The next day I headed into town early, but none of my purchases were ready to be collected, so I headed back to the hotel for a bite to eat and then it was off down the road with Caroline and Diane as we had booked a full body massage. Wow those girls have the strongest thumbs, and they managed to find every one of my trigger points, but what an incredible massage. Started with the back, then the legs and feet and then the arms and fingers, finishing off with the face and scalp. Wow, I am going to treat myself to one of those regularly at home.

We got picked up at 5pm to be taken on a boat trip on the river – Double whammy celebration here in Hoi An tonight – the Full Moon Celebration but it is also Budha’s birthday, so a very special night. The trip down the river was lovely, we watched the moon come up as we cruised along, and then headed back to the town. A quick trip around the shops to pick up my purchases. My suit and shirt were ready but the dress needed some alteration, one pair of shoes was ready, but the wee boots needed stretching and altering, and the pant suit was ready. Phew, what a lot of shopping that was and I am thrilled with it all so far.

A real carnival atmosphere in the old town – lanterns everywhere and each shop had set up a shrine and was burning incense and were turning out the electricity and just working in the lantern light. Street performers were all over the place and the locals were out in full force. We headed to Cargo Club for dinner, another of Miss Vy’s restaurants and again the food was sensational. An incredibly busy restaurant with both locals and tourists and from the balcony restaurant we watched the parade of floats on the other side of the river – dragons and lotus flowers and other assorted designs.

After dinner (I had a grilled chicken salad with an icecream sundae for dessert) we headed out to each light a candle and send it off down the river. Apparently this is a cleansing ritual ( a little like going to confession) Candles, lanterns, people everywhere, music and the full moon casting amazing light across the river – what a magical night.

And at 10pm we made it back to the bus for the ride back to the hotel. What a privilege to have been able to witness all that. This truly is a magical place – the people are so lovely, and I think that Hoi An has been the highlight for me. Everywhere in this country the people have been gentle and friendly and helpful, but here in Hoi An they have been truly amazing. Even though the shopkeepers are there to take your money, they are so friendly and you leave their shop feeling as if you have just made a new friend. They want to know all about you, your life, your family. They seem to crave information about the visitors to their country and they are happy to talk about themselves. Their English is really good and they love talking to you.

I have just loved it here and would love to come back again really soon. Roxy – start saving – you and I could have a ball here

Hoi An - A shopper's paradise

Each of the places we have visited have had their own particular charm, but Hoi An is fabulous – the shopping, the people and the food.

After coming back from My Son on Sunday, it was time for the serious shopping to start. This is the place we had all been hanging out to reach – the place to get shoes and clothes made. When we arrived on Saturday, Van our local guide had taken us on an orientation walk through the Ancient Town and shown us some of the most reputable shops to buy from. Diane and I headed in to the town on the hotel shuttle bus, and the driver got talking to us on the way in. He asked if we had special shops we wanted to go, we said yes, Van had shown us. He said he would drop us at a very good tailor, but we weren’t to tell anyone he dropped us there. (it turns out he was only supposed to take us as far as the bus stop, and not to anywhere in particular). Anyway, the wee girl in the shop that took a shine to me, Dom, she got busy showing me designs and fabric and I decided on getting a suit made. So very quickly she had me measured and we had the fabric chosen. It turned out to be a bit more expensive than the place Van had shown us yesterday, but I was happy with both the fabric and the wee girl who was serving me, so I agreed on a price, paid my money and was most content. I ordered a suit, a blouse and a dress. Meanwhile Diane was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole deal, she felt she could get a suit made at home for less than that, so decided against buying there. But, I was happy and went ahead with my purchase.

From there it was on to the next place Van had showed us to get some shoes made. I had my evening slides with me, and I chose to get another pair of those made, but in blue leather. And I had also chosen a picture from a catalogue yesterday and the young girl had remembered and very quickly had me measured up for them. I asked for a slightly lower heel, and a more rounded toe, and she said no problem!! With all that shopping under our belts, it was time to meet the others at Morning Glory – for our cooking class.

