Jan 29-30 -Mui Ne, Vietnam

The 29th – A quiet day today. After breakfast, we walked down to the end of the beach in both directions. The beach walk stops due to erosion at both ends but it’s a long walk on the sand. We saw our friends from yesterday, and then took a walk up a high sand dune on the other side of the street. Good views and lots of walking. We swam in the pool after lunch and relaxed. A peaceful day.

The 30th –

Today we went on a simple tour not too far from our hotel and saw most of the “sites not to miss” of the the area. We saw-

The Fish Market- many boats and women sorting small catches in fish types
Walked up the Red Sand dune
Had an ATV ride up massive White Sand dunes
Learned how to grow dragon fruit
Walked barefoot for about 75 minutes in the Fairy Stream.

Sand dunes…

I asked Tam (our guide) if we could see where Dragon Fruit are grown since they an important part of agriculture in this area. It was good timing because a field was near us and he explained the growing process – interesting. Next was our Fairy Steam walk – quite nice.

The Fairy steam walk turned out to be quite stunning in places. We almost made it to the end but didn’t quite finish because Dirk found a snake trying to eat a frog in a little pool right where he was about to step. Snakes are not his friends so we turned around…:)

After our 6am to 10:30am tour we took a nap. That was necessary because our hotel annoyed the heck out of us last night by having a very very loud party that prevented us from sleeping first because of the noise and also while we perseverated over what we’d say to the manager in the morning! We talked to the manager and she apologized – what else can we do. The resort is now empty except for us since Tet week is done – that’s a bit weird but peaceful.

1/17 Tuesday Hue

Hui was the capital of the Vietnam Nguyen emperors and is located on the Perfume River. It’s in Central Vietnam – sort of halfway between Hanoi and Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.

Yesterday we focused our exploring on the huge Citadel built after an emperor (Gia Long) moved the capital to Hui from Hanoi in 1803. Within about 20 years a 4 acre city surrounded by moats was built. It contained the palaces that housed the imperial family, as well as shrines, concubine housing, gardens, and villas for advisors. Unfortunately much of it was destroyed after battles with French (1947) and with Americans (1968) but as you’ll see, many unique and beautiful buildings remain. There is now an ongoing effort to restore many of the significant buildings.

Ne bronze urns representing the nice united providences

After a long rest we walked to an open air vegetarian restaurant near the river. The lights on the way back to the hotel were lovely!

1/10 Tuesday Hanoi

After traveling 26 hours from Boston to Saigon to Hanoi we arrived at our hotel tired but fine around 10am last night. I did manage to take one photo before showering and heading to bed.

Today we headed to Hanoi’s Old Quarter which begins about 15 minutes from our hotel and contains both historic tunnel homes and other small museums, streets and sidewalks packed with motorcycles and small markets, old temples and street food. We walked along the small Hoag Kiev Lake as we headed to and from the area as well.

Being a bit tired from our journey we managed a half day of exploring before heading back. Dirk was amazed at the narrow streets with buildings practically touching each other. I thought it lucky that we avoided colliding with a motorcycle given the somewhat random way they weave in and out the streets.