Good Morning Vietnam!

Vietnam  is an incredible and really beautiful country. Just 5 days I were there but I had such a good memory from there. It was rushing trip and so tired but I was still so happy and enjoyed most of the time.

Dec, 26 - Hanoi

I arrive in Hanoi at 12:30pm, Trang the Vietnamese friend came to the airport later than us coz her flight was delayed.  We took a taxi from the airport to the city center, we got a very nice hotel and cheap. Central Star Hotel (Old Darling Café Hotel's sister hotel) Tel: (84-4) 926 2563. The Hotel isn’t that far from the city, we can just walk around 1-5 mins to see the water puppet show and Hogan Kiem Lake . But anyway the second night the water was out of service. We have to walk to the another hotel to took a shower there. Really good experience!  =P

After we check in we were so hungry then we head to the restaurant there. The first meal Trang ordered for us was a Caramel Beef thingy. Really look so yummy but I can’t eat beef so I was just waiting for the second dish, it was nice too. After we have a very heavy meal then we went to to lake name “Hogan Kiem” it was cool evening, I have seen many souvenir shop along the way.

The Hogan Kiem Lake not just the normal lake, but there is the story behind it. It was The legend of the Hoan Kiem Turtle According to a tale that dates back to the 15th century, King Le Loi, also known as Le Thai To, the founder of the Le Dynasty, found a holy turtle during a cruise on the then Luc Thuy, or green lake. The turtle told the King to return the sacred sword that had helped him defeat the northern Ming aggressors now that peace had returned. Le Thai To unsheathed his sword and threw it to the turtle. He later named the lake "Hoan Kiem" (Lake of return of the sword)

Ho Chi Minh Assembly

We enjoyed the atmosphere with the lake, the temple and the park there. Afterward I met 3 Vietnamese friends they come to join us for dinner, we went to Ho Chi Minh assembly, it was big assembly, nowsday people come for work out. After Ho Chi Minh place we ran to the Water puppet show coz we didn’t have time left, the water puppet was gona start in a minute or so.

The water puppet show was really nice, I enjoyed it. The puppets in a water puppet show are carved out of fig wood. They are nearly three feet tall and can weigh up to 35 pounds. The puppeteers, who stand in the water behind a screen, control the puppets with a rod-and string mechanism. The rods are bamboo poles 12 to 15 feet long. The more complicated puppets are controlled by several puppeteers at the same time.

After pupet show we were hungry again.. we bought the bread at the street near the theather, People here are often eat bread than people in my country and they are also have a coffee in the evening too. In the morning they have Pho as we’ve seen along the street.

Dec, 27 – Halong Bay

Halong Bay was our destination for the second day of the trip, we bought One-day trip from the Hetel Central Star Agency, They have a one day trip, 2 days or 3 days trip, you can sleep on the boat too. The one day trip that we have it’s also including the lunch.

Halong Bay

After 3 hours by bus, finally we arrived Halong Bay, we have to go by boat and that will take around an hour or so.. The boat was stop at the cave and we can go out and visit inside the cave, the first cave that we visited was the “Heaven Cave”. It’s look similar as in Thailand as well as the Halong Bay as I think it’s look similar as “Phang nga or Phuket”.

After visited the Heaven cave we head to the fishing area and the boat stopped and let us to visit the cave there but we need to pay under $2 to visit that place. We didn’t went there just stayed on the boat, and enjoyed the atmosphere there.

As it was rush trip so we didn’t have time to visit another beautiful cave which there are so many cave there, unfortunately we have got a several place to go so we couldn’t spent time there more.

The way back to Hanoi City , the bus stopped by the souvenir shop and We have some snack, I’ve talk to some tourist there too, some came by bus from Thailand which passed by the bordered of Thailand and Cambodia and take the truck from Cambodia to Vietnam . Well, just in case some people wana try it. Should be fun =P

We arrived in Hanoi City again around 8pm, and head for dinner. Trang take us to a very famous restaurant, I’ve seen many tourist there, They were very busy with the food. =P  I don’t remember the name of the food but it was so nice.

