Hike, Bike, Kayak (& Eat)
This blog is a summary of an amazing 10 day adventure through the heart of Vietnam. My boyfriend (Dale) and I joined a G-Adventures Tour named Hike, Bike & Kayak, which helped us to maximise our time spent in this diverse country.
Day One
Arrived into Ho Chi Minh City at around 5.40am. Very smooth flight from Heathrow with Vietnam Airlines. Passport control only about a 20 minute queue. Taxi booths just outside in arrival lounge- probably opportunity to haggle for price however we accepted first offer (approx £12) – was very much looking forward to checking in, showering and getting some sleep! Would recommend picking up a cheap sim card at the airport to allow you reasonably priced data usage if required.
We stayed at Rang Dong Hotel which was very comfortable. We booked the hotel from the night before so we could check in early. We were in bed at 7am and slept until 10.15am.
After a shower we headed out to explore Ho Chi Minh City! First observation – the amount of scooters. I have since learnt that there are nearly 10 million people living in HCMC and on average there are 2-3 scooters for every person! Currently there is also no metro system. We took a short diversion though the colourful bustling Ben Thanh Market – with our destination being the Bitexco Financial Tower. You take the lift up to level 49, where we saw a spectacular view of the city. You could see buildings as far as the eye could see (city fog only allowed you to see so far). An absolute favourite for us – finding somewhere with a view. Free bottle of water too!
Then we headed somewhere to find lunch. We tried to find somewhere that had other people eating – we came across Ganh Cha. Here we shared a bowl called ‘Bun dau quan ganh’ – with chunks of noodle, pork (in three different ways) and tofu with a dipping sauce. Great start to our Vietnam food adventure.
Next was a short recommended walk from the guide book around some of the main city attractions, Municipal Theatre (Opera House), People’s Committee Building, Notre Dame Cathedral and Central Post Office. Walk nice and short and a must if you have a short amount of time in the city. The Notre Dame was unfortunately covered in scaffolding and apparently will be until 2027. We also walked down quaint ‘book street’ full of cafes and book stores.
We noticed a number of girls and women in traditional dress having pictures at various points around the city. I have since learnt that around Vietnamese New Year it is tradition for women to dress up in ‘ao dai’ and have pictures taken with flowers representing that New Yea r- mainly to post on social media! We saw them at nearly every place we visited for the remainder of the trip.
We then took a good 30 minute walk to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which is a Buddhist Temple, honoring the King of all Heavens Ngoc Hoangor (AKA Jade Emperor). Impressions – quite a weird place full of different rooms with papier-mache statues of Buddhist or Taoist deities. Clearly very important to local people who were praying around the pagoda.
After the 30 minute walk back through the most humid part of the day (avoiding 100s of scooters), we were in desperate need of a beer. Eventually Dale spotted a food market which had a retractable roof and some cool music/vibes. The best part? Two cups of Saigon Beer for £3.90. It would have been rude not to have had a second!
Back to the hotel for the second shower of the day! Then down to meet our tour group that we would be travelling with for our G-Adventures tour. Lya was our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) and is from Vietnam. Interestingly, she was telling us that the role of many women in Vietnam is (once married) to look after her husband/husbands family and children. Most of her cousins are married. However she wanted something different and now runs various tours for G-Adventures.
Then other people on the tour were couples, Alison and Andrew, Deidre and Ian, single travellers Imogen and Laura. After a quick icebreaker followed by a breakdown of the tour and do’s and dont’s – we headed out to a local restaurant called Den Long. It was already really useful having Lya to help/advise/translate and she reassured us that she only went to restaurants of the best quality. She recommended having the coconut juice which was actually served in a fresh coconut. Dale and I shared grilled pork ribs, spring rolls and rice paper prawn rolls and grilled chicken with five spices. Delicious and was only around £10 per head.
Day Two
The official first day of our tour started with a 6.15am alarm! Breakfast choices were very varied. There was a choice of cornflakes (my choice) or rice with chicken (Dale’s choice). The most common breakfast people in Vietnam eat is noodle soup so this is now on my list to try.
We were checked out and on a bus by 7.30am, to tackle the rush hour of scooters heading in all directions in the city. Within an hour we were out of the city centre heading to the district of Cu Chi.
