Leaving Vietnam

Monday

Jean writes:

Rose early but this time to be ready for the airport taxi.  

The first part of the journey, in the centre of the city, involved the usual mass of humanity in/on cars, motor bikes, vans, cycles and on foot coming from every direction.  We've marvelled at how everyone seems to find a gap and the correct road lane.  In the UK there would be traffic lights at every intersection, which might appear to be safer, but traffic thus inhibited in Vietnam would be slowed considerably and I don't think people would stand for it!

We saw a further long stretch of the mosaic wall, which tells tales about Hanoi's history, mentioned a few days ago.  

I was lucky to take any photos showing the mosaic walls without any motor bikes! 

On the airport road, there was much less traffic and it moved more smoothly.  The road was clearly a new one - and there was still work being done on occasions adjacent to the road. The airport is pretty new too but flight numbers are relatively small so everything is relaxed with no queuing.  There were a few moments of apprehension when our boarding cards gave gate 30 while the screens indicated gate 20 - with quite a long walk between them.  We were early though so made the journey between them with plenty of time to spare.  In the event, the plane actually left from a completely different gate anyway, with no accurate information on any of the boards.  

Great looking airport, no congestion, super loos, but poor as regards departure detail! 

I was reflecting on Vietnam generally this morning.  It is a communist country, and although there are political elections, there is one party and the outcome is evident beforehand.  All citizens are supposed to vote - although one person in a family is allowed to vote for the others.  Not sure quite how that works.  

There is something of a hierarchy in that only communist party members can have government jobs, but your background may dictate that you cannot join the party.  Apparently government workers receive pensions, but not other workers.  

There seems to be a great deal of economic activity in the country and many people are able to buy a variety of consumer goods.  There are certainly plenty of advertisements for electronic companies and the up-market fashion shops appear to do good business.  

Our hotel was in the old quarter and very up-to-date, but the streets surrounding it were packed with small stores selling a diverse array of everything you could possibly want to buy and a lot more besides.

Dave writes:

Beside the lake

Up early again at 0600 for final run round lake ahead of early departure for airport. 

Plenty of people exercising in groups round the water doing such as tai chi but only two other joggers. 

City just moving into top gear for morning chaos but in fact it's been hard to distinguish between rush hours and non-rush. 

Not knocking it though. It's been an incredible  week with, for me Halong Bay a wondrous highlight. 
---
At your convenience

For some reason our tour guides humorously often referred to the loo as the Happy House.

Comfort breaks are of course essential for those of more mature years but this is a new one on me. 

Anyway all the loos I used were of good standard, topped this morning by the one In departures at Hanoi airport. A superbly pristine affair. 

In fact, I couldn't have been happier ! 

Hi to Uncle Ho

Jean writes: 

That's not an insult to Vietnam's most famous person/politician - Ho Chi Minh is often known affectionately as Uncle Ho.  

I'll start with a mini-quiz, though.

1. To what does the term 'Happy House' refer?
2. What does the saying, "He'll end up on top of the wardrobe!" mean?
3. What is the Hanoi Hilton?
Answers at the end.

Early start, as ever.

The morning was spent at the Ho Chi Minh Quarter.  

First stop was at the Mausoleum where Uncle Ho's embalmed body lies.  There are several rules to be observed:
- no backpacks or large bags
- no cameras
- no water 
- no food
- no hands behind your back
- no hands in pockets
- no talking
- single file as you walk round
There may be more that I've forgotten! 

The Presidential Palace was built for the French Governor-general of Indochina.  Ho Chi Minh refused to live there as he saw it as a symbol of colonialism, and no-one lives there now, although the building is used for diplomatic meetings. 

Ho Chi Minh's presidential house is also in the complex.  It is large, and he wasn't particularly happy about living there so a house on stilts, similar to the one in which he grew up in the north, was built for him close by.  

When he grew old and was unable to manage the climb, another smaller house was built at ground level.

We moved on to Hoa Lo, which originally was a small village inhabited by people who made ceramics.  The French turfed them off the land in 1896 as they wanted to build a prison there.  Hoa Lo means Fire Kiln.  

Many of the inmates were political prisoners, both men and women.  Often they were treated harshly and some of the punishments/methods of torture were barbaric.  

Other prisoners had been sentenced to death - and one of the two guillotines in use was on display.  After one uprising, six women were executed and three of their heads placed in baskets and displayed as a warning to others.  Twentieth century?  It seemed Mediaeval. 

