Vietnam: Hanoi, Halong Bay and Hue

Ah Vietnam.. Where do I even begin on this wonderful country? We spent just over two weeks here in this diverse, colourful place and it's still got a place in my heart as my favourite country as a whole that I've so far visited. As we spent a good fortnight here, I'm going to split Vietnam into multiple blog entries as I feel I could go on and on in one entry and bore everyone to tears. So I start with Hanoi, Halong Bay and Hue. Firstly we wimped out on the twenty four bus journey from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. Again we were very conscious of time and although the flight was pricey we agreed we could always make more money but we'd never get that valuable time back. A very good motto learned from our friend, Adi. And a motto that's stuck with us throughout our trip. We wanted a good length of time in Vietnam and so the one hour flight won the battle over that lengthy bus journey, which would ultimately just reduce our time there, as cheap as that option would have been. By the time we'd settled down on our flight, we were already hearing that the cabin crew should start preparing for landing. We'd been on the plane for forty minutes! We definitely were not used to such a speedy and pleasant journey! After a brief nightmare at the airport regarding currency and taxis, we were on our way through the colourful city to our hostel. One thing people had prepared us for was the constant 'beep beeps' of the hundreds of motorcycles, and they weren't wrong. We noticed it straight away and whilst almost fearing for our lives, we marvelled at how the mopeds could just wind around each other and not cause any accidents. We hadn't seen the best of it at this point! After arriving into our amazing hostel, we decided to chill out and eat all the chocolate we'd spent the last of our Lao Kip on at the airport. The hostel, which was an absolute bargain was called May De Ville, in the old quarter of the city. The hostel was actually more like a hotel, we were very impressed and it felt nice to indulge in what we would consider luxury for a change. We started chatting to the other people in our room, who were lovely; a couple from Melbourne, Emily and Jacob and Sandy from Scotland. We went out to explore the next day around the old quarter and the big beautiful lake. We navigated successfully around the constant flow of motorbikes, crossing the road to an endless stream of traffic, thinking we'd surely be run over but loving every second of the bikes just weaving and winding around us. No time to try and wait to cross the road, you have to just go for it, else you'll be waiting forever. It's actually fun! We had a nice day wandering around the old quarter and learning about the new country we were in, in the women's museum, which was very interesting. It was amazing to learn of these women's contributions to their country, fighting in a men's war and becoming prisoners for standing up for what they believed in. It's a common sight to see women selling goods in the street, whether it be food or drawings or handicrafts. In the museum we learned that some of these women live in the smaller villages of Vietnam and travel to the bigger cities such as Hanoi to try and sell their goods to ensure their families get food and an education. It was eye opening to learn that they rarely see their families but know it is what they must do in order for them to survive. The women can travel home every three weeks with as little as $20. This $20 is what feeds their children and allows them to go to school to learn. Not for the first time, it made me realise just how lucky I am to live my life without struggle and poverty as some of these families do here. It's sad and eye opening but it makes you appreciate what you've got and not to take anything for granted. One thing we did notice upon arriving in Hanoi was the distinct change in temperature. What would seem like a fairly warm day in the UK felt absolutely freezing to us compared to the rest of Asia. To be fair it was drizzling so it felt so cold! To escape the drizzle, we ventured into a little cafe for lunch. As usual we ended up spending a good few hours in there. We had our first try of Vietnamese food, I went for a rice and vegetable dish, which I found delicious. Not sure if Stef was too keen on hers as usual, pushing the meat to one side of the plate, afraid it was a form of dog she was ingesting. After returning to our hostel, the others in our room asked if we'd like to join them for drinks and to see if we could organise a trip to Halong Bay together. We had a lovely evening drinking 15p beer from the street, sitting on ridiculous little stalls outside with some of the locals. We were joined by Noelle and Dave, a couple from America, Mo from Germany and a French girl who was so quiet I actually don't know if we ever got her name. It was lovely sitting in a group, drinking beer, sharing stories and enjoying good conversation. The following day we visited the prison museum, again learning about the Vietnam war, which Stef and I admit to not knowing very much about. We were keen to learn more as we felt that we should know more about it, travelling through the country it happened to. We learned a lot in the prison museum but we found it was obviously quite biased towards the Vietnamese, which meant we didn't know if we were learning the true version of events, or if it was a sugar coated version by the Vietnamese. We wanted the hardcore facts about the war and not just one side's opinions or versions. Not to say that the Vietnamese version was in any way incorrect, we just wanted to learn about the actual facts of what happened, rather than one side's story. It was however very interesting and we did come out feeling we at least knew a little bit more about the war. Stef had been dying to see the new Hunger Games film, and was slightly worried it wouldn't still be showing in the cinema by the time we got to Australia. Our new friend Noelle had mentioned she'd been to see it in Hanoi and so there was no consoling Stef after this point.. We just HAD to go and see it, else I'd never hear the end of it. So we made our way to the cinema and enjoyed the Hunger Games, even if all the Vietnamese people were having conversations all the way through it. It was actually driving me insane and if it was back home I'd have told everyone to shut the hell up! But it was their country and I guess just what they're used to so I had to just grin and bear it throughout the film. We both enjoyed the movie although I think it's safe to say Stef probably enjoyed it more than me, as she just wanted to cry she'd enjoyed it that much.

