Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam ~ Days 22-30

I can't believe I never ever wrote about my last week in Vietnam until now, some 18 months after returning home.  Needless to say, this post will be short(er) than the rest of my posts.  

Something about returning from Ninh Binh and spending five whole days in Hanoi and then the whole returning home thing and back into routine ... and I just never got around to completing this blog.  

I stay in the same hotel that I stayed in for night before I went to Ninh Binh.  It's a decent hotel in the old quarter which was central to what little tourist attractions Hanoi had to offer.  My room had a little balcony overlooking the myriad of street activities.  It was captivating to say the least.  Some of the interesting goings on were watching the garbage collection ladies.  They would pull a huge cart down the road ringing a bell to let everyone know they were coming.  People would come out of their homes and shops and the ladies would dump the garbage and with large sticks push the garbage down into the large hand-pulled cart.  

Garbage collection in Hanoi


My hotel has been overtaken by a family from Singapore.  OMG!  There are 5 or 6 adults and 3 kids: the youngest a boy aged about 4 years old, who  appears to be a holy terror.  I am aghast at what a brat he is. He is yelling and screaming and lashing out.  I can hear the kid acting up while I am locked inside my room.  The parents have zero control over the kid who is constantly screaming which turns into crying when he doesn't get what he wants.  It's obvious the hotel staff doesn't know what to do about it.  At one point, the brat is jumping on the sofa in the lobby.  I was sick and tired of this kid running roughshod over this hotel and its guests - I told the kid the sofa was meant for sitting on, not jumping on and what do you know, the kid actually listened and stopped jumping on the sofa.  Frankly, I think the parents abdicated all responsibility and didn't know how to interact with the kid so they catered to his every whim as though he were a Prince.

Through my hotel, I booked a rather pricey overnight trip to the well-known Halong Bay - a part of Vietnam that people dream about with anticipation because of all the photos and videos they've seen of the 1,969 huge rock formations protruding out of the waters of Halong Bay.  

As luck (or bad luck) would have it, I come to find out that I have been booked on the exact boat as these guests from hell.  I tell the front desk in no uncertain terms that there is no way I am going on the same boat as these people and I've been looking forward to leaving the hotel for two days to get away from them.  The front desk staff understands where I am coming from and makes some phone calls to get me on a different boat.  Unfortunately though I will be stuck on the same shuttle van with these guest all the way to Halong Bay which is a tortuous trip some three to four hours from Hanoi on a rather bumpy road.

The guide from the shuttle van comes to our hotel to pick us up - the bus is parked at the end of the street.  The family from hell isn't ready.  I get in the van and we sit and we wait.  There comes a point in time when the van simply cannot sit parked at the end of the street any longer.  We start driving away and the bus has to circle the entirety of Hoan Kiem lake wasting time waiting for this family to get its act together.  Passengers on the tour van are grumbling wondering what's going on.  I mention that they'd better hope they have earplugs so they can escape the insanity that is about to ruin the peace and relative quiet.  Some 20-30 minutes later, the family from hell finally arrives to the van.  I plug in my earphones and crank up the music to escape from them.  If you think I am being overly harsh describing this family let me tell you, on Halong Bay I could literally hear them on their boat (which wasn't the same boat I was on).  That's how obnoxious and out-of-touch they were!  Imagine how many passengers on their boat had their expensive overnight sail affected by this family.

The nice thing about my boat was that there were only about 17 tourists on the entire boat.  I was the only Canadian, an American couple from Washington State, a Frenchman, and others I can't recall what countries they were from.  

My room on the boat.


This is ALL of us who sailed on this boat.

Disappointingly Halong Bay was misty from the moment I arrived until I boarded the van to return back to Hanoi.  Misty wet weather and man do they ever pack the boats into that bay.  That, I'd have to say, was the most disappointing thing about Halong Bay - how many boats they pack into that Bay.  I don't think there was ever a single moment where I didn't see another boat within close proximity of the boat I was on.  Oh, and you don't even want to think about how polluted that bay is.  Tourists actually go swimming in those waters.  There is no hope in hell you'd ever catch me dipping so much as a toe in that filth.  It was so misty that the mountains of rocks didn't come across as spectacular as what I was expecting.  In summary, it was a rather disappointing trip to Halong Bay but Mother Nature was in charge so you just gotta make the best of it.

Misty Halong Bay







All the boats are lit up at night.  It looks so pretty.


While in Hanoi I booked a free walking tour with Thang - a university student studying Japanese with a goal of getting a job with Samsung.  Thang was a lovely young man, I think about aged 18.  He met me at my hotel, and then we head out walking:  through the market, over an amazing bridge built in 1892 (Long Bien Bridge). The bridge was unlike any bridge I had ever been on before:  holes in it, a narrow "sidewalk" with a zillion motorcycles.  It enthralled me that below the bridge were gardens and pigs literally right smack dab on the middle of the city. 


Long Bien Bridge




Garden below the bridge




Thang then takes me to the "Hanoi Hilton".  I got to see the display dedicated to John McCain.  He is obviously famous in Hanoi as even Thang knew who he was and asked me if I was familiar with him.  

John McCain's flight suit in the museum


After the museum we walk around Hoam Kiem lake.   The park area surrounding the lake is gorgeous.  Lots of benches to sit on, beautifully landscaped with bright flowers and manicured lawns. 