What an amazing experience – Miss Vy the owner of the shop was an amazing woman – she spoke with such passion about food and ingredients and the reason why they use certain ingredients and every ingredient had a use. She spoke of the harmony of food – the ying and yang and balance and showed us how to make spring rolls, crispy pancakes, grilled chicken and the most delicious mango salad. It was to die for. She has written the most informative cook book, and it only cost $39.95, but it is very heavy and I just haven’t got room for it in my suitcase. However we did get a copy of the recipes we cooked tonight so I will just have to be content with that. We ate the spring rolls and the pancake at our cooking stations, but after the chicken was grilled, we took that and our salads into the restaurant and ate them there. She then sent out some kind of curry soup, but I was content with what I had already eaten so didn’t try that, and we finished off with a crème caramel dessert. What a fantastic night, and the food (and considering that we had cooked it our ourselves) was delicious. And to top off a fantastic evening, we were all given a mango slicer as a gift. What a bonus.

Hoi An

I woke to the sound of loud hailers calling from the fields across the river – can’t understand a word of it of course, and it started at about 5.30am. Its very hot – thank goodness for the air conditioning. I had thought about getting up and going for a swim, but the swimming pool is right at the front of the complex, right outside reception and the restaurant, so just a little public for me in the broad daylight, so I quietly read my book until breakfast time. The birds are noisy here and there is some insect that makes a funny clucking noise, haven’t managed to see what it is that is making the noise. And every now and then you catch a darting movement out of the corner of your eye and it’s a ghecko or lizard darting up the wall or across the floor.

Did I tell you about the movement I saw in the restaurant the other night – I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, it ran between Dianne’s legs and across into the garden. When I looked and tried to see what it was the waiter very calmly said “don’t worry, it’s just a rat.” A rat, in the restaurant, oh my god. So now we are all a bit jumpy. Last night a can fell onto Kylee’s lap and she let out a squeal – yep just like I used to do if I thought I saw a mouse!!!

Yesterday was a full on day. Seven of us took the optional half day trip to My Son, the ruins of the Champa Kingdom from the 4th Century. This place was almost completely destroyed during the Vietnam war and you can still see a lot of the evidence – bomb craters and marks in the buildings. Apparently there are still unexploded bombs around the area so the books warn not to wander off the beaten track. There is a lot of restoration and preservation work going on here but what a huge job it is going to be to complete it.

We were fortunate to see a dance performance which I have captured on video – but unfortunately  I can't attach it here.

Todays photos

Hue to Hoi An - Saturday

Our last night in Hue we caught the shuttle into town and spent an hour or so shopping before all meeting at another of Kylee’s choices of restaurant – this time one specialising in European and Vietnamese food – the owner is an Frenchman married to a Vietnamese woman. I went for a very simple meal, fried vegetables with garlic and steamed rice. Just what I needed really – no meat. And this meal again washed down with a local beer and finished off with Bananas in batter with ice-cream.


Hue is much quieter than Hanoi, although the vendors are as persistent as everywhere else. I decided Ii wanted to bring home a ceramic tea set, but couldn’t work out how I was going to carry it for the rest of the holiday – might look for one in Saigon. Bought a wrap – there are just so many to choose from and the colours are just superb. This one lilac with a little light embroidery on it. But I want to save the bulk of my clothes shopping till I get to Hoi An. Took some photos of some styles I might like to get made and again the fabrics and styles are amazing.

We caught the shuttle back to the hotel and got set for the early start today.

Up at the crack of dawn, posted my blogs, checked out what was happening in the news at home and had my bags packed all ready for the bellboy to collect before heading over to the restaurant for one last breakfast here. Again my little girl was waiting for me, and showed me to my seat. She removed all the cutlery and crockery from my table and returned with fresh ones – much to the amazement of my travelling companions. She then asked if I wanted the same as yesterday, but I thought I might try one of the omelettes this morning. She escorted me over to the chef – instructed him to wash the frying pan and he then cracked a couple of eggs into the bowl and started adding the ham and tomato. She asked him something – growled at him and made him put the mix aside – she took another bowl out to the kitchen, washed it, dried it and brought it back to him and got him to start all over again. She watched him like a hawk as he made my omelette, then she went out to the kitchen and brought a fresh plate and cutlery and carried it to the table for me. She asked me if I wanted toast and butter, and told me to please be seated and she would bring it for me. My companions laughed and told me not to strain myself buttering my toast. She then went off to get my fruit for me – mango, pineapple and passion fruit and some other citrus fruit, a little like an orange but very light in colour , sweet but not like an orange. Had a funny name which I cannot remember.

I had a photo taken with this delightful young lady who told me she was 25 years old, the oldest of five children and had been working at the Pilgrimage for 1 year. She is single and lives at home to help support her parents and younger siblings. I wished that I could pack her in my suitcase and take her home with me. She was just so lovely.

