Our tour started in Hanoi, there was 11 of us in total and a good mix of countries, ages and solo Vs friends and couples. We met in Hanoi for a welcome dinner. The restaurant we ate in is dedicated to teaching homeless children in Hanoi a trade of cooking or waiting and the food was delicious. We had a set menu which had several dishes brought out, meaning we got to try a little of everything. There were balls of prawn paste cooked in lemon grass, a beef salad, BBQ chicken, rice and beef and onion in a soy sauce followed by a fruit salad.
Our guide is a Vietnamese guy called K he has been working as an intrepid tour guide for over 10 years and really knows his stuff and genuinely seems to love his job. Happily sitting through hours of questions from us about anything and everything. After dinner a few of the younger members of the group wanted to grab a beer and K volunteered to take us on an impromptu tour of beer street which it turns out was very busy as there was an event on celebrating the start of the south east Asian games. It felt absolutely rammed although K told us it was nothing compared to the normal precovid crowds for a weekend.
We sat down on some of the tiny stools they seem to have everywhere here, they’re like tiny foot stalls and sitting on them makes me feel like I’m a giant or at a parents evening in a primary school. K ordered us all beers and also got us some dough balls dipped in honey to try. They were nothing special but nice enough to accompany the drinks.
After chatting and getting to know each other a bit more we headed back to the hotel ready for a busy first day.
In the morning we left early for our four hour bus trip to Ha Long city. On the ride K was telling us the history of Hanoi which is over a 100 years old and how Vietnam is from the Chinese name of southern people. He also told us about Vietnam’s long history of wars against China and occupation by France and a bit about living in a communist country. He also told us about how when he was a child the currency of Dongs was in the single digits but the leaders just keep deciding to print more money whenever they don’t have enough, so inflation has gone up and up until they are now using hundreds of thousands on dong. This led to lots more questions of communism and how the country has shifted to more capitalist ways over Ks lifetime and how elections work here and so on. It was a very interesting and informative bus trip.
Once we reached Ha Long Bay we were boarded into our boat and set off into the bay towards the maze of large sheer islands the area is famous for. Unfortunately for us It was overcast and rainy the whole day, but it was still a sight to behold!
The islands had been formed by colliding tectonic plates forcing up the sea floor and we got to stop at a huge cave which was once at sea level and eroded by the water but was now required us to climb several flights of steps to access it. It was an impressively large cave with four different sections and it took us 45mins to climb up to and walk around.
Our next stop after some lunch was one of the islands that is not too sheer so you can actually walk steps to the top. It was a long way up but a very cool view and once we had taken our photos we were ready for a dip in the quite chilly sea. The island itself is named after a Russian astronaut who visited it once, as a way to strengthen ties with Russia who has helped the Vietnamese during the US-Vietnam war.
Once back on the boat we had some time to chill as we sailed along and then at 7pm dinner was served, again it was a set meal where we could try various dishes. Carrot and cucumber salad, prawns, clams, fish in a garlic sauce, a chicken curry and rice followed by fruit. At this rate I won’t fit in the airplane home!
After dinner we all sat chatting, comparing and contrasting our home nations, UK, USA, India, Argentina, the Netherlands and Germany. Everything from the metric system to arranged marriages.
There were 5 other boats docked in a large laggon for the night and one of them seemed to be doing kariokie, which is huge here in Vietnam. Unfortunately the singers really weren’t very good, but it provided good entertainment for us!
The next morning we were in luck, the weather had improved and we got a chance to see the rock formations without mist hanging over them as we sailed back towards the port. On the way K was telling us how lucky we were it was so quiet, normally there are 50 different ships docking overnight, I can’t imagine the volume of kariokie then!
After a long bus ride back to Hanoi we had a free couple of hours before we had to catch a night train to our next stop Hue. I mentioned I would have liked to do a foot tour but would be able to on such short notice and K volunteered to take us on one, which was very kind of him considering this was also his time off. But he told us how he just loves sharing his culture, especially the food as a lot of travelers don’t want to try the local food. Our group is very keen to try new things except one Dutch guy who decided to visit KFC rather than join us on the food tour. We all laughed when he told us his plan until we realised he was serious.
Our first stop was to a Bahmi shop, to try the French Indonesian fusion of French bread and spicy Indonesian meat filing. In this case it was beef with a carrot and cucumber salad. It was delicious. Our next stop was for Bun Cha the traditional dish of slices of pork in a broth that you dip noodles into. I had had this before on the day with Cao, but it was even tastier this time. After this we were all pretty stuffed, even sharing portions. So we moved onto drinks and tried the famous egg coffee.
At one point in time there was a milk shortage so someone mixed egg yoke with honey as a replacement and it stuck, becoming a local staple. I don’t like coffee but luckily they had. Hot chocolate version. It was actually a lot nicer than I was imagining, it made the hot chocolate very rich and creamy, I can see how it caught on. Our last stop was for dessert, because you’re never too full to make room for dessert. We had these sweet dough balls dipped in honey and sesame seeds. They were okay but nothing to write home about.
After our food tour we got showered and ready for our night train to Hue. We were sleeping in compartments with two bunk beds on each side. My room was me, Vivian an Argentinian woman in her mid thirties, Jordan a Twenty two year old Australian and Arno a German guy in his late thirties. We also invited the other 7 guests to our room and we all squeezed onto the beds. It was cosy but the beers helped everyone feel more comfortable. Leo and Ben two American university students brought a speaker and put some music on and Rima and Navid, an Indian couple in their early forties, brought some cards and we all played some games and chatted. Apparently the staff noticed our socialising as the drinks trolley that had been going up and down our train decided to just park up outside the door and the woman joked to K that we were a gold mine.
Eventually we all drifted off to bed around 11pm…. After a tense pre-bed wee in a squat toilet on a moving train! Although it was kind of hard to drift off when every ten minutes you are violently shaken from side to side!
I’m on the train writing this now and getting slightly motion sick, so I will tell you all about Hue when I wake up there tomorrow!
Lots of love, Alice x