Buddhism had been the main religion in Vietnam but King Ly Nhan Tong wanted something more relevant to himself, and Confucianism fitted the bill as it involved a sense of order and hierarchy. The Temple of Literature was built by him in 1070 and was dedicated to Confucius.  It includes the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first national university, which was set up to educate the brightest young people in the land, rich or poor.  

The temple itself is beautifully decorated throughout, and impossible to describe accurately in brief.  Apart from the walls, hangings, pillars, gold, bright colours and offerings of fruit and flowers, there were with many statues, carvings and other decorations.  

The crane seems to be a symbol of many virtues/traits, including harmony and freedom.  Here a huge bronze crane is standing on a tortoise, the symbol of longevity.  There are several different legends about the crane and the tortoise, most of them illustrating a moral.   

Dragons are also in evidence at the palace, not least on the roof of one of the pavilions.  There are four sacred animals, according to Vietnamese beliefs, the dragon for power, the unicorn for intellect, the tortoise for longevity and the Phoenix for nobility.

Answers to quiz:
1. Happy House means the toilet.
2. "He'll end up on top of the wardrobe!" means that he'll be dead.  Traditionally the Vietnamese revere the ancestors and have a shrine to them in their houses.  These days, though, with some apartments being very small, people have to place the shrine and offerings on top of the wardrobe - i.e. items relating to the dead.  The reference may therefore be to someone who is driving recklessly!
3. Hanoi Hilton is the Hoa Lo Prison, as described above.

Dave writes:

Give us our sword back

Ran round city centre lake for 20 minutes from 0640. 

Perfect time on a morning, missing the mad and noisy traffic which even on a Sunday remains a phenomenon.

The lake is named after a story involving the fifteenth century Emperor Le Loi, who fought off invaders with a magic sword given him by the deities.

Later while boating on the lake, a golden god popped up and snaffled it back, like they do. 

Le LoI's statue overlooks the lake, known now as the Lake of the Returned Sword, but interestingly there's no longer any boating.

----

Highway Code Hanoi style

As in many Asian capitals where motor bikes and scooters reign supreme crossing the road is a nightmare. 

But with the help of our trusty tour guide we are getting there. 

The secret is stick together, go slowly and don't stop. 

Thus, our bold party of six links arms, agrees the best possible, or least worst time, and then ventures into the fray. 

It works, or has thus far, possibly because bikers and motorists just see us as another item of traffic to negotiate. 

But as with wild bears one should never run. Equally a sudden stop or about-turn is not to be recommended. 

I reckon the best overall advice though is go out early. About 3.0 a.m. should be fine. 

Caves and onward

Saturday

Jean writes:

I'm having to think about which day it is as they are all so full of different activities that it's difficult to keep track.

It was yet another early start and we arrived on deck for what had been labelled as a toast and coffee breakfast.  In the event, there was also fruit juice, omelette, ham, soft cheese and bananas.  

I bought a white pearl ring and black pearl necklace from a selection on board, apparently made from local pearls.

First activity was cruising to a cave system, where we spent an hour inside, marvelling at the landforms - pillars, stalactites, stalagmites, and all kinds of formations in strange shapes, which looked like a Buddha, tortoise, lizard tail, flowers etc - a geography teacher's dream! 

On the way back to the boat, we passed several floating stores - 'convenience' boats.

The legend about the bay is that long, long ago the Vietnamese people were being invaded by the Chinese from the north.  The local people prayed to God to save them but, although he wanted to help, he was rather busy, so sent a dragon, who flew down and spat out jewels, which sprang up as the islands and thwarted the invaders.

Back at Ha Long City we joined the minibus which took us to Hanoi.  We had  our first experience of rain on the journey, and it's been a lot colder up here in the north than in Ho Chi Minh City, without the high humidity. 

Agriculture is varied, but we've seen very little in the way of livestock.  Mostly, the fields seem to be for rice or vegetables (many different green vegetables are popular here) and plenty of fruit seems to be grown - bananas, papaya, water melon, durian, lychee and pineapple.  Apparently Vietnam is now the second most important exporter of coffee, behind Brazil and overtook Thailand last year to be first at rice export.  Cashews are also important. 

As we came into central Hanoi we bypassed a mosaic wall, only completed a few years ago, which runs for sixteen kilometres!

Talking of rain, we were given a glimpse of the city via a short walk through the streets near our hotel, led by our guide, Tuong.  It rained throughout, and we returned fairly wet.  Unfortunately the weather is forecast to continue in this vein tomorrow. 

