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ookamirinchan · 8 years ago

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Winter Vacation Pt. 2- Vietnam

Don’t forget to read Part 1 first. :)

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On the fourth day of my trip, the day I would leave Taipei, I slept in as late as I could, passing up yet another opportunity to visit Taipei 101. I never did make it to that building...oh well. I finished packing, checked out of the hotel, and found myself on a bus to the airport by noon. I checked in as soon as I could, and still just barely made my flight thanks yet again to Taipei Airport’s long lines. But I did make the flight, and all was well. Another three hours later, I was landing in Hanoi.

The first stop in Hanoi was the money exchange booth to add yet another kind of currency to my wallet. Also, it should be noted that Vietnam’s money is the most confusing currency ever. It was even worse than Korea’s, which is really saying something.

(For real, who in their right mind thought, let’s make our currency in 10,000s? And it’s not even equal, so 10,000 dong is like, I don’t know, 30 cents or something. So you’re forever confused, throwing around 500,000 money like it’s nothing (because it is) and feeling equally rich and broke. Also, the 10,000 bills and the 100,000 bills look exactly the same. And so do the 20,000 bills and 200,000 bills. The only difference is that last 0 and the size. Oh my gosh, what the heck? And to make matters even more confusing, everywhere in Vietnam accepts US dollars, too. Even though it’s technically illegal for them to accept it as currency. But they still always ask for USD first. Weird.)

But anyway, after I changed money I found a private taxi to take me to the city, which I paid way more for than I should have, as is typical in Southeast Asia. I made it to the tiny hole-in-the-wall hotel around 6:30. I checked in, marveled at the size of the room despite the outside appearance of the place, fussed about the poor Wi-Fi signal for a bit, and left to go find some food.

If you’ve never been to Southeast Asia, you can’t possibly understand the controlled chaos of Hanoi. There are people, cars, and motorbikes everywhere. The rules of the road are pretty much non-existent, with smaller cars and bikes making room for busses and trucks, weaving in and out with no care in the world, often even pulling over curbs or into the opposite flow of traffic to avoid the bigger vehicles.

And the noise. Busses honk to tell cars to get out of the way. Cars honk to tell bikes to get out of the way. Bikes honk to tell cars that they’re next to them or pulling out in front of them or stopping or...you know what, they’re pretty much just honking indefinitely. And the noise in the city just keeps going 24/7 because every vehicle is doing this always. And then you put pedestrians into the mix.

On streets that never have crosswalks, cars and bikes don’t stop for people to cross. You just have to blindly step out into the street and hope the oncoming traffic swerves out of your way. Which they do. Because somehow, all of this traffic chaos is completely understood by the local people.

And now imagine this scene on New Year’s Eve. Haha, yeah. Um, about that.

So I walked two stores down the street, bought some kind of pork and rice dinner and a drink, enjoyed the atmosphere for about 30 minutes.

I then decided the New Year’s Parties weren’t worth it and so I retreated back into my hotel room to enjoy the insanity from above.

I read for a little while, Skyped with Mom, and then went to bed well before midnight, not regretting my lack of party in the least.

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The next morning, I joined a tour out to Halong Bay, about 3.5 hours east of Hanoi. It’s one of the most popular tour options from Hanoi, and, after the previous night’s insanity (which hadn’t abated at all by morning), it was easy for me to see why most people who visit Hanoi prefer to take tours out of Hanoi.

The ride was long and I enjoyed napping on the bus a little, amazed at how tired I still was (but happy to be feeling almost 100% otherwise). About half-way there, we stopped for a rather interesting break.

Along the highways all over Vietnam (and in Thailand, too), there are shops that sell stone statues and sculptures. Now, these shops are everywhere. And I mean everywhere. And you would never know it were it not for the tours, but these shops are actually rest stops. Inside the plain building is a massive souvenir store that I guarantee you is larger than any souvenir store you’ve ever been in (unless you’ve been to Vietnam, of course). It’s huge, and would take way longer than our allotted 10 minutes to shop through it all (which was clearly the intention, since we were all dropped off on one end and picked up on the other). There were also food stalls and bathrooms and such of course, but seriously, you would have no idea that this place was a rest stop. At all. And it was quite funny.

