Plevyaks in Bali

Darwin, Cairns and Port Douglas were all on the North Shore of Australia, close to the equator.  Even though it is winter here, the temperatures have been mild.  Sydney is closer to the Southern Pole and thus a bit colder.  Here we put on all our warmest gear and visited Uniqlo for some additions.  We stayed in the historic, wharf area known as The Rocks, and enjoyed spending time on the water in the Harbor, doing a Bridge Climb and a Ghost Tour.

Port Douglas is a beautiful coastal town known for its access to the Great Barrier Reef and rain forests.  We even found a nice little escape room!

No moss grows on us.  Our next stop was Cairns on the North East Coast.  Highlights included cheeky birds and lovely rainforest hikes.

I am quite behind, so I'll backup.  We left beautiful Vietnam and flew through Singapore to Darwin Australia.  Darwin had some beautiful sunsets, scary crocodiles, and lovely hikes. We enjoyed checking out the WW 2 oil tunnels dug into the mountain, and the WW2 museum.

Vietnam is in the Northern hemisphere which means as we head South, towards the equator, Hanoi was warm, Hue hot, and Hoi An very hot.  We left early to see My Son Sanctuary before the real heat of the day.  These temples were built earlier than Angkor Wat by the Champa people.  Like Angkor, it was lost the the jungle, until it was rediscovered by the French who removes the heads from the statues, removed anything of value (including the king's body) and shipped the lot to The Louvre.  Later, American B52s bombed the site.  Despite all this it is a beautiful site.  After lunch and a rest, we went to the Bamboo Circus.  These artists were amazingly skillful and the bamboo apparatus' were inventive and unique.  A good day.

Struck out to see Hoi An's old town. We saw beautiful architecture, learned lhistory and ended the day with a ghost tour with Kun.  They have sacred trees just like Bali, and were involved in the spice trade like Indonesia.

Today we hired a car to take us South to Hoi An.  On the way we saw some amazing sites:  Lap An Lagoon, Lady Buddha Marble Mountain.

Yesterday was a long, hot day.  Today we slept in and tackled the Imperial City (steps from out hotel.). It is a massive complex.  The successor to the one in Hanoi ( which was the successor to the one in Co Loa). We loved hiking around, and seeing the amazing art and architecture of the site.

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.