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The border crossing back into Vietnam at Lao Bao was all very civilised, with the Laos exit formalities and Vietnam entry formalities being conducted in the same building, "a one stop immigration shop" the Laos border official told us proudly, clearly having practiced this phrase in English for quite some time.
We immediately knew we were back in Vietnam as we were met by the ever eager motorbike taxi drivers touting for business as soon as we stepped into the country. As usual we declined their offers and set about walking the kilometre or so in the scorching midday heat to the Lao Bao bus terminal. We had no exact plan (or any idea where the bus station was) but were keen to find a bus going as far as possible towards the coastal town of Hoi An.
We had only walked about 100 metres from the border when we saw a smart looking coach parked up which had come up from the city of Danang about an hour north of Hoi An. After a bit of sign language and some writing in the dust it transpired that the driver was just having his lunch and would be heading
back directly to Danang in about ten minutes. Some more dust writing to negotiate the fare and on we jumped (almost forgetting to take our shoes off first as shoes are not allowed on fancy Vietnamese buses). The bus fare increased a bit by the time it came to paying about an hour into the journey, which is not an unusual trick in Vietnam, but we still considered it a good price for a direct journey in a decent bus to within an hour of our preferred destination. The alternative was likely to be a number of hops in notoriously uncomfortable and slightly crooked minivans, which we really hoped to avoid if possible on this second visit to Vietnam.
Arriving in Danang bus station there was a local bus waiting to depart to Hoi An. Again the public transport racketeers were up to their usual tricks demanding nearly three times the actual ticket price for the journey. Some haggling was required and things were going in the right direction slowly until a French family arrived and knowing no different just paid the inflated price, much to the obvious delight of the ticket seller. This did not help our cause,
but eventually we settled for just over twice the official fare. It wasn't the most straight forward journey, but we had made it all the way from Laos to Hoi An in one day, so we were pleased.
Having arrived in Hoi An, we found a good little budget hotel where the helpful lady on reception informed us that we were in luck as a festival was going on in the old quarter of town that night, so it would be a good place to wander and sample one of Hoi An's famous noodle dishes, Cao Lau. Hoi An's old quarter is now a UNESCO world heritage site and it is undoubtedly the prettiest town in Vietnam having retained so many old buildings, features and narrow streets. The old town was decorated with colourful lanterns and bustling with nighttime activity, plus the noodles were delicious.
We spent a relaxed few days exploring the historic town, visiting a number of the old traditional houses that are open to the public, sampling all the local specialties and stopping for many an iced coffee. We also hired a couple of bikes and took ourselves off to one of the nearby beaches
for a dip in the fairly rough but refreshing South China Sea.
From Hoi An we took a train for the very scenic journey about four hours north to the town of Hue. This is another UNESCO world heritage site but is very different to the town of Hoi An. Hue was the capital of the Nguyen emperors and was the site of their walled citadel. Unfortunately the citadel suffered a severe pounding during the war and much of the buildings are now ruined, but it is still a very atmospheric place to explore and we had a great couple of days wandering through the ruins within the old walls.
From Hue we felt we needed to move on a bit and so decided to take another day train north for twelve hours to the town of Ninh Binh. We boarded the train at about six in the morning and unlike our previous journey, which was very relaxed, it was a little more hectic on board. The train had been traveling all night from Ho Chi Minh City and we were assigned seats in a very full carriage containing a number of Vietnamese families with young children all
waking up from a night on the train and understandably suffering from severe cabin fever. Added to the protests of the very grouchy kids was a Bollywood film played at full volume for on board entertainment and the Grandmother of some of the children intermittently shouting very loudly at the television. This was all quite hard to take at six in the morning, so we popped our ear plugs in until the majority of the carriage fell back to sleep. Despite being a noisy journey it was great to watch the landscape and weather change as we rumbled northwards through lush green rice paddies and the karst mountains of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, apparently some of the oldest mountains in Asia. A strategically timed Snickers bar kept our spirits up when the young couple opposite us decided that Vietnamese techno music and a spliff was what would make this already hectic journey complete...
We eventually reached Ninh Binh at around six in the evening and, with our ears slightly ringing, made to alight the train at the same time as the large Vietnamese family were unloading their luggage. Grandmother was responsible for catching the sacks of goods
that were thrown to her from the carriage, but after the long journey she wasn't paying much attention. With arms outstretched waiting for the next sack she got quite a surprise when she caught Ross instead as he jumped off the train. This caused a lot of hilarity amongst the rest of the family and earned Ross a playful slap on the arm from Grandmother.
Ninh Binh is not a pretty town. The busy Highway One, the main north to south route in Vietnam, rumbles right through the centre making the town vibrate with the constant sound of heavy trucks and honking horns. Ninh Binh's appearance was probably not helped by the light drizzle in the air and the muddy puddles we had to hop over whilst searching for accommodation, but we persevered and found a half decent if not slightly damp guesthouse and warmed ourselves up with a hearty bowl of Pho, the local noodle soup and a Hanoi beer.
Ninh Binh may not be pretty but thankfully the surrounding countryside is and we had stopped here specifically to visit Tam Coc, an area with huge rock formations jutting out of rice paddies on the Ngo Dong
River. We could easily reach Tam Coc on a couple of bikes we had rented from the guesthouse via some small quiet roads. Once there, we arranged a boat trip and climbed aboard a small boat powered by a Vietnamese lady who rowed with her feet. The boat ride lasted for about an hour and a half and passed through some incredible rice paddies and limestone karst scenery. We even went through a couple of caves emerging the other side to yet more Jurassic park like scenery. Visiting Tam Coc had really made Ninh Binh a worthwhile stop on our way north.
