Vietnam

Day 8 – Sihanoukville, Cambodia to Can Tho, Vietnam   

Early morning wake up to load the bus and drive towards the Vietnam border.  This border crossing was much calmer. Our arrival possibly tripled the number of people in the vicinity, a few long haul truckers and immigration authorities from each side. Leaving Cambodia, Joey led with all of our passports. One man lifted a lever and we walked through. Entering Vietnam, we slipped $1 into each passport for speedier service, although not much else appeared to be going on. One agent checked all our faces with the passport photo and visa and down the stretch another agent flipped through to check for stamps. Soon we were all back on the bus and riding into Vietnam.

The scenery changed upon entering Vietnam. The rice paddies were pushed back and the streets were lined with markets, residences and buildings. The streets were more crowded, especially with motorbikes loaded with two, three, four passengers or large loads of bags, boxes, even mattresses. The ride was louder too, as the driver beeped at each vehicle, motorized or not, as we drove past.  

We stopped for lunch at a hotel restaurant overlooking a small city. We exchanged some dollars to dong, the Vietnamese currency, and ate our first of many dishes of Pho. Pho is a typical Vietnamese soup made with rice noodles and beef or chicken, served with bean sprouts, limes and other garnishes. We ate some spring rolls and tried our first local beer, Saigon.  

In the evening, we pulled into the homestay and guesthouse. From the main road we walked a drizzly half a mile past rice paddies, over streams and under the massive leaves of banana trees to the guest house. One family lives at the house and hosts G-Adventures groups, sharing the local cuisine. The women in the family demonstrated how to prepare a typical Vietnamese dish, an omelet made of egg and rice flour, filled with bean sprouts and meat.  We sampled many other Vietnamese dishes over dinner: pumpkin soup, rice with pork, spring rolls, green beans, rice crackers and rambutans for desert.

That night we played games and sang along with the guitar. The accommodations were a little rustic for some, without air conditioning. I didn’t mind the gecko lurking over my bed, figuring that it would eat the mosquitos and spiders. However, it was enormous, at least five times larger than any I had seen before. I slept soundly, counting on my mosquito net to keep everything outside.   

Day 9 – Can Tho, Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

The morning started with a traditional breakfast and off to the floating market. We boarded a long boat on a small canal and motored off to the larger Mekong River. Merging onto the wide river, there were dozens of boats selling their produce. The farmers are the sellers at this wholesale floating market. The buyers will load up with goods from the different boats and then resell them at their local markets. Each boat was brimming with a different crop: pineapple, melon, and dragon fruit, with a bamboo pole displaying the merchandise like a flag. A few smaller boats sold coffee or quick meals to those aboard. My favorite was an iced coffee with lots of milk and sugar to mask the strong Vietnamese flavor.

By the afternoon we arrived at the hectic Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon. We ate some more Pho and went out to explore the city. We shopped at the Ben Than market. The market has been around for a few centuries but now the building has many stalls aimed at selling souvenirs along with items for local families. We wandered through the cramped aisles and I purchased a small Buddhist figurine to replace Mandy’s, dried mango, a patch of the Vietnam flag, and a new patchwork purse.

A few of us set off to see the Independence Palace, but really only could walk around the perimeter.  We enjoyed just wandering the busy city streets, lined with tall, tall trees. We wandered through a well-kept park and practiced crossing busy streets. With thousands of motorbikes zooming down the street, the strategy is to shuffle your feet and walk slowly straight across traffic. As long as you don’t rush or make sudden moves, the drivers veer around you.

That night we welcomed two more travelers to the group. Chris and George joined us from England as we entered the Vietnam section of the trip. We dined at a Vietnamese/Mexican restaurant but I decided to stick with local food. I ate a plate of rice patty spring rolls and successfully consumed the whole plate using chopsticks. While we were already on the main backpacker street, we hit up a bar for drinking and dancing to US and Latin pop music. The taxi driver almost scammed us with a faulty meter but the doorman of our hotel walked over and the driver gave up his game.

