We head for our sea cruise on Ha Long bay

Today we are leaving for Ha Long  Bay right after breakfast. We are told our big cases must be out by 7am and worse, we are to have packed into our small hand luggage all we will need for the days on the sea cruise of Ha Long Bay, the rest goes into storage for a few days. Its a bit of a rush getting everything sorted and packed then breakfast and back out on to the bus for a quite long bus trip of about 4 hours. But ofcause we are all ready .
It was a pleasant trip in the bus, Quang our tour leader told us a little of his life story and it was very interesting. He also gave us lessons on how to cross streets in Vietnam and Cambodia, one must first catch the eye of a scooter driver so he knows that your about to cross the road, then one steps boldly out into the traffic and walks at a measured pace right across the road, never stopping and more importantly, never running. The drivers of all the vehicles cars, buses and scooters will automatic work out your pace and carefully drive just in front or just behind you. It works every time, they are very considerate there are no accidents or at least none we saw.. Takes courage to do it, but we did.
He also started teaching us some Vietnamese Language, we all took to this  and were soon saying a number of things.
We drove through masses of paddy fields, rice is the major crop although there is some corn growing too. The land is flat and wet with sort of moats around the paddy fields full of water, some places had thick plastic around the patches of rice, this was to keep the rats from eating the grain!
There were many small towns along the way, and eventually we came to a regular stopover place where disabled people make and sell paintings embroidery sweets and clothing as well as big statues of Buddha and other things. We all raced in and many bought the high quality goods, we just bought some sweets to bring home for all our friends and neighbours.

When we got to the ship we had a lovely cold welcome drink and nibbles and speeches before going on board our home for the next 3 days. The ship is impressive and there was a band to drum  us on to it, very noisy but nice.

The cabins are very nice, small and compact not a lot of spare room but we all have ensuite rooms. We are soon in for a lovely lunch as we pull away  from dock and out on to the bay with all the wonderful little and some huge  mountains jutting from the ocean, most beautiful, kind of very Oriental looking in a misty sort of way. This is a World Heritage listed site and I can see why, it is so beautiful, peaceful and serene just drifting slowly around the mountains in tranquillity.

Hanoi another day.

We had to be up breakfasted and ready to go by 8.30 am and we all were! Today we go to the mausoleum, it is set in a huge open area with all the roads blocked off so everyone has to walk in and around. The Mausoleum is set up quite high with lots of steps each one seems to be guarded by an armed policeman. Up we went and into an ice chamber, it really was like walking into a deep freeze, on and on we walked passing armed guards all the way until we came to the big chamber in the middle and there to our amazement was Ho Chi Minh lying in state in his open coffin! We were not to talk or stop but there were gasps and I did stop only to be moved right along by the guard. Who would have though we would be seeing a long dead body lying in all its majesty. Then I thought I am sure Ho Chi Minh was cremated but maybe I am wrong. Seems not as when we got outside in the hot sunshine our Guide Quang told us Uncle Ho's lifestory in infinite detail and finally said he had been cremated and the 'body' was a wax work dummy.

We were then taken along a lovely garden path beside a stream to the little house on stilts that Ho Chi Minh lived towards the last and in fact he died there in the simple little house like he had grown up in, it is still in exactly the same state as when he left it.

We also saw the empty Presidential Palace within the same complex, it is only used for visiting dignitaries now. A big impressive building.

We then were taken to an ancient Temple of literature, a sort of university of the old times where rich and special people were trained and enlightened..This a statue of the great teacher.













 There were lovely gardens all around it and a bride was having her photos taken there.

By now it was lunchtime so we were hurried back to the Hotel for a very nice lunch.  Next thing we are called out to go for a lovely Rickshaw ride around the narrow streets of old Hanoi. This was just lovely, having a little man bike pedal you around felt pretty good even if he was darn dangerous the way he  took very little notice of traffic just biked where he wanted to go, others went around us, once a large bus very nearly took us out, but he somehow manoeuvred around.safely.
We were taken past a big lake and also past many monuments, I was intrigued by the power lines all bunched up, a real dangerous mess.

The rickshaws took all 46 of us in style to a special Water Puppet show. Something I had never seen or heard of, the puppeteers all work from behind a curtain with their puppets on long poles, with these they told many stories while a noisy drummer and other musicians and a screaming type singer took the tale .... Vietnamese of cause so it was kind of lost on us, even though we are all trying to learn a few words of the language so as to talk a bit with locals.

