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iguana
Emily and I spent a week in the World Heritage city of Luang Prabang, Laos in October, then two weeks touring from the north to south of Vietnam into November.
In the first week of our trip to Vietnam, we visited Hanoi and Halong Bay, then caught the Reunification Express overnight train to Hué before travelling on to Hoi An.
Friday
We arrived at our hotel, the lovely Hanoi Serene Hotel - which lived up to its name - after a rather scary taxi ride from the aiport late in the evening. Hanoi's roads are pretty lawless and after being used to tuk-tuks in Laos it was something of a culture shock for me.
However, once I'd recovered from that, Hanoi turned out to be a rather characterful place. Our hotel was tucked down a side street, opposite some local hairdressers and a couple of market stalls, which sold our favourite - dragon fruit!
We arrived at our hotel, the lovely Hanoi Serene Hotel - which lived up to its name - after a rather scary taxi ride from the aiport late in the evening. Hanoi's roads are pretty lawless and after being used to tuk-tuks in Laos it was something of a culture shock for me.
However, once I'd recovered from that, Hanoi turned out to be a rather characterful place. Our hotel was tucked down a side street, opposite some local hairdressers and a couple of market stalls, which sold our favourite - dragon fruit!
The first place we visited the next morning was the nearby Hoan Kiem Lake, home of the Sunbeam Bridge, which lead to a fair sized island with a pagoda and temple, and Turtle Tower on a small island of its own in the middle of the lake.
We walked around town for the rest of the day, visiting lots of attractions like the one-pillar pagoda and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (which we didn't go in), until we found ourselves at the shores of West Lake at sunset.
The smog/mist (depending on who you asked) caused the sunset to be quite striking, with the sun turning bright orange long before it hit the horizon. The sun disappeared into the haze before it reached the horizon. We weren't the only people enjoying the view, with several couples cuddling on benches.
We walked back through town to the hotel, where the HCM Mausoleum was strikingly lit up.
Turtle Tower on Hoan Kiem Lake was also beautiful in the dark.
Saturday
We booked a day trip out to Tam Coc, a beautiful set of three low cave-tunnels along a stretch of river.
We set off in a small rowing boat, through some rice paddies until we reached the first cave.
As we neared the entrance, we realised how low it was; low enough to touch the top as we went through. It was rather exciting!
We went through three tunnels like this, and then turned around and went back through them!
After we got back we were taken to a buffet lunch (the goat is apparently an aphrodisiac but I decided to be vegetarian that day having looked at it!) and then hired some bicycles to cycle along the riverside. We ended up at an old pagoda, where our guide taught us temple etiquette (enter on the right, leave on the left, don't turn your back to the Buddha).
On the way back we stopped off at Hoa Lư, the ancient capital, where we saw two more pagodas and had a great story from our characterful tour guide. We drove back to Hanoi just in time to start our Exodus tour.
Sunday
On our first full tour-group day we drove out of Hanoi into the mountains where we would be staying for two nights in a basic guesthouse as a base for a couple of treks.
The first day was a rather short trek along a concrete road overlooking a valley. There were a few cattle ambling along in the other direction.
Monday
On the second day we had an all-day trek, through hills and farmland, including tapioca plants like the picture above.
We stopped for lunch in a traditional wooden house next to a rice farm, then continued walking through some bamboo forest.
Tuesday
We drove back to Hanoi in the morning and after lunch visited the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university.
Inside the temple courtyard were large stone tablets, held by stone turtles, containing some of the earliest teachings.
As it happened there was a university graduation ceremony happening at the time, which made the place feel like part of contemporary culture rather than a historic artefact.
Afterwards we visited the Hỏa Lò Prison, which I understood at the time to have been a hellish place run by the French during their occupation of Vietnam, but a decent place for American soldiers during the American/Vietnam war. However, having just read the Wikipedia page, it seems like I either misunderstood or was misdirected by the information signs in the prison.
In the evening Emily and I ate again at Tamarind where we had an amazing sticky rice, mango and coconut cream dessert. Mmm! We have been missing sticky rice from Laos since. We finished our time in Hanoi with a romantic walk around Hoan Kiem lake.
Wednesday
Today we drove, and sailed, out to Halong Bay!
It was difficult to do the place justice with a camera because getting a sense of the scale and number of islands was difficult. It's like a sunken mountain range.
We pulled up alongside one island/mountain-top where there were a few caves that we could walk through. We climbed up through the caves and emerged to find an amazing view of a lagoon.
As the sun got lower in the sky, the group went out in kayaks for a short paddle through a Tam-Coc-like natural arch into an enclosed circle of water.
We got back just as the sun was setting.
Emily got this fantastic shot from the back of our two-person kayak with her camera. I was too nervous to take my camera out on the kayak, but the water was so calm in Halong Bay that I needn't have worried.
After we got back we went up onto the top deck of the boat, which we had to ourselves, and watched the stars come out as the nighttime mists closed in. We saw a satellite pass overhead, but we're not sure which one it was. (I checked the ISS's path for that night earlier this month; it wasn't that.)
Thursday
We got up early to see if we could watch the sunrise, but it was still quite misty. However, early in the morning with the sea mists was wonderfully serene.
The rest of the group was also up early as we had been promised a quick swim. We caught a tug boat to one of the few beaches in the bay and had a quick swim. Emily got stung by a jellyfish which was damned painful (but at least not poisonous), and the welts from that lasted until the next day.
We drove back to Hanoi and in the afternoon Emily and I had just enough spare time to get a taxi to see the sunken B52 bomber which had downed into a lake in the outer city. The lake was situated in a square, on one side of which was a school which was just turning out at the time.
On the way back to the group's hotel we stopped off outside the Hanoi Serene Hotel to buy some dragon fruit at the market stall there for the next part of our tour - an overnight train to Hué. We had a surprise when we cut open the dragon fruit as it turned out there were two types of the fruit - and this one was deep purple inside!
Friday
I slept like a log on the overnight train, just as I had on the Halong Bay cruise, and we woke up in time to watch the sunrise from the train window.
In Hué we cycled out to the Imperial City, the palace of the last Emperor of Vietnam in 1945. The palace had ended up in a state of disrepair and a lot of it is currently being restored. After the Imperial City we cycled to the Thien Mu pagoda, which was surrounded by pine woodland and featured a bonsai garden. It has historical significance in that it houses the car in which Thich Quang Duc was driven to his self-immolation (graphic photo) in Saigon in 1963 as protest against the current government.
We finished the day with a crossing of the Perfume River before cycling to the tomb and pretty palacial grounds of Emperor Tu Duc.
Saturday
We drove via the Marble Mountains near Da Nang to Hoi An, where were staying until Monday.
Hoi An is a beautiful town, full of colourful shop and restaurant fronts. It's peaceful and friendly, and on our first afternoon there we had a tour of the town. Afterwards, we explored the busy food market, and then we went to a couple of the tailors Hoi An is famous for; Emily was measured up to have a au dai (dress) made up and I was measured for some jeans too since the prices were so low it seemed like a good opportunity.
The whole town is lit up beautifully at night, with lanterns in front of shops, hanging from trees, and the main town bridge lit up in changing rainbow colours.
Sunday
We went on a cycle ride to the outskirts of Hoi An in the morning, and it was nice to see the suburbs of the tourist town where everyday life happened.
We cycled out as far as the sea front and then headed back in town to have our clothes fitted, and told us to come back later that evening. That suited us just fine since we had a day trip booked...
Next post: Vietnam: Mỹ Sơn, the Mekong Delta, and Saigon.
