Around the World in 174 Days - Part 5 - Vietnam
As usual, for the people who just like photos, they are at:
Hanoi Long Bay https://photos.app.goo.gl/T15CceRoXjwUMo4k7
Ho Chi Minh City https://photos.app.goo.gl/TavPvsrKXpw87vFW8
Mekong Delta https://photos.app.goo.gl/nHyniHAmv4itqDAs6
Nothing can really prepare you for your arrival in Hanoi at about 5pm on a Friday evening!
The No 16 bus from the airport to City Centre costs about 23p. I had researched and knew which stop we needed for the shortest walk to our hotel. When I paid the conductor for our ticket, I double checked that the bus stopped at Trần Nhat Duat and she confirmed that it did.
I was therefore a bit surprised when she told us to get off the bus about three stops earlier than I had expected. When you have asked advice on a foreign country, it always seems a bit rude to totally ignore the advice given so, against my better judgement, we go off the bus with our rucksacks and heavy rollalongs.
Sure enough, when I put the walking route to our hotel into Google maps, we were a good 15-20 minutes walk away.
A 15-20 minute walk, in say Haslemere or even London is a nice bit of exercise. Walking for 15-20 minutes in Hanoi at rush hour, on Friday in high humidity is excruciating!
Vietnam’s 45 million scooter riders pay absolutely no regard to any traffic regulations and even less regard for pedestrians. Trying to get across any road is like being the frog in the video game “Frogger”, hence the opening image. Red traffic lights do not apply to scooter riders and they are quite inclined to ride against the traffic in order to take a short cut so, even when you think you have a gap to cross, it is likely that something will be trying to hit you from the other direction.
When we were put out at what turned out to be a bus station, we were inundated by tuk-tuk drivers. I can’t stand to be pestered when I am slightly stressed so my instant reaction is always to just keep saying “No” whilst trying to pretend I know exactly what I am doing and where I am going. I imagine that a tuk-tuk to our hotel would have cost no more than £1 but my fear of being ripped off would not let me find out so the terrifying 20 minute walk ensued.
Thankfully, when we arrived at the hotel, sweating and at our wit’s end, it was an oasis of calm, with extremely pleasant staff.
We were taken to our room where the view out the window was an old, tard is type police box which was above a bar and, of course, thousands of scooters buzzing up and down the street. When the porter brought our bags up to our room, he reassured us that the street became a walking only street at 7pm until midnight. He was sort of right but many scooter riders simply ignore any type of regulation so you still need to be on your guard.
We were only really in Hanoi en route to Halong Bay for a three day and two night cruise so had no real plans for Hanoi.
We decided to explore the neighbourhood and visit the King Pirate Bar as recommended by our friend Maggie who we seemed to constantly miss by a day or two whilst we were in Vietnam.
The bar is a haunt for backpackers and travellers and we soon got talking (and drinking) with some other folk. The chatter and the drink kept flowing. Whilst we had regularly had a few beers on our travels to date, this was the first time we were properly squiffy (Well! It was a Friday!). We somehow found our way back to our hotel having completely forgotten to eat.
My head was pretty thick the next day and Hanoi is not the best place to walk around with a hangover.
Children get taught how to drive like nutters at a very early Age in Hanoi!
However, we powered through, having a long walk around Hoàn Kiếm Lake and a visit to the The Turtle Tower to clear my head.
According to the legend, in early 1428, Emperor Le Loi was boating on the lake when a Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) surfaced and asked for his magic sword. Lợi concluded that Kim Qui had come to reclaim the sword that its master, a local God, the Dragon King (Long Vương) had given Lợi some time earlier, during his revolt against Min Ching. Later, the Emperor gave the sword back to the turtle after he finished fighting off the Chinese. Emperor Lợi renamed the lake to commemorate this event, from its former name Luc Thuy meaning "Green Water". The Turtle Tower (Tháp Rùa) standing on a small island near the centre of lake is linked to the legend. The first name of Hoàn Kiếm lake is Tả Vọng, when the King hadn't given the Magical Sword back to the Golden Turtle God (Cụ Rùa).
All of course totally bonkers (although people do believe in equally or more ridiculous things in other parts of the world).
There is a Museum dedicated to the Vietnam War (or the American War as it is known in Vietnam) but we had already planned to go to the War Remnant Museum in Ho Chi Minh later some gave that one a miss.
