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Filling in our World Heritage Site gaps around South-East Asia Read more
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  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 1

    Hanoi

    June 29, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 36 °C

    Arrived in Hanoi around 9am after an overnight flight from Sydney via Kuala Lumpur. The first leg was mildly exciting when a couple of guys nearly had a punchup mid-flight (one guy's wife wouldn't switch her phone off after being repeatedly warned by the crew and the other guy whacked her seat). Sleep was difficult as well since despite being in the "quiet zone" a guy a few rows snored like a tractor the entire flight!

    A couple of hours in KL and then our flight to Hanoi was uneventful - I even managed to sleep most of the way. We ended up sitting next to a couple from Penrith who'd been on the earlier flight - they also had a dachshund!

    Sort ourselves out with some cash and local SIM cards, then caught a minivan into the city which took about an hour. Only 10am and it was already excruciatingly hot! Our room wasn't ready so we dropped our bags and headed back out.

    First stop was the first World Heritage Site of the trip, the imperial Thang Long Citadel in central Hanoi. It's a fairly odd site as although the original citadel dates from the 11th century, none of that is left - most of the buildings are from the French colonial period. And despite being in central Hanoi, just near the Presidential Palace and Uncle Ho's Mausoleum, nobody visits!

    We spent a couple of hours wandering around, filming and taking photos. It was more interesting than either of us expected, just appreciating how the site had changed many times over the years but always retained its importance if not its form. During the war it was the North's high command bunker, and various independence celebrations had taken place here in the 1950s too.

    Left the citadel and walked back to the hotel via Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, though it's closed for maintenance until August. Shame, I'd kinda been hoping to see his mummified remains!

    Grabbed some banh mi for lunch and spent a bit of time in the room before braving the heat again, heading first to the Temple of Literature, one of Hanoi's most famous attractions. Lovely spot here, a temple dedicated to worshipping Confucius with pavilions scattered among gardens and ponds.

    From here we got a taxi over to Hanoi's famous lake where the roads were all blocked thanks to a fun-run that had happened in the morning. Shandos said it was the busiest part of Hanoi when she was last here, so it was interesting to see it deserted of cars and bikes!

    Wandered around for a bit, I had an egg coffee and Shandos a sugar cane juice while we tried to figure out plans for tomorrow. We'd hoped to head for a tentative World Heritage Site to the north-east of Hanoi (a religious pagoda), but apparently the tours only really run there during religious festivals! So we were faced with either an expensive driver for the day, or slow local buses. In the end we opted for neither, and we'll just hang around Hanoi tomorrow. We're not hugely worried about missing Tentative sites.

    Back to the hotel to cool down again, then headed out for dinner at a nearby Pho place that had been recommended as one of the best in Hanoi. Basically just street food, but it was packed and turning over bowls extremely quickly! Happy to report the food was delicious. Headed home again; not a late night but definitely a well-deserved sleep.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 2

    More of Hanoi

    June 30, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    As I mentioned yesterday, the excursion outside the city we were hoping to do had basically proved impossible. It really only gets visited during a couple of religious festivals, so regular tours aren't running there at the moment. We looked into a few options with public transport, private drivers and the like but it all sounded a bit too difficult and/or expensive for a Tentative site three years away in the pipeline!

    So we opted to just hang out in Hanoi instead.

    It was a bit cooler today - still very hot but not heatstroke inducing like the previous day. Had a much later start after a relaxing hotel breakfast, then headed out. First stop was nearby train street, a Hanoi institution where the train runs directly through a residential neighbourhood, only a few inches away from the houses. In typical Communist style, a large industry of cafes and shops had sprung up, all competing with the cheapest coffee and the best seats to watch the train come through.

    Completely by coincidence we'd arrived about 15 minutes before a train was due, so we shared a beer and I had a coffee while we waited. It was indeed very close! Though a few minutes before the train approached, they moved all the chairs and tables inside and we cowered on someone's porch.

    Next stop was the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton. This was a prison built by French colonialists, and there was a lot of heavy-handed rhetoric about the appalling conditions Vietnamese patriots were subjected to by the evil French. The next section had lots of happy and smiling American pilots being held in the prison by the North Vietnamese army, without any apparent trace of irony. These days most of the prison is actually gone, it's just a couple of administration buildings. But still interesting to see.

