This November, I spent 8 days travelling around Vietnam. I hadn’t travelled for a while and my travelling pants were getting itchy. I wanted to find a place that involved a mix of sightseeing and lying on the beach with umbrella cocktails. Vietnam seemed to have the right amount of culture, good food, history and serene nature to disappear into, for a week. Also it’s ridiculously cheap and I could get visa-on-arrival. (Let’s face it, the last two are really important!)
So, I chose to go to Hanoi and visit a couple of cities around it. Ho Chi Minh City was also a close contender. However, I’d heard from multiple sources that Hanoi was more backpacker friendly and less commercialised, which seemed my kind of vibe. A week was too short to cover both cities and do justice to them, so Hanoi came out on top.
First Stop – Ninh Binh/Tam Coc/Trang An
I planned to spend two days exploring Ninh Binh and the surrounding villages upon arriving in Hanoi. Ninh Binh is small town about 3 hours away by train to the south of Hanoi and is absolutely magical. Giant limestone monoliths pop out of flat green scenery with rivers flowing around them and caves formed into them. While popular with tourists, it was certainly not overcrowded.
I was staying in Tam Coc, a village a few kilometres from Ninh Binh since it was more backpacker friendly. Tam Coc Sunshine Homestay, my residence of choice was absolutely wonderful. There’s a super friendly couple to take care of you, a scruffy dog and a pretty garden right against one of the mountains. My hostess, Nga, made me breakfast and I ate my fill of eggs, fresh baguette, homemade marmalade and fruit every morning. Initially I was really thrown by the Vietnamese tradition of serving fruit after a meal. You order a banh mi and you get a banh mi….and a fat banana. Okay then.
I rented a bicycle from my homestay to explore the town the first evening. Of course, these aren’t the nice Schwinn bikes with gears that I’m used to. This is a true village bicycle, the rusty ones with no suspension, lights, gears or a bell. Oh and the left brake hit faster than the right one, so you were always a bit lopsided when you stopped.
I am a decent biker as long as there is no one coming towards me. I will happily bike along a straight line, minding my own business, but the moment there’s another vehicle approaching me from the opposite side, I will mutter to myself ‘Okay, stick to your side of the road, they have enough space’, and my bike will magically veer towards the approaching vehicle. 5 seconds later, I’m shrieking and hopping off my lopsided bike profusely apologising to a very confused and annoyed driver.
Anyway, I spent the evening awkwardly zigzagging through the streets of Tam Coc and after a dinner of banh mi and banana, I turned back. The homestay owners were kind enough to give me a flashlight for the evening and were part amused and part startled at my zig zaggy bike skills. I think they were a bit worried I’d fall off the road into a rice field and die.
The next morning was mildly rainy and misty. I made my way to Trang An Grottoes early morning for a boat ride. Trang An is another village about 10 kms away and there is a huge network of rivers flowing in and around the mountains with temples set among them which are only accessible by boat. There are also various caves and grottoes you can actually boat into. For about $5 USD, you can hop onto a boat paddled by a nice Viet lady and they take you on a 3 hour magical boat ride which was honestly, out of the world. I boat-pooled with a nice Dutch couple (3-4 people to a boat) and we set off. It’s a bit like those adventure movies set in the far east, where your boat turns a corner and suddenly strange, remote exotic wonders come into view. You row around a huge rock, paddle through some caves and oh, there’s a 400 year old temple filled with giant Buddha statues and completely inaccessible by anything other than a little dinghy. That’s totally normal.
I also had a conversation with our boat lady who didn’t speak a word of english. We tried for 5 minutes with a lot of nodding and smiling and pointing but neither of us had a clue what was going on. Oh well.
