A few months ago, Lizzy had the idea of going on a trip to Vietnam. Off course I immediatly agreed and so, on april 28, Lizzy and I took a train to Shanghai, where we were meeting Cynthia. Together, we took a plane to Nanning, which is only a few hours away from the Vietnam – China border. Without a plan, Vietnamese money, guidebook or any knowledge of the Vietnamese language, we decided this would be an adventure! We arrived in Nanning around 3AM, already pretty tired from journey. The hostel would take care of our visa applications, so the next day, we were free to do whatever we wanted. We walked around, bought a bus ticket to Hanoi and got some exercise in the local park.

At 6AM our alarms went off, we took our bags and walked to the bus station to get our 7.30AM bus. During our lunch break, we were able to exchange some RMB’s and Euro’s for Vietnamese Dollars, so that solved the currency problem, and all of a sudden, we were millionaires!

We drove to the “Friendship Pass”, where we had to switch busses, but not before actually crossing the border and getting our passports checked. Little open mini buses picked us up and drove us to the checkpoint. It was pretty well organized; one big line to get your passport checked, but it was terribly slow! Once passed that point, we were in no-man’s land and had to walk to the Vietnamese side of the checkpoint.
The Vietnamese side was less orderly. Passports were dropped off behind a little window and every once in a while, an officer would get up from behind his office and shout out names. It was chaos, and it took us forever to get passed that point. Once we had our passports back, we got into yet another little minivan and were greeted by a Vietnamese official with a huge smile! No wonder Vietnam is called ‘The land of the smile’. Our adventure had started!

We arrived in Hanoi at 4PM, checked into our hostel which was located in the heart of the old quarter, just a few minutes away from the beautiful Saint Joseph’s Cathedral. As we walked through the streets of the old quarter, I didn’t feel like I was in Asia anymore. People were sitting outside, drinking beers (which are ten times better than the Chinese beers by the way) and chatting away! Bars, cafés, restaurants at every corner and off course a lot of foreigners. At night, the city is even more alive! It felt more like Spain or Malta to me, especially with this huge cathedral dominating the central square.

If Beijing is the city of 9 million bicycles, then Hanoi has to be the city of 9 million scooters. It’s the most popular mode of transportation. One to five people sitting on scooters, each wearing little helmets, speeding by. Crossing the street is a life or death experience, and this coming from someone who’s lived in china for 8 months so far.

We woke up the next day at around 9AM, awoken by the bells of the Church. We enjoyed a free breakfast: a delicious baguette, some jam and La Vache Qui Rit! A leftover from the French Colonization maybe?
We walked to Hoan Kiem Lake, through the traditional Hang’s of the old quarter. Each ‘Hang’ or street has a particular product on sale, whether it’s shoes, clothes, jewelry or even tin boxes, mirrors and Buddha statues. We saw toads, crabs, eels and chickens for sale, huge vegetables and delicious pineapples being carried by hawkers in bamboo hats. The streets are narrow and traffic is crazy. And that’s just the view in front of you. When you look up, you see the beautiful balconies of narrow houses, covered in plants or electric wiring.

After a few hours of walking and looking around, we got pretty hungry and decided to join the locals. Little plastic chairs were set outside and as we sat down we expected to get some kind of menu. Instead, everybody got the same thing: noodles, soup and the best spring rolls I have ever had.

That same night we had to catch our sleeper train to Lao Cai, the gateway to Sapa, a little village in the northern Vietnam. We had to cross the rails to get to our platform and once we were in our wagon, we literally climbed up our beds. Lizzy and I had the top bunks, Cynthia the middle one. After figuring out how to switch off the incredibly loud Vietnamese music, we chatted about our day and how great Vietnam had been so far!

In the upcoming blog more about trekking through rice fields, minority people and losing shoes!

Maggi