Ha Long Bay

All too quickly we've reached our last day.  After a 4 hour drive from Hanoi yesterday afternoon we are now in Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World heritage site and one of the 7 Wonders of the Natural World.  That may well be the case but the town is a complete dump; I should imagine a few years ago it was quite nice but everything is falling apart, the pavements are extremely dangerous with giant holes in them and the bay front is being developed, as a result of which its boarded up along its whole 1.5 mile length.  

There is nothing to see in the town, no decent shops and even the night market has closed down.  Luckily we were staying in a very nice hotel which boasts beautiful views of the bay - great if your room is that side but hard luck if it isn't.  They don't even have a roof terrace to take advantage of the view, although I understand a new hotel is being developed opposite and actually on the beach so that would render any terrace useless anyway.  

Yesterday was cold, wet and miserable, but the forecast today was a bit better and we set off in the mist optimistic that it would burn off.  Ha Long (descending dragon) bay consists of about 2,000 limestone islets, some with huge caves inside and is also home to a few floating villages.  There are about 300 vessels of differing sizes on the bay, some of which you can stay on overnight but we were on for a 7 hours cruise including a seafood lunch and once again we had a whole boat to ourselves.

This cave was named Surprise Cave by the French - I wonder why

Finally the sun came out and we climbed up to the top of one rock for a glorious 360 deg panorama.

Then before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus for the 4 hour drive back to Hanoi Airport and home.  Along the way I was finally able to catch a few workers in the rice/salad fields.

Well I hope you enjoyed this brief résumé of our wonderful holiday and thank you for following along.  A final thanks also to Lydia and Malcolm for being such good companions.

Hanoi

And so back into Viet Nam - Hanoi - the administrative capital whereas Saigon is the commercial centre, and although smaller Hanoi still boasts some 5m motor cycles, it seems that the variety of goods carried on them isn’t nearly as varied as in Saigon.  That said, we did manage a couple of good ones:-

The weather in Hanoi was a nasty shock, we'd been enjoying 29-32 degC and sunshine and suddenly it was about 14 degC and overcast.  We started off with a visit to the outside of Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, which was very heavily guarded although against what we weren't sure.  There is some doubt as to whether it's actually his body as he died in 1969 and the mausoleum wasn't built until 1973!!!

All these workers do is examine the grass inch by inch for weeds

The official residence, although the benevolent Uncle Ho later moved to a far simpler building and apparently spent a lot of time planting trees around the lake.

I loved this "Not Stop On Bridge" sign

 

Unfortunately we were whisked around a couple of museums at great speed even for me (my low tolerance of museums is well known), which is a shame as the Ethnology Museum was actually very interesting showing the various hill tribes and cultures in Viet Nam. 

At the Temple of Literature

 

In the afternoon we had a rickshaw ride around the Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake, but I have to say given the very high levels of traffic fumes and the standard of driving it wasn't the most pleasant experience but still I managed to get a few pictures

Luang Prabang - Day 3

Day 2 cont/d

On the way back to town we stopped briefly at a butterfly conservation farm; I have about as much luck getting decent pictures of butterflies as I do with hummingbirds, but these are OK ish for the blog.

These different coloured chrysalises in the maternity unit reminded me of gem stones.

Having driven back to the town centre we climbed Phousy Hill to watch the sunset (sorry about the blown highlights fellow photographers!).

I couldn't resist this little lad on the way down, he looks like he'd been releasing some of the small birds sold in the market for "good luck"

We then wandered around the night market before meeting up with Lydia and Malcolm for dinner.

The next day we didn't need to leave for the airport until 17:15 so we made the most of a rare day off and caught the hotel shuttle bus into town, a journey of about 4 kms.  Having had a fantastic massage in Cambodia, Ian was keen to test the local skills, so we roamed around the town looking for a suitable place.  In the Far East "massage" can mean a wide variety of services, as I suppose it can here, so it was important that we found the right sort of place.  Once Ian was settled, I wandered off and took a few more photos.

We met up later and had a delicious lunch at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, a very picturesque spot.

Luang Prabang - Day 2

A few pictures of our lovely hotel grounds.

The nearest I got to taking workers in the paddy fields which is another of the shots I'd composed in my head before the holiday even started but so far haven't been able to take.

The view from our bedroom window, with early morning mist on the hills.  The view must have been even more lovely before the new hotel opposite was built (Chinese). 

The hotel is owned by the deposed King’s granddaughter and is beautiful but there is something lacking about it, whether it’s the uninspiring food, the indifferent staff or the dreadful rap music played all the time which spoils it I don’t know.  Oh, maybe it’s the just the £35 cost of a bottle of wine that clouds my judgement. Shame though as it could be really fabulous.

After breakfast we headed back into town to see the best of the Wats.

Looks like one monk wasn't very keen on today's early morning alms

We then set off into the countryside and stopped at a couple of ethnic tribe villages to see their colourful costumes (worn especially for the tourists) and obviously to buy something and of course I obliged.

 

 

Lydia bravely tried her hand at spinning cotton which is not as easy at it looks.

Then we drove on to the most beautiful waterfalls (Kuangsi) where we due to have a picnic lunch.  But we couldn't have imagined just how good it would be; there was a tablecloth, proper cutlery and hot Lao food - absolutely delicious - I don't really know how the guide and driver sorted it but it was incredible.

The water was a fantastic shade of blue due to the copper nitrate content in the rocks.  But boy was it cold, Ian got in relatively easily but poor Lydia couldn't hide her shock and horror as to just how cold it was, also there were rocks beneath so swimming was a little difficult.

Then after a quick change of swimming trunks, Ian delighted the onlookers with his diving prowess!

My bouts of hypnotherapy a few years ago have certainly paid off and I was able to stand quite close to this spider to get a picture.

To be continued .......................