Gardens surrounding Hoam Kiem Lake in the middle of Hanoi















Lots of socializing going on while waiting for customers



Flower delivery


Burning papers on the street



She is selling Tofu


Eventually I get tired and tell Thang that I'm ready to call it a day.  He walks me back to my hotel and then proceeds to a pick up his bicycle.  I ask him where he parked it and he points down the street to a building.  It's a pay lot for bicycles.  I'm still astounded that this tour is free and here is this University kid spending his day off with a stranger and him having to pay to park his bike.  I give Thang a tip and hope that he feels it is sufficient for the time and effort he put into the day. 


St. Joseph's Cathedral


Hoam Kiem Lake









I will tell you that I didn't like Hanoi.  Based on Trip Advisor recommendations, I reserved five nights in Hanoi.  In all honesty one or two days would have been sufficient.  Hanoi weather sucked.  It was so much like Vancouver winter weather: grey and misty.   Ugh!  That weather pattern  is exactly why I love my winter vacations away from Vancouver so I can escape from that type of weather.

I'm happy to be heading back down south to Ho Chi Minh for a couple of nights before I catch my flight home.

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh is still scorching hot.  Definitely vastly different than the weather in the north that's for sure.  You really need to research weather patterns if you plan to travel all of Vietnam.  Just because it's hot and sunny in the south doesn't mean you'll see any of that in the north. 

I only just booked my hotel a couple of days earlier using a recommendation off of Trip Advisor.  Hotel Elios.  Very nice hotel.  Great location.  I check into my room and then head out to the night market.  I have a delicious meal of Pho and prawns.  Very good. 

Night Market in Ho Chi Minh

Elios Hotel - much larger than it looks from the exterior


I have to be up early the next morning for the free continental breakfast on the rooftop of the hotel.  Nice views of the city.  The food was mediocre and the room was packed.  

I need to be out front of the hotel in a few minutes to catch my van to take me to my half day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels via Les Rives Speedboat Tours    This was another last minute decision booked the day previous.  Very highly recommend this mode of transport if going to the Cu Chi Tunnels.  We drive in the van for about a half hour or so.  It gave me an opportunity to see Ho Chi Minh away from the touristy area.  I was really impressed with what I saw:  very modern hi-rises and shopping malls.  Really it looked like it could've been any North American city.






There are only about 8 of us on the boat.  We are greeted and handed a life jacket which is mandatory to wear.  Then we are offered bottled water and platters of fresh delicious fruit.




We speedboat up the river for about 45 minutes or so.  It was a fantastic day to be out on the water:  hot and sunny and the sights were very interesting.











When we arrive on land, our excellent tour guide explains to us all about what we are about to see.  The Cu Chi Tunnels were fascinating.  It was an area where the Vietnamese completely lived underground in order to evade opposing forces.  Basically anything you would do above ground, they did underground.  The even rigged up systems for how to disperse the smoke from cooking underground so as not to get detected.  They made rubber sandals out of old tires and they very smartly made the soles of the sandals backwards so that when they walked in the sandals, if they were being tracked, it appeared that they were walking in a direction opposite of where they were actually walking.  The heel of the sandal is where the toes were and where the heel part of the sandal would normally be was actually the front of the sandals.  Very tricky and ingenious, really.  We had the opportunity to crawl down into the tunnels but were warned that those with heart conditions and fear of small spaces should not go as the tunnels were very narrow and short in spots.  I was the only person in our group who did not go into the tunnels.  When some of the group came out of the tunnels, they regretted having gone, saying that it was so narrow and they had to crouch down so low and that it really was claustrophobic down under ground. I have no regrets about not going down into the tunnels. 


Entrance to a tunnel. Covered over with leaves to avoid detection.


Lowering himself down into the tunnel.


The end of our tour brought us to a group lunch.  We were seated at a round table and our pre-set menu was delivered to our table.  It was a nice opportunity to speak to the other tourists and find out where everyone was from.  Once again, I was the only Canadian.  This lunch is also the spot where I first heard the words "couch surfing" as one couple was asked how they had met because they were obviously from different cultural backgrounds.  They said they met on couch surfing - I had no clue what that meant at the time.

The boat ride back into Ho Chi Minh was great.  It really was worth every penny and I would hands down do this boat trip again rather than sit on a tour bus.

Once back at my hotel I take a taxi to the War Memorial Museum.  It is still a scorcher of a day and it hits me that there is no air conditioning inside the museum!  It's very busy here and well worth going to see.  I seem to recall the museum is about three floors of photographs.  Definitely a must see.  Heart-breaking too.  I learned that the effects of agent orange are still causing birth defects in newborns to this day, the after effects of the chemicals still being carried through the generations.  So very sad.  You know, I had noticed a lot of dwarfs in Vietnam.  It was only once I read about the after effects of agent orange did I realize dwarfism was a direct result of that.








Now it all makes sense:  why there are so many dwarfs in Vietnam.











On this same day that I go to the Cu Chi Tunnels and visit the War Memorial Museum, I take an 11:00 PM taxi to the airport to catch my flight home to Vancouver.  I'm ready to go home.


I really love Ho Chi Minh and am glad that I had the time here at the end to do and see what I was able to.  Felt completely different now a month after I first hit this city at the start of my vacation.  I think staying in a different area in a much nicer hotel had a lot to do with the vibe too.


Final sunset while at the HCMC airport - Vietnam


Coming clean to say, here it is June 2020 and I was polishing up my blog ensuring the font and colours are consistent throughout and I just realized that I never did finish this very last entry that I started 18 months after returning home in March 2017.  I had all the words written within this blog so as to prompt me as to which photos to insert.   Thank God for that otherwise I would've long forgotten all the little details and stories.  This is an example of exactly why I love keeping a travel blog - so years after the trip all the memories are easy to recall through words and photos.





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