More pics. Saigon, Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi

Saigon River Cruise - Howard hard at work. Shouting at a customer.



Peoples houses along the Saigon River



Rough life for the goat


But they look happy enought to swim in the filth


Come to my houseboat...


Notre Dame Cathedral - Saigon


'Famous' gate at the palace in Saigon - was smashed through by a tank in a famous pic


Ho Chi Minhs card table....noice.


Thailand
Those are NOT surfers !


Koh Lanta beach at high tide - unswimmable for most of the day


K0h Phi Phi at seriously low tide


Longtail boat stranded at low tide - check out the anchor

Hue' Market, Hoi An and My Son (Mee Sun)

Hue' Market
Latest and greatest - you should see some of the trucks !









Hoi An - lovely city, but sooo touristy
Lantern shops


Famous Japanese covered bridge



They love an ice cream in this place


Grubs up


Yeah right !






My Son (Mee Sun) - Ancient Hindu buildings. Construction started in the 4th century and it was inhabited until the 13th century. They still have not been able to determine how the bricks stick together with no mortar. Yanks bombed most of the place and flattened the surrounding area.

Lotsa pics of Hue' area.....tombs, pagodas and temples

Spent a great day exploring tombs, pagodas, monasteries and temples around the Hue' area. Hue' is the cultural capital of Vietnam.

I went for dinner last night and decided to book a motorbike tour with someone based at the restaurant. It cost me $7 US for pretty much an all day tour - gotta be happy with that.

It must have been quite a sight to see me on the back of a 110cc scooter. The temples and Pagoda all started to look the same after a while but it was a great day nonetheless.

There is some real history here, the Pagoda mentioned below was built over 400 years ago.

Here are some pics..

Citadel
The citadel was the residence of a number of emperor's and their families. They must have lived quite luxurious lives in their times. The citadel is surrounded by a 10km perimeter wall and is something to see.

The tallest flag tower in Vietnam (37m). Hue' was taken over by the Vietcong for 3 weeks or so during the American war and flew their flag from the tower.


There were thousands of these Koi fish in the lake at the citadel - quite amazing to watch.

Thien Mu Pagoda

View from just outside the Pagoda.

Van Thanh Mandarin Temple

Not a very popular tourist spot. The driver stopped here on the way to the pagoda - I was the only person there.

Each tombstone here has a turtle at the bottom - a good luck sign for the Chinese.

Minh Mang Tomb

Minh Mang was the 2nd emperor of Vietnam. From memory, this is Hue's first tomb. When I die, they can bury me in the Minh Coord tomb.

Khai Dinh Tomb

This place was awesome. Quite gothic looking.

View of the tomb from a few hundred meters away.

Tu Duc Tomb

Probably the most lavish tomb that I visited. Quite an incredible place - absolutely huge. The real burial place of Tu Duc is a secret because they buried him with lots of treasure. So much so, that they apparently beheaded the 200 people that helped to bury him. A bit rough if you ask me. I think he was Minh Mang's grandson.