Arrive Luang Prabang

It turns out I am spoiled from the 10 days of luxury in Vietnam. Our hotels, tours, everything but the train ride were extremely pleasant. 

My room in Luang Prabang, though very well situated along the Mekong and a half-block from the Tak Bat (morning alms collection), is a bit sparse...toilet and shower room (meaning, shower, toilet, same, sink leaks out onto floor, encouraging one to just use the shower to wash one's hands since it all ends up on the floor anyway. Of course the room is very clean and has daily maid service and water. It's just very low-brow compared to previous. I came very close to changing, but when the internet came back on, decided to stay.

Walked around the city, found Ock Pop Tok, enjoyed sitting by the Mekong eating "river weeds."

There are two bamboo bridges in Luang Prabang connecting Luang Prabang with the opposite bank across the Nam Khan  River. I paid 7000 kip (about $1) to walk both ways. I must say it was awfully wobbly...it would never have gone over in the states. 

Weaving and Silk Dying

Barbara recommended classes at Ock Pop Tok, so my first few minutes in town, I signed up. A Tuk Tuk took me and three European women (also of a certain age) to the beautiful weaving village on the Mekong. We worked with natural materials -- wood, annatto, hemp, curcumin -- to make dies. We had pre-spun (thank goodness!) skeins of silk to dip in the vats of color.

The afternoon was spent weaving a silk placemat. Fortunately they set up the loom for us -- I'm convinced that's the most difficult step! They create intricate patterns in the loom by tying certain strings and not others. When you want to use the pattern, you use these string placeholders. Very complicated, don't totally understand.

I did most of mine myself. I had a full-time helper who kept reminding me when I was about to make a mistake and who helped untangle the thin silk threads (i'm sure a more experienced weaver would not have these snafus).

Today, two days later, my right leg -- the weaving leg -- is sore. Those women must be very strong!

Red bridge cooking school

Lazy day in hoi an / beach

The beach at Hoi An was the trip's biggest surprise. You would think I would have looked at a map! I hadn't been to the beach in years, and not to a gorgeous, unfettered beach since Macaroni Beach in Mustique in 2012 (?)

We ended up going three or four times -- almost every day! The beach has maybe a dozen restaurants fashioned out of bamboo. All have bathrooms and showers in the far rear. On the beach side they have chairs (use for free if you eat at the restaurant) and umbrellas (Palapas? can't think of word). It was so lovely to NOT HAVE high rises and concrete all around -- all of the structures were quite temporary. 

The water itself was lovely and not too much surf, which is nice for us old folks.

I would love to go back to Hoi An and spend time at one of the beach guest houses...a beach vacation. 

Hoi An itself was very hot and it was taxing to walk around. Also, the shops were quite repetitive...I ended up not buying anything even though I was tempted by lanterns. I decided, however, that I could probably order those lanterns when I get home via eBay.

Days 6,7,8 Hoi An

Hoi An is a lovely historical town in central Vietnam, just 40 minutes from Da Nang. We heard that during the war, Americans were told not to bomb the city, so many of the old shops remain intact. The city was a trade center between Vietnam, China, and Japan and remains a shopping mecca. 

It is also a food mecca and, although the town sits on a river, it is a few miles from a sandy ocean beach.

Hoi An also has an enormous market complex where fresh vegetables, meats, fabric, and so on are sold. There is also an extensive "food court" in the market.

Our hotel is lovely...apparently it is standard to strew bathroom and bedding with flowers and flower petals...we also have five fresh flower arrangements in our room.

We meet Missy -- our friend from the Halong Bay cruise for dinner at Miss Ly's restaurant. One of the owners, Nathan, was enchanted by Barbara due to her Alaska connections, and got us in without a reservations - turning away many others.

Day 5: night train

We thought we had booked the private tourist "Livitrain," a car that hooks onto the Vietnamese Railway Train. Even though more expensive than flying, it seemed like a good way to see the scenery during the daylight portion.

Our hotel, which kindly booked the train for us, clearly misunderstood our request, and put us on the Vietnamese Railays "soft bed" train -- probably luxe by Vietnamese standards but a little scary for us greenhorns.

We had a four-person berth. We shared the entire trip with a lovely Vietnamese woman in her twenties who acted as our translator and guardian angel. 

She made certain our berth was locked against marauding freeloaders and vendors (we think, who knows really) and possibly thieves. Through the night, various people got on and off the one empty berth in our coach. 

The bathrooms were dirty and fundamental and ran out of toilet paper early in the evening. 

In the morning, a vendor came around with bags of hard-boiled eggs...fertiilized duck eggs and chicken eggs. I chose the duck egg (photo below) but was not able to finish when I bit on a hard piece...what was it?

I was, though, able to rest from the lingering effects of the stomache virus...12 hours prone is exactly what the doctor ordered. 

The scenary between Hue and Danang was remarkable. Many miles of unfettered coastline below us...the land smothered in kudzu vines above it. 

It was not the worst travel experience of my life, for certain, although at triple the price of an airplane, not to be repeated.

We got a car beteen Danange and Hoi An.. Hoi An, a little gem.

Day 4: Halong Bay; Long Duc Village Stay

Sadly, I was struck by a stomach virus this morning, so missed the side trip to the floating village and pearl farm. Please ask Barbara for details and photos.

Fortunately, I was able to watch the stunning scenery  as I rested. Never has illness been so scenic!

Our next stop was Long Duc Village - I had booked this "extension" on the Halong Bay Cruise without fully understanding what it was. All of our fellow passengers were going back to Hanoi and we were very nervous about sleeping in a rice hut that night -- particularly since I wasn't feeling well. 

Happily we did not sleep on mats that night but were instead treated to an intensive 24-hour introduction to Vietnamese farm life, complete with deluxe accommodations and amazing meals.

We were the only guests at the farm. Thuy, our 28-year old guide was charming, and welcomed us with Vietnamese herbal tea ... a restorative blend which contained licorice and many other herbs I did not recognize.

We then did a three-hour tour of the village including a visit to Mr. The, a 78-year old who also served us herb tea and showed us his family tree and shrine. The highlight of this was a photo of his brother with Ho Chi Minh. His brother, now deceased, had served as body guard for "Uncle Ho."

The experience introduced us to Vietnamese Buddhism which is very complex and involves keeping keeping track of the ancestors with a full-wall family tree that records five generations of Mr. The's family.

On our walk through the village we discussed the plants that were growing...betel nut, betel leaf. Apparently the combination kept the villagers warm in the damp Hanoi winters when warm clothing was rare. We had quite a discussion about an herb I know as mugwort, and they know as sage grass. We covered the various fruits and vegetables growing in the fields as well as the farming techniques.

Thuy took us to a spot where a family demonstrated the old way of husking and milling rice. Today the farm uses machinery to accomplish this. (note: we were served the rice we husked in our breakfast porridge the following day).

We also saw how the villagers capture fish from the ubiquitous ponds (and were served the fish for dinner).

Our dinner at the farm did not disappoint and was even better (if that is even possible) than our cruise meals.

The following day we outfitted in Vietnamese straw hats and plastic raincoats and bicycled through the rice paddies (on concrete roads) to the local markets through the drizzle. 

We visited another villager - a 76-yearold woman   -- and stripped the green bits off of coconut fronds. These fronds went into brooms. Coconut brooms are needed in the north because they don't absorb water...winter sweeping.

Another gourmet lunch and we packed and attended the local water puppet show. Seeing the show in a "farm pond" seemed rather authentic...the charmng art form was apparently invented by farmers.

Back to Hanoi for some more practice walking calmly among moving motorcycles and on to the night train to Danang!