Week 5: Hoi An to Hanoi, Vietnam

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All photos for this trip can be found in our
2024 Vietnam and Cambodia Photo Album
Look for the "Week 5" tag for photos added this week.

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For Monday we had arranged a day trip out to the My Son Sanctuary a religious (Hinduism) and political capital of the Champa Kingdom from the 4th to 13th century. After being abandoned the area sat hidden in the jungle for 500 years before a group of French tiger hunters stumbled across it. Now a Unesco World Heritage site, the area was the scene of intense fighting and bombing during the "American War", evident from the numerous marked bomb craters around the site.

On the way back to Hoi An our tour included a stop for a very good Banh Mi sandwich to be eaten on a sunset boat trip down the Thu Bon river to Old Town Hoi An.

For dinner we walked around the corner from our hotel to the Tin Tin restaurant. Ok but just.

Tuesday, after Starbucks, we wandered around Old Town for a bit picking up a few more souvenirs etc. Then after some pool time at the hotel we took a GRAB to Old Town to go back to the Morning Glory for dinner, but mostly to sign up for one of their cooking classes on Wednesday.

Wednesday we took a GRAB to VY's Marketplace for our cooking class. A small group of six in our class but there were several other classes going on at the same time. This is quite the complex they've got going here. She is quite the business woman!

In the evening we went back down along the river for one last Hoi An experience. Lots of tourists. Lots of tourists wanting boat rides on the river and to set lit candles afloat in the river. Lots of food vendors but we opted for a bite to eat at the Shamrock Irish Pub on the busy street along the river.

Thursday it was pack up morning and say goodbye to Hoi An. We really liked staying here and, given the chance, would return. We had an early afternoon flight to Hanoi, were greeted by our pre-arranged driver and off to the Marvellous Hotel & Spa in Hanoi's Old Quarter. For dinner we skipped next door to MAAZI, an Indian restaurant, for a couple of chicken dishes.

Keeping with our Starbucks strategy (being about the only place we could find decaf coffee amid all the wonderful Vietnamese coffee places), we started Friday off with breakfast at the hotel and a couple of lattes down the street at Starbucks. After that, the first errand of the day was to walk over to a Viettel office and extend our phone SIM card an additional week as we were both about to run out. Easy peasy!

We wandered around the busy streets of the Old Quarter for a few hours before taking a GRAB to the modern Vincom Metropolis center we had visited when we were first here. Then it was back to the hotel to pack up and prepare for tomorrow's excursion. The hotel will hold onto our luggage and also take care of a load of laundry we would leave behind while we are away for 2 nights. We walked down the street to a small bun cha place for dinner. Very good.

Saturday morning we just had time for a quick breakfast before a tour bus picked us up and we were on our way out of Hanoi to Nimh Binh province. Unfortunately this was the one day of rain we would have on our entire trip, although it was only a consistent light rain.

The first stop was at King Dinh Temple in Hoa Lu, ancient capital of Ninh Binh (over 1000 years ago)...

... then a banana boat ride on the Luong River seeing the beauty of Ninh Binh province including some fascinating caves (heads down please), a stop to climb the 400+ steps to the Mua caves (we passed on this part; others said the stairs were really slippery with no handrails)...

... then on to an Eco-lodge for the night. A beautiful setting obscured by the fog and rain.

Sunday morning we packed up and were on our way to an overnight cruise on Ha Long Bay. The rain had totally stopped and we had a huge room with a private balcony on the bow of the ship so had great views of all the islands we sailed past. I think we saw nearly all of the 1,969 islands in the bay. Spectacular scenery. Great food.

This was a much bigger ship than we were on with our foodie tour group. Most of the people were in small groups which tended to keep to themselves. We met a couple from Norway and had a nice chat with them at the open air bar at the stern of the ship.

Nice way to end this week.

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Back to Week 4

On to Week 6

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