The overnight train from Hanoi (that was as comfortable as hoped) deposited us in Hué first thing the next day. Feeling mulishly stubborn, we decided to walk in the scorching sun to our hostel, despite it being a fifteen minute walk with our backpacks. We had to take a break part way (that would be thanks to me) but we made it eventually. The hotel was lovely, extremely clean, great service, brilliant location… and we’d discover the next day it even offered a good breakfast. I love Vietnam!
As soon as we’d settled into the room (i.e. shoved our bags in) we headed out to the Citadel to explore on foot, as Hué is pretty teeny really.
We stopped at the supermarket to grab a drink, and indulged in an ill-advised chicken burger at a low-budget KFC rival called Lotteria – we really should have eaten local, but hunger and the heat made us lazy. It taught us a lesson though – we could have had a lovely corn on the cob from a street vendor, or a selective sandwich from one of the many paté and egg sandwich providers, but instead we suffered a stomach churning chicken burger. Nice! Sorry to the locals there who we’d have much preferred to give our money to if we’d been thinking about it!
The Citadel lies on the northern bank of the Perfume River (or Song Huong as it’s otherwise known) and it is a bit decrepit in places thanks to escalating American bombing during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. It does however have a romantic charm, and the buildings that are still standing are in pretty good shape, and have been well looked after/restored.
The Citadel is expansive, taking in several roads around its edges and walling in a huge residential area, with the Imperial Enclosure acting as an inner Citadel, where all the imperial action took place. There is a moat surrounding this inner Citadel, which was built by Emperor Gia Long from 1804, so the buildings aren’t all that old really.
It is reminiscent of the Forbidden City in Beijing in some ways, as there are living quarters and ceremonial buildings designed for imperial use, as well as temples on site. One area is even called the Forbidden Purple City (why purple? Not sure…)!
The standout sight here though was the To Mieu Temple Complex, where there were nine dynastic urns dedicated to different leaders, as well as shrines to each of these emperors. This part of the Citadel was in great shape, and has been restored carefully as it felt very authentic. We spent the rest of the day wandering through the Citadel grounds, which you could easily get lost in (and I think for a few brief moments we did, though it is easy enough to re-orientate yourself). Landmarks can be difficult to pinpoint on the map here as some areas are little more than scrubby fields and pathways, so instinct was important to help us find all the key sights!
Having failed so dismally at lunch to eat well or in any way considerately, we sought out a local restaurant that evening to enjoy some quality Vietnamese Pho (noodle soup). We found a great place, no idea what it was called, but it was tucked around the back of the main riverside promenade south of the river (not far from where we were staying) and served incredible and simple noodle soup, with lots of lime to squeeze in and chillies to add if you want to up the ante. It was a great antidote to a lacklustre lunch, that’s for sure! We only had one more day in Hué (a bit of a whistle-stop tour!) so we hired a motorbike the next day to take us out to some of the tombs and pagodas around Hué. Hiring a motorbike is always a bit hair-raising (especially when we realised our left indicator light didn’t work, making left turns risky business when you’re driving on the right hand side of the road!) but it is a great way to see the countryside and explore major sights outside of town without resorting to a tedious and expensive tour group. First stop was Thien Mu Pagoda, next to the river on the north side, and off to the west of the Citadel.
Seeing this pagoda was a jaw dropping way to start the day – the 21 metre high, seven storey, octagonal central pagoda is famous in Vietnam and rightly so as it is deeply impressive as you walk up the steps from the riverbank. There are several other interesting features at this pagoda, including a large tortoise statue symbolising longevity, and the Austin car used in 1963 to take the monk Thich Quang Duc to his self-immolation in Saigon, in protest at the Diem administration’s discrimination against Buddhists. Diem and co were discriminating in favour of Catholics, and Vietnam was rife with Buddhist protests during this time due to this religious inequality. Duc’s self-immolation marked a major turning point, and most importantly it alerted the Western world to the religious crisis in Vietnam, encouraging the US and other countries to put pressure on Diem rather than either turn a blind eye (or fail to set the eye in place at all).
We leapt back onto the bike and went back across the river to set our sights on the Tomb of Minh Mang (emperor between 1820-40), about 16km south of the city. The road was relatively well surfaced thankfully, and we even had to go on a major highway at one point – just for a moment though! After an accidental diversion to a hilltop with a large white statue of Quan Am, Goddess of Mercy, we found the Tomb of Minh Mang on a back road.
