julies

I started this with a different thread that just talked about our 1st day in Saigon. Here is the link to that if you are so inclined.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=27

Nearly everyone goes to Saigon and Hanoi so I decided to leave that report in a different thread and instead put the other, more unique parts in this thread, which is going to be immensely long I'm coming to realize. But, here goes. And, I'll be breaking this us because I don't know how much I can get on one frame.

We’d booked a 5 day private bicycle tour in the Mekong Delta with Cycling Vietnam, http://www.cycling-vietnam.com/index.html. I’d been extremely impressed with them and the prompt replies I’d gotten to my inquiries, so we had great hopes for the trip. There are lots of details to come, but one word can sum up our trip with them. Fabulous!

While we were out and about in Saigon, our bike guide had contacted the hotel and wanted to come meet us to discuss the trip. By the time we finally got the message, we were tired and hungry and on our way out to dinner, so we settled on meeting in the morning before we departed.
Our morning meeting was the only time I was the least bit nervous about the trip. Our guide was giving us all the cautions and warnings about the trip and the fact that we would be in the true back country of Vietnam. He included the fact that in one town we would be staying in the only hotel in town; it would be clean but on the crummier side, and this town had no restaurants, so we’d be eating in street kitchens for a day and a half. His warnings came on so strong that I started to question the sanity of doing this but then thought, well, we came 9,000 miles to do this, so why back out at the last second. (At the end of our trip I suggested that he tone down his initial warnings because he might scare some people away. But, he told me that after the experience of having people yell at him mid-trip because the lodging wasn’t up to their high standards he decided it was better to give forceful warning up front.)

So, we got into the van and off we went. When I say we, it was quite the entourage. For this bicycle trip for 2 people there were 3 support people--the driver, the guide, and the all around handyman, bicycle mechanic. We had been told prior to booking that the truly interesting parts of the Mekong Delta are at least 5 or so hours away from Saigon and that day one would primarily be driving to get out of the congestion. After several hours we stopped at a very nice restaurant at a road junction where the main roads converge in the Mekong Delta. I think this is where most of the buses that venture down that way with tourists go because it seemed as though this large and lovely restaurant was set up to accommodate large tour groups.
I’d read about Sa Dec, and being a flower lover, decided I wanted to visit the flower nurseries there. So, this was added into the agency’s usual itinerary, which meant that we missed out on some biking that normally happens on day one. In retrospect, I think that while they tried, they didn’t really know the area that well so perhaps we didn’t see what was truly representative in Sa Dec. But, that was my fault because I agreed that this part of the trip would be a trial run. But, an interesting day nonetheless.

We arrived in the town of Cao Lahn, I believe, for the night and checked into our hotel. (One of the things in retrospect that I find vaguely disorienting about this trip is that it is totally different for us to have someone do all the logistics for us. As independent travelers we’re normally engrossed in the maps figuring out exactly where we’ll go next and how we’ll get there. This was a completely new experience just turning all of that over to the local expert.) I needed to buy some cheap flip flops because my swollen feet had been blistered by my regular sandals the day before. Our guide and the retinue took us to a local shoe shop so I could find some shoes. Selections for a female who has big feet by Vietnamese standards (size 40) were quite limited, and I didn’t understand how to shop there. I assumed it would be just like home and that I’d choose the style I wanted, and then they’d go get my size. Wrong. The selection was what they had on display in my size.
We had a couple hours before we were to all meet for dinner, so we set off on foot to explore the area and the local market. We were really, really a novelty in the market. I don’t think many tourists come through the area at all, and we got lots of friendly waves, smiles and requests to have photos taken. By this time it was after dark, but we never felt any concerns for our safety or at all worried. Our major concern was whether or not we could remember the way back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and settled on our bikes. Initially we were a bit concerned because the bikes themselves were nothing to look at, and we’d been promised good bikes. But, they ended up being fine for the trip and were much superior to the generally junky bikes we rode later on in the trip.

