Hanoi City Break & Halong Bay

A few days of chaos and relaxation

Recommended days	5
Budget	££
Difficulty	Medium

Hanoi City Break

This Hanoi city break was booked through Trailfinders as part of my if-we’re-flying-all-the-way-to-Japan-we-may-as-well-make-the-most-of-it mentaility. Landing in Hanoi was a very strange thing.

Just the name conjures up images of the war in the 60’s/70’s and seeing the immigration officials in NVA uniforms bought a twinge of fear as I remembered all the photos of the brutality of that war.

We went through immigration quickly enough and met our driver to take us to the hotel. The city seems a lot more rundown than the others we had visited recently and with the chaos of the driving, constant noise of car horns and ramshackle buildings it seemed closer to Delhi than Tokyo or Seoul. We checked in and dumped our stuff – we had a suite overlooking a park – and loads of space.

Deb had a sleep and I sorted the photos out from Seoul. A couple of hours later we headed out for a walk. The humidity was a killer, 85%, but I wanted to actually see some of the city so we walked to the American War Memorial for John McCain who was shot down in 1968 and then had a coffee nearby.

Deb stayed inside in the air conditioned cafe and I went out and took more pictures before we got taxi to Starbucks to get my mug and have another drink and then walked back to the hotel.

We only walked 3 miles but it was damned hot and sticky, noisy, smelly and just such hard work because of the total chaos. In Japan the state was all, here there is no sign of it and it seems utterly anarchic.

The number of scooters is incredible and they seem to be driven by 12 year olds who are then carrying dogs, kids, doors, AC units, their entire families, 46 blankets, you name it there will be a scooter carrying it.

There are no traffic laws here, red lights and zebra crossings are just there for the novelty. There are plenty of police but they just people watch, chat or play on their phones.

We got back to the hotel around 8 and decided to eat here rather than go out again after washing and changing our sodden clothing. We watched the lightning storm over a remarkably dark city. We have been spoiled with excellent 4G and free wifi elsewhere on our trip.

Here it was like moving to Somerset, 40 years behind the rest of the Western world! 4G was non existent and wifi, when available, was generally poor. It makes you realise how much you rely on it to plan where to go, how to get there, to navigate on the way and generally keep in touch. Without it your world shrinks massively!

The noise of the incessant horns woke us up around 5AM. 5 A bloody M! What kind of mentality thinks it’s ok to use the bloody horn non stop at that time of day?! We tried to doze but gave up and got up around 6. Breakfast at the hotel was an interesting fusion of western and Vietnamese dishes, but lots of options and I ate loads.

Hanoi City Break: Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum

Our walking tour of the old city started at 8 and Hui met us and took us by taxi to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. We then had to queue for about half an hour before shuffling past his embalmed body. What was amazing was the number of people there. Personally I’d have skipped it but it seems the number one place to visit for the Vietnamese, ranging from school parties to families to individuals.

Uncle Ho is still viewed with great affection here. Unlike China. We saw the buildings where he lived and died and the lake where he fed the fish. Always accompanied by several hundred Vietnamese schoolkids.

Hanoi City Break: Imperial University

From here we walked through the French quarter (large boulevards, nice if most definitely faded houses) to the Imperial University, founded in 1070. This large complex is divided into various courtyards and one of them contains the lists of all the people that passed the imperial bureaucracy exams every 3 years from 1470 something.

There is also a temple to Confucianism here and there were quite a few people praying and making offerings among the incense smoke. Next stop was lunch at a very pleasant little restaurant, although 5 courses may have been a tad excessive in this heat! After lunch Deb went back to the hotel as she was just too hot.

Hanoi City Break: Long Bien Bridge

Hui and I walked through a large market area, heading for the Long Bien bridge, built by the French in 1902. I was expecting something incredibly beautifully but it looks like it was made with spare parts from the Eiffel Tower. It also looks like 1902 was the last time anyone did any work on it. In places the metal has rusted to nothing, in others it is merely rusty. The concrete section for walking on had some gaps I could have put my foot through so it was quite an entertaining walk!

We crossed two sections of the red river and then took some steps down in to the banana fields. I am not sure why. As we got further and further from the bridge, walking along a narrow pathway between banana trees with no sign of anyone else I thought I was going to get mugged or murdered but after maybe 15 minutes we reached a dead end so just turned around and walked back.