Day 10 – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Our day started with a drive out to the Cu-Chi tunnels. These were the underground networks that the Vietcong used during the war. The tunnels were used for combat, but also for communication, supply routes and storage of food and weapons. Some enlarged underground areas were used for hospitals and living quarters. Now the area is used as a tourist attraction. Staff in costume Vietcong uniforms demonstration hiding and emerging from the slender openings, show model booby traps and give tours. The site also contains a shooting range to fire assault rifles, such as the M-16s and the AK-47s used in the war. The constant gunfire during the tour was unnerving. While I was eager to learn about the history of the war, the tourist zone felt more like a theme park than historical location. Some tunnels had been widened for thick tourists and had added lights. The fake traps used AstroTurf and displays had cheesy manikins. The parking lot was packed with tour busses and the museums filled with visitors. Probably worth a visit if you’re in the area, but the tunnels weren’t the historical highlight it was meant to be.

After the tunnels, we visited the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. This museum clearly had been created to show visitors the Vietnamese perspective on the war. There were several floors of propaganda including artifacts of the world’s call to peace during the war and signs of countries backing Vietnam. There were entire galleries dedicated to showing the effects of the bombings, napalm and Agent Orange. While I agree that the US shouldn’t have been in the war, especially to such a violent extent, I generally believe that a more objective perspective is more effective and allows visitors to draw their own conclusions.  

We packed up our bags, including snacks for the road and went to the train station. We loaded four to a room with bunks on the sleeper train. It was tight but functional. We even managed to cram our entire group into one car for a photo. Night fell outside the train and once we accustomed to the rocky movement of the train, it was a good night sleep.

Day 11 – Nha Trang, Vietnam   

Joey knocked on the sleeper car doors at 5:00am to give us some time to wake up and pack up our bags. We stumbled half asleep out of the train terminal and loaded up on a waiting bus to take us to the hotel. It was too early to check in but we dumped our bags and walked to the beach. After a quick breakfast at a café with Wi-Fi, we walked back to the beach and the boardwalk. Nha Trang is a tourist town, mainly for Russian nationals. Most signs were in Vietnamese, Russian and then maybe English. The main strip had several large hotels, restaurants and beach clubs. The area also had several communist party billboards, as in other parts of the country.

Midmorning we went to a nearby spa for mud baths. The trip included transportation and a series of baths and pools. First we took showers with mineral water before moving to mud. Our group had a freshly drawn bath of thin muddy water. The texture was only a little gritty. After we returned to the mineral water shower. Then we went to a hot tub, followed by a huge swimming pool, actually warmer than the hot tub. We enjoyed a beer and some shade before returning to Nha Trang for lunch.

In the afternoon, I took some time to relax down by the beach. I had some coffee and brought my kindle, though I spent most of the time observing Russian and Chinese families playing in the waves or having picnics on the boardwalk. While sitting on a park bench, an older man approached me and we sat and talked a while. His name was An and he was 72 years old. He told me in his limited English about helicopter training for eight months after the war and how he was proud of his young grandson, a soccer player.  These types of connections and conversations are one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Continuing my relaxed afternoon, I went for a foot massage at one of the many spas lining the touristy streets. I finally got a few pages read on my kindle and relaxed. After a shower and some more chill time, the group went to dinner at “Lanterns” and strolled through the night market.

Day 12 – Nha Trang, Vietnam   

Up and at ‘em early with hotel breakfast and strong Vietnamese coffee, loaded with sweetened condensed milk. At the pier we loaded into a large boat with our snorkel guides and a handful of scuba divers. We sailed out over an hour with great views of the harbor and island.

Eventually we dropped anchor in a bay and jumped in. The initial leap and the first views of the deep water felt unnerving but once I relaxed the view was worth it. I saw coral, a variety of fish, schools of minnows, a swordfish, sea urchins and jellyfish. Later we moved to another location with a new underwater landscape, more fish, different coral formations and more small, translucent jellyfish. After spotting one too many and a fellow snorkeler catching a sting, I moved back to the boat. For lunch, the middle seating section of the boat was quickly converted into a massive table and we were served rice, noodles, eggs, and fish.

