3rd February, 2017

We left Hue for Hoi An after breakfast with Banh, our guide and a driver, heading south but detouring over the mountains. Unfortunately it was very cloudy with some spitting rain, so there was no view to be had but grey clouds. However it started to ease off and when we stopped by the sea on the other side for a loo break, we were at least able to stretch our legs in the dry. It also made for some very atmospheric seascapes.

Our tour included two stops, the first of which was in Da Nang, home during the American War to a massive US airbase. We however were heading for a small museum dedicated to the Cham people. Cham, by the by, is pronounced chum. The Chams were Austronesian sailors who arrived possibly around 4,000 years BC and have since been dispersed across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. In the area we visited they ruled Champa and thrived fairly well until the 9th and 10th centuries AD. There is a site of old ruined temples at My Son, discovered and excavated by the French in the late 19th century, though it was badly bombed by the Americans as the Vietcong holed up there. We only had time to visit the museum, but it was very much worth the visit as there are some wonderful statues, some of which have some truly great expressions. The statue of the slim man looks rather Greek or certainly from that area. I am sure there is a charioteer that looks just like it.

By way of contrast, we visited a more modern workshop at the Marble Mountains, famed for their statuary, some of which was huge. I had to get Val to stand next to it to give you the perspective!

The Marble Mountains are a set of 5 hills (at a maximum of 107 metres, they cannot really be called mountains!) and are indeed constructed of marble. The highest, Thuy Son, is the one to visit with a pagoda, nice gardens and a fairly spectacular cave – and loads of mainly Chinese tourists bussed in from Da Nang.

We made it safely to Hoi An with enough time to settle into our nice hotel, the Hoi An Silk Marina and Spa, though I could not see much of a marina, though we did overlook the river. Nice staff and a nice pool and room.

We had a bit of a rest and then grabbed an umbrella and set off for town in the rain, though thankfully that stopped quite quickly. Hoi An is wonderful. It is not a big place, though it was once the centre of a great deal of maritime trade front the 2nd century BC onwards and especially in the 16th century when it was known as Fai Fo and attracted many Chinese and Japanese and European traders. The former two dominated commercial activities in the town and many settled there in their own distinct areas. However the Japanese shogun forbade travel in 1639, so it was the Chinese who prospered especially when upheavals in China sent more refugees fleeing south. Eventually the river silted up and China opened her markets and Fai Fo declined. It was renamed Hoi An in 1954 and somehow escaped damage in the wars.

The result is a lovely town with a mix of architectural influences especially Chinese and Japanese with a bit of French thrown in for good measure. One excellent current rule is that motorised traffic is banned from the centre and that includes the ubiquitous motorbikes. The town authorities have also worked hard to retain the town’s old world charm and all local businesses must, by law, hang a lantern outside their establishments. You will see the effect in a later post. It was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999. We had a nice walk about that evening and it was not too crowded due to the rain. We eventually found a good restaurant, though you would be hard pressed not to as the place abounds with them. A few night shots to keep you going until the next post! Sorry if they are not up to the usual high standard.

And finally it was time for bed, some us so sleepy, we dropped off mid-sentence!

Bye!

1st February, 2017

Our very young looking guide Banh (which he pronounced Ben, possibly to make it easier for us) picked us up from our hotel with the weather looking very doubtful and so, armed with our hotel umbrellas, we set off for the sights of Hue. It was the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945, home of the Nguyen dynasty and it still has a rather regal air, mixed with a good dose of French colonialism. It still sees itself as a bit superior to the rest of the country not least in terms of poetry, art and learning. It still has considerable remains of its walled Citadel and Imperial City as well as several royal mausoleums and charming garden houses, of which more shortly.

The rain did not deter us and we set of for our first destination, the Thien Mu Pagoda, a seven-storey affair built in 1601. It was very impressive and so different from all the pagodas we have seen in Thailand and Myanmar. The stele is lovely too, perched on the traditional tortoise and recording the history of Buddhism.

The monastery attached to the pagoda became a centre of opposition in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but it became instantly famous in 1963 when one of its monks, Thich Quang Duc drove his blue Austin car down to Saigon to protest against President Diem’s treatment of Buddhists in what was then South Vietnam. Early in the morning of 11 June, 1963, he and a column of other monks left the Xa Loi Pagoda and processed to the intersection of Cach Mang Thang Tam and Nguyen Dinh Chieu. He then sat and meditated as fellow monks doused him with petrol and then set light to him in protest at the repression of Bhuddists by South Vietnam President Diem. This event was famously caught on camera and flashed across the world. After more self-immolations, arrests and killings and after more mass protests, Diem and his brother were eventually assassinated on 2nd November, 1963. The car is still there on display with a picture of the event in the background.

