It’s quite difficult to find the right time to visit Vietnam since it rains a lot and when it’s sunny in the south it’s ugly in the north and vice versa. We went in July and we were actually lucky with the weather. We got the sun when it was important and got some rain when it was actually ok to get wet.
We left Paris on July 18th, a smooth flight with Vietnam Airlines, 1100 EUR both ways, and landed in Hanoi on Saturday morning 7am local time. If you have already booked a hotel you can ask for a transport from the airport. That’s what we did, a guy with a sign was waiting for us and took us directly in his minibus to our hotel, the icon 36 hotel in the historical district near the lake of Hoan Kiem.
We ate a Pho for breakfast and we spent the weekend visiting Hanoi, the alleys of the old city, the Hoan Kiem lake, the western lake, the mausoleum of Ho chi Minh, two or three pagodas and finally the museum of ethnography of Vietnam. Overall the city is noisy, sometimes dirty but remains quite authentic and very different from our western cities.
We left with an overnight sleeper train (Orient express) to Sapa where we booked a 3 days 2 nights Trek to explore the Tongan Alps and the famous rice fields. We slept on small bunks in compartments of 4 people. Our agency was “Far east tour” and we were overall very satisfied with the Trek.
We arrive at Lao Cai in the early morning, 1 hour of mini bus later we are at SAPA, breakfast in a hotel, we leave our luggage at the reception and we go on the trails, the 5 of us, the guide and about ten local women in traditional black hmong dress who will follow us all day long with the aim of selling us various powerful trinkets. The weather is wet, it rains, the paths are sometimes rather difficult and slippery, we fall into ravines, and I give up trying to keep my feet dry. But the landscapes are magnificent, at each turn we discover new panoramas. I love panoramas.
We spend the two nights with locals, the food is simple but rather good, our hosts are welcoming and overall if we don’t expect 5 stars and we stay quite open about the food there are no problems. After these three days of walking we arrive at the last village, we swim in a waterfall we eat and a minibus takes us back to SAPA so we can take a shower in the hotel, back to Lao Cai and back to Hanoi.
In Hanoi we take advantage of the time we have to try a very traditional dish, the Cobra! We choose a restaurant out of the city centre, order the cobra for the 5 of us (about 70 bucks for 5) and the staff brings us back the still wriggling snake, slits its throat, pours the blood and bile in shots with rice alcohol, tears out the still beating heart and presents it to us. I eat the heart, being the only one motivated to try it and we drink the shots. It’s not very good but it’s original, then they bring 7 dishes made from the snake, spring rolls, fried skin, meat with vegetables, a soup.. Original experience and tasty food!
We wake up the next day quite early and get picked up by the company we booked for a cruise in ha long bay. A few hours later after a cheap crowded boat trip with the locals we arrive on the Island of Catba. We get on our boat, we sail between the rocks, we bath in small creeks, we do some kayak and we spend overall a very good moment, the weather is beautiful! We spend the night on the boat, where it is hot and moist. The next day we make a small trek in the national park of the island of Catba which offers us a pretty panorama on the bay. The company is CatBa Ventures, it’s quite expensive but everything went as planned without any problems, and we had the boat for ourselves, which was a determining parameter in the choice of the company.
We then return to Hanoi and we take the night bus to Hue. Personally I slept very well and I feel rested when we arrive in Hue. We stay at the serene palace hotel. As usual the building is small but the rooms are very good, the food is average but the staff is very helpful. We visit the old imperial city, and then we go back to the hotel, nap and have a bite in a western pub, pizza, just to change a little bit from noodles, egg rolls and Vietnamese food. The Hotel prepares us a 7 seats car with a driver to take us to Hoi An the next day, we visit on the way a deserted beach, the pass of the clouds which offers a pretty sight on the Ocean and the coast. We stop at the marble mountains, and finally, we are dropped off at a large marble shop for tourists, we don’t know what to do there so we leave quite quickly.
We arrive in Hoi An in the afternoon and we go to the hotel to rest a little, the hotel is a great surprise, It is a small house with 3 rooms, a terrace overlooking a pedestrian street and a common lounge. Bob Marley, Chinese Man, Wax Tailor in the background, a guitar hanging in a corner and a very kind staff and delicious food. Perfect to finish our holidays on a quiet note.
We go out a little in the evening, beware of the Backpacker bars in Vietnam, the alcohol they serve is often fake and the prices vary according to the alcohol level of the customer, some drinks are never served, and we don’t really know what we drink to be honest. We ordered a bottle of Jameson to avoid any confusion. The city is very nice, small lanterns, pedestrian street and hundreds of lamps. We also do a little side trip to the Chams Islands, an archipelago 15 km off the coast. Diving and camping on the beach with a friendly group of ladies from Marseille that we met on the boat.
If we had known we would have tried to go out and party in Danang rather than Hoi An because there is not a single club in this small town while Danang offers one of the biggest clubs in Vietnam, but you have to know that. Depends of what you look for I guess.
Last night in Hoi an and we drive back to Danang in order to fly to Hanoi and then return to France. A gigantic thunderstorm over Hanoi forces our plane to return to Danang and then fly back to Hanoi again. We arrive at 23:20 instead of 19:30 , we still have maybe time to take our 23:55 flight if we delay it a little bit! But actually no, they didn’t delay the flight despite the many planes that couldn’t land in Hanoi, they moved it forward ! Flight missed and return to Hanoi for a last night, at the expense of Vietnam airlines at least …Back in Paris the next day. That being said I recommend you the restaurant “Le Hanoi” rue de Charonne in Paris, they make cheap delicious Vietnamese cuisine.
Small Video of the trip:
