In 18 days from Hanoi 2 Saigon

even though the below described trip was in march and april, i think it is still interesting....

The original idea was to do all of Vietnam by train. An open bus ticket was not an option for us and neither were package tours. Both seemed to be to touristy. But as so often in life, things turned out to be different. Either because it simply was impossible to buy train tickets or because the places we wanted to visit were not connected by Vietnam's railway system.

In mid-March we escaped the rising temperatures of the dry season's peak by flying to Hanoi. Vietnam Airlines subsidiary Pacific Airlines offers the flight for reasonable US$ 94. From the Capital we wanted to go back south over land.

Hanoi

Even though we knew about the colder climate in the North we were quite surprised by the 15 degrees that welcomed us at Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport. So one of our first destinations after arrival was a clothes store in order to buy sweateres.

Not only the weather felt cold in the capital. Also the people of Ha Noi seemed to be colder. In HCM City bargaining with a xe om (motorbike taxi) driver is always done with a smile. The very first xe om drivers we took in Hanoi, on the other hand, tried to overcharge us and started a big argument with the owner of the hotel we choose. Probably because they would have gotten a comission from the neighbouring hotel.

Also cyclo drivers tried to overcharge us in a way that never happened to me in Saigon. Though first agreeing on a fare, they would charge a higher price at the end because we were two heavy Westerners. We had planned to give a tip, but after this, we did not feel like tipping at all.

Nevertheless Ha Noi presented itself with a charme Saigon does not offer. The misty and rainy weather of the spring and the fashion of the people who seemed to have much more style than their compatriots in the South, together with the ancient colonial buildings in different states of decay and the Old Quarter's narrow allyways, create an atmosphere and feeling that we would call "Hanoi Style" for the rest of our trip.

Besides visiting some of Hanoi's "classical" sites like the Temple of Literature and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where people queue up as for London's Crown Jewels, our main activity was strolling around the Old Quarter on the hunt for incredibly good food.

Our favourites were Bun Bo (rice noodles with beef) from the street stalls and the delicious Cha Ca La Vong (pan fried fish with rice noodles) in a Restaurant with the same name in the Cha Ca Street of the Old Quarter.

As we were really tired of innumerable party nights in HCM City we did not check out much of Hanoi's nightlife, except a really nice pub called GC-Bar (5 Pho Bao Khanh). For partying we heard that Titanic is good and for a beer in the early morning hours Phuc Tan Bar (49 - To 4A - Phuc Tan) is recommendable.

Halong Bay

For our trip to Halong Bay we had to leave Hanoi in the early morning hours. Even if this was hard, especially for me as I am the opposite of an early bird, it allowed us a unique experience: Overlooking the old quarter at dawn the air was filled with a mix of archaic chants and motivating speeches, which gave everything a rather unreal atmosphere.

When we arrived in Halong City after some four hours in the bus, we got some free lunch. To explain this: We choose one of the package tours. This was contradicted to our original travel philosophie, but a lack of time and an overdose of laziness forced us to do so.

Halong Bay presented itself to us in a so-so way. This was on one hand due to the weather. As it was rather cloudy we could only imagine the enchanting atmosphere of the bay's bright colors. On the other hand the bay was packed with tourist boats, which also decreased its charme.

Nevertheless Halong Bay with its hundreds of lime stone islands is an uncomparable place, and we did not regret our one-day trip to visit it, even if we were extremely tired after four more hours on the bus back to Hanoi.

Train

Next we went to Ninh Binh Province, 93 kilometers south of the capital. Our plan to go by train seemed to work out. It was more than easy to reach Hanoi's central train station and buy the tickets. Just as the backpacker's bible, the Lonely Planet promised, the staff at the counter two spoke fluently English, and so within minutes we were the proud owners of two softseat tickets.

As we arrived to the train station way too early the next day, we had plenty of time strolling around and watching the arriving and departing passengers, the vendors and everyone else who usually gathers around trainstations. Also the freight for the trains caught our interest. Especially the motorbikes, which were loaded into the wagons, each within a wooden box.

At least one hour before our departure we had the pleasure to listen to extraordinarily loud Vietnamese folk music, which also would turn out to be the soundtrack for the whole ride.
As almost no foreigners, or at least Westerners, were aboard the train, the trip felt much different from the several open bus tours, which operate from Hanoi to Saigon.

