Vietnam, Vietnam

Sunday 17th

And the weather has turned (bad I hasten to add). Having arrived late Wednesday , we set off for Halong Bay on Thursday morning through the Northern Vietnam countryside. It was flippin miserable weather. No question of shorts - fleece and long trousers only. The trip was one of those 'face to the window trips'. The countryside is so much different to Laos - heavily farmed, mingled with a large number of modern western style factories knocking out the cheap stuff we buy all the time, mingled with some newish buildings and then some totally crap derelict housing - in which most of them lived. We travelled north through spme coal regions and the coal dust was everywhere - it really did make it look dirty. And there are scooters everywhere, thousnads of them all seemingly driving in random directions, with 2 or 3 peole on board mainly wearing face masks and dust masks. In the weather we had they protected them from pollution and also the cold.

We arrived in Halong Bay around lunch to witness tourist central - 50 or 60 of these boats heading out for the night to the bay. Our boat had 8 cabins on board, dining area and a top desk for sun lounging. By this time most people had bought hats and gloves as well as fleeces to protect themselves. Cold, cold cold

The bay is really lovely. 1600 limestone peaks jutting out of the sea in clusters. Floating through them was fantastic despite the cold. We also cruised up to some of the caves which were found in the rocks. One we visited was 2km long, full of stalactities and mites in all kinds of weird shapes. If you were having mad dreams as I was you saw loads of dead bodies, particulalrly babies....

Overnight we anchored in one of the bays along with a few other boats and , bless them, they put the heating on. So guess what. Didn't sleep very weel because the small cabin heated up to 30C and dried me out. Its a lovely bay though. Look it up on the internet - Halong Bay. I'm sure a James Bond was filmed here.

Back to Hanoi the next day and we wandered around taking in the human life. Also visited Hoi Chi Mins mauseleum and the 1 pillar pagoda. Way too many things to write down. HCM mauseleum is typically Vietnamese communist. Very austere and dominates the local square. All of the guards, be they police or army seem very severe (I suppose joking around isn't the thing to do) and all have the same size uniform - huge!!) They all seem like the uniforms were designed for westerners...

Hanoi was fantastic. We walked around for 4 or 5 hours - some of us. Just seeing how they shop, live and eat was amazing. Most of the time all of these 3 activities take place in the same spot. Because they have little ventilation they take their food out on the street to cook, sleep in the shop and seem to wake up in shifts to serve. The city is pretty grubby but you can't fail to get a buzz from the sheer energy and entreprenuarial skils of the people..

Saturday we caught an internal flight down to Hue, which is a pretty city half way down Vietnam. It is home to the emperors from the Nguyen dynasty and many of the tourist attractions are centred around the emperors - there were 13, and their mauseleums. It has a forbidden city modelled on Bejing. We went to tomb of Khai Sinh today which was gorgeous. It mixed Asian with French architecture (Vietnam was a french colony) with a gorgeous position overlooking the valley below.

Hue is much quieter and less frenetic than Hanoi but still totally fascinating. If you like watching people , as I do, its fantastic.

Off out for a Royal Baquet tonight. Food here in Vietnam is lovely - a combination of Thai, mainly Chinese. They also appear to have picked up some french ideas as the preparation and flavours seem thought out, rather than prepared solely to satisfy hunger. And of course it helps when your stomach is behaving, as it is..

Off for the drive to Hoi An tomorrow - Hoi Ann is the shopping city of Vietnam aparently.

Oh and the paintings here are also worth a look - if you like vibrant colours as I do. And cheap too...

see you later. Hope you had a good weekend, Bloody stupid redmen!!