Goddess of Mercy
The grounds of this tomb are incredible – first you pass through three temples that are surrounded by peaceful gardens, then you cross the Lake of Impeccable Clarity (looking a bit murky now, but in its day, who knows?) where you reach Minh Mang’s tomb (which is not open to visitors – he’s resting in peace).
There were very few visitors and it was a very tranquil way to spend an hour or two.
On the way back from Minh Mag’s tomb, we dropped into one last pagoda near the train station, the Bao Quoc Pagoda. This was quite central and lacking in atmosphere, but one of the great things about this pagoda was the pineapple and apple fritters we found for sale just over the road! They were quite unhealthily I should think, with all the batter, but very tasty after a hot day on the sand-blasted streets.
We still had an hour or so left on the bike, so we took it into the Citadel outer walls and drove through some very busy streets in rush hour – scary stuff! Exhilarating though, in a ‘are we mad’ kind of way (especially with only one functioning indicator!). One motorbike driver even tried chatting to us as we negotiated the traffic – we had to smile haplessly and point at the road, I hope he understood! Dinner involved a return for more Pho at the same restaurant as the day before (we were again the only customers, but it seemed popular as a takeaway!). Just as we were tucking into the yummy soup, who should we see but our three German friends from Cat Ba Island! They had just arrived and we were about to leave the next day, but we decided to look out for them as we headed south as we were all vaguely going to the same places! (We do see them again too – more on that later!).
The next morning we had a reasonably timed train to Da Nang before catching a connecting bus to Hoi An, so we watched a film before bed and had time to enjoy breakfast before we left for the station. Pretty Hué – two days is enough to get a feel for it, but it certainly merits some extra time if you have it.
We had five nights on Cat Ba Island, and we couldn’t wait to
see the sea again. The bus to Haiphong was very uneventful, and we had a
tedious wait before we were transferred to our boat to cross over to Cat Ba,
but once we were on the speedboat cruising through the waves everything just
fell into place; a reminder of all the great things about home gave way to a warming
sense of homesickness. We passed a stretch of mangroves, and several fishing stations
that rose out of the water like HG Wells’ Martians (which also made me think of
home, and listening to Jeff Wayne’s War
of the Worlds with my family).
When we arrived on Cat Ba Island we had one last bus from
the ferry port to Cat Ba town, taking us right past the National Park, which
covers a substantial chunk of the island. Cat Ba town consists of a very small
promenade and all the action revolves around the adjacent seafront road,
imaginatively called D 1-4. It comprises a string of tour operators,
restaurants, bars and hotels, plus the occasional shop limited to cans of coke,
bottles of beer and packets of crisps and biscuits – we would be eating out
every night here! There was a bakery though (the Family Bakery, which was
amazing) so lunch was covered. Fortunately, despite being a small resort town,
the restaurants were all very reasonably priced, so we could enjoy a great meal
for two for around £5. That first night I had some incredible squid, delicious!
Bradley was less fortunate with some average-tasting chicken.
There are a few makeshift bars set up along the promenade,
consisting only of a fridge on wheels and a handful of fold out tables and
plastic chairs, but these are a quite charming way to enjoy the harbour at
night (you can’t get too comfortable though, which may be a good thing as we
began to notice rats lurking nearby). The beaches were all round the corner
from the harbour so you can’t see these from the town, but the harbour at night
is very pretty, with boats moored throughout and several floating restaurants
bobbing peacefully in the quiet sea.
Our hotel was fairly central along the small road, and
although we did have an enormous cockroach in our bedroom (swiftly evicted out
of the window) and I’m convinced I saw another one in the bathroom the next
day, it was a pretty reasonable place to stay – and had the best breakfast I’d
had in ages! You could get either mango or pineapple pancakes with honey
drizzled on top – they were amazing and I had them every day! Bradley mixed it
up a bit with some eggs, but was also a massive fan of the pineapple pancakes
in particular.
We were back to work the next day, but before we got started
we had time to book a boat trip to Halong Bay. We were really torn about which
trip to take – there were several amazing sounding trips involving overnight
stays on boats, but in the end we decided on a full day trip, paying a little
more for a small group and a cosier boat, organised by a local tour group
company from the island, Cat Ba Ventures.
They were very helpful and efficient, so this was sorted very quickly, leaving
us time to enjoy the morning before we set to work.
