Off to Hue

After dragging our children out of bed at 5:30 am (no easy feat, but once up, they were total troopers) on March 4th -- Bay's birthday -- we managed to get ourselves ready for our 6am taxi to the Hanoi airport. It was pouring rain outside, and cold, so the prospect of heading south to warmer weather was sure feeling appealing as our taxi driver honked his way through traffic all the way to the airport.

After an absolutely uneventful and quick flight, we stepped off the plane into a very comfortable and humid warmth -- a warmth that has come to feel usual for us since our stint in Thailand. Aaah, off came most of the layers, except for our newly acquired travel armour needed for negotiating with the waiting taxi drivers outside the airport, all ready to pounce, equally armed with ridiculous fares. Lots of haggling later, we made it to the train station via taxi. Just the day before our arrival to Da Nang, we had decided that it would be better to check out Hue at the beginning of our time south instead of just heading to Hoi An -- we didn't think we'd have time otherwise, and we really want to see as much as we can while we are here.

Luckily the next 'express' train to Hue was only a few hours away and it gave us time to go grab a bite to eat since we hadn't had time to eat anything of any substance yet. The eatery we chose was like a big open warehouse room with plastic tables and chairs all set up. We noticed the locals were ordering from large menus, but when we sat down, we were handed a small tidy menu with limited options written in Vietnamese and English with what seemed like quite elevated prices -- oh well, we decided to order a few things anyway since we were all starving. We thought that we would also try to sneak a peak at one of the larger menus -- we were certain that we were give the foreigner price menu. When I saw a menu alone on a table I quickly skirted over and had a look -- of course it was ALL in Vietnamese, but prices certainly looked a lot less -- I only really managed to look at one page because the waitress rushed over and removed the menu from my hands! I think that says everything! Once we were back at the train station and had a chance to look at our train tickets, we saw that the section under "Category" said, "Foreigner" so we guessed that we had probably also paid a different price for them as well -- as we said in an earlier post, we are just big dollar signs here and at times it can get to us, and other times we just go along with it, smile, and say, "Oh well."

For comfort we got First Class seats (which means soft seats and air conditioning), but you would never guess they were First Class when we looked at them with Canadian eyes. Kai's jaw nearly dropped to the floor when he asked if these were really First Class seats and the answer was, "Yes!" The seats were shabby and torn, the windows were dirty and the bathrooms were an adventure in themselves -- all adding to Kai & Pippin's education here! That said, I thought it was all pretty comfortable.

Here is Ronato and Kai modeling the often-consulted Lonely Planet, while sitting in their First Class seats.
The train trip to Hue was absolutely beautiful -- the track tightly hugs the side of a mountain leading right down into the South China Sea, going through tunnel after tunnel where the mountain is too steep to go around. Looking out of the train at the steep terrain, and at the lush and often jungly foliage, definitely made Ronato and I think about Vietnam's past and all of the events that have transpired here. In a weird way, we have come to realize that in some ways our personal paths are inextricably linked to this place. Were it not for the Vietnam war and the horrible politics surrounding it in the United States, maybe my parents would not have moved to Canada. It makes it meaningful in a new way to be here, and to see what this place is about, to get a deeper sense of the history here and to see where it is now. It is hard not to think about the past here and to not be affected by it at some level.




Riding the train was another way for us to experience Vietnam and it's people -- aside from another couple, we were the only foreigners in our part of the train. Right across the aisle from us were two elegant older women, they looked like sisters, and they kept looking at Kai and Pippin and smiling and nodding. Then at some point in the trip, the elderly woman above came and started talking to us in Vietnamese with a wonderful big smile on her face. We guessed she was asking their names and their ages so we tried to tell her (our Vietnamese is absolutely hopeless -- we have barely mastered "thank you," it is so foreign to our tongues!) and there was lots of smiling and nodding. When we got off the train at Hue, they gave us big smiles and firm, friendly handshakes -- it was the beginning of our welcome to Hue, which we have since discovered is an extremely friendly place.








A view of rice paddies from the train.






This picture shows the view from the balcony of our hotel room in Hue. Our room was very nice -- two double beds (not what we are used to usually,) it was immaculate, there was a movie channel and we were able to have hot showers! Pretty nice for $25US/night, and that included a good breakfast!

