On March 19, Kate and I flew from Don Mueang airport in BKK to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. We were going to be leaving Thailand for a month and we were both pretty nervous about it and sad to be leaving everyone.
When we arrived at the airport we had to go straight to the VISA on arrival area. Before you even book a flight, you need to have a letter from Vietnam saying that you are allowed in the country. Then you have to obtain a VISA when arriving into the country. The VISA area was super chaotic seemed very unorganized. We finally got to the front of the line and basically threw our necessary papers, pictures, and passports at the man and waited to be approved. It took about half an hour until we finally heard our names over the loud speaker! We grabbed our docs and headed to immigration. After catching a taxi into the city we found our guesthouse down a small alley that we were very unsure of at first. It ended up being backpacker central and in the center of the city! Go Mai Guesthouse!
Our alleyway
The next day, our first full day in Saigon, we found a little cafe and had delicious Vietnamese coffee! It is the best coffee I have EVER had! Then, we took the map our guesthouse gave us and set out exploring! We walked EVERYWHERE. We walked to the War Remnants Museum (formally known as the "Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes") Awwwwkwarrrdddd.
The front of the museum had old U.S. fighting jets, tanks and planes from the Vietnam War or the "American War."
The whole museum seemed full of propaganda and was very anti-American. We felt very confused and awkward throughout it. I wanted to do more research about both sides because there were a lot of accusations about Americans that had me feeling very patriotic.
After the war museum, we really needed to discuss what we had both just seen. Kate and I silently walked through the museum, taking it in, then as soon as we sat down for lunch we were both like WTF did we just see?! We are not super "I love America!" people but this museum was bringing it out of us! We decided to just move on with our day and see what else Saigon had to offer.
Vietnam used to be colonized by the French and was called French Indochina. Because of this, Vietnam is full of beautiful architecture and many French influences. We happened upon a couple of these during our walk through the city. One was the Saigon Central Post Office, one of the largest in South East Asia. It was beautiful and had really interesting old maps to look at.
There was also a Notre Dame look alike church that was really pretty.
We walked through the main market of Ho Chi Minh, Ben Thanh Market, before heading back to our hostel for a nap. It was pretty hot and we had walked lots.
The next day we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels! We got up early and got delicious Vietnamese Coffee and smoothies before catching our tour for the tunnels.
We also tried a new place for coffee, Trung Nguyen. It was really cool, we picked "creative" and they brought us out weird contraptions that were supposed to steep and sit for a bit. After the coffee had dripped into the cup below, we started enjoying! It was like drinking chocolate.
Apparently, they give these out to diplomats as gifts!
Our guide seemed nice but we quickly realized we were only going to understand every third or fourth word he was saying. The 2 hour drive was very pretty and we got to see a lot of the Vietnamese countryside. When we arrived at the tunnels, we were ushered in to see a documentary about the usage of the tunnels in Cu Chi and the people that used them. It was very Anti-American and super awkward. The video talked about awarding different Vietnamese for killing tons of American...I was kind of surprised how angry for America I felt. Then we started the tour, which consisted of American torture devices, a tank they commandeered, and different tunnels. Finally, they allowed us to climb around in one of the tunnels, which was the highlight of the tour. I wish we had been able to do more tunnels and less anti-American propaganda.
A trap...scary
A tunnel
An American tank on display
Kate going through a tunnel!
The next day we boarded a train to Danang, a beach city that would take us 20 hours...
Kate is back there somewhere!
the train!
Kate said this was my Vietnamese twin, we both just stared out at the scenery for 20 hours
The sun setting on the train
Here are some notes I wrote down in my journal during the 20 hour train ride:
-There are 9 million people living in Ho Chi Minh City and 8 million motorbikes, it definitely shows. It is crazy in Thailand, but it is a whole new ballgame in Vietnam! They drive on the sidewalks, the lights are really guidelines, it's crazy!
-People actually do wear the pointed hats! (I bought one and tried to bring it home but they are hard to travel with :-( )
-Dong (Vietnamese currency) is a hard currency to use after Baht. For example, we would usually use 100 baht ($3) for many things in Thailand. Then, in Vietnam, we would have to use 67,500 dong ($3)! When we had to pay for really expensive stuff we would pay with 2,500,000 dong!!! Let's cut off some of those zeros and make it easier for everyone huh? It was really confusing. Needless to say, the currency app on my phone got a LOT of use during Vietnam. We were getting ripped off left and right because we could not do that math as fast as in Thailand. Oh well.
