Vietnam is a large country. Larger than we anticipated anyway because, you know, we didn't do too much research before we got there. We had planned to bus and train to the north but that would have taken between 18 and 24 hours. And that is just to get halfway up the country, which is about where Hoi An is located. The train service was all messed up anyway because a barge ran into a bridge north of Saigon and knocked it over about three weeks before we arrived. Like, completely destroyed it. The Reunification Line (as that train is called) was totally f’ed up. So, we took a van to a taxi to a plane to Danang instead. That was about three hours and possibly even cheaper than a bus or train.
Danang is a really cool, newish port city with shiny buildings and a Ferris wheel and all kinds of neat stuff. We did not stay or visit there. Just drove through on our way to Hoi An.
Hoi An is an old port city with small buildings and no Ferris wheel. It used to be the biggest port in Vietnam before Danang took over. But, it has really embraced it’s old world charm and we had a few really nice days there.
Our hotel was nice, and located right on the river, but a good bit away from the bars and restaurants (aka in a quiet place). A short walk brought us into the Old Town section of Hoi An. There are a lot of temples and original houses to visit in this area along with some markets and tourist-y restaurants. It's great to walk around because they close the streets to motorized traffic for just about the entire day.
Lantern gates reflect in the Thu Bon River on a quiet morning. The lanterns, along with the giant turtle, light up at night.
One of the temple entrances. I very much enjoy their use of color, simple lines, and potted plants to fill a space. Great attention to detail everywhere.
Inside one of the old houses. The stylized folded screen relief is neat.
The shops that mostly fill the old quarter, and what the town has become very well known for, are custom clothing shops. And by custom clothing I mean tailor-made suits, shirts, dresses, and skirts. Now, I know what you are thinking, does someone who has one bag and is traveling the world for five more months need a custom fit, hand tailored suit? Yes. Yes he does.
I did a small amount of research and ended up at a place called Miss Forget Me Not. You pick your materials, pay the price given, they take a crap ton of measurements, and then send you on your way with an appointment the next day. Before you know it, after a short fitting and a tune up, you have an amazing cashmere wool suit and cotton shirt 36 hours after you walked into the shop. All for a budget conscious 3,348,000vnd. Cash only.
Many, many tailors like the one on the right line the street. Sorry, no picture of me in my suit. Stay tuned as it will surely debut in a future post!
A giant dragon lantern, like the turtle one, on the river.
That's not the only thing we (I) did in Hoi An though. We visited several of the temples and houses. These places are filled with a lot of detailed and finely crafted sculptures and art. We sent candles floating down the Thu Bon River in celebration of my dad’s birthday. We also rented old granny bicycles from our hotel and rode to the beach when it was ungodly hot out. Along the way, we detoured through the Vegetable Village where a little puppy followed us around. We named him Squash and pet his belly. We then rode through some failed, abandoned resort area with massive, vacant buildings and deserted beach fronts. It was like riding through a scene in The Road but hotter.
The night market and bar scene is actually pretty happening around town. There are a lot of people out and a lot of hawkers aggressively trying to sell you candles to float on the river or to get you in boat to float in the river or anything a tourist could want.
Just fantastic dragon sculptures in Hoi An. This was in the back of one of the temples that we basically had to ourselves to just sit and take in the scene.
The hosts get ready to pull people in for dinner at this restaurant. A lot of the buildings here had the same mustard yellow colored facades. We refer to it as Hoi An Yellow now.
Some of the many things you can buy in Hoi An. We did not buy any.
Happy birthday, dad! The ladies who sell these lanterns are really aggressive but they look nice floating in the river at night.
MJ and Squash the Puppy!
We said ello to this farmer on our bike ride to the beach. I'm not sure what he is pointing at.
We had a pretty quiet couple days in Hoi An before heading back to the Danang airport to fly to Hanoi. We had been very fortunate on our trip thus far in regards to air travel. Upon arrival at Danang, however, we discovered our flight was delayed for about 3 hours. Normally this would not have been an issue but we had a bus to catch that afternoon from Hanoi to Cat Ba Island. We shot some messages back and forth with the bus company and they said they could push out departure an hour but no later.
Take off commenced a little over three hours after our original flight time and it would be tough to catch the bus. But, we were airborne. Which was great. Until the turbulence started. Which was not great. I've never before been on a flight that dropped so much that I was literally lifted out of my seat and just about everyone on the plane was crying out. It happened about seven or eight times, during which a bolt of lightning streaked past the wing, but then everything calmed down.
The rest of the flight was without incident and we actually made pretty good time. Racing through the airport, we snatched our bags, grabbed a taxi, and hauled ass into Hanoi. Hanoi’s traffic that is. To make a long story short (too late!), we pulled up to the bus stop about four minutes before the bus got there and made our ride. Off to Cat Ba Island to celebrate Reunification Day!
Cat Ba Island is very beautiful and atmospheric.
Cat Ba Island is on the southeast end of Ha Long Bay and approximately half of the island is a National Park. We stayed in Cat Ba Ocean View hotel in the most populated area of the island appropriately named Cat Ba town. Our fourth floor room overlooked the entire bay and a big ol’ stage and screen erected just for Reunification Day.
Reunification Day is a four day celebration with singing and dancing and drinking and praising Ho Chi Minh. We watched some performances and listened to several songs about Vietnam, though I couldn't tell you what any of it was about because I don't speak Vietnamese. Probably a lot of military praise I would guess, based on the uniforms and war footage. Everyone seemed to enjoy it in a passive, laid back kind of way.
The view from our shared balcony. The waterfront was filled with food and drink vendors and chairs later on. Oh, and people. Lots and lots of people. Ferries and tour boats zip in and out of the wharf to the right of the stage. The four boats to the left of the stage are restaurants.