I think I mentioned the lovely gardens here in Vietnam. They really do them well, both in the temples and in public places. This temple was no exception with some perfectly gorgeous bonsai trees. Wet, but still stunning (just like Val, posing next to one or two!). One had a mean-looking caterpillar on it, very poisonous according to Banh.

Just down the road we were taken to what was in fact one of the highlights of the tour, a garden house. This is the Tha Om garden house built by the grandfather of the current 63-year-old owner. His grandfather was a mandarin and it was the fashion for them to build lovely houses outside the city surrounded by lush gardens and water. The current house was all but destroyed during the wars, but has been lovingly restored by our host to at least 30% of its former glory. It is in fact a series of houses linked by walkways each serving a different task such as sleeping, cooking, dining and to house the many wives that was the fashion at the time. The current incumbent could not have been more charming with a great smile and ready laugh. He was an architect so perhaps he had a natural love for the historic home of his ancestors, but he must have spent a lot on its restoration which has been done to a very high standard. My only regret was that I had left Val’s camera, which is better for interiors, in the car.

He was the sort of person you felt you could talk to for ages, but sadly we had a schedule to keep to, so after some lovely refreshments, we set off in the rain. It was a rather strange interlude as our car seemed to have disappeared or so we eventually discovered, so we did not think it odd at first when Banh suggested we walk up the road back towards the pagoda. We presumed that the car would appear, but no sign of it as we trudged along, umbrellas working overtime. As the car had Val’s medication in it, Banh was eventually persuaded to hail a taxi that took us back to the hotel to get some reserve meds. All a bit odd, but not unheard of and we did eventually meet up with our belongings in due course. Sadly it meant we could not take our trip down the Perfume River, though as it was still pouring down, that was probably not a great loss. Banh was mortified, but it was not a problem. He was a very sincere young man of about 24 going on 65, who spoke so clearly and precisely in English with a gap between each word and slightly odd accent that he did tend to sound a bit like Stephen Hawking, which image, now firmly entrenched in my mind, was very hard to shift for the rest of the trip! He had lots of knowledge, though and was happy to intersperse this with some rather adult opinions on many different topics.

A brief stop at the hotel to top up with medication and then it was off again into the rain for a brief drive to where the royal mausoleums are. The Nyugen dynasty liked to build themselves some impressive resting places and there are 7 you can view though time meant we could only get one in, that belonging to Khai Dinh, who ruled from 1916 to 1925, very much a French puppet who liked French style and architecture. He only reigned for 9 years but it took 11 to complete his mausoleum and at considerable cost to the people of the time in extra taxes.

It is on four terraces linked by 130 steps in a beautiful setting on a wooded hillside – unfortunately not helped by the rain! Before the first terrace is the salutation courtyard where statues of mandarins stand, then on to the stele house. At the top is the principal temple, a very lavish affair, but strangely not that garish. Anyway, I will let you be the judge of that!

We then had a simple, but excellent lunch at a convent, which was a bit different. This was followed by a drive to the Hue Citadel, the area that covers some 5.2 square kilometres and has within it three concentric enclosures. Within the outer wall lies the Imperial City, the administrative centre and, further in, you get the royal palaces of the Forbidden Purple  City. Unfortunately many buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1947 and then the wars took their toll as well as floods, typhoons and termites, but there is still much to see. The perimeter walls are 10 kilometres long, pierced by 10 gates. Those buildings that are still there, and there are still quite a few, exude a profusion of red lacquer and gold leaf. It must have all been awe-inspiring in its day.

Once through the outer wall there is a parade ground, a second moat and defensive wall defending the Imperial City, which follows the same symmetrical layout as Beijing’s Forbidden City. Sadly many buildings suffered from neglect even before the Tet Offensive of 1963, so there are only 20 out of the original 148 still standing. You enter through the Ngo Mon Gate, where the last Nguyen emperor, Bao Dai, abdicated in 1945, handing over the symbols of office, including a solid gold seal weighing 10 kilos! I have included a photo of a map of the area.

