I recently just got back from my backpacking trip to Vietnam with my hubby and an ex-colleague of mine. We were having our so called internal conversation on how tough the journey would be and now we are back ! Still in one piece and healthy. No diarrhea, no sick, no fever...everything was just fine and smooth.
Along the journey, we met many many friends from multi - different countries. That is why me and my husband started to fall in love in backpacking. In fact we are planning to backpack in Tibet in the next trip. We will see how it goes. First day we reached Hanoi and the first impression towards Hanoi is cold and semi-develop. and full of motorcycle + unorganized road. We brought us to there there during the winter season and the weather was really really cold. Before we were in Vietnam, my friend told me that the weather is something like the Genting Highland weather. So I was thinking that I can at least stand the cold as I will be carrying my bulking heavy bag and walk around the city. However, it was really a wrong assumption that I ever made! There isn't any long pant or jeans that I brought to Vietnam except the only quarter pants that I have. We were picked up by the "Hanoi Guest House" driver who directly brought us to the City with a nice "Toyota INNOVA". From the Airport to Hanoi City, it takes about 45 minutes to an hour. My paranoid hubby was so afraid that we might got into a scam or someone who would probably brought us to somewhere else instead of Hanoi. So he quickly look at the map and non stop buzzing the driver on the location that we were that time. One thing bad about traveling to Vietnam is the communication. Not all of them speak "English" at the level that they can't even understand the simplest word of English beside "Yes" and "No" or the best word that they ever said is "I don't understand" That's it! Closed the conversation! The following are some pictures that captured in Hanoi:
If there is a chances for some backpackers to go to Hanoi, I would strongly suggest you guys to try on the Hanoi GuestHouse. Good service and friendly staff. Even though the packages that they provided are slightly expensive but overall it's reasonable comparing with the external tour that you got from the town. When we were at the guesthouse, we met 2 Malaysian who are just arrived to Hanoi. However, their trip is just 5 days trip. In our itenary, we never thought of going to SAPA until we met these 2 ladies. Why SAPA, because we heard so many people taking about SAPA and good feedback from the local people. Hence, we inquired the trip to SAPA from the GuestHouse. We seriously got ripped off at the first time where they charged us USD80 per pax to SAPA where others was just paying USD 70 and below. Since we got no experience on backpacking, so we were thinking that it's fine to pay for the first experience. And we pay for the trip. USD80 per pax. One thing that freaked me up was the staff from the GuestHouse was telling us to wear and bring more cloth because it is really really cold in SAPA which probably around 5-15 degree celcius and that really make me stunned for a while.....what I am going to wear?!! A quarter pants for 2 days 1 night? Damn! We were told that we are going to take the 12 hours night train to Lao Cai station where we were pick to the Sapa Town in the next morning. While we were waiting the time to go to SAPA at night, we dumped our bags and belonging in the guesthouse and there is where we started to walk around the Hanoi City. I wasn't the person who read the history and background about Hanoi. Only my hubby and Fennie are the people who read the english and chinese version of the lonely planet. After so many hours of journey that we have take from Malaysia to Hanoi, the first thing that we will ask for was "FOOOOOD". Fennie and my hubby was so excited when the staff from the guesthouse introduced us the nicest local food in Hanoi. And it's called "Bun Cha". Guess what, my hubby had non stop introducing "Bun Cha" along the journey from the north to south. Imagine how nice the foood is!So we went to the "Bun Cha" staff based on the given map. So, what bun cha means? Bun Cha means the food that have the Spring Roll, Fried Pork Meat, Glass Noodle with Soup and garlic with Chilies. Excellent combination. And they have their own special way of eating bun-cha.
