Vietnam
(Hanoi, Sapa, Ho Chi Minh)
Conversions: 1 USD to 22095.00 Vietnamese Dong (yeah, that’s a lot of numbers, but they typically just knock off the 000’s and will tell you things are ’22’…they mean 22,000).
It’s so hard to start writing with the plain basics of money conversions, language, where to stay, etc. as my posts normally start when I’m giving you the lowdown. I haven’t sat down to write anything about anything since getting back about a week ago. So I will make this as basic as I have the capacity to do so! (Please ask me so many questions so I can elaborate on everything).
So, in my normal fashion of wanting to do everything in short bursts, I left for South East Asia planning on hitting 3 countries in 3 weeks. Which I’ll tell you right now was a mistake. Of course I loved the time I spent while I was gone, 100%, but it’s just not enough time.
These are the Castaways bungalows we stayed at on the private island. Ohhh yeahhhh
I started my trip in Hanoi which is in the North of Vietnam. The town center is fairly small and walkable. I stayed at Downtown Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel. They have two locations in town, but this was the larger of the two. It was fairly cheap, air con rooms, and had awesome trips that you can book from the hostel. Which was PERFECT for me because I knew no one. I booked their Castaways Tour to Ha Long Bay, which might not be for everyone. It was more or less a booze cruise weekend which wasn’t really what I was looking for while going to Ha Long Bay for the first time, BUT they have a private island which is (a-okay emjoi here). You stay in their bungalows and they feed you every meal.
At once there were probably 100 people from the ages of 19-26 and your group is split up into 40 people. You get to cruise along the bay, kayak, jump off the boat, and relax in the sun. Not a bad way to spend a day!
I’m in love with every picture from Ha Long Bay
Plus at night you can go under the dock to swim with bio-luminescent plankton. Basically, you swim under the dock and there’s a little square of space where it’s more or less pitch black. Every time you move, your arms (and everything else when you move) sparkle like you’re a mermaid or a Disney Princess who just had her fairy godmother spin her around and don a ballgown. It is SO cool and wonderful and beautiful, and I suggest it to everyone. It seems a little scary going under the dock, but there’s enough room for your whole head your head doesn’t need to go under the water for a second.
View from my bungalow before sunrise
After coming back from our trip, (they drop you off right back at the hostel), a couple girls I met and I went to Sapa O’Chao to book a trek for 3 days. They hooked us up with a night train (a bit more expensive than the bus, but I think it was the best sleep I got the whole time I was gone). It was like Harry Potter.
10 hour night train from Hanoi to Sapa
You can check out my blog post on Sapa for more info on it and the organization. It was a wonderful, relaxing trek but I was off on my next trip down to Ho Chi Minh city for the afternoon.
Ho Chi Minh City. It’s a big ole city. 100% go to the war memorial museum, and if you can go a bit out of the city to see the Cu Chi underground tunnels that the Vietnamese made during the war. I wasn’t able to go but I seriously regret it.
I had a bit of a horror story in HCMC. I was told not to get on a motorbike taxi, but this guy seemed reputable with a notebook of American’s he’d driven around who wrote good reviews, whatever. If you’re going to take a motorbike taxi, which sometimes it’s the cheapest option, make sure you AGREE on a PRICE. Because this guy kept saying, “it’s free, it’s free, I just want you to write something nice in my book”, then after I did, he grabbed my DSLR camera, which is my baby, and pointed to the ATM for me to pay him 800,000 dong. Which sounds much worse than it is, but it was the scariest thing that happened to me when I was gone. Moral of the story is, if you don’t want to be scared out of your mind and forced to pay any extra money, just agree on a price before you get on the bike. Or don’t get on the bike.
Ho Chi Minh does have a lot of great things you can do, like going to the floating markets or taking a cruise down the Mekong Delta for a day or two with home stays. I just only gave myself basically 8 hours there so it wasn’t enough to do anything great. But in the end, it’s a story, and a lesson.
If you give yourself more than 8 days in Vietnam, which was what I had to work with, a lot of people hit Hoi An which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful; they also hit Hue and Da Nang which is great for beaches. If you’re feeling brave enough, some people rent motor bikes or take motorbike taxis and bike from Hue to Da Nang. A lot of people I talked to said it was one of their most favorite experiences in Vietnam and I’m super jealous I didn’t get a chance to. If you’re feeling REALLY brave, and please for the sake of your parents, go with someone else, you can motorbike the whole coast of Vietnam, which I’ve heard takes about 2 weeks.
Final Thoughts
Vietnam is a conundrum. It’s old and new and in the middle. There are no words to describe it really. There are many old French influenced apartments with faded colors and crumbling mold on the facades with things like The Body Shop and Baskin Robins on the bottom and clusters of Vietnamese locals eating Pho on tiny plastic stools outside. Vespas whiz by faster than the speed of light while a lady sells lychees in baskets attached to a long pole she carries on her back. There are a LOT of people everywhere, so it’s hard to get used to even crossing the street; the cities are so humid you can feel the weight of the water in the air, and a couple hours out it’s cold enough for tracksuits. I guarantee you’ll never see anything like it. 
For the Confused Traveler 