Hoi An

The heritage seaport trading city of Hoi An has been preserved and is now an UNESCO World Heritage site. To me it was poetry in pictures with so many gorgeous vignettes to capture! We were up early and walked around for an hour before 7am when the streets are not clogged with tourist hordes, but with locals going about their morning shopping and errands.

These are many small business people in Vietnam and food stalls are set up where every there are customers and then moved to another profitable location. Pushbikes and scooters move everything! Above, sugarcane.

These golden flowering trees were everywhere.

A door guardian with his companion on the other side, just as alert!

 A living flower curtain.

Aerial roots curtain the street.

 

 

Lantern city

Hoi An is lantern city. The bamboo frames are covered with colourful silks and look particularly appealing when lit at night with electric power.

Shapes and sizes.

This is the large one on the riverside and is a favourite spot to pose for a photo. The lotus decorates it beautifully.

Decorative elements

These are some of the decorative elements in temples and tombs that caught my eye. A leaf shaped plaque with lovely calligraphy [don't know what it says].

Mosaic work was used at many tomb sites, as well as glazed tiles. These seen at Tu Duc Tomb.

 Painted and mosaic decorations on this column. Note the wonderful dragon scales made from blue and white ceramic pieces. I assumed it was recycled crockery.

Cloud interpretations.

And the super ornate Khai Dinh Tomb where the walls were covered in mosaic work.

 

Gates

Very reminiscent of Chinese royal style architecture, this is the impressive entrance gate to the Imperial City of Hue, dated 1808-1945. It was largely destroyed in 2 wars, fought with the French and the Americans. However due to ongoing restoration, it is being returned to it's former glory and is a definite must see.

We found a number of smaller gates into various areas, some closed, some open to visitors.

An outside altar. Many of those inside the buildings were no photo areas.

The exit gate.

 

Hue

We are in Hue for a few days and got a cyclo round some of the streets of the area known as the Citadel, the old centre of Hue. The streets are tree lined and lovely with more scooters, pushbikes and walkers than cars. My peddler loved to take photos and would whip the I-Pad out of my hand!

The street signs all have the Imperial City, in yellow, as a backdrop. The flag tower in the background is the highest in Vietnam.

The moat is huge, full of pink and white lotus and surrounds the Imperial City section.

Streets are easier to cross as this garden seller moves his mobile shop across a busy intersection.

While this lady sets up her dried squid sales right on the street in Hue North Bank!

This mobile vegetable seller's photo was taken in the Old Quarter, Hanoi where there is a much greater density of people and vehicles. People watching is wonderful here in Vietnam.
 

Living life on the street

In Hanoi Old Quarter life is lived on the streets and this gave me many wonderful photo opportunities- just watch out and don't connect with the scooters and cars and peddlers of wares! Here a street barber has a very nice set-up.

Bob needed a trim, so he was next!

Off street parking, with this street actually having a space left for pedestrians, a rare occurrence.

The sign Made in Vietnam under a very plant overgrown building above. The narrow buildings in this part of town were because of taxes depending on street frontage.

Lunch, breakfast and dinner on the street with vendors setting up shop. A few plastic stools and food is all it takes.

Much more ornate but still working on the street.

Phung Motorbike repair shop.

Fine Arts Museum

 Visited the Fine Arts Museum and enjoyed discovering lacquer paintings and engravings and other artifacts. Above a wood carving of horse and stableman from the 17th century.

 Lacquered wood statue from the 18th century. I love the way the folds of his robe are captured and caught by the breeze.

 A lacquer painted screen by Nguyen Gia Tri 1939.

 Intensity of Tay Nguyen 1960 by Nguyen Nhu Hoanh was engraved lacquer, huge and gorgeous. Only detail photos here. All the village life was captured in the panels.

 

Halong Bay

Everyone said Halong Bay was beautiful and they were right! We cruised for 2 nights with Paloma and had a great time with the crew and fellow passengers.

The boat was wooden and had a lovely atmosphere. We were also surprised by the good size of the cabin for sleeping and the generous sized bathroom.

Loved the shell basin.

We got to spend time on white, sandy beaches and kayaked to caves and arches.