Then we go to the lake temple which is another famous tourist spot and also the water puppet which we do not know what was that all about as the they were speaking Vietnamese until the end of the show. Funny! One of the interesting place the the top roof coffee shop. Fennie and my hubby was looking for the "Fox Dung" coffee and so they asked around the coffee shop. Well,we were told that there is a place where we can have the local coffee so we went there. It's not a high visibility coffee shop if you see from outside of the shop because we got to walk into the shop for quite a distance where the coffee shop is hidden inside the outer shop. Guess what, they really have a very long shop but not wide. Most of their building are few story high and long but not wide. Weird structure. And then we went to enquire for the open bus ticket which will bring us along the journey from Hanoi - Halong Bay - Hue - Hoi An - Danang - Muine/Dalat - Saigon. That is the journey that we are going along this 12 Days. One thing though, while you are walking on the Hanoi Street, you got to watch out to the motorcycle as the town is full of motorcycles.
Then we walked around and discover that there is alot of shop selling backpacks, bags and hats! Somehow 3 of us got a very cheap deuter waistbag which cost us around 6 - 8 USD. *I think. Besides, we also went to the home brewed wine which cost only 5000 dong. They brewed their own wine at their own shop which called "Bia Hoi" and they sell dog meat and snake meat too. *Yucks*.
After walking around the Hanoi City from noon till night, we walked back to the "GuestHouse" to meet up the driver who brought us to the Hanoi Railway station. The train that we took is not luxury but it's like the oldie generation train. So, we took about 12 hours train to the Lao Cai Town. From 8.30pm we started our journey from Hanoi and reached about 6.30AM to Lao Cai Town. The first impression of the Lao Cai station was like the 60s of Shanghai. We were told that we are quite near to China which I believe though. People in the Lao Cai city look quite similar to Chinese however, not many people speak Mandarin. Only some can speak Mandarin. Then we met our tour guide who is going to take us to the SAPA town. From the Lao Cai Town to the SAPA town, it takes about 2 hours bus journey all the way up to the SAPA hill. Another good experience in SAPA where we can experience the homestay with the mountain people and also the village culture. I was carrying at least 7KG all the way up and down to the hill in Sapa. We walked about 2 hours from the town all the way to the village. Well, SAPA is one of the most hiking in this journey. We get to see how those village people are able to survive in the village without the technology and facilities that we have in KL. The younger generation should be bless of what they have now compare with the kids in the SAPA village. Not all the kids can go to the school and only the chosen one can get to school. How pathetic! In Sapa, we met few friends from Switzerland, Australia and Russia who stayed at the same home stay with us. The following are some pictures that took from SAPA:
After 2 days 1 night in Sapa, we went back to Hanoi and catch the bus to the Halong bay and following by the journey that pre-planned earlier. Talking about Halong Bay, hm... it takes about 4 - 5 hours bus trip from Hanoi - Halong bay * I think * We met some good people from Holland, Spain, Germany,UK and Japan. This trip included an overnight on the boat and kayaking at Halong Bay Package which cost about USD30 per pax. We were brought to the Sung Sot Cave and also the Cat Ba Island. When the first time I see the Halong Bay and also the junk cruise, it reminds me of the James Bond movie. When was on the boat, that makes me feel that we are the "Pendatang Haram" from Vietnam because the junk cruise is exactly like the pirates ship! The following are some pictures from Halong Bay:
Along the journey, we met many many friends from multi - different countries. That is why me and my husband started to fall in love in backpacking. In fact we are planning to backpack in Tibet in the next trip. We will see how it goes. First day we reached Hanoi and the first impression towards Hanoi is cold and semi-develop. and full of motorcycle + unorganized road. We brought us to there there during the winter season and the weather was really really cold. Before we were in Vietnam, my friend told me that the weather is something like the Genting Highland weather. So I was thinking that I can at least stand the cold as I will be carrying my bulking heavy bag and walk around the city. However, it was really a wrong assumption that I ever made! There isn't any long pant or jeans that I brought to