I read about a long bridge called Long Bien which I assumed was going to be some sort of ornate affair so we headed out to Long Bien. The bridge is 2.4km in length and crosses the main road and two limbs of the Red River. It is also quite high and in a very poor state of repair. It is only for scooters and pedestrians with no discerning division between the two. The pedestrian part consists of concrete flag stones places along steel girders, some of which are showing severe signs of ageing. The “handrails” between the walkway and the drop to the road or river did not look as though they would stand up to any real pressure so this was another test for my fear of heights. Apparently, due to its strategic importance, the bridge was heavily bombed during the Vietnam Was and, frankly, doesn’t look like it was very well prepared. I just continued to put one foot in front of the other and focused my gaze straight ahead towards the end of the bridge, a gap which didn’t appear to get shorter at any real speed.
Just stay focused
Once at the other side, we had a brief look around the area and quickly decided that there wasn’t much there so, the only thing to do, was walk back the same way over the rickety bridge again (what fun!!)
By the time we had double-crossed the bridge, we both decided that it was time for a Saturday afternoon beer (it was only at that point that Lucy revealed to me that she had been pretty nervous crossing the bridge too but didn’t want to let on whilst we were in mid bridge-cross)!
When we got back to our hotel later and told the front desk guy that we had walked across the bridge and back, he told us that he had lived in Hanoi all his life and never been across that bridge!
After our bridge crossing adventure, we headed back to King Pirate and, again got talking to some fellow travellers but this time we were wise enough to remember that an evening meal can be quite important. We had a really nice meal, very close to our hotel at a restaurant called “Madam Trân” which, when I first saw it on our arrival, I assumed was a drag bar of some sort (I was wrong). I’m sure Hanoi parties much later than we do but we were happily tucked up by 10 in preparation for our cruise the next day.
We had booked the cruise with Peony Cruises and our transport was punctual at 9am. The journey to the Ferry Terminal at Cat Hai took much longer than we imagined (around 2.5 hours) from where we were transferred by tender to our boaty home for the next three days.
The boat was rather splendid and our en-suite cabin was spacious, with our own private little balcony.
Sadly, our whole visit to a Halong Bay was accompanied by overcast weather and so I don’t think we really caught the real splendour of the massive limestone karst formations rising out of the sea. Nevertheless the formations are impressive and sailing through them is relaxing. Once we were cruising, it was time for a massive buffet lunch with a vast selection of food. This was by far the nicest meal we had over the three days but all were of a high quality.
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying the ever moving scenery as we sailed through the rock formations.
It was then time to be taken to a secluded area by tender for some kayaking. The disappointing thing about Halong Bay at the moment, is the sheer amount of garbage floating around. It really brings home the current environmental issues. There are plastic bottles floating everywhere you look. We spent the majority of our Kayak expedition trying to do our bit by fishing bottles out of the water but our small effort would have made very little impact.
Back to the boat for swimming, which we decided to opt out of, preferring a cheeky G&T on our private balcony. There was supposed to be a spectacular sunset at this time but, as there was no sun, there was no sunset to witness!!
We then went to the Upper deck for a Vietnamese cooking lesson. I use the work cooking very loosely here. We were actually taught to make fresh spring rolls so there was no actual cooking, only combining ingredients and wrapping them in rice wrappers. I obviously don’t want to underplay the considerable skill required to combine these ingredients in the right quantities and the precision required in lovingly enfolding them into the rice wraps!
John and Mel getting down with some (w)rapping
After the (ahem) Masterclass, it was time for dinner. We hadn’t had any wine since we left home so thought it might be a nice opportunity to treat ourselves to a bottle with dinner so we asked for the wine list.
Many of you will be familiar with JD Wetherspoons chosen Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Villa Maria, which retails for around £15 a bottle in the pub and around £9.50 in a supermarket. We were pleased to see that this wine was on the list but slightly less pleased when we did the maths and worked out that it was £60 a bottle! We passed on that option and went for a Frontera Chilean at £30!!! (Still a good 500% hike but slightly less painful than £30).
Dinner was not as sumptuous as the buffet lunch but still very pleasant and afterwards it was time to participate in the advertised squid fishing activity which basically involved a thin bamboo pole, a length of fishing line and a fluorescent lure which you bob up and down in the water and catch......... nothing! I participated for about 45 minutes before getting bored, and heading back to the upper deck for a night cap before turning in. We left some of our fellow passengers squid fishing but were unsurprised to learn the next day that zero squid were extracted from the sea.
No squid were harmed in the making of this blog
The itinerary showed that, at 06:15 the following morning there was a Tai Chi session on the upper deck. Eager to ensure that we got the full benefit of all the activities on offer, we set the alarm for 05:30 and got into our PE kit.
