Travel Blog

Having made it all the way from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in the south of Vietnam to Hanoi in the north, I can conclude that Vietnam is a country of contrasting people. In the south, very friendly and eager to help you out. Yes people will always try and sell you something but at least a friendly ‘no’ will make them move on to the next person. In the north people are rude and crazy. No amount of ‘no’s’ will make them give up. One French girl we met in Hanoi got off a bus from Hue at around 6am and was making her way towards her guesthouse when a load of guys started trying to get her to take a taxi. She politely said no again and again but they kept following her down the street. When it became clear that she wasn’t going take their taxi, they started shouting obscenities at her. She felt very uncomfortable especially since it was 6am and there weren’t many people around. That whole situation is something I would be surprised to see happen in Nha Trang or Hoi An in the south. So anyway we have found Hanoi to be far too noisy and mental and so we are merely using it as a base for trips to Ninh Binh, Halong Bay and Sapa – all in the surrounding countryside.

But first let me tell you about our last stop in Southern Vietnam. Hoi An was a place that we planned to stop at ever since we met a couple on Easter Island who had been there. Before the trip we had originally planned to buy really cheap tailor made clothes in Bangkok however this couple said we’d be mad not to do it in Hoi An instead. Apparently the service is better (not everybody is trying to rip you off), the quality is better and the clothes are even cheaper. It’s also cheaper to send your purchases home. So we arrived there at the crack of dawn after a not so comfortable bus journey. It was our first overnight bus journey in Southeast Asia and these buses are NOT made like South American ones. The seats are far too narrow and there’s practically no leg space. It meant we were in a desperately tired state for our first morning in Hoi An. After a quick snooze we went straight out to buy some clothes as they take a few days to make and do various fittings. Suits and shoes are things that I have serious issues with buying at home so they were the priority buys. Anything else was a bonus. I ended up ordering 2 suits, 2 pairs of business casual trousers, 3 shirts and 3 pairs of shoes. The cost $330! That included postage home by seamail although it will take 2-3 months to arrive. At least I remained calm – I think Fi went temporarily insane with all the stuff she bought!

We had to hang around Hoi An for a couple of days while the clothes were being made and to go back for fittings to make sure they actually fit us. We used one of these days to see some nearby temple ruins known as My Son. They were grand – nothing to write home about but we met some really fun people on the bus there and we all messed around a bit in the hot hot Vietnam sun. We arranged to meet the gang for scoops later on and headed back to the tailor’s for our first fitting. My two pairs of business casual trousers were a little too baggy but no sweat! They just alter them accordingly. That’s the beauty of tailor made stuff! Everything else was fine though and we headed off to the pub where we would meet our new friends. I think the bar was called “Same, same but different”. Sound strange? It’s southeast Asia! Everything’s strange! We had a great night and we hadn’t met some people in a while so it was really good to head out with some new faces and have the craic. When Fi and I arrived home at all hours we played a game of cribbage accompanied by a couple of beers from the minibar. I won but I’m not sure if the booze helped me play better or helped Fi play worse.

The next day was a beach day. Hoi An has a lovely beach about 3km outside the town. It actually turned out to be better than Nha Trang which is supposedly the best in Vietnam. The sand was smoother, the beach more deserted, the water was cleaner and there were loadsa palm trees around which gave it a great atmosphere. The only problem is the feckin water was too warm! You lie on the beach working up a sweat and decide a dip in the ocean would sort you out but no! The South China sea is slightly warmer than the Atlantic. Come back 40ft, all is forgiven! We went back for our second fitting later on which turned out to be the final one as everything was hunky dory. After trying everything on we packed it all into a box and covered it in about 7 miles of sticky tape to send it off to Dublin. We were so excited at having bought all these new groovy clothes but kind of sad we wouldn’t see them again for ages. During the evening we walked down by the river to a restaurant we read about in Lonely Planet. There’s this chef who has cooked at all sorts of European expos and every night his restaurant has a set menu and he just cooks up whatever he feels like on the day. The only choice you get is whether to have the fish, meat or vegetarian menu. You don’t even know exactly what you’re getting until it comes out but you can guarantee it will be good. Predictably I chose the meat while Fi chose the Fish. It was superb and the waitresses who bring it round show you exactly how it’s supposed to be eaten. That was really handy because often in Southeast Asia your food comes with all sorts of plates and bowls and chopsticks and spoons and sauces and spices. It’s very difficult to know which sauce to use with which dish in which bowl or plate. And whether to use a spoon or chopsticks. So we were happy to know for once that we were doing things right.

