Hanoi Day 1

Saturday 5 October

8.30 am departure for the airport for our last domestic flight (Hue to Hanoi) and fingers crossed for some lower but dry temperatures!

Hanoi was indeed cooler at a mild 30 degrees - how the bar has changed!  We had our first bowl of Pho for lunch (beef noodle soup) which was quite nice.  The photos below are not very clear as they were taken from the bus but they show (if you look carefully at the street one) part of a 3km stretch of mosaic wall which was quite pretty.      

The bridge behind this last picture was partly destroyed by American bombs and has been partly rebuilt without the suspension structure.

We then went to visit a water puppet show, which is apparently a special feature of Hanoi, and this particular man is the 7th generation of his family to continue the art.  He makes all the puppets and has a theatre with a water stage set up in the 3rd floor of his home where he provides daily shows to tourists.  It takes him about 1 month to make a puppet as it is a multi stage process of carving, resin, drying, resin, painting, etc.  Our guide said she fondly remembers the anticipation she had for the water puppet shows as a child as they only got to go at New Year and they didn’t have access to other types of theatre.  The puppet making and shows were something that farmers would do during the “off season” but not a lot of the younger generation are as keen to continue this as they prefer to work in the city.

After the puppet show we checked into our hotel (which is located in the old town Hanoi, near the French Quarter - near the Opera House) and had some relaxed time to ourselves, including a coffee in the Starbucks downstairs!  Tomorrow we are doing a half day City tour and then have free time so who knows what adventures await then.

Puppet workshop 

Water puppet theatre before show

Hue Day 2

Wednesday 4 October 2019

This hotel room has interesting water features.  The shower curtain diverted water around the end of the bath and on to the floor while the air-conditioning unit (essential for us folks from below the 45th parallel) drips water after it has been on a while and ours was running all night.

Breakfast this morning, on the 11th floor provided a view of a “VinPearl” hotel nearby.  VinPearl is a chain of hotels, resorts etc run by one of Vietnam’s billionaires.  It seems that this one resembles a wafer, stuck in the ice-cream sundae of Hue.                  


Breakfast done, we assembled for a 10 minute walk to the “port” (on the river) where we boarded a “dragon-boat”.  In NZ, this usually implies paddles and lots of shouting in time but this was diesel powered, wide enough to have two heads and no shouting (or timing of any sort) required.

There were some smaller ones too.

 But we had the two-headed version.

We travelled about 30 minutes along the Perfume River to the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady.  You might notice the difficulty capturing a clear view with many people there .  Several of us were also targeted by two pick-pockets who were “working” as a pair but no-one had anything taken.  We all became a bit hyper vigilant about our belongings though.

And behind the pagoda is a buddhist temple.  This complex also contained the car used by the monk who travelled to Saigon in 1963 and set himself on fire (I think it was as a protest against the treatment of monks by the Government of the day).  It’s quite a famous photo if you want to check it out online. 

And a happy looking Buddha 

Our next stop (in the bus this time) was up a hill overlooking the Perfume River.

Not sure if you can see clearly but this was an outpost during the Vietnam/American war so there are several interconnecting concrete bunkers and a gun turret remaining in what was otherwise a very peaceful spot.

Next stop was the fourth king’s tomb.  It turns out he wasn’t actually buried here because he was so afraid that this enemies would take revenge after his death by interfering with his remains... nonetheless, he had this large complex including pagoda and lake as well as the usual tomb arrangement of being inside four walls inside four walls (no I didn’t repeat myself by accident).

Next a short stop at a roadside store to see incense sticks and Vietnamese conical hats being made. The hats can be multi-purpose.  Not only do they function well as sun protection, they can also be used as a relationship aid.  Poetry or messages written or painted on rice-paper can be incorporated into the leaves on the hat and when given by a girl to a boy, the boy has the choice of “moving closer to the girl” or doing nothing; in which case the relationship goes nowhere.

Rolling the incense past on the lemongrass stick 

Stitching the hat (right) , “ironing” the leaves (left)   

Dried Incense sticks displayed in technicolor 

Glenda giving the incense making a try 

AND ALL OF THIS IN 36 C HEAT!!!!  (Although the locals generally don’t look Hot)


Lunch was a vegetarian meal at a local monastery and the food was really delicious although most of us were struggling to work up an appetite in the heat and seats near the fan were prime locations!  The afternoon was then free to do as we wished (hence catching up on the blog while the heat of the day drops off a bit), short excursion outside for some independent shopping and then out this evening for a simple meal with a local family.  Whew... what a day in Hue!  Tomorrow its off to Hanoi.

