Good Morning Vietnam!

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After a few days in Bangkok, we were heading to Vietnam to meet up with Jo, Rob and Christine. So many people had recommended the former French colony that we were just hoping it lived up to expectations. We were pretty sure it couldn't fail, as we were really excited about seeing our former housemates (and about the delivery of Percy Pigs they were bringing)!

We flew straight into the capital, Hanoi, and were first introduced to the utter madness of the city from the comfort of our taxi. As it was first thing in the morning we couldn't check-in yet, so we ventured straight out onto the streets, where we cautiously made our way along the road... There are virtually no pavements, hundreds and hundreds of mopeds and no road markings. The locals also seem to be blissfully unaware of which side of the road they should be driving on, never mind what a zebra crossing means. It was fantastic chaos!

We were staying in the Old Quarter, which is quite touristy, but is also where you will find bustling streets, weird and wonderful street food and tiny Asian women carrying what looks like their own body weight slung across their shoulders in bamboo baskets. We decided to head down to Hoan Kiem Lake first, as it has a park around it and is therefore relatively tranquil! We managed to safely navigate the streets around the old town and the lake, visiting the Ngoc Son Temple, the Opera House (with a nice cafe just outside) and St Joseph's Cathedral. It was a hot, sunny day and the city had a very European feel, with lovely wide boulevards and plenty of trees to provide some much-needed shade. We drew several likenesses with Paris while enjoying a Bia Saigon on the balcony of the city view cafe, overlooking the lake. We later enjoyed walking up Hang Ngang street, which turns into a night market and watched a show at the Water Puppet Theatre for a bit of Vietnamese culture.

On that first day in Hanoi we got a bit carried away on the foody side of things... We enjoyed lots of street food including Banh Mi (baguette with pork), the classic Pho noodles (beef and noodles in a delicious broth) and the local speciality of bun cha (crab spring rolls and pork patties, served with fresh herbs and rice noodles) washed down with Bia Ha Noi. All this Asian food would later take revenge on Mark, but it was amazing at the time! (and Mark has since recovered)

The next morning we taxied over to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, on the West side of the city. This is the resting place of Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam's communist leader from 1941 until 1969, and the man who freed Vietnam from colonial rule). We had been planning to go in to see the glass sarcophagus but were astounded by the length of the queue of mainly vietnamese people who had come to pay their respects. Instead of facing the long wait in the heat, we opted to walk around to Ba Dinh Square for a better view of the mausoleum from afar. We also had a chuckle watching the tourists who attempted to take a short cut past the queue by cutting across the grass square (past the signs that say 'no entry this way' and 'keep off the grass'😉 only to be chased back by Vietnamese officials. For anyone wishing to go into the mausoleum complex (which also contains a museum, pagoda and palace that are supposed to be very interesting), we would suggest being in the queue when it opens at 8am - our lazy 9am arrival didn't cut the mustard! Seeing as we were on the west side of the city anyway, we meandered through the streets, taking our life in our hands, to find the nearby Temple of Literature, which is a pretty former university that is lovely and empty in comparison to the mausoleum. We then grabbed a taxi back across town for a lunch of Pho in the fantastic (and amazingly cheap) 'New Day' restaurant opposite our guest house while waiting for Jo, Rob and Christine to arrive... And then we went straight back for more stir-fried noodles and bun cha with them as they were hungry after their flight from Ho Chi Minh City!

While in nothern Vietnam, we took a cruise around Bai Tu Long Bay in between the immense limestone karsts. We had booked a trip with Handspan Travel who recommend this bay over the more famous Halong Bay, for similarly stunning scenery but without the crowds of tourists. They were absolutely right, as we pretty much had the place to ourselves. When we set off there was a hanging fog which gave an eerie feel as the cliffs emerged from the mist. This later cleared in time for a beautiful (and cocktail worthy) sunset and for our second day, when we took a boat trip around a floating fishing village. We spent the night on a lovely converted junk boat, which had luxurious cabins and served multi-course lunches and dinners - having friends with us for their holiday was a fantastic excuse to relax the backpacker budget slightly, and we lucked out as the girls ended up in a master suite as there were no triple rooms! The chef mainly served local seafood, cooked in different Vietnamese styles and we also had a cooking demonstration where we all made our own fresh spring rolls. In order to work up an appetite for all this, we went kayaking around the islands in the bay and swam out to a secluded beach, although unfortunately the beach did have fair amount of litter on it (this seems to be a bit of a problem in Vietnam, as some of the locals try hard to clear up the rubbish but they can't keep up with all of the tourists and locals who just throw packaging out onto the street or into the rivers). While paddling the kayak back to the junk boat, Mark lost his Raybans to the depths of the bay, when a "freak" wave of water somehow came off Rob's paddle and landed on Mark's head (if it hadn't had such a dramatic result, we would all have thought it was a prety good shot)! Not to worry, as a new pair of "Raybins" would soon be bought for a bargainous 100,000 dong (£3).

