Happy Thaipusam!

I have never witnessed as dramatic a cultural event in my travels than the 3-day Thaipusam Festival in George Town, Malaysia. I'm relying on Wikipedia and the Penang Website for my information about it - so you can read more at those sites if you are interested.

Thaipusam began here in the late 18th century via Indian immigrants that now make up a little more than 6% of the country's population. The devotees are seeking blessings, fulfilling vows, and offering thanks to Lord Murugon, the Hindu God of War. 

The festival begins with a day-long procession of two chariots. The gold one, pictured below unless there was another more grand gold one I missed, is carrying the Vel (sword) symbolizing what Lord Murugon used to defeat the demon. The silver one, beginning at a different Temple but then joining this route, carries the statue of Lord Murugon.

The gold chariot carrying the vel (sword)

Hindus are lining the streets, and in the streets, waiting for the chariot to arrive so they can deliver their offerings.

Waiting for the chariot

There are food stalls offering free food and drink for the attendees and also entertainment in the street.

Dancing figures in the street

There are also piles and piles of coconuts lined up. Many are from local Chinese companies that are honoring the festival and its participants - at least that is what it seems like to an outsider like me. There are also some Chinese devotees of Thaipusam. The coconuts get smashed at a later time that we missed seeing. I hear it is dramatic though!

Piles of coconuts line the procession route

The procession stops at Hindu Temples along the route and I'm guessing more offerings are made there. We didn't feel comfortable walking into temples as outside observers.

Hindu Temple along the route

The procession went on and on, but we retreated from the 89 F heat into our air-conditioned room. We  went out again the next evening to experience more of the Festival.

Unsure of what was happening, we followed the noise of drums toward the Waterfall Temple that devotees walk up over 500 steps to reach. We were in throngs of people marching alongside (and some supporting) the devotees that were carrying heavy Kavadis (burdens). It was so loud we maneuvered our way back and found the less crowded, but still ongoing lines of devotees heading toward the temple.

Prior to Thaipusam, the devotees have cleansed themselves, remained celibate and fasted. The burdens are carried as a ceremonial act of sacrifice, and to beseech Murugan for assistance, the healing of a loved one, or to balance a spiritual debt.

Devotee carrying Kavadis

This Kavadis was the largest one we saw

Some devotees are ritually pierced with a vel skewer. Just a warning that the photo below may be a little shocking. It was certainly hard to witness.

Darrell watching a devotee pass by

After we returned to our room, we watched a video on Malaysia that said public holidays are rotated among the religions. There was a public holiday for Thaipusam the next day (Monday) but I'm not sure if that is every year here or if it rotates. In any case, it shows how multiculturalism is widely accepted here. Bravo for Malaysia!

Biking in the Mekong Delta

 January 17th – Long Cau to Cho Gau “Rice Market” town - 52.7 km/32.7 miles

Darrell and I were picked up from our hotel and driven over an hour south with our bicycles and gear to Long Cau. The Mekong Delta is a watery wonderland and we had our first ferry crossing soon after we began biking. The ferries have a bow ramp they can raise and lower to the cement incline at the shore. We boarded with all the motorbikes and one elderly woman with her bicycle, quickly turning around so we are all facing the bow again for a fast exit. Some ferries make a quick turn-around with motorbikes starting to load while we are still unloading.

At each river crossing we see giant rafts of Common Water Hyacinth (see photo below) floating by. Pontederia crassipes is native to the Amazon basin but has naturalized throughout the world and is often invasive outside of its native range. It certainly clogs up smaller water channels and ponds in Vietnam.

Typical ferry and water hyacinth in the channel

We zig-zagged on our sweet Trek Marlin bikes through many rice paddies – gorgeous now with tender looking shoots of spring-green rice. We only saw the leftover brown stubble after the rice was harvested when we were in Hoi An in early December so this is a treat! The rice in the south can be grown 3 times per year, while there are two harvests per year in the central areas like Hoi An, and only one harvest each year in the north around Hanoi.

