How does a country manage to function so quickly after such a long war? The Vietnamese people are so friendly, even in such a big city. we visited the War Remnants Museum - difficult.
Bobby Brewers cafe is great,it has a small free cinema on the top floor with about 30 seats - we saw a few films there.
We had a great meal when Lian Hoe took us for a meal at the Quan An Ngon restaurant - the best whilst we were in Vietnam.
Friday 29 October 2010
Thursday 21 October 2010
Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat
We went straight to Hue after Halong Bay. We got a good deal on a resort hotel - Pilgrimage Village - which turned out to be fantastic - we even got an upgrade. Hue has an incredible citadel much of which is ruins but is beautiful nevertheless. We also visited 2 royal mauoleums and a pagoda. The town itself is not very interesting.
Hoi An is on the river and still has many of the old buildings that were there when it was a major trading post up to the 18th century. We stayed in the Village Resort. We had one meal that was really good int he Cargo Club - it was the kind of food we expected to have often in Vietnam - lots of spices, lemon grass, basil, chili etc.
Nha Trang is a very pleasant seaside town. We just spent one night - to break up the journey from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City.
Dalat - we also stayed for just one night. It is a French Hill Station - founded in the 19th century. We visited a Vietnamese royal summer palace that was built in the 1930's. It was like a large English suburban house from that era - even the furniture.
Hoi An is on the river and still has many of the old buildings that were there when it was a major trading post up to the 18th century. We stayed in the Village Resort. We had one meal that was really good int he Cargo Club - it was the kind of food we expected to have often in Vietnam - lots of spices, lemon grass, basil, chili etc.
Nha Trang is a very pleasant seaside town. We just spent one night - to break up the journey from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City.
Dalat - we also stayed for just one night. It is a French Hill Station - founded in the 19th century. We visited a Vietnamese royal summer palace that was built in the 1930's. It was like a large English suburban house from that era - even the furniture.
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Halong Bay, Vietnam 11th October 2010
We booked a 2 day trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay. It included a bus from Hanoi (3 hours) and an overnight on a boat in the bay. We did not know what to expect because we only paid US$48 each and were worried that it was too cheap. Lian Choo had asked so many questions to a young lad in the travel shop in Hanoi and we think he got confused and quoted the wrong price. Anyway, we hoped it would turn out okay. In fact we were lucky, he quoted us a price for a standard boat, but had given us tickets for a deluxe boat and then the deluxe boat was full and we were upgraded to a luxury boat with the Imperial Company. It was only 3 months old and well kitted out and they served good food as well.
The Bay is amazing. It is hard to believe such land/seascapes really exist. The sea in the bay is green and has about 2,000 rocky karsts across it - most of them are covered in bushes and trees and some have caves.
The Bay is amazing. It is hard to believe such land/seascapes really exist. The sea in the bay is green and has about 2,000 rocky karsts across it - most of them are covered in bushes and trees and some have caves.
Saturday 9 October 2010
Hanoi 9th October 2010
We arrived a week ago. The city is interesting, lots of old buildings, nice lakes, temples, pagodas and a couple of nice restaurants. Generally the food is a bit disappointing, a bit bland - not what we expected in Vietnam. But we found a good place - Club Ly Thai To, very nice environment, service and good value food at lunch time.
The traffic here is unbelievable - constant motor bikes, taxis and buses. Crossing the road is an experience - no-one stops for pedestrians, many don't stop for red lights either.
Overall though a great place to visit.
The traffic here is unbelievable - constant motor bikes, taxis and buses. Crossing the road is an experience - no-one stops for pedestrians, many don't stop for red lights either.
Overall though a great place to visit.
Saturday 2 October 2010
1st October 2010
We went for a longer walk with another local tribal woman. We visited 2 villages one Black H'mon and the other Red Dzao - they wear red head-dresses. On the walk we saw lots of rice terraces and the farmers were harvesting the rice. We took a herbal bath in the Red Dzao village. The bath is a wooden tub filled with very hot water and 15 mountain herbs - it smelt nice. I just about fitted in the tub - they are just very large buckets. They claimed that regular baths cure all sorts of ailments - in fact any ailment as far as I could tell.
We have noticed that the people who still live traditionally, in China and Vietnam have a great sense of humour - they make jokes all the time and seem to enjoy making a play on words. Do all people who live simply cultivate a sense of humour like this?
