Hello Young Adventurers!

Places Visited: Vietnam- Hanoi, Sapa, Ninh Binh, Hoi An, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City

Languages Spoken: Vietnamese

Words Learned: Hello- xin chào; Thank You- Cảm ơn bạn;
Goodbye- Tạm biệt

Welcome back to the adventurers, friends! Hope you enjoyed our time in China! Today we’re off to our next stop in the journey- a beautiful country in South East Asia known as Vietnam! I’m going to be honest here, I had no ideas what to expect here and I was going because I had been told it would be a great experience. But I was definitely a little nervous as my plane landed in Hanoi. It wouldn’t be long until I realized how silly those nerves were as I quickly fell in love this this country.

For such a small country in size, it has almost 95 million people as of 2016 which is incredible! Vietnam’s history found it under the influence of the Chinese for a long period and then the French during their global colonial phase. This results in a culture that has elements of both cultures: Chinese symbolism, traditions, and religions all right next to French architecture, Catholicism, and other western comforts. It creates a really unique culture that now beautifully blends some of the best parts of the east and the west. In 1976 the country was unified and it became what we now know as Vietnam. Now… enough of the basics. I know you’re here for the photos and to hear more about the foods, so buckle up and lets get going!

Hanoi

What a wild city! The energy here is ELECTRIC! The streets are crazy and the heat and humidity is oppressive, and I love every bit of it all. Hanoi became the capitol city of Vietnam after it was unified in 1976. It’s teeming with life from every street-side store, to temples tucked between buildings, to night markets and dancing in the parks in the evenings. I decided this would be my home base for a few days, and I would take a few trips from here. I still was pretty sick when I arrived from China, and so I found a local pharmacy and got some probably questionable antibiotics that cleared me right up and got me back on my feet after a few days!

I spent my first full day on a free walking tour from my hostel. It didn’t start until midday, so I had a nice chance to slow down and breathe in the morning. The hostel room was so nice and cold, and they had an amazing free breakfast. I was more than happy to slow down and chill out for a bit. I did find time to go to the lake in the middle of the Old Town near my hostel where there is a beautiful temple on the water. This lake is special because there is supposed to be a sacred golden sword in its waters protected by the turtles of the lake. I sat by the temple for a while and even had time to FaceTime with my friend Danielle from back home! (You may remember her from the adventures in Egypt!)

The walking tour was really nice. I met some really nice people, we got to see some of the other local temples, saw some beautiful murals, and had coffee on the famous “Train street,” where the buildings come right up to the train track that is still being used even today. It was such a nice way to get my bearings of the city. I went to bed pretty early that night because I signed up for a day tour the next morning, and I still wanted to make sure I recovered.

Ninh Binh (Day Trip)

I didn’t know what to expect with Ninh Ninh except that we would get to hike a mountain and ride some cool boats. I didn’t know that that meant some of the prettiest views of this entire journey! This is the day I fell in love with Vietnam. The day started early as we headed off to Ninh Binh, the first ancient capital of Vietnam. There are two temples side by side here to honor the first two kings of ancient Vietnam. They’re surprisingly small because it’s culturally seen a better thing to remain humble and simple, even for royalty.

Following the temples, we made our way up the nearby mountains. The landscape here is so interesting. It’s perfectly flat except for the giant rocks that stand tall and seem to come from nowhere. There were so many stairs to climb, and it was so hot and humid, but it was 100% worth it when we got to the top and saw everything from above. We could see the nearby river and a beautiful dragon statue that was at the top of the mountain.

We then got a quick lunch after going back down to recharge before going on a short bike ride through the landscape. I just love riding bikes so much, y’all. There is something so freeing about being on a bike in a beautiful place, and this was no exception. The rice paddies, rivers, and mountains all made for beautiful scenery. I couldn’t get enough of it. Our ride finished at the river where we then got on a small bamboo boat and took a 1.5 hour boat ride through three caves down the river. It was beautiful, and my friend and I had a blast! We were also so impressed by how the locals used their feet to row the boats!

Overall it was just such a nice day. I really could not get over how beautiful the land was here, and I was just so thankful to be able to be outside to enjoy it all. That night my friends that I met and I went and saw Avengers: End Game in Hanoi after I got back. We were SO EXCITED to find a theater that played movies in English! No spoilers, but we loved it so much. Afterwards I went back to my hostel and headed to bed so that I would be ready to go for the next few days.

