HANOI - SEOUL - TOKYO - CALGARY!

With the prospect of a long haul home we are glad the hotel agree to let us stay in our room til 6pm before leaving at 8pm for the airport. It is sunny and hot, why could;t it be like this for the last 2 weeks?? Oh well, good for our last day here.
  We pack a bit, it's looking good really after almost 2 months on the road, not much extra in there. We grab a cab and are off to the pagoda on West Lake. We walk to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum but don't join the making crowds going in to see him! It's a huge concrete edifice, well guarded by handsome guards in white uniforms with yards of gold tape and red braid. Tons of school groups are there, emerging from the tomb with their new Uncle Ho necklaces, boys & girls both.
  We pick up a black Ho T shirt for Mark, who has done airport driving duty back in Calgary. I wonder if he'll ever wear it? I bet son Steve would...
  We walk to the small, rather unkempt botanical gardens which also houses some poor animal and bird exhibits. It;s cheap and easy to find cabs here so it's back to the hotel, then next door to the tiny Ms. Dey's Bahn Mi stand, where Ted is determined to try one before he leaves Vietnam. We've heard about these famous Bahn Mi sandwiches, freshest warm French bread rolls stuffed with chicken pate, meat, veggies sauces, etc.  If Anthony Bourdain says they are the best....
  Ted declares it to the gourmet experience of his life, I have a meat stuffed dumpling with my last Bia Hanoi. We'll miss these lovely cheap beers...
  Ted decides he too would like an Uncle Ho T shirt so we walk all over hell's half acre trying to find one! Eventually I fork out $5 (Mark's was $4!)  and he's happy.
  Its good to have the room at the hotel to shower, relax and then up to Gourmet corner, the roof restaurant at our hotel, for light supper. My mocktail passion fruit mojito is outstanding - I should have been drinking thee before! Green papaya salad, crispy pork/shrimp spring rolls and crispy pancakes wraps was lots of food to get us off.
  We check out at 8pm, arrive at the airport to no lineup at the wonderful Asiana check-in counter,  where we are greeted by name! The service is what you would suppose they had flying back in the 60's when flying was an event. And I wasn't even wearing a hat!
  We are the only ones in the Asiana lounge at first, and enjoyed smoked salmon with a full dinner available if we wishes! at 11pm we fly to Seoul, it's only a 4 hour flight but big comfortable seats and serving dinner (not for me). After arriving at Seoul before to a massive crowd waiting to go through Security, and tight for time to make our next flight, this time there is no-one at Security and we are through very fast. It's a 4 hour layover so I mostly slept in a massage chair. Seoul's Incheon airport is regarded as one of the top airports to spend time in but the food selection at the lounge was poor compared to what we had seen elsewhere and it was busy busy.
  It was only a 2hour 10 minute flight to Tokyo so a bit of a waste of the first class Asiana flight and light snack with them.
  Into the United Star Alliance found in Tokyo, it was the same story - not particularly attractive place to spend another 4 hours! I whiled away the time shopping for last minute souvenirs from Japan (cheery blossom candies, beautiful tins of green tea, etc.) and later nibbled on some sushi and nuts.
  At 4pm (late start) we settle into the comfortable Air Canada sleeper section (not as good a configuration as the Asiana sleepers). Air Canada has good reason for being voted the best NA airline - we had friendly efficient service, lovely dinner of smoked salmon salad, lamb, cheese and fruit and all the drinks you could handle. I finally watched "The Imitation Game" about the cracking of the enigma code, then slept the rest of the 10 hour flight. Ted prefers not to sleep but napped a few times apparently.
  We arrived back in Calgary early at 10:10pm which on our brain clock was somewhere else and  some other time...in SE Asia...
  Our dear friend Mark was there at the airport to pick us up and we were home tired at 11am ready to start on the big unpack, sort and WASH! Lunch was soup out of a can. I wonder if I am going to remember how to cook and clean now??
  Overall, a wonderful set of experiences - some amazing places - met some beautiful people - isn't that what travel is all about? - some challenges too. Did I say Ted is still having his rabies shots? He thinks the dogs who were running around and nipping at us in the Hmong village nipped him, so our health department recommended shots to be on the safe side!
  We didn't get sick, we didn't get robbed, we didn't have any negative experiences, and we have a far better appreciation for those people who came to Canada as "boat people" all those years ago and left that beautiful land for a better life somewhere else.
  

LAST FULL DAY IN HANOI

We return to our hotel Monday afternoon  to pack a bit and are now into our lovely executive suite there, a nice finish to the trip.
  Off down the crowded streets to Highway 6 the restaurant where we found the special award-wining Son Tinh fortified rice wine, rather like sake, but with fruit infusions, one port-like, and 27% alcohol! We will take a few small bottles home for sampling later (Rice wine, passion fruit, rose apple, apricot.) We took a bottle to Sapa and it was the one good thing in that cold room at times!
  We take a cab through the more upmarket part of Hanoi to the lovely French style house and "Madame Hien" restaurant across the lake. It's outdoor dining with lovely paper lanterns in the trees and an outdoor BBQ cooking station. Service is exemplary but notwithstanding that, Ted sends back his fish which is overcooked! He did warn them...We order wine for a change, a rose, which is nice and not too pricey.
  Duck 3 ways (rare roasted breast, crisp spring roll and satay with tamarind sauce was delicious. Ted's sea bass in lotus leaf was perfect the second time. Green tea cake (like bread pudding) wasted to order and served with green tea ice cream. After dinner we tried Mme. Tien's special rice liqueurs, one made from white rice, one from red (40% alcohol!)
  After all the recent travel, we were in bed by 10 and slept til 6am, very comfortable in our quiet suite, a good start to the flying ordeal coming up.

NIGHT TRAIN RETURN TO HANOI

On Sunday at 7:30 our guide takes a big bunch of tourists to the railway station, a short walk across the square, and we all head to the various carriages. We are booked on the Sapally carriage this time, a cut above our Fanxipan on the way up. We booked  berths for the 2 of us so we don't have to share. so don't feel we need to use our silk sleeping bags. We have a fancy plastic flower arrangement and bedside lamp here! They provide slippers to venture off to the good toilet and double sink at the end of the carriage, toothbrushes, washcloths and water.
  The neighbours keep up a noisy tirade for a while but I put on my eye shades and ear plugs and they soon fade away. I sleep til 5am when the guards walk through knocking on ur doors to wake us up. It's been a short night!
  We open our door and there is the smiling, friendly face of Anthony, our guide from the nice boutique Hanoi Elegance Diamond hotel with "Edward Foster" on his big card, ready to take our bags and get us back to our hotel in central Hanoi. He grabs a cab and in 10 minutes we are back at the hotel at 5:20am.
  The good thing about an early ride through the city is watching every out doing their morning exercises, Tai Chi walking, etc.
  The hotel allows us a room in the spa to shower and rest until our room is available. At 7:30 we are off to our sumptuous breakfast on the roof and greetings of welcome back from all the lovely staff there.
  By 8:30 we are ready for some tourist activities. So off to the interesting Hanoi History Museum in the beautiful French quarter, home of the opera house and many beautiful buildings. There a few visitors and it's a litany of propaganda but also an interesting summary of Vietnam's history.
  We get the cab to drop us on the lake close to our hotel and enjoy coffee and juice at the sidewalk waterside cafe and watch the action.  We stroll around to check on some restaurants Ted has heard about (and friends at the hotel have recommended) and book a table for our last night in Hanoi.
  We walk through the tourist upmarket shops (Prada, Gucci, etc.) this is the capital after all, and there's plenty of signs of affluence here. I resist buying even though we've acquired an extra all suitcase for Ted to take to Sapa. The small souvenirs we've bought will fit in there, with some shoes.

THE CHINESE BEHEMOTH TO THE NORTH...

After visiting the village, we descend to Lau Cai, a very busy transshipment area for goods coming in from the very commercial Chinese side of the Red River.
  Ah takes us to the overlook at the bridge to China. Ethnic groups can move across the border readily with special papers, but not a passport to anywhere else.
  There are massive lineups of huge trucks with sacks of something, maybe fertilizer (not opium I'm sure). there are groups of young, strong men who come here to make more money in a day than they can make in a month in their villages. There is, of course smuggling which is lucrative too. They can earn $15 a night to haul contraband.
  We are accosted by Vietnamese tourists keen to get foreigners in their photos at the overlook at the bridge. Tall white haired Ted is a big attraction and they all want their photos taken with him, me to so much!
  Ah finds a seller of the ice-cream like yogurt and tucks into a dish while we take photos and look at the simple type that people like to visit here too.
  You could walk over the river to China here, it's so shallow but I am sure you'd be shot on entry at the other side.
  Back through scenic farmland to Lau Cai, we settle in for a long hot wait at a restaurant which is also a hotel and one Australian has rented a room for a few hours there. We is it with the other tourist and guides, who look after fetching our railway tickets and escort us to our train later.
  Outside on the sidewalk one unlucky pig who has returned from market has got his head out of his bag and squeals incessantly for hours but nobody pays the lest attention, motorbikes parking right by his head, poor thing! He rolls off the curb which increases the decibel level of his squeals, but nobody tries to pull him in off the road!
  We learn there is a 5 hour fast bus back to Hanoi a double decker with sleeper seat, sounds comfortable all right but you get in at 11pm and we are happier to get at least some sleep.

SUNDAY AND THE FAMED BAC HA MARKET..

