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Walking in the past – UNESCO World Heritage site – Hoi An

‘Live like there is no tomorrow’

Most of this week has seen us in a city called Hoi An – a world UNESCO Heritage site for its old town.

Fabrics

Some of the fabrics I chose from.

Also, its well-known for its tailors, so I got some, much-needed, clothing made, as its hard to buy clothing, of any quality, that would fit a Western sized person.  So my first few days focused a lot on getting the clothing made, priced and fitted.  I was lucky to have met some New Zealand women on my cruise in Halong Bay who recommended the tailor I used and, so far, the clothes are great and very comfy (Photos of outfits at bottom of blog.)

The Old Town of Hoi An is beautiful.  Twice a day they shut it down to all mopeds – cars are not allowed at any time – and it becomes very peaceful and old worldly.

Reaching Out Tea House

View from Reaching Out Tea House – run by people with no hearing or speech disabilities

Old House Quang Thang

Old House Quang Thang

The buildings are 300 years old with some gorgeous architecture.  You buy a 10 day pass into the old town which includes 5 sights of a possible 22.  I was lucky and saw 7 of the sights.  They have old houses where people’s families live intergenerational for hundreds of years and you can walk around and take photos – like an open house.  I got to 2 of these homes – Old House Dec An and Old House Quan Thang – both beautiful.

Old House Duc An

Old House Duc An

Burial Urn

Burial Urn at the Museum of Sa Huynh Culture

I went to one museum – Museum of Sa Huynh Culture and visited the Japanese bridge with a temple.

Japanese Bridge

Japanese Bridge

I went to 2 Assembly Halls which are very similar to clan houses in Malaysia – a cross between a temple and a shrine to the ancestors of a given family.

My favourite of the sights to visit was the Traditional Art Performance which was a 20 minute show with singing, live players and dance.

Musicians

Dancers and Musicians

There are a lot of tourist shops, but I didn’t feel overly hassled and a polite ‘no thank-you’ was enough.

There are some stellar places to eat and drink, such as: Reaching Out Tea House, Samurai Kitchen, Miss Ly’s Restaurant and Hoi An Roastery.

I have a real passion for tea, what is something you seek out when you are traveling, as a must experience, when you can do it?

Love

Debx

Photos of outfits made:

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Debbie Bridge South East Asia, Travel, Vietnam No Comments

Why come to Vietnam?

After being in Vietnam for three weeks I thought I would pen a few words to paper about our experiences. It has been a lot easier than we expected. Booking train tickets, nice hotels with hot running water and friendly people. Hanoi was brilliant. I am glad we were delayed getting our Indian visa due to holiday celebrations.

We got to see the fireworks on Reunification Day and explore a lot of the city thanks to Hanoi kids. See my review here on tripadviser:

Hanoi Kids, do the tour you will not regret it

Halong Bay was brilliant and I am glad we paid a bit extra to do a tour that had good reviews. I am also happy that we decided to do the three days and two night cruise. Otherwise after you drive four hours to Halong Bay you get on the boat rush around and get off the boat less than 24 hours later for a long drive back to Hanoi. Below is a link to my review of our Halong Boat trip.

Halong Cruise with Viola Cruises

Train trips are brilliant with it easy to book. The trains are comfortable and have running water for a quick face wash in the morning and they even bring you meals. Our next stop was Hue where we enjoyed our full day tour exploring the Kings and Queens tombs and the Old Citadel. The drive to Hoi An was easy and booking a car and driver who stopped along the way was well worth it. Hoi An we relaxed for a week. Going to the beach or into the old town. Now, we are at Nha Trang the only foreigners staying at a hotel that are not Russian much to the amazement of the staff.

If your concerned about coming to Vietnam and doing it yourself, don’t be. We mostly use trip adviser and are careful on where we stay and so far, fingers crossed have been lucky in our selections. Our last stop is Saigon and hopefully we have made a good choice there. On cost, we are paying around US$750 a week for both of us. This includes 3-4 star hotels, tours, food and transport through Vietnam. I know you can do travel in Vietnam a lot cheaper than this if you stay at guest houses or backpackers accommodation. However, for a few dollars more your enjoyment and memories will probably be better ones.

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Hanoi and Hue

Hanoi and Hue

This week we spent a bit more time in Hanoi and then took the train to Hue.

Hanoi

One of the challenges we had during our second week was to get an Indian visa. I choose to apply for an India visa in Hanoi after reading several reviews on how easy it was to get a visa here as long as you do the paperwork correctly. It was easy, however, we unintentionally chose the week to apply where Vietnam had a 8 day holiday break! Hence we had to wait a week for our visa where it normally would take three days. On the bright side we both loved Hanoi as a city and had a ball exploring the city and eating out every night.

We spent the week in Hanoi visiting several sites including the Temple of Literature, two water puppet shows, Ho Chi Minh Museum and eating at a lot of restaurants. The highlight of the week was doing a great day tour with Hanoi Kids, highly recommended if you are ever in Hanoi. Once we had our Indian visa we booked a sleeper train to Hue which was easy and cost US$90. We had a lovely apartment, four bunks, air conditioning and the train trip took around 14 hours. We even got an upgrade at our hotel in Hue and an early check in.

