Vietnam – A New Challenge

Hanoi – The City That Never Stops

The stories we had heard about Vietnam prior to our arrival described the country as wild, traffic-clogged, noisy, challenging, fun, singular, frustrating, and beautiful.

So naturally we had to see this sucker for ourselves.

Our plan was to fly from Chiang Mai into Hanoi, spend a few days there, travel out to Ha Long Bay to do a 3-day cruise there, head back to Hanoi to hang like complete bums for three days, then fly to Hoi An to explore the Lantern Town for three weeks.

Generally, when we tell people our travel plans, we hear something like, “You’re going to spend how long there?”

Our approach to this “trip” is that it isn’t really a trip at all, it’s a different way for us to live.  We can spend three weeks in a little dinky town in Southeast Asia because, although we do see sights, it’s not about all the touristy stuff.  We visit these places to live there and to experience life in a different location as a family.  We have stuff to challenge us physically, we find things to challenge us mentally, and we have each other.  We’ve been surprised to find that that is enough.

Oh, and Legos.  The child can’t live without Legos.

Out of all the places we’ve visited, we’ve gotten the most looks for telling people we’d be in Vietnam for a month.  Last year we might have been concerned, but by this time we knew we could handle pretty much anything (umm, no booze in Dubai?) so we departed Chiang Mai a bit sad to leave a city with which we’d fallen in love, but excited for a new adventure.

Our brief flight from Chiang Mai to Hanoi included a 1-hour layover in Laos, a country that didn’t make the cut on our original itinerary.  When we first planned our travels we eliminated any countries that didn’t have “kid-friendly infrastructure”, and Laos, while intriguing, got scratched.

When we landed at Luang Prabang airport, however, I was immediately disappointed that we hadn’t put Laos on the list.  By that time we had become accustomed to the road, and “kid-friendly infrastructure” had taken on new meaning:  do they have food, and do they have a place for us to sleep?

The airport was a postage stamp of tarmac in the middle of the lushest mountain scenery I had ever seen.  The jungle rose and rolled away in every direction like wrinkled, glimmering velvet.  The air smelled fresh and clean and cool, and once we passed into the airport itself and sat down at the gate to wait I couldn’t stop staring at the landscape.

An hour later we were in the air again, winging our way towards Hanoi, and I had my face plastered to the cabin window, staring at the mountainous jungle below.

We’ll see you again, Laos, and next time we’ll and stay quite a bit longer.

Our arrival in Hanoi was typical:  another airport, another taxi ride to our apartment, another late-night meal before crashing out.

Vietnam was a touch different because we couldn’t just flash our U.S. passports and waltz in, we had to apply for a visa when we arrived.  The whole process was made delightfully easy by applying in advance, online, using Vietnam Visa Online.  Everything ran very smoothly once we landed and we were out of the airport in no time with our shiny new visas slapped in our passports.

Our next three days in Hanoi were easygoing.  We explored the Old Quarter, ate some great food (particularly at Gia Ngu in the Essence Hotel), and wandered around the city.

Among other things Vietnam is notable for its traffic.  Scooters are the usual mode of transport in Southeast Asia, but Vietnam, being a Communist country, seems to have an inferiority complex in this regard.  Everyone owns at least two scooters and tries, when they can, to ride both at the same time.  The roads are choked with scooters.  And occasionally, a lone, sad car trying to make progress against an endless sea of two-wheelers.

Driving School in Vietnam is, from what I can tell, a relatively short course with a primary focus on just one piece of equipment:

[This is where readers who have been to Vietnam before are already saying it even before they read it…]

The horn.

The horn is beloved in Vietnam and is a sacred part of the home.   Vietnamese families bring their scooters inside the house at night and lovingly wrap the horn button in silk to preserve its luster and protect it from evil spirits.  At family meals, no one is allowed to eat until a blessing has been said over every horn in the home.

In Vietnamese driving school drivers are taught a few basic rules (the following has been excerpted from the National Vietnamese Driving School Manual for Patriotic Drivers):

• When approaching an intersection, honk
• If passing another driver, honk
• If a pedestrian is crossing the road in your path, honk
• If another driver passes you, honk
• When making a turn in any direction, honk
• If not making a turn, honk
• If another driver honks, honk
• If no one in your immediate vicinity has honked for awhile, honk
• If you love the Communist Party, honk

As you can imagine, this results in a whole lot of goddamned honking.  At times I felt like William Shatner in Airplane II freaking out about all the beeping and flashing.  Hanoi wasn’t exactly peaceful, but it was wild and fun.

Descending Dragon

One of the reasons we decided to visit Hanoi over Ho Chi Minh city was so we could spend some time in a place rumored to be one of the most beautiful on Earth:  Ha Long Bay, the Bay of the Descending Dragon.

After three hectic but enjoyable days in Hanoi we boarded a shuttle owned by the Bhaya Cruise Company and took the 3-hour drive to the bay.

We were excited about the 2 night/3 day cruise, not only because we were looking forward to seeing Ha Long Bay, but because ever since YouTube and Facebook caught on that we were going on a cruise they had been pounding us with ads for Bhaya Cruises.  It got to the point that when J or I would surf to a new page in our browser the Bhaya Cruise commercial music would come on and Braeden would sprint across the room to watch.  He never got tired of that commercial.  In fact, he was enthralled with one part in which a guest climbing back on board from a refreshing swim is offered a towel.  The boy insisted that the guy was getting a “nice, warm towel”, and he thought it was hilarious.

