Ho Chin Minh city is a big city, the traffic was ridiculous, it was so busy they have 8.2 million scooters. We were there when they were celebrating 70 years of reunification after the Vietnam war. We went to a couple of museums about the war, that was a sad and hard time for the southern Vietnam. ALL WARS ARE SAD! Vietnam is very hot.
We had a wonderful time in Hoi An which was in the middle of the country of Vietnam. We went to the lantern festival that is always on the full moon. We went out in a basket boat (coconut boat) paddled by an 80-year lady. We had an opportunity to go to an American school, ran by an American teacher and her son and daughter in law, it was so much fun. They ask us questions about USA and we judged a story contest presented by the children. The next day, we flew to Ho chin min city.
Da Nang Vietnam was wonderful, we loved it. So much to do; we eat on a beautiful beach with sand, there was a dragon bridge that blew fire, Golden bridge supported by two hands, we went up a cable car and came down on an Alpine coaster and fireworks in the sky every night. Now on to Hoi An for another week.
This is our first time in Vietnam, so we took a city tour to all the famous spots, we then walked to Ho Chin Minh mausoleum and learned about his life. We also went to the city market, around the lakes and visited many temples. I believe the people who live in the city do not have a kitchen at home, they eat out every day.
A highlight of our time in Hanoi was an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay, we took a cruise on the M gloria ship which was full of activities for two days. We kayaked, took a small rowboat through a cave, enjoyed Vietnamese food and met interesting people from all over the world.
The French built Hoa Lo Prison in 1858 and housed Vietnamese that fought against the French colonialists until 1954 when the French left. During the 1960's Vietnamese used the prison for the American POWs during the war. The POWs were there from 1967 (when they were shot down) to 1973 when the war was over. The American's called it the "Hanoi Hilton" which is used in many movies about the war.
There's a lot to see in this city, it's so clean and modern; we visited "Garden of the Bay", "Mariner Bay Sands Hote...
