A little bit of Europe in Asia : Ho Chi Minh

After almost a month in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh was our last destination. It felt like walking in a city which was weird combination of an older European (French concession) and Asian city. Add a hint of modernism to the mix and you get something like the picture below.

Unfortunately, I was sick for four days which made it impossible to hop from one tourbus to the next. Apart from that it was also about 40 degrees which made it impossible to walk for more than 500 meter without sweating like a pig. Two good reasons why we didn’t do that much.

We discovered that Ho Chi Minh is quite a trendy city filled with hipster bars that offer great food and beverages for even better prices. So we found ourselves hopping from one great bar to the next finding cool downs in between our walks in the city.

We didn’t find the city itself that alluring, maybe because we were templed-out and the markets start to look quite alike after being almost a month in Vietnam. We did however find different ways to amuse ourselves. For example a Vietnamese food massage which was absolutely lovely, learning a lot more about the vietnamese war in the War Remnants Museum. And last but not least, we enjoyed the AO show!

It is a show directed by Tuan Le, a man that also directed one of the great shows of Cirque Du Soleil, and it was truly marvelous. On top of that, it played in the operahouse of Ho Chi Minh which is famous for it’s history but also as astonishing as the show itself. Pictures were not allowed during the show, but I did managed to take a sneak peak for you to see. Below you’ll find that picture of the theater which also depicted the main attributes of the show : a lot of bamboo sticks and a bunch of huge bamboo baskets, which were used and combined in many acrobatic ways.

Short story even shorter : it was lovely to be in Ho Chi Minh, but it was also time to move on to the next country is search for some totally new experiences and impressions. Thailand time!!

Meet paradise : Hoi An

Hoi An has it all. This little town in the center of Vietnam is a window to a different time because of its history and colorful old buildings. Next to that you’ll find lots of heritage sites, traditions that are a mixture of several countries and cultures, stunning beaches, bright green rice fields, secret recipes that are carried onwards from one generation to the next and most of all, the most friendly people you’ll ever meet.  I think I can say for us both that this will be the highlight of traveling for 23 days in Vietnam although we still visit Ho Chi Minh for a couple of days. We stayed four nights at Lila Homestay which was located about two kilometers from the beach and two kilometers from the old town of Hoi An. A fist we thought that meant a lot of walking, but our lovely hosts provided us with free bikes which approximated everything within 10 minutes of cycling through amazing landscapes just like the one below.

Hoi An is also located near a clean and not overcrowded beach. We decided that we wanted some luxury time and so we cycled over to one of the big resorts and payed them a bit for some towels, beach beds, access to their swimming pools, showers and beds on the beach. This was us being smart with the budget, staying in a cheap Homestay yet still enjoying the luxury of a big resort without paying a crazy amount of money for it.  

Because there are a lot of tiny rivers, there are a lot of little Islands on Hoi An that are reachable by bridges. One of these islands was transformed into a organic herbal/vegetable farm. On this big farmland every family that lives there has a small piece of land to grow greens that they can sell on one of the many markets that are organized daily at Hoi An. One afternoon, we learned how local farmers fertilize their lands (with a sort of weed that grows in the rivers surrounding the island) and how they maintain their organic crops.

After gardening and getting a little tour around the Tra Que Herbal Village, we got pampered with a delicious smelling hot herbal foot bath made from herbs in the garden.

After that, there was also a cooking class. We found this place by stumbling upon the house of a family that offered to show us the gardening (the grandfather and grandmother showed uw how to do it). Afterwards their son (he is a chef in one of the big resorts) and daughter in law demonstrated us how to cook some of the famous dishes that Hoi An is known for, using vegetables freshly plucked from their garden. 

The following are the ingredients that we used for the four dishes we cooked.

The salad you see below is the starter we prepared ourselves which tasted very fresh (mint), sweet (several sauces) and spicy (garlic, chilipeper ).

