The wonders of Vietnam: Take 2

Ever looked at something in Topshop and thought 'bloody hell, I wish this actually had shape to it'? Well then Hoi An is the place for you!

I for one am fed up of clothes on the high street being tailored for only one body shape, but in Hoi An you could get anything you want tailored for a really cheap price! It is what the town is known for. The streets are very pretty too:

The tailors we went to is one of the best in Hoi An; Yaly Couture. Fabrics line the walls, and once you have picked a style in either a catalogue or show them a picture on the internet, you get to choose! Trust me, there is such a thing as too much choice....

They even do shoes!

Aside from the tailoring, Hoi An is an UNESCO site, rich in heritage and remnants of the time when it was a famous trading port (around the 15th Century). The name means "peaceful meeting place", which is believable when you see the river at night:

The food was the best yet, although it might not have been to everyone's taste!

We stayed three days here. I was feeling super homesick when I was in Halong Bay, but Hoi An was so beautiful it made it all disappear!

Sadly, we had to move on. Onward to the capital of South Vietnam during the war, Saigon. (Now known as Ho Chi Minh City). On 30th April 1975 the Northern Vietnamese forces invaded the city, officially ending the war with a Communist victory. So the city is absolutely stuffed with history!

From the Reunification Palace, where the US and President of South Vietnam resided until a Communist tank crashed through its gates in 1975:

The War Remnants Museum, detailing the atrocities of the war from the (albeit biased) Vietnamese perspective:

'Repressive and murderous US'??

The Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong lived for years underground surviving in unbearably tight spaces:

To the french-inspired Saigon opera house, where we saw a rather odd acrobatic show using only bamboo props!

Saigon was incredible.

Traffic? What Traffic?

 Interestingly, very few people called it Ho Chi Minh city and the influence of the US is very clear:

From here we did one of the highlights of my trip - a cruise on the Mekong Delta river. The river reaches across Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, meaning it's bloody massive!

There are several craftspeople that live on the islands running down the middle, who we paid a visit to. Including this rather friendly chap....

A little boat pulled alongside ours later in the day, offering to take us on a rowing trip. So we grabbed our conical hats and we were off, being rowed along a palm-tree corridor that was spectacular:

Seriously, this place is well worth a trip and will change your mind on the hustle and bustle of modern Vietnam.

I think it's important to learn about what this country has been through, so check out a mini narrative of the Vietnam war here.

x

The wonders of Vietnam

I am back from my travels!

Not only was it an incredible trip, but I am desperate to tell everyone. However, I did so much that I don't want to overload the blog with pictures and so am dividing it up into only two or three posts. For those of you who don't know, I travelled around Vietnam and Cambodia with a company called Gadventures, who I would really recommend if you want to do this kind of travelling.

The first? Vietnam! The land of lush greenery, top gear specials and more conical hats than you can count.

The first stop on the tour was the city of Hanoi. It is the official capital of the country and is firmly in the North (what was the pro-communist/Viet cong side in the war).

The pace of Hanoi is non-stop, but in the midst of it is the Old Quarter. Here I found the remainders of the old imperial city and the influence of the French (who occupied Vietnam for 100 years) alongside the life of the locals, which carried on around us tourists!

He crept in the photo at the last minute!

Sadly I was only in Hanoi for one day, but there was a reason for this.... the next day we stayed on a house boat in the beautiful Halong Bay, considered to be one of the wonders of the world. I hoped it would live up to the pyramids!

It certainly was beautiful:

Halong Bay is made up of nearly 2,000 'islets' in a kind of avatar-style maze. All of these floating islets are naturally made, can you believe it! A bit too high for humans to live on mind you, but until recently the bay did hold several floating fishing villages, where fishermen would live out their whole lives on the sea. Sadly the government removed them all last month.

Our house boat for the night!

To you lovely readers I will say that Halong Bay is worth a visit just to see it, but the area itself is so touristy! Now all of the fishing villages are gone there are very few locals there, so I was disappointed to find a lot of tourist boats going to and fro instead. With better weather and a bit of space from other boats, it would be a dream location for a romantic date!

The next stop? Hue (pronounced 'Hoy').

After an interesting night on a sleeper train that was reminiscent of 'An idiot abroad', we arrived in the town of Hue. Straight away we were out on motorbikes, exploring the countryside and stopping for some local handicrafts.

Me in the black, pretending I know what I'm doing

We saw a woman who was born without her right hand and is a hat maker, using amazing techniques to master a needle and thread:

Had a go at making incense:

Totally made all of these myself

Lunch was at a local buddhist nunnery, where the women had shaved heads and once our food was prepared, they went to pray:

Finally, we stopped off at the tomb of the fourth Vietnamese King for some nitty-gritty history (just what we love!). This man had an interesting life. He was a polygymer, with 500 wives and around 150 children. Despite his comparatively low success rate, he had enough children to continue the dynasty, and he was buried in this monument, guarded by clay soldiers who were around his height (hint, he was very short):

Our final stop was the old 'Tiger and Elephant colosseum'. Thankfully it WAS the colosseum, and stopped these crazy fights in 1930! Tigers and elephants used to fight for public sport here, but as the elephant was a symbol of royal power, the tigers were always injured enough to make them lose :(

The following day we visited the site of one of the fiercest battles in the Vietnam War - the Imperial City. It used to be the residence of the Vietnamese King and his family, where no one other than those approved by the royals were allowed in. Thankfully the whole palace is being restored bit by bit, so we can see its former glory:

Next post....the rest of Vietnam! See you there!