So we said goodbye to Hanoi, The Lapis Hotel (amazing), our guide Lin and driver, Phong. They all made our stay extra special. Personally I would have liked at least one day longer to explore Hanoi on our own. We never really go to to do that as we arrived a day late. I will remember the beautiful 4km mosaic that lines one side of their highway, the old buildings that remind me of Amsterdam – tall and narrow, but with an Asian twist, the modern bridges, the patriotism and of course the traffic – but I guess we’ll see that elsewhere!
After a short flight we landed at Danang, and we were transferred to our hotel, soooooooo sorry kids that you aren’t with us – although we thought that “DD” had joined us when we met our guide for the day at the airport – young, bubbly, forever the romantic, incessant talking, not a care in the world, the youngest of 3 and her mother still did everything for her – although I didn’t ask if she texted her mother links to the Sainsbury’s (or equivalent) website to order stuff for her for when she came home! Anyway the hotel is the perfect place for a restful weekend, and with a free minibar in the room what more could we ask for!
As we landed late morning yesterday we had time to do a quick sortie to the town, nearby pottery village and tonight we went to the Water Puppet show, which was amazing. They are so skilful – and they must have been freezing in that water.
See Steven the potter can be seen here
Water Puppet Show highlights can be seen here
Those of you that have been bored by my photos previously will know I take loads of photos of weird and wonderful stuff – the posters here are all the same, and I interpret them as very patriotic, worker and power to the people – this is the first communist country I’ve been to but I guess its similar elsewhere. I’ve included a photo of some paddy fields – they are right next to the hotel, and they are everywhere in Vietnam. I’ll confirm my ignorance and say I never knew how rice grew before – told you this was an educational trip and study leave!!
Tomorrow we leave at 08:30 with a guide around the old town so there will be loads of photos after that!!!