This post has been in my draft for a hundred years, because I know I definitely have to post about this trip, but I never really had time to finish it, until now (more than a year later). Vietnam has gained its popularity in recent years, probably because of cheap flights, but mainly because of its beauty. 8 out of 10 people who came to Vietnam love it, and the remaining 2 probably went to Ho Chih Minh and had some unpleasant experience. Most interesting part, 10 out of 10 people who said Vietnam is dangerous and chaotic have never been to Vietnam. All the reaction I get from my family and friends when I said I'm going to Vietnam, gave me the BUT WHY face. There's probably a scene from some war documentary going on in their brain when I mention Vietnam, followed by warning about food poisoning, and for some reason abduction....?
My choice of destination has never gained much approval from the elderly and general public anyway. This, and backpacking. So I'm basically used to it anyway, all I need is OK from my mum and I'm on my way. So here is a really chiong-hei post about our Vietnam trip last May.
中文阅读 点我。
Day 1: Hoi-An
DaNang airport , My Son, Hoi An hotel, Hoi An old street
We reached DaNang airport at noon. We got a private car service to pick us up at the airport, took us to My Son before he dropped us off at our stay in Hoi-An. Because My Son is somewhere between DaNang to Hoi An, so I thought it would be cheaper to pay a little extra than to book for another car another time to My Son.Da Nang Airport > My Son > Our stay in Hoi-An, USD 45 for a 4 person car.
www.hueprivatecars.com
My Son Sanctuary - UNESCO World Heritage Site
Entrance Fee: 150.000 VND (MYR 25.71)
I know, I used to think it's quite expensive, but now that I'm in Europe, and been to a few UNESCO site, this is actually considered a cheap entrance. Yes, cheap, I don't even want to replace it with any other word. I mean, compared to Stone Henge, where you pay £17.50 to look at stones... I think that price for the whole place, museum, and cultural performance is quite alright.
Tips:
1. Bring umbrella or scarf or anything for protection from the sun because there isn't much shading and it's quite a huge area to walk around.
2. If you want to take nice pictures without the crowd, check for the times of the performance (9.30am, 10.30am, 2.30pm), skip the performance and take all the pictures you want at the main site. Cause that's when it's the emptiest. We didn't actually know about that and was wondering why is it so empty until the performance ended and the crowd starts to get around. Luckily we were about time to leave as well.
Boat tour and lantern lighting MYR ~15-20
A little reminder here, or more like Travelling in Asia 101: always, always, always make sure you get the price right before you pay or use any service or food or just anything.
We had a little conflict with the vendor because of this. We double, triple confirmed the price with the vendor, while they kept rushing us to the boat like they are in a rush to go somewhere, it might be tactic to get tourist because they are afraid that we might change our mind if we take more time to think and we kinda just got carried away. When the whole ride ended and we are ready to pay, she asked for a price different from what we agreed before the ride. To make it worse, the vendor is an old woman and doesn't really speak English, which made us look like some young foreign tourist getting advantage of an old helpless woman. And eventually, some other vendors just gathered around. You really don't wanna get into the situation.
So, ask for the price, confirm what's included, pay, and still be careful when they offer you anything, because it might not be included in the fees, and they will ask for extra charges after you used it.
It's a common tactic used by Asian in general, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
Such as, Indian/Chinese restaurant in UK/EUROPE.
Day 2: Da Nang
An Bang beach (Hoi-An), Da Nang Cathedral, Marble Mountain
We stayed at Ngan Phu Villa, it's a nice little villa with only a few rooms. I think it's VND 3000 (MYR 6) taxi ride away from the main street. I love the breakfast. What you see in this picture is breakfast for one person. She already had hers because someone has a body clock that wakes up at 7am Malaysia time, which is 6am in Vietnam time.
Hoi-An to Da-Nang Taxi USD 15-20
And cycled a good 20 minutes to An Bang beach with the bicycles from the villa foc. Sadly we didn't have enough time to stay longer because we have to leave to Da Nang. The beach itself was okay, but I saw some nice place to sit and have a drink along the beach on Instagram. So do check it out.
Marble Mountain VND 30,000 (MYR 5)
Taxi ~MYR50 (RT)
Day 3 & 4: Halong Bay
For Halong Bay, we booked a 2D1N cruise with a travel agency. We took the A-Class Cruise, which is USD 125 p.p. The package includes mostly everything: the shuttle bus to and fro Halong Bay, the rooms, all meals on board, entrance and sightseeing fees, a tour guide, kayaking and etc. The whole ride was nice, there's only about 20 of us on the cruise. The itinerary is just nice not too kan-chiong. The food was normal. But the services are great and it's very clean.