The best thing about this place is probably the old town of Hoi An itself. Like I said before, it is like stepping through a time window. It has such a rich culture because of the trading history it has with Japan, China and Indonesia. We mainly noticed the Japanese influence by the cutlery in the restaurants, the souvenirs, how the people behaved and how some of the buildings had that specific Japanese atmosphere to them. But you can also notice it somewhat more obvious : there is a Japanese styled bridge which they conveniently call “the Japanese bridge”.

But don’t be mistaken, it certainly still feels as if you are walking into a Vietnamese town where the scents of good smelling Vietnamese street food captivate you, the colors of Hoi An’s famous silken lanterns strike you and the beauty of the people that keep on smiling all the time make you fall in love with it.

This is just one example of lanterns. When you go by night to Hoi An, the whole town lits up. If you want you can do a wish as well by buying one of the little candle lanterns (like the ones the boy in the second picture is selling) that someone will put on the floating river for you.

Although it takes you a few night trains from either Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi to get to the center of Vietnam, make sure you don’t miss it because it is different from all other destinations in Vietnam in a very positive way. We were there for four nights but we could’ve stayed for 10 days without getting bored. Maybe you can also fly directly to Da Nang from one of the major cities if you don’t feel like sleeping on trains and/or are limited in time.

All I can wish for today is that I will be able to go back to Hoi An one day.

Passing through Hue

A lot of visitors in Hue are only there for a brief moment, passing through on their way to Da Nang, Hoi An and other destinations in the middle of Vietnam. Although the streets of Hue are interesting, they were not our kind of streets. During the day these streets were filled with tourist busses that made a stop on one of its major heritage sites. At night, they were bustling with energetic young people drinking cheap cocktails to fuel them for all nighters.

For the short period we were in Hue, we opted for cocktails, good food and the imperial city. Perhaps going to a great restaurant was on top of our to do list after being in a place like Ninh Binh that seemed to lack eatable food.. After searching the internet for the best place (we wanted cheap and good), we chose a restaurant called “Golden Rice” and it turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Vietnam. I order the caramelized chicken which was sweet, spicy and garlicy. But let’s not talk food all day.. We visited the Imperial City in Hue. The locals seem to call it “The Citadel” or “The forbidden city of Vietnam” referring to the forbidden city in Beijing. Alas, it is nothing like it. Less grand, not as overwhelming and not so well maintained. That is at least my opinion after standing at the gates of the true Forbidden City one month earlier. If you however linger a while at this location, you see it’s own beauty and originality. No need to compare it with something it’s not. It’s on the UNESCO world heritage list for a reason and the the citadel possesses great parts of the rich Vietnamese history together with bits and pieces of it’s impressive architecture, like the red hallway below.But most of all it was a place full of color and full of remnants of former empires.  Although we probably wouldn’t return to Hue, there is much more to see (tombs). We just didn’t found sufficient time and energy to do more since spending two nights out of four on a train proved to be more exhausting than we could even imagine. As a result we skittled away one entire day sleeping. Oh well, it was very satisfying to say the least. Now we will be able to be awake at our next destination, Hoi An!

Too much – Ninh Binh

Let us advice you to avoid going for an overnight stay in Ninh Binh and not to make the same mistake as we did. Why? Ninh Binh is just a little town that is literally of the beaten tracks for tourists.

There are a few hotels but they all seem very basic and still will cost you around 25 euros a night for a decent one. You might like the idea of a non-touristy place, like I initially did, but when you arrive you will see that also means not a lot of proper options to eat. With not much options I mean two semi-decent places if you don’t fancy street food.  You can find those two okay restaurants on Tripadvisor, but they are far away from each other so you’ll end up being close either to one or the other. And before I forget to mention : the motorbikes are quit expensive in Ninh Binh as well (15 euros a day).

Let me tell you a bit about the activities nearby. There is Tam Coc and the viewpoint over Tam Coc. Two things that are worth making a stop in Ninh Binh. But.. You can easily go to Ninh Binh from Hanoi in the early morning, be there around 10, finish visiting Tam Coc (which costs 20 euros for two persons by the way) at 12, eat at the one restaurant of the two which is closest to Tam Coc, then visit the viewpoint in the afternoon and finish your day at a slow pace around 6 p.m. eat something and take the train back to Hanoi or the night train further south.

