Vietnam

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Hanoi is only a short flight away from Laos, but a world away in pace from polite, sleepy Vientiane. In the old city the streets are narrow and crowded, full of taxis, vans, trucks, cyclists and more motorbikes than you can imagine. The streets are also where people walk, dodging the traffic, because the pavements are full of stalls, people cooking, people sitting on small plastic stools, people standing and talking, and lots of parked motorbikes. There was a huge thunderstorm on our first evening, while we sat having dinner, with torrential rain and a strong gusty wind. The food in Indochina has generally been good, but Vietnamese food is a cut above the rest: more variety, greater use of lemongrass, ginger and garlic (three favourites!), and more attractively served. After a night in Hanoi we set off for Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin, which has nearly 2,000 limestone islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation. Our three-decked boat was quite large, with comfortable cabins and a generous sitting-out area. We cruised through the islands for a few peaceful hours before anchoring near a hollow island with an enormous cave. After exploring the cave we had a refreshing swim from the anchored boat. The sea was warm, and it was fun to be swimming so far out in this bay of islands. Next morning – all too soon – we returned to Halong City and after a 4 hour bus ride, to Hanoi. Next morning we dutifully trooped round to see a waxy, embalmed Ho Chi Minh in his spectacularly ugly grey concrete mausoleum. We continued the HCM experience in the next-door museum, full of red flags, hammers and sickles, portraits of the glorious leader and paintings of patriotic socialist workers uniting in the common cause of resisting the imperialist foreign aggressors. To be fair, Vietnam has had plenty of experience of foreign aggressors: it was controlled by China for over a thousand years, by France for a hundred years and by Japan in WW2. We left Hanoi at 2300 on an overnight train to Hue, which was the capital of Vietnam until 1945. The Imperial city (now a UNESCO world heritage site) covers a vast area, with extravagant imperial palaces, colourful temples and striking pagodas. As the first major city north of the 17th parallel (the divide between North & South Vietnam in the Vietnam War), Hue was badly damaged but has now largely been reconstructed. Our next stop further south was Hoi An, a small port established in the 15th Century as a trading centre for merchants from China, Japan, France and Portugal. Some of these traders settled in the town, building houses, pagodas and guildhalls, many of which are still standing. In fact, most of the old town is incredibly well-preserved, even retaining its original street pattern. There are lots of tailors’ shops and some excellent restaurants, and we were able to go snorkelling one day off Cham Island, in a coral bay with incredibly clear water. At 29 deg C, the water was refreshingly cool and we saw lots of blue starfish, clown fish, flutes, sea urchins, a banded moray eel and an octopus around the coral outcrops. We also went to a Vietnamese cooking school and helped prepare a 5 course meal from market to table under the firm direction of our diminutive teacher (who looked about 12). She had difficulty with our Western names and so gave us all nicknames. Happily, we were neither “chunky onion” nor “forgot name”. Next was Ho Chi Minh City (still referred to by most of its inhabitants as Saigon) – Vietnam’s largest city and its economic powerhouse. An elegant, attractive city with wide boulevards and many old French colonial buildings, it boasts an Opera House and a large cathedral as well as the old South Vietnamese Presidential Palace, now renamed Reunification Palace. All too soon we left HCM City on our ‘Mekong Express’ bus bound for Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.

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Photos

Cooking School - end result!
The end result!

Hoi An - rain
Old S.Vietnamese Presidential Palace

Comments

[dianne Bret Harte]

Thanks for so beautifully describing many of the same things Elyse and I saw just a couple of days after you!--Our Hanoi to Danang train, tho, involved an upper bunk and my 79-year old bones were not thrilled. So sorry to have missed you. Happy travels onward!

[David Baker]

Thanks for the memory
I have much appreciated the details of all your travels, they revived memories of some of our past holidays in distant parts.. future holidays will probably always be the subject of comparisons. Sorry i did not manage to get up to Birdcage Walk to to wish you well in retirement and say farewell, health issues preclueded it I am afraid. Thanks again, David