11 Mar 2025 - Viet Tri
Our meeting point for embarkation in Hanoi was the Pan Pacific Hotel where we were staying.We had a delicious breakfast at the executive lounge and we are ready by 930 for the off to Pandaw.. This took place half an hour later and there were 21 of us on this cruise on the Red River. We transferred from Hanoi to the ship moored along the Red River in Viet Tri..
On the coach, we discovered that our guide for the next 10 days was very difficult to understand in English: maybe we will get used to it. He also annoyed David fantastically by throwing us off the front seat without having reserved it and then laughing at the inconvenience.
It was a 90 minute drive to the boat which was docked beside a timber yard with a lot of steps down to board it.
Click on thumbnail photo below to get larger photo
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The welcome on the boat was good and the cabin was welcoming, fairly small but with plenty of storage space and with the help of an extra eight hangers I was able to unpack the two suitcases into a very compact wardrobe
The lunch at 1 pm was excellent and we ventured fourth again at 2:30 pm to see what we thought was a UNESCO temple, Hung Temple. but it turned out that it was only the "culture" that was UNESCO and that the physical temple that we arrived at had been built in 2007! We were given incense sticks to make a wish with and saw fake money being burnt as part of the ceremony.
The origins of Hung King Temple Festival are steeped in ancient legend, tracing back thousands of years to the era of the mythical Lac Long Quan. Known for his superhuman strength and affinity for water, Lac Long Quan governed the Lac-Viet tribe and laid the foundation for what would become Vietnam. The Hung Kings Temple is a Special National Historical Relic. Temples dedicated to Hung Kings are located on Hung Mountain at 175m above sea level. Today the Hung mountain is still a natural forest with different generations of trees including 150 species of plants belonging to 35 families, such as Banyan, Pine, Cycad, and the Parashorea tree. The 850ha complex consists of four temples, one pagoda, a tomb, and a museum featuring the formation and development of Van Lang. The upper, middle, and lower temples commemorate the 18 Hung Kings. The fourth worships two daughters of the 18th Hung King: princesses Tien Dung and Ngoc Hoa.
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Back of the boat we found we were having to take our shoes off so that they could keep the boat clean which did not amuse me. The shoes would be returned after about 20 minutes apparently meanwhile we would have dirty feet instead. Then followed a safety drill and information drill for almost an hour, during which I fell asleep.
Particularly odd was their drinks policy which seemed to exclude wine whatever one did. They also did not want you to wash anything in one’s bathroom.
Then it was happy hour although by this time there was only half an hour spare before dinner, we had a rum cocktail in this , a Mai Tai. A quick change down in the cabin, number 109, and then a delightful supper followed by a film on the foundation of the company by a Scotsman with a connection to Burma: unfortunately I fell asleep during a lot of this. And there were only three others watching it at the end.