Vietnam 2022
Grant & Santi's adventures in North Vietnam
in loving memory of Stitch
in loving memory of Stitch
24-28 Oct: The adventure begins - Hanoi via Singapore
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We were seen off from Merimbula airport by Ana and Marcos (who chose not to come with us) on a 10.35am flight and arrived in Sydney about midday for a 6.35pm flight to Hanoi via Singapore, where we had another 6 hour layover at Changi Airport. Finding our way to the departure gate in Singas was a mission with renos happening that blocked the main route, but we made our flight.
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Landed in Hanoi at 11.30am on Tuesday 25 October and headed to the Ja Cosmo Spa & Hotel for a three night stay @ $A$90 a night! After about 30 hours 'on the road, we ate then crashed about 5pm.
Wednesday we lazed around a lot and went for a stroll through town, still recovering from the trip. |
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Santi soon got in the swing of things and was navigating the streets of Hanoi like a local, where just crossing the street is an aquired skill. Pedestrain crossing? What pedestrian crossing? Walk with authority
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We get VND16,000 for A$1, and you can get a descent plate of food for VND40k (A$2.50), although in some places the food is four times that price. Still cheap, but exhorbatant for here. Shops near tourist attractions are notoriously expensive. We paid VND15k for a small bottle of water at one place - VND5k from a mini-mart on the street. I walked across the steet from our hotel and bought 3 beers and a soft drink for VND34k (A$3).
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Thursday we went to see 'Uncle Ho' (Chi Minh) lying in state 53 years after his death. A bit spooky, but 'Uncle Ho' is a God in Vietnam. Also checked out the citatdel and a war musem. We tried to find 'the old quarter' on the way back to the hotel, but the Vietnamese didn't seem to understand what I was asking, and those who did sent us in the wrong direction. The scuffs Santi bought two days ago for A$6 broke on the way, so that was it for the day - taxi to hotel.
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28 Oct - 2 Nov: Da Nang & Hoi An
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Landed in Da Nang early Friday afternoon and checked in at Tuyet Son Beach Hotel (A$52.50/nt), then caught up with Dave, Nhung and Angie their 7 year old daughter at their new place about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Santi was pretty impressed Dave has a table tennis table, so that became a daily ritual.
Dave lives in a world with no rules. We never saw a cop here in 6 days, and they don't really seem to be needed. The traffic moves slowly and mostly courtiously, and security doesn't seem to be an issue. I walked into a min-mart and there was nobody around. The shelves were stocked with goodies, and there was an open cabinet full of cigarettes. Karma is real. |
Da Nang is a world away from the hustle of Hanoi, wide streets with sparce traffic and cool sea breezes. School hours here are 7.30am to 5.30pm - possibly to allow parents to do a full day's work. I think they have a pretty long lunch break.
Mi quang is a Da Nang specialty - a noodle soup with greens and a choice of chicken, beef or seafood. Santi got the hang of chopsticks after a few goes and now prefers them to a knife & fork. Although we indulged in a bacon & egg roll at one point. |
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We did watch the Dragon Bridge breath its fire one night, but stayed well out of the milling crowds and didn't get any good images, so I stole one from Goooooogle :)
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Saturday we headed for Marble Mountain - a mountain dotted with caves, temples and viewing platforms. We took the elevator up, but still a lot of walking up hundreds of steps to get to everything. Businesses selling stone sculptures and souvenirs surround the mountain with some truly magnificent pieces on display along the road - some up to 4 or 5 metres in height.
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A few quick beers with Dave and some ex-pats at the Bamboo 2 Bar before Dave headed south on a 3 day surf safari with mates.
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Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge
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The Ba Na Hills is about 8.5km south of Da Nang. The cable car that takes you to the top is the second longest in the world, only beaten recently by another cable car in Vietnam. It carried us 5.2km and vertically about 1km to the Golden Bridge and Ba Na Hills complex.
It's a massive complex the size of a small town and was developed around the remnants of a resort built by the French in the late nineteenth century. Much of it resembles a French village, and there are underground cellars the French used to store wine at the perfect temperature of 16C |
In a cavern below the village is an underground theme park on three levels, complete with fun rides and sideshow style attractions. Very kitch and a bit out of place in my opinion.
We were there in the off season, but it was still very crowded. It would be ridiculously crowded the holiday season - people packed in like sardines and impossible to enjoy. I can't imagine the capital locked up in this enormous complex, and there were extensive new construction works still underway. |
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Hoi An
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Hoi An is the city of lanterns, and one of the prettiest towns in Vietnam. It's about five times the size it was when I was here in 1997. The precinct I spent most of my time in back then is now called 'the old city', and what we used to call 'the old town' is now called the Cham Village.
