hanoi. Now remember, we had checked out of our hotel in Hue at noon the day before, walked around in 90+ degree heat (well, I did--most of the others were riding around in the heat), then we got on a 14 hour train ride, slept in our clothes and were supposed to go the Halong Bay without changing or showering.

When we finished breakfast it was about 6 am so I went up to the desk and asked about getting a room for showering. They charged me $15.00 (no, I didn't haggle--I decided that it was worth it to be able to shower and comfortably go through my things to see what I wanted to take with me to Halong Bay). Anyway, I was very glad I did it and I let who ever wanted to use the shower or bathroom after I was finished, use it.

The trip to Halong Bay is approximately 3-½ hours on a very well paved road. We passed a HUGE complex of CANON buildings. I asked about that and was told that the people may approximately $1.00/day making Canon parts.

Halong Bay is incredible. We went out on a private junk cruising among the 1,000+ islands. Once we started cruising, we were served a delicious lunch of crab, shrimp, fried spring rolls, squid, and a white fish that I don't know what it was but it still had its head (it was cooked however). We stopped at one of the islands and explored this massive, incredible cave. More cruising in the tranquil blue Halong Bay and then we stopped at a beautiful beach for some swimming. The water was about the same temperature as the Gulf. We docked at just about sunset.

When we checked into our hotel--another surprise. Each room had a beautiful view of Halong Bay. Most of the views from the hotel rooms have been less than spectacular--rooftops and people's kitchens or living areas, parking lots, in Nha Trang, I actually had TWO windows and the back one was a view of the laundry. I guess since that's one of the places I had laundry done, I could've watched for my own. By the way, it costs $1.00/1 kilogram of laundry--this is for hand washing, line drying, and ironing. You give it to them by about noon and you have it back by 6. Amazing. Had I known that before I came here, I would've only brought three changes of clothing instead of five pairs of pants and one shirt and one underwear for each day. I know, if I brought all of those clothes, why did I need laundry. I had thought that I could wear each pair of pants three times. NOT. Everything gets dirty here. I have no idea why but it does. You cannot wear the same thing more than once.

Also, the weather has definitely cooperated wonderfully. It only rained the one time I didn't have my poncho with me. When I went to Cu Chi Tunnel, I left my backpack in the bus I had taken because they said it would be tough to maneuver through the tunnel. Of course, that's the day it rained. I guess it did rain the day in Saigon I was getting the massage but I was inside the whole time it was raining.

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