A dragon at the viewpoint on top of one of the mountains surrounding Tam Coc :

The best view you can get over Tam Coc : 

In hindsight that is what we should have done as well.. Of course we visited Tam Coc and the viewpoint. But what happened apart from those two activities is :

– Eating the worst meal in months at our hotel on the first night we were there. It consisted out of a very mushy and soggy burger that was obviously re-heated in the microwave and some fried tofu which was probably fried in old oil and tasted somewhat burned.

– Renting the worst bikes ever, hurting our asses during cycling, ending up driving in total darkness because there were no street lights and because the bicycles did not had any lights installed.

– Relaxing in the room and planning ahead for the next months using an Internet connection with a speed matching that of a baby turtle.

– Eating in Lotteria – which is a Korean burger joint, comparable to McDonalds – not once, not twice, but trice. We did that because after trying the cocktails in the “okay” restaurants nearby on night one, we discovered that there were a lot of rats lingering around and the place had a nasty smell to it.

– Getting soaked all the time because it wouldn’t stop raining for three whole days but we also didn’t want to be in the room all the time.

So may I present you Tam Coc in the rain. It was fine and is probably better when the sun is shining, but it didn’t took our breaths away like Halong Bay did a week before.So why did we book for two nights in Ninh Binh? Well. I loved to see Tam Coc but was quite tired from sleeping badly on the night trains and we didn’t find much of the necessary rest I was looking for in Sapa, because there was so much to see and do. It was therefor that we decided to book a hotel for two nights in Ninh Binh, as it was again a night train away from the previous location.

Hopefully people will read this and won’t make the same mistake as us. Another night train trip got us to Hue which seems to be an ancient city bursting with things to see and do. Time to go out for some exploring!

Stormy weather in Sapa

If I would be asked which place has thought me the most during this journey, I think my answer would be Sapa. I’ve never seen any culture that was so different from my own and it was exactly that in combination with the views that made Sapa very interesting.

We had two days left so we decided to rent a motorbike the first day and booked a guided trek with O’Chau the next. Both were very lovely days, although the last one was a bit overshadowed by fog and rain, which made views a somewhat less impressive.

The scooter day went by fast because there was much to see in the surrounding villages and only little time to do so. Before noon we went for the valley and the views. We were in luck with the weather that day and the views were immensely wide and far. We also stumbled upon a waterfall where we build a tiny dam to hold the water so we could dip our feet in. But after gathering some courage, I decided to take an ice cold shower under the slippery waterfall as well. 

In the afternoon we went out to visit some little villages in the neighborhood. Cat Cat was the one that was recommended and visited by a lot of tourists, but it did nothing for me. Maybe because Cat Cat was too focussed on tourism and the shops, stalls, restaurants that come with that didn’t felt like we were in an authentic little village. However when we went half an hour further down the road, we found an unspoiled village that was build in the valley and had pretty views, both on the landscape as on the everyday local life. 

Sander on our 6 euro a day motorbike.What was most interesting about the little village was that people had almost no electricity and no running water but managed to support their needs for food themselves. Their little houses all had a bunch of animals (chickens, pigs, dogs, ducks, buffalo’s) surrounding it, some rice and cornfields a little further away and a river that provided them with all the water they needed. For me the most striking thing about it was how dirty the little children seemed to be. Most of the younger ones wore no pants in order to make sure they wouldn’t need diapers or some cloth that mothers need to bring to the stream to wash.

Next day was a foggy day. Around 100 days a year in Sapa are like this, so make sure you at least book a 2 night trip if you want to have a big chance to see the views. The thick fog lasted all morning on our trek day, and on top of that it started pouring rain around 11. At noon we were totally soaked and my shoes got stuck in the dirt all the time. That in combination with walking all morning made us want to end the trek early. 