That night there was optional squid fishing, where a bright light was shone over the side of the boat and we used bamboo rods with luminous hooks to try and catch them. We could actually see the squid swimming in the water and Mark had a couple of bites, but obviously didn't have the knack as the squid swam on. The local guide caught two in about 3 minutes but it took all night before a fellow traveller caught one themselves.The next morning Rob and Mark attended the Tai Chi session on board. This was before breakfast and then followed by the tour around a floating fishing village in a bamboo boat. The village was very unusual, as all the houses floated on oil drums, but this didn't stop residents having pets like cats and dogs which wandered around the fishing nets and moored boats. The village also had a pearl farm, and we watched one of the local women seeding oysters with spheres of mother of pearl while we were there and got to look around the floating shop. After returning to our junk boat, we had brunch and then relaxed on deck as we headed back to Hanoi.

We spent the afternoon relaxing in Hanoi's cafes and bars before catching the overnight train to Hue. This was an experience in itself, as the hotel had booked the tickets and, despite our requests, we had a 2, 2, 1 in cabins of four. After dividing to conquer the situation, we reconvened the next morning to discuss our antics from the previous night. Mark took one for the team and went in the space for one, but had an angry Aussie to deal with who wanted Mark's prime bottom bunk and didn't stop whinging about it all night. Jo & Rob had a couple of Norwegian guys who smelt something cronic, as well as possible bed bugs in their bunks. Hazel & Christine thought they had struck lucky, as their cabin had two empty bunks right up until departure time... when a Vietnamese family of six all crowded in. Fortunately it turned out that only two women and a baby were staying on board, and the others had just come along to wave them off, but these two then proceeded to stare and laugh at the Westerners until around 3am when they got off! It was definitely more eventful than all our usual commutes on the trains in London but was a hilarious experience nonetheless.

After our long night on the train, we arrived in Hue (fortunately the guards on the train are very helpful, and on every journey would come to tell us when to get off as we obviously couldn't understand the passenger announcements and couldn't work out where we were from the timings as we were always running late) and jumped straight into a local taxi. We had a bit of a rough morning, as the taxi driver short changed us by 30,000 Dong (£1) when he gave us our change and we then had the exact same issue when buying water, as the girl in the shop gave us 5,000 Dong instead of 50,000. This time we were on the ball and demanded our £1.70 change from her before we left - we even got congratulated by a Vietnamese lady who was in the shop and saw what happened. It's really interesting how keen a lot of Vietnamese people are to protect you from similar situations - hotels are always offering to call taxis for you and to look after your valuables to make sure that you don't come to any harm. We've even been walked across the road by a friendly police officer a couple of times! It's also worth bearing in mind that we're only really talking about a few pence and that, whenever you call someone on their scam, it is taken well and they back straight off with a smile and a shrug.

After our taxi ride, and freshly stocked up with water, we found our guesthouse up a quiet side street just off the main road. The owners were a local family and were so lovely and friendly. They gave us one of many great recommendations for a good restaurant nearby and, once we had all had showers to cool down and sat in the air con for a bit, we headed out for some food followed by a trip to the Citadel for some culture. Well, apart from Mark, who after bragging about making it 3 weeks in Asia without being sick had now succumbed and spent the remainder of the day resting in the room! (He was referred to as "Shapoopi" from then on!)

Hue was the capital of Vietnam when the Nguyen emperors were in power - before the arrival of the French - and so is filled with impressive temples, pagodas, palaces and royal tombs. Construction of the moated Citadel began in 1804 and it was intended as a palace complex for Emperor Gia Long and his family - a wife and a LOT of concubines! Within the citadel is the walled Imperial Enclosure, where the Emperor carried out his official functions, and within that is the Forbidden Purple City, where he lived. Eunuchs were the only servants allowed into the Forbidden Purple City as the emperor was a bit paranoid. Unfortunately, a lot of the buildings in the Imperial Enclosure were destroyed by bombing during the war, so many of them are being reconstructed and were therefore masked by scaffolding. There are lovely grounds though, with lakes, pagodas and even a tennis court, which was installed by a more recent emperor. The Citadel was a fair walk from our guesthouse, and it felt even longer because it was so incredibly hot and there were endless cyclo and motorbike taxi drivers who pestered us to let them drive us there...and because we walked the wrong way around the walls looking for the entrance, and then discovered that we had navigated ourselves to the exit - maybe we should have just given in and got a lift! We even felt a bit cheated when we finally found the entrance, as we were sent to the 'foreigner queue' and made to pay 50% extra! It was worth it though, as it's still only £3.50 to see an impressive piece of historical architecture.

