South East Asia, North Vietnam

Before we leave Saigon, Emerson's friend Tri had recommended a coffee shop close to our hotel. Emerson tried it out before we left for the airport. 7:22

Emerson sat along Nguyen Hue street with his coffee and noted that all the Tet decorations had been dismanteled overnight. It was also interesting to see the street vendors setting up and making their breakfasts. The long overlay dress is worn shorter by women doing manual labor.

We head to the airport by bus and this is one of our last looks at Saigon. 8:38.

Flight map of our way from Ho Chi Minh City to Ha Noi. 12:47.

We arrive in North Vietnam and meet our tour guide, Lucas. Very young to be a trip leader, he certainly impressed us once the trip got going.

Our itinerary pg 1.

Our itinerary pg 2.

A natural Lake in downtown Hanoi just a few minutes walk from our hotel. Also known as the "Lake of the Returned Sword".

Downtown neighborhood near our hotel and the lake.

Two cars were passing each other by our table as we drink our beers. It took some careful driving for them to very slowly pass.

Street scene. 8:17

View from our hotel. 7:39

Hotel lobby 8:02

Our bus awaits. Lucas was very careful about any of us crossing the street by ourselves. We sometimes obeyed. 8:03

A typical street vendor going to work. 8:16

Hanoi achitecture 8:38

Hanoi achitecture 8:39

Lucas gives us a history of Vietnam as we head out for the day. 8:41

Lucas gives us a pronounciation lesson. 9:14

Lucas describes this red melon. 9:29

We visit a local business making bean sprouts from mung beans.

Bean sprout entrepreneur. 9:34

How to start bean sprouts. 9:48

It takes several days.

L. 10:06

And then they are finished.

The finished and delicious product.

We had a nice discussion.

Walking back to our bus we pass a small saw mill. 10:49

We visit the ancient village of Duong Lam, the first Vietnamese village to be declared a national relic. We pass several small vendors on the way to our home hosted lunch.

Fresh meat for the day.

A bit larger fruit stand. 11:27

Here's the red sticky rice that comes from the red melon we saw in the 9:29 video. 11:33

Our home hosted meal is here. 400 years old, this home has multiple generations living here. It's now owned by the government but managed by the original family.

Intro to Hostesses 11:43

Video around. 11:44

We were served tea here.

Making egg rolls.

Video of making egg rolls.

She is cooking egg rolls we just made.

The grandmother had a little stash of betel leaves she kept chewing from.

Chewing betel leaves blackens teeth permanently over time. This was a sign of beauty when this 86 year old grandmother was a young girl.

Emerson's tongue after chewing some betal nut leaves. Not legal to have in the US without a presciption (schedule 4 drug like Ambien).

Group shot. 12:53

Linda and Emerson.

Happy Birthday Nancy! 1:33pm

As we leave this ancient home, Tom is stopped by this lady so she can have her photo with one of us!

A small rice field as we walk back to our bus.

Bike going through rice paddy 2:14

Some rice fields are portioned off and sold as burial plots, a practice that is frowned upon. It's hard for the farmers to make a living off of their rice fields.

On the way back to Hanoi we saw this most nonchalant rider.

Our room. 4:08

Back in Hanoi we take an evening tour in old Russian jeeps.

First stop is to the original egg coffee store with two local guides Ling and Ming. They were great. Ming had very good English and Ling had perfect english which he said he learned from watching American TV. He is studying to be a tour guide.

Our egg coffee was quite good.

A neighborhood 6:14

We stop at a stand where Ling knows the owner who is doing the cooking in the video.

After this we go to Train Steet.

A popular destination.

Sitting along the train tracks.

Wow. So close to us. Our table had to be taken away and we pushed our knees to the side. Linda and Emerson's chairs sat a bit closer to the tracks than a lot of others that didn't back into a wall. In the evenings two trains pass within about 7 minutes of each other, we were there for both.

A bottle cap put on the track after the train has passed over it.