The day trip to Halong Bay took us around fishing villages
and nearby islands, and of course through the incredible and unique karst landscape
of the bay. From the moment we set foot on the small wooden boat we were
ushered to sit on the roof deck and enjoy the view – and the breeze – and as we
headed out of the harbour we had our first sight of the open sea dotted with
these unique island peaks. There are over 3,000 of these islands of varying
size in the bay; the tour guide took us to some quieter areas to explore (we’re
so glad we paid the extra money, as we saw some huge boating behemoths that
looked like cruise ships – the atmosphere must have been negligible!).
There were only nine people in our group – a Dutch couple, a
French couple, and three Germans who were great fun.
Monkey Island!
The boat picked up the
Dutch couple from the beach of nearby Monkey Island (Bradley couldn’t believe
there was actually an island with the same name as his favourite computer game
– we were half expecting Guybrush Threepwood -
the main character - to stroll out with a monkey on his shoulder). Monkey
Island does actually have monkeys – it is home to the golden-headed langur, or
Cat Ba langur (sadly, one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world: http://primates.squarespace.com/top_25_primates_in_peril/).
We even spotted some later in the day when we dropped them back there!
The first stop for the day was a small island with some
caves we could walk (and stoop) through, plus a beautiful turquoise mountain
lake that looked like it has been painted on, it was so still.
There were also
lots of rare birds on the island (though I wish I’d written down their names,
as now I cannot remember for the life of me) and we even spied a few as we
walked. Once we had explored the island and its curious caves, we boarded the
boat again for more leisurely meanderings through the peaks before stopping for
lunch. And what an amazing lunch! There was fresh locally caught seafood,
colourful vegetables and spring rolls galore to enjoy, and plenty to go round.
Feeling full and content, we were soon rummaging around with our stuff and
packing our dry bags (to protect cameras, etc)
for some kayaking.
This was the really exciting part, getting to make our own way through the water for a while and to explore some of the sea caves and passages. We got a bit carried away and immediately lost the tour guide as we wanted to check out a dark little cave that we were momentarily stuck in – the Dutch couple had to come back for us, oops!
Once we were back out of the cave,
we paddled over to some incredible, well-hidden archways, leading into a
beautiful sea lake surrounded by dense forest. It was paradise. Halong Bay is a
World Heritage Site, and as such is a protected area – but since environmental
protection is a fairly low priority throughout much of Vietnam, we can only
hope it won’t become over-developed.
After the kayaking,
we glided by boat to a remote beach, where the boat took a breather while we
went swimming and snorkelling. The sea is just so warm here; it was like having
a bath. We didn’t see many fish, but just having the freedom to swim around for
an hour or so was wonderful - we hadn’t so much as had a bath for ages, so a
swim felt decadent (we have of course been showering, but baths are just so
relaxing and such a treat, and this is how the swimming felt!).
Snorkelling Beach
The boat eventually took us back, via Monkey Island and
those monkey sightings, and we had one last hour to enjoy the peaks. It had
been a fabulous day, and was topped off by some gorgeous late afternoon
pre-sunset views.
That night we went for dinner (more squid and pineapple for
me, better chicken for Bradley) – and immediately bumped into our German
friends from the day – we were eating dinner at their hotel! They stopped for a
quick drink with us, and when they headed off for their own dinner we retreated
to the hotel for a film and an early night after a great day.
It had been so long since we’d been near the sea, let alone
had access to beaches, so we decided to spend the next day doing nothing much
more than relaxing by the beach on the three Cat Ba ‘Cat Co’ beaches (mostly
Cat Co 2, the quietest of the three beaches). Armed with nothing but a book, we
lolled wonderfully aimlessly on the beach, swimming by turn and lazing on our
beach towels. The sun was shining, and the island was so peaceful there – it
was a truly essential non-event of a day, perfectly timed after the hustle and
bustle of Hanoi.
Cat Co 2 Beach
In order to make the most of our last day on Cat Ba Island,
we decided to hire a motorbike and visit the National Park and ride the islands
key coastal roads.
even rocky had a montage
This was the first time we decided to hire a motorbike for
the day, but it wouldn’t be the last time as it is such a great way to get
around, without having to negotiate with taxi or tuk-tuk drivers. Driving a
small automatic was simple, and within minutes of putting on our helmets, we
were out of the town, and on the open road (all thoughts of being an ‘uneasy
rider’ soon evaporated). There are a few very brief villages on Cat Ba outside
of the main town, but these have little more than a basic corner shop and
possibly a café. It’s more like the contents of a single cul-de-sac have spilled out onto the main road. And occasionally a small farm, as evidenced by this herd of goats:
We enjoyed a leisurely ride through several small clusters of houses, before we reached the National Park. For just a few Dong, we could go and explore the National
Park on a well-marked path to one of the peaks, a walk that should take no more
than two hours in total (there and back again). It was steep in places, but so
tranquil – bar a few other visitors! We saw what looked like a squirrel within
minutes, but otherwise the forest seemed very quiet until you stood still, and
realised you could hear an infinite number of insects chirruping, and goodness
knows what rustling about in the undergrowth. The view from the peak was
spectacular, and it was great to see some of the limestone peaks from a
different perspective, away from the water.
