Nearly 3 weeks of backpacking, 3 overnight trains, 7 cities later, with 12kg of custom clothes and souvenirs and our tour of Vietnam is complete. We experienced Vietnam from north to south, starting in Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh with stops in Hue, Khe San, P’rao, Hoi An, and Nha Trang.
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city are the capitals of the north and south and were the bookends of our trip. I think these cities still possess a lot of their history and cultural roots, while being influenced by a surgence of motorized vehicles, tourism and KFC. These cities are flooded with motorcycles that obviously follow the mantra of organized chaos. The street can appear to be a one way street until your taxi or bus has to turn down it and then you realize that lanes actually run both ways depending on the traffic light. The tour guides speak with Aussie accents and say “mate”, the menus have pizza and pasta dishes, and everywhere you look there is another hotel. KFC is the only foreign restaurant that we saw in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.
From Hanoi, we took our first overnight train. It was a Livitrain which are the “luxury” trains of the route. That means you get a bottle of water and a cup of noodles in the morning, you are guaranteed air conditioning and the sheets were slightly nicer, it also means only foreigners pay the extra fees to be on it. This was our longest overnight ride starting at 7pm and ending at nearly 8am the next morning. Ed and I took the upper bunks, we chatted with our fellow passengers, a guy from England and a lady from France, both traveling on their own; until it was time to sleep. It was a little difficult at the beginning and I woke up each time the train stopped at a station, eventually I got the hang of it for a not so restful sleep. This train ride was the first of three so the experience was still intriguing and even slightly enjoyable, this can not be said for the other 2 rides.
Getting to Hue by train seemed like a mission accomplished and being picked up by Hieu and Ngoc our motorcycle tour guides was the icing on the cake! We would spend 5 days with them exploring a more local view of inner Vietnam. I really enjoyed the tour more than I thought I would, we got a private history lesson about the war and Vietnamese culture from Hieu, we shared meals at local spots, and to see Vietnam at the same level as the locals and not from a tour bus. Even though my butt was in need of a rest by the ended of it, I missed seeing them in the morning the next day.
When we arrived in Hoi An, I was excited to get to tour around on our own and by foot. We stayed for 5 days, the longest leg of our trip for the anticipated custom tailor shops. There are nearly 600 custom tailors in Hoi An and each one is distinct and the identical to the shop next door at the same time. I liked Hoi An the most, it was a relaxing pit stop in our trek from north to south and it was a good mixture of traditional architecture, local food spots, folk customs and shopping!
From Hoi An, we took the train to Nha Trang for a 2 day retreat from doing anything. We stayed in a beautiful resort on the beach and did nothing but work on our tans. And by pure coincidence ended up bumping into Ed’s cousin by marriage, they haven’t seen each other since they were kids.
And for the third time, we took the train to Ho Chi Minh city. This ride was the shortest, but the anticipation and my imagination made waiting for it very stressful and the delay made it almost unbearable, but we made it. By this point, we were fairly travelled out and the weather had heated up to the 30’s, so I think as a result HCMC has left the least lasting impression on me. I did however enjoy the market where we got quite a few souvenirs and I practiced my bargaining techniques.
Lessons learned from this trip:
1. In bigger cities, trust the hotel chains that have 4 or 5 hotels in the city, they know what they are doing.
2. Don’t always trust tripadvisor reviews.
3. Taking the train for the experience is fun, but then after that fly.
4. Good tour guides make all the difference.
I really enjoyed our getaway to Vietnam. Vietnam is a country shaped by war, there is history, tragedy, and reunification that bonds and divides the country. I learned a lot about the American War.
Jenn
