Ho Chi Minh City

Technical note: It appears that embedded video clips don't show up at all if you are reading this blog in an email (rather than in your web browser).  In case you want to go back to see some oldies, they show up in the following posts: Around Sapa (from the summit of Fansipan), Around Ninh Binh (rower at Tam Coc) and Hoi An (evening song and dance performance).  I'll try to remember to flag any future videos.

Our flight from Da Nang (near Hoi An) was straightforward.  As we taxied out, I saw very old-looking hangars at the edge of the airfield with what looked like partial MIG fighters decaying away inside.  We hopped a Grab (Vietnam's answer to Uber) to the Spring Hotel in the center of town. 

View from our hotel room

After a little cleaning up it was early evening when we headed out in search of a bite to eat.  With the approach of Tet lots of places were closed.  After dinner we spent a little time walking through the flower gardens and displays set up along the broad boulevard of Nguyen Hue Street which is closed off for the holiday season.  Many other folks had the same idea; it was packed.

At the top of this broad plaza, a large statue of Uncle Ho stands in ironic juxtaposition between a new five-star hotel on one side, and a very fancy shopping mall on the other.  His gaze falls on the storefronts for Cartier and Chanel.  The building in the background is headquarters of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City.

Although the energy of large cities is exciting, we were starting to feel the need for some relative quiet, so decided to depart Ho Chi Minh City later on new years day (25th).  We had made plans to meet a friend of Zac's (from his trip to Vietnam about a dozen years ago) on new year's eve, but knew that on new year's day itself almost everything in the city would be closed so our tourism options would be very limited.

We spent part of new years eve day making flight and hotel arrangements for the next leg of our trip, and then spent some time revisiting the displays in the city, which were less crowded than in the evening. 

This is the year of the rat.

We met Hai Yen and her family late in the afternoon on new year's eve.  We spent some time walking in the crowds along Nguyen Hue St, but this was a constant challenge with her very active boys, aged 8 and 2, continually darting this way and that.  We ended up at a restaurant with grills built into the tables, and gorged on a large spread of meats, seafood, and vegetables.

After a little more walking the boys were starting to fade, so we walked back to our hotel for goodbyes. 

Later, Ellen and I walked back into the throngs for a while, then enjoyed a drink at a sidewalk bar in front of Times Square (yes, really: what better place for new year's eve).  We made it back to our hotel just in time to enjoy the midnight fireworks displays from the rooftop terrace of the hotel.  One of the hotel staff members joined us there, and after the fireworks presented us with candy and "lucky money," a Tet tradition.

The city was very quiet when we ventured out on new year's day.  Early pm we caught a ride to the airport and relaxed in the lounge until our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Hoi An

We just wrapped up three days in Hoi An.  It's a charming and historic city, and in this Tet week absolutely packed with visitors.  Tet, the Chinese New Year, is the biggest holiday in Vietnam and many people travel to spend the time with family.

Our trip from Hue to Hoi An was on a small bus which stopped at several tourist spots along the way; what would be about 2 1/2 hours straight through took most of the day.  Still, it was enjoyable, and we were joined on the bus by a couple of fellow travelers we'd met previously (hello, Melanie and Lorne) and made some new friends.  Our stops included Lang Co beach and a nearby pearl farm. They grow the oysters on old motorbike tires. I watched as they pulled the tires from the water, then twisted them to make the oysters drop off.

We also stopped at Hai Van pass, which has been a dividing line between northern and southern Vietnam since the first century (when the Chinese were pushing from the north).  There are the remains of several bunkers left over from the US war on the pass.

Our bus also stopped at Marble Mountain, a karst outcrop containing several caves and temples, and plenty of stairs, on the outskirts of Da Nang.

And no tourist bus ride would be complete without a stop for shopping, this one at a factory for marble statuary.  We passed on buying the smiling Buddha who could have filled much of our front yard( and everything else).

The bus dropped us at the edge of the old quarter of Hoi An, so we had to walk about 1 km to our hotel, the Tea Garden Villa.  Although it fronts a busy street, the hotel is set well back and very pleasant.  There is a pool with waterfall (which we enjoyed), many aquariums full of fish, even a large iguana in a screened cage.  Our room on the third floor had a large balcony.

Archaeological records show Hoi An has a long history of settlement and as a trading port dating back to the 2nd century BCE, but it really took off in the 16th century.  The city is on a river near the sea, and was an important trading center, mostly dominated by Chinese merchants; it still has a sizable ethnic Chinese population.  Hoi An was spared destruction in the recent wars, and is a UNESCO world heritage site largely due to the many remaining historic buildings and French-style architecture.

The old quarter of the city is mostly free of vehicles, and is jam packed with tourist-oriented shops, restaurants and bars, massage spas, and tourists (mostly Chinese while we were there).  It is especially busy with the approach of the Tet holiday, and the crowds make Disneyland look empty and quiet.

Ellen enjoyed massages two evenings in Hoi An: first time feet, second time neck and shoulders.

In the evening the river walk is lit with colored lanterns, and there are many small boats providing boat rides along the river.  The night market is jumping with all sorts of vendors, including sellers of grilled lobsters, squid, and frogs.