Santi saw his first local market and the 'perfume' from the fish market had him gagging - poor little petal :) 
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2-5 Nov - Dong Hoi
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We booked a sleeper bus from Da Nang to Dong Hoi and misjudged the time it would take to get to the bus station. The bus was due to leave at 5.45pm and we got there at about 5.40pm and raced around the bus station franticly looking for our bus with only the number plate to go by. I rang the number on the booking and a woman answered with almost no English. All I could get out of her was "No bus. No bus". It seemed hopeless and I thought we'd have to find a hotel for the night and try again in the morning. Out of the blue, a guy walked up to us and signalled to follow him quickly. We raced to the main gate where a car picked us up and chased the bus to the next stop. Phew. We arrived around 11.30pm and checked into the Bamboo Green Hotel (A$21.90/nt).
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Dong Hoi us fairly sedate town on a large estuary with a very impressive bridge. Our hotel just off the waterfront, and there were some good restuarants and handy mini-marts just a short stroll from our front door.
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After dark the locals stroll around the prominade and a collection of food carts congregate along the roadside surrounded by the obligatory tiny plastic seats and tables. It's a gathering point for young locals and has a sort of picnic atmosphere.
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The Caves
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It was the caves that drew us to Dong Hoi. Paradise Cave and Phong Nha caves are nothing short of magnificent, and the photos could never ever do them justice. We walked about 1km into Paradise Cave, but it extends another 7km into the mountain. It was absolute mind boggling, especially when you learn these stalactites and stalagmites grow at a rate of 0.13mm per year!! And some are over 10m high!
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6-9 Nov - Ninh Binh
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Travelled from Dong Hoi to Ninh Binh by first class sleeper train - very comfy and Santi slept for about 7 hours. Arrived at 3.30am and got a taxi to the hotel for VND250k (A$15).
The Ninh Binh Bamboo Farmstay was VND816k for 3 nights (A$17/night) - very comfortable and Nam is a great host. The only drawback was its isolation - a bit far from town and not really much happening in the local neighbourhood. Santi learned to play pool here, and within a day had become a pool shark - he beat me twice the next day. |
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Trang Na - Lake & Caves
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We took a boat trip around the lake, which took us through nine caves that go right through the mountain for between 100m & 300m each. The lake is home to coy carp, and they gather at the shoreline where the locals and tourists feed them.
The boat trip takes about 3 hours with no shorter options. I think they'd do well to offer a one or two hour option - once you've been through the first two or three caves it's all a bit same same. |
You do visit some temples along the way, but once you've seen one - a temple is a temple is a temple. I've seen too many to bother with them now.
We needed an ATM and heard there was one near the big pagoda about 3km from Bamboo Farmstay, so we borrowed some treadlies and headed off. We got there and they tried to convince us to visit the pagoda - no thanks - then the ATM didn't work! |
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There's something magical about Vietnamese coffee that I've never been able to emulate in Australia, despite taking some of the dripper pots home in 1997. Pure luxury.
A bit of condensed milk in the bottom and you're in heaven. |
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NOTE:
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This blog may give the impression we've been busy. We haven't.
The pattern tends to be travel one day, do a quick scout around the neighbourhood if we arrive before dark, familiarise ourselves with the area the next day and laze around before we take on an adventure or two the following day. Then repeat the cycle. We are on holidays after all |
That said, we'll be in Cao Bang by Sunday and may well spend a whole week there doing what I usually like to do when I travel - stay long enough to know the names of people in the neighbourhood, sit in a cafe and 'people watch', or get off the beaten track and check out the small villages in the area, etc. The drawcard here is Bang Gioc Falls, the largest waterfalls in Asia and fourth largest in the world. We hope it's still pumping as the wet season ends. The other side of the river is China.
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9-12 Nov - Cat Ba Island & Ha Long Bay
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We came to Cat Ba by bus, crossing the water to the island on a punt. Arrived about 2.30pm and managed to find our hotel (A$18.60/nt) after two maps showed different streets for the same hotel. Like many things in Asia, it all apppears haphazard, but somehow everything works itself out in the end.
Santi met his first bottled cobra in the hotel foyer. I brought one back in 1997 - quarantine said no. *Click on the photos to enlarge them. |
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Cat Ba Island is 'tourism central' in North Vietnam - close to Hanoi and with easy access to Ha Long Bay - apparently very crowded with locals on weekends. In the centre of town, a huge PA on the main street pumped doof music at about 200db from as early as 4pm on Wednesday and Thursday. Thankfully it didn't happen on Friday night. God help anyone with a hotel on the main strip. Santi spotted some electric drift trikes and was hooked.
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Ha Lan Bay & Ha Long Bay
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Ha Long Bay is one of those 'must see' places in Vietnam, and after spending a day cruising the bay Santi and I totally agree. We didn't get the iconic Ha Long Bay photos you see splashed all over the net (like the one at the top of this blog), most of which are taken from a drone - but the bay is exquisit and exploring the islands is where the true experience lies.
