My Vietnam - Cambodia - Singapore 2011 trip

[Patrick Highrise]

Last november I made a trip (almost for a whole month) to the beautifull countries of Vietnam and Cambodia. On my way back to Holland I made a stopover in Singapore for three days.

During the trip offcourse we seen and experienced a lot. The people over there are so friendly and always smiling. Very good and cheap(!!!!) food. Big cities, little villages, superb nature and ancient places!

The route in Vietnam was: Hanoi – Halon Bay – Hanoi – Hue – Hoi An – Qui Nhon – Nha Trang – Dalat – Saigon/HCMC – Can Tho en Chau Doc .
From Chau Doc we went by boat along the Mekong river to Cambodia (Phnom Penh en Siem Reap/Angkor).

During the coming weeks/months i will add pics of this trip.
First we start in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Vietnam - Hanoi

View from my room on the 7th floor in the hotel we stayed at.
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Everywhere its really busy on the streets. Every spot is taken. You get used very fast to the busy traffic and crossing a street in between hundreds of bikes!!

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[img http://www.skyscrapers.nl/vcs/hanoi_003.jpg[/img]

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Hanoi is a green city. Lots of parks and lakes. Also many trees in the streets (even the narrow ones!)

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Hanoi old citadel (1010). Here a part of the Cot Co Flag Tower.
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Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi.
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Replacing a light bulb Vietnam style!
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One armed Pagoda.
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Old quarter in Hanoi.

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Always busy in Hanoi.

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Temple of Literature in Hanoi
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Electric wiring....find yours!!
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Railway in front of your home. This track is still being used!!
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Sometimes it seemes that everywhere in Hanoi its market time. So easy to find fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, fish.

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Small streets with trees.

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Nha Tho Lon, Sint Jozefcathedral (1886).

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Night market north of Ho Hoan Kiem lake.

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Don Xuan market.

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Inside Don Xuan market.

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Busy streets near Don Xuan market.

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Next stop will be Halong Bay.

Comments, questions etc always welcome!!

[Patrick Highrise]

Ha Long Bay

After the first days in Hanoi we went by bus to the city Ha Long. We stayed in the western part of the town (Bay Chai).

View over Ha Long from the hotel.
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At night we had a great dinner with lots of fish and tigers
The morning after it was time to visit one of the most beatifull places on this planet imo: Halong Bay The weather was perfect to enjoy the scenery and views. Blue skies, sunshine and calm waters..just devine!

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Still in the harbour of Ha Long

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looking towards the Bay Chai bridge.

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Bootjes en wat hogere bebouwing (Alle hotels).

Het was lekker weer en het landschap is echt fascinerend. Het veranderd constant, telkens weer andere uitzichten, doorkijkjes en de eilanden zelf hebben ook mooie vormen.

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Boats, floating houses and islands.

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Awesome landscapes

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Dragons in the water

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Your own little place on the water...

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In the Sun Sot cave.

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Again.

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Just awesome!!

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Next stop Hue...

Thanx for viewing and comments!

[Linguine]

nice pics from Vietnam, Ha Long Bay looks magnificent....

[CuLongVN]

awesome pictures! did u ever get lost in Hanoi? it look to be a very busy city.

[seldomseen]

Stunning pictures! Thanks for sharing and giving us a glimpse of your travel experience.

[Patrick Highrise]

Been a while so some more pictures now from the city of Hué

After a domestic flight from Hanoi to Hué with Vietnam Airlines with some problems (our original flight was overbooked (common in Vietnam btw) we arrived four hours later in Hué.

Hué has some nice things to visit (citadel, Perfume river, tombes of Nguyen dynasty) Shame that de citadel was bombed hard during the war

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View from my hotelroom (1)

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View from my hotelroom (2)

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Evening in Hué

First full day in Hué we had an excursion on the perfume river an we visited the Thien Mu pagoda and also one of the tombes (Tu Duc).

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Typical Dragon heads on the bow of the boat.

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On the water its relax time!

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Along the Perfume river.

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Between the trees the Phuoc Duyen tower can be seen.

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Surrounding landscape and Perfume river.

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Climbing the stairs towards the tower an the pagoda.

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View from terrace over the perfume river.

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A sort of natural skyline in the back along the river.

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Acces gate.

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Elke minuut een slag…..wel rustgevend!

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A long the river

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Rural life....

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I thought i saw a pussycat...

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Colourfull incense

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Lots of colours!!

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Plenty enough of incense to burn!

