In the fall of 2010, Eron and I spent almost a month travelling through Vietnam. We left Vancouver via YVR on November 12, 2010 transiting through the Seoul-Inchon International Airport and landing in Hanoi. On December 9, 2010, we left Ho Chi Minh City to return home. Our journey took us onto planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and just about every other manner of conveyance. We started off in Hanoi, took a side-trip to Ha Long Bay, went back to Hanoi, took the overnight “Gulag Train” to Hue, visited the old DMZ, did an overnight motorcycle trek through the Central Highlands, walked through the ancient ruins at My Son, spent a week in Hoi An, caught a flight out of Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, bussed it to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, explored the waters of the Mekong by small boat, and ended our trip back in Ho Chi Minh City. Phew! Just got a little out of breath just remembering the trip….

Many of our friends have asked about this trip… and some have since even chosen to go on to their own adventures in Vietnam. First-off, I’d like to say that our Vietnam trip is one of our favourites. There are so many places to see in this world but we have to say, Vietnam is one of those rare places we truly need to visit again. The country is full of some interesting paradoxes. They are ruled by a Communist Regime yet the people fully embrace the concept of a free-market economy; they are a country and people steeped in millennia of tradition yet whole-heartedly embracing the future; their society is truly a living fusion of East and West; and while the Vietnam (to them, the “American”) War was pivotal in their recent past, it’s horrors and sacrifices do not seem to define them as individuals – for the most part, I saw no lasting animosity between old enemies North-South or East-West. Vietnam was also one of those countries where we genuinely felt safe in our travels. While you must take the same general precautions you would ANYWHERE, we never felt any heightened awareness of a threat during our journey through this beautiful country. As well, many of the people we met possessed a certain naïve sincerity that is often lacking in more tourist-jaded destinations – very refreshing and welcome. If you don’t speak Vietnamese, it’s not a problem. English, and for that matter French, is spoken by a large part of the population; especially in the more urban or metropolitan areas. However, in some of the more isolated regions, the locals may not even speak Vietnamese… many spoke only an indigenous language or an obscure dialect. For example; in the Central Highlands, even our guides sometimes had to resort to the time-honoured travellers’ fallback – lots of smiles and bad sign language.

Anyway, in this post and several to follow, we hope you’ll come to appreciate why we came to love Vietnam. We’ll write a few words (not too many) and post a some of our photos. For those photo gear-geeks out there; Eron used a Nikon D40 while all my images were captured using a Canon S90.  So, here we go….

November 14, 2010 – Our first day in Hanoi

Our first introduction to the mayhem that is Hanoi traffic.

One of our first stops was Hoan Kiem Lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho%C3%A0n_Ki%E1%BA%BFm_Lake) located in the historical centre of Hanoi.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Bridge on Hoan Kiem Lake.

Eron on path beside Hoan Kiem Lake temple.

Old tree beside Hoan Kiem Lake temple.

Temple Bankai overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake.

Josh Stick urn at temple entrance.

Josh Sticks in front of temple.

Monument near temple on Hoan Kiem Lake.

Flowers at temple.

Shrine near temple on Hoan Kiem Lake.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon just exploring….

Hanoi traffic is neither pedestrian nor disabled-friendly.

Typical traffic on a side street.

Not exactly to “code”?!?!

Busted motorcycle hauler.

Life on a backstreet.

Old tree trunk off sidewalk.

Slow afternoon for business.

Hanoi welding shop.

Entering a Hanoi market.

A Hanoi market delivery-motorcycle.

Busy Hanoi market.

Loading a delivery-motorcycle.

Traffic near the Long Bien Bridge, Hanoi.

Intensely colourful fruit.

Not exactly WorkSafe BC-approved.

Another Hanoi backstreet.

Can you spot the tourists?

Another Hanoi electrical pole.

Custom electrical connection.

To conclude our first day “in-country”, we decided to treat ourselves to an evening at:

Club de L’Oriental.

This place was featured in Cigar Aficionado back in 2009(?) as one of THE goto cigar spots in Vietnam. Behind these portals lay a walkway which took us over a long rectangular pond stocked with a colourful assortment of Koi fish. Next, we were ushered through glass doors into a reception area. It was very quiet in the restaurant this evening. So, we had a choice – we could go in to the spacious bar or we could choose between three floors of restaurant space! We chose to dine on the uppermost floor. The meal was quite well prepared and presented very elegantly. However, the low number of patrons led to too-much-of-a-good-thing… our wait-staff and busser weren’t very busy and this led to “hovering” near our table – well-intentioned, but rather intrusive none-the-less. On the bright side, the establishment is definitely cigar-friendly; as soon as the staff noticed I was bringing out a cigar, a cigar ashtray seemingly appeared as if by magic near my elbow. The meal was very expensive by most Vietnamese standards – we’d never, ever thought we would being spending $1,600,000 VND on dinner… well, okay about $75 USD. Truth be told, later in the trip we ended up eating meals we thought were better. However, it was the ambiance, the experience, and the fact that we could tick-off this particular box in the been-there-done-that list that made it worth the price of admission.