    Quick stop for a late lunch before we headed to the Water Puppet Theatre. Apparently a Vietnamese tradition, this was a very Chinese-style puppet theatre where the puppets are sitting in a pool on long poles, being controlled from behind a curtain and accompanied by live music. The stories were all in Vietnamese so obviously we couldn't follow it, but it was amusing enough and quite well done.

    Last stop was a bia hoi shop, where they sell fresh beer. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but it's basically a non-fermented beer that they've brewed that day. No brand, and it's very cheap. I think we paid about 12k dong per glass (about 0.75c), which seemed to be on the high end. Shandos said it was about 1.5k dong when she was here in 2005 - that's inflation for you!

    Back home where we wandered around for a while trying to find some spring rolls without much success. Eventually we just ate at a place a few doors from the hotel.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    1
    Day 3

    Ha Long Bay

    July 1, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Early start today for our trip out to Ha Long Bay! Although we were listed for a 9am pickup time, the bus arrived at about 8:40 and we were the first ones on board - lucky we were ready to go! Drove around Hanoi picking up other passengers before following the new freeway out to Hai Phong.

    Straight onto our boat which looked a little old from the outside but was nice and modern on the inside. Our suite was a good size, with a king bed, balcony and even a small jacuzzi. It's not a huge boat either - only 21 cabins and I'd say about 2/3rds were occupied. Had lunch of Vietnamese food (excellent quality) and then spent a bit of time relaxing as we cruised around the islands.

    Mid afternoon we stopped and headed over to a small fishing village where we did about an hour of kayaking and then some swimming too. Amusingly, I didn't bring any swimmers as I'd forgotten I would need them! Thankfully both pairs of shorts are polyester type fabric and pretty easy drying, so I could wear those with no issues.

    Back to the boat where we chilled out and had a few drinks at happy hour, then another set menu dinner of really well done Vietnamese food. The evening sort of petered out as they set up the karaoke machine and others retreated to the top deck. I tried my hand at squid fishing for a little while but alas no squid were forthcoming.

    At least the landscapes here are incredible - limestone karsts jutting directly out of the water, covered in jungle. Very dramatic. The weather wasn't great for filming early on as it was quite hazy, though it got clearer as the afternoon wore on.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    111
    Day 4

    Ha Long to Tam Coc

    July 2, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    Up early on the boat, as we'd left the blinds open in our suite and the sun came streaming through at about 5:30am. Good for Shandos who headed off to do tai chi on the upper deck at 6am - the only person on the boat to do so! I stayed in bed.

    Early breakfast before boarding the tender and heading to the Bamboo Cave, where we were rowed over to a large karst cave directly through a limestone mountain and out the other side! Very peaceful and quiet here, though the water wasn't as clean - noticeable oil, sludge and garbage on the surface which is a shame.

    Back to the boat where we had a bit of time for relaxing before a brief cooking class where we learned how to make fresh spring rolls. A little odd, since we'd had DIY fresh spring rolls for dinner the night before! But a bit of fun nonetheless.

    Very early (10:30 ish) "brunch" which was really just lunch, then it was time to pay our bill and head back to the dock. Everything is pretty slickly organised so we only had to wait a few minutes before the bus pulled up and we headed back towards Hanoi.

    We even arrived back early, around 2:30pm! Feeling at a loose end since our bus to Tam Coc wasn't due until 6pm, we headed for the ticket office anyway and dropped off our bags. Spent a couple of hours in a cool little cafe called Note Coffee, where we had a couple of iced drinks and used our laptops to while away the time.

    Back to the ticket office for 6pm where we waited and waited, getting increasingly nervous. Eventually at 7pm a guy on a motorbike pulled up and asked if we were going to Tam Coc. When we said yes he made a couple of phone calls, gave us some money and said a taxi would be coming to get us shortly. And sure enough - a taxi pulled up about 10 minutes later and took us to where the bus was waiting! Weird.

