2 weeks of strategically rushing from south to north of Vietnam absolutely flew by. I simultaneously had the most culture shock here whilst feeling quite at home. The roads and traffic are just mad and at the beginning it took a very long time to cross any road. Also people carry such crazy amounts on their bikes that I started a photo collection (my favourite 4 you can see below)! But it’s so familiar because every street vendor sells western food- baguettes and stacks of dairy-lea triangles and you are given complimentary tea anywhere you go (and even complimentary dairylea in our case)!
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and were immediately thrown into the hustle and bustle of Vietnamese chaos. It was around 9 in the evening, everything was lit up and there were people everywhere- it was a great atmosphere. Luckily enough we found out that friends from the Thailand trip were staying in a hostel round the corner so we met them for a night out, aware that we had to be up early for an intense day of sightseeing.
We managed to get up and out of our hostel by 10 and made our way to the War Remnants Museum where we learnt a lot about the Vietnamese War. The most moving parts were seeing horrifying pictures of babies and children born with birth defects as a result of agent orange (the chemical which the Americans used to burn down forests) and learning about the brutal forms of torture carried out on Vietnamese people.
In the afternoon we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were dug before the Americans invaded to store weapons but were extended to 250km in Cu Chi alone after the invasion. Three layers are dug, each having a different function: 3m deep to hide from enemy invasions, 6m deep to hide when under attack from bombs and 8-10m deep for escape to a nearby river if they’re running out of air. Our guide told us all about the boobie traps which were used to fool the Americans and showed us a used US tank before we got to explore and crawl through the tiny tunnels. Only then did we realise how tiny they were (and even the entrances had been enlarged for tourists!). We finished our Cu Chi experience by firing a real AK47 which was supplied to Vietnam by the Russians. The sound was just incredible even with ear protectors!
We spent our last day in Ho Chi Minh City exploring the Ben Thanh market where we had our first Ban Mai (Vietnamese sandwich), a second visit to the War Remnants museum after missing parts the first time and finding a delicious world food market where we spent the best part of four hours.
A 10 hour night bus led us to Nha Trang, a beach town which is very popular with Russians. The beach wasn’t so beautiful but it was more of a stop over to break up night buses. While there, however, we bumped into a funny Vietnamese guy who persuaded us to go on his ‘easy rider tour’ to get out of Nha Trang and ‘escape the water buffalo’ (Russians)- his words not mine! We had a great day with Si who took us to a small village called Khan Vinh where the E De people live and pigs roam around everywhere. They hunt with bow and arrow in the nearby forests and sell the meat they kill at a local market. He also took us to some amazing waterfalls with natural pools where we spent the afternoon. For such an upbeat person, it was surprising to hear that Si sadly lives 200km away from his wife and three young children because of his job. He does this for money as he simply couldn’t find business in his home town which I found quite sad. He also told us about the hatred between north and south Vietnam: the north hold all the power and take land from the south to make money and don’t pay them anything, for example the construction of hotels. But if they rebel, his words were that they’re taken to the jungle and shot. So they simply don’t rebel. Now I can see why he’s not a fan of Nha Trang because of how built up it is, yet he can’t move because of his job.
The drive back was insane as it was rush hour- not normal rush hour but Vietnamese rush hour. Hundreds of cars going in and out of lanes, horns in every direction but constantly on the move. The tshirt below accurately describes the traffic situation!
Home to over 600 tailor shops, Hoi An was our next destination and one of my favourite places of the trip so far. The Old Town is beautiful and you can really see the Chinese and Japanese influence in its architecture. Also there aren’t any places to stay in the Old Town which makes it so unique. There are just tailor shops, jewellery shops, markets and restaurants. We found ‘the best Banh Mi in Vietnam’ (Vietnamese sandwich) according to Anthony Bourdain and it was incredible (and we went back more than once)! Hoi An is even more enchanting at night. The streets are lit up with hundreds of lanterns and there is a huge night market. We found a great people watching/ dinner spot along the river where we enjoyed lots of food including the local noodle and pork dish- Cao Lau.
