In terms of my heritage, I often tell people the abridged version of my family background. For one, it becomes a little confusing for some when they try to figure out where in Asia I'm actually from and two, some of the details aren't even that clear to me either. As a result, it's easy for me to just say that my parents are from Guangdong Province in Southern China and this makes sense because rather than knowing Mandarin, I'm more familiar with Cantonese. In actual fact, both my parents were born in Vietnam and grew up in farming communities. Where exactly? I'm not sure. The details of how they immigrated to the UK? I'm a bit hazy on that too (perhaps something to address in later blog post). Ultimately though, I come from a Chinese family who grew up on a farm in Vietnam but according to my Dad, my great great Granddad has roots somewhere in Southern China.
When given the amount of time off I was for Spring Festival, something instantly drew me to Vietnam. It was probably a subconscious thing. As well as discovering more about my 'Chineseness' by moving to China for a year, part of me wanted to visit the country my parents grew up in too. I didn't know much about Vietnam and actually, I didn't do much research or planning for the trip at all. For those of you who know me well, you'll agree that for me, this is quite out of character. Despite not knowing a great deal about the country or what there was to do there, I spent 14 days blitzing through Vietnam with some fellow ELAs, beginning in Ho Chi Minh and ending up in Hanoi.
Perhaps one of the first things to mention is that the trip didn't get off to the best of starts. Above, we see a photo of me with my carefully packed rucksack - full of optimism and excitement for all the travelling I was about to embark on. Packing for almost two months worth of travelling was a tad stressful. In terms of clothes, I wanted to be prepared for all types of weather. China would be considerably cooler than Vietnam, so I needed a mix of both warm clothing, as well as beach appropriate wear. Having left Dali and flown to Kunming, where I would take another flight to Guangzhou before a final leg to Ho Chi Minh City (that's right - three flights in one day), I went from gorgeous sunny weather in Dali to snow in Kunming. In Guangzhou, it had even snowed for the first time in ten years. The unexpected snow caused Kunming airport to go into complete disarray with flights being cancelled and delayed all over the place. I should have taken this as bad omen but I somehow managed to get a slightly delayed flight to Guangzhou in time to catch my connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh. I counted myself lucky but that's pretty much where my luck ran out.
Unfortunately, my backpack didn't quite make it to Vietnam with me and instead got sucked into some kind of airport black hole courtesy of China Southern Airlines. And sorry for the spoiler, but I wasn't reunited with my things at any point during the trip. I still haven't actually recovered it and have just come to terms with the fact that I will probably never will. It's not a massive deal. It was mostly clothes in my bag - all of which are replaceable. I am however peeved that an old film camera my parents used to take photos of me and my siblings when were young is in some unknown place - the sentimental value of which cannot be compensated for...
I'd like to say that not having my belongings didn't make a difference to this leg of my travels, but I have to admit I didn't ever feel 100% myself without my clothes. It's not that I'm a particularly materialistic, vain, fashionista type of person, but I do like to put effort into looking well put together. Not having basic things like a change of clothes or even underwear wasn't ideal and it definitely effected the way I experienced the trip to the extent that I didn't actually take many photos. All in all, Vietnam got off to a very inconvenient and uncomfortable start but I was determined to make the most of my time there, so here are the highlights*:
*Note: This is a lengthy post but if you're only interested in what I got up to in individual places, I'll be covering Ho Chi Minh City, Da Lat, Hoi An, Hanoi and Sapa if you want to skip sections..
一。Ho Chi Minh City
Between overcoming the loss of my things and scouring markets for new clothes to wear, we enjoyed the hotter weather in Ho Chi Minh and did a lot of visits to various museums.
One place I would highly recommend for a visit is the War Remnants Museum. Sam and I arrived about an hour before it was due to close but I wish we spent more time there. On the top floor is an incredibly moving photo exhibition showcasing amazing photos of everyday people who have suffered from the atrocities of the Vietnam War. When it comes to things like this, I guess it's really difficult to present them in any kind of objective way. A portion of the exhibition is named "Historical Truths" and doesn't veil any kind of balanced attitude towards American soldiers during the war. But the photos on show really speak for themselves. International photographers like Goro Nakamura emotively capture the after effects of the use of Agent Orange on Vietnamese children and families. The exhibition is deeply moving, if not quite depressing. I was left not really knowing what to think or feel but I was glad I visited this exhibition and would recommend that anyone making a stop in Ho Chi Minh also pay a visit.