Hue

We spent four days in Hue. It is a great city to explore with its ancient Citadel and the tombs from past Kings. During the three days we were there we did an all day tour visiting the tombs of past kings, the Citadel which was partially destroyed by the French and Vietnam wars as well as a boat cruise down the Perfume river and visited a pagoda and Buddhist temple. The Cherish Hue Hotel where we stayed did a king and queen feast and we got to dress up and have a wonderful meal. All in all it was a great week seeing some great sights in Hanoi and finding out more about the history of Vietnam in Hue.

Our next week is in Hoi An.

Cost of the week in Vietnam

This week we were four nights in Hanoi, one night on a train and two nights in Hue.

Silk Queen Hotel accommodation was US$220 for the four nights
Train night trip to Hue was US$90. You can book directly at the station for just US$70. We decided to go through out hotel and pay the commission.
Cherish Hue Hotel (formerly the Camellia Hotel) was US$95 for two nights.
Transport aside from train, attractions, food and drink was 6 million dong or US$280.

It worked out to US$685 or US$98 per day.

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Debbie Bridge South East Asia, Travel, Vietnam 2 Comments

Moving Southwards – Hanoi, Hue & Hoi An, Vietnam

‘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

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

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

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.

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Debbie Bridge South East Asia, Travel, Vietnam No Comments

Feast for the Senses – Hanoi, Vietnam

‘Just because something isn’t happening for you right now doesn’t mean that it will never happen.’

Flags

Flags of Hanoi, Vietnam

This week in Hanoi, Vietnam has been a real treat.  We are right in the heart of the old quarter near Hoan Kiem Lake – there’s a great fable about this lake (check out the link.)  Each morning they do all sorts of calisthenics around this lake and surrounding streets.

During the day time it’s a city of never-ending noise from Roosters crowing to horns honking – I love it.  It has such energy and seems to be always moving – even if crossing the street can feel like mayhem on wheels.  There seems to be a gentle understanding of fluidity – horns honk, but there’s no real aggression expressed – not like a New York cabbie!  Just a gentle warning and then move on – swim around you.  I like it, as there seems to be a good awareness.  You can’t become complacent and assume you know what will happen, but need to be flexible to step aside or stop as needs be.  It looks and sounds worse than it is.  It’s better than in Western driving when you are always second guessing who will ‘run that traffic light’ – here they just do and you just go around it.

Hanoi

Crazy Streets of Hanoi

Re-Unification

Celebrations for the Labour Day and Re-Unification of Vietnam

This has been a week of holidays – they’ve had Labour Day and Re-Unification Day, so it’s been a lot of flags

Flags

Communist flags of Vietnam

and fireworks.

Fireworks

Fireworks

We’ve managed to see some of the main tourist sites – Temple of Literature (1,000 years old),

Temple of Literature

Temple of Literature

the ‘Maison Centrale’ or ‘Hanoi Hilton’ or Hanoi Prison (interesting political history of Vietnam),

Hanoi Prison

Hanoi Prison

Water Puppets,

Water Puppets

Water Puppets

Night Market,

Night Market

Night Market

Temples,

Temple

Temple

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Ho Chi Minh Museum

and one-pillar pagoda,

One Legged Pagoda

One Legged Pagoda

Ethnology Museum (great place for cultural history of Vietnam)

Village Hut

Village Hut – this is a matriarchal home, with 2 entrances the one with the breasts is for ladies and guests. It’s polite to grab the breasts when you enter.

and an example of an old house in the old quarter.

Old House

Old House

Part of this we did on our own and part was with Hanoikids – a free tour guide run by local students to help them improve their conversational English.  Really great opportunity to meet and talk with a local and see places you wouldn’t normally see.

Hanoikids

John with our Hanoikid guide – Lê Phương Vũ

This is the first place we’ve been where theft, haggling and dodging cons is just a part of the tourist life.  We’ve had people who try to fix our ‘broken’ shoes to taxis with quickly rising fares.  So far, we’ve managed to dodge, but none of it takes away from the wonderous world that is Hanoi!  Such a great place to be introduced to.  What are some of your nightmare experiences with travel?

Communist

Communist freedom fighters statue

Debx

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Swimming with the Manatee and lots more

Swimming with the Manatee and lots more

The final leg of our adventures in the USA was busy. We visited Florida, did a cruise in the Caribbean and travelled through the panhandle via Texas to California. After leaving Virginia we had a few days in South Carolina and Georgia. We then went on to Florida where we spent a month. During that month we spent a week driving down to Key West via the Everglades.

We then returned to Orlando for a few days at a Thousand Trails Campground. Then it was a short drive to Tampa and a week-long cruise in the West Caribbean where we visited Rotoan Island, Mexico and Belize.

After the cruise we did my favourite activity in the USA which was to swim with a Manatee. It was just brilliant. Such gentle beasts and with soulful eyes. We then spent Xmas in Jacksonville where I was sick us the proverbial dog for two weeks.