Thankfully, there is no photographic evidence of my calamitous attempt at this graceful art! At one point, I feel that my fellow travellers were impressed by my ability to stand one on leg with the other foot placed against my knee until they realised that I was tall enough to hold on to the rafter above my head, thus keeping me balanced. Safe to say, Lucy was far more adept than me and I don’t think I will be taking up this activity on a full time basis any time soon.
Breakfast was next and then all aboard the day boat for a trip to Cat Ba Island. This was a slightly better day, weather wise and the day boat trip took about 2 hours before we went ashore and mounted bicycles for a cycle to Viet Hai Village where we visited a farm and sampled a variety of hideous rice wines!
Then, back on the bikes to the boat and taken to a secluded area for kayaking and swimming. All very active but, with the amount of food they throw at you, the activity is very necessary. Talking of food, once we had finished and got back on the day boat, another massive lunch was served on our way back to the mothership!
Not long after we got back to the boat, the rain started and it rained, and rained, and rained. There was supposed to be another cookery class but we didn’t brave the rain to find out whether it took place, preferring to sit on our private balcony watching the moving scenery and the rain. Resourceful locals row out to the cruise boats in small rowing boats laden with souvenirs and provisions such as beer, wine and Pringles. We got quite proficient at the Vietnamese phrase “không cám ón” (no thank you) but the boat vendors totally ignore this in any case and continue to show you more bracelets and stuff until they eventually get bored and row on to the next prospective customer.
Dinner was served at 7:30pm (like we needed any more food) and then another round of squid fishing which we didn’t even bother attending but later found out ended up as non-productive as the previous night. The rain had stopped so we sat on the upper deck drinking with our new friends Mel and Keeley (hope you are reading this and enjoyed the rest of your travels?) and a Dutch couple whose names we never did know, chatting about past and future travels. Mel and a Keeley have previously lived in New Zealand and gave us loads of great tips for our forthcoming trip.
We dodged Tai Chi the next morning and had a little lie in until 6am as breakfast was served at 6:15, after which we visited the Trung Trang Cave, a 300m cave which runs lengthwise through the mountains. The cave has been carved by nature over a period of 2000 years and has many stalactites that take on a variety of shapes.
It was the time to go back on board and sail back to the mainland. All in all, we would definitely recommend a cruise in Ha Long Bay. It was a shame that we didn’t get fantastic weather so there were no stunning sunsets and the bay didn’t look as turquoise as it would had the sun been shining but there was still plenty to keep us busy and the food was very good (albeit in ridiculousness large quantities).
Once on the mainland, we took the two and a half hour trip back to Hanoi. We were booked on an overnight sleeper to Hué at 8 that evening so asked the driver to drop us at Ga Hà Nội Station where we hoped we could drop our bags off before doing a bit more sightseeing before catching our train.
Fortunately, there are big lockers at the station where you can deposit a large bag for about £1.50 for four hours.
We dumped our bags and headed for the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum via Lenin statue. We then visited train street which Mel and Keeley had told us about when we were on the boat in Ha Long Bay. The street is just outside Ga Hà Nội and trains literally run through the residential street at different times during the day. There are one or two bars along the street and we stopped for a couple of beers but, unfortunately, there were no trains due during the period we were there so we didn’t witness the full lunacy..
We had booked our train travel through 12go.asia and I can recommend them for organising travel between destinations in Asia (with one exception which will be for a future instalment). We had to check in at The Mango Hotel 1 hour before our departure and, as there was a restaurant attached to the hotel, we thought we would eat there before checking in for our train. This became an excruciating experience.
We ordered beers whilst looking at the menu but the beers did not arrive until much later.
We fancied western food and ordered salmon soup, followed by Spaghetti Bolognese for Lucy and a braised beef dish for me. We had by now become used to food not coming in the order we would expect but did find it strange when the Spag Bol arrived before anything else. We asked the waitress about the soup and she went away towards the kitchen. She came back a couple of minutes later with two bowls containing what was clearly pumpkin soup. We reminded her that we had ordered the salmon soup and she literally replied that they had given the salmon soup to somebody else and would we be happy with the pumpkin soup. We said that we wouldn’t and also reminded her that our beers had not yet arrived so she took the Spag Bol and both the soups away and eventually we were brought two beers.
As always, we had allowed plenty of time but this time was now ticking away and we were slightly anxious as no food had yet arrived. After what seemed like an eternity, two bowls of Salmon soup and our respective main courses arrived simultaneously. We wolfed them down and left (funnily enough, without leaving a tip) to check in for our train.