Dragon fruit "cactus" plant

We also bicycled through acres and acres of what looked like cactus – but it was dragon fruit! It turns out dragon fruit is from a cactus species known as pitahaya in Mexico. We saw bushels of dragon fruit ready for transport. Vietnam is the world's largest supplier of dragon fruit!

Bushels of dragon fruit

We caught our third and last ferry – a longer one – to Longan Island and our homestay. The home is a beautiful open home built around a courtyard with a large patio in front so you can watch the fishing boats and barges go by. Most of the rice grown in the Delta is gathered here before being shipped to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon (used interchangeably) and abroad. The house has louvered doors open to the patio and outside gardens. We have an outdoor bathroom and shower off our room and a bed net over our bed. There are also many hammocks hanging in the courtyard. All three ladies of the house were resting in them when we arrived that afternoon!

Sunset from our Homestay

We were requested to join the other 3 guests and our hosts in the kitchen at 7 pm to help make our dinner. We grated taro and cut carrots and green beans. Then the taro was mixed with other goodies and we wrapped small bits of it in rice paper and rolled it up. We fried it in hot oil for one of our courses. We also made our own egg pancakes folded over the veggies, with some shrimp and minced pork. This is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes! You eat it hot and dipped in the delicious sweet and sour sauce that accompanies most meals.

Darrell cooking his egg pancake for dinner!

January 18^th – Cho Gau to Ben Tre - 49.4 km/30.6 miles

We had the typical tourist breakfast of fried eggs and French bread and started biking around 8:30 am. We caught a ferry soon after we began, the first of 3 again. Today we biked through fields of coconut palms. There are rows of trees in raised humps with drainage ditches between the rows. Motorbikes pulling narrow trailers of piled up coconuts sped by.

We got to “Maison du Pays de Ben Tre”, our homestay, around 2 pm. The owner/manager was a very outgoing young man who lost his job during COVID so returned to his family home to take care of his grandmother. In the five years since, he has created an aesthetically pleasing homestay with five guest rooms plus a nice sitting and dining area.

The Maison was hosting a thank you party paid for by the local government to the folks who had donated food to 400 poor families in the region. We were invited to the party as we were heading out for a walk. A little food, conversation, and some rice wine and we were on our way. A lot of folks said “hello” as we walked by and a little girl ran up and gave us some candy! This is a friendly and welcoming community.

Looking for hidden birds in the Mekong Delta

January 19^th – Ben Tre to Tra Vinh - 43.4 km/26.9 miles

We bought some of the candy the Maison was selling – a spicy banana and nut chew that I just loved, then we headed off after breakfast. We only had two ferries today but they were both much longer and rougher crossings. We waited a long time for the first ferry to arrive and then were stalled longer because a motorbike with a big trailer tipped off the narrow cement ramp and ended up with two wheels in the mud. I’ve got a sequence of photos with folks trying to right it, but the hero was the female captain of the ferry that used the loading ramp like a forklift to lever the trailer back onto the cement ramp. Darrell helped along with a few others and there was good cheering when the motorbike and loaded trailer got up the ramp!

Darrell and others ready to help

The second ferry was much quieter with just one local couple besides us. I gave them each a banana nut chew while we waited for the boat to arrive and we attempted a short dialogue using google translate.

We landed in Tra Vinh in a sterile hotel – not nearly as nice as the homestays but it did have a pool. I took a shower in my bike shorts and sports bra so I could use them as a bathing suit and cool off in the pool.

January 20^th – Tra Vinh to Cau Ke - 59.3 km/36.8 miles

Darrell had an 8 am zoom meeting, so I checked out the “Ecostore” across the street. It was the Vietnamese version of the Dollar Store – everything was 19,000 dong – just under a dollar.