We'd organised a trip to go to Halong Bay with our roommates and so early the next day we got ready to be picked up by our tour guide. We spent five hours on a cramped bus that eventually took us to the harbour, where we'd be catching our boat to Halong Bay. We were all armed with plenty of snacks for the journey, particularly M&M's, which we had all become quite obsessed with. There was a bit of a running joke between us all about how much we loved chocolate and if we weren't eating it, we'd most definitely be talking about it. After getting on the boat and sorting ourselves out, we then had lunch onboard, which consisted mainly of fish, rice and vegetables. Stef and I being the seafood haters that we are, had to try and force down as much of the fish as possible. We stopped off at a cave tour for a little while, which our guide, Tu gave of us a tour of. It wasn't exactly the Batu Caves we'd visited in Kl. Tu basically pointed at the rock formations and told us to guess what shapes the rocks were forming. It honestly felt like we were back at primary school! Quite hilarious really. The caves also had wonderful coloured lights inside, which made it feel extra touristy. It was quite nice in there actually but it just all felt a bit silly and contrived. Tu did find it quite funny to point out to the males of the group that one of the rocks looked like a pair of breasts. He was absolutely hilarious as you can tell. After our interesting experience in the caves, we went kayaking amongst the beautiful scenery. Halong Bay was a truly spectacular place, with over two thousand islands that make up the bay, with many a myth and legend about how they were formed. It was a beautiful place to kayak, it was so tranquil and calm, paddling around the gentle, sparkling water.The biggest shame about it all was that we had only twenty five minutes to kayak, when ideally we would have wanted longer. It was so much fun though, Stef and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I particularly enjoyed taking photographs of the experience while Stef rowed and put in all the hard work, completely oblivious to my obligitory selfies behind her. After our kayaking adventure had unfortunately come to an end, we got back onboard our boat, sat up on the deck and soaked up some of the gorgeous scenery around us. As beautiful as it was, it was also extremely cold. We chilled to the bone sitting up on deck, and before we knew it, it was time to fetch our jumpers, jackets, socks and long trousers. We definitely were not used to feeling cold in Asia! We had a little cooking class from Tu, who showed us how to roll fresh spring rolls. It was very interesting but I wasn't particularly good at rolling them in the precise way he suggested. Before we'd even come to Vietnam, we'd heard about the Castaways Tour to Halong Bay, which was basically a backpackers heaven, a full on party booze cruise. We'd heard it was amazing and it really did sound it too, but it was also very expensive and as much as we love partying, we didn't want the whole experience to be about getting wasted. So instead of the hardcore booze cruise, we wanted something maybe a little cheaper, but still just as much as fun, without the constant drinking the whole time. So when we booked this particular boat trip, we were definitely not expecting to be drinking tea, wrapping up warm and going to bed early. Well after another meal of fish, rice and vegetables and a little chat with the other people on the boat, that's exactly what we did. OK so we didn't want a hardcore party trip, but we did want something a little more lively than a mothers meeting drinking tea. It was nice chatting to the others onboard, but it wasn't quite what we had in mind. It was a bit of a shame really, but at least we got to see the beauty of Halong Bay, without being too wasted or hungover to enjoy it. The next day we had a wander around Cat Ba Island, took in some of the sights and looked around the markets. Looking out at sea at all the fishing boats was beautiful. I can never get enough of all the fishing boats, it always looks so pretty. We stayed in a hotel on Cat Ba Island that night but we didn't really do a lot, Emily, Stef and I just sat in our room chilling after yet more fish and rice. It was so lovely getting to know Emily and hearing about all her adventures in India and Myanmar. Our adventures in Halong Bay had come to an end and so off we went back to Hanoi, where we all stayed at our lush hostel again. Once back in Hanoi, we all went to the Water Puppet Theatre, which was very cool and different. The