After the grottoes tour, I wanted to attempt a mini hike (Yes, I hike everywhere I go). I got onto the rusty lopsided bike and biked 6 kms to Hang Mua Cave. Here’s the thing about Ninh Binh. There are no bad roads. There are either perfectly made, smooth concrete roads or GIANT STRETCHES OF MUD AND POTHOLES. The road to Hang Mua was partially the latter. As I bounced and zig zagged and nearly flew off my bike, I was absolutely certain my butt would be permanently dented. Hang Mua looked really intimidating but I actually only took about 15 mins to climb up the 500 steps. Of course, the weather being really hot and humid, I turned bright red, my hair was standing on its end and I was wheezing like a badly tuned bagpipe. I’d say the brief but lung busting exercise was well worth the beautiful view from the top. Also, word of advice, never wear cotton/linen clothes when you’re likely to sweat. They stick to crevices in your body you didn’t even know you had. Climbing stairs and picking a wedgie every 30 seconds is extremely awkward.
The rest of the visit passed relatively smoothly and after an evening of local food and coffee sampling and a good night’s sleep, I was ready to return to Hanoi the next morning. I’ve been looking forward to this next part of the trip for months now.
Hanoi, Ha Long Bay & Bat Trang
So my best-est friend ever from college, is Annie. She lives in Singapore now and part of the reason why this trip was so special was that she was flying down to meet me in Hanoi for part of the trip. We hadn’t seen each other in almost 4 years so this was a huge point of excitement for me. Annie arrived a couple of hours after I reached Hanoi from Ninh Binh and fast forward a couple of hours later, we were done with the squealing, shrieking re-union and ready to explore Hanoi. Shopping in the far east comes with its own set of problems. Shopping for dresses is really problematic because my girls just won’t fit. GAH. After lots of shoving and squeezing accompanied by frustrated grunts of ‘goddammit, I am stuck!’, I finally found a couple of dresses which didn’t look like they were destined for a wardrobe malfunction.
We also decided to get foot and back massages that was quite frankly…the strangest experience ever. My masseuse was far more interested in the Viet vs Thailand football game and forgot about the massage every time anyone scored. But the oddest part was when he climbed onto the table and kneeled behind me, put his arms under mine and proceeded to swing my torso at high speed from right to left and back. From the corner of my eye, I could see Annie being subjected to the same treatment and it was so…weird that I couldn’t stop giggling. With our hair untied, Annie and I looked like a pair of scary banshees with flying curls. rotating wildly and uncontrollably screeching with laughter. I think our masseuse was quite offended.
Buying lotion was also really hard. I bought a bottle of Dove that said “moisturising” on the front with a bunch of Vietnamese along with it and I was halfway through slathering my legs with it when I realised it was conditioner. Oof.
The next day was the Ha Long Bay cruise. Ha Long Bay is famous as a natural wonder of the world for the nearly 2000 limestone islands jutting out of the water forming an imposing skyline shrouded in mist and mystery. 2 days and a night on a cruise ship doing nothing but lounging on loungers seemed like a dream. The trip included kayaking around the mountains, a small hike to a scenic view point and exploring a huge limestone cave. Annie and I were unequivocally bad at tandem kayaking. We simply couldn’t figure out how to paddle in a straight line, so we kayaked in a very squiggly line. Much of the trip was spent standing on the deck, enjoying the breeze, sipping a drink and being really grateful that I had a life that let me have such an experience. The next day, after an enormous buffet lunch, we de-boarded and a bus took us back to Hanoi and dropped us off at our hotels. We still had 2.5 days left in Vietnam and we were determined to make the very best of them.
Once back in Hanoi, it was time to enjoy the street food and the shopping and the nightlife. We spent hours looking through the street shops selling souvenirs, surveying and haggling the various prices and trying not to buy the contents of the entire store. I came up with ‘Minimalist English’ which is a specific dialect of english that I used there. It involves discarding all grammar and only saying the important words loudly with exaggerated hand gestures.
‘Fan? *mime fanning yourself*, “How much??!” *Shopkeeper quotes way too much” *Shake your head and give a sad smile* “Ok! Ok! I come back!”
