Vietnam: my last 10 days in Asia

Wow, 10 days for a country don't seem too much. Especially after my standard was minimum 3 weeks up to 6 weeks in one country. But after all my flight back home was booked and I had to leave Indonesia because my visa was running out. So I decided to finally go to North Vietnam. I have a lot of friends who loved it there. Beautiful mountains, great food and lovely people is what I had heard. While travelling in Asia I had started to hear other things as well. Super crowded and not really authentic anymore. I was really curious and thought 10 days is a good way to find out myself. So after a very annoying long trip from Indonesia and via Kuala Lumpur I finally am in Hanoi. It is 8am and the hostel had told me beforehand that early check in is possible if they are not fully booked. But unfortunately they were. The highlight of the morning was the pho bo (beef noodle soup) I had in the hostel. Then I waited until noon when I could check in. After resting a bit, I went downstairs as I had booked a free walking tour. It turned out that I was the only one on the tour. I had a very nice afternoon, we walked around the French and the old quarter. The coolest part was that on Sundays the streets around the lake are closed down and people play games. You can watch and join in if you want. I had a good time with my guide. Her English was very basic, but she was very helpful and in the end we managed to understand each other somehow. For her the goal was to show people her lovely hometown but also to improve her English, so she didn't even want a tip in the end!

I was still a bit tired from the long travel and my stomach was just recovering from the food poising so I went to bed early. The next day I booked a ticket up north to Sapa with the night train. The train was late in the evening so I had the full day available in Hanoi. I went together with a guy from the hostel to the women's museum. It was a cool place, with a good summary about history, family life and traditions. We had the audio guide which was cool but also very detailled. We made it through the first 2 levels of the museum with it and then gave up. 2.5 hours in a museum are enough, especially as it didn't have air conditioning. On the way back we grabbed some food and then headed back to the hostel. It was just too hot and humid outside. I hung out a bit more in the hostel, re-packed so I could leave my big bag there for a couple of days and made my way to the train. The train ride was cool, I had a good bed and slept through most of the ride. We arrived at 6am at a place 30 minutes away from Sapa, and took a shuttle bus up to Sapa. There I still had to make it to the homestay outside of Sapa. I got a mototaxi and off I am over a bumpy road. The ride was beautiful with great views on the rice fields. When I arrived at the homestay I immediately met the girl from my hostel in Hanoi again. She had everything checked out already and so we had breakfast together and then joined a guided hike through the rice fields. The group was only girls and I was by far the oldest. Our guide was a local "mama", who was really nice but unfortunately didn't speak a lot English. It became a nice day, with a lot of sun and beautiful views of the rice fields. In the evening we had dinner together at the homestay, which in my opinion was more a hostel, but every place around Sapa seemed to call themselves homestay. After a game of Fussball we all went to bed early. The next day I got up at 7:30 as I wanted to do another hike. I was shocked: I was the first to get up. Everyone went to bed early, but still everyone slept in. Me being the first one awake really felt weird! After a relaxed breakfast some other people got up and we formed a little hiking group of 4. We decided against a guide as we didn't feel like the one from the day before had added a lot of value. So we just started to walk the opposite direction. We walked where we thought it looked nice or where we could see another group walking. This way we made it to a beautiful waterfall where we sat on the slope for a bit. Luckily we made it back without any rain despite dark clouds coming up. I had decided to leave the homestay this evening as I wanted to travel further north the next day and wanted to start early from Sapa. I got a hostel there which ended up being more of a cheap hotel and I had the 3 bed room for myself. I walked a bit around town, which was basically a road with hotels, restaurants and trekking clothes stores. Great place to buy cheap stuff, but if you don't need anything a bit of an overload. I actually didn't like Sapa at all. Friends who were there just 4-5 years ago loved it. Now it is just a very commercial place with big hotel chains building everywhere. I enjoyed a good pizza - the advantage of such a touristy place - and then sat at the main plaza to watch kids play. There were big groups playing something like hackysack with the typical wooden balls and a lot of people trying Hoover boards, quite funny to watch.