next day Stef and I met back up with Nic and Billy where we stayed for a good few hours catching up on what we had been up to. It was lovely to catch up with them and eat a lot of food in this little cute cafe, eating food we hadn't actually ordered. I ordered a ham, cheese and mushroom crepe and the poor, confused little Vietnamese lady brought me TWO crepes; one with cheese and ham, one with cheese and mushroom. Bless her, she did look very confused and must have wondered why on earth I'd ordered two! It was quite funny and I did try my very best in eating it all. It is funny in Asia you have no idea what you're going to get, and there's no use saying anything about it, you just have to accept whatever random combination of food you're given. We said our goodbyes to Nic and Billy and Emily and Jacob, and we got on the bus ready for our next stop, Hue. We were very excited for the twelve hour overnight bus journey as it was on a cool sleeper bus. You each had your own pod where you could recline your seat without annoying someone behind you. It was very cool and at least it gave you the opportunity to have a better night's sleep than if you were in an upright position on a normal bus. We arrived in Hue early the next morning but we could not check into our room until midday, which we were a bit miffed about as we just wanted to go back to sleep. Yes, we had a better sleep than average on a bus but it was still on a bus and so broken, disjointed sleep was inevitable. We were extremely tired and just wanted to curl up in a bed. Finally, after breakfast, checking in and of course a much needed nap, we set off to explore around the lovely little town of Hue. Deciding almost immediately after leaving the hostel that we were a little famished we went on a hunt for some lunch. Sitting outside a little cafe eating our food, we met Steve, a 'flashpacker,' also from England. We got chatting to him, hired bikes and cycled to the Ancient Citadel. We had a wander around the beautiful ancient city, took lots of photographs and just generally explored and took in the sights. Cycling around Hue, amongst the crazy Vietnamese mopeds quickly became my new favourite thing. It should have been incredibly terrifying, weaving in and out of beeping motorcyclists, fearing for your life but in actual fact it was fun. You just trusted them not to hit you. They're so used to this way of driving that they'll just wind around you without a care in the world. It was actually very invigorating. We spent the day with Steve, cycling and getting lost and eventually winding up in a cafe for cake and tea (and an attempt at proper coffee in Steve's case). After a lovely dinner and wine, the three of us decided to check out what nightlife Hue had to offer. We ended up in a bar called Brown Eyes, which seemed quite good. The music was fairly mixed and the drinks were cheap. We had a good night mainly just chatting amongst ourselves, but soon calling it a night fairly early on. Stef and I got up early the next day for a cooking class we'd booked. We got picked up and were taken to the local market to buy our fresh produce for the class. It was amazing walking through the colourful market and buying meat and vegetables fresh from the locals. It made me realise we don't tend to buy anything fresh at home and how much processed food we all manage to consume. The cooking class was so fun, it was very interesting to learn about a completely different style of cooking. Stef and I made beef noodle soup, fried pancakes, peanut sauce, fresh spring rolls, beo steam cakes and fish/soy sauce. It was very interesting and such a different thing to experience. It was also lovely chatting to the lady who was taking our class. She'd basically been cooking since she was a child, learning at home with her mother. This was another thing that intrigued me; the children learning valuable lessons from their parents. The girls would stay at home with their mothers, learning how to someday be wives and mothers of their own, and the boys going out with their fathers, learning how to provide for their families. It seems a very old fashioned way of living to us, but the family values in Vietnamese homes are still very prominent and important. We sat down to eat our food we had prepared. Whilst some of it was very delicious, other parts were a bit strange and interesting to say the least. I think I enjoyed cooking it more than I did eating it to be honest. Here ends the adventure of the first half of Vietnam. That afternoon, we got the bus down further south to our next destination, Hoi An...