Northern Vietnam
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
38
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Hue,
Vietnam
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The bus dropped us off in Hanoi, where we spent a couple of days exploring (and several hours negotiating buying train tickets at the station!) It was considerably hotter and more humid in the Vietnamese capital, so we limited ourselves to a pleasant walk round the lake and a trip to the lakeside temple, plus a visit to the prison dubbed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by American prisoners of war. This was famously where the Republican nominee, John McCain, was held and tortured during the war. It was fairly horrendous stuff, tempered slightly by the fact that for once us Brits had little to feel guilty about: as the displays concentrated on American and French aggression.
Two days in the oppressive heat of the city was enough for us, so we booked ourselves onto a boat tour to Halong Bay. The area is a continuation of the limestone scenery we viewed in Yangshuo in China, and continues through the region to Thailand.
It is low season in Vietnam at the moment, so we spent a very relaxing three days as part of a group of seven, sailing through the islands in a junk.
Hanoi Old Town
On the second full day we tried our hands at kayaking, which was great fun despite being caught in some strong currents that had the effect of sending us round in circles. The last night was spent on a resort on the biggest island, which was a refreshing change. The highlight of the trip excluding the scenery was certainly the food on board the boat: two fantastic meals of fresh seafood certainly went down well!After returning to Hanoi we met up with Greg again, who we had last seen in Shanghai. He is now accompanied by his cousin Chelsea, and we plan to travel through Vietnam and beyond together. Due to the vagueries of the Vietnamese train system, we spent another two nights in Hanoi, the highlight of which was a trip to the traditional water puppetry show, which blended live music with incredible dexterity and spectacle.
The train journey to Hue, the ancient capital of the country, was surprisingly bad, and far worse than anything we experienced in China. Indeed, we speculated that perhaps the Chinese had passed the train on to Vietnam once they upgraded their stock, as it seemed at least 50 years old as it bounced around the track during the night!
We had agreed with Greg and Chelsea, who had embarked on their own trip to Halong Bay, to meet up in Hoi An again, so we only spent a day in Hue. It is an attractive city, with an interesting citadel that is reminiscent of the Forbidden City (albeit with bullet holes present as a reminder of the American war). We also took a boat trip down river to a pagoda that was interesting but more memorable for the captain producing a wallet full of foreign currency that he expected us to change to Vietnamese dong. We relented and changed a couple of pounds for him - very strange seeing British money after all this time!
