Ha Long Bay

Some of the islands

Tanya gazing at the scenery

After much debate we decided to go on a 2 day boat ride on Ha Long Bay.  Ha Long Bay is a World Heritage Site in Northern Veitnam and is about 1,500 square kilometres in size.  The bay has thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.  Arguable the most popular attraction in Vietnam for both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese tourists is a boat trip around the bay.  You can take either a 1,2, or 3 day excursion and you sleep on the boat.  We decided on two days and being the low season we where able to bargain down the cost one of the nicer boats on offer (there are literally hundreds to choose from).

In Surprize Cave

At dusk

In the bay, there are over 500 boats

Mystical, maybe a bit too much so

Fishing boats, the lights help attract the fish

After a 4 hour mini-bus journey we arrived at Halong City and jumped on the boat.  We were not dissapointed.  The boat was really clean and nice (we heard stories of rust buckets and rats) and had the second most comfortable bed I’ve slept in.  The meals went on and on, upward of nearly 10 courses  (we tried to count but lost track thanks to the bottle of wine and good company) of tasty Veitnamese (mostly fresh seafood) at dinner.  Other than that you just lounge around on the upper deck, enjoy the incredble scenery, and chat with the others on the boat.  We did stop at a ”surprise cave” which was lit up with tacky strobe lighting but was also pretty amazing because it was so incredibly huge!    And we did some kayaking around the karsts and a floating village.  All in all is was a great trip (the pictures don’t do it justice at all though)!

The limestone islands covered in greenery

Streets of Hanoi

We walked on the streets of the old town of Hanoi. We saw a few sights (temples, churches), nothing too crazy or different from the usual sights. Hanoi does have an interesting street setup. The names of streets are named after the guilds that used to line them. After reading about this in the guide book, I had visions of streets lined with goods of one kind. Modern times bring modern changes, and this part of town has largely been devoted to tourist (many cafes, bars and tour offices). There were some similarities among the streets though, below I will share with you the different streets (or at least what I would have named the streets due to their merchandise) and some of the sights that we saw.

Gothic church

Stained Glass from inside the church

Old propaganda (Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complexe)

March of the dolls

Decayed walls

Roadside Key Cutting

Pineapples for sale

Sewing machine repair Street

Roadside Mechanic

House For Sale: Good access to train system

Motorcycle seat covering street

Some of the many seat covers

processed food street

Baby formula street

Coffee Street

Fragile load

Numbers on the wall

Stamps, made to order

Hue

Hue is a pleasant place to ride a bicycle

Hue is a town which houses the an Imperial Citadel. The citadel is a huge complex in the middle of the city. There is an outside wall, which houses many buildings, shops and houses. We rented bicycles and crossed the moat to check what was on the inside of the huge walls. Inside the walls is similar to that outside the wall, a Vietnamese city. As we have been moving north on our journey though Vietnam, we have noticed that the farther north you move, the more chilled out the country comes. In Siagon, it was crazy, a ton of motorcycles and many cars. The past week, we have seen more bicycles, less motorcycles and way less cars.

Inside the citadel

This is understandable as the wealth seems to be more concentrated in the south. Vietnam appears to have the most fairly distributed wealth out of all the countries we have visited. Saying that, there are some houses which are large (not huge), and there are some people living in poverty, but no where near as polarized as India, Cambodia or Malaysia. Everyone seems to own a motorcycle, and a surprising number of people own electric motorcycles.

Not really sure what this circular sign means, but it is everywhere in Vietnam

Another example of porcelain, and the symbol

A nice partially of restored house in the citadel

We went to see the imperial citadel the other day. It was great, there was a ton to see. The complex is huge, and as a result from its size, they were many times you could escape the crowds. It was great, Tanya and I would have a chance to walk alone, in quiet (the walls of the citadel cut out the traffic noise). We walked along the stone sidewalks, looking at the interesting use of porcelain to decorate the walls of the buildings. We even had the chance to watch a cat “play” with a small lizard, although, I’m sure the lizard wasn’t enjoying its last few minutes of life.

The lizard didn't really like this exercise

Tanya couldn't get enough of this wall

A dragon as a railing

Some of the colours seen

Kelly

Bright orange pillars stand against drab walls

Tanya, and the interesting windows

Some of the contrast of colours

Inside the one of the nicely restored building

The complex has many stages in different stages of restoration, as some parts are pretty much fully restored, many parts are not. Which is nice, there seems to be a nice balance of what it used to look like, and now, what it looks like after it has been neglected.

Tanya had to get a closer look too

I really wanted to get a closer look

The orange wall, the tiled walls, the big vase and the red and grey lines

An example of the nicely restored buildings

A detailed look at how the decorated their walls

Every entrance was nicely decorated

Golden roof, red walls, you see the Chinese influence here

The colours were truly amazing, full bodied reds, mixed with shimmering gold. Walls had the red brick colour, and were stained with years of tropical weather. Blue porcelain accented many buildings and green plants bordered nearly every wall. It was truly enjoyable way to spend the morning.

