Top things to do when visiting Hanoi and North Vietnam
Adding to my eventful year 2012 was a hometown visit after being away from home since about one and a half year. At first I actually did not intend to go home this year, but perhaps with a bit of luck, one conference in which I presented a paper was organised in Taipei. Therefore, I combined a one-week conference trip to Taipei with a two-week home visit. It was also the first time Dustin came along to Asia and to my hometown Hanoi in particular. So it was kind of special. In addition, it was also a right time to attend the wedding of my close girlfriend, which I was as well looking forward to. Overall, I was very happy to visit my family at home, although I must say this trip, together with the other events from the middle to the end of the year, has placed much pressure on my work before we could really have some kind of holiday.
For this entry, I would make a list of suggestions considering myself as a local tour guide about where and what a tourist could do when he/she likes to visit Vietnam. Talking about top things one should do when visiting the North of Vietnam, I would start with what has pleased Dustin the most in our trip, so it is a recommendation looking from a foreigner's perspective. As a result, the activities I will mention will not follow our actual travelling route (as we have visited first the capital Hanoi), but rather from the most enjoyable experience to a less pleasant one.
- Three-day-two-night Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba island
World-Heritage-site Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
It was really enjoyable to visit the World Heritage site Ha Long Bay. We have booked a all-included-tour with an agency whose office is located at Hang Bo street in the Old Quarter in Hanoi. Before we could book the best price for our three-day-two-night Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba island trip, we have looked and asked around at several travelling agencies. It is a recommendation to ask around, especially for a tourist. The prices could fluctuate quite significantly, the normal price would be US$195 p.p. for overnights in normal basic hotels. We could make a blast price of less than half of the normal price with two overnights in a four-star resort at the Cat Ba island. As mentioned, all was included, from a pick-up-car-drive for about three hours from Hanoi to the Ha Long Bay habour, a ship/boat drive through the Ha Long Bay, a short kayaking on the way, a visit to a cave, a transfer to the resort in the Cat Ba island, then a visit to the Cat Ba National Park to the boat drive back through the Ha Long Bay and a car drive back to Hanoi, plus all meals. ^_^
Visiting Thien Cung cave at the Ha Long Bay - the colours are artificial from lights
Dawn at Cat Ba Island looking from the resort's room
Here are some more photos:
2. Cat Ba National Park
To our surprise as we were informed that we would go to a "park", but in fact we went into a kind of jungle: Cat Ba National Park is a special-used forests in Vietnam - the world's biosphere reserve. Luckily I got my long pants and shoes on, as we have climbed up rocks most of the way up to the mountain. Some complaints from the tourists that the tour agency should inform in advance about proper hiking shoes and clothes against forest mosquitos. Even some guys had only flipflops on. Anyway, that is another part about the tour service in Vietnam in general at the moment. We were transported to the park and left there by our own, and trust me it was not the bad part about the tour service yet, which I might write more about later. Following a path with aready preliminarily built-up steps from rocks, only coming to the end near the summit then the way becomes more difficult, it took us about 45 minutes to one hour for a one-way climbing trip. Going down the mountain, we followed another path which seemed to be more convenient, only that the wet leaves were sometimes quite slippery. Along the path we were surrounded with different types of medium-sized trees, plants, butterflies, insects, bugs, mosquitos etc and sound of birds singing - it was not too bad except the daring mosquitos and being attentive to the steps. Some special kinds of monkeys also live in the forest and only lucky tourists would catch them. The rocky path up to the summit can be a little dangerous, but the panorama view, a refreshing air and a cheerful some sort of winning feeling as the total reward is absolutely ..amazing.
3. Hanoi - Hoan Kiem lake, the Old Quarter and water puppet show
"The Old Quarter, near Hoan Kiem lake, has the original street layout and architecture of old Hanoi. At the beginning of the 20th century the city consisted of only about 36 streets, most of which are now part of the old quarter. Each street then had merchants and households specialized in a particular trade, such as silk traders, jewellery, etc. The street names nowadays still reflect these specializations, although few of them remain exclusively in their original commerce." (wikipedia)
4. Vietnamese-styled iced coffee with milk
5. Hanoi - Van Mieu Quoc Tu Giam, the Literature Temple
The oldest university in Vietnam 1010
6. Ha Noi - Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda and the West Lake
7. Ha Noi - Hoa Lo prison
Illustrations of past prisoners
8. Ha Noi - Army Museum
9. Ha Noi - Local cuisine
Beef soup noodle, and other types of soups
Normal noisy crowded streets
October 2010 officially marked 1000 years since the establishment of the city.
(to be continued)
Specially, Dustin and I have been able to visit my family. My twin nephews are growing so fast. I remember just like yesterday they were still this small, and now they are already able to run around and drive the playing children car the whole day:
(to be continued)
Home visit, November 2012.
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