We spent two days exploring Hanoi, Vietnam's charming capital. We didn't venture far from the old town which surrounds a lake home to a giant turtle. We spent most of our time exploring the narrow streets originally named after whatever was sold on them. Today we found barbie street, tourist street, shoe street, iron mongers street, party supplies street and many others. We also visited a couple of temples, the Hanoi Hilton Prison, museum with some amusing propaganda and overflowing markets. My highlight had to be the water puppet show. It was a brilliant show of skill, music and comedy. In the evenings we joined the locals on the street for bia hoi, and hung out in a couple of bars, one called Bomba Latina served the best mojitos we found in Asia so far. The food also improved massively once we reached the city. Grilled fish Hanoi style, full of lovely peanutty goodness, is definitely recommended.
We left Hanoi on the night bus bound for Dien Bien Phu, famous because it was the site for the battle ended French colonial rule in Vietnam. Our bus, complete with disco lighting was surprisingly comfortable.
We arrived at DBP at 7 in the morning and had a day exploring some of the old battle sites, a refreshing change from learning about the american war. By about 3.00 though we'd had enough and found a bia hoi garden where several hours quickly disappeared drinking jugs of beer and eating fresh peanuts.
The next morning it was up at 4:45 (!) to catch the bus to Laos. Olly was unusually awake having drunk a can of crazy horse, a bit like red bull on speed.
The border crossing, up probably the worst road we found in Vietnam, was virtually deserted. Entering Laos was slightly more amusing when we all got out temperatures taken with a strange forehead gun thing. Paperwork sorted, another page of our passports taken up with a shiny visa, and we were off into the highlands of north west Laos.
Our Vietnam highlights:
Best scenery:
Jo - rolling hills filled with fruit and veg in Dalat
Olly - Nimh Binh karst on the boat trip
Best site:
Jo - Paradise cave, Phu Nong National Park
Olly - ditto
Best place we stayed:
Jo - Century Hotel, Hanoi. $20 a night with fluffy towels and a computer in our room!
Olly - beach front hut on Phu Quoc
Best food: Olly - French meal at Augustines in Saigon
Jo - clams Thai style in Qui Nogn
Best Tour:
Jo - Dalat Easyriders
Olly - boat trip in Nimh Binh
Best journey:
Olly - ATR 72 flight from Phu Quoc to Saigon
Jo - local minibus journey from Chao Doc to Ha Tien, watching squabbling locals
Best beech:
Jo - Leper beach near Qui Ngon
Olly - Local beach in Hoi An
Best town:
Jo and Olly - Hoi An
Best local music:
Vietnamese Christmas songs on repeat for a 4 hour bus journey
Overall Vietnam gets about 7/10 as a backpacker destination. There is loads to see and do, travelling is well set up, as the locals love to travel, but we felt like we were missing the adventure of less developed places like Cambodia. You can get off the tourist trail very easily, but it's not long before another 'must see' site draws you back. The north of Vietnam has the amazing scenery, but on the whole we found the people in the south to be warmer.
No comments:
Post a Comment