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Hoi An , Vietnam Later if it is nice at the beach, we will get a cyclo to take us there but I think we will basically take it easy today. I want to go and have a closer look at the artwork here. Some of it is very contemporary with bright colours, some just black and white but still startling. I really love the lacquer paintings but they are on timber so too big to bring back. I think if you spent some days here you could buy some beautiful tailored clothes and hand made leather shoes, but you really need to have something definite in mind, as the choice is too great. One of the women in our group is having leather shoes made for $20 a pair! Tomorrow is a very busy day and I will have to take my travel sickness medicine as we go through 2 high passes and the road is very bad. It is now Thursday 31 March and Geoff survived the 10 km bike ride out to China Beach and back. He went through rice paddies and along the narrow roads. On the way back they came across all the school students coming out at 11 am (there are 2 sessions here) and got trapped 5 deep in the middle of them all. I can only imagine what the students were saying about these aussies.... Just went for our last walk through the Ancient Town and bought a few extra 'souvenirs'. The huge lacquer paintings are incredible and really quite cheap when you consider the workmanship etc, $US400 upwards for a medium size one.
Now it is time at 3.00pm for our cocktails by the pool and a swim. Just had lunch at the Cargo Club and then succumbed to ice cream too. Oh well I will work it off in the next week I am sure. This tour is just so good. I would highly recommend anyone coming to Vietnam to come with Ross as he not only is an extremely knowledgeable guide but he absolutely loves these people, their culture and their food. While I started off this trip in Saigon a little bit apprehensive aboutwhat was ahead of us, I too am beginning to really enjoy this country and all it has to offer. Well off for that swim.....
It is Saturday 2 April and poor old Geoff is suffering with his tummy. On the afternoon of his bike ride he started to feel unwell and decided to stay home and not come out for dinner with us. I went with the others to the sound of Geoff saying "You go and have a good time - don't worry about me - I will be fine, will just go to the local hospital if I get worse....etc etc etc" Anyway last night we all had another nice meal at the Nyu'n restaurant opposite the markets. We had green papaya salad and fried rice paper, prawns, beef and sesame seed and salad, fish, stuffed calamari and salad - 80,000 dong each ($7) and we couldn't eat it all. We all went back and had coffee in the hotel courtyard bar but I must say that that is the only bad thing so far - no good coffee here. After breakfast we met in the foyer for our departure at 8 am. As it was April Fool's Day Geoff decided to play a joke on Ross. He told Ross that our friend Warren Brown from the Daily Telegraph in Sydney had phoned toask how our trip was going and Geoff mentioned that he had a fever and cramps etc. Warren said it may be Bird Flu and put Geoff on to his Editor Col. Col asked Geoff if he could report it in the paper saying “that there was a possible suspect case of bird flu to hit the first Australian tourist in Vietnam” and that he would print it in the paper the next day. Geoff told Ross it would be “great publicity for his company”!!! It was then that Ross started to turn white and have a very worried look on his face - Geoff had planned on taking it further but became worried that Ross was really falling for it all. Anyway Ross said that now he is going to have to get Geoff back somehow..... The old “Mister Sincerity” can still get them in! We set off for the Marble Mountain and all the villages around have these huge marble statues for sale in all their shops. A bit of a problem fitting it into the suitcase though. Anyway it is 180 steps to the top of the Water Hill overlooking the other hills named by the Emperor - Earth, Wood Fire and Metal. It was so hot and the steps are marble and hand made so varying heights. We then walked back down passing the numerous hawkerstrying to sell us everything from postcards to tiger balm.
Back on the bus for Da Nang and the Cham Museum and artifacts from the 7th century. We then headed off for the 3 passes and it is very narrow windy road and foggy too - just to make it interesting. Quite a few trucks broken down on the way. They have built a tunnel which will be opened on 19th May and that will take all the trucks. The road winds down in between the mountains to the coast where we past what looked like a large resort. Minh said this was the leper colony - although leprosy is now controlled by modern medicine. The lepers were housed here and worked the colony as a farm with rice, vegetables and cattle etc. When they were cured they were told they could come back to their homes, but they had lived there for so long they didn't want to leave. Now it is a very successful community and the local government nowwant to build a casino there soon. Geoff made all the usual comments then like – throwing in your hand, slight of hand, don’t lose your head etc will take on a new meaning.... Minh also gave us some Vietnamese language lessons on the way too. It is such a difficult language for westerners to learn as there are very slight inflections to change the meaning of a word eg "Ma" can mean mother, horse, grave, ghost or however, depending on the inflection!!! We arrived in Hue (Whey) 3 hours after departing Hoi An, on Friday. Hue is the former Imperial Capital of Vietnam with a pop of over 300,000 and Ross said these people are a bit snobbish compared to the rest of the country. Only 150 kms north from here was the De Militarised Zone (DMZ) during the American War. We checked into the Saigon Morin Hotel which is a 4 star and it certainly lives up to that. It is in the centre of the town on the Perfume River.
We walked around the corner to the Mandarin Cafe for lunch - the owner is a famous photographer and his work is displayed on the walls and he sells postcards and books. Then off on the cyclos for about 15-20 mins (30,000 dong $2.50) to the famous Citadel where the Emperors lived. We crossed the Perfume River to the walls and the moats of the Citadel which enclosed the Palaces, Temples and gardens of the Imperial City and within that the Forbidden City.
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