View from restaurant. We ate upstairs on second floor. 7:49

Dessert 8:19

View from our evening meal restaurant. 8:38

We ride back to our hotel. 8:49

Breakfast room 6:53

Ho-Chi-Minh mausoleum. We walked around his displayed body but no pictures are allowed inside. He is held in high esteem by the people mostly for having defeated the French.

The Presidential Palace. Ho Chi Minh chose not to reside here.

Pond near Ho Chi Minh's house. 10:03

Ho stayed in this house built on stilts a short distance from the Palace. This was in keeping with remaining humble and residing in a structure more similar to one in which he was brought up.

School children visiting the day we were there.

Nancy and Roni. 10:13

Lucas explains the history behind the One Pillar Pagoda. 10:33

The One Pillar Pagoda.

Ho Chi Minh museum. We did not visit. 10:44

Entrance to the museum of Ethnology. There are over 50 different ethnic groups in Vietnam.11:16

Map of museum area. 11:20

It has indoor and outdoor displays.

Cham House. 11:23

Cham House. 11:25

Viet House. 11:37

Viet House. 11:38

Viet House. 11:42

Viet House information sign. 11:42

Communal House.

Video of Emerson climping up ladder to communal house. 11:51

Inside communal house. 11:52

Nha Ede House. 11:56

....Ede House. 11:58

Ede House.

Tomb house.

Tomb House described. 12:11pm

Alison and Roni inspect Nha mo Gia-rai - tomb for a rich person. 12:12

The indoor museum had beautiful textile works.

Ethnolinquistic map of Vietnam. 12:20pm

Water puppets. 12:24pm

Our lunch stop.

Our lunch stop. Alison and Susan. 1:11

Menu. 1:16

Hoa Lo Prison used by the French for Vietnamese prisoners and then the Vietnamese to house American prisoners. It was ironically dubed by the Americans as the Hanoi Hilton. Neither the French nor Vietnamese treated their prisoners well.

The entry doors.

Prisoners depicted under the French. The same shackles were used on the Americans even though they were too small for their ankles.

The Almond Tree. 3:28

Almond Tree plaque. 3:28

MacNamara and Kissinger. 3:43

John McCain was a famous prisoner here. Some photos of when he went back to visit. 3:47

Our hotel room. 4:22

Bath room. 4:22

That evening the group went to the water puppet show. Emerson didn't attend as he continued to fight his cold. It seems like more tourists go to the show than locals.

The water puppet show.

On the way to Sa Pa we stop at this lovely Buddhist pagoda - Chua Dai An.

Four girls in white. 11:16

Inside the pagoda, Linda placed a red ornament with our family names on this blessing tree. We bought one of the ornaments for our Christmas tree. There was a monk chanting. 11:40

Last September Typhoon Yagi (Typhoon No 3 of 2024) caused a lot of damage including washing away a part of this hill. The trees on the hill are cinnamon trees.

We meet with a farmer and he tells us about the farming of cinnamon trees.

Linda W video describing the "Linda Club"! 12:09

We are treated to cinnamon tea. The corn was also very good.

Roni and one of the farmer's children. 12:44

The farmer and our trip leader, Lucas, explain how the bark of the tree is removed and then dried and cured for sale as cinnamon sticks. We all purchased some. They actually ran out but Nancy let us have one of her packages.

We continue toward Sa Pa. Sa Pa is located a mile above sea level and is known for its lush, vivid green landscapes of rice paddies, forest and waterfalls.

Our crew on the bus heading to Sa Pa. 1:28

Local boy at lunch stop playing on his device. 3:38

Menu at our stop. 3:38

We were across from the train station in Lao Cai. 3:41

The WC or better known on our trip as the Happy Room.

Tom and Roni hugging in front of restaurant. (So cute!) 3:42

After checking into our beautiful hotel, we take a tour of downtown Sa Pa. It definitely lives up to its "foggy town" nickname. The town has exploded in popularity as a tourist destination.

