Ha Long Bay

     One of our biggest splurges of the trip was an overnight trip on Ha Long Bay.  The general reviews for these cruises is that regardless of what you pay, you may get the bait and switch when you arrive and not end up in the accommodations you expected after the 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi.  However, we can report that we were pleased with the level of luxury aboard the Bellezza. Mind you, less than 24 hours are spent aboard.  Upon tendering to the ship you are greeted with welcome refreshments, a 9 course lunch, and posh cabins as the boat heads out through the famous karsts (but not really too far).  We were in the supposed less-touristy end of the Bay where only 30 cruise boats troll the waters.  However, they are generally all on the same itinerary.  After a bit, we got to our overnight anchorage where we were ferried off for an afternoon of kayaking and beach time (it rained).  When we returned to the Bellezza, the cove was full of the other night trippers.  We did enjoy spotting some large, yellow, stringy jellyfish off the top deck.  

Our host used the phrase "Sunset Party" at least a dozen times to ensure we were present for the top deck cocktail hour.  By a stroke of excellent fortune, after weeks of grey clouds and rain, the sky opened up and provided the most brilliant sunset of our entire 8 weeks. The girls got to hang out with some other kids for a change from London, Ireland, and Americans (currently expats in Riyadh).  The Garcia teens were, in fact, the only other American children we encountered on the entire trip.  The boat had room to host 5 families and we got to know them in a laid-back setting, rather than a "party boat" which is common in this racket.

Maya was bummed that swimming was discouraged at this beach at Fairy Cave.  The warning was due to jellyfish, which are common in these waters.  So is trash.  It was disappointing to see a disgusting amount of plastic caught up in the current.  For all the pride they have in this Unesco-Wonder-of-the-World, they don't make a lot of effort to preserve it. 

Genna was almost as interested in fishing as the Irish Boys.  They shared their table scraps with her so she could try bacon, bread, and apple bait.  What was scheduled as a night-time-only squid fishing event was carried over to the morning as we trolled back to the dock.  None were successful.

Part of the 2nd lunch was do-it-yourself, billed as a "cooking class" where you get to make fresh spring rolls and observe the chef carving produce garnishes.  All of the meals were multi-course and generously portioned.  Even the Carrolls had a hard time finishing everything that was offered.  If we could make a suggestion it would be less QUANTITY and more QUALITY.  The food was not bad, but some of it was a little blah.

Hanoi

We paired up with a couple of ladies (IRE and AUS) from our cave excursions who were going our way from The Phong Nha Farmstay to Dong Hoi to catch the night train on to Hanoi.  This time on the "SOFT BERTH" sleepers.  It was a step up in comfort and privacy with a 4 bunk cabin to ourselves.


Hanoi is a lovely city.  We stayed at the Golden Land Hotel in the Old Quarter.  The streets were busy and shared by pedestrians and traffic as the sidewalks were used for motorbike parking.  The architecture was great and the narrow frontages and mysterious alleys were intriguing.  We should have ventured out of Old Town more.  Just a few blocks away the streets were wider and offered less touristy dining options and cheaper ice cream! 

There was a lot of shopping to be found in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  The girls' favorite shops were a stationary store and this man who carved personalized wooden stamps.  Jeff got several Communist Propaganda posters.

(Wow, these photos are horrible, we'll never be invited to instagram).

     In our last city in Vietnam we took a "Street Food Tour" (itinerary pictured above).  It would have made more sense to do this within the first week of arriving in a country to familiarize ourselves with the various specialties we could have kept our eye out for... for the LAST 4 WEEKS!  The tour was enjoyable, but not exactly "street" as all stops were in sit-down restaurants.  My favorite new item tried was Banh Cuon, which is a steamed rice crepe that wraps sautéd mushrooms and pork.  Reminded me of a peirogi.   

     Genna cozied up to our young-guide Sunny.  As they linked arms to share an umbrella and cross streets, Genna chatted to her about home and school life.  Genna did a great job of making pleasant conversation with many new people we met and the locals were eager to pinch her baby cheeks and learn more about her. 

     We also enjoyed Egg Coffee on the tour and several other times.   There are many "famous" Bun Cha (top right photo) places in Hanoi.  It is OK to order just 2 portions for a family of 4.  There are so many components to this meal and it arrives in generous amounts.  It is often a place with a set menu, so you just sit down and they bring the spread to you.

This was more like it - street food on the street.  We had many Bahn Mi throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.  Some better than others with variations in lightness of baguette and quality of filling.  Some of the best were in Kampot, Cambodia and HoiAn Vietnam.  The saucier the better (IMO).





