Feb 17 – 23
Halong Bay
We left Saigon on Feb 17th wishing we had scheduled one more day to see a few more sights.
We flew to Haiphong which is the closest airport to Ha Long Bay. As always, a driver was waiting to take us to our hotel in Ha Long Bay City. There wasn’t much to see or do in the vicinity of our hotel. In fact it was deserted. However the disco club on the beach about 2 km away from our hotel did not get the memo that tourists are not around. They blasted loud music and huge flashing strobe lights until at least midnight. Even with the door closed, the AC on and earplugs we could hear the bass.
On our way to the hotel and again the next morning to the boat, we passed hundreds of large concrete mostly empty buildings – hotels, condos, apartments. Some were finished and many were not. Just big hunks of abandoned concrete structures some blocking views of the islands at The bay. It’s like they tried to recreate Destin, San Destin and 30A and failed miserably. If you ask, they say it was Covid followed by inflation. To me it looks like too much too fast with little thought for architectural and community planning. Who can afford to purchase these properties?
When we arrived in Haiphong the sky was very grey and I’m not sure if it is just misty rainy skies or a haze from pollution. We set off on our 24 hour cruise of Ha Long Bay with low expectations.
However our expectations have been exceeded so far despite the dreary weather. The boat is nice and the service is well organized. The scenery is so different from what we have seen before – the bay has more than 2000 limestone islands all uninhabited. The skies are grey and a mist hangs over the islands – a moody setting.
A tender boat took us out about 45 minutes to our ship which was anchored in the bay. Lunch was served in the dining room as we sailed. Later we had a chance to kayak among the islands followed by a dip in the Jacuzzi.
The cruise is short but includes three meals, kayaking, evening squid fishing, a taichi morning class, and rowing through a cave.
The locals are very entrepreneurial. Women in small motor boats sell junk food and cheap beer to passengers using a net with a long pole to reach the upper decks. $8 for six beers. Our room has a balcony and sliding door and is at water level so the vendors are right outside our room.
Despite the grey skies the short cruise was fun. We met some other travelers and shared stories. One British couple was around 80 and spending a month in Vietnam traveling independently.
In the morning the ship took us on a tender to a “village” where we boarded wooden boats rowed by locals to see some caves and take photos. Even with the dreary weather it was still beautiful. We met two young couples from India on our rowboat. Our boat guide was cute, motioning with sign language and rudimentary English when to pose for pictures.
After the cruise we went back to the dismal port to catch a bus to Hanoi. The Bay is suffering from overdevelopment and over usage. The waters are filled with garbage, styrofoam and plastic mostly. I read an article where trash picker boats can work all day every day and not make much of an impact. As the tides go up and down they suck in waste from the shore and from the plastic landfill in the Pacific Ocean.
Hanoi
The capitol of Vietnam is a busy crowded city with 9 million people and 6 million motorcycles. As you might imagine, people are jammed into small living quarters, the traffic is chaotic and streets are full of people on their way to work, sitting on their little chairs, selling street food. It looks like people don’t eat at home much. Everywhere you go locals are eating street food.
Women on bikes and scooters sell fresh produce and others have small produce markets. The business people are dressed very smart and women ride their scooters with dress shoes.
The touristic parts of the city are mostly clean and free from the trash we have seen in smaller towns. The air pollution in Hanoi is visibly bad. A heavy cloud sits over the city. I checked the air quality index and it was at 164 which is considered unhealthy. A 2019 report by IQ Visual said “Rapid development coupled with weak emission standards for power plants, vehicles and industries and a high and rising share of coal in power generation contribute to high air pollution levels in bigger cities.”
We had two and a half days to spend in Hanoi before heading home. We took a motorcycle tour to see the “backstreets” of the city. It was quite fun once I figured how to get on and off the bike. We saw Banana Island, a green area between the busy cut and the Red River. where much of the city’s produce is grown and “homeless” live in floating houses with no power and work in agriculture.
We rode across the Long Bien Bridge, an iconic steel bridge built by the French in 1902, bombed by the US in 1970s and now used only by scooters and the train. The bridge looks a little worn for wear when we were standing on it. The photo below is not mine but it gives a great view of Long Bien Bridge on a prettier day.
Starting at the Long Bien Bridge is a ceramic mural on the dike system of the Red River. I briefly noticed the murals on our bike tour but we got a better look on our early morning taxi ride to the airport. The mural is about 6 km long and is comprised of tiny rectangular ceramic tiles painted into beautiful scenes. The work was completed in 2010 and there is little to no graffiti.
