Vietnam on the Road!
- anna
- Aug 8, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 19, 2019
Vietnam is beautiful and I strongly suggest to everyone who has not visited yet to do so. If you don't know where to start for planning a trip there, have a read at this post, which may help!
After a few months of absence, I am back again writing on the blog. My absence from the blog is strongly correlated with either quite bad working hours or vacations – there is not a balance between super bad and super good!
However, back on the blog as part of the absence in May/ June has been driven by the fact that me and Francesco were in Vietnam in vacations for 2 amazing weeks and wanted to write about about the trip we have done and what we have seen.
Landing in Ho Chi Min City/ Saigon (first 3 days)
Our first stop from London (yes there is a Vietnam Airlines direct flight from London to Vietnam, which we chose given the convenience) has been Ho Chi Min or Saigon.
This is the more international and business-oriented city of Vietnam, very big and always very very crowded, especially given all the motorbikes driving in all directions across its busy streets!
If I have to be honest, I did not enjoy much the city, being very chaotic, without a city center and modern so I could not suggest stopping more than 2/3 days here; however, there are pretty interesting trips to do outside of Ho Chi Min.
In particular we went for the Cu Chi Tunnels, where the Vietcong were hiding during the Vietnam War and the Mekong Delta trip. Both of them are worth the visit in my mind, with the Mekong Delta showing a very different (and unfortunately poorer) side of Vietnam.
I also suggest visiting the War Museum in Saigon, as it depicts in a pretty crude way the impacts and effects on Vietnam and its population of the Vietnam war.
Restaurant wise, Ho Chi Min scene is pretty vibrant and you can find both traditional Vietnamese places and more modern and international ones, in particular when it comes to cocktail bars.
For restaurants I suggest the Secret Garden, on a rooftop of a pretty old and run-down building, but very cool and with a good selection of traditional Vietnamese food and Cuc Gach Quan, which is a stunning colonial villa converted into a restaurant by the owner (an architect indeed). Here the food is served in small plates and I strongly suggest to try the vegetable plates, in particular the pumpkin flower, morning glory and the aubergine.
Also, make sure you visit the street food markets in Ho Chi Min, which is a pretty unique and funny experience. The most touristy one is in District 1 and called Benh Thanh, don't get me wrong the food here is amazing and still cheap, but less original, with many backpackers and westerners. The second one, Binh Tay, is much more authentic and far from the center in District 6; this is the central market and if you visit you will feel the strange sensation of everyone looking at you, given you are the only tourist! Here it is less about street food, being the central market, and you will see a lot of live fishes and other animals (as frog), sold to people and restaurants to be cooked.
As a general statement for Vietnam dining, food is extremely cheap in most of the places. I think the highest we paid for a meal should not have been more than $25 each and that the average we spent is around $15 each eating a lot, including tons of fish. Drinking is also extremely cheap and one beer (Hanoi is the best one to me) costs less than 1$ - make sure you drink the Vietnamese way in short tables and chairs, which is quite funny.
From Saigon to Hoi An (for the next 3 days)
We left the busy city for the quieter and smaller seaside town of Hoi An. There are multiple ways to get there from Saigon, but we opted for the quicker flight to Da Nang and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprise about the quality of airplane and of the service (we used just Vietjet); Da Nang is around 40 minutes taxi from Hoi An (I suggest to use Grab, the Uber of South East Asia, which is cheap and efficient).
Hoi An is a real gem of Vietnam, with its history, the romantic small alleys covered with umbrellas of different colors and lights is something you don’t find easily anywhere else.
Hoi An is a UNESCO Heritage site, which confirms the historical relevance of this town, which was used and known as a port between the 15h and 19th century.
In order to enter the the Old Town you have to pay a ticket which allows you to visit a selected number of buildings and historical monuments, which I think is really worth seeing. Hoi An, however, is also famous for other things other than history, in particular: amazing food and cooking classes, tailors and tailor-made clothes and beaches … I would say an ideal place to move! 😊
Going one by one, let’s talk about food for one second. As in all Vietnam food is stunning, but here (I don’t know why) cooking classes are very good and popular. We tried one at Hai Café (which is also an amazing restaurant!) just in the heart of the Old Town, which was running from 6 to 8 pm and included dinner for just $20 each.
We cooked different dishes including spring rolls, BBQ fish in banana leaf (sooo good!) and mango salad with beef (and grilled squid for me). On top we were served with the Hoi An signature dish called ‘White Rose’, a soft dumpling with prawns inside served with a sweet and sour sauce – the recipe of this dish is secret and owned by one only family in Hoi An who sell these dumpling to all the restaurants in the city.
Other suggestions for food beyond Hai Café is Streets, which is also relevant at a social level since it was born from the initiative of a journalist to offer a professional cooking schools for young kinds in Vietnam; so the entire place is run by these people, which are so nice and so proud to be there and of having had this opportunity.
