Ba Be to Ha Noi

We woke to a cloudy slightly damp morning, after a good nights sleep. The beds have been good everywhere we have stayed. Breakfast was pancakes and syrup, and ......guess what.....fried eggs, two each!!! The breakfast was hot too, which made a change, so much of the food arrives warm or cold. There was green tea and Vietnamese coffee on offer, I had both and the coffee was the best local coffee I have had so far.

After breakfast Michael and I had a stroll up the lane and had views over the large ponds near the lake. Then it was time to stow the bags in Mr Linhs motorbike trailer and walk back to meet the car. We set off circa 9.40  travelling almost due south . The road was much better, Tarmac one lane wide for about the first hour then into two lanes!!!  We saw a lot of corn cobs drying hanging on the sides of the houses to dry . The houses in this area were also built on stilts but has wood plank or woven matting walls and tiled rooves. As in any country some are better built and maintained than others.

The further south we went the busier it became and the landscape opened out.  They were harvesting mandarins, we saw panniers and panniers full, waiting to be collected to take to market......and of course there are rice paddies everywhere but the rice has been harvested . We stopped in a small town for some Pho, which is the noodle soup the local people live on. We had Pho Ga which is the chicken soup and Kien had Pho Bo , the beef soup. They were both served with orange segments and some greens (mint and lettuce)

As I write this in the back of the car, we are approaching Hanoi and it is 15.10, so hopefully we will be home in about half an hour.

I will post some more photos once I am able to transfer to the iPad and then will not blog again until we have a special trip or day out