Xin Chao

There's quite a bit that I could write about our trip to Vietnam, but I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves; do take a look, here. Use the link in the smaller print to sign in as a guest, and don't forget to choose to view the captions.

It was a slightly different holiday than our usual December jaunts--I tend to crave warmth and relaxation at the end of the year, a treat at the end of what is usually a productive but tiring work year. It's also usually a good time to get away from the cold British weather, though in my opinion it's been a very mild autumn. 

Vietnam certainly brought warmer temperatures--when we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City it was in the mid-80s--and we did carve out some days of our two-week trek to spend on the beach. But it was going to be more of a city adventure, as we planned to travel from Saigon in the south to the central part of the country and Hue and Hoi An, and then end the trip with a few days in the capital, Hanoi. 

And an adventure it was! From the moment we stepped off the pavement and into a mass of roaring motorbikes until our sail amid the limestone islands of Halong Bay, it was unlike any other country, any other holiday Tim and I have had together. Saigon is vibrant, noisy, filled with neon. The sidewalks are crowded with parked motorbikes and street food vendors and their customers, perched on colourful, low plastic stools drinking coffee or eating bun cha, pho, or whatever else can be stirred up in a pot that only hours before had been carted, often on shoulder baskets, to that corner. The sidewalks are broken, unfinished in some places and sometimes simply difficult to traverse, though walking in the street doesn't feel much safer! We managed well to take the advice of previous visitors and wait for a gap in the traffic and simply walk on to cross the road where there was no traffic light, which is most--motorbikes and push bikes easily dart around you, and with so much traffic the cars (which are less plentiful in Saigon than bikes) are barely moving at 20 mph, enough time to give you clearance as you cross the road. After the first several crossings Tim and I gained a bit of courage and then never hesitated midstream.

Saigon is not a late night mecca; we found ourselves often the only Westerners walking after 8 or 9 pm, and while shops were open in the evening as we returned from dinner somewhere in town, there wasn't much activity. One of the guides we had during our trip said that many Vietnamese have several jobs, and so there is not much time left for play. We spent most days out looking at historic sites, strolling through the markets, or simply walking (though often with a destination). Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now known, has so much to see and is quite lovely, and we stayed at a brand-new hotel that was swanky, hip and centrally located to it all.

The food. I am always game to try to the local cuisine, and while I've had a few nights at the well-known chain Pho here in London, my knowledge of Vietnamese food before the journey was limited to that--spring rolls and large bowls of soup with noodles and beef, pork, or seafood. What we discovered was a mix of stir fry dishes, steamed fish and vegetables, and the wonderfully fresh spring rolls bursting with aromatic greens, pork or shrimp, vermicelli, and bits of star fruit and dried banana rolled into a crisp rice paper and dipped into a chili sauce. We tried to always stick to a recommendation for dining--while I'm game to try "street food," I'll admit I took the coward's way out and ate at two or three more stylish street food restaurants, where the stalls were in plain sight but you sat on substantial chairs and felt a bit more confident in the ingredients. We occasionally found ourselves in places where the clientele was decidedly Western rather than Asian, and where you could just as easily get prawn in chili sauce or chicken saltimbocca, though overall we did well to immerse ourselves in the local cuisine and tuck into delicious prawns, pork, or beef with rice. We only had one so-so meal the entire journey; a restaurant we'd chosen was no longer there, replaced by one that had a nice enough menu and so we decided to give it a go. Alas the duck turned out to be almost inedible--poorly chopped and tough--and while the chicken in bamboo tube was nice enough, much of it was a bit dry. My favourite dish (next to the fresh spring rolls) was probably the bun cha, where vermicelli, pork, and fresh greens are served with a bowl of delicate fish sauce for you to toss in the ingredients and enjoy. Breakfasts were decidedly Western--I did have dim sum, roasted pumpkin and even a grilled mackerel in the first couple of days, but then decided to switch to muesli, brown bread and fresh fruit for the rest of the trip. The best food choices overall seemed to be in Hoi An, where the old town had several restaurants to choose from, some along the water with lovely views.