The odd song here and there that was not about war. It was probably about how beautiful and great Vietnam is.
We walked around the town, I almost stepped on a poisonous snake, and we hung out on the beach. We attracted a lot of attention by just sitting there sketching. People would take video of us and ask us to be in photos and selfies. I could barely stand all the attention but it was cute, so I weathered the storm.
We made the climb up to the Cannon Fort which has some great views of the surrounding area and some fake soldiers posed loading large, French anti-aircraft guns. We wandered through some trenches and tunnels and watched the setting sun. Strangers took more selfies with us here for some reason.
Cat Ba town surrounds La Han Bay. There are a lot of fishing boats and a few floating restaurants.
The skyline was quite a sight at night. Our hotel is one of the buildings about a quarter of the way in from the right.
The highlight of the area is Ha Long Bay itself. You can take a nice sail around the islands, visit some monkeys and wildlife, then silently paddle a kayak through the rock pedestals that thrust majestically out of the water. After a nice lunch on the beach, you float placidly on the water amongst the fish and have an overall relaxing day of fun and pleasure. You can do all this. But we did not.
Instead, we hung out in our hotel room for two full days of racing from our bed to the bathroom and back again, fighting some amazing food poisoning we picked up the night before. Melissa didn’t feel great but I definitely bore the brunt of whatever got us. I was pale and sweaty and pretty much useless and disgusting for 48 hours. I’m just glad none of it happened on a travel day. That would have been pretty shitty (yuk yuk). The upside is that we had a few cable channels and got to watch Batman (1989), Batman Returns, Superman 1 and 2, Star Wars Episode IV (crappy Enhanced Edition), and a few other 80’s and early 90's gems. Thus ended our time on Cat Ba Island. We headed back to Hanoi to meet a friend and walk the city.
A dirty brown image conjures up bad memories...
Hanoi was probably the most walkable city we encountered in all of Cambodia and Vietnam. The sidewalks tended to be a bit more put together and with a lot less motorbikes parked on them. The traffic was still pretty nuts with barely a rule of the road to be followed. There are a lot of shops and restaurants spread out around the whole town and even some parks and green spaces.
We met a friend, Mark, for drinks a couple times. He had just moved to Hanoi a few days before we arrived for a job as an English teacher. It was good to see a stateside acquaintance again even if he was just starting to get his feet under him in the city. He took us to a bar that has a great, rooftop happy hour and we met some of his other nice teacher friends. It was great because the happy hour beer was free.
Not only did we drink, we went sightseeing! One really cool place to see was The Temple of Literature. This Temple of Confucius was originally constructed waaaaay back in 1070 and is home to Vietnam's first university. The university operated for a meager 700 years, closing its doors in 1779. It's quite a large complex, consisting of many courtyards, covered walkways and gates, dormitories, classrooms, and a few multi-story temples. The complex has been reconstructed, repaired, and restored many times since it's construction but many elements in the area are quite old.
One of the statues of Confucius at The Temple of Literature.
This bares the amazing name of Well of Heavenly Clarity.
Much like all of their temples, the detail is really astounding. The roof tiles are shaped like seashells and mosaic tiled dragons adorn the peaks.
One day, while looking for a park, we definitely got lost in the back alleys of the city. And I do mean alleys. They wound in and out of each other seemingly without rhyme or reason and some of them were only wide enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder. You can really get a feel for the organic growth that some cities in the world have taken on when you walk around in places like this.
A lady sits at the end of a twisted alley. We wandered through these for about an hour and did not get a step closer to where we were trying to go.
There were a lot of walls with these stamps on them. I don't know what they mean but I thought they looked cool.
Really, the only other thing of note we did was to check out Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and preserved body. HCM specifically requested to be cremated but after he died, he really didn’t have a say in the matter. There is actually some controversy as to whether it is really his body or not. I don’t know. His glass encased body glows orange under the lights inside the large and somber mausoleum. White gloved guards line the approach to the room and you shuffle quietly around him without pause to pay your respects. It was a bit of a surreal experience but an interesting one to have none the less. Fun fact - for two months every year his body is sent to Russia for “maintenance.”
The rest of the grounds are filled out with his former residence, meeting places, the Presidential Palace, and some gardens where he used to take many walks. As we wandered the grounds amongst large crowds of Vietnamese, I wondered if this was a place many of them visit for vacation? Do they save up for the big Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum trip? Is it something they yearn to do their whole lives? Unfortunately, I never got my answer. Unlike so many other places we had been, there was a true language barrier in Vietnam so we were unable to find someone to really answer our questions about the country.
As you can tell by the massive sign, that's where Ho Chi Minh's body resides.
The Presidential Palace newly painted in Hoi An Yellow.
A mini Go scene in the garden. These could be found all over Vietnam.
Vietnam was a place on our itinerary that I wasn’t all that sure I was excited to visit. Before we arrived, people we met had shared mixed feelings about the place. Some loved it. Some really hated it. I think it was mostly a delightful country with quite a few diverse experiences. Vietnamese coffee and banh mi are really amazing. There are some beautiful beaches and cultural attractions but there are definitely places that could use some infrastructure attention in regards to things like public transportation and cleanliness. At times, it very much felt like a developing country.
Being in a place where the language is truly foreign is frustrating at times but mostly a rewarding experience, especially when you work through some communication hurdle to get what you want in the end. It’s certainly a country I could see myself visiting again as there are a lot of places left to explore and more delicious foods to try. Finally, we head out of the heat and into a place that is slightly more tolerable from a weather perspective and definitely one of the tallest, most interesting cities on our trip - Hong Kong.
Thanks for everything, Vietnam! It was great! Except for the stomach bug. That sucked.