And so to the bus for the trip to Hoi An. Through rice growing areas, up and over a couple of passes, travelling along the coast. A stop at a market to see where the local women do their shopping. It was almost enough to put you off meat and fish for life I reckon – all out in the open in the heat. We wondered if the local restaurants buy the food from the same markets, none of us dared to ask as we have lots more meals to eat yet

We stopped at the top of the pass to take photos, visit the bunkers (used by the French and then by the Americans) and then down to Da Nang where we stopped to buy a picnic lunch – bread rolls filled with cheese, bacon, and an assortment of green bits and a stick of cucumber. We took our lunch with us and stopped at China Beach to eat it – we actually sat in the bus, because if we had sat on the beach we would have been expected to hire deck chairs. The beach is beautiful and we had a paddle in the water which was beautiful and warm. After our short stop, we travelled along the coast road which is being developed with huge big holiday and apartment complexes. Our guide Van told us that if we come back in five years time, we will not recognise the place. She also said that it was very different now to the China Beach area enjoyed by the soldiers during the American War. On one side of the road was the remains of the American Base, and on the other side these huge complexes – such a contrast. One more stop along the way, this time at the marble factory. Marble Mountain was one of the important landmarks (and I think battle sites) of the American War – I will have to look it up later and see what it was all about, as I don’t remember that name from my history reading. The marble statues were magnificent, and not hellishly expensive and I succumbed! I bought and am having shipped home a beautiful Lady Budha. She will bring me peace and harmony and happiness and I think prosperity as well – well I hope she will!

We arrived at Hoi An mid-afternoon and Van took us on an orientation walking tour of the old city. What a beautiful place. So quiet, so much cleaner and tidier than both Hue and Hanoi – and the shopping. We visited a couple of beautiful silk places – one even had the silk worms working for us to see the whole process from worm to garment. We saw another place full of absolutely exquisite silk embroidery – the girls sitting all day embroidering from a small picture and producing these amazing pieces of art. It takes a girl up to three months to make one piece. A couple of Chinese temples, a Japanese Bridge and then we were introduced to two very fine tailors who will make our clothes for us and a shoe maker who will make our shoes – and yes they will even make big sizes like mine. Oh what a busy afternoon I am going to have tomorrow. Where to start??????

Handbags, coats, suits, ties, you name it you can have it made here, and the prices sound pretty good.

And finally this weary bunch of women were delivered to the Hoi An Riverside Resort and Spa. Another lovely hotel. How nice it was to walk into our airconditioned room and have a lovely shower and a wee rest and a read, before heading down for dinner.

Time for a cocktail first – my choice tonight a Sweet Angel. Fresh processed pineapple juice, a banana, coconut cream and a dash of a secret ingredient (looked like a sugar syrup to me) all whizzed together in a blender with lots of ice. Very yummy, very creamy.

Dinner – another huge selection with a course of beef, pork and rice, some vegetables and then an unusual dessert – they called it Pumpkin Soup but it was in fact a mousse of some sort – probably had a pumpkin base. None of us could actually identify the other flavours in it, it was rather nice. The others of course had had a much different menu, and theirs looked as interesting as ours with lots of seafood, or dishes using fish sauce.

Another busy day ahead of us tomorrow – seven of us are going to My Son (pronounced something like Mishon) – a half day tour, and the others will go off and do their own thing, and we will all meet up at 5.00pm for the cooking class. And as it is now 11.03 it is probably time I posted this and got myself some sleep.

Hue

The time is going so fast, we are now at Hue, which is wonderfully peaceful and relaxed after the frenetic pace of Hanoi.


We are staying at the Pilgrimage Village boutique resort and spa. It is so peaceful, and the staff are so attentive. Every time I arrive for breakfast I have my own personal waitress who comes over to me, escorts me to my table, pulls out my chair and makes sure that I have everything I need. Each time I get up to the buffet she grabs my plate and she puts the food on the plate for me and assures me that there is no seafood in this dish. I wanted some toast, she made it for me, put my butter and honey in little dishes and brought it back to the table for me. None of the other ladies are getting this wonderful service. I am feeling very pampered and special.

It is now 1pm. We have been out on the tour bus this morning and visited a couple of King’s Tombs and a Budhist Pagoda, and seen how inscense sticks are made, and in half an hour I am booked for a treatment at the spa. I am having an aromatherapy facial and a foot reflexology, about $45 US.