The back view out of our room -- in the foreground is a school. Every time we looked out at the school, kids were running around the courtyard, along the outside halls/passageways, and in and out of the classrooms -- maybe they have staggered breaks or maybe it is just wild in the schools here?! Early in the morning, something like 6:45 am, songs started playing (kind of sounds like Vietnamese children's songs, and luckily the female voice is quite beautiful) we thought it was to start calling the kids to school, we were not sure. A little early for a wake up call, but it was all part of the experience.

For our only full day in Hue, we decided to go ahead and hire two cyclo drivers for a tour around the old part of the town. Along the way, they showed us one of the canals where people live on their boats -- here you can see the larger "dragon boats" (what they call them) that are used for touring people around the rivers and canals to see the various temples and other sights, and the smaller boats are where whole families live -- families with 5 - 9 people live on these small little boats and their boats are their livelihoods, too. Most families head out early, at about 3am, to go fishing so that they can then come back to sell their catch to the various vendors in the market before it opens.


Our two cyclo drivers appeared to be a little older, one of them was 74 years old (and he liked to let this be known) and told us he had served in the last two wars. This fellow had a lot to say about the "American bombs" (I put this in quotes because that is what he called them) and the damage that they caused to Hue, especially to the old Citadel area. You can see the front entrance to the Imperial City part of the Citadel, above. On the tour, our drivers slowly circled around the old walled city -- allowing us to see the parts that had been so badly damaged and then around to the front some of which is still intact. Hue is now a listed World Heritage Site. The drivers took some time to stop at the back where you can still see most of the damage, and it is like there is still this unbelievable unseen pain there. When we got to this site, this intense and overwhelming sense of sadness and loss swept over us, and it wasn't like the sight of the ruins was particularly sad, but somehow it provided a stark reminder of what has happened there. The history of Hue is particularly horrific -- first the Ho Chi Minh forces came in/seized the town and eradicated (I won't go into details, but it is grim) a number of the intelligentsia and scholars, monks, and wealthy merchants who they felt were collaborators with the South, and then the Americans/Southern contingent worked to regain the area and bombed the place like crazy to take it back. It took 3 weeks for the Americans to retake Hue and tens of thousands of people were killed in the process, of course most were civilians. When we were talking to our cyclo driver, we asked if he had been fighting there and he said, "No, just about everyone who was here died." It was difficult to say much after that, but we moved on to the newer and/or untouched parts and just tried to let go of the past.


Finally a whole-family picture! Here we are at the front gate of the Imperial City in Hue.

Another view from inside the Imperial City. This is pretty much where the last dynasty in Vietnam was housed. The last emperor here abdicated his throne and handed over power to the ruling party in 1945. The Imperial City housed within the Citadel was a completely intact and working city up until this time. When you are inside, and after watching this really amazing computer generated reconstruction of the city and reenactment of some of the palace activities, you really get a sense of what it must have been like before it was destroyed.Vietnam is so incredibly picturesque -- you see things that you think you would only see in a National Geographic magazine from years ago. It is great to see so much that still speaks about the past over here. This is truly an amazing and beautiful place.

Until our next post . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin

Creative Transport

While I wait for Skye to do the next entry on Hue (a little like watching paint dry), I thought I would do a quick one with images sporting all the creative transportation that happens here very day. One can spend many hours watching all the crazy wheels in motion with astounding weight in transit.

The mix of old and new is one thing I love about Vietnam. One really still can see the world of years gone by and the modern interspersed. In many ways it looks like the Thailand I saw 20 years ago. I like seeing the traditional clothes and all the amazing ways people transport their wares to market everyday. It is really prominent if one wakes up early in the morning and watches the city come alive.

What sticks out more than anything is how hard people work everyday to move their wares to market. I even saw a women this morning on a bicycle laden with huge quantities of song birds in cages. It was quite the sight. Sadly I missed the photo since I was so blown away by the spectacle.
Here are some shots to take in:










































































































I threw in the one of Pippin and Skye since transporting the tourists is a very profitable occupation here. Our cyclo rider today was 74 years of age and he merrily biked Kai and I all over the city. He was a war veteran from both the French and the American war. He told us a lot about how Hue was the site of a three week house to house battle between the VC and the Americans which resulted in many deaths and lots of suffering. He was very proud of his time spent fighting the invading forces.
Until next time...

