Card players in Hội An market (above)
Rose very early [in Hanoi]. Flew to Da Nang. Met by Ky. Saw Cham Museum, marble mountains/caves and China Beach
Ky was a terrific guide. Very young, as were all the guides in Vietnam during what was, after all, a “young tourist industry” phase for that country in 1996. But we could tell straight away that Ky was a “Mr Fixit” who would work well with and for us. I wrote him a commendation after the holiday, as I was (am) wont to do when we get exceptional service. As chance would have it, when we arranged to go back to Vietnam 16 years later our (different) UK agent was using Vidotour, the same local agency as Asia World had used in 1996. It transpired that Ky was, by then, Director of Marketing for the whole company. We had a really enjoyable reunion with him, getting to meet his family as he insisted on taking us out for dinner. He told me that my commendation had really helped him at that very early stage of his career, as we were amongst his first guests and glowing commendations of that kind were highly valued.
Then on to Hội An for good lunch then walk town and early return to Da Nang. Lazy afternoon and evening at hotel.
I got ever so excited when I spotted the above door, because I could see that it was the very door depicted on the cover of my Lonely Planet Guide (Vietnam 3rd edition 1995). The woman of the house got ever so excited too, as she had no idea that her house was on the front cover of a guide book, although surely hundreds if not thousands of tourists must have walked past her house with that book in hand by 1996.
All the photos from that Central Vietnam part of our journey can be found through the Flickr link here or below.
