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Vietnam & Surrounds Day 06

Day 6, Tuesday 3/18/25, Hanoi, Vietnam

Today Hanoi will be 64 F with almost no humidity. A welcome relief from Bangkok heat. Overcast skies in the morning. One note, we hope that beds in Vietnam get more comfortable than this one. The bed is like a rock and it slopes toward the center! We arise at 6:30 and have a delicious buffet breakfast in the hotel. I could get used to all the different food in this part of the world! A few shots out of our hotel window and we grab our hats and and start the tour by 8:15.

Our guide today is Duon. The streets bustle with activity and we get our first views of life in Hanoi.

We visit the oldest pagoda in Vietnam, Tran Quoc Pagoda. It is located on Golden Fish Island in West Lake. It was built in the 6th century and is the oldest Pagoda in Vietnam. Symbolism and stunning architecture is everywhere and lucky yellow colors abound.

We pass a Statue of John McCain, who was a resident of the “Hanoi Hilton” from 1967-1973. We will visit this later today. Next we drive by the Parliament and see how large it is. Our core group of travelers today are 12 people. We will grow to 14 some days with others that join us for random day tours and will shrink near the end. At one point, we come across some vendors that, for a nominal fee of 25,000 Dong ($1 USD), you can buy a bird and free it, symbolizing the freeing of the Vietnamese people. (if you can consider people in a Communist country as free)

Across from Parliament is the Ho Chi Minh Complex where we go inside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The Mausoleum has very strict rules. 1.) No photos. This was so strictly enforced. There were guards every 3-4 meters throughout the building and there was simply no chance to sneak off a photo. Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body was on display in a glass case and you could clearly see him. It was amazing. Probably the best (if not the only) embalmed person on display in the world. His body is maintained twice every week! 2.) No hats. 3.) Hands must be at your side and not in pockets. 4.) No talking and no noise. Anyone breaking these rules would be ordered to correct their action and removed if necessary! So I have seen him but can’t prove it! I was chastised twice before we ever got inside, once for speaking and the other for having my hands in my pockets while waiting in the very long line. And of course I was chastised in Vietnamese so it took help to understand what rules I was breaking!

We then take a leisurely walk around the garden to see the two houses where he lived and worked from 1954 to 1969. Gardens are meticulous and there are guards everywhere you look. Even the cars he rode in are on display! So please remember Uncle Ho in Spring!

The red background of the Vietnamese flag symbolizes revolution and bloodshed. The golden star symbolizes the soul of the nation and the five points of the star represents the five main classes in Vietnamese society—intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs, and soldiers.

Other things we see include the Gate of the Crystallization of Letters.

And the Temple of Confucius!

Lunch is had at Hoang’s Restaurant. Good Vietnamese food but I was having so much fun getting to know my new travel mates that I didn’t write down what we ate. There were many dishes sent around family style and I remember the beer was cold! Our group of 12 hammed it up outside the Restaurant!

After boarding the bus again, we see parking lots of motorcycles, scooters & buses. We then visit Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed “Hanoi Hilton” in the Xuong District. This visit was very moving even from the North Vietnamese perspective. The torture described in several of the images that follow describe in some detail the horrors of the war! Even inside thick concrete walls with steel gates and locks, prisoners were shackled to the floor. The floors sloped away from the foot shackles so even lying down was virtually impossible!

Then we venture out and back on the bus to the Ethnicities Museum, which is a much lighter and pleasant experience. We learn a bit about the 54 different ethnic groups that live in Vietnam. They even depict in wood statues the sexuality of the people.

The tour today was long and tiring. But it is over for the day. We get back to the hotel by 5:30 PM, tired and hungry. We are told that Hanoi has an attraction similar to the train street we visited in Bangkok. So on tired feet we seek out this street which we are told is only a few blocks from our hotel. We get our first experience crossing a street in Vietnam. There are few to no controlled intersections, so you wait for a lull in traffic (I use that term loosely), put your hand up in a halting gesture and start walking. Do. Not. Stop. Traffic will go around you! We make it to the train restaurant street and have a glass of wine with our new travel friend, Hannah at Cafe Da Dong Duong (The Train Cafe). Fun conversations ensued. Glasses of wine here costs 180,000 Dong ($7.20 USD), which is not cheap compared to other things here. This street is a known tourist spot! Hannah takes her leave to go see a couple places she wants to see. We walk around train street and decide to have dinner here. We both have Pho with chicken and it is good!