Vietnam except the only quarter pants that I have. We were picked up by the "Hanoi Guest House" driver who directly brought us to the City with a nice "Toyota INNOVA". From the Airport to Hanoi City, it takes about 45 minutes to an hour. My paranoid hubby was so afraid that we might got into a scam or someone who would probably brought us to somewhere else instead of Hanoi. So he quickly look at the map and non stop buzzing the driver on the location that we were that time. One thing bad about traveling to Vietnam is the communication. Not all of them speak "English" at the level that they can't even understand the simplest word of English beside "Yes" and "No" or the best word that they ever said is "I don't understand" That's it! Closed the conversation! The following are some pictures that captured in Hanoi:
If there is a chances for some backpackers to go to Hanoi, I would strongly suggest you guys to try on the Hanoi GuestHouse. Good service and friendly staff. Even though the packages that they provided are slightly expensive but overall it's reasonable comparing with the external tour that you got from the town. When we were at the guesthouse, we met 2 Malaysian who are just arrived to Hanoi. However, their trip is just 5 days trip. In our itenary, we never thought of going to SAPA until we met these 2 ladies. Why SAPA, because we heard so many people taking about SAPA and good feedback from the local people. Hence, we inquired the trip to SAPA from the GuestHouse. We seriously got ripped off at the first time where they charged us USD80 per pax to SAPA where others was just paying USD 70 and below. Since we got no experience on backpacking, so we were thinking that it's fine to pay for the first experience. And we pay for the trip. USD80 per pax. One thing that freaked me up was the staff from the GuestHouse was telling us to wear and bring more cloth because it is really really cold in SAPA which probably around 5-15 degree celcius and that really make me stunned for a while.....what I am going to wear?!! A quarter pants for 2 days 1 night? Damn! We were told that we are going to take the 12 hours night train to Lao Cai station where we were pick to the Sapa Town in the next morning. While we were waiting the time to go to SAPA at night, we dumped our bags and belonging in the guesthouse and there is where we started to walk around the Hanoi City. I wasn't the person who read the history and background about Hanoi. Only my hubby and Fennie are the people who read the english and chinese version of the lonely planet. After so many hours of journey that we have take from Malaysia to Hanoi, the first thing that we will ask for was "FOOOOOD". Fennie and my hubby was so excited when the staff from the guesthouse introduced us the nicest local food in Hanoi. And it's called "Bun Cha". Guess what, my hubby had non stop introducing "Bun Cha" along the journey from the north to south. Imagine how nice the foood is!So we went to the "Bun Cha" staff based on the given map. So, what bun cha means? Bun Cha means the food that have the Spring Roll, Fried Pork Meat, Glass Noodle with Soup and garlic with Chilies. Excellent combination. And they have their own special way of eating bun-cha.
Then we go to the lake temple which is another famous tourist spot and also the water puppet which we do not know what was that all about as the they were speaking Vietnamese until the end of the show. Funny! One of the interesting place the the top roof coffee shop. Fennie and my hubby was looking for the "Fox Dung" coffee and so they asked around the coffee shop. Well,we were told that there is a place where we can have the local coffee so we went there. It's not a high visibility coffee shop if you see from outside of the shop because we got to walk into the shop for quite a distance where the coffee shop is hidden inside the outer shop. Guess what, they really have a very long shop but not wide. Most of their building are few story high and long but not wide. Weird structure. And then we went to enquire for the open bus ticket which will bring us along the journey from Hanoi - Halong Bay - Hue - Hoi An - Danang - Muine/Dalat - Saigon. That is the journey that we are going along this 12 Days. One thing though, while you are walking on the Hanoi Street, you got to watch out to the motorcycle as the town is full of motorcycles.
Then we walked around and discover that there is alot of shop selling backpacks, bags and hats! Somehow 3 of us got a very cheap deuter waistbag which cost us around 6 - 8 USD. *I think. Besides, we also went to the home brewed wine which cost only 5000 dong. They brewed their own wine at their own shop which called "Bia Hoi" and they sell dog meat and snake meat too. *Yucks*.