We left around 10 am and had our longest ride yet, almost 60 km, with a few detours off the outlined route. It was like being the ball on a mini-golf course (Darrell’s expression) with quick turns, short steep bridges, broken “sidewalks” (actually narrow roads), ducking under palm fronds and under electric lines, all while dodging motorbikes and giant piles of coconuts…

A giant pile of coconuts

We stopped at two Khmer Buddhist temples – “Ang Temple” was just outside Tra Vinh and is the signature temple here. Then our route took us right through the grounds of another temple as we approached the end of the bike ride.

Khmer Buddhist Ang Temple 

We found Suonsia Homestay and it is another delightful place. The Homestays were all highlights of this trip. Suonsia had a self-serve fridge with chilled mugs and cold beer, plus a hot shower, and hosts that speak both English and French in addition to their native languages. It has been their home since before the American/Vietnam War. The grandfather worked for the American soldiers and had to leave when the Vietcong took over. But now they are back, with remnants of trenches that were dug during the war, and the craters left over from bombs.

B52 bomb crater in their backyard

We had a delicious dinner of egg pancake with fresh veggies, lettuce, mint, giant shrimp, tasty chicken and a squash soup, plus a perfect mango for dessert.

January 21^st – Cau Ke to Can Tho - 60.6 km/37.6 miles

I woke up with the roosters and Darrell was already awake. I tiptoed into the host’s kitchen to make coffee around 5 am. D and I took a bird walk after our wake-up juice and listened to the noisy white-nest swiftlets flying in and out of a tower window. We also saw yellow-vented bulbuls – so two new species for us!

We ended up on our roughest road yet – lots of sidewalk-width and very broken up cement paths – so a lot of rattling and I stood up on my pedals much of the time to avoid the jarring. At one point our bridge was down (see photo below) so we detoured around that as well. Then when we thought we were taking a bridge into Can Tho it turned out to be our 11^th ferry – this time a small boat that we had to maneuver our bikes on as well!

The bridge was down and being rebuilt

Our fancy hotel is situated on the Hau river and we had a wonderful view over the city and river system here.

View of the Hay (Bassac) River and Can Tho

January 22^nd – Can Tho boat trip to Cai Rang floating market – return to Saigon

We met our boat captain at 7 am for our trip to the Cai Rang floating market. This market gets a lot of tourist looky-lou’s but the tourists are not buying much – it is a working market for the folks along the river. The sellers put up a sample of what they are offering on a pole in front of the boat so buyers can see which boats are selling what they want – sweet potatoes, onions, watermelon, etc. It is a huge market since the boats must be far enough apart for the buyers to connect with them and for the tourists to cruise by snapping photos!

Morning chat at the Cai Rang Floating Market

We also saw the Interceptor 003 from the Ocean Cleanup Project as we were returning to Can Tho. While there are some real issues with the OCP netting living organism as they collect plastic in the ocean, I don't know much about their river interceptor success. You can read more about it here if you are interested.

The Interceptor 003 from the Ocean Cleanup Project

We met our driver back at the hotel at 9am and he was loading our bikes into the back of his truck. Then we began the almost 3-hour drive back to Saigon for our last night in the big city. We had reservations (you NEED reservations) to eat at one of the many Pizza 4Ps in Saigon. There is a remarkable story behind the success of this enterprise. It reminded me of our friend’s pizza restaurants in Flagstaff and the pizza was almost as good as his! 

Pizza 4Ps lives up to its hype!

Summary of the bike trip – We highly recommend Mr. Biker Saigon for both guided and self-guided trips or for renting a bicycle and arranging your own trip. The bikes were high quality and outfitted with panniers and a phone holder for easy navigation. The team was accessible by quick communication on the road with WhatsApp. Our average speed was only about 10 mph, so if you are looking for a higher-speed ride, we don’t recommend the occasionally rough roads, and frequent turns you need to make going on the scenic back roads. But, if you are willing to slow down, and have a few bumps along the way, this trip was fantastic! 

We’ve had a wonderful 2-months in Vietnam, and the Mekong Delta was a highlight. We are so grateful for the time we spent with the friendly, hard-working, kind people in this beautiful country.