Before we began biking though, we drove to Xeo Quit where the Vietnamese army had hidden out when fighting the Americans. Although we weren’t initially that enamoured with the idea of visiting this place, it was quite interesting to see the tropical jungle area and the tunnels the soldiers had hidden themselves in. This was the dry season, and the excavated tunnels were partially filled with water. I can’t imagine what they must have been like during the rainy season. Following this we were off to a small street kitchen restaurant where the only item on the menu was a special filled pancake made in this part of the Mekong Delta. We were given a large basket of some type of greens. The procedure was that you’d rip off a part of the pancake and then roll it up in the large leaves with the various herbs rolled in too. This was our first, but not the last, experience eating in a place where the chickens wandered through the customer seating as we ate. This place was also nice because it actually had standard height stools and chairs for customers rather than the more typical child size stools.

Now the real bicycling began. We were on small local roads in the back country, going over bridges and taking ferries when needed to get to the next place. Our guide had warned us that some people might come up and try to touch us to see if we real because they would have never seen Caucasians before. And, sure enough it happened a couple times. If we would stop and get off the bikes we were generally mobbed with children and sometimes their parents. These were the friendliest people we’ve ever met.

A couple times we stopped by schools at they were getting out. All children here are required to purchase a school uniform as an additional part of the expense of tuition and books. Those children who were hanging around but who didn’t have uniforms on were not in school because their parents could not afford to send them. Apparently this is quite a problem in Vietnam for which there is yet no solution; high truancy rates are another problem.

According to the guide, one part of the solution is the loudspeakers that broadcast announcements about 5:30 or so each morning in the local towns. Announcements apparently are made regarding the value of school, saying it is time for children to get up and be in school, and encouraging parents to send their children to school. Other parts of the announcements include information on AIDS prevention because the disease is becoming quite prevalent, local news, and other general educational info. In these towns, the broadcasts are also made about 7:00 each evening too. Bring earplugs if you want to try to sleep through the announcements in the morning.

Before we left I’d assumed I’d be biking in my sandals, but blisters eliminated that idea. Instead I ended up wearing my ankle high hiking boots for most of the bike trip. Actually these turned out to be a good choice for much of the time. Roads themselves were usually blacktop, but the roadsides were uneven dirt with patches of weeds and frequently strewn with litter.

julies

Whoops. wrong link to previous report. Here's the correct one.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34936354


And, continuing on.....

That night we settled into our hotel in Hong Ngu, a small town with absolutely nothing to recommend it. We did get some beautiful pictures of the sunset from its main bridge though. This was the first of several hotels that we encountered that had a new plumbing concept we’d never been exposed to before. The sink was plumbed to drain out through a hole in the wall placed in the corner of the room over a floor drain. The beds themselves were topped with a cheap satiny jersey type piece of material that we thought was the bedspread. But, when we went to go to bed, we discovered that this was the only covering on top of the mattress. There were a few blankets piled on the foot of the bed. We don’t know how we were supposed to sleep and whether the satin jersey was supposed to be a bottom sheet or a top sheet. It didn’t matter; this was a night we were definitely glad to have our sleep sacks and small travel pillows. At least the room had air conditioning, which was definitely a luxury in the area we were in.

There are no restaurants in town, so both dinner and breakfast the next morning were at the local street kitchen. This was where we learned to just have the guide make food suggestions for us in the future. He knew the types of foods much better than we did and could make wise choices. I saw some shrimp amongst the food and decided to try it. Big mistake. I don’t know how long it had been there, and both of the first two shrimp I tried definitely had a mushy, strange texture (the mark of a shrimp gone bad). I told the guide they were spoiled and that I couldn’t eat them and that he should tell the owner this because they shouldn’t have to be paid for. Apparently this is not the way things work in Vietnam. You ordered them, you pay for them even if they are bad.

Every day took us deeper and deeper into the delta area and we traveled on smaller and smaller local ferries to get to islands and local back roads. Some of the ferries could only accommodate bikes and passengers, so the van driver would have to meet us after the next island. We certainly got the stares on the ferries, just as we did when pedaling through villages, because we were these white foreigners dressed in crazy clothing. We had biking gloves, biking shorts, wide brimmed hats and these marvelous gel-filled neck scarves I’d ordered that when dipped in water retained the moisture for days to keep you cool.

Day three of our trip was probably our favorite. We biked on two different islands--Long Khanh and Cu Lao Tay. The islands were extremely rural and we could see that one was more affluent than the other. This was supposedly because they were in two different provinces and received different amounts of government funding. This was also the first day we saw the very rickety bamboo bridges that are one bamboo pole wide that people need to walk over to get to their homes. It was also the first day we saw toilets on stilts perched over the water; they were accessed by a very narrow wooden walkway. Many of these toilets were over pond-like pools of water that had fish in them; human waste would be the fish food, and then the people would eat the fish.