The next day turned out to be a full travelling day. I took a minibus back down to Lao Cai, where I had to wait for 2-3 hours for the minibus to Ha Giang. The bus was really crowded and it turned out that most of the passengers were Isreali. It became a crazy drive as some got car sick in the mountains and they started shouting at the driver for driving too fast and for making stops to collect people or freight. It was somehow funny to see them getting so agitated, especially as I really enjoyed the ride through beautiful mountains.
We arrived late in Ha G..iang, but I met some nice people directly at the hostel. We went to get me some food and then to their favourite beer place where we had a nice evening playing cards.

The next morning I rented a scooter and started the northern loop. It was my first time with a semi automatic scooter so I took it easy in the beginning to get used to it. I joined the Israeli group. Most of them had rented a minibus, but 2 of them rented as well bikes and so the three of us followed the van. It was a good start, but after an hour I got sick of it. Plus the group was nice but not very integrating, partially due to a language barrier, so at one point I left them and went ahead. I made a stop at a cave. 20 minutes walking up the hill in the heat, I was considering to turn around. But in the end it was really worth it. The coolest thing: I had the cave all to myself. How much fun is it to sing out loud in a cave! It had two parts: a huge chamber where they had nice lighting and a very low chamber. The second one I didn't go in far as I kept on getting stuck with my backpack. I met people later who said this part was amazing, but well. I still had a great time.

The afternoon I arrived early in Yen Minh and thought about driving a bit further. But I really didn't want to get caught in the dark and so I decided to stay. While I was looking around for places to stay, guys on a scooter drove next to me and told me they have a homestay. I didn't like the first one, but got lucky with the second. It was brand new and the owner a lovely lady. She was offering dinner with her family and I immediately signed up for it. While I enjoyed the afternoon on the balcony with my book, more people arrived. In the end we were 6 guests plus the whole family and friends for dinner. It was delicious barbecue and they kept on pouring us 'happy water' during dinner. They had a tank with 2000 litre of this selfmade rice wine! The evening was super funny and we all had a great time. I had to drink quite some water before I went to bed to be able to drive my scooter the next day. Day two ended up being very similar to day one: driving through beautiful nature. The funny little highlight: an unmarked unofficial border crossing to China! Even maps.me knows the place. It is just 20 meters from the road, there is about 5 meters of barbed wire but you can basically just walk around it and you are in China. Crazy!
The evening I spent in the next town called Dong Van. I again met nice travellers, but went to bed early as I didn't feel well. The next morning I got up early, luckily feeling well again. After I went to a garage to get my brakes tightened I made my way to the market. It was amazing and crazy. You could buy food, clothes, life animals and everything else you could need. After some shopping and enjoying the vibe I again got on my scooter. The first bit of the way was meant to be the most beautiful pass. I was wondering why and how it could be more amazing than the mountains I've already been driving through. But they were right, it was just gorgeous. I had to get myself to keep on driving and not stop every 5 minutes for pictures. After all I had to make my way back to Ha Giang today. At lunch I met again two guys from the first night and we scootered the last bit together.

The northern loop was really great and definitely worth the effort to get there. I imagine this is how the Sapa area must have felt a couple years ago. Beautiful nature and a great way to get to meet the locals.

Once I handed back my bike it all went crazy fast. A quick shower and I am off in a nightbus to Ha Long Bay. I had 2 nights left before I had to head back to Hanoi and I decided that a short trip to the bay is a must do. The bus drive was actually not too bad, the beds a bit small but comfortable. What I hadn't taken into account: the bus arrived at 4am in the morning. I arrived at a street with some moto taxis waiting to take you into town. After a short haggling (50% less than he asked) I was on the bike into town. That is when I realised that I had never payed my bus ticket... well the adventure was not over yet. The driver had asked me where to go to. I said no hotel, just town. Well, he brought me to the Novotel :-) after some time and help from a guy passing by we managed to understand each other and he drove me to town to look for a cheap hotel. After 30 minutes I gave up. Everything was closed and it was already 5 am. So I just waited in front of a hostel and travel agency. I was fine reading my book, but a guy passing by found it unacceptable so he woke up people in the hostel. I felt really bad for them, but hey. Within 30 minutes I had booked a 2 day 1 night trip in the bay that day. As it only started at noon, I took a bed in the hostel and caught up on some sleep.

