Travels to Vietnam

Next stop Vietnam.

Wow! What a place. Landed in the madness of Hanoi without any real plans. We spent a few days in this crazy city observing and adjusting to the culture. The traffic was wild, there were coffee shops and people everywhere…….but felt very safe and my observations were that the people had qualities that I enjoyed. They felt very much like friendly, family oriented people. I was travelling with a friend and we decided to leave Hanoi to head up to the mountains to Sapa on a sleeper bus. The ride was a lovely experience, comfortable and relaxed with beautiful scenery to take in as we journeyed. Unfortunately on reaching the weather was drizzly and wet so we visited coffee shops and enjoyed some good food and our cabin on the mountains but quickly decided to head to another part of Vietnam to find some sunshine.

We headed to the coast and visited the beautiful Hai Phong area where we traveled by boat to experience the beautiful sea and rock formations in the region. We were lucky enough to experience the amazing bioluminescence in the water on an evening kayaking trip and we visited beaches and jumped off the boat into the warm waters in the area.

The scenery was spectacular so after our exiting boat trip we decided to stay in the area and stay on the nearby island of Cat Ba so that we could explore this area a little more on land.

We rented a scooter and found some incredible caves with beautiful rock formations as well as a hospital actually built into the caves and was used during the war.

Vietnam has many home stays that consist of often gorgeous little wooden or bamboo houses for you to frequent. Again the people were friendly and we felt safe at all times. Cat Ba was a more touristy island and coffee is a big part of the culture in Vietnam so we found many different ways of experiencing the brew. A favorite was salted coffee very often accompanied by an avocado smoothie (also very popular).

Next stop was Nihm Bihm. This was a very popular spot for young people with many restaurants and of course coffee shops with all kinds of varieties. We visited temples, caves and cycled around the paddy fields. We found an entrance to a cave and discovered beautiful temples inside with some profound spiritual guidance written on the walls. There was a wonderful walk 500 steps up to amazing views and more temples. Nihn bihm was very interesting and friendly with some very creative and good quality locally made products such as incense and beautifully made carved wooden spoons.

Next up we decided to fly down to Phu Quoc for some warmer weather. We wanted a bit of island and beach life so we headed down south to this island just off Cambodia to check it out. We found a lovely farmstay to settle into and delved into the isle of Phu Quoc. Of course we found our favorite coffee shops and eating places and decided to spoil ourselves with some massages and reflexology. Vietnam showed us a lot of kindness and willingness through the people. For me it’s always the people that you meet that make a holiday anywhere you go and for me Vietnamese people stood out as helpful, friendly and kind.

Next stop after Christmas at home was Bosnia to see the pyramids. TBC……