Mum on tour in Vietnam

Vietnam…… what a two weeks!!

It would be a lie if I didn’t state that the majority of our travels plans (as in how long we spend in each country) centres pretty much entirely around how long we can get a free tourist visa for (absolute cheapskates). As you can currently get a 15 day free tourist for Vietnam…. That’s how long we stayed. Needless to say, this was the first country I was absolutely not ready to leave. 15 days couldn’t possibly do this diverse, beautiful, and fun country justice and the because we crammed so much in the time absolutely flew by.

The first 24 hours I was like an excited child on Christmas Eve as I anticipated the long-waited arrival of my mum who was coming to visit us for the duration of our time in Vietnam. I was equally excited when she not only arrived, but arrived armed with fruit pastels, Percy Pigs and ….. NEW CROSSWORD BOOKS. Buzzing.

I will have to be quite brief about each of our activities and all that went on because otherwise this would quite literally turn into a novel. Which no one would buy.

Our first stop was Hanoi – the bustling capital city which encompasses all of South East Asia’s oddities and quirks around one single lake. Straight away we fell in love with the simply delicious food, the similarly delicious and INCREDIBLY cheap beer, and the friendly vibes that flooded the busy walkways of the Old Quarter where we stayed.

We wasted no time on getting our adventure underway and got mum to experience her very first night bus to the mountainous village of Tavan in stunning Sapa. Except…. This night bus was unlike any other due it being… in the day? I can tell you it is quite an odd experience travelling whilst lying horizontally when you are completely wide awake. Anyway. The minute we arrived in Sapa we couldn’t get over it’s natural beauty… just about as quickly as we got hounded by local women trying to sell us bags, purses, or themselves as a tourguide to trek the area. We soon clocked on there was literally nowhere we could go to get away from said women, but nothing could take away from the views rolling out around us – paddy fields, immaculate farming and imposing mountains surrounded where we were staying. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sapa with only a few incidents including 2 tumbles down the slippery paths, a case of bed bugs, an infestation of cockroaches and a rather unfortunate mix up at dinner resulting in a big bowl of ‘cheesy mash’ (sorry, that’s a definite ‘had to be there’ which I won’t even try to explain) ;)

From Sapa we headed back to Hanoi before making our way on a proper tourist tour of the sensational Halong Bay. Normally we are fairly anti-tours as they generally tend to cost a lot more than just sorting things ourselves, but with Halong Bay it proved to be one of the few times that use of a tour would save us both money and a whole lot of hassle. That being said – being herded on and off a boat every half an hour, told at each stop “YOU HAVE 37 AND A HALF MINUTES TO BE BACK IN THIS SPOT” and being referred to as ‘Team Sticky Rice’ proved unnecessarily stressful at times and proved why we opt to go solo. However, there was no denying this place of its natural beauty and we had a wonderful day swimming, exploring the gigantic caves and eating more good food.

 

Our next destination, and my personal favourite place we visited in Vietnam, was a beautiful mountainside town called Phong Na. It was a good job it was so incredibly stunning to look at because it required us to the take the newest contender for the World’s Worst Night Bus 2019 Championships. Definitely felt for Mum on that one… thrown in right at the deep end!

Phong Na was another destination where you could wake up and look straight out your window to see the most incredible backdrop that didn’t even look real. There were also many fun activities to undertake including; cycling, walking, riding buffalos, … throwing ducks (yep, you read that right – apparently it’s good luck), taking a mud bath in the middle of a cave, ziplining (and subsequently nearly being ripped in half), and swimming in the river. With all of this in just two days, we barely stopped to catch our breaths but it was so worth it, and would recommend anyone travelling Vietnam to head to this little gem.

Next up; Hue! Home to the impressive Imperial City, huge thunderstorms, and ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE TO EAT (which we found out the hard way….. during the thunderstorms…. after a very long day exploring the Imperial City…). But don’t worry, there were plenty of shops to hand selling those fetching anoraks you see everyone wearing in Thorpe Park so we were sorted (minus the huge hole in mine). Our only night in Hue consisted of us walking around 10km between the hours of 8 and 10pm looking for somewhere to eat, and ending up back at our accommodation at 10:10pm eating the pot noodles purchased down the road. It’s a shame I can’t even say this was the worst meal of Vietnam, though on the whole the food has been very good).

Our final long journey to get to Hoi An consisted of four stops en route. The first was a place called Elephant Springs which was, in fair, stunning. Pools of natural water ran alongside waterfalls and many locals having a good time, all located in the footholds of some very impressive mountains. However, health and safety regulations were clearly at an affirmative 0 and we spent the majority of the time shuffling around on our bums over the limescaley rocks to try and get from A to B. Hilariously, we realised where the name ‘Elephant Springs’ came from not because there was a herd of the beasts grazing quietly nearby, but because someone had come along with a concrete ‘trunk’ and cemented it (very badly) onto a rock (barely) resembling an elephant. Classic Asia.

The next stop was a beautiful lake which was home to one of Vietnam’s infamous pearl farms. The scenes before us were some of the most beautiful I’ve seen, and another half an hour drive later and we were enjoying the incredible panoramic views from the HiVan Pass. Marble Mountain rounded up the day’s sightseeing, and after the steep climb up the top, we made the horrible mistake of trying to climb out through a cave. I was convinced it would lead us back to the path to return to the car which was waiting for us, but no, instead we just pointlessly clambered our way through tiny gaps in mid 30-degree heat and wearing flipflops, only to turn back around and come back the same way. Clearly I still have a lot of work to do on my sense of direction.

However, we finally ended up in Hoi An, our final destination of Vietnam, and certainly worth the wait. The quirky streets were lined with local shops selling beautiful bags and homemade clothes and gifts, and once the sun had set we were surrounded by the gentle glow of the many overhead lanterns. With a beach nearby, hundreds of cafes to choose from and permanent happy hours on cocktails, it was the perfect place to spend some chillout time and catch up on (a little bit of) sleep. Apart from being wiped out by the gigantic waves a few thousand times, it was lovely spending some downtime and enjoying one another’s company for the final few days. After a final afternoon packing and shopping, it was time to say our farewells as mum prepared to fly home to the UK, and us on to Indonesia. Saying goodbye felt horrible but we all made some amazing memories and laughed too many times to count. And then there’s the realisation we too will be flying home to the UK in only 9 weeks time so it’s not long until we will see our friends and families again.

Now we turn our thoughts to our penultimate destination of this wonderful trip; Indonesia. We will update the blog again soon – thanks for reading!