Vietnam, a place of great expectation: The North

Vietnam is the country in South East Asia I believe that gets the most envious reaction from people when you say you have been. I used to be feel green when hearing that people had been and have always wanted to visit Vietnam more than any other country on the continent. This made writing about Vietnam particularly hard as I had such high expectations and as I write this, heart wrenchingly I know the bad bits will get more aire time and that the incredible beauty of the place will be lost from my account. I want my blog to be real and not just talk about how pretty everywhere is, so please bear with my rant at the end!

Hanoi:

We spent 2 nights in Hanoi as it was our first destination in Vietnam from Thailand. Hanoi is Vietnam’s new big and busy capital city since the north of the country led by Ho Chi Minh won the civil war making the country a whole. It has a very beautiful Hoan Kramer Lake with some rather nice rooftop bars overlooking it, lots of on street dining complete with tiny plastic chairs from where you can witness the mental non-existent traffic rules, shopping and a few sight-seeing opportunities. 

Old Quarter is well worth a visit too just a couple of km north from the lake.

The Thang Long Royal Citidal museum is just outside the bustling centre Which was great to seek shade in the lovely gardens surrounding grand buildings whilst learning a couple of things about the First Indochina War. Here and the surrounding streets we felt the atmosphere changed as Vietnamese soliders stood at various points making sure we kept walking. It just didn’t feel welcoming.

Halong City:

We arrived at Bai Chay in Halong reading online that we could hire a boat from the pier for a 1 day trip of the stunning Halong bay. When we arrived however we found that the pier no longer existed as the whole of Bai Chay coastline was being redeveloped into a huge entertainment, shopping and hotel complex. To reach Halong bay you actually need to be 50km south west and buses only leave Bai Chay at 7am and 1pm. It was 10am when we realised and the 1pm trip would leave it far too late for us to catch our prebooked sleeper train to Hue. We were pretty gutted that we had made this side trip and were not going to experience Halong bay ourselves after seeing countless photos and footage of its beauty. 

Luckily the complex although far from completion, had opened a cable car to the hill at Halong city (very scary). The hill will also be part of the complex and is yet to be completed also but there was a big wheel there offering fantastic views over the city (not that I saw due to cuddling the floor in fear 🙈) and bay so at least we managed to see some of it! After our disappointment I would for the first time on our journey actually recommend taking a tour from Hanoi. There are many to choose from with different price brackets just make sure you have a good gut feeling when booking it and dont go too cheap as I think somewhere as pretty as Halong bay can’t be truely enjoyed from an overcrowded boat (some have sank before) and rude staff.

Hue:

We arrived in Hue rather refreshed after taking the sleeper train which was the best we have been on to date. The mattress was very comfy, with nice bedding and good pillows. We were even lucky enough to have a room to ourselves! We decided to walk to our hotel as the route took us through the park at the side of the river. It had started raining but it didn’t matter. The city was beautiful and although the roads were as mental as ever, the tree lined streets seem to offer a barrier to the traffic making the city much more relaxing. 

Hue is small and flat so we opted to rent bicycles from our hotel and with our complimentary map we set about exploring the ancient city. We knew about vietnams recent history but it was great to go right back in time to when Hue was controlled by the dynasty all living in the forbidden city over the river. We had a great Italian meal in Hue the first non Asian meal in months and even a glass of Baileys to cap of a great day!
From Hue we wanted to see Hoi An which can be accessed easily by train to Danang then bus. We actually opted at the last minute into the tourist bus instead as it worked out cheaper. It did however break down en route! 

We didn’t mind as it was still heavy with rain outside and the poor bus driver and mate had to work on the wet tarmac removing fixing and replacing the broken parts so was clearly having a much worse day than us!

North Vietnam hostility we experienced on our short time there:

In Nepal at the very start of our journey we met a lovely girl who told us at some point along the way we will loose stuff, we will be conned, we will be robbed, our bus will breakdown and many other things will go more likely go wrong. We accepted this from the start and after 4 months of taking the rough with the smooth it has by in large been easy sailing. We never therefore expected to reach beautiful Vietnam and experience all the above.

We reached the airport in Hanoi from Bangkok (me still rather ill) and decided to take a taxi to our hotel though as events unfolded I doubt it was a legitimate one. To cut the story short we knew after around 5 minutes when we picked up his friend we were going to be ripped off/ robbed/ dropped off miles away just that gut feeling. Well he did take us to the hotel, but with our bags in the boot of the car we couldn’t challenge him when he ‘assisted’ us to pay, pocketing an extra £40 as he did, not that we noticed at the time anyway! Not the best start but we were in the capital so we agreed to put it behind us and enjoy Vietnam. 

Unfortunately this wasn’t isolated. Everywhere we went we were charged way more with most restaurants deliberately not displaying prices for this purpose. Fair enough you might say but we have been in far poorer places and are well versed in haggling but it kind of gets irritating when others around you translate to you that they are joking about it with each other. It’s not just about having to pay more either. Taxi drivers would ask for money when unloading your bags so that they can make a get away without giving change. It seemed giving change was a no no everywhere in fact. Hostility was a certain from anyone you declined goods from including hotel staff when you don’t book a tour with them after endless hassle from them to. Never have we been more aware of our safety in a country. 

We caught the bus to and from Halong having to barter down the price ten fold before they agreed to charge the advertised amount and saw that the Vietnamese themselves don’t have it much easier. The ticket man made everyone sit on one another’s knees so that they could keep making stops to fit double capacity on board. The passengers didn’t look at all happy making me realise it wasn’t normal practice but he forcefully moved people so that they complied and only refused more passengers when the aisle was also crammed full of people sat on the tiny plastic street chairs.

So I’m not saying it’s just the tourists that can have a tough time but for me that’s not a reason to over look it. I didn’t like it and actually felt like ending the whole tour most days that we were in Vietnam as yet another issue would a rise. We were told by a lovely restaurant owner in Hoi An that if you don’t spend money it is seen as bad by many as we owe the country at least that and maybe this was why we had had a bad time. This might explain why those on lavish tours of the country don’t see this side. We were also told by another girl that maybe it is guilt of what we did to their country that makes me think the country has something against me. These words never came out of my mouth so was her translation of what I had actually said which was merely ‘why are you charging me more than that guy!’ Im aware that although the UK was not officially involved in the war, the UK did covertly trained US and southern Vietnamese troops and I’m not nieve to think that the involvement ended there. However I’m confused as to what I have ever done to Vietnam. 

I know this is just our experience and given that it rained for us non stop during dry season I’m guessing we were pretty unlucky too!

I want to make it clear before I finish this blog that we also met some incredible people in Vietnam having the best conversations yet and being welcomed into the family in one hotel in Dalat in particular. We also had some of our best days in Vietnam riding around ancient cities on bicycles and riding in and hit of the clouds up in the mountains. The whole country is undoubtedly stunning but I would feel dishonest if I had just wrote about this side and described the experience as wonderful as it was marred by these experiences and I know many people have fallen utterly in love with Vietnam. I really wish I had too.

Stay tuned to see if things improved as we headed further South in Vietnam…

I’d love to hear from you if you have been to Vietnam and your experience ❤️