30th September 2010
We took a short walk with a local tribal woman to a local village - Cat Cat. The people there are Black H'mon. They are the same ethnicity as the Miao people we met in Yunnan. The Black refers to their clothes - which are dark from the indigo dye they use. We picked some indigo leaves, they are ordinary looking green leaves, but after about a minute, they turn your fingers blue - amazing. There is a lovely waterfall in the village
29th September 2010
Yuanyang to Sapa Vietnam
We booked a bus from the mountain town leaving at 7.30am and were told it would take 5 hours to Hekou on the Chinese side of the border. The bus finally left at 8.00 and took just over an hour to get to the main town where it stopped until 10.00am. after that it went straight to Hekou - via back roads in order to avoid the tolls on the highway. We arrived in hekou at 4.30 - 7 hours altogether. Luckily, Vietnam is one hour behind so we got a bus from Lao Cai to Sapa. The border crossing was easy - it took about 10 minutes. Both sides were efficient, they did not search our luggage and from the Chinese side to the Vietnamese side is a short walk over a bridge.
We are staying at the Sapa Rooms Hotel which is a community project that trains and employs people from the local tribes. It is nice - the only disappointment is the cooking here - it is very bland - not at all like the Vietnamese cooking we can get in London. I expect we will get better food in Hanoi.
28th September 2010
We tried to visit some local villages today but it was raining so much and the clouds were so low that we could not see beyond the roadside, so we returned to town and had a walk around it. It is ugly - the buildings are in the modern concrete box style and beginning to crumble - but the views from the town are great - when the clouds cleared - it is very high up the mountain.
27th September 2010
Jianshu to Yanyuang
We took a taxi because we would have had to take quite along taxi trip to get from the main town to the mountain town anyway. It cost £37 pounds and took about 3 hours. the trip was very scenic - mountains, windy roads, mountain passes and we drove through clouds in one place.
After checking in to the hotel we hired a driver to take us to the huge rice terraces. They are over 2,000 years old. They are spread along the sides of a long wide valley - it is spectacular.
26th September 2010
Double Dragon Bridge and Tuanshan Village
The bridge is fantastic. Built in the traditioanl style in 1886 from stone and wood. I guess it is in such good condition because it is too narrow for motorised vehicles to cross.
The village is very old and we were lucky to be the only visitors. We visited some peoples' homes.
25th September 2010
Kunming to Jianshu.
We are staying at the Zhu Family Garden which is an old manor house that belonged to the Zhu family when they ruled the surrounding area. It is a traditional Chinese house with lots of courtyards and beautiful gardens.
We went to the Kong Ze temple which is the largest confucian temple in China and were lucky to see a traditional orchestra practising in the main courtyard.
23rd September 2010
We visited The Dragon Gate and the Confucian Temple. They are disappointing. The temple has been re-built in concrete and clearly no-one cares for it as a temple any more. It overlooks Ten Lake which is badly polluted by the factories on the far side of the lake - detergent is clearly visible on the lake. After we went to a really good local restaurant and had a meal with spare ribs mainaded in 13 spices and tied up with lemon grass and Yunnan ham fried with chili. The ham tastes like spanish Serrano ham - very nice.
Then we went to Yunnan Unversity. Its main building was built by a Chinese architect trained in France and the style of the building was a mixture - built in the 1930's
22nd September 2010
Train - Lijiang to Kunming
We returned to the Jinjiang Hotel - it is good and in a good location. We checked in and had another good meal in the hotel restaurant.
20th September 2010
Went to Baisha Village - a Naxi village. It is less visited than the other villages in the area, so is quieter and easier to see the lovely old buildings, mostly built of wood. We met the famous Dr Ho at his Chinese medicine clinic - he is over 80 years old now. We visited a few peoples' homes becasue they kept inviting us in.
After we went to Black Dragon Pool. It is the nicest city lake we ave visited in China - peaceful, clean, nice old buildings and bridges and a lovely view of Snow Mountain.
19th September 2010
Tiger leaping Gorge and Chiang Chiang First Bend
The gorge is beautiful - the river is very powerful here and the gorge very deep with steep sides.
After we went to the first bend in the Yangste river. It is one of the locations where the Red Army crossed on the Long March. It is at Stone Drum village and has a memorial to the crossing.
We went for a longer walk with another local tribal woman. We visited 2 villages one Black H'mon and the other Red Dzao - they wear red head-dresses. On the walk we saw lots of rice terraces and the farmers were harvesting the rice. We took a herbal bath in the Red Dzao village. The bath is a wooden tub filled with very hot water and 15 mountain herbs - it smelt nice. I just about fitted in the tub - they are just very large buckets. They claimed that regular baths cure all sorts of ailments - in fact any ailment as far as I could tell.
