Travel report: Vietnam

Country ranking by area: #67
Country ranking by population: #15

Date of visit: May 2015

My travels started 2012 in Southeast Asia. After my first trip to Thailand, I fell in love with this part of the world and continued exploring the region. From 2012 until 2015, I have traveled five times to Southeast Asia, and Vietnam marked the last SEA country I have visited to this date. As a side note, the only SEA countries I haven’t been to yet are Myanmar, the Philippines, Brunei and Timor-Leste.

From Saigon to Hanoi

We started this trip in Ho Chi Minh City and finished it in Hanoi. It was two week trip, actually a bit too short for Vietnam, but we managed to see Hoi An, Nha Thrang and Halong Bay aside from the starting and ending point. In hindsight, I have to admit that Vietnam is one of the few countries for which I should have chosen a slightly different itinerary. But I will come back to that later.

Travelers start a Vietnam trip either in the North or in the South. We chose Ho Chi Minh City as our first destination. HCMC, also known as Saigon, is an upcoming and buzzing city. It’s actually a quite typical Southeast Asian city: chaotic, overcrowded, street vendors, motorbikes, pollution but also fun. Saigon is not as modern as Singapore and also less developed than Bangkok but the Vietnamese city could catch up soon.

We had three days in Ho Chi Minh City, and it was an excellent starting point in Vietnam. Saigon has some interesting sights including the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of underground tunnels built during the Vietnam War. There is plenty of great food in HCMC and another plus is that the city is not very difficult to navigate.

South Vietnam is generally the best place for history lessons about the Vietnam War. We visited the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the most depressing tourist attractions I have ever seen. Visiting this place gives you a similar feeling as the Killing Fields in Cambodia do.

The only thing that was poor back in 2015 was Saigon’s nightlife. There is not much going on for a city with more than 8 million inhabitants, which is a bit weak in comparison to other SEA metropolises like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta. Even Phnom Penh had better nightlife. In general, I had the impression that the communist state of Vietnam is one of the lesser spectacular SEA countries in terms of nightlife. In Hanoi, it’s even difficult to find an open place after midnight.

Idyllic Hoi An

Hoi An was the cutest town I have visited in Vietnam and also in Southeast Asia so far. If you enter this illuminated village for the first time, it looks a bit like Disney World. Hoi An is very small so that it doesn’t take longer than two or three hours to see all of it. Nevertheless, it’s a place that is worth to stay a few days. We spent three days in Hoi An, which was together with Halong Bay my highlight in Vietnam.

Hoi An has a very laid-back vibe and time passes slower here than in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. If you’re in Hoi An during full moon, you can visit the Hoi An Full Moon Lantern Festival. You will see lanterns everywhere even on the river. It’s a beautiful spectacle.

Hoi An doesn’t have a lot of sights and attractions, but that doesn’t matter. The village itself is the star, and I couldn’t think of a better place in Vietnam to relax the soul. Vietnam is a hectic country, but Hoi An is the complete opposite.

I also witnessed mafia-like business behavior in Hoi An for the first time since my arrival in Vietnam. There are two or three bars in Hoi An near the river, where all the travelers meet at night. One bar was called Tiger Tiger Bar (like most bars in Southeast Asia) if I remember correctly. We were sitting in the bar next to Tiger Tiger with less people in it and enjoyed a few beers. When we switched bar and entered the place, in which the most people were, the owner of the bar approached us.

“Welcome,” he said. “If I see you guys again in that other bar tomorrow (pointing to the bar where we came from), you are banned from my bar.” That was kind of an extortion, as his bar was the place with most of the action. That’s how they understand competition. You’re gonna fight with whatever you have. An article recently said that Vietnamese are the most capitalist people in the world nowadays. Ironically, Vietnam is officially still a communist country…

We experienced another rip off during our stay in Hoi An. Our hotel was located at the beach, which is a 5-10 minute ride from the village. You don’t have taxis at night and you depend on motorbike taxis. My driver took me back to the hotel for a few Dollars, which was okay. However, my friend had to pay 20 Dollars for this short ride. He refused first and told the group of drivers that he was going to take a taxi. “Well, where is your taxi?” the guys asked. He had no other choice than paying the price unless he wanted to walk in the dark for about 35-45 minutes.

Няча́нг… Welcome to the Russian paradise

We headed back south to Nha Trang, our third destination in Vietnam. I was wearing a shirt with Vietnam’s flag on the flight, and I must have looked as ridiculous to the Vietnamese as Chinese tourists wearing shirts with the Swiss flag look to me. “You like Vietnam?” many of the Vietnamese laughingly asked. Of course, I also bought the mandatory “Good Morning Vietnam” shirt, one of the most worn shirts in Southeast Asia (together with Singha- or same same-shirts).

I can’t remember what shirts I wore in Nha Trang, but I do remember that Nha Trang was my least favorite place in Vietnam. Nha Trang has a nice beach, but the city itself looks incredibly ugly. Moreover, it’s a hot spot for Russian tourists and I am not talking about the civilized ones. Every menu is written in Vietnamese, Russian and English, sometimes in Vietnamese and Russian only.

We saw hordes of drunk Russian at night, many of them were quite aggressive and sometimes even beating the shit out of each other. A place is only as good as the people who you meet there. Nha Trang seemed to be the place in Southeast Asia where the worst tourists spend their holidays.

