On December 19th, I packed up my bags, headed to the airport, and boarded my first of four flights to Hanoi, Vietnam! It took us about 24 hours, including an eight hour overnight layover in Kuala Lumpur, to get there. 24 hours! I could have flown back to the States in that time! This goes to show how far Kendari is from anything… it took us half a day just to get back to Jakarta…Over the course of 2 weeks, we traveled to five different places in Vietnam, going from North to South: Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hue, Hoi An, and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).
I traveled with my friends, Kate, Caroline, and Daniel – all my fellow ETAs in Indonesia. We also ran into five other ETAs throughout our travel, who had similar vacation plans 🙂 Besides Kate, my sitemate, I haven’t seen the other ETAs since orientation, back in September, so this was an exciting chance to catch up with everyone.
Daniel, Kate, me, and Caroline ~ on a rainy morning in Hue
Our first stop was Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and the second largest city. Kate and I spent our first day exploring and eating Vietnamese food as we waited for Daniel to arrive later that night. Our second day was spent shopping, visiting museums, making arrangements for the rest of our trip, and finding Caroline later that evening.
Bon Ca ~ a Hanoi speciality. It’s essentially a make your own soup? They give you everything individually and then you add it all together in your bowl, and continue adding until you are stuffed!
In the middle of Hanoi is a small lake. There is a temple in the middle and it is located in the Old and French Quarters so surrounded by coffee shops, famous sites, and tourists.
Vietnamese coffee… incredible. How did I never know about this? It’s like an espresso shot (a little more) on top of a little bit of condensed milk. Stir it all together and you have a delicious coffee!
The Old Quarter of Hanoi is full of shops selling anything you could need. And in addition to the shops, are dozens of bicycles overflowing with goods, like this man’s flowers.
This narrow alley is famous for the train that runs through it twice a day. Apparently, you have to flatten yourself against the wall of one of these houses when the train comes! We tried to catch the train but after 30 minutes or so, we gave up and went home for a well-deserved nap.
We finished our time in Hanoi eating incredible Indian food. Yes, I know we were in Vietnam and should be eating Vietnamese… but we’ve gone too long without some of our favorites, and it was time to splurge 🙂
After two days in Hanoi, we packed up and jumped on a tour bus to Ha Long Bay. Four hours later, we could see the ocean and massive rocks jutting out of the water – we had arrived. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the “New Seven Natural Wonders of the World”, Ha Long Bay is a breathless site.
We spent two days and one night on an old pirate ship exploring the Bay. We kayaked, ate, drank, played, jumped off the boat, and ultimately spent a lot of time sitting in wonder gazing at the beauty surrounding us.
Our pirate ship
Kate and Caroline on their kayak!
Sunset from the boat
Swimming in the Bay
After a four hour bus ride back to Hanoi, we had an hour to kill before boarding our 12-hour overnight bus to Hue. Yes, 16 out of 17 hours on a bus. Could have planned that better but oh well… we survived 🙂
Sleeper buses aren’t so bad when you have a whole bed/seat to stretch out on!
We arrived in Hue in the morning, checked in to our hotel, and decided to wander the city and explore the Imperial Citadel. After exploring the palace and grounds, we met up with our friend Jukie to wander the market, and then went home and took a well-needed nap and finally met up again for a Christmas Eve dinner!
Hallways of the 1800 palace
The grounds of the Imperial City
Drinks on a rooftop bar for Christmas Eve
In an effort not to make extraordinarily long posts, you can find the second half of our Vietnam trip (including a motorcycle tour through the countryside, food poisoning, and New Year’s Eve festivities) in the next post… 🙂
