9th – 11th October 

Sending myself to Vietnam, it’s this whole other country

Starting with a couple of Forrest Gump quotes never hurts 😁.

The Vietnamese passport control was a lot easier to get through than I thought, a stamp in my passport and a ‘you have 15 days’ from the guy at the desk. As I’m more than 2 weeks behind on my blog, I can tell you now that 15 days is not enough! Vietnam has a lot to offer as a country, and it’s pretty large to travel through, so if you have the time & finances, send off for your 30 day visa!

TIP: On a UK passport you are currently able to enter Vietnam for up to 15 days for free without a visa. If you’ve got a short holiday planned, this saves you a few bucks!

Vietnam immediately had a different feel from Laos, I could feel the energy and see the development. I did the usual atm run and bought my local SIM card before ordering a grab taxi from the airport to take me to my hostel. My first thoughts were ‘this guy’s an insane driver, I’m giving him a bad review and not using him again like he asked’. But after a day or two I realised this is the norm! An organised chaos of motorbikes and the odd car. Just close your eyes and you’ll be fine! 

I’d booked the Old Quarter View hostel on recommendation from Celine – it was perfectly locates in the lively Old Quarter of the city, but tucked away behind a main street, which made it quieter. The hostel itself, however, was busy and social with people from all over the world hanging out at the cafe/ bar/ reception area. To add space they had built upwards and my room was right at the top, 6 floors up. Luckily they had a concierge to carry my big backpack 😊. Comfy beds and a giant locker to fit your big bag in, perfect 👌. The Old Quarter itself is insanely busy! With motorbikes constantly trying to whizz past, people selling fruit and other market food and employees from restaurants and bars trying to entice you in for drinks or food. It’s a crazy place! Real Asian city feel.

I met a few girls in my dorm from Germany, Switzerland and Spain and we decided to get the cocktail special of the day, mojito, before heading out to dinner. The place was not far down the street, recommended by the hostel. A snack was included on my Laos Airlines flight, so I just went for fresh spring rolls, which were delicious I was about to discover most of the food in Vietnam is! It was getting pretty late then, so we back and to bed.

One day it started raining…..

I didn’t get a great nights sleep, it poured it down! And being right at the top made the rain crazy loud!

The next day was cloudy, rainy and pretty miserable weather wise. I had a wander to the Hoan Kiem Lake (meaning lake of the returned sword – legend has it that heaven sent a 15th century emperor a magical sword to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. A giant turtle then took it into the lake), a main feature in the middle of the city that holds the Ngoc Son Temple and a statue of a giant girl turtle. 

As I carried on wandering past the lake, a Vietnamese student started chatting, asking where I’m from etc. He then proceeded to be my tour guide for an hour or so, showing me various monuments and grand buildings, before ending up at the National Museum of Vietnamese History. I’m really interested to learn about the history in the countries I visit and the one in Singapore was great. However, I hadn’t read the blurb properly, this was more about ancient artefacts and non-recent history discovered through archaeological digs, which if you’re into geology is great! I wandered round for a bit not really taking much in, then gave up. 

Heading back to the hostel, I then showered and went out for dinner again with the girls in my dorm. This time I had vegetarian Pha- a famous Vietnamese dish of noodle soup (although usually with pork). Heading back to the hostel I met up again with Celine 🙌! She’d just got back from Halong Bay, so we had a good catch up (mainly about her gross infected knee healing 😂) before hitting the hay.

3 Amigos Reunited

The following day the 3 amigos were reunited together – René had landed in Hanoi late the night before. We met at the Note Cafe – so named as they get each customer to write a message on a post it note and stick it anywhere in the cafe, the place is covered! Very cool. We had a fun catch up with lots of laughing and silly faces. And even better, on leaving the cafe we saw a dog that reminded me so much of Cali! 😍😍😍 couldn’t stop hugging him 🤗. I then wanted to go and sort out my travels for the next few days with a recommended tour agency. After discussing the best options, René and I ended up booking a 2 day excursion to Sapa, followed by a tour on Cat Ba Island & Lan Ha Bay and a bus on to Nimh Bin. Having finally made a plan, I went back to the hostel to extend my stay one more night and the girls went off to the piercing shop 😂. Celine got her nose pierced and René her ear. They both realised afterwards that they shouldn’t have it in water for a few weeks and are both heading to the Philippines soon, full of beaches 😂👌.

We then went to find dinner. René had read about this lively market, so we trekked off to find it. It was a bustling big market alright, they sold everything from clothes to turtles in a tank 😞 (to eat I presume). It was insane and not really an eating kinda place….. so we walked around and found a Vietnamese restaurant instead. After dinner we said goodbye to Celine, who was catching a night bus to Hue. René and I wandered around a bit looking at the cheap North Face stuff everywhere, when I suddenly realised I was meant to go to HSBC bank before it shuts to sort my banking app out!  Dashing back to grab my bank card, I turned up to of course find it closed, to top it off a motorbike went into my leg at a crossing too 🙄. Bruise has only just gone!

Back at the hostel Celine still hadn’t gone bless her, bus timing is interesting in Asia 😂, so I chatted to her and a Norwegian guy before she finally left. The 2 of us were then joined by many people, I shared some interesting Vietnamese wine with an Aussie (wine is not their strong point and only seems to come from Dalat) and drank the ok tasting free beer on offer between 6-6.30pm at the hostel. René joined this suddenly formed group and we headed out for dinner. The place was interesting – a family business in a small upstairs room, blink and you’d miss it so how they’re still open I have no idea! They brought out lots of local food to share between us, I stuck to the vege spring rolls and morning glory (a typical vege found in Vietnam 🤭) and they plyed us with rice wine – a terrible shot type drink made here. I managed to avoid it by tipping it in my empty bowl 😬. Some were knocking it back and as a couple of us left the others were getting on it! But we had an early morning bus to catch to Sapa 😄.