We were also determined to eat with the locals, like the locals so we avoided fancy restaurants and founded the most crowded eateries on the sidewalks. Vietnamese people regularly eat at these places, where the actual store is just used as the kitchen and they lay out tiny stools and plastic tables on the sidewalk and you sit and eat there. We went to a Pho place and were just wondering how or what to order when the proprietor cheerfully brought over a giant bowl of Beef Pho and said ‘Pho! One?!’ and we said ‘Two!’. Apparently there’s no choice, the place only served beef pho and boy was it good. Oooh mmmh hmmm.
Also, sitting on tiny foot-high stools on the sidewalks mean you’re pretty much almost squatting. Which honestly is kind of uncomfortable if you’re not used to it. My knees kept getting in the way and I couldn’t reach the table. I finally gave up, embraced the thug life and sat in the manliest way I could, with my knees apart and the table pulled in between. I could mentally hear my mom face palming and declaring I’m the worst girl ever. Whatever. A girl needs to eat.
I will say this though, spending 30 minutes squatting while eating dinner does wonders for your digestion, as both Annie and I discovered the next morning.
The next day, we decided to be adventurous and make a day trip to a village called Bat Trang. Bat Trang is known throughout Vietnam for producing unique ceramics called Bat Trang porcelain and has been the centre of pottery and ceramics for almost seven centuries. It’s about 13 kilometres from Hanoi and seemed like a pretty interesting place to visit. Our hotel receptionist was a little nonplussed when we asked for directions but nevertheless, she keyed in the address of the bus stop on google maps on my phone and told us to get onto Bus 47A. We were a little nervous about taking public transport but we reached Bat Trang without incident and once there, were kind of overwhelmed by the sheer amount of ceramics. Hundreds of stores tucked into tiny corners of the main shopping street, every shop crammed full of cups and pots and saucers and every other kind of pottery imaginable in unique designs. We had read online that you can make your own pottery there but we didn’t really see any signs like that so we just wandered through the village until someone approached us and offered to take us to their workshop to make our own pottery. After some quick haggling, we settled on a price and she led us through lots of confusing alleys into a tiny workshop, where she had us sit down in front of pottery wheels and gave us a lump of clay each. After a quick demo, she left us to play. Of course, I tried to do complicated things, which ended up with my pot looking like a half melted floppy pancake. Annie nearly fell over laughing at my artistry. The lady took one look at my botched attempt and shook her head, threw that lump away and gave me a new one. This time, she held my hands to the clay and adjusted the pressure and the angle and did some pottery magic and I came out with two half decent pots. She did the same with Annie and she had a couple of decent pots as well. Then after a lot of miming and gesturing she shooed us away while we left the pots to dry and went to do some shopping. 30 mins later, we painted our pots and after having our hand-made souvenirs carefully dried and wrapped, we boarded the bus back to Hanoi.
Back in Hanoi and a day and a half to kill, Annie and I spent our time wandering through the streets, stopping at a couple of historically important sites – The Palace of Literature and The Imperial Palace of Thang Long. It was a lot of walking with frequent iced coffee breaks, posing for pictures and looking at pictures of food with “Oooh lets eat that!”. Come evening, we ended up near the Hoan Kiem Lake where there was a pop concert happening. More walking around, haggling prices for random souvenirs, eating fried meat off sticks and drinking Bia Hoi. It’s a kind of beer and it’s only partially fermented so its not strong and it costs about 20 cents a cup. To be honest, it tasted terrible as far as beer goes, but when you’re on holiday and it’s hot and your hair is a giant mass of catastrophe on top of your head and your best friend is sitting next to you and her hair looks even worse than yours (sorry Annie!), sitting on the sidewalk with Bia Hoi and people watching with said best friend is the best thing in the world.
Too soon we were making our way through the busy Noi Bai airport. Annie had a 3 hour flight to Singapore and I had nearly 20 hours of flying back to the states. It was a good bye filled with promises of “we must do this again” and strangely enough I don’t doubt it. We will do this again.