-There aren't any stray dogs here! It is really nice.
-There are a lot of smoker though :-( gross.
-They honk for everything! It's like everyone is driving for the first time and honking because they are so scared. "Hey, I'm here!" "Don't hit me!"
-There is no unified religion in Vietnam so there are multiple belief systems, who knows what anyone is! It was nice in Thailand because everyone is Buddhist, seriously, everyone.
-There are no 7/11s! There is a reason they are called convenience stores, people. They are so freaking convenient!
-We saw a lot of older men still wearing their military helmets like they were still in the war or some thing. Some were in full uni and obviously not fighting...
Looking out at the landscape of the Vietnam countryside has been beautiful! It is less jungle-y and less rice paddies, but perhaps that is also because there is less humidity here, which has been a welcome change! I seem to compare everything to Thailand, and being here really makes me realize how much I love Thailand and how the customs and people have become ingrained in my daily life. I notice in Vietnam when someone doesn't smile or offer assistance immediately like a Thai person would, it's interesting.
One of the main issues on the train was the loud speaker man would blabber on in Vietnamese when we were coming to a stop and then there were no signs at the stop so we have no idea where we were! We were a little nervous we would miss our stop. But we listened to a lot of music, slept on and off, and I read 2 books! It was pretty great, actually. When we finally got to our stop at 8:30 am, we got a taxi quickly and headed to our hotel, Zenta. It was really nice and right across from the ocean! We got some breakfast and then headed straight for some beach chairs! The South China Sea reminded us both so much of California and we were excited to swim, drink from our coconuts, and relax. We started a huge Gin tournament and currently Kate is winning, but I will not lose!
We stayed at the beach the next day doing much of the same. But the next day, we decided to go on a day trip to Hoi An! Danang and Hoi An is a resort area where American soldiers used to come during the Vietnam War to relax and take some time off. We had heard great things about Hoi An, having a lot of French, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian influences. It was the cutest little shopping town! We went right into shopping mode and bought lots of cool presents. We tried a banh mi sandwich and white roses (weird dumplings). We saw the Japanese covered bridge and many other sites. It was fun day of shopping, bargaining, eating and culture.
Hoi An
Japanese covered bridge
so cute!
traditional banh mi sandwich!
traditional white roses
more drip coffee...mmmmm
My new hat! loved it.
We decided after our long train ride and the bad bus roads to fly to Hanoi. We booked a $50 flight and headed to the airport for another adventure.
Hanoi is very different that Saigon! We are staying in the Old Quarter and it feels very quintessential "Vietnam." It is very authentic, small streets with people bustling around trying to sell you anything and everything. We stopping into a restaurant and got our first bowl of Pho, which was delish!
Then, we booked our next 5 days at a travel place, Sapa and Halong bay! Can't wait!
We dropped our bags off at the travel agency and decided to walk around the Old Quarter until our train to Sapa. We got delicious Vietnamese spring rolls (mmmmm) and then went to a nail salon to get mani/pedis. Next, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It was a huge building and had a really interesting exhibit about "Uncle Ho" inside. A person who worked at the museum offered to give us a tour because it was mostly in Vietnamese. He actually called Ho Chi Minh, Uncle Ho. He also talked a lot about how Uncle Ho "liberated" Southern Vietnam from the US. He also mentioned that Uncle Ho was arrested many times but did not tell us why. I definitely want to do more research on Ho. We left there and saw The Pagoda, another War Museum and another Uncle Ho museum.
Our guide, Kate and Uncle Ho!
Kate and I were getting picked up to board a train to Sapa at 7:30pm so until then we are eating more sandwiches and continuing our Gin tourney. Our group ended up having 10 people, including us. They took us to the train station and we were in a 6 person sleeper train with 4 Vietnamese teens. I was on the top bunk and Kate was on the one below me. It kind of felt like a coffin...We got in around 5:30am to Lao Cai. We grabbed our bags and found the Sapa Summit Hotel group. Then, we drove for about an hour in the mountains until we reached the small, mountain town of Sapa! Kate and I checked into our hotel, ate breakfast, and then got put into small tour groups with a Hill Tribe guide. Our guide's name was Sigh, she was only 16 years old and did these treks EVERYDAY! The other girls in our group were Sanda and Karen from Holland, Ali from England, and Natalia from Argentina. Everyone was really nice and we all had somewhat similar travel plans!