We have noticed that the people who still live traditionally, in China and Vietnam have a great sense of humour - they make jokes all the time and seem to enjoy making a play on words. Do all people who live simply cultivate a sense of humour like this?
30th September 2010
We took a short walk with a local tribal woman to a local village - Cat Cat. The people there are Black H'mon. They are the same ethnicity as the Miao people we met in Yunnan. The Black refers to their clothes - which are dark from the indigo dye they use. We picked some indigo leaves, they are ordinary looking green leaves, but after about a minute, they turn your fingers blue - amazing. There is a lovely waterfall in the village
29th September 2010
Yuanyang to Sapa Vietnam
We booked a bus from the mountain town leaving at 7.30am and were told it would take 5 hours to Hekou on the Chinese side of the border. The bus finally left at 8.00 and took just over an hour to get to the main town where it stopped until 10.00am. after that it went straight to Hekou - via back roads in order to avoid the tolls on the highway. We arrived in hekou at 4.30 - 7 hours altogether. Luckily, Vietnam is one hour behind so we got a bus from Lao Cai to Sapa. The border crossing was easy - it took about 10 minutes. Both sides were efficient, they did not search our luggage and from the Chinese side to the Vietnamese side is a short walk over a bridge.
We are staying at the Sapa Rooms Hotel which is a community project that trains and employs people from the local tribes. It is nice - the only disappointment is the cooking here - it is very bland - not at all like the Vietnamese cooking we can get in London. I expect we will get better food in Hanoi.
28th September 2010
We tried to visit some local villages today but it was raining so much and the clouds were so low that we could not see beyond the roadside, so we returned to town and had a walk around it. It is ugly - the buildings are in the modern concrete box style and beginning to crumble - but the views from the town are great - when the clouds cleared - it is very high up the mountain.
27th September 2010
Jianshu to Yanyuang
We took a taxi because we would have had to take quite along taxi trip to get from the main town to the mountain town anyway. It cost £37 pounds and took about 3 hours. the trip was very scenic - mountains, windy roads, mountain passes and we drove through clouds in one place.
After checking in to the hotel we hired a driver to take us to the huge rice terraces. They are over 2,000 years old. They are spread along the sides of a long wide valley - it is spectacular.
26th September 2010
Double Dragon Bridge and Tuanshan Village
The bridge is fantastic. Built in the traditioanl style in 1886 from stone and wood. I guess it is in such good condition because it is too narrow for motorised vehicles to cross.
The village is very old and we were lucky to be the only visitors. We visited some peoples' homes.
25th September 2010
Kunming to Jianshu.
We are staying at the Zhu Family Garden which is an old manor house that belonged to the Zhu family when they ruled the surrounding area. It is a traditional Chinese house with lots of courtyards and beautiful gardens.
We went to the Kong Ze temple which is the largest confucian temple in China and were lucky to see a traditional orchestra practising in the main courtyard.
23rd September 2010
We visited The Dragon Gate and the Confucian Temple. They are disappointing. The temple has been re-built in concrete and clearly no-one cares for it as a temple any more. It overlooks Ten Lake which is badly polluted by the factories on the far side of the lake - detergent is clearly visible on the lake. After we went to a really good local restaurant and had a meal with spare ribs mainaded in 13 spices and tied up with lemon grass and Yunnan ham fried with chili. The ham tastes like spanish Serrano ham - very nice.
Then we went to Yunnan Unversity. Its main building was built by a Chinese architect trained in France and the style of the building was a mixture - built in the 1930's
22nd September 2010
Train - Lijiang to Kunming
We returned to the Jinjiang Hotel - it is good and in a good location. We checked in and had another good meal in the hotel restaurant.
20th September 2010
Went to Baisha Village - a Naxi village. It is less visited than the other villages in the area, so is quieter and easier to see the lovely old buildings, mostly built of wood. We met the famous Dr Ho at his Chinese medicine clinic - he is over 80 years old now. We visited a few peoples' homes becasue they kept inviting us in.
After we went to Black Dragon Pool. It is the nicest city lake we ave visited in China - peaceful, clean, nice old buildings and bridges and a lovely view of Snow Mountain.
19th September 2010
Tiger leaping Gorge and Chiang Chiang First Bend
The gorge is beautiful - the river is very powerful here and the gorge very deep with steep sides.
After we went to the first bend in the Yangste river. It is one of the locations where the Red Army crossed on the Long March. It is at Stone Drum village and has a memorial to the crossing.
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