Category Travel
Bai Tu Long Bay – Caves and kayaks
By late afternoon of the first afternoon of our voyage through Bai Tu Long Bay, our junk sailed into a sheltered cove of one of the many islands. Two other junks operated by the same company were already anchored in the cove.Apparently the company has exclusive rights to the island, which meant we didn’t haveto […]
Bai Tu Long Bay – What we ate
I have to admit I started the Halong Bay cruise with some trepidation about the food situation. I knew the scenery would be fantastic, and I figured the lodgings couldn’t be too bad given the glowing Tripadvisor reviews, but I knew that boats and food and I don’t always mix well. And I’m not talking about getting seasick and […]
Bai Tu Long Bay – Karsts (sunset)
As evening drew near, the steamy humidity over Bai Tu Long Bay made for an incredible sunset.
Bai Tu Long Bay – Karsts (panoramic views)
Like Machu Picchu, the true power of Bai Tu Long Bay comes from the indescribable feeling of being there. There’s no way that a photograph, even a fancy panoramic one, can fully capture the feeling of gliding among these giant rocks, with row upon row receding into the mist. Still, since not everyone can come […]
Bai Tu Long Bay – A sailor’s life for me
Just off the coast of northern Vietnam lies Halong Bay, a fantastical world where thousands of limestone karsts shoot out of the water at 90-degree angles and fishermen live in floating villages in their shadows. It’s a landscape where creatures like pearl-and-fire-breathing dragons seem plausible — which perhaps explains how it got its origin story: According to legend, a mother dragon and her […]
Ninh Binh – Tam Coc and Hoa Lu
Okay, so food is not the only reason to come to Vietnam. This country also has some spectacular wilderness areas. The prime attraction are the limestone mountain formations (or “karsts”) in Halong Bay, which we’ll be visiting over the next two days. But before that, and to whet our appetite, so to speak, we visited another set of karsts […]
Hanoi – Places of worship: temples, pagodas, and one cathedral
Temples and pagodas are everywhere in Hanoi. As far as I can tell, there’s only one Catholic church. We’ve visited many of them as we’ve explored the city. They are beautiful and, to my Christian eye, a little mysterious and baffling (for example, many of the offerings in temples are cigarettes, beer and fake American […]
Hanoi – Hoa Lo Prison, or the "Hanoi Hilton"
After visiting the Ethnology Museum, we took a cab back to the Old Quarter of Hanoi and set off to find the notorious old prison that American POWs called the “Hanoi Hilton.” It was a bit of a walk, so first we stopped to get some lunch. Bun Cha Nem Cua Be Dac Kim67 Duong […]
Hanoi – Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
First thing we did this morning was jump in a cab and trek across town to the Museum of Ethnology (and it was kind of a trek — it’s 7 kilometers from the old quarter). The museum focuses on the many different ethnic groups that live in Vietnam and was recommended to us as one of […]
Hanoi – Uncle Ho
The first thing we did on our first morning in Hanoi was visit the Ho Chi Minh complex, which includes Ho Chi Minh’s Soviet-style mausoleum, the colonial presidential palace, the more modest houses where “Uncle Ho” actually lived, and a bizarre “museum” dedicated more to the advancement of communism and the symbol of Ho Chi Minh than […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 