From South to North Vietnam in 10 days
TravelIt’s no secret that I love to travel! I’ve had a passport since I was barely walking. I don’t remember my first international trip from Chicago to India, but the pictures look epic. Fast forward a few decades and it’s all about how many more stamps I can collect in my passport.
After visiting Hong Kong, and even living there for a while, I can conclude that some of my favorite trips during my travels have been to Asia. When coming up with my next travel destination, Vietnam was always high on my list. And it did not disappoint. My favorite memories will always be all the smiling and welcoming faces we saw throughout our trip, the night markets in every city, motorcycle rides, history lessons, and sunsets! Make sure you bring your best walking shoes because there are lots of great cities to get lost in.
We started our trip to Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh city which is commonly referred to as Saigon. It’s the largest city in Vietnam and has a population of almost 9 million people. I booked our tour through a company called Tour Radar. We had a small tour group of about 10 people. They literally take care of everything on a budget! I’ve used them to travel to Turkey as well and highly recommend.
Our first stop was the Mekong Delta which is worth checking out. After all, it’s on of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world, second only to the Amazon River. The bus ride from Ho Chi Minh to the Mekong Delta is an 8 hour roundtrip. The Mekong Delta has been a key agricultural area in Vietnam for many years, even today it provides more than one-third of Vietnam’s food.
As we floated down the river it was sad to see all the trash in the brown water. Conservationists say there’s an environmental crisis looming along the 27-hundred-mile waterway which runs through six Asian countries. It’s drying up, under attack from dam building, overfishing, and sand mining. But they seem to agree that it’s not too late to save the Mekong River, and it can be restored. Read more about this crisis from National Geographic.
There are at least half a dozen popular floating markets on the Mekong Delta. You’ll see boats filled with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and fish. Our tour guide picked the Cai Be floating market.
At the end of our tour of the Cai Be floating market we had a chance to try snake wine. I was hesitant at first but since it’s widely believed to improve your health in Vietnam, I decided to take a sip. Surprisingly, the snake wine I tried wasn’t bad. The main ingredients are snakes eek and rice wine or grain alcohol.
Our next stop was the fascinating Cu Chi Tunnels, now part of the Vietnam War memorial park in Ho Chi Minh City. In the late 1940s, communist forces known as Viet Cong along with farmers started digging tunnels by hand underneath the Cu Chi district northwest of Saigon. The tunnels lead all the way to the Cambodian border.
Basically, they created an underground city with living areas, weapons factories, hospitals, and command centers. Thousands of people lived understand for years. They also used the tunnels to house troops, transport supplied, and plan surprise attacks against American and South Vietnamese forces.
We were able to crawl through some of the areas of the tunnels during our tour and see some of the types of bombs American forces dropped during the Vietnam War. I would highly recommend making a stop to these historic tunnels when in Ho Chi Minh. You can see how creative the Vietnamese were to survive and fight back against their powerful enemies during that time. The tunnels are about an hour’s drive from the city center.
After floating in the Mekong, climbing into and out of tunnels it was time to take a flight to Da Nang to check out some ancient ruins from the 4th and 13th centuries. Probably not going to get the chance to see something that old again.
The My Son Sanctuary is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Da Nang. According to UNESCO, eight groups of 71 standing monuments exist, covering the entire period of the existence of the Champa Kingdom.
What’s remarkable is that the temples were developed over a period of ten centuries time to do math – yup, that’s a thousand years and they are still standing! They were damaged during wars, but conservation work continues to be carried out and the remaining temples are being maintained so they’ll be around when you decide to visit.
You can’t visit Vietnam and not have a suit or dress tailored to fit your fabulous body! Ann Tailor in Hoi An can make you anything your heart desires. Even if you don’t have a vision of what you want, the magazines in the shop will give you inspiration. I chose to have a green backless dress made, and it fit like a glove as promised. The best part has to be the price tag – under $50 for a custom-made dress!
The reason many of us travel is trying different cuisines. The fruit in my opinion tastes better in Vietnam and I couldn’t had the best Pho I’ve ever had in Hanoi in a little hole in the wall spot that the locals recommended. I’m not a coffee drinker, but you have to try a Vietnamese coffee. It’s strong and the best part is it has sweetened condensed milk. It’ll give you the energy you need for your walking foodie tour. We did one in Hoi An, and visited a local home for lunch. It’s a great way to explore places and dishes locals love, which won’t be listed in your guidebook.
The capital of Vietnam is filled with colonial buildings, pagodas, museums and a community with Chinese, French and Russian influences. In Hanoi, you’ll also see reminders of the war like we did at Huu Tep Lake where you can still see part of a downed B-52 bomber. This is one of the dozens of US aircrafts the Vietnamese Air Forces shot down in 1972.
Our tour guide saved the best for last as we ended our trip in Ha Long Bay, which is a little over a hundred miles from Hanoi. It’s a magnificent sight to be surrounded by hundreds of islands, for a moment it feels like you’re dreaming. This is ethereal beauty.
Ha Long Bay is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I highly recommend kayaking and getting close to the limestone cliffs. It’s very serene and you’ll wish you could stop time. We spent only one night on the boat in Ha Long Bay and it was not enough time in this paradise.
I’ll be going back to Vietnam because ten days is definitely not enough time to uncover all the hidden gems, that this beautiful country still has waiting for me.
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