Travelling day

We’ve had a long day of travel to start our trip.
Up early to drive to Brisbane, stopping at Gympie, to see Courtney, Keiran and the kids, then on to Brisbane to visit Mum and have tea cake and aもっと詳しく
Saigon.

Our plane landed at 5 this morning so after immigration we met our ride and made our way into the Hotel. Of course it was too early to check in so we left our bags and found our first Vietnameseもっと詳しく
DIY food tour of Saigon.

We don’t have anything planned for today, so a bit of a slow start this morning and then coffee and breakfast just down the street.
We found a nice coffee shop and we looked over the busiestもっと詳しく
Off to the Delta

After a quick pack up and another bowl of pho for breakfast, our ride arrives for The Mekong Delta.
It’s a two and a half hour trip down to the delta, lots of interesting things to see on the way.もっと詳しく
Morning market

This morning we are off to the local market to buy some ingredients for our cooking class.
We’re taking the bikes there, it’s not too far about three kilometres down the road. There are heaps ofもっと詳しく
Cooking class.

Back at the Homestay and the staff are busy getting all the ingredients chopped up for our cooking class.
We are making Vietnamese pancake, like a crispy crepe filled with pork, prawns and vegesもっと詳しく
Boat ride around the delta.

We didn’t have anything booked this afternoon. So after our cooking class we asked reception if they could organise a boat trip for us.
We had a lovely older man driving the boat, he didn’t haveもっと詳しく
Floating Market

Early call at 5.30 to go to the floating markets. They are the oldest and biggest floating markets in Vietnam.
It was different when the river was the only form of transport but now cars and trucksもっと詳しく
Rice noodles.

After the floating markets we went to visit a family who make rice noodles. They make all the noodles by hand first thing in the morning when it is still cool and then dry them in the sun for a fewもっと詳しく
Up to Hanoi

This afternoon we flew up to Hanoi for the next part of our journey. Vietnam airlines are so good, on time, nice seats, a drink and a snack, even got the spare seat again.
So glad we downloaded theもっと詳しく
Hanoi Old Quarter.

We are up early this morning , thought we’d beat the heat and the crowds and walk around the lake. The heat wasn’t too bad, but the crowds were already there. Vietnamese people get up early toもっと詳しく
Train Street

Lan Ha Bay

We’re getting picked up this morning for an overnight Lan Ha Bay cruise. We picked Lan Ha because it is supposed to be much less busy than Halong Bay. It’s just the next bay over so I’m assumingもっと詳しく
Day 2 Lan Ha Bay Cruise

The next day up early for a fabulous sunrise and Taichi. Then breakfast and off to see the Dark and Light Cave. We got a special treat and saw the endangered monkeys at the cave entrance. A familyもっと詳しく
Mua Cave View Point.

We’ve just arrived in Ninh Binh. We’re staying about 10 kms outside the city in a nice little rural area. I thought Ninh Binh would be a little country town but no, it’s a decent size city soもっと詳しく
Trang An

This morning we are going on a boat ride on Thang An. There are so many boat rides to do here. I’m sure they are all good, just have to pick one and Thang an is just down the road from us.
It’sもっと詳しく
Afternoon adventures.

We left the boat ride after a recoup in the aircon cafe and decided to go see the floating village, it was about 19 kms away so took a bit to get there and then it was a bit of a wild goose chase. Iもっと詳しく
Pu Luong

We are picked up early for our trip down to Pu Luong this morning. After a couple of stops to get a few more passengers we head off.
It’s about a two and a half hour trip going west from Ninh Binhもっと詳しく
Village Visit.

Our guide picked us up about 2 for a walking visit to a couple of the local villages. We are half way up the mountain and the villages are down in the valley. It’s an incredibly steep road down toもっと詳しく
Pu Luong with Easy Rider

Today we are doing a tour of Pu Luong with a couple of easy rider bikes. They picked us up at 9 and we set off for some panoramic views over the rice fields. Wow there are so many rice fields, up onもっと詳しく
Last walk in Pu Luong

This morning we have one more walk with Lee who up until now I’ve been calling Tim. A car picked us up and we drove down the mountain for 20 minutes or so. Walked across a bridge and rice field to aもっと詳しく
Back to Hanoi

We came back to Hanoi on the Limousine Bus, had the craziest driver this time, honked continuously, passed everything in sight, even when it was pouring rain and the water was a foot deep, butもっと詳しく
Hanoi Old Quarter

We’ve spent the last two days in Hanoi just wandering the streets of the Old Quarter, checking out coffee shops and restaurants we happened upon. Doing a bit of retail therapy and generally enjoyingもっと詳しく
Temples and Pogadas.

We thought we should see some more Vietnamese culture so we set off to find Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest and holiest Buddhist pagoda in Hanoi. The traffic was a bit hectic getting over there and I’dもっと詳しく