Plevyaks in Bali

After Halong Bay, we popped back to Hanoi to pick up our luggage, then flew to Hue.  It is a beautiful city.  We took a car to the An Bang Cemetery about an hour outside of town, where families create fantastic mausoleums.  Photos don't do it justice.  It goes on, and on and on.  We also visited Khai Dinh tomb (a french colonial era ruler) which uses the same ceramic mosaic work as the cemetery, but on a much more elaborate scale.  The canopy over the emperor looks like fabric, but is cement and ceramic mosaic.

Halong Bay is about 2 1/2 hours outside of Hanoi.  It is a must see for tourists like us, so we booked 2 nights on the Elite of the Sea.  It tootles aound the bay and smaller speedboats take guests to and fro.  We had a chance to row to the Dark and Bright Cave  and hike in the Trung Trang Cave.  It was wonderful.

2 days are just not enough for Hanoi.  We loved the food, the sites and the people.  We went out to Co Loa, the old citadel from 300BC, and we saw the newer citadel in Hanoi.  The highlight for Rams was the prison.  I have never seen him so engaged.  This prison, Maison Centrale, was built by the french during their period of colonialism to imprison anti-french activists.  It was later used to house American pilots.

This AM we transited to Hanoi, Vietnam.  It is a little smoggy here, but lovely nonetheless.  Our hotel is on Hoan Kiem Lake, and after checking in we walked around the lake and visited Ngoc Son Temple. The temple is dedicated to a turtle who gave a sword to a king who saves his kingdom.  The descendent below died and was stuffed in 2015.  There are only 1-3 individuals of this magnificent species left.