Ted wakes me at 6:30 for a quick pack, tiny poor breakfast and off at 7:45am with our English speaking Hmong guide - beautiful young lady about 20, mother of a 5 year old and 2 month old, whom she has had to leave at home while she travels with us! Also a young Hmong driver that she does not know that well so they enjoy visiting on our day out together too.
  We are all wrapped up in ski jackets to start, going down the mountain about 2000 ft and finding, oh joy, sun at the bottom in the dull city of Lau Cai. the sky clears but we still can't see Vietnam's highest mountain, Fanxipan.
  I stop the driver when I want to take photos which is great, but the roads are dangerous for stopping so I try to take shots through the car window. We have a 4 wheel drive vehicle which is great for some of the mountain roads. After over 2 hours we insist on a  stop for Ted to walk about. they buy a watermelon and it's good as it's now getting hot and we are peeling off layers. Eventually it gets to 82 and we are positively sweating! What a total change in 2 days.
  After Lau Cai, on the Chinese border with Yunnan, we are off up into the gorgeous scenic mountains again, though small villages weddings going on today, Sunday is popular for that. Everyone dressed in their best.
  Finally into BacHa market, the most famous and colourful in Vietnam now I think. It's huge with interesting sounds, smells and huge variety of Flower Hmong ethnic minority outfits. The buffalo market is interesting. We are told if the buffalo is put up for sale and does not sell, it is bad luck for the buffalo!! Some have their babies along. they are quite cute really and all very healthy and well fed.
  There are also piggies of every side, squealing away if they are taken from their pens or bags. Baby chickens, ducks, many puppies and - thrill for Ah our guide - rabbits. She decides to buy a baby rabbit for her young 11-year-old sister so we buy him, put him in a box with cabbage to eat and off we go. She also buys child, fresh peaches, just coming into season. She normally works with bigger groups and is delighted to be just with us.
  Ah is married but her husband i. s not working, but men do not help with the children either. When she treks she brings the baby with her! There are 1300 in her village, which has no power.
  On the nearly 3 hour journey we learn all about life in the ethnic area. We are full of questions and she is forthright in answering them. Marriage is an absolute must in this society, and girls are married at 14 or 15, although for other groups it is 17. Girls marry and go to their husband's family and can never inherit land or houses! Its a feudal society all right! There are still a few arranged marriages here.
  Driving arrow,d it looks like Switzerland with rice fields!
  The eis o village leader as such, the government runs everything from afar.
  At the market I am disappointed at the large commercial establishments selling the nice touristy articles but few of the women actually selling their own goods. I buy some small bags all the same. Many of the ethic minority women are selling produce and there is lively buying and selling. I only spot a few women with their babies on their backs or fronts, but still in their native dress.
  We stop at a nice restaurant for lunch. Oh joy they have very clean western toilets i.e. not squats, and although we are not very hungry in the heat, our driver and guide tuck earnestly into lunch. they are supposed to eat with the guides but are delighted to join us and order whatever they want from the menu.
  From there we go up to a village nearby and walk through. It is a poor looking place but they have animals and raise crops so are quite well off for the area. I have bought little books and pens also some toothbrushes and combs, which Ah loves to give out to people and kids we meet.
  It's a beautiful scenic trip for the day and makes up for the two lost days here!

SATURDAY - AND STILL CAN'T SEE SAPA...

It stayed fogged in all day Saturday,  more foggy cloud, not soaking rain. Power cut most of the day but we had got the room warm beforehand. Chat to our hotel neighbours from Germany, Israel, Singapore, some intend to trek no matter what. There are a lot of Vietnamese tourists here for the weekend, and after we walk up to the French bakery for coffee and chocolate croissants we see villagers setting up their wares on the edge of the road, so looking cold in their flip-flops and a few asleep on the sidewalk, exhausted from starting their day high i the mountains during the night o doubt. It's pretty heart wrenching to watch.
  In retrospect, this is where I should have shopped for small weavings but I decided to delay til we got to BacHa market next day.
  With no power, there is no ATM and Ted is worried about running out of cash now.
  Sapa is the centre of the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Nature Reserve with a great diversity of ethnic minorities: Kinh (Vietnamese), Hmong 50%, Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2%, Xa Pho. Sloping rice terraces cover the area. Staples are rice ad corn.It's sub tropical in summer, with temperate winters normally. They have 160 days a year of mist, but are home to many rare species of endemic flora and fauna.
  It's the last primary Vietnamese rain forest but lots of logging tells us that won't last long. It's the only source of fuel for many here. At the convergence of the world's 14 biomes, plants and animals are unique in the world. It's just south of the Chinese border and much development and commercial activity along the dividing river.
  At 3pm the power comes back so we turn our het to full blast and at 6pm head up the Little Sapa Restaurant. Only 3 of us there, we order in the dark with candles but later power comes back, goes off and comes back again. We visit with the young Dutch neighbours on their honeymoon, who are not put off by the weather and have been trekking all the same. Next day we meet them returning on the night train, it's a small world for tourists around here.
  Dinner is BBQ ribs, fish on a hotplate, and cabbage/wild mushroom dish.
  BTW wherever we are, even here, at 7:30am every day we get loud speaker propaganda messages from the government!
  We return early to take advantage of the fact that power is on to shower pack, watch CNN news and are in cosy bed by 10pm.

EATING IN THE CLOUDS...

It's a long way from any markets ere so what you eat is basically local and certaily the greens and veg were probably growing yesterday.
  We've found famous Sonny and his Good Morning Vietnam retaurant across the road from our hotel. He and his sister run two restaurants which are famous among the TripAvisor an Lonely Planet crowd. We went for hot drinks yesterday, off the train at 6am and no room until about 11:30am and its raining...Liked it so much returned for dinner.
  The breakfast at our hotel is adequate but not impressive. The dining area is basically the hallway into the hotel, stairs down and up to rooms one side, reception the other.  Not inviting or cosy and of cousre, no view the last 2 days.
  For a short time yesterday we saw the top of the nearest mountains over the fog and before I could man the camera it had disappeared into the mist again! On a good day the view from the dining area, especially outside, is stunning...and from our wraparound balcony in our room too apparently...
  Back to eating. We have found 3 French pattisseries, a lovely throwback from the French occupation days here, although wars and intrusions have left virtually no sign of colonial French buldings. Pain au chocolate just like in Paris here amazingly enough.
  Ted spotted a dish being made in the tiny kitchen at GMV, it's chicken curry cooked in a young green coconut over an open flame. So no prizes for what he was going to order for dinner, and it was lovely - a beautiful mix of herbs and spices, just the right amount of heat and served with plain rice, the chicken tender and juicy. I ordered duck on hotplate and it was really like fajitas, green and regular onions underneath, some tomatoe, raw duck on top marinated with coconut and lemon grass and cooked at the table by moi! The hotpots were popular, a mix of beef, pork and chicken, a huge mas of greens and vegetables, massive plate of vermicelli noodles and chicken broth with a touch of chili. We are giving the raw chili additions a miss!
  Talking of pork, on the way to market today we saw a wee piggie turning on the spit, about two feet long, and later a guy passed the bakery where we were holed up hiding from the rain, on his motorbike, holding vertically a spit with another sall roasted piglet on it! Hilarious.
  Of course, you need to have a strong stomach at the market for all the raw fish and beasts for sale. We are giving the poulty a wide berth as our government has apparently issued a bird flu warning, mainly for Eastern China, but included Vietnam. I won't be patting any duks any time soon.
  Today at one of the street fast food restaurants in the main square, I saw a blue chicken - that's how we felt yesterday before we bought the down jackets! I hope they are not stuffed with his feathers...

IN THE CLOUDS...

We have not seen the sun for 8 days now. We are stuck in a mountain village on the eastern edge of the Himalayas in fog and cloud for the second day running. Moreover we have had a power cut for  most of the day today, now 3pm and no sign of power yet...(oh, joy, just back on and the heater should now work)
  Ted is restive to say the least..."we should never have taken this trip to Sapa", etc...
  We have had to shop here for down jacket/vest (only $20 each) to keep warm! The rain has not let off, but there have been periods when it was just mist in cloud. My new rubber soled shoes are surviving without taking on water and the hiking socks are warm, I slept in them too.
  This town of Sapa is the centre for massive trekking in the area, so in this old part of town we have many shops supplying hiking and trekking gear at good prices. You ave to haggle a bit but they always smile when we are finishing so they ar3e doing well from our sales.
Hoang Lien Son mountains are home to Vietnam's highest mountain Fansipar at 3143m but Sapa is only at 1500m (just above Calgary but below Lake Louise).
  It has a very high density of ethnic minorities who come into town to buy and sell. Many make their colorful weavings, embroidery, small crafts, etc. They are very very poor, I have not been able to bargain with any of them much yet. I am questioning our tourist desire to photograph people like this, making them objects instead of real people.
  Today at the local market we saw people who have walked down early today from far-off villages to sell what little they have, almost bare feet, babies wrapped tight behind them, heads lolling. Some are sleeping exhausted on the street at 1:30pm.
  Today we visited the new closed-in market and I did meet 3 old ladies, with old and new weaving for sale, and felt obliged to buy something. When I bargained down from 100 (thousand dong) to 90 she then threw in a little bag and of course it now came to the 100 she wanted. That's $5 but a lot to them. We had photos and toothless smiles...and an exchange of a Canadian pin on her dress.
  We have also been to the supermarket to buy pens and notebooks to take to the vilage we will visit tomorrow, I am not taking candy...
  The area is covered with sloping rice paddies and tht's waht most of the rural villages do, raise rice, along with corn, their staple. They have sub tropical summers and temperate winters and 160 days of a mist a year! It feels like London! But higher.
  Many rare species of plants and animals are endemic to the region and the last remaining Vietnamese rainforest is here. But they are cutting it at a pace to build, we see massive logging trucks  on the road. It's also a big soure of rock for roadbuilding.
  Sapa sits at the convergance of the world's 16 "biomes" so plants and animals here at unique in the world. Sadly, we are not destined to experience any of this...as we have to leave at 7:30 in the morning and take the night train abck to Hanoi tomorrow.
  Accuweather forecasts that after we leave there will be 3 clear days of sun here, I could weep.
  It reminds me so much of Guatemala when we traveled there in the late 70s. Interestingly 80% of tourists here are Vietnamese and the other 20% of us are other tourists.
  The train station for here is about 5km from the Chinese border with Yunnan, a province I have visited twice and which I believe is the most interesting part of China too.

SAPA - WHERE IT'S ALWAYS RAINY SEASON!!