You walk on to the Thai Hoa Palace aka the Palace of Supreme Harmony, first constructed in 1805, though the current building dates from 1833. There are 80 ironwood pillars inside which all needed to be replaced during the restoration starting in 1991, each column weighing 2 tonnes and replaced manually and then painted with 12 layers of lacquer each one taking one month to dry. Please don’t pick me up by pointing out that actually there are a few pictures of other buildings – I was getting a bit lost on which was which by the end!

Finally we walked about the site trying to imagine what it could have been like, not least without the poncho-clad tourists.

Our last two stops were to see incense sticks and the iconic conical hats being made and a visit to the market, though the latter was a rather sorry affair, maybe due to the rain…

Well, another full day in Hue! Wet, but fascinating.

2nd February, 2017

We had a rest day, doing little, having (yet another) spa and reading, playing Yahtzee and generally relaxing. Nothing to see here!

More soon from our next destination, Hoi An, one of my favourites.

30th January, 2017

An earlyish pick up and we set off due east for Ha Long Bay and an overnight stay on a boat in the bay itself. The drive took about 4 hours through some rather ugly  industrial ribbon development with factories and housing springing up in a rather haphazard way. What was often strange was to see one ‘rocket’ house all on its own looking more like a rocket than ever. We wondered if there was a standard width for housing in the area as they do seem to follow a set pattern. We did stop at a big outlet where they sold goods made by those with disabilities as a result of the American War, ranging from massive statues to lacquerware and clothes and pretty much everything in between. We did like some of the lacquerware but the shipping cost was more than the goods themselves! You may be relieved to know that our garden will not be graced by a massive lion, a giant dragon or an enormous Buddha, though I did think the fountain below would look fab in the garden! We also stopped by a pearl farm, where they explained the process for cultivating pearls, which was interesting.

We arrived at the place where you catch the tender for your boat in what seemed to be a rather large and quite busy seaport. We were then shipped out (or would that be ‘tendered’) to our home for the night. The boat was quite big (there is a photo below) with nice cabins and we were soon chugging out through the extraordinary seascape of  limestone outcrops that is Ha Long Bay.

We made a brief stop at one of the 1969 islands of the bay that has an impressive cave, so it was onto the tender and up some steps and into the cave itself.

There was a good view from the cave and a nice little beach, though no swimming. To be honest, it did not feel that warm. It is winter here, you know!

It was then time for a sundowner courtesy of happy hour as the sun set over the bay. It was that or kayaking for 45 minutes or going for a swim. I rest my case…..

Dinner on board with singing and dancing by the staff was followed for those who wished by a movie, ‘Indochine’, set, you guessed it, Ha Long Bay. Val watched, I slept!

31st January, 2017

The next morning was an early start with a light snack followed by a trip on a fishing boat propelled very ably by a small, but obviously strong young lady round the islands and the floating fishing village. Very magical! And I even managed to snap a sunrise.

Then back for brunch as we sailed slowly back to port before our transfer to Hanoi Airport for our flight to Hue. We had a bit of time to kill so Tam took us to a vegetable smallholding which was beautifully laid out and maintained. He also skilfully snapped a panorama photo with us in it twice!

We managed to get on an earlier flight to Hue, which gave us enough time to check into our new hotel (the Saigon Morin, an old French colonial hotel – quite nice if a bit impersonal) and do a quick walk along the Perfume River for a bite to eat.

And guess what, we were in time for happy hour again! More on the historical city of Hue next time. Till then….

 

29th January, 2017

Today was in fact three wanders through Hanoi as Val and I were given the morning off (for good behaviour, presumably) and so decided to explore the Old Quarter of Hanoi. I then did a solo trip round the French Quarter and the Old Quarter and finally Tam took us on a cyclo tour and walking foodie tour in the evening.

Val and I wandered along what were relatively quiet streets in the morning as many of the shops were still shut for the Tet holiday and the bars and restaurants were still not open. Lots to see though such as two shops obviously opened by my siblings! I looked all over for Mary, Angie and Moyra shops, but to no avail.

Many of the local residents were all dressed up for the Tet holiday and visiting friends and family for open house which made for some colourful scenes in the flag-draped and electricity-enmeshed buildings. A quick word about the housing. Originally the houses were one storey and very long and narrow and were therefore known as ‘tube’ houses. Then they started to go up and up so now you get very tall, very narrow houses, which have been renamed ‘rocket’ houses. These are interspersed with the odd old house or community temple.