We wanted to bypass Hue which is on the way from Hoi An to Hanoi and head straight to Hanoi but the bus from Hoi An to Hanoi stops in Hue anyway. So we had a few hours to look around Hue before our bus to Hanoi. Although Hue is technically in South Vietnam it is probably the closest place to the border and we noticed the north Vietnamese attitude straight away. The main thing to do in Hue is to look around the old town which, despite heavy bombing by the Americans in the war, still has its walls standing. It was actually a very pleasant and interesting afternoon but it was somewhat wrecked by the persistent cyclo drivers. These guys have a bicycle that has a 2 person carriage attached to the front. One of the guys asked us if he could give us a one hour tour of the old town on his cyclo and he just would not take no for an answer. He followed us around for practically the whole time we were walking and although I’ve heard you should never lose your cool or you could be in big trouble, I was severely tested that day. As I said it was a nice day and once again, the weather was beautiful. It was slightly marred though by the thought of yet another overnight Southeast Asian bus trip. Despite all the odds though, the bus turned out to be ok even with all the Vietnamese playing noisy computer games on their phones all night long. I think what really happened is I’m just getting used to sleeping in worse and worse conditions. I think soon I’ll be able to sleep standing up on the Dart. You wouldn’t believe some of the conditions I’ve been forced to sleep in!

As expected we weren’t the most awake people when we arived in Hanoi at the crack of dawn so we decided to hit the sack for a couple of hours. While checking into the guesthouse we met a nice French girl called Angelique and arranged to meet her around midday for a spot of lunch and some sight seeing. As it turned out we weren’t too interested in the sightseeing so we had a quick gawk at the lake before heading to the pub. Later on that evening we headed to a water puppetry show for which Vietnam is famous. It was pretty interesting and ful of fireworks, puppets and live music. The only thing is that it was all in Vietnamese so we couldn’t really understand the story. Also there wasn’t much leg space in the seats but it was an entertaining show nonetheless. The next morning, Fi and I hopped on a local bus to a place called Ningh Binh about 2.5 hours outside Hanoi. We had heard about this place from a hippy couple we met in Phnom Penh who said it was very chilled out with amazing scenery and hadn’t been hit by the tourist boom yet. It turns out they were correct. On one of our days there we hired moto drivers to bring us Cuc Phuong National Park about 40km away. The guy who we hired the drivers through suggested that we take a route there that was slightly out of the way but was through the countryside instead of just being on the highway the entire time. We agreed and once we got into the farmlands we were treated to stunning views of rice paddies and pineapple fields. I always presumed pineapples grew from trees but it turns out they grow up from the ground. We stopped off by a pineapple field for a break and to swipe a cheeky pineapple. When we arrived at the national park, the first thing we did was visit an endangered primate rescue centre. This German run place take endangered primates from the wild, breed them in their centre, release them into a semi-wild environment before releasing them fully back into the wild. We took a tour around and got plenty of snaps of gibbons and other monkey type creatures jumping between branches.

Further on into the national park we stopped at a cave which was pretty cool. It involved renting a flashlight for 5,000 dong (about 25c) and hiking a short way up to the cave. The immediate are inside was impresisve enough but we managed to venture further back into the depths of the cave where we actually needed our torches. We could certainly have gone a lot further but the dim torches and presence of many bats stopped us. After this we headed further again into the national park where there was a nice 2 hour walking trail that led towards a 1,000 year old tree. It was very hot and the walk was essentially through the jungle. There were sounds of tropical birds, insects and monkeys all around us while the heat and humidity completed the experience. Needless to say the 1,000 year old tree was massive and we took a few minutes break there to try and get our heads around its age. That was the end of our activity in the actual park but our moto drivers took us back via a different route. This time we passed through small villages and farmland and more rice paddies. I don’t think the people who lived there had ever seen a Westerner before let alone one my size. Every man, woman and child we passed pointed and laughed at me and many of them ran off to tell their mates. Some who were on motos too would ride along beside us just blatantly staring at me. It was funny at first but became a bit tiresome. Speaking of tiresome, after a few hours of sitting on the back of a bike our asses were seriously beginning to hurt. By the time we arrived back at our guesthouse in Ninh Binh my knees and bum were so sore I couldn’t imagine I’d ever sit down again.