We visited a few caves, hiked a little mountain, and went to the beach too. My favourite part is, of course, kayaking in the emerald water! It's quite a small area but it was really nice and chill. After dinner, there's even a squid fishing session, and we eventually turned it into a competition, it was a fun time talking to everyone.
Halong Bay is, of course, packed with tourist. It wasn't unbearable and easily overseen anytime for the beauty of this place. Imagine, sleeping among the islands, on the sea. I don't really know if there's any other place you could experience this.
Sunrise from our window.
Our flight to Hanoi was delayed, and we had to change our flight in order to get to Hanoi before the departure time to Halong Bay. We managed to change the flight to a midnight flight but we didn't have any accommodation in Hanoi, the agency responded quickly and arranged the accommodation for us, free of charge. I have never had such a pleasant experience with booked tours. I always recommend this agency whenever anyone asks me about HLB.
LILY'S TRAVEL AGENCY
Website: http://lilystravelagency.com
(We booked the A Class Cruise 2D1N tour (USD 125 p.p.))
Day 5 & 6: Sa-Pa
Tavan Village, Cau May Rattan Bridge, Sapa City Centre, Silver Waterfall, Ta Pinh Village, Heaven Gate
Because we felt so safe with this tourist agency, we bought the sleeper bus to Sa-Pa with them too. If not mistaken it was USD 25 RT. The sleeper bus departs at 10pm and arrives Sa-Pa around 5am, about 6-7 hours. It was a pleasant ride, the driver was driving steadily, and they have another driver on board to rotate too. We took the 28-seats sleeper bus. The "bed" was alright. It's a 3-row double-decked bed with adjustable back. I would say it's minimal but quite comfortable for us both. We are not looking for a luxurious ride anyway. Just a safe journey and a place to lie down. I saw reviews online saying the seating bus is more comfortable so that's an option too.
The other way to get to Sa-Pa from Hanoi is the train. The train takes longer time, about 8 hours, and you have to change to buses, jeeps or taxi from Lao Chai, which is 38km/50 minutes away from Sa-Pa as Sa-Pa doesn't have a railway station. There are many different classes of trains, seats and sleepers, soft and hard sleepers, air con or non-air con, different type of cabin. You will definitely find one that suits your budget.
Train vs Bus
Train takes longer time, but relatively safer, because think about it, it's a night ride and a long one. Compared to 28 or 38-seat bus with a 4-person cabin (with a higher price), there's lesser chance to get weird or unpleasant neighbours. Funny enough though, the train rides are bumpier than the bus rides. Toilets would be an issue depending on the class of rides you take. But many said it was a special experience.
Bus sounds more dangerous because it's a night ride and with driver driving and on narrow mountain road too but they have 2 toilet stops to break down the long journey, and 2 drivers on the bus to rotate along the way. The highway was smooth, not bumpy at all. No crazy rides. It may sound cramp and all in a 28-seat bus, but everyone's just sleeping anyway so it was alright. It's faster and easier, it takes 8 hours, straight from Hanoi to Sa-Pa. We don't really want to spend too much on that journey, and we are just really easy-sleeping people, so the sleeper bus was perfect for us.
One really important reminder, especially when you are taking sleeper/night transport, always keep your valuables close to you when you are sleeping, put it in your bag, hug it, cover it with blankets or jackets. Someone's passport got stolen in the bus while everyone's sleeping.
We reached Sa-Pa at 5am. The bus normally allows people to sleep in the bus till 6am but we informed the hotel of our time of arrival and confirmed that we could check-in at the time of arrival. So we check-in right after we arrive and carry on with our sleep. And wake up to this view!
Breakfast at this place right next to our hotel, we don't even remember the name, this is where we found love in an unexpected place. This food is actually one of the reasons I wrote this blog because it's so good but the name keeps slipping out of our mind - BUN-CHA.
I'm not kidding guys, Vietnam is more than coffee and Banh Mi. You need to try this. You have to. I am not even kidding. Vietnamese food is soooooo underrated. They are so good.
We asked the owner/person working in the shop to recommend us places to go because we really didn't plan anything. We are easy like that. hahaha. We know Sa-Pa is beautiful but there are so many villages in the whole valley we don't know which to go and how to get there. So we asked for the local's recommendation and he said we could go to Ta Van Village and even help us to get a Taxi, and fix the price of the taxi ride for us. It's about VND 150,000 (MYR 25) RT.