The river itself was used for everything. All along the river and its channels people would be doing the dishes and laundry in the river. They’d be bathing in it and bathing their animals in it. They’d be boating and fishing in it, and using it for toilet purposes. We saw people who lived in shacks by the side of the road and by the side of the river. There were occasionally nicer, more substantial and attractive houses, but they were still pretty basic. Another thing we really noticed was the lack of privacy. Houses were open for all to look in, the toilets over the water were enclosed by rags for privacy but were still extremely visible, and all of life seemed to be carried out in full view of the community.

Night three was spent in an okay hotel in Long Xuyen—I think it was the Long Xuyen Hotel. It was clean, air conditioned, decent, and comfortable but nothing fancy, and we did see a rat in the hotel. We were on the 3rd floor and the doors from the central hall led out to some balconies off the common areas. As we were leaving our room about dusk, we saw this rat scurry from the hotel out to the balcony. Needless to say, we carefully inspected our room before going to bed for the night, and now I understand why I’ve read accounts of people in hotels stuffing a towel underneath their door.

That night we had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. By this time we’d figured out to just have the guide make a recommendation. He suggested we get a seafood hotpot where we’d cook the seafood over a brazier on the table. When the waitress brought the platter of raw seafood, I though my eyes were playing tricks on me because I thought I saw a shrimp twitch. Then, one jumped off the platter. These were the freshest shrimp we’ve ever had; they must have just been gutted and cleaned.

We couldn’t believe the level of support we were getting on the trip. The first day of biking, they hired a guy on a motorbike to come along with the mechanic as his passenger. The idea was that the mechanic could fix the bikes if there was a breakdown, or if we got tired, one of us could ride on the motorbike behind the driver while the mechanic would pedal the bike. Another day the mechanic and the van driver rode behind a trikshaw driver. I guess I should also mention that the cycling itself wasn’t at all hard or exhausting and the longest day was perhaps close to 70K. Obviously, the roads were flat, and the only hills were when we were going over bridges.

We enjoyed the trip because it was at our own pace, and we could stop whenever we wanted. If a market or a place or occurrence seemed interesting, we’d just stop. Plus, I really like to take photos, so we made tons of stops for photo ops. (In fact, this two week trip so far wins hands down over other trips for the number of photos I took—close to 2000.) We occasionally rode past an interesting temple, but for the most part we were just enjoying being in the midst of everyday life rather than visiting places that would be on a tourist itinerary. We stopped at schools, markets, tiny villages, bridges, rice fields, roadside refreshment stands, and many other places of interest. And, we watched people fishing, bathing, harvesting, drying fish and vegetables, doing household chores, building houses, farming, cooking etc.

In many places the poverty, poor housing, litter and lack of sanitation was appalling to someone coming from the sanitized west. Life seemed very hard for many people with manual, rather than mechanized labor, the norm. In one small village we saw the local medical outreach unit—an open covered wagon pulled by a motorbike. It always amazed me to see the high school age girls in their nice white tunics and pants school uniforms walking off to their home, which was usually a hut in a muddy field.

Day four we were in the Tri Ton area very near Cambodia, and we started to see some hills in the distance rather than the absolutely flat area we’d been accustomed to. Our guide introduced us to some special coconuts that were only found close to Cambodia and the delicious drink that was made from them. There was a lot of riding that day, and we ended up in Ba Chuc where a similar incident to the Khmer Rouge massacres in the killing fields of Cambodia took place. There is a memorial with skulls of the victims displayed in it by age group. Seeing the skulls of those under two years old was the most disturbing to me. While interesting, we don’t know if we’d choose to go all the way to this area just to see this memorial.

In the late afternoon we all got in the van for a good couple hours drive towards Can Tho where I’d requested a visit to the floating markets. Because it was quite a long drive, it was well after dark when we arrived at what was the nicest place we stayed at during our entire trip. So, it’s too bad it was also the place where we had the least time. My Khanh resort was situated on the other side of the road from the river in a quiet setting (this in itself we found unique in Vietnam). Charming tourist bungalows with several rooms in each were scattered through the grounds which included a swimming pool and nice open air restaurant area.

