Bridge the Travel Gap

‘The World is for me today; nothing is personal.’

John and I, I believe, are slow travelers – that’s our favourite way to go.  So, often, I feel like we don’t do much in a week and I fear I’ll have little to write about.  So when I sat down and wrote the list, once again, I’m amazed at how much we have done.  Yes, we would do more in shorter time and filling our days, but that’s just not us.

Lotus Water Puppets
Hanoi, Vietnam

So, this week, we left Hanoi, with our India visa acquired, but before leaving we watched another and, in my opinion, better water puppet show.

Then we had a few days in Hue – much quieter than Hanoi.  We took an overnight train which was an experience in itself,

Overnight sleeper train

as Vietnam is Communist, they have no first class on the trains, so we shared a berth with 2 other Vietnamese men.

Once in Hue, we did an all day tour of the highlights of the area.  This included visiting 2 amazing tombs – Minh Mang & Khai Dinh tombs, a very old Pagoda where the 1963 monk’s car was – who set himself on fire, then we went to a day market and saw how incense is made.  A full, hot day. (Photos of this day of touring can be found at the end of the blog.)

The next day, we had a King and Queen banquet meal and took it a bit easier, as we were off again the next day to Hoi An.

King and Queen Banquet meal

Our drive to Hoi An included a tour through the countryside so we saw old army bunkers, Red Beach – where the Americans first landed and the beautiful Marble Mountains. (Photos for this tour can be found at the bottom of the blog.)

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here over 2 weeks.  It’s the shoulder season as they head into the low season of summer.  Everyday is very warm with high humidity, at least the hotels rooms are well air-conditioned, so we sleep very comfortably each night.

Vietnam is a great place to be!

Debx

Photos of our tour in Hue:

Tomb of Minh Mang

Tomb of Khai Dinh

Perfum River/Incense making/Dragon Boat/Day Market:

Hue Imperial City

Imperial Museum:

Thien Mu Pagoda:

Photos from Day tour to Hoi An:

Drive through Da Nang – including Marble Mountains, Buners, Red Beach, etc.