Vietnam 2017

At first I was on planning to cross Vietnam by motorcycle but when I arrived the weather decided differently.

HANOI

With Alena we decided to book a flight a flight for 2 hours instead of taking a long long bus called the hell bus from Luang Prabang to Hanoi. We got sone insight about this bus, surely it's cheaper than to flight 23 EUR against 50 EUR but you have to spend more than 30 hours in the same bed with someone else, a very small bed. SO basically it's impossible to sleep.

We arrived in Hanoi at 9h30 and we took the bus from the airport to the city center, Alena left the bus 30 minutes before me to join the center where she was starting an volunteer job and I got off at the Old Town. The bus drop me not far from the main road so i already have a 30 minutes walk to the hostel to discover the city. It's in those moments that I am happy that my backpack is only 6-8 kg. During walking I pass the Ngoc Son Temple and continue my road to the center of the old town with the objective to find a nice guest house.

After visting 2/3 hostel, all full or not looking that good I finally book a night at the Hanoi Backpackers hostel. During the afternoon I walk more than 4 km around the city, according to me there is not much to see and I was kind of missing Laos and my travel buddy.

At night I joined the free beer and beer pong tourmentent at the hostel where i met a group of 3. My plan was to go to Cat Ba island, they wanted to do it too so we decided to go there together in order to visit somehow the Halong Bay.

CAT BA ISLAND

In the morning I woke up earlier than them and decided to start my trip to Cat Ba island : One bus, One boat and One bus again, I check in at Cat Ba Central Hostel and join the guys for lunch. On the afternoon we wanted to rent scooter and go around but the weather was really bad so we chill and drink so beers until late at night when we start playing card and book for the tour to Halong Bay. At midnight I decided that i could not stand the cold weather with my small jacket and got a nice 2nd hand dickes pull over at the market for 150. Time to sleep we have to wake up early for tomorrow trip to Halong Bay.

HALONG BAY

The Halong Bay trip was nice (the food especially) but with 12 degrees all day long on a boat was quite painfull. We visited the monkey island, ride around the bay with the boat and finally get on a trip with a Kayak. The weather did not get better and I was starting to get crazy (yes the souvenir of Ireland wishing for better every day what exactly what i was running out of Ireland).

THE MONKEY ISLAND

OUR BOAT RIDE ALONG THE BAY

THE KAYAK TOUR

TAM COC

It was nice to see the Halong Bay but I really feel too cold, I took a bus in the morning to Tam Coc and check in at the Tamcoc River View Homestay and chill during the afternoon, look what to do for the next day. In the morning I check out of the hotel because a wedding was being organized and check in next door in Tam Coc Bungalow. On the afternoon I rent a scooter and I have been around.

In the morning, I tried some food speciality the best restaurant to go to is father cooking and test the goat or something like that.

On the afternoon the best to do in Tam Coc is to go a around the lake, the lady was saying hi to everyone and driving with her foot around the lake, what a nice and amusing experience.

And it's still quite cold, so let's get a night bus to Hoi An. Hoi An is THE place to get tailor made clothes whilst backpacking Vietnam but it's also one of the favorite city of bagpackers for calm. I arrived early and check in at Tribee Bana before heading to the city to walk around until it start raining like hell haha. I did not get really lucky with the weather since I arrived but i love the atmosphere in Hoi An.

The rain stopped, we cook some spring rool at the hostel and walk on the night market.

HO CHI MINH

Still too cold so I took a plane to Ho Chi Minh.

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh I check in at Hideout Hostels, I did not do much the first day and I joined the Pub Crawl at the hostel. In the morning I book a tour to go to the tunnels of Củ Chi , it's an immense network of connecting underground tunnels and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Vietnamese used them during the war.