Hello from Hue

Nothing much to report here except that I've been wandering around Hue city today, and will be moving on again tomorrow - just a short distance this time to Hoi An. And it will be a daytime journey. Last night's travel from Hanoi was a bit of an endurance test. Hanoi had hours of torrential downpour in the afternoon; so when our departure time of 6 pm was due, the city was in a state of gridlock with lots of badly flooded roads. We eventually left two hours late, and arrived in Hue 3 hours late at about 10 am today. The weather here is extremely hot, but at this time of year there is always the threat in the air of late afternoon rain. Today I think we will get away without it. For the first time on my travels I actually have the internet here in my hotel bedroom. Not that there is any shortage of internet cafes anywhere here. They tend to be full of kids using the computers to play daft games though. The atmosphere is usually too full of noisy excitement for comfort. I can attach just one picture - of the bridge reserved for bicycles and motor bikes.

Like Hanoi this is a city of motorbikes. I think Hanoi has something like 3.5 million people and 2 million motorbikes. Hue is an ancient city with a unique citadel and memorials to old emperors. Sadly it was smashed up mainly by the Americans during that war, and seems to have been rather neglected ever since.

Leaving Hanoi

I've decided to head south in Vietnam, this time by bus - hopefully a relatively luxurious version. I've booked an open ticket to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), which means I can choose to stop off for a day or two here and there. It is something like a 40 or 50 hour journey in total; so I fully expect to be taking a break or two. Take-off is at 6 pm today.
Before I go I have to give a plug to Hien amd Huyen, my favourite travel agents - at ACB travel just along from my hotel. They have been genuinely friendly and helpful - and I'm going to add their website to my link list. Here's a picture of the two of them.

Halong Bay

Vietnam is growing on me, and I'm certainly glad to be here for a while.
Yesterday I went on a 1 day outing to Halong Bay - and a long boat trip round some of the fantastic islands there. I'll let a couple of pictures try to give you some impression, but the reality is better. We landed briefly on a couple of islands and explored some equally impressive caves. We were a harmonious bunch of about 20 people, half of them Vietnamese, and my new best friends for the day were the four Lychee Girls in one of the pictures (3 from Singapore, and 1 from Vietnam). I'm down to meet the Singapore team again later today to visit the water puppet theatre - whatever that is.
It is a pretty long drive to Halong Bay (about 150km) and of course journeys like this in a strange land are interesting in themselves. It is clear that what I have seen of Vietnam is a basically fertile land of rice paddies that is very rapidly transforming into a dynamic new economy. There is mile after mile of hi-tech factories, many in production and just as many being built. The infrastructure is already pretty good too, with lots of investment going into that as well.
A rather depressing comparison with what you see driving around central Scotland!
Special thanks today to Wei Wei, Chris, Edelyn and Diep for your very pleasant company!

Hi from Hanoi

Just a quick note here to say that I arrived safely in Hanoi yesterday evening. Again it is difficult to sum up first impressions. It is a huge city, with a smallish "old quarter" and that's where I am - along with most other tourists. I can already tell that there are scams aplenty, and admit to having been done slightly on the journey from the airport - despite the warnings!
The place is reminiscent of Kathmandu, although somewhat more prosperous. It is certainly a hive of all sorts of activity. It seems that many Hanoi citizens seem to both cook and eat on the pavement - at least on the bits that aren't covered in parked motorbikes.
My hotel is the Asia Queen, but it seems to have about two or three other names too. It is perfectly acceptable. One rather surreal factor last night when I switched on the TV was to see two channels showing reruns of Scottish SPL football games (Celtic vs. ICT and Dundee Utd vs. Motherwell) and on another channel a full orchestral perfomance (oriental orchestra all in black tie etc) playing some kind of classical music, but with a Scottish bagpipe soloist (Amazing Grace and Scotland The Brave). This, I felt, was rather beyond my expectations of a welcome!
I've taken a couple of pictures but can't post them now because of absence of editing software to cut them down a bit.

Next steps

OK, here's the latest on my plans. I'm flying later today on a short internal Lao Airlines flight to Vientiane (or Viangchan) - the capital city of Laos, and tomorrow afternoon I'm moving on to Hanoi in VietNam. Having decided I want to go to VietNam, the next issue to deal with was the visa. Unlike most countries in this area, an advance visa is essential. I was able to get this done through the consulate in LPB at relatively short notice - but at a cost! At least that's the intention. I can't collect it till about 4 pm. And it is pouring rain here just now; so the internet cafe is as good a place as any to be.
Laos has made a very positive impression on me, and I'd love to spend longer here. The countryside is beautiful - much of it rugged mountain jungle, and the people are very welcoming. Oh, and the food and the beer are probably the best so far. A good place to come for a few weeks of trekking in the future maybe - but I already sent my boots home.
As I've said here before, I feel my travel time is rapidly expiring, and I'm keen to use it to get around a bit - especially after staying in one place for so long.
One of the good things about travelling alone - or independently - is the freedom to make change decisions at short notice as the mood takes me - or as I am influenced by others.
Yesterday I met up again with many of the people who had been on the waterfall trip the previous day, and they all had interesting experiences to share. This included breakfast with Haley and Elizabeth, two fine sisters from LA - who came up with some useful tips for my trip there later in the year.
No new photos to share with you today, but I'll attach Moira's Luang Prabang link - because the pictures sum the place up perfectly.
In Hanoi, I'm sure the city will be worth a good look around, but my main plan there is to get on a boat trip round the islands of Halong Bay.

Another day in LPB

This is such a nice place I've decided to hang around for a while. Moira's comment link provides photos which are far better than mine, but there is no doubt this is one of the most photogenic places I've seen. Today's main activity was one of those organised trips - out to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall area, and another meeting with a few bears. I walked all the way to the top of the falls, and got completely soaked in the process. With the heat here today, though, that was perfectly welcome! I'm still giving some serious thought to my next move. In a way it is a luxury having no detailed plan; in other ways I feel I sometimes have to make some difficult decisions from the wealth of fascinating choices. I won't tell you about how I see my options here and now, but I think I'll stay here yet another day and then move on again on Friday.

On the whole I'm pretty pleased that I changed my original plan from one which would have taken me to southern India and Sri Lanka just now. So many places to see and so little time!

Luang Prabang

Just another brief update today. Things went broadly according to plan except that the 6 hour speedboat ride turned out to be nearly 9 hours - including a 1 hour engine repair stop. It was a pretty small narrow boat, with 8 passengers and a boatman "driving" at the back, with a huge motor and a long rotor blade arm. I haven't got a picture of the whole thing, but I'll post what I have to give the general idea - as well as what the river looks like. It felt like we were doing about 40 mph (or should that be knots), but maybe that's just because we were so low in the water.

I was with two dutch folks (Willem and Carolyn) and the rest were Lao. The boat was obviously built for the Lao folks - 'cos they tended to fit into the required space while the rest of us were pretty uncomfortable to put it mildly! I've come to the same lodge as Willem and Carolyn. This whole place (Luang Prabang) has made a big early impression. It is a really nice mix of old French colonial influence and ancient Bhuddist wats. Here's a picture of one, taken at dusk; so I'm sure it doesn't really do it justice. And the people are nice too! Bad news is that I bought another t-shirt at the night market - as if I didn't already have enough stuff to lug around!

As has now become the norm, I'm not yet sure what I'll do tomorrow. Favourite is probably to stay here and move on the following day, maybe for Viangchan.