Don't they know it's NOT Christmas?

We got to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, but though the Lonely Planet said it was only closed on a Friday it turns out it's closed on Monday and Friday and we were visiting on a Monday!  Oh well, at least there were no crowds and we were still able to visit his house and grounds and see the mausoleum from the outside.  We only missed seeing his body and rumour has it they it may now be a waxwork anyway!

 The sleeping bus to Hue was fine and Carol managed to sleep most of the way, though Jon maintains he got no sleep as usual.
We found a lovely hotel in Hue which cost us the princely sum of $10 for the room, including A/C, breakfast and internet - not bad!  Across from the hotel was a cafe recommended by the Lonely Planet which was really good - one evening we had 2 meals, 2 drinks, 2 coffees and 1 dessert for the equivalent of 3GBP!
We checked out the citadel in Hue on the afternoon we arrived which was huge, interesting and hot!

 The next day we went on a day trip along the Perfume River visiting the inevitable temples along the way and also the tombs of various kings of Vietnam.  We also saw conical hats and incense sticks being made which was fascinating.

 

 Hoi An was only a short bus trip (4 hours) from Hue and proved to be a lovely historical town with lots of very old buildings.  It's another World Heritage Site. 







 













The riverfront comes alive after dark with lots of street entertainment and cheap beer - 12p for 0.5pint!  The hotel had a swimming pool so we were well set!

 We hired bikes one day and cycled the 4kms to the beach which proved to be really lovely with crystal clear water.  The only downside was the black clouds that rolled in at 2pm but by then we'd had plenty of sun anyway so we headed back and arrived just in time before the heavens opened.

 From Hoi An we'd decided to give Nha Trang a miss as we'd met a Spanish couple who described it like Benidorm.  Instead we decided to go up into the hills again to Dalat.  That was a mistake!  It's a place where Vietnamese go for their holidays and there was very little, if anything to do.  We went on a day tour which turned out to be very contrived and took us to a couple of waterfalls and a couple of Vietnamese 'theme parks' full of concrete animals and not much else!  Never mind, the hotel was OK with a very good buffet breakfast!

On 15 June we caught the bus for the last leg of the Open Tour to Saigon - known officially as Ho Chi Minh City, but the southern Vietnamese call it Saigon still.
We visited the War Remnants Museum (interesting but full of propaganda) and the Reunification Palace and did a half day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels.

 This is where the Viet Cong dug tunnels (250kms worth) to live in and hide from the Americans.  A section of the tunnels has been made safe (and widened) so tourists can crawl through to see what it was like.  Very interesting and scary!

 
That evening we ate in a restaurant called Pho 2000.  It serves Pho which is a very tasty noodle soup and is famous because Bill Clinton and his entourage stopped there for lunch in 2000.  There are photos of him all over the walls.

Here's a photo of a typical traffic scene in Saigon.  
To cross the road, you have to wade out in front of the huge mass of motorbikes.

On Saturday 18 June we joined a 3 day/2night tour to the Mekong Delta. 

 This was a really good trip which took us in various boats on the Delta to visit a floating market, a fish farm, a coconut candy family business and a fruit farm. 

 The trip included bed and breakfast (x 2), a lunch, a couple of lots of tropical fruit, a local folk group, transport in rowing boats and motor boats and a trip on a motor bike cart.  It was good to let someone else do the organisation while we sat back to enjoy the passing scenery.

The tour took us through the border in to Cambodia and finished in Phnom Penh on Monday 20 June.
Throughout our travels in south east Asia we have come across many hotels and cafes with 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year' banners and even the odd Christmas tree.  In southern Vietnam we were in 2 different hotels where they were even playing English Christmas Carols while we ate (complete with words).  Very bizarre for a country that is mainly Buddhist!

What Green Cross Code?

Well, here we are in northern Vietnam.  The decision to fly was certainly the right one for us in our advancing years - apart from the usual hanging around at airports it was a breeze and we were soon in the mayhem of Hanoi.  We'd previously booked a guesthouse so were able to check straight in without having to wander around looking for somewhere suitable.
We are now multi-multi millionaires as there are 30,000+ Vietnamese Dong to the pound.  If we were careful with the '0's in Laos it's even worse here and Carol regularly tries to give 10,000 Dong instead of 100,000 (better that than the other way round!).
Hanoi's traffic is crazy!  They seem to drive on any side of the road and regularly go across red lights and certainly don't stop at crossings for pedestrians.  The Lonely Planet guidebook suggests that if you don't want to end up like a fly on the windscreen then you don't rush across the road between vehicles but walk slowly and steadily - the idea being that the vehicles will then drive around you.  Somewhat scary the first time but amazingly it does work and we're still here to tell the tale.  Vietnamese are worse than Italians with the hooter so as well as being crazily busy it's also very noisy!

We went to a water puppet show on our second evening as it's traditionally Vietnamese and specifically from Hanoi.  It was quite strange but interesting and accompanied by a group of musicians playing traditional instruments and singing traditional songs.

 After only 1 full day in Hanoi we headed out on a 3 day/2 night tour of Halong Bay.  It's another World Heritage Area and is absolutely beautiful karst scenery.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable few days with someone else doing the organising and not having to worry about where to sleep and what to eat.  What made it even better was that we were upgraded for the first day and night on the junk boat (the second night was staying in a beach resort).  It seems the boat we booked was full so 4 of us were moved - the 4 older people, so it is good to be old sometimes!  We were told not to tell the others what we'd paid as 'they'd paid a lot of money for the trip'.  The cabin was fantastic and so was the quality and presentation of the food.  The next day we were back with our original group but the facilities at the beach (a bamboo beach bungalow on a private beach) and the food were still very good.

As soon as we returned from this we had a 2 hour turn around and were then off to catch the night train up in to the mountains.  This was a 4 night/3 day tour organised for us.  We were in a soft sleeper with 2 others and while we didn't sleep all night we did get some shut-eye.
As soon as we arrived in Sapa we went on a walk led by a lady from the local Black Hmong hill tribe.  There was the inevitable hard sell of their souvenirs but we got hardened up to it after buying from the young girls who accompanied us.  Their English was amazing - all picked up from talking with tourists - and puts us to shame.  We had a free afternoon and evening in Sapa at the hotel and the next morning set off with the same local guide for a longer 'trek' through rice paddies and stayed in a homestay.  We really enjoyed this and it made us realise how much we all have and how little they have.  The lady who was our guide is married with 2 young children, but she and her husband can't afford to buy a pig or a water buffalo and only have enough land to grow rice to feed them for 5 months.  Rice then has to be bought at around $2 per kg.  (A pig costs $5 per kilo).  Many children don't go to high school because 'it's expensive' ($80 per year).

Last night we returned to Hanoi on the night train.
Today we've been to the Prison Museum (where the Vietnamese were held as political prisoners during French rule and where the Americans were held by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War).  Apparently the French treated them very badly but they treated the Americans extremely well!
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and then catch the night bus south to Hue (it's a sleeping bus - the seats lay out almost flat so hopefully we'll get some sleep).