My Vietnam blog comes late in the month we've been moving a lot through the country and have been fortune enough to meet up with an old university friend whilst we travelled around. In total we have been in Vietnam for four weeks and travelled from north to south almost keeping to the costal road, with the odd diversion in land.

A lot of the places we have been to have been well documented and well travelled. Our first impression of Vietnam was the ease of travelling through. In the capital of Hanoi you can't move for travel agencies selling tours and bus tickets. This was a bit of a shock to us after India and Nepal. Never the less the buses are amazingly comfortable and the roads are smooth which makes the 12 hour journeys easy.

We landed in the north in Hanoi from Nepal, and spent three days meandering the centre of the city, wandering the well organised trading streets, specialising in everything from balloons to iron mongers. Thankfully there was also a beer street which we Frequented most evenings. At first in search of the 30p beer and then for some quality beers and cheap food. We had some fun nights sitting road side watching the bars move tables and chairs off roads when the police arrived, and watching small children drink beer with their families. There was a good mix of tourists and locals enjoying themselves in this area.


We then met up with my old university friend and her boyfriend who were starting a 6 week holiday in Vietnam and Thailand before heading back to the uk. They have been in South Korea for a year teaching English, so it was great to see them after so long.

Together we had booked on two tours back to back. We travelled for the day down to Tam Coc national park to see the beautiful island landscape and take a small boat through the backwaters, passing rice paddies and through huge caves. The women here run a collective so they all get a turn to row the boats and make money from tourism; meaning that they only row once or twice a month. Still they are pretty good at it as they row the boats with their feet not their hands.

That same day we returned to hoian for a 2 hour turn around before catching the overnight bus to Sapa in the north west. In all, the night buses we have taken this has been the best. This bus actually arrives at the bus stop at 4am but everyone sleeps on the bus until 6am when the bus drivers kick everyone off. We met our guide for the day immediately, 'mama chau' as she introduced herself, and headed for a cafe for breakfast whilst the heavens opened. We thought we were in for a very hard days hike ahead and some pretty crappy views, but the rain eventually stopped and we headed up into the hills of Sapa. We had a great days walk through the hills and through various small villages along the way. Our route that day was to end at mama chaus house for a Homestay. We didn't know what to expect. She told us how she started working in home stays when a kind German hiker offered her £1500 to build a new house. This money went towards building a new solid house, rather than the bamboo house they had before which had to be rebuilt every two years. The money also meant that she no longer had to work the rice fields and that her mum in law was now more interested in helping her out! The house was well, very big. The upstairs was for home stayers with mattresses and mosquito nets on the floor, the house was all very much open plan, there were no walls or doors, just beams and curtains to mark off the family sleeping area.

The Homestay is a bit of funny experience in that you really make it what you want. We were fortunate that mama chau had some entertaining children that we played with around the rice paddies. Her daughter was about two and she was wonderful to play with. She had no toys but could occupy herself for hours picking flowers or washing her hands in the muddy water or run off to play with other children in the village. She seemed really very happy. The funny thing is that in the evening whilst her parents made dinner , her and her little brother had their mums iPhone and were glued to YouTube cartoons videos. Here we were a good few hours from a major town, on a remote Homestay and the place had wifi! But without it, these villages couldn't manage the growing demand for home stays in Vietnam, with most being booked in Hanoi.




That evening we enjoyed a big homeocooked meal with her husband and children. Whilst we ate, she managed to put her restless daughter to sleep (by strapping her to her back and covering her head with scarf, it took one minute for her to fall asleep!) and feed the other two boys. Once the children were settled, and her husband had gone to bed, she got the rice wine out and plied us with several rounds of shots to ensure we had a good nights sleep. Olly not wanting to be a rude guest, threw his shots into my glass when he'd had enough... Needless to say, I slept very well that evening!

As we left the next day to walk back to the main town, we saw the growth of the business, with nearly every village having one or two homestays and with construction in many of the villages underway. This has been a great way for the local villages to make money and improve their quality of living for themselves and also their extended families. I hope that it continues to be a sustainable way of life for the locals. I just hope that tourists respect the environment and find a way of taking home their rubbish, as their wasn't any obvious way for plastic bottles and the like to be recycled or disposed of. A reoccurcuring theme across vietnam for the rest of the trip.

