Hello!
Another massively late blog post about our two week adventure in Vietnam.
ENJOY!
Ho Chi Minh City
We took a bus from Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The border crossing here, although incredibly tedious and sweaty, was not scammy thank goodness! Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City however, we were immediately scammed by a taxi driver who had somehow rigged his meter to run at around 15 times faster than it should have done. Looking back, we realised we had made the fatal error of getting cash out from the ATM in front of him, so he knew we would have no small change and could therefore take as much as he wanted from us. The funny thing is that in most countries we’ve visited, forcing the taxi driver to use a meter is the only way to protect yourself from being horrifically overcharged. Not in Vietnam apparently! Needless to say, we got our hotels to book all transport for us from then on!
I’d love to be able to say that our stay in Ho Chi Minh City improved after that, however after eating at a trendy food market near our hotel on the first night, I then came down with a stomach bug which meant that we were pretty much confined to our hotel room for the next few days! On the last day I was well enough to go for a wander and we explored the city a little. It was quite surprising how many French style buildings there were in the city, although admittedly the country was under French occupation for almost 70 years so that’s more than enough time to throw up some fancy buildings. We found an amazing market in the centre of town where I managed to buy an assortment of Nike yoga pants and sports tops for next to nothing. Despite probably being fake they are brilliant quality and just what I needed for my yoga course in a few months’ time.
Hanoi
Because apparently, we are ‘flashpackers’ (posh backpackers), we decided to fly up to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam instead of taking the bus. We stayed in the old town which was really fun. There’s a big cafe culture in Hanoi and of an evening the streets are packed with locals who sit on tiny plastic stools on the pavement, drinking tea and eating big bowls of Pho. As you walk along, you constantly have to dodge round huge bubbling vats filled with unidentified liquids with pig trotters floating around on top. The streets are each designated with a different theme, so you’ll walk down a road filled entirely with flower vendors and around the next corner will be a street packed with spice stalls, or a ‘celebration’ street filled with cards, balloons and streamers. We also saw clothing streets, shoe streets, scooter repair streets and a road dedicated entirely to coffee. We used Hanoi as a base and booked trips out to the east to Halong Bay and up north to the rice fields and mountains of Sapa. As we kept coming back to Hanoi, it started feeling quite homely after a while and we found ourselves returning to our favourite cafes more than a few times.
Halong Bay
We booked a trip to Halong Bay whereby we were transported by coach to the bay and then spent a night sleeping on a beautiful big wooden boat as it cruised between the islands. Halong Bay is absolutely stunning, as you would expect. It’s made up of thousands of tiny uninhabited islands covered in palm trees. Our cabin on the boat was gorgeous. The walls were polished wood and we had two huge windows looking out across the bay. We had meals cooked for us in the restaurant onboard and the food was delicious. On our first day aboard we stopped at a beach which, although packed with tourists, was still stunning. We hiked to the top of the island and took in the most breathtaking view of the bay from the summit. Following this, we were taken out in kayaks for a paddle around just as the sun was going down.
Our second day was just as good as the first. We visited a huge cave in the morning which was absolutely stunning. The ceilings were lit with different coloured lights so it was like walking through a rainbow. We returned to the boat to be taught how to make fresh Vietnamese spring rolls before another massive meal which we ate as the ship returned us to the shore. It truly was a fantastic trip and worth every penny!
Sapa
Our second trip out from Hanoi was to the mountain village of Sapa on the border of China. To reach the mountains we took a sleeper train which left Hanoi at 10pm and arrived in the mountains at 5:00am the next morning. We had no idea what to expect when we arrived at our cabin but it was actually quite civilised! We were in cabins with 4 beds and on both journeys we were thankful to be sharing with other couples who also wanted to get a decent nights’ sleep during the journey. The bunk beds were relatively comfortable and the cabins had free bottled water and air conditioning. The only real issue was the fact that the train made about a thousand stops on the way to Sapa and seemed to be unable to do anything but emergency brake whenever it reached a station. This resulted in a rather uncomfortable journey during which we felt as though we were going to fly out of our bunks every half hour. Despite this, we think we did manage to catch a few hours’ sleep on each trip. Once we had arrived in Sapa we spent two days trekking through the most gorgeous rice fields and forests. It was so ridiculously green everywhere it was almost unreal. We were taken to local villages and shown how traditional Vietnamese houses were set out, how the clothes they wore were made and dyed with natural dyes and got to watch a dance performance put on by local young people. Although at times some of the local people tried to coerce and pressure us into buying their goods using a variety of frustrating tactics, overall most were friendly towards us and our guide throughout the trip was brilliant. It was really interesting to see a more rural part of Vietnam, where five different tribes of people were living peacefully together in such an isolated place. It really was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.
Although it had a rather rocky start, our trip to Vietnam ended up being amazing. I’m so glad we decided to pay a little extra to go on organised tours of Halong Bay and Sapa, as after our first scamming incident it was nice not to have to worry so much about it happening again. We have generally steered away from organised tours throughout our travels, mainly because we like our freedom and hate being herded around like cattle. On this occasion however, we were glad to hand over the reins for a few days and just enjoy the ride! Vietnam was definitely one of our more busy periods of travel, so we were very much looking forward to a return to island life as we boarded our plane to the Philippines.
Jess & Rich
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