At noon they drove me to the harbour. I was really happy when I saw the boat I thought I had booked. Well, it wasn't. I waited for nearly 1 hour and was "handed over" to different tour guides and then finally boarded my boat. It was not as nice as the one I saw before but still ok. On the boat I met some nice people directly. It was a good choice not to take the party boat I think. Then the next disappointment: I had booked a single room, but they told me on the boat it is sharing. I was really annoyed as I was looking forward to my room, but my complaints were just ignored. When I called the hostel I booked at they told me it was a misunderstanding, the guy who sold me the trip does not speak good English. Great.

Well, my cabin buddy was really nice so after accepting my fate it was actually quite ok. The afternoon we made a stop at a cave and a little island with a beach and view point. I had known that this will be a very touristy place and so I tried my best to not be put off by the hundreds of boats in the bay and the little island being completely crowded. It was a fun afternoon, food was OK and I had a good time with the people.

The next morning I woke up with 2-3 mosquito bites. Well that's what I thought. I soon realised my body was full of bites, either ants or bed bugs. Great. This trip really made it hard for me to stay positive. On top our guide was the most unmotivated and unfriendly guide I had in a long while. But back to the activities: we had gotten up at 6am to do some kayaking. It was really nice and because we were so early we were the only ones on the water.

The last stop on the trip was an oyster farm. It was interesting to see how it works, but I am not a big fan of pearls so skipped the souvenir shopping. We arrived back at the harbour in the early afternoon where a minibus was taking us back to Hanoi. It was a tiny bus completely full with people, so the 3-4 hours were a torture.

I went back to the hostel where I had left my backpack and managed to get the last bed for tonight. Funnily 2 guys from the boat trip had booked exactly the same hostel, so I met up with them. We enjoyed the free beer hour, met some more people at the hostel and then went to dinner together. As it was my last night on this trip, I thought it's time to party. 5 of us headed out, played some Fussball at a dodgy bar and then went to a club. It was a fun night out though the music wasn't really mine. We finished the night in style with one last beer and some (luckily magnetic) darts at the hostel.

The next morning I did one last stop: I visited the temple of literature. It was a cool building and I enjoyed roaming through the area. On the way back I spent my last money on some souvenirs, picked up my bag at the hostel and off I am to the airport.

Unbelievable but true, this is it! Nearly 5 months in Asia are over. Vietnam was nice and easy and cheap. But it also made me realise how glad I am that I mainly chose a bit more off the beaten path destinations before. The travellers were often not my type of people and I was disappointed by the unfriendliness of the locals. My take away is that there is amazing nature and great food, you just need to do a bit more effort to get away from the tourism craziness that has taken over big parts of Vietnam

Free City tour in Hanoi

On Sundays the roads around the city lake are closed for traffic, people do sports and in the afternoon kids come to play games and everyone is welcome to join. From brain games to active ones like tug-a-war, Hanoi

The Waterpuppet show. Cool for the first 5 minutes, then I got bored. Hanoi

It is fun to just walk around the busy streets of Hanoi, with temples and rikschas, bikes and everything else

Visiting a temple in Hanoi

Art Gallery in Hanoi

Women's museum in Hanoi with a great exhibition about life in the villages and during war time

Group picture while hiking around the rice fields of Sapa

Rice fields whereever you look, Sapa

Kids playing while the parents work, Sapa

Parents planting rice, Sapa

More rice fields, Sapa

Day two with an independent hike to a waterfall, Sapa

Beautiful mountains outside of Ha Giang

Cool cave north of Ha Giang

It's quite cool to be completely alone in a big cave, north of Ha Giang

Old car outside of Yen Minh

Old house, which belonged to a drug lord and a movie was shot, on the road between Yen Minh and Dong Van

Photo stop on the northern loop around Ha Giang

At the northern end of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border, they built a huge tower with a gigantic flag on top.

Even maps.me knows this place called "unmarked (illegal) border trail to China" :) The barbed wire doesn't really hold anyone back if you can just walk around it