The guard wakes us at 5am, not my best time. They drop off little cakes but no strong coffee! Dawn is coming soon but it's dreary, overcast and foggy. We are in Lau Cai, 25k from Sapa.
  Our hotel has sent a car so we are whisked out of the station and off on the twisty mountain road, climbing about 2 or 3,000 feet over 25km and half an hour. Huge trucks share the road with massive loads, overtaking is done anywhere on the road, anytime you like. Ted is glad it's foggy and we can't see! As we climb we enter the clouds and then serious rain. We can tell from the precipices and drop offs the views are probably stunning but not for us today. What did we do to deserve this on this trip, we have missed so many highlights because of bad weather! If this is global warming, I don't get it.
  The kids are heading to school in the mist. They have ski jackets, no hats, but often just plastic sandals. Hardy bunch but I bet thereis a lot of TB up here. Our drive coughs, we put Vicks up our nose before we went on the train yesterday, hope it works to inulate our noses from all the germs up here.
  We arrive at Sapa Lodge, perched overlooking a steep valley but we can't tell. It's only 7am but our room probably won't be ready until noon! It's now raining, not heavy, but umbrella material. They have big ones at the hotel, I use my own small one, and Ted's is soon broken. We head for the French bakery up the road but it's cool and unwelcoming at this hour so we give it a miss.
  I am still weraing my sleep socks from the free Asiana flight package, so I head into a trekking store and pick up two pairs of light socks for $5, really nice ones, which fit my loafers but will also fit the rubber soled reef walkers I think I'll be living in here! We head into the cafe opposite our hotel for coffee and hot chocolate but it's a s low process, they are just waking up too.
  9am back to the hotel and no sign of a room yet as checkout is 12:30 and in this weather people won't want to give up their rooms til they have to, I know I wouldn't!
  We set up in the cool dining area, me with my iPad and blog, Ted with his soduko book. About 10:30 the sweet young receptionist comes with a key to a lovely big room with a balcony hanging over the valley with a view of the mounains, apparently! Right now a good view of fog. We are wearing everything we have and we are till cold.
  Into our room, we turn on the heat to 30 but it's still struggling to reach warm 4 hours later. I  have a hot shower and that helps, lots of boiling water here. Also nice jasmine tea, coffee packages and a kettle. I've brought tea, bananas, cookies, chocolate bars - and we have that big bottle of hooch too.
  We while away some time then head across the road to Good Morning Vietnam cafe, where we have  soups and run back through the torrential rain.
  Our mountain view is elusive today. It's gonne be a long stay here and a very down end to our trip to SE Asia I can see.

THE SAPA ADVENTURE BEGINS

We and I have traveled all over China to the SW part of Yunnan and Guizhou which border on northern Laos and Vietnam. Now we will see the other side of the Mekong River, or Red River as it is in Vietnam. It is the most culturally diverse region of Vietnam and a gorgeous mountainous region of layer upon layer of green rice paddies, trees and flowers. What makes it so, of course, is the huge amount of rainfall and we are about to experience that too!
  The weather forecast is grim, heavy ain for Friday, rain for Saturday but maybe sun Sunday for the famous Bac Ha Sunday market, which attracts people from many different ethnic groups in the area.
  We get here by overnight train and it's so busy right now that we booked way back in February when we first came to Hanoi. We still had to take one railcar up and a different one back. It's harkens back to Guatemala and Salvador in the late 79's, and the trip to Yunnan in W. China some 15 years ago.
  We pack bags to be left at hotel for Apr 13, then two small overnight bags for the Sapa train trip. Ann and Doroty have advised to get a train carriage to ourselves so we buy the 4 tickets for the carriage and it's still not roomy. We bought silk sleeping bags for the rip, and are not sorry we did that, as the basic mattress cover and quilt cover seem clean enough but prefer our own sheets. They will be good for hot eather in the RV later.
  We meet Andy & Maureen from Melbourne at our hotel who are going also so we'll go to the train station at 8pm together. Of course, we will have our handler, the hotel has babied us so much an look after every details.
  It' cloudy but dry so we take a stroll around old town, find a few more souveniers, a beer and mango smoothie at a bar overlooking the busy thoroughfare, and back to while away the time til we leave at 8pm. The manager takes pity on us and lets us have a spare room for the few hours left. I enjoy a rest an Ted walks some more before a light dinner in their nice restaurant on the 12th floor overlooking the river, with Andy & Maureen then off on the train.
  Our handler Anthony escorts us to the station, exchanges our voucher for tickets, puts our luggage in our car and goes off with a smile and promise to meet us again there Monday morning.
  It's the VIP train but not by any Western standards. There's a western toilet at each end of the car but you don't want to go there much. The beds are hard, the room is spartan, but we have some nibbles and bananas, and a bag with a wet wipe, bottle of water an toothbrush/paste for the journey, most of which we don't need.
  It leaves at 9:10pm prompt amid much shouting from the guards and officials. They do this in the middle of the night too, at various stops along the way. Asiana provded us with nice overnight kits for our San Francisco/Seoul flight so they come in handy for this journey, especially the socks. We settle in for sleep early, I listen to my Tom Clancy talking book (only half way through this whole trip...) then put out the light at 10:30 using my earplugs and eye shades to get off to sleep. It's a noisy clanky train but the hum and movement lull us off and fortunately I only have to make one foray down the hall about 2:15am. It's mostly tourists like ourselves so no noisy beer parties in our car.

MORE SHOPPING...

Our two suitcases are full but we still seem to be doing some shopping. Backpacks here are cheap, cheap, cheap. Ted is using my old ski backpack when I used one, from about 3 years ago. It pulls all the weight off the shoulders it's time to get a new one. We shop around and for $15 after a bit of bargaining. He got pushed out of a store the day before but with me, we do a deal together and it fits him well, with nice side and outside pockets to better organize his stuff.

  We've also decided the shopping bag I'm plnning to take on our 4 day jaunt to Sapa isn't too good so we wi look for another small suitcase which he can either carry on or check on the way home too. There's a vast range and they are all so much better now, some spinners (extra cost, don't need that for one this small) and all pretty well with the built-in locks now. 

  The stores near all our hotels say it's a fixed price, 70,000 for a small cheap basic bag, that's BS. We carry on round the square, check out some more get an idea of price and finally settle on a  Skywalkers knock-off, quite strong, good zip and lock, offer the guy 600,000 dong (US$30). I also find some cheap reef walkers with rubber soles ($15) as the weather foreacast for Sapa is looking grim! My leather slip-ons have been great but they won't handle torrential rain and all the animal poop at the Sunday market we plan to attend, especially if it's awash! Still might have to rent wellies!

  After our street food/spa afternoon we take off in the drizzle, not far for dinner, I'm almost through with this filthy, polluted, frantic city where you take your life in your hands walking on the street after dark. We return to Highway 4, another lovely sea bass, succulent BBQ pork ribs and a few more cracks at the excellent liquers. We pick up a bottle of So Tinh Nep Cam,, Red Sticky Rice Liquer likened to a port, that should make the Sapa trip more palatable if it's going to pour the whole time.

HALONG BAY REDEEMED - AND PEARLS....

Day two of our junk cruise - we are awake early, lying in bed looking at the clearer view (still all the other ships) from our bacony. I'm too late up for the 6:30 taichi on the sun deck, but I catch up with my uown tai chi set 1 during the last 10 minutes. It's warm and nearly sunny. At 7:30 we pull out and slowly wend through some beautiful islands, hearing the birds, aiming for the floating fishing village and cultured pearl farm. We take the tender over to the village and board 4 at a time small boats poled by ladies from the village.
  It is quiet and peaceful, the swish of the single oar, the morning bird song, an eagle or two soaring, a flock of white long-necked unidentifiable birds across the water. Finally we get what we came for! It's magical. We circle some islands, into a cave bridge and see a huge ocean-going freighter parked outside, reminding us it's a busy seaway on the outside of this island group. There have been traders here since Marco Polo ad strong influences of Japanese and Chinese pasts.
  We share our little boat with a delightful couple from Hong Kong on a long Easter weekend jaunt, he's in finance, she's in marketing, we gel. He is from Veracruz in Mexico, and she is from Germany. They are delightfully in love and later I take the definitive happy photo of them on their balcony next to ours.
  We disembark at the commercial pearl farm, where they raise 3 sorts of pearls, including (if you can believe them) the black pearls from French Polynesia...a guy illustrates the wole procedure from implaning the seed to opening an oyster to discover its contents, surprise, a perfect white pearl!
  Of course, there's a fancy store, polished looking saleswomen offering pearls lke Barbara Bush had (only $5,000 a string...), prices are outrageous but there's no doubt about the quality of the beautiful pearls there, whever they may have come from!
  We pack up, a 5 minute job with our overnight bag, and leave our cabin as someone else will occupy it in a few hours. We enjoy a nice brunch and retreat for the return voyage to the sun deck and last views of the lovely karst islands before hitting the busy boat dock again. It's all downhill from here, on the 4 hour drive back to Hanoi, and iffy weather that soon turns to drizzle.
  Back on the dock, we are a captive audience again. The sales touts circle. I am sitting alone and eventually succumb to a string of small black pearls, ideal for my camping trips when I don't care where they are left - we agree on $10, I give her a Canada pin and we have a smiley photo together. Sweet!
  After the long bus trip it's nice to be back in our lovely cool suite but the weather is still socked in with threats of occasional thunder storms. They had a deluge this morning but it's over now, just drizzle.
  We shower, rest, reorganize and walk a few blocks to Highway 4 (the highway between Vietnam and China) for some excellent northern special food. There are stuffed ant egg pancakes, crispy scorpions, and deep fried crickets, but we are not brave enough for any of them. Ted orders pork in betel nut leaves and I get sea bass wraps and as usual, we share these excellent dishes. The owner has developed an ecologically sound retaurant as well as world award-winning liquors from rice wine, some as high as 27% alcohol. With a few beer chasers we try about 5 of them, powerful stuff. The manager comes by to visit and fill us in on all their products. Put us to sleep no problem that night...I sm sure some of these will be coming back to Calgary...

HALONG BAY KARST ISLANDS, GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT

We've heard mixed messages about this trip and it's peak season and Easter weekend into the bargain. The weather is socked in so we are less than enthusiastic that we booked this from Hoi An as we didn't want to risk leaving it til we got to town. I am sure we would have just skipped it otherwise. We see lovely agricultural lands surrounding Hanoi city, then go through an obviously industrial region, heavy steel production, high tech firms, garment factories, obviously a big employer in this region. Lots of "Made in Vietnam" pride in this country. They often point out the better quality of their goods - "not Chinese."
  We are picked up at the hotel in a small bus and proceed to pick up others til its almost full (full enough) for the 4 hours ride to the coast and the Bay of Taiwan in the South China Sea. There's the requisite half hour stop for a pee but also to shop! It seems a bit chaotic at the dock, with people arriving and departing at this obviously small company Syrena. It seems OK on the web site but now appears to be one of the smaller operations, maybe on a shoestring budget?? We've picked a cruise company in the mid-range and I'm glad we have not spent $1000 for the 1.5 day trip.
  Or wee host on this 17 room vessel Mr. Big is joy to listen to, all smiles and positive about everything, so we try to cheer up...he turns out to be the highlight of the voyage..
  We are tendered out to the ship which looks nothing like the website photos, no red sails, and looking tired and in need of a paint job again. We have a nice tiny cabin with a balcony, comfortable bed, and bathroom which we barely use.
  We are totally surrounded by other boats of all sizes, none look super new or modern but I think there are some really good ones at a price. We can't see much, it's fogged in and rain threatens...certainly nothing like the photos on the bedroom wall or website promos for these trips!
  First we have a buffet lunch (OK, adequate food) served by nice friendly young staff.

