Mar 2007

Hue is close (although not as close as we thought) to the famous DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) which was the 'no mans land' between North and South Vietnam before reunification. It has the best preserved and least visited tunnels in Vietnam.

So after breakfast on the balcony, we took a minibus and guide to them, stopping on the way to take in a bit of rural Vietnam (buffalo crossing the busy highway, trying to work out how they extract rubber from the trees and watching people working in the rice fields) and have an interesting lunch by the sea on the way.

It turned out to be rather further than we had been led to believe, so the journey itself took about 6 hrs there and back.

We saw the military cemetery where over 10,000 Vietnamese soldiers were buried during the 19 year war (another 5000 odd died clearing up the unexploded bombs afterwards).

The tunnels themselves were the highlight of the day. Built on three levels through the earth there are 4kms of them and it took just 20 months to build them. 400 North Vietnamese lived down there, whilst the war raged. 19 babies were born down there during the period!

No-one seemed very keen on the 2 main things that we had planned for today - to hire a Vietnamese English-speaking guide and to see Ho Chi Minh lying in state - but we spiced things up a bit by racing through the town to the mausoleum on the back of 3 motorbikes. The kids loved it, in spite of the rain.

We queued for about an hour (very strict security etc) to see the great man (who has been dead for nearly 40 years now and had gone a bit yellow).

Then on to a very traditional market with our guide called "UK". Incredible array of fresh fruits and vegetables, live fish and shellfish (including bowls of live eels and crabs).

Saw Vietnamese speciality which is grilled dog - none of us have plucked up enough courage to eat even the heavily disguised dog kebabs yet!

Learned a huge amount about Vietnam from "UK", including the fact that the Vietnamese people are heavily penalised if they have more than 2 children - hence their interest in our three. Also learned that the loud radio that is played all over the city every morning at 5am is the News! Funny how you learn to sleep through it.

Long day, but said our goodbyes to our friends at the hotel

and then caught the night train to Hue at 11pm which was quite an experience - nearly got ripped off by someone masquerading as a guard, then found our cabin for the night - 4 beds. But we managed and all went pretty well on the 10 hr journey south.

Awoke to rural scenery and a 15 degree hike in temperature - much more tropical 'feel'.

Nice guesthouse (8 GBP a night for all of us). Everyone tired and irritable - Jackie went to find jam sandwich for Matt, David took off on a motorbike to let off steam and then we gave up and went to the poshest hotel in town for a relaxing swim and then out for a pizza. Will try harder tomorrow!

This time we did get up in time to see the Tai Chai at the Lake. Not quite the serene atmosphere we had imagined-rather more vigorous exercising to loud music. Kids found the bosom rubbing and mutual back patting amusing.

Took a 3 hour bus trip to Halong Bay. Passed lots of unusual road signs saying only 'bikes and buffalo' allowed in this lane. We saw lots of very tall, ornate painted houses which are incredibly narrow.The Vietnamese used to pay their taxes according to the width of their houses hence they tend to be tall and very thin.

Halong Bay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and consequently attracts lots of visitors . Its a jumble of junks and I mean old junks. I tried to ask what would happen if the boat were to sink and the guide could not work out why the boat should sing!!! Eventually I got him to understand that I wanted to know where the life jackets were and his response was not to worry because the crew were good swimmers!!

We were supposed to be interested in the limestone hills and caves but the most interesting bit were the floating villages. These are complete and very poor communities of people and their dogs living in ramshackle floating huts. Livvy wondered where their gardens were.

The caves all have old vietnamese legends, usually about dragons and the 3 other symbolic animals (phoenix, lion and turtle). Matt says he much prefers these legends to the 'god stories' he gets at school.

A good sleep in a wooden cabin on the boat refreshed us for the journey to the beach resort where we stayed in these bamboo huts. Not really warm enough to fully enjoy sadly. I was desperate for a pair of socks! But we had a lovely hour kayaking in the warm South China Sea with a gentle guide whose name means 'Sun Puppy'. He took us climbing, barefoot to the top of the Island to show us a silent spot where he goes to have a sleep when he gets time off.

Back in Hanoi now for one night now. Tomorrow we take the Reunification Express for a 16 hour overnight train journey to Hue.

Yes I know to you and me it sounds a bit petty, but to Jackie, an efficient hotel laundry service was manna from heaven, considering that most people seem to eat off the dirty, wet streets! She gave the cleaner a soggy, smelly heap of stuff yesterday and it arrived back this morning smelling of a freshly mown meadow!

Matt, Livs and Dad went to the lake to try and catch the Tai Chi exercises but arriving at 7.30am we were about 2.5 hrs late. But the highlight of the morning was the facinating market we stumbled on on the way back.

The kids saw live fish, an eel being killed, snails being disembowelled to make paste and a plate of brains (as well as the more mundane fresh fruit and vegetables and incredible array of herbs and spices for sale.

The kids bought Mum a dozen fresh roses (for about 80p but don't tell Jackie!).

Then we took a taxi to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (he's been dead for over 30 years now and still people flock to see him) Being a Sunday, hundreds of people were queueing to see his body, which meant over an hour's wait, so we postponed the visit and went to the Temple of Literature instead.

The picture shows a group of excited Vietnamese school kids having their photo taken with us.

After a rest in our hotel room, we then did some successful shopping and got back for an early night. Off to Halong Bay for 3 days early tomorrow so you won't hear from us for a few days.

Rained a lot in the night and all day today.

Looked out of our hotel window to see people setting up their shops, hanging up the budgie cages and women struggling with basketfuls of fresh fruit and vegetables.

We trudged along the muddy streets to book a boat trip at Halong Bay being pestered by Cyclo men on the way.We then went to a cafe/patisserie for lunch - lovely food with tiny footstools to eat on. Banana milkshakes were 10/10. You had to take your shoes off which made no difference because we all had muddy feet.

Then we walked through the busy streets of Hanoi to the Market which was packed with numerous stalls selling everything from shoes to handmade dresses.

Matthew tried to buy some flip flops from someone who was asleep! In the end he bought them for less than a pound - Livs bought a watch for about 1.50 and Ems bought some trendy sunglasses for about 1.50 - bargain!.

Livs and Mum went to the most disgusting toilets ever and we mean disgusting!

We then walked through the rain back to our hotel to wash our feet before going to see the famous water puppets. They were colourful and beautiful, but there were lots of older people asleep behind us.

Then we took a taxi to a really nice restaurant hidden away in the French Quarter of town. We had a lovely meal served by young, friendly Vietnamese waitresses who taught us some Vietnamese words.