In late October, I decided to take a cheeky trip to Vietnam. The name is ought to be two words – Viet Nam. I flew with Vietnam airlines from Phnom-Penh, via Vietiane in Laos to the capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi, situated in the far north of the country.
Both Europeans and Chinese would feel at home in Hanoi, with its distinctive and well preserved colonial and Chinese architecture in the city. However, the Ho Chi Minh city memorandum is distinctively Soviet/Communist looking with its cold blocky outline and devoid of features. Yet its sheer scale is impressive. Meanwhile, a theatre does a water puppet show, a Vietnamese traddition dating back 1,000 years – get the front row seats!
The Temple of Literature, situated in the heart of the city is an impressive place – people here took poetry, perhaps way too much, very seriously. It was built around 1,000 years ago in honour of Confucius and has been an university for over 700 years. I don’t know if I heard right, apparently graduating in this place was a pre-requisite to be an emperor of Viet Nam – a rather enlightening thought considering the place was built in AD 1070 – only 4 years after William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
A three-hour ride eastwards to the South China Sea from Hanoi takes you to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay – it is simply jaw droppingly beautiful with limestone jutting brutally out of the flat grey sea – these islets are remnants of an ancient karst landscape. It is possible to go inside one of the islets and see how the limestone has been eroded by rainwater percolating through the rocks.
It’s time to head to the old walled capital of Viet Nam – Hue, located in the central part and a very popular 1-hour Vietnam Airlines flight serves the Hanoi-Hue route. It was full to the brim on a big Airbus 330 when I was onboard, out of season.
Hue is home to a walled city and used to be the capital of Vietnam between 1800-something to 1945. The citadel has an absolutely gignatic flag – the flag towers over the massive old city walls of Hue in the photo and the flag is a good half mile away from the vintage point:
Around Hue are numerous historic monuments that earned it a place in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites – one of the most spectacular ones has to be that of Khai Dinh’s tomb – the 12th and most unpopular emperor of Vietnam who reigned for just nine years between 1916 and 1925.
Several hours drive to the south, through some high hills, takes you to Da Nang, with some limestone hills jutting out of the town and reminiscent of the Ha Long Bay limestone peaks. Fantastic marble furniture can be found here at really cheap prices, made by hand by local people.
Nearby is the old town of Hoi An which is a better place to visit with its fantastic sandy beaches, tailor shops and the Thu Bon river. The old quarters is an UNESCO World Heritage site due to its well preserved example of an ancient major south-east trading port. Here I got two tailor-made silk shirts for $25. An utter bargain! Be sure to get some tailor made shoes here if you have the time! Also the town has lots and lots of paintings, and are well worth looking at, even if you have no intention of buying. A small museum contained weird exhibits from the mysterious Champa people who were around the area in 7-15th century.
Flying from Da Nang airport to Ho Chi Minh City takes a little over an hour with Vietnam Airlines. Saigon airport is much more modern and better catered to international travel with more shops. Just 12 hours after I used the domestic terminal, half of it burnt down! Allegedly an electrical fault.
Cu Chi Minh tunnels, about 45-minutes drive out of Saigon is well worth visiting but be sure to bring some mosquito repellent as you’re going to a very wet and dark sheltered area where mozzies abound and they will give you dengue fever if you’re not careful! Dengue fever have become an epidemic in Saigon in the last year or so. The tunnels and traps are tantamount to the ingenuity of the Vietnamese people – extremely clever devices, both simple and sophisticated were made with the simplest of materials yet painfully effective for the unfortunate enemies – such as foot trap where downwards facing hooks would trap a foot and the more you try to wiggle out, the more the hooks would become ingrained. And they would put snake poison from many species on the spikes. Tiny and well hidden holes in the ground where a large dog would struggle to go through, have been used by the local people to escape into and hide. Huts are made out of leaves that are not only flame retardant but also extinguishes any flame that took hold.
Meanwhile back in Saigon, the Vietnam War museum is a must-see, a stomach-churning account of what the Americans did in Vietnam – no doubt this is biased heavily against the USA, but there’s some pretty compelling evidence in form of photographs in the museum, some are extremely gruesome. If you don’t leave with a tear in your eye, then you’re a very very cold person or didn’t look through the museum!
Nearby is an excellent handicraft shop, its employees are disabled, some disabled by the effects of napalm bombing by the Americans, and others from UXOs. They painstakingly produce lacquer plates of all sizes using egg shells or mother of pearl shells and produces stunning pictures. Some of the biggest pictures are just $200, though if you go for the pearl ones, that can treble the prices!
It is also worth taking a look at the old parliament for South Vietnam before the 1960s conflict – it has a good, if very short history and probably give clues as to how current governments around the world operates.
Onwards to extreme south, to Cantho, 4-5 hours by road, in the vast rice plains of the Mekong Delta. This town is very much a party town for the local people, and probably serves the best cat meat in the country. From here, take a cruise through the floating market on the Mekong delta and then ask your boat captain to take you through the maze of backwaters to look at the rural and watery life for another world of living differently.
On the way back to Cantho, drop by MyTho for a visit to some of the islands in the Mekong delta and a ride on a Sampan boat, and try out a wide range of fresh fruits picked on the island. Watch out for the python snakes though!
Prices in Vietnam:
$1 == 16,000 Dong / £1 == 30,000 Dong (as at October 2008)
Roughly $0.75 to $1 for a bottle of local beer.
Roughly $4 to $7 for a good meal
Roughly $2 to $10 for wee handmade souvenirs.
Roughly $550 a year average salary of Vietnamese people.
Ho Chi Minh City is the most expensive place to buy things, but Hanoi is probably the priciest for properties!
Everything can be bargained for – offer to pay for less than half the price they ask for, to pay for half price!
I think Vietnam is a fantastic, hugely underrated country that have some unusual things waiting to be discovered by visitors. Something in the country will surprise you and something else will shock you. 10 days was not enough for a north-south tour, easily 2.5 weeks to be put aside for this!
