Our trip TO VIETNAM
As written in a previous blog post, my husband and I are very keen on travelling. Because of work commitments we can't simply up and leave for a year of non-stop travelling but we enjoy packing in what we can in 2-3 weeks 'bursts', just going to generally one country at a time! Being on budgets plus not wanting to lug around heavy suitcases from one place to another, we've learnt to pack one hand luggage sized backpack each for our adventures, managing to wash clothes in hostels and survive quite well with the minimum amount of 'stuff' to worry about.
When we visited Vietnam, we decided to travel from South to North starting with Ho Chi Min City. When we first arrived we had to wait until our room was ready so we had a little wonder without quite gaining the courage to cross a road so we didn't get very far. As soon as our room was ready we got inside and I slept for a while, struggling slightly with the lack of 'fresh air'. One nap later we decided we had to brave crossing the road which did get easier the more we did this. There was the odd occasion where we were helped by a kind policeman and an old man as well at one point. For anyone who has never been, please don't judge us, the green man means nothing!
The next day we went on a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Mekong Delta! We learnt a lot about the war when looking through the tunnels and saw how tight these tunnels actually were. After that we went to the Mekong Delta and took a boat ride up the river which you can see illustrated below. It was amazing and we felt so relaxed, we had never done anything so 'tropical' before! We then tried some local fruits, many of which we had never even heard of. On the way back to Ho Chi Min, we stopped off at Vinh Trang Pagoda, a huge buddhist temple.
Dalat, NHa Trang and Hoi An
That evening, we tried some really tasty street food, purposefully from a place packed with other tourists, feeling that our stomachs will be safe here. A couple hours later was the time to catch the sleeper bus up to Dalat. At 5am the next morning, the bus driver announced that we had arrived early so we could all get off the bus and roam around in the dark, in a city we did not know... yay? James and I wondered around, nearly falling down the odd hole in the pavement, and walked past a cafe that was open! It seemed the owner was up drinking coffee with some friends, and invited us in and gave us some VERY sweet and strong coffee. One thing I must mention is how nice nearly every one we met was. Even the odd person trying to scam us wasn't intimidating about it (we did just say 'no thank you' to anything offered to us on the street, to be on the safe side.) Dalat was a lot cooler than Ho Chi Min, being quite high up and it was very wet. We got completely soaked and for some reason the only place we found to be open for food was a really posh hotel, where the staff of which didn't seem too pleased about our soggy presence. We managed to squeeze a lot onto one day, seeing a temple and visiting the Crazy House!
The next day we were on a bus journey to Nha Trang with a driver who seemed to want to throw us out of our seats for the entire 5 hours. We got there in one piece and ate Beef Pho (A kind of beef noodle soup) in a cafe before discovering the beach. We walked over to the Thap Ba Ponagar, seeing a man and a pet monkey on our way and looked around the very interesting architecture of this temple. Before long it was time to get another sleeper bus to our next location, Hoi An. The sleeper bus did not turn up, however. Instead, a mini bus came along and by the time we dithered around, wondering what to do, it was completely packed inside. Apparently this was our bus and the driver was waving at us to get in, but how? I ended up stuffed in the boot with all the luggage and James ended up in a footwell between some guy's legs. Luckily we are not big people! So, crammed in the boot, I wondered how this 11 hour sleeper bus journey would play out. Luckily, just 10 minutes later we were unloaded and joined a much larger bus... the actual sleeper bus, phew!
Hoi An was worth the journey! The lady at the hostel greeted us with frozen flannels and a slice of water melon, which we took gratefully! After we sorted out our room, we wondered towards the centre and marvelled at all of the colourful lanterns. We went round a lot of temples and the museum and found the whole place very relaxing and the most beautiful so far (to our personal tastes anyway). As dusk fell, the lanterns lit up the streets and lots of people were lighting floating lanterns and releasing them onto the river. We stood on the quayside watching the river light up and boats would take people onto the river to get a good view from there. We sat and watched for ages, before finding an Irish Pub and eating steak and kidney pie...
We were up early the next morning to see My Son Sanctuary, I believe it's ancient ruins of old temples. This was very interesting and a beautiful site. We learnt a lot from our tour guide and on the way back to Hoi An, we saw a man, asleep, on top of an Ox! It was quite a site and really completed our little tour. Later that day we walked to An Bang Beach and on our walk back, we stopped to try basket boating. This is where James tried fishing as we met another man with his fishing boat. Below you can see my illustration of this scene with an added sunset for artistic license.
Hoi Van Pass, Hue, Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay
The next day we set off towards Hue but via Hai Van Pass (featured in Top Gear once). This included going through Da Nang, seeing the Marble Mountains, Hai Van Quan, Lang Co Beach and Thanh Than Bridge. We really enjoyed this trip and the Marble Mountains are certainly something not to be missed! In Hoi, we walked for an hour from our hostel to Thien Mu Pagoda. This is a historic temple and I believe a memorial of some sort to the buddhist monk, Quang Duc. We were soon walking back in a heat we still describe as the most intense we've ever experienced. By the time we got nearer the city centre, we found a small restaurant. Judging by the fact the lovely staff went straight to get us frozen flannels and iced green tea, whilst looking at us with concern, we can guess we didn't look too good! We later went into the Imperial City and learnt a lot there. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at retaining information from these historical places, but I do remember that it was interesting... and the gardens were beautiful! That night, we found a little restaurant recommended by our Lonely Planet book and it was one of the best finds so far. Their speciality was Vietnamese pancakes which are savoury, rice pancakes with this peanut sauce, served with prawns, bean sprouts, lettuce and hard boiled eggs. After two years of trying, we've just about managed to recreate them to an acceptable level at home!
The morning after THE PANCAKES, we were on our way to the Phong Nha Caves which were incredible! Apologies, but I shall channel my inner child and say that it was like being in an underwater, mermaid kingdom. The formations inside the caves were well worth a look, if you ever go to Hue and have time for a day trip!
After Hue, we were soon on a plane, heading towards Hanoi. We found our hostel, which was the nicest so far, possibly because we got upgraded to the best room, just because it was available. We explored Hanoi, finding all of the different streets that strangely all sold similar items for each street. For example, there was a street specifically for wooden ladders, a street for household items, a street for rugs and so on. The next day we got the bus to Sapa, and was relieved to feel a cool breeze, before being drenched in a tropical downpour for the rest of the day. We slipped and slid our way through some rice paddy fields, taking in the stunning views. We walked over a very rickety bridge which was over a big, crashing waterfall... that was a bit scary. We stopped in this cafe and tried our first ever egg coffee which was delicious. It doesn't sound it but it is a sweet, desert type coffee. The next day was dryer, thankfully, and we went on a longer trek through the rice paddy fields, being helped by some friendly local women, whether we liked it or not. We tried to manage on our own but it was so slippery we did actually need help, so the tip we gave them at the end of the trek was well earned!
Almost as soon as we were back in Hanoi, we were heading off on another, more relaxing tour to Halong Bay! This was the perfect end to our trip, where we ate good food aboard a boat, whilst it floated amongst the beautiful rocks. We went out and swam in the bay, floating easily because of the amount of salt. We explored another cave, this time with bats in it! Later, we tried squid fishing in the dark, which turned into crabbing.
Our last day in Hanoi featured a nice wonder around the city, a visit to the temple of Literature and James' ankle being grabbed by a guy with superglue, insisting his sandal needed fixing. A truly amazing trip to an incredible country.
We must admit though, the cool, grey and dreary weather that met us in England was very welcome!
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