On the Way To Hanoi

The central part of Vietnam, a thin backbone that hugs the coast and connects the north (Hanoi) to the south (Saigon) is dotted with many cities and towns worth a visit. On our way up to the capitol, we made stops in the ancient town of Hoi An, the city of Hue, and the picturesque countryside around Ninh Binh.

Hoi An is a small town, but it is renowned for its ancient quarter, nice beaches, and tailor shops selling custom-made threads. Since we opted to skip on the last two offerings, we did not linger long in the Hoi An, but we did spend enough time there to see the sights of the old town, take a cooking class, and make a pilgrimage to Marble Mountain. Hoi An's old town is pretty much what one would expect a stretch of blocks preserved purely for the spectacle of tourists to be. It's mildly architecturally interesting with a few worthwhile destinations and many pedestrian ones and it's busting at the seams with souvenir shops and other tourist money pits. Our cooking class consisted of a walk through the local market, a boat ride to our school's riverside property, and the actual lesson. We learned how to make spring rolls (again), a Hoi An specialty of a crepe wrapped in rice paper, and an eggplant clay pot dish. We also learned how to make rice paper (both fresh and dried) from scratch, a skill we hope to put to use often. Finally, we hired a private car to take us to Marble Mountain - a collection of temples, pagodas, and caves situated atop, around, and within what was a former island that has been turned into a mountain by the receding ocean. We explored the sights all around the mountain and climbed to the top to get a panoramic view of the ocean and the surrounding urban and rural areas.

A Building Emblematic of the Architecture in Old Town Hoi An

A Lovely Doorway In the Old Town

The Front of a Tailor Shop

Locals Riding Through Hoi An

More Old-Town Architecture

A Fishing Boat Docked At the River

Lanterns for Sale In the Night Market

Fresh Produce At the Market

Herb Garden At Our Cooking School

Avi Constructing the Salad Inside a Pineapple

Avi Participating In Cooking Demo On Vietnamese "TV" (i.e. Overhead Mirror)

Our Expertly Crafted Spring Rolls

Posing With Our Handiwork

Making the Rice Flour Crepe

The Crepe Rolled in Rice Paper

Cooking the Eggplant Clay Pot Dish

Our Attempt At Food Decoration

The Way Up Marble Mountain

Rach Posing In a Cave Opening

Avi Doing the Same

Rach Standing At a Marble Mountain Temple Gate

A Buddha Statue Inside a Cave Temple

Standing on the Elevator Bridge With a Pagoda Background - We Took the Elevator DOWN

The City View of Danang Atop Marble Mountain

Marble Statues for Sale

Of Course We Had to Throw In One More Food Shot - Passionfruit and Chocolate Mousse In a Hoi An Cafe

From Hoi An we moved up to the city of Hue, which we found to be mostly lackluster. We did walk around the citadel - housing the Nguyen Empire's forbidden city - and took a boat tour of the tombs around the city, but the grandeur of most of these places had long faded before we arrived and for the most part, they have fallen victim to the weeds and other squatters of nature that are the hallmarks of neglect and disrepair. One of the bright spots, however, was our tour guide - a quirky effeminate man with a keen interest in palm reading and a love for all things American, but especially Desperate Housewives, Angelina Jolie's lips, and J-Lo's ass. He took a stab at reading our fortunes and we found out that Avi will live to 85 and that we'll stay together through the end of our lives, but not without suffering some infidelities along the way. He also tried to read our past and although we don't remember exactly what he told us, the accuracy with which he interpreted the past makes us less than worried about his predictions for our future.

Entrance To the Citadel

Golden Statue Greets You Inside

One of the Few Intact Pieces Within the Citadel Compound

Wide Shot of the Grounds Inside

A Pretty Gazebo - We're Not Sure of Its Significance

The First Piece To Be Restored In The Citadel: A Tennis Court From the 60's. Go Figure...

One of the Many Gates

A Closeup On the Gate Doors

Kites Being Flown Outside the Citadel

Hue's Riverfront At Night

Ditto

Pagoda At a Riverside Temple

We Stumbled Upon a Vietnamese Music Video Shoot

Older Female Devotees Resting At the Temple

Warrior Statue At the Emperor's Tomb

Us Posing At the Tomb Site

Our Quirky/Awesome Tour Guide

On our way from Hue to Hanoi we stopped for a day in the city of Ninh Binh to take in the surrounding countryside. This is a highly recommended excursion! We met up with a Chilean traveler and the three of us rented a group of moto drivers for the day. We started off with Tam Coc - a stretch of fields, water, and rocky spires that is known as "Halong Bay on land" and after seeing the splendid site, we cannot argue with the moniker. Tam Coc is verdant (the many rice paddies), dramatic (the mounds that jut out amongst the fields to encroach upon the sky), serene (the 6 kilometer round trip boat ride on the lazy river that meanders through the countryside), and other-worldly (the dark and silent caves through which you pass along the way). After a two-hour boat ride, we climbed up one of the many spires to get a bird's eye view of the area. We then moved on to the Bai Dinh Pagoda, the largest pagoda in SE Asia. The complex is a giant rectangle along the gentle slope of a mountainside. The walls of the two flanks that climb up the mountain are honeycombed with thousands of small golden Buddha statues protected by glass cases and the top side houses three gigantic statues of Buddhas in different poses. We wrapped up the day with a rain-soaked tour of two small temples at Hoa Lu and a ride back to town.