Posts for February, 2023

We left Sydney yesterday afternoon (Feb 20th, 15:15) and arrived in Hanoi after midnight Sydney time 22:00+ local time. The flight was uneventful. The passengers were predominantly Vietnamese with a significant number of young families with children and infants.

After our self guided explorations of yesterday we were keen to get going today with a guide and more information.

This morning was a 3 hour car ride to the city of Ha Long Bay where we were to join an over night boat cruise to visit and see the limestone pinacles for which this area is famous; Ha Long Bay

This morning we were up by 6:00 in the hope of seeing the sunrise, but alas, the sky was covered in cloud and the sun did not shine through.

Tam Cőc Garden Resort is a nice peaceful place so we decided last night that we would give more of today over to just lounging around the resort and exploring the local village of Tam Cőc.

The objective today was a late afternoon flight to Hue, which required a 3+ hour drive from Tam Cőc back to Hanoi's domestic airport. But along the way there was some exploration to do. Starting with a brief explanation of the process of rice growing. The gentleman in the first photo and his wife were planting young rice plants in one of the patches of land their family owns (they own 2 sq km in total). Our guide pointed out that it is somewhat unusual for the husband to be working in the rice fields as they are usually in the city working to make cash. In the case of this family that task is being undertaken by the families adult children.

Hue is a small city with a population of well under 1 million people. We were surprised to hear that its primary industry is education, with almost half the population being students at one of the cities 16 universities and 3 colleges.

Our agenda today started with a visit to The Garden House of Princess Ngoc Son. This house and surrounds was built for a daughter of King Dong Khanh (and sister of King Khai Dinh) as her residence. It seems that the princess married a senior mandarin of Dong Khanh's administration and that same family owns the property. This last point is some what unusual as many families of wealth with royal ties had their property and wealth confiscated when the communists took over Vietnam after "The American War".