Oh boy, life has been so busy, that I haven't had the time to write this post till now, 6 months after I came back!
Vietnam had been on my travel list for a year or so before I actually went this February. I went solo, and joined a 15 day G Adventures tour. I love supporting this company because they're Canadian, they're very affordable and have great itineraries. Most people go one way between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. but after talking to several people who went to Vietnam, I had to add Sapa to my route.
I started in the north and the temperature in Sapa was around 10C and I was hoping that the temperature would still be cool by the time I got to the south, but it wasn't! It was always 35C or hotter and 80% humidity. Maybe I should've went the other way! Definitely something to think about when you travel these hot, humid countries.
From the time I booked my trip till the time I finished it, I had a nagging negative vibe about it that I couldn't explain and it came to a head in Hanoi when we were on the tour. We were in our tour bus coming back from a visit to the hill tribes when we became stuck in traffic in the 2 lane highway. We found out that there was a fatal moped accident just ahead of us. An overwhelming sense of dread had come over just moments before and I feel that I connected with the negative energy that was there. I did not say anything out loud hoping that my intuition was wrong, but it wasn't. Only after we found out about it could I talk about it and then the feeling of dread went away. Interestingly enough, my friend at home had a similar sense of worry for me and it shows me that we are all connected, and you just has to be self-aware and hone in to it, feel it and listen to it.
There were quite a few small things that went wrong on my trip, but I guess this is all part of traveling and it's really just first world problems. My guiding principle when travelling is safety. I want to experience the culture, sights and food of the country and get home safe to talk about it.
My flight was delayed out of Vancouver, which meant I missed my connection in
Hong Kong to Hanoi. I was stuck in HK for 9 hours, so I went to see the
Buddha in Ngong Ping Village on Lantau Island . It was big, covered in the misty fog that happens regularly in the mountains. But as I climbed the steps alongside many other tourists, the skies cleared for a great view.
After arriving in
Hanoi, I had the day to wander around before meeting my tour group and group leader. I went to
Hao Lo Prison which had a great exhibit on the Vietnam War (they call it the American war). The exhibits were quite moving, even creepy like this room that had life size men with their legs were shackled to the pipe; it gave me the heeby jeebies! I also felt very emotional reading some of the letters from American POWs saying they wanted US to stop the war.
I went to find
the restaurant that
Anthony Bourdain and president Barack Obama ate at, Bun Cha Huong Lien. It was a simple place, I don't think they changed much since the visit. The floors were greasy, the menu had the Combo Obama! They had preserved the table and settings that they had used and put up the certificates of their visit.
I had watched several Anthony Bourdain shows and I found him to be genuine, a curious traveler and people person. It was so sad to hear about his suicide. It shows that what you see on the outside is not always what it is on the inside.
On we went to the trekking region of
Sapa where all the terraced rice fields are. The views were stunning and the hike was interesting. It had rained, but our group opted to hike the rice fields to take in all the views. We walked along the edges of the rice fields and were told to try to not fall in, or else it would ruin their crop. Although it was shallow, I also didn't want to get my shoes muddy and had to rely on the villagers who followed us to help us. They eventually sell handicrafts to us. Some of us really were in dire need of their innate ability to walk the terrain in sandals! Some of us only had 1 pair of sport shoes. We had a home stay here at a family house and they showed us how to make spring rolls.
Halong Bay was a stop that I was waiting for but the weather didn't cooperate, and we had a very cloudy, rainy day in the Bay. We stayed overnight on a boat. The water was very polluted. Some of our group went out kayaking for 1 hour and saw so much plastic, general garbage and lost shoes; it was sad, yet it angered me at the same time. There were so many tourist boats in the bay spewing diesel. The county didn't seem to have a good recycling or garbage collection program. Garbage was tossed on the street by businesses, and was found even along the rice fields. Burning garbage was one way to get rid of it.
The next stop was
Hue, the Imperial City. We took a cyclo tour, the Brits in the group said, it them of prams, haha. We saw the Forbidden city, Citadel and Royal Palace. It's very small and you can do this city in a day.
My favourite part of the tour was
Hoi An because it's a super cute, charming little town. It's a UNESCO heritage site, with tons of lanterns at night, a pedestrian zone with lots of shops, restaurants and bars, and it's along the river. The Cao Lau dish was the regional specialty.
This city is known for it's silk, leather and souvenir shops. If you need a custom suit, dress, shoes or even purse/bag, they can make it here, for great prices. I brought a tote bag with me that had fake leather handles that were peeling, and I was going to throw it away if I had to ditch some luggage, even though the bag itself was fine. At home, a leather repair place quoted me $300CDN to replace 2 brown straps but here in Hoi An, they replaced it with matching buffalo leather for ~$15CDN! I was happy to have my bag back in tip top condition to use for the rest of the trip!
We took a moto tour of the city and it was super fun! It was super cool to be near the back of the group to see all our motos driving along the country roads in matching red helmets. It makes me wanna get a motorcycle license again. We saw the sunset and had great food that day.
The next stop was the
ruins of My Son. Some of us took a tour and left early in the morning to catch the site at sunrise. It was cooler and had less tourists. I love visiting ruins when I travel. It gives me a sense of the ancient civilizations that lived before us.
I also took a tour to
Marble Mountains and An Phu Caves in Danang city. It was amazing how there were carvings in the side of the mountain or animals, religious figures, even with candle and light displays. Look at this picture and look at the Buddhas all along the left side of the cave.
Finally, we arrived in the south, at
Ho Chi Minh City. It is day 12 of the trip and getting so hot!
Food has been really good, fresh and cheap. There's so many varieties of spring and salad rolls, noodle bowls, grilled meats and banh mi. There are street markets where you can go to buy food or shop for clothes, souvenirs or fake goods.
Fruit is abundant and fresh fruit juice can be had every day! My favourite is mango, but I'm having all the tropical fruits, including passionafruit, guave, melon, dragonfruit, etc.
We went to the
Mekong Delta to have our second home stay. The environment here is completely different than the north. The families own large plots of land and the whole family helps grow agriculture. Our home stay was on cots in the outdoors with mosquito nets. The delta is very fertile and everything grows from the river. It flows through 4 countries before hitting the ocean. In some people's minds, it's very polluted, it's murky brown. We took a lazy boat ride through and stopped at several islands.
The next stop was
Cu Chi Tunnels. This was an amazing labyrinth of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong built to avoid being captured by the Americans during the Vietnam war. It even went 3 levels deep and was constructed with modules in mind so that if one portion was compromised, it didn't compromise the entire system. Families stayed underground to eat and sleep. They built elaborate traps to maim American soldiers if they found a hidden entrance; they was not meant to kill them.
I love experiencing a whole country in one trip because it gives me a sense of the differences in several regions. My favourite city is usually a smaller town with charm and isn't overwhelming like the capital or large cosmopolitan areas.
If I go back, I would visit one of the beaches. There weren't any on the itinerary, and Phu Quoc island, Nha Trang and Mui Ne are supposed to be spectacular.
What do locals do on a long weekend in the summer? Take a short vacation! We took 4 days and 3 nights to relax and discover Gabriola Island. It was a last minute trip, so really no advance planning. We booked AirBnBs and were hoping to visit some artist studios and hang out on the beaches and parks.
