Vietnam, Part I

I was unsure how to divide my blogging in Vietnam, since we have about ten days here and we're visiting four or five different places; it does not divide neatly into halves or thirds. However, now that we're most of the way through our Halong Bay tour, it's clear to me that there are two parts of my trip to Vietnam: Halong Bay and everything else. In fact, it would be only a slight exaggeration to say that my entire trip to southeast Asia divides up in a similar way. To keep you in suspense about Halong Bay, this will be the "everything else" entry.

Our first night in Vietnam was spent in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, and I did observe the exterior of some of the marquee sights: the Reunification Palace and the Notre Dame cathedral. But our main sightseeing was consumed by the Cu Chi tunnels, where many of the Viet Cong lived during the war to avoid the constant bombing (and worse) by America and its allies. Incredibly, the Viet Cong even had tunnels under the Saigon airport, of which the U.S. was unaware until after the war. The tunnels were built to accommodate a Vietnamese frame, which was ok for Gwynne and Amy (height: 5'3") but posed some difficulties for me.

Our time in Vietnam has been dominated by relaxation, on the beach and otherwise, which is just fine for Katherine and me, who have been traveling long enough that we're tempted to burn our clothes once we return to the States. In Nah Trang, Gwynne and I went scuba diving; we saw some fascinating coral and fish, including something that my guide referred to as "Christmas Tree Lights": small animals with shells of all colors living on a large, smooth piece of coral, which if the nearby water was disturbed would flee into the coral so rapidly that they appeared to vanish instantaneously. In Hoi An, we spent some time at Cua Dai beach (shown here, in the background), which features several kilometers of white sand, warm clear water for swimming, and delicious cocktails.

Hoi An was our third of four UNESCO World Heritage sites, and like Luang Prabang, was so designated for the unique architecture of its old town. This small lagoon with dragons was in the back of a temple dedicated to a Chinese emperor -- Hoi An was, historically, a center of trade for southeast Asia, and the cosmopolitan feel of a city with Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese influences endures to this day. Katherine and I also spent a morning visiting the nearby Marble Mountain (on rented motorbikes), where we saw some breathtaking marble carvings.

From Hoi An, we flew up to Hanoi, where we spent just an evening before leaving on the Halong Bay tour. I will have plenty more to say about Halong Bay later; for now, suffice it to say that I have seen three of the seven natural wonders of the world (at least, according to CNN), and I can't see why Halong Bay should be left off the list.