But of course we didn’t spend long there, and we all piled back into the bus for another couple hours’ drive. We arrived at the harbor around 12, bought our tickets, and immediately walked out to board our quaint little yacht, just one among dozens.

We were seated in the boat’s cabin first and served an amazing seafood lunch, which I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of (it was so good, though!) And of course, being by myself, I was awkwardly sat at a table with two other groups--a boyfriend and girlfriend from Singapore and a family from Australia with a pre-teen girl who was picky and self-absorbed and quite reminded me of me.

Once we’d finished eating, we could go outside the cabin and climb up on top of the deck to watch the stunning scenery. Of course I was visiting in January, so the weather was overcast and gloomy, but the views were still spectacular. We passed through many rock formations with our guide pointing out various interesting shapes and designs in them as we went. And about 30 minutes in to our voyage, we stopped, disembarked, and got into tiny little rowboats to explore some of the caves and formations up close.

We spent quite a while there before boarding out boat once again and sailing for a little longer. And finally, we came to Thien Cung (Heavenly Palace) Cave. We got off again, walked through the large cave, with our guide again pointing out dozens of interesting shapes and images in the rocks.

It was very interesting, but by the time we left the cave I was happy it was our last stop for the day. We returned to the harbor, boarded our bus again, and headed back to Hanoi, which we arrived at around 8:30. It had been a long day, so I went to my room immediately to just relax and make my plan for the next day.

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The sixth day was my last in Hanoi, and I was actually leaving that afternoon. But I was eager to explore at least a little of the city before I left, and so I departed my hotel around 7:30 for some of the larger attractions in Hanoi.

My first stop was the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, which came highly recommended by Trip Advisor. The Citadel was a residence and workplace for kings and royal families for about 700 years, starting around the 11th century, and was added to many times throughout the course of its use. Most of the buildings no longer exist today, but there are excavation teams hard at work to help uncover and restore many of the buildings.

When I arrived, it was exactly 8:00, and so I was the first one through the ticket gate. It was nice to see the ruins without too many people around, and I enjoyed walking around the citadel despite the lack of English descriptions. I still don’t know much about this area, since even online the information is very vague. But the buildings were beautiful, and it was a nice way to spend a couple hours that morning.

From the citadel, I walked to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, which of course, had to be a stop on this trip. Unfortunately the building itself was closed, so I couldn’t go inside. But I looked at the building briefly before accidentally stumbling upon Ho Chi Minh’s presidential palace. I entered that, which was completely huge, and so that (rather than the Ho Chi Minh Museum), took up most of the morning.

From there, I walked a few more minutes to the Temple of Literature. Which, despite the name, had not a single piece of literature on display. But the temple was certainly impressive, and I could see why it was so high on Hanoi’s recommended attractions. I could definitely see the Chinese influence on the temple, which was a beautiful contrast to the French architecture of Hanoi.

After I’d thoroughly explored the temple, I walked a while back to the hotel, enjoying the buildings and the chaos of the city (kind of). I got back to the hotel around noon, checked out, and took an Uber out to the airport. (Who knew Uber was in Hanoi? Lucky!) I got there super early thanks to my hotel’s check out time, and so I ate while I waited for the check-in counter to open, made it through security quickly, and sat down for the long haul.

Thankfully my plane was on time, and I arrived in rainy Hue around 6:00. From there, I took a taxi to my hotel (quite the interesting place!) and went out to find a restaurant for dinner. I found one easily enough and enjoyed the much less crazy atmosphere of the smaller, historic city. I went to bed early again so I could be up bright and early for my DMZ tour the next morning.

***

Of course, there is no DMZ in Vietnam anymore. But I guess “DMZ Tour” has more of a ring to it than “Former DMZ Tour” does. Whatever.

We all crammed into a bus the next morning and drove for about an hour before picking up our guide. From there, it was another hour or so to our first attraction, the Rock Pile, which was a US army observation post and artillery base during the war. Of course there’s not much to see beside the rock, so we all pushed out of the van, took a couple pictures, and piled back in.

Our next stop was the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a path which was used during the war to get supplies from North Vietnam to the Vietcong in the South during the war. Of course, there are many entrances to the Trail, and this one isn’t particularly special among them, I don’t think, but still...pretty cool.