Route To Top!
View From The Top
On our way back down, we had what we hope will remain our
closest near death experience. We were walking along the last stretch of path
before heading back to the bike, when Bradley must have stomped a bit too close
to a KING COBRA.
It reared up, flared out its hood, and hissed loudly at us –
fortunately, Bradley and I both leapt back quickly and the cobra decided to
retreat into the forest. It was easily 3 feet long, more like 4 feet, and a
google search that evening confirmed that it would indeed have been a King
Cobra. Considering that a bite from a King Cobra can kill within the hour, we
were very lucky to escape its fangs!
After the incident with the cobra, we were feeling quite
shaken, so we took it easy for the next few miles, riding the roads out to the
ferry and round the coastline. There were some beautiful scenes of the bay, and
as the sun went down we started to feel back to normal after the cobra encounter.
We had one last delicious dinner on Cat Ba Island, and an early night to justify
the early start required to squeeze in a pancake breakfast. Then it was time
for the bus-boat-bus back to Hanoi, and the subsequent train to Hue. A whole
day of travelling in three different ways!
It felt strange to be leaving China after nearly 2 months, but
we felt ready for a change of scene and excited about entering Vietnam and going
to Halong Bay in a few days. First stop though was Hanoi, the hectic northern
capital. The border crossing was relatively straightforward, just long and a
bit tedious, though we managed to get a cheap SIM card for Vietnam and to
change up our remaining Chinese Yuan for Vietnamese Dong. The exchange rate to
the pound is a bit complex as there are about 33,000 Dong to the pound – so
three or four nights in a hotel can easily cost a million! It has definitely
taken us a few days to adjust to spending thousands on even simple things like
a bottle of water.
Getting across the border with ease should be fine with a Visa
stamp nestled securely in your passport, but people were still being encouraged
to bribe their way through passport control. We managed to get lucky – not only
did we not have to pay any bribes, we also got processed really quickly and
were on one of the first buses out of border control. It’s quite a strange
system once you’re through the gates, as you change buses and end up with a
completely different group of people and with no obvious link to your original
bus company. I have no idea how they manage to make that work without leaving
people behind! We were all wearing badges to show we had a ticket… but it
didn’t seem to mean much once you crossed the border.
When we arrived in Hanoi, we were dropped off at the side of
a busy road saturated with motorbikes, with a twenty minute walk to our hostel
ahead of us. The busy Hanoi roads have to be seen to be believed – you just
have to surge across in order to get to the other side, there is no polite or
patient way to cross these roads.
In fact, even when you have a green light to
cross, this doesn’t seem to apply to all directions of traffic so you still
need to look out for cars and motorbikes coming round corners to mow you down.
Our Hanoi hostel was a real treat compared to where we’d
been staying before now at this budget – your money goes a lot further here!
The staff were almost suspiciously helpful, but we soon realised that’s just
the way people are here – extra helpful and super-friendly. Our room had two
double beds (why??), something I’d assumed only happened in American hotels,
and a fridge and mini bar, and even better we had breakfast included!
At this
point, we didn’t realise that virtually every hostel, hotel or guesthouse in
Vietnam would offer breakfast, and it seemed a real novelty.
Before we started to look around properly, we organised our
bus-boat-bus tickets to Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay. This took all the
organisational headaches away so we could make the most of Hanoi.
We spent most
of the first day exploring the Old Quarter, wandering through the streets and
admiring the various ‘streets’ selling a product of choice. Once upon a time,
it was decided that there would be 36 streets (representing the 36 guilds
established in the 13th century) selling different items, and so
they were named, for example Silk Street (P Hang Gai) sells silk products.
Therefore, you can be wandering through the Old Quarter and suddenly find a
whole street filled with shops only selling sunglasses, or jeans! I’m not sure
that either of these products were in the original listings, but the trend has
persisted. Exploring the Old Quarter also led us to a cute little bar for lunch,
RockBilly. The food was delicious, so we knew we’d be back!
We decided to take a stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake before it
got dark, and walked round the edge while dodging joggers and like-minded
tourists.