Our last leg was spent visiting Texas where we stayed with the lovely Helen and her pooch Charlie. We then visited several states including Louisiana for New Year, New Mexico and then on to Arizona and finally California. we did a lot visiting Tombstone, driving the Apache Trail, canyon walking in Arizona and boondocking at Quartzite. A great way to end our stay in the USA.

After finishing the USA leg of our trip we move on to Australia.

Highlights for me

Swimming with a manatee
Meeting friendly Americans
Tombstone
Deadwood acting Debut
New Mexico and its scenery
Driving the Apache Trail
Boston
Yellowstone Grand Canyon
Old Faithful Geyser
Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments
Buffalo round up
Boondocking in Arizona
Visiting the Everglades
Air boat ride
Finding the original Yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz in Peekskill
All the lovely swimming pools at campgrounds we visited

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Debbie Bridge North America, Travel, USA No Comments

Hanoi motorcyle ballet

We have been in Hanoi a week. It has been a fun week exploring the city and relaxing in a lovely hotel. What most impresses me is what I call the motorcycle and scooter ballet. Hours of entertainment can be had by going to a cafe, preferably at an intersection. Then just sit back relaxing with a beer and watch the ballet of continuous traffic of weaving in, out and around people as they walk across the road. Coming from New Zealand and living in England it makes me realise how bad drivers are there. Yes you read me correctly. Western drivers need rules to slow down and give way. In Hanoi, common sense is used in most cases.

The difference between Hanoi and traffic in places where I live, is the speed and common sense. It may look dangerous and mayhem but there is an art form in how the drivers avoid collisions by just driving with common sense and at a speed which works. I would be curious about other people’s impressions of the traffic in Hanoi. Of course, when crossing the road you must be careful. I have seen one person hit (nudged) at a speed in which just cross words were used and it was a tourist who was not looking both ways.

I also found out that the car is coming in numbers. In 2018 when Vietnam joins ASEAN tax on cars apparently goes to zero. If you want to experience Vietnam and all its zen like traffic chaos then now is the time to visit. Once cars arrive in numbers it will be one big continuous traffic jam.

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How we did Halong Bay and a few days in Hanoi

How we did Halong Bay and a few days in Hanoi

Our first stop after Thailand was Hanoi. This post discusses how we did Halong Bay and a few days in Hanoi. It was surprisingly easy to book a great cruise and enjoying our stay in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

Hanoi

We arrived early in Hanoi after a red-eye flight from Bangkok. Customs was relatively simple with only a short wait till we got our visas. Then we met our driver from the hotel who drove us to our hotel the Silk Queen. Wow, since I was last in Hanoi there is now a new modern airport with a new motorway into the city. What a difference. Last time my driver had to avoid water buffalo on the road. This time no water buffalo and in the Old Quarter of Hanoi in 40 minutes. Our hotel is in the heart of the Old Quarter and only a few minutes walk from Hoan Kiem Lake. We found an ATM close by and for the first time we became millionaires, albeit in Vietnamese Dong.

Halong Bay

We decided to hit the ground running and book a trip to Halong Bay as soon as possible. Before we came to Hanoi we had done some research and decided to spend a bit more that we normally would. This was to avoid some of the horror stories we had read on trip advisor about Halong cruises. Ms Rose a travel organiser at our hotel did all the legwork. We chose Viola Cruises. Excellent choice. The boat was new with 16 cabins. They used a modern mini bus for the four-hour trip to Halong Bay which was still uncomfortable and thank goodness for the half hour break on the way there. I booked the honeymoon cabin it was our 9th wedding anniversary. We got Room 205 with a great balcony to sip some wine and watch the mountains as we glided past them. The food, aside from the first lunch was excellent and there was plenty of it. We loved everything, the caves, floating village, swimming, pearl farm and kayaking.

The scenery is truly magnificent. We got a great view climbing the 427 steps to the top of an Island on the first day for great photos. On the second day we visited fairy lake and a musical cave as well as learn about pearls at a pearl farm. Just wish they had sold oysters to eat. Little things like the welcome drinks of Vietnamese red wine on the first night and snacks, the green jelly cake gift, squid fishing and learning how to make Vietnamese spring rolls on the last day made this a memorable and enjoyable trip. We did pay US$600 for the 3 days and two nights and in my opinion it was well worth it.

If you decide to do a cruise with any of the companies just make sure you bring a cushion for the ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay is 4 hours. Overall I would highly recommend Viola. The staff were friendly, humorous and informative as well as being professional. I wish I had brought binoculars with me and not sure if the boat had any. My wife also enjoyed the Tai Chi in the mornings. If you do the tour take some time on your balcony and enjoy the sunsets.

Back in Hanoi

We returned to the Silk Queen for a further 8 nights as we had to wait for our Indian Visas. For the rest of the first week we ate at various restaurants and explored the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

What did it cost?

Halong Bay Cruise was US$600 for two nights and three days
Silk Queen Hotel was US$275 for five nights
Food, attractions was US$373 or 8,000,000 Vietnamese Dong.

Seven day total was US$1,248 or US$179 per day. We are $30 over budget per day but the cruise was worth it.

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