It’s been a few days since our last report of what’s been going on in Vietnam. We’ve been busy and have spent a lot of time on the road on the water and in the air.. After checking out of our hotel in Hanoi we bused to Hai Long Bay for an overnight on a Junk cruise ship. We drifted among these huge limestone mountains covers in greenery unfortunately the weather was very overcast and not so warm but we were still able to explore some caves and floated amongst the islands. Our tour group is starting to jell and we are having a good time together. As always with a group of 30 people lots of interesting personalities with a wide variety of backgrounds from doctors to mechanics, most have done a significant amount of travelling around the globe.
We left Hanoi and flew into Hue ((pronounced “whey”) located along the Perfume River which was the capital city of Vietnam until the 1940’s. Lots of history and more temples and pagodas than you shake a stick at. There was a really good display of the last king of Vietnams walled city, he thought quite of himself and raised taxes by 30% to fund his personal lifestyle, he then built a magnificent tomb for himself when he died 5 years into its construction. The best of construction materials were imported from around the world for his tomb.
After a night in Que we bussed to Hoi An about 4 hours south along the coast. The weather is getting much warmer high of 29 and humid the A/C on our bus quit working and for about an hour it was a virtual sweatbox on wheels. This resort town with lots of hotels and restaurants cratering to a largely Asian crowd was busy with a vibe similar to that of Mexico. Hundreds of restaurants, stores, the markets out of this world with a huge selection of everything from apples to knock off Rolex’s. Karen has been busy dress shopping and we have already bought an extra bag to bring stuff home. We did a tour of a local farm and took another cooking class then headed to a small river to take a ride on a basket boat.
Our tour company provides an all inclusive travel experience and all of our meals are included. Each day we have a buffet breakfast followed by a 5 course lunch then another 5-7 course meal the food has been very good but we are looking forward to pizza or a burger. Today which is your tomorrow, will be a day off from touring around so we plan to relax and chill out by the hotel pool or at the beach.
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