The last few days

Sunday May 10th has arrived and we leave for home this evening.

The last few days a have seen us on another lakeside walk, to complete the circuit of Tay Ho. 

This is one of the lotus ponds fed by the lake.

We met Andrew for coffee and saw his office. On Friday we went back into the city to do last  minute shopping,  I bought some silk,in the Cho Houm market, to make a couple of cravats for Michael, then we walked right across town to the fairtrade Craftlink shop. It was lunchtime when we finished there so we texted Amanda and met her for lunch, a street food place she goes to regularly. 

Michael has his mouthful!!

Another great experience.  In the evening we all ate out at the Cousins French restaurant on Tay Ho, with gelato  afterwards at the nearby gelato place. 

Saturday saw us at Saturday Soccer once more , then in the afternoon Amanda had hired a car and driver to take us out. We went to Ba Vi National Park. The park entrance is 52km from here, then there is a 12km climb to the top, we just went 5km....in the car !  Orlo's friend Max came with us and the two boys had a great time running  about in the woods, and with Grandad looking for butterflies. 

Andrew regularly cycles out there and goes to the top which is a 1000m climb, from the park gate. He cycled out there to meet us, but didn't go to the top this time, then he cycled back after our picnic.

There were some very large butterflies about, but I only managed to photo this one

The views were very hazy unfortunately, but it was an attractive place where the temperature was considerably lower than in the city, it felt like a lovely English summer day. It was good to get out of the city once more and see some of the countryside, rice fields, water buffaloes and lots of stalls selling fresh milk.

So now it is Sunday, and we have just about packed. We are all going out for lunch to the Hanoi Cooking Centre where I did a cooking class two,years ago, then it will be time to finish the packing  and leave.....after a wonderful trip.

The flame trees have come into flower during our stay

....and an orchid in the garden.

So, many great memories to take with us........

City walkabout

We took Orlo to school for 8.0am and then got a taxi into the Old Quarter of the city centre. We wandered the streets, many of the streets sell just one commodity, so there were paper lanterns and kites, bamboo poles for scaffolding and ladders, haberdashery like you have never seen it before, elastic and Velcro in a large range of colours, plus binding, ribbon, and buttons galore!  In amongst this were women carrying fruit and vegetables to sell, the flowers sellers, the scooters and cars, and raw meat being sold on the street corner.

Many of the streets are lined with trees and some are still decorated for the annual holiday which took place last week.  

We took a coffe break at the Avalon Cafe, which we really like, it has a great view over Hoan Kien Lake

. After an iced coffee and map studying we set off again to the lake. We went over the red bridge to the temple on the island. This is an important temple for the Vietnamese people, and I think it is in better condition than when I visited two years ago.  

We walked  around the lake coming across some lovely sights. A group of girls beautifully dressed on Ao Dai, celebrating their graduation we think, a newly graduated student sitting whittling bamboo into beautiful models, a bicycle with rickshaw, a woman selling flowers, we bought the flower seller and he made a clear box to put her in while we waited. He told us that he had studied economics and that this was his hobby.

A short stop for a drink and cool down and we set off to explore more streets, we found an old wood turning workshop, the street where all the ceremonial stuff is sold, and walked past many tempting shops selling clothes !

Back to Avalon for lunch, I know it sounds as though we are not very adventurous, but it is cool and comfortable there!!

After lunch we made for the Chua Ba Da temple, hidden away in a small courtyard. It was amazing inside with lots of copper gods. By way of contrast we then walked a few yards to the St Joseph's Cathedral, which was beautiful inside, less ornately decorated than many Roman Catholic cathedrals and with some lovely traditional stained glass windows.

We returned home via the Bookworm bookshop to replace the map which Amanda had bought, it is really good and full of information, but it is looking worse for wear now, despite treatment with magic tape!

We got home about 4.0pm, 8 hours after we left.....to find the electricity was off. It must have only been off a short time as the fridge was still cold, and it came on again at 5.0pm went off and on again a couple of times, we are ready with torches!!! Not sure of the plans for tomorrow yet, we may take a stroll around the part of Tay Ho which we didn't do last week.......