And next, we visited our main stop of the morning, the Khe Sanh Combat Base. If you know anything about the war, this area is supposedly pretty famous. There was quite a bit of fighting on the base in 1967-8, and some people consider part of the Khe Sanh defense the climactic phase of the Tet Offensive.

Now, this little base off the highway that’s barely even marked is home to a small museum and a coffee plantation. But you can still see a lot of bombs, tanks, and other weapons used by the U.S. during the war there. And the best part? You can go down in the bunkers. That was pretty cool.

We walked around the Base for a little while before loading up again and heading out for a quick lunch. In the afternoon, we drove up in the opposite direction, passing (but not stopping at) the Ben Hai River and the Hien Luong Bridge, the official divider of the North and South, positioned at exactly 17 degrees latitude. (The more you know.)

The bridge is painted to reflect the true dividing point, with the yellow being the South and the blue the North. On either side of the river, you can see monuments as well. The South’s is a statue of a mother and child looking to the North, symbolizing all of the families that were torn apart by the border. And the North’s, unsurprisingly, is the Vietnam flag on a huge pedestal. If you stop to look at the pedestal (which we didn’t), you can also see an impressive mosaic which depicts life during the war.

About 30 minutes past the river, we came to the afternoon’s main attraction, the Vinh Moc Tunnels. During the war, the U.S. believed that the people who lived in Vinh Moc were supplying food and weapons to the North, which was keeping the U.S. from moving farther north toward Hanoi. So the U.S., in typical fashion, dropped a lot of bombs to scare the people of Vinh Moc away. But instead of running from their homes, they built some very impressive tunnels to help them wait out the war.

The tunnels formed a village some 30 meters below ground, which was used between 1966 and 1972. The complex is massive, and includes wells, kitchens, rooms for each family, a doctor’s office, and even a birthing room. As many locals will proudly tell you if you visit the area, at least 17 babies were born in the tunnels.

We spent most of the afternoon exploring the tunnels before we headed off to our final destination, a cemetery on the side of the road for unidentified soldiers. We paid our respects and loaded up again for the long ride back to Hue.

That night I wandered around the city for a while, looking for something interesting, but I didn’t find much. So I ate a quick dinner and returned to my creepy hotel room for my last night in Hue.

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The next day, I was following a similar schedule to my last day in Hanoi. I woke up early and headed out into Hue for the sights of the inner city and its main attraction, the Forbidden Purple City.

Similar to the Forbidden City in China, this area was once reserved strictly for the emperor. It was built in 1804. Inside the fortress there were once many buildings which were used by the emperor and his family for generations. Its buried within the Royal Citadel, a larger area which encompassed all of the royal family’s court buildings, temples, gardens, and pavilions. You could easily spend an entire day exploring the Royal Citadel, despite there being very few buildings left standing today (thanks to the war).

Because of its vast space, I spent most of the morning at the Citadel and didn’t make it to many of the other places of interest in the Main Citadel (yes, Hue is essentially a citadel within a citadel within a citadel). But I definitely enjoyed the Forbidden City.

I returned to the hotel around 11, packed up, and caught my bus to Hoi An. This included about 20 people being crammed into a mini-van (plus luggage), which was very skillfully (crazily?) organized by our driver. We drove about 10 minutes to the bus station and then transferred to a larger highway bus which, despite it being the middle of the day, was a full sleeper bus. It was actually quite comfortable, and very different from Japan’s sleeper busses. Each seat was essentially a bed which would be sat up to make a reclining chair if you were lucky and your seat wasn’t broken (I think all of them were). You have to take your shoes off when you get on the bus and keep them in a plastic bag so you don’t make the seats dirty.

The bus was cheap and uneventful, and we arrived in Hoi An around 5, just as the rain started up again. I dug my umbrella out of my luggage (happy once again that I’d brought one from home) and walked about 10 minutes to my hotel. I checked in and set out to explore beautiful Hoi An, my favorite place on this trip.

Hoi An is a small little town by the ocean that’s not really famous for any reason outside of its genuine beauty. The town is quaint and easy-going, and is mostly made up of a World Herritage Site called Hoi An Old Town. You have to buy a ticket to enter the town (which can be used for your whole trip), and the area is absolutely worth it. The buildings are done in old-fashioned European architecture, reminiscent of the French occupation in Vietnam in the 1800s. But there are other structures like temples and bridges that are done up in Chinese and Japanese style as well, including a very famous Japanese covered bridge with a shrine inside.

