To put things in context, we were leaving when political problems in Thailand were raging (red shirts vs yellow shirts).
It was also our very first "big trip" outside of Thailand, so needless to say, we approached it with a certain amount of undisguised excitement. Well, more so for me, because to elaborate a bit, it turns out that Jitima had already been to Vietnam for a few days with her friends, so it was only "part 2: the return" for her, but a completely new experience for me.
And for a first glimpse of the country, what better way than to travel from north to south, or rather, to be more precise, in reverse, from south to north!
Vietnam from South to North: our 2-week itinerary
Vietnam (also spelled Viêt-nam, Vietnam, and Viet Nam) covers an area of 690 km² and now has over 100 million inhabitants! (86 million when I originally wrote the article!)
It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the west, and Cambodia to the southwest. The country is long and narrow, stretching 1600 km, and its capital is Hanoi, although the largest city is Ho Chi Minh City, still widely known as Saigon (from the time of French Indochina).
Officially it is a socialist republic, but in reality it is a communist government where there is only one party allowed…
That's a brief summary. Our stay lasted 15 days, which is relatively short considering the size of the country… But we had to make do, and you have to start somewhere.
The first impressions are rather good, it is a very beautiful country, but the lack of time meant that we had to review our schedule and were not able to see some of the "must-see" places in the country, so we will have to come back to it...
[EDIT: This was subsequently done with a motorcycle tour in the north !]
On the right, the map gives you an idea, but here are the steps taken in order:
- Arrival in Ho Chi Minh City (HCM for those in the know, or rather the eternal Saigon)
- Mui né → "desert" landscapes between sea and colored dunes
- Dalat → waterfalls and mountains of the South of the country
- Nha Trang → beach stop (not essential but we needed to break up the journey…)
- Hoi An → the small waterfront town that needs no introduction
- Hue → the ancient imperial city
- And finally Hanoi (with a detour to Halong Bay of course).
To achieve this, we used an "open bus" system. This involves choosing a route with the cities of stops, but maintaining flexibility as there is no fixed day constraint when taking the bus.
The dates just need to be confirmed 48 hours in advance, and then you can move on to the next step. However, there's no choice regarding the times, which is a bit of a drawback, forcing you to adhere to a certain schedule.
- Here is the link to the organization where we bought the tickets (on site): https://www.thesinhtourist.vn/
This minor inconvenience of the open bus meant we slightly modified our initial itinerary, as we were also supposed to visit Sapa and Tam Coc. But in hindsight, it's obviously not so bad, because it was already quite hectic… (although we could have skipped Nha Trang, which we could have done without if we'd been able to stick to our original plan).
My first impressions
I was surprised by the radical change, even though until then I had only seen Thailand and made a quick trip to Myanmar. It's always impressive to see the significant differences from one country to another, despite their geographical proximity.
In a way, that's a good thing; that's what makes a country charming (or not). The first shock was the driving style. Thailand is far from being a model driver... But from what I saw, it was a disaster, making Thai drivers seem like paragons of British phlegm.
It's a complete mess, to put it simply. There are no real rules, no real courtesy between them, it's "move aside, I'm passing" and this translates into an incessant concerto of horns, a swarming number of two-wheelers (far more numerous than cars), which do not necessarily respect the red lights (let's be honest, let's say that a good 90% do respect them anyway) but surprisingly not a single accident, it just happens naturally.
Despite this:
Even though we all thought we were going to die with a crazy bus driver who clearly had a pressing need to relieve his bladder (the worst part is that it really was that… because after stopping at the place planned for the break, he drove more calmly…).
Even if it's coming from all directions and you have to cross the crowded streets…
And even though I dared to ride a motorcycle several times, there were no incidents to report (which is probably for the best), proof that it is doable, but in some ways more difficult and stressful than in Thailand (and that's not a benchmark!).
As for the population, there are of course lovely people, but also a tendency to be a bit rude or at best, indifferent towards us, pushing and shoving to get through. Afterwards, from our experience, they are like that among themselves too…
That sums up our impressions of this country, which has yet to reveal all its beauty and riches, as we certainly plan to return, particularly with an in-depth exploration of the North and its mountains. We were nonetheless happy to return home and appreciate the "calm" of Bangkok and the familiar surroundings.
Summary of this stay
Vietnam offers incredibly diverse and beautiful landscapes, even though we still haven't explored the entire north and the inland "Halong Bay" near Tam Coc (which we did, confirming just how many "Wow" moments Vietnam has to offer). As for the people, I'd say, like everywhere else, there are good people and others who aren't (and having visited the north later on, it changed our perception of hospitality in this country).
This is more noticeable in the southern part of the island; the Vietnamese lack tact in their approach to tourists, sometimes being rude, even brutal. You can sometimes sense a certain "animosity" (this is my future self, reflecting the context of the time; things have surely changed since then!). But you also find some lovely, helpful people with whom it's a pleasure to chat.
It is quite easy to travel around the country, between the rental motorcycles that can be found almost everywhere and the buses for traveling between cities, all for a reasonable budget.
Regarding the budget, we were warned about the systematic haggling; everything is normally negotiable because they are constantly trying to squeeze money out of you, but on this point I find that it was no worse than I expected, so it depends on the experiences.
Overall ours was pretty good, but 15 days is still relatively very short to visit a country more than 1600km long!
