Decided that I had plenty of great vista pictures, so I decided to split Cities and Vistas into two.
Vistas in Vietnam, at least the ones we went to, involve water. We sailed in Halong Bay – part of the South China Sea - for afternoon and overnight. If you see a river going through Hanoi, it's the Red (honest!), in Hue it's the Perfume, in Saigon it's the Saigon, in Can Tho it's Mekong. The Mekong delta is further subdivided into the upper and lower Mekong. And the Mekong is broad enough and close enough to the sea to have 2 tides.
But enough of that – here are the pictures. I didn't get any interesting picture of the Red River, oh well.
Halong Bay: View from our boat, The Bhaya.
Halong Bay: This is the most dramatic one I have. The mountains are limestone, so the water eats away at bits of it. We used 4 person boats for a side trip.
Hue: The Perfume River. I took this picture in the afternoon the day before we sailed on it to get to the Emperor's Tomb.
Hoi An: Beautiful reflective water is incredibly filthy water. Had to hold my breath as I snapped this picture.
Saigon: Morning over the Saigon River, taken from a hotel window on the 20th floor. Saigon is 200 square miles, so even from a great height, the vista will be: city.
Saigon: The similar scene at night. Shipping never sleeps. Using the 10 sec delay function on the camera really helped with getting the night pictures.
A boat ride along the canals and channels along the upper Mekong.
Can Tho: Boat on the lower Mekong hauling sugar cane. Boats with eyes are passenger or cargo boats. The eyes are used to ward off evil spirits. Fishing boats have no eyes – fishermen assume that the eyes would ward off fish.
Vietnam: Vistas
March 13th, 2011 at 02:31 am
March 13th, 2011 at 12:55 pm 1300020949
March 13th, 2011 at 01:02 pm 1300021348
March 13th, 2011 at 03:48 pm 1300031310
Breathtaking ... my aunt is from Viet Nam and we could travel with her to visit her family remaining there. Makes me definitely think about it, after seeing your pictures!
March 13th, 2011 at 05:06 pm 1300035968
March 13th, 2011 at 07:19 pm 1300043941
March 14th, 2011 at 03:15 am 1300072527
momcents - its all pretty. The only twist I would think about visiting the family and touring at the same time is that most intelligent Vietnamese will take a big afternoon siesta (they don't call it that). Expect that your aunt and the family would want to show you something in the morning or evening. I got the distinct feeling that only mad dogs, people who are seriously paid, and tourists are out in the hot afternoons.