And from all of the buildings are hung lanterns.

There are no cars or bikes in the Old Town, just people, which makes the atmosphere very peaceful. You can walk along the overpriced tourist shops for hours, eat at any number of restaurants with river views, take a boat down the river, buy a candle to set sail, and visit a night market in the town. It’s no wonder Hoi An is supposedly the most popular tourist destination in Vietnam. I was certainly glad I went.

Things were a little crowded that first night thanks to the rain and everyone’s umbrellas, but I still managed to enjoy window shopping and relaxing by the river, glad to be somewhere that seemed free of Vietnam’s general chaos and noise. I returned to my room that night happy and ready for an adventure the next day.

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I’ve mentioned it a little before now, but in Vietnam, almost everyone travels by motorbike. And so one of the most popular things to do is take a motorbike tour into the countryside, especially to visit some of the beautiful scenes nearby. And so, in the spirit of adventure, I hired a guide who took me on a private motorbike tour out of Hoi An and into the rice fields, with a final stop at My Son Sanctuary.

My Son is another World Heritage Site--ruins of a religious sanctuary from the 4th through 13th centuries in a similar style to that of Ayutthaya in Thailand and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It’s much smaller than either of those places, but the similarities are easily seen. I was lucky enough to get there right as they opened (thanks to my amazing guide), and so I enjoyed the sanctuary with very few people around.

It took a couple hours to go around the entire area, and finally I met my guide at the entrance again and we were off again, weaving in and out of the rice fields and just enjoying the scenery.

About 11:00 my guide dropped me off at the hotel again, and I readied myself for a day at the nearby beach to enjoy the beautiful weather that had magically appeared overnight. But as I was leaving the hotel, the owner of the company I’d used for the morning’s tour was waiting outside, clearly expecting to pick up someone else for a tour. She offered a couple other packages and, having nothing better to do and really wanting to see some more of the area, I decided to hop back on the bike and head off with her for an action-packed afternoon.

We rode up to the nearby city of Da Nang to visit the stunning Marble Mountains. These are five mountains made of limestone and marble which offer stunning views of the ocean and surrounding areas. The mountains are also dotted with temples, shrines, caves, and monuments, which, of course, make them a very over-priced tourist destination. But whatever, I wanted to see them and I enjoyed it a lot. My guide was extremely friendly and spoke very good English, and she spent most of the afternoon leading me through caves and taking my picture over and over again.

When we finally finished there, we rode back down the highway to Hoi An, where we did stop at the beach for a bit, just long enough to take some pictures. After the beach we went through some more ride fields, and stopped at a local market.

And then, we finally made our way over to the biggest tourist trap of all, the coconut boat tours.

If you don’t know, a coconut boat is a large, round, brown boat which looks kind of like a coconut cut in half. It’s popular to take an “eco” tour in them through the water coconut trees.

Mostly it’s a lot of goofing off, and throughout the tour the guide pulls up to trees many times, rips some of the leaves from the plants, and fashions them into interesting items such as crowns and necklaces for the customers. Interesting...but a bit overpriced.

Not to mention... what the heck am I supposed to do with this thing?

And at last, we had dinner and she dropped me off at the hotel again, where I changed (again) and headed out for another enjoyable night in the Old Town. The rain was nowhere to be found, and I was able to really appreciate the lanterns and the atmosphere.

I bought a couple of over-priced souvenirs and wandered back to the hotel again to wash off the bike exhaust and go to bed.

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My last day in Hoi An came lazily, and I didn’t wake up until around 10. I wandered into the Old Town one last time to enjoy breakfast and finally take in a couple of the temples and old buildings in the daylight.

Finally I packed up and hopped in a bus to the airport. Where I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally, my 5 hour delayed plane arrived and whisked me off to Ho Chi Minh City.

I arrived around 8 and took a bus to my downtown hotel, marveling at the chic and modern city, completely different from the grunge of Hanoi. I was exhausted that night, and just managed to eat a little before I went to sleep. For the most part, it was a short and uneventful day.

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And finally, my last day in Vietnam arrived. I woke early, checked out, dropped my stuff off at the front desk for the day, and hopped into my final tour which would take me out to the well-known Cu Chi Tunnels.