On another afternoon, we did a half day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels where we learnt more about guerilla warfare and the tactics of the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Seeing the different types of brutal traps used was especially intriguing. We even got to try out squeezing ourselves through the underground tunnels, which was way more difficult than the tunnels we'd crawled in Seoul at Christmas (do not recommend if you're claustrophobic). The Cu Chi Tunnels trip is of course very tourist-y, but if you want to get out of the hot crowded city for an afternoon and learn a bit about some history, it's pretty decent.
二。Da Lat
Possibly my favourite stop during my time in Vietnam, Da Lat was great to visit to get out of the hot and busy city and forget about my lost luggage.
We spent the first afternoon exploring the markets in the centre of the main town for more clothes and a pair of practical trainers. I don't think I've ever been so stressed out shopping before. When I buy clothes, I don't tend to make impulsive decisions. If I like something, I'll mull it over for a few days before I return to a store. If it's still there when I come back, I take it as a sign of fate and make my purchase. Being forced to make shopping decisions out of sheer necessity was a stressful ordeal for me.
Sporting clothes you'd never see me wearing otherwise - Tropical print three quarter length bottoms and fake Sketchers #SoFashion
Added to the stress of decision making was the urge to barter with people running the stalls. 'Never pay full price' is a piece of advice I was given before coming to Vietnam. The trouble is that as soon as shop keepers find out you speak English, the price is hiked up and in the battle of who will give in to a negotiated price, Vietnamese shopkeepers are hard to budge (in my experience). Eventually, after some panic buys, I ended up with a new set of fake Sketcher trainers for around £11 and some jazzy (albeit out of character for me) tropical print bottoms amongst other things. Queue looking a little ridiculous for the rest of Vietnam!
Mr Peace explaining about the significance of the flower trade during Tet Festival in Vietnam
Beside looking different to my normal self, our time in Da Lat was actually quite fun. This is Mr Peace, an absolute legend. If there was any reason why Da Lat was so memorable, it was because of him. We stayed at Mr Peace's Backpacker Hostel and took his 'Secret Tour'. I won't go into too much detail - the whole appeal of taking this tour is that no one passes on any information about what you actually get up to on the tour. Essentially you end up riding around on mopeds (or on the back of a motorcycle in my case) all around Da Lat. Mr Peace takes you to specially selected spots in and around the city and uses his local knowledge to give you a good run down on Da Lat and Vietnam more widely.
Stopping for weasel coffee with a view
Charging around Da Lat via motorbike
To spare some boring details, whilst everyone else rode on their own mopeds, I ended up on the secret tour using an 'easy rider' which is essentially someone who drives a motorbike whilst you play passenger in the back. Now I look back on it, this was without doubt the best option for me as someone who doesn't even have a drivers license and isn't too familiar with the rules of the road, isn't that confident riding a bike and would have almost certainly have had an accident on the busy Vietnamese roads.
My driver, called Mountain, was always very sweet. He plucked a flower from a passing field to decorate my helmet with and always insisted on securing my helmet for me before we took to the roads. Even with his limited English, he tended to point out really obvious things we drove passed. "Coffee!", "Flower!", "Chicken!", I always found it amusing. On the back of his motorbike, I was able to take in all the scenery without worrying and it gave me some time to forget about my shaky start in Vietnam and really start to enjoy myself.
Sunset in Da Lat
Da Lat itself is great too. A little reminiscent of a UK seaside town, it made a really good contrast to the heaving traffic and bustling city life we experienced in HCM. It's easy to get a little lost on the winding roads, but there is something so unfussy about this little city that makes it a good stop if you find somewhere like Ho Chi Minh a bit intense.
三。Hoi An
After several more overnight buses, a couple brief stops in the beachy but touristy Nha Trang and a rainy pit stop in Hue, we made it to Hoi An.
I was actually a really big fan of Hoi An too. There's lots to explore in the main town; local food markets, tailors and the like. The night markets are beautifully lit up with lanterns too, a speciality of Hoi An. You can find locals and tourists setting off candle lit lanterns into the river canals at night, so overall, there's a real charming vibe to Hoi An. Prior to coming to Vietnam, I was told that you could source pints of beer at a cost cheaper than a bottle of water - this was true of Hoi An where you could get 'local beer' for as little as 5000VND (15p!). Ideal.
At the hostel I stayed at in Dali, I spoke to another traveller about what to do in Vietnam and he recommended a visit to the Marble Mountains. So on one of the days, we decided to ride around on a moped down to the Marble Mountains and took a little detour to the beaches of Da Nang. The 'Marble Mountains' are not so much mountains as they are tall mounds, but for a small ticket fee, you can climb to the highest viewpoints to see the surrounding landscape of Da Nang and visit some peaceful temples along the way. You can also check out some of the inner caves and grottoes with Buddhist carvings. There's one in particular that makes you feel like you've just stepped onto the set of an Indiana Jones movie, with just a few cracks in the ceiling of the cave to let in a few beams of light. It all would have been serene and peaceful were it not for a large group of Korean tourists who we found rather amusing for their photo posing and loud "oohs" and "ahhs" everywhere we went.