  Then off to visit a cave the Vietkong used to hide during the war. It's 400+ steps up so Ted and I opt to stay on board and wait for the others to do it. They don't come back oohing and aahing so not a bad choice. Then to a super-crowded handkerchief-sized "beach" on Titov Island (sand probably hauled in). 

  Our trusty guide Mr.Big pays for us to enter through a turnstile, gives us a towel, and we have all of 45 minutes to swim and enjoy the beach. The swim area is about 30 feet deep and a hundred yards long...other boats are piling into harbor, two or three deep to offload more passengers and it's already about 5pm, sun going down in an hour. Ted and I lie on our towel for a bit, and listen as people brave the water and declare it too cold..

  At 5pm we head to mid bay and anchor, we're apparently here for the night amid many many other boats, so you can't appreciate this Unesco World Heritage site designation at all. A few people kayak from the boat. It is dry and clearer for our happy hour drinks on the "sun" deck, no sun but warm enough. 

  Dinner is served a set meal, ambitious and really quite good for this small boat. They make an effort to find out where we are all from and put our cuntry's flag on our table, a nice touch to get us mixing. Ausralia fields the most guests. But it includes India, France, Italy, Taiwan and the 2 Canadians. Later some try squid fishing: fishermen 0, squid winners!

  We all seem to retire early hoping for better weather by morning.

TED TAKES THE STREET FOOD TOUR, SHEILA TO THE SPA!

(The day after Halong Bay, I'm out of order here...)
  We skip having much for breakfast today, as Ted is booked on the walking street food tour at 11:30 while I spend the afternoon at the hotel spa.
  I'm having the Ocean package which is a salt/hot stone massage, then a fresh yogurt/seaweed body wrap (a first for me) and finally Nature Skin Dream facial. For 3 hours it's 50% off the usual price so I pay US$63. I submit my bod to the magic hands of Thuy and I love it. All that sitting on the bus for 4 hours each way this week has left its mark on my spine so she irons it all out. I've explained throough the English paking hostess that my right arm has lymphedema and must be treated with care and Thuy gets that and is very gentle, as good as the lymph therapists in Calgary. Beautiful music plays and the 3 hours flies by.
  After the heavenly massage, she lays me oout on a sheet of saranwrap like a piece of beef, then annoints me with the sea mixture. It seems to dry in quite well. I turn over, stick to the saran and she proceeds to annount my front, wraps me in a towel, more sararn wrap, and leaves me there for about half an hour. I snooze gently in the soothing music. She then sets the shower to warm and I gently wash it all off and my body is super smooth all over, but I notice it especially on my hands. She's been careful to avoid my big toe which is still bound up and will stay that way til I get home now.
  Ted comes back enthused from his food tour. Only 3 guests so personal service. He didn't try anything really outlandish, just good basic food. For $25 he got a dozen different foods, a lot like pho or meat soup, would have preferred more way out foods. Biggest treat - BBQ port on skewer with lemongrass. Also egg coffee? But they didn't try the civet coffee (we've seen weasel coffee advertised, I wonder if that is it? ) The cats ingest the coffee and you drink it once it's been digested, i.e. in civet poo, I don't think so. Ann Murphy says its smoother than normal cofee, we'll believe her!
  Renewed and fed, we head off to the Ethnic Museum, a beautiful complex with two museum buildings and a specially good cultural display for the ethnic minorities, and an outside area with reproductions of many different ethnic group houses. There's a wildly enthusiastic shcool grooup visiting that day, who are spellbound also by the outdoor water puppet display which is free, an quite spectacular with fireworks, etc. which was missing from the indoor show we saw here in February.

WRAPS LIKE THE LOCALS

We've read about a local resto Quan An Ngon where lots of locals and tourists go, it's like a market cafe (Cravings in Calgary) with different cooking stations and very good food. It's absolutely jumping Sunday evening, we don't wait long for a table but it's low, with squatty chairs, not good for Ted's knee, so we wait and get another regular table.
  We  are cheek by jowl with our neighbors, the way Vietnamese seem to like to eat, so visit one side with visitors from Taiwan (he pony-tailed, looks like a Californian but is a teacher in Korea, she with mother on holiday.) She lived in Toronto for 6 months! We visit the other side with a family from Romania.
  The array of foods is amazing, especially seafood, which is fresh but pretty pricey, more than in Calgary. crab especially is in season. Their signature dish is a huge crispy rice pancake, about
a foot in diameter, partly stuffed  with shrimp and pork, then slathered with more shrimp and port on top and tons of fresh greens and herbs. The waitress happily shows them how to eat this, cut with scissors first, then wrapped in rice paper wraps with the greens and sauces. Messy but good.
  We order the whole snakefish, a chef's choice. Again it comes slathered with the freshest greens and herbs. We cook it at the table on a portable stove, it's hot!! But we can eat the fish juicy how we like it. We hack off pieces once it's cooked, and again wrap them in rice wraps with veggies and herbs and sauces. We ordered stir fry veggies too and they are awful, cooked for western tourists who are afraid of Vietnamese food probably!
  The whole thing is in a open air courtyard which is pleasant on the warm evening.
  Tonight we are home early to pack for our two day adventure to Halong Bay on a Chinese junk type boat. We will keep our lovely hotel room, just can't face packing it all up for a one night move.

BACK TO CAPITAL HANOI - IF THIS IS COMMUNIST, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT..

We have a 3:30pm flight back from Hue to Hanoi so lots more pool time, where we meet an English family from Devon! Ted's birthplace. Having yesterday met people form Newcastle, Ted's father's birthplace. The world is getting smaller...
  Hanoi is capital of a communist country, but the market economy here is in full swing and everyone is on the make. Lots of touts on the street trying to part us from our dong, of which there are 20,000 to one US dollar. We are all millionaires all the time. But great bargains on what you need, or maybe want...
  Our flight pulls in late and is an hour late leaving but our drop offs and pickups are there for us in AC cars, whch makes the whole thing better. We get 3 seats each on the plane in the back, which is great as we deplane from both front and back, very efficient. Bus to the terminal is short and efficient and our bags arrive soon after.
  WE sigh with relief at returning to the lovely Hanoi Elegance Diamond boutique hotel right in the centre of the Old Town area. It's chaotic, dirty, smelly, frantic on the sreet, but this is a haven of srenity and peace. The junior suite room with the balcony that we booked is somehow not available but we don't like the location of our new one under the bar/restaurant so next morning we move and I'm given the option of 50% off any spa package as compensation. I'm up for that...
 Off we go to vheck out one of Ted's listed restaurants - we are loving a lot of the suggestions in Lonely Planet. It's Thang Long Char Ca where they only serve  one fish - snakefish! It may be catfish but it's great. You either have BBQ marinated fish pieces in turmeric, or add the fish stomach. We passed on the latter but the guys next to us were relishing it. Eventually you can get fish soup.
  Many local families are eating there, very few Westerners. People dress up and go out here big time. Or eat squatted on kids' plastic chairs on the street in front of their house or business!
  We have the English menu and it's $8 for the set meal, which is the BBQd pieces of fish, a huge bowl  fresh greens (mit, cilantro, basil, dill) and green onions, vermicelli, rice wraps (you do it) dessert and beer! Yup, and the beer. Of course, one is not enough and we order up another 4 of our favourite Bia Han Oi!  We each get small bowls with chili, fish sauce, peanuts to add at will.
  After we get fresh pomelo, which I'm starting to like here, cross between orange and grapefruit.
 They are deicious and it's easy to tell people - no chili for me - and I get fish sauce for dipping instead.
  Some fun on the way home. The restaurant is across town so they call us a cab back. Ted gives him the card, he looks, nods and drives a route we don't recognize to another hotel! Nope, we say, not ours. Ted looks at the card again, and he's given the guy the Imperial Hotel card from Hue, must be another Imperial Hotel here I guess...not much later we arrive at our real home and it's still only $5 for the cab fare.

PEANUT POOL FOR THE DAY

With path construction continuing for the third day at the main pool, we retreat to the lovely peanut shaped pool in the far side of the resort for the day. Even Ted is up for R&R today. I've almost totally wrenched off my big left foot toenail yesterday, and am anxious to keep it covered and baby it! What a nuisance! I bind it with multi bandaids and try a shower cap with elastic bands round it but it's not watertight...Ted went out to the little village and found some bigger bandaids and tape which wil help.
  At 4pm we finally leave the pool, to arrange our plans for the next day, car to airport back to Hanoi, and get a 20% discoount off their rather high transfer fee. Our new neighbours for the night are from Newcastle, exhausted on their tour and opt to stay at th resort for dinner rather than take off with their group, sensible decision. They are glad they didn't opt for the Sapa tour, those who went saw nothing, rained steadily the whole time...not a good omen as we are due there for 4 days next week!
  We enjoy another lovely meal in the gorgeous dining room at the resort, beautifuly prepared and served, and pass out again by 9pm. It's been hot and really humid so the pool is the only place to be.
  Having drunk a cold 7up and beer from our expensive bar fridge, Ted later headed out the main gate across the road to pick up replacements. He's always prepared to walk a hundred yards to save five bucks!

EAST WEST - MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE

  There is still a situation here of the old East/West marriage of convenience. A beautiful young Asian girl attaches herself to an (often) aging, fat, balding guy - read: not attractive in his own country/environment. He offers her a way out and up, and she is a pretty little thing on his arm to strut in public. 

  We've also came across lots of notices and advice to travelers to 'honour our children' (i.e don't support the underage sex trade). We understand it's especially prevalent in Thailand, but Cambodia obviously has a lot of orphans who are bait for this sort of thing.

  At our beautiful spa in Hue, there suddenly appeared on the other side of the pool a fat, 40/50ish guy, poured into a suit, having obviously wedding photos taken with this gorgeous slim young thing in a stunning red dress. All these lovely young attractive Vietnamese men, some really sharp dressers and obviously successful...but she opts for the meal ticket out no doubt.

  Ted worked with guys from Indonesia at Bow Valley, one of whom managed to spirit his woman on to the Indonesian rig and thence back to Canada. On arrival, she dumped him! Point made.