These archways are restored very nicely

Another example of the great porcelain work

Where's my beer?

Tanya hanging out

Hoi An

No cars are permitted in the centre, it was great

Hoi An is charming riverside town (I copied that description from the Lonely Planet) in the middle of Vietnam. There is a distinctive French influence…in the old town buildings, architecture, and the food (baguettes and pastries). Once again, Vietnam is tops on the awesome value accommodation and we found a great hotel with an even greater indoor-outdoor pool and our 3 days here went like this:  Wake up and eat all the fresh fruit we want at the free breakfast by the pool, rent bicycles and ride for 1-2 hours along a beautiful road on the ocean that is basically free of any traffic, come back sweating hot and jump in the cold pool, lounge in the sun, go for lunch, type up a post like this in the afternoon because it’s way to hot to be outside, then once it starts to cool down we hop back on the bikes to explore the streets and alleys of Old Town (which is closed to vehicle traffic – although it allows motorcycles).

Two spoons were needed to finish this dessert

The beach, and no one was on it

Looking down the river

Plenty of shoes to go along with all the clothes

Night Time in Hoi An, old buildings, great food

Lanterns on the side of the road

Clothing shops everywhere (every 2nd or 3rd shop)

Besides the historic old buildings, Hoi An is famous for Tailor-made clothing.  I’d say about every second or third shop is a tailor shop with enticing looking apparel…suits, jackets, tops, skirts, and dresses.  You can either a) choose from their samples b) you can bring in absolutely anything and they will copy it, or c) you can look through their stacks of photo albums full of magazine tear-outs of designer clothes they will make you for a fraction of the cost…in one day or less.

I couldn’t bear to spend money on something without knowing what it will look like in the end, however Kelly decided to take the plunge.  He brought in his favorite pair of shorts, picked out the material and color of the copy and that’s it…come back later that day!  We came back and overall they looked very similar to the original pair of shorts, though the sides of the sorts looked a little funny…too much material maybe…no problem though, the tailor comes right over and knows exactly how to fix it.  The next morning we go back and Kelly’s got himself a perfect copy of his favorite shorts.

In the centre of the city

A bright blue window, drab yellow decaying walls

Good to be back on bikes

Hoi An Menu

Champaign Taste – Beer Budget

Ocean view

While we might claim to be budget travelers, and certainly we have stayed in more than our share of accommodation complete with cockroaches, moldy walls, suspicious sheets, and rats…any chance we find a place to stay or restaurant to eat at that is really good value and still within budget (or…well…almost within budget) we go for it.

Pool side

This is exactly what we’ve done for the last few days we’ve spent in Mui Ne. We met a couple in Dalat who just came from Mui Ne and said we would never stay in a place so nice for so cheap, and this turned out to be true. For a price (basically) within our budget , our hotel has a swimming pool literally right out our door, the ocean and beach about 10 steps away, and includes things like free breakfast, free laundry, free wi-fi, free water, a DVD library, and an in-room kitchen and computer. It’s going to be hard to leave!

Computer geeks, the room came with a computer and we have our own, you would not believe how productive we are in this set up

Wifi breakfast, here we have free wifi and free breakfast

Since we’ve been in SE Asia we’ve made the great discovery of the benefits of low-season travel and the great deals to be had!! While you do have to put up with 40 degree weather and the occasional downpour of rain, you get hotels for way cheaper and happy hour specials galore.

We have taken a vacation…from our vacation!

Fairy Stream

After viewing the deserts we went to a place called Fairy Stream. Although the internet will tell you about a small waterfall, we didn’t walk far enough. We we did see was a small stream slowly eroding the heck out of giant sand dune. The result was a canyon, about 25m deep. To make things better, you had to walk up this stream to get to it, the stream was cool and it looked like we in paradise (you know, sandy banks, palm trees, hot weather). We even saw a cow, which adds to experience (being India for five months will make you look at cows in a whole different light). It was a lot of fun and no better way to spend the morning in this town.

Tanya walking down the streatm

Red sand contrasts with white sand

This rock bleeds…

Down the stream

Erosion

This was a spring, from the sand into the stream

It looked so nice here

Kelly and the cow

Mui Ne Sand Dunes

Mui Ne has some pretty spectacular sights. One being the sand dunes, there are two of them, one close to town (the yellow dunes) that sees a lot of tourists and another over an hour out of town (the white dunes). We signed up to go to the yellow ones early in the morning, early enough to catch the sunrise. Although is sunrise wasn’t anything spectacular, the sand dunes were. It was very cool, and the temp was nice as well.  We had fun (despite the 4:20am alarm setting), and it was pretty neat, now we have a new fondness of deserts.

The sun rising on the dunes, and the ocean

Tanya

Dunes

I love the texture of the sand dunes

Wind swept landscape

Glamor Shot

Another view of the Ocean

Kelly

Tanya and Kelly

Sand Dunes, early morning light, blue sky, perfect conditions for taking pictures

Sand Dune

Tanya

Tanya

Dunes

Kelly

Texture

Dunes

Dunes…again

Ok, maybe I went a little overkill on the number of dune pictures.