We witnessed another bad situation, although it didn’t happened to us. We met two English girls in a bar and were walking towards a nightclub with them, when a Vietnamese on a passing motorbike suddenly grabbed the handbag of one of the girls. It happened so fast and until we realized what just had happened, the driver and his accomplice were already far away.

It may sound like Vietnam is a dangerous country, which is not the truth though. It’s just that petty crime is much more widespread than in the neighboring countries. Precaution is necessary therefore. I have also read several reviews by travelers who got scammed in any matter.

The cheekiest scam I read about was a driver, who drove two tourists from one city to another. He stopped the car in the middle of nowhere at night and asked for 200 Dollars. When the tourists refused to pay, he left them and their luggage at the roadside and drove away.

But enough of scams and back to Nha Trang. Our time in Nha Trang wasn’t very spectacular. We spent some time at the beach and in Vinepearl, a water-park that was actually quite good. Moreover, we stayed in the Sheraton, which was also a great hotel with an amazing gym.

The four nights in Nha Trang were way too much in the end and I didn’t enjoy the time there. Nha Trang was a compromise, because my friend wanted beach holidays. Although Vietnam has a long coastline, it’s not really a beach destination. The compromise was spending one week near the beach (Hoi An & Nha Trang), but alas, we had to skip other interesting places such as Sapa or Hue because of that.

A wonder of the world: Halong Bay

I am not easy to impress and I usually don’t like spending too much time in one place. Halong Bay was an exception. This UNESCO World Heritage site is about four hours away from the capital Hanoi. The bay is dotted with 1,600 limestone islands and it’s bigger than 1,500 square-meters.

Unsurprisingly, Halong Bay is one of the main sights in Vietnam. Several tour operators take tourists there, prices vary from backpacker-friendly to luxurious. We opted for a rather expensive boat, as we wanted to have it a bit more exclusive. As a consequence, we were by far the youngest people on the boat but that didn’t matter. We had a lot of fun with the other people.

The tour went three days and two nights and it including activities such as kayaking, swimming or a cooking class. I remember that I was sitting on deck of our ship and watching the scenery for hours. New islands popped up as soon as the ones we passed disappeared. It’s a magical place.

We were once sitting on the balcony of our room and it was almost dark. The nature we saw was still incredible. Suddenly, a small boat with an old lady appeared out of the nowhere. She was showing us the only box of biscuits she was having with her in order to sell it to us. This situation is Vietnam in a nutshell. That’s as Vietnam as it gets.

Goodbye from Hanoi

Hanoi was our last stop before we headed back home. Interestingly, one of the most discussed questions among Vietnam travelers is: Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City – which city is better? I have an easy answer to that: it’s the city you have visited first. Seriously, every time I had this discussion it turned out that people favored the city they had seen first.

Hanoi didn’t thrill me to be honest. It’s completely different than Ho Chi Minh City, as it is without a doubt less international and you will notice the communist influence much more than in Saigon. There aren’t many sights in Hanoi and the city is more or less dead after midnight. I haven’t seen such a thing in a city, where millions of people live in (at least not outside of the Muslim world).

We spent three nights in total in Hanoi (one night was before the Halong Bay trip), and I remember that I said “actually, I would be ready to go home now” before the last night. I simply didn’t know what to do anymore. Visiting “uncle Ho’s” grave would have been an option but I was good. I didn’t need to see that.

Nevertheless, I can understand why people prefer Hanoi over Ho Chi Minh City. When you first arrive in Hanoi, you will be overwhelmed by the madness on the streets. Saigon is already crazy, but Hanoi tops that easily. People, who prefer Hanoi over HCMC, often said that Saigon is just another upcoming city in Southeast Asia, while Hanoi is a unique place with an own character. It’s probably true. Hanoi has more character than Ho Chi Minh City, however, I still enjoyed Saigon more than the capital.

My travel experience in Vietnam

Vietnam was another great country in Southeast Asia. It was completely different than the other countries in the region such as Thailand, Laos or Cambodia. Not better or worse but different. However, there are also big differences within the country. If you compare the Vietnamese from the north to the Vietnamese from the south, it would be like comparing Italians to Swedes.

Vietnam has a lot to offer: beautiful nature, great food, an interesting history, sights and a good tourist infrastructure. Another great thing about Vietnam is how cheap it is. I believe that the two weeks in Vietnam were my cheapest holidays so far, although we always slept in 5-star hotels only. That makes the country a valid option for people who want to do their first trip outside of the western world. However, there are better countries for people whose priorities are beaches and/or nightlife.

Interestingly, Vietnam is also relatively untouched from western influences, although that’s slowly changing. I haven’t seen many western brands in Vietnam in 2015. There was only one McDonald’s in the country back then, and this was the only restaurant in Saigon that was open 24/7.

In hindsight, the only thing I regret is that I went to Nha Trang. There are so many cool things to do in Vietnam so that I consider Nha Trang a waste of time – especially, if you only have two weeks. Apart from that, the places I saw in Vietnam were fantastic. Hoi An is such a lovely little town and a unique place in Southeast Asia. Saigon was also a city I liked, and Hanoi… well… I wouldn’t go back, but the three days in the capital weren’t bad either.

Up to this date, Halong Bay is still one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth and you have not seen Vietnam if you didn’t see Halong Bay. That was definitely my highlight, maybe not only in Vietnam but among all places I have seen in Southeast Asia.

Is Vietnam a country that I will revisit? I am positive that I will. But first, I have to take a cross behind the remaining countries in this region: Myanmar, Philippines, Brunei and Timor-Leste.

 

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!