Off to an early start on Nov.8 as a minibus picked us up from our hotel in Hanoi to drive us to Halong Bay. Five hours later, on less than great roads, we arrived. A small boat met us and transported us to our "Junk", which is small cruise boat (about 16 cabins). Quite comfortable with a great deal of wood throughout. Halong Bay is a unique and quite beautiful landscape. It is over 1600 sq. kms. and consists of nearly 2000 islands. It is a recognized world ...

This was a full day in Hanoi. For those on the tour who are leaving tomorrow, it was too short. We will be back in Hanoi twice more so we can do some additional touring.Our first visit was to the Ho Chi Minh Memorial. This is a mausoleum of the same nature as Lenin's in Moscow and Mao Tse Tung's in Beijing. His mummified remains are quite lifelike. We also visited the grounds of the Presidential Palace and the spartan home where HCM lived most of his life while i...

Visited towns and villages today on the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Did a rickshaw ride through the town of Chau Doc. Then stopped at a fish farm. The surface area is a house built on a 10 metre subsurface structure that contains all the nets for the fish farm. Mainly catfish and tilapia. They have renamed catfish as basa, which is a better marketing term. So when you buy basa back home, you are actually buying catfish. Stopped at a Cham village. The Cham ar...

Spent most of the day visiting villages along the Mekong River. Started at a factory producing bricks and floor tiles. The firm has been in the family for seven generations. After the Vietnam War the land was confiscated by the Communists, but it was returned to the family in 1992 and they built new kilns. We then visited a big village market that serves the region. Every type of vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and seafood was sold, all fresh. Ended the day ...

Moved from Saigon to our river cruise boat today (RV Tonle). Boat was built in 2002. Mainly tropical wood. Very comfortable with reasonably large cabins. We then were taken on to smaller boats (sampans) for a tour of a local village. Plenty of floating markets (boats selling all manner of vegetables and fruit). We visited a local family operated business where they made popped rice, coconut toffee and rice paper. The popped rice is made by heating sand, tossing i...