    It was a sleeper bus, with bunk beds fixed in a 3/4 reclining position. They were a good length and height for a Vietnamese person which isn't much good for me, but I managed since it was only a couple of hours.

    Had a brief panic when we got off in Tam Coc as the guys couldn't find my bag. I got increasingly irate but eventually it was discovered in a separate empty part of the hold. At least I didn't have to bust out the Vietnamese curse words I remembered from high school!

    Quite tired, we walked the hundred metres to our guesthouse and checked in. Seems nice enough. Shandos went straight to bed, while I ducked out for a quick banh mi as I was still a bit hungry.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 5

    Citadel of the Ho Dynasty

    July 3, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Today's World Heritage site was a couple of hours out of town, back towards the north. We'd organised a driver to take us, and he rocked up at about 8:30am and off we went. The site itself was the remains of a 14th century royal citadel, which sounds really interesting until you realise that there's basically nothing there.

    The lowest part of the main gate is still intact, plus the earthworks of the square walls (about 1km on each side), along with a few stone blocks. But inside the citadel walls it was just rice paddies and a couple of dirt roads! Exactly what we were expecting so we weren't disappointing, but it was one of those ones where you scratch your head and wonder how exactly it got approved as a World Heritage Site.

    After walking to the far end and back, looking around the small museum and having a terrifying encounter with a squat portaloo, about two hours had elapsed and it was time to head back to our hotel in Tam Coc. Back in time for a late lunch, we grabbed some banh mi and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the hotel. Shandos had a swim, though again I had no swimmers and stayed out.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 6

    Trang An Landscape Complex

    July 4, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Tiring day today! Our WHS for the day was Trang An Landscape Complex, an area of natural beauty just outside the village of Tam Coc. About 9am we grabbed some free bicycles from the hotel and rode the hour outside of town through sporadic to the main entry.

    This spot is another karst landscape, similar to Ha Long Bay but on land this time. Lots of limestone pinnacles towering over the area, with little rivers carving through the canyons and dense foilage all around. It's a fairly big tourist attraction too, with lots of buses in the carpark.

    We had a quick look through the museum and bought our tickets for the boat trip which left shortly afterwards. The only way to really see the landscape is via rowboat, so you buy a ticket and get rowed around by a local in a little wooden boat. We were joined by a young Vietnamese couple that didn't speak much English, but they could at least speak to the boat lady so we knew where to go at the various stops.

    We went through several caves, visited a couple of temples and even spotted some monkeys playing in the trees. All very cool, though the day was extremely hot and since it was raining when we left home we hadn't done much sunscreen. I could feel myself roasting which wasn't ideal!

    One of the temples was over a ridge sort of thing which required a 200-step climb, then a 200-step descent before you could see it. Very interesting, but I could definitely have done without the 200 steps up and down back to the boat!

    Finishing up with the tour, we rode our bikes back into town in what was now blazing sun. Felt like 45 degrees so we were both pretty hot and uncomfortable - plus I was quite stiff from riding the bike. Since I don't ride all that often I find it much more tiring than just walking.

    Another late lunch of banh mi before spending the afternoon again back at the hotel. Had to kill quite a bit of time in the end, because our overnight train down to Hue didn't leave until 9:45pm! We stayed at the hotel until about 7pm, had dinner nearby and then rode a taxi over to the station. Amusingly, the station was full of young Vietnamese kids wanting to practice their English, so I spoke to a pair of 10 year olds for a while who had quite good skills. Lots of people ask, so I assume it's actually part of their schooling or something.

    Train arrived and left on time and we settled down for the night. Unfortunately we didn't have sleeper berths, just regular seats like on a plane. It was full but our seats were comfortable enough. A little noisy at first with kids running around but eventually they tired themselves out. Shandos dropped off pretty quickly while I didn't manage any sleep until about 1:30 or so. And even then it was mostly dozing before the sun came up at 6am. To be continued in Hue!    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 7

    Hue Citadel

    July 5, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    Off the train at around 8:30am, a bit dazed but after having gotten an okay amount of sleep. Plane sleep, where I'm just dozing in an upright chair and waking up occasionally, but not too bad. Taxi to our hotel where we obviously couldn't check in yet, so we dropped our bags and headed off into the already-blazing heat.

