On to Vietnam!

Trying to catch up on my blogging about my trip for the past, well, year. So here’s the Vietnam-leg of our end-of-year trip. For the Cambodia leg, click here. We caught a red eye flight to Ho Chi Minh in order to travel by bus to Siem Reap (a long 12-hour ride). The quiet of Pham Ngu Lao after midnight is vastly different from the craziness that ensues in the morning. We arrived at 1:30am and stayed at a 24-hour phoa place, which happily has a sociable owner who talked to us most of the time and gave us tips. We walked around and caught a simbang gabi mass (with all the singing in Vietnamese) before resuming our vigil until boarding the Mekong Express bus to Siem Reap.

One really has to get used to the motorcycle dance that rule the streets of Vietnam. I think a chunk of my videos are just waves of motorcycles waiting for the stoplight to be green. And I’m amazed on how they managed to carry huge loads with them while driving. I saw a woman motorcycle driver with two sets of funeral flowers (complete with stand and ribbons) strapped to herself while driving…*impressed* We got back to HCM after three days in Cambodia only to fly out again to Hanoi since my brother wants to go to Ha Long Bay. We should’ve gotten a hint based on the wardrobe of the people in plane, since I just assumed that the temperature was the same in HCM. We landed in Hanoi and it was 13 freaking degrees, we obviously looked like tourists at the baggage carousel since everyone else are in fur coats and boots while we were wearing flip flops and shorts. All I have with me to battle the cold is a thin jacket. And we don’t want to buy thicker clothes in Hanoi since it would just add to luggage weight (my mom is planning a shopping spree for linens so there goes the allocation).

cold!!!

We stayed at Camel Hostel which was serviceable, although navigating around the busy dark streets of the Old Quarter might be hard for the directionally-challenged. The proprietors were very friendly though, even went out of their way to hang out with my brother and treat him some phoa to prove that theirs is better than those in HCM. I’m surprised at the coffee culture in Hanoi, seeing young adults hunkered down with a cup of coffee, sitting on small chairs along the sidewalk. At first we thought everyone was drinking alcohol on a weekday, but then our driver explained that it was coffee, hehe. But since my mom wasn’t the adventurous sort (and we were dead tired), we didn’t get to do the same experience. Wanted to try it out given the nippy air during that time. We went to Ha Long Bay, which is cool since you get to see the island formations and the “surprising” cave. I guess this is more eventful for landlocked countries since there are a lot of beautiful cave formations (although less developed, their cave is more tourist-friendly) and islands in the Philippines. My brother and I also went kayaking, which kind of tested our relationship since we constantly shouted at each other. Seriously, with my friends I can kayak peacefully, my brother just doesn’t listen to directions well. You can also swim when the boat anchors itself for the night, but the weather is so cold and the wind so strong so no one even dared to hang out by the ship deck, more so jump off to take a swim.

hanging out at the deck

I enjoyed the brief stop at the floating fishing town the next morning. We didn’t do the additional tour of the small boat going to the formations and just stayed at the floating planks looking at the catch for the day and buying fruits from the floating markets. The experience was refreshing given the time of day and being just in the open sea. We stayed at the deck the rest of the way back to look at the formations despite that my face is freezing the whole time.

floating market

We arrived back at Hanoi and decided to watch the water puppet theatre, which is a cool experience seeing the puppeteers manoeuvre the puppets on the water (with matching fire effects). The program was easy to follow even if it wasn’t in English and the choreography was enjoyable all throughout. We also ate some bread from the sellers on the street while my mom is exercising her bargaining skills (too much linen, I swear). Also caught a performance in the nearby park while waiting for the puppet show.

thanks for the bread!

We flew back to HCM the next day and just stayed for a while before flying out again back home. The Vietnam leg was also interesting although it was too short (and we were tired and more enthusiastic during the Cambodia leg). Maybe if I’ll go back I’ll go directly to Hanoi and check out the cute little concept shops I saw in the backstreets and also try drinking coffee on the sidewalk. Nonetheless, I love the East-meets-West vibe of Vietnam and how everything is like controlled chaos. Since Vietnam is a pretty big country, I would like to explore some other less famous stops next time.