More war memorabilia in the Hanoi Hilton.  The interpretation is skewed to show the torture endured by the Vietnamese at the hands of the French in contrast to the comfort provided to the American POWs held here.  Perhaps we should read John McCain's memoir to compare perspectives.  Again Maya and Genna were turned off by the horrors of mankind's gruesome tendencies.






Most days' forecast 😓
For some reason we didn't buy an umbrella until Laos.

Jeff took a GRAB (motorbike taxi) on a solo excursion.  

Turtles at the food market.

     There was a "Craft Village" across the street from the Temple of Literature.  It was fairly dead this morning, but the girls wandered around and decided to try (the least culturally relevant activity) acrylic painting on canvas.  Other booths offered kite making, lantern painting, calligraphy, pottery, etc.  Regardless, it was an enjoyable break for them before we were off to another boring attraction: the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

     We also enjoyed the Water Puppet theatre one evening. We don't typically fawn over tourist-trap venues like this, but the water puppets were actually really cool. They could probably sell tickets to a behind-the-scenes access or at least an interpretive museum to explain the magic.

Phong Nha National Park

Phong Nha National Park is home to the largest cave in the world: Hang Son Doong. Not the LARGEST cave system, or the longest, (which is Mammoth in Kentucky) but the largest single cavern.  Now, truth be told, we did not specifically visit Hang Son Doong, as it cost thousands of dollars and requires a 4 day trek.  We did, however spend 4 days in the area and visited several interesting caves (some members of our group may suggest we saw TOO many).  But if it's raining ALL day, you might as well spend your time in a cave.  Sadly the Rainy Season had enveloped the entire region.  Cloud cover obscured those classic karst views that I was looking forward to.  We had fleeting peeks of the layers upon layers of those humpy hills on the horizon, but at times could not see any contours beyond the valley floors.

Paradise Cave
These caves did have some great formations, compared to Mammoth which is largely dry and "dead" these are still clearly living and growing.

We stayed at Phong Nha Farmstay.
This was another case of not knowing what to expect from the area as you attempt to blindly pre-book a room without understanding the logistics of the location.  We realized that The Farmstay was 6 miles removed from the town, but it seemed like the town was so small that it would have been of no consequence.  You have everything you need at The Farmstay if you are content with relaxing, drinking on the veranda, biking anyplace within biking distance in bad weather (which is no place, really), and eating exclusively at the guesthouse restaurant.  This was not an ideal setting for us.  The town, though skewed towards backpacker hostels, had plenty going on to have kept us.  We prefer the freedom of finding cheap local restaurants or eating from the market, or just walking around a town and people watching.  The Farmstay was a collection of guesthouses down a rural lane. There was "no room in the inn", so to speak, for our size family at the courtyard-pool-adjacent rooms.  So we were lodged 100m down the muddy road in a newish but rustic family bungalow that had cows and chickens in the driveway.  While the room had A/C, the bathroom was somewhat open-air.  By the end of the 1st day ants had infested much of the food we had imported from the grocery in Danang.
Overall, the weather really put a damper on our perception of the place and our moods.  Anyone else who stays at The Farmstay cannot help but gush that "it's just LOVELY!" (in non-American accent)

From The Farmstay we arranged treks and tours into the National Park.  The first one we did was MaDa Valley. It included a 9km trek through thick jungle, leeches, and poison ivy, then a stop at (another) elephant cave, fording the stream, swimming and cliff jumping at the blue MaDa lake, then swimming though Tra Ang Cave.  It turned into a rainy day and I was not happy about the water temperature so I passed on the dip in MaDa pool.  However when we reached Tra Ang, there was really no choice but to fully get in and go with the program.  With life jackets, helmets, and head lamps, we swam 600 meters to the dead end of this large cavern then back out.  The water was surprisingly not freezing, deep, and had a noticeable current.  That is one and a half times around a track - one way, swimming awkwardly in sneakers, in the dark!  The current helps the swim out.  I felt this was an incredibly unique experience and was glad to have done it! 

