I stayed a couple months in a house rental in Hoi An, Vietnam. I enjoyed it a great deal (follow the link for a map of my favorite spots in Hoi An). There isn’t much to do in Hoi An, but it is a quiet place with warm weather and good food and internet so that is enough to make me happy.
It was about a 15 minute bike ride from my house to the beach. The video shows the start in the small alley (where my house was) and onto the main road.
I really enjoyed the Mosaic Tile Mural in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural covers nearly 4 km and was started as part of the commemoration of the millennial anniversary of Hanoi (2010).
Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám, 文廟) was established in Hanoi, Vietnam in 1070. The temple is located in old town Hanoi along with many other items of interest within easy walking distance (see Curious Cat Hanoi Tourist map). The temple grounds are enjoyable and provide a respite from chaotic Hanoi, and the history is interesting.
In 1076, Vietnam’s first university, the “Quốc Tử Giám” or Imperial Academy, was established within the temple to educate Vietnam’s bureaucrats, nobles, royalty and other members of the elite. The university remained open from 1076 to 1779. In 1802, the Nguyễn dynasty’s monarchs founded the Huế capital where they established a new imperial academy.
Bee on flower in the temple grounds.
The temple layout is similar to that of the temple at Qufu, Shandong, Confucius’ birthplace. It covers an area of over 54000 square meters.
I saw my first Circumhorizontal Arcs (Fire Rainbows) display in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. A couple days ago I experienced them again in Hoi An, Vietnam.
The scene looked much more spectacular than this.
All I had with me at the time, was my iPad mini and this is the best photo I could get. Zooming in on the fire rainbow provided very poor photos. The iPad mini and iPhone (and other smart phones) have remarkably good cameras for many shots. But for a few types of shots they are very poor. Getting a good shot of this rainbow was one such case.
I biked home and got my Canon PowerShot SX60 HS and took this photo.
Close up of circumhorizontal arc (fire rainbow) in Hoi An, Vietnam with Canon
I had actually posted about the phenomenon of circumhorizontal arcs on my science blog in 2006 before I had seen them for myself.
A circumhorizontal arc (also known by the exciting name, fire rainbow) is an optical phenomenon – an ice-halo formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. If the cloud is at the right angle to the sun, the crystals will refract the sunlight just as when rainbow is created.
Fire rainbows can only occur when the sun is 58 degrees or higher above the horizon and when the clouds or haze contain plate-shaped ice crystals. The arc has a considerable angular extent and thus, rarely is complete. When only fragments of a cirrus cloud are in the appropriate sky and sun position, they may appear to shine with spectral colors.
Related: Curious Cat nature photos – Magical Day at Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park (USA and Canada), which also ended with a rainbow – Water Buffaloes in a field in Cambodia – Photos of clouds