The last 12 days or so have been jam packed. There has been an overnight bus ...
... champa temple ruins called My Son (more photos), a historic Chinese/French/Japanese style village, bicycle tour of handicraft village (Hoi An Free Tours), Vietnamese ice coffee, watching a Vietnamese music & dance performance. It has been wonderful to spend some of this time with two Canadians and an English girl.
The My Son ruins were fascinating because they are so ancient and so many traditions and spiritual beliefs are represented. The detail still left on these stones was amazing. Each symbol has a meaning and there are different sections built during different eras. During the 'American War' as they called it, in the 1960-70s, Vietnamese people would hide here. There were giant bomb craters and bullet marks in the walls. Sadly a lot of the pillars and buildings were bombed and left in ruins. Our guide's father was hiding here during the 60s but thankfully survived.
Hoi An was absolutely beautiful with the lanterns at night by the river, the Japanese bridge lit up, and the beautiful old colonial buildings. Unfortunately it seemed to be rainy season and a rain poncho was definitely required!
Hoi An is so beautiful at night. The sights and smells are wonderful. Something I love about Vietnam is that there is incense everywhere. Wedged into the pavement cracks, in cafés, in hostels, on car bumpers, even in trees!
I spent one morning on the Hoi An Free Tour. It was an amazing experience led by our enthusiastic guides Vy and Cuc. It is run by Uni students who want to show tourists around and also improve their own English. They took us to a near by island and we visited communities who were producing straw mats at home, wooden boats, and rice noodles among others. We gave a small donation to each. It was amazing to see how the locals live and work.
After a short flight to Hanoi, I treated myself to a private room in a hotel for £10 and enjoyed a bath and free toiletries! Hanoi is a crazy busy city, especially when coming from Hoi An. Some sights from the roads there:
Entire families on one motorbike, the kids without helmet
Backseat motorbike passenger sitting on wooden chair...or passenger holding boxed TV
Motorbike driver groping female passenger
Women with every inch of their body covered, complete with mouth/nose mask or surgical style mask.
A short retreat was required. Took a visit to Ha Long bay with the two lovely Canadians, with 'Ha Long Party Cruise'. Maybe not so much of a retreat but great fun and much better than being stuck on a junkboat after dark (5pm) with Middle Aged couples or honeymooners! Some new card games & drinking games were learnt but most importantly some beautiful sights were seen and snapped. The food was pretty good too! We stayed the first night on the boat and the second on a private island with hammocks, kayaks and karaoke! Met some more lovely people on the boat from many nationalities.
In Hanoi, we also visited the Ho Chi Minh museum, passed by his mausoleum thought unfortunately it was closed for annual 2 month maintenance. I'm not sure if it is maintenance of him or of the building!
Nearby we went to the Maison Cetrale prison which he french set up to detain 'political prisoners'. Captured US fighter pilots were also kept here. I was surprised at the good conditions in which the US prisoners were kept here; also the forgivingness of the Vietnamese towards the Americans.
Lastly I took a trip to Mai Chau for 2 nights. Initially I had wanted I go to Sapa to trek and see the tiered rice paddies however when I realised the rice was harvested in September and it could be dry foggy and wet, I decided on another hilltribe village called Mai Chau which lower and further south.
Mai Chau was interesting, beautiful also and very green. I enjoyed the 3 hour walk/hike (there were some hills) through the villages and also the cycle on very old bicycles with no gears. Thankfully that route had less hills.
Unfortunately the guide wasn't very good and had to keep asking locals for directions! Somebody's bike got a flat tyre too. The evening was a highlight - when we watched a performance of traditional music and dance. At the end we all joined in! The dance with the hopping between moving bamboo sticks was particularly hard!
The end of Mai Chau was my lowest time so far. I left the trip a day early as the guide just put a downer on everything and it appeared I would be doing day 3 (a motorbike ride to nature reserve) alone with just the guide. Apparently this was a privilege but I didn't feel comfortable with it.
Unfortunately my iPhone fell through the gaping and flimsy bamboo floor of the upstairs bedroom and smashed onto the concrete below. Thankfully all that was required was a 30 minute / £35 repair at a shop in Hanoi.
The bungalow where my phone smashed through the floor onto the concrete below
Next - onto Vientiane, Laos
