For The Love of Travel

Intense sudden-onset stomach cramping accompanied me on my flight from Hanoi to Da Nang, which continued on my 45 mins car transport to Hoi An. I was pretty focussed on the pain, so it was only later that I remembered I had ‘gastro stop’ in my first aid kit in my suitcase (doh!). Asked hotel to call doctor who promptly arrived and diagnosed….’gastro’, and supplied me with the necessary meds from his bag. Told me his daughter was studying in Melbourne and living in Docklands, and he was visiting her next week. Quite a chatty chap, with whom I didn’t want to chat…just crawl into bed.

Following day….felt much better and I ventured out shopping, with a number of silk tops on ‘requisition’ from family and friends. And to have coffee and sit watching the passing ‘parade’….as were the doggies 🙂

It’s not often I think to myself, ‘must check out what theme parks I can visit’, when visiting a new location in the world. I wanted to visit Ba Na Hills and the “Golden Bridge”. So I organised a driver and after an hour’s drive….arrived at a HUGE theme park with 5 zigzagging cable car routes across various hill levels, the ‘golden bridge’ being a significant, but one attraction aspect. Built @ 1400 feet and 150m long. Capacity of 7,000 passengers per hour (ugh!).

I purposely arranged to get there early in the morning to avoid the crowds, hoping the fog would lift within 2 hrs of me getting there as per the weather forecast….but was definitely not rewarded for my planning. I especially love the image of the tour guide, who’s lost his flock in the fog, but is still valiantly carrying the blue pole….

Back in Hoi An, one of the iconic symbols of the ancient town is the 18m, 17thC ‘Japanese’ covered-bridge, the Cau Pagoda. The architecture is actually an ingenious combination of Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese culture – in design, colour and materials.

Caught up with friend from Melbourne, Lenora and we had a lovely lunch at Baby Mustard, a family-run restaurant situated in a market garden area on the outskirts of town. Very tranquil setting!
Last evening in the village, and I went for a stroll along the Thu Bon River, with its origins in the 2,600m high Ngoc Linh mountain, flowing into the South China Sea. Lots of boats with paper lanterns were floating tonight, and candles inside a lotus-shaped cups, set afloat the river to carry peoples wishes along. The streets adjacent to the river were buzzing…vendors plying their wares and food; lanterns aplenty; spas; massages; street theatre….

Every night, when ‘turning down the sheets’, my hotel leaves a surprise package on the bed…a small story about a food, some history, cultural practice or folktale accompanied by a totally unrelated, but nevertheless delicious, sweet morsel to have with bedtime refreshment, tonight a sesame jelly. Nice touch.

Ban Gioc Waterfall, 400 kms from Hanoi, is one of Vietnam’s most impressive natural sights, located in the northeast province of Cao Bang, and at the border of China/Vietnam. The falls are 30 metres high and 300 metres across on the Quay Son river – a beautiful jade blue body of water flowing from China through a pastoral landscape of rice fields and bamboo groves, surrounded by limestone pinnacles. Both countries have bamboo rafts that punt visitors around the base of the falls for a better view of the cascades. Raft activity on the river increases exponentially at 11am, as the authorities release more water over the waterfall from upstream! My driver Khoa, a photography enthusiast, did a splendid job of capturing waterfall images from all sorts of vantage points, especially videoing. And I loved the pony lady’s attitude to being photographed.

The Phat Tich Truc Lam Pagoda hangs halfway up the Phia Nhan mountain and is a good place to enjoy initial distant views of the waterfall. My first motorbike ride in decades (tightly gripping a poor motorbike tout around the middle, who offered to take me up 🙂 and got me to the pagoda entrance. And then of course down we went, once again a vice tight grip….a well earned 50,000VN ($3) for him!! I really am getting too old for this sort of caper!

As we returned to Cao Bang, we drove through mountains and valleys where I discovered farming practices here haven’t changed much in centuries, much of the work is done by hand. One piece of ‘technology’ I saw, was the bamboo water wheel. This device scoops up water from the river, carries it up to the level of the fields and drops it into earth gutters, which channel the water into the fields to irrigate the crops. This particular one might have seen better days.

We diverted off to see Nui Thang mountain (Angle Eye), located in the heart of valley of the Ban Danh hamlet next to the Thang Hen Lake UNESCO complex, which features a charming green landscape and 36 interconnected lakes.

Next day, on the way into Hanoi, saw this precious scene….is there anything oversize that the locals aren’t game to balance on a bike, or riding device?? I think not!

On my way to north east Vietnam to see the resplendent Ban Gioc waterfall, but first wanted to drop in on this village. Khoa is my driver over the next 3 days, as we explore the north east provinces.

Pac Ngoi has more than 40 traditional stilt houses on the slopes of mountains surrounding Be Be Lake – built by the Tay tribe. These houses traditionally tend to have bamboo or palm floors, are usually built near to water courses, at the foot of a mountainside and surrounded by paddy fields. The walls of the house are made of woven bamboo pieces – easy to open to welcome the wind into the house on hot summer days. The thick palm leaf roof (requiring 6000 palm leaves) helps keep the house cool in summer and warm in winter.

Along the winding mountain passes, farmers were fertilising their land and this particular spot caught my eye, because of the pattern.