I have a room to myself here, for which I am very grateful. It means I can just soak up the tranquility and enjoy at my own pace. It was wonderful sharing a room with Dianne in Hanoi, she is well travelled and a fountain of knowledge and we shared many stories, but this place is one to enjoy in solitude. Time for me to reflect and ponder, and maybe even think about what I am going to do when I get home, and where my next holiday will be.

It is great to be connected to the world again, although this new word programme is taking some getting used to. This morning I typed for about half an hour and did the whole catch up from Hanoi to here, and then Windows decided to do an automatic update and shut the computer down and I lost the lot. So now I have to go back and start all over again. Never mind, good practice and exercise for my fingers!!!

I have just had a very light lunch in my room – there is a complimentary fruit bowl – a mango, an orange and another fruit with big black seeds and a skin a bit like a potato skin, with a flesh somewhere between a nashi (but not that crunchy) and a melon. Quite nice, although I don’t think I would bother buying one. Especially not when the mangoes are so nice – big and juicy and very sweet. A different flavour to the Peruvian or Argentinian ones we get at home – but of course that may be because these ones are so fresh. The pineapples here are very tiny, but very yummy as well.

Well, must take a break, go have a quick shower and head for my spa treatment.

I am back from my treatment – it was amazing. I had this delightful young man and he gave me a facial – an aromatherapy vitalising facial which lasted 60 minutes. I was a little taken aback when he asked me to take off my top and then my bra, but he stood discretely behind the big towel he was holding and then as I lay down he put the towel over me. He massaged my scalp, and my upper chest and shoulders, the back of my neck and applied a variety of lotions and potions to my face. I tell you I look twenty years younger – well at least I should after all that. The massage part was very similar to the Shiatsu type massage I get at home, and he certainly managed to find the tight and tender knots in the back of my neck. After all of that he then proceeded to do a foot reflexology for another 30 minutes. How heavenly. Wouldn’t mind bringing him home with me, and the little girl who has been serving me my breakfast – her name is Hoahi. They are such beautiful, calm and serene people, always smiling and everytime you pass them in the grounds they smile and greet you. Their English is very good, until you ask them something – they have obviously been trained to say what they need to say to you but haven’t learnt the art of general conversation. But then I guess they have lots of different nationalities staying here so they have had to learn lots of other languages as well.

Yesterday morning we got off the overnight train from Hanoi and were met and transferred to the spa hotel by bus. We have a new guide here, a lady called Van who will be our guide until we leave Hoi An. After a late breakfast we had time for a bit of rest before we headed out for a tour of the city, The Imperial Citadel and the Pagoda. Unfortunately we missed the daily Budhist prayer recital by the monks but we got to see them preparing for their dinner. What an amazingly serene place, and they all looked so calm and happy. The little novice boys start there as early as seven years old. From there we got on a boat for a trip down the Perfume River as the sun was going down. The city is busy preparing for Budha’s birthday in four days time and there were seven huge water lilies floating in the river, which we saw later all lit up, but unfortunately weren’t able to take a photo of them lit. The usual sellers were on board the boat and I bought a pair of baggy black pants for $8. Everything is so cheap, I should have brought an empty suitcase and a bigger wallet!!

I am starting to feel much better, although being very gentle on my tummy so I didn’t eat too much of the meal at dinner time. They bring out the hugest meals – mine was a very thick creamy vegetable soup which would have been enough for me without anything else, so I only ate a tiny bit of it. My main course was chicken with buttered vegetable sticks and rice. It was very delicious but I only ate a tiny bit of it, and my poor waitress and waiter were so concerned that I didn’t like it or it wasn’t good enough and it was really hard explaining that I only wanted a tiny portion. Dessert was a tapioca and banana pudding which was very yummy. Again I washed it all down with the local beer, which is very good.

I had intended staying up to listen to the pianist playing in the bar from 8.30pm to 10pm but again I was absolutely shattered. This heat is very draining, and so I came back to the cool of my room and did a bit of my blog, but my eyes were closing, so I climbed into the huge big bed and again, as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep and didn’t wake until 6.00am.

But the good news is – today I feel absolutely great. Back to normal. Most of the girls have had a touch of the belly ache – I was lucky no cramps.

