Vietnam - Stepping up the Pace

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June 23rd 2008

Published: June 23rd 2008

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Neil and Jay

Hanoi

D-I-Y Fish hot pot

At first glance the guidebook seemed to have oversold the French Colonial charm of Hanoi's old town, but looking beyond some of the horrible modern additions there are crumbling colonial buildings hiding some lovely old interiors strung out along the maze of medieval streets.

One thing there is no denying is the energy and pace of Vietnam. First impressions are that it's totally different from Laos; it's not laid back - it's buzzing, energetic and constantly on the move. It seems more like China (on speed) than SE Asia. Motorcycles and cyclos are everywhere and the best way to get around the city was to take our lives in our hands and jump on the back of a motorcycle taxi, which was actually quite thrilling once we got over our initial reservations. Crossing the street was even more terrifying and involved just stepping out and walking slowly across the road hoping that the sea of motorbikes would part around us, which thankfully it always did.

Life is lived on the pavements here so sometimes we had to walk in the road to get past all the people eating and chatting, buying and selling, or just get past all the

School kids at the temple

Teaching the old fashioned way

motorbikes parked on the pavement. Football is massive and in the evenings people gather in the open street bars to watch the latest match from Europe. Many conversations start with a discussion on which team we support and who we think is better, Tottenham or Arsenal!

In Hanoi we visited the Hao Lo Prison aka 'Hanoi Hilton' - the prison where Senator John McCain was held during the war. That evening we went to see the ancient art of water puppetry which is a 'must do' here; good fun, but an hour was enough of splashing wooden toys! We went to the Ho Chi Minh complex but unfortunately his mausoleum is closed on a Monday; but we were still able to visit the bizarre Ho Chi Minh Museum which tries to depict Ho's life and other parellel world events through artistic interpretation - strangely entertaining.

From Hanoi we took a 2 day trip to Halong Bay with its stunning karst scenery rising out of the sea which we explored by junk boat and kayak and spent the night in a basic beach hut on a small unpopulated island. That night we had a swim in the sea as

Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh's image remains prominent

the sunset then sat down to a meal and too much rum courtesy of two Irish travellers in our group, who had thought ahead and brought two bottles with them. The next day we got the boat to Cat Ba Island where we cycled for about 10 miles over the Island, very enjoyable and good to get some exercise and sweat out those rum hangovers.

Back in Hanoi we caught the night train to Hue (pronounced Hway) the old royal capital where we spent a couple of days exploring the citadel ruins and the opulent emperor's tombs lining the River Song (Perfume River).

Vietnam has certainly got something and is pulling in the visitors. It would be a great place to get a taster of budget travel: very cheap; good food; a good mix of urban, rural and coastal; loud, lively (and slightly crazy!); with an interesting culture and history. It can get a bit hassly at times but it's usually done with good humour. Being such a long narrow country almost everyone is either travelling north or south meaning that you keep bumping into the same people making it quite a social place to travel. Vietnam feels