More Hanoi and then Danang to Hue

Well it may seem crazy but we are going to do a third post that is devoted to the wild city of Hanoi -- this one will take us through the last few days in Hanoi. We actually made a journey down to Central Vietnam early this morning by going back to the Hanoi airport and then heading 900 kms south to Danang (infamous for it's involvement in Vietnam war years). Then we came from Danang on a very scenic 4 hour train ride to Hue which is an old Imperial fortified city. We will pick up on the train journey in our next entry.

First though, let's finish our Hanoi tales. The whole experience was a huge mixed bag. On the one hand, the place is fantastic in a very romantic, dilapidated kind of a way, with beautiful dingy alleyways and crazy streets to explore in every direction. On the other hand it is a very over-whelming and tiring place in that it gives one serious stimulus overload. Every resident in Hanoi seems to sit on their horn 24-7 with the net result being that it is a huge cacophony of sound blasting into your ears all the time -- and it is indicating that you are within a milli-second of being flattened by some kind of vehicle (barrelling towards you at break neck speed.) Add to that, the fact that we have our children who are used to living "behind the tweed curtain" in South Oak Bay -- it can all be a little stressful.

Of course I say it with a bit of a pinch of salt because I do fundamentally know how good it is for all of us to leave the comforts and relative dullness of our home in Victoria. In fact, today we hit the jackpot with Kai -- after another crazy, intense Vietnamese market (harassed by 10 people at any given time, all trying to take you for at least quadruple what you are worth) when he turned to me and said, " Wow, I am so lucky I was not born here!" It cost a few thousand dollars for him to reach (to experience) the realization that he is incredibly lucky -- but, let me tell you, it was worth every penny! He is so compassionate for all the people here and wants to constantly help people out who are clearly struggling to survive. This is an experience our children will never forget. Life is hard in Vietnam, and it is very evident by how industrious people have to be to eek out a living. It also explains, at some level, why people are quite hardened here. At times it can be hard as a traveller, but one needs to keep it in context.

One of the things that can happen in terms of one's interaction style with the locals, is that one gets hassled and hassled with one sales pitch after the next, and then after a while it is easy to start getting quite rude to hold off the seemingly endless droves of requests (which can sometimes begin to seem somewhat rude themselves.) I had to catch myself a few times today in this mode, realizing that the person I was starting to vent on was not the real source of my frustration -- it was the 100 people leading up to them. The moral of the tale is that one needs to keep one's sense of humour and . . . like I said before: put the whole thing in context. People have to work extremely hard here to make a living. We "fat cat" tourists have dollar signs all over us. Who can blame them.

The first two images that I have included in this blog show what can be so appealing about Hanoi. The many artsy cafes (Kai is seen here sitting below one of the paintings in one of those many interesting places). The many lovely stores (Skye is busy showing off one of the many lovely art stores that adorn every corner of the old quarter.) The art tends to show tons of talent, but much of it tends to be reproductions of original art. Not sure why those same artists don't just make their own original art - they could make a killing.

This next image was taken yesterday when we went on a "Cyclo" ride through the city to the Temple of Literature (the oldest temple complex in Hanoi dating back almost 1000 years.) Our cyclo rider was a very friendly man who smiled all the time -- that was once we had gone through the very tiring and aggressive process of jostling for a reasonable price for the ride. Negotiating the traffic in one of these is a heart-thumping experience, especially because the passengers are on the front end facing all the oncoming traffic.

Here are Kai and Skye looking remarkably relaxed given the nature of the ride. Note the warm clothing -- we forgot to mention in previous posts that it has been quite cool in Hanoi and very rainy. This was a real shock to the system after all those weeks of warm weather in Thailand.

Here is Skye modelling one of the beautiful structures leading into the temple complex. It was a magical place filled with a sense that it had been around for a really long time. The kids enjoyed taking in all the age worn stone, the ancient inscriptions and the amazing Bonsai trees.

While we were at the temple, a huge group of school kids came through the place. They were very curious about Kai and Pippin which created a lovely dynamic. Of course children are always so spontaneous and they were quick to visit and chat with us . . . as opposed to trying to make a sell. It was a good change.

Pippin, in particular, gets lots of verbal attention, constant hugs, and even cheek pinching. She generally plays along but at times it can get a little overwhelming for her. Here is a picture showing a group of women sweeping Pippin up with lots of laughter and playfulness.