I spent most of this post talking about random things like falling off bikes and the effects of food when you squat and eat, but for those of you who are looking to actually travel to Vietnam, here’s some information you could use.
Travel:
- I flew by EVA airlines which is Taiwanese and its budget but very reasonably priced and very comfortable. My friend flew Vietnam Airways and she has great reviews as well.
- Within Hanoi, we preferred to use Grab Taxi/Grab Car for any intercity travel that was too far to walk. We didn’t want to haggle and get scammed. Grab accepts cash or card and it is also very safe.
- We did take the local bus once and it was pretty fun, but it was a simple route and very few people spoke english so we wouldn’t do it unless you totally knew where you were going.
- I travelled between Ninh Bin and Hanoi via train. I could’ve also booked a seat on a private bus but the train timings worked better for me. Trains are comfortable and the conductors tell you where to get off if they see you don’t speak Viet. It took about 3.5 hrs each way. I booked my tickets from 12go
Where we stayed: (We booked everything through booking.com and agoda and got great deals!)
- Hanoi : Classic Street Hotel
- Ha Long Cruise: Silversea cruise
- Tam Coc: Tam Coc Sunshine Homestay
General Travel Tips:
- As with any unfamiliar country, don’t stray into dark, creepy alleys at night and stick to touristy areas after dark. Keep an eye on your possessions at all times. We did not have any bad experience, but I’ve heard stories from other tourists about getting their possessions stolen.
- I got a sim card from the airport. I got an unlimited data plan with Vinaphone and that served me pretty well.
- Carry enough cash since many small stores won’t take cards.
- Not everyone will understand what you say but don’t let that deter you from trying new things. The locals were more than happy to welcome us into their midst and almost every meal we ate, we were entirely surrounded by locals without a single tourist in sight. They were often curious about where we were from and were delighted to hear us try to speak botched Vietnamese.
- If you order a grab taxi, try to do it from a location that cannot be confused with. My car couldn’t find me at the train station since there are so many entrances, so I ended up walking to a big storefront and ordering again. They will call you if they can’t find you, but with an obvious language barrier, do not have high hopes of a clear phone communication.
- DO NOT be afraid to cross roads. I know it looks scary, but traffic will weave around you. That being said, don’t step directly in front of a bus, but look for gaps in traffic and walk through.
- As with any other country, people will come up to you and try to sell you stuff. They didn’t harass us, but we just walked on with a firm “no” and a smile and they did not bother us much.
- Useful blogs I read before going to vietnam:
- Ultimate Vietnam Travel Guide by the Blonde Abroad
- Vietnam Travel Guide by Two Wandering Soles
- Backpacking Vietnam Travel Guide by Nomadic Matt
Aaaand, that’s all I have for now! Let me know if you have any questions and if you do go to Vietnam, I hope you tell me about your fun experiences! Also, don’t forget to share this with your friends!
-Kat
Annie: Are we going to Long Bay?
Kat: Ha, Long Bay
Me: I wanted to Hang Mua picture but I ran out of nails.
#HaLongJokesForever
Hah!
Interesting and informative.
Looks like a great adventure, a lot of fun, Kat. Great tips at the end
Excellent humorous write up. Very nicely explained the local scenario.
What a wonderful write up!! A perfect mix of information with humor and hilariously funny moments!
Loved every details and the way you said them. I was reading it alone and was laughing out loud 😃😃
Beautiful descriptions and those hilarious moments make me long for a trip to Vietnam soon.
The description is so vivid that I could actually see you walking with Annie, giggling, both with sweaty cotton t shirts and curly hair going everywhere 🤣
The information given at the end are very very useful as well.
Waiting for the next one
And
Never stop writing ❤️❤️😊☺️
Excellent humorous write up. Very nicely explained the local scenario. Very nice way to describe.
very useful write up Katha !!!!!!’nnntoo gud one must read it before visiting Vietnam
All the information regarding the place , taxi, train, flight is awesome n very important
keep visiting n writing it
waiting for more👏👏👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