Our guides whisked all over the city showing us the less iconic/touristy places. We rode through the poorer neighborhoods where people live in tiny flats (275 sq ft rooms) in 1960s era concrete buildings with two shared bathrooms for an entire floor. We rode through narrow alleys where we could peek into people’s tiny spaces and businesses.
A spaghetti tangle of electric wires hangs inside these flats as well as outside. Speakers are mounted centrally on streets and each morning at 5.30am the residents are woken with weather announcements and reminders to get up and get to work in time.
The markets are diverse with one devoted entirely to mechanical equipment – car and motorcycle parts, tools, supplies etc. Hundreds of shops in what they call the “The Sky Market”. Vendors don’t know where their merchandise comes from. “Just fell from the sky”. Obviously lots of stolen merchandise. Cho Gion is market name.
Adjacent was another huge market for all things electronic.
Each urban neighborhood has their own “wet market” where the residents can purchase produce, noodles, fresh meat and seafood. By fresh meat, I mean live animals as well as freshly butchered raw meat piled on metal tables, apparently not chilled. Live fish and eels were flopping in plastic buckets. I have been in many markets in Europe but these gave me the heebie jeebies so I’ve been sticking to vegetarian dishes.
While visiting another neighborhood a step up on the scale, we met a little old lady who was sitting on her stoop watching us. She invited us in to see her tiny studio apartment. Our guide translated as we asked each other questions. We guessed each other’s ages – she was 85. We showed her pictures of our children. Her kitchen was a closet in the courtyard and a bathroom was shared by other tenants. Born in 1939, she would have lived through the French colonial period, world war and Japanese occupation, re-occupation by France, many years of insurgency as Vietnam fought for independence, than the establishment of the communist government, the war with Americans and on and on. We didn’t discuss any of these subjects with her.
The most fun stop on our tour was Train Street. This is a narrow street lined with cafes and shops where the train heading to and from Saigon goes through. It’s quite the experience to sit just a few feet away from a speeding train.
We visited a coffee shop owned by the Giang family whose grandfather invented the now famous Vietnamese egg coffee in 1946. Milk was not easily available in Vietnam so an egg cream was used to flavor the coffee. It is quite tasty and we bought some Vietnamese coffee to try and replicate at home.
In the evening we did one more tourist attraction, the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Great fun, colorful, great music and cute stories. 2nd row seats for $8 each.
We had two full days in Hanoi and we squeezed a decent amount of other activities including a foot massage and a visit to the mediocre History Museum.
We had a couple of memorable meals. Best was Luk Lak Vietnamese Restaurant where food was exquisite. Our first night was a lovely meal at MIA Restaurant. Both offered fine dining Vietnamese food in air conditioned indoor seating. Robust meals for under $50 all in. Expensive for locals but a bargain for us.
Ready to head home now. We have a long trip, two days. We arrived in SFO around 6.30pm and we were done with immigration and bags collected in 45 minutes. We spent the night at the SFO Hyatt. In retrospect we should have flown back to Florida on a red eye since we didn’t sleep much because of the 14 hour time difference.
We were able to check one last thing off our bucket list at the Singapore airport – the famous Singaporean dish Chile crab from Jumbos restaurant. It was amazing!
Recap
This was a great trip. Looking back, the only thing I wish we had done was spend less time in cities and more in amazing nature destinations, particularly in Vietnam. We had fun in Hanoi and sort of enjoyed Ha Long Bay but weather and pollution put a damper on both.
I wish we had scheduled enough time in Vietnam to hike in Sapa, visit Ninh Binh – both in Northern Vietnam. Also I think we should have visited Hoi An as our travel agent recommended and driven the Ha Giang Loop between Hue and Hoi An. These places would have needed another 6 or 7 days. Two nights in Hanoi with a full day of sightseeing at the end of the trip would have been sufficient. Next trip maybe!
We probably won’t go back to Cambodia but I’m glad we went. Sailing in Thailand was marvelous and I would go back to Thailand to visit the Northern provinces and see more of places like Krabi, Koh Samui.
Traveling was very easy and it was nice to have a good local travel agent whose vendors were 100% reliable. Minh with Custom Asia Travel organized a custom private tour for our travels in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
We could have packed a tad lighter. Even though we only had our Eddie Bauer carryons they are stuffed even after sending stuff home mid-trip with Chicago friends. Hotel laundry services were cheap everywhere except Singapore.
It is hot and humid in Asia. Hotels with AC and swimming pools were a huge plus. As always our Google Fi phones worked great. We used four different currencies. Most of the big stuff was prepaid and we pulled out small amounts ($25 to $200) at a time with a no fees ATM card.
And for anyone who doesn’t have Global Entry, download the Mobile Passport Control app on your phone and scan passports when you land. It took us 5 minutes to get through immigration, skipping very long lanes.