After showering we met for dinner (all meals on the trip were eaten with the guide, his French father-in-law who was visiting Vietnam and came along for the trip, the driver and mechanic) which was fun even though only the guide and his father-in-law spoke English. I was surprised to learn that the driver has a university degree, but because of the tough employment situation decided it was better to buy a vehicle and hire himself out as a driver. (An aside here. We tipped all of our drivers very well because they got us back alive, and we were so thankful. I read that Vietnam has something like 12,000 traffic fatalities a year, which is a lot for such a small country. I could never, ever drive in Vietnam; you have never seen such incredibly scary road conditions in your life. The rule of the road is that the big guy wins, and drivers do whatever they want including driving on the wrong side of the road and completely ignoring the few traffic signals that there are. So, everyone uses horns continuously to let others know that they are coming through. The truck rules over the car, which rules over the motorbike, which rules over the bicycle, which is low man on the food chain. This is why we were grateful that our biking was done on very small, lesser trafficed local roads.)

Dinner was quite the experience. I think this was our one glimpse of the pampering that so many western tourists seem to come to Vietnam for. My husband ordered fried fish thinking he’d get a piece of fried fish. Instead he got a whole fish elaborately garnished and held up vertically with two pieces of lemon grass. He also got two waitresses who hovered over him preparing every bite for him by taking the fish off the bones and rolling the pieces with all sorts of greens in rice paper to make nice little packets to dip in sauce and eat. They didn’t just demonstrate what to do; they fixed his entire meal for him.

The next morning we set off after breakfast in one of the resort’s sampans for a private two-hour ride on the river towards the markets. It was interesting for a change being on the river rather than just observing from the banks. Even though this was supposed to be one of the lesser visited and less touristy markets, we also saw larger boats full of tourists coming from Can Tho. The most interesting part, frankly, was just observing life on the river from the perspective of being on the water. The market itself was not really very interesting, and I wouldn’t recommend a trip solely based on seeing a market. Because we were in a smaller sampan we were also able to go down some smaller channels and see some of the houses of the more affluent residents of the area. It was nice to see that not everyone endured the poor living conditions we’d seen so much of. Then it was time to return to the resort and hop in the van for the drive back into the congestion of Saigon and its surroundings.
Because we only had 15 days in Vietnam, and we had a lot we wanted to see and do, we had very tightly pre-planned our itinerary. Even though I was nervous about doing so, I took the advice of many here and waited until we were actually in Vietnam to purchase tickets for an internal flight. New Year’s Day, which was our first day in the country, we managed to find a Vietnam Airlines ticket office in Saigon and book tickets on the flight we wanted for a flight six days later. We said our good-byes to the bike people as we were dropped off at the airport just in time for our 5:00 pm flight to Hanoi. From there we were set for a completely different experience; we were taking the overnight train to trek in the Bac Ha area.

The bike trip was marvelous and one of the highlights of our visit to Vietnam. We’d highly recommend the company to anyone who truly wants to experience “real” Vietnam, not just tourist centered Vietnam.

After doing extensive pre-trip research, we knew that we were interested in visiting the mountains of the north to see how the tribal people lived and to see them in their native dress at some of the markets. Sapa sounded quite intriguing, but, at the same time, we’d also heard that it could be quite miserable in January and that in some ways it was now quite touristy. I’d thoroughly investigated Handspan’s Market tour option and seriously considered it but in the end decided on a different tailor-made option because the Handspan trek part of the tour only included the most touristed walk right outside of Sapa. Plus, we knew that Sapa’s weather could definitely be worse than other places in the area. Our final decision was to forgo Sapa completely and instead concentrate on the Bac Ha area for the three days we had available that would coincide with week-end market times.

julies

continuing on....

We had already been in contact with the agency Ethnic Travel: Insight into Vietnam, www.ethnictravel.com.vn, and decided that we’d have them arrange our three day trip in Bac Ha in addition to the other tour we were doing with them. We could have probably saved some money by putting the Bac Ha trip together on our own but decided, due to our very tight schedule and the necessity to pre-arrange overnight train tickets and a driver for pick-up as soon as we arrived in Lao Cai, the convenience of having everything pre-arranged was worth the money.

