First, I’d like to thank my long time friend for allowing me to tag along her trip. She managed most of the itinerary and I’m very grateful.
Intro
On December 11th, 2023, at 11:30pm (Vietnam time) I arrived to Nội Bài airport in Hà Nội. It was a last minute decision to tag along my high school friend’s trip to the city. After a long year of working on a PhD and finally passing my qualifying exams, it was a very needed vacation. The truth is that I never thought of visiting Vietnam and I didn’t know anything about the country, except what I’d watched on tv about the war and whatnot. It wasn’t easy to explain to my loved ones why I was taking a last minute trip to exactly the other side of the world – and to such an unusual vacation spot. Sure, I could have done the easy and usual places: Puerto Rico, Key West, Miami, Mexico, you name it. I experienced a lot of resistance, but I had made up my mind, and I purchased my flight ticket and left. The trip there was 27 hours in total – quite the ordeal but very much worth it.
Hà Nội
The first night in Hà Nội. Upon arriving to the airport, several taxi drivers offered their services. It was a hot and humid summer night. My friend, who arrived a few hours earlier, had arranged an airport pick up for me – which took longer than anticipated to arrive – I thought of taking one of these taxi cabs just hanging out on the road. Thankfully, the arranged transport arrived and I reached the city pass midnight. After being dropped off, I was walking reluctantly up a narrow back alley way; fortunately, I passed a few locals that noticed I looked lost, so they directed me at this inconspicuous glass double doors through which a well lit and neatly organized lobby could be seen. The information on how to open the smart lock was sent to me through WhatsApp. I opened the main door and went up to my assigned room in the 3rd floor of this quiet, clean, and convenient self check-in hotel with 9 rooms in total in the Old Quarter named “Wecozy” stay.
The next morning I met up with my friend, she was staying in the same place on the 6th floor. She had a different experience getting to the hotel. Her taxi driver did not speak any English at all and she had a bit more trouble finding the place. We began exploring the city. We walked through the Old Quarter, passing street food places, massage parlors, a lot of tourists walking around, street vendors, and scooters and cars everywhere. The city felt noisy and very busy. As I came to find out, people announce they are coming up behind you by beeping their car’s or scooter’s horn. We settled for coffee and cake at the Highlands Coffee shop that overviews the Hoàn Kiếm Lake. We walked some more, just looking at the shops for something interesting perhaps, something unique. It’s past lunch time and so, we stopped at the MẸT Vietnamese restaurant & Vegetarian Food. I ordered chicken legs with lemongrass and rice and a Hanoi beer. Disclaimer: I love food, but I’m not a “foodie,” so there’s no restaurant or food recommendations listed here. We visited Ngọc Sơn Temple located right on the Hoàn Kiếm Lake – the temple was built in the 19th century in commemoration of Tran Hung Dao, the greatest military commander of the Tran Dynasty (https://vietnamdiscovery.com/hanoi/attractions/ngoc-son-temple/). We also attended the puppet show at the Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre. At the puppet show, we learned the most important animal figures of Vietnam: the dragon, the phoenix, the tortoise, and the unicorn. The unicorn has no horn and is more like a tiger. At this point, you should probably google four sacred animals of Vietnamese culture.