 

The Con Dao Conundrum

My quest in Con Dao is how to reconcile the dueling emotions from experiencing the peaceful, quiet and friendly island of Con Son with the horrors of its past. These horrors, of course, include impacts from the American War (aka the Vietnam War). They also include the unrelenting vision of plastic waste everywhere except in places controlled by the most upscale of hotels and resorts.

We spent 10 days (January 4^th to 14^th) on Con Son Island in the Con Dao Archipelago less than 100 km off the coast of SE Vietnam. Hubby took some time off from work to see much of the island, and I walked every day to new areas.

I clipped this map from our Rough Guide on Vietnam. It provides a visual for our wanderings on this small (~ 3 mile long) island.

Map of the Con Dao Archipelago from the Rough Guide

Our first adventure was to rent a motor scooter. Unfortunately, we do not have an A1 international license so we could only get a small electric motor scooter. And this is probably the smallest one on the island!

Darrell on our mini-mini scooter

We headed uphill to the Con Dao National Park headquarters and the scooter was so slow – especially with me on the back – that I had to get off and walk so Darrell could get it up the steepest hills! Most of the island is part of Con Dao National Park with controlled access to trails through the forests to the beaches or other sites. It was hard to get information on the trails even at the Park Headquarters. They don’t have a trail map so we learned from websites, travel guides and other tourists the best places to go.

We did get a tour of some caged animals, statues of animals, and some other displays – e.g. dugongs in giant tanks, and other sea critters. We paid about $2 each for a trail pass to towards Bai Bang beach. Trees were labeled but I only took a photo of the Truong tree – Indian Prickly Ash – that looks like it has limpets all over its bark. We reached the coast where the acclaimed waterfall was dry, but we did see some intertidal life – black sea cucumbers, hooded oysters and some small corals.

Truong tree (Xanthoxylum rhetasa)

We planned to walk on to Dat Tham beach but we were just knackered from heat and humidity so returned to the scooter. We were happy the ranger had told us to park by the headquarters as the indigenous Long-tailed Macaques had opened the seats of the parked scooters at the trailhead and taken out whatever food they could find there!

The scooter battery showed it still had some charge left – so we took the road to the SE point of the island. The chain came off the scooter and we were aided by a young Russian couple to get it back on. We had just limped back to town when the battery died. Darrell pedaled it the rest of the way to the rental shop! Adventure 1 complete.

Hubby worked the next few days and I wandered more trails – looking for the mostly absent birds. We can hear some, not a lot, but rarely see any. I finally saw the striped-cheeked bulbul (photo from Merlin) which was described as looking like a chrysanthemum had exploded across its face.

Stripe-throated bulbul (photo from Merlin)

Our next adventure was renting e-bikes for a hike past the runway and beach on the NE end of the island. Incredibly, Darrell’s e-bike ran out of juice just after we crossed the hard-packed sand of Vong beach. We locked the bikes up and hiked to the scenic north bay.

Hubby enjoying the swing!

On the return hike, we saw a beautiful bird - the white-vented shama. We aren’t seeing a lot of birds – as I mentioned in the last post from our bike trip. We can walk through miles of rainforest and only hear a few birds...

With our days on the island dwindling, I headed to the Con Dao Museum and walked through the chronologic displays beginning with artifacts from 2,500 to 3,000 years ago and culminating in modern progress. While the history of Vietnam is incredibly complicated, two key timeframes that included photographic images were the French colonial period (roughly 1847 to 1941) and the American (Vietnam) War. Both periods included significant tolls on life and liberty in Vietnam and on Con Son Island - termed Devil's Island at the time - with many prisoners held and killed in Phu Hai Prison.

Con Dao Museum

I can't improve on this excerpt from The Rough Guide to Vietnam: “The many cells in the now-defunct Phu Hai Prison remain littered with shackles, placed painfully close together. In a couple of exhibition cells, emaciated statues show how the Vietnamese inmates spent their days crowded together, unless they were selected for the “tiger cages” or the “solariums”, where they were exposed to the elements in roofless rooms.”