After the puppet show it was back the Hotel to dress for dinner, We all went out to a big flash restaurant for a wonderful meal again with Dorothy and Winnifred, pictured is one of the  lovely 5 courses, Fish wrapped in banana leaves, really lovely., 

after which we all wandered back to Hotel for well deserved snooze.

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The longest day slowly comes to an end.

The end of the longest first day.

The day was not as yet finished, after the bus dropped us off at the Sofitel Hotel we had over an hour before gong out to dinner. Erle and I decided we just had t have a quick swim in the huge pool as we were so very hot and sweaty and just worn out as it had been an extremely long day with fancy welcome dinner still to come. We all chose to go to the local Cooking School for dinner, where young chefs and waiters all learn their trades. The food was just lovely all beautifully decorated and served perfectly, we dined with Dorothy and Winnifred the 2 nice Kiwi ladies and very much

 enjoyed our evening out. The most unusual of the food served was Crispy Rice coated Chicken, it was lovely and the Coconut and prawn soup served in a coconut shell was also divine. We were supposed to be getting to know our fellow travellers but really all we got to know were each other!

After dinner we all walked back to our Hotel braving the busy streets full of traffic, and collapsed into our beds for a good nights sleep.

Good Morning Vietnam!

Good morning Vietnam  (in the words of the late great Robin Williams.
We have arrived in Hanoi and are quickly whisked off to our very nice Hotel where we have about half an hour to unpack, freshen up, have a bite to eat and get back down ready to go bike riding or any of the other 5 options for the afternoon. Not a lot of spare time to adjust to the heat and humidity, the very thought of heading off for an hours bike ride in the country had very little appeal but we were ready! However the very nice tour guide Quang took one look at us and suggested we didn't bike but instead went on a lovely visit to a Pottery factory. Good suggestion Quang, we were only mildly disappointed. 
While we waited for the bus to take us to the pottery place Erle and I dashed out along the street to have a look around, we discovered the Hanoi Opera House, a very impressive building across the road and all the masses of scooters on the road, even spotted a rickshaw!

The foot paths were littered with hundreds of scooters, apparently the footpath is the scooter park!

The Bus took us to the Pottery factory some distance away where we found a squirrel in a cage running madly all around his house, so fast I couldn't catch a good photo of him, then in we went to the factory where there was no air conditioning just a couple of fans moving the stifling heat around. The workers mainly sat on the ground or on tiny wee 6 inch high seats, wearing masks against the clay dust, all doing delicate hand work, there was hardly any machinery but the pottery was very well made.

 The people had to make hundreds of the same item over and over again. Teapots, cups, plates vases and religious icons etc There was a big market nearby selling all of these items.

A nice Guava selling lady  gave Erle a green guava to try, we took it home and peeled it to taste it but were not very keen on the flavour.

Off on our big tour, first stop Singapore

We are off on our tour, it started early on Monday morning taking Porsche our dear little Burmese cat to the cattery in Blenheim, then we came back to Picton caught the Ferry to Wellington and in time the flight to Auckland and then at midnight caught the plane to Singapore a full 10 hour flight which fortunately we did grab a little sleep. We were only in transit for a few hours then back on the plane to Hanoi in Vietnam. Took these photos in Singapore. the airport is so beautiful just full of flowers, mainly beautiful Orchids.

As we went through Auckland Airport we looked around to see if anyone else was carrying APT backpacks that we have all been given for going on this tour. We quickly spotted 2 ladies and made ourselves known to Dorothy and Winnifred and I could tell we would get on well they both had a nice
 twinkle

 in their eyes... fun people, we travelled together from then on.. And in Auckland we also found 2 men also in the team. Singapore was only a transit stop and soon we were on our way to Hanoi Vietnam.

Our next big holiday.

Only one week to go before we leave on our cruises of Vietnam and Cambodia. Can't wait! 

One of the ships we will be cruising upon.

Avonside Drive in Christchurch.

This is part of the area we drove around in Christchurch, Avonside Drive, so many homes have just vanished leaving vast empty spaces. This just one of the many areas that have been ruined by the earthquake, some never to be built on again ever as the land is too unstable now.

Thanks to the Press Newspaper for the photo.