It’s reputed to be a little bit risky to walk around the lake without
your guard up, so after our experience in Guilin we made sure we were on the
alert… but the most threatening thing that happened was being questioned
repeatedly by kindle-bearing Vietnamese students on how to pronounce confusing
English words – or to explain what they might mean.I had quite a lot of fun with this over the
next few days – maybe I could be a teacher after all!
There is a small temple, Ngoc Son, on Hoan Kiem Lake – it’s
not much, but it is very peaceful after wading through the fast-paced crowds.
From the temple gardens you get an excellent view of the lake, and you can see huge
balloons ringing the edge of the lake – it’s a pretty and somewhat festive
sight.
A great 200kg turtle resides in Hoan Kiem Lake – not that we
saw it, though it’s apparently a regular sight. Turtle stories abound round the
lake – as well as this whopper of a creature (known as ‘Old Grandfather’),
there is an embalmed giant tortoise in the temple grounds, and legend tells the
story of another great tortoise that returned a mythical golden sword to the
gods back in the 15th century.
After some more exploring, we decided to call it a night and
grabbed a sandwich from a street vendor to take back to our rooms. Street by
street, you can always find a sandwich seller, and these Vietnamese sandwiches
can range from amazing to downright revolting. This first one was great, but
future stops in Vietnam would introduce some dodgy fillings. Most of these are
the fault of a nasty tasting liver pate that can get slopped in if you’re not
quick enough to stop it – though this is also hit and miss as sometimes the
pate tastes great (in a ‘don’t think about it’ kind of way).The best approach seems to be to decide how
brave you’re feeling, choose a sandwich filling based on that instinct, and
chomp away! Universally though, the egg sandwich is always a winner.
The next day, we were hyper-efficient and mopped up the last
piece of organisation prior to heading to Cat Ba Island – booking our train
tickets to Hue for when we returned from Cat Ba. Another night train – but
apparently with air-con this time, and for a very reasonable price we were in a
cabin of four beds with a door, rather than six beds backing onto a corridor.
We hoped it would be worth the extra Dong! This was our last full day here as
we had work the next day, so we scooted straight round to the Temple of
Literature, close to the train station.
This was an incredible Confucian temple
with several beautiful and well-tended floral displays as well as some
intriguing buildings and statues, including one of a dragon or phoenix, or
flamingo – not quite sure really, but it looked pretty cool!
We wandered past
the Ho Chi Minh complex, where usually Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body is resting
and open for visitors (morbid!) but somewhat fortunately he was undergoing maintenance
(he has an annual three month holiday in Russia apparently to be spruced up) so
we walked past the complex rather than paid a visit.
Just to the north of Ho
Chi Minh’s final resting place, there is a huge lake (Tay ho, or West Lake)
with more mini-pagodas skirting the edges, so we settled into a lakeside café
to try some Vietnamese coffee before enjoying a late afternoon walk back
through the Old Quarter.
We stopped at RockBilly for dinner (it would be rude
not to as we were in the area) and popped to the shop for some sesame seed
snacks to sustain us during an evening in with a film.
Before we settled down to some hard work on our final day in
Hanoi, we did one last spin around the Old Quarter, visited St Joseph Cathedral
(which somehow became more impressive the longer you lingered there) and
checked out the Memorial House, where you could learn about traditional
Vietnamese crafts, particularly the history of crafting the iconic conical Vietnamese
hats. After an ice cream by the lake (we are very British) we headed back to the hotel to get cracking with some
work. One sleep later, and we were shoving our bags into a taxi bound for the
bus station and the famous Halong Bay…
We stopped at the supermarket to grab a drink, and indulged in an ill-advised chicken burger at a low-budget KFC rival called Lotteria – we really should have eaten local, but hunger and the heat made us lazy. It taught us a lesson though – we could have had a lovely corn on the cob from a street vendor, or a selective sandwich from one of the many paté and egg sandwich providers, but instead we suffered a stomach churning chicken burger. Nice! Sorry to the locals there who we’d have much preferred to give our money to if we’d been thinking about it!
The Citadel lies on the northern bank of the Perfume River (or Song Huong as it’s otherwise known) and it is a bit decrepit in places thanks to escalating American bombing during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. It does however have a romantic charm, and the buildings that are still standing are in pretty good shape, and have been well looked after/restored. 
The standout sight here though was the To Mieu Temple Complex, where there were nine dynastic urns dedicated to different leaders, as well as shrines to each of these emperors. This part of the Citadel was in great shape, and has been restored carefully as it felt very authentic. 
