Four Days in Vietnam!

Vietnam

Day 1:

The flight with Vietjet from Busan to Hanoi was just under 5 hours. Apparently I was wrong about there being some kind of law that airlines had to provide water for free on flights. Water cost $2.50 USD and we ended up buying it cause we didn’t fill up water bottles at the airport. However, given the travel horror stories we were hearing about in Canada, we couldn't complain (sorry Kelsey).

Our first adventure was getting a cab. Before leaving for Vietnam, work was very busy and we were very tired and mentally drained. We also woke up for our flight at 4:30 AM. So we said sure to the first guy to offer us a cab for a reasonable price. He said the car would be 3 minutes and then disappeared. Five minutes later, a driver pulled up and ushered us in. He drove like everyone else on the road - lots of honking and lots of snaking between cars. During the drive, I realized that he was probably just some guy with a car and they’d worked out this system with his friend so he didn’t have to pay the fees to Grab (Grab is the Uber of Vietnam). I also noticed the car was electric so he was probably making all profit. Anyway, he got us to the hotel safely after a single glance at the address of our hotel in old quarter.

The plan for the first day was to have a chill day. We got pho at a random street stall with outdoor stools and practiced crossing the street. The locals have some kind of 6th sense navigating here, I do not understand it. The walking signal green man turns on, Cam and I look left and right, some of the cars stop but the motorbikes, scooters and bikes don’t, so we carefully walk between the streams of bikes.

Unlike Korea, most of the streets have sidewalks which is great. But if they aren’t end to end blocked off with parked motorbikes, they’re filled up with a storefront which has commandeered the whole sidewalk in front of their store to sell their pants or backpacks or fruit and vegetables. So in addition to watching for traffic when you cross the road, you have to have your head on a swivel walking on the road because there is no space for you on the sidewalk.

After our street pho, we checked into our room, went for a swim and then had a glorious shower with a shower door. (If you don’t remember, our shower in our Korean apartment is attached to the sink and the whole floor gets wet when you shower). And then we were off again to try some Vietnamese egg coffee. We went to a highly rated place nearby that didn’t seem super geared towards tourists but it was super busy. Again, we sat on stools at short tables, this time on the second floor with secondhand smoke streaming in through the balcony doors.

Then it was time for banh mi. We found a place where they have you seated on one side of the road, and the kitchen is on the other side of the road. I said to Cam that it felt like one of those levels on the video game Overcooked where I remember always thinking “how impractical to have a road in the middle of your restaurant. This doesn’t exist in real life.” And here it was in real life.

The next destination was St. Joseph's Cathedral. We heard the Christmas eve celebrations before we saw them. There was a huge Christmas tree display and a fenced off area where a band of maybe 10 people was performing Christmas carols. It was beautiful but SO LOUD so we walked around the building and discovered there were about 20 different nativity sets. It was pretty cool seeing such a big Christmas celebration so far from home.

From there, we wandered onto a street that was closed to cars but someone had set up little kid car rentals where the parents put their kids in mini police cars or tanks and then used a remote control to steer their kid around. Cam and I had a laugh at one parent who accidentally drove his kid into a plastic table. Finally, we had some bun cha for dinner and then we went to bed, exhausted from our travel day.

Day two, we were excited to discover the hotel breakfast was huge. There was a "Western" section with bread, cereal, and fruit. Then a hot food section which included seafood porridge (I didn't try it), fried rice, spring rolls, some kind of soup, bacon and sausage. There was also a pho bar, fried egg counter, and salad bar. Since we were in Vietnam and I had the beginnings of a sore throat (which I thought was from the pollution but turned out to be a cold), I had the pho.

At 8 AM, we were picked up for our Ha Long bay tour. Two and a half hours on the bus went by fast as the tour guide told us lots about the history of Vietnam. We made a stop at a pearl factory and shop where we were shown the three types of pearls they produce. And then we were ushered back onto the bus and straight to our boat.

We were very lucky to have our tour only half full so the boat felt very spacious. It was also the sunniest day of our trip and a lovely 23 degrees Celsius. We were fed a seafood lunch and then we went up on the deck to see the views. Honestly, my favourite part was having so much space around me. We really take the amount of space we have in North America for granted and it's on my top 3 list of things I miss about Canada (the other two are Bonnie and the clean fresh air haha).

