S01-E16
North Vietnam - A Land of Contrasts
We still had about 3 weeks left in Vietnam, but a lot of ground to cover. It is hard to compare the North to the South - they are so different, and it sounds like people do not give the South the time it deserves. We loved both the North and the South of this amazing country.
One thing this county has down to a science is transportation. There are so many ways to get from point A to point B depending on how quickly you want to get there and how much you want to spend.
TRAINS - Vietnam Railway is a great way to travel. There are many routes and many classes of cars. We took mostly overnight trains and traveled in a 4-person sleeper car (two people we did not know) and a private 2-person sleeper car. If you have the extra money it is worth doing the private car as you are not disturbed and therefore get much better sleep, but it will at least double your cost. Once, we got to the train station and were offered an ‘upgrade’ to a private car for much cheaper than it would have cost if we bought the tickets upfront, so if you are lucky, this could also happen to you.
BUSES - There are many different types of buses in Vietnam. There are smaller buses for shorter travel times - like a 10-ish person Sprinter van, regular buses, and sleeper buses. These are double decker buses that have a reclining seat. Spend a little extra money to get a VIP bus - this will ensure you have enough legroom, your own air-con vent, and privacy curtains. Note - most if not all of these buses do not have toilets, but you do make stops every 3-4 hours.
PLANES - Depending on how far you are traveling, planes may be the cheapest and most time efficient mode of transportation.
The moral of the story is to do your homework, look at all the options, and book the option that is best for you.
Things to do and see in Hoi An -
Four Seasons Hotel - situated in the rice fields, about a 20 min walk outside of the popular old town - this hotel is perfect! There are free bikes for use that you can take to An Bang Beach about 25 minutes away. The rooms are large and there is a good size pool. The owner, Mr Tu, may even sit and have a late-night drink with you.
Market Visit, Round Boat Ride, and Cooking Class
My (Mee) Son Sanctuary - depart around sunrise to avoid the crowds and the heat
Things to do and see in Ha Noi -
Tung’s Kitchen had some of the best Bo La Lot we had in all of Vietnam. In addition to the food the service was also incredible and very friendly.
Pub Street - the name says it all. It is a street packed with bars and not-so-great restaurants.
Ha Noi is famous for its Bun Cha - a soup with meatballs, and rice noodles, it usually comes with a huge plate of herbs, garlic and red chilis, and fried sort-of egg rolls. A couple of our favorites were Bun Cha Nem Cua Be Dac Kim (we were given two without bringing asked but could have done with just one), and Bun Cha Hang Manh. Both are very no-frills but very, very good.
Den Ngoc Son and the Temple of Literature are sites not to be missed. A lot of people make a point to go to the train street food ‘street’ to watch the train go by - it seems like a tourist trap with food and drink markups all while getting train exhaust and dirt in your face. We also felt like the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and One-Pillar Pagoda were a waste of time. BUT if you really want to see where (maybe) Ho Chi Minh’s body is then you should walk by the Mausoleum.
Things to do and see in Sa Pa -
If you have a couple of days and do not mind the time it will take to get there, Sa Pa is beautiful and worth the visit. We took the overnight train in and out of Hanoi - you depart around 22:00 and arrive at the station in Lo Cai around 6:00. From Lo Cai it is about a 45 min - 1 hr car. We booked a transfer through our hotel to make it easier on our early morning brains.
Sunworld Fansipan Legend - it sounds cheesy, and some of it is, but it is also very worth it. First, you take a cable car up the first part of the mountain to the park. This is another Instagram-created world - horse carriages, horses, the door and staircase to nowhere, flower hearts - anything you want to take a picture with. You then take the world's longest 3-cable gondola up to the top part of the mountain. If you are scared of heights be warned - I cried on both the way up and the way down. At 3,143 meters, Mount Fansipan ranks as the highest peak in Vietnam and Indochina, and is an important destination for the country’s inhabitants. The trip on the 6,326-meter-long 3S ropeway, on the other hand, takes barely 15 minutes and climbs 1,410 vertical meters. At the time, this made the Fansipan Legend 3S lift the world’s longest tricable ropeway with the greatest vertical rise. Both of these records were certified by Guinness World Records.
For those who really want to get it, you can actually climb all the way to the top of the summit. The ascent through the jungle and, in parts, steep terrain is particularly arduous and can take several days.
At the top, there are many large temples, pagodas, and buddhas - the park is quite large. You have to climb many, many steps through your visit, and at an elevation of 3,143 meters, or 10,311 feet, this is not easy to do.
Cirrus is an amazing restaurant in Sa Pa. The interior design is not great, but the food makes it more than worth it. We met the chef - Adrian Chua - who has worked in many cities all over the world, and used to be the head chef for Mr. Vin (the CEO) himself. The black chicken is a traditional local dish and it is just that, a black chicken. Literally, the skin, meat, and bones are all black. Usually cooked with pumpkin, it was very good.
