Vietnam assaults all of your senses all of the time. It’s a non-stop rollercoaster ride of noise, speed, adventure, beauty, smell, colour and heat, a world where nothing is as it seems and anything can happen.
As the new contender on the world’s travel hit list, tourism there has soared and Vietnam is revelling in our interest whilst going about its crazy daily business. All we can do is stare in awe, keep up and try to take it all in, the adventures proffered one by one like a heavenly bag of pick and mix.
We were there with Lucy Rogers Tailor-Made Trips, an independent, bespoke travel agent, thanks to the kind invitation of Travel Authentic Asia, experts in Vietnam and all of its treasures.
Hungry to explore and ready to be swallowed whole, Vietnam held nothing back, revealing its finest palaces and hotels, colonial history, battles, independence, tunnels, beaches, lakes, temples, cities, rivers, islands, restaurants, experiences, countryside, wildlife and its charming, friendly and welcoming people, headed up by our expert and endlessly upbeat guides Quynh and Hung.
But regardless of our hectic schedule, certain moments stay with you. Finding a dog wearing a pearl necklace at the side of the Mekong River, meditating with temple leaders in front of metre high Buddhas, sitting in a hot tub on a luxury cruise ship with Buddhist monks, finding bullet holes from the Vietnam War in the Imperial Palace walls, dressing up as emperors, swimming in the sunshine while the rain poured down, running over a snake on a bicycle, watching water buffalo working in paddyfields, parading past Ho Chi Minh‘s body surrounded by guards with machine guns, watching a puppy in a rucksack on a moped, women rowing with their feet, and the unfathomable contrast between the French colonial past, the Eastern bloc architecture and the unapologetic, gleaming skyscrapers proclaiming Asia’s prosperity, which continually flow over you like a waterfall.
Eyes open wide from the first moment you step foot on the streets, in our case in a procession of rickshaws joining the indescribable flow of traffic in Hanoi’s hectic streets, it was a baptism of fire. Anyone who’s been to Vietnam will understand the discombobulation of the constant stream of mopeds, cars, trucks, bicycles, lorries, rickshaws, tuk tuks and pedestrians crisscrossing and manoeuvring their way through without any form of traffic management in evidence.
And yet it works, and if you close your eyes for too long you’ll miss the incredible sights along the way; flags flying across the roads, shops overflowing with ladders, baskets, lanterns, paper dragons, toys, wooden bowls and fake Chanel handbags, tiny kitchens erected on the pavements where people squat and cook over a a single saucepan, restaurants spilling out onto the pavements, noodles being continually spooned into mouths, hawkers selling fruit from their bicycles, nail bars and massage parlours beckoning you in, tailors and shoemakers plying their wares, the smells of the street food mingling with the incense, vegetation and heat in an inescapable and intoxicating mix from which you may never truly recover.
We arrived in Hanoi on a hot humid morning, the heat instantly encasing you and holding you tight until the moment you step back on the plane. Indeed, sweating becomes part of your daily existence; you care less, don’t bother with make up, carry tissues to mop shop counters, hair scraped back. It doesn’t bother you. It’s part of Vietnam. You acclimatise.
Hanoi being the former home of late president and party leader Ho Chin Minh, we were transported to both his residence and mausoleum, his body, like Lenin’s, there for all to pay their respects.
Then a visit to the famously Instagrammable Train Street where you can have a drink inches away from the passing trains, and on for lessons in how to concoct Vietnamese egg coffee, made with a custard-like topping of whisked egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk, and sugar, which was invented in Hanoi in the 1940s when milk was scarce, and so delicious.
And the more subduing Hoa Lo Prison museum, otherwise known as The Hanoi Hilton, built by the French colonialists for political prisoners, where evidence of their barbarity is inescapable, later becoming the jail where captured American pilots from the Vietnam War were held.
What becomes increasingly evident is that despite the joyful demeanour of Vietnam and its people, you’re never more than one step away away from its daunting history, harking back to its imperial past, colonial subjugation, independence and invasion.
History lesson over, we moved on to the Viet Rice Essence Restaurant and our first introduction to Vietnamese food which is as unexpected as it is varied and nothing like its neighbouring countries fare; instead broths, phos, noodles, dipping sauces, seafood, pork, mushrooms and tofu take centre stage.
Then blissful sleep in the elegant and classy Rey Hotel Hanoi, bathed in exotic plants, the watering system enveloping you in clouds of steam as it instantly evaporates, and an oasis away from the cacophony of life outside, revitalising us ready to start travelling this extraordinary country in earnest.
We emerged the next day in the pouring rain, which is so torrential it’s biblical, until it suddenly stops and the sun pops out as if nothing’s happened, your clothes left steaming. Boarding bamboo boats two-at time, like Noah’s ark we made our way up the Ngo Dong River, rowed by boatmen and women using their feet, a sight you soon get used to as you pass through through grottos filled with stunning stalactites, rice being farmed around us.
Our next stop, emerging through the mist like a fairytale, was the Tam Chuc Pagoda Hotel, its huge wooden spires and temples nestled on the banks of Halong Bay, its islands stretching out as far as you can see.
