Vietnam

(Pictures and Text by Kevin Bernardin)

Any expectations I held that Vietnam would be similar to Thailand quickly evaporated by the time our cab left the airport to head into Hanoi. One of the two major cities in Vietnam, Hanoi definitely didn’t seem like much heading into it from the airport…definitely didn’t have the same super metropolis feel that Bangkok has when you first arrive. However I soon discovered that Hanoi is a crazy sprawling city in its own right that puts Bangkok to shame when it comes to hussle and bussle…especially on the streets where scooters seem to outnumber cars 100 to 1!

From the first day we arrived, my travel companion, Julian and I had the sneaking suspicion we were getting ripped off continually. Of course the fact I hadn’t slept the night before in Bangkok didn’t help my intuition…i wanted a place to sleep and I wanted it fast. Trying to get the cab driver to take us to the hostel we had found on line was completely useless, (cabbies in Vietnam don’t speak a lick of english), so we ended up staying at a very posh, $30 a night, hotel in downtown Hanoi. We resolved to find the hostel after we slept and ate.

We awoke at 8pm feeling refreshed and slightly more alert than when we arrived, so we ventured out to find the 2 things that would put us back on our “A” game…food and booze! We took a walk and after learning how to cross roads, maneuvering through 300 speeding scooters, we returned to our room with a bottle of “Vodka Hanoi” which we bought for 800,000 dong (about 200 baht or $6), and a plate of sea snails from a road side vendor. We were starting to feel like maybe we were getting the hang of Hanoi…we were so wrong! Back on our “A” game now, we ventured out to find some night life…we even had directions written down for a bar that was supposed to be good times. But our night turned into an adventure consisting of 4 cab rides, a lot of confusion, 2 beers on the side of a road with an old lady, and getting completely lost 1 block from our hotel. We definitely still had a lot to learn.

One thing we had done right the day before was find the Hostel we would stay at the rest of the time. Hanoi Backpackers Hostel was a breathe of familiar air in the middle of a crazy city. Cheap rooms ($7 a night) a bar with cheap drinks, lots of cool restaurants and bars within walking distance, and loads of friendly backpackers all there for the same reason : fun and meeting new people! Bolstered by the excitement of our new surroundings we went out to buy more of the cheap vodka we thought we had gotten such a good deal on the night before so would could have a party with out new roommates. We were super shocked however when the place we bought from sold us the same bottle for only 500,000 dong! 300,000 cheaper than the night before! We marched back to the hostel with a bottle each feeling very proud of ourselves only to be told by owner of the hostel that we shouldn’t be paying any more than 100,000 dong per bottle…still much to learn.

The next morning was an early one as we woke to embark on a 2 day one night booze cruise of Halong Bay, a trip operated by our new friends at the hostel, so we knew it would be a boat of 30 young adventurous travelers that were there for fun. A short 3 hour bus ride later and we had arrived at Halong Bay to board our regal wooden houseboat that was far beyond anything I expected for Vietnam. The rooms had hot showers and air-conditioning, the dining hall could seat 40 people and the meals were extravagant to say the least! 6 course meals for lunch and supper with fresh sea food, fruit and surprisingly…beef that tasted like real beef! The top deck was reserved for suntanning, drinking, and jumping off of without any clothes on, hahaha! Halong Bay itself is very cool, it reminded me of Cheow Lan Lake in Thailand…little islands and rocks jutting out of the water everywhere, creating a cool maze of waterways. It all seemed very quaint, just like you’d expect to find in a secluded oriental bay off the coast of Vietnam…until a mammoth freight ship would drift into your path and you realized you were actually still in the modern world, or some part of it at least.

I returned back to Hanoi the next day more than a little sad that I didn’t have anymore time to spend with my new crew of friends, but happy that I had the chance to get a taste of the culture and wonders of Hanoi and Halong Bay. My final task was to get myself to the airport to catch my flight. I was pretty much at the end of my funds and I knew there was no way I could afford a cab by myself if it was gonna cost the same 1,000,000 dong the ride in cost me and Julian. The girls at the travel desk in the hostel told me about an airport shuttle that leaves every hour for 40,000 dong, so I immediately grabbed up my belongs and headed off to find it. I walked to the end of the block, turned one corner and there it was with one final seat waiting for me, for only 20,000 dong! I climbed in and took my seat between a Vietnamese guy my age that spoke a little english and an old Vietnamese man that spoke no english whatsoever. However, he made it known through his random pinching of my arms and leg hair that I was clearly the largest human he had ever seen in his life! Within 5 minutes the whole van was laughing about this guy’s fascination with me and we didn’t stop laughing until we got to the airport 30 minutes later. It felt like Vietnam had finally started to accept me, right when I had to leave. I know now that I will definitely be back to explore more of Vietnam!