Vietnam Is ONE Beautiful Place

Today we flew (having the last good look at the magnificent Mekong River) to the Imperial City of Hue. This city is the intellectual, cultural and spiritual heart of Vietnam.

The Citadel, built between 1804 and 1833, is still the highlight of Hue. This massive compound was the epicenter of royal life and a fortress within the city. It is gigantic with the barrier walls 10km-long, a moat and 10 gateways. The last emperor lived in the palace until 1945.

Beautiful covered halls ways and a Royal Theater.

After a visit to a pagoda and a boat ride, we drove south over a mountain pass to Da Nang and to the central beaches. There are miles of great looking beaches and resorts–too bad it takes forever to get to Vietnam. Lunch was at a seaside resort and then over the dragon bridge to Hoi An.

This city is about 5km from the beaches and was an ancient merchant trading port. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The whole place is alive with lanterns at night and little paper boats with candles floating on the river. We had plenty of activities planned for the next couple of days– a summer camp for adults.

The next day was for cooking school and crafts time. We went to the market to see and learn about the lunch we were going to cook.

Then it was a boat ride to the Restaurant/Cooking school. We passed fishing nets along the way.

We cooked a magnificent lunch. Really fun to make homemade rice paper, Vietnamese pancakes, and chicken stew. I wasn’t very good with the decorations.

After lunch it was on to “arts and crafts” where we made lanterns–I was not offered a job. These can be compacted and I was able to fit it in my bag so I have a nice memento of my trip.

The next day we explored the My Son Sanctuary and visited an organic herb farm (we could participate with planting baby bok choy plants) before having a yummy lunch at the farm–we didn’t make the pancakes for our rice paper rolls but mine did look just like these. The method is to build your roll with the pancake and fresh herbs and roll–dip in sauce and enjoy with a cold local beer!!!

After a farewell dinner and goodbye to my new friends, I am ready for next adventures in Thailand–flying to Bangkok tomorrow. This was a wonderful couple of weeks in Vietnam. Our tour guide was “the best”!