Checked out of our hotel at noon and went to the airport, although our flight is not departing until 7:10pm. When we arrived, we were astounded to see the line for the Air Canada flight to Vancouver was already over 100 long - 6 hours before the departure time. An hour later we got checked in. Now for another pleasant?? afternoon at another airport. The new Hong Kong airport is quite efficient with no shortage of shops. My last visit to Hong Kong was 20 year...

Arrived in Hong Kong yesterday. This was our 4th flight on Vietnam Airlines. All were good flights with surprisingly sufficient legroom. Apparently heavy rains have hit the south of Vietnam and are moving north. Our luck seems to be holding. Only one more day to go. This morning we got on the hydrofoil service (Turbofoil) for the one hour trip to Macau. Hadn't realized that Hong Kong and Macau are considered foreign countries and passports are required. Q...

Short flight from Hue to Hanoi this morning. We spent the early afternoon wondering among the shops in the old part of Hanoi. Vietnam has developed quite well since the Vietnam War, particularly since the early 1990s when it began adopting the Deng Tsao Ping (China) economic motto of "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches rats" and encouraged the private sector. It still has a long way to go. There is a lot of road and bridge...

Our last day of scheduled touring in Vietnam. Today we traveled up the Perfume River on a Dragon boat to visit a pagoda and monastery. We then drove out of Hue to two tombs of emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty who ruled Vietnam from about 1800 to 1953. "Ruled" may be a misnomer since the French were the colonial power in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) from about 1860 to 1953. The two tombs are quite different. The first, built in the 1840s, was very As...

Left Hoi An this morning. The day was quite gray and we had a downpour during breakfast. However, we were lucky again and the rain stopped before we started touring. Our first stop was Marble Mountain, a group of five mountains composed of marble. Plenty of shops selling marble carvings and statues, some quite large. They will ship to the US for $150 a cubic metre. Lots of caves and Buddha statues, temples and pagodas. Arrived in Hue and toured the Citadel...