Hanoi - Day Two

We woke up early and dressed and headed to deck 3 for breakfast.  I only ate a croissant and some juice.  Then we packed up and left the boat and got on the bus for Hanoi.  This special trip was offered to those guests staying over 100 days.  Eighteen people came to the boat but only 8 went on to Hanoi.  Some of the others had already been and the others did not want to do the bus ride of 3 hours.  But we have never been to Hanoi so we went for the long ride.

The bus stopped about half way at a shop where they have clean restrooms and lots of things to buy.  They also have about 20 young people doing embroidery work.  They sit there for 8 hours working on the pictures that turn out beautiful.  They really do great work.  I thought about buying a jacket but then wondered where I would wear it in Florida.  So no jacket.

These people work here at least 8 hours a day just sewing.

We arrived in Hanoi where the weather was misty with occasional rain.  Not a great day.  Our first stop was to Ho Chi Minh's Mousalium and the Stilt House.  We could not go inside any of the building.  The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is on display in this building which was built in 1975.

But it is closed on Monday's.  Interesting, rules require that legs and shoulders are covered, hands may not be in pockets, and arms may not be crossed.  This mausoleum is located at the center of Ba Dinh Square in central Hanoi.

This is the stilt house.  Ho Chi Minh lived and worked here from 1958 to 1969.

The pond in front of the stilt house.

The inside of the stilt house.  This is the living room/office and then there is a bedroom.  That is it.

The One Pillar Pagoda was built in 1049 and is balanced on a single column in the pond a few feet from the stilt house.

Next stop was Temple of Literature.

The Temple of Literature is also known as Van Mieu in Vietnamese.  It was built in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong to honor the Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Finally, we went to the Ho Lou Prison.  This is where the American Pilots were held during the "American" war.  That is the way the local people refer to the Vietnam War.  John McCann is one of the pilots held here.  Most of the prison has been destroyed but there is still some remaining which turns out to be interesting.  The original use of the prison was when the local people rose up agains the French.  The French used it to keep the protesters captured.  They were kept in chains and beheaded if they misbehaved.  At least when the American pilots were held, they were not in chains but I do thing they were tortured.

Officially known as Hoa Lo Prison, this facility was satirically referred to as the "Hanoi Hilton" by American prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict.

First used as a prison by the French, the site gained infamy as the spot where American servicemen were interrogated and tortured, including Senator John McCain and former ambassador Pete Peterson.
During the French, the men were chained to long tables.

Much of the prison was leveled in the 1990's, portions of the interrogations rooms remain.

Despite the display of times such as McCain's parachute and flight suit, the museum is somewhat controversial  due to it depiction of the site as a benign prisoner barracks.  There are pictures of the Americans playing volleyball and basketball like life here was great.

Then we stopped at a small restaurant for a lovely lunch.  Started with soup, then a salad, and finally a chicken dish.  Fruit for dessert.

This is a small local restaurant and the food was good.

I think this car could be David's next project.  What do you think?

Back on the bus to head back to the ship.  We stopped at the same place and this time I gave in and did buy some items for the grand girls.  But I am not telling what.

We got back on the ship and the ship left port.  Everyone welcomes you back on board.  And it is great to be back.

We unpacked and then dressed for dinner.  Cocktails up in Observation Lounge and then dinner in Compass Rose.  Then back to suite and bed.  We lost one hour tonight.  But great to be in a comfortable bed.

Hanoi - Day one

This morning at around 6:10 am we entered the bay into Ha Long.  This is a beautiful and eerie ride in. We headed up to the pool for our hour swim.  Ossie came about the same time we arrived so the hour goes by quickly.  And then dressed for breakfast in La Veranda.

Bob noticed this fellow relieving himself over the side of his boat.  And the other guy was washing his body.  They don't seem to care that we were watching them.

We docked out at Ha Long Bay which is the closest port to Hanoi.   Regent has offered those guests who are sailing over 100 days a special outing.  So we stayed on the ship until we were to gather at 2 pm.  So the morning was quiet as most people were off the ship touring.  I caught up on the blog as the internet is much quicker when not so many guests are using it.

After lunch we packed our overnight bags and headed to the theater to gather for the trip.  They took us by bus to this new resort and the junk boat we were staying on.  These are wooden boats with several cabins for the guests.  We were in cabin 204 which had just enough room for the twin beds and bedside tables.  The first thing I did was bump my leg on the end of the bed.

The boat with the two sails is our junk.

This is the front of the junk.  You enter from the rear.

As we got on we went up to deck 3 where we were greeted with a fruit punch.  This is the bar on deck 3.

And our cabin.  The bathroom is divided into three sections.  On the left is the shower, the center is the sink and on the right is the toilet.  Those are my feet.

The boat set sail and headed for a cave which Bob and I did not care to enter.  We sailed around the monoliths with is a beautiful site.  Then we anchored in an area where there were several boats anchored.