We joined our bike scout who took us on a bike tour through Southern Vietnam countryside. A significant contrast from the city – rural Vietnam is beautiful. We saw chilli fields, sugar canes being harvested, rubber latex trees being foraged. We stopped to see a team of people harvesting the latex, they cut the tree and leave buckets for the latex to drain into. Someone then tests the quality by heating a sample of the latex over a burner to tell how much water it has in it. This then dictates how much the worker gets paid.
We also stopped in a factory to see rice paper being made. Rice flour is mixed with water and at a very high heat is drained onto large sheet. The sheets are taken out to dry in the heat (in the hot sun left out for about 1.5 hours) and then brought back inside. Then a team of two people peel the sheet of rice paper off. The rice paper then is cut to size and packaged ready for sale (for example rice paper is used in vegetable rolls).
Our final destination (17km ride) was Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were a key part of Guerrilla warfare during the Vietnam War, they extend for over 125 miles, dug by local people. You are able to go into some of the tunnels to experience how tight and cramped they were, with lots of examples of booby traps that were left for the American Soldiers. Very interesting – finished with a buffet style lunch of rice, fish, chicken, spring rolls, soup and watermelon in one of the on-site restaurants.
The rest of our first day was spent travelling to the airport then off to Hoi An. We grabbed a sandwich on the way from the airport to Hoi An but Dale got a chicken floss sponge, three words Dale never thought he would say together.
Checking into the TTC hotel we were very excited to see a pool. Dale and I headed to a bar called Homies Craft Beer, we sat on tiny little seats outside on the street listening to very loud music, watching the world go by – and of course drinking very delicious ‘3 Dragons’ draft beer, from the local 7 Bridges Brewery.
Day Three
Wow! What a jammed pack day. Plus, it rained all day but this certainly didn’t stop us!
For breakfast both Dale and I had noodle soup, a traditional breakfast for Vietnamese. I enjoyed it, very flavoursome, I didn’t eat the beef though (way too early for beef)!
An early 7.45am start, we walked down into the old town and did a short walking tour. We went to Heritage House, which is an 18th century traditional house. Here we had a short explanation of the house with some of its features, including a very old cup with a hole in the bottom, that if filled up to 80% didn’t leak. However, if 100% full, the liquid then fully drained out. Then they quoted Dale’s wisdom; “everything in moderation”.
We then went to Cantonese Assembly Hall, built by seafaring merchants in 1786, which had alters dedicated to Quan Cong (identifiable by his red face) and were encouraged to make a wish. There was also a big dragon in the garden.
Next we visited a tailoring shop (one of many in Hoi An) called Yaly Couture. This was a fascinating place, over 100 people working upstairs in the shop making clothing orders within a day for customers. You could pretty much create anything you wanted and have it made. I could have spent all day deciding what to have but we had an hour in the shop so we both had to make a quick decision. I went for a dress with a Vietnamese inspired neckline and some thick black/blue/purple/gold material. Dale went for a auburn suit with a pink lining. They took body measurements and then we had to return for a fitting later that day.
We then got an e-taxi in the form of a small bus (we sat facing backwards) to a cooking class called Oodles for noodles (at Noodle House by Streets). This is a charity that helps homeless young people by putting them through hospitality college. Our cooking class was ran by 4 different young people. We first had a demonstration that Dale volunteered to do. The ingredients are rice and water which you leave to soak for 5 hours. Once in liquid form you spoon onto cloth using a coconut ladle, this cloth sitting over a steaming machine. You put a lid over it to cook. Then, using a bamboo stick, which you dip in the hot water first, you run under the noodle disc to lift it up and transfer. You can eat the noodle in this form, or you can put it through a cutter to create different styles of noodles. We all had a turn, every time counting in Vietnamese 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ready (nam, buhn, ba, hai, mot, san sang). We ate the noodle smashed up with a cracker with some dips (one dip was fermented shrimp and anchovy, NOT to my liking but to Dales). We then got served a delicious lunch of noodles, beef, quail eggs and veg (Mi Quang).
Next, we were onto our cycle tour. Still fully kitted out in waterproofs, we did a 16km ride through Hoi An’s suburbs, onto the rice fields, and along the river to the coast. We stopped halfway for tea, dried coconut crisps and watched a performance of a man in a coconut boat, which he spins round and round, up and down really fast. He was simultaneously dancing to Gagnam Style.
