After our return from Cambodia, we had a couple of weeks before our daughter, and her husband would visit from Canada for a couple of weeks spending 10 days with us. They would be arriving at Chinese New Year, called TET in Vietnam, which is one of the biggest holiday’s in Vietnam.
The kids took a day to decompress from their flights coming from Canada, we just strolled the riverside where they were celebrating TET, it is ‘Year of the Cat’ in Vietnam, this is different to China where it is the ‘Year of the Rabbit’.
Crossing one of the bridges with the Dragon Bridge in the far distance.
Now it was time to strike off some items they had on their list to see/visit with the limited time in Vietnam, such as Ba Na Hills, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Long Bay and Hanoi. First it was off to Ba Na Hills and the French Village, this is located almost directly east of Da Nang. 
We arrive at the base of the hills and wondered the property.
Time to board the ‘Gondola’ to Marseille Station, the weather started to change.
This is what we came to see:
This is what we found:
As you can see, we are wearing Raincoats which we purchased at the top. Luckily at the top there is an indoor entertainment area, they even had 3D movies.
We had planned to spend most of the day here but with our outdoor facilities being curtailed we left around 2pm. We had hired a car and driver for the day to take us wherever we needed to go. This meant we had to contact him prior to leaving the top of the hill so he was at the bottom ready to pick us up. From here we travelled to Hoi An.
After checking into our hotel, we walked into ‘Old Town’ which was quite busy.
Another list item was the ‘TAN KY’ heritage home, these are a few of the photos from inside.
We spent a couple of nights here, sampling the local food, seeing the sights. One of the local dishes includes a local Noodle called ‘Cau Lau’, here are some that have just been made drying in the sun.
Cau Lau Noodles.
Cao lầu is a regional Noodle dish, from the city of Hoi An, in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province. It typically consists of Pork and Leaf vegetables on a bed of Rice noodles made from rice which has been soaked in Lye water, giving them a characteristic texture and colour that sets the dish apart from other Vietnamese noodle dishes, including others from the same region, such as Mi Quang. (Wikipedia)
One of the dishes Stewart liked was Mi Quang.
Mì Quảng (also spelled mỳ Quảng), literally “Quảng noodle”, is a Vietnamese people noodle dish that originated from Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam. In the region, it is one of the most popular and nationally recognized food items, and served on various occasions such as at family parties, Death Anniversary, and TET. Mì Quảng can both be found in many famous restaurants and street vendors among Central provinces, and is eaten for breakfast and lunch. (Wikipedia)
Next: Friends & Family Pt.2
It’s fun catching up with family. I see a little nasty weather and that’s good when you have strong hands holding up your bridge 😀😀
Do you think it would be a good idea for the kids to visit all of these places in a short time period like they did in Cambodia? It sounds like it would be a lot to take in and they would not have much time to explore everything.
So fun to have family visit. Wow that is a lot of rain! 😎