I am realizing that if I am not careful this is going to be another super long blog. After the visit to the Temple of Literature we trekked across town for what seemed like quite a few kilometers and went to a Water Puppet Theatre show. Vietnam is well known for this kind of theatre. It turned out to be an experience both kids loved. The theatre itself involved traditional Vietnamese instrumentation (music and singing) with water puppets depicting various central themes in Vietnamese folklore. It was a great cultural afternoon! I am including a picture of the type of puppets used in the show.


That pretty much wraps up our Hanoi experience for now. We will be returning again twice and I am personally looking forward to it despite the work that is sometimes involved. Keep looking on because we will have another installment very soon to share the journey down to Hue via Danang.

Until next time . . .

Ronato, Skye, Kai & Pippin

. . . A Little Like the Wild West

Whoah! If ever there was a place to start feeling some culture shock, it is in Hanoi! I have to admit, as cool and chic and fabulously different as it is, the difference and lack of ease hit me (Skye) rather hard, at first. For the first day or so, I felt very far from home and far away from friends and family -- I even ended up getting a bit sad/down the fist night and there were a few tears (my female friends/family members can relate, I'm sure) -- a first for this trip. Now that a few days have passed, I am finding my feet and really starting to enjoy Hanoi. Ronato and the kids, for the most part, have embraced this amazing change of place and pace from the very beginning -- Ronato is truly in his element, stopping at every opportunity to soak up the essence of this place and to take amazing picture after amazing picture. Pippin and Kai have been amazingly patient with our extended wanderings and weavings, and seem to have both acquired the same love for antiques that Ronato has, stopping in as many old trinket shops as possible, each of them intently pouring over the old jade and wood carvings and furniture, both wondering what they can afford to buy.

To get around Hanoi, it feels like you have to be constantly on your toes here, especially with children in tow. You have to be checking in all directions all of the time for traffic when attempting to cross the street, and then you just have to steel yourself and wade through all the scooters, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, and cyclos, constantly stopping and starting -- basically, taking baby pigeon steps all the way across the street with all these scooters and other sorts of vehicles just weaving around you -- all the while, holding on tightly to either Kai or Pippin's hand, hoping we get across without any major injuries. Then when you get across safely and you think you have a moment to take a breath, you are then accosted by people trying to hang a pole with baskets full of fruit on either side (like the picture on our most recent blog entry) on your shoulders, telling you to take a picture, and then insisting you buy some fruit "very cheap." Or you are accosted by any number of people pushing (selling) hats, lighters, wallets, hammocks (this was the thing today -- at least 20 different people approached us on a short walk -- no joke, all basically selling the same thing!) Or, a shoe shine fellow will come up and say, "Ooh la la, you shoes are very dirty . . . want a nice shine? Very cheap!" When you say, "No thank you," he keeps walking along with you, really trying to tell you that your shoes look awful and really need a shine (not really what I want to hear, especially when I'm already feeling a little less than fashionable in my travel khakis, windbreaker, runners) -- the reality is that they are indeed dirty, but how do you give running shoes a "shoe shine?" That said, there is a lot of humour in all of this, all it takes are lots of smiles and hand waves indicating "no, thanks" and off we go to continue on our wandering walks.

Today we managed to have a really good stroll around the old quarter and we saw quite a few neat things -- from old temples (one was the first one in Hanoi), to different guild neighborhoods, to markets. On our walk we saw some great sights:

As I think we've mentioned before, Hanoi is this interesting mix of the modern and the chic and the old world -- where one minute you see women dressed to the nines, wearing 4 inch heels and candy-apple red helmets riding along on their scooters, and the next minute you see a scene as you see above here. Women from older generations also dress up, but in a much more traditional sense.

This is one of the markets we walked through today where everything from water spinach (they call it morning glory, but it is different to ours) to noodles, to fresh raw meat, to frogs, to carp, to rice noodles in large pillow-sized bundles are sold. The kids weren't too sure about the frogs being sold . . .

Beautiful old doors and carved wooden panels abound here -- oh, to be able to cart some of this home!