We see a lot of amateur photographers photographing attractive young ladies modeling for them. One can only believe they are trying to get their big break! A train came through, but unlike Bangkok’s train at 2 mph, this one came through around 25-30 mph! Fun stuff! We limp on back to the hotel for bed.

See you tomorrow!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 05

Day 5 Monday, 3/17/25, Fly to Hanoi

Up at 8 AM. We have breakfast in the hotel and we have Pad Thai, Larb Na, Bacon & Eggs and Tom Ka Gai Soup! Then it’s up to the room to pack up for we will leave Bangkok today.

We check out at noon and hire a Bolt to BKK airport. It takes a whole 2 minutes for the ride to arrive! Then it takes most of an hour to weave through traffic to the airport. We tip our driver and take our luggage into the airport and check it in. We have to go through passport control as we are flying to a different country.

The airport in Bangkok is interesting. Suvarnabhumi Airport. The decorations and displays are colorful and elaborate. This is Thailand’s biggest airport and is one of the coolest transportation hubs in the world. The facilities are excellent and there are daily flights to every continent. Around 58 million passengers travel through Suvarnabhumi Airport every year. We walk quite a ways and then have to ride a tram bus.

Our plane flight is delayed almost 2 hours. We don’t find out why. So we spend some money in the airport and eat random food.

Once on the plane, I order a glass of wine and you can see how they serve it! We are flying on Vietjet Airlines. The plane lands at 6:00 PM at Noi Bai International Airport, Sóc Sơn, Huyện Sóc Sơn, Hanoi. Hanoi, North Vietnam. It was supposed to land before 4:30 PM. But our ride to TK123 hotel is waiting for us along with other people that we will get to know as we travel with them for the next 10-12 days. We do have enough time to buy Sim Cards for our phones. It costs us 350,000 Vietnamese Dong ($14 USD) for unlimited use for a month. The conversion is 25,000 Dong equals $1.00 US.

The ride to our next hotel, TK123, takes approximately one hour. We see many colorful buildings along the way as dusk turns to night. We arrive at the hotel at 7:30 PM. Tour operator Danny is waiting for us. He will coordinate our trip for the next 12 days. We won’t see him until near the end of our trip as he is only coordinating our itinerary. We will have different Guides in each city.

We get oriented and in our room on the 10th floor. We walk a half block to a recommended restaurant, Quan An Ngon, for dinner. We have Bun cha Ha Noi and Nem cua be and I have a Bia Ha Noi. Anthony Bourdain recommended these dishes and they are very tasty!

After dinner we go back to the hotel for the night. Bangkok was 35C (95F), Hanoi is 20C (68F). The humidity is much lower also! A very pleasant change in the weather.

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 04

Day 04, Sunday, March 16, Bangkok

Today we arise at 5 AM. We don’t get breakfast in the hotel because it’s not open yet. I call for a Bolt ride at 5:45 AM (Think Uber or Lyft). It is a 15 minute ride to Siam Paragon Gate 1 (Thailand used to be called, Siam”). That is the place our instructions tell us to meet our Tour Guide for the day. It is under large concrete overpasses and it is dawn. So my camera demands some attention and grabs a couple shots. The tour guide shows up at 6:15 AM and checks us in. Before she shows up, we have time to grab a bite of food from a Vendor in front, something made with chicken. Street Food. We also find that water here comes in cans! The bus arrives and we board. The bus leaves promptly at 7:00 AM. The tour guide has quite the sense of humor and everyone is entertained. It appears our group today is around 20 people. It will be a two hour ride on a comfortable bus. Everywhere there are jumbled wires on poles along the streets.

The tour Guides, Apple and Mien Phan entertain us with jokes and local trivia. For example, the average Thai earnings are 10,000 Baht per month. That’s approximately $300 USD. Per month. Let that sink in. You address someone older than you as, ’Peepee’. That is what we should call our driver. But wait, not I. Because I am older than the driver, I am told to address someone younger as, ’Nongnong’. Okay, so there it goes. Thank you for driving today, Nongnong!