After that we went to visit the tombes of emperor Tu Duc.
Tu Duc was the fourth emperor of the Nguyen-dynastie. The tombe dates from 1867.

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Entrance to the Xung Khiem paviljon (1865).

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Inner courtyard of the Xung Khiem paviljon.

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Paviljo at the lake, shame of the low level of water and no water lilies

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[christos-greece]

Interesting and very nice photos from Vietnam

[Patrick Highrise]

Second part of Hué and surroundings.

Still at the tomb of Tu Duc.

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If the old colours would still have been here I think it really would have looked awesome...

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Terrace in front of the tomb of Tu Duc.

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Old, green and little trees and flowers....give a bit a special feel to the place...

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A tomb but this on is not of Tu Duc but from the empress Le Thien An.

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Outside the tomb of Kien Phu.

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Dragons near the tomb of Kien Phu.

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Our bus which was our transport from Hué till Chau Doc in the mekong delta region.

Back to Hué itself. Next thing to do: visit the citadel and emperial city.

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One of the accessgates to the citadel. First wall 8m tall and 20m thick!

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enough space to play some soccer during the day....

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The Ngo Mon gate, main access to the emperial city.

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In de keizerlijke stad…

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Nice doors...

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Doors and light/shadows can make beautifull moments.

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scary

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Yellow dragon...

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Gate to Dien Tho palace (1804)

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Scary!!!!

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In front of the emperial city and the Ngo Mon gate stands the 37m tall Cot Co (Flag tower)

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View from the Ngo Mon poort.

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Some belgian beers in Vietnam Both Duvel and Maredsous 6 only 89.000 dong (pretty cheap i say!)

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Next stop will be a bit of Da Nang (museum!) and Hoi An.

[Patrick Highrise]

Hué – Da Nang – Hoi An
After a few days in Hué and surroundings we went by bus towards Hoi An.
We made a stop in Da Nang for the Cham museum.

Some parts in the the museum:
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Now Hoi An.
The days we were in Hoi An it was raining a lot, and i guess allready did for some days, the waterlevel of the river rose very fast in those days.
Nice city with the old part of town, with lots of nice old buildings, tempels and great amount of shopping, dining and drinking

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The first real morning in Hoi An we had an excursion on bikes...we were gladd that for the period we had the excursion it was dry...moments after we came back to the hotel it started pouring!!

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Lots of waterbuffaloes..

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Riding bike over the dikes between rice fields...

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Small little fishing village with boats.

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Vietnamese style of a ferry boat for the beloved bikes

Back to Hoi An.

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Pretty modern looking church in Hoi An.

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Streetscene.

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Moncks at a temple complex.

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At the Cantonese assembly hall.

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The Japanese bridge. Late 16th century.

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River standing pretty high on day 1 in Hoi An.

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Again Japanese bridge.

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In de Japanse brug.

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Details op de houten constructie van de tempel (uit 1786).

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Dragon fountain at the Cantonese Assembly Hall.

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En going back outside....

Next stop: the Cham tempels of My Son the last part of our stay in wet Hoi An.

[openlyJane]

A wonderful set of photographs. I love the boat scenes and the temples - magical!

[DarkLite]

I love how all the roofs are arranged in different colors, it gives vietnamese cities a unique touch.

I was quite surprised with the photos of Hue, looks like a very interesting place to take photos of old architecture. Excellent thread

[Patrick Highrise]

thanks for the comments!

Hoi An & My Son.

First we had a excursion to the templecomplex of My Son, after that we go back to Hoi An.
since it rained a lot during the days in Hoi An we were a bit worried if the excursion to My Son would go on. Although several streets and villages were flooded we got there in the end.

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Like said some streets/areas were flooded. But the vietnamese people werend't disturbed by that at all! Probably used on this kind of situations every year...

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On the road towards My Son it kept raining, raining...

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How would the road look behing the bend?? Can we go on....

My Son lies 50 km away from Hoi An.
The combination of the ruïnes, the green jungle and mountains give it a lot of atmosphere Even more sore wen its pooring rain! Sadly the site was bombed during the war in 1969.

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Wet and green!

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Green tropical environment.

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The hills keep the clouds at the site...so lots of rain!

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Wandering around at the site with almost no tourist!

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Some more details of the temples/ruines

Then the rain came like a big freight train (it sounded like that) towards us trough the forrest...it poured really hard!
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Back in Hoi An.

In the days in Hoi An the river rose pretty much...

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So now its a playground for the children

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Not difficult at all!? No problem with the bike..

