The best time to visit happens to be now, in March and April, and also September to November. That way you avoid monsoon season.
Top things to see are Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, dragon-shaped mountains, and blue to green waters in Halong Bay. There are miles and miles of terraced rice fields and traditional homes. Last year we had the chance to tour Hue, Hoi An, and Da Nang on a two day stop there. Very different from the coastal cities, we saw more of the old way of living there.
Things to do are eat pho noodle soup….bring it on. Or have tailors make shirts, dresses, or suits in Hoi An. You can take boat tours in the Mekong Delta to see how the river people live. What's to eat? Number one – noodles, steamed rice rolls with minced pork, or summer spring rolls. It is all supposedly better and cheaper than anywhere else abroad. Want a special drink? Try their draft beer…..don't mind if we do. It is cold and cheap, we understand.
Trademarks are conical hats - you will see all of the women, young and old, wearing them. Also they wear beautiful clothing of traditional silk-like long sleeve jackets with long tails and loose-fitting long slacks to match. They look way better on the local girls, since they are so slender. You will never see so many scooters and traffic gridlocks as here. Everyone has one….that is, scooters.
A random fact is Hanoi turned 1000 years old in 2010.
Ship excursions run from $70 to $80 for 4 to 4 ¾ hours. They include city highlights, a cooking tour, shopping, and rickshaw rides. Or you can take advantage of the free shuttle which will go to the center of town, more or less. The bad news is that all aboard will be 1:30pm, not much time to explore no matter how you do it.
So today was a perfect one to continue catching up once again. And take a walk. It was disturbing to see so much bits and pieces of garbage floating by the ship. We are many miles off shore, so it must drift a heck of a long way to be out here. It was not uncommon to see paper, plastic, bottles, and pure rubbish drifting by. After we got our morning walk done, we came inside to continue working on the computer. Seems to never be enough time to keep the research going. Before we realized it, lunchtime had arrived. So off we went to the dining room to meet Barb hopefully.
We forgot today was Sunday and brunch day in the dining room. It began at 11am, but our table was still waiting for us at 12:30pm. Barb joined us, happy that her trivia team had come in first today. With a group that large playing the morning game, we are most proud of her grasp of so much trivial facts. If you get a group of six that all know a little something about everything, then you have a better chance of scoring big. That is her team.
Lunch was good with my favorite dish and Barb's too…meatballs and spaghetti, topped with lots of shredded parmesan cheese. Bill had a small salad and the beer butt chicken, mostly to find out what it was. We figured it was the whole chicken cooked upside down over a can of beer. Yes, it was, and it was delicious he said.
While we were away overland, Barb had asked Endrien, our head waiter, if he would save us a cluster of ti plants in a vase, that was used as decorations at the Mariner Party we had missed. So he saved one, took care of it, and presented to us after dinner last night. It is a nice addition to our window garden, and we thanked him and Barb for being so thoughtful.
While we were in Hong Kong, we were handed a pamphlet on vector-borne diseases common to this area. Japanese encephalitis, malaria, dengue fever, spotted fever, and scrub typhus are the main diseases people easily get here. They are all transferred by insects like mites, ticks, and mostly mosquitoes. It advises you to be careful while outdoors when hiking in vegetated areas, around pets, or recreational and outdoor workplaces. They give further advice to wear loose clothing, good shoes, and long pants. Using deet insect spray is a must, and vaccinating at least 6 weeks prior to traveling is a good idea. The suggested things to do are shots or anti-malarial drugs. Since we are not going into these areas on safaris this year, we don't have to worry too much.
The afternoon was spent listening to the band in the Ocean Bar, while visiting with friends. Later in the afternoon, we took a walk to watch the sun go down. It was a most unusual sun set with mostly cloudy skies, but also a pink haze that casted the same shade on the silky waters. The ship was moving so slowly, that we were leaving ribbons of inky water in the wake. We enjoyed this sight while chatting with our British buddies about all of our experiences in this part of the world. You can always learn some interesting things from each other, especially about awareness and safety while in the upcoming ports. They had some hair-razing stories about tuk-tuks and taxi rides. The sun had set and it was almost time for dinner for all of us.
There were two difficult choices to make for dinner tonight. On the menu were prime rib and ginger pork, among other items equally as good. Since we can get prime rib more often, we chose the pork entrée. Glad we did, it was most delicious. Left a bit of room for carrot cake with a delicate cream cheese frosting. Martha has been missing two nights now, so we hope she has not come down with the cold that has been traveling around the passengers. Martin seems to have contracted it as well. We teased him that he has been hanging out with Martha too much. Got a laugh out of him, as he denied it. Hard to avoid colds with a full ship.
The show this evening was a quite unique one. A fellow by the name of David Meyer played a xylophone with a twist. It was connected to a laser light that performed a light show with his music. Pretty cool with great music.
Tomorrow……Nha Trang, Vietnam.
Bill & Mary Ann
A Vietnam Sunset to enjoy…………
