Northward Ho!  (No pun intended.)

October 27. After breakfast, we are driven to the airport for our 10:30 flight to Hanoi, passing kids posing for a school picture and viewing many typical motorbike/shop street scenes.Clearly, we are becoming accustomed to even higher levels of being spoiled. It used to be that, for a short flight, we’d eschew business class, suck […]

Pagodas, Mausoleums and the Citadel

October 26. After breakfast in the hotel, we take a morning boat cruise (notice on boat says, “Explosives, flammable materials, radioactive materials and cattle are not allowed to bring with visitors in boat.”) on the Perfume River to visit the Thien Mu Pagoda, which was only moderately interesting.We were then then driven to the beautiful […]

Champa Art and the Way to Hué

October 25. (First, my back is a whole lot better, thanks for asking. A nurse from the hotel came in to see me this morning and said that we were doing the right things to control the pain.)

We order breakfast delivered to our modest lounge and then set out for Hue. Our first stop […]

Village My Son and a Pain in the Back

October 24. We walk on the beach to another very good breakfast, after which we are picked up in two cars to go to some local villages. Our guide, Van (pronounce “Vung”) rides with Carol and me to start. Originally, we were to ride in a van, then transfer to a hot, bumpy jeep to […]

A quiet day in Hoi An and at the hotel

October 23.  Partook of a lavish breakfast buffet with Chet and Nancy, outside overlooking the beach and the main swimming pool. Interestingly, Chat and Nancy shared our view of the hotel, incredible both in what it is and in its failure to recognize the disadvantages of a room that seems almost booby trapped for the […]