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Hanoi, Vietnam

Imagine this, travelling on a privately chartered traditional boat, through alleyways of emerald waters, with thousands of majestic limestone islands providing walls to the sea. Each island is between 10 and 30 metres tall and scattered with deep green trees. There is no sound to be heard apart from the hum of the engine and the insects on the islands. The air is warm, the sky is brilliant blue. This simply beautiful and undiscovered part of the world, Ha Long Bay, is in the Bac Bo Gulf in Vietnam, about 160km south of the Chinese border. This place felt like something from a movie. 2,000 limestone islands dotted over 1,500 sq km of peaceful sea were created over thousands of years by waves and wind. Some rubbish floated by, and I wondered whether the lack of environmental knowledge from the locals could be a detriment to the cleanliness of this beautiful place. Slowly but surely we arrived in a little cove for the night. The afternoon’s events began with a 7 course lunch, then jumping off the boat into the warm South China Sea and drinks on the top deck watching the sun slowly set behind the grand white rock. A 10 course dinner was served on the middle deck complete with tablecloth and napkins. If this is what backpacking is like on an Intrepid tour, I’ll be beaming for the next 100 days, particularly when the beer is $1.20 and the lemonade to accompany it is .80c. Saying that, we are the only backpackers in our tour group of 12.

Being on the ocean, I was in my element, so it would’ve been safe to say that this has been my favourite part of this trip to date, apart from Bali of course! The morning started with a 7am short walk up to the top of one of the islands and at 7:30, a swim in the sea. Following a late breakfast, we slowly chugged our way back to the foreshore in preparation for the 4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. The water was still and no sound could be heard. The only boats up and moving were the tiny little fishing junks, who unknowingly completed this perfect picture.

For those who came to Bali, you’ll understand that feeling of arriving back from Gili Islands into crazy Kuta. The same feeling was experienced arriving back into Vietnam’s capital Hanoi from Ha Long Bay. Hanoi’s population is 6.5million over 1,900km2. It’s busy like Kuta but the streets and shops are slightly more refined and organised, with open front shops rather than market stalls. If you want to find a bag it will be in the bag street. We spent the afternoon with Stephen, an awesome Tasmanian who was spending a month in Vietnam. He’d been here a week so he’d learnt how to cross the four lane, totally chaotic roads without dying. We went to the Museum of Ethnology where they recreated, using the original structures, the way of life of the 52 types of ethnic Vietnamese groups lived, and in most cases still live. They each have their own language and cultural history. The best part of the day was chilling on the side of the road at a ‘local pub’. Get this, the three of us sat at a kids plastic table and chair set, literally on the foot path of a main road, drinking .25c beer that was brewed that day, where the 13 kegs were delivered on one motorbike. And it was the first beer I’ve completed with no lemonade. It was that good! Very impressive! Following our $3 dinner and $2.25 cocktails, at 10pm we headed for the overnight train bound for Huế. Our home, for ‘at least’ 13 hours was a tiny room with 4 bunk beds on a ridiculously wobbly train. So wobbly the toilet water struggled to stay in the shared toilet. This train trip was one to remember. We shared the room with two Aussies from the tour group, Damo and Shaz. We stayed up until all hours of the morning getting to know them and Stephen, crammed onto tiny bunk beds drinking beer, giggling and chatting just like on an overnight school camp.

“Favourite thing about travelling #5643: There’s this thing about the travelling community, for a period of time you spend most waking moments with these complete strangers from all over the world. Each with amazing tales to tell, yet it’ll be days before you find out what they do for a job – which is a one liner – because it simply doesn’t matter. Conversations are interesting and unique and remembering one’s name isn’t as essential as staying up until 1am drinking $1 beer in bunk beds on a wobbly train. I have found my dream profession – travelling!”

With 4 hours sleep from the wobbly train, we headed to the hotel in the town of Huế, pronounced whoway. After an astronomically quick freshen up, we boarded a ‘dragon boat’ and traveled along the 11km Perfumed River, before arriving at Thien Mu Pagoda. This unofficial symbol of Huế is an active Buddhist monastery that dates back to 1601. Most people on tour knew about a famous car we saw here. It belonged to a former monk. In 1963 he drove to Saigon and set himself alight to protest against the treatment of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese regime. It was a blue car with 4 wheels if that helps to jog the memory…

Believe it or not, prior to visiting Vietnam, I didn’t really understand much about the Vietnam War, also known here as the American War. I was surprised to learn it only finished in recent times (1975) and was between North Vietnam—supported by China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries. Huế’s central position placed it very near the border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam which meant this former capital city suffered considerable damage.The result of North Vietnam winning the war that killed millions, was that the Communist governments took power from South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It was interesting visiting the Forbidden Purple City which was almost totally destroyed. In the 20% that still remains, holes left by bombs and bullets paint a very real picture. I was also surprised to see the big royal tomb of Emperor Tu Duc wasn’t decimated – The ground area of these tomb buildings is the size of a soccer field and the height of a castle!

As I write this blog, we are having a ‘Virtual Sunday’ but ironically we found out this morning it’s actually Sunday. We have been gone nearly1.5 months and unbelievably this is only the second time I have needed a few hours of down time, away from sightseeing and people. Stephen and Dave have gone to watch a local soccer game and no doubt see if they can better a .25c beer. Dave just retuned and said they also played a local game of pool where there are no pockets in the pool table and 3 balls only, each player has a ball. The objective is to hit the ball into both other balls, and the person who scores the highest number of points wins.

On the first night in Huế I enjoyed a traditional Julia dinner of macaroni and cheese complemented by a pineapple Vodka Cruiser. To show I can be cultured, the second night’s dinner was at a local family’s house. What a priceless experience. This dinner was an optional extra and not included in the tour price. For $10 per person, a local family had us into their home and cooked us a local meal. The money went directly to the family for food and a bit to say thank you. This rather poor family of 5 live in the tiniest house I’d ever been in and it’s shared with the owner’s brother and his wife. Mr Lam works on a bike transporting tourists and the wife sells soft drinks at a little stall on the street. For us this experience was invaluable, yet I’m sure for this struggling family the extra little bit of cash would supplement their very minimal income. Mrs Lam cooked an exceptionally good 7 course meal for the 11 of us on a little bench, with I bet, no more than a two burner. Dishes were washed in a bucket on the ground out the back. By far, it was the tastiest meal we had all had in a long time. Eight local kids, under the age of 10, willingly came and sang to us. Their beaming smiles lit up the room and the sounds of laughing kids singing was really something else. Among the many songs, we heard was the English version of happy birthd
ay and just when our hearts couldn’t melt anymore, a beautiful giggling 6 year old girl did a random Gangnam style dance. Children of all sides of wealth, nationality and language are so similar. In the simplest of ways, the only difference money can make are the games they play and the toys they play with.

Once again we witness that it’s the people of the world that make this world good, bad and so simply unique.

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