Hanoi, Ha Long and Sa Pa

I'm not the biggest fan of Hanoi. It's the big bustling capital of Vietnam but I think it lacks a bit of character and there didn't seem to be that much to do. I visited an old prison which was ok and had an egg coffee by the lake - yes you read that right; egg coffee. Although it sounds like something you wouldn't give your worst enemy, this coffee is famous here and it was actually very good - I don't think I'll try and replicate it mind.

I wanted to go to go the Musaliam to see a mummified king, but it was closed so couldn't see that. I tried again another day and was greeted with a queue as long as the whole of Vietnam and hundreds of school kids saying hello to me - plus the place opened for only a couple of hours. I gave up on the Musaliam. The hostel I stayed in was however very nice with an amazing rain shower! I don't know what it was doing in a backpackers hostel, but I wasn't complaining - so every cloud! The evening was better, we went for dinner and drinks and to a few clubs before chomping down on a Bahn Mi, a delicious French style bread roll with loads of filling - not exactly the most cultural couple of days though.

Ah, Ha Long Bay, the natural wonder of the world. I was looking forward to seeing it but of course the weather had other ideas. The day we sailed around the bay, it was so foggy you had to get up close to the cliff before they came into view. It was still beautiful but was unlucky not to see it more clearly (A reason to return). We kayaked around a bit before heading to an island as part of the tour. Now, I've not been annoyed much at all on this trip, but this 'island' was a literal construction site, with unfinished buildings everywhere and a rubbish-strewn beach with five wicker chairs that looked like something from a jumble sale for about 30 people! It was pretty shocking and the room and food was also naff. We were paying a considerable amount for this 'island' so we were understandably a bit vexed.

The next day the weather was a lot better and we trekked to the top of the island for a nice view after breakfast. That was it though - for the rest of the day we were left alone on the 'beautiful' (crap) beach. It's a paid tour - I'd expect some sort of organised activity. I don't want to sound petty but if I wanted to laze around on the beach I could do that for next to nothing and on a much nicer one! At 4 PM the 'tour' re-commenced and we trekked again to the other side of the island - this was waaaay better, the beach was actually decent - why not come here earlier?! 😡 In the evening, back on camp construction we had a meal and drinks and managed to get ourselves transferred to a marginally better room that didn't resemble a cell block - result.

The final day was definitely the best (probably because we left the island). We went to Cat Ba island and trekked to the top in a national park - the views were amazing. I wish I'd just took a tour to the main bay from there - nevermind, you win some, you lose some. The group was nice and it was a fun experience just not particularly good value for money. I feel a Trip Advisor review and a strongly worded letter brewing... 📝

Following Ha Long Bay, we took a night bus up to Sa Pa in the far North of the country. Arriving in terrible weather, my mood remained slightly sour. We met our hill tribe guide and started to trek in the rain - annoyingly we could see precisely nothing because the mist was so thick. As we descended down the hill the scenery finally came into view and it was amazing. Rice fields as far as the eye could see dotted with little villages and water buffalo - definitely worth the slog. We walked around for another hour or so before stopping at our guides house for a tasty home cooked lunch and trying on some of the hill tribe clothing for no obvious reason. After this we trekked a bit more to our homestay and on the way we passed what must have been a six year old child leading a massive water buffalo up a hill - standard!

I woke up freezing the following day - it's really cold in the mountains and the weather was still unfortunately still very bleak. Our final trek was tough but good fun - we slipped and slided our way through ridiculously muddy tracks, a bamboo forest and wet rice paddies. I managed to not fall over despite having a couple of close shaves much to the guides' amusement. We also went through a little village where a two year old was messing around with a large machete totally unsupervised - standard again I guess!

After making it down the slopes with the ludicrously strong tribes women leading the way and embarrassing our pathetic efforts, we headed back to the homestay for a hot shower before getting back on the bus for the long drive back to Hanoi.

My time in Vietnam comes to an end now - a month has gone so quickly but it's been great with a lot of highlights - Laos beckons next.Read more