Half an hour detour in the blazing sun for no reason. Very strange. Anyway we walked back across the bridge and through the old city back to the hotel. I had a most welcome soak in the bath then wrote my notes up and Deb slept for a few hours.

We weren’t sure where to go for dinner in the evening. The hotel food was ok but nothing exciting but we didn’t want to walk miles in the heat. The internet was absolutely pants so finding anywhere was difficult but we eventually got on to Trip Advisor and found a well rated place just across the square from the hotel.

Five minutes later we were inside, a courtyard restaurant covered in fairy lights and with more greenery than our garden. It turned out to be an excellent choice and a really nice end to our stay in Hanoi – 3 courses for me, 2 for Deb, plus drinks for only 1.2 million Won, maybe £37. Bargain. After that exertion I needed sleep, it’s 21:30 and we have to be up at 6 tomorrow to get sorted for Halong Bay.

Halong Bay

We woke early but had actually managed a decent sleep so that was good. We were at breakfast for 6.30 and then even Deb was ready for our collection at 7.45! The drive to Halong Bay took around 4 hours, the roads were shall we say, varied.

Some parts were almost new but then the driver would have to swerve because there was a pile of kerb stones in the carriageway. Driving standards were abysmal as expected.

Some of the houses we passed were incredible – little mini Italianate palaces with balconies, cupolas and towers but all built on a very narrow frontage as the frontage is what dictates the land price. We stopped at a craft village/knock off designer place for a coffee and watched them doing embroidery. I think Deb bought a few bits there and we then continued on to our boarding area.

Halong Bay: Violet Heritage Cruise

After a coffee we were shown on to the boat and into our suite. There were a total of 6 guests and 18 crew onboard. The room we had was bloody amazing! A king sized bed, a balcony with two chaise lounge, a day bed inside, lovely wooden flooring, floor to ceiling windows all round and a large bathroom. We had lunch – 5 courses of amazing food – before relaxing for an hour and watching the scenery go by.

After this we had the obligatory excursion – this time to some caves where they had done archeological digs to find evidence of human habitation 10,000 years ago and then a floating village used by a fishing community.

All jolly exciting. Back to the boat and then I went for a run before a shower and watching the sunset. I buggered the sunset photos which was annoying, long exposure doesn’t work too well on a drifting boat!!

Dinner was superb, 5 courses again and Deb was in her element but it took about 90 minutes of time that could have been spent productively! Very good food though. Tomorrow apparently starts with sunset viewing at 5.30AM and Tai Chi at 7.

It was damned hot overnight and I got up at 5 and went onto the top deck to do some photos, even just in shorts it was still hot. I couldn’t see the actual sunrise as it was behind one of the islands but I spent an hour in peace just watching the light change on the clouds and the reflections in the water with just the sound of the ciccadas in the background.

We had a light breakfast at 6.30 and they had done a special meal for Deb due to her diet. At 7 we did Tai Chi on the deck which was amazing, I didn’t realise how combat oriented it was and it was quite intense stretching. You couldn’t really ask for a better location to do it either!

Halong Bay: Titop Island

We had a brief break in our room and then I went to Titop Island and climbed the 400 steps to the top for the views. Very impressive and luckily the whole climb was in the shade. Deb stayed on the boat.

I did a quick run afterwards for 2k whilst watching a programme about IS destruction of Palmyra, one of my favourite cities. After just a 10 minute run I was pouring sweat so kudos the soldiers that fought here for weeks on end in full combat gear, I wouldn’t last a day!

We had an amazing breakfast as we cruised through the bay before arriving for our 4 hour transfer to Hanoi airport. The driving standards were abysmal still – the wrong way on motorway slip roads, stopping in the outside lane for a picnic, lane changing, pulling out into traffic, u-turns etc.

Combine that with no headlight use, roads that seems to have rubble dumped into them randomly that no one thinks to clear up and you can an idea of the fun factor, especially in the tropical thunderstorm we were driving in! Eventually made it safely to the airport but we have 5 hours to kill before our flight. Had a ridiculously massive lunch, what we left was enough for another large meal each! Still, at least they had wifi!

Four nights in Vietnam and I have to say, it was amazing! The contrast between the chaos of Hanoi and the order of Seoul was certainly evident. Halong Bay was a very worthwhile trip to, incredibly serene and a totally different experience. Now we have a long flight home to rest and absorb everything we’ve seen and done.

2018