A stage is set up along the river with nightly song and dance performances.

There is a moderately long list of historic sites and museums to visit in Hoi An.  There are several Chinese assembly halls (sort of a combined community center and temple), each tied to the geographic region of origin of the residents.  One of the most elaborate and beautiful is Phuoc Kien, built by people from Fujian.

The Tan Ky house, from the 18th century, is a well-preserved example of a successful trader and merchant's residence and storehouse.  The same family lived there for seven generations, until just recently when it became a museum.

The small Japanese bridge, over a canal, dates from the 16th  century.

Next day we took a cab to the nearby village of Thanh Ha which is known for pottery making.  It was a bit of disappointment: mostly we saw simple terracotta pieces cast in molds.  We met one young man doing good sculpture work, and Ellen had a chance to show off her throwing chops on a wheel.

Later in the day we walked across a bridge from Hoi An to nearby Cam Nam Island.  Not much there, but it was pleasant to walk somewhere quieter.  While we enjoyed a little lunch we watched this man laying out fish traps in the river.

All this Hoi An exploration is fun, and visually stimulating, but it can be tiring.

It's a 24+ hour train ride from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City, so we opted for a quick flight down.

Update: It's taken me a couple of days to get this posted.  We are now at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City waiting for a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I'll post about our couple of days here in HCM, and the Tet celebrations, soon.

A technical note: Occasionally I embed short video clips in the blog (like the one above showing a snippet of evening performance).  If you are reading this in an email, they only show up as single images; open in a browser if you want to watch and hear the action.

Hue

We're now in Hoi An (since late yesterday pm) after a couple of fun days in Hue.

We had a reserved a room in Hue at the Orchid Hotel, which is right in the middle of the tourist center of the city.  It turned out that the double we'd requested was unavailable, so they upgraded us to the "romantic" room on the top floor.

We had great views north over the river and over the city to the south.  After cleaning up from the train journey at our hotel we set off on foot to explore. We walked across the river (ok, across a bridge over the river) and spent a little time wandering the Dong Ba market area.  We had fun squeezing through the narrow aisles separating shops, and Ellen found a nice silk shirt to bargain over.

We spent a chunk of the afternoon making arrangements for the next phases of the trip.  With Tet (the Chinese new year, and the major holiday on Vietnam's calendar) approaching, we wanted to make sure we had things lined up for Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City.  We booked hotels, and air tickets because it's a 24 hour train trip, but hour and half flight, from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City.

This several block region is full of hotels, hostels, eateries, and bars, almost all catering to tourists.  By luck we arrived on a weekend when the streets of this small area close to motorized traffic in the evening and it turns into one large street party.  There are dozens of restaurants and bars, several of which have live music that can generally be heard from down the street.  There are also performers that set up right in the street.  It's a pleasant albeit very loud cacophony.

 The closed streets were packed with a mix of Western and Asian tourists, and plenty of locals as well.

A local English teacher brought her students to practice their skills on foreigners like us.  We had fun talking with them.

We ended up walking a block outside the pedestrian zone to find a more authentic place to eat; we were the only foreigners inside and the waiter knew only slightly more English than I know Vietnamese.  Later we stopped for a happy hour (which runs basically all evening) two-for-one drink at the Brown Eyes Bar.  They are very friendly and definitely do not stint on the alcohol.

Sunday we arranged a taxi to take us outside the city to visit the tombs of past kings of Vietnam (way too much traffic for me to feel comfortable on a motorbike).  The hotel set us up with a great driver who spoke a little English.  First stop was the tomb of the Emperor Minh Mang, who ruled in the first half of the 19th century.  It's like a large and beautiful park, with lakes and adorned with temples and other ceremonial buildings, as well as the walled-off area where he is entombed.

Next stop was the tomb of the Emperor Khai Dinh who was the penultimate Nguyen dynasty king and ruled (apparently very much under the thumb of the French) early in the 20th century.  His tomb covers much less real estate, but the buildings and statuary are incredibly ornate.

The inner room where the king is entombed (under this life-size bronze statue of him) is entirely decorated with inlaid ceramic and glass to create the ornate designs.

Small detail

After two mausoleums we were ready to pack it in, but our driver insisted we stop at Thien Mu Pagoda, which sits on a bluff over the river and was founded in 1601.  It was the home of the monk Thich Quang Duc, who famously self immolated in 1963 to protest the Diem government, an action which was captured by Western photojournalists and therefore very widely reported.  The little blue car he drove to Saigon is on display in the Pagoda complex.

We asked our driver to drop us off at the end of our explorations at the Citadel, which is the large area that (since the early 1800s) housed the Vietnamese royal family and the royal offices.  Although the perimeter walls still stand, almost everything inside was destroyed by war in 1945 and again in 1968 (during the Tet offensive).  Some of the Imperial City has been restored, but most of the area remains in ruins.  Still, it's an interesting and very large museum.

Entrance gate to the Imperial City

In the evening we headed out again to join the crowds on our traffic-free streets.  We had a great dinner at Madame Thu's restaurant, listened to several street bands perform, and turned in early to be ready for our 8 am bus to Hoi An.