Hà Nội pictures
Hạ Long Bay
Mon Cheri cruise to Hạ Long Bay. On the 13th, my friend and I left for Hạ Long Bay early in the morning. The cruise company arranged a transport van to pick us up from the hotel and we began a one-two hour trip to the marina. We stopped at a rest stop in a shop where oysters are cultured for their pearls. Here, I purchased a beautiful pearl. We then arrived to Đảo Tuần Châu to the Mon Cheri cruise terminal and we started our trip to Hạ Long Bay for 3 days and 2 nights. The cruise ship was a 24 cabin Yacht perfect for a three days stay. We had lunch and checked in our room. We shared a room on the 2nd deck, right above the water line. A lady in a motor boat would pass by our balcony with goods for sale. At around 5pm we anchored in Tra Bau (Làng chài Trà Báu) where we kayaked around the mountain peaks in the surrounding area; we found hundreds of mollusk traps along the bay. On day 2 we started by taking a smaller boat to Việt Hải. Once we arrived, we took a bicycle tour of 5km into the village, passing mountains, a tunnel, and fantastic landscapes. In the village we learned there are few permanent residents living in the vast area, they have no fresh water, and conditions can be very precarious. Our tour guide explained to us the legend of the village, it goes like this: “the dragon descends from the Heavens to help the people of the village when they were under enemy attack.” In reality, the river bed has a series of peaks and troughs resembling the back of the dragon. The village people would install poles in the highest parts of the river bed which were hidden under the water when the tide was high; on the other hand, when the tide resided the enemy boats would become trapped and unable to retreat. This strategy defeated the Mongol invaders on three separate occasions. This was possible because the locals knew when the tide was low the river peaks were about 8 meters from the water surface. They managed to keep this a secret, and instead told stories of the dragon who descended from heaven to help the people of the bay.
We biked back to the smaller boat where we had lunch and later visited the caves by kayak on the Three Peach area. This part of the trip was very rushed and we didn’t have time to fully explore the caves or swim. Finally, we transferred back to the Mon Cheri yacht.
Hạ Long Bay pictures
Mon Cheri cruise – day 3. We had breakfast in the cruise and then took a smaller boat to get to the bus that was going to bring us to Trung Trang Cave (Động Trung Trang). The caves are something magnificent. The stalactites and stalagmites that have formed over the years resemble an alien cave from another planet (it looks like something from the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver). Rain water drips from the top of the cave and in some of the cave areas it gets collected in man-made pools by the locals. After visiting the caves we returned to the cruise ship, had brunch, and checked out. We returned to Hanoi around 2:30pm and my friend got ready for the Hà Giang loop – a 3 day motorcycle tour. I stayed in the city again at Wecozy.
Trung Trang Cave pics
Back in Hà Nội
Three days in Hà Nội. Now alone for the next three days in Hanoi, on 12/16, I woke up early and had breakfast at Ambrosia cafe, right down the street from my room. I sat outside and people watched while eating a breakfast bacon egg croissant with a latte. While I sat, I got a shoe cleaning from one of the vendors – this is necessary if you walk around the Hanoi city streets – and then walked to get a much needed haircut and wash at Cảnh Leonardo hair salon, an easy and perfect haircut experience. I walked through the city and the markets; nothing really interesting here for me except the experience, there’s a lot of stuff to purchase: bags, bracelets, hair stuff, etc. The highlight was visiting the Vietnamese Women’s Museum (Bảo tàng Phụ nữ Việt Nam) established by the Vietnam Women’s Union. In short, women are the center of Vietnam (opinion), in the museum one can appreciate women’s involvement in the military, in agriculture, as ambassadors, and in science. This is a truly great experience and I highly recommend women visit this museum and read everything or take the narrated tour. On the top floor they have something that’s separate, the Ikebana house, a Japanese art of flower arrangements, it’s very beautiful. At the end of the day, I arranged a tour to Perfume Pagoda for 1 day for the next day. The weather had changed and it was lightly raining and getting cooler by the late afternoon. I sat in the balcony of a coffee shop above Haagen-Dazs before walking back to my room.