We stopped off along the way, to a vegetable garden (which my Dad would have enjoyed). It was basically a big patch of allotments where all sorts of herbs, salad and vegetables are grown. The older generation work here and the food goes straight to the market. The workers wore traditional triangle hats and no shoes or socks on the bare dirt. We smelled and tried different herbs including fish mint and lemon basil!
The next stop was the beach. When reading through the itinerary I had this picture of Dale and I resting at the beach for the afternoon and swimming/sunbathing. The reality was very different! Extremely windy, raining and huge waves with ‘no swimming signs’. We then biked back to the hotel.
After a very quick swim in the pool and shower, we headed back to Yaly Couture for our fitting. Wow! The old city was now packed with tourists (all hiding under umbrellas and ponchos). The Tailors was also a different experience, with people trying on clothes. Both Dale and I tried on our garments, mine needed quite a bit taking out of the waist. Dale’s some taken out of the sleeves. We then left after being informed the garments would be delivered to our hotel.
We went out for dinner at Hong Phuc 2, we had a great table on the second floor overlooking the river. Hoi An is famous for all its lanterns and we had a spectacular view of everything lit up. We had a bucket mojito cocktail (I had two buckets) and a set menu including a tasty white fish/chicken main. After dinner Dale and I took a boat for 20 minutes on the river, you get to light a candle lantern and float it on the river. All the boats have lanterns and the river looks beautiful lit up. We finished our night at a sky bar overlooking the city. And had a game of table football, where I ‘beat’ Dale, apparently in a ‘non-ethical’ way. A wet walk back to the hotel and bed.
Day Four
After a 7am wake up call (our tour guide asked for a wake up call for her but after some confusion the whole tour group got the wake up call) we headed to breakfast. We were leaving on a bus at 9am to head north. As we drove through Danang there were lots of big Chinese and Korean hotels. Our tour guide explained that it is common for wealthy Korean/Chinese people to come over for a 4 day holiday to these big luxurious hotels. They usually spend 2 days playing golf, 1 day in the amusement park and 1 day in Hoi An. As we entered the city of Danang she further explained that a lot of Korean businessman/women own coffee shops in Danang and it is common for them to hire/pay Vietnamese people very poorly.
Our tour guide lives in Danang. She said it has access to everything, beach, mountains plus it is not too busy of a city. We only drove through, however it has an impressive Dragon Bridge over Han river (a bridge that at weekends breaths fire and water). We then started the climb up to Hai Von Pass on the Truong Son Range. This had spectacular views back over Danang and the surrounding countryside and villages. We were very impressed by the cyclists taking on the hill climb. Some groups of cyclists had there own motorbike support carrying spare wheels etc. Dale’s comment – over my dead body! We stopped at a cute cafe at the top to admire the view and we had a hot chocolate. We then continued to travel through the Vietnamese countryside to Hue.
On arrival at Hue we left the luggage at our Asia Hotel and headed across the road for lunch at Golden Rice. Here they had a massive dragon carved out of multiple large carrots. Both Dale and I had pork ribs in a sticky sesame sauce which was really tasty.
We then headed off for our motorbike tour. Our main tour guide for this was Von (Von 008, not Bond 007 as he suggested). He was very witty. We all paired up with our motorbike driver and then took the bikes through the city to various destinations. The first one was a rice museum and Thanh Toan Bridge (Japanese Bridge). In the rice factory we had a demonstration of picking rice, sieving rice, grinding rice into rice powder and polishing brown rice into white. Also there was a moment where Dale had to pretend to be a buffalo and was whipped by the elderly women doing the demonstration (very amusing).
We then stopped at some old America war turrets that over looked Perfume river – with a short stop at an incense store for green tea and spicy ginger crisps.
Next, onto the Royal Arena, which was where the King used to have tigers vs elephants fights. The elephant was seen as the strong animal representing the king however the fights were fixed and tigers would have their teeth and claws clipped. We randomly had photos pretending to fly broomsticks here not sure on the tenuous link!
Last stop was back in the city at Bao Quoc Pagoda – a school for Buddhist monks – with the highly rated Thien Mu Pagoda. Although raining, the motorbike tour was fantastic, even if the roads are pretty chaotic with scooters vs cars vs pedestrians, we felt safe at all times.
