Au Revoir Vietnam

I write this sitting in Hanoi airport waiting for the first of three flights which will take us home. We are flying via Bangkok and Abu Dhabi. With Etihad and Vietnam Airlines. In future I think we will try to Emirates or Cathay Pacific as before.

Yesterday Michael and I went into the city, to the fab Richard market, a very good fair trade craft shop called CraftLink and up to the Old Quarter. 

A successful trip, silk and cotton jersey purchased, along with a couple of items from the craft shop. Our walk North up,to the Old Quarter was interesting as usual, lots,of street crossing to negotiate, tak8ng our life in our hands!!

The area around Hoan Kien Lake is pedestrianised at weekends, so there are artists, peopl hiring electric cars, food sellers etc. It makes the walk around a pleasure. There were still some New Year displays, although we saw several peach blossom trees in the back to the rubbish cart.

J

Lunch at Avalon turned out to be a more exciting than we would have liked. The cable to dessert display cabinet caught fire! It is located near the door. I was out like a shot! We were on the fourth floor (UK counting), we waited just outside the restaurant by the stairs until they put it out, then continued with our lunch!!

After lunch we walked north through the Old Quarter to Cho Duong, a very large market, with all sorts of sights and smells.

New Year Lucky money envelopes still on sale.

And New Year lanterns!

Flight called!

Cam Ba, Tra Que, the local market

We had an expedition to the Tra Que organic vegetable and herb gardens yesterday. I went there in 2015 on my cooking school day, and I seem to remember that these gardens support two hundred families. They are highly productive, salad veg, lots of herbs like coriander, various types of mint, basil etc.

We also spent a lot of time on the beach yesterday, swimming and building forts. It was a bit overcast and just warm enough in the sea!

This morning Michael and I got up early to go to the local market. It was pouring down, but we took the big umbrellas supplied by the house and set off. It was wet and fascinating! Lots of local people out doing their daily shopping.

The rain calmed down and we took a final walk along the beach for coffee and photos

Looking towards Danang and the peninsula.

Local fishing boats with the Cham islands in the distance

We are about to leave to fly back to Hanoi. Tomorrow I am hoping to go into the city to the Old Quarter 

We are back!! Hoi An and Annam House

We are back in Vietnam for a short trip to visit the family on our way home from New Zealand. We arrived on Saturday evening 17 th February and after a leisurely Sunday and a BBQ with friends we repacked to leave to fly to Danang in Central Vietnam on Monday morning. Andrew and Amanda had booked a house  near Ang Bang beach. It is ideal for the five of us, just 2mins 5secs (😉) walk to the beach, a nice garden and verandah to chill out in.

Since our arrival we have spent time on the beach surfing the waves and swimming, walking  to some of their favourite places to eat and have coffee and last evening we visited the World Heritage Site town of Hoi An. We were there two years ago but not during the Lunar New Year holiday!  The historic streets were filled with a mass of people, mainly Vietnamese and Chinese on holiday. The street were hung with even more lanterns and New Year greetings 

Happy New Year in Vietnamese 

We had a little walk around, but it was too busy for me! We ate the Morning Glory Restaurant then walked to a quieter part of town to another restaurant for our dessert, after which we battled the crowds, back over the Japanese Bridge to the taxi ranks.

The town centre is pedestrianised so  it was here that we met the traffic once again. It was unimaginable, taxis, motorbikes and scooters everywhere! It took Andrew about 15-20 mins to find a taxi which would take us home! They just weren’t interested, and quoted 2-4 times the metered rate. Eventually he found a young honest driver who agreed to take us, and on the meter. Needless to say we gave him a very good tip!  The traffic was unbelievable! Crossroads controlled by traffic lights were choc a bloc with scooters. We say a couple haggling with a taxi driver and the other smaller taxis and scooters etc were driving up the pavement around them, going the wrong way !!! Our driver kept dodging down side streets to avoid the jams.

The Lunar New Year is called TeT here. Houses display a kumquat tree at their front door, decorated with ‘lucky money’ envelopes and lit with fairy lights at night. The national flag is  hung outside most houses or along the streets along with red and gold banners. Some villages have a huge TeT bamboo pole to ward off evil spirits. The whole country is even more colourful than usual.

Display on a roundabout near Andrew and Amanda’s in Hanoi

Kumquat tree outside a local house here Central Vietnam 



TeT pole in the village

Village school yard decorated for the holiday 

To be continued!