Plenty of odd sights – I enjoyed the Obama Cafe (good to see he has found something to occupy his time post President) and the ever decreasing hats and the people, as ever. Note the rooster enjoying his Year (or not!).

We did stop in a lovely old heritage house which gave us a good idea of what the original tube houses were like including the internal courtyard and old kitchen. It reminded me very much of some of the old houses in Georgetown in Penang, especially the one where Sun Yat Sen stayed for a while (see my earlier blog from Penang from last year).

 

Val was feeling a little tired so we hailed a cyclo or bicycle rickshaw who pedalled us through the headlong traffic back to the hotel, a rather surreal experience as we were going so slowly, but still moving, whilst everyone else was going so fast around us. I am sure that Einstein would have had something to say about it. I dropped Val off as I felt I had unfinished business with Hanoi and strode off armed with the trusty Canon for the French Quarter. You could be forgiven for imagining you were in Paris in some bits what with the wide, tree-lined boulevards and the cathedral and opera house.

It was certainly a lot calmer and quieter, but I soon felt the need for a bit of hubbub and made my way to Hoan Kiem Lake where we had pitched up on our first night in Hanoi. It was just as busy now, indeed possibly even busier with countless balloon sellers and selfie sticks as everyone tried to get the perfect photo with the lake or the wonderful flowerbeds in the background. I especially liked one area where you could hire electric toy cars and balance boards, although crossing the sort of rink where the children were hurtling around was about as exciting as crossing the roads. I wonder if that is where they learn to drive?

And a walk of mine would not be complete without a few characters and oddities. I was amused by the idea of the Vietcongbank! And yes, the other sign is very childish, but it made me smile! As did the two ladies on the motor scooter who spotted me taking their photo.

A short break back at the hotel and the Tam was there to greet us for our scheduled cyclo tour of the Old Quarter. The contraption itself is definitely not designed for two Europeans (well, one European and a lady of Indian extraction) and there was a certain amount of shifting of posteriors to find a comfortable position (though rather in vain, to be honest). It did not diminish from the experience though as we slowly wound our way through some fairly narrow but definitely congested streets as the late afternoon gave way to the early evening diners and drinkers. Note – make sure you keep all your extremities inside the vehicle at all times!

It was then back on shanks’s pony and a walking foodie tour stopping off for bite here and a nibble there, ending up with a sort of Mongolian BBQ affair (as modelled by Tam). I couldn’t resist the dog that was obviously (dog) tired after a long day and eventually fell asleep in the dish!

A great day, our last in Hanoi. I loved the city and would have been happy to spend longer, but we were off again in the morning with an earlyish start for our next adventure, Ha Long Bay. So, so long until Ha Long! Ha!

 

 

28th January, 2017

Tam picked us up from the hotel and it was off for the almost compulsory visit to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. This is real old school communist stuff, though to give ‘Uncle Ho’, as he is known, his due he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in three low key sites in the north, south and centre of the country. As the founder of modern Vietnam he was way too popular and important for that to happen and instead he is embalmed a la Lenin and Mao lying in great state with ceremonial armed soldiers on permanent guard in a massive mausoleum. It was rather impressive in its own way and a reminder that it is still officially still a communist, one party state albeit distinctly market economy driven. You cannot take photos in the mausoleum and you cannot even dawdle and take in the sight as I discovered when I was unceremoniously moved along when I stopped to get a good look at the great man.

The whole area is dedicated to HCM and next up is a view of the earlier French Resident’s mansion, eschewed by Ho, but still used by the current regime for visiting dignitaries. You then visit the house that was built for him, but which he felt was still not quite right once he retired, so he had a simple (though beautifully built) house on stilts erected. He had 3 cars (2 Russian and 1 Peugeot) and a nice lake where he fed the fish, whilst tending the garden. Note the tree where he got one of the branches to reach down to the ground and root itself. Also the One Pillar Pagoda.

Having seen some recent history, we were taken back in time to the Temple of Literature. I was not sure what to expect – a set of books? It is the most revered centre of Confucian learning in Vietnam originally dedicated in 1070, though reconstructed and embellished over the centuries. It was mostly used to train mandarins for the imperial bureaucracy. There are 5 courtyards each one significant in its own right, entered through gates with wonderful names such as the Gate of Great Synthesis, entering into the Court of Sages and passing the Well of Heavenly Clarity. I am tempted to go back to teaching just so I could rename a few classrooms! The stele mounted on tortoises (or turtles?), by the way, list the names of the winners of the state exams between 1442 and 1779. If you got though the regional exams (thi huang) you headed for Hanoi with your sleeping mat, ink stone and writing brush for the National exam (thi hoi) which could last up to 6 weeks. If you passed that you were granted a ‘tien si’ or doctorate and were eligible to enter the the final part (thi dinh) set by the king himself. Some years maybe only three out of six thousand candidates were granted their ‘tien si’. By the way, it was only open to males, excluding ‘traitors, rebels, immoral people and actors’!

