Travelling through Vietnam - Hanoi

When we found out we had a month-long holiday for Chinese New Year we knew we had to take the opportunity to do some travelling. Alex, Chloe (my friend from University of Southampton who studies at Nanjing University) and I decided to travel the length of Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh where Alex would leave us to go back home and Chloe and I would go on to Chiang Mai, Thailand. The journey from North to South took almost three weeks with some amazing experiences along the way. 

Hanoi

Alex and I flew to Hanoi from Xiamen on 17th January, the first day of the holiday, not wanting to waste any time in Xiamen. We applied for our visas online, printed off the acceptance letter and flew with Hong Kong airlines, via Hong Kong, to Hanoi where we picked our visas up. The visas cost 45 US$ for 1 month. We then got a taxi to our hostel in the old quarter of Hanoi, checked into our room and had a wander around the busy streets to find somewhere to eat.

Our first meal in Hanoi

Alex sitting on his plastic kiddie chair at the side of the road. Street food culture is a big thing in Hanoi

The next day we decided to look into the different day trips we could take from the city and booked to go to Halong Bay on the Sunday and Perfume Pagoda the day after. As Chloe was arriving on the Tuesday, we didn't want to do all of the sights in Hanoi without her. Once the trips were booked, we went to Hoa Lo Prison where political prisoners were kept by the French colonialists and American POW stayed during the Vietnam War, nicknaming it "The Hanoi Hilton". It was a very interesting place to visit and we were happy enough to go again when Chloe arrived a few days later. After the prison we decided to try to find Hoan Kiem Lake, another of Hanoi's tourist attractions. We ended up getting a bit lost and having to buy an overpriced tourist map but we found it in the end!

Alex outside Hoa Lo Prison

Hoan Kiem Lake

Our day trip to Halong Bay started at 8:30am when we were picked up from our hostel by our tour guide and taken to the minibus. The drive to Halong Bay was 3 hours from Hanoi so if you have more time consider going for more than just a day. When we finally got there we got onto our boat where we had lunch on the way to see a cave. Halong Bay is stunning. It is one of the natural wonders of the world and a world natural heritage site. I highly recommend going there if you get the chance! Also included on the tour was kayaking in a floating fishing village. It was great to get the chance to explore the bay and its caves by yourself rather than staying with the group the whole time. After the kayaking it was time to go back as by then we'd spent 4 hours at the bay. 

The Perfume Pagoda day trip started off in a similar way, getting picked up at 8am and taken to a minibus. The journey was only about an hour and a half this time though so not so long spent travelling! When we arrived we were taken on a 1-hour boat trip up the river as minibuses are not allowed to go into the protected area. Before going up the mountain we had our included lunch and bought tickets for the cable car having decided that there were too many steps for me to walk it (I've got a bad knee)! I was really glad we'd opted for the cable car as it was really simple and you got a good view as you went up. Perfume Pagoda is the biggest centre of Buddhism in Vietnam and they were busy preparing for when the pilgrims came during the festival. Apparently thousands of pilgrims arrive to spend a couple of days a pray at the numerous temples and pagodas. We went to see the main pagoda which was in a cave at the top of the mountain. It did feel like quite a spiritual place but was slightly ruined by the amount of tourists! At the bottom of the cable car we saw one of the main temples which was impressive. One thing we noticed was that people seemed to have brought offerings of western biscuits and soft drinks. I suppose that's what Buddha likes?

Boat trip

At the top of the mountain

Perfume Pagoda

Temple

On Tuesday Chloe arrived and Alex and I went to pick her up at the airport. When we first arrived, Hanoi had felt very foreign, more foreign than China, so we didn't want her to be arriving alone. We booked a taxi from a travel agent as it was cheaper than getting one on the meter and waited for her to arrive. Once we'd found each other we got back into a taxi and took Chloe to her hostel. She'd accidentally booked a different one to us but thankfully it wasn't too far away! We took her for a meal in the evening, traditional Vietnamese Pho (the country's national dish, a noodle soup) and then let her sleep after all her travelling.

The next day we went to a travel agent to organise our travel through Vietnam as we'd wanted to wait for Chloe to arrive before we did it. We opted for getting an open sleeper bus ticket costing 63 US$ as it meant that we had some flexibility for when we went between places and the price was cheap! Unfortunately, as we were there during the Tet festival, the ticket was more expensive than it would usually be and we had less flexibility as so many of the locals were travelling home to see their families. Once we got the important bit out of the way, we went off sightseeing. We went to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh Museum, One-Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, Hoan Kiem Lake for the second time and booked tickets to see the Water Puppet Show that evening. A very touristy day!

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

One Pillar Pagoda

Ho Chi Minh Museum

Temple of Literature - Vietnam's first university

Chloe and I at Hoan Kiem Lake

Hoan Kiem Lake in the evening

Water puppets

 For our last day in Hanoi we went back to the prison as Chloe was interested in going and went to the temple in Hoan Kiem Lake. This was just about all we had time for before we had to get our first bus for the hour and a half journey to Ninh Binh, where we stayed that night.