For our second day in Ninh Binh we rented bicycles (as if our bums hadn’t had enough trouble the previous day) and cycled to Tam Coc. Tam Coc is a set of three limestone caves on the Hoang Long river and you hire a rowing boat and rower to take you down the river. We sat in the boat with a woman and a boy who was presumably her son and passed yet again through some amazing scenery and underneath the caves. I know it sounds repetitive to say the scenery was amazing but it’s just something you have to see to understand. Some of the caves we passed through were pretty low and I spent some of the time ducked right down in the boat. Also the rowers cheekily forced us to row as well as trying to sell us some of their embroidery. Very clever as we couldn’t exactly run away when we’re in a boat in the middle of a river! After the boat ride I continued cycling on to Bich Dong which is a pagoda a few kilometres further down the road. Fi didn’t join me due to a flat tire. After a whiel I came across some kind of religious building with a guy outside beckoning me in. I knew this couldn’t be Bich Dong Pagoda but I headed in anyway as the guy looked friendly. The place consisted of a small courtyard surrounded by a few small buildings and the guy lead me into one of them. It turned out this is where he slept/lived and he kindly offered me some Vietnamese tea. I’m not really one for the tea but it would be rude to refuse so I knocked it back. At first I thought his lack of speaking was because he hadno English but it soon became evident that we was a deaf mute. But somehow we managed to communicate through hand signals any by pouring liquid on the stone floor and drawing pictures in it. This was also a good way for me to get rid of my Vietnamese tea without having to drink it. He continued showing me around the complex and even let me take some photos of the religious alters and statues – something which is usually banned in other places. As a final gesture he gave me a big bag of lychees and so I threw him a small donation before heading on my way. At this stage I had been there a while and so didn’t feel like heading on to Bich dong. So I went back to where I left Fi and we cycled back to Ninh Binh where we took a bus back to Hanoi.

We spent only one more night in Hanoi before taking a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. After a few hours drive we arrived at Halong bay and boarded our junk around about lunchtime to the tunes of Boney M and Jingle Bells. As we set sail we were treated to a delicious lunch. Once again the scenery was amazing - sorry but I don’t know what else to say! Legend says that Halong Bay was made by a dragon who thrashed its tail around creating loads of tiny islands and waterways. We sailed for a few hours around the bay and I sat on the top deck listening to music and enjoying the view. We stopped off during the day at a cave which, while certainly very impressive, was terribly overrun with tourists. And most of the tourists were Asian – the worst kind! There were some parts though that I was able to imagine what it’s like without the hordes of snap happy Japanese and Koreans. We continued on through the bay and in late afternoon we anchored down and hopped into kayaks. Our guide brought us around a small island to a “hidden lagoon”. Although I’m sure plenty of people know about this hidden lagoon, our group was actually the only one there. Once you enter the lagoon, the only noise you can hear is that of the birds and insects. Also since the entrance to the lagoon is quite small, you feel like you are completely surrounded by hills. When the guide started back to the boat, Fi and I waited around a few moments longer so we could enjoy the peace of the place without 12 other people to make noise. We both agreed it was up there on the top ten list. I’m really not doing a great job of explaining it and I don’t even have any photos of it as I didn’t want to bring my camera in the kayak for obvious reasons. We spent the evening eating dinner and drinking beer with the other folk on the boat. Some of the people on the tour were great fun and the boat even had a built in karaoke machine! You can imagine the kind of night it was. I decided to sleep up on the top deck underneath the stars and after hauling up a blanket and a pillow I settled in for the night Unfortunately my plan was thwarted around 2.30am when it began to piss rain sending me running below deck.