The tour involved three stops:

• A hike to a viewpoint and/or beach stop. We were given 50 minutes here and were told we could do the hike or swim. Cam and I raced up to the viewpoint in 7 minutes so we could get back down and also go for a swim. The water was cold but it was very refreshing. Seeing other tourists panting and giving up halfway through the "hike" was a huge confidence boost for Cam and I.

• A kayak or bamboo boat stop. We opted for the kayak option and didn't risk taking our phones on the wet boat so I have zero photos of the cave and cove. It was really cool though, you kayak through this narrow cave (past some tourists who fell off their boat) into this sheltered cove with an echo. Coming back through the cave, there was a lot of traffic between all the tourists in kayaks and I understand how some people capsized.

• Lastly, we stopped to see a cave. I have been to a few caves before but never one as huge as this one. Apparently, it's a normal size cave in Vietnam.

On the way back, Cam and I bought beers on the boat and enjoyed the sunset from the deck. It was a very beautiful day.

Of course, back in Hanoi, we had to try another Vietnamese dish - Vietnamese pancakes. They're basically like a crispy crepe filled with meat and veg, served with pineapple, perilla leaves, and other greens. You cut it up and wrap it in rice paper, dip it and eat it.

Day three, we didn't have much of a plan. We wanted to try Vietnamese coffees again so we went to a popular cafe called "Note Cafe" where people write on sticky notes and post it anywhere on the wall, ceiling or table so the whole cafe is completely covered in messages. There were lots of heartwarming and funny notes.

We attempted to explore the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum park, only to discover the whole area is very strictly fenced, and many sections are closed to the public. From the map, it looks like a huge park where you could spend all day. In reality, we had to walk halfway around to go through the main entrance security, and then there are "do not enter" signs everywhere. A bit tired, we left and took a cab to the Ho Tay neighbourhood which seems to be the less touristy area of town. We had a nice lunch and walked along the lake, enjoying the lack of traffic but wishing for less smog. We accidentally ended up at a not so touristy temple which was kinda cool. Eventually, we called it a day and went back to Old Quarter to do some shopping and chill in the hotel for a bit.

Day four, we tried a delicious coconut coffee (the coconut was iced and blended and towering on top of the coffee) at another popular cafe called Hidden Gem. It was probably our favourite coffee so it was too bad that we didn't discover it until the last day. Then we went to a cooking class with a couple from the Netherlands and Columbia. First, our guide took us through the market and explained how much things cost and how to find the best ingredients. I forget the prices but it was all silly cheap. Then we made pho, egg coffee, meatballs, spring rolls, and papaya salad together.

After stuffing ourselves, we spontaneously got massages at the spa at our hotel. The massages were... interesting. I don't think our masseuses spoke very much English so there wasn't a lot of communication. It was relaxing but there was also more slapping than expected? The strangest part was afterwards though, when we went to charge the spa treatment to our room. There were two men waiting in the lobby, maybe to make sure we paid but we think they were actually the owners who take the tip so the masseuses don't actually get the tip. It was a bit uncomfortable and they didn't answer any of our questions and we were basically out of cash anyway.

My attempt to capture the number of motorbikes in Hanoi

Last on our itinerary was a trip to the Hoa Lo Prison Relic. Brief summary of the prison is "Look at how terribly the French treated the Vietnamese. Look at how nice we were to the Americans." The French built the prison when they were occupying Vietnam and imprisoned many revolutionaries in pretty terrible conditions. The prison didn't have a roof at the time and people were so packed in there that they had to take turns lying down. During the American war (called the Vietnam war in America), American pilots were imprisoned there and they jokingly called it the "Hilton hotel". There are many photos of them enjoying gifts from their families and they were well fed and watered while there.

Then we left around 9:30 PM for our 1 AM flight back to Busan! Everything included, our trip cost under $1600 Canadian ($250/person for flights, $60/night for the hotel, $60/person for visas, and the rest was tours and food).