The junk was docked at this resort area in Vietnam.  You could color me surprised.  This area is quite nice.  All very new.

And all very nice.  Only can be owned by the Vietnam people.  No foreign people can buy here.

When we set sail we cruised around the monoliths.  It is quite beautiful.

Just more of our cruise.

Deck 4 is a sun deck and I sat up here for a bit.  Was trying to find a place to do my needlepoint.

More of the monoliths.

Some people live on the water.  Their boats are very colorful.

Dinner was a seafood feast.  Stared with shrimp and oysters, next crabs, then clams, and finally a fish dish.  All very good.  We eat anything that is cooked.  No raw salads or the like.

It takes on an eerie look as night comes in.

This vendor is trying to sell her wares.  One of the gals did buy some Pringles.  But not Bob.

Deck 3 is turned into the dining room.  We sat next to Marilyn and Bob.

Some shrimp salad.

Little clams.

Pumpkin soup.

And crabs.

As night falls, the boats anchor and wait till dawn to move again.

Then after dinner we headed to the cabin to go to bed as we had to get up early (5am) in order to make the trip into Hanoi.

I did not sleep well but that is not unusual for me when I have to get up at a certain time.

Da Nang, Vietnam - Day Two

We stayed here overnight.  Bob is feeling much better so we decided to go on our tour today.  It is  called "BaNa's French Past and Cable Car Adventure".

The view from the ship while docked here in Da Nang.

These fishing boats ride by all day long.

We were on bus 14 and drove to Da Nang which takes about one hour from the pier.  Once we arrived at BaNa, we took the longest cable car we have ever seen over the forest to a stopping point.  Since they were working on the pagoda, we took the second cable car to the resort which is still being built.  In America this could never happen.  This was a working construction site.  And here we were walking around the site.  At any rate, we took a van down to the large Buddha statue and then walked down to the pagoda.  I did not walk to the pagoda as if you walk down, you have to walk up and it was very uneven footing.  Sort of dangerous if you ask me.

This is at the entrance of the Resort.  The resort is partly open, I think.  It looks like they want to make it a theme park for the locals.

Our first cable car which holds about 6 - 8 persons.  Depending on the size of the person.  We were 6.
This cable car hold 4 Guinness world records.  It is the longest 10-MGD in one section with 5,771.61m in inclined length, the highest vertical rise in one section with 1,368.93m, the longest rope with 11,587m, and the heaviest rope with 141.24 tons.

The cable car system is built according to the standards of European associations suspension report by the Austrian technology.  It takes you up through more than 5km and up to an altitude of nearly 1500m.
The landing area for the first cable car.  I found it difficult to look as heights are not my favorite thing but I did it.

Still in the building phase.

The pagoda with construction all around.

Some of the workers.  These are two women working while the man sits.

And then the Buddha.  He is bright white and very large.  This is Asia's largest meditating Shakyamuni Buddha statue.

You can sort of get an idea of how high up this place is.  This is part of the pagoda which I did not visit.

All types of sculptures in the area.

Another view of how high this resort is.  The building on the left of the picture is the Debay Hotel.  It has 21 bedrooms and is the most luxurious hotel in the complex.  The building on the right is the Morin Hotel with 59 rooms.

And the walk up to the Buddah.

The man in the green shirt is throwing up a brick to the man in the gray shirt which he catches with one hand and then places in the pile.  The other side the green shirt throws up two bricks together which the blue shirt catches with two hands.  Some wear hard hats and others don't.

Part of the theme park.  This is a small car that travels like a roller coaster down the side of the mountain and then back up.  Looks like fun to me.  The yellow cable cars are the second ones we took up to the resort.

At the bottom of the mountain you will find very colorful gardens and fountains.

The fountains play to music.

Then the van back to the resort where we had a refreshment stop for a beer.  Then the cable cars back to the beginning and back on the bus for the return trip to the ship.

Lunch in La Veranda of soup and salad and then a well deserved nap.  So I missed the afternoon gathering of needlepoint.

Enzo had given us a great bottle of champagne which we discovered when we opened the refrigerator. Thank you Enzo.  Our butler told us later that Enzo ordered it.  What a nice man.  So we enjoyed a glass to toast our special day.  Wow - 45 years later and we are still in love.  What a ride it has been.

Cocktails in Observation Lounge where we sat at the bar and the bartender knew what we wanted.  We are getting too predictable.  Then down to dinner in Prime 7.  Route was our waiter.  Bob had his double order of oysters and then a steak and I had tomato salad and filet.  And then they brought us a chocolate moose cake and ice cream for dessert with Happy Anniversary written on the plate.  No singing which is good.

Back to the suite where Victor had made swans out of towels.  And Laksha had blown up balloons and stuck them to the ceiling.  A great anniversary.

Actually, the balloons were there when we came back from our tour and the swans showed up after dinner.

Victor wanted to make a heart out of rose petals but they could not find any roses on the ship.  We said that was fine, what he did was enough.