Sapa (Overnight Trip)

I spent the whole day eating food and hanging out in Hanoi because I was taking an overnight sleeper bus to Sapa up in the north of Vietnam. The highlight of this afternoon was eating at a place that President Obama ate when he visited Vietnam!

That night I took the sleeper bus to Sapa. Y’all, that was an experience, but was surprisingly comfortable. The bus was filled with small beds, and I managed to even get some sleep! We arrived in Sapa very early the next morning around 6:30AM. I was so excited about this adventure because we were going to do a 2-day trek with an overnight stop at a homestay in the middle of the countryside. We fueled up with breakfast and then set off around 9. We had 6 hours of trekking ahead of us for the first day.

Just like Ninh Binh, the landscape here was AMAZING. It was completely different, though. The mountains we much larger, and it was all terrace rice farming. Terrace Farming is a technique used in areas like this where the land is still mountainous to grow crops. Instead, farmers flatten out the mountains in terraces, or levels, so that they can plant and harvest crops. This is usually used for rice like this. You can see all the terraces in the pictures below! Some have rice growing while others are still empty waiting to be planted.

At one point during the hike, the sky just opened up and we were drenched in rain. I don’t know if I had ever been so wet in my life! It happened right as we got to a big muddy hill that we had to go down. We all fell at least once as we made our way down and we got COVERED in mud (But that definitely made it more fun!). There’s something about when you reach max-discomfort that makes the whole thing better in the end. We stopped worrying at this point because it wasn’t like we were getting any wetter or dirtier. We laughed and played and had so much fun for the rest of the hike.

It rained off and on the rest of the time, but nowhere near as hard as that first time. We got to speak with some locals who were helping our trek which was really nice too. We all shared stories of our lives and laughed, enjoying the feeling of being outside in beautiful nature. I really couldn’t get enough of the landscape here. We finally reached our homestay around 4PM where we had the rest of the day off to relax. There was a great sunset over the mountains, and then we headed to sleep to rest for the next big day after dinner.

The second day wasn’t as long, we were going to trek for about 2.5 hours. We decided to take an easier path this day, though, because the rain was still coming in and we were okay not having to fight the mud hills that we kept falling down the day before. It was fun, but it was also not the safest option. We took the easier path on the main road and found ourselves finally at the waterfall that we were heading towards. Despite the rain, it wasn’t actually the rainy season yet, so the waterfall was pretty small at the moment. It’s supposed to get pretty large at other times!

We made it through the trek and back to our bus. We headed back the 6.5 hours to Hanoi on another sleeper bus and got back around 10PM. I didn’t sleep much on the bus, so I didn’t last long at all once I got in my comfy bed. It was an incredible and beautiful two days, and easily one of the highlights of this journey so far.

Hanoi (Take 2)

I probably shouldn’t have done the hike at Sapa yet because I had not fully recovered from my sinus infection. I decided to stay in Hanoi a few extra days to (again) make myself rest. I’m not the best at doing that. I spent two days where I didn’t leave my hostel except to get foods and to go see a Water Puppet show. I figured since it was sitting and inside, I could at least go and do that. Water Puppet shows are another ancient tradition here in Vietnam that came from people wanting to find entertainment during the rainy season. They would use the water in the rice paddies (You can see examples of it above!) and use puppets to perform legends and plays. They use traditional instruments to accompany performances too. I loved it so much, and there are plenty of videos on YouTube if you want to see more!

Hoi An

After a few days of relaxing and (actually) resting, I finally got on a plane to head to Hoi An, a water town found in the middle of the country near the coast. My friend Oscar was meeting me here, so I was excited to get to see a familiar face too! We met back in Paris months ago through my friend Heather who was traveling with me at the time. Oscar was joining me for the rest of my time in Vietnam because he had always wanted to visit as well.

Hoi An is a remarkable city. I fell in love with it immediately. It was a major trading port from the 15th to the 19th centuries, and it’s name translates to “peaceful meeting place.” It fits its name perfectly as it could be one of the most peaceful places I’ve been to yet this trip. There’s a river that cuts through the middle of the old town where people light floating lanterns nightly to send their wishes out. Hoi An is famous for the lanterns, and being the Tangled-obsessed human that I am, I couldn’t get enough. Not only were there all the beautiful floating lanterns and lit boat rides you could take, but lanterns aligned every street. They were just beautiful. Live music played out of every restaurant, and I found myself going to the same restaurant every night because the music was so good.

