Hanoi is great fun but I want to see more of the country.
I spent my last day here travelling through the North Vietnam countryside, looking at some towns and villages
and visiting Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin.
I don't know what I was expecting in North Vietnam but I was quite surprised to see these town houses.
They are quite typical and not at all how I had imagined.
It's a style of building I've not really seen anywhere else. A nice surprise.
This part of the world used to be known as IndoChina and here in particular was very much French colonial.
But the tall narrow buildings put me in mind of Amsterdam and the Dutch !
I've been really lucky with the weather on this tour but today I've come to one of the most photogenic places and the skies are cloudy and grey !
The land here is limestone which, due to erosion by the sea, accounts for the strange shapes of over 1900 islands in the bay.
There are caves and tunnels leading to eerily calm inlets surrounded by tall cliffs. It's a bit surreal, like another world but the whole area is beautiful (even when the weather's not good).
There's a floating fishing village here as well, this time on the sea. Apparently this area suffers from frequent typhoons and the huge island outcrops protect the village from the worst of the storms.
Even so, this fellah's not taking any chances.
A brick and cement structure on a boat !!
I promised a mention to some lovely friends that I met.
I promised a mention to some lovely friends that I met.
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| Claire from Brisbane |
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| Leonard from Paris |
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| Las hermanas felices de Ecuador !! |
I love people who laugh and Pamela and Bianca laughed all the time
(when they were not sleeping ! )
A great day ended with a walk through two enormous caverns which have only been discovered as recently as 1993.
The caverns are of cathedral like proportions, with incredible stalagmites and stalactites.
I have discovered that photographing the inside of a cave is not one of my strong points so ....
.... they are called the Thien Cung caverns and you'll just have to go and see for yourself !
Sunday 5th May- Kuala Lumpur
So now it's time to say goodbye to Vietnam and the lovely helpful girls from my hotel who taught me the Hanoi version of the
Green Cross Code !!
Kuala Lumpur
Back to the land of Starbucks and MacDonalds. ugh !!
What can I say about Kuala Lumpur ?
It is a big city with some very tall buildings !!
Old Geezers definition of a city like this ...
... somewehere you have to go to get to somewhere else !
I'm being very unfair, if you like modern western cities then
Kuala Lumpur is ok.
It does have the magnificent Petronas twin towers.
It has an excellent transportation system.
And it is very clean.
China town and
Petaling St. Market
are fun places to go.
There is
a beautiful park with
a butterfly garden
and there is a magnificent railway station where you can catch a train to Bangkok, or Singapore, or ... anywhere !
The problem with flying everywhere is that you don't see anything
So, I'm booked on the 9am to Singapore. The journey is 217 miles and will take 7 hours.
London to Manchester for instance is about 200 miles.
A 1st class seat in an air conditioned carriage cost me 34 Malaysian Ringitts (£8.00p)
Are you watching Mr. Branson ?
And I get to see the wonderful Malaysian countryside.
Next stop .... Singapore