All four of us returned to Hanoi for a final day of sightseeing and we jumped on a nightbus to Hue, the old capital of Hanoi. Our time here was brief but we had day exploring the old citadel and a fun dinner in backstreet trying shrimp pancakes and tapioca cake.

And then we travelled onto Hoian. A place we had been recommended many times before, by friends and family and also random travellers we had met along the way. I suppose after so much hype it was very hard for it to meet expectations. It is thronging with tourists in the evening and although being exceptionally pretty this sort of ruins the feeling of the town. However theres the opportunity to walk not far out to find relaxed bars and small local eateries. The beaches were long and well serviced by cafes and restaurants and the bike ride to get their was a stunning ride through the rice paddy fields. Our favourite part of Hanoi had to be our cooking class. We spent a little more than the the cheapest to try the original class and it didn't disappoint. We were treated to a visit to the market and then a food tour in the restaurant where we were able to sample silk worm, pigs brain, frogs legs, pig heart and duck embryo. All sounds pretty disgusting but when you add chilli, garlic and a little bread cracker, delicious! I wil keep the cooking class a secret as I am sure we will be rocking the menu out on our first dinner party home.


From Hanoi we made a few more stops along and just inside the coast. We firstly stopped at Nha Trang, a big coastal resort, full of Russians. I was mistaken as a Russian twice in 30 minutes. But the main attraction here was the island of Vinpearl. a Disneyland island, with a water park, theme park, sea assault course, gardens, Dolphin show and massive Ferris wheel. Being deprived of Disneyland as a child, this has certainly made up for it!


From Nha Trang we finally headed inland and up to an old French hill station retreat called Da Lat, this is now a pretty city surrounded by a big agricultural economy, growing roses and strawberries. We cheated slightly here and took a cheap touristy tour around the major sights. Some of the tacky parts of the tour ended up being far more interesting, including the cricket tasting and weasel pool coffee tasting. This is also the place where we ordered and cooked a dove for one of our meals. In summary, it tastes like chicken and looks like a small bird !

From De Lat we headed to the small fishing town of Mui Ne. A much less developed and local place. The sea was lined with little round fishing boats and streets lined with little fish restaurants with tanks outside. Whilst here we tried the saffron crab, a local speciality and we also managed a little seaside lunch of oysters and scallops. Vietnam is by far the cheapest place we will be on our travels.

Mui ne also had perhaps the strangest place we had been so far, the Fairy Stream. Essentially a long shallow stretch of water running down from sand dunes and weird rock formations. You can take your shoes off and wonder through the stream paddling along. A nice relaxing place to just gaze and dig through the sand to see water oozing out of the sides of the banks.

Our final four days were in Ho Chi Minh where we started in a typical Minton fashion touring all the main breweries in town and getting suitably sizzled on our first day. It was raining in the afternoon, so what else were we going to do?! Needless to say the next day we could barely face leaving our room, however the guilt set in and we peeled ourselves anyway to the beautiful art gallery for a few hours of culture!



Our third day in, we headed out of town to the Cu chi tunnels, where the Vietcong famously lived, hid and fought Americans and anti communist fighters during the war. As soon as you arrive to the tunnels you can hear gunshots nearly every few minutes. One of the options on offer here is to try out an AK 47. No thank you! The place does feel a bit gimmicky and our tour guide was truly atrocious, starting every sentence with 'ok now my friend' but it was fun to try and crawl down the tiny tunnels and hide underground. There was a funny moment when our guide took us through the various traps used to capture Americans, and with each one getting More brutal, the smile on his face widened. Clearly this was his favourite bit. We went home and googled the history in more detail.

That evening we were fortunate enough to meet up with an old friend of Olly who is now working in the city. She writes a food blog and this place came in highly recommended The Secret Restaurant. So off we hopped on the back of a motor bike (the Asian version of uber) across town. My favourite dish was the Pamelo salad, served in a carved out Pamelo, but we also had a delicious set of pork skewers, fish soup and a morning glory salad. Steering clear of beer, I tried the coconut and coffee shake, literally the nicest ice coffee I have ever had. A very good recommendation and great to get an insight into life in the city. For a late night treat we headed to a little chocolatier for hot chocolate drinks, after potentially not having a hot chocloate a year this was a treat too.

Our final two days were spent in the war remnants museum and visiting one of the more famous temples in the city. We also managed a quick stop to h and m to replenish my worn down wardrobe before we headed into Cambodia!