Back at the hotel, we each showered off the salt water and sunscreen in one little back shower of the hotel. Since we were leaving that evening, we had already checked out of the rooms, a common occurrence on the trip. I took some downtime at the café down the street with an iced coffee, AC and Wi-Fi. In the late afternoon, we departed for the train station for our next overnight ride.  

Day 13 – Hoi An, Vietnam   

Another early wake up call on the train as we approached the station in Da Nang. The bus was waiting and took us the 45 minutes to Hoi An and our hotel for the next two nights. The hotel is huge with a pool and we’ve heard, the best breakfast in Vietnam.

We started the morning with a local guide’s tour of the Old Quarter. This neighborhood has been maintained, for tourism and the preservation of the history and culture. Tourists purchase a pass to enter during their stay, which contributes to the safety and conservation of the sector. The pedestrian-only streets are lined with old wooden buildings containing shops, restaurants and tailor shops where one can have clothing designed, sewn and altered within 24 hours. Highlights of the Old Quarter include the covered Japanese bridge from the 16th century, a local market, boardwalk at the river and a Chinese community center. We strolled the open streets, made a few small touristy purchases, listened to traditional music and ate lunch at a local noodle place on the way back to the hotel.

In the afternoon we went on an amazing bike tour around the town. We started through the city streets, hectic with cars and motorbikes. Soon we moved into the country roads, too narrow for cars but designed for foot traffic, bikes and motorbikes. The elevated paths marked the perimeters of rice paddies and organized the countryside and rural residences. We stopped to take a close look at the growing rice in the water.  

The next stop was a small family farm, run by the most endearing elderly couple, ages 93 and 86. The two had been married for over seventy years and continue to manage the plot of land. They grew a diverse crop of mint, onions, garlic, morning glory, bok choy, lettuce and lemon basil. The old man continues to tend and water the rows daily with two large water cans hung over a pole, although now he has some extra support from visitors as they try to keep up with his technique. The couple has become a face of the Hoi An tourism industry, as they’ve been featured on several postcards.

Our ride continued around tight corners among the groups of houses in the country. We pulled over briefly to watch a farmer as he rode on the plow pulled by a water buffalo, to try some rice whiskey moonshine and to high-five the children lining the paths to see the bikers. We parked on the bank of the river and loaded into basket boats.  Along with a local lady, we paddled out among the reeds. The playful, elderly lady spun us in circles, made silly jewelry with the reeds and tried to catch crabs on the shore with a string. We rode a few more kilometers to the far end of town. Our journey ended with loading the bikes onto a larger boat and rode back on the wide river, veering around the large fishnets hovering above the water and enjoying the sunset.  

The night we ate at a restaurant that serves fancy variations of street foods. I had a vermicelli and beef dish. Our group relaxed with some beers in the backpacker scene.   

Day 14 – Hoi-An, Vietnam   

The rumor was true. This hotel had a fantastic breakfast, pleasing both Eastern and Western palettes. In the dining room, I met a group of travelers from Mexico, on the same tour, just a day behind.

Our morning activity was to a noodle making class. The class is run by a non-profit that takes young adults from low-income families and provides them with a culinary training program and English classes. We made rice noodles by steaming the rice water over cloths on a cooker. Smash bread is a dried version of the sheet of rice noodle paired with a freshly made one and crushed together, served with chili, fish sauce or sweet and sour. The chefs in training also prepared another noodle dish with elegant presentation.

Midday, I strolled the streets of Old Quarter Hoi An. A visit to the Tan Ky House, a 200 year old home of a Chinese merchant, showed the long history of the shipping and trading industry. The continued influence of the Chinese culture is seen at the Quang Trieu community center, over a hundred years old. The garden contains an enormous mosaicked statue of a twisting dragon and the ceilings dandle large coils of incense filling the shrines with their essence.

In the afternoon, we relaxed by watching an episode of the British series, “Top Gear,” specifically the Vietnam travel show. We saw places we’ve been and where we are headed. We dined at Cham Cham for some cheap backpacker food and cheap beer, 5.000 Vietnamese Dong, or 25 cents. Our night continued at Mr. Bean and Tiger Tiger, two typical backpacker bars. It was the same playlist as we’ve heard at most stops on the trip; we drank, danced and enjoyed the night.