After a quick splash in the freezing roof top pool, we headed out to dinner. We went to a pancake restaurant (Madam Thu) and had the set menu to try all the different types of pancake. We had stuffed rice pancakes, grilled pork wrapped in rice paper, grilled chopped pork pancake, nam cake, beo cake, loc cake and sticky rice cake, deep fried spring rolls and mixed meat shrimp salad rolls. Then fresh fruit for afters (Dale hadn’t had enough pancakes so finished with a banana and chocolate pancake). The pancakes are VERY different to the UK but very interesting to try it all. As we had had a super busy day, an early night was in order.
Day Five
Day five was another early start and it was nice to have some cornflakes for breakfast (not noodles). Our tour guide today was called Tu. We were on the bikes at 7.30. Our bike tour went through the main street of Dong Ba market, which is a massive local market selling every fresh fruit and vegetable local to Vietnam.
We then headed to the Forbidden City. This city was built by the Emperor in 1802 and has Chinese influence. Within huge walls are palaces, gardens, library, theatre, temples and pavilions. 60% was destroyed during the war however ongoing work is bringing it back to restoration. Being in so early was ideal as we were the only tourist group in the grounds and felt like we had the place to ourselves. In the gardens were many types of Bonsai tree.
The cycle tour then went slightly uphill out of the city centre to the tomb of Tuc Duc – an Emperor who ruled in 1848-1883. His tomb was surrounded by lakes and lots of frangipani trees. There was also a big stone scribe that had a story written in mandarin by the Emperor himself before he died. He was buried with his treasure then everyone who knew his location of his burial was executed to prevent the treasures being stolen.
We then biked back to the hotel. After a quick shower and change we headed out for another set menu lunch, this time at a vegetarian restaurant (Lien Hoa). We had a vegetable casserole with tofu style dumplings, soup, spring rolls, figs (more of a mushroom flaky vegetable) with sesame crackers and a vegetarian rice dish. Followed by some very different multicoloured jelly with a mousey caramel bottom, made with pandan leaf and coconut juice!
We then went to a cafe called Cong where we had coconut milk iced drink with cocoa. The recommendation was to have the coconut coffee however as Dale and I don’t drink the coffee we had the cocoa instead. Back to the hotel and bus to the sleeper train!
Our train set off at 15.40 and is a sleeper 13 hour train (on Dale’s bucket list). We had a cabin for four people and shared with Dierdre and Ian, Dierdre and I on the top bunks)!
We had got some noodles before we got on the train, so we ate around 7pm. I read my book until 9pm and then was the last to head off to sleep by 9.15pm. The cabin was cold however I wrapped up in two jumpers with a blanket. I managed to sleep on and off, turning every half hour to try and stay comfortable.
Day Six
I woke around 5.15am and at that point I had got really cold. It was colder on the top bunks as they were near to the fresh air vent. However the train arrived around 5.40am so we packed up our stuff and headed out!
We had a bus waiting to take us to breakfast. After a chilly two hour ride (all of us cold from the train) we stopped to have beef noodles for breakfast and I had as close as I could get to a breakfast tea.
We then started to head up into the mountains. Here the scenery was a lot more green, still lots of rice fields but lots of trees and tropical plants. We soon started driving through villages with a mixture of buildings but some pretty narrow tall houses all shadowed by tall rocky hills, in which you could just make out the peaks through the mist of the cloud.
We eventually pulled into the village where we were going to stay for the night- homestay 03-Hung Tu in Mai Chau. The building was on three levels. At the bottom with views over the rice fields and mountains were 3 bathrooms. In these bathrooms they have a sink/toilet but the sink also had a shower head attached so you could also use them as a shower. Then second level which you entered from the road were two big dining spaces. Then the top level, which was like a large wooden hut on stilts was the sleeping area. We would all be sleeping in the same room, on foam mats on the ground, under mosquito nets!
We were still fairly cold on arrival so we sat around a fire pit. We were served a lovely buffet lunch at 11.30am which came out all together on big serving dishes. There was grilled chicken thighs, pork meatballs, sliced cucumber and sliced su su (like a cucumber veg), with fried spring rolls. We also had sliced pineapple.