We had again booked first class tickets on the overnight sleeper to Hué with Laman Express. The difference in cost is not that great and it is (in our humble opinion) worth it for the privacy of having a cabin to yourselves rather than having to share. Mel and Keeley and the Dutch couple were, by coincidence, also on the same train and we caught up with them for a while when we first boarded.
The train was very comfortable and we both slept well, although the FitBits registered no sleep at all. I can only guess that this is because the journey is so bumpy that it registers that you must be awake because you are moving so much?
We arrived into Hué at about 8:30am and, undeterred by the unpleasant walking experience on first arrival into Hanoi, elected to walk the 1.6km to our hotel. This walk was nowhere near as unpleasant as the Hanoi one. Hué is the most laid back city that we visited in Vietnam and couldn’t be more different to Hanoi. Whilst the tuk-tuk drivers were persistent, they were nowhere near as pushy as other places in Asia. It was still hot though and I think that Lucy was starting to get a bit fed up with my reluctance to take transport on arrival (although I was to be proved right in a few destinations time).
One of the nice things we have encountered since we started this trip is that hotels don’t rigidly adhere to checking in (or out) times as they do in UK. We have stayed in a lot of Travelodges in the UK who try and charge you to even check in an hour early. The Hong Thien Ruby hotel staff were quite happy to check us in at 9am and even offered us coffee and breakfast before showing us to our room.
Again, we were not staying long in Hué so needed to take in all the main sights so we dumped our bags and walked along the Perfume River, out to the Imperial City. We paid our £5 per person entrance fee which is quite expensive in comparison to other attractions but there is a huge amount to see.
Built in the late 1700, this walled city has seen much trauma over the years but is in the process of being fully restored to its former glory and is a UNESCO World Heritage sight. There are a number of royal palaces and temples throughout the massive citadel and it is all pretty spectacular.
We spent a good few hours there before walking back towards the Old Town, stopping for a late lunch on the Perfume River watching the dragon fronted tourist boats floating up and down.
Later that evening we had a beautiful meal in the old city in a restaurant which made the most amazing vegetable carvings to accompany your meal. One didn’t come with our meal but the couple on the next table kindly let us photograph theirs. We had garnish envy.
Garnish Envy
Up and out the next morning, the hotel organised transport to the airport for our onward flight to Ho Chi Minh City.
We flew with Vietnam Airlines and it was a pleasant and uneventful flight
Another bus (the #109) from the Airport to the City Centre. This one was supposed to run every 15 minutes but we waited a good 40 before one turned up. Still, the fare was 75p as opposed to the £15 taxi ride. The bus did drop us quite close to our hotel but it took us an age to actually find it. Tucked away down a dingy alleyway, we expected the worst and our fears were entirely justified!
We have had very good hotel experiences to date (the Vang Vieng one was a bit like a hostel but still quite pleasant) but The Aha Boutique in HCM City can only be described as a dump! Disinterested front desk staff greeted us and the place just generally felt grubby. The lift to our floor was disarray and in a poor state of repair, the carpet on the floor towards our room was filthy and our room was similarly unclean (I need to find a thesaurus for other words for filthy!)
We opened the fridge and there was left over food from a previous guest (to be fair, we contacted reception and they sent someone up straight away to sort that out but still?)
The room was advertised on Hotels.com as having a “free mini bar”. The contents of the mini bar was two cans of beer and some soft drinks. We did drink the beer in the first evening but, rest assured, the mini bar wasn’t replenished for the three days we were there.
We had only paid about £30 a night for the room and, strictly speaking, we should have voted with our feet and found another hotel but we really couldn’t be bothered with the hassle so put up with it, leaving a really bad review once we had checked out.
By the time we had found our hotel, checked in and got sorted, there was only really time to explore the immediate vicinity and have a bit to eat. Whilst we found Ho Chi Minh City to be not so crazy as Hanoi, it is still pretty crazy and, once again, walking around the city is a challenge. We found “Backpacker Street” which was a pretty awful combination of loud disco bars and dodgy massage girls. We didn’t stay long and found a quieter bar round the corner for a beer and bite before turning in.
We had a couple of “must sees” in HCM, one being the War Remnants Museum. I found an App called “GPS My City” which I had already used in Hanoi and Hué to good effect. The app provides suggested sightseeing walks in any number of locations and, for an in-app upgrade, it will map out the route for you. This is a total business plan flaw as all you need to do is out the locations into Google Maps and avoid the upgrade fee.
The app proved perfect for a day in HCM as we were able to map Ho Chi Minh Square, The Post Office, People’s Committee Building, Municipal Theatre, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reunification Palace
and finally The War Remnants Museum.