As for the beaches of Da Nang, they appeared far less busy than An Bang beach, located closer to the main town of Hoi An. Maybe it was the fact that it was Tet Festival, but Da Nang was pretty deserted and there wasn't much of a tourist vibe - which was great considering that Hoi An felt a lot like that otherwise.
One evening we ate at a restaurant called Morning Glory. By this point, we'd been more than content with cheap but delicious bowls of pho and had also taken a liking to the local speciality of Cao Lau (beef noodles). But for one night, decided to splash out a bit on our meal and Morning Glory was pretty glorious. We'd fallen in love with a dish featuring smoked eggplant and minced pork. I'd genuinely go back to Hoi An for more of it. In terms of food though, it's pretty easy to eat well in Vietnam on a shoestring budget. Bowls of pho are always cheap and freshly made. There was one occasion in Hoi An when we were slightly tricked into eating at a backstreet restaurant, enticed by a local saying there was a happy hour (there wasn't). But in the end, we didn't mind. The cao lau was worth it.
四。Hanoi
Compared to Ho Chi Minh, I think I much preferred Hanoi as a city. Although heading from South to North, we'd gone from hot to colder weather, Hanoi had far more character and actually, I preferred the cooler temperatures in the busy city.
Egg coffee
Here, we met back up with Tom who had been flying solo in Vietnam after we departed at Ho Chi Minh. Together we took a free walking tour of Hanoi, got taken to St Joseph's Cathedral, Turtle Lake and whipped through the street markets. We ended the tour with an egg coffee, one of the stranger things I've drunk in my life. Essentially, it's like a shot of espresso topped with a really sweet egg meringue/ scrambled egg foam. I can't say I hated it but it's not the kind of thing you could drink every day.
We spent one afternoon at the Museum of Ethnology which houses exhibitions and artefacts from the 54 officially recognised ethnic groups in Vietnam. From ethnic dress to videos of ceremonial practices, cooking utensils to writing books, the museum is great if you're quite into anthropology. After telling the others about my ever so slightly confusing origins story, it was here that Tom decided to devise a scientific method to find out whether I did indeed have any Vietnamese in my blood. At each section presenting a new ethnic group, he'd ask how I felt about the artefacts on show and whether I felt any affinity to them. He'd compare the photographs with my face. He monitored whether I developed some sort of 'glow' in front of the pieces. Results of Tom's scientific method? Inconclusive.
One morning we got an early start to get to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Here, you line up in a long, meandering queue for a quick glimpse of the embalmed body of the former President. Again, it's one of the stranger things I did in Vietnam. It's an odd experience. Having studied the Vietnam War at GCSE, you're never forced to think about what the people you're learning about actually look like in real life, so it was all quite surreal to say the least. Ho Chi Minh's body, although waxy looking under the special dimmed yellow lighting, seemed serene but he also was a lot smaller physically than you'd imagine. Another thing you don't really consider is how revered Ho Chi Minh is to Vietnamese locals. Just ahead of us in the queue were women who wept as they saw the body, expressing their thanks to this heroic leader. I couldn't imagine ever having the same kind of reaction to the Queen of Britain, let alone any leader of any country. Needless to say, as with Tom's scientific experiment the day before, I didn't quite glow for Ho either.
A blurry photo of my banh mi because I was too keen to start eating it
There's no way I could write a Vietnam blog post without mentioning my new found love of Vietnamese Banh Mi. They're a bit like Subway sandwiches - except they taste a hundred times better! After French colonisation, Vietnam kept some of the French foodie influence in terms of baguettes. Banh mi sandwiches use delicious, airy baguettes filled with crunchy carrots, cucumbers, cold cuts of sliced pork (or whatever meat you fancy), drizzled in a sweet and sour sauce. Other versions we tried included paté which also come highly recommended if you want to try out a different kind of banh mi.
When we were in Hanoi, we found ourselves forever craving them, and pretty much getting one at every opportunity (the boys at a record 4 banh mi's in one day). We even spent an hour after sitting in a local beer house, drinking beer and playing cards actively hunting down a cart that sold some. Needless to say we were pretty gutted to find out no one sells them after a certain time in the evening and sadly returned to our hostels with banh mi-less dampened spirits. Determinedly, Sam beelined for Banh Mi 25 the following morning because he'd read some good reviews about the place. It's an indistinct looking stall but clearly very popular. There seemed to be a constant queue of people pulling up on their mopeds, patiently waiting for their hand crafted banh mi's. We weren't left disappointed either. It definitely made up for the lack of banh mi the night before.