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Old neighbourhood in Hoi An.

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Entrance of the Fujian hall.

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Enough incense at the temple.

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Streetscene (Nguyen Thai Hoc) in Hoi An. At the end you can see a part of the central market building.

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Local street food.

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No street visible but life goes on!

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Just another day in Hoi An!

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Ferry Vietnam style….every inch counts!

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Water!

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Boats in the streets!

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Streetscene @ central market.

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[Patrick Highrise]

Quy Nhon en on the road to Nha Trang

After our stay in Hoi An on the road again going south. Because the distance between Hoi An and Nha Trang is very big we stayed a night in a hotel in Quy Nhon.

Before we arrived in Quy Nhon we visited the museum in Son My (My Lai). A place famous because something horrible happened during the vietnam war. Around 500 people we killed in some villages on one morning by GI's for no reason at all (well they thought vietcong were there... but they weren't)... Set your mind thinking...


In Quy Nhon itself we had a nice hotel even with a rooftop bar in the evening. The pics were made on my balcony or from the roof.

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Evening view from my balcony.

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A wider view in the morning....

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Getting things a bit closer..

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Rooftop views.

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Zoomed in a lot at the city. Getting a nice view of that pagoda!

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This was trapped in the staircase...

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Streetscene in front of the hotel.

Then we were on the road again along nice coastlines!

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Village and boats on the beach.

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Always at work those fishermen!

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Great location imo!

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Landscape on the road...

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They really do move everything on their bikes!!

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Location for our lunch....that aint bad at all!!

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Down at the beach and rocks..

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Still enough fish to catch?

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Before we arrived in Nha Trang we paid a visit to a local fish market! Nice to walk around, enjoy the atmosphere and getting a bit of feel with the life of the locals!

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Enough boats around!

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Merchandise!

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Enough ways to transport the fish.

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At the market.

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Some dark clouds coming our way....

Next part we are in Nha Trang.

[openlyJane]

Thank you so much for your photographs. They have inspired in me a wish to visit Vietnam.

[tchelllo]

Nice pics and very interesting places! Thank you for share your trip with us!

[Falubaz]

Very interesting trip! And nice pics! I hope to see them more here!

[Locust]

Very nice pictures...!
Vietnam is colorful and lively... with great potential as touristic destination.

[Patrick Highrise]

Nha Trang

Nha Trang is a tourist destionation in Vietnam, mainly for beach,snorkling and diving.
Before we arrived at our hotel in Nha Trang we first made a visit to the Cham towers of Po Nagar.

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A view at the fishing village of Xom Bong, it lies in the river Cai.

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The Cau Xom Bong bridge towards the village of Xom Bom with lots of fishingboats and Nha Trang in the background.

After this we made a visit to the Cham towers of Po Nagar.

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The 25m tall maintower of the complex.

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Views from the terrace and a look at local traffic on the Cau Xom Bong.

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White buddha near Nha Trang lying in the hills...

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Views over a part of Nha Trang.

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Along the banks of the Cai river.

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Views from the hotel.

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Full boats!

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“Skyline Nha Trang” seen back from the boat. Tallest is around 150m I believe.

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Visser aan het werk.

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Boten wachtend voor het werk in de avond en de nacht.

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Back on the streets in Nha Trang.

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Streetscene.

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The cathedral of Nha Trang.

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VROEM!

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Ave Maria in front of the cathedral.

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Nha Trang streets.

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Busy or not you still have the cross the streets!

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At the Long Son pagode (1886)

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White buddha.

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Next destination is Da Lat and surrounding mountains.

[openlyJane]

Great images. I Love the way that life is lived on the water.

Such a lively and vibrant place

[Patrick Highrise]

Da Lat

After the beach of Nha Trang we went on towards the next city we visited: Da Lat.
Also touristic (mainly with vietnamese people I heard) but it has a whole different feel.
Da Lat is situated in the mountains (around 1500m high).

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Views from inside the bus driving towards Da Lat.

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Green and mountains.

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Driving into Da Lat.

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Getting closer to the center it gets more busy!

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Crazy House.

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Views from Crazy House.

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Again.

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View from my hotelroom.

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On the streets.

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At the end of the street the original market building (now a cinema).

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Crossing in front of the old market building.

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VROOEEM!

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The new marketbuilding, one of the bigger ones of Vietnam, built in in the sixties.

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Inside the marketbuilding.

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In the weekend part 2 of Da Lat and after that finally a bunch of pics of HCMC!!!