One morning (that The Farmstay host promised it would not rain until 2pm) we took the complimentary bikes out to try to find 2 churches, whose steeples we could spy across the river.  The map he provided specifically states that "not many tourists venture to the other side and you will be a rockstar if you go visit the locals".  After passing many brown cows, running over one small snake, wondering if we were lost, hailing a ferryman from across the River Song to fetch us, we did in fact receive a warm welcome and many cheerful "Hallo's", "Where are you from?" from many friendly people.  By the time we arrived at the first church (below), it started raining.  Thank GOD (LOL) for the wrap-around porch of this Catholic church.  We camped out there for 2 hours while it rained.  (I fully disclose that we let the girls watch YouTube Mermaids on the phone). At 11:30 people began arriving.  It was Sunday and perhaps there was a mass at noon, but we couldn't stay to find out as it stopped raining so we booked it across the nearest toll bridge and made a course for home.

"Madonna of the Golden Dragons" (j/k)

The end of another day-long cave tour.  Contemplating the view at a scenic overlook... or what might be a view had it not been misty!

     The second day-tour we did was Paradise Cave and Dark Cave.  Dark Cave was known to be a wet, muddy endeavor which may have appealed to our typically adventurous nature had we not been wet, and everything we own getting musty for the past 3 days.  We almost backed out, but decided to tough it out for the sake of not wishing to plan an alternative.  As a surprise the guide rearranged our itinerary to do Dark cave first, (due to rising water). So we could potentially be wet and muddy for the entire remainder of the outing!  We were experiencing significant Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) by now.
     In another effort to suck it up and just do it, we resolved ourselves to the DARK CAVE experience.  It begins by crossing a river (which would have been an idyllic green in dry times). If you are within a certain weight limit you can zip line across.  Maya wanted to try that so I did it with her and Jeff and (lightweight) Genna crossed on kayaks.  I was nervous that Maya would chicken out on the zip but she wanted me to go first and leave her to follow.  In reality, you have no choice, as the handler gives you an irrevocable shove after clipping your harness in.  It was a nice thrill!  Upon landing you make your way to the mouth of the cave.  After fording the knee-high cave river for a hundred yards or so you take a right turn into a side cave canyon.  We felt it so closely resembled our familiar desert slot canyons, except for being dark and totally enclosed.  After a few ups, downs, and turns, you arrive at a dead end which is a pool filled with thigh-deep liquid mud where you can bathe, slather, or wallow (or like me, just cling to the edge and investigate the clay until everyone has had their fill).  Then it is out the same way to wash off in the river of the main chamber.  Again, I felt that the experience was such a unique adventure it left a more positive impression than I expected.  No where in America are they letting you defile the fragile ecosystem of a cave with this sort of recreation.

Phong Nha Cave entrance.
The boat motors you a mile from town, then 2 oarswomen row your heavy craft with 12 large tourists 2km through the cave with the thinnest paddle you can imagine.

HoiAn

Hoi An is the darling city of Vietnam.  It features a charming (car-free) old town, a swath of bike-able rice fields, a glut of historic architecture, and its banh mi have been made famous by Anthony Bourdain (RIP). With that comes some incredibly touristy walking streets, lantern boat touts, and inauthentic night markets.  

We spent an enjoyable morning on a bike tour out of town into some local farm gardens.

They put the guests to work on the basil patch.  Maya is toting a load of seaweed fertilizer to prep the beds for transplanting. Genna attemps the shoulder-stock watering cans.

We tried our hand at making rice paper.  This is the type that is dried in the sun.  The disks are saved for later when they are char-fired over coals into crispy crackers.  The woman (in green) can make up to 600 rounds each day.  

We had this delightfully refreshing lemongrass basil drink!  I should have immediately put the word out to the Michiganders to start growing some of this so I could collect the seeds this summer.  The seeds get kind of gelatinous, like chia, in the liquid.  It is probably similar to this Indonesian recipe.

There is a nice program in town where you buy a pass to visit 5 of the 22 historic and cultural landmarks in the Old City.  (Babies are free!) Here Genna and Papa are deciding which one to see next.  

Dream on Hoi An.
This trip has confirmed our suspicions: The planet is doomed.

We collected a number of these lovely (I am not naive enough to assume they are "hand-cut") pop-up cards.  Grandma Paula would have been inspired!  If you're lucky, we'll send you one in the coming years.  

The Vietnamese version of the banana pancake: crepe batter skimmed onto a flat griddle.

An Bang beach is about 5 miles out of town.  Pleasantly un-trashy!

The Villa of Tranquility went down as the best hotel room and the second best pool of the trip (as rated by the girls - due to having their own separate large beds in a room connected to ours, with their own bathroom.)
It was a nice hotel, but required a taxi ride into Old Town or the beach.  It did have free bikes, which we would have used more if the Rainy Season had not begun in earnest.