It is seen as a great place to visit by locals as you can try and pray for a bit of help in your exams and hope that some of the academia rubs off in some way on your children, especially on New Year’s Day, it would seem, which is seen as a particularly auspicious day as evidenced by the crowds attending with us, all in their holiday best and the children in national costume. The couple posing were not doing it for me, by the way, but I took the opportunity to snap them. Many pay for a good luck scroll written by scribes who certainly tend to look the part!

Off next to what was euphemistically called the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ during the American War, but more prosaically called the Maison Centrale or Hoa Lo Prison. This was built by the French and there is a good dose of strong feeling in the exhibits and literature about the treatment that local nationalists (including no fewer than 5 future general secretaries of the Vietnamese Communist Party) received as against the very humanitarian way that the US pilots imprisoned there were treated. You pays your money….. The conditions were not nice, whatever propaganda you believe, with a rather chilling guillotine on display.

A very full day, though we had had to miss the Museum of Ethnology which was shut for the holiday. It was hotel time now and we had a nice meal there before settling down in our well-appointed room for a bit of blogging and Yahtzee. Regarding the latter, I am sure you are wondering what the latest state of play is, especially after Val opened up an 18 game lead. The good news, from my point of view, is that I have caught up and now, after 420 games, lead 208-207 (some were draws). How exciting is that!?

More soon!

27th January, 2017

We flew on an Emirates flight to Hanoi, a big improvement on what we have been used to, only 2 hours from Yangon. It then took us around 1.5 hours to get through visas and immigration. This was despite having organised with the excellent Lam at Indochina Pioneers, our tour operator, to fill out the application for approval for a visa, with which we were armed along with the application form, passport photos and $25 each. First you queue to hand all of this over along with your passports and then wait for your face (or at least something that looks like your face, but which you rather hope isn’t what you really look like) to be displayed on a screen along with your name whilst an electronic voice calls out an mangled version of what your name sounds like that makes Stephen Hawking sound like John Gielgud. This was about 30 minutes after handing over the documents but you are now ready to join the queue for the immigration officers to check what the other immigration officers just did. Val took a seat, sensibly, whilst I shuffled along for another 45 minutes. Interestingly the locals have to queue for about the same amount of time as the foreigners. Finally we were through and at least we did not have to wait for our luggage!

We were met by our guide, Tam and our driver, Mr Chee (I think) who took us to our hotel, the wonderfully named La Siesta Trendy Hotel. It is a boutique hotel in the old quarter and absolutely fabulous. Someone really worked hard on thinking about every last detail and, as ever, the staff were so keen to help.

We had arrived on the lunar equivalent of New Year’s Eve of what is called Tet here in Vietnam (you may recall the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War – which, by the way, is obviously called the American War here, not least to differentiate it from the French War). This was a problem to some extent as many of the shops and tourist sites close for quite a few days. On the other hand, it gave us an insight into how the local people celebrate. We were a bit tired after our journey and after Val’s less-than-brilliant night, but we did venture out to see what New Year’s Eve was like in Hanoi. Well, the first thing you notice is what seems to be crazy driving, especially by the motorbikes, but which is actually some very deft manouvering skills where the judgement of time, space and movement is assessed to the last millimetre. Crossing the road is a bit of an adventure, but you simply have to do it with purpose, having found a small gap in the ceaseless traffic and then keep going as the drivers take into account your speed and direction and sweep round you. Or at least you hope they do. The intersections are especially exciting – I don’t know if you ever saw the Royal Tournament and the Royal Horse Artillery doing their crisscrossing thing, but it isn’t a bit like that but much, much quicker (and noisier and with no horses and artillery).

Of course before you can go out, you need to get some local dosh, which, in Vietnam means getting some dong and when I say some, I of course mean loads! At an exchange rate of £1 to about 29,000VND it does not take long to become an instant millionaire. Indeed, the ATM kindly gave me no less than 4 million dong, which to be honest takes a bit of getting used to. It is really easy to mistake a 500,000VND note for a 50,000 one. I am counting zeros!

