Vietnam Adventures

One Pillar Pagoda

We have planned to take a shuttle from the airport to Hanoi's Old Quarter. However as we waited for the shuttle to leave more and more customers were leaving. In the end one of us told us that the shuttle will leave only once it is full! So we have been offered a minibus ride for $5 each. Because he was going half empty he stopped by the road where a guy was waiting with loads of boxes with routers. They through all of them in and we were off to Hanoi:-)

We stayed at Serenity Hotel near the 'invitation card printing' street. That is to say that each street in Old Quarter has its own business purpose.

With so many beautiful and cheap souvenirs to buy we have decided to Send some of our stuff back home. In Hanoi there is an international post office that will pack everything for you as they need to see the content before sending. We have chosen sea transport that costed us only $30 for 6.5 kilo. But it has only one disadvantage; it might take four months to travel to the Czech Republic! So it might be a bit late for some of our gifts; hopefully ready for Xmas:-). Hanoi is busy but still very charming city. I personally enjoyed the most Water Puppet Theatre; originally the puppetry was performed on rice fields, nowadays it has its own theatre with traditionally dressed performers and themed Vietnamese music. The show takes you around different customs and cultures around Vietnam and English panels always explain the future performance.

Water Puppet Theatre

Vietnam was previously ruled by French so many buildings are designed in European style. In the French Quarter the buildings are taller and streets are wider. You can also find prestigious brands in here like channel or rolex. As we were walking around on Saturday, there were many weddings taking place in the area, or at least the newlyweds were having their pictures taken within there; in front of those posh shops...probably hoping that one day they will be able to afford to go inside.

Our Halong Bay Boat

But our main destination in the area was Halong Bay, about 170km far from Hanoi. As a UNESCO site it is a magnet for tourists. We have booked our tour with Muachung, a Vietnamese alternative to Groupon. It allow us to go on a bit luxurious cruise that we would normally get for our $60. First we had to get on the bus for 4 hours ride to Halong City. The roads there are pretty bad, where on every bridge you jump almost one meter high, not very good for catching up on sleep:-). In there you join thousands of other tourists. There are lot of Vietnamese going on day tour and many foreigners joining multiday cruises.

It was about 20 of us on the boat. We had a separate en-suite cabin with AC on the second floors with large windows into the bay. It was great. All food was included and served as a small buffet on each table. I even tasted crab for the first time and most importantly learned how to open one:-). Drinks were paid extra and all of them were at least double the price that on land, but hey we were on holiday.

During the cruise we visited the famous Sung Sot Cave, went on kayaking near the small floating village and cruised around secluded bays, lucky island whose picture is on 200,000VND note, or floating village with bank and school.

 After we landed we also practice our negotiating skills with large number of ladies trying to sell us Halong Pearls.

"First" Class in Reunification Train

 

Then it was ride back to Hanoi for us and later in the night train to Danang.

We have purchased the most 'luxurious' soft berths on Reunification Train. We the standard was low, but you still could sleep and sit easily and there were four beds in a cabin. We travelled with a French group and to our entertainment there were drinking vodka, singing French songs and tried to communicate with us in French.

 

Marble Mountain Temple

 After 14-hour train ride we arrived to DaNang, main centre in middle Vietnam. From there it is only 30min ride to Hoi An.

Along the way there are Marble Mountains with large number of pagodas and spiritual caves so we decided to have a look. It was worth the climb. Our reward for the climb and long train ride was a room in Phuoc An River Hotel, our luxurious stay in Hoi An. Great view on river and rice fields with bath for Lukas and traditional bath robes.

For the following morning we have booked a tour to My Son, a system of temples from created by Chan civilisation that has similar cultural values like Kmers in Cambodia. The temples were hit by bombs during the war so many are damaged, but as the area is under UNESCO there are still preserving works taking place. The tour was organised to catch a sun rise so we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and should have missed our daily treat, a hotel breakfast! That was hard to swallow:-) but fortunately we arrived earlier so we could still snitch some fruit and the most needed coffee.

The rest of our stay in Hoi An we spend exploring the night town with lots of tailoring shops and lanterns everywhere. The town is very romantic after the dawn and good restaurants are scattered all around. We have also borrowed a bike from a hotel to go to the beach. Lukas enjoyed it very much as he jumped into those enormous waves. Even after a week and a hairwash he still has some of the sand in his dreadlocks:-).

My Son

 Unfortunately, we had to leave this perfect place and fly back to Saigon. Our main stop in there were CuChi Tunnels created by VietMing during the second world war and later further developed by VietCong during the war with the USA. Similar to Halong Bay it has been transformed into huge tourist attraction, but as many people do not feel comfortable inside the tunnels in the end we had enough time to explore the rooms and tunnels alone. We were also lucky to have a former VietCong guide who was telling us his stories by very broken English and also showing us bullets in his body.

In the end we were happy to leave Saigon and move to quieter Mekong Delta.

Perfect Waves at Hoi An Beach

Transfer to CanTho took only three hours even though everyone was telling us that it would take at least four. For your stay in Mekong Delta I have chosen Hung Homestay. Our local experience started with pick up as guys from homestay arrived to the bus station on motorbikes. They put our backpacks to the front, and us behind. Perfect. My driver lost his shoe along the way so we had to stop in the middle of the road:-) and then to create the atmosphere the rain started! My and my backpack were put into the local rain coats and we were ready to go again.

Hung Homestay is not a real homestay. We stayed in small bungalows on the river. Our dinner started with us making spring rolls and frying them, you can imagine how some of them looked like:-). Dinner was great and we even got a bag! full of rice wine.

Japanese Bridge - Hoi An

The following morning we started early as usual. We booked a tour around Mekong with Hung. Our first stop was a floating market where some boats comes from 200km far provinces. Along the tour we also stopped at rice noodle factory that really did not meet EU standards:-), seedlings business, and also rice factory. I most enjoyed the part in the countryside. We could walk along the bank as well to explore the rice fields and cross the traditional 'Monkey Bridge'.

Cu Chi Tunnels

In the afternoon we borrowed bikes and went to explore the area and find a place to eat. That has proven to be a bit of problem as noone spoke English and we could not even find out whether they cook or not once we found a local cafe. In the end we have found a place right on time as the weather was trying to remind us that there is still a rainy season in Vietnam. Fortunately there were gaps in those heavy storm showers so we could relatively dry reach the homestay again.

Our last stop in Vietnam was Chau Doc. It is mainly a transfer point as boats to Cambodia leave from here early in the morning. There is only one thing to do and that is Sam Mountain. It is rather a hill with less than 200 meter above the sea level, but the trip there on the motorbikes costed us $6 each and the drivers took us into the countryside before climbing the mountain on the very narrow street. The mountain is a place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese as there are many temples along the way. There used to be an army base but that has now been replaced with coffee shops. The views from the top are amazing. You can even see Cambodia from there.

Floating Market at Mekong Delta

Unfortunately, another heavy shower hit us there so the clouds covered most of our views.

The next morning it was quick breakfast for us because our fast boat to Cambodia was leaving at 7:30.