We were going to explore the village on our own, but a girl approached us when we reached and offered to show us the village in return we have to buy something from her. It was just pouch and bracelet and it wasn't expensive so we agreed. She speaks fluent English and took us for a walk through the village. And we ended up buying 2/3 pouches and a few bracelets from her. It only cost like MYR 5 for one pouch and we wanted to get some souvenirs too, plus she walked with us for about an hour under the sun. It was really nothing for a guide fee.
This is the Cau May rattan bridge. It used to be a connection between the village on both sides of the river but its turning into a tourist spot now. We walked half way but the other end is tied to the tree trunk so we weren't sure where it actually leads to.
The stay at Sa-Pa is also worth a mention. We stayed at Sa-Pa Scenery Hotel. We booked a room with a balcony that looks out to the mountains. And bonus, we can actually see stars from the balcony. I looked at them for one whole hour but didn't really get a proper shot because I didn't have a tripod with me, but they still look quite amazing. Idk, probably just me with my star thingy.
It's quiet because it's away from the town but still within a walkable distance, with restaurants that serve nice food on a terrace with nice view. It's USD 27 for one night per room.
The second day, we took a day trip to villages further away from the city centre. We were approached by numerous taxi drivers while walking in the city centre, we weren't really interested until we met this taxi driver with tour guide license who speak fluent English. We don't really have plans for that day and the city centre doesn't have much to offer so we took his offer. I can't really remember but it should be somewhere between around USD 25 (MYR 90) for the whole thing.
It's a half day trip where he took us to Silver Waterfall, Ta Pinh Village, Heaven Gate and some scenic stops along the way to take pictures. And cheap places to get souvenirs that we requested, hahahh. He was really friendly and funny, and tell us some history of the place and bizarre culture in the villages that we visit.
The people in the village were so nice, and they kept saying Yeehui is so pretty. And the look in their eyes like they really wanna marry her off to their son. We can even wear the traditional costume of Ta Pinh village for free and took some nice pictures. I didn't try it on because the driver told us about some bizarre culture they have in the village and I was a little drawn back by that. It's funny but I'm not kidding when I said I was a little afraid.
We walked all the way up and visited one of their house and had our lunch there. And they tried to make us by their handcrafts but it was quite pricey and some of the items can be bought in the city centre with cheaper price. So ended up not buying anything from them. On our way back, we stopped at a ruin of a church, I have forgotten the name, it was a short stop there wasn't much to see, and then back to Sa-Pa city centre where we will take another sleeper bus back to Hanoi.
Day 7: Hanoi
St Joseph Cathedral, Old Town
It's our last day in Vietnam! We looked through all the attraction in Hanoi but after being in Hoi-An, Halong Bay and Sa-Pa all these scenic places, the attraction in Hanoi wasn't really appealing to us so we agreed to just chill and walk around the Old Town. We even went back to the hotel for a nap in the afternoon because it was too hot and we explored enough of the old town. We woke up to have dinner and found a terrace near St Joseph Cathedral to just chill and have a drink to end our trip.
Both of us really enjoyed Vietnam. We heard many people having bad experience when they went to Vietnam (mainly HCM), but we didn't have unpleasant experience throughout the whole trip, at all, not from the food nor the people. In fact, we were surpirsed by how great it is. I first wanted to go to Vietnam to cross Halong Bay off my bucket list, but the serenity in Sa-Pa, the food, the people, the completeness of transportation are all beyond our expectation. To be honest, we didn't really have any expectation before we went there, and that is probably why it turns out to be such a great surprise to us.
THE FOOD THO. Let's start from the famous Vietnamese Coffee. We are not even a coffee person, but just one coffee on the first day and we are addicted. We need a cup of coffee every single morning throughout the trip. And I still miss it now and then. We only did some basic research about Vietnamese food, we didn't even look up the famous restaurant or such, we just eat whatever and wherever we see anything appealing, and we are always pleased by what they offer. So I can't really recommend any places food-wise. The best Banh Mi is the one I bought from a random food kiosk in front of a school. We get to know Bun Cha in this cafe beside our hotel in Sapa. We walked into this food kiosk in Hanoi old town for one last Bun cha before we head to the airport. We happily get coffee from the hotel or anywhere knowing it will never disappoint.
That's how nice Vietnam has been to us. It's so peaceful, beautiful and cheap you will question yourself why haven't you been there all your life. If I were to describe a country as a person, Bangkok would be the wild and carefree sister and Vietnam would be the demure, polite sister.
For anyone who is planning to go to Vietnam, I hope this helps;
and for anyone who is thinking about going, I hope this made you go for it.
Click here for a minimal itinerary of our trip:
And a long-ass video: