My Vietnam travels began with flying Friday evening out of
Macau landing in Hanoi quite late but that gave me alot of Saturday to explore
the ‘Old Quarter’ and participate in the walking/cyclo street food tour. The
one tour that was fascinating was the van/sampan/hiking tour to the ‘Perfume
Pagoda’. I didn’t realize the pagoda was in a cave. What was fairly
uncomfortable with the river ride was the absence of lifejackets and oars tied
to the boat with strips of rags. It was a stimulating day of conversation
travelling with a group of Canadians working at the Canadian Embassy in Hanoi.
The next day I took in the ‘Water Puppet’ show-an ancient form of puppetry
originating in Vietnam. Hanoi was exciting to see but it’s not a place that I
would return to once visited. I thought the scooter traffic was horrific in
Macau but in Hanoi it’s downright dangerous.
A van picked me up the fourth morning for the four hour drive
to the Halong Bay Cruise. Another interesting experience-lucky to get to our
destination. Hire a good driver in Vietnam because it could save your life-
they make two lanes into three and three into two at will and large busses pass
at any point along the road. The seatbelts usually don’t work.
The boat with only 12 cabins, had few English speaking
tourists, an incredible chef, and great activities. I paddled a kayak for the first time in my
life! We spent a couple different times swimming at secluded beaches and
visited a floating fishing village-lifejackets a must any time that we were off
of the cruise boat. Many of the people from the floating villages have been
moved to the land by the government but have returned because they didn’t like
the city life. Tai Chi for two mornings makes me want to try more of this judo
based activity. The sunrise and sunset,
if you can catch it, is a wondrous sight.
After this three day cruise I rode back to Hanoi in the tour
van and they were kind enough to let me off and call a taxi to catch my flight
to Danang. I had a transfer prepared ahead of time to go to Hoian for three
days. There I participated in a unique cooking class. We walked to the market
(common occurrence) to purchase the ingredients, rode a boat to an island
(again without lifejackets) and there we cooked our meal outside at the cooking
school. I definitely would like to prepare a Vietnamese meal for everyone at
home sometime.
During my time in Hoian I took the opportunity to hire one of the numerous tailors and shoemakers that I had sourced out ahead of time. In between fittings I toured this World Cultural Heritage Site not far from where I was staying. I wasn’t very happy with the shoe outcome. The clothes, after three fittings, ended up well-made. I spent most of Sunday laying by the pool and flew out at 9 p.m. from Danang. It was another educational, interesting, and fun trip in Asia.
