Hoi An to Hue

Weather: clearing, hot and steamy.
Monday October 10th

The rain had stopped for one last walk and some photos through Hoi An.  Here classical music has replaced the Communist propaganda over the loud speakers - good move.  We have really enjoyed it in this beautiful little town with friendly helpful people, and some friendly travelers too.  Chris, an Australian, is making his first overseas trip, a train ride from HCMC to London UK, through China, Tibet, Russian.  Hmmm.  Next trip?

Dogs all over the world have a good morning stretch!

Noodle lady in the market

 We take the train from Da Nang 3 hours along the coast to Hue.  The clouds were burning off from yesterday's rain.  It was not a speedy trip, but beautiful, except for lots of rubbish on the side of the tracks!

 Departing Da Nang.  Get a move on Doug.

 View from the train.

 First dinner in Hue

Great day to be a Duck

Hoi An, Vietnam

Rain, rain, rain and less hot and steamy.

Sunday, October 9th.

We had meant to go island hopping with bikes today, but woke up to torrential rain.  We spent the day watching the ducks swim in their flooded pen and walking about town in the rain.  The manager of our hotel sent us off with a big umbrella saying it was romantic to walk in the rain.  Wonderful people.
The power went out from early morning to 5:00pm.  Some of the larger restaurants and shops had generators.   

Happy ducks in our back yard.

Local Entrepreneurs

You are not supposed to buy from the children in the streets, but we couldn't resist the

 'happy hour, buy one, get one free!' line.  

Local ferry runs rain or shine.

Talking of food, which we seem to do a lot of, in Hoi An we have been eating banana pancakes (crepes really) for breakfast every morning with a plate of fresh mango, pineapple, watermelon, bananas and, of course good coffee!

Report from Hoi An

Hoi An, Vietnam

Sunny with lots of hot and sweaty.

From Ben Tre to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, we decided to reduce the anxiety of a  four hour ordeal of motor scooters and public buses and took a private car to the airport and from there flew to Da Nang and another taxi on to Hoi An.  Hoi An is a great little town, known for its hand crafts, artists and tailors, on the Hoai River.  It was built by the Chinese over 200 years ago and occupied by the French for 100 years and survived the "American War" and is a Unesco Heritage Site. The buildings are lovely pastel colors of golden yellow with faded blue and green accents, and further accented with mold and moss.  We are meeting fellow travelers, eating more incredible food, sitting on the waterfront watching the sun set and the local ferry arrive and depart - again on typical plastic chairs made for small Vietnamese behinds.  This has become Doug's favorite bar with more $1 beers and many locals to sort of talk to.  We met  'Captain' Danh, who thought he might know Doug, and claimed he was an interpreter for General Westmoreland during the war.  He looked like he had been there!

We are staying in a lovely little family run hotel, Thien Nga ($25 a night), complete with view from the  balcony of ducks, chickens, the occasional rat and lizard and a Morning Glory patch. Morning Glory is the second most produced crop in Vietnam after rice.  Delicious sauted with garlic.  Our first floor room opens into the dinning room - feels like home.

We have been here two days, and are staying another to recoup and chill a bit, and drink Mango or papaya shakes - fresh fruit and crushed ice -mmmm, and eat rose wantons (rose is the shape).

The Japanese Bridge (they were here too)

Hoi An old town water front by day

Hoi An by night

Local ferry coming into dock

No cars allowed

For Kim - snoozing on the job

                               Doug in his element

Cutting Morning Glory                                                    Morning Glory going to market


We bicycled 4km to the beach and swam in the South China Sea!!

South China Sea

Chilling!

Sometime the wrong turn takes you to the right place

Ben Tre, Vietnam

Hot, steamy, rainy

 OUR BIKE RIDE OCTOBER 5TH

Down this turn

We were kidnapped and invited into a real Buddhist home for fresh coconut milk

Lots  of canals along the way

Men in holes

A ferry on the other side of the island.  I don't think I would have got on with these people.

Ducks in the rain

Lunch

This lady ran to get us water for our lunch and took a shine to Doug
(All in sign language)

Coconuts everywhere 

Dinner on the street again - Oysters, huge shrimp, a couple of chicken wings, some delicious noodles.  The low plastic chairs are a bit tricky though!

Our shrimp being cooked

The kindness of strangers

Ham Luong Hotel
Ben Tre, Vietnam

Hot, steamy, thunder storms
Tuesday October 4th

We did manage to salvage a bad day in Can Tho yesterday with a good walk at night after the rain.  On the waterfront a huge  statue of Uncle Ho ( Ho Chi Min) had probably a hundred large bats flying around his head in the floodlight.

No photos of bats but the streets looked great in the rain

There were no English speaking people of our bus ride today further into the Delta to Ben Tre.  We had to change local buses somewhere, but they all knew where that was and carried our bags through the rain, got our tickets and gave instructions to the new driver.

Doug practiced his Vietnamese and made friends, and I tried to dodge the smoke from the chain smoker in front of me  This time we had a 7Km motorbike ride from the bus station to our hotel.  My driver was crazy.  We took off leaving Doug and his driver way behind.  I had to hold on for dear life! 

It gets dark about 6pm here, so we had to get out and scout the town and find somewhere to eat before then as there is only the odd street light lit after dark and we really needed a beer or two after today's adventure.

Here we are slightly 'off street' relaxing and  eating Vietnamese barbeque chicken.Our stomachs have settled now after Cambodia. The guy who served us spoke quite good English, and I think he may have been the manager.  He said he earned about $250 a month and his wife was the receptionist and probably earned quite a bit less.  He had  one child and was  saving to buy some property with a garden.  Our meal and several beers came to  $10 and we felt guilty!  

 Beers

Our cooks at work in an open kitchen

Yum

We just came down from the rooftop bar where we had coconut ice cream looking out over the river as lightning flashed across the sky and the rain poured down.

Tomorrow we are getting up early and taking bikes from the hotel and hopefully biking out into the countryside.

Talking of food.  Did I mention the coffee yet?  It is incredible, you can walk on it. Doug drinks it black, but I have it with a good spoonful of condensed milk like the Vietnamese.  Heaven!

Into the Mekong Delta

Can Thou, Vietnam

Hot, steamy with rain bursts.

This is how we traveled to the bus station.  I wish I had had my camera out as Doug was given a pink helmet.  I think this is the first time I have been on a motorbike!!  See the my bag up front? It was a fun ride, though I was a little uncomfortable with him talking on his cell phone!

We traveled from Chau Doc to Can Tho, a town in the middle of the delta in this mini bus, packed with 20 passengers.  A couple of people were on plastic stools.   We careeeeened through villages and the countryside following the Mekong River.  The driver had his hand on the horn all the way with his assistant  banging and yelling out the door window what sounded like" allez, allez" to scatter the bikers in our path.  Doug loved it.  The promised air-conditioning was a couple of open windows!

This the view from the rooftop cafe at our hotel.  Down the Bassac River - the Mekong is split up into nine rivers now.  

This is a big city and it feels like the tourists have worn them out, though there aren't a lot here just now.  The big draw are the floating villages, supposed to be the best in the delta.  Our problem is they won't take us to the one we want as it is out of town a bit (we think that is the reason).  So will probably move on pretty soon.

Floating houses, market, fish farm

Chau Doc, Vietnam

Weather:  Hot and steamy, no rain.

We weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into, but it turned out to be another excellent adventure.   Our own little wooden boat and guide, Nam, took us to a floating village, market and fish farm.

Passing up the bananas

Washing hands

The fish went crazy when they were fed.

Doug, after 21/2 weeks of vacation, and our guide.

Dogs live on the water too.