Vietnam - the round up

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The Pink Review

Culture shock

33 days and nights in Vietnam.

33 days and nights amidst the sweltering heat, multitudinous mopeds, charming con-men and bumpy, and sometimes downright scary, rides.

33 days and nights adjusting to life in a new country, a new culture and a living by a new set of rules.

33 days and nights of learning what it really means to be on the road.

This isn’t a holiday and I won’t be flying home in a couple of weeks time. I have not lived it up in 4* luxury, bathing only in pristine waters gently lapping sanitised beaches. Nor have I followed the road less travelled or walked, even for a moment, in the shoes of this country’s men and women.

I now know that just finding somewhere to have my clothes washed, a hot meal or to answer the call of nature can be fraught with both practical and strategic difficulties.

I have learnt that one of the greatest pleasures in life is a comfortable bed and that, in knowing what comfort is, I am extremely fortunate.

I have experienced glimpses of beauty clinging to constant challenges to my concept of normality.

I have met with many jewels of moments - some that I have carefully stowed in my backpack and others that I have carelessly abandoned in hotel rooms, bars or on beaches.

I arrived in Vietnam with expectation, I found shock.

Only in conquering this thing called “culture shock” have I been able to enjoy Vietnam for what it is.

On crossing the border from China into Vietnam, I immediately saw filth, poverty and the legacy of a country ravaged by war for centuries. By the time that we crossed the border in to Cambodia, I no longer focussed on grubby walls, derelict houses or litter strewn streets - why should I, that’s normal.

Vietnam is not an untainted wilderness. It is a country destroyed by wars in its past and seemingly hell bent on threatening its own ecological demise through ithe relentless prayer of its people at the altar they call tourism.

It is a country with a population of 87,300,000 covering 127,244 square miles. 686 people per square mile .

This is a country teeming with inhospitable landscapes and jam packed cities.

This is a country with its own kind of quasi-capitalist communism. A country with propaganda so deeply embedded in its history that it seems almost impossible to find the truth. A country where money can buy anything.

This is a country that challenges western norms, which happily says “yes I am dirty, disorganised and dysfunctional but I am me and I defy you not to find a place in your heart for me.”

This is a country which, at times, I have been desperate to leave but which quietly beckons me back.

This is Vietnam.

The Blue Review

So we have travelled throughout Vietnam, the first country that we have been in long enough to justify summing up. (Lets face it, we saw as much of China as the inside of 2 trains a bus and a taxi!)

It is a country where everyone has a mobile phone or two, and a moped or two, but may live in a one room house with 5 other members of the family.

A place where everybody works hard, yet some are toiling in fields and others are reclined in a drivers seat of a taxi having a snooze whilst waiting for a fare, both are deemed hard work.

A place where they use every part of the coconut tree, for firewood, rope, milk, sweets, and even for compost, yet the same farmer who is so proud of this fact is discarding plastic water bottles and chewing gum along the side of the road or into a river.

A place where depending on what you have read/been taught/listened to, the war was either between:
Three sides, the North the South and the Americans all fighting each other,
The North and the South assisted by the Americans,
The North and the Americans assisted by the South,
The Americans and the combined forces of the North and the South.

It is in short a place of contrasts: North v South, Mountainous and flat plains, rural and yet urban.

It is both ancient and modern. It is living in the past yet trying to move into the future. It is Vietnam, and I would recommend you go before it is something else.

Our Top Tips:

The Train: Generally runs on time and give you a snapshot of everyday Vietnam life, don’t be scared of using it for daytime trips. We experienced both hard seat and soft seat aircon and would happily travel on either again. Hard seats can get a little uncomfortable. We didn’t take a sleeper train but have heard that it isn’t pleasant.

Coach Travel: Some companies are significantly better than others. One we can honestly recommend is Phuong Trang who have big orange buses but may only operate in the South. If you book through a hotel, no matter what they say, it is completely hit and miss and good hotels sometimes book cheap buses whilst charging for more expensive ones. If you can, we would recommend always arranging your own onward travel or insist that the hotel books with the company that you want/make sure they tell you which company they use. If you do book through a hotel, you will invariably have to take at least one minibus to the company offices. Get used to waiting!

Tours: You get what you pay for. Don’t book budget and expect 5*. Tours are almost always formulaic and involve a huge amount of driving followed by a rush through the sites. The benefits of using an organised tour are that the onus of organisation is on someone else and you will have a guide. The quality of guides varies dramatically. Some “English speaking” guides will tell you a lot in barely intelligible English whilst those with better language skills can sometimes be sparing in the information that they share.

Hostels/Hotels: Very few budget places in Vietnam actually call themselves Hostels. The best one we stayed at was Dreams 1 in Dalat. Others include the Waterland in Hue and Green Suites in Saigon. Locations can sometimes be unappealingly down narrow alleyways but this invariably means that they are quieter which, amidst the constant beeping in Vietnam, can be a blessing. Balcony rooms are usually more expensive and bigger BUT bring your earplugs - the balcony will be over the road, which means LOTS of beeping, all through the night.

The rainy season: It doesn’t rain every day, the infrastructure can cope with it and travelling in the low season means that you can get better deals on rooms and book transport at shorter notice.

Highlights: Ha Long Bay, taking the train from Ninh Binh to Dong Hoi, nightlife in Saigon, beating the culture shock. Nha Trang - in particular, snorkelling the mud baths, Vinpearland (although admittedly cheesy) and making the fortuitous decision not to stay in backpacker land. The Crazy House in Dalat. Meeting new friends to travel with.

Lowlights: Quy Nhon, culture shock, the constant hooting theme tune.

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Photos

Vietnam
In a photographic nutshell...minus the conical hats