We did venture out and enjoyed mixing with the crowds who were wandering about with their families dressed in their Sunday best. Lots of noise, colour and smiles, especially round Hanoi’s lovely Hoan Kiem Lake, situated between the Old Quarter and the French Quarter. The public gardens in Vietnam are all beautifully maintained. It was absolutely fabulous to see everyone out enjoying themselves and we were only sorry that we could not stay out all night to see the new year in. We did agree with the sign on a building near the hotel! I decided the local brew deserved my attention.

And so to bed…..

 

25th January, 2017

Ok, well the last attempt at a quick blog obviously was a total disaster, but, undaunted, I will try again as we are into our second day at Ha Long Bay having already experienced Hanoi and I have yet to tell you about Yangon, aka Rangoon. Correction, we are now in Hue, most of this post was written in Word and pasted in now as the wifi on the boat was non-existent.

We arrived at Yangon airport about midday having flown down from Heho airport and the first thing that hits you is that it is a lot warmer in Yangon, especially at midday. It is quite a bit further south and Inle was quite high up, which explains it. It was by no means unpleasant though, more like a warm summer’s day in England. We were met by Zor (that is what it sounded like!), our new guide and Ha (ditto), our new driver who whisked us off into the traffic of Yangon. ‘Whisked’ is a bit of a misnomer as the jams are really quite impressive with really long waits at traffic lights, but being good Buddhists by now, we found our inner calm and reminded ourselves that we are on holiday! The interesting thing about driving in Yangon is the total lack of motorcycles as they have been banned. It felt quite odd, especially after Mandalay aka motorbike city. It did make it feel a bit more orderly though and there were fewer distractions as we sat in the traffic.

Yangon very much reminded us of Kuala Lumpur of the early 1980s, albeit with mobile phones. It is fairly neat and tidy with lots of green and a good smattering of old buildings. Unlike Mandalay, which was very badly damaged in the war, Rangoon, as it was then, escaped relatively unscathed. If it was not for the traffic it is a city that we felt comfortable in and I for one felt that I could easily have lived here with its bustling life and lots of culture and activities. But the traffic would probably have decided it. The capital was moved from here in 2005 to Naypyidaw by the General of the time, Than Shwe, partly to avoid the protesting students of Yangon and possibly because the general’s astrologer told him to in order to avoid an invasion from the sea! It was built in secret between 2002 and 2005 at an estimated cost of $4bn in a country that had one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. Most of the diplomatic community stayed put in Yangon, though all the ministries had to up sticks and move to the new capital with 48 hours notice. It is apparently worth a visit if you are interested in town planning as there are wide boulevards and nice roundabouts, but almost no traffic.

But I digress, again. We had a short rest at our hotel, a nice modern affair with a good view of the city before being picked up and taken to the first of our four stops for the afternoon, Kandawgyi Lake, created by the British and a nice spot in the city and, apparently a popular spot for young lovers as you can’t meet at home as everyone lives with their parents. You get a nice view of the great Shwedagon Pagoda too. Obligatory hotel room photos coming up too! And the rather OTT building in gold is a restaurant built by the military regime. Very strange.

Next was the Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda with a very large (66 metres long) reclining Buddha who was rather beautiful in a feminine way, with eye shadow and big eye lashes which are 33 cm long each. His nose is 2.7 metres long! The only disappointing thing was that he was housed in what looked like an aircraft hangar. Next was another Buddha, this one also large, but sitting. Sorry, can’t recall its name.

These though were mere appetisers for the main event, the truly magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda, the star attraction of all Myanmar, not least as it is said to house no fewer than 8 strands of the Buddha’s hair, making it the holiest of sites in the country. First of all, the Pagoda is in a huge complex and second, it is BIG. It is said to have been started in 588BC which would make it the oldest stupa in the world, though some say it was built by the Mon people between the 6th and 10th centuries, though added to after that with the stupa being raised higher and higher over the years. The main stupa is 99 metres high (add on another 50 metres for what was planned at Mingun) and there is gold everywhere – and people. The gold on the stupa itself came from 22,000 gold bars (I sometimes wonder what the total gold in Myanmar must be worth!). Here we go with the photos…..

Very spectacular and here are a few random people pics as Val always says I don’t take enough photos of people!