As we left through Ha Lan Bay we passed a series of floating villages, most of which are fish farms. People live permanently in these villages and visit towns nearby for essentials. A boat collects the kids each morning and takes them to school on the nearest island. Power is from generators or solar systems, and several had satelite dishes. Some of the houses looked for all the world like a normal home on land, complete with ornamental gardens in the front 'yard' cared for by obviously house proud people. |
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There were about 25 paying passengers and 4 crew on board our boat. The photo top left isn't our boat, but very similar.
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At our first stop, we hopped in kayaks and explored some hidden bays only accessible through openings in the rock formations.
From there we were taken to a sheltered spot for lunch, before being taken to another spot where we discovered a 'secret cave' that lead to a 'secret beach'. |
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The Secret Cave
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Next stop was our guide Loi's (Loy's) favourite spot. We were all keen to get wet, so we jumped off the boat and swam to the coral sand beach. I was snooping around some crevices in the rock wall and noticed one that seemed accessible and looked to open up into a bigger space further in. By the time I found Santi, half a dozen people had disappeared into the cave.
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We followed them into the grotto and found a trail that lead to a magical space surrounded by stone cairns people had placed there over the years. A little further on we emerged on the other side of the island on a secluded beach.
Santi left his mark in this wonderful place with his own stone cairn. |
12 Nov - One Night in Hanoi
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We needed to break up what would have been a 9 hour bus trip from Cat Ba to Cao Bang, so we opted to stay a night in Hanoi on the way, much to Santi's disgust. This time we stayed right in the middle of the 'Old Quarter' and I loved it!! There's something about the chaos and craziness of places like this that I really get off on. Santi wasn't so impressed.
Booked into A25 Hotel, of which there are about 100 dotted across the region. A pokey little room with barely enough room for a bed, but good enough for a A$40 one night sleepover, and the breakfast wasn't too bad. We'd booked the Cao Bang bus to pick us up at the hotel about 8am. A car pulled up about 8.30 and we were told he'd take us to the bus station. Then we waited another hour and a half before we finally got on our way about 10am. More about the bong next chapter. |
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The room rates on the counter included a rate for 2 hours. Why on Earth would you want a hotel room for just two hours? Crazy :)
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13-15 Nov - Cao Bang
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Cao Bang doesn't really have a lot going for it, except that it's the nearest biggish city to Ban Gioc Falls, our next destination - and effectively our last before we sart the long journey home.
National pride is a constant in this country, with the Vietnam flag on display in basically every street, and 'Uncle Ho' images and statues in almost every town square. As the locals say, "We carry Uncle Ho with us wherever we go" - his face is on every note of the local currency - the dong :) I think the northeners take particular pride in their military conquests, fending off the Chinese, the French and the Americans. |
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Now ... the bongs.
The photo on the left is a bucket of bongs we saw at the front of a cafe we had dinner at our first night in Cao Bang - supposedly there for the convenience of their customers, and apparently only used for tobacco. We've seen them everywhere. The guy on the right seemed to be selling upmarket versions in the main steet of Cao Bang. |
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If there's one thing they like here, it's a good light show. Every major town or city bursts into colour after dark with decorative lights that adorn the bridges, lightpoles and main drag.
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15-16 Nov - Ban Gioc Falls
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We took a local bus from Cao Bang to Ban Gioc and as we headed further into the mountains the landscape became increasingly breathtaking. We were both staring out the window going, "Wow. Wow. Oh wow". But as with Paradise Cave, you can never capture the true magnificence of this majestic landscape in a photo.
We were dropped off on the side of the main road and the driver pointed up a road that disappeared over a hill. I checked Google maps and we headed off. Santi said he was outside his comfort zone as we walked between houses and past chickens, goats and a muel in a paddock with no real idea what lay ahead. That's exactly what I wanted - to get him right outside his comfort zone for at least some of the trip. The rice has all been harvested with lots of it spread on tarps along the road to dry before bagging. There's still a lot of corn in the terraces, and lots of golden cobs drying on the ground or hung along verandahs. We found Nguom Ngoa Homestay set against a dramatic backdrop and were greeted by an old lady we assumed was part of the family that owned it. We struggled to tell her we were hungry, but when I shrugged and said "banh mi?", she disappeared and returned with some eggs and bread rolls, then pointed to a frypan on the bench. I cooked the eggs, she heated the bread and brought out some lettuce and we ate. It reminds me of Nepal in a way. |
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The advice from a food tour guide in Hanoi was to stay somewhere close to Ban Gioc Falls because, "It's a long way from Cao Bang and you'll get to see much more". OK, so we did that. The problem is, apart from the falls, this place has absolutely nothing going for it. It's the pits. No open restaurants, no taxis, nobody speaks a word of English except 'hello', the dogs growl at you and there's not even a minimart to buy water. We walked for over an hour looking for somewhere to eat and found nothing.
