Just arrived in DaNang

We arrived in DaNang an hour or so ago and find we have free internet access in our room - woohoo! Expect a short deluge of catching up, links added, photos uploaded to our online album, replies to your emails...anything else?

 

We are cool and relaxed after a pretty hair raising drive over the Three Passes road, between Hue and here. We had a short break at Lang Co beach, a lovely sandy stretch littered with constellations of tiny starfish.

 

One old woman walked along the waters edge carrying a yoke on her shoulder, heavily laden with what looked like firewood. Apart from her, the beach looked empty...until we stepped onto it.

 

"Hello Sir, you want to buy something?" "Wanna sit on my deckchairs?"

 

We resisted the temptation and enjoyed a peaceful walk along the beach, collecting a few shells along the way.

 

DaNang is a large city, badly damaged by a typhoon last year so there is lots of building work going on. We are cossetted in a "resort", away from the real world and were greeted by drinks served in empty dragon fruit shells

 

One of our travelling companions thought the deckchair was just the right size for him and felt immediately at home!

In Hue

That's Hue as the Geordies might say, by the way.

We flew in from Hanoi this morning and have spent the day looking around the old capital, where there are so many temples and tombs and shrines!
This little chap sits upon the roof of the Kings Reading Room in the Forbidden City. He's made of broken bits of china.
This character is one of several on a pillar, also made of ceramic pieces.
 
Sometimes the ceramic pieces are used to create more complex things. This is at the base of each of four pillars at one of the entrances to the Citadel.

I seemed to spend most of the day taking photographs of interesting views - this one at the tombs we went to this morning.
 

These incense sticks aren't the ones for sale, but are theresimply to catch the tourists eye to make them stop and take photos. Guess what we did?

  In Hue, the bicycles are also well loaded with goods...more bicycles in this case! And the girls here wear long gloves, socks and face masks when riding their motorbikes to protect their skin - they don't care for helmets to protect more vital body parts, though.

I think I know where Kaffe Fassett got his inspiration for some of his needlepoint, now.And lest you think Vietnam is all street life, temples and busy roads, here's a picture of the Perfume River, taken around 5pm this afternoon, just as the sun was going down. Lovely, isn't it?
 

Hanoi Street Scenes

Have a wooden stamp carved whilst you wait

Wonderful arrangement of pipes don't you think?

 
Graffiti

All kinds of things are carried on and sold from a bicycle

These shops had dried mushrooms for sale - pooh! The air was "perfumed"

Nothing but towels down this street

Every shop in this street seemed to have the same range of wire racks

The Vietnamese answer to a Betterware Man?

Most people wait for the lights to change, but some don't bother.

It's normal to see a whole family on a motorbike, and for baby to "drive"

Taking the dog for a walk (run), Hanoi style across a busy road junction

In the modern city, there are many scenes like this, which could be from the "old days"
The shoe shop assistant has lunch brought in.

Hotel Art 15 - Hanoi

The hotel art in Hanoi isn't just paintings but beautiful still life arrangements too. As for the flowers...

 

Exploring the City

...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.