On the second day of our tour we pulled up to Cat Ba island which is the only inhabited island in Halong Bay. We were first taken to a place on the island where there is a great 2 hour hike. Again the scenery was great yadda yadda yadda but the heat was almost unbearable which made the hike seem twice as tough as it actually was. There was a strategically placed cold drinks stall at the end of the hike and I’d say it does a roaring trade as I think I bought about 3 drinks just for myself! Then we were off to the floating restaurant for lunch. Yes the floating restaurant was a great novelty except when the sea got a bit rough. We’d be sitting around eating rice when next thing a big wave would come in and we’d all have to grab onto something and try and stop the food from flying everywhere. It also didn’t help keep my stomach in order once I’d finished eating. After lunch we were back into the kayaks but this time the destination was a small beach in a little cove. As it was inaccesible by land, it was deserted and we stopped there for about an hour lounging about and swimming in the far too warm sea. The rest of the day was spent hanging around Cat Ba island and for that night we stayed in a hotel. We brought our guide down to the pub after dinner and following a couple of Vietnamese beers he was well on his way! He even treated us to a few hundred renditions of the Carpenters ‘Yesterday once more’ on the karaoke machine – a standard party piece for every Vietnamese person it seems. The third day of the Halong Bay tour was pretty much spent on the Junk going back to Halong City and then the bus back to Hanoi. However we did stop off mid morning for a swim to cool down. It was good fun jumping off the back of the boat and letting the amazingly strong current drag you back to the front of the boat where the ladder was.

When we arrived back in Hanoi we had but 3 hours to have a shower, grab some food and head off to catch an overnight train to Sapa. Sapa is a city in the very north of Vietnam, very close to the Chinese border. People who come here normally take a 2 or 3 day tour of the local indigenous villages however we decided to climb Mt. Fansipan, Southeast Asia’s highest mountain, instead. It sounded like a great idea at the time but unfortunately it didn’t really work out like we expected! The first day wasn’t too bad. We hiked for only 3 hours to our base camp and it turned out we were hiking with 3 very cool Germans. We had a delicious dinner at the campsite and a lot of great chat with the Germans so we awoke on the 2nd morning feeling all rested and ready to go. Our morale deteriorated steadily over the next 4 hours as the trail to the top got steeper and steeper. It was bad enough hiking up a steep path but when the path ended and we were literally climbing over boulders, logs and rivers, the strain became unbearable. We had no idea it would be this techincally difficult. At one stage I even considered giving up. I have done some pretty serious hiking in Peru and Patagonia but never before did I feel like I couldn’t make it.Oh yeah, it was also pissing down with rain and about an hour from the top I heard myself uttering that famous line from Forrest Gump, “Viet-f*****g-nam!”. We did eventually make it to the top but the torrential rain, lack of visibility, sore muscles and coldness meant we didn’t even feel like we’d achieved something. Maybe if there was a good view… Our guide prepared some sandwiches for lunch but we weren’t even hungry we were so miserable. I nonetheless ate a roll figuring I’d need some energy for the hike down. Although we were going down, it was still really difficult and we arrived back at camp after 9 hours of difficult, cold and rainy hiking. I would have gone to bed straight away except dinner was being served in an hour. That night I think I slept about 13 hours.

The third day was actually the nicest hiking but we were so fed up from the previous day that all we wanted to do was get back to Sapa. Sure enough, the good old reliable rain started soon after we began hiking. The good part of it was that we passed through a couple of dwellings on the mountainside. Our guide took us inside one to meet a family and they sat us down giving us boiled water and rice wine to drink. We played with the children and tok photos which they thought was hilarious. We presumed all this would cost something as unfortunately any kind of hospitality in Vietnam usually does. But at the end we asked our guide if we should give some money and he said no. We were delighted that we actually found some good old fashioned kindness in Southeast Asia rather than everyone desparate to make a quick buck whatever way they can. When we finally arrived back at the hotel in Sapa it was a joyous occasion. We survived! We took a well needed shower, wolfed down some lunch and spent the afternoon resting our weary bodies in the tv room of the hotel. That night we caught a train back to Hanoi and we are now in Hanoi about one hour away from a mean 22 hour bus trip to Vientianne in Laos. This promises to be 22 hours of pure hell but unfortunately there is no other way to get to Laos short of paying 120 dollars for a flight. I’ll let you know how we get on!