Day 15 – Hue, Vietnam   

The day began with a bus ride from Hoi An to Hue. The scenic ride traveled along the coast of the South China Sea. The highway cut switchbacks up and down the ridges. At the peak we stopped for a break at the scenic overlook to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.  

Arriving at the hotel in Hue, we did a full search for bedbugs after reading a negative review on TripAdvisor. Fortunately, we found none and went on to Ushi Restaurant for lunch.  We feasted on garlic bread, passion fruit juice and more fried noodles.

In the afternoon, we took a motorbike tour of the city and the outlying areas. This was my first time on a motorbike and I was terrified. Each of us was paired up with an expert, local rider and I rode with Mr. Von, the owner of the tour company whose advice for a first timer was, “don’t watch the traffic.” Once we were out of the city, I got used to the feel of the bike and how it handled on turns. We made several stops in areas outside of the city. In one village we toured a small museum of rice and learned the techniques of cultivating and preparing rice. Next we stopped at the temple for the 7th king who was said to have 142 children and over five hundred wives along with numerous loyal eunuchs. At this stop, Mr. Von passed out bottled water insisting, “compulsory and complimentary” due to the intense heat. While we sat under a tree and learned about the history, our expert drivers split into two groups, young and old, squatting in circles, playing cards and smoking.

Our next point of interest was a pine-covered hill with three bunkers, one French and two American, remaining as a constant reminder of the war. The bunkers overlooked the Perfume River. At an artisanal market, we observed how incense and the cone hats are made. Next we peered into an old coliseum that hosted fights between elephants and tigers until 1904. Our last stop was the Thein Mu Pagoda. The seven-story temple was built over four hundred years ago on a hill overlooking the Perfume River.

After watching the sunset over the river at the Pagoda, we darted back through the city and returned to the hotel. Exhausted we dined with the group and compared the adventures of our day. Others had rented bikes and ridden solo, some to the abandoned water park out of town and others explored the city.  

Day 16 – Hue, Vietnam  

The morning started out with a hotel breakfast with intensely strong coffee. We walked a hot and sweaty half hour to the Imperial City of Hue. We shuffled across busy city streets, walked along the river and across the bridge. The Citadel is outlined by a two kilometer squared moat and is surrounded by the slowly spreading town.

This massive complex is the former political, cultural and religious center of Vietnam under the Nguyen Dynasty, until 1945. The expansive area contained the residences of various rulers and their families. It contained Buddhist temples with stunning architecture and stately archways. Parts of the citadel were damaged in the Vietnam War, such as an arch of machine gun fire on a prominent gateway. While touring around, we were approached by a man in a Viet Cong uniform. He asked to take our picture and then again later with his whole family. We obliged and in turn invited them to take a picture with us.

Hot, sweaty and tired, we walked back towards the hotel for a late lunch. We packed up, took quick wet-wipe showers before heading off to the train station. Another smooth train ride further north to Halong Bay overnight.

Day 17 – Halong Bay, Vietnam   

The train disembarked in Hanoi before dawn and we switched to a bus to take us the remaining three hours to Halong Bay. We checked into the hotel and had breakfast before transporting down to the marina. There we boarded a “junk boat,” still a junk boat even without the sails.  

Our group boarded a private boat with a dining area below and an upper deck. A classy lunch was served in several courses on a real tablecloth with silverware. Those that eat seafood were very impressed with the meal. As we approached the giant rock islands, we enjoyed the view from the decks. One of the rock outcroppings is known as the kissing rock as the two limestone pieces appear to be lips reaching towards each other.  

We pulled over at a floating dock to go kayaking in the deep water, surrounded by the towering walls. Sandra and I maneuvered our double kayak around the two lagoons formed by the islands and through small tunnels. At one point we almost crashed into a rowboat but with some quick paddling and some precise steering, we made it back to the dock.

Our last visit was to a cave in one of the limestone towers. We docked at a rock walking bridge, built out into the water and climbed the stairs up to an enormous cavern. Inside we paraded around the paths surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites. The shapes of the rocks were beautiful, even with the cheesy lighting and fountains.