     On the way out of Hoi An we had to transfer back to Danang to catch the train.  We spent the morning stocking up at the BIG C Grocery since we knew our onward lodging was going to be more rural and shopping impossible.  Before getting on the train we needed to find lunch and found a shop for banh mi and bun (soup) near the station.  The woman was so taken with Genna and possibly concerned that she wasn't eating enough that she took the bowl and began spoon feeding poor Genna.  G could hardly keep up with her relentless pace.  The woman wouldn't even relinquish the bowl to me when I implied that I wanted to finish assisting my own child.  Eventually Genna waved her off and the lady obliged.  Poor baby!  

     The train ride was in the late afternoon so we saw some beautiful scenery before sundown as it wound a path through hills and tunnels along the coast.

Danang

(See the size of our bags! black/blue is Jeffs, teal/orange is mine, Genna's is smaller, and Maya has a nice child size 35L internal frame)

Our first train experience of the trip was the night train from Nha Trang to Danang.  It was running late and the wait was uncomfortably hot.  We had 3 night trains total on the whole trip and progressively went up in class.  We started here with the "Hard Berth" sleeper which is a cabin for 6.  Two triple bunk beds with thin mats, a pillow, and a blanket.  It wasn't terrible sleeping but expectedly bare-bones.

We ate SO MUCH NOODLE SOUP for 8 weeks! Most of it was good.  Occasionally there would be weird things to pick around (crab balls or blood lumps), but you can't go too wrong with noodles and broth.  

We hoped to see more of Marble Mountain but entered at a minor ticketed entrance later to discover that we needed a different ticket to see the major part of the caves, pagodas, and mountain top. It was such a frustrating situation, we just left and skipped the rest.

We really liked Danang, even though we only spent 24 hours here.  The city is cleaner and traffic is lighter compared with Saigon.  There are several bridges that are lovely day and night.  

ADDICT
Here we learned that the iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk is called "Saigon" style.  It often comes with another glass of cold jasmine tea.  This cafe also served a DELICIOUS and cheap glass of fresh yogurt topped with passion fruit.

Nha Trang

     We figured NaTrang would be the last stop together before the Boyans departed.  It took us a while to figure out how our last week would play out.  Should we take a bus and stop in Dalat or take the train direct from HCMC? (We gave in and flew).  Since we scrapped the beginning part of the Thailand itinerary, we thought the Boyans might leave Vietnam early and try some of the southern Thai beaches, perhaps with a direct flight to Phuket.  (There were no such logistically convenient flights).

     The Boyans were hoping for some good diving conditions on the coast.  The girls wanted more beach time (which would potentailly be our last).  So we ended up spending 5 days in Nha Trang. The Boyans would leave 2 days later after getting a dive in.  Gratefully, they offered to take a bit of our cast-a-way luggage and souvenirs so we don't have to carry them for 4 more weeks.  

     Our major take-aways from Nha Trang were that it is overrun with Russian tourists.  We hadn't heard anything about this, but it is, in fact, a thing.  Secondly - the beach is overrun with trash.  A steady stream of plastic floats in with every wave.  (We did encounter 2 travellers a week later that had stayed less than a mile down shore, who oddly reported that their beach was clean.)  

   We were annoyed with our lodging situation at "Holi Beach Apartments" inside the Maple Hotel. The room itself was nice and even had a balcony washing machine and a kitchenette.  However it was an arrangement where some apartments had taken a few floors of a larger hotel.  The hotel pool was only available to us for a relatively high day-fee.  The Boyan's apartment was nearly as large as ours but was less than half the price of our room.  We just felt that the overall value was disproportionate to the enjoyment we had in Nha Trang.  Jeff and I can do with generally less beach time (ugh SAND and SUNBLOCK, yuck), so we're a hard sell on this city.

On the first full day we checked out the Cham Towers (above left) and Long Son Pagoda (right and below) 

We managed to get Grandpa to have street food on tiny stools with us once.  

     The Boyans treated us to a snorkeling trip with Vietnam Active to Hon Mun Island and Madonna Rock.  After our Cambodian experience and the amount of trash on the mainland of Nha Trang, we had low expectations that Vietnamese sea life would compare to our Caribbean standards.  We were pleasantly surprised.  Clarity was good and the reef-life was colorful.  We saw many blue sea stars, lots of parrot fish, and some specimens that even the crew of Exit Strategy didn't commonly encounter.  This was the first time Genna truly snorkeled, rather than freaking out and reverting to goggles.  She loved it and loudly narrated her findings through her tube the whole time.   Thank goodness for the wet suits they provided.  The water was a bit chilly and Genna was quite purple by the end of the day.  The Boyans booked themselves for a dive in the same area for another day.

