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Backpacking in Asia: Vietnam (North)

Updated: Dec 9, 2020

From Bangkok I flew to Hanoi, where I noticed a change in the traditional architecture from something distinctly southeast Asian to something that looked more Chinese. In fact, a long time ago, Vietnamese used Chinese characters before the Roman alphabet was introduced.


I stayed in the Old Quarter, where most visitors go. It was bustling with activity, with motorbikes whizzing by everywhere. Like elsewhere in SE Asia, there were plenty of Buddhist shrines as well.



I also attended a water puppet show. This is a traditional art form that would take place in the rice paddies that were flooded. The puppeteers are behind the curtain and can manipulate the arms. There is a band to the left narrating and playing music.


I walked through a university that had gardens and traditional architecture. But they also had a group of Vietnamese schoolchildren who were fascinated to see a foreigner. When I took out my camera, they all rushed to have their photo taken with me. This attracted the attentoin of the teachers, and I turned and saw that all of them were photographing us! I was so humbled and honestly confused as to why I deserved to be the center of attention, but it was a fun surprise.


Here's what it looked like:

Me with the schoolchildren The teachers photographing us like I was some celebrity!


The street food in Hanoi is legendary. I found a place that looked delicious and there was no menu; you sat down and they brought out BBQ pork with several accompaniments. It included several green leaves that I usually wouldn't touch because anything uncooked and washed with tap water is bad news. But everyone else was doing it so....I took a chance. (I was okay.) The dish was delicious and cost about $1. I asked what it was and was told that it was "Bun Cha Hanoi" -- and as it turns out, since it's a northern dish, is very hard to find in the United States. (Most US Vietnamese are from the South, since that's who was allied with the US during the Vietnam War.) This was my favorite dish in the whole country - it was the taste and crispiness of the pork that was just sublime! Another street food dish is Pho, famous the world over. This dish was about $1.80. Finally, at night I had a snail soup that was about $2.50 and had a red broth. It was spicy and like nothing I had ever tasted. There was a lady and her mother making it, the mother helped me with the condiments by scooping a few things for me when it was clear I didn't know what to add. I wasn't disappointed.

Bun Cha Hanoi Pho Preparing soup,

including snails (in black on the right)


Like Laos, Vietnam is a one-party communist state. And like every Communist capital, there is a large mostly empty square of pavement in front of some building of national importance. Here, it was the tomb of Socialist Vietnam's founder and independence hero, Ho Chi Minh. I got to view Ho's body lying permanently in state, but no photos were allowed. Ironically, Ho didn't want to be turned into a national hero, but as with the propaganda constantly showing how great they are, an authoritarian government needs to create heroes to help lend itself legitimacy.


Ho Chi Min's Tomb Some government propaganda in Sapa (left) and Hanoi (right)


There were also some government buildings from the French colonial period that were painted yellow. Including the famous "Hanoi Hilton" prison where John McCain spent 5 years as a prisoner of war. Inside the prison are many artefacts (and pro-Communist propaganda) about its history both before and during the war.

The "Hanoi Hilton" prison


At night, the city's buzz continues with people eating and drinking, sitting on tiny plastic stools. By the lake, performers were playing music and dozens of people were dancing among crowds.


From Hanoi I took an overnight bus to Sapa, in the far northwest of the country nearly at the Chinese border. This mountainous area has hiking and many beautiful undulating curves of rice paddies terraced into the mountainsides. Unfortunately, it was very foggy when I was there and the views were not as good as they could have been, so I hope to return and see it on a better day. But I still got some beautiful views.



The people here are quite poor and as we were in a group on a tour, there were a few times when we were approached by locals to buy things. One lady who hiked with us, turned out to be someone who was not part of the tour at all and just came along to befriend us so that she could sell things to us while we were eating lunch. As someone who really doesn't like to buy "stuff" that sits and collects dust after I get home, I was slightly annoyed, but I also recognize that they may not have many other means of an income. I was surprised to see one woman collecting firewood in a village with her child strapped to her back! These are things that we in the United States do not see.




After 2 days in Sapa I returned to Hanoi, and rented a motorbike to visit Ninh Binh, located about 55 miles south of Hanoi. They have organized day trips, but after doing an organized trip to Sapa, I wanted to do this one on my own. Using a motorbike in Hanoi was an adventure, to say the least. Although traffic laws aren't really adhered to, everyone gives way a little bit so nobody crashes into each other. And the speed is slow enough that it feels a bit safer once you get the hang of it. Outside Hanoi, I tried to enter an expressway but the man in the toll booth told me that motorbikes weren't allowed. So I had to settle for a slow road and the trip took me about 2 hours to reach Ninh Binh. Unfortunately, I hit a chicken as it was crossing the road - I tried to swerve around it but the chicken ran towards me as I was moving around 45mph. A bump and the sight of flying feathers everywhere was embarrassing....I had just hoped that a family wasn't planning to use that chicken for dinner!



Making it to Ninh Binh, I saw that this town is located among steep hills, cliffs, rice paddies, and temples built into mountains. You can hike up them and explore them. Another area provided boat rides through a cave to a valley enclosed by mountains. Here there was a Buddhist shrine and the site of Skull Island from a recently filmed King Kong movie.







Skull Island from Kong: Skull Island




If I had to pick one place in Vietnam that I thought was the most beautiful, Ninh Binh would probably be it. Being on my own with a motorbike, zooming around at my own pace, made it more enjoyable still.


One of the points near Ninh Binh where boats set out through the mountains and caves:




I took this picture on my motorbike driving back into Hanoi from Ninh Binh. As you can see, a big crowd of motorbikes gathers at the red light, so when you move, you're moving in a peloton of sorts! It was fun.





Once back in Hanoi, I planned my next day trip, this time to Ha Long Bay. This bay contains many islands that pop out of the water like a string of emeralds, and featured prominently in James Bond's Tomorrow Never Dies. It is common to visit the bay and spend the night on a boat, and that is what I had wanted to do. Unfortunately, in mid-April there was a spring holiday and everything was booked solid. This must not be common, because I even went to one travel agent who confidently said, "don't worry, I can find you a place" - before seeing her surprised as she called around and discovered that they really were full. So, I had to settle for a day trip. Given that it took 3-4 hours each way to

get there, this was less than ideal, but as a James Bond fan I wanted to see Ha Long Bay in the flesh, so that's what I did. The Bay was indeed beautiful, we had lunch and visited a cave as well. I can see the beauty in waking up on a boat nestled among the islands, so I'll add this to my list of things to do when I return to Vietnam.



Having bounced quite a bit around northern Vietnam, I paid about $35 for a bed on the sleeper car of a train to Hue, just across the old border of the former South Vietnam. The 415-mile trip would take the whole night. It was my first overnight train ride, and it was fun to look out the window in the middle of the night and see everything that we were passing by. I even managed to get some sleep!

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