After eating lunch and sitting for a while at the fireplace with Lam, our English speaking Hmong tour guide, the fog cleared up and we were finally treated with some sun and lovely views. We decided to continue after all and learned a lot from our guide about the people in the local villages and how the government doesn’t support their needs. It seems that families that want education, health care and cloths need to sell handmade embroideries because chicken, pork, rice and corn is all they have.

These days resulted in seeing a very different culture, with some very interesting guides. And we only saw a lot about the black Hmong culture. There are a lot of other minority cultures as well in Sapa. In other words, there is much left to see. However after four educational days, we had to catch the night train to Ninh Binh, this time with soft sleepers. I hope Ninh Binh will be as impressive as Sapa. But we’ll let you know one of the next days.  

Honk honk, here comes Hanoi

Hanoi, home town of more than 8 million people and capital of the Socialistic Republic of Vietnam. People don’t come here to relax but to be swallowed in one piece by the busy Vietnamese streets and the amazing culture.

Like I mentioned before, the Vietnamese Dong which is the currency of the Vietnamese people, is a very weak one. One million dong equals almost 43 euros. Being used to euro’s it’s quite difficult to adapt because you always feel as if you are paying so much in numbers for whatever you want to buy. But in hindsight, after you do the math, you’ll be amazed how cheap it actually was. You can for example eat a very decent meal here for 100.000 dong, which translates to 4,20 euros.. And of course lunch and snacks and juices and beers and cocktails are even much cheaper. A fancy cocktail in a restaurant will cost you somewhere between 60.000 and 80.000 VMD. Not bad at all. The problem however is that you’ll find yourself drinking beers and cocktails all the time..

The best thing about Hanoi is it’s architecture. I find myself walking around and looking above me to the buildings all the time. Because the architecture here is heavily influenced by the French people in the 19th century, most buildings are an interesting mix of Asia and Europe. Very colorful but in a way they have some kind of daunting spirit of an old French village upon them. Intriguing to say the least.

A beautiful spectacle here in Hanoi is the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater. It already lures you in by the prominent and exquisite music that reverberates along the Hoan Kiem Lake every hour that the theater does a show. The show itself is just as astonishing as its music played by a little band and it tries to explain you about the culture and habits of the people in Vietnam with a funny touch to it. You see little wooden puppets dancing and playing on a water surface and they just seem so real. You can only guess when it comes to how they make those puppets move and it was only after the show that you see how many people are actually involved in the play.

And than you have the Vietnamese food.. It is so good! Most tasty thing in Vietnam for me would be the fruit. If you love exotic fruit and think a European pineapple or passionfruit is good, try these ones.. I merely get past the fruit buffet in the mornings. And next to that you have the fruits you can’t even find in Europe, like the custard apple that you can see in the picture below. They taste a bit like a very sweet lychee and are just delicious.

We also did a group food tour here in Hanoi and discovered a lot of street foods and drinks. I’m always a bit afraid of getting sick from that sort of food because it seems too cheap (whole meals for less than 1 euro) and not hygienic, but eating in little stalls and trying the food really made me interested to try some more!

Apart from the food stalls, there are also great restaurants that can offer you an entire meal plus drinks for merely 5 euros per person. Like for example the fried noodles with dill and seafood you can see in the next picture.

And than there is high end food like the meal we had at Cau Go on our last evening. This is a restaurant that offers exquisite food combined with a view over the Hoan Kiem Lake and all the hustle and bustle that surrounds it. This will cost you about 35 euros for two, starters and drinks included, but the experience and food is truly worth it.

Last but not least it is a city for people that love shopping. The city just has so much to offer and it is so much cheaper than the exact same thing in Europe. I for example found a real converse shop that sold exactly the same shoes and shirts as they do at home. The difference is however that everything simply costs 60% of the normal price. So that meant new all stars for me and a super awesome cartoon shirt for Sander in a tiny shop with a brand that only sells clothing in Vietnam!

Hanoi is a busy city and the honking scooters keep on going all day and all night. But at the same time Hanoi has so much to offer, don’t skip it because it’s busy and go beyond that by smelling it, tasting it, feeling its culture and embracing its beauty and architecture. There is just a lot to discover in this city when you look passed those honking scooters.