Hue/Hoi An and HCMC
I got back to Hanoi early in the morning on April 1. I had
booked a bus ticket to a town called Hoi An that evening, so I relaxed in Hanoi
for the day. I finished my souvenir shopping in the morning, and went for lunch
with Anna in the afternoon. It was a cold, drizzly day, so I spent a fair
amount of time inside reading my book. The weather in Northern Vietnam was
quite pleasant most of the time. During the day, it normally got up to about 25
degrees and was less humid than Bangkok for sure. I was actually COLD in
Sapa... for the first time in about 5 months!
I caught the bus to Hoi An around 7pm – it was one of the
“sleeper buses” that I have seen only in Vietnam really. Basically instead of
seats, there small individual beds in 3 columns down the bus. You could almost
lie completely flat, so it was pretty comfortable. The bus ride was pretty
uneventful... until we were dropped off in Hue, a town a few hours from Hoi An.
We were told we had to wait FOUR HOURS until the next bus to Hoi An. Was not
pleased, because I hadn’t given myself much time in the town. To pass the time,
two girls and I decided to walk around. Hue turned out to be a pretty neat spot
to pass a few hours: we walked over to the old town citadel and explored that.
The walk along the river was lovely and very green. Much better than being
stuck in a bus station.
We eventually arrived in Hoi An at around 5pm – I had been
in transit for 22 hours, so was not a happy camper at this point. The two girls
I walked around with in hue, Michaela and Felicity, and I decided to share a
room. Our hotel had a pool, so the first thing I did was go for a swim. Was
very nice after a loooong sweaty and sticky bus ride. In the evening we walked
to the town centre, had dinner and wandered around. Hoi An is a very quaint
little town – the town centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings
were very old and small. There was also a neat market selling thousands of
lanterns. Hoi An is also famous for its tailors, and there were dozens of shops
that made dresses, suits, jackets, shirts, you name it...
The next day, I decided to rent a bicycle in order to make
the most of the time I had – was flying from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
at 6, and needed to leave around 3pm. First, I rode through the rice fields
just outside the town. Hoi An is in central Vietnam and is A LOT warmer than up
north. The rice growing was much more mater, so the fields were vast expanses
of green. In one of the rice fields, I stopped to visit an ancient Japanese
tomb. From there, I rode out to the beach (on the ocean). The beach was
deserted (it was still quite early). I’m not a huge fan of beaches so I walked
along the shore for a bit and stood with my feet in the water...
In the afternoon, I rode around the town itself. I didn’t
really have any particular things I wanted to see – I was just wandering on
bicycle. I did go see the Japenese Covered Bridge, one of the more famous sites
in Hoi An. Other than that, I rode around pretty aimlessly. I did stop for a
3000 Dong beer for lunch – about 15 cents. It was lovely riding around the
buildings, through the alleys and along the river.
In the afternoon, I left to catch my flight from the airport
in Da Nang, about an hour away. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I
didn’t arrive in HCMC until about 10pm. Also, I should mention that the reason
I flew was it costs the same as the train and only takes an hour. Sweet. Once I
arrived, I took a taxi to my hostel, had some disappointing Indian food, and
went to bed.
The next day, which is April 4 by this point, I just decided
to wander around HCMC. There were a couple museums I wanted to check out, and a
few sites I wanted to see. HCMC has a much more of a big city feel to it: there
are more (new) skyscrapers, larger roads, and THOUSANDS of motorcycles. I
stopped for breakfast at a local pho place and had some of the best pho of my
trip (noodle soup). However, I had crushed up a chili pepper to put in my soup,
then made the mistake of rubbing my face. My skin felt like it was on fire for
a good 20 minutes. Fun times!
My first stop was the large indoor market, whose name I
can’t remember. Was similar to all the other markets I’ve seen – many souvenir
shops, silk shops, knock-off item shops, and anything shops. Next, I went to
the Reunification Palace – the former residence of the president of South
Vietnam. Once the North enveloped the South, the building was transformed into
a museum. They offer free tours in English at the palace, which was great. I
took one of these tours with a family from Canada and a solo Australian. Our
guide spoke very good English, and showed us around all the different rooms. My
favourite part was going down to the basement/bunker. Here we found the
President’s “War Room” with many old maps, radios and other machinery. It felt
a little bit like something out of a movie. The walls were made out of thick
concrete – to protect against bomb explosions. After the tour, I explored the
grounds. The two tanks used by the North Vietnamese Army to break down the
gates of the palace are displayed proudly.
After that, I wandered for quite some time – visiting
exciting things like the post-office and a coffee shop. I also explored the
Notre Dame Cathedral: a remnant from the French colonial period. I eventually
made my war over to the War Remnants Museum, with artefacts from the Vietnam
War. As usual, the facts and information was very one sided, focusing on the
atrocities committed by the American “Imperialists”. But it was still
informative and interesting. There were large displays about the use of Agent
Orange, POW conditions, photography, and whatnot. Many of the displays were
quite disturbing and graphic – including a deformed fetus due to Agent Orange
contamination. 
After the museum, I walked back to my hostel. I was
exhausted at this point as I had been walking around since about 8:00am. I had
dinner in the main tourist area in HCMC, which is similar to Khao San albeit a
little less insane. I then went to my hostel with the intention to relax.
However, in my dorm I started talking with a girl from Alberta and she invited
me to dinner with her and some people she had met. I figured that was a better
way to spend my last night in Vietnam, so I joined them. We were an American, a
Brit, a Brazilian, and us 2 Canadians. We wandered around for a while looking
for food before settling on a street food stall. I didn’t order anything but
still ended up eating about half on the Brazilian guy’s dish, as it was too
spicy for him! Win. After, we went for smoothies. Around 10:00pm, I went back
to the hostel as my flight back to Bangkok was leaving early the next morning.
In the morning, I shared a cab to the airport with a British
guy also staying at my hostel. The flight back to Bangkok took a little over an
hour... about the same amount of time it took me to take the bus from Don Muang
Airport to my apartment! And so ends my travels in Vietnam. It was a lovely
place to visit, but I was ready to leave when I did.
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