Beyond restaurants, I also found the Central Market very typical and with good food and also very good spices which I bought to bring home (black pepper, crushed chili, roasted sesame seeds and a mix of salt, lemon and pepper to dip prawns into). Every night Hoi An also hosts a Night Market with street food and other stalls selling small objects, which is very characteristic. If you are brave try the frog skewers which are very popular in the market.
Moving to another topic let’s talk about tailors. Hoi An is very famous for their tailoring tradition and most of the tourists have some clothes made there … we were among them! 😊 We went to Kimmy which is one of the best and I really suggest it being them professional and charging the right price for a pretty good quality work.
Finally, seaside and beaches. The beach is pretty close to Hoi An (around 10 min if you rent a scooter) and the main ones are An Bang and Cua Dai. From Cua Dai, however, you can get a speedboat to go to a small set of islands called Cham Islands, which are really beautiful. We could actually have stayed 1 or 2 days just here if we were to know that the beaches and landscapes were so beautiful.
From Hoi An to cruising in Ha Long Bay (other 3 days)
After 3 great days in Hoi An we continued our trip up north towards Ha Long Bay. Also in this case we took a flight from Da Nang to Haiphong and a Grab from there towards Ha Long Bay.
Even though the first night was not the greatest experience, given we got stuck into a massive rain and got stuck with the cab in the middle of the submerged streets, which I ensure you was not a great feeling, the Ha Long Bay cruise was another stunning experience.
Given the low prices in Vietnam, we opted for a luxury cruise called Alisa (around ~$100+ per person, including excursions and meals) which I really recommend: very good staff, great rooms with a Jacuzzi with view on the Bay and good food considered it was a cruise.
Ha Long Bay is really breath-taking and one of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen, which tons of stones spread around the bay.
It is also quite funny to explore some of these stones, given they hide massive caves (the Surprise Cave is one of the most famous and big in size).
During the cruise you can also visit a Pearl Farm, that despite being very focused on selling your pearls, is interesting as they show you how they farm pearls from oysters.
The only pity is that Ha Long Bay water is very polluted and there is plenty of waster disposed in the lands nearby and in the water itself, therefore swimming in most of Ha Long Bay is not suggested. It is really a shame that such a jewel in the planet can be damaged by people just not taking care of the environment!
Final Stop: Hanoi (last 3 days)
After 2 amazing nights on the cruise in Ha Long Bay, it is time to move again towards Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and our last stop before going back to London.
Hanoi is around 1 hour and a half drive from Ha Long Bay and most of the cruises offer a bus transfer at an additional charge to get there.
Hanoi, despite being a big city and the capital, is very different from Saigon: it is romantic with an old town made of small alleys either packed with people selling their street food delicacies or the typical short table and seats for locals and tourists to stop for a light and cold beer.
In particular, there is a street in Old Town, called ‘Beer Street’ which is full of tables on both sides where you can drink and eat; people working in these places stay outside to bring (literally they will grab your clothes and push you!) tourists into their own restaurants, offering attractive discounts on beers … pretty unique experience I would say!
Despite being many things to do and visit in Hanoi (the Temple of Literature, Union Park and its temple in the middle of the lake, the French Quarter and Opera House for example) I have to say that what I enjoyed the most about Hanoi is walking around the street to see the life and people. In particular, I found quite funny that every street is sort of specialised in selling certain things, for example you will find a street fully of herb shops, one other full of hardware shops, another with 10 pharmacies in a row just in case one of them is close you will always have a choice! 😊
In terms of restaurants, there is one specialty dish and a restaurant serving just this dish (Cha Ca Thang Long) that I really suggest which is the Cha Ca (turmeric marinated monkfish with dill).
This is a quite unique experience as the restaurant only serves this dish and as you order it they will bring you an electric stove with a pan on top where the turmeric marinated monkfish has already been cooked; they will also bring you fresh dill and herbs which you have to add to the monkfish when you switch on the stove. The dish has to be eaten on a bed of rice noodles with on top the fish cooked with dill and seasoned with fresh chilies, fish sauce and roasted peanuts …. This is absolutely delicious!!
Beyond the city, Hanoi is surrounded by amazing places you can visit in a day or more if you wish. We went for a one-day trip to Nim Binh, which is very they filmed King Kong.
Believe me, there are no words to describe this place, so will leave to the picture to speak for me …. Nature here is the king and the 2-hour trip along the river in the canoe passing from tiny caves is something really unique! You cannot miss this trip if you visit Hanoi!
Conclusions and thoughts about Vietnam
If I have to summarise our Vietnam trip in a few words I could say mention as plus people always nice and polite, food - tasty and fresh, nature - very different and wider than what we are used to in Europe. If you mix everything together you will be sure that this trip will be so much fun ... so much that I am looking forward to come back visiting Vietnam!
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