It was back then back to the hotel and time for a bit of blog writing (remember that?) and an early night.
26th January, 2017

I have decided to give you a special two for the price of one offer in Yangon, so here we are for our first full day in the city. We set off once again into the waiting queues of traffic to make our way to the downtown area, laid out in a grid system beloved of British colonial town planners, but strangely absent in Britain itself (Milton Keynes excepted). We were due to visit the market, which seemed to be located up and down a numbers of narrow streets in a rather unofficial way with the usual array of varied produce on offer. Many of the sellers were from outside Yangon, especially from the other side of the Yangon River, who come in early to sell their goods. As ever it was busy, crowded, colourful and largely cheerful. And as ever, there were so many sights to see that it has been hard to pare them down to just a few photos. Great fun and even a bit of banter and laughs with the locals, as you can see in one particular photo below. Poor Val found some durian and had to drag herself away as she would have had to buy a whole one and we could not be sure of what the consequences would have been if she had managed to consume the lot. First of all, some general market scenes..

And now a few of the faces we spotted in the crowds…

We then had a bit of a walk and a bit of a drive to look at some of the old colonial buildings and the Sule Pagoda (situated on a roundabout) from which all points in Myanmar are measured and which has often been the site of protests against the old (we hope) regime in the past. At time of writing I have now seen the French colonial buildings in Hanoi and the contrast is interesting as the British seemed to adapt their designs somewhat to the local architecture whereas the French tended simply to replant something that would have been quite at home in Paris. See the Opera House in Hanoi in a forthcoming post yet to be written! There is a bulky permanence and some degree of grandeur in what was on show in Yangon, though many buildings were in a very poor state of repair. Some were official buildings and some commercial and residential often built by wealthy locals.

One building we would have liked to have entered was the Secretariat, which was also the old Parliament building before the move to the new capital and which was being renovated. It will be a museum, I think, to Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San, who was the leader of the independence movement. He was active before the war, raised an army to support the Japanese, realised they were worse than the British, changed sides and eventually secured independence for Burma, as it was then known, in 1948. Unfortunately he was assassinated in 1947, just before, along with 6 cabinet colleagues at a cabinet meeting in the Secretariat. He is usually considered to have been a great loss to the country as he was very much a unifying force and could well have prevented the military takeover by the Generals from 1962 to the present day. The current political situation is that there were elections called in 2010, but boycotted by Aung San Syu Kyi’s NLD party as they were not going to be fair. There were better results in 2012 when she won 43 out of 44 by-elections and then an outright majority in the general election contested in 2015. She is now Prime Minister, though the military still appoint 25% of MPs and no one with offspring with dual citizenship is allowed to be President (obviously aimed at her). Cautious optimism is the keyword, though and she is revered everywhere we went and affectionately called the Lady. It is not all rosy though as she has been criticised for not speaking up fo the Muslim communities especially in the north where the military have been accused of some atrocities. This is the closest I could get to the Secretariat building…

I must just make a mention of a force in the background of Myanmar who are known locally as the Cronies and are those who supported and were rewarded by the generals and are usually credited with having a hand in most of the dodgy dealings of the country. They still own and run much of the commerce and are held in much disrespect by those we spoke to. The only charming thing about them as far as I could see is their nickname!

Our last visit in Yangon was an evening street market, mostly street food that was strung out behind recently imposed barriers (a big improvement according to our guide). There was a lot of street food on sale and quite a bit of ‘insides’ as you can see from the sign in the photos below. The locals were lapping it up! The things in the two round silver looking pans were weevils being warmed up in a bit of batter, I think. We decided to be careful as to eating there as we were flying out to Vietnam the next day. Val even had to resist the durians again. For those of you who have not experienced durian, it is a strange fruit that has a taste and texture and, especially, smell that has to be acquired. I never did in my years in Malaysia. It has been referred to as ‘garlic flavoured custard with a hint of sewage’, but Malaysians would pay a great deal for it. It is banned from hotels and public transport because of its smell – need I say more? The irony was that Val still came down with, let’s politely call it, an upset tummy and had a rather bad night. Still, being the trooper she is, we still made it to the airport in one piece for our flight to Hanoi.

I would have liked a bit more time in Yangon as it was a city that warranted a good explore, but overall what a lovely, charming, fascinating place Myanmar is. I can’t say it is cheap, especially the hotels, but there is so much here and the people are achingly eager to help, lovely to look at and charmingly happy on the whole. Highly recommended for a visit!