I grew up as a child hearing news reports about a far away war involving The USA and Vietnam and, aged between 5 and 12, had no idea where Vietnam actually was, just that this war continued for a long time. This, coupled with all of the films I watched in the 80s and 90s (Deerhunter, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now et al) have led to a fascination with the Vietnam War.
I learned, during our visit to the museum, that, on my 4th Birthday (8th March 1965) Two battalions of US Marines landed on beaches near Danang, heralding the direct involvement of American combat units in the Vietnam War.
The museum is a fascinating insight into the war as seen through Vietnamese eyes. Obviously, the victor in any conflict gets to write the history of what happened but I think it’s fair to say that these weren’t the USA’s finest years. The use of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange was widespread and there is a large display concentrating on the My Lai Massacre and, in particular, the involvement of William Calley who, whilst convicted, was later pardoned by Nixon. I am not naive enough to believe that there weren’t atrocities committed by both sides (it is sadly the nature of war) but the story of Mai Lai is a particularly grizzly account and brings home the absolute horror of war.
When you first go into the grounds of the Museum, the first thing you see are planes, helicopters, tanks and shells left over from the war. On first sight, you are filled with awe as this is the hardware you have seen in all of those movies through the years. By the time we came to leave, I saw those weapons of war with an entirely different viewpoint.
From the Museum, we walked to the zoo and botanical gardens, hoping that the botanical gardens were separate from the zoo but, alas this wasn’t the case. We don’t really care for looking at animals in captivity so turned back towards town. The only animal we saw in what would be described as being in its natural habitat was a massive rat, which crawled out from under as street food stall near the zoo. We didn’t buy any food from that stall.
As we had seen everything we wanted to see in HCM,we decided to book a tour the following day, out to The Mekong Delta
We were picked up from our hotel the following morning, prompt (ish) at about 9:10 (It was supposed to be 9am).
We journeyed out to The Mekong Delta in a very comfortable bus. The journey took us through the rice fields on the outskirts of HCMC. In each field there was at least one mausoleum type structure and our guide explained that this is where the remains of family members are interned, rather than in communal graveyards.
Our first port of call was the Vinh Trang Temple with its three giant Buddhas and pagoda. It was a beautiful day and the white Buddhas looked spectacular against the clear blue sky.
We then went on to My Tho City, where we boarded a boat across the Mekong River and out to The Mekong Delta.
Our first visit was to a small village which created products from honey. I became Mr Volunteer on this trip, holding the bee covered hive and later, a python (Lucy had a go at the python too) We tasted honey tea and some crystallised ginger, banana and nut brittle, all which were delicious. We watched sickly sweet coconut candy being made and wrapped (it was way too sweet for our tastes) and were then taken for what was a really tasty lunch consisting of fish, spring rolls, rice and lots of other stuff. After lunch we were “treated” to a rendition of local traditional tunes sung by a trio of ladies. In all honesty, it was pretty excruciating, particularly when we were invited to sing along to “eef yu eppy n yu no eet, crap yo ends”! Still, all part of the tour!
eef yu eppy n yu no eet, crap yo ends
We were then taken on a very wobbly boat ride through the Delta and I was again reminded of scenes from those Vietnam movies, except that there were just hundreds of similar boats, filled with tourists, clattering into each other as they filed in either direction along the narrow channels.
We both agreed that we could have done without everything after lunch but, all in all, the tour was interesting and enjoyable.
Back to HCM, it was time to pack for our departure to Cambodia the next day and to look for somewhere for dinner that evening.
We went to the same bar we had been to on previous evenings but didn’t fancy eating there so walked back across a square towards our hotel. As we were walking across, we noticed an entrance to what looked like (and, in fact, was) a market below the square. We decided to explore and discovered that there was a large food court within the market. We ended up staying there and ate the most delicious Indian meal from one the stalls.
The following morning,it was time to leave Vietnam. We caught our very comfortable bus, not far from our hotel and made the 5 hour bus journey to Phnom Penh.
And, that was Vietnam.
In hindsight, we spend far too long in Vietnamese cities and should have spent some more time in the rural or coastal parts. Due to this, Vietnam, with some exceptions, has been our least favourite destination to date. Hué was lovely, as was Ha Long Bay and the Mekong Delta but both Hanoi and HCMC are just to crazy to be described as enjoyable.
Fortunately, our experience in our next destination would prove to be a vast improvement.
But, I’m spoiling the plot! Read all about Cambodia in the next instalment.
Thanks for reading.
John & Lucy.
Comments
Post a Comment