Vietnam - Hanoi. Changing plans

We were in Hanoi for just over a fortnight. Whilst there we stayed in three different neighbourhoods (Ngọc Hà, near Hoan Kiem lake, and Trúc Bạch). The city is loud and fast and busy. So loud. So busy. We spent our time mainly exploring. Life tumbled out onto the streets, every space used, no rules followed. Over the two weeks we visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, Văn Miếu Temple of Literature, and the National Art Gallery. We experienced the famous Train Street, got lost in the Old Quarter, marvelled at water puppets, and cycled ten miles around Hanoi’s West Lake (Hồ Tây). I caught a bus out to Bat Trang ceramic village, and Lilz visited Hoa Lo Prison.

And we drank a LOT of coffee. The Vietnamese are brilliantly creative with their coffees. Which we love. So we also took a Vietnamese coffee making workshop as my birthday treat.

Being in Hanoi felt quite different. This was due in large part to the city being our last cycling stop.

Our plans had been evolving, and now looked very different to our original plan.

Our original plan was to cycle from Hanoi - via the islands of Cát Bà and Quan Lan, taking ferries through hundreds of towering limestone islands that dot Ha Long Bay - up to the border and cross into Chinese Pingxiang. From there catch a train to explore the beautiful karst area around Guilin, cycle 400 miles to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, and from there catch a train to Beijing. From Beijing we’d fly home for a month to apply for a long-visa needed to travel China’s Silk Road.

However research and situations changed our minds pretty radically…

… Ha Long Bay is indisputably beautiful but is also one of Vietnam’s major tourist hot spots. With this popularity comes familiar problems: crowds, over-development, pollution, and threats to the natural environment. Cycling Cát Bà’s steep ascents in punishing jungle humidity and viewing the Bay chock-full with cruise ships floating amongst plastic rubbish and oil residue on the water was a reality we didn’t think we’d miss.

… route research revealed cycling from Guilin to Zhangjiajie was not straightforward. I discovered our intended route crossed several ‘forbidden zones’ - large regional areas in China where travel is severely restricted for foreign tourists, and police run-ins are very likely. To bypass these zones took us a long way out of our way and through very remote mountainous terrain. This would slow us down: time we just couldn’t afford on a one-month visa.

… We are 1.5 months ‘behind schedule’. Compounding this is a need to stay in Vietnam for an extra ten days to avoid China’s Labour Day - a five-day public holiday (May 1 to 5) that sees massive domestic tourism. It is one of the busiest and most expensive travel periods - with intensely crowded roads and tourist sites (described as "people mountain, people sea"). At the rate we’re going we’d hit Tajikistan late Sept / early October: when high passes may become closed by snow.

… We were missing home. Lilz wanted to get back sooner than later. We knew a month at home would feel rushed and overly busy trying to sort visas, plan routes, get our winter kit and catch up with friends and family. When we learnt our tenants had given notice we decided it made sense to move back and give ourselves time to reset and enjoy seeing people we love. More time before returning to cycle again would enable us to plan routes and avoid wintering in the Stans.

… The America-Iran situation was making flying via the Middle East uncertain. Flying home direct from China meant avoiding this area, gave us much friendlier bicycle carrying policies, and reassurance as China’s oil stocks are much more secure than Vietnam’s.

All the above gave us a bit of a head spin for a few weeks as we thought through options, but in the end we decided Hanoi would be the end of cycling ‘Part 1’. We’d box up the bikes, sit out China’s Labour Day, fly to Beijing to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Zhangjiajie before heading home. We’d return for ‘Part 2’ in 2027.

We’ll follow up with footprints for some Hanoi detail.Read more