Vietnam was our first communist country (despite being at the border we didn't make it into Laos, one of the world's four other "communist" countries), but aside from the hammer and sickles hanging from the light posts there isn't all that much that is overly communist or socialist about the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It's probably safe to say that Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, etc are all more socialist than present day Vietnam is.
HCMC (ie Saigon)
We made our way east from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon) for a few days before we were to fly up to meet Andy in Hanoi. We arrived during Tet (the Lunar/Chinese New Year) and expected everything to be shut down, as we had read it would be online. And while many business were closed down for the week long holiday, there were enough that stayed open that we didn't have any problem. Being there during the week of Tet was not much of a problem at all, and it even turned out to be a good thing in some ways.
My initial apprehension about Vietnam quickly vanished on our first night in HCMC. Maybe it was coming from our very bad experience in Phnom Penh, or maybe we were just expecting something less enjoyable than what we found. We had some good food, the city was cheap, and we saw some good sites. Our favorite site was Flower Street, which every year gets transformed from an ordinary downtown street into a huge car-free pedestrian mall filled amazing flower arrangements and decorations for Tet.
Other HCMC highlights revolved around the Vietnam War (or as it is called in Vietnam "the American War"). Reunification Palace (or Independence Palace as it was formerly known) was the residence of the South Vietnamese presidents until the last day of the war when the Palace and Saigon fell to the North. The most amazing part of visiting this building that it has been left something like as it looked in 1975, with 1970s furniture, machines, maps, and decorations. The telecommunications machines, "war rooms" and long concrete tunnels in the basement were particularly amazing to see.
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| Telecommunication machines from the 1970s |
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| The excitation levels were actually quite high |
Motorbikes are everywhere in Vietnam (and Southeast Asia) are a huge part of people's lives and they are very skilled (and/or very insane) with them. It's amazing what people do with them. We've seen families of fives all fit on them zipping down the highway, seen bikes stacked high with a dozen crates filled with beer, them carrying motor engines, 2x4s and a lot of large screen TVs, and then there was this dude impressively taking a nap atop his.
A few other pictures of Uncle Ho City:
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| the beautiful colonial post office |
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| Uncle Ho in front of the Ho Chi Minh City Hall |
Hanoi
We then flew up to Hanoi and met up with Andy. We stayed and spent much of our time in the Old Quarter (aka French Quarter) of Hanoi. It's a dense and chaotic area filled with winding streets with honking motorbikes and taxis, Pho stands hogging the narrow sidewalks with their little plastic tables and stools, and an odd mix of colonial and concrete block buildings rising out of converted storefronts.
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| the old city gate |
My favorite Hanoi afternoon was spent at "beer corner" drinking very cold Hanoi Beer (my favorite SE Asian beer) and watching the chaos of the motorbikes passing by.
But you don't have to go far from this chaos to find a peaceful place, because also within the Old Quarter is the beautiful and serene Hoan Kiem Lake.
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| Temple of the Jade Mountain on Hoan Kiem Lake |
We twice tried to visit the mummified body of Ho Chi Minh, but were unsuccessful on both attempts. The first time the line was wrapped around the block (we never got a clear answer if this is normal or if it was because of Tet) and the second time it was closed (on a Friday!!). Uncle Ho has a serious cult of personality going on, a la Lenin or Mao. He is everywhere and on everything. Every piece of Vietnamese Dong has his face, there are billboards, statues, pictures of him everywhere, lots of t-shirts, etc. And of course there is this mummified corpse with a line wrapped around the block. He apparently didn't want to be embalmed and put on display, but his wish was ignored, which seems to be a theme in communist countries). While we didn't make it inside to see his body, we at least got to see the outside of what was voted the 6th ugliest building the world:
Also outside the mausoleum I had a celebrity moment when a large group of Chinese tourists that got very excited about my hair wanted to take pictures of and with me. It was about 10 minutes of pictures (according to JJ, I have no idea how long it lasted) and was a bit overwhelming, but flattering...I think.
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| picture © Andy |
We also visited the historic Hanoi Citadel, which was where the Vietnamese monarchs lived for 800 years. In an inexcusably dick move the French colonizers demolished much of the historic citadel, including the palace, to build military barracks and administration buildings (!!!). A palace for some barracks! Assholes!
A few other highlights:
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| active railroad tracks running right through town and people's backyard |
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| plastic table street PHO! the best kind of Pho. |
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| Hanoi at night |
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| I just love this turtle - from the Temple of Jade Mountain |
Ha Long Bay
We booked a two night tour out on Ha Long Bay, one of the world's natural wonders (according to this lame list, although in this case, I would probably agree with its inclusion). The bay is filled with nearly two thousand scattered limestone formations that dramatically shoot up of the bay. We spent one night on a boat on the lake and another on Cat Ba Island, the largest island in the bay.