  

THE SPA LIFE..YUP

I'm awake aroound 6am. I grab shorts, Tshirt and go down to the pool for the free 7am TaiChi class at 7am. I'm the only one there. A private class, it's easy. We go through her routine tiwce then I do set one of mine. I'm sweating. Back to shower and off to breakfst at he lovely buffet over the lots pond in the Slope Restaurant, where do they get these names?? I'll join Anh again tomorrow. Maybe Ted should come, it's easy.

  After breakfast we cai a lovely spont under a palapa in the shade for the whole day. AT 10:30 I go down to the spa. We have a free leg/foot massage and Im thre to claim mine. Ted's not interesed but it seems I can't have his. Bummer.

  Hien is lovely, I enjoy giving my feet and lower legs a treat and I'm practically the only person there. I return to the pool where Ted has joined me. In and out of the water is the only way to combat this heat - humid and 36 today - and few people at the pool. They are all off on tours to Hue, but we've done all that.

  I order the most expensive cocont I've had this trip but it's good, cool refreshing full of coconut water and eat the delicious moist young coconut fruit inside. I have a banana from breakfast and that's all I want except lots of cold water. I freeze my mylar bottles and have ice water as they defrost, love it. I carry one in my purse all the time. I'm sure people think I'm tipplng gin...sometimes I use it to moisten my headscarf and put it on my neck, head, etc. too.

  At 2pm when I can't stand any more pool heat I go for a full body Vietnamese massage. Everything in the spa is totally lovely, the environment, the rooms, cold ginger tea to greet you and send you off, and lovely staff. HIen leads me through the entrance, the steam bath area, the rest area, the meditation room, the fitnss facilty, to an AC room where I submit my body to anything she ants to do to it. I emerge an hour later light as a butterfly. Without language skills, Hien has fully understood my lymphedema problem and massaged it as well as any lymphedema specialist who has put hr hands on me so far in Canada. I want to take her home...

  Everywhere here the sidewalks, roads, etc. are uneven and I have been tripping all over. But tonight in our room, I catch my left big townail  on the coffee table of all places - and rip if practically off! Painful! I raid the first aid box and we don't have enough to minister to ths poor toe the rest of the trip, so Ted is off out to find more supplies, including beer! it's going to be a problem especially at pools!

  Our second evening here, we go easy on ordering food, it's still too much, but our waitress remembers the wine we drank last night and that I can't eat hot or chili, love it. By 8:30 we are strolling home along the romantically lit pathways to our cool room and again pass out at 9pm.

WE ARE PIILGRIMS...BUT NOT TO COMPOSTELA...

It's our last night at the lovely Imperial Hotel and we enjoy breakfast on the deck on the 3rd floor with a gorgeous sunny day awaiting us.
  We take a walk in the morning as the car won't pick us up for the transer to Pilgrimage Village, 3km out of Hue, until noon. We go to the bank for another million or so.... I can't believe women arriving to bank on their scooters, totally covered head to foot, with only eyes showing, to guard against pollution and sun. A dark skin here is a sign of lowclass!
  We take a last walk along the riverside park with its interesting public art, mostly modern art concrete statues. We buy another silk sleeping bag for our future trips, probably good for the RV too.  We are constantly harrassed by touts and cyclo drivers, but manage to wave tham all off.
  It's 32 degrees by 10am, feels like 38, and I return to strip and and change.
   We arrive at the classy Plgrimage Village resort, listed on the world's classiest spas. We'll see...
It's 99% booked but we don't like our room assignment, opposite the restaurant air/kitchen output and the two balconies advertised for every room look into 91) the pah past the restaurant and (b) a brick wall on the next villa. We have time...we wait...they show us another room. I ask what about the room upsairs? OK, we can have that one. I tell them it't not what I expected from the web site etc. etc. they say you have to be in a bungalow ($US 300-400 a night -  don't think so...) to get a view like that. We settle on the upstairs room with a bed the size of our spare bedroom, two twins together made into a super size King..you'll have to make an appointment to see the person on the other end...hahaha
  Even after our warm greeting, the lovely cold ginger tree, the cold towels infused with aromathereapy, we are sweating and can't wait to get into our room and the pool.
  I retreat to the pool for the rest of the day until about 5pm. It's lovely, surounded by palapas and trees, plenty of shade, a lotus pond the other enda ad hot and cold running men filling your every wish...more or less...with VAT of 10% added and 5% service...
  Ted wsalks into the village to find beer at a fraction of the resort price and fills our fridge with it. I enjoy the pool, the gardens, the birds, the crickets, my book. I'm not leaving here for 3 days...
  At 6pm we wander over to the award winning resto. WE are hungry not having had lunch. WE are the only people there for about an hour so have super service.The food is good but not knock off our socks as we've had some of that already in most of the places we've stayed.The resort manager, Japanese, comes by to bow and scrape some more...are we happy...bon appetit!!
  We try the $4.50 South African Sauvignon Blanc, it's drinkable, Ted finally tries the Vietnamese favourite, Bun, a huge bowl of noodle soup with extra bits, I have a green papaya salad and big honey-sauce shrimp and a passionfruit mouse dessert and it's our biggest bill this trip, US$60!
  We retreat to our nice AC room and pass out again at 8:30 and sleep like logs to 6am.
  

LAST DAY IN HUE - TOMBS TOMBS TOMBS

We've hied a car and driver for the day to visit the famous tombs of the various self-appointed emperors. We get lucky and Mr. Tien, the agency boss, takes us himself and is a mine of interesting information about Hue, Vietnam and its history. We discover that Ho Chi Minh went to the high school here!

  But our day begins with an exciting start. Ted looks out the window and there's a horse and buggy and parade of people in the imperial red silk outfits, the occasional one in emperor yellow, all lined up for a wedding coming ot of our hotel. I rush into clothes, grab the camera and get some nice shots on the street from very willing subjects, especially little girls.

  We visit the 3 tombs which all have a very different character.  It costs us $18 in entrance fees for all three. Tu Duc is a huge formal complex, the most impressive, with a huge moat with ducks and koi, singing ladies in a small room over a lake, rich red/gold pillars, renovated aareas and worshipping ancestor temples throughout. It's hellish hot so we do everything very slowly.

  Second we visit Khai Dinh, very ornate where everyone wants to be photogaphed by the actual tombs of king and queen, very colorful mosaic decoration everywhere and beautiful renovated ceilings too. The tomb has a guard of elephants, horses and warriers lined up in front on the plaza again. There's a good DVD of the history of all the tombs there too.

  Lastly, up in the green verdant hills, we visit the Minh Mang tomb et on a peaceful lake, visited by far less tourists so really quite deserted. It's a half km walk in so bus trips don't go there. Before we go in I ask for a cold coconut to drink, not cold, she will do it for my return.

  We climb the 3 levels to the final resting place of Mang to find we can't enter, he was buried underground and noone knows quite where. Our driver tells the lady we have probably had a cold drink at the tomb but in fact, she is ready for the nearly most expensive coconut, that's yet to come, and happy that we returned. It's a lovely drive back through the green rice fields and crop fields, to some lovely avenues in Hue too.

  We find that the local rice is consumed in Vietname but not valued for export. Vietnam is the second largest  exporter of rice in the world.

  Mr. Tien has a souvenir for our day together, a nice little sketch of Hue, and we promise to put a good word in for him on TripAdvisor, which is god around here! We use it so much in SE Asia, so does everyone else, but it's so so subjective really.

  We return to the Family Home Restaurant that night, which gets such a good writeup on TA to have a disapponting experience there

BOAT TRIP DOWN THE PERFUME RIVER

It's cloudy and humid to start the week. We stop in at StopNGo, the handy agency across the road, to fix a boat trip todya. First we walk about 1k and I'm sweating already. We find the local dentist and for $5 she glues my errant back molar cap back on. She gets it on very oddly and in 2 days my tooth and gums are sore but it falls out again, so I'll now leave it that way til I get home. Another thou for the dentist I'm sure!

  We've hired a boat to visit the famous Pagoda up river. A guy comes on a motorbike and escorts us while we walk a few yards to the waterfront where his boat comes to pick us up right there! Nobody peaks English but it doesn't matter, Mr. Tien has explained we want to go up the river, visit the pagoda and get dropped off on the other side by the Citadel. It all works like a charm and is one third the price our hotel wants for the same trip. ($15 for just under 3 hours)

  It's not that impressive as a pagoda but nice enough and there's a monk's Austin car there from about 1920, the one he rode to town and then immolated himself to protest French invasion!  The gardens are nice. We return to the Citadel Museum that we missed the first time around and it was worth the return trip to see the beautiful collection. The cab ride home is nearly 3 times what it was to go before! Still only $3...

  We find the recommended Tropical Garden Restaurant which is in the busy tourist section a wee walk from our hotel, and try some more local specialities, but the duck is strange, almost like Chinese ginger beef in being cooked twice over! 3 appies, duck and roasted eggplant and 5 beers is $35.

  En route home we find the double silk sleeping bag for $6 (useful for our boat and rain trips we understan...) and stopo off for decadent coffee and chocolate cake on the walk home.

  We've had some rain sprinkles today, but it looks like we are in for some nice weather at last.

  

SHADES OF PAST GLORY

The day dawns cloudy but not raining at last. We can breakfast on the nice outdoor patio and it's ooler to head off to The Citadel, a walled mini-city created by one of the many self-appointed kings. It's hot and humid but we find a lovely garden to rest among the lily ponds and bonsai, and the three and a half hours goes by enjoying the rather dilapidated fortress,with some nice restored palaces, temples, etc. It's a huge imperial complex, with two lovely temples in the back, probaby missed by many tourists, who whiz around this city doing all the sites in a day. The dowages empresses are honoured with their own residences and tekples. Mosaics at Truonag Trong San are impressive, as is the pool and garden there. The Thien Tho residence is also beautifully restored.
  Nine dynasty bronze urns attest to the longevity of this family's grasp on Vietnam's early days.
  Back at 1pm, we find a French patisserie for mango shake, pain au chocolate, nice lunch, just round the corner from our overpriced and under-supported hotel restaurant prices.
 I retreat to the pool, which unheated is cool, and when the wind comes up, also cool on the deck! Quite unexpected here.
  I have a big bath here and they deliver blue bath salts in a little pot every day so I soak in splendor, which Ted goes off on one of his explorations.
  This time to local market, mainly food and kitchen supplies. We are now looking forsilk sheet/sleeping bags for our train trip and maybe boat trip from Hanoi. This is the place to buy them, and we missed doing that in Hoi An. But not at the local market.
  Sunday we join our NBFs Wendy and Phil at Les Jardins de Carambole, a lovely restaurant over the river in a residential area, looks like a niceyellow French house but has een uilt specifically to be a restaurant. The fixed price menus are lovely. Everything comes decorated with beautiful veggies and when we ask, our serverbrings out the tiny lady (apprenty 24 looks 13) who demonstrates to us how she does it!
  W&P will come to North America on a trip in September. They will be in Banff but we will probaby be in France then! Too sad...
  W&P have an early start at 4:30am tomorrow. It is now pissing with rain again. We call a cab and are home in bed by 10pm.