    Our main destination for the day was Hue Citadel, the imperial capital from 1802 through until 1945 and the end of the monarchy. Since it was more recently built than the other citadels we'd seen here, the buildings were in much better condition. Or would be, if a pitched battle during the Tet Offensive hadn't resulted in almost complete destruction. Something like 145 of the 160 buildings in the Forbidden City were destroyed.

    But there's still cool stuff to see, and we headed over from our hotel. The walk was about 2km so it was tough going - the temperature was 38 but "felt like" 48, so it was definitely a struggle. But we made it.

    Inside the citadel we grabbed our tickets and wandered around checking everything out. Quite a large area and a lot of things to see including gates, a palace, mandarin (court official) buildings, temples, pagodas, pleasure gardens, and a few other things. I think quite a bit of reconstruction has been done here, and Shandos said there were definitely things she didn't remember, but regardless it's all still quite interesting.

    And I do find the Chinese aesthetic very appealing - upturned roof corners, ornate dragon decorations, colourful mosaics of rural idylls, those circles with gold-trimmed maze lines. Places like this make you really realise how much of a cultural influence China is around here, as compared to say Thailand or even southern Vietnam.

    Finishing with the citadel and close to heatstroke, we retreated to a bar and had a couple of beers before heading back to the hotel and enjoying the air conditioning for the rest of the day. Ventured out in the evening to try the local speciality: bun bo hue, a noodle soup dish similar to pho but flavoured with lemongrass and chilli. Delicious, though I could've done without the little garnish of congealed pig's blood!    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 8

    Phong Nha Caves

    July 6, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Another day, another day trip! This time we were heading for Phong Nha Caves, about 4 hours to the northwest of Hue. Only recently fully explored, it contains the largest single cave in the world along with one of the world's longest underground rivers - though neither of these are accessible to the general public.

    The ride out was long and not that comfortable since the seats on the minibus were Vietnamese sized. No room to recline seats, too narrow, and we were sitting behind the rear axle so every bump meant we flew into the air. But we just grinned and bore it.

    Had the very unpleasant experience too of seeing a truck, similar to the chicken-carrying trucks you see in Australia. Except inside of chickens, it was loaded with dogs - poor little guys were packed super-tightly into cages and baking in the sun, though admittedly they didn't look in much discomfort. Our guide said they were just being moved to a different province because they were probably nuisance dogs and attacked people's chooks etc, but that sounded a lot like the "Rover is going to live on a farm upstate where we can't visit" line. The worst part was that the truck was going about the same speed as our bus, so we kept passing each other - close to a dozen times before we turned off the highway.

    In the end the cave was definitely worth it! We rode smallish boats (about 12 seaters) into the cave along the underground river, and there was heaps of stuff to see. Lots of stalagtites and mites, big jellyfish calcium carbonate formations and the like. All quite cool, though there were way too many boats for the river and we kept scraping the sides which horrified me.

    Got off the boat a few hundred metres into the cave and then walked back out to get better pictures on the way which was quite nice. And then after only about 2 hours at the site it was time to head back to Hue.

    The trip back was even worse, since although the bus was full both directions, going there we had a family of Belgians with mostly young kids. On the trip back, the young kids were replaced by backpackers who could barely squeeze into the seats and looked supremely uncomfortable. The air-con wasn't much good either, so we all kind of baked in the heat.

    But we survived, and ended up back in Hue at about 8pm, after an 11-hour return journey! Grabbed burgers from a little shack as a nice change from Vietnamese food before heading to bed.    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    Day 9

    South to Hoi An

    July 7, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    Much more civilised start time today! Regular breakfast before a 9am pickup by the minivan heading south to Hoi An. We'd booked a slightly more expensive van transfer rather than a bus which proved to be a good decision: only 11 people on board so we had room to spread out and not be jammed into small Vietnamese seats.

    This bus also stopped at a few sight-seeing points as well along the way. First up was a little market town with an ornate covered bridge, and then we cruised past a series of ornate family shrines outside a town. Not burial tombs, since bodies are usually cremated, but shrines where people pay homage and respect for their ancestors.

