The Christmas Blog

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Hi everyone,
having left the rain in Hoi- An, we moved on to Hue, the old capital of Vietnam. But it also rained there - check out Mik's tent raincoat! Old capital was nice.

After one night, we caught the (no-) sleeper bus to Ninh Binh. Kids slept well, although we had to peel Gabe off the roof after one particularly bumpy bump.

NB was great - we spent all first day on push-bikes, riding the backroads and villages to Tam Coc (a terrestial equivalent to Halong Bay). Nice cruise along the waterway with several thousand other tourists, through caves to a turn-around point where the hard (but polite) sell kicked in, and we managed to escape with only a couple of large embroidered doilies.

Next day we hired a human to drive us to Cuc Phuong National Park to inspect the tortoise and monkey rehabilitation centres. Also visited a floating village that seemed mostly to have crept out of the water and on to solid ground - bit like a frog, but with a bit more intent. Lovely people though.

Then some buses and boats to where we are now: Cat Ba Island (just south of Halong Bay), the French Riveria of Vietnam. Just missed out on being the 1 000 000th visitor for 2009 - big party on christmas eve to ensure said visitor (and the 999 999th and 1 000 001st) received many accolades and gifts.

We had a beachy christmas day - nearly made it into the water, but then Karin got cold feet. Had a beautiful christmas dinner as guests of our hotel owners - mountains of delicious food.

The island is quite relaxed and quiet, being the off-season for the local tourists from Hanoi. So quiet in fact that today we hired motor scooters, to zoom around the island, looking at a cave and admiring the scenery.

Tomorrow, we board a junk for two days of cruising the bays.

Hope everyone had a happy christmas. Thanks to all who have sent a message via the Blog site.

Until we next grace the keyboard ...

The Eastons.

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Photos

Tam Coc
On the waterway to the caves.

Tam Coc
... and now going into a cave.

Tam Coc
Why didn't we think of this style?

Vietnamese Foot Badminton
"Dominic"

Kenh Ga floating village
Bits are still floating ...

Cat Ba sunset
... it really does look like this.

Sunset enhanced
The merest lean back means a 9 storey drop to the next life ...