HUE, ANCIENT CAPITAL AND SEAT OF EMPERORS

We've read a lot about this coastal trading city, now 300,000 people, and its seat as the home of the Emperor Dynasties before the French took over and Vietnam became a communist country. The ego trtips associated with the dynasty are legion, shades of Xian in China on a much smaller scale. Vietname is attepting to regain its past, its a big tourist draw after all, and people from all over Asia come here for that reason.
  Our NBFs from Oz have recommmended the Iperial hotel and indeed we feela  bit like emperor and empress staying here. Our view fianlly after 1.5 days of rain emerges, 14 floors high above the Perfume River and it's gorgeous in the sun. Our corner room has two big picture windows and the other looks over the Old City and newer hotel/restaurant area. Everything within walking distance normally, except when we've had enough of traffic, noise and heat.
  Cyclos are everywhere but we give them a miss as cabs are inexpensive and AC.
  Our first nigh we visit Carambole for a nice Vietnamese meal, mine a set menu of several little courses which I love: crab soup, Hue's famous crispy rice wraps with pork/shrimp, stir fried veg and calamari, poached shrimp, beef wrapped in lot leaves and BBQd lightly (almost raw), topped with creamy coconut ice cream and tropical fruits.
  We stroll back around downtown on the riverwalk, which is jumping tonight with all the locals and some tourists out. Night boat trips are popular, it's lovely watching the colours change on the main bridge across to the former sea of government, The Citadel.
  Outside the main hotel on the corner of the river there are a group of students, sitting singing on EarthDay here, "Turn off the lights and turn on the future". The glorious optimism of young people eerywhere! The hotel lobby has turned off all the lights, lit candles and is passing out free lime dacquiries to passers-by. Yes to all that. 

EXPLORING HUE - LAUNDRY - TOURS -

Our hotel has any number of expensive trips, cramming it all in in one day, but we don't need to do that.
Also laundry can be done here for $2 for a pair of socks. In Luang Prabang hotel it was 1kilo for $1.25. Ted crossed the road here and it's 1kilo for $1! (assuming we get it back...) Last time we  got a nice paid of fire engine red mens underwear too! But we gave them back...
  Ted has found the hotel's half day $100 trip to the Royal Tombs can be done from the StopNGo restaurant/agency across the road for $30 so you know which one we'll be doing. We don't need a guide, we have the book. So much for the really small costs that people remember from the past here.
  It's still pissing down out there. Today on the 3rd floor, we had two swimming pools, one on the deck and one in the outdoor dining room! It's all openair but fortunately the inside dining room is not affected. I am looking forward to eating outdoors later in the week. Also the top 16th floor bar overlooking the river should be nice.
  I got on the internet to look up beach hotels and resorts near Hue. Ted had found a listing for a  beautiful boutique resort in a village 3km out of Hue, a spa retreat sort of place, so we have booked to go there for 3 days before we leave here. It's pricey - over $100 a night - so I imagine the spa treatments will be too. No note of costs on the web site, but everyone who goes there loves it and the food is supposed to be marvellous. I think a better bet than the beach resort, where you are also a captive audience, but no sign that the food is good...They have a shuttle if Ted gets bored out there...

HUE, UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE NEAR DMZ

Friday morning we say a sad goodbye to all our new friends at Hoi An Trails resort an join or new best friends Wendy and Phil from Brisbane, who have hired a driver from Hue to drive us up the coast, over the mountains to imperial Hue.
  Sadly, it s drizzling and just gets worse for the whole 3 hour journey. They have been to Hue before so know the area. The driver wants to take us on a 5 hour tour to Hue, we tell him, just A to B mate and he obliges. We stop en route at a rest stop, plenty of trinkets and trash but clean toilets too.
  This drive is listed as spectacular, one of the most scenic in Vietam. But today it's one delue after another, low cloud which we are in. We have a choice of the 7km tunnel or the 24km twisty mountain drive and opt for the former. Too too bad. Camera stays in case.
  We briefly see hints of the beaches, bays, islands and verdant hills but it's lost in the mountain mist and cloud. We see the famed China Beach, it looks nice...
  We arrive in historic imperial Hue where we'll stay for 8 days, too much for what we have read, but we are now making up time not spent in Cambodia.
  The beach downtime we planned for half way through this trip didn't materialize in Hoi An and it doesn't look like it will at the nice waterlogged but garbage-strewn beach 12km from Hue city. The only resort has its own beach but once you leave it, watch for the garbage. The little seafood restaurants along the beach, typical of third world, just bury their garbage in the sand at the end of the day - much like parts of  Mexico.
  We book into the classy but dated Imperial Hotel, half price at $70 a night on Agoda.com (love that site) where Wendy stayed before. Our huge, lovely room high on the 14th floor overlooks the glitzy downtown, Perfume River(?) and we can see rice fields in the distance. Once the rain stops, we should have a nice view out to sea.
  We chose this hotel for the nice outdoor pool on the 3rd floor rooftop, I hope we get to use it after all!
  TripAdvisor where would we be without you! Unfortunately it's also very subjective,so you have to do the trial and error thing. The hotel suggests a restaurant and books us a table. We  look it up on TA and it's pretty but bad food. We politely cancel and head out to the Family House restaurant nearby, almost full at 6:30pm, overwhelmed by 7:30, and OK local food. The Hue specialties seem to be all deep fried...But dinner of three enorous appies and 4 beers is US$10! We can't finish our shrimp rolls, take pity on the table beside us with beers but no sign of food, and offer them nibbles with their beer. They are pleased.
  We have found the French patisseries a block away, it's looking up...
  Back a block or so in the rain, I fill up my bathtub with the blue bath crystals from their spa here - aaaah - by the time I finish, Ted has passed out an despite the loud party above us outdoors on the 16th floor. I try to write my log and also pass out pen in hand...

PARADISE LOST...

  We return each night to our peaceful room in this tropical garden to enjoy another lovely day here. However, we tune in to BBC world news from Singapore to the dreadful news that a German Lufthansa plane has gone down in the French Alps. It is looking like a strange accident with no SOS, warnings or anything. Gradually the terrible truth comes out that the second officer locked out the pilor and plunged the plane and all passengers into the mountain side!!
  It's inconceivable that anything like this could happen to a German company, normally so incredibly careful about safety, security, etc. There are many Germans traveling here, I am sure they are astounded as the news unfolds, as we are.
  Slowly facts creep out that in fact this young troubled man did just that! What a terrible thing for the passengers at the last minute to see it coming. All those young students, the two opera singers with their promising careers, everyone on board - and the anguish of the pilot to have left the cockpit and be competely unable to change the course of that plane.
 Yes, every day is a gift and I am glad we are so luky to be savouring them now. 

RUINS OF MY SON (ME SUN)

Our hotel room has a huge bath, I am loving it, soaking when I get home at night while Ted likes the rainfall shower (although we've got plenty of that outside now too...) We are sleeping like logs, maybe it's he heat and dehydration too, although we are drinking lots, me water, Ted beer...
  Wednesday we wake to cooler, cloudier conditions, unsettled too. Which is too bad as we have booked to take a tour to the Champa ruins of 10th century My Son, about an hour away through the lovely rural countryside. The first class tourist bus there and tourist boat part of the way back, no more than 20 people, of course isn't quite up to the billing, the 30 seater bus has to be augmented with a smaller bus too, but we all have a good day out, despite the recurrent deluges.
  Umbrellas and plastic capes to the fore today! Our guide Lee is barey comprehensiible but we know all the background from our wonderful guide Savuth in Siem Reap, as we have visitied a Champa tempe there. Ted wanders off - he can't understand a thing the guy says - and finds some neat things to photograph, but the ruins are in poor shape mostly.
  There were about 8 temples before our American friends bombed the hell out of them, 20 remain, some being rebuilt by the Unesco team. The pink brick construction is typically Champa and the temples Hindu. The famous male appendage or linga is revered so tourists line up beside the tallest for their photographs! The female equivalent yoni is not so popular...
  Rediscovered by the French in the 20th century, it sits in a gorgeous jungle setting which even the rain could not spoil.
  Generally, very disappointing for a whole heritage site. Worth a visit, if nothing better to do...
  It as nie to see the rural countryside. One guy cycling along with 4 pigs on a cart behind him, handsome big water buffalo grazing the gorgeous rice paddies.
  A requisite stop on an island to see the local woodcarvers, very skilled young men, but all the tinets and trash otherwise. Then the half hour boat trip on the Thu Bon river, with a nice little lunch all laid out (rice with chicken and veggies, and bananas, quite good for the $15 day trip cost.

RAIN RAIN AND MORE RAIN...BUT THE BEST SEAFOOD HOTPOT IN HOI AN

If you noticed I hadn't blogged for a while, I am on catchup. It's been deluging ot there today so I am watching it from our 14th floor window in Hue, and catching up on washing, my nails, my blog. etc.

  Back to Hoi An...

  We have small power cuts all the time but these places must all have generator backup because it doesn't last for long. 

  After our cooking class and the huge amount of food we consumed, we got back to a deluge. Not wanting to go far, we made it to the covered bar and did happy hour with two coktails for me and two beers for Ted, an that a supper! Raced home under the umbrella and went to sleep listening to the raindrops, or rather sheets of water falling out there. We were ready for breakfast next day for sure.

  The breakfast buffet is lovely, but we are working up for the famous Hoi An seafoot hotpot tonight at the famed Duc's restaurant Cau Mai or Mai Fish. It's on the river with a lovely patio, but it's still pissing with rain so we opt for a table by the window. We are the only diners in the room! The restaurant has been designed like a family home by Duc, a Vietname refugee who returned home after living in some great culinary places (New Orleans?) He has returned to mama's cooking roots. Our server prepares the whole thing for us on the adjacent table. First she arrives with a tray of red snapper, calamari and huge shrimps, then a tray of fresh veggies, herbs and greens, pineapple, tomatoes. 

  To while away the time, I have a passion mojito, a gorgeous glassful of greens and fresh passionfruit, which I am becoming addicted to on this trip. 