The train itself moved slowly but steadily and the engine sounds combined with the folkmusic pleased passengers' ears. While the seats were surprisingly comfortable, the windows were very small and also not in a Westerner's height of view, so that monitoring the passing landscapes was a bit of a challenge.

Ninh Binh

After a three-hour ride from Hanoi we reached Ninh Binh, the tiny capital of the province with the same name. The Queen Mini Hotel, which we chose as our base camp for the next two days, was just 30 meters from the train station.

After breakfast the next morning, we decided to do a motorbike trip around the limestone landscape of Tam Coc and to the ancient capital of Hoa Lu. The friendly receptionist turned out to be an independent travel guide, so he convinced us to hire his services for the trip.

That was probably the best choice, not only because Long spoke absolutely perfect English and knew almost everything about Ninh Binh, his home province, but also he was exactly our age we got along perfectly.

Our discussions with him ranged from Vietnam to Turkey and from German football to the advantages of goat meat.

Long showed Andi, my travelmate from Germany, how to ride a motorbike, and for the following weeks Andi was total addicted riding the Dream. Besides that Long managed to show us every site of interest, and there are many in Ninh Binh, before or after busloads of daytrippers from Hanoi visited them.

Highlights of that day were defenitly the limestone landscape of Tam Coc, which we explored by boat, a privat concert on the classical one string guitar by an ancient temple keeper and the long motorbike rides through the rice paddies. All in all this place, often describe as Halong Bay on land, impressed us much more than the bay.

Phat Diem

The next day we decided to do another motorbike tour, this time on our own. Our destination was Phat Diem, around 30 kilometers far from Ninh Binh, home to one of the country's oldest cathedrals. Before 1954 Phat Diem was an important center for Catholicism, and even nowadays there are more than a hundred thousand Catholics around.

The landscape we passed on our way was excatly the same as Graham Greene described it in his "Quiet American." It looked like a copy of the Netherlands "where young green rice-shoots [...] take the place of tulips and churches of windmills."

The closer as we came to Phat Diem, the more it rained. Still it was not the kind of rain that we were used to from Europe. It was more like a faint mist that became more humid minute by minute. When we entered the town, we were total soaked.

We entered the road that would lead us to the cathedral, and the first thing we saw was a huge statue, made of stone, opening its arms, appearing out of the mist. Behind it there was the cathedral, not looking like anything we would have imagined. Uniting Asian and European architecture, it did not look like any church we had seen before in our lives.

The cathedral was closed when we arrived, but some locals told us that around 2 p.m. we would be able to visit it. So we used the time to warm up again with some coffee and noodles and watched the almost non-existant life in the streets.

The guide who showed us arround the cathedral and its chapels was a friendly old man, who reminded me of my dead grandfather, because both wore the same kind of French hat. He did not speak English, and my Vietnamese was also not very good at that time so we tried to communicate in French. A big challenge for Andi and me, as both of us never had a good relationship to our French teacher back home and so had skipped class as often as possible.

The interior of the cathedral also had that Asian-European Style. In one of the chapels, for example, Christian symbols were side by side with a Yin and Yang sign.

On the way back to Ninh Binh the mist turned into real rain and when we stopped by the road to buy raincoats, bargaining was not possible at all. When we arrived in our hotel we were wet to the bone, freezing as hell. Looking at the faces of the other guests we realized that we had not seen a single Westerner for the whole day.

The Bus

That same night we took the nightbus to Hue. Yes, the bus. Why? Because it turned out to be impossible to buy a train ticket in Ninh Binh with the train station 30 meters from our hotel.

The night before we went to the station and the lady in the office told us that, of course, we would get a ticket to Hue the next day. All we would have to do was to come back to the station the next morning.

When we did, we were told that all the tickets were sold already in Hanoi so we could not take the train. Later we heard, that the same story happens to all tourists who want to take the train to Hue. So the only option if you want to take this passage seems bookink in advance in Hanoi.

When we arrived in Hue in the early morning, we would very soon realize why we should have taken the train. We stopped at a big place were all the Vietnamese passengers got off the bus. So did we. Or better said we tried.

The more than unfriendly driver from Hanoi-based Diep Tran Ltd. yelled at us to stay on the bus, and the staff would not give us our luggage. We were exactly where we wanted to be, but neither English nor Vietnamese helped us to convince the driver to let us and our luggage off the bus.

When we realized where our luggage was, we grapped it and fled, while the driver closed the doors. Probably they wanted "recommend" to us a hotel.