The following day we set off by bus this time to the town of Hai Phong, where we spent the night and caught a passenger ferry to Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island sits close to the famously scenic Halong Bay, which no trip to Northern Vietnam would be complete without visiting. We had arrived slightly out of season which meant we had our pick of sea front rooms, however, our challenge was to find a clean room with a balcony in a sturdy looking building (some of the incredibly tall and thin hotels didn't look like
they would stand up to a puff of wind). So after much indecision, we settled on what we thought was the nicest budget room in town, in a building that didn't look like it would topple over and which had a fantastic view over the bay.
After settling into our comfortable room, we booked a one day boat tour around Halong Bay, which turned out to be a great day out. There was only a handful of people on the tour, the boat had plenty of space and the tour guide, Phouc, was enthusiastic. Phouc had trained as an English teacher but after a few years of teaching realised he could make much more money as a tour guide. After sailing through the magnificent scenery and listening to Phouc's detailed geological explanations and conspiracy theories about the Chinese (apparently there is no love loss between Vietnam and its fellow Communist northern neighbour), we took to kayaks and explored for an hour or so around the giant limestone karsts and through dark caves, managing not to capsize.
Cat Ba Island also has an impressive interior, so we rented a scooter one day and headed off to explore, visiting a
national park in the centre of the island for a short trek with great views before making good use of the scooter and buzzing around the rest of the island.
After a few days, we left Cat Ba Island via the ferry again to Hai Phong and took a train from there, this time only for a couple of hours to the capital city, Hanoi. So few tourists seemingly take this train option, preferring instead to purchase an all in one ferry and bus combo ticket to Hanoi, that there were virtually none of the usual cyclo and motorbike taxi drivers launching themselves on us at the train station in Hanoi. This left us to walk the short distance to our hotel in peace, or at least as peaceful as the manic streets of old town Hanoi can be.
All Vietnamese towns and cities are chocked full of motorbikes and scooters and Hanoi is no exception with reportedly two million and counting motorcycles on the road in the city. All this traffic does make the city feel a bit claustrophobic, especially in the narrow streets of the old quarter. However, we did enjoy a day or two having
a good look around and probably a highlight of our visit was going to see a performance by the water puppet theatre. We were not sure what to expect, but the performance was impressive leaving us in awe at the skill of the puppetry being carried out partially submerged in water.
The capital was good to experience, but we decided not to linger and after a day or two booked ourselves onto a sleeper train to the town of Sapa in the mountains. This would be our first sleeper train in Asia and given our last, not so peaceful long train journey, we decided to spend a few extra pounds and go in one of the slightly more luxurious sleeper carriages which are mainly inhabited by tourists (have we lost our edge?). We were lucky and shared our four berth compartment with a nice American couple who did not snore, smoke, shout or play techno music from their mobile phones etc. Our only complaint regarding the train journey was that it was too short, as the rocking motion of the train ensured we were both sleeping like logs when all too soon the guard was knocking on the door
to tell us it was five in the morning and we were nearly at the station.
After a short ride in a minibus from the train station we arrived at our hotel in Sapa, a rather smart upper mid range place with hot water, heating, a balcony, mini bar and a gut busting buffet breakfast as a birthday treat for Ross (that's for definite then, we have lost our edge). The weather in Sapa was not so great, so we were really pleased to have such comfortable lodgings to dry out in after spending the days wandering through terraced rice fields, admiring pot bellied pigs and experiencing native hill tribe villages.
From Sapa we made our way to the town of Dien Bien Phu with the intention of catching a bus the following day to, once again, a fairly remote border crossing into Laos. There is only one small bus a day making the journey over the border and upon enquiring at the bus station it seemed the bus was broken and would not be running the following morning. We decided this was not a great problem as there seemed to be a few things in town to
keep us entertained for a day and, continuing in the style we had become accustomed to, had found a very comfortable hotel room with perhaps the most comfortable bed in Asia.
Dien Bien Phu is a hugely important place for the Vietnamese people as it was the scene of an epic battle in 1954 between the French, who were trying to reestablish their colony following the Second World War, and the Viet Minh army. The French, having severely underestimated the determination of the Viet Minh who had dragged pieces of artillery and anti aircraft guns for hundreds of miles through the jungle, were soundly beaten, spelling the beginning of the end for their time in Vietnam. We decided to visit the war museum in town to learn more about the battle, which was really interesting, although amusingly one sided. A bus tour of Vietnamese from Hanoi were also visiting at the same time and they were clearly feeling very patriotic, posing in front of the exhibits with their Vietnamese flag. A few members of the group spotted us and gleefully asked if we were French. There was definitely a look of disappointment when we turned out to be British.
However, in the absence of any French tourists we would have to do and were asked to pose with them and the flag for a photo. We did our best to look like forlorn, defeated French people and afterwards wondered if we had appeared somewhere on social media that evening as "westerners who'd seen the error of their ways".
So with one final bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup for dinner, we hit the hay ready for the five o'clock start to catch the now fixed bus back to Laos.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
This made me miss Vietnam...
Your descriptions of your travels through Vietnam were great - it made me really wish I was slurping a bowl of pho while watching all the hustle and bustle :)