So anticipation was high when our bus rolled to a stop at the Bhaya wharf, and we quickly checked in and were warmly greeted aboard the Classic, Bhaya’s flagship and the largest ship in the fleet.

The well-trained crew welcomed us with cleansing towels and warm ginger tea and showed us to our quarters, a beautiful stateroom in the bow with our own private terrace.

Braeden was thrilled.  The room was small, but he excitedly inspected every inch of it.  He had never slept on a boat before and even though it was only 1pm he was already eagerly testing out his bed.

We chucked our bags and headed up to the top deck to have lunch and be briefed by our magnetic and funny cruise director, Huan.

[Huan’s favorite saying:  “Happy Hour is at 5pm.  Buy 10 get 10 free!”]

We loved Huan immediately.  He had a great sense of humor and went to great lengths to make everyone on the cruise (there were about 20-30 of us) feel at home and comfortable.

Day 1 we headed to “Surprise Cave”, a huge cave inside one of the limestone islands.  The cave was beautiful and tricked out with colored lights, and we spent a good deal of time talking with Braeden about stalactites and stalagmites.  Then we headed over to Ti Top island where we climbed to the top and gaped at the 360-degree view of the hundreds of surrounding islands.  It was us and 100+ other tourists at the summit, but it was cool anyway.

We were left with plenty of time for a swim, but the weather was cold and misty, so we hung on the beach and let Braeden play in the sand instead.  Then we headed back to the ship for a nap, a cooking demonstration (spring rolls!), some coconut-flavored rice liquor, and some after-dinner chill time.

Day 2 we boarded a smaller day cruiser bound for a distant part of the bay.  We found ourselves with a wonderful Canadian couple, John and Terrine, and the 5 of us ended up having a fantastic day together.

We kayaked through an island that had two internal lagoons, which meant we had to approach the island and kayak through a cave, then cross an amazing-mind-blowing lagoon and kayak through another cave to yet another amazing-mind-blowing lagoon, then exit the lagoon through yet another cave.

After returning to the day cruiser we had lunch while underway to our next stop, a pearl farm.

The farm was a floating business tucked in between a couple of islands, sitting neatly on a few thousand square feet of rafts.  Our guide took us through the stages of pearl farming from growing the oysters, to seeding them, to harvesting them and cleaning whatever pearls were yielded from that season’s “crop”.

Naturally the tour culminated in a pass through the farm’s floating jewelry shop, where we were offered the opportunity to buy stunning pearls in rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and more, in over a dozen different shades and colors.  Braeden charmed the pants off the ladies behind the counter while we successfully resisted the urge to buy anything.

From the POV of a minimalist, backpacking around the world offers a great excuse for not buying stuff.  From my wife’s POV, it probably sucked that she didn’t have room in her pack for a beautiful pearl bracelet.  Sorry, babe!

From the pearl farm we boarded the day cruiser for the trip back to the Classic, where we showered, took a nap, and hung out for Happy Hour in the dining room.  Dinner was delicious, and after a bit of time on the top deck dealing with some email under the stars, we sacked out early.

For our final day on Ha Long Bay we stopped at an island to board bamboo boats in groups of a dozen or so, and the oarsmen paddled us through a cave to a lagoon in the center of the island.  We cruised around the lagoon for a bit, gawking and taking pictures, then headed back through the cave.

As we exited the cave we could see a collection of similar bamboo boats bobbing in the water and stuffed with tourists off to the side.  The tourists were staring up and pointing at the cliff wall.  We craned our necks and discovered that they were all looking at a troupe of monkeys scampering all over the cliff.  We watched for awhile as the monkeys played, then we turned back to the Classic for our trip home.

Our trip back to the wharf was quiet and peaceful, and we sat on the deck watching a string of beautiful islands pass by.  We arrived at the wharf, checked out of our stateroom, packed our bags into our bus, and headed back to Hanoi.

3 Days on the Lake

For our final three days in Hanoi we checked into an apartment on West Lake, about 30 minutes by taxi from where we previously stayed in the Old Quarter.  The neighborhood was much less interesting than the Old Quarter and the weather was rainy and cold, but we were wiped out from our cruise so we used the time to relax in the apartment (which was gorgeous), hit the gym at CrossFit Tay Ho, and do a little sightseeing.

A few folks from the gym with young children had recommended we check out the Ethnology Museum.  It turned out to be a great time, and we spent a few hours exploring the full reconstructions of Vietnamese homes from various periods and regions.  It was fascinating to see how people from different parts of Vietnam lived just 100 years ago, and the boy was full of great questions that we did our best to answer or help him answer himself.

We also made sure to visit Hoa Lo Prison, aka the “Hanoi Hilton”, where Vietnamese political prisoners were kept by the French during the First Indochina War, and where some Americans were imprisoned during the Vietnam war.

Only a small section of the prison remains, so we needed just 30 minutes to cover it all.

After nine days of experiencing some of the frenetic energy of Hanoi and drinking in the beauty of Ha Long Bay, it was time to move on.  We had heard wonderful things about our next destination and we were eager to escape the rain and cold of the North.  So on a drizzly, gray Saturday we hopped in an Uber and headed to Hanoi International Airport for our next destination:

Hoi An!