Saturday night when we landed in Hanoi, after our flight from Saigon, one of the agency’s reps was there holding a sign up with our names on it. Every other trip we’ve ever taken we’ve always managed on our own and found our way to public transportation or a taxi or a rental car on our own. But, there is definitely something to be said for having someone there to meet you, especially when time is tight, and a missed connection could mean a ruined trip. This was the situation we were in here. Our fight from Saigon was scheduled to arrive at 7:00 and the train to Lao Cai would depart a little after 9:00. As we drove into Hanoi we couldn’t help but marvel at how nice the road was and how much more calm the traffic seemed after the chaos of Saigon’s streets. The closer we got to the city center, that perception began to change.

The agency rep took us to the office to sign some paperwork, and then told us to go across the street to get a snack and a drink before train departure time. Having heard horror stories about toilet conditions on the trains, I really didn’t want to drink too much because I didn’t want to have to use the toilets on the train any more than absolutely necessary, so I only had a few sips of my husband’s beer. We also weren’t hungry because, to our surprise coming from the US where you are lucky to get a bag of pretzels, we were served a full meal on the flight from Saigon to Hanoi. The agency’s driver and rep then picked us up and delivered us directly to our train car.

Having read that some agencies will store extra luggage for you while on a short trip, we put all of our warm weather clothes and biking things in one suitcase thinking perhaps we could leave that suitcase at the agency and only have to take our day packs and one suitcase with us. Unfortunately, the agency’s office was a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, so we didn’t even inquire. And, it was kind of a pain to have the extra suitcase with us on the train because the compartment was so small.

When we go to the train, I was quite taken aback. Online we’d seen pictures of the sleeper cars, and they looked quite okay, and some of the cars we’d walked past on the way to ours seemed quite nice. And, I’d gone so far as to ascertain with the agency that this was a soft-sleeper; the reply was, “of course”. The train—Friendly—was a dump! Picture a run-down sleeper car that may have been 40-50 years old where we were having a conversation as to whether or not the sheets had even been washed after the last passenger. The British or Australian (sorry, as an American I have difficulty separating out the accents) woman in the compartment next to us was carrying on and shrieking at her agency rep about how terrible this train was compared to the pictures of overnight sleepers she’d been shown. This was a family of five, and her husband was supposed to be in our compartment. After a family “discussion” about the situation, they finally decided to stay on the train rather than cancel their trip to the mountains. I think she must have also been afraid because her husband came in to our compartment and took his pillow and blanket and said he’d be spending the night in the compartment with the rest of his family. I can only envision what a miserable night he must have had. This was bad enough with a small, decrepit bunk per person; I can’t imagine sitting up all night or sharing a bed because it would have been physically impossible.

It wasn’t just by western standards that this train was a dump. The 4th passenger in our compartment was a Vietnamese man in his 60s or 70s who spoke German and a very few words of English. We know some pretty basic German, so we were able to talk for a while before we retired for the night. He too thought it was a disgusting train. But, we were on the train, and we made the best of it. On our return trip, on the same crummy train, our fellow compartment travelers told us that a better train was only $5 more each way. A $5 we would have gladly paid; so, let this be a word of warning to triple check what you are paying for.

Once again, we were grateful for our sleep sacks and our small travel pillows. We took our boots off and stretched out for the night in our clothes. Once again I was glad I’d brought along my black knit pants with an elastic waist that I usually wear on long flights; they felt like pajamas. We actually got some sleep despite the fact that, naively, we were very nervous we’d sleep through the stop at Lao Cai. We both kept waking up periodically all night making sure we weren’t there yet. Before we’d left home I bought a very cheap Timex watch with something called an Indiglo dial that lights up in the dark specifically so that in situations like this I’d be able to check the time. While on our bike trip in the Mekong Delta it mysteriously disappeared from my arm one day.

We got off the train in the pre-dawn light and there were our guide and driver in an old Russian jeep to meet us and take us to Bac Ha. As it turned out, Ethnic Travel had subcontracted with the tourist agency associated with the Sao Mai Hotel and hired their people. The drive toBac Ha itself was scenic on a road with not much traffic, but I was certainly wishing for seatbelts in the jeep. They would have given me a bit of security because I knew if we were in an accident we were probably goners due to the remoteness of the area and the lack of sophisticated medical care.

