David RIP 20 Oct 2009 - 25 Apr 2010

Yvonne's beloved young cat David was tragically found dead at our neighbour's front garden last night. We believed he was hit by a car outside the house and the motorist kindly moved him to the garden.

Over the past few months we had much joy and fun with David, watching him grew from a kitten to a young adult cat.

He was the most affectionate cat we have ever had and will be sadly missed.

David loved to settle into any snugly location.

He had a clever way of finding the water level.

He had an unusual resting position.

He grew quickly into a young cat.

Vietnam #12 Farewell to Vietnam

Our trip finished in Hanoi and we celebrated at a fine French restaurant - Verticale.

Vietnam #11 Tam Coc

Like everyone else I knew about Ha Long Bay before going to Vietnam, but not Tam Coc, some 100 odd km south of Hanoi. Like Ha Long Bay, the beautiful scenery was carved out of the Karst limestone country. While Kay and Sue were busy shopping in Hanoi, Dave and I made the journey to Tam Coc and enjoyed the hour and half boat cruise along the Ngo Dong river, paddled by a local village boatwoman, meandering along the steep limestone cliffs, along rice fields and through grottoes.


More photos at Tam Coc album.

Vietnam #10 Hanoi

Hanoi, at last. We were brought to the Temple of Literature, a tribute to Confucius and other literary masters that contributed to the Vietnamese culture. Appropriately, the place was teeming with school children.


We particularly wanted to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, where the revolutionary leader still lie, and the spartan rooms where he spent his later days are now on display to visitors.


But of course, apart from the water puppets,


a visit to Hanoi is not complete without a cyclo tour and visit to the shops, if one can survive the traffic and the dusts !


More photos at Hanoi album.

Vietnam #10 Ha Long Bay

We left Bac Ha, returned to Lao Cai on the Chinese border and journeyed back to Hanoi on another overnight train.

There was a glitch in the transfer at Hanoi. When we arrived at 5am in the morning, there was no one at the travel office to receive us. After some frantic calls by the bus driver, we were driven to another office where a young night watcher was woken to let us in, have a rest and use the shop's facilities. We had the rare experience of watching Hanoi waking up.


Hanoi had to wait. A bus eventually turned up to us for the 3 hour drive to the world heritage listed Ha Long Bay.


After some confusion over the pier to board our Indochina Sails vessel, we finally got on board.


We spent the rest of the day cruising around the bay of spectacular karst landscape. We stopped to climb the Titop Hill on one of the islands and visited a floating village. Others went swimming and kayaking.




More photos at Ha Long Bay album.

Vietnam #9 Faces of Hmong women

Kay took photos of Hmong women. Most had to be compensated for their willingness to pose for the camera !

Vietnam #8 Flower Hmongs at Bac Ha

Each Saturday the market at the remote village of Bac Ha bursts into life when the Flower Hmongs turn up in their hundreds to shop, wearing their colourful costumes.





There were stores with colourful local craft fabrics as well as less common produce like horse offals, live dogs and even a cat. Getting there was a challenge. Sapa itself was already remote enough, we had to return to Lao Cai and then take a side track to Bac Ha, a journey of 3 hours in total one way.

Horse offals a local delicacy.

Horse offals beat Yum Cha any time at Bac Ha.

More photos at Bac Ha album.

Vietnam #7 Sapa and Hmong villages

From Hue we flew to Hanoi; we did not stay but travelled on an overnight train to the northern end of the train line at Lao Cai near the Chinese border, arriving just before dawn. A guide met us and took us on an hour-long bus journey to the hill top town of Sapa.

Sapa is a touristy mountain resort town, the centre of region with a large minority hill tribes population, especially the Hmongs.

Picturesque landscape round Sapa

Hmong woman and child.

Inside a Hmong house.

Our guide and Hmong woman and child.

Tourist with Hmong vendors.

More photos at Sapa and Hmong Village album.