After some free time we headed out on a hike which we were all really looking forward to so we could warm up. We headed out over the rice fields, the homestay family dog who’s name translated into ‘black ink’ followed us for most the way over the rice fields. We then started to head towards the hills. We saw lots of different types of fruit, including egg fruit, figs (different than the UK), bananas, a small type of tao tau (like a tiny apple) and jack fruit. We also saw more traditional village housing made from wood and bamboo, with a downstairs area for chickens and an upstairs area for living.
As we started the climb into the jungle area of the hills we all warmed up significantly. There were lots of varieties of plant and tree and it felt very tropical. We walked over a hill and then down into another local village, where we saw locals going about their everyday business. The locals seemed very friendly and the children wanting to say hello in English. We then walked into another village that a lot of Vietnamese Home Stays were being built, these were a lot less traditional and more luxurious – it is becoming more popular for Vietnamese to go to the area but stay in higher quality accommodation.
We walked back into Mai Chau through the small market area and back to the homestay. After a quick washroom in the sink shower (either really hot or freezing cold) Dale and I walked to the Sunset Bar. Here we drank the local Hanoi beer and looked over the rice fields and mountains. The staff built a fire pit for us to keep warm.
We returned to the homestay for another lovely dinner. Once again served on big platters and the food was fried chicken, fish, spring rolls, rice and a vegetable soup. Then mandarins for dessert. We then had a traditional performance from a White Thai dance group – who are skilled at using natural materials to craft instruments that create rhythms. The show featured live folk music and dancers in full ethnic dress. Each dance there was a theme. Some were with fans, scarfs, pom poms… at the end they did a bamboo dance and we all had to get up and dance in time to the movement of the bamboo sticks. If you mis-timed it you were caught and tripped (we did have one man down). The evening ended up with drinking traditional rice wine. We were then in bed by 9.15pm and once under the double blankets you soon got warm. The area was surrounded by Cockerels so I was very glad of earplugs.
Day Seven
Our day at the homestay started with getting up and just keeping the same clothes on that I slept in overnight! Breakfast was a fresh bread roll, Dairy Lee cream cheese, jam and an egg. I had one side of the roll with the egg and cheese and the other side with jam and cheese.
On the road again by 8am heading back towards Hanoi. Half way through the journey we stopped at Cafe Vuon Hong – a lovely quaint cafe with an outside area filled with roses.
We then headed into the capital city – Hanoi. This translates to inner river – it is now the Capital City of Vietnam (not the original capital city). There are lots of narrow tall houses due to people having to pay less tax and 36 different streets (‘shoe street’, ‘bamboo street’) selling the same thing. Some of these streets are temporary and change content depending on current requirements and time of year. It has a population of 8,500,000 people. Traffic is heavy and equally as chaotic as Ho Chi Mihn. The city has an old quarter and a French quarter where the French came over in 19th century and tore down old parts of the city to replace with more modern European structures.
We went to our hotel Thein Thai to leave our luggage. Then we went to lunch at Hanoi Food Culture. Here we had an amazing lunch of BBQ beef, pork and chicken skewers. The meat was chunky and tender. After lunch we headed onto a bike tour. Our tour guide ‘David’ led us away from the very busy, chaotic centre over the Long Bien Bridge. We then headed South to a large area of government owned mostly banana and guava plantations, but with other veg, fruit and flowers in between. This part was really enjoyable to bike in very calm and tranquil. After a short visit to a temple, we headed back into the chaotic city.
At this point it is was busier than ever, heading into rush hour. Our tour guide said it was even busier due to Vietnam approaching its main holiday (New Year) which follows the lunar calendar. Families have a week off (or more) and set up an altar to invite their dead ancestors to come back from the after life to eat and spend time with you. The cherry blossom tree and kumquat tree are the most common type of tree to represent the New Year holiday and you hang money on these. We saw lots of shops selling these trees and lots of scooters transporting them. The main colours for decorations are red and yellow, and we saw large posters, decorations and flowers in these colours all over the city. Red is lucky and yellow is prosperity. Different fruits have differing meanings and they put these on the alters for their New Year ritual. Traditional for New Year eve is to be at home and pray, and watch a TV show that sums up the year by comedians who dress in Vietnamese dress. However, due to Western influence, some families now choose to go out to restaurants. Families often have people fly home for the holidays as quite often people will travel to places such as China to work in factories.
