Karst, caves, & kayaking

From the beach at Da Nang we headed up to the Imperial City of Hue and crossed the DMZ and found that Vietnam was like most countries, the North was cooler than the South......that's about it.
Before the French came and "colonized" Vietnam it had an Emperor and Hue was the capital with a "Forbidden City" modeled after China's.

Much to the surprise of most Americans,
Ho Chi Minh didn't  have horns, but he did
have a museum in just about every town.

Enjoying her smoke, while peeling potatoes.

Cool dogs guarding the Palace...unfortunately most of the Palace was destroyed
doing the French & American wars and is slowly being rebuilt and restored.
So I guess the dogs really didn't protect the Palace too well. 

The grounds were amazing and with the old structures they were stunning,
even in the rain.

A little bit of red

One of the attractions was to dress in period costume and pose among the ruins.

Riding in the rain required a poncho with a specially designed window to go over the headlight!

Color fun with food......

Colorful markets were hard to pass without a photo

We continued on north and inland to visit all the phenomenal caves Vietnam is knows for.

Striking camo clothes were de rigueur for caving.

Thankfully some of the formations were lit enough so I could take photos with my point & shoot camera.

This sky hole about 7km in was like walking into a new world

wandering through the rice paddies.....everybody was doing it

Old gates of the original village at Phong Nha...we stayed at the Farmstay (far right) more like a resort in order to visit Phong Nha National Park.

Then there were the tourists....

river boats for exploring the Phong Nha Cave along the Ho Chi Minh trail.



Inside the Phong Nha Cave....Super quiet no motors allowed

After several days in Phong Nha checking out the caves, it was time to head north to Hanoi by train. Once again a night train and once again arriving at 5 am to a big bowl of Bun Bo in a little tiny alley shop on little tiny plastic furniture.
Hanoi was amazing, beautiful city with lakes, wide streets (French colonial era) and a definitive Chinese flavor that grew stronger as we moved farther north.

Calligraphy for sale at the temple of the Jade Mountain

Everything was for sale on a bicycle

My new favorite fruit....Dragonfruit, makes awesome smoothies, plus they just look cool

Don't know about protecting my noggin, but this helmet is stylin'



sit on a park bench for too long and you'll be posing...This gal was from China and she stopped to see what was going on while we were surrounded by a tech-college group that wanted to speak American and take photos.

Finally, (even though I couldn't get enough of Hanoi) it was time to go to Hai Long Bay....After much research we found a great deal at an island resort recommended by some friends.....It involved a bus from Hanoi to Haiphong harbor, then a hi-speed hydro-foil and  through all the intense shipping and tug boat activity to Cat Ba Island, a quick taxi ride to Ben Beo harbor.......Where we jumped on the boat below for our last hour to Nam Cat Island home to Sandy Beach Resort and our base for the next 5 days of kayak exploring in Lan Ha Bay just south of Hai Long Bay.

5 dollar, 1 hour direct to Sandy Beach.....

The calm waters and incredible limestone karsts of Hai Long Bay - World Heritage Site

Evening was Jamison time @ Sandy Beach and a fresh boat full of 1 night stand tourists on the "Package Tour".
By our second night we were the local experts at the evening bon-fire.

Aquaculture (oyster farms) were everywhere and each tiny cove had it's own floating village and stashes of  oyster pots

We kayaked over beautiful designs of oyster pots
(in this case wicker baskets) .

Back to Hanoi, then Bangkok to fly home .

The best bowl of Pho we had the entire trip! What a great find for breakfast.

 The last warm sun on our feet for a while. Good bye Vietnam.I love my flip flops