Yesterday and today we have also been trying to arrange our exit out of Hanoi. We were trying to first head up to Sapa -- a mountainous region (sometimes called the Tonkinese Alps and just near the border with China) where the Hmong people live -- it is supposed to be very beautiful, and a chance to see people out doing their thing in a more traditional way. Ronato waded out deeper into the city and into even busier streets to get to the train station. He came back saying, "Whoah, it is like the wild west out there!" AND he came back empty handed because it turns out that all of the sleeper seats are booked for days and days -- it takes 10 hours to travel just over 300km, so it is really the only option that makes any sense for getting there, hard wooden seats all night is NOT an option! So we have had to rejig our plans a little -- now we are heading south first, to a place called Hoi An, which is in the Da Nang province somewhere around 900km away. Hoi An is the tailor/clothes capital of Viet Nam apparently, but it is also a very beautiful old city (it is a World Heritage Site) with lots to see and do in the area.


Before we came here, we were told how easy it is to travel around Viet Nam, we are finding it a little more work than we anticipated, but hey . . . that is part of the travel experience, isn't it?! There are at least 2 travel/tour agents per block here so it should be easy, right? The reality is that prices and modes of transport vary widely from agent to agent -- everyone is trying to get their cut -- and so, we thought we would do a little research ourselves first before checking out an agent about heading to Hoi An. I spent several hours on the internet searching out cheap flight options, chatting to our hotel operator about train costs, how long it would take to get there if we took the train/bus, etc., and then once we had some ballpark figures, we walked into the first agent we saw. In the end they couldn't match the price I finally found on the internet (a site we got thanks to our new friends Martin and Caroline's blog -- thanks guys!), so back to the computer we went so we could go through the rigamorole of trying to get a flight booked online -- after another hour on the computer, we had our flight confirmation number, yay! We are now ready to fly to Da Nang city early Wednesday morning! As it turns out, our return plane tickets are only a few dollars more than the train which takes many, many hours longer. Pippin was a little disappointed about yet another plane journey; she really wants to go on a train (almost the only form of transport we haven't tried yet,) but we have told her it will happen -- I guess we keep setting her up for it, and then it doesn't happen! We will still do the train to Sapa, but later on -- in fact, as I write this, Ronato is again wading through crazy traffic to get to the train station in another attempt at booking the sleeper tickets to Sapa!

I'll leave you with this lovely picture of Kai and one of his favourite Bonsaii's he's seen so far. Bonsaii's abound here, often with a water garden of sorts surrounding the roots, along with some colourful Koi fish -- sooo beautiful!

Until next time . . . .

Skye, Ronato, Kai & Pippin

Holy Smokes - we are in Hanoi!

Since our arrival this morning in Hanoi we have repeatedly kept say "Wow!". This is everything and, at the same time, nothing like we expected. We knew that it was an old city (1000 years or more) and we also knew that the North was distinctively different from the South due to Vietnam's tumultuous history. What we were not prepared for was how sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing this city would be. It has a real old world charm with a very romantic feeling, much like one would think of old Shanghai. The city is crammed with old French colonial buildings, the streets are narrow and filled with tons of interesting activities, and most of the traffic is two-wheeled. The people seem very different from Thai people - but it is hard to pin down what it is. For one thing, they seem more curious about Westerners, and yet at the same time, they are very sophisticated in trying to get one to buy their wares. They are not so much aggressive as they are very crafty in starting up a chat and then it leading to the inevitable sales pitch - seeming unwilling to take "No" for an answer.

People here are very friendly - which I was not expecting since the Northerners have a reputation for being more guarded and closed (as opposed to the Southerners who are said to be more gregarious, fun-loving and open -- at least this is what the travel guide said.) I know those are stereotypes - but they are rooted in the fact that the North was never truly occupied during the recent Vietnam war and the South was more open to the influences of invading forces. This apparently also extends way back to the North being ravaged repeatedly from the Northern borders from their Chinese neighbours. Even before the Vietnam war, the French were here trying to maintain Vietnam as a French colony, but they left in the mid 1950's having lost 35 000 men in their own war with the Vietnamese. Vietnam has been through a lot. All said and done, all those wars and the strife has apparently left some animosity between the people living in the North and those in the South. The North has also had a longer history under Communist rule - going back to the post second world war era - where as the South only entered that era once the Americans left.

Moving away from my simplistic history lesson - this has been a very refreshing and exciting day for us. We really feel like this is a totally different country (and of course it is!) and are looking forward to the three weeks ahead. Hanoi itself clearly deserves some time. We have barely scratched the surface with some walks around the old quarter and there is clearly so much more to take in around this romantic old capital.