Walking around Sa Pa. 6:11

We shop here. We expected cool weather but a cold front had come through and it was very cold as well as damp. 6:25

Lucas located this store where we could outfit ourselves with cozy hats, gloves and scarves! The gal on the far right, Nancy, even had to buy a jacket. The prices were reasonable.

Those are roasted chestnuts in the foreground and the main ingredient in the tasty sweets you see there - yum. 6:15pm

The next day we meet our local guide May Linh (pronounced Ling). Only 33, she has quite a life story of growing up in a very traditional and repressive (for girls and women) village. She was rebellious and did not go along with an arranged marriage at 15. She was asked to leave the tribe at 18 but has managed to carve a decent life for herself. She's now married (outside her tribe) and has 2 young girls.

We meet up with women from the village of Lao Chai, a *Black H'Mong tribe and they tell us a bit about themselves. Most married very young (mid teens) and they work very hard in the home and fields. It seems the men prefer to drink a lot of whisky and don't work as much as the women. *Black refers to the predominant color of their clothing.

Linh talking with local women. The lady in the yellow hat is learning how to be a guide. 9:43am

Walking in the village. 10:17

Refreshments while Linh talks about herself. Shortly after another group of Europeans? came in and quiet rudely pushed into the area we were using. 10:46

This grandma is in her fifties and her English wasn't bad. Tourism in the past 20 years has encouraged women to learn passable English when it comes to selling their handicrafts. Linh said the women use the money for the goods they sell as extra income.

Linh shows us the plant indigo is made from. 11:22

A closer look at the indigo plant.

After rubbing the leaves the color starts to show on Linda's fingers.

More terraces in the fog. They will be repaired prior to the next planting season.

So many beautiful terraces of rice paddies. Here also a garden area with most of the agriculture work done as a community. 11:32

The government paid to have the concrete paths put in. They want to keep these hill tribes happy as they don't trust the Chinese just across the border. 11:34

Village Catholic church. 11:44

Cute kids with their mom and pets.

We learn about batik and we each take a turn at applying wax to make the design before this cloth is dyed in indigo. 12:45

Applying the wax. Feb 8 1:00

Some meat being cured over a fire at the house where we did the batik.

A loom in the same house.

Group pic at Good Morning View Restaurant where we had dinner.

The fog cleared once in the middle of the night. Judy took this picture which was clearer than one Linda took a couple of hours earlier. Emerson never looked out and saw this view from our hotel in the middle of the night.

The entrance to Linh's childhood village (Ta Van) of Red Dzao people. The Red Dzao are the 2nd largest ethnic population in Sa Pa.

A typical path through the village

Water buffalo graze on the terraces.

A small house we passed. 8:50

Along the path we pass by a house with a branch hanging down over the door. This means to stay away either because of someone is sick or maybe other reasons. 8:57

We also passed by a tree that has poison fruit. Sometimes desperate women will poison themselves. If they just want to send a message to their husband they bury a coin under the tree to say they didn't take enough to kill themselves.

Our guides childhood home compound. Feb 9 9:57

The kids have been told they will be getting some New Years treats (Tet). They sang for us and we returned the favor.

Video of the kids. 9:12am

Video of the kids 2nd one 9:20

Cute kid and mom. 9:21

Inside her parents house. She had not told her parents we were coming today and they were not home.

Linh explains her traditional wedding garmets she had to make. It consists of 7 layers. All girls in her village must do so for their marriage. It's to show the future mother-in-law the girl's skill at embroidery work.

A video of Linh discussing her wedding outfit.

Linh continues her discussion.

Full length front of wedding regalia. 9:37

Full length back of wedding regalia. 9:37

Farther back in the house is the main cooking area. 9:38

Lots of blankets needed to keep warm.

Back of house. 9:46

She has had a toilet built for her family from money made from guiding.

Her grandfather was home. 9:49

One of the few toys we saw. 9:50

The local ladies had some items to sell. 10:00

Alison bought a traditional hand embroidered cloth.