We pass many salt mining farms. This is quite the business in Thailand. They pump Sea Water into the fields and let evaporation do it’s thing. Then they rake and scrape the salt into piles and ship it away. My camera whispers in my ear, a two hour ride? Come on, let me have some fun! So I acquire many photos outside from the moving bus.

We stop at Cafe Amazon for a ‘rest’ break with bathrooms. Mien Phan then gives us more trivia and jokes until we reach our first destination.

We arrive at the, “Lao Tuk Luck Floating Market” west of Bangkok. We get into (with difficulty) low floating long boats, such as the ones I commented on yesterday. Ours has what appears to be a 4 cylinder car engine mounted on a long pole, with the propeller at least 12 feet behind the boat. There are 4 or 6 tourists per boat. It’s fun riding in the narrow boats while vendors come alongside with trinkets or food. We cruise through the canals and marvel at this way of life. We even see a sign desribing the cost of a boat ride that we think we understand!

After which we climb out of the boats (with greater difficulty) and have Thai iced coffee and iced chocolate. New found friends Jonathan and Olivia from New Zealand shared their table with us and jolly conversation is had. We walk over walkways over the canals to get overviews.

Then it was back on the bus to the Mae Klong Railway Market. Perhaps you have seen videos where all the vendors pull in the awnings so the train can come through! We ‘high fived’ the passengers on the train because we were inches away! Everyone was on time or early prior to this so we got to see the train come through twice!

Then the trip back to the city was accompanied by guide Apple’s great sense of humor! Driver Peepee ( or to us ‘Nongnong’) took us to Icon Siam, a huge mall on the river. We are not up to walking a mall, especially one this big but Elee wants to see the food areas. This seems to take up most of the ground floor. But first we sit and have a glass of wine.

We then walked through the food courts and marveled at the arrays of seafood, meats and fruit and vegetables. We had been shopping for a taste of Durian all morning and the best we could find was portions for 100 Baht (about $3.50 USD) and didn’t buy any because all we wanted was a tiny taste. Then Elee spotted a vendor with tiny free samples and we said, YES!

Now let me describe Durian. It has such a foul smell that hotels ban it and charge twice as much penalty as they charge for smoking! Sure enough, the smell was rancid! And you say, “You are going to put that in your mouth?” Well, long story short, that’s exactly what we did! And the taste defied logic after smelling it. It was creamy and smooth with a vanilla, banana texture and taste! Absolutely nothing off putting about the taste at all! Now it’s time to go back to the hotel. Right outside the Icon Siam was the river and a riverboat dock. So, for 32 Baht total (0.95 USD, yes, you read that right, 95 cents!) we both got a ride to about two blocks from our hotel!

Today has been a hot one, even for Bangkok. On our walk to the Chillax, we even pass by what appears to be a restaurant food photo shoot! Our hotel has a pool on the roof with a. ‘swim-up’ bar. So guess where we spend the next couple hours? They even have a Happy Hour and get a free appetizer with two drinks! A bargain at twice the price! We chat amicably with other tourists from Holland and Bavaria.

Then back to the room to dry off and head out to find dinner. Tonight we are in search of Street Food. After a couple miles walking, We find a vendor that has Pad Thai with Chicken. Add a large beer and drink for Elee and dinner costs 320 Baht or $9.54 USD! Total. For both of us! However we are underwhelmed with the flavor but it fills us up. The large beer I got was about 38 ounces or one liter. I only drank half of it. A couple sitting next to us was drinking the same beer so I gave them the second half of the bottle!

Back to Chillax to chill and relax for the night. See you again tomorrow!

Vietnam & Surrounds Day 03

Day 03, Saturday, 3/15/25, Bangkok

It is now Saturday morning. Friday didn’t exist. We got on the plane on Thursday. We got to our hotel Saturday morning! We get up around 9 AM after arriving at 2. Our hotel is named ‘Chillax’, an appropriate name for the start of vacation! We have a complimentary breakfast in the hotel. Today we will seek out the Grand Palace, supposedly a ten minute walk from our hotel. By 10 AM it is already 33C (92 degrees F) and over 80% humidity. Street food is being prepared already by food carts parked at the curbs. Welcome to Southeast Asia! But here we are in another beautiful place in the world that we have yet to explore!