Something else that really struck us all (since we are in that comparison stage with Thailand) is that Vietnam seems highly organized and there is less visible trash everywhere, which is a nice change. The organization is an interesting thing because it is reflected in the housing and the way peoples' living space is organized. We think that it speaks to the fact that the prosperity is a relatively recent thing here in Vietnam and many of the guides speak of 1996 being the change-year when market reforms made big changes to peoples day to day lives. A lot of the less appealing parts of Thailand are a result of the "growth at at any cost or speed" policies that have had them become one of the Asian economic "Tigers." Apparently most of that crazy economic growth has for the most part so far focused on Southern Vietnam around Saigon - or Ho Chi Min city. It still, somehow, feels like a city from some time ago. The fringes of Hanoi city are speckled with rice paddies and small village outcrops as opposed to the big industry and the cement jungles one experiences in Bangkok. We all kept remarking on how pretty it was on our arrival from the airport.

A street scene here in the the Old Quarter - clearly some kind of temple. Notice the lovely big potted plants. They are a regular sight throughout SE Asia.

We have also been repeatedly struck by the degree of attention to detail to the aesthetic layout of shops, restaurants, hotels and some living spaces. We are not sure if this is a lay over from the French era or if it is uniquely Vietnamese. At times, when we walk into some places, we almost think we are in Paris or something - because it is so sophisticated and beautifully laid out with attention to detail. Both Skye and I are feeling under-dressed in our traveling clothes, especially considering how formally most locals seem to be dressed most of the time. In case you read this Emilie - we keep saying how much we think you would like it here. All the beautiful craftsmanship - the beautiful antiques, the silk products, the carvings, etc. It seems that old-style craftsmanship is still very much valued here. It is really fun to wander around in it and explore all the stuff. Kai has been really into it as well - looking at all the carved wood, jade and the trinkets, etc. Not to mention the crazy food items: like the snake and scorpion drinks being sold everywhere as health drinks. I think the Vietnamese have had a heavy influence that has come from 1000 years of Chinese occupation which is reflected in their medicines, their superstitions and the aesthetics. Somehow it really feels at times like old China. Although, I imagine that this strong Chinese flavour is much more a thing of the North given the proximity to China - I don't think the Vietnamese would appreciate these comments though, given the fact that China has been a very aggressive invading force for so long and still considers Vietnam to be nothing more than a "renegade province."

These are the snake and scorpion tinctures being sold all over the place. I suspect it has something to do with virility but maybe it is more about general vitality. Either ways it is fun to look at. I shudder to think about where the snakes are coming from. The wild? Hopefully bred in captivity, but I won't hold my breath.

Beautiful wooden stamps and other larger block prints are sold in little boutiques around the old quarter.

Here is an example of a store selling stunning silk wares from Vietnam. The stuff is not always cheap, but the craftsmanship is amazing. There are tons of hand embroidered pieces that show incredible attention to detail. A nice change from the "made in China" crap that dominates so many of the markets in Thailand. We spent lots of time admiring and oohing and aahing...

Stunning silk lanterns that can be found all around the old quarter - beautifully made and lovely to look at.

Of course the food is going to be another whole new adventure for us here in Vietnam. It is clear that there will be lots of scrumptious things to eat. The Vietnamese have their own culinary style and it will be good to take it in after having experienced Thai food (which was incredible.) This is a dish that is eaten everywhere in Hanoi (and apparently throughout Vietnam). I believe it is called Pho (don't quote me on this) and it comes with a soup vegetable broth, noodles, meat of various kinds and then one is provided with a huge plate of excellent greens, many of which are herbs, that one mixes in with the soup as one eats. One could spend time worrying about how the greens are washed in local water - but we won't go there. The best food seems to come from all the local street stalls and we would hate to miss out.


This is another local eatery we went to just up the alley from where we are staying. It is usually crammed with students (so it seems) and it looks incredibly grimy. The food was very good.

There is a lot beautiful iron work on door ways over here, so I took a picture of one with Pippin and Kai modelling the hardware. Sometimes the doorways are made from carved wood which can also be stunning. Gosh, so much to talk about. We had better sign off soon so we can share more in our next blog.


