Vietnam (May 18 - 28)
This photo was taken in Hoi An
I went to Vietnam for my 10 day vacation with my friends Jen and Matt. It was an amazing trip, packed with adventure, delicious cuisine, and gorgeous scenery. We managed to see a good portion of the country in the little time we had thanks to the quick and frequent flights offered by Vietnamese Airlines. Our trip started in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) after a 5 hour flight from Korea and we ended up in the north of the country in Hanoi. I couldn't believe how many motorbikes there were. Crossing the street was like playing a game of Frogger and each time was a near death experience. Red lights are merely suggestions and crosswalks are only there to alert drivers to speed up.
The next day Jen and I went to the
Cu Chi tunnels with a tour. It was quite an amazing place considering how complex these tunnels were and how they were used by the Viet Cong to hide during combat and safely travel to other towns.
In Nha Trang we rented motorbikes ($3 each) and a guide($3 for 5 hours) and drove out into the jungles. We ended up at a beautiful waterfall after passing several restaruants serving crocodile. I decided to swim anyway...but I was terrified quickly swam back to land. Driving through the villages made me feel as if I were back in time. Children were running with their water buffalos and farmers used oxen to pull their plows. It was amazing to see such beautiful life and vitality around me. The next day we took a boat ride to 5 islands and swam, played beach volleyball, and drank cheap wine that was given to us for free as part of our $6 tour. By the time we got to the last island....everyone was wasted (including the crew). Matt and I thought we were animal activists and needed to save the sea turtles at the aquarium on the island. We saw them in a turtle viewing tank and walked down the steps leading into the tank...suddenly I slipped on the slimy, moss-covered steps and fell into the tank. I then sat at the edge of the tank with my legs in the water and the turtles came right up to me so I could pet them. People above were looking down at us and pointing "Look there's people in the turtle tank!" "Those bite you know" I guess I shouldn't drink cheap wine before visiting an aquarium.
We flew to Danang and took a cab to Hoi An (know as the Ancient City). The architecture was a fusion of French, Chinese, and Japanese....some buildings dating back to the 16th century. I honestly felt as though I were walking through a painting.
In Hoi An, Matt and I hired a woman to take us to the beach in her boat. The ride out to the beach was spectacular as we went to small fishing villages and dropped off the people from our boat. The beach was great with hardly a sole on the immensely long beach. We swam out to a fishing boat and greeted the fisherman with the little Vietnamese I knew. They through down a rope and welcomed us onto their boat. Then they served us fried fish and poured us shots of who knows what from a fuel can. Who knows...maybe it was the fuel.....but it sure was delicious.
here is a picture of the actual boat
This is the woman who drove us in her boat to the beach
We flew to Hanoi and took a 2 day junk boat tour of Ha Long Bay. Despite the crew being assholes, it was a nice relaxing trip and the islands were gorgeous. We spent the night on the boat and went kayaking through a tunnel and into a private lagoon surrounded by limestone pinnacles.
Ha Long Bay
Our last stop was Ninh Binh and turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. We hired a private guide the first day there and rented a motorbike. We ended up driving over 140km that day and had the most amazing day. The do-it-yourself adventures in Vietnam are just incomparable to the the tours we did. We drove through villages and passed ruins of churches that probably dated back to the 17th century. The guide thought it was strange that we wanted to stop and take photos. I couldn't believe we were the only tourists in these gorgeous villages. We drove all the way to Cuc Phuong National Park where we hiked through the lush green jungle. Then we went to the magical town of Hoa Lu where I literally had to catch my breath as I looked around in awe. The bright green rice fields in contrast to the limestone pinnacles made it one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We never saw another foreigner accept for at the Hoa Lu Temple who were on a tour. The next day we went to Tam Coc which had equally stunning scenery. We took a boat ride down the same rivers used by rice farmers and the woman rowed with her feet. (Click pic below to see video). We also rode our motorbike out to the Bich Dong Pagoda which was a temple built into the side of a mountain with parts of it that were in a cave. I can't begin to explain in words the beauty of these places.
video of woman rowing with her feet and asking me for a dollar.
