Our adventures - first down the Red River. Then down the Mekong River
We had a stop-over in Hanoi for a night, before being taken to our new boat
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| Our home in Hanoi | A comfortable executive room with and here is a first.. | ..a heated loo seat and a warm water wash for your bottom | The executive lounge is what all hotels should have for us. |
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| Decent supply of food here | Out on the streets of Hanoi it was a bit manic. With motorbikes . | ..street food vendors .. | ..and ladies in funny hats |
We then left Hanoi to join our ship further up the Red River
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| Our Pandaw ship | decent enough cabin | And soon we were ashore again, and hitting the temple trail | Pembroke, what do Buddhists believe in? Search me. |
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| Pembroke could not understand why the locals burn money here | It was quite industrial on the river with sand dredging. | New friends on board, but did not see another Teddy Bear | We kept seeing ladies in the funny hats again |
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| There is cake in those parcels, boys | Do not think they have seen a Teddy Bear before | Poor man has taken them apart and cannot reconstruct them | More of those ladies with hats |
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| Looks quite vicious. We don't think they will buy us one | Them chickens looked very squashed in | Ladies in conical hats | We pose outside a temple |
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| A really revolting sauce. Vegetables fermented for a year | |||
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| We made this bonzi tree ourselves | Now we found where the conical hats came from | These nice ladies measured us for bespoke conical hats | Young gentlemen about Vietnam |
By now we were passing through Hanoi on the Red River
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| Uncle Ho was much in evidence | Us thinking about taking a swim | Us being frightened by dragons | More ladies with conical hats |
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| We steered clear of this open air class | The surly guide would not let us near Ho's mausoleum | so we relied on our telephoto lens to see what was happening | Impressive display of goose stepping |
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| More serious stuff here, the old central prison in Hanoi. Where the | French and later the Vietnamese inflicted pain on the inmates. | After that it was an adventure to see the train in the street. | You could get your Coke top squashed on the rails |
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| We had a ring side seat and waited almost patiently .. | .. for the train to rumble down the street | And right on time , there it was, klaxon sounding, rumble of .. | wheels, swoosh of air and it was gone. What a brave bear. |
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| A walk round Old Hanoi | Uncle Ho again | World's most expensive coffee come from beans fed to weasels | Take your life in you hands crossing the road |
After Hanoi, we sail south down the Red River
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| The madre lost us in this ceramic shop ... | because we were hiding | We tried hiding again, but the chicken found us | |
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| We though briefly about becoming potters | But decided our true vocation was food | ||
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| Lion dancing is big in Vietnam. We wanted to take part .. | but they did not have a costume small enough for us | Madre could have got a costume, but eschewed he chance | |
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| Food on board continued at regular intervals | Inter spaced with lying comatose on the deck | Rice is not our favourite food | They were making a local bread here |
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| We found a man making mats .. | .. and were able to give him some tips | We tried to cheer up this weaver who looked a little sad | |
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| We made some silk threads for them | ..and got into the basket making business | After that we needed food... | ..and more food |
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| A boat trip , propelled by a Vietnamese lady who rowed ... | ..with her feet. She was so keen to get he tip, that she would not .. | ..let us off the boat till she got it | |
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| We visited the bridge to give the Captain a few tips on .. | .. navigating the Red River. He was very grateful for our help .. | .. as he said it was very difficult avoiding other boats | With our conical hats, the locals think we are Vietnamese too |
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| We saw the water puppets, and had to be very brave as they .. | .. were quite scary with things like dragons, and fireworks |
Then it was full steam for Ha Long Bay. and out with the paddles (well some some people antway)
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| Bit of a problem with the canoe ride - the madre had no idea .. | ..how to paddle. We gave her extensive tuition in the noble art .. | ..of how to paddle you own canoe. But it was futile, and we had .. | ..to take over from her in order to get back to our base |
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| Nice sights round Ha Long Bay and a trip ashore .. | ;We were ferried by golf cart to a village. | We thought that the "code of Conduct" for tourists was for us. | Sort of bear sized graves, perhaps we ought to reserve one |
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| These bullocks are big animals | Look we found a swing | ..and a pink bicycle. And perhaps we could save ourselves from | the washing machine with little fish which remove all the dirt |
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| Thank you Mr Purser, we will have all of them | Drinks on final night on Pandaw | Good Bye Ha Long Bay |
A bus took us back to Pan Pacific Hotel in Hanoi, and next day we flew on to join another Pandaw ship on the Mekong