After surviving our final bike ride of the tour we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before joining another food tour. Our guide’s name was ‘Queen’ and she worked for the company Insight Tours Hanoi. She took us through the lively busy old quarter, along the roads with the weekend night market, through some of the shopping streets including a haberdashery street with zips, buttons etc.. and a paper street which all the shops were currently selling New Year decorations.
We had the following food:
1. Quang An from Banh Cuon Nong. This was a place where the lady was in her 70’s and had been making rice pancakes in the shop for years. We had chicken filled rice pancakes which were dipped in a pork broth; you added salt and pepper, chilli lime and herbs to your liking.
2. Pho – 32 Bat Dan for Pho! Here we all sat on the little Vietnamese tables and ate beef noodles with veg. We learnt that the restaurants often had small plastic tables/chairs, not only because it was cheap but because it is illegal to set up on the pavement so if the Police came, the restaurants could quickly stash everything away.
3. Bia Bon for Vietnoi local beer – we stopped at one of the many bars serving this local beer. Here we saw the Police come along and all the chairs and tables get removed, then almost immediately after they passed, everything got set back out.
4. Kem Xoi 93 Hang Bac Street – here we had a very different ice cream. The green rice on the bottom was flavoured with pineapple leaves. Then there was a coconut ice cream with coconut shavings on the top with nuts. Delicious.
5. Long Hoi for Banh Mi – a French influenced sandwich which we took away and ate in the following coffee shop. The sandwich we had was Banh Mi Hanh Phuc, which in the shop translated to Vietnamese meatball, charsiu, pate with herbs.
6. Hanoi Coffee Culture for egg coffee. Here we had a demonstration of how to make egg coffee, originally introduced as milk was too expensive but eggs were plenty. They whipped egg yolk, brown sugar, caramel, honey and rum together then topped the froth onto the coffee. Not a big lover of coffee, but I really enjoyed it!
Wow! What a food tour whirlwind of Hanoi! The tour guide then walked as back to the hotel where I gladly went to bed after yet another busy day.
Day Eight
After an early breakfast we left the hotel by 8am. We had a four hour bus journey to Halong Bay. Hanoi seemed to go on forever but slowly it did get more rural. We passed through many towns and cities. The driver of the bus got pulled over for speeding. Our tour guide informed us that nearer to the New Year holiday more Police will be out of the roads fining people to make money for themselves for the holiday. We are not sure how much the driver had to pay the Police.
Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ha Long means descending dragon – the legend is that the dragon plunged into the Gulf of Tonkin and created the islets and rock formations. It covers 1500sq km and has more than 2,000 limestone pinnacle shaped rock formations, the product of selective erosion over the years.
When we got to Halong Bay it was a strange town, a lot of empty buildings which we later had explained to us that they were started before Covid and then abandoned. We got to the harbour area where there were a number of tourists and a lot of small boats taking people out to bigger boats. We joined them.
We put on life jackets on a small boat and were taken to our bigger boat named Bien Ngoc 12. We were welcomed by the crew on board with a hot towel and a juice (and my gosh it was hot, I couldn’t actually hold it, I had to swap it from hand to hand until it cooled). The boat had a main inside dining area with a couple of rooms. Then you could go up to the top deck which had seating or down to the bottom deck, where our bedrooms were located. We all had our own rooms and bathrooms which were very nice.
We sailed further in the bay, away from the mainland and first visited a view point, Dao Titop. This limestone structure was large, it had its own beach and you could walk up about 400 steps to a viewpoint right at the top. Our tour guide walks extremely fast and it was fair to say we were all out of breath once we reached the top! This was a very touristic part of the Bay – we saw a group of 5 girls dressed in Mamma Mia outfits doing a tic-toc video.
After a tremendous lunch (including stuffed crab) we then sailed further out to a more remote part of the bay. It was a pearl farm which also supplied kayaks. This part of the bay was a lot quieter, we were the only group apart from two other kayaks using the area. We could kayak around a big loop and go into some coves/beach areas. There were some fish, coral and flying fish, also eagle type birds of prey swooping over the high limestone structures.
