Monday, August 13, 2007 at 12:55AM 
Vietnam in Hotel Art, travelling Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 2:32PM ...and who knew that there were Vietnamese artists painting in the Impressionist style? Certainly we didn't....
But the day began with a visit to Uncle Ho. Years ago, we'd paid a visit to his friend in Moscow, so the experience was not exactly surprising. His embalmed body lay in a glass coffin, lit in an eerie manner which made him glow rather - and he turned out to be somewhat smaller than we expected. Zoom wondered if he'd shrunk a little, since he goes back to Moscow every Autumn for "maintenance" she told us. Anyway, we were pleased to have paid homage and enjoyed seeing his "simple home" nearby (with semi-detached bunker) too.
Next stop was the Temple of Literature, for a brief look around the first Vietnamese university and shrine to Confucianism. Because of the heat, we didn't find this as interesting as we ought to have done...we were beginning to melt a little by now and I was too distracted by the fashions in the group ahead of us - you'll have to believe me about the 3" stiletto heels which match the white trousers!
I was also beginning to get a bit flippant about the translation of the signs - had you been there, you'd have understood..."No Graffiti"
Next stop was the Fine Art Museum where we enjoyed looking around so much unfamiliar art. It's not that it isn't fun to go to places like the Chicago Art Institute and see the old favourites, but it's somehow more interesting to go somewhere that contains only the unfamiliar and the different. In fact, what we enjoyed most of all were the lacquer paintings, my favourite being this one by Nguyen Duc Nung:
Having "done" the fine art museum, we jumped on a couple of cyclos to have a quick whizz around the 36 streets which make up the old town. What fun! I'll post photos in a separate blog entry, because there are quite a few. 
We spent the afternoon wandering the streets, bewildered by the currency (32,000 Dong = £1) and deciding that crossing the streets here is rather easy - you just close your eyes and walk purposefully forward, regardless of what traffic is coming!
This evening, we've been to a "Water Puppet Show" - something we didn't particularly feel bothered about but which was actually rather clever!
Off to Hue first thing tomorrow morning, so an early start. Hopefully Blogger will allow me to post photos a little more easily from there.
Vietnam in travelling Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 4:57PM
After breakfast our guide - let's call her Zoom because I had no idea how to write her Vietnamese name - met us and we drove to Halong Bay, a World Heritage Site which everyone had said was fantastic. It's a 3 hour drive though, which is why we needed the early start.
Along the way, we had a "comfort stop" - really a "tourist rip off stop" at the "Serenity, Humanity, Beauty" workshops for disabled youngsters. Serried ranks of young people were working on what looked like pretty mindnumbing tasks. Those in the photo below were putting in single stitches in fine silk into a colour-by-numbers picture - huge areas of flat colour and nothing at all like the Chinese embroidery of similar nature. They were also cutting gemstones, doing lacquer work and dressmaking. All pretty grim as far as we were concerned.
We arrived at Halong Bay around 11.45 to catch our 12 noon boat. So did hundreds of others, so we left Zoom to get on with it and stood and watched the free show! Very entertaining it was too.
Not quite as entertaining as our faces, however, when Zoom returned and identified our boat as the one four or five boats away from the pier! We joined much of Europe in jumping up and over the boats in between and shuffled alongside to make our way across to the "Hai Long Dream (12)"
I have no idea how he did it, but our Captain squeezed out from between the others and we were soon on our way to the first stop - the Celestial Cave. Amazing stalagmites and stalagtites in there, no bats in the daytime (thank goodness) and lots of old stories about the rock formations in these caves which were only discovered in 1993. Yes, work that one out for yourself!!
Out and back to our junk, which was waiting for us on the other side of the hill. As you can see, it was getting near afternoon nap time for some!
We settled down to a freshly cooked seafood lunch - yum - and sailed around the bay, in and out of the rock formations, many of which had names to suggest the picture they made. So, we went past the duck, the kissing dogs, the dragon - or two!
We went with several other junks through the fishermans village which will be very familiar if you've got/seen Kaffe Fassetts Colourful Journey Video of his Vietnamese travels. (Can recommend that one and will add a link later)
Time to drive home through the paddy fields, back to Hanoi. Loads of brick kilns in this area, on the horizon as you can see.
Lots of mopeds again as we joined the rush hour of workers going home after their day's work at the Canon factory.
Most intriguing load of the day? A live sow, strapped into the basket at the back of this moped. Wriggle if you dare!!
Going to see more of the city tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to give you a better idea of what Hanoi really looks like!
Vietnam in fun, travelling Friday, August 10, 2007 at 4:42PM 
After a comfortable flight (first long haul in ages with no turbulence whatsoever, phew!) we changed planes in Bangkok and arrived in Hanoi around 8pm this evening. The hotel is wonderful, old colonial style with a real feel of "L'Indochine" and we are looking forward to a good look around when we are feeling a little more human.
The queue to board the plane from Bangkok to Hanoi had added amusement in the form of the T shirt the chap in front of me was wearing. Having said that, I couldn't spell Hippopotamus in Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese or whatever his language happens to be, so I have no room whatsoever to poke fun.....
We have learned two phrases of Vietnamese so far - Hello and Thank you. Have forgotten them both though, so need to practise!
Vietnam in travelling Thursday, August 9, 2007 at 10:41AM Off on a long flight tonight, to Hanoi via Bangkok, so I telephoned British Airways to see if I would be allowed to knit. Whilst in the US recently, I spent most of my flying time working on a pair of socks which passed the time away nicely in a productive way and had no problems whatsoever. I hadn't been allowed to knit on the outbound flight from Heathrow though, not because Virgin Atlantic wouldn't let me, but because British Airports Authority (BAA) won't allow needles of any kind through security. However, I took my socks on board at LAX (different pair!) for the homeward flight and knitted across the Atlantic, no problem.
I think it's time all of this was sorted out. I've already had a niggle at United, who charged us excess baggage on an internal flight in the US because we'd followed the European convention of checking everything in and having just one small piece of handbaggage each. Having paid the $$$, we then stood back and watched people take enormous suitcases onboard, none of which were weighed and most of which would challenge the size of our check-in bag. (Ok, not mine perhaps!!) United have responded with a couple of money off vouchers for our next flight - actually more than the excess baggage charge, too.
But I'm fed up with long queues at security, being singled out because I'm carrying a foreign passport on an internal flight in the US, being shouted at by unpleasant and uncouth security people and having a completely different set of rules and regulations to follow at different points of the same journey. I know it's for my own security and that, as usual, the stupid and dangerous behaviour of one person makes life for everybody more challenging - but if would make life so much easier if the same rules applied everywhere.
Or if I stayed at home instead!!