This episode really made me angry. Even if it's not the common case, it's this kind of mentality of companies such as Diep Tran, which leaves a bitter aftertaste with many of the tourists visiting Vietnam.

Tourists do not want to be treated like cattle or live ATMs. And if the "marketing" of these companies would be less agressive, I'm sure business would be way better for them.

Hue

Nevertheless this incident brought us another nice backbacker from Canada, who left the bus with us and with who we travelled together until Saigon.

It took a while for us to like Hue. After the bad start our mood was not the best. And the rainy weather did not do much to improve it.

Lots of cyclodrivers were around and offered their servives in a much more agressive manner than in HCMC. Random people asked for money every few steps we took. Again we felt like cashcows.

Within all this rain and hassle we went to visit the citadel on the other side of the Perfume River. But it was too cold and wet for our explorer spirit to awake.

But when we left the city's centre on motorbikes the second day everything changed. First we took a ride to the famous Thien Mu Pagoda at the Perfume River's bank where we made an interesting discovery.

Behind the main sanctuary there is an old Austin motorcar in which the monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963 drove to Saigon in order to incinerate as a protest against the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem.

A famous photograph of this went around the world. And later became known to our generation as the cover picture of Rage Against The Machine's debut album. During these days we only got a vague idea of the picture was about. Now we knew its origin.

After that we explored the royal tombs, which surround the city. Located in the hills, each of them is of unique beauty, and it was eazy for us to spend the whole day strolling around these ancient graves.

Nightlife in Hue did not have to offer much for backpackers like us. Some nice eateries with good hot pot and beer, for example, and the DMZ Bar, Hue's only travellers place were you can meet everyone, who travels and parties, at night.

Hoi An

Together with Ninh Binh, Hoi An for sure was the highlight of our trip. Here we stayed much longer than expected and skipped Mui Ne, as well as Nha Trang, from our route. We met a good crowd here, but the incredible charme of this ancient and well-kept Chinese trade port mainly made us stick there.

We did not do much sightseeing, and we did not feel bad about it. Our days consisted of long motorbike trips along the coast to Danang, for example, in the morning. In the afternoon, we would hang out at the different beaches with our friends and enjoy the first beer of the day. Whenever we arrived at the beach, it was beer o' clock.

At night we would have a walk through the picturesque old town of Hoi An and enjoy either local specialties like cao lau (noodles with bean sprouts, croutons, herbs and pork slices) or the fabulous fusion cuisine at the Mango Rooms (111 Nguyen Thai Hoc).

Our favorite dish at this place, which unpretentiously sets itself apart from the common Vietnam Restaurant scene, was "Buddha's Appetite", fried tofu in tomato garlic sauce, served with beans and rice noodles.

Hoi An is a perfect example for the tourist paradise Vietnam can be. The tourism authorities there do a perfect job to create an unforgettable holiday for visitors.

At certain weekday, for example, motrobikes are not allowed to enter the old quarter and the narrow allyways only lit by traditional lanterns. This creates exactly the atmosphere that most people look for when travelling to Vietnam.

Dalat

The city in Vietnam's Central Highlands was our trip's last destination. From the old colonial days on, it was the favorite place for the French and rich Saigonese to escape the hot climate of their city.

The Easy Riders, a loose association of motorbike guides, offer many trips through the beautiful hills. All of them are equipped with big engines and speak good English, French or even German. Their tours range from short daytrips around Dalat to long trips heading to Hanoi or Saigon.

Convinced by their friendliness we chose to take a one-day tour around the city. As we tried to change the schedule of the offered trip, it turned out that they were not as easy-going as the name promises. As the various stops included quite touristy places we did not want to see, such as a vegetable farm, we asked them to just drive us through the beautiful landscape. But it was impossible to convince them to change their schedule.

But even if the trip at US$ 12 for six hours was a bit pricy for the offered service compared to average xe om prices, and the riders were unflexible we had a good time.

The most ridicoulus highlight of the trip was probably the Chicken Village. The Koho minority live here and the village bears its name due to a huge concrete chicken in the city's center.

The Vietnamese government built the chicken statue after the reunification, but the history behind this huge poultry is unclear. Some say its based on a local legend. Others say it encourages the chicken farmers in this area.

Dalat is a city of coffee shops. One of the most relaxed places is Stop and Go Cafe (2A Ly Tu Trong) run by poet Duy Viet. This cafe is a perfect retreat to read a book and to forget about the outside world, at least for a while.

When we finally came back to Saigon the climate we tried to escape from was hotter than ever.