In the evening, we ate a fancy Italian restaurant with delicious lasagna and glasses of real wine. Vietnam’s climate is ill suited for wine production and most of our locations have not served an affordable, imported wine. At the end of the night, we crammed into one hotel room and watched “Good Morning Vietnam” to compliment our daily adventures in the country.

Day 18 – Hanoi, Vietnam   

Our morning began in Halong Bay with the hotel breakfast and a three-hour bus ride to the busy city of Hanoi. We stayed in the Old Quarter of the city, in the midst of the bustling streets and historical sites. Upon dropping our bags at the hotel, we zigzagged to a small hole in the wall for some local Pho. The menu was posted on the wall and our crew barely fit inside.  

In the afternoon, we hiked all around the Old Quarter. The narrow streets have an older style lined with small shops on both sides with residences above. Commerce on each street is themed with sections for toys, party decorations, religious objects, produce and more. Relatively few cars passed through this part of town, motorbikes being the preferred form of transit.

We stopped for our tickets for the evening performance at the Water Puppet Theater. Next we wandered the aisles at the Dong Xuan market which has stalls aimed at locals and tourists. Continuing the zigzag streets and alleyways, we pass Joey getting his haircut by a barber who’s stall is set up right on the street. Strolling around the lake we visit the statues and pagodas. We lost ourselves in a small poster shop selling replicas of historical Vietnamese propaganda. Eventually we rest our feet in an area known as beer corner or bai hoi. These small bars spill out into the street with their small plastic stools, eventually closing the road to even the most skilled motorbike drivers.

Before the water puppet show, we stop for some quick noodles at a small street stand. With the few words our group has learned in Vietnamese, we manage to order a few bowls and arrive at the theater on time. The show is lovely, with folk music, singers and expressive voices. We could follow the storyline between the English on the program and watching the puppets. There were water-spitting dragons with flares, dancing fairies and a phoenix. At the end, the ten performers came out from behind the curtain, waist deep in the water.  We were tired from all the activity of the day, but never too tired for an ice cream on the walk back.

Day 19 – Hanoi, Vietnam   

We were out the hotel door by 7:00 to line up for the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum before the rush. The streets were quite and as we walked, we saw the city come to life. The metal doors rolled back, vendors with their wares on bicycles or in hanging baskets on a bar started to fill the streets.

The Ho Chi Minh complex is dedicated to the Vietnamese leader, “Uncle Ho” and many visitors from near and far pays their respects here each year. Security was tight, from dress code to checking cameras to enter the mausoleum. We waited in long lines, flanked by soldiers and eventually entered the mausoleum. Visitors were required to maintain complete silence as we slowly walked the path around the embalmed body of “Uncle Ho.” While visiting the complex we enjoyed the grounds, viewed the old cars of Ho Chi Minh, peeked into his house on stilts and toured the museum which included information about his life and communism in Vietnam while blending in related works of art.

By late morning we went to the Temple of Literature, founded almost one thousand years ago. Built in honor of Confucius, the temple served as an early university and houses the stelaes with the names, places of birth and achievements of exceptional scholars. While taking a break at the grounds, a group of giggling girls approached us to practice their English. We answered their rehearsed questions and shared photos and candies. One temple was a tribute to three popular kings and another held two statues; rub the phoenix for long life and the turtle for happiness.

In the early afternoon we visited the Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi. The prison tells two stories: one of how terribly the Vietnamese were treated by the French and another of how hospitably the US troops were treated by the Vietnamese.  We assume the truth was somewhere in the middle, as many of the historical and government related sites we’ve visited here. By the time we returned to the small hole-in-the-wall restaurant from yesterday, we were sweaty, dirty and hungry from walking all day in the heat.

In the evening, we celebrated Evey’s graduation with a full group dinner and drinks. She finished school this past semester but set out for travels before the actual ceremony, being held back home on this night. We split delicious dishes of spring rolls, beef with ginger and paprika, sweet and sour chicken, and ended with cake in Evey’s honor. At one of the many bars at bai hoi, or beer corner, we raised our glasses a few more times. I also hung out with the group from Mexico that had been traveling a day behind us. We finished at dance club a few blocks away.