On arrival in Bac Ha our guide took us to the Sao Mai Hotel where many people who were with groups were staying. Our room opened out to a long communal balcony, which I suppose may have been interesting to open your door to in warmer weather, but it was quite cool when we were in Bac Ha. Want heat in the hotel? You’ll be charged an extra $5 for a space heater for your room. We ran our heater all the time when we were in the room, and we never got the temperature above the low 60s F. During our visit to the area we were wearing long sleeve shirts and fleeces under unlined gore-tex type jackets, hiking boots, and occasionally light-weight gloves and hats.

We had breakfast in the one restaurant in town that everyone who was a tourist ate in. In fact, every meal we ate in Bac Ha was in this same restaurant; it was pretty much the only game in town. Food was nothing more than okay and probably the least enjoyable on our entire trip. After breakfast we met up with our guide again and headed off to visit the market, some of which started up right outside the restaurant’s door.

When I inquired about visiting the Sunday Bac Ha market, Ethnic Travel had told me that it was quite touristy and it wouldn’t be on the top of their list of recommendations because they specialize in way off the beaten path destinations. Nevertheless, I wanted to see the market and the Flower Hmong.

This is a regular town with typical several story high Vietnamese buildings located on a few streets with shops on them. Parts of the market were in specialized market spaces and parts (aimed more at the tourists) were on the main street that leads down to the market. There is also a huge bulldozed area where they are constructing a man-made lake in hope of becoming a week round tourist destination similar to Sapa. Very few parts of the market were paved, and I can imagine what a muddy mess this would be in wet weather. While there were other tourists there and there were some stalls selling things aimed at tourists and a few wandering women vendors who would occasionally approach us, I definitely didn’t get the feeling that this was a market just for camera-toting tourists. The locals were out in full force enjoying themselves with their friends, and they outnumbered the tourists by at least 100 to 1. We wandered for hours and didn’t buy a thing, but our cameras were in constant motion. We ventured down into the livestock selling area; the local food stall area, where I got a shot of some bright red fresh blood soup with a few greens as garnish; the clothing area; the household utensils area; and the homebrew corn whiskey areas.

A couple hours of the market was enough, and our schedule was to have lunch and then meet the guide for a 5 or 6 mile afternoon trek in the immediate area.

to be continued when I have the time....

AmyNYC

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed report! Sounds like a wonderful trip.

I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about My Khanh resort in Can Tho. We are going to be staying in Can Tho just one night, arriving late in the day and departing the next day at noon on a riverboat cruise. I notice that My Khanh is 12km outside of the town... did this feel isolating? Was it easy to get into town for a meal or was the food there good? We were thinking of doing the floating market early in the morning, is it relatively easy to get to from the resort? Also do you have any sense what the cost per night might be? They don't seem to have a website that I can find and none of the booking sites I am familiar with list them.

Look forward to hearing more about it! Thanks and welcome back.
Amy

julies

Hi Amy--

Check out this website. This is the place.

http://www.tropictourvietnam.com/Mek...alow_tours.htm

As far as isolating, I don't really know becaue we were only there one night and we were driven right there. On the other hand, if you just want to sit for a day or so, this is the place to do it; it was quite nice and the two meals we had there were excellent. We used the resort's boat (they have a dock on the river) for our boat trip.

AmyNYC

Thanks this is so helpful - it looks great. Good to know they have their own dock. We will check it out!
cheers, Amy

Femi

Thanks Julies. I'll be anxiously awaiting the next installment!

I'm planning a visit to Sapa in November.

Elainee

Thanks for your fascinating report. We were in Vietnam about the same time but we did the ordinary tourist route. Your trip was far, far more interesting but we are no longer about to enjoy trips like yours. Moral...do it while you can!!!! Or you will miss this kind of experience and can just read about it.

julies

Elainee--

Thanks for the thoughts. We have decided to seize the day and take this type of trip while we still can becaue we know life is short, and things can change rapidly. My husband just had the big 60 and I'm closing in, so we know the number of years we can do these types of trips is limited. The trip, while totally different from the usual, was purposely planned to get away from the usual tourist treadmill. Hearing you say that we had the much more interesting trip reaffirms our decision.

yeadonite

Julies,
I loved this report you are a great writer!!

I have read walking across the street is scary. Would you suggest a tour for those of us less adventurous?