2009 Vietnam Tour
On our way in the San Francisco airport
Crossing the Red River into Hanoi from the airport about 40 hours later
View from our hotel room
Taking a tour of the city via pedalcab the next morning
Visiting a temple where we were also entertained with music
Hi Chi Mihn's masoleum, where we are also able to witness the changing of the guard
The center of government built by the French during the colonial period
Ho Chi Minh lived out his later years in this home on the government grounds
A water puppet show, complete with an orchestra and singers ... much more popular in Vietnam than in the US ...
Homes and shops along the road as we set forth on a trip to a village. Standard plots in Vietnam are 5 meters wide and 20 meters deep. Homes are built the full five meters wide and abutt adjacent homes. Because of this, windows are generally only on the front and back, making interiors fairly dark
Visiting a cemetary along the road. Small cemetaries are found everywhere, even in the middle of fields.
This is a tile shingle manufacturing operation run by a man and wife. They produce about 2,000 shingles a day from clay. After the clay dries, they are fired in the kiln in the next photo.
A village market
Forming charcoal mixed with clay into standard shapes that are burned in homes
A Buddist temple
This village specializes in making rice paper which is used to make rolled "burrito-like" foods. The rice meal is briefly "fried" on the litlle stove in the photo and then transferred to a drying rack for about two hours. The drying racks (next photo) were all over the village
The next three grim photos are from the infamous prison, known to Americans as the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam war era, but built much earlier during colonial times. This is where John McCain spent several years.
A Christian church in downtown Hanoi
A lake in central Hanoi
From Hanoi we went to Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to spend a night on a small boat
We toured a cave on one of the small islands in the Bay
We also visited a fish farm
Returning to Hanoi, we stopped an the Ethnology Museum where we learned about the long, rich history and cultures of Vietnam. There is much more about this country that never made it into the newspapers and literature of the west.
Next
Last
Hanoi Area
Hue/Hoi An Area
Nha Trang Area
Dalat Area
Saigon Area
Landscape
Food
Traffic!
Our Group
Vietnam Home
Travels Home
Top