One event that we were lucky enough to see, was the Dragon Dancing festival, which all of the kids in the city would take part in. Around the streets at night they'd be beating their drums & dancing beneath the Dragon suits - putting on a show for everyone to see. It was great fun to watch

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 6, 2011 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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It's actually quite hard to visualise what is once would have looked like as most of it is just ruins now, but I imagine that it would have been like a smaller version of the 'Forbidden City' in Beijing.
In it's time it was also used to House one of the favourite royal past times .......elephants fighting with tigers! So today you can see a few elephants here & ride them around grounds. We didn't actually do this but seeing these gorgeous creatures again took us back to our time in India.

We also did the DMZ tour- we wanted to learn as much as we could about the Vietnam war & this took us to the De Militarised zone at the time of the North/South divide & we got to see a section of some of the man made tunnels. The Vietnamese had built Miles of this tunnel system, which were so complex & tiny only they knew how to navigate in & around them. We crawled our way into them & there are so small that I couldn't properly stand up & width wise I had only just a few inches spare either side of me.

It was just incredible to learn that the local families actually lived here, women even gave birth here in these tiny dark tunnels and they are one of the main reasons why the Vietnamese outwitted their enemies & won the war.

views of the itadel

the Citadel ruins

inside the Citadel

inside the Vinh Moc tunnels (DMZ tour)

on the DMZ tour

We made our way to Tam Coc which was only about a15 minute ride & took a trip on the Ngo Dong River which was a bit like a mini Halong Bay with huge caves which we paddled through, and was surrounded for Miles by jagged cliffs jutting out of the lush paddy fields. The scenery was just gorgeous. A quirky little Surprise to the trip was that the locals actually paddled the boats with their feet - it looked like a great workout!

We also did a spot of unexpected rock climbing! what we thought was a few steps up a Mountain to take in the gorgeous views ended up being climbing up the side off quite treacherous rock for about 30 minutes in just our flip flops. But its actually doing unplanned things like this that have made our trip so amazing :-)

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on September 1, 2011 from Ninh Binh, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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It was similar to the landscape we's seen in Yangshou, but on a much larger scale, and even more spectacular. It really was breathtaking and we really couldn't believe our eyes.

We spent a bit more than budgeted just so we could stay on a nicer boat (& one that wasn't a teenage booze cruise trip !) which was worth it not only for the quality of food we were served but also the trips we were taken on………visiting the floating villages (families literally living on a 20x20ft wooden platform bobbing around in the Bay) kayaking, visiting monkey Island & swimming in beautiful clear waters. But the best part of the trip, for Dan at least, was jumping off the boat into the gorgeous sea every night after sunset & splashing around being surrounded by the beautiful mountains. I just hope the photos do this stunning place justice.

The never missed a trick to sell us stuff!

Kayaking

I made my very own spring rolls. Yummy!

fun for Dan in Halong Bay!

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on August 30, 2011 from Ha Long, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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The trek included a home stay, and because of the lovely bunch of people we where this was great……we were cooked some amazing food, we ate & drank outside overlooking the hills & slept in a huge dorm like room in a huge wooded House on simple mattresses under mosquito nets. It was the best nights sleep whe'd had in ages!!

The local tribeswoman were the only thing that made the trip a bit weird. They were lovely, but there were hoards of them following us around everywhere & asking for us to buy from them literally every 5 minutes, which gets to be very tiring, and annoying, meaning unfortunately you forget just how basic & tough their lives really are.

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on August 25, 2011 from Sa Pa, Vietnam
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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There's not a great deal to visit in Hanoi really. There are a few nice lakes to wander around, and we watched an underwater puppet show which was really great……..but the main reason everyone visits is to organise their onward trips. As did we!

Hanoi city centre

St. Josephs Cathedral

Skater dudes in hanoi park!

Water Puppet show

Me, Dan & Acer

We stayed on Fashion Street ( basically the wholesale area for fashion buyers) which was very close to Ladies Market- another place we'd been recommended to visit. Luckily we were give some great tips form the guy whose apartment we had rented- well I use the term 'apartment' loosely as it was actually only a 8ft x 12ft box room! But after some of the advice we'd read online about dodgy hostels & way expensive hotels it was just the perfect place for us. The location was fab, everything we needed was literally just within 10 mins walk……amazing local food (where nobody spoke English which was interesting!) fashion, electronics, jewellery shops etc & the bus to the Ferry stopped right outside!

So we made the trip across to HK Island & from here did some great day trips. We of course went to Oxford Street which was full of quirky shops & cafe, and saw all of the big glam shops at Times Square & went on the famed longest escalator (weird, but true!) However the best bits were going to HK point as the views across the city are just incredible, seeing the almighty massive Buddha, as well as visiting Tao which was a really cute little fishing village.

HK we love you!

Lantau Peak - the highest point of HK Island

The amazing Hong Kong skyline

the streets of HK

Tian Tan Buddah (Ngong Ping, Lantau Island)

views on the country trial (Ngong Ping, Lantau Island)

Hong Kong skyline. Just fabulous

our snug apartment

The view from our apartment

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on August 18, 2011 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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