     One weird encounter we had was at Hon Chong Promontory.  Some sources we read mentioned that you could snorkel off this point around these picturesque boulders.  Lonely Planet said that locals dive off the rocks.  Maya and I love to jump off cliffs and all of us love snorkeling (which was lacking at most ALL of the beaches we'd been to on this trip).  However when we got there, no one was swimming. We disrobed, masked up, and planned to jump in and immediately got tweeted at by the guards.  NO SWIMMING!  So we thought we'd climb around these boulders for a while before leaving for the approved adjacent beach.  TWEET! TWEET!  No climbing on the rocks!!!  You must stay on the maintained pathway.  They didn't speak English so we could neither argue, reason with, or wrench an explanation from the guards. Perhaps they had a good reason to ban swimming like there could be unexploded ordinances in the bay or they were protecting the (drab) reef (probably not). So we momentarily retreated, then the girls made a break for some offshore boulders to explore while leaving the dads to porter our belongings to the beach.  We made like Dori (just keep swimming, just keep swimming), don't look back, ignore the tweeting.  However, it took Dad and Jeff so long to catch up with us at the beach we feared they had been detained on our behalf.  

   Maya is a persistent diver and always found teeny tiny crabs or interesting shells off the beach.  Near Hon Chong she investigated this bumpy sea star.

The last beach day ALL the girls tried out the inflatable playground.  

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

     One thing about pre-booking hotels online is that if you have not been to that city yet, you don't have a feel for the neighborhood you are booking in apart from mapping the distance to the attractions you want to be close to.  We were having a hard time finding a reasonably priced place in Saigon that could fit our family of 4.  Since the girls cannot share one twin bed (not because of their size, but because they are miserable at sharing space, specifically with each other), we have to pass on some "family rooms" that only have a queen and large twin. Sometimes we have to get 2 rooms as it is a bit unusual to get 2 queens or larger in one room.  Dad and Jeff had been doing most of the bookings, but I gave this one a shot and found the Riverview Apartment Hotel.  

     Saigon addresses, like in other Vietnamese cities can be confusing as they are labeled as a main, recognizable street, but can actually be off that street in an alley, or hém.  Our apartment was deep into one such alley.  We arrived at night and walked through the garishly lit frontage of massage parlors and sushi bars.  This happened to be Little Tokyo.  To the girls, the underlying seediness was not blatantly inappropriate, and overall we were happy with the location.  The $45 apartment itself was grand with 2 bedrooms and a roomy dining area with furnished kitchenette.  Although no-pool, it did have a smart TV so the girls could YouTube their mermaid shows on the big screen.  Besides the Boyans I don't think anyone else was staying here.  The elderly hosts were always cheerful to us, while not knowing English, and if we had some question they could not assist with, they went down the block to get the daughter (in her sailor suit, or other costume-of-the-day at "Captain's Bar") to translate for us.

While the Boyans went off in search of a Western Breakfast before mass at Notre Dame, the Carrolls tucked into some street pho.  The sweet iced coffee was so addicting, Jeff and Genna wend back several times and befriended the proprietress and her granddaughter. Another benefit of having a "baby" with you is increasing positive interactions with locals.

Maya, Babçia and I took a cooking class with Cyclo Resto.  Keeping with their namesake, guests are picked up on these bicycle rickshaws, "cyclos" which happen to be operated by the oldest men in Saigon. It is a wonder they could maneuver through the hectic traffic with these heavy carts.

We began with a guided excursion of Ben Than market for supplies for our meal. A unique observation was a vendor prepping a large fish for her customer.  (bottom center photo above) She took the selected LIVE fish out of the tank and whacked it on the ground several times until it was dead enough to bag.  All parts of animals are on display from "nose to tail" as the hip agro-foodies say.  We did not buy anything exotic for our class, just shrimp, pork, veggies/herbs, tofu, and fresh noodles.

The class menu was fried spring rolls, chicken pho soup, Vietnamese pancakes, garlic morning glory, and veggie garnishes.  The treat for dessert was egg coffee.
Come over and Maya will prepare one of these recipes for you!

The War Remnants Museum is very educational. The girls thought it was a little too creepy, but 'tis the reality of these tragedies.

The young guide at the Cu Chi Tunnels (red shirt) definitely skewed his interpretation towards pro-North Vietnamese as he pointed out all the cunning ways the Northerners evaded, trapped, or maimed the G.I.s.  It was impossible to imagine living through that event on either side.