CHAN MAY, VIETNAM

We cruised into Chan May port in the early morning to sunshine. We decided to take the shuttle to the resort nearby in Chan May, a very very small Vietnamese village. After arriving in the resort and walking to the beautiful beach, we decided it was too hot and unbearable and took the next shuttle bus back to the ship. We were going to rest up for a special event only for World Cruisers called "An Imperial Evening in Hue" that was planned for us that afternoon.

We were not told too much information for it was to be a surprise. Thank goodness the dress was casual. All we knew was we were going to be bussed for this event to the city of Hue that was one and a half hours away. Some of the world cruisers chose not to go for they were not looking forward to the long bus ride, but they missed a great evening.

Eight air conditioned buses were waiting outside the ship to take us all at once to Hue. We were guessing that the event would take place in the courtyard of the Purple Forbidden City. We were right. It was turning dusk outside and as we arrived, we were heralded into the courtyard where there were musicians and costumed performers holding lanterns, and drums and spears. The entire Palace was lit up. The locals were gathered outside watching us entering and wondering what was going on. Then we entered an open courtyard with a stage lit up with a huge lotus flower. In the centre of the lotus flower were these beautifully dressed musicians playing different traditional Vietnamese instruments. The tables were all set up in the courtyard.. As we were seated, a waiter and server would bring in one course at a time and the different courses were beautifully presented While we were eating, the performers were dancing and singing on the stage. There were 9 performances, all showcasing the coronations and ceremonies of the past Nguyen Dynasty. The show took 2 hours. Then our cruise director arrived on top of an elephant all dressed up and expressed his wishes for us to have a grand time which we did have. Everything was on time and we left in a daze as to the whole magnificent event.

The next day, we were all chatting about the wonderful time we had and what a celebration crystal cruises put on for us. We will remember this day for a long time to come.

PS. In Bali, we sent a photo of 3 smiling boys and we thought it was cute how they enjoyed themselves on the camera, well now we know why they were laughing so much because as Tanya pointed out, one of them was giving us a finger in the photo. Joke was on us. Ha Ha