Silk and Crazy House

As you knew from our last post, we were involved with a motorcycle tour, which took us around the sights of Da Lat. Of the many things we saw, the Silk Factory and the Crazy house, I thought could use some more information.

The que of cocoons

Silk comes from the silk worm, but in reality it is a caterpillar, which makes it an insect, not a worm. Caterpillars should be allowed to become a moth, but as you will soon know, this doesn’t happen. The first thing that happens, is the caterpillar is fed mulberry leaves, in a controlled environment (like on shelves, with a screen to protect it from predators). The caterpillar eats the leaves for about a month, after a month it is ready to change into a moth, so it spins a cocoon. A tiny thread is made and it covers the whole caterpillar.

Coccons, awaiting the boilding water

The cocoon is then put into boiling water to kill the insect. The thread is then placed on a high speed dethreading machine.

Boiling the cocoons

The unraveling machine, cocoons at the bottom in boiling water

Another view of the unraveling machine

And that is it, you have the thread, you use a loom to make the fabric.

A loom turns the thread into material

Pretty interesting, or at least I thought so, see the worm, then the cocoon, the boiling water, the high speed dethreader and the loom was pretty cool. As an added benefit, you can take the boiled caterpillars, add some seasoning and sell them at the markets as a tasty, salty, protein snack.

The other sight that we saw was the Crazy house. This place was CRAZY…seriously. A place like this may be built in Canada, however it would have never had passed the building code. If it did pass the code, there is no way the public would be allowed to wander around this complex. Railings were knee height, and there were many opportunities for someone to trip and fall over 3 meters to concrete landing. Although it did look pretty cool, here are some pictures.

The view from the courtyard

Stairways

Another view

This pathway led to a 6m drop

An organic style was used

A swiss style was also used

An eagle protecting the egg

Creative Lighting

Da Lat

The very nice to see Urban Agriculture Interface, in Da Lat

After a long, windy, bumpy but very scenic bus ride (all the while wishing we were riding our bikes) we arrived Dalat. Stepping off the bus we were instantly refreshed by the weather here! It’s probably colder than Canada right now…no more that about 20 degrees Celsius! It’s been between 35-40 degrees basically everyday since leaving India (with really high humidity) so Dalat has been welcome relief! We actually wore sweaters for the second time on our trip (the first and only other time was in Hampi in December)

Eagerly anticipating getting outside in the fresh air…the first day here we rented a Tandem bicycle for some much needed exercise. There is a nice 7 km loop around a big lake in the middle of the city so we did a couple of loops. We really enjoyed the tandem (though it would have been nice if it actually fit properly…my knees often would hit Kelly’s seat). While the city is still very Vietnamese it has a European feel to it, due to the many French that lived here in the past. Dalat is a huge destination for vacationing and honeymooning Vietnamese.

A small one speed tandem bicycle

Tanya and her driver

For our second day, we couldn’t pass up the chance to experience the highly recommended motorbike tour with the “Easy Riders”. The Easy Riders are a group of local motorcyclists that take tourists on 1 to 5 day motorcycle tours of the Vietnam highlands. We had a fantastic time seeing the major sights (a pogoda, a waterfall and silk factory and the crazy house) in and around Dalat. It is an incredibly scenic area full of hills, trees and lots of farmland slightly resembling the Okanagan Valley.

The Crazy house

One of the sights we saw, a huge waterfall, and we got pretty close (we were soaked when were done here)

The guides got us to get off the bike and hike into Romatic Forest, here is the veiw

Dragon at the Pagoda, a stop on our motorcycle tour

We were really tempted to do one of the longer tours for a couple days but we decided to save our money. We both really like seeing the sights on a motorcycle and perhaps some day we’ll do a long motorcycle tour….but based on how many times we change our minds you just never know!

Cu Chi Tunnels

An American tank destroyed by a mine, mine parts supplied by an American B52, ironic isn't

Ho Chi Minh has a lot to offer. Apart from the city, there is also the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels gave the American army quite the headache back in the war. These tunnels went all the way to the Cambodian Boarder. At the tunnels you can see all the different tools used to fight the way. The traps were the most scary. Fully covered in camouflage, there would be no way you could see them. You would step on them and then get impaled by on of many different objects (sharp bamboo, sharpened metal shrapnel). They even had a durian trap that would fall from a tree when you triggered it.

looks normal

Until

This guy pops out

We walked in the tunnels as well, they were increased in size to make it more enjoyable for us tourists, none the less, it was still very tight. We walk about 50m underground and it was hard. You have to crouch so that you are less then a meter tall. Back in the war, the Vietnamese would walk 5km in these tunnels. Amazing.

Duran trap, this thing weight 5kg, would be up in a tree and would fall on you

After the exhausting day of seeing the tunnels we went home to relax. The rest of our trip was spent seeing whatever sights were close and interesting. Of note was the Fine Arts Museum.

A nice old Villa, now the Fine Arts Museum

No matter how flimsy, helmets are required here by law, they come in all shapes and colours

Ho Chi Minh at night