Maybe we fell in love with banh mi in Vietnam because bread in China is a bit crap. Either the texture is oddly crumbly and dry, or it tastes a tad sweeter than it ought to (pass me the Warburtons!), but truly, banh mi's are a thing of beauty. I'm certain wouldn't be able to locate a banh mi sandwich in China, but I'm putting it on the top of my list to hunt down when I get back to London in the summer!
六。Sapa
Village locals trekking the muddy rice terraces
In the final few days of our time in Vietnam, Sam and I went for a village stay in Sapa, a few hours outside of Hanoi. We'd signed up for a trek amongst the rice terraces and an 'authentic' homestay with someone in the village. Admittedly, this was another point where I felt like proper planning would have done us some good. Not really considering the time of year, the rice terraces were out of season and the trek was incredibly muddy. The weather wasn't ideal and I was left longing for the hot weather of the South.
There was a group of around ten of us who had signed up for the same village stay. Along with some local village people as guides, we trekked for a few hours up and down muddy paths and along water bogged rice terraces. The village women were really friendly, asking in their limited English how old we were, about our families and in turn, telling us about their children and siblings. When you needed a helping hand, they were there to assist you and prevent you from falling over in the mud. It was only when we nearly approached the lunch spot that the tone of the conversation took a turn.
"You'll be going for lunch just there and I will go back to my home to eat. Before I go, maybe you could help me by buying something?".
I don't know why I didn't see it coming. The friendliness was too good to be true and soon we were all bombarded with requests to buy souvenirs in return for their assistance through the mud. I can't lie - I felt a bit cheated and naive because I didn't see it coming. And worse, I felt really guilty for not wanting to buy any of the needless scarves, stitched purses or jewellery they were requesting extortionate prices for. It wasn't a case of saying apologetically but firmly, no. Their persistence made the air turn sour and awkward. Their sales technique needed work because the longer it went on, the more I was convinced I didn't want to buy a thing.
It's just something to be wary of if you ever head to Sapa or village homestays of a similar trip. Tourism of this kind is clearly lucrative for village locals and tourists like us looking for an 'authentic' experience are just opportunities to make a quick buck. In hindsight, I'd rethink doing a trip like this again in future. It's not to say that it isn't worth doing but from a personal point of view, the trip to Sapa was far from 'authentic'. It would take more than seeing locals in ethnic dress and modest meals at a homestay to convince me otherwise. There was even wifi at the place we stayed!
(Photo stolen from Sam) Us with our sweet Sapa guide and muddy rented wellies
Our 'trek' in Sapa wasn't really what we expected but it was made better by our guide, who was incredibly sweet. Although she couldn't read or write, her spoken English was actually pretty good. She was always willing to answer any questions (Sam asked her random ones like her feelings towards Ho Chi Minh...) with a smile on her face. I was pretty bowled over that she was only 18 years old but already a mother of an 18 month old baby and a wife since she was 14. Such a different life!
It wasn't all bad. We spent our evenings huddled round fires and even found a decent cabin bar called Lucky Daisy's Bamboo Bar. By this point, we had already decided to embrace the fact that Sapa wasn't quite the real deal village experience so we were happy to sit in this cosy bar with hot chocolates and mulled wine (much to the disapproval of our homestay host who issued us with a 9pm curfew..). We even spoke to one of the owners who was originally from Hanoi. She married a Dutch man and together they decided to set up Lucky Daisy's (also a homestay) in Sapa after realising that in villages like Sapa, tourists still seek home comforts in terms of food and beverage. It was really interesting to talk to the owner about how they are treated by other locals. She admitted that there was always a feeling of hostility and even jealousy from other homestay owners. She told us that sadly, other locals would often lie to the tourists staying with them, spreading rumours that the owners of Lucky Daisy's were crazed, weapon holding people who were dangerous to be around and that they also owned a rabid dog. Bottom line was that out of jealousy, tourists staying at other homestays were told to avoid the bar at all costs. I found the whole story quite sad but I can vouch for Lucky Daisy's. It's a good little hideaway with friendly staff - no rabid dog in sight.
Apologies for the lengthy post but congratulations if you managed to read it through to the end without getting bored! Vietnam was certainly eventful but for all it's ups and downs, I was really happy to get back to Mainland China and back to something familiar. I arrived back in Guangzhou and was ready to celebrate my first ever Chinese New Year away from my immediate family.
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