I'll only include one photo - since the images are distressingly graphic - but if you are intrigued by how the American's found out about the atrocities of the Tiger Cages in 1970 you can read this interesting article from the History News Network. This event was weell-described and illustrated with statues at the prison and articles in the museum.

Phu Hai Prison "Tiger Cages"

Respite from these atrocities comes from the nearly constant honors and blessings displayed at the Hang Duong Cemetery. The roads there are lined with dozens of shops selling memorial displays for people to purchase to honor relatives, slain martyrs, unknown soldiers, and more. People were also walking the grounds with bundles of lit incense to place a few at a time at different graves.

Grave of a martyr in Hang Duong Cemetery

Vendors selling memorial displays in the cemetery

So, Con Dao, both beautiful and disheartening. My moodiness here was also due to the significant onslaught of the present regime in the United States. The devastation to people and to nature at home made me want to shout - why haven't we learned from history? What happened to the Golden Rule we were taught as children?

Two parting images - one of the many restaurants where you can select your seafood for dinner. We are used to eating our food that isn't swimming or crawling - just wrapped in plastic on styrofoam trays in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. I cannot bring myself to eat seafood right now.

Seafood restaurant in Con Son Town

And an image that actually gives me hope. It reminds me that nature, despite our degradations, is amazingly resilient and powerful.

Nature reclaiming some lost ground

Biking in North Vietnam

Hubby and I decided on a 5-day bicycle trip from outside of Hanoi to the Ninh Binh region, a water-filled karst environment we were eager to explore. We both love the motion of cycling and to see places at the pace of a bicycle. We can go far enough in one day to see a variety of places, yet slow enough to enjoy the scenery, observe how folks live their lives, and not run over the wandering chickens and dogs!

Day 1 – Man Duc to Mai Chau

Mileage – 32.8 miles, Elevation gain – 2,525 ft.

We were picked up at our Hanoi Airbnb and fitted with bikes and helmets. We checked the toolkit, and filled the one pannier for daytime needs – extra water, snacks, sunscreen, windbreakers, etc. Darrell was on a regular “push bike” and I was using an e-bike for the first time. It turned out we were accompanied by both a driver and a mechanic on the entire tour! The owner of the bike tour company was afraid the driver, who called us “grandparents” out of respect, was too old to help us with mechanical issues, and the mechanic wasn’t a driver. So, our “self-guided tour” was really 2 bikers and 2 men in a van – carrying our luggage to the next stay and inflating the tires of our bikes each morning.

On previous tours in Europe, daily luggage transfers were handled by one hotel sending luggage on to the next hotel – since they were only about 35 miles apart. That kind of system has not been set up here. And since wages for workers are low, it doesn’t add greatly to the cost of the trip. Many tourists hire a car and driver for long-distance tours.

We were driven over 2 hours SW of Hanoi to a quieter village near Man Duc and began biking on dirt roads toward a large reservoir. We followed the edge of the reservoir, winding in and out of each bay before finally climbing a large hill to Go Lau. It was approaching dusk, but we coasted downhill to our first night at a lovely homestay in Mai Chau, a traditional White Thai village.

Note: There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, with the Vinh (also called Viet) making up 87% of the population, and the other 53 groups contributing a small fraction each to the overall population of about 100 million people. When we were in Hoi An I went to the Precious Heritage Museum and saw photographer Réhahn’s gorgeous images from each of the ethnic groups. It is an amazing free museum!

View from our balcony at Green House Mai Chau

Day 2 – Mai Chau to Ban Lac to Ban Hieu

Mileage - 36.3 miles, Elevation gain – 3,250 ft.

We had a lovely breakfast at our homestay, then got on our bikes around 9 am to start our hardest day. Or I should say Hubby’s hardest day since I was able to just kick the e-bike into a higher gear when the heavily forested hills got too long or steep! I realize I can make the bike ride as easy or as challenging as I want – but it is tempting to not push too hard – especially when you are “conserving” energy for later in the day… Excuses, excuses…

The reward near the end of the bike ride was amazing views over terraced rice fields and an incredibly steep descent on a narrow cement track. 