Hoi An to Hue

Thursday 3 October 2019

Another scorcher of a day with the temperatures hitting 36 by midday (but felt more like 45!) and humidity levels high.  We farewelled Hoi An and headed toward Hue (pronounced “Way”) via Danang and the Hai Van Pass.  Hue is a four-five hour drive from Hoi An so we were most grateful for our modern air-conditioned bus!  We also stopped at several points and had a chance to walk up to the sentry towers at the top of the Pass which used to serve as a border between North and South Vietnam.  We saw someone biking up to the top of the Pass in the heat of the day and really hoped they had the good sense to stop for a while as they were an unnatural shade of pale!  The countryside was lush and tropical looking which helped detract from the windy nature of the road.
Not a lot of photos as David was using his phone (as I had the other camera) which meant a less obsessive style of photo taking was adopted :)

Hai Van Pass

Beach at Danang

China Beach

We arrived midday and after lunch went to the Imperial Citadel and explored the Forbidden Purple City.  This had been home to the Vietnamese Royal Family up to about 1945 when Ho Chi Minh got the king to end the monarchy in Vietnam.  A number of the buildings had been destroyed during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War but you still got a sense of how grand a space it would have been over time.

Main entrance to the Forbidden Purple City

Following this we had a 2 hour “Cyclo” tour of the countryside and those guys certainly earned their money!  It was an interesting experience to be in amongst the evening traffic (at exhaust level.... splutter splutter) with no protection whatsoever and when we returned in the dark we didn’t even have any identifying lighting - which was a bit of a concern as our party of 12 crossed the main road! Still everyone got back to the hotel safe and sound so no harm done.  The kids along the way often came out to greet us with “hello” and a few stood at the side of the road so they could High 5 everyone as they came past.

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Passed this hotel on Cyclo Tour

Looks like the line-up for the wheelchair Olympics
but we are actually stopped to view them bringing in the ducks
 for the night on a duck farm 

Back in one piece!

Hoi An Day 3

Tuesday 2 October  2019

Up before 6.30, breakfast then Glenda and Patrice in a taxi to “cooking school” by 7.30am.  I tidied up a bit, experimented with re-organising the suitcases (we now have a bit more stuff) then took a walk to the beach.  I think it was high tide because the beach has little room between the big sandbags (pic 1 - erosion is working hard here) and the sea.  The shade of the trees was really nice though (pic 2).          

Pic 1

Pic 2

I got an open air “shuttle” from there back into town, sharing it with a couple from Manchester.  Although I had asked to go to our usual drop off place (museum) the driver had other ideas so I landed up several blocks away.  The place is pretty compact but the buildings etc are so similar that one street is difficult to tell from another.  The GPS on my phone and a three-block walk did the trick and I was back on the “straight and narrow”.  By this stage I had 2 hours to myself so apart from completing a small currency conversion task I had time to get a drink and sit watching the world go by in one of the restaurants you can see at the end of the bridge to the left of the picture below until Glenda and Patrice had finished their cooking school.

Last night this was covered in lantern boats

Cooking Class - Glenda

Had a great morning at the Red Bridge Cooking class which involved a tour of the markets, followed by a boat trip up the river to the actual school, a welcome mocktail which was delicious, a tour of the herb gardens, demo by the head chef about how to prepare a number of recipes which we then had a go at as well, followed by lunch (the food that we had cooked) and return trip up the river to the old town again.  Met David and had a quick look around some of the shops while waiting for our glasses to be finished but the heat became a bit oppressive so opted to head back to the hotel for a break.  David stayed in for the evening but Patrice and I went to a light and dance show outlining the history of Hoi An which was extremely well done.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos during the show but took a couple as we left.

Chefs Demo on food decoration

Hoi An Day 2

Tuesday 1 October
Because it was essentially a “free day” we were off to a leisurely start this morning with breakfast around 8am and time to tidy up the packing situation, edit and publish yesterday’s blog.  One party of people had walked to the beach (about 15 minutes) and reported that there was another tailor there. That might (or might not) have influenced the later party to arrange a walk to the beach around 11.30am then get a taxi back into town.  G took that option (not to shop, but to chat) and I (D) decided to just walk into town (about 4.5km) to get some exercise.  As it happened, we all arrived in town at the same time... although I was somewhat wetter and redder than the beach group.   I must say I felt good for the walk even though I must have lost quite a bit of fluid in the process but I felt I had much better sense of where we were than yesterday.

The first destination in town was again the tailors, for Glenda and several of the others to have a fitting of the clothes ordered yesterday.  With more alterations yet to be done, a further fitting was arranged for 3pm.  Lunch, another fitting and it was time to meet up with the whole group for a sunset cruise on the Thu Bon River (there is an accent on the “o” of Bon which I can’t do on this computer) which was complete with food and a couple of staged displays of someone paddling a basket-boat and a fisherman casting his fishing net... both followed by the artists pulling alongside for their tips.

By the time we got off the boat, it was getting darker which was perfect for the next phase of the evening - lanterns!  Both sides of the river are lit at night by thousands of lanterns.  The bridge between is also decorated and with many boats on the river also carrying lanterns the whole scene was a perfect set for a “night market”, part of which was in the business of selling lanterns.  Of course, you don’t get markets without people - many thousands of them.

After surviving this experience, there was just one more visit to the tailors to collect some clothes and home in a taxi to a quick dip in the pool, showers, and another day is over... we are now half way through the Vietnam tour.