Vietnamese Vacationing

Northern Vietnam is such a fantastic destination for a holiday.
Pity I was sick as a dog for most of it (but better off than the roasted ones in the markets....) A great time of year to travel: sunny weather after the end of the wet season; the rice harvest underway. Sooooo many photo opportunities. Fun withdrawing a million dong dollars a time at the ATMs too.

Hanoi in the north
Flying into Hanoi was lovely – a patchwork of ripening rice fields and villages, with lots of cathedrals. The frenetic motorcycle and bicycle traffic in Hanoi takes a bit of getting used to, but the French architecture, baguette stalls on street corners, the bicycles, colours of the fruit and rose vendors, iconic Vietnamese hats, French-style coffee houses and especially the chocolate éclairs made this a wonderful place to visit. The streets in the old quarter are named after the merchandise sold there – our hotel was on the shoe street. We (my travel friends Kate and Kris and I) scored the penthouse (5 storeys, no lift) with our own courtyard overlooking the roof tops. On the last day when we were in Hanoi a friend of a new Vietnamese friend I made on a bus (he works in community development projects in the northern mountains) took me for a motorcycle tour of the city, capping off a great stay.

old classy buildings; banana vendors everywhere

a tomato vendor; Hanoi streetscape

gigantic grapefruits and baskets of other fruits; rose vendors

a cucumber vendor

Halong Bay to the east

We spent 3 days in the world heritage area of 1996 limestone islets, cruising around on boats, eating big seafood meals and enjoying the scenery (and dodging the litter). We walked and kayaked through caves, slept overnight on the boat, rode bikes through island villages and enjoyed the sunshine. It was so lovely to spend some time on the coast. Luckily for me we headed back to Hanoi when we did because a head cold turned into an acute eye infection -not good but could have been worse.

local fishing boats and chinese-style junks in Halong Bay

taking it easy and enjoying the sunset on Halong Bay

thrils and spills from the top deck; kate the kayaker

nearby Ninh Binh to the south
We then headed south to a nearby town to visit "Halong Bay of the rice paddies" and were not disappointed by the scenery. We signed up for some daytrips of the local area, to see more limestone caves, more boating, some temples and pagodas, and a trip to the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre at Cuc Phuong National Park.

Rowing through the river grottoes at Tam Coc; group photo looking over the rice paddies

a local rower in a sea of boats at Tam Coc; a birds-eye view of the boats and scenery at Tam Coc

one of the extremely endangered locals at the Primate Centre

rural villages & rice harvesting
We picked a fantastic time to be in northern Vietnam. The rice harvest was underway, and the farming methods in the local villages are a lot more traditional than in Thailand. Every farmer has a water buffalo, and we watched the various stages of hand harvesting, machine threshing, drying of rice and hay on roadsides, haystacking and tilling for new crops. The locals were really friendly too - lots of smiles and greetings. Very memorable.

drying rice on the roadside for 3 days; water buffalo in action

the locals watching us watching the tilling - so friendly!

Last account to give, was that I saw my parents at Bangkok airport on the way back yesterday - our flights arrived at the same time. They'll be travelling in Thailand for a few weeks, and I'll see them here in Chiang Mai on the weekend. I had a very amusing account at the final screening desk at the airport holding an opened large jar of vegemite upside down to prove that it wasn't a liquid......had to be there for that one.

So now I'm back in Chiang Mai, still with a headcold, 3 days into the hard antibiotics and hoping I'm not developing an ear infection. Fun and games.

Seeking sunshine and sand

Tomorrow I'm heading to Bangkok to catch up with some other volunteers, then on to Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, to travel for 8 short days with a Sydney friend Kate who has been translating in Tokyo for a couple of years. Many adventures await! Hopefully including lots of boats on water in karst country (then it's back to work for a long while to replenish my leave days bank - not to worry).