After walking around the Hanoi City from noon till night, we walked back to the "GuestHouse" to meet up the driver who brought us to the Hanoi Railway station. The train that we took is not luxury but it's like the oldie generation train. So, we took about 12 hours train to the Lao Cai Town. From 8.30pm we started our journey from Hanoi and reached about 6.30AM to Lao Cai Town. The first impression of the Lao Cai station was like the 60s of Shanghai. We were told that we are quite near to China which I believe though. People in the Lao Cai city look quite similar to Chinese however, not many people speak Mandarin. Only some can speak Mandarin. Then we met our tour guide who is going to take us to the SAPA town. From the Lao Cai Town to the SAPA town, it takes about 2 hours bus journey all the way up to the SAPA hill. Another good experience in SAPA where we can experience the homestay with the mountain people and also the village culture. I was carrying at least 7KG all the way up and down to the hill in Sapa. We walked about 2 hours from the town all the way to the village. Well, SAPA is one of the most hiking in this journey. We get to see how those village people are able to survive in the village without the technology and facilities that we have in KL. The younger generation should be bless of what they have now compare with the kids in the SAPA village. Not all the kids can go to the school and only the chosen one can get to school. How pathetic! In Sapa, we met few friends from Switzerland, Australia and Russia who stayed at the same home stay with us. The following are some pictures that took from SAPA:
After 2 days 1 night in Sapa, we went back to Hanoi and catch the bus to the Halong bay and following by the journey that pre-planned earlier. Talking about Halong Bay, hm... it takes about 4 - 5 hours bus trip from Hanoi - Halong bay * I think * We met some good people from Holland, Spain, Germany,UK and Japan. This trip included an overnight on the boat and kayaking at Halong Bay Package which cost about USD30 per pax. We were brought to the Sung Sot Cave and also the Cat Ba Island. When the first time I see the Halong Bay and also the junk cruise, it reminds me of the James Bond movie. When was on the boat, that makes me feel that we are the "Pendatang Haram" from Vietnam because the junk cruise is exactly like the pirates ship! The following are some pictures from Halong Bay:
In the next morning, we went back to Hanoi and catch the night bus to Hue. We started our journey around 8.30PM from Hanoi and reached Hue around 7.30AM. That would probably takes around 10 - 11 hours journey in the bus. When we reached HUE, there are a lot of people surrounding us by offering the best backpackers hostel in town. We went to the one that recommended in Fennie's book. Good location, near to the town but some drama was happening in Hue. Hue is a large city and it's near to the DMZ zone. There are hundreds of the local tours are offering a good package to the DMZ zone. Again, never get the package in the hotel as they will definitely ripped you off. We went to the nearest tour to get the private tour as we were late for the morning trip. The morning trip to the DMZ zone is pretty much cheaper and more place to visit compare the private tour where you got to rent a car just for your own group. We paid around USD15 per pax for the private tour and they brought us to some local historical spot. When I was at the "Vinh Moc" Tunnel, I have a strange feeling where I remember I watch once in the lonely planet about the DMZ zone in Vietnam. Ha..ha...strange but cool feeling! Then at HUE, we rented a motorbike and a bicycle where Fennie is taking a bicycle and since my hubby doesn't know how to ride a bicycle and motorbike. Hence, I am the one who ride and take him... what an exchanged role! With that, we ride around HUE. We went to the Hue Imperial Palace and the Dong Ba Market. The traffic in Hue isn't as terrible as Hanoi and Saigon, so basically it's safe for us to ride around the City. We spent a day in Hue and moved to Hoi An in the next morning. Again, our journey continues to Hoi An by taking about 5 hours bus ride. Along the journey from Hue to Hoi An, we will pass by Danang which is another heaven to the tourist. We didn't drop by Danang so we wasn't sure what is the specialty in Danang. But the beach is really really nice and beautiful!
