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.