  The caldron contains chicken stock for the fish, odd. We tell her we like our fish moist and that's exactly how it all comes, Delicious! But too much food. After 3 bowls we have to tell her to stop, but there's no waste as it has not gone into the broth. Of course, we have eaten all the lovely fresh fish and seafood.

  I finish with tempura baby bananas sliced lengthwise, dippedin very light tempura batter with something green?? and roasted sesame seeds, and home made coconut icecream. More oink.

SILK SHOPS GALORE - AND A NEW LITTLE SISTER

Apparently Hoi An has something like 200 silk shops, making custom clothes! It's quite astonishing that they can all stay in business. On this trip I've been looking for a white silk blouse at a resonable price, not so far. I was told, wait til Hoi An. One I can wear as an overblouse too.
  So I found a big store with several branches and ordered two silk blouses. I could not find a pattern anywhere close to what I want anywhere, but the young lady who took me in hand - Chau - just sat down and drew what I wanted. She then measured me and said - come back tomorrow afternoon for a fitting.
  I ordered a short sleeved, Vneck blouse, with 4 rows of stop stitching round collar and down front openings, plain buttons, unlined. They will make it in white and black for $30 each.
  At the fitting, the white one needs a few adjustments, the black is good. Come back later that day to collect them!
  When measuring me, I ask that the V be not too deep as I have all this scarring from my breast cancer radiation. Also the right sleeve must be loose to accommodate my arm with lyphedema. She is sypathetic. But she tentatively asks - can she ask me about my cancer, what kind, etc. As she measures and we talk, I discover she is single, 32, and has had a large cancer removed from her leg, has had 6 rounds of chemo, is tired, is wearing a wig, and devastated by it all. We have some tears and hugs. I give her my email and she can talk to me about it any time.
  Chau has a PET scan scheduled soon. She wonders if Western medicine has anything better to track the success of the chemo. I tell her it's the best, but lots of radiation, so you don't want many of those. She is somewhat relieved.
  When I return the second day, I have a card for her, also a little silver bracelet with a disk on it for long life. She will wear it and get well, and remember all the positive vibes I am sending to my new little sister. There is virtually no support for women here! I tell her to let her women friends help!
  When I return later, Chau has left, but her friend also wants to confide in me about breast surgery, cancer, etc. She has a 3 year old daughter and would like another child, but worries about the cancer returning. She also has had a breast lump removed. She tells me about Chau's eperience, not wanting to tell anyone, not wanting to see anyone, typical of Vietnamese women and devastating for an as yet unmarried young woman. My heart goes out to them both.
  But they are cheered and encouraged by my own story and strength and courage. They have both seen my scarred chest but my undaunted spirit, and this is important.
  Wellspring, where are you for these women! Their heath system is woefully lacking here.
  I pick up my blouses. They are lovely. A nice quality silk with a Chinese design that you can't see through. As I pay, a young Swedish man is collecting his two suits and shirts. He tell us custom suits like this would cost US$2000 in Sweden! No wonder he is smiling...

COOKING CLASS - FUN EXPRIENCE AND - OINK!

We're up early next day to attend our Advanced class at Miss Vy's Morning Glory Cooking School ($35 each.) There are ony 4 of us, Ted has volunteered to learn to cook (yeah), Ricardo is a chef from Italy and Janine is a German foodie.Our teacher Lu speaks good English but we have a prep sous chef with little English to help us.
  We walk to the end the road, get in the ferry boat, an arrive at the morning produce market in 5 minutes. Lu guides us through the fish, meat, produce, fruit market, and there's food stalls at the end where people are perched on stools eating breakfast of all the lovely fresh things. The fish is super fresh, shiny eyes. The meat is something else, every little bit gets eaten somehow.
  There are other groups here too, but we split up at the market so not a big group. We  each carry our shopping basket, we have a coolie hat (good for sun or rain sprinkles) but I've stuck with my big NineWest sun shade which I've been living in. I can take photos easily with it on. Sun here is very bright, midday especially difficult for photos.
  We each get catfish, tons of fresh herbs, a pomelo. The rest of the ingredients are already there, they bought the clams at 4am this morning to soak them before we start cooking!
  The cooking school is upstairs. Downstairs is Miss Vy's Market Restaurant, set out with cooking stations and a huge array of beautiful foods. Lu tours us arouond, lets us try our hand at making rice paper, noodles (I fail that one!), eating odd things (duck embryo anyone? silk worms, jelly fish. Beautiful little moutfuls of wondrous flavours abound. We are spellbound watching the very adept chefs turn them out. When Ricardo tries the tiny multi-strand noodle machine, it's like watching Charlie Chaplin on Modern Times...
  Absolutely everything is prepared from scratch! And it was either walking, swimming or growing yesterday.
  Then it's our turn. We prepare herbs, chop, cook, chop, skin/bone fish. It's great that I don't have to say "no chili for me" I just don't put them in. Ted makes the mistake when Lu says that green pepper is not hot, he bashes it with his mortar, throws it in his soup, and can't eat it afterwards! Our assistant is there to clean up, provide new clean implements, ingredients, I am liking this...but I would like a heavier knife...
  We cook fat juicy clam soup, BBQ fish with noodles, Shrimp/chicken/pomelo salad and (watch Lu prepare) frozen condensed milk yoghurt and fresh fruits with peanuts and coconut on top. It's enough for a family of 4 but we are expected to eat our own creations! We fail that test. But washed down with the local beer, it's all extremely good.
 There's a handsome cookbook from Miss Vy but not the weight to acquire. We do get our recipes to take home (not a nice book ike at Luang Prabang) and a typical Vietnames cooking implement that will certainly need to be checked! It's an oval flat tool with a super-sharp blade for slicing shallots, onions, lemon grass very finely - also fingers I suspect!
  At 2pm we are pretty tired and head home for the afternoon rest.

HOI AN'S HISTORIC SITES, AND FOOD, FOOD, FOOD...

Energy renewed, we are off on the shuttle to Old Town to visit 5/8 of the historic sites. You buy a ticket and they cut off a bit for each site. 5 of the 8 is enough. As a port, Hoi An has had a plethora of nations trading and Japanese and Chinese history (mainly Fujian) is everywhere. Superimposed on this is the French influence, but many of the old homes are preserved well and guides tell some fascinating stories. One home is still occupied upstairs by desendents of the original owners.
  We see markings on the ground floor from water leels during monsoon, above my head! They move upstairs in the home for that season. The hardwoods used for construction are amazing. The roofs are costructed in Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese fashion and we learn the subtle differences.
  Ted finally finds a fresh beer, at fifty cents a pop, and it's really just watery draft.
  We find the Mermaid restaurant, also owned by famed Miss Vy. We compare the white rose dumplings, just as good. Back to shower, hit the pool, read under the trees, and at 5pm back into town for dinner at Miss Ly's. Not as good as Miss Vy, BUT we sit beside Wendy & Phil from Brisbane. They are taking a car to Hue Friday. We agree to go with them and split the cost. We are up for that. Add fortunately it works out OK with the driver, who will come down from Hue for us.
  We get on the Internet, oh joy, how would we have donw this in years gone by, just booking as we go? Wendy has stayed at the Imperial Hotel on the Perfume? River in Hue before, it's good, so we get 50% off our room there through Agoda.
  It starts to rain at bedtime. Is this a hint of things to come??

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CITY HOI AN - MAGICAL!!

Tired from all our temple visiting and touring in Cambodia, I spend the day at the pool, while Ted goes exploring. Comes back excited at what we are going to experience here. At 5pm we take one of the frequent hotel shuttles into town, 10 minutes. We are 3km from town and 2km from their private beach, which I never see on our week here! Ted reports - no big deal.

  Our many friends who visited here have told us about the renowned Morning Glory Restaurant. Morning Glory is a green herb sauteed here with garlic everywhere. It's questionable what sort of water it grows in but we eat it all the same with no adverse effects! Miss Vy is a legend in this town, now with 4 restaurants serving very traditional dishes. Eating early we get a table on the 2nd floor balcony overlooking the street action. It's fascinating. A wedding comes by. She is beautiful. I sneak a  photo from above as he kisses her hand. 

  But opposite, a man whose face has been mostly obliterated, sits on the siewalk selling Tiger Balm, but few stop to buy. A reminder of the terrible war and the toll it has taken on these lovely people. A juxtaposition of the affluence of the visitors and many residents doing well from the huge tourist trade.

  The food is great, we try the local specialty "white rose" round rice paper open dumplings filled with shrimp, much lighter than their Chinese counterpart, a symphony in the mouth. The local beer is very cheap, $0.5 a glass in the bars, more at most restaurants, we love it. Also the crispy filled wantons, which are actually flat, with a little stuffing inside and covered with shrimp and other goodies, yum. The fish dishes are good, especially Ted's fish in banana leaf. I stay safe with S/Sour port whihcis not spicy and without chilis.

  I also book us into Miss Vy's cooking class, also legend, at $35 each.

  The famous Neville's walking street food tour is now US$65 a pop so we give it a miss.

  Hoi An is magical at night. Lanterns big an small are strung along the river, over all the old town streets, and Sunday is a huge thing for the locals and the tourists alike. Entrepreneurs old and young are selling cardboard floating candle holders, paper cut with lovely patterns. You buy one, make a wish and float it down the river. People go out in boats to give them a good start. It's is like fairyland. Now I wonder if I ever got a nighttime photo?? Everyone is out strolling the streets and riverbank.

  Also sold here the most beautiful intricate pop up cards with papercut objects. I weaken and buy a few. I am sure when I get home I'll wish I bought more, but where to put them in the suitases.