Hue, our next destination, although isn’t the most beautiful of places, has a lot of interesting history. We signed up for a bus trip which took us to the main sights as they are known for being quite spaced out. First on the agenda was the Old Citadel where we learnt about the N’Guyen dynasty (kingdom). 13 emperors lived there between 1802 and 1945 when Hue was Vietnam’s capital city. The emperor had 50 eunuchs (castrated men) serving in at all times. These men were selected as they were more obedient and wouldn’t get up to anything with any of his hundreds of wives! Next we visited the Garden House where mandarin warriors and women lived surrounded by beautiful gardens and fruit trees. Perhaps the most interesting was the third place we visited, the 7 tiered pagoda where we learnt about the Vietnamese lifestyle. Buddhist Vietnamese people believe that their current life is for their next life and that ‘today is for tomorrow’. There are 5 forbiddens- alcohol, sex, lying, killing and gambling. At the pagoda we also saw the second biggest bell in Vietnam weighing 2.5 tonnes! We also visited three tombs of the 2nd, 4th and 12th emperors. The tomb of the second emperor was most impressive as it was huge. He was considered the best emperor of the dynasty and had a grand total of 500 wives and 157 children! We finished the day with boat trip along the perfume river.
We also had some really great food in Hue. I had my first ‘rice porridge’ there which is more like rice soup and has been one of my go-to meals ever since. Another really memorable meal was at a riverside restaurant called Antique Town Restaurant where we chose the 7 course local set menu (probably our most expensive yet- $9 each!) I still don’t have much idea of what we ate there but it was certainly an experience!
A 14 hour night bus led us to Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital where we spent a day exploring the Old Town. We visited a pretty lake in the centre of Hanoi and a couple of markets but overall the city was underwhelming. I didn’t get the capital city vibe at all and it was difficult to walk anywhere as pavements were taken up by parked bikes and the roads were very busy.
To make up for it however, while we were in Hanoi we decided to splash out on a two night cruise around Halong Bay which was absolutely fantastic. We had a really friendly guide, Lily who was great and took us to some of the most beautiful places among the 1969 islands in the bay. Once we’d checked into our lovely room on the boat, we cruised to the ‘Surprising Cave’. Although it has definitely been transformed into a tourist attraction with the steps, lights and railings, the natural rock formations, stalagmites and water pools are incredibly impressive. It is ‘surprising’ because there are many Vietnamese figures that can be made out from the rocks (some did require imagination) such as a Buddha image, a monkey, a turtle and, the most vivid for me, a dragon. The phallic rock formation however didn’t require much imagination as you can see from the picture below…!
The views from the cave of the bay were stunning. We then spent time kayaking around the many uninhabited islands, feeling tiny in comparison to the huge, looming rocks.
We then had a ‘sunset party’ where Lily handed each of us what she called a ‘glass of wine’ or what I call a mouthful of wine. I’m not sure how she managed to savour hers for longer than 5 minutes. We had a fish dinner followed by drinks with others we’d met on the roof of the boat, enjoying the peaceful night time ambiance of the bay.
We were up early the next morning for another activity-filled day. First on the agenda was a visit to the Pearl Farm which was a big highlight. We were shown how pearls are made- by inserting a ball of oyster shell into the oyster membrane and leaving it to grow for years. The man demonstrating made it look easy but when one lady in our group had an attempt, she killed an oyster almost instantly! Next we headed to Monkey Island, passing floating villages on the way, where we climbed to a view point at the top of a rocky peak. It was more like rock climbing and if we had known the route we definitely wouldn’t have worn flip flops! The view of the island was great- we could see monkeys playing on the beach below and goats climbing up taller peaks in front of us. After feeding bananas to a couple of monkeys, we got back on the boat for a huge fish lunch and headed to Cat Ba Island for evening.
After this crazy experience, I’d definitely recommend doing Vietnam in 3 weeks and getting a visa beforehand. The day our Halong Bay trip ended we had a 29 hour journey ahead of us to get out of the country and not overstay our visa exemption. But that’s a different story and will be discussed in my Laos post!
Cheers to a great time in Vietnam and not having to drink horrible cold tea again!
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A great read Lucy, bought back a few memories too. Looking forward on the next one!
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