Turns out the Grand Palace is a mere 10 minutes walk. Even taking the wrong turn through Bangkok University doesn’t prevent us from finding it easily. It’s a huge complex of gorgeous temples. The currency here is the Thai Baht. One USD equals 33.5 Baht. We pay the 500 Baht (approximately 15 USD) each to enter. I also pay 200 Baht for a set of loose cover up pants as I am told that my shorts that come well past my knees are still not sufficiently long enough.

The attention to detail in this Palace/Temple complex is astounding! We even get to see a Changing of the Guard! Bright colors and golden alters and artifacts galore! After satiating our cameras inside the Palace, we find our way to the river a few blocks away. There we ride a river taxi as far as it goes and back again. I marvel at the motors I see on the small riverboats. They are 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder and even what appears to be a V-8 with an almost horizontal shaft 15 feet long to the propeller! The driver moves a bar attached to the motor so the entire motor swings from side to side to steer the craft! Turns out the end of the line for the river taxi is our stop, only two blocks from our hotel, the Chillax, where that is just what we do!

We have done all this in 35C plus degrees (95F plus degrees F). So we are tired and go back to our hotel and take naps for a couple of hours. I comment that I don’t know which I like less, 35C or -35C (-33F) that we had in Finland. The 95F here says it ‘feels like’ 107 with humidity. Just like in Singapore last year, Durian, the despised fruit, is a bigger no-no than smoking cigarettes! We are going to have to experience this at some point.

After our naps, we head out to find drinks and dinner. We find a fun street behind the hotel called, ‘Soi Ram Buttri’, that is full of street shops. Here you can buy food, clothing and drinks. The street goes for more than a mile in a ‘U’ shape.

We get a street side table and order beer and wine at a place called, ‘My House’. Their IPAs are good (and cold!). Cars and bikes drive through but are respectful of pedestrians, not like Egypt or Morocco. Fun signs assault our senses and another thing stands out. Something I first saw in South America seems to be prevalent here also. The overhead street wires are just complex jumbles that look impossible to sort out. I’d hate to be an electrician that is hired to repair a problem!

Modern busses drive through the streets carrying tourist to and fro. This is definitely a tourist destination. A lot of broken English is spoken here, even by many locals that want your tourist dollars!

We head back towards the hotel and stop at a restaurant, Hemlock, that was recommended to us by the front desk. It’s been here for over 30 years. We order authentic Indian food that includes Curried Crocodile! Nothing like we anticipated! It’s fabulous!

Then we go back to the hotel for the night. I do go up to the top floor where the hotel pool is and snap off a night shot overlooking the city!

See you tomorrow!

Vietnam and Surrounds Day 01

Day 01, Thursday, 3/13/25, Traveling

Here we are again. Time to go. Do we have everything we need? Do we have everything we want? We wanted to travel with only Carry-ons, but, alas, everything we need won’t fit! So we pack up medium sized Check-in luggage and have a little room to spare for acquisitions along the way. Our good friend, Tony, drives us to the airport! I’ll have to put his name on a couple bottles of wine! Our flight leaves on Thursday at Noon. My seatmate on plane, Ernest, is from Los Angeles and is traveling to Tokyo to watch the Dodgers play in Tokyo! Why? Because he can, of course! Our first flight is from LA to Hong Kong, 16 1/2 hours! Ugh. Well, it’s a good thing I brought sleeping pills and a neck pillow.

I watch a movie and eat the first meal they serve. Typical airline food. Probably recycled out of cardboard. We have also paid for extra leg room and that’s a blessing in disguise. I take a sleeping pill and lay back. I manage to sleep for 7 or 8 hours by the time left to fly when I awake. A couple more movies and some more recycled cardboard to digest and we are landing in Hong Kong.

We manage to find our next flight and trudge through the airport in time to board our 2nd flight to Bangkok, Thailand. Another uneventful flight and we land in BKK shortly after 11PM. We get through Security and Customs without any issues and our driver is waiting to pick us up. But first, I need to buy a Sim card for my phone. It is just comforting to know that I can use my phone for GPS and the Internet without incurring high rates from my home carrier. So, for $8 USD I have a Sim card good for a week. I’ll only need it for 3 days.

The ride to the hotel was just short of one hour. By the time we checked in, we got into bed about 2 AM, Saturday Morning. That’s right, we left on Thursday. Where did Friday go?

See you all when we wake up!