The first trek we did was the Cat Cat trek. The first part of the trek was relatively easy, it was all downhill (should have been my first clue), and we saw beautiful villages, wildlife, and the steppes were amazing! It was pretty foggy but that just added to the mysterious and unbelievable nature of it!
I mean, seriously? Is this real life?!
The second part was all directly uphill. Like, literally straight up. I was dying! I could feel my lungs working overtime and there were a couple times where I was really nervous I couldn't do it with my baby lungs! Buuuut I did! I really didn't want to give up even though I was mad at myself for having such a hard time with it.
When we got back we had lunch, rested a bit and then went on a motorbike ride to a waterfall and around Sapa. It was really fun even though we were exhausted. We got to see more of the city and cruise through the foggy mountains.
Sigh met us at the hotel at 9am for our second trek. We were all a little sore and nervous this morning, I didn't know if I could do another grueling trek like yesterday! Six other Hill Tribe women joined us and helped us on some of the tough spots, but it was a LOT better than yesterday. We trekked through the steppes, up and down, it was amazing. Breathtaking. I seriously can't believe we did that. I learned about Sapa in a natural disasters class I took in college and now I am experiencing it firsthand. Two random girls from San Ramon trekking in this beautiful mountain town of Sapa, Vietnam with Hill Tribe women as our guides. WTF?! Crazy.
Our group went through lots of villages and then we stopped for lunch around noon in one of the villages. All of the women, except for Sigh left us :-( I bought a pretty gold bracelet from the lady who helped me. She was 30, had 2 kids and got married when she was 15!
Our ladies!
Kate and I excited for trek #2!
I could post a million of these pictures.
My guide made this for me!
incredible.
When we got back to the hotel, we had a quick dinner and then caught the bus back to the train station! Kate and I both got the 2nd beds! YES!
Random sidenote: I was testing a bed light and got electrocuted! It went through my finger and hit me in the back of my leg, it felt super weird...
We arrived in Hanoi around 4 and grabbed a taxi back to the travel agency. Our Halong Bay tour was going to pick us up there in 4 hours...We didn't want to get a hotel for such a short time so we were like no problem, we can just sit on this stoop for 4 hours! Biggest mistake. We were so exhausted and could have really used a bed. Kate and I are both huddling with our bags on the stoops when it starts raining and then thunder and lightening. At some point, a woman came by with some pastries and we were so happy to eat something that wasn't a Luna bar! Then she asked if we wanted coffee, yes we did! She started running down the street and brought us glasses of coffee that she had definitely made in her house and brought us...It was odd. 2 pastries and 2 coffees = 170,000 dong ($8). Most expensive morning ever. Finally, around 6:30, a coffee shop opened so we got some tea and holed up there for an hour before meeting our tour group!
From the train...
...to the stoop. :-/
It took about 4 hours until we reached Halong Bay and I tried to sleep through most of it. When we arrived at the port, they put us on a smaller boat to transfer us to the "junk." We decided to do the 3 day 2 night experience in Halong Bay and were excited to spend 2 days on the boat!
So tired, but excited!
The first day we went kayaking to a little floating village and around huge limestones. We did that for around 40 minutes and then headed it and over to some caves! We saw huge stalactites and stalagmites. It was pretty impressive.
Floating village!
The next day we were split up from the main group and Kate and I, and an Australian family that are also staying for two nights went kayaking in another part of the bay. We ate lunch, relaxed and got to know the family a lot better! They are traveling Vietnam for a month, Rachel is the mom, Jacob is the Dad and they have 4 kids. Matthew is 14, Esther is 12, Makayla is 6 and Samuel is 4. Sam became really fast friends with us! We played with him the whole day and were pretty exhausted by the end. After kayaking we went to an oyster farm and saw them harvesting pearls. Then we drove through another floating village and then headed back to the main boat.
Kayaking!
We stopped for some seashells!
Our new bff, Sam!
The next morning we lounged on the top deck, played Gin, and hung out with out new family while cruising around the bay. After getting back to harbor, we got back to Hanoi around 6:15, completely exhausted!
Love it.
We got Trung Nguyen one last time (mmmmmmm) and then headed to the airport for Laos!
Halong Bay!
Goodbye Vietnam!
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