Dave writes:

From one dragon at Halong Bay to another in downtown Hanoi three hours drive away. 

The second one was part of the finale to a splendid Water Puppet show at a theatre quite near our hotel.  

A full house of around 1,000 warmed to this traditional Vietnamese art form with 10 puppeteers waist-deep in water operating a series of amusing scenarios from behind the curtain. 

Swans a-courting, fishermen a-fishing (and getting eaten by the fish) and frogs a-leaping all featured with traditional musical backing from sweet singers and band. 

The dragon in fact made two appearances in athletic routines but, alas, afterwards there was not a single jewel to be seen. 

A nice end to another memorable day. 

Sunday highlights are set to include a visit to the tomb and embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh who died in 1969. 

Watch this space. 

We owe a man 2.6 million. 

Dong that is. 

Keen readers will know there are 30,000 dong the pound so it's not quite so bad. 

Our tour guide kindly settled our cruise extras account in cash which we did not have when the company's card machine failed this morning. 

Now in Hanoi we've been to the ATM and will be settling up first thing tomorrow

Honest, guv!

Travelling North

Friday:
Another early morning, but this time to transfer by plane to the north - Hai Phong, the fourth largest city in Vietnam, which has much industry, including ship-building, apparently even supplying the UK.  In Saigon (still often called this, as opposed to Ho Chi Minh City, even in the names of shops and services within the city) we had seen a small railway track, which I had assumed was disused as it looked rather forlorn, and crossed a very busy, four lane main road.  Apparently there are several trains per day running on the tracks to the north, and we had further evidence of this today where the track runs between the road and the buildings outside Hai Phong, with little room for manoeuvre.  

A couple of hours on the road brought us to Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage Site.  We knew we were due to cruise around the bay for a day and a half, but not that we (the five of us) would have the boat to ourselves! That is, apart from tour guide and crew.

The whole of the region is made from limestone mountains and Ha Long Bay has been "drowned" so the mountains now form islands, nearly two thousand of them.  The afternoon trip was fantastic, especially with my geography/geology hat on - caves, stalactites, nodules, undercut bases, tilted bedding planes, eroded joints and even a superb arch.  

At one point we donned life jackets and clambered down to a boat propelled through the water to a fishing "village" by a local lady.  She must have strong arms as she continued for an hour!  

The houses are all floating and the fish, which have been caught out in the bay, are kept in nets underneath the houses.  

There are also oyster "farms" where the people produce pearls.

Water is supplied by a special boat from the city which fills barrels on the ledges of the houses, and foodstuffs are provided by a mini supermarket boat! 

Once again, the culinary delights (both lunch and dinner) on the boat were a delight, with lots of fish, but also soup, rice, meat dishes, salads and green vegetables.  I even discovered that I like squid, having shied away from it for the last forty years! 

The boat's facilities are quite basic (a little different from the Alaska cruise) but the staff are excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the day.  

P.S. I wrote this on Friday but couldn't post it as, of course we had no wifi!

Mekong Delta

Jean writes:

Today's array of breakfast dishes was as tempting and diverse as yesterday's - fresh fruit, cereals, breads, rolls, pastries, salads, hot food, cold food, Western style and Vietnamese style.  A veritable feast.

It was another early start as we met at 08:00 before setting off for the Mekong Delta.

The route through Chinatown was fascinating, but the first stop was the Cao Dai Temple in honour of the "highest Lord". The exterior was beautiful but the interior was stunning.  This religion apparently brings together Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. There are various representation of the "Divine Eye" or the eye of God, which sees everything.

Next stop was for a rest break at a rather ordinary looking building from the outside, but behind were some lovely gardens and water features, both with beautiful plants and flowers and some interesting organic models of local people.

Tam's next treat was for "hammock coffee". It's just as it sounds, customers can relax on hammocks while being served coffee!

Ben Tre is a sizeable, bustling city, and apparently was the home of the Viet Cong in colonial times.  The river hugs one side of the city and we visited a brick-making set-up, where we saw all processes, from digging the local clay, through moulding it into appropriate shapes, drying them, and then stacking the  bricks in kilns, all by hand, despite the topmost bricks being a good four metres high.  Apparently someone climbs to the top and a the bricks are raised on a rudimentary conveyer belt. The kilns are then fired with rice husks which, after burning are returned to the farmers as fertiliser for their land.

A sampon was waiting for us to transport us past a large number of fisherman on and around the banks, with many different forms of nets and cages.  The area is also known for coconuts and we saw masses of shells and fibres waiting to be taken away for other people to make into useful products before stopping off at a coconut candy workshop.