We then headed back to our boat and sailed to a part of the bay where all the overnight boats moor up. The showers in the room were lovely, warm and powerful which surprised us for a boat. We had a quick shower and then played the dice game, Farkle, before having dinner.
Dinner was amazing. Fresh prawns, stuffed oyster shells, squid soup, fish, chicken, lovely vegetables. We all felt the the quality of the food was amazing – so fresh. After dinner we played card games and Farkle again. The cabin had heating and was warm when we went to bed, the beds were very comfortable.
Day Nine
An early start for breakfast at 7am; eggs toast and jam. We then headed to Hang Sung Sot, a big cave within one of the limestone rock structures. Within an hour we were back on the boat. We checked out and after some free time we had lunch (at 10:30)! Again, lunch on the boat was incredible, we had a pork and mushroom dish, fried catfish in a lemon sauce, rice and veg. None of us felt hungry but we nearly ate everything on the table it was so delicious. We said goodbye to our lovely crew and then we were off on our way back to Hanoi.
After dumping our bags at the same hotel as previous (Thien Thai), we headed out to Train Street. This street is full of cafes either side of a railway line. About half an hour before a train is due the cafe owners take you to a seat. I ordered a yummy mango smoothie whilst waiting for the train. About 2 minutes before it’s arrival a man on a motorbike came biking down warning the cafe owners, who started to ensure all tables/chairs/tourists were far enough away from the tracks. Then you start to hear the honking of the train horn as it slowly approached the street. When it comes past you it is within touching distance. There is absolutely no way that would ever be allowed in the UK. Very fun!
Dale and I then headed to Hoan Kiem Lake for a 5km run. This is a very central city lake. To reach 5km we had to run around it 3 times, dodging in and out of people, different groups of locals and tourists group. The sun almost came out behind the clouds, but it remained a cool day. Our walk back to the hotel included a bit of souvenir shopping whilst dodging in and out of the heavy traffic and scooter madness.
Our farewell dinner was at Vi Ha Noi which was on the same street as the hotel. Again another fantastic restaurant and spring rolls were followed by duck breast for me and chicken curry for Dale, then sticky rice pudding. Although the thought of after dinner drinks was appealing once again the tour group were shattered after a busy day and after goodbyes headed off to bed.
Day Ten
Our final day in Vietnam had come! It was the only day on the whole trip where we hadn’t got up before 7am – which although felt good we felt a bit lost without Lya telling us what to do!
After breakfast Dale and I headed down into the Old Town – both with our own agenda. Dale’s was to get a tattoo of a Buffalo at a recommended 1984 tattoo studio. Mine was to head to Serene Spa where I had booked a 60 minute deep muscular therapy massage. I booked the night before and was skeptical whether the booking had been processed. But within 10 minutes of arrival someone was ready to take me for my massage. The whole experience at the spa was exactly what I needed after 9 days of a jam packed, full on, hectic trip! Very relaxing and extremely professional (all for £19)!
After a quick shower and check out, Dale had picked up some Bahn Mi from Bubble. We walked to the West Lake to eat them, continuing onto the Botanical Gardens where we paid a small fee to enter – stopping for a smoothie at Cafe Bach Thao.
No rest for the wicked – we ventured onto the Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. This seemed to be within a secured complex which also housed the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the One Pillar Pagoda. We saw both the Mausoleum and the Pagoda – the area seemed to be preparing for New Year celebrations with giant flower pots being planted with red and yellow flowers.
Next on our day of sightseeing agenda was the Temple of Literature. This is a pretty temple which served as a university – with gardens, courtyards and temple buildings, one which housed stone steles mounted on giant tortoises, inscribed with details of scholars who once passed through university. Well worth a visit but very busy in the afternoon.
After a well needed drinks/rest stop at Cafe Cong we did a bit of souvenir shopping. Then we went up the Lighthouse Sky Bar at dusk to watch the city slower fade away, whilst enjoying some happy hour drinks!
Dale and I would highly recommend both this organised tour and travelling in Vietnam. If you are looking for a taste of the whole country, history, city life and amazing food this adventure is for you. If I was to plan a second trip to Vietnam I would aim to either have more of a water activity based adventure in the Mekong Delta, visit more rural destinations to hike (Sapa), or go for a relaxing beach holiday (Da Nang or Nha Trang).