Andi’s Weblog

Looking back, our journey to Vietnam was really great (especially foodwise) with only very few annoyances along the way. Even though I should start with the good sides, I’ll quickly go ahead and summarize the bad sides first: horns, horns, horns and traffic, traffic, traffic. That’s about it, besides some very few annoying street vendors of course ;-).

We arrived in Hanoi by airplane from Vientiane and took a humid walk looking for a hostel. The one we found (one from the LP list) featured really friendly service and good, dirt cheap breakfast. Furthermore it was located in a quiet back alley in the middle of the otherwise noisy old quarter where horns from motorcycles, cars and even bicycles replaced the singing birds we got used to in Laos. Since I still had to fix some parts of my BA thesis I couldn’t do that much sightseeing and therefore I didn’t get to see the grave of Mr. Vietnam aka Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I saw the old quarter with its lake in the middle (some part of it is probably shown on every postcard you will ever receive from Hanoi) and I’d really like it if only they would remove this annoying street circling the lake.

Back to summary: We arranged a trip to Halong Bay which was amazing (just google if you want to find out more). After we returned from our two day one night trip to Halong, we took a shower and went straight into the night train bound for Sa Pa (with some little one hour bus ride at the end). I’m glad we booked a four bed soft sleeper and we were on a touristy train because we could sleep well. We were a little concerned about the train ride because we had heard stories about horrible train rides in Vietnam (especially along the east cost). So after a Vietnamese birthday party at our hotel in Sa Pa, a unique and amazing trek through the mountains (covered with rice fields) and a general good time with two English and two Danish, we returned to Hanoi at 5am in order to move to the airport and fly straight to Saigon. So we didn’t do the usual tourist track along the east coast via Hue, etc. because we couldn’t get any train tickets. This was due to the Vietnamese national day (public holiday). Actually it was the third public holiday that caused overbookings in literally all available means of public transport and therefore made us change our plans! It’s time for backpacker rule #3: Before you leave home, make sure you possess an overview of all public holidays at your destination and the people’s habits connected to these holidays.

So, again, we arrived in Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City by airplane. I generally liked the “capital of the south” better than I liked Ha Noi because the city just felt more laid-back while there was still something going on in every corner at every time of the day/night. In other words HCMC made the impression of a vibrant yet laid-back place on me where people strive for success in business (not for “lelax” as they do in Laos). Since we had the opportunity to meet Mathias (a fellow golfer and HSG buddy) we got to taste some of the best food of the trip (except for the soup that ruined my new white polo shirt) and again, generally just had a good time. In and around HCMC we went to see the really impressive war remnants museum (where the public can access pictures of American soldiers lifting up parts of the bodies of Viet Congs that had been hit by bombs, agent orange victims, napalm victims, hostages in “tiger cages” etc.) as well as the Cu Chi Tunnels (the famous, incredibly narrow tunnels where Cu Chi soldiers hid during the Vietnam war). Generally speaking, HCMC was very interesting and very good governmental propaganda for uninformed visitors.

We then moved on to Phu Quoc, a relatively undeveloped yet beautiful island in the south of Vietnam. We relaxed, enjoyed the beach (where we had lunch aka “chocolate pancakes and banana shakes” as well as dinner) and I could finally finish my BA thesis Yippie! The only downside was the fact that I turned myself into a Lobster by walking along the beach for a few hours - what a tragedy! After two days of relaxation we took a ferry to Rach Gia from where we took a bus to Ha Tien in order to start the most adventurous part of our trip so far…