On our full day in Hue, we arranged a tour around the local royal tombs. Our guide was very knowledgeable and had a good sense of humour, although he was a little over excited about King Ming Manh having over 500 concubines and dying after only 20 years in power due to exhaustion! We had a look around the tombs of Ming Mang and Khai Tinh. An awful lot of thought went into the building of the Tombs (which generally started during an emperor's lifetime) and it was not uncommon for the final burial spot to be unknown, as they would kill the guy who actually placed the coffin in the grounds. The Tomb of King Ming Manh was designed to show his power, logic and organisation, so his tomb is painted red (for power) and was arranged in the shape of a body, with the parts being represented by lakes, plants and buildings. Many of the original inscriptions around the tomb are in Chinese, as Vietnamese was only a spoken language at the time.

After a buffet lunch, and an amazing Kung Fu show in which a man smashed a pile of tiles with his forehead, we took a cruise down the Perfume River to Thien Mu Pagoda. The boat was essentially two dragon boats held together by planks of wood and we sat on plastic chairs on the "deck". Along the way we stopped at a little house and had a tour around the lush gardens to see all the tropical fruits being grown. Hazel and Joanna tried the local Vietnamese strawberries, which was a mistake as they tasted more like sour lychees! They probably tasted better when made into the jam served in our guesthouse for breakfast. When we reached the Thien Mu Pagoda it was so hot that we instantly dived for shade to cool off before taking a look around. The pagoda is set on a hill overlooking the river and is definitely worth a visit as it looks so typically Vietnamese. It was pretty popular with domestic tourists, so we had a few requests for photos with us as the exciting foreigners - Mark was more than happy to oblige, so he must have been feeling much better! The cruise back up the river was so hot that the boat driver zig-zagged across to allow the wind to blow in the sides. Once again we were relieved to return to our rooms for a shower before venturing out for a meal on the roof of a riverside bar, where we enjoyed a few local speciality dishes, as well as a few local beers!

The next morning we caught an early train from Hue to Danang. This was a short trip, just a couple of hours, so we opted to try the reclining seats instead of a sleeper cabin. The train was over an hour late and there were no arrival boards to let us know, so we just sat tight and hoped that when it arrived we would somehow know. When it did turn up, the usual boarding pattern was adopted where everyone spills over onto the tracks and there is mayhem as everyone shoves each other out of the way to get on the train. Once on, seated and finally on the move, the views across the sea were fantastic but some of our fellow passengers missed out on the scenery - looking at us was the main entertainment for a group of Vietnamese children travelling in the same carriage as us! We pulled into Danang, which had the feel of a major tourist holiday destination, with lots of large hotel resorts and bars and then climbed into a taxi and drove to nearby Hoi An, which couldn't be more different and was probably our favourite place in Vietnam (a close second to Saigon for Mark).

Hoi An has a French cafe feel with a Asian twist. The town was beautiful, especially at night when coloured lanterns shone above the streets and the river reflected the lights of floating candles. The main sight is the Japanese Covered Bridge, which dates back to the 1500s and is still in impressively good shape, but there are some other buildings in the old town including temples and traditional houses that are worth a look. Piped music was playing around the streets and we were fortunate to be there at festival time and be able to visit the night market to pick up some souvenirs. Joanna gave haggling a go and drove a women down from 200,000 dong to 80,000 dong, by simply walking away until the lady chased her down the street to make the sale. Joanna felt bad for the woman all night, until the next day when she discovered that the same item was being sold for 60,000 dong in a local shop!

We had a few spells of good weather while in Hoi An and spent quite a bit of time by our infinity pool at the hotel, enjoying the odd cocktail in happy hour, although we also had a couple of horrendous showers where we had to take cover under awnings while the streets filled with water! The food in Hoi An was fantastic. We wandered across the river and into town for all our meals and many of the places had balconies overlooking the river for extra ambiance. We found a great restaurant called Morning Glory (Asian water cabbage) which made the best Banh Mi we had in Vietnam, a western restaurant called Cargo which was lovely for a change (and made amazing desserts) and a restaurant set up to help street children (Streets) which also made delicious baguettes. On our final day we enjoyed visiting the "Reaching Out" tea shop which was run by deaf staff, so was very quiet and ideal to enjoy your tea in peace. At the time we claimed it might be the best coffee in Vietnam, but we hadn't reached Ho Chi Minh Starbucks yet...

NB We have to share a lot of the photo credit for this blog with Jo and Rob, so many thanks guys!

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Comments

[Rob]

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You finally got round to publishing the blog - part 1. It sounds really good, its almost as if I had actually travelled with you......look forward to part 2. Hope all is well.

[Kat]

This is my kind of blog picture! Vietnamese food sounds goood.

[HandtheM]

Vietnamese food is awesome, although don't you worry...Cambodian food is turning out to be pretty tasty too"