Today we – woops I’ve just noticed that I have already told you what we did today – but because I have had such a problem with this wee computer, I am not even going to try and cut and paste in case I loose it all. At the moment, touch wood, it is working, it is staying compatible and I will continue for as long as I can without trying anything fancy.

It is 4.43 pm, and we are having another thunder storm. It is raining quite heavily and we are due to meet at 5.30pm to go on the shuttle bus to the market and then out for dinner. At least it might cool down a bit now.

And now that I have managed to type up these blog pages, Blogger is down. I can get into my gmail and xtra to get the news, but Blogger are doing maintenance, so hopefully I can post these pages tonight when I get home.

Hard to believe that the first week is over already. The time has gone so fast.

Catch you all later.

Halong Bay

Up early and on the road to Halong Bay. Along the way Nam gave us a commentary on what was around us and a quick lesson on the Vietnamese language. Land mass 333,000 sq mile – 90 million people and only 3.5 RTA deaths per day for the whole country. Wage range for factory workders $US 150 to $1000 depending on the job they do.


We had a shopping/coffee/happyhouse stop half-way to Halong at a huge centre selling goods made by disabled people. Absolutely beautiful stuff – intricate tapestries made by deaf-mute people, amazing silks, sewing which you could have done in three hours, jewellery, ceramics, etc etc. We only had a 20 minute stopover so I had to make a very quick decision as to which silk print to buy. Didn’t have time to try on the jewellery, there was some lovely green (and I found out later that it was Vietnamese Jade) or black Vietnamese Pearls.

We arrived at Halong Bay around midaday and got on board a tender to be transported to our junk. Wow, luxury with a Capital L. I got a room on my own, as did Kathy and Dianne as we had exclusive use of the junk. Time to freshen up and then upstairs for lunch. Beautiful lunch for the seafood eaters, and Kathy and I had 2 little fried sausages for starters, then chicken kebab, then some beef and the last dish was pork. A bit much meat in one sitting really. It was all fried or grilled and quite rich and after me not eating anything much for the last 4-5 months it sat a bit heavy in my tummy.



After lunch we boarded the tender and we were taken ashore to visit the caves. Bit of a walk and a climb here – about 1000 steps, thankfully not all of the up, but a bit of a workout all the same. I thought my calf muscles might suffer after this but amazingly not.

The caves were pretty amazing and after that there was a visit to the grotto – under a tunnel in the rocks to enter this fully enclosed grotto. It was here we were supposed to see the monkeys but they were hiding, probably too hot for them as well. A tiny wee girl was rowing the 12 of us in the boat – she gave me a turn t rowing. Certainly not as easy as she made it look, that’s for sure.

Back on board and time for a shower and sit on the deck for pre-dinner cocktails and watch the sunset. Seems that we are doing a lot of eating on this trip. And again the seafood dinner was great, but our non-seafood version was again a course each of chicken, pork, beef.

We had the opportunity have our nails done by an insistent young lady, who also had jewellery and a few prints and other souvenirs for sale. I bought a lovely set of black/blue pearl drop earings.

About 2 in the morning the effects of all that meat hit me and for the next 24 hours I was not at all well. So I missed the sunrise, and the trip to the beach for a swim and a trip to another cave. Just lay in my cabin sipping cold lemonade to keep hydrated.

We left the Junk at midday after everyone else had brunch and made our way back to Hanoi, with me sleeping in the back of the bus, stopping along the way at a pineapple farm and again at the complex we had stopped at yesterday. I made a very hasty trip to the ‘happy house’ and then bought a cup of Lipton Tea and a packet of round wine biscuits. All I felt like really was some vegemite toast or marmite soup, but this was the closest I could get to something simple to put into my now very empty tummy.



We made it back to Hanoi just as a thunder storm arrived and the heavens just opened up and it poured, so we missed out on the last couple of hours wandering and instead headed up to the restaurant at the top of a tall building where we hung out over a cup of tea (and the others mostly ate ice-cream) for as long as we could.

It was then on to the train station to pick up our dinner boxes (yuk more food) and board the train for our trip to Hue. We were in four berth cabins, and as soon as we were aboard I curled up on my bunk and slept. Everyone else was comfortable – the air conditioning was working, but I was freezing cold, so one of the nurses on board, worried that I might be running a fever gave me a couple of Panadol. Up and down several times during the night, but I did manage to get a lot of sleep and by morning I was feeling a hell of a lot better. Certainly not wanting anything to eat yet, but at least feeling better. 24 hours wasted dam it!!!