Vietnamese Women’s Museum pics
Perfume Pagoda
Perfume Pagoda for 1 day. I booked this tour through “Moon Travel Vietnam” (http://vietnammoontravel.com/perfume-pagoda-1-day-tour) and my tour guide was very good and made sure I knew the story by the end of the trip. We left by bus at 8am on 12/17. We arrived to Hương Sơn where we took an electric car to the river where we met the row boat that took us to the temple Đền Trình Ngũ Nhạc. After visiting this temple, we continued by row boat to Thiên Trù Pagoda. Upon arriving, one walks through several commerce stalls. There are trapped animals in cages for sale. The trapped animals are to be purchased and freed after visiting Perfume Pagoda. We had a sort of communal lunch where everyone on the tour shared food, such as: beef, fish, rice, fries, tofu, etc. In Thiên Trù Pagoda the story goes like this: in the 1500s the king had three daughters and his youngest came to live to the Pagoda. The king was very upset that his daughter did not want to marry or study, instead all she did was pray, sleep, and eat, according to the king. So the king burned everything down to the ground, but his daughter escaped and ran to the mountains (there are three mountain peaks surrounding this area) and hid. Meanwhile, the people were very upset that the king burned everything and immediately began rebuilding. We continued our trek to the main Perfume Pagoda, named as such because when people go there for prayer, many incenses burn with many different smells. This is Động Hương Tích and it’s a 3500m trek up rocky stairs and it is where the daughter of the king temple is located. This cave was named “The most beautiful cave” by the king, although he found his daughter dead in another mountain, this is where her temple was built. The cave resembles the mouth of a dragon, with the tongue in the middle. Coming into the cave, one can look to the right and see rocks resembling the king and his three daughters. Inside the cave, the temple where pilgrims come to pray is located. On the way out I noticed a spot where water droplets fall and are caught in a sort of metal ring and water splashes off a stalagmite, my guide advised me to take three water droplets and splash them on my forehead – this is for good luck. There are several named stalactites and stalagmites that have a specific purpose. Back to the story, the king was in bad standing with the people, so he created the three month festival to bring commerce into the town. Millions (according to the guide 3 million people a day) of pilgrims visit the cave every year to pray and/or to say thank you for their granted wishes.
Perfume Pagoda (Chùa Hương) was a magical experience for me. Some people think it is not worth it. I think it all depends on what you’re hoping for when you visit. This is a place that people come to pray and then come back to say thank you, but as a place or landscape it’s probably not special. I like this quote by Sadhguru that may help explain the mindset when visiting places like this: “Mysticism is not meant to be understood, but to be perceived and experienced.“
Perfume Pagoda pics
Back in Hà Nội on 12/18. This day I walked all over the city and visited the Temple of Literature. The stories here are very interesting, especially if you’re an academic. I bought the narrated tour and really took my time to absorb each spot in the temple. My friend comes back to town at night.
Ninh Bình
Ninh Bình on 12/19. We arrived to the city by bus a bit late and checked in our hotel Tam Coc Wonderland. Our stay there was very pleasant. We borrowed bicycles and rode around town. We had dinner at a restaurant on the main road and then coffee close to the Banana Tree Hostel, I believe. The next day we took a bus tour to several pagodas with a group of people. The group was very nice and we all chatted during a communal lunch. We did a row boat tour across several caves and pagodas in Ninh Xuân. We prayed in several temples and we helped row across the caves. We also visited Bái Đính Temple (https://www.vietnamonline.com/attraction/bai-dinh-pagoda.html) and saw huge statues covered in gold.
On 12/21 I flew back home.
Comments
My personal experience in Vietnam was wonderful. It was my first time visiting an Asian country and culture. I found Hanoi and the surrounding places to be very peaceful, and not in the spiritual sense, although it is also. But my experience was that the city is very safe and there are no petty thieves or aggressive people, as opposed to what I had read. However, the locals will try to over charge for things such as: motorcycle rides, petty goods like postcards, etc. The row ladies from the Perfume Pagoda tour wanted more tip money, all in all, anyone rowing you 3km deserves a generous tip, especially a lady. In general, everyone is very respectful of one another. Men are also very respectful of women and there are no men whistling or making uncomfortable comments towards women. Or vice versa. I found the women to be particularly very hard working, rowing boats, selling goods around the city, driving for Grab (Uber), etc. There are people up on the streets all night long. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able the get a cab to the airport at 4am, but I found a cab within 5 minutes using the Grab app (Like Uber) – which by the way is really good and I highly recommend it. The highways are also very well kept. The roads are in very good shape and condition for the most part. Northern Vietnam is full of beautiful people, amazing architecture, and breathtaking landscapes.
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