Halong Bay, Day 2

Up again at 6.30am, this is becoming a habit!!!......which I do not intend to continue when I get home ;). A member of staff was taking some guests through some basic tai chi on deck, then we had a light breakfast, coffee & cake, before boarding the tender boat to go to the floating village. Once there we got into bamboo village boats, a bit like coracles in design and we were rowed round the village, which was very sleepy at the time. The final call was at the Pearl Farm where we were shown how they implant the nucleus and something else ( I couldn't quite understand the demonstrator) into an oyster, then grow them on in the sea water for 18months until a pearl is formed. Of course there was a shopping opportunity, but no-one from our group succumbed! Apparently the government is relocating these people to the land, so that the children can have a better education, however there are not enough land based jobs for the adults, so many of them buy a motor boat and continue fishing.

Once back on board the Treasure, we showered and packed, before a very large brunch, which was a mixture of Vietnamese dishes and western style toast, omelette, fried eggs etc.  By this time we were making our way back to the Halong Bay port, where we arrived slightly early. We disembarked At11.0am to wait for about 45 mins in a local cafe, until the minibus arrived from Hanoi with the next group of guests. The cafe had aircon and wifi, so we were soon catching up on the last 24hrs news etc.

Then it was back on the bus, for the four hour journey to Hanoi. Apparently a new highway is being built, which should reduce the driving time by half, but it will probably not be completed for another five years. It is a busy road, with lots of trucks, but it passes through quite a few towns and a lot of countryside, mainly rice growing, and some industry including a large Canon factory. We were back in Hanoi about 3.45, and home half an hour later.

We really enjoyed this trip, we could not fault the organsation, the service, or the facilities.

Tomorrow we are on duty to take Orlo to school, then we plan to go into the city again and wander the Old Quarter, as it was very busy when we were there at the beginning of our trip 

Halong Bay Day 1

Monday May 4th saw another early start, leaving the house at 7.0am to travel by taxi, in the rush hour, to the Handspan office in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. Handspan is the company we chose for our Halong Bay cruise. They pride themselves on being environmentally friendly, using bio diesel for the boats fuel and taking us to less populated and less polluted areas of the bay.

Halong Bay in on the north part of the Vietnam coast and is characterised by the thousands of limestone karst islands.

We travelled for three and a half hours by minibus, with a half hour break halfway. At the breakpoint there was a workshop where women were making embroidered pictures, interpreting from a photo, and using their own skills. I was very tempted.......maybe we will stop there on the way back......

Once in Halong Bay city we sailed by tender boat to the Treasure Junk which was to be our hotel for the next 24 hours. The boat is two and half years old, although it looked older on the outside, but inside it was well appointed. Our cabin was made up with a double bed, and there was an excellent wet room/ bathroom.

We set sail.....and began to experience the wonderful scenery. The weather was good, and later in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds.

Lunch was seven courses!! All typical,Vietnamese dishes , a soup, followed by a small salad, then prawns, spring rolls, cooked meat in a broth, noodles, fresh fruit. All delicious and beautifully presented.

After lunch we went kayaking, for about an hour and half. Double kayaks, I was in front and Michael behind. He is definitely right handed!!!,....and it was difficult to keep on course at times!!. However we made it to the small beach destination, where we had a short rest before returning to the junk, with the current and wind behind us. It was fascinating to be right amongst the Huge rock islands.There is always something to do on this junk, besides sit and admire the views, at 6.0pm the chef gave a short demonstration on how to make a meat roll on a special leaf, the we made some too,  they were fried and we all got to taste, very delicious.

This boat takes 28 passengers but there are only 15 of us on board, with 20 staff, so we're are being very well looked after.

After the sunset we had dinner at 7.0pm. Just 6 courses this time, pumpkin soup, yam yam bean salad, king  prawns on skewers, Bbq' mackerel, pork rib with fragrant  rice, creme caramel with fresh fruit.

Then it was time for bed, in preparation for another early start.....