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| the three of us on our first boat, with some lady |
None of these pictures really begin to show the colors or the vastness of this bay and its thousands of formations, but it's all we got and you'll just have to go there for yourself to see how impressive it actually is.
Hang Sung Sot (Cave of Surprises). Not really all that cool, especially with all of the cheesy lighting, but here are a couple pictures anyway:
We also got to do some kayaking in a part of the bay, including going through this tunnel into a cove where we watched monkeys jumping from tree to tree along the cliff sides.
On Cat Ba Island we went on a hike in Cat Ba National Park up to this great lookout point over the island and it's incredible greenness.
Lastly Andy and I went on an excursion to Monkey Island, where I became aware of my hatred for macaque monkeys. I hate those little shits. The island used to be called Wild Pineapple Island, but no tourists came there, so they brought in some monkeys and changed the name, now suckers like me end up going there. The island itself was actually kind of cool: crazy rock formations and a nice view. I'd just prefer it if there were more wild pineapples and less (like no) monkeys.
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| little bastard |
Sapa homestay
We took a overnight bus from the hot and humid city of Hanoi up to very cold and perpetually foggy town of Sapa in the very north of Vietnam. From there we did a long hike (or trek as everyone else seems to call it) through rice fields and into a local Hmong village where we stayed with a local family for the night. It wasn't as much a homestay as a dorm shared with other travelers where a local person made (excellent) food for us all. Unfortunately there was not a lot of interaction with the locals aside from with our amazing guide, Za. But the whole experience was so much fun and was probably the highlight of our time in Vietnam.
It was raining when we got into Sapa so the hike became more difficult (and fun?) in the mud, but some locals were there to literally give us a hand (and later to try and sell us some things). While it was wet, muddy and foggy the hike was wonderful, as was seeing what we could of the huge beautiful rice fields. But the best thing about the hike and homestay were the remarkable group of people that we experienced it with. It was such a fun group to spend a couple days with.
Hoi An
After Sapa we all still had some time before we flew out and none of us really wanted to spend all of that time in Hanoi (which we had originally planned to do). So we booked a cheap last minute (like $20 USD cheap) to fly down to central Vietnam to see the cities of Hoi An and Hue. And this turned out to be a very very good decision.
We loved Hoi An. It is touristy, but it has a whole a lot more to it than just any other boring one-dimensional tourist town. It is a beautiful and historic city with a good mix of things to do and it had far-and-away the best food that we had in Vietnam. Many people go there for custom made clothing, and while there both Andy and Janet got some new custom cut garb.
Our first evening there we rented some bikes from our hotel and rode out past a rural area of mostly farmlands and out to the beach just outside of town.
The next day we rented bikes again and rode to nearby Tra Que, a community farming village.
We also rode to a ceramic village on the outskirts of town, where we failed at making any sort of ceramics, but saw some impressive ceramic creations, including miniature recreations of historic world sites.
The famous historic part of the city lies along the Thu Bon River and is known for its paper lanterns that get lit up at night.
I wish we took some pictures of the food, because everything we ate in Hoi An was excellent. Our hotel suggested a place to try Hoi An's famous chicken rice, and it did not disappoint. We went for a somewhat early dinner, but the place was already literally overflowing with people, as we were seated at the cafe across the street. The dish is hard to describe because it was so simple, but the combination of chicken, basil, lime, rice and whatever else was in there was magical. We also had a damn good Banh Mi (which was shockingly our only decent one while in Vietnam. But I still prefer Saigon Sandwich's though, but JJ disagrees).
Hue (pronounced Hhwhey)
We wanted to see the old imperial city (aka Forbidden City) at Hue. Remember earlier in the post when I said the Saigon citadel was home of the Vietnamese monarchs for 800 years? Well at the end of those 800 years in the 18th century they built a palace/fortress in the city of Hue, which housed various emperors until 1945.
The palace was an intriguing mix of restored and crumbling structures. It maybe not worth the long and frustrating bus ride to get there considering we just had to leave the next day, but at least we got to see some of it. Too bad we didn't have time to see more of Hue, which a lot of people say is one of their favorite cities in Vietnam.
We had a wonderful jammed packed two weeks of seeing Vietnam. So glad that we got to spend it with Andy and that he choose Vietnam to meet up in. Easily one of the highlights of the trip!
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More photos:
HCMC
Hanoi
Ha Long Bay
Sapa
Hoi An
Hue