    Next stop was a lake to see some oyster and pearl farms, then a nearby beach which had nice sand but way too much garbage to really be that nice.

    From here we drove over the Hai Van pass which is essentially the dividing line between the north and the south of Vietnam. Although the 20th century North/South divide was north of here, it's really more where Vietnamese think of "the south" vs "the north". Anyway, it's a nice winding mountain pass road with great views up and down the coast.

    Last stop was in the city of Da Nang, apparently one of the largest cities in Vietnam though significantly smaller than Hanoi and HCMC. There's not really much of interest here beyond massive new resort hotels on the coast (Shandos said it was basically a fishing village 15 years ago), and a spot called Marble Mountain. I'm a bit hazy on the specifics of it, but there's a lot of marble quarries in the area. It's also a sacred mountain with lots of temples, shrines and caves.

    We spent an hour wandering around and checking it out, definitely the most interesting place we've seen today! Then back to the bus for the last 30 minutes to Hoi An.

    Stayed inside in the air con for a bit then headed out to enjoy the evening in Hoi An. It's a picturesque little town, an old trading port that became a backwater and is still well preserved. Sort of like Malacca I guess. But it's clearly the #1 destination for wannabe Instagram superstars from Korea and China because you couldn't take three steps without getting into someone's photo. A bit annoying, but it was a pretty environment with blossoming trees, lanterns strung across every street etc.

    Had a local speciality for dinner called cau lau, basically just another type of noodle soup. Chatted briefly to a Scottish couple who we shared our plastic table with! Wandered around in the evening for a while but it was like being at the Easter Show so we retreated across the river where it was a bit quieter and somewhere selling fresh beer for 5000 dong (25 cents Australian). That's a bit better!    Read more

  • TravelerSEA World Heritage Sites 2019
    1
    Day 10

    My Son Sanctuary

    July 8, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    My Son (pronounced Mee Sern) is an important Hindu religious sanctuary that sits about an hour outside of Hoi An. It's a very popular day-trip, mainly because the ruins are quite impressive. While booking our bus back to Hue for tomorrow, we noticed that the same company offered a "sunrise tour" of My Son, which we ended up booking instead.

    Mainly because it got us there and back early in the morning before the heat really kicked in, but also because My Son can get very crowded with day-trippers and most of those don't arrive until around 10am. So by getting in super-early, we could get great photos without anyone in them.

    So that's what we did! Among the last to get picked up, and the bus wasn't super comfortable as the air con wasn't really working, but it was fine to put up with for an hour. Although billed as a "sunrise" tour, the sun was well and truly up by the time we got there.

    The ruins themselves are quite impressive. It was built as the main religious sanctuary of the Champa Kingdom, which ruled a lot of Laos and southern Vietnam for centuries. They were a Hindu kingdom, so of course all of the design, layout, iconography and architecture was Hindu - unusual in this Buddhist part of the world. As the Champa were pushed out of Vietnam by the Buddhist Viet people from the north, the Sanctuary fell into disuse and was eventually overtaken by the jungle again. Only rediscovered in 1898 by a group of French soldiers.

    Originally there was about 160 buildings in the sanctuary - not all religious, but mostly for that purpose. Unfortunately, these days there's only a handful of buildings still standing after American B-52 carpet bombing raids. The site is still dotted with huge bomb craters, and you can see bullet holes in some of the stone walls as well. Our guide even showed me a photo on his phone of his grandmother's front door, which had a large bullet hole in it. Although they aren't angry about it these days, reminders of the war are never far away.

    Back to the hotel by 9am, where we were in time for breakfast! Although we'd already had a simple provided breakfast on the tour, we tucked into the fairly good offerings at the hotel. Afterwards we retreated upstairs and dozed/used computers until the mid-afternoon. Ventured out for a banh mi, then retreated again as it was ridiculously hot.

    In the evening we met up with a travel blogger couple who we'd been friends with for a few years - an Australian guy and his American fiancee. They've been living here in Hoi An for a few months as digital nomads. Spent the evening catching up with them over vegetarian food and beers which was quite nice - we'd last seen them in Manila almost three years ago.    Read more

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