Northern Impressions

Vietnam’s political center Hanoi is a frantic place that leaves little room for relaxation and quite time. The city is home to 6.5 million Vietnamese that share the space with their 5 million motorbikes that ebb and flow through the chaos of town.

Traffic in Hanoi

The narrow streets of the wonderful old quarter are packed with pedestrians, hawkers, locals that sip their coffee or bia hoi (freshly brewed local beer), cyclos and motos that fight for space and customers and electricity poles that hold at least one ton of wires. If this gets too cozy, follow the locals at dawn and dusk to Hoan Kiem Lake where they find room to practice their graceful Tai Chi or play some chess with their friends. If you get really lucky, you might see the giant turtle that inhabits the water – but don’t count on it as it rarely shows itself.

Water puppets in Hanoi, showing the H'Mong umbrella dance

Rather spend your time witnessing skillful art at the water puppet theater at the next corner that beautifully displays cultural dances, habits and legends from the many ethnic minority groups from the north. Afterwards, take a stroll over the packed night market, take in a bia hoi at a street corner and make your way back to your Aussie-run hostel where chances are high that the biggest Halloween party in town awaits you with drunk pumpkins and mummies dancing on the tables. Not yet drunk enough for that madness? Go down the street and find a nice BBQ-place to eat with some newfound friends and enjoy a cold beer in a less western atmosphere. The hostels rooftop awaits for

BBQ and beer after a long day of exploring with Bine and Martin

some good night drinks and good talks afterwards (if you make it through the wasted Halloween crowd at the reception/bar). What else to do on a glorious late October day in Hanoi? Walk around town to visit the old prison where the French put their political prisoners; try to catch a look of the pale body of Ho Chi Minh in his Mausoleum just to find that the body is in Russia for maintenance around this time of the year; catch the sunset on the rooftop bar of some posh downtown office building –

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

but not in your flip-flops please; walk around the Lenin Park and the military museum to see great examples of communist ostentation; have great egg-coffee at lakeside cafés; shop around the millions of tour-booking offices like a crazy madman in order to find the one cheap but nice tour around Halong Bay, Sapa or wherever else you want to go; visit St. Josephs cathedral while there is a service and listen to the cool Vietnamese versions of all the old songs you’ve often heard at church back home; or try out your bargaining skills once more at one of the huge markets of the city. The two things you can’t easily do around here (though it is said to be possible): find a quiet place and find a street that’s easy and safe to cross.

The railway runs right through the city

Vietnamese girls on their way to a wedding photo shooting

So how great is it to get out of the city to beautiful, peaceful Halong Bay, 4 hours north of Hanoi?

At the top of Dao Titop

Despite the thousands of tourists that try to escape the noise and chaos of the city like this every day, it is VERY great. Halong Bay, with its sublime scenery, warm, calm waters to swim in, caves and hidden bays to explore by Kayak or on foot and mountaintops to climb for sunrise views offers the perfect scene for a two day cruise on a nice traditional Junk boat. Great and lots of Vietnamese food and nice company made our tour a wonderful experience. The karsts may be similar in Ninh Binh but they simply cannot compete with the surreal sight of almost 2000 mountains rising up from the ocean like in the astonishing Halong Bay.

Sunset over Halong Bay

Trekking around Cat Cat village

Leaving the ocean behind, we went deep into the north west of Vietnam, to Sapa. The mountain town is surrounded by rice terraces, deep valleys and high peaks (the Fansipan, Vietnam’s highest mountain, seems to be just a jump away from our balcony) and great hiking trails. The real charm, and the reason for many tourists to come here, are the many hill tribe villages that dot the landscape around Sapa. The people are colorfully dressed in their traditional garments when they come to town to sell their products on the local market or to find some tourists and act as their

Elderly H'Mong woman in traditional garment

guides. They carry their babies on their backs, smile their often toothless smiles and find their soul mates on the weekly love markets. It all looks very nice, but after having seen the hill tribes in the Central Highlands it also looks a bit like a zoo where the animals pose for the visitors’ pictures. Also, in November, it gets really cool in the mountains; the weather is cloudy and rainy so you can barely see the next building and the rice fields are empty after the harvesting season is over. There aren’t so many tourists any more so the locals fight hard and

H'Mong girls doing the traditional umbrella dance

loudly to win you as their customers and the cheaper hotel rooms are damp and cold as they lack a heater. We had a very good hiking day with fine weather, stunning landscapes and interesting insights into the Hmong culture the first day we got here but the rest was rather mediocre due to the facts above. We are still happy to have come here as it left us some time to spend on drinking coffee, reading books and reflect on all the wondrous things we did and saw during the last couple of weeks in Vietnam.

The rice terraces are empty now, the water buffaloes have done their work

It has been an amazing time and we fell in love with the country, its warm and welcoming people, the great food, the stunning landscapes and the rich culture. We will sadly leave Vietnam now, but as we do, we are also looking forward to visit Laos. It will surely be just as exciting!