BACK TO VIETNAM AND WORLD HERITAGE SITES

I've missed blogging or a week, where does the time go??
  We have breakfast in our hotel with Cynthia and Alan from Kelowna! They rent a house for 3 months of winter in South Africa and stop off at interesting places en route home!
  We head to famed Haven for lunch. Takes 2 days to get a reservation and it's worth it.  A swiss couple came here to work in an orphanage and stayed on to establish a restaurant to train those kids ejected from the orphanage once grown, but with no family or community support. Mango salad and fish for me and celebratory dish Amoy Fish for Ted does not disappoint. Presentation fusion and gorgeous. Our lunch guest at  next table is the digital editor for Elle Bankok, she's impressed as hell with the food, photos it all. We get her card. May be in Bankok some time. She spent 6 months in London so her English is great.
  Later we spend the afternoon at the lovely award-winning Angkor museum, well laid out with AV presentations along the route and a fine collection. The two hours flies, but we need to get back by 4pm (despite the lockdown around the museum and lots of police here for First Lady Obama's visit to Siem Reap today.) We take the evening flight, cool at the airport and comfortable with 4 seats for the 2 of us on the 1.5 hour flight to Danang, destination  Hoi An on the beautiful South China Sea.
  Our hotel sends a car for the 25km drive, but we don't see anything of the lovely coastline and islands offshore. Into the lovely resort Hoi An Trails (where both friends Gerdy/Jacques and Bruce/Tamara have stayed) we're assigned a room on the 3rd floor no elevator but promised a ground floor room tomorrow! A relief as Ted's knee is not up to this.
  Next morning breakfast in the lovely tropical garden, orchids over our heads and frangipani too, and by 9am, they have moved out stuff to a beautiful end room overlooking two streams with Japanese bridges over to the nice pool. Out our side window, we see the rice paddy beyond the hotel fence, and are woken by cockerels, dogs, the neighbours behind the hotel, very rural and a herd of lovely brown cows come by one day too. Booked with our flight, our room is $70 a night, expensive for this town.
  We sleep like logs from 11pm to 8am next morning.
  

HOW CHEAP IS IT REALLY TO TRAVEL HERE?

We are seemingly doing this at a fairly high level. And meeting others doing the same too. But there are many many young people (and maybe not so young) doing all this for dollars a day.

  We have not spent over $35 for dinner and drinks yet but have been to some classy sorts of places. The other evening we were tired and decided to eat in. Our hotel had $1 night, all tapas (little plates to share, Western, Chinese, local) $1, all beers $1. Last night we went to a Japanese retaurant for sushi, they have good fish offshore Cambodia apparently. Not the greatest sushi and not COLD enough, but the beer was 50C a glass. 

  There is a place here called Pub Street, a pickup joint sort of road, one restaurant after another. I put my feet in the Dr.Fish tank for a while for $2 and the wee fish nibbled all the dry skin off my feet and lower leg. Heavenly. Ted would have hated it, a bit prickly...

  You can get rooms for a song. But we have heard stories from fellow travelers who have had some awful experiences. We get lots of little power cuts here and if your hotel doesn't have a backup generator, you have no power, no AC, no water, etc. It was off in the city here for a whole evening this week. But we are OK.

  Which is to say, you get what you pay for and I think I'm past the really cheap travel time.

  We are also not eating on the street. Out with Savuth, he showed Ted what to try, fish cakes at the village yesterday, and it was fine. But we also talked to German people here over dinner the other night who had been quite ill in hospital here, lost a week of their 6 week trip, had to move in here as their homestay lost all power while they were sick, etc. etc. 

  I am reacting badly to chili right now - blisters in and around my mouth, so I have to just stay with fairly bland food. But it's all OK, and very tasty.

  Our hotel here is $60 a night and good value, good location, hotel set up by Norwegians but 51% owned by the staff. All the things for sale are from charitable orgaizations, mostly for women and kids. They train young people for hotel industry jobs, really nice to know we are contributing to that.

BONUS DAY FOR TED, BACK TO FAVOURITE SITES

Our 3-day pass has now expired but Ted would lke to return to his favourite spot at Bayon. He hires a tuktuk to take him out there at 8:30 Friday morning and will buy a one-day pass for $20. I take a leisurely crack at the day, and discover the people I meet over breakfast - and who are in the room at the end of our hall - are from Kelowna!

  Our hotel is suddenly full of students, and maybe Peace Corps volunteers. Michelle Obama is coming to town today to talk about Girls Education and to see Siem Reap. I'm glad we won't be fighting the CIA tomorrow to get to the site if that's when she plans to visit!! Hahaha

  I go off exploring into town on my own, a nice walk along the river, get in a bit of retail therapy, buying things for ridiculous prices. Textiles is a big export here so T shirts are $2 and $3, white cotton shirts $3 or $4. I am still in the market for a white silk shirt...it's hard to bargain much.

  The food market is something else - a few more photos of chickens cut in half showing you they still have all their guts in there - they eat everything here. Fish jumping about, lovely fresh fruit and veg, and lots of cooking going on. I stop at a nice cafe down a sideroad for passionfruit drink, and wander back in time for my (free) massage that came for both of us with our booking here at the hotel.

  Ted was due back at 3pm. By 5pm I am hoping he has not fallen off a temple, but he rolls back in, grinning like a 'bilt haddie' (boiled haddock for the non-Scots). He has not only returned to his favourite spot at Bayon, but also talked his tuktuk driver to take him out to Banteay Srei that he also loved. On the way back he stopped at Angkor Wat to get the definitive photo of the temple across the lily pond in afternoon light. Oh joy! Good thing he took my big camera today. One happy tuktuk driver today...alsohe student who sold him the book on Angkor for about 3 times the price. We are doing our bit for the economy, but everyone is trying to seel you something.

  The tuktuks are not just  motor driven carriages (of which there are lot) but they are carriages pulled by a motorbike, bigger, less unfortable. There are no txies in these cities, just private hired cars and drivers, or tuktuks on the street, and indeed a fair way out of town.

LAST TOUR DAY AT ROLUOS GROUP - AND A WATER BLESSING

Our afternoon jaunt it south to the Roluos group of temples, the earliest in the area, built in the late 9th century. There is still some lovely filigree carving, and stucco that has survived over the bricks, which we are seeing for the first time. It's a special time at the Lolei teple, largely under reconstruction. This is now a holy Buddhist temple especially valued by Buddhists. 

  Savuth arranges for a monk to perform a water blessing on us all. We kneel before the lama, being careful not to point the soles of our feet towards him or Buddha. After some paper money is placed in the copper bowl in front of him, he flicks water from another bowl with a floppy brush to gently land on us, while singing an incantation for our wellbeing and good health. We all need it!

  Two older ladies sit at the side, smiling and watching our ceremony.

  Afterwards the monk ties a red cotton bracelet around each of us, first spraying it with a fragrant floral spray. We must keep this on for at least a week for the blessing to be active. Such a lovely thought! As he ties Ted's (who had great difficulty trying to kneel on that new knee!) the young monk says a few kind words in Englsh, so he is obviously somewhat proficient in our language. 

 We also visit the small temple of Preah Ko, a lovely pink faced temple,  sacred to the bull, where three very well preserved bulls keep guard.  We finally get a photo of the 3 of us to send to Bruce. And to keep for a fond memory of our time with Savuth. 

  The village has a local weaving group and pottery group where we see simple local products. Then last we visit the impressive Bakong, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, also reminiscent of Mount Meru, with 12 elephants at each corner of the 4 stage temple of brick towers and stucco again. Ted insists on climbing to the top despite the heat and we do it in stages, as the steps are also deep.

  We have certainly had full value from our $40 pass and also the additional passes for $15 to visit some of the farther sites.

BANKING WOES

No need to take much cash, just your credit card when you travel. Right, that's the theory. Ted visits the bank and finds his daily limit is dropping like a stone with the Canadian dollar. He keeps punching in smaller amounts until it spits out some US dollars, which is the currency here in Cambodia mostly. It's 4000 real to a dollar so hard doing it in that, but OK in the market and small booths.
  Since we need more than that, he returns next day to 2 bank ATMs where it is soundly refused. I try my bank card and it won't work at all! Maybe I was supposed to do something else before I left. My credit card is sure working well....
  Starting to panic, we try to find a place to make an international call to his bank without sucess. Our hotel is not set up, the local place says it's not possibe, we wondeer what's going on? Is North America cut off??
  Eventually Savuth lets us use his cell to contact CIBC. Ted is on the phone twice, trying to reason with these guys. He gives them every piece of info he can think of regarding our considerable deposit with these clowns, and is getting more and more frustrated all the time!! Eventually telling them the other signatory on the account is me and my birth date gets their attention. He sets a new password and they double his daily limit. Oh joy, we can eat again, and pay our wonderful guide!
  The probem may also have been the time lag, posting time of deposits, etc. that put them both on the same day according to the NA banking system. Who knows!!

WEDNESDAY: SUNRISE AT ANGKOR WAT

Ted's dream is coming true! Our wakeup call coems 10 minutes before we are due out but we are anticipating the 5am start ad are dressed and ready to go, flashlights in hand. It's cool and quiet in the grounds, as usual Savuth has selected a parking place that is not busy and a perfect viewing spot with only 2 people there ahead of us. We perch on the temple stones,knowing only that Angkor Wat is  out there somewhere...
  A sliver of moon stares down at us. We hear the main tourist mob on the main causeway to our left at the lotus pond, but as dawn slowly creeps up, there are few others at our temple spot. The sun comes from behind the right tower, I guess I thought I was going to see the light hit Angkor Wat, not come from behind, so it's a surprise. It is beautful no doubt about that, but my camera is struggling to cope with that sort of light.
  Our group is quiet, awed, waiting quietly until 6:30 when the full glory of the sun emerges. Entrepreneurs have been touring the site with sheets of photos of their breakfast offerings - order and pick it up at their booth over left of the lotus pond. It's a lot more commerical than I expected.
  Everywhere you go here there is a drone from all the tiny people selling trinkets and trash "one dollar, one dollar." We just have to learn to ignore it.
  It is finally time to visit the famed temple, and the sheer enormity of the building is awesome. Collonades reminscent of Roman buildings cover vast distances.A frieze around the 2nd level tells the story of Ramayana, with wonderful depictions of Monkey King, Devil God and all the other important Hindu gods.  It's deservng of its Unesco rating!
  The macaques are out in droves. They sense the stupid tourists will be a good supply of food, and they are right. They are adept at grabbing for bags with breakfast remais, they deftly unscrew waterbottle tops, and one guy is surprised when the bag they got has his cell phone in it and they proceed to throw it around and get nasty when he tries to recover it! One woman with a 12-or-so kid tries to get closeups of the monkeys and one bears its teeth and dives for his leg. they arenot the friendly little guys they seem to be, and probaby rabid into the bargain.
  By 8:30 the sun is getting hot, so we retreat to the hotel for late breakfast and some time on the internet to plan our next sojourn - Hoi An on the east Vietnam coast. We consider the Cambodian riviera at Sihanoukville but air and a fancy hotel there will set us back about $1200 for 4 days, we can give that a miss.
  Isn't Internet a marvel? We chat back and forth with Bruce in Victoria. He found Savuth for us. Now we are picking his brain about Hoi An and book to stay at the same hotel booth he and our friends the Aarts stayed at too.