The trip along the river was interesting and relaxing until we came to go ashore again.  The landing area was unsafe, so we had to "walk the plank"!  Most people managed without difficulty, but my balance isn't as good as it was, so Tam made sure he held on to me with both hands! An interesting experience! 

We walked to a house where three generations of women were weaving mats from local organic fibres.  The youngest has just finished trading as a teacher and is helping out while she waits to be offered a job. 

A motorised tuk tuk transported us to our lunch venue, along narrow lanes and paths.  Once again, the meal was super - chicken, shrimps, a variety of vegetables, pineapple, rice, noodles and .... the jewel of the whole thing, elephant ear fish! 

A canoe returned us to the sampon, which fortunately was in a different location, so no plank walking! 

The minibus returned us to HCM City after another long, but enjoyable and varied day.

Dave writes:

I became a millionaire on our first morning here and continue to be one. 
the Vietnamese currency - the Dong - is worth 30,000 to the pound so my initial ATM withdrawal of around £70 from a cash point in the splendour of the main Post Office in fact made me a double millionaire. 
Ding Dong merrily on high until reality of course kicks in with a Twix bar at 25,000. a bottle of house wine at 480,000 and our first meal out coming in at 950,000. 
Still it was nice while it lasted !

Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived early evening last night and were met at the airport by a tour driver.

First impressions of the city - hustle, bustle, people and traffic! Masses and masses of motor cycles and scooters going every, which way.  They seem to hunt in packs and at every junction/traffic lights there are twenty or thirty waiting to start off again.  It all seems to work, in that it almost seems choreographed at times.  On the other hand, we heard some stats today - four and a half million motor bikes in HCM City alone and many thousands killed every year.  

Our guide, Tam, tells us to get in a line beside him and move be ready to move exactly when he does.  It's quite scary! 

Itinerary for today (7th January)

- Notre Dame Cathedral

- Post Office

- Making rice paper

- Cu Chi Tunnels

- War Remnants Museum

Notre Dame was built when the French were the colonists here.  It's a beautiful cathedral and the French have left, not only a legacy of architecture, but of Catholics, our tour guide and his family included.  Open Catholicism was banned when the Communists first came to power but now it is tolerated. 

The Post Office was another building bequeathed by the French and was constructed in the style of a railway station.  Again, it's a handsome building and well worth a visit. 

The Cu Chi Tunnels were fascinating and were built painstakingly by the Viet Cong during the French, and later American, occupation.  They stretched over 155 miles and had various secret exits, one coming up very close to the American base outside Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). The local forces fighting against the Americans were very resourceful and had many hazards organised for the unwary! 

It was all in reaIly interesting as, of course, the majority of what we had heard in the past was from the American standpoint.  This was totally from the Vietnamese (now Communist) point of view.

Lunch was  at a "local" restaurant, recommended by our guide, where we had chicken soup with all the trimmings - including loads of greens (whole stems of basil and mint), spring onions, bean shoots, peppers, limes, soy sauce and chilli sauce.  Very good - and I had some local Saigon '333' beer as an accompaniment.  

Next stop was a lacquerware workshop, which was very interesting, but no good from the sales point of view as our luggage weight is right up to the limit (10 kilos less for Vietnamese Airlines than for Emirates). 

The last stop in an incredibly busy day was at the War Remnants Museum.  Understandably, it was very much from a Communist Vietnamese viewpoint and I found the first section we visited so emotionally difficult that I couldn't bring myself to see any more and had to wait for the Dave, Sandra & Brian.  We form a small group, which is great as we have a lot of individual attention.

I had hoped to include more photos but have had a few issues accessing them.  That seems to be sorted, but I have a feeling they might be so large that two per posting might be more than enough for readers at home.  If anyone has any info on this, please leave a comment or email me so I know for future postings. 

Singapore

Jean writes:

Nothing much to report, but we are half way through a five hour stop-over at Singapore, so I thought I'd attempt a posting, just to check everything was in order! 

Best thing since leaving home?  Emirates Airlines - it definitely is the best set up we've used.

Worst thing since leaving home?  Striking up a conversation with two guys in the lounge at Gatwick.  They were off to Scotland on a trip to shoot as many innocent animals as possible.  Ugh!  Conversation ended abruptly.

Dave writes:

Emirates offer about 400 in-flight movies but showing my vintage again my first three were all black and white and all from the 1940s - Casablanca, The Big Sleep and Night at the Opera. Finally moved on a decade and into colour with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes !