Hoi An

After Ho Chi Minh City, we went to Hoi An for a few days.  It was a pity that our flight there was cancelled and we ended up sitting in the airport for an extra four hours, but we got there.  Hoi An is a delightful little fishing village which has been preserved as a Unesco Heritage Site.  There is no auto/truck traffic in the main streets of the old town, which makes it very pleasant to wander around.

The town features, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Dutch architecture.  But mostly it is quaint, well kept up and very tourist friendly.  Shopping is available everywhere. and they make many of the items which are sold there, locally.
We took a cooking class, which started off in the market. and ended up with an absolutely delicious lunch. This was at Morning Glory Restaurant--highly recommended, but make reservations. There were several temples, and old Vietnamese houses. We did visit a few, and enjoyed just walking around the city, both during the day and at night. We are ready to go back for a longer trip. We didn't get to the woodcarvers island, the beach or several other destinations close by.
More photos here.

Ho Chi Minh City

I was prepared for just another large, busy, dirty, asian city when we decided to go to Vietnam and start off in Ho Chi Minh City (the city formerly known as Saigon).  I was very surprised when we arrived there and I loved the city.  We started out the first day meeting a friend of Cindy's and wandering around the town.  We saw the cathedral, the post office which has some postwar revolutionary statues out front, and has the old french maps still painted on the walls inside, also they have converted half of the phone booths into ATM booths, maintaining the architectural flair, while continuing to use the space well.  I think this was typical of everywhere we went in Ho Chi Minh city-- artistic, while obviously managed by a communist regime since the war with America.   We also went to a lovely little art museum where the building was obviously French Colonial, but the art was mostly revolutionary in nature.  It had a great old elevator in it as well.

It is obviously a busy crowded city, and the traffic is dominated by motorcycles and scooters. 
We decided to take a vespa tour through the city at night.  Here is Cindy on the back of her ride for the evening. This was one of the hilights of our stay there.  We got to go to several restaurants, a couple of which were "street food", a hidden coffee bar, and a rock and roll bar, all on the back of a vespa.  Jumping chicken (AKA frog) which Cindy said was delicious.
The hilight of the night had to be the hidden coffee bar. The hidden coffee bars are basically unofficial businesses where the locals go to hear good local music, and often have a nice quiet date. This one had a three person band including a singer, not pictured, who sang traditional Vietnamese love ballads among other things. The atmosphere was superb, to get there we went down an alley, fortunately well lit, through someones garage, and up the back stairs into this darkly lit coffee bar upstairs. In the picture you can only see half of the place, there was another room off to the right, similar to this one, also open to the band.

The second day, Cindy and I went to see the Cu Chi tunnels.  I had the morning time to wander the city before the tour while Cindy finished some work she had to do.  Here are more pictures from around town.

Playing something akin to checkers, but the pieces had characters on them so they must have had different abilities, and the pieces were kept covered by bottle caps till after their first move, I couldn't figure it out.

Some Girls who interviewed me about "famous people" for a class project I think.

Elegance on a bike.
The Kitchen and dining area.
A durian vendor taking a snooze at lunch time
and a barber waiting for his next client.


Here are a couple of photos from our trip to the tunnels. It is amazing that people lived underground for months in these very small, but lengthy tunnels. If I remember correctly there are over 250 Kilometers of tunnels, most of which are barely big enough for a man to squeeze through going one way. They also had traps, and rooms for kitchens, sleeping, making ordinance etc.



Next on to Hoi An.
and of course more photos on my flickr...

Hiking Mt. Makiling

Cindy was doing another of her days with Sambat Trust on Saturday, and I decided to meet her there and then find somewhere to go for a short hike. So I found a forest preserve located next to UPLB.  We went there for a short hike but decided we need to go back some day when we have more time.  As it was we only got started at 2pm and hiked for about an hour...  A couple of photos of our short sojourn.

And I managed to capture 3 butterflies. There were about a dozen or more flying around, but they're hard to catch with a camera. We also heard some very loud buzz saw sounding bugs on our trip back to the car. We did see one and it was about 2 inches (4-5cm) long, hanging on the bottom of a branch. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to catch it, and it flew away...

Tagaytay Flowers

Cindy and I were invited to go to a wonderful restaurant called Marsha Adams in Tagaytay. While there, waiting to be seated, we wandered around the garden. I took the opportunity to play a bit with my macro lens and take some photos of flowers in the garden.
 

Lunch was delightful as well as the company.

Tagaytay, Manila and Corrigedor

A couple of weeks ago, one of my daughter Ygrayne and her friend were visiting us in Manila. We took a few trips around the capitol area and down south towards Batangas. First we visited the Taal Volcano at Tagaytay. Fortunately we left around 8 in the morning, and arrived at the Taal lake by 10, we were on the boat across to the volcano island by 10:30. It is funny, because as you approach the lake from Tagaytay, there is an outcrop on the right side of the island which looks like a volcano crater/cone. I immediately assumed that was where we would go. Upon arriving in the boat, I realized that that is just one of the eruption points on the island, but that the main volcano is more central to the island. Once we arrived on the Island, both the girls had decided to ride the horses up, but I wanted to walk. So we set off. The horses set off at a faster pace than I expected. They got to the top in about 30 minutes. It took me 45 or so. It is a pretty direct climb up, though not too far. We had been sold face masks, which weren't really necessary, but would have been useful if the weather was a bit hotter and drier, or if the wind were blowing more. I used mine a couple of times on the way down when the horses were stirring up the dust and manure and the wind was blowing. Once I got to the top, I had a cold Buko (Coconut) juice, but the girls just wanted water. We looked around for about 20 minutes, and headed back down. Ygrayne rode down, I walked down with her friend. Along the way we met someone who was walking up near the steam vents by the side of the path. We were trying to see if we could capture a good picture, without any luck. He stuck his hand down on a vent, and then jumped back saying "it's hot". I told him not to do that any more as he could burn his hand. Pretty stupid, steam is usually hot. I guess not everyone knows that. After taking the boat back to the mainland, yes I know Luzon is an island, but it seems like mainland when crossing the lake back from the volcano. We got somewhat wet on the way back because the wind had picked up and was creating a bit of chop on the lake. Afterwards we decided to go up to Peoples Park in Tagaytay to get a good view of where we had just been, and have lunch. We got there and it was totally ensconsed in a cloud. So the view wasn't so great, but we did have lunch there. After visiting People's Park, we headed for Batangas and the resort. We stayed at Vivere Azure. It was a bit overpriced. They claim to be a 5 star but are more like 3+. The best part is that they have a coral reef right off the beach, so you can go snorkeling any time. The bad part about this is having to negotiate the beach without getting scraped up on the rocks as Ygrayne did. We enjoyed our stay there though, especially the sunsets. A couple of days after the resort, and before they had to leave, we took a 1 day trip to Corregidor. This is the fortified island at the entrance to Manila bay where MacArthur spent his time before having to be evacuated to Australia. The president of the Philippines was here at the beginning of WWII as well. It was subsequently taken by the Japanese, and then retaken by the Americans towards the end of the war. It is an interesting historical place to visit. The tour takes you to various batteries, war memorials, the lighthouse, and just around what is actually a beautiful island. We were fed lunch there, and on our tour bus, there was a group of 4 people taking group photos at each location, mostly jumping in the air. We were all pretty tired by the end of the day, and rested on the boat trip back. Here is one fun photo taken through one of the large gun barrels... More can be found on my flickr.