Park View Hotel Hue

... on how bad it was for those 36 odd hours, so moving right along...<br><br>Hello Hanoi<br>Hanoi! Cool city but very different than HCMC. One difference? Less English. Also, the main market is more sprawled across blocks, and the landmarks are more dispersed, though there are also many within walking distance, as I found out. Since my map skills seem to have vanished, I just wandered and was amazed at how many great things I saw by chance. Mind you, I don ...

... accent, not like the pure Northern VNese accent like i have :o). I've had to resort to speaking English to them just so i don't order broiled bat for lunch by mistake.<br><br>Pierre is enjoying the architecture in VN so far. Because of the lack of space and a large population, most houses are built on the vertical: long, tall and narrow. The only drawback is that they don't have elevators so carrying the groceries to the top floor is a feat. That is why my ...

... Hanoi. The biggest city between Nha Trang and hanoi was Hue. On CNN we saw that was hit the hardest by Ketsana as it made landfall there. We would see, there were 140.000 people evacuated and a lot of water as we could see. The train left...we are going.!!<br><br>In our coach was also a very old Vietnamese lady and her daughter. Very busy talking and eating,but no English at all. Rebecca was a student from Maine, USA. A nice chubby girl who travelled alreadt a lot for ...

... 8217;t see myself staying up here, as beautiful as it was, they lacked everything needed to put a bad case of food poisoning and the runs to rest. Lenh bargained a moped ride to the base with the men as their lunch was being brought out to them. We noticed a bottle of vodka being passed around and watched as the guys that were about to drive us 16k down a mountain slammed shot after shot of vodka with their lunch. Lenh said it was a cultural thing. <br><br>We packed what few things ...

... entirely with his horn, not only at other motorists while driving but also occasionally at us throughout the day--if we weren't re-boarding the bus quickly enough at various stops we'd soon be jolted into submission. Of course there was a schedule to keep, so it was understandable.<br><br>Our guide turned out to be very well informed and really added to the experience, fluidly switching back and forth from Vietnamese to English. He was attired in a pinstriped dress shirt tucked ...

... who ruled for 143 years. (Random Vietnam fact: Nearly every third male you meet in Vietnam is a "Nguyen.") Because of the extensive Nguyen dynasty, Hue is packed with temples, tombs, palaces and pagodas. Unfortunately however, Hue was also the site of some of the bloodiest battles of the "American War." Much of the historical sites were destroyed by bombs and approximately 10,000 people died in Hue - the majority of ...

... my life! <br><br>Our first stop was at Elephant Falls, which is almost like a waterpark for the Vietnamese. It is called Elephant Falls because it is a waterfall with a large Elephant carved into a rock. The falls were characterized various wading pools, a large main pool, a water slide, a jumping rock and a wooden bridge. We immediately changed into our swim suits and jumped into the icy water which was an excelled reprieve from the beating sun. After swimming for about twenty minutes ...

... place with pretty flowers, and more Monks preying. The last stop was a different type of temple with a toomb - (appologies, but you see so many temples and toombs its hard to remember all the names!)<br><br>The afternoon was spent on a Train going back up north to Dong Ha, where we were greeted by Mr Xoa who lived and served in the Vietnam war, and he was to be our guide for the next step of our amazing tour around the DMZ tunnels and more!.........<br><br><br><br><br>

... our mini-bus home to arrive to take us back to Hanoi. Why couldn't we have just had more time on the boat? <br><br>When the mini van finally arrived we jumped in and went literally 5 mins up the road for some lunch, which was absolutely identical to the other 3 meals we'd had on the ship! <br><br>This lunch did enable us to get to know the Aussie couple, Peter &amp; Di, who ...