The meditation master was on hand with his impressive collection of gongs to lead us in a bell meditation in the Hall of the Three Buddha, something we’d never tried before, but certainly the right place to start, the sounds echoing around the huge sanctified space. Peace indeed.
It would take too long to list all the extraordinary temples we visited on our trip which ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, stunning in gravitas and majesty, apparently oblivious to the capitalist world evolving fast around them, and yet equally as opulent, but they are varied and plentiful.
Halong Bay was next on our hit list, this time our form of water transport a luxury cruise ship Paradise Elegance, beautifully decorated with wooden panels within and lovely comfy rooms, the service and food immaculate, the views from the roof incredible, a cocktail bar and small pool perfect for relaxing, complete with Buddhist monks, while we watched the stunning sunset.
After an invigorating tai chi session on deck watching the sunrise, we flew on to Hoi An, our favourite stop. What a wonderful city, small enough to navigate, yet full of shops, restaurants, bars, music, clubs, tailors and shoemakers, the streets thronged with revellers, the river bridges lit with lanterns. We carried on long into the night and despite the late hour we felt entirely safe in Vietnam, where you can roam happily, the people friendly, smiling and cheerful.
Clutching our handmade boots, suits and leather bags, made overnight, our hangovers were greeted with bicycles when we emerged from the plush Bel Marina Hoi An Resort, as we once more plunged into the hectic traffic.
Emerging into paddy fields and water buffalo, rice dryng on the paths, we stopped at Tra Que Organic Vegetable Village – a restaurant and cooking school where we made rice paper for Vietnamese rolls and enjoyed a long lunch, and a divine foot and shoulder massage, before winding our way back, stopping at the water coconut forest—once used by the Viet Cong during the war – for a comical boat trip in traditional round basket boats.
The Bel Marina Hoi An resort offered luxury and sanctity, situated on the banks of the Thu Bon River, with a roof top and huge beachside pools, framed by bars and palm trees. We snuck into the spa for a delicious massage, the tiny female Vietnamese masseurs crouching on the tables to reach all those cranky muscles, and restore you.
On the move once again we crossed the iconic Hai Van Pass to emerge at Hue Ecolodge, a complete escape from the intractable pace of life outside its walls, dinner and drinks enjoyed by the pool.
Motorbikes were the next day’s form of transport, each with its own enthusiastic driver, as we wound our way past the Tiger and Elephant Arena, an ancient relic of the Nguyen Dynasty akin to a gladiatorial amphitheatre, though a local incense-making village, to the Imperial Citadel and Forbidden City which houses a theatre, parks and concubine residences, pagodas and halls and is a UNESCO World Heritage, then a dragon boat down the Perfume River, and the Dong Ba Market.
Flying on to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the pace picks up again, home to around 14 million inhabitants, it feels almost insurmountable, less intimate than Hanoi. Checking into the impressive and central Saigon Prince Hotel we were immediately whisked off by bus to the infamous Cu Chi Tunnels, used by the Viet Cong during The Vietnam War, although the Vietnamese understandably call it The American War.
Processing into the jungle there, the 22 miles of tunnels lay indiscernible from the ground, until a head pops up through the bush demonstrating the ambush capabilities, the Viet Cong able to retreat, regroup, eat, sleep and heal away from the bombing and killing above during the controversial war.
En route to the tunnels, traps demonstrated the barbaric and almost medieval ways the Viet Cong would attempt to kill their enemy, and while a trip into the tunnels is entirely voluntary, it seemed a waste to go all that way and not witness what lay beneath. The tunnels have been enlarged for tourists but are still tight as they twist and lead you in multiple directions.
Relieved to emerge just a few minutes later (the tourist tunnel stretch is only 120 metres long), one can only imagine how the Viet Cong managed to stay down there in the badly ventilated chutes for years on end. A harrowing trip then at odds with the old French quarter when you re-emerge back into Ho Chi Minh city and its defiant rebirth.
Our last boat trip took us back to the Mekong River, this time traversing a traditional village in Ben Tre where we watched local artisans at work and enjoyed a delicious traditional feast including crawdad fish from the river, cooked and served with chillies stuffed in their mouths, and huge prawns that defied belief, complete with a dog in a pearl necklace.
A grand farewell dinner at The Deck Saigon hosted by Travel Authentic Asia heralded the end of our Vietnamese odyssey, in style. We’d seen so much and yet like an insatiable urge we craved more. Vietnam has so much more to offer, and our mad, kaleidoscopic tour had only scratched the surface.
We enjoyed every second of our novel and life-enhancing trip, Vietnam standing out entirely on its own merits, so in terms of a taste it was enough for a lifetime of memories.
Just don’t leave it too long, because the word is out, and who knows how much longer Vietnam will remain so accommodating, intimate, cheerful and relatively unspoilt. It’s there for the taking.
Lucy Rogers Tailor-Made Trips is at https://www.lucyrogerstailormadetrips.co.uk
Travel Authentic Asia is at https://www.travelauthenticasia.com