I was able to meet up with a friend I had made in Hanoi and Sapa here too, and she and I did a boat ride and lit lanterns to make wishes the night before Oscar arrived. We played the music from Tangled while we rode the boat and basically had the time of our lives.

Oscar arrived the next day and we spent the next few days by spending the mornings at the beach which was only a 15 minute bike ride away. We also did a bike tour one afternoon which was really nice. We learned more about the rice growing in the area and were also taught how to make a ring and a grasshopper out of coconut leaves! I named my grasshopper Penelope.

We found ourselves wandering nightly in the old town, enjoying the beautiful music and rolled ice cream.

Da Nang (Ba Na Hills)

We took a day trip from Hoi An to Ba Na Hills, a weird theme park in Da Nang just north of where we were. This seriously was one of the strangest places I’ve ever seen, and I LOVED it. It’s a theme park that is themed around the history of French Colonialism in the area. It was a mishmash of castles, French architecture, Asian foods and temples, and a random section that was also German? I didn’t understand it, but it was fun! The main reason we went, though, was for a beautiful and recently built pedestrian bridge called the “Hands of God” or “Golden” bridge. It quickly became famous among travelers to visit, and it wasn’t hard to see why. This was a similar situation, though, to what I talked about when I wrote about Japan. It’s a place that the pictures are way more incredible than the actual location due to the amount of people that are swarming the area. 100% worth the visit, and its just important to not set expectations too high so you can really enjoy it. Check out all of the photos below!

Da Nang (Water Mountain and Monkey Temple)

Oscar and I took another day trip back to Da Nang on a tour to find some temples in the mountains. I won’t lie- I was a bit distracted this day working on something else while I was out, so I don’t remember many of the details. BUT- I did still manage to get some pictures of the caves, mountains, and the temples hidden all along the path we took! Check them out! There were some beautiful statues hidden in the caves we explored!

Ho Chi Minh City

Welcome to the final stop of the journey in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City, named after the former Prime Minister of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh, is also still known as its previous name of Saigon. The name change happened in 1975 after the conclusion of the Vietnam/ American War. It’s a large city in the south of Vietnam, and it’s an important place for museums and history tied to the war.

Oscar and I headed off to the War Remnants Museum after putting down our bags. The Vietnam War/ American War is called something different depending on which country you’re talking to. I won’t bore you with all the details, but basically Vietnam was split between communist allies in the North and anti-communist allies in the South. This was a war that was devastating to everyone involved. Both sides used intense tactics to try to win. US Soldiers who were doing their duty and following orders had to face some of the most aggressive and intense terrain imaginable. Local Vietnamese people (as well as US soldiers in collateral) suffered from the use of poisons to aid in the combat- many effects that are still lasting generations later.

History has a funny way of favoring the side that is teaching about it, and the name of the war is a perfect example. I’m not going to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong on this post- I don’t have the right to do that. But I will share some of the facts as I experienced them during my travels here and challenge you to take time to learn about issues from all sides.

The museum was very humbling to walk through. I’m always thankful for these opportunities to learn more about moments when humanity was far from its best. By learning our history, we can work towards and ensure that things like this stop happening. We have to confront the pieces that we don’t like in order to create real change for tomorrow.

The next day we headed off to visit the war tunnels used by the Viet Cong in the war. The Viet Cong was a group that used “guerrilla warfare” and used their knowledge of the dense jungles, traps, and their secret tunnels to ambush and attack US Soldiers. We got a chance to see some of these traps and even crawl through one of the small tunnels ourselves. It was really incredible- you could not see the entrances to the tunnels unless you knew where they were. Check out some of the traps and tunnels below.

My time in Vietnam was really powerful. From experiencing and learning about history to experiencing some of the most beautiful nature I had been lucky enough to see yet on this journey, I could not have been more thankful for my time here. This country completely blew me away, and I know I’ll be back again one day. I’m off to the islands for my next stop to hike volcanos and swim with turtles! Grab some sunscreen and get ready! I’ll see you there. For now,

Have Courage, & Be Kind,

Mr. Weavil