Terraced rice fields near Pu Luong

Just when we thought we were close to our place, we realized we had a 1.5 km hill to climb – and it was the steepest yet. Darrell got in his last big workout of the day getting to the Na Co Lodge Homestay. Thank goodness there was cold beer at the top!

We visited with a French family at dinner who were on a 2-week car tour with their driver. They were seeing many places off the beaten track, arranged by a friend who could speak Vietnamese. We all relied on google translate since few people speak English (or French).

We had a mosquito net over our bed in this small bamboo cottage but there were few mosquitoes and we both slept well!

Na Co Lodge Homestay

Day 3 - Ban Hieu to Ngoc Lac

Mileage – 39.1 miles, Elevation gain – 1,550 ft.

Today began with the steep descent, retracing some miles from yesterday, and then heading south and east to Ngoc Lac. There were a few nice sections but much of it was on a busier road than we preferred and not as scenic as the previous two days.

We ended up in a larger town and stayed in a sterile hotel that looked more like something the Drump would build – including gold fillagree – than the previous two nights homestays.

We did have an entertaining meal with our two side-kicks – where we had tender goat meat (a local delicacy). Our driver shared some of his brother’s homemade rice wine with all of us. We had more than one toast...

Toasting to our health!

Day 4 – Ngoc Lac to Cuc Phuong National Park

Mileage – 46.7 miles, Elevation gain – 1,425 ft.

The next day was our longest ride – but also relatively easy. It was mostly flat through many pineapple fields until we approached Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam’s first National Park) which is on two karst ridges. We began biking early so we would have time to see some of the Park after we arrived. Because the Park stretches along both sides of a central 18 km road, Hubby rented a motorscooter and I jumped on the back for a 2-hour jaunt through the tropical rainforest. We took side paths to see both ancient trees and giant tree ferns.

 

Giant tree ferns dwarfing Hubby

Day 5 – Cuc Phuong National Park to Tam Coc 

Mileage – 33.6 miles, Elevation gain – 500 ft.

We woke early and made our instant coffee in the room as usual - and then heard the loud chorus of gibbons as dawn broke! The noise was wonderfully raucous though we didn’t see any of these native primates. We went for an unsuccessful bird walk before breakfast along the road we didn’t have time to visit yesterday – the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, the Turtle Conservation Center, and the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Center. You can tell they are doing a lot of conservation work at this National Park - which is increasingly necessary as there are fewer and fewer animals in the wild. I was questioning why there were so few birds in the wild in Vietnam and found this New York Times article from 2019 that discusses the loss of wildlife. While the article doesn't address birds specifically - some of the same issues affect birds. We have seen songbirds in cages outside of houses, feral cats, rapid development - and many of the birds here would prized by the illegal international wildlife trade.

 

This last day of biking (on Christmas Day) took us to Tam Coc Nature Lodge. We had read the description in our guidebook and I really wanted to stay here – though it was a more expensive option at almost $50/night (crazy huh?). I figured it was our holiday present to ourselves, and it really was a delightful place.

 

View from our balcony over the pool and "moat"

View of the cottages with towering karst backdrop

Summary: Parts of the bike ride were just plain fun - when kids waved and flashed the peace symbol as we biked by. Some parts were depressing - like trash on the ground and poor air quality. But most parts – especially the scenery, friendly people and amazing food - were absolutely wonderful.

The trail was varied – from crowded streets through small towns, to quiet lanes between pineapple fields, to dirt paths through rice paddies, and potholed roads up and down steep hills in dense forested areas. We enjoyed the shifting views of peaceful fields and striking karst topography with hills like the bumps on a dragon’s back!