We get up around 3am, really early because we have to catch up the flight to go to Hue. We arrive at Danang airport in the morning.The flight wasn’t delayed so we were in the city center in the early morning.  We checked in the Hotel, The hotel name Nhat Tuong hotel12 Nguyen Thai Hoc. Tel: (84-54) 830 261. I found that the people there were smile a lot than people in Hanoi. The Tomb was the fist place to go.. it was really big Tomb and a bit far from the city centre. So we have to go by taxi, We rent the taxi from the hotel, We arrived in the Tomb of the King name Tu Duc

Emperor Tu Duc enjoyed the longest reign of any monarch of the Nguyen dynasty, ruling from 1848-83. Although he had over a hundred wives and concubines, he was unable to father a son (possibly he became sterile after contracting smallpox). Thus, it fell to him to write his own epitaph on the deeds of his reign. He felt this was a bad omen, but the epitaph can still be found inscribed on the stele in the pavilion just to the east of the Emperor's tomb. This stele is the largest of its type in , and had to be brought here from a quarry over 500 kilometers away--a trip that took four years.

Tu Duc began planning his tomb long before his death in 1883. The major portions of the tomb complex were completed from 1864-67, along with future temple buildings that served as a palatial retreat for Tu Duc and his many wives during his lifetime. Construction of the tomb demanded so much corvee labor and extra taxation that there was an abortive coup against Tu Duc in 1866. This was put down, and for the remainder of his life, Tu Duc continued to use the tomb's palace buildings as his place of residence.

Tu Duc's tomb

After the Emperor's death in 1883 his adopted son Kien Phuc took over as the Nguyen Emperor. Perhaps because he only ruled seven months before dying, a separate tomb was not established for him. Instead, he was laid to rest in a small corner on the grounds of Tu Duc's tomb. Between the tombs of Tu Duc and his son is the tomb of Empress Le Thien Anh, Tu Duc's primary wife.

We went to have luch after we have done visiting the tomb. Afterward we went to the palace, there are nothing much to see because the place was bomb since the 2nd war.

And we went to another Tomb  afterward, it is the tomb of  Khai Dinh the building look really beautiful and look alike Chinese style mixed with the western style. There are so many tourist come to visiting every day. Khai Dinh, Emperor of from 1916-1925. The tomb represents a fusion of traditional Vietnamese style and modern influence. Begun in 1920 and completed in 1931, the tomb is almost entirely made of concrete and includes many European architectural details.

emperor Khai Dinh

This is the view from just outside the tomb of the emperor Khai Dinh

We also went to the Thien Mu pagoda in , the pagoda is near the river name . There is the story behind it. Trang told me that there are 2 lovers they love each other in the deep but the family of them didn’t allowed them to be together. So they went to the pagoda to pray for their love, but the love wasn’t agreed by their family. So they decided to jump in to the . So nowadays people believe that the pagoda isn’t the place for the lover to go there.

The name of the pagoda comes from a legend: a long ago, an old woman appeared on the hill where the pagoda stands today. She told local people that a Lord would come and build a Buddhist pagoda for the country's prosperity. Lord Nguyen Hoang, on hearing that, ordered the construction of the pagoda of the "Heavenly Lady".

We spend the evening for dinner and buy a souvenir in . It was cold in the night the weather was around 15 C. People there was really nice and I found that city is quite than city which I think I like the most.

Dec, 28 – Hoi An

We head to Ho-an by bus in the early morning again, Oh It was so tiring trip coz it was really rush. I spent most of the time slept on the bus, after 3 hours gone we arrived in Hoi-an but it was late. So we has to cancel some of the plan in the morning. We had lunch at the hotel and thought that it will be quick and that was another experience again…. The hotel wasn’t cook by themselves but they ordered the shop outside so it was take long time than we expected. Anyway it was first time to try new meal there. “Ka lao” is popular food there, it’s one of the noodle in I enjoyed. I also had a coffee, In Vietnam they have several kind of coffee, but the one I like most is the coffee in Hue, they have the coffee maker ( as seen in the picture) really simple one but good taste. =)

People In HoiAn can speak English and they are so friendly than people in Hanoi too.. We went to Ceramic house and they’re allow us to create our ceramic by ourselves, it was my first time to try Ceramic so it was really hard and my product wasn't good. It look like jar but it is so funny jar.. =P

Vietnamese coffee

In the afternoon we went to the one of UNESCO World Heritage Sites The visit includes stops Old Vietnamese House. I enjoyed walking along the street to see Old Vietnamese House and the souvenir shop. The old Vietnamese house look alike Chinese’s house.… We had dinner at the resto name “Café De Ames”.  The One of popular resto in Hoi-an. The resto doesn’t have the menu but they ordered for us. The owner of the shop was really friendly and he can recognize the nationality of the customer. The foods was really good but it was too much for us to eat all. So we left one dish there…

We walk back and say good bye to HoiAn which we have to catch up to flight back to and to tomorrow morning (again).