This tour in particular, I paid a lot more for than I should have. I booked it online in advance so I wouldn’t have to fuss with navigating the city on my own. And despite the cost, I would up really lucking out. There were only three of us on the tour, me and a couple from Australia who were touring around Southeast Asia together for their anniversary. And we had the most amazing guide, a man who had actually lived in Cu Chi and fought in the tunnels during the war. He knew so much about the area and he had all of the best insider information.

We got to the tunnels early, before most of the other tour busses arrived, and we bypassed the introductory video for the time being, heading straight out into the (heavily landscaped) jungle to avoid the crowds. We passed along the pathways, stopping at all the exhibits to learn about the guerilla warfare tactics and weapons used during the war. It was very interesting!

And last, we stopped in the tunnels themselves, and were able to explore the inside with a guide (not our guide, unfortunately). They were dark and narrow enough that no pictures turned out and they were so low it was hard to imagine anyone running around inside them. Not to mention the tunnels had been widened for tourists...the original tunnels would have been much narrower.

We took a break after the tunnels for some boiled tapioca and green tea...a surprisingly delicious snack. And finally, we popped back around to watch the video which, as our guide had promised us, was made during the war and was nothing but propaganda.

We got back into the bus around 11 and headed back to the City, where we stopped for some delicious pho. After lunch, we drove around Chinatown for a while (it’s massive!) and finally arrived at our next stop, the War Remnants Museum. The museum was massive and extremely interesting, if a bit confusing at times. But it was even more interesting to see how much propaganda was still around in the museum--how much the outcome of the war colors what really happened during that time (in favor of the North, of course). We spent most of the afternoon in the museum before heading off to our next stop, Reunification Palace.

This beautiful building was the home and workplace of the president of South Vietnam during the war. In it, you can see many beautiful rooms and items, similar to what you might expect to see in any other major political figure’s residence. The most interesting part of this building was its underground bunker, which was made, of course, to protect the president in case of attack. It was only used for one day, on the last day of the war.

And one more interesting fact about the palace--at one time, a bomb was dropped on the building while the president was inside. The bomb was supposed to kill the president. But someone messed up, because the president was on the opposite side of the building. The building was, of course, reconstructed, but there’s a target printed on the roof of the building where the bomb hit.

Finally, after the palace, we headed to our final stop, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which is right next to the Ho Chi Minh City train station. Both buildings were very beautiful and interesting, but because the cathedral was closed, we only spent a little time there.

I was dropped off at my hotel around 5:00, and, having already checked out, I grabbed my bag and called an Uber to the airport. Where I sat around and read/napped until my 2 AM flight.

Thus ended my long trip in Vietnam.

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I actually managed to sleep well enough on the plane, and I took the train home from Tokyo, arriving in Shiojiri with a small blizzard. Quite the contrast to the hot sunny weather of Saigon. I enjoyed a day off to rest up at home before work, happy that I allowed myself that time to relax.

Although I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam, it was not my favorite trip outside of Japan (that’s still Thailand, although Taiwan hit a close second). I probably won’t ever go back, so I was glad I planned to hit most of the major tourist spots on this trip. I’m also glad I was able to learn a little more about the war up close. It’s definitely a country I’d recommend to others (despite the ridiculous visa costs!)

When I finished this trip I thought I’d be done with SE Asia for a while, but not it seems like I lied to myself. I’m planning a trip to Singapore and Cambodia for spring break, with maybe Malaysia thrown in just because why not (if money and vacation time, of course). If I go, I’ll probably be traveling with a friend, which will definitely be an adventure. (Yes, she has been warned, and, even though I think she’s crazy, we’re still going to try. Please wish her luck...she’ll need it.)

And after spring vacation, I’ll hopefully have one more trip over Golden Week in May, when I still hope to hit the Philippines, even if it’s only for a couple days. And that will likely be my last trip before I leave Japan. If I succeed, I’ll have hit all of the countries I really want to go to while I’m here, which is great. There are, of course, many more places in Japan I want to visit, but that way I see it, those are just excuses for me to come back and visit everyone in the future. ;)

#vietnam #winter vacation #2017 #hanoi #hue #hoi an #ho chi minh #saigon #vietnam war #former dmz

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