Angie started her sabbatical on April 17 and Paul and Jennifer flew in from Washington State that same day. We spent 10 days traveling in the Northern and Central parts of Vietnam. Here are just a few pics and some descriptions of what we saw...enjoy!
GG and Papa arrive!
After a weekend relaxing in our new home city we set off on our 10 day tour with a flight to the capitol city of Hanoi. We spent a couple of days celebrating Angie's birthday, getting lost on the city's narrow streets, and taking in the sites.
Water Puppet Show in Hanoi
Hanoi Cathedral
The next stop was a three day-two night cruise on Halong Bay. We drove a couple of hours out to the coast to meet our boat. The bay is a World Heritage Site and is amazing. Thousands of limestone formations dot the Bay. We kayaked, enjoyed the cooler weather, met some incredible fellow travelers and topped off the cruise with dinner in a cave!
Stopped at a "truck stop" to check out the Cobra Whiskey...we did not partake as Owen said it would make us crazy if we drank it.
Making spring rolls on the boat
Next stop was the central coast city of Hue, which is the old Imperial Capitol of Vietnam. We stayed at a great beach side resort and toured the ruins of the Imperial City.
We then took a drive through a mountain pass and down the coast, stopping in Da Nang (home of China Beach) and ending in Hoi An, where we spent the last two nights of our trip at another great beach resort.
An old gate at the top of the mountain pass still shows scars from past conflicts.
Artifacts at the Cham Museum in Da Nang. The Cham people are now an ethnic minority that once ruled a large portion of modern day Vietnam.
Marble Mountain Temples in Da Nang.
Hoi An
After our last beach getaway we headed back to HCMC and topped of the grandparents visit with food tour of the city on the back of some old Vespas. One of our favorite nights so far in our new city.
We would LOVE to have more visitors, start booking those flights folks!