 

The local karst topography from the Tam Coc Heritage Trail

Hoi An, My Son, Hue and Phang Nha – Ke Bang National Park

We moved from our Lavini Boutique Hotel in the rice paddies of Hoi An to “Local Beach Homestay” just a short walk to the beach. The homestay can’t be accessed by cars as it is on one of many narrow alleys in this area – so we walked the last bit there. We’ve learned that "homestays" are a family's way to run a small hotel – usually 2-4 rooms for guests. They serve breakfast but you don’t live with the family. They vary a lot as you would expect.

Signs showing the places in the alley to the right!

I walked along the beach most mornings, and many locals were exercising – swimming, calisthenics, tai chi, soccer, and more. The beach was busier at 6 am than it often was later in the day with the few tourists around. The beaches near where the tourists hang out have much less trash than the beaches that have no hotels or restaurants.

The fishermen were up even earlier. I missed seeing them out on the water but caught them as they dragged their basket boats up the beach to store above high tide for the day.

Hauling in the basket boats and their morning catch

Sunday, we took a tour of My Son Sanctuary, an ancient Cham (Hindu) site dating from the 4^th to 13^th centuries. Unfortunately, it was also a site of massive bombing during the Vietnam War (called the American War here) and many of the original standing temples were destroyed. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 and ruins of about 70 buildings from successive dynasties of Cham kings have been partially restored with contributions from other countries. It feels peaceful nestled in a gorgeous mountain setting.

My Son Sanctuary

We left Hoi An on December 12^th and got a ride (Grab is the Uber of Vietnam) to the Da Nang train station where we stored our bags while we toured the Museum of Cham Sculpture. The Museum is on the Han River near the coast and has fine displays of Cham culture from My Son Sanctuary as well as other Cham sites in the region.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture

An afternoon train took us to Hue where we walked to our very bright Sky Homestay. Our host was amazingly proficient in both English and French and super attentive to her guests while also helping her husband corral two busy young sons!

Sky Homestay in Hue

While Hubby worked, I walked to the Imperial City of Hue which began when the Nguyen Dynasty moved the capitol city from Hanoi to Hue and ruled the country from 1802 to 1945. While the Nguyen were conservative Confucianists, the French also had a large influence during this time, and were the de facto rulers from 1884 until 1945, when the last emperor abdicated his throne. A huge fire in 1847 burned much of the Imperial City, and then the American response to the Tet Offensive in 1968 pretty much finished it off. The site gained UNESCO World Heritage status in 1993 which spurred massive funding to help restore some of the buildings.

Imperial City of Hue

It rained most of the next day but we did a little more sightseeing before catching the afternoon train to Dong Hoi. A driver met us there and delivered us to the Karst Villas in Phong Nha in time for dinner (delicious as always) and a nice room and sleep. We couldn’t see the karst features that night – but the next morning we had this view from our room.

View from Karst Villas in Phong Nah

We borrowed one-speed bikes and headed to town where we joined with two other couples (French and German) to rent a dragon boat to take us to the largest cave in Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park. The karst formations here are about 400 million years old – and the Park is home to the world’s largest cave – though we didn’t go to that cave. We were lucky that the water level dropped just enough to allow the boats to enter the large Phong Nha Cave opening. We were dropped off to stroll back through the impressive formations. We then climbed a zillion (almost) steps to tour Tien Son cave before returning to our boat.

                   

After an amazing bahn mi at the recommended Thang Nhuhg café, we took advantage of the dry weather and the borrowed bikes and headed to the beautiful Bong Lai Valley just a few kilometers past where we were staying. They are just opening up to tourists now - but you can get coffee and wifi along with beautiful views. You'll need to zoom in on the photo to see the offerings!

Beautiful Bong Lai Valley

The next day it rained (again) so Hubby worked inside and I walked on the paths through the rice paddies. We found a nice café for lunch and got in some birdwatching on the way. It is a pleasant area and the folks in the village we biked through yesterday and walked through today were incredibly cheerful and friendly, waving as we went by.

Last view from our porch - incredibly hard working farmer plowing rice paddies in the rain.