Ha Long Bay/Hue/Hoi An, Vietnam

Hello all, sorry for the disappearance, I've had a hard time finding a computer to go on, and an even harder time accessing Blogger from here. We've covered a good bit of ground since my last post so we are now in the adorable port town of Hoi An and I'll backtrack to Ha Long Bay.

I had really been looking forward to our trip to Ha Long Bay based on pictures that I had seen in the past and hearing stories from other people but was totally dreading the bus ride because I was still getting over my sickness, which had left me dehydrated and weak. Once I ate a little on the boat and went upstairs to check out the bay, I felt so much better. I don't know what it was, the salty sea air, the emerald green water, or the clusters of rock islands surrounding us but my spirits were back up and I took many, many, MANY pictures of the strange rock formations. I felt like I was in one of the paintings in my parents' house (the ones that included Chinese folklore in calligraphy on the same scroll) and our boat just went for hours into the bay. We enjoyed the company of the other travelers on the boat, who had come from Germany, Scotland, Canada, Singapore, and Malaysia as we explored the limestone caves and trudged to the top of one of the islands together. I could go on about this but Ali and I were definitely sad to leave Ha Long Bay when it was time to go the next morning.

We returned to Hanoi and took a 13-hour sleeper train to Hue that took off at 7 PM. Ali and I were in a cramped 6 person bunk and we had each reserved the two top person bunks so we giggled to ourselves from our perch. Fast foward to 8 AM, we arrived in Hue, where twenty minutes into arrival at our guesthouse, we were whisked away to an all-day tour of Hue. Hue was quite a change from Hanoi in that it was quieter and smaller but not short of historical sights. Our tour took us to 3 Royal Mausoleums: the tombs of the weak but poetic emperor Tu Duc, one of the more recent emperors Khai Dinh, and the thoughtful but authoritarian Minh Mang. In my first real look at Vietnamese historical architecture, I noticed a lot of Chinese influence and imagery surrounded by gates or lakes. I really liked the dragon images wrapped around the columns and mosaic pieces on the tomb walls. We saw the once-mighty Citadel whose layers of gates surrounded their Imperial City. There was a lot of construction going on and I could only imagine what the citadel had once looked like when all 148 buildings were still intact. Then we made our way to the Thien Mu Pagoda, a seven tiered structure that once housed the monk who burned himself to death in Saigon in 1963, protesting of President Diem's repressive policies toward religion. The tour finished off with a boat ride down the Perfume River where we concluded sightseeing the lovely city of Hue.

Which takes us now to Hoi An, the most charming little town next to the Thu Bon River. I can now see why I have only heard good things about this place from other travelers. It's size and traffic makes it easy to walk around and there is a mix of sightseeing, shopping, and going to the beach. We've only been able to walk around the Old Town and along the river, but it's been nice eyeing the clothes and imagining the beach which is about 4 km away. We will be staying here another full day tomorrow so we will get to slow down our trip a little and enjoy Hoi An even more!