"Halong" Until We Start Moving?

That is the question we asked each other as we sat on a boat in the harbor, waiting for it to take us to Halong Bay (which is technically in international waters) for two days and a night on the water. It seems that one of the engines was dead, causing much laughter as we all joked about spinning in circles in the harbor rather than heading out to the bay.

Finally, they found us a new boat...
... and we got on our way. It was foggy, so visibility was low, but it made for this cool effect where everything looks blue.
After eating on the boat and cruising the massive bay, we climbed up to a cave to do a little exploring. Afterwards, as we reboarded our boat, women in rowboats selling snacks kept calling out to us, "You buy something?" It was actually smart business, since the tour boats charge you for everything outside of the included meals, including charging for water.
Then we went kayaking. Here is Tim (Canadian), who I met in the van this morning and who volunteered to kayak with me while his wife stayed on the boat with their infant son. The reason Tim is leaning over in the picture is to demonstrate our experience kayaking to the island. Seems I am awful at steering, so we zigzagged the whole way. Exhausting and frustrating, but we managed to laugh about it.
On our destination island, we climbed up to a pavilion on the top of the hill...

... and caught some great views. Well worth all the stairs.

On our kayak trip back, Tim took the front and steered. We zipped right back in a straight line and were one of the first boats back. Seems the problem was not our lack of skill, so much as my lack of skill.

Then we took a cruise over to a floating village. You can just make out the line of buildings/boats on the horizon.
Truly a HOUSEboat. I love that the "houses" have front porches.

My favorite was the bank. I wonder if it has an ATM.
Back on the boat, we relaxed on the rooftop deck. I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the captain was steering the boat with his feet. He's been doing this too long.
The rooftop was a great place to think, read, or relax, as demonstrated by Alex (Czech), Samuel (French), and Daniel (Czech).
After dinner, the four of us joined Avi (Israeli) for a bottle of wine and enjoyed floating in the darkness, with the rocks barely visible in the light cast by the group of boats moored here.

Hué, What, Where, and Nguyen

Hue was the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945. When I arrived, it was being decorated for the “Festival Hue”.


The main attraction is the citadel, which is where the imperial family lived and worked.
Notice how the front gate looks like a miniature version of the Forbidden City in China. It basically served the same purpose.

Unfortunately, a lot of the inner citadel was under reconstruction, so there wasn't much to see inside. Much of the need for the rebuilding is due to the destruction during the Vietnam War. Due to its location near the DMZ, the city and its people suffered considerable harm during the Tet Offensive. Much of the physical damage was caused by American bombs and the psychological damage by the massacre of thousands of residents by the Viet Cong during their occupation of the city. I ran into Joe (from Korea) again. Once you get on the same schedule, you see the same people everywhere.
And we got to see what must have been some more preparations for the festival...

Umm, are those shoes authentic?
As we headed toward the gate to exit, we found ourselves competing with a few larger travelers. Needless to say, we let them go first.
As if the elephants were not weird enough…

Then, I stopped to take this picture as we crossed the bridge…
… and Joe pointed out that the traffic had gotten more interesting.
Never a dull moment.

Watching the World Go By

A little bit of nice scenery for a quiet day on the bus...

This looks to me like they are trying to make this area into the next major resort...


... and yet, only a little further down the road, there are working rice patties.

Cham Rocks

Today, I visited My Son (pronounced “Mee Sun”). It is a temple complex of the Champa civilization, who settled here in the 4th century and began building with brick during the 7th century. The Chams practiced Hinduism, although there are some Buddhist influences from later centuries.

Some of the statues are missing their heads. According to the tour guide, the French who “discovered” My Son cut them off and brought them back to museums in France.
One of the mysteries is how they stuck the bricks together. You can see some modern mortar used during renovations, but notice the bulk of the bricks have no mortar. No one is sure how the Chams adhered the bricks to one another.

This guy has a weird sense of humor... like mine. (If you can’t tell from the picture, he is holding up signs so that “My Son” becomes “Did My Son do that?”) Classic!Here is our tour guide, but the interesting thing in the picture is the guy in the background...
Throughout the tour, we kept looking at each other thinking we knew one another, but could figure out from where. Then it hit me. Joe (from Korea) and I (along with two others) rode around in a tuk-tuk looking for a guesthouse for about an hour in Sukhothai, Thailand about two months ago. It was nice to see another familiar face. We had lunch together, toured around a little in Hoi An’s old city a little, and he joined my other friends and I for dinner and drinks.


Some of the sites from the old city... The Japanese bridge...

... and a merchant’s house with Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese influences…
… and one of the best examples of mother-of-pearl inlay I have seen…

Hoi An Life

Well, it seems that Jennifer and I have crossed paths again! We met up in Hoi An.
We started out trying to be good tourists, covering the requisite sites on a walking tour. Like Chinese temples...

(Whoa! That is one freaky-looking horse!)
... and old merchant houses (which now house inexpensive custom tailoring shops)...
... but eventually, we just found a garden restaurant by the river and watched the world go by.
We caught a cultural music and dance show. Here are a few videos for you.

The first is young dancers. My favorite part is that they can’t stop laughing during the performance.


This next video is really for people that are interested in unique and difficult-to-play instruments.



Lanterns, lanterns everywhere. I don’t know where you put them in your house if you buy them…

… but they make for some cool ambiance in the evenings.

Ahoy "Hoi"

Hoi An has been a port since the first century, when it was used by the Chams. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a major port, drawing people from China, Japan, and the West.

What can I say? I’m a sucker for water…

I guess because of the Chinese influence here due to the merchant history, there are tons of lanterns for sale.
No, I didn't buy one.

Beach Party Vietnam

I am always happy to see the ocean, so a night in Nha Trang was in order. Now you can see the ocean, too…

In the morning, I had the place to myself...

...but by late afternoon, I was forced to share.


No, no, the ocean OR the pool, not both. (That's a kiddie pool floating in the water.) Actually, this looked like fun...