I was surprised to learn that coffee is one of the chief exports from Vietnam--behind rice, rubber, cashews, seafood, and pepper--probably because I've never seen Vietnamese coffee in England (or in America, for that matter). I'll admit I didn't like the coffee much--when iced it was good, but first thing in the morning with a bit of milk it tasted too strong and slightly oily. When you order a Vietnamese coffee it is served with a bit of syrupy sugar at the bottom of the cup, with just an inch of coffee on top, much like a Turkish coffee. An acquired taste, I think!

I did enjoy central Vietnam for its slightly quieter pace, its colourful shops and pretty beaches, and its more relaxed atmosphere. I expected the beach to be a bit wider, more breathtaking, and perhaps more commercial; it was lovely, but honestly I'd been to more beautiful places. When we exited the taxi at An Bang we were greeted by a woman who was unhelpful when we asked for a particular place--she had her own place and wasn't going to help us find any other--and in the end we just decided to park on her slice of the beach under an umbrella and have lunch there. The food was fine--stir fried noodles with pork and vegetables served on garish plastic plates, and the food was tasty and filling. We were repeatedly visited by hawkers--the jewelry girl, the sunglasses gent, the old woman selling peanuts, the disabled man selling the Vietnam News--you get the gist. I learned to say "no, thank you" quite a lot in Vietnam! Tim did buy me a necklace made from coconut shell from one young female vendor, and we bought cheap key chains of Vietnamese girls to turn into Christmas ornaments from another. 

As a birthday gift Tim insisted on marching me into a shop in Hoi An, where tailoring and made-to-measure clothing is all the rage, to buy me a dress. I resisted initially, but Tim can be as persistent as those local shop vendors, and in the end I agreed to a sleeveless silk dress of a particularly lovely dark green for Christmas. It was fun to have these tiny women--seems to me most Vietnamese females are barely five feet and small-boned--fussing over the measurements and then at the fitting to get the dress just right. Of course it did mean visiting the shop a few times, but it was a short ride via taxi or shuttle from our hotel, and we managed to fit the trips in (including a fitting for a suit for Tim) in between beach and pool relaxing times.

We ended our journey in Hanoi, the capital. It is a smaller city than Saigon, but not without its own bustle. The old quarter is just mind-boggling--narrow streets of assorted shops, cafes, vendors, and a market, all teeming with motorbikes and cars competing for space. It's something that needs to be experienced to really be understood and appreciated. It's a bit grittier than the streets of HCMC, One day we happened to walk by a school as the children were getting out, and the sight was just wild--tens of five year olds pouring out, with mums on motorbikes idling on the sidewalk waiting to pick up their charges, and no room to walk anywhere. The traffic on the street was at a standstill, prompting many motorbikes to hop on to the sidewalk to get around the congestion. Some of the kids would look up and say "hello" and giggle and scurry away. I'm not sure how many Westerners they bump into!

The people of Vietnam can be friendly and helpful, but my lasting impression is that they are for the most part reserved and less inclined to give tourists a big smile and a "xin chao" (welcome) unless it's a vendor trying to coax you to buy something. I did like being addressed as "madame" anywhere we went, and we had wonderful guides to take us through pagodas and temples and tombs and places of interest, though we spend quite a bit of our journey finding our own way with the help of a Lonely Planet guidebook and the local map from the hotel we were staying at. We managed well to see the things we wanted to in our two-week sojourn; we'd thought about a cooking class or to see some water puppetry theatre--a Vietnamese original--but simply ran out of time and energy. I was glad that we ended our trip with a cruise along Halong Bay, one of the new natural wonders of the world. It was a misty, cool day, which certainly gave a different perspective to the limestone islands than what I'd seen in photographs. We had grey skies and low-hanging clouds that covered some of the taller formations, and that made for an atmospheric view. Truly lovely, and while it took us close to four hours to drive there from Hanoi, it was well worth the trek.

I said I'd keep it short and sweet, so I will. Enjoy the photos--do look at the captions--and I hope you get a flavour of our captivating journey into a bit of Asia that is beginning to become more popular. I'm glad we saw Vietnam before it becomes more of a destination--for now, even with a number of hotels and tourist sites, it still feels just a bit undiscovered.