One final thing I wanted to mention was the differences between the old and the younger generation. For one thing, apparently more than 65% of the population is under the age of 30. For many of those young people the strife of the past has not been a part of their lives like it was for their parents and grandparents. According to our guidebook, this can cause some strife since the prosperity is bringing new values to Vietnam and at times the older generation worries that the younger people are getting too soft. One can see around the city that many older people have visible injuries and we assume that it is from war injuries during the Vietnam war era. What a crazy thing these people must have gone through for all those years. It makes one sad to think that such a vibrant nation had to go through such terrible hardships.

As a parting gift we will leave you with a picture from an antique shop showing the beautiful old wares from times gone by. They are great places for spending time poking around.


Well enough from us for now. You will no doubt hear more from us again very soon.

Ronato, Skye, Kai & Pippin

Turning ELEVEN on Koh Tao

Hi everyone! We are back again in Bangkok ready to leave for Vietnam in two days. We had a rather grueling day of travel yesterday from Koh Tao which included a taxi, a high speed catamaran ferry, a tour-sized bus, another taxi, then a tuk-tuk to a bus and finally a taxi - lasting somewhere around 13 hours in total. For the last six days of our time on Koh Tao we stayed on Sairee Beach and had a lovely more "up-market" (although very reasonable) experience. Kai requested that we find a place with a pool and a movie channel for the days around his birthday and we supported his plan whole heartedly. The pool turned out to be great, as did the beach setting but the movie channel tended to be a shoot-em up variety typical of many Asian movie channels and was mostly unwatchable. The other nice thing about the location is that it was close to a village by that particular beach area so we were able to have many eating choices. This was a good change from the previous location we were at where we felt a little like a captive audience -- there were only two restaurants -- one was mediocre and the other had very tasty offerings, but they were both pricey.
So most of our days were spent doing the usual mix of swimming, going on walks, meeting people and taking in the island flavour. Koh Tao was physically lovely with great tropical vistas and excellent snorkeling. Our previous experience on Koh Lipe was a hard act to follow though - probably because it was harder to get to and a lot less crowded.

The picture above is of Kai with his "special ordered birthday cake" (thanks to hard work from Skye scouting out all the local bakeries). We were spoilt with a visit from our friends we had met on Koh Lipe (Martin and Caroline) who came down to be with Kai on his special day. It was very sweet of them and it allowed for another great visit, making Kai's birthday that much more festive. Unfortunately, Pippin came down with a fever on the morning of Kai's birthday which meant that she was unable to enjoy the day as much as we did. Kai was sad about that.

Here is a picture of the place we stayed and the view of the beach from the pool area. There were all these beautiful water features everywhere. This has been the case throughout Southern Thailand. We have really enjoyed looking at all the little gardens people put together -- we're getting lots of ideas for our own garden!

Here is Pippin having an epic "fever" sleep on the day of Kai's birthday. She finally seems to be on the mend now that we are back here in Bangkok.

As with all places on our travels - we once again met some lovely people while we were on Koh
Tao. This time we met a family from Paris and we landed up having some really fun times together. We ate meals together, went on a few evening strolls looking at the night life of the island, and we went on a day trip to a local island off Koh Tao where we went snorkeling and beaching. Their kids spoke primarily French so it was great to see Kai and Pippin warm up to them and try out their language skills. Both of their kids were lovely. We intend to see them all again when we go through Paris in a few months time which will be wonderful reunion for us all.

Francois, Eve, Amphelise and Celestin (we're missing a few accents and a cedile! (sp?))

Here are some pictures of our snorkeling day on the little island. It was very crowded with other tourists but the popularity of the island did not take away from its astounding beauty. The water was crystal clear and the tropical fish life was abundant.

Even if one chose not to swim it was possible to watch the fish swimming around all over the place.

Here is a lookout over the little island that allows one to see the island and all its incredible coral. It took about 20 minutes up a steep hill to get to this view point.

Well, I think I will make this post a little shorter than usual. I can only go on about the tropical beauty of Southern Thailand for so long and we are about to change gears. On Saturday we fly to Hanoi which apparently makes Bangkok seem like a mellow city (hard to imagine). There are an estimated 4 million motorbikes in Hanoi alone. Crossing the road there is said to be a cultural experience in itself. We have also been told that travellers get hassled more in Vietnam and one can never get the straight goods on the price of things. Sounds like it is going to be a good education for Kai and Pippin.

So on that note - I will leave you with a picture of Kai and I on an ATV (so not me!) which we rented on his birthday to go look around the island. Kai loved it and I was a willing sport.


Until next time . . .

Ronato, Skye, Kai & Pippin