Market at Chua Con Son

A garlic and shallot seller in the market outside the pagoda at Chua Con Son.

More photos of Halong Bay

These are somewhat more muted on an overcast day.

Beautiful Halong Bay

Halong Bay from Titop Island

Freight Carriage

Sophisticated Vietnamese freight systems.

That much chilli Mum😮

Street food stall in Hoi An market.

Old-fashioned look of Hoi An.

The old city of Hoi An is a mecca for tourists, because of that it will obviously not change.  I would guess that places like Hong Kong and Singapore once had this look but we missed this by a few years.

Clothes shopping in Hoi An, a new experience for us.

Lesley bought a couple of blouses and a dress in Bi, which were adjusted by this lovely lady.  I know this is not a new experience for many but it was for us.

Loved the changing room.  A sheet draped across a corner.
I also had a tea chi suit made at Phuong New but you aint seeing me in that on here👿

If they are still Shell agents I hope they don't get a new sign.

An old Shell sign on a building in Hoi An (probably hated by Royal Dutch Shell's Marketing Dept.)

That's not the way to tie a bowtie.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.  What is the Asian equivalent to Crufts.

Old Lady in Market selling cooked rice.

River at Hoi An

The boats look traditional but are used to take tourists for a ride😎.

Taken from a moving bus, so not perfect.  A traditional looking scene until you notice the modern clothes, green wellies and watering cans.  Still she's wearing a traditional hat (like all the tourists are) and using a wooden yoke to carry the cans.

Sometimes I sit and fish, sometimes I just sit.

Taken at the lake in Hanoi where Senator John McCain was shot down and captured during the Vietnamese War.

Butcher's Shop

The local hole-in-the-wall butchers in a market near the B52 monument.  The meat looked very good as does all the food in the markets.

This wreckage of a B52 bomber is a tourist attraction in a lake in Hanoi.  It did not originally crash there but was moved as a  monument and is now a tourist attraction and, perhaps as a reminder of man's impermanence, a tree is now growing in the middle of it.

A guard at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (white uniform for mourning).  He put on a very stern face for the camera!

Three young lads (the grandsons of the proprietress playing a very vociferous and hyperactive game of chess.

Tree on the Hoan Kiem Lake

Tree growing into the water on the side of the Lake in Hanoi.

Dancing in the Streets

Strictly Hanoi Dancing.  The area around the lake is closed to traffic on weekend evenings and, in addition to hawkers, street food, tug of war (?), there are at least three or four sets of dance lessons.

 The light was dull but the colours less so and the flowers still need some water.

 Strictly Hanoi style - Dance lessons in the street near the lake.

The most animated game of chess I have ever seen.  lots of arm waving and triumphal jumping around.  We only went in for a plate of fried rice.