Don't get me wrong, it is a truly extraordinary place, but we'd find it much more amazing if we could get around easily and knew where to find food. Tourism here is in its infancy. We pulled up stumps after one night and took a local bus back to Cao Bang. We should have done it as a day trip from Cao Bang. |
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16-18 Nov - Another couple of nights in Cao Bang
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We opted for a better location, a bit more comfort and a good breakfast this time and booked two nights in the 'up-market' Max Boutique Hotel for VND605k (A$38) per night.
It's just off the end of the main drag, so a short stroll to the main shopping centre and about 100m up the road there's a corner with flowers on sale and a big local market that covers a whole block under the building opposite. Santi got another taste of a local market and the locals laughed watching him walk around holding his nose. The market is pretty typical of Asian local markets - raw meat and veges on tables, and allies that weave their way between small stalls packed to the roof with all kinds of goodies. |
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18-22 Nov - Thai Nguyen
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We got a 'limousine' ride to Thai Nguyen, where we only planned to stay two nights before heading into Hanoi for the last two nights of the trip, but when we saw our A$30 a night room in Thai Nguyen we changed plans. We're only about 50km (an hour) from the airport and our flight isn't until 6.30pm, so no real need to be any closer to the airport - and we've probably had enough of Hanoi already, so we're staying put.
On the way we stopped at an eatery where they were preparing traditional food. They clean short lengths of bamboo and fill them with sticky rice mixed with peanuts. You peel it open and dip the rice in crushed peanuts - very tasty. We tried a couple of the other traditional treats, but the 'nut sticks' were our favourite. |
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One sad fact I've come to realise about Vietnam is there doesn't seem to be an effective waste management plan/system. The streets in town are always clean because people work through the night to sweep up and collect the rubbish, but I suspect a lot of it is simply taken out of town and dumped and/or burnt in piles on the side of the road. Much of it is plastic, which scatters across the landscape.
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BUT, there are lots of big EV charging stations on the highways.
You see some funky stuff in the cities here. We found this fish pond in the middle of a coffee house in Thai Nguyen, complete with dance floor, coy carp and disco lights & music.
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We gained a couple of days by not hanging around Ban Gioc, so pretty much just biding our time now in Thai Nguyen.
We headed into the centre of town to check out one of the big markets and the surrounding area. The Thai Market, supposedly the biggest in Thai Nguyen, was nowhere near as big as we imagined, with lots of empty shops in the back corners of it - possibly casualties of the COVID economy. Of course we couldn't leave Vietnam without at least one of the iconic cone hats, and a few red t-shirts with a yellow star. With the exception of Hanoi, most of the cities we've been in are much the same. A shop full of carved wooden items was probaby the highlight here, and some of the clocks were truly beautiful. |
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22 Nov - That's a wrap
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The trip was wonderful, although it had a different feel to what I experienced in 1997. It took me a while to work out why, but I think it's because the traditional cultural elements of Vietnem have been crowded out by western influences. Where you would once see cobras in cages on bikes, or tubs of crickets in the markets, you now see KFC or Pizza Hut signs. City and country life usued to overlap to some degree. The agricultural (traditional) community were once more visible in the cities, but the cities have grown and those people don't seem to venture into the middle any more. And almost all the squat toilets have been replaced with pedestals.
I fully expected Santi to feel a bit out of sorts for a while when we arrived, but he found his feet within minutes and was soon into the swing of things. I was surprised how comfortable and happy he was right from the start - he loved it! And he was a superb travel partner, often showing me the way home when I'd lost track of where we were - his maze navigating gamer skills came in handy. Vietnam is probably one of the safest and easiest places in the world to travel with kids - and it's cheap. Travel broadens the mind - that was the objective with Santi, and I think we succeeded. He has been duly innoculated with the travel bug. |
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Budget
Spent A$3,630 in 29 days (excluding airfares) - A$125/day A$38/day for accomodation A$87/day for food, transport and 'other stuff' A$18 for a SIM with 30 days unlimited mobile calls & data Accom. totalled 16,731,410VD = A$1,008 = avg A$37.33/nt Most expensive – Ja Cosmo Hanoi – A$88/nt incl. very good breakfast Cheapest – Ninh Binh – A$17/nt Ban Gioc was only A$13/nt, but we paid for 3 and only stayed 1 Groups tours/excursions (Dong Hoi caves, Ha Long Bay, Ba Na Hills, etc) from A$50-A$150 – spent about A$450 all up You can get a feed for about 40-50kVD (A$2.50 - $3.00) I bought 3 beers and a coke at a minimart for 54kVD – A$3.25 The straw cone hats are A$1.50 - A$2.50 each |
TIPS
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