Hurrah Hanoi and Hue!!! - Nha Trang, Vietnam
Nha Trang, Vietnam
Our first day in Hanoi began with a hunt for breakfast ready for a day sightseeing! Hanoi is pure madness and walking around is overwhelming the first time. We thought Ho Chi Minh was crazy but it has nothing on Hanoi!! The streets are tiny, crowded and noisy but utterly charming with it. You can get happily lost for hours. After eventually finding food we began our day of sightseeing with a stop of at the Pagoda on the lake. I'm sure it has an impressive title but we just named it the Pagoda on the lake. There is a small red bridge connecting the Pagoda to the shoreline and it takes roughly 15 minutes to walk around the building itself. The pagoda was lovely and the lake in the centre of Hanoi is equally lovely. Hundreds of locals gather around the lake to drink coffee and watch the world go by. We wandered through the people and went towards the Natural History Museum. I have high hopes for Natural History museums after New York and although it is well put together I was disappointed by the museum. As Sam put it, 'there are only so many lamps and ceramic pots you can look at'. It was lovely to see so many well preserved cultural items in a museum that is so well looked after but it doesn't ignite the imagination. From the museum we wandered through the streets and back towards the hostel. The heat was incredible and we just had to get out of it for a while. Poor little Otis was flagging in my bag and we had to get him out to rest in our air conditioned room for a while!! That night Sam found a great Indian restaurant called Tandoor which claimed to be the first Indian in Vietnam. It's situated right in the Old Quarter and the food is wonderful! On our second morning we battled through the chaos to go to the Prison Museum. It's situated near the lake and costs about £1 to enter. It gives a fantastic insight to the conditions endured by the inmates and the treatment of the American soldiers during the war with many displays and exhibits to look at. I would recommend this over the natural history museum, even if it is tricky to find at first. Thanks to the heat again we retreated to our hostel again for a few hours to cool down. It's strange how much the heat can affect you!! That night we dined at a great cafe on the corner of our street called conga which served western and Vietnamese food. I had a fantastic vegetarian toasted sandwich. I'm determined to recreate it when we get home!! Due to our time restraints in Hanoi we chose to book a day trip to Halong bay for our fourth day in Hanoi which meant we had one more full day to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. To make the most of it we were up at 7 to go to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We dragged ourselves out of bed and jumped in a cab as we didn't have the energy to walk. Even at 7:30am it was scorching. We arrived to a loooooong queue and prepared ourselves for the wait. After a good half an hour we passed through the mausoleum dedicated to a man who is so revered by his countrymen. It was almost eerie as we filed past him surrounded by armed guards as people stopped to pray. After walking out of the Mausoleum we went to the One Pillar Pagoda and then jumped in a cab home. There is little to say about the Pagoda except that it is a beautiful piece of clever architecture. When we got back to the hostel we sat and cooled off before walking out in to the madness of Hanoi again. I think Hanoi is a great example of a bustling city in South East Asia. It has a great mix of modernism and old character. There are tiny streets bursting with activity, noodle stalls and Beer Hoi plastic chair pubs and then you walk for 15 minutes and you see Versace and Prada in clear ordered boulevards. I would love to spend more time in the city and I think in the future it's a must. For our last day in Hanoi we chose to go to Halong Bay and for both of us it was a bucket list item. Especially for Sam. For those of you that don't know it is a set of 2000 islands 3 hours east of Hanoi and has been in films such as James Bond. We climbed on to a bus at 8am and after a slightly hot journey (the AC was on the blink) we arrived to the docks in Halong. We were concerned by this point as the weather had been so bad that we may not have been able to go out on the bay. But we were in luck. We hopped on to a traditional junk boat and set off to the Bay. As soon as we sat down we were served a fabulous seafood lunch and allowed to climb on to the roof of the boat. Sam was a little worried that due to the mist we wouldn't see the islands properly but it was amazing and as the first islands came in to view we fell in love. The boat weaved its way through a number of islands before arriving at the floating village were we stopped for a break. During our break we had the chance to kayak around the nearest Island and I jumped at the chance. It was fantastic paddling through caves and alongside the huge rocky outcrops. After our break we were back on the boat and back out among the islands as we headed to a set of caves that had been discovered 15 years ago. The caves were incredible and had been lit up inside in a myriad of colour to give dramatic dimensions to the interior. It was a hike to climb the island to get there but worth it!! After the caves the boat took a slow journey through more islands and back to the Bay. Halong Bay is named after a legend that states that during an attempted invasion dragons dropped from the sky in to the Bay crushing the enemy ships and staying, unable to rise back to heaven. Halong Bay literally means 'Bay of Descending Dragons' and you can imagine that the magnificent islands are the spines of some ancient and magical beasts waiting to fly away. We adored Halong Bay and it was amazing to see Sams happy face staring out at those Islands. We arrived back in to Hanoi at 9pm tired but feeling blessed and tucked in to a sandwich at our favourite cafe before having an early night. 5am and a fairly relaxed trip to get the train and we settled in to our seats for a 12 hour journey to Hue. The soft seats we booked were clean and comfy and we even bagged a table. Otis snuggled up in my bag and we got our books out to help pass the time. I loved the train journey!! The views were great, it was tidy and well looked after and they served food all day. My plastic tray of rice and beans was a comedy highlight. Another comedy highlight was the train guidelines when we first boarded. Banned items included 'guns, bombs, explosives, dead bodies and body parts'. I became suspicious of all boxes in the luggage department. 45 minutes late and we arrived in Hue. Sam had booked us into a really nice hotel as a treat and when we arrived we were greeted by a butler who escorted us to our room. Fabulous. It was a night of room service, hot baths and comfy double beds!! We had 4 nights in Hue and we used our days up relaxing by the pool, wandering in to town and eating at some great restaurants. There are a number of sights to see around Hue but we craved a little luxury so much we spoilt ourselves with 3 very lazy days. I can't tell you how nice a hot bath is in a country that has more squat toilets than hot showers. There is also a famous bar in Hue called DMZ which serves cold beer, good and food and comes with the added bonus of encouraging graffiti everywhere and I mean everywhere. Two good friends of ours have previously travelled and we went in search of their names so we could mark a spot next to them. We succeeded and left a little message for the world. Hue is also famous for its perfume river and we spent an afternoon walking along it and checking out all of the decorated traditional boats. Dragons seemed to be the main artistic theme. I also managed to accidentally make friends with a rather enthusiastic motorbike taxi driver who insisted on holding my hand to help me cross the road to the hotel. We really enjoyed our time in Hue and if we visited again I would be tempted to rent a bicycle and get lost for the day. This time relaxation beat adventure but the adventure hadn't stopped as we were soon on our way to Hoi An.