Tourists in Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh meeting room under his house.

Touring Hanoi, we were taken to see some cultural villages.

The sign says Vietnam, but the view in the background is of China, with the border checkpoint on the bridge to the left.

A colorful village market

Selling fruits, vegetables, spices and roots.

A walk through the fields. I need the scarf to keep the sun from frying my skin.

Our hotel balcony in Sapa. Maew, with the highest peaks of Vietnam in the background.

Garvan at the other end the balcony. The village is built on the mountain side, so we entered the hotel from the road near the top of the building, and took an elevator down to our rooms.

Going native.

A view across the valley.

Going for a walk through the villages. There are many different ethnic groups in the area.

Another view during our walk.

Some of the locals. Their short legs make light work of climbing up and down the steep valleys.

Garvan with our Vietnamese guide.

Maew with a mobile vendor.

We keep buying these trinkets, but never use them. I bought a shirt that I will never be able to use.

Terraced rice fields

A look across the valley on the trail we are following. It was a short 4 km walk, but up and down.

Maew on our junk in Halong Bay. There are so many boats they must queue up for space to collect tourists.

Garvan on the upper deck.

And Maew's turn.

Most of the boats had sails, but they were mostly for decoration.

A tourist junk passing us by. The first day was foggy, but the weather brightened up next day.

A queue of boats filing through the islands.

Sitting out on the upper deck.

A view of the islands. There are caves underneath some of the limestone outcrops.

Passing through a cave into an enclosed lake.

The head of our boat. Every boat had a different figurehead design - different kinds of dragons.

A vendor in a woven bamboo boat, tarred to make it water proof.

Lights from the junks reflecting off the water at night

Morning in Halong Bay

A view from a cave entrance.

A different angle from higher up.

Relaxing on deck.

And Maew.

A view of the boats back in harbor.

Trying my hand at painting ceramics. I was bored looking through the shop displays, but found the workshops where the ceramics were made much more interesting.

It takes some practice to get the paint to flow smoothly. The brush if very fine, so you must use a very light touch.

My finished product.