The Cambodia Experience Ends

          

Friday May 1st and here we are in Siem Reap where the temp was to reach 37C! Once again we were up at 6.30 to leave to visit the temples by 7.30am. Our regular tuktuk driver, Mr Ratti, was waiting for us and off we went to Angkor Wat. Whilst we had seen the outside, we had not yet walked the walk to the inside. Quite a walk it was too, over a stone 'causeway' crossing the moat, in the heat, along with thousands of other visitors, many were Chinese. We saw two of the galleries with wonderful bas reliefs, some quite polished by many hands, but they are roped off now. We made our way into the centre but did not climb to the top as there was quite a queue.

I cannot describe the strength of the heat, I was looking for every tiny bit of shade. We plodded slowly back, making our way to a very nice cool cafe which we had visited a couple of times. We met up with Mr Ratti and A&A&O and went back to the hotel for a swim and to pack, checking out at 12 md

Another ride into town for lunch at the Red Tomato, an Italian/Khmer restaurant. We ate there the first day and had found nowhere better in the meantime. The pizzas were thin and tasty and made in a proper pizza oven and the Khmer food was also excellent.

Then the men went their various ways and my daughter-in-law took me shopping in the market!!!!  I bought some lengths of fabric and a skirt...or two.... Plus a few other little bits and pieces. We had a good time!! ;) Then we used our last few dollars to get a tuktuk back to the hotel and it was time for the journey back to Hanoi. We arrived home about 9.0pm after an amazing five days.

The weekend is going to be filled with domestic and family stuff, so I won't blog again until our Halong Bay trip early next week....

The Cambodia Experience - Tonle Sap

Y Thursday 30th April saw us up at 5.0am to leave at 5.30am for an amazing day. 

We had booked a private bird watching/ floating village trip with the Sam Vessner Centre. Our guide, So, was excellent alerting us to severe a different species on the way to the boat station. We drove for about an hour, passing through small settlements and farms. There were rice paddies, a duck farm, scraggy looking cattle, domestic fowl only one step away from jungle fowl, stilt houses, ox carts, buildings made from palm mats which looked as though one puff would blow them down...... All this along a dusty/muddy lane. 

We arrived at the 'port' located on a narrow muddy canal. The lake level is very low at this time of year. We were in a small covered boat, fortunately it had a shallow draught as we were to bottom on the mud several times out on the lake!

Tonle Sap us the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia, it is fed by the Mekong river and provides a living for 170 villages. There is a wonderful array of nets and fishing traps. However we were there to see the birds, we had been warned that we would not be able to go into the colony because of the low water level, but there were thousands of birds out on the water and the exposed mud flats. They were mainly the Asian Openbill, but we saw Pelicans, lesser and greater egrets, painted stork, glossy ibis(rare here), cormorants, watercock, white breasted waterhen, terns, swifts etc!!  Meanwhile the life on the lake was going on around us, an express passenger boat went by as well as lots of the smaller wooden hulled village boats and the fibreglass type which we were in. 

After two to three hours we made for one of the villages.So made arrangements for small wooden village paddle boats to take us on a village tour. At this time of year the houses, shops, church etc are quite close together, but when the river level rises they float further apart and tie up to large trees. We saw a crocodile farm, a mango tree growing on a raft, a fish farm and the general way of life. As in any community some of the houses were well built and maintained whilst others looked in poor condition. The children paddle themselves to school and there were 'boy racers' in fibreglass boats with motors. 

We had an excellent lunch there, fish soup, fried fish, rice and salad, followed by watermelon, and a beer, of course. I was feeling better but still not up to eating a lot.

There was even a shopping opportunity here! The local women have been taught to weave baskets and mats using the water hyacinth stems, which they dry. Water hyacinth is a noxious weed, but is put to good use for this purpose and the leaves are composted and used to fertilise the vegetable gardens on the rafts.

We made our way back to the port via a network of canals/roadways where the water was deeper, again we stopped to watch birds in  particular seeing a Little Green Beeater on a swinging branch fairly close to the water.  More birds were spend on the way home bringing the total number of species seen in the day to to 55!!! It was a long hot day but worth every minute.