Leaving Vang Vieng and brief stay in Vientiane
We spent the morning being lazy. The tour has been pretty full on. Leaving at noon, the journey from Vang Vieng took us through the mountains via the motorway. A toll road built and operated by the Chinese. Little traffic, but our journey wasn’t the smoothest, as we had a terrible driver with a foot constantly on and off the throttle.
Magnificent mountain scenery, shame about the smoke.
Vientiane
Vientiane is Laos’s capital city with a population of approximately a million inhabitants. Soon after our arrival, Beam took us on a short orientation walk, followed by lunch at a local restaurant. Dennis was feeling under the weather, so stayed behind and rested. The rest of the afternoon was free for exploring, but I returned to our hotel and we were lazy again until the evening.
Feeling refreshed we ventured out by tuk tuk with Phil and Cathy to the Night Market. All sorts of interesting edible, supposedly, things on display.
The decision was not to eat at a market stall, but to find an air conditioned restaurant. We chose a Korean restaurant and had another yummy meal.
Flight to Hanoi and a new country, Vietnam
After another lazy morning we left for Vientiane Airport. Our flight was with Laos Airlines on an Airbus A320. An on time departure from Vientiane for a 55 minute flight. We were even served a chicken roll and a drink. Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport is a very different kettle of fish. Very busy, so we were holding for 15 minutes, or so, before landing. Planes from worldwide destinations were parked next to us as we pulled into our gate. Qatar, Ethiopia, Emirates etc.
Interestingly I, and all the Brits, plus Annette, a German passport holder, did not need a visa. Dennis and all the others did. Is it because Australia, NZ and the US all participated in the Vietnam war?
Instantly Vietnam felt very different to Laos. Hanoi is a city of 9 million people, larger than the entire country of Laos. In total Vietnam has more than 100 million inhabitants. There appear to be a similar number of scooters and motor cycles. Crossing the road isn’t for the faint hearted. Our guides say don’t run. Just watch, walk and the traffic will stop/slow/avoid you. It’s pretty scary!
In Hanoi
The bus ride from the airport to our A25 Hotel took about an hour. After checking in Beam took us on a short walk to a local restaurant. Here we had a private room for our final dinner with Beam. We are also to lose two members of our group, Annette and Winston. I have to say Beam has been superb. She is an excellent guide. Always smiling, never phased, informative and completely organised. I fear the dynamic of the group will change with a new guide. We also have 4 new people joining here.
Thursday morning revealed a completely different day. Rather than the very hot, humid weather we had been experiencing, we were greeted with rain and refreshingly lower temperatures. A busy morning followed. A new, local guide, took us on a walking tour through the older part of town to the French built area with wider streets and French architecture.
Royal Palace
Our main focus this morning was on Ho Chi Minh. We walked in the pouring rain to Ho Chi Min’s Mausoleum. It reminded me of Lenin’s tomb in Red Square in Moscow. Ho Chi Minh was lying in a glass casket and we filed around him in silent single file. Apparently he is sent to Russia for a month every year for re pickling. There were white uniformed guards, with red and gold braid, everywhere. Some so still they appeared like cardboard cut outs.
Ho Chi Minh was a simple man and lived in a small house used by the palace electricians. He only used the Royal Palace for business meetings. Today the city was buzzing and full of Korean flags. A large Korean delegation was in town.
Ho Chi Minh spent 30 years overseas in many countries, including France, China, Russia and the U.K. He was very well educated and spoke several languages. He never married and had few material possessions. He became convinced communism was the ideal political system and should be adopted for equality in Vietnam.
He returned to Vietnam and founded the Viet Minh in 1941. He led the struggle for independence against the colonial powers, defeating the French and declaring North Vietnam’s independence in 1945. Later he led forces against the Americans during the Vietnam War.
Ho Chi Minh suffered ill health in his final years. He moved to a slightly more comfortable house and was taken to a reinforced building with a metre thick concrete roof during American bombing raids.
House with reinforced concrete roof
Children at Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex
Later in the afternoon we walked through the throbbing streets and the crazy traffic to the Water Puppet theatre, where we watched a show. It was possibly not the sort of thing we would have chosen to watch, but it was very well presented and entertaining.
In the evening we had a group dinner organised by our new CEO, Chief Entertainment Officer, Long. We met the new group members who have just joined us. Colleen and Sharon from Ireland and a German couple, Felix and Katharina. It will be interesting to see how things go from here.
Views: 30