On our final day, we went on a very long village trek with a local Hmung woman, Mi. We spent hours walking through 6 villages. Mia was all of 4’7” and carried a 30 lb basket on her back the entire time. If we had known, or had more time, you can actually hike a little less each day and do homestays along the route which we thought would have been a lovely experience. If you are in Sa Pa and need a guide, shoot us an email and we can give you Mi’s number - highly recommend.
Things to do and see in Da Nang -
Cho Con Market - probably the most local and authentic market we visited in Vietnam. Amazing food, cheap clothing, and pretty much anything else you could need for sale at a very affordable price. We had maybe the best handrolls of the trip here.
Han River Cruise - if you go at night you avoid the heat and you get to see the dragon bridge breathe fire
My Key Beach is a popular surfing destination in Da Nang. The waves here are large and can be challenging for beginners.
There are other popular Instagram things to go do and see, but we did not visit them.
Things to do and see in Hue -
The Indochine Palace - an old-world opulent, 5-star hotel with an incredible lounge and breakfast buffet in the perfect location.
Self-guided tour - one afternoon we took taxis around town to see the Forbidden ‘Purple’ City, Thien Mu Pagoda, and Thuy Xuan. Of course, you can take tours, but to save some money we decided to jump around on our own.
Les Jardins de Carambole is a great place to have lunch after you walk around Forbidden City. However, it can get crowded with tours.
Rintage Clothing has an amazing selection of vintage wears. The owner is very nice and has great taste. Items that are not authentic are clearly labeled as so.
There are a lot of good restaurants and no shortage of bars and clubs in Hue. You can sit, sipping a beer watching the world go by, or go get bottle service. We really enjoyed Hue and think it should be on more people’s itineraries.
Ha Long Bay -
Where do we start…is it pretty? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. Is the weather often not great? Yes. Is the bay filled with trash? Yes. Is the food on the boat shit? Yes.
We did a two day cruise thinking that would bring us deeper into the bay and further away from all the 100’s (1,000’s?) of other tourists on boats. This is not the case. You basically spend the entire trip in the same area, so you do not see anything different than the people who go for one night (and who also spend a lot less). After a lot of research on the boat - some are small - 2 to 3 cabins and cost a lot more. Some are large 20+ cabins and cost a lot less. We went middle ground and booked an 11-cabin boat named the Renea through BestPrice. The silver lining is we met some new French friends. If you must do a boat tour of Ha Long Bay we would recommend staying on land and doing a day trip or only doing one night aboard a boat.
Things to do and see in Tam Coc -
To clarify, most people when searching this area will be looking into Nihm Binh, while Nihm Binh is a larger city than Tam Coc, we fell in love with the natural beauty and all the sites on offer in and around Tam Coc.
Van Long Lagoon is a river that flows through a National Park, you rent a boat for about an hour, and a local paddles you through the waters. There are many places to do this, and while most are closer, that means they are much busier, and less quiet time in nature. We got to see the endangered Delacour Langur monkeys playing and climbing on the limestone cliff faces. We went into caves and there were a ton of birds. It was perfect. In order to get there we rented a motorbike for the day and the ride was a quick and easy 45 mins.
Mua Cave was on the way back into town so we made another stop. The best part of this is the mountain - it consists of a temple on one peak where you have to climb about 500 very steep and uneven steps to reach the top. Lots of people here as well that have rented outfits, and gotten their make-up and hair done for IG photo shoots. So it is crowded, but still worth it. There is another climb up a peak that has a small stone pagoda. This is not nearly as high and so therefore not as popular, but it is still worth the climb. We walked down to Mua Cave which is a joke - very small and they have tiled the floor - super strange. The area at the base of the mountain is an influencer paradise as once again they have built walkways through the lotus field - that would be beautiful - but they were not in bloom when we were there, there are hearts, swings, and waterfalls - everything a wannabe influencer could want
Bich Dong Pagoda is a Pagoda that is built inside the mountain face. This has been deemed the second most beautiful Pagoda in Vietnam. Very unique and cool to see.
We kept our motorbike the next day so we drove about 45 mins to Bai Dinh Temple. The drive there is so pretty - you pass rivers, and farms, and rice fields, limestone cliffs, and the set of King Kong. This place is massive and feels a bit like Buddah’s Disney Land. It was built between 2003 and 2010 and is considered Southeast Asia's largest Buddhist complex. It consists of several temples and over 500 intricately carved statues of Buddha, including some giant ones. So, it is not old, but made to look old, but is very much a holy place for people to come and worship. Would we recommend it? If you have a lot of time or extra time, sure, but there are far more interesting and more authentic experiences to have in and around Nihm Binh than this.
There are a couple of restaurants in Tam Coc that we really enjoyed. We ate at twice Linh Chi Craft Beer Pub, which has many unique beers, but their food was also very good and well-priced. We had dinner at Father Cooking in town because we had to try some goat as this is one of the specialties here and the goat skewers did not disappoint. Father came over to make sure that we were enjoying everything.
The next day we took a car, to a bus, to another car, to the airport in Hanoi and it was finally time to say goodbye to Vietnam. As you can tell, we LOVED our time in this incredible country - five weeks was still not enough - and cannot wait to return.