Moving on to Hoi An. We reach Hoi An around 14:00 - 15:00 and again, the first thing that we settled down is by looking a cheap cheap back packer hotel. Hoi An is known as the Ancient Town as well as the World Heritage Town in Vietnam. Everywhere is exactly like what we saw in the Old Chinese Movie.
We stop at the center of Hoi An and walked around to search for the suitable hotel. As I said, everything is so convenient in Vietnam especially hunting for the cheaper hotel. While we were walking, we were searching for the cheaper hotel until we saw the recommended hotel from Fennie's book guide. The hotel is called "Thien Trung Hotel". This hotel is so so so so "TERRIBLE" and "SUCKS". I am not sure why Fennie's book still recommend people to go to this hotel where the feedback is so bad on the Hotel review website. In terms of service, I would say that this is the worst hotel that I ever stayed! The owner of the hotel just doesn't care of his guests belonging and full of sense of Kia-su ness!!! When I leave this hotel, I told everyone that I am gonna blog badly about this hotel.
In Hoi An, we walked around the ancient city we took the opportunity to My Son which is once the spiritual heart of the Kingdom of Champa. You can get the MySon tour anywhere around the Hoi An town. The package would roughly cost around 12USD which include a bus ride to MySon and boat trip with lunch included while back to Hoi An . Please note that most of the package doesn't include the entrance fee to MySon. As a result, you will need to buy the tickte by yourself. The ticket to MySon is 60,000 Dong. However, we seriously got a very bad experience on this journey because the weather was raining at that time. My personal point of view is taking a boat back to Hoi An is not necessary and it's always best to take the bus ride back to Hoi An. Trust me, you wouldn't want to know how bad experience we had in Hoi An. Check out the pictures for details:
After spending a day in Hoi An, we continue of journey directly to Ho Chi Min which namely Saigon. In between of Hoi An to Saigon, we choose the route either to Dalat or Muine and Nha Trang. However, we decided to go through the route of Muine and Nha Trang before Saigon. The journey from Hoi An to Saigon is more than 20 hours. So most of the time, we just sleep in the bus. We started our journey from Hoi An at 20:30 and reached Saigon at 22:00 in the next day. So as per calculation, it's more that 24 hours!!! What a long journey!
Allright, talking about the journey in the bus. First we arrived Nha Trang is a coastal city. A very beautiful city next to the beach side. When you are in Nha Trang, you will think that you are in Kuantan, Pahang. We arrived in Nha Trang in the next day morning which is around 0700AM. We stopped at Nha Trang for breakfast and so lucky we were the first customer who spent out breaky at the so called a grand opening of one of the cafe. The price is pretty reasonable. At least it's cheaper as what we ate earlier. The following is one of the picture that I took from Nha Trang before heading to Muine:
Allright, talking about the journey in the bus. First we arrived Nha Trang is a coastal city. A very beautiful city next to the beach side. When you are in Nha Trang, you will think that you are in Kuantan, Pahang. We arrived in Nha Trang in the next day morning which is around 0700AM. We stopped at Nha Trang for breakfast and so lucky we were the first customer who spent out breaky at the so called a grand opening of one of the cafe. The price is pretty reasonable. At least it's cheaper as what we ate earlier. The following is one of the picture that I took from Nha Trang before heading to Muine:
At last, before heading to Saigon, the last stop to Saigon is Muine which is the desert place. From Hoi An to Muine takes about 8 hours journey. Muine is quite similar as Port Dickson in Malaysia. There have luxury and foreigner everywhere. However, the weather is really really hot!!! So nothing seems to be special to us when we were at Muine. The following is one of the picture that I captured in Muine and I think it's the only picture that look special to me:
And then the journey continue to the last destination... which is the Ho Chi Minh City! For more pictures, feel free to check out my facebook!
And then the journey continue to the last destination... which is the Ho Chi Minh City! For more pictures, feel free to check out my facebook!
1 comment:
Wow, the photos are amazing and fantastic. Would definitely love to travel to Vietnam one day!
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