Linda purchased this traditional cloth which is about 90 years old. Though the traditional village pattern hasn't changed, the colors of such items made today are of brighter threads. Video explains the symbols of the patterns in the cloth. It's a favorite reminder of our trip.

Linda says goodby to Linh. 10:28

On the way back to Hanoi we stop at a temple by the Chinese border where you can burn fake money to help prosper in the new year.

Linda will prosper in 2025.

Across the bridge is China. Chinese buy things in Vietnam to take back to China to sell. They are rolling suitcases across the bridge... 11:36

...as seen here.

Group shot with China in background. 11:36

This young man wanted a selfie with Emerson who obliged him and then took his picture. It was not unusual for a stranger to come up and want a selfie. 11:38

Rice, corn and other crops are gown. 1:35

More rice paddies on the way back to Hanoi.

Bus back to Hanoi. There were people standing along the roadside waiting for a local bus. 1:58

A rest stop along the route back to Hanoi. 3:38

Back in Hanoi we have Banh Mi. The store usually had long lines but Lucas took our orders and being a tour guide he was able to get our order quickly and bring it back to the hotel. It was very good. Most of our group outside of Linda and Emerson had never had Banh Mi sandwiches before.

Drink with Banh Mi meal at hotel. 8:01

Back in Hanoi. Hardly any room for the driver. 8:22

On our way to Ha Long Bay. 9:58

Map of Ha Long Bay. 10:18

We stop at a cultured pearl shop. 10:31

Judy, Roni, Tom and Nancy don their life vests as we tender to our tour boat. 11:45

Our tour boat. 11:47

Drinks first. 12:16

The beautiful Karst formations. 12:21

This karst rock is on some of the currency.

Don and Linda on the boat. 12:23

Ronnie on the boat. 1:06

Alison and Susan as we shuttle to Dau Go Island. 1:14

On the Island. 1:15

A map of the cave 1:19

Heading into the cave, what will we see? 1:21

Emerson at the cave entrance, doesn't look very spectacular. 1:22

But once inside ... wow! 1:22

Some nice flowstone. 1:26

Roni and Tom 1:35

The beautiful Thien Cung cave. 1:35

Just so beautiful. 1:39.

I don't know if we have ever seen such a beautiful cave. 1:40

More of the cave. 1:42

Tom, Emerson and Don. 1:44

Linda and Don. 1:47

Linda and Emerson. 1:52

Nancy. 1:53

Tender back to boat and putting on those darn life vests again! 2:07

Judy skipped caves to relax. 2:09

Drinks up top. 2:17

Heading to rowboats. 2:31

Linda and Don and Susan and Alison enjoying their rowboat tour. 2:33

Nancy, Emerson and Linda shared a rowboat. 2:34

Don, Linda, Alison and Susan. 2:36

Linda and Emerson 2:37

Two rowboats with 8 of our OAT travelers. 2:38

Emerson and Nancy 2:49

Back onto tour boat. 2:54

On the top deck 3:00

Leaving the beautiful Karst formations 3:00

More of our last views of Karst formations 3:02

One more of Emerson's favorite rock. 3:02

Gathering on the top deck. 3:24

Almost back from our cruise. 3:27

Our boat. When we deboarded there was no one around but it had been chock full of boats and people when we headed out. We didn't have to use a tender. 3:43

The Ha Long Bay group.

The bus back to Hanoi. 5:21

Stop and go traffic getting back into Hanoi. That evening after quickly picking up our luggage at the hotel Linda and Emerson go to the airport for our 11:00 PM flight. Lucas accompainied us to make sure we got through check-in ok. Tour guides get little sleep, other travelers were leaving at something like 4AM for the airport and Lucas was going to accompnany them also.

Our route to South Korea 3:04AM

Pretty South Korean airport as we wait to take last leg of this trip. 5:54

Back to the USA 7:31PM

Our guides wrote our names in their language as our trip progressed. Thai, Loa, Cambodia and Vietnam

One of the in-flight movies was about playing cards and Emerson thought it was interesting how little the king has changed over the years.