Exploring Vietnam: Hanoi, Hoi An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City
Visting and exploring my homeland of Vietnam and the wonderful cities of Hanoi, Hoi An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. What an experience!
My return trip to Vietnam has been a long time coming. I was born there, and have not returned until this year. As a Vietnamese refugee, I’ve heard so much about my home country. I’ve seen pictures, watched movies, documentaries and read books. There was really nothing that could properly prepare me for what to expect, returning four decades later. This was going to be a trip of a lifetime for me. There’s more meaning to my trip, than that as a tourist or your typical travel blogger. This was going to be personal and emotional. It was also going to include all of the excitement of going somewhere so highly anticipated.
Since I didn’t have any personal connections or family to contact, I decided the best way to set this up was through a tour company that knows the area. I wanted to leave a lot of the logistics up to the local people, so once I was there, I would not be scrambling with the details of my itinerary and and how I was going to get from place to place, I also wanted to make sure I hit the cities that I really wanted to see, since I do not know when was going to be the next time I could return to Vietnam.
We decided to use a travel tour company called BestPrice Travel. They took care of all of the arrangments for us. We supplied them with all of our travel documents, our budget, and our dates, and they took care of the rest. They booked all of our flights, including the in-country ones. They took care of getting our Visas for us, and they took care of having a guide for all of the tours, and a driver for all of the tours and trips to and from the airport.
I hope you enjoy taking a look at my journey.
Hanoi
My arrival in Hanoi was everything I imagined. It took us a while to get here, as we flew from our home state, to LA. We then flew from LA to Taiwan. Then Taiwan to Hanoi. When we arrived, we exchanged some currency, swapped out our SIM cards for our phones, and connected with our driver.
We stopped at the hotel, The Hanoi Pearl. I loved this hotel. It had all of the great details of a boutique hotel, but the amenities of a large hotel. We were greeted in the lobby promptly with tea service, whiile my husband went to check us in. Our room wasn’t ready, but we were able to drop off our luggage. We decided to walk around the Old Quarter. We grabbed some food and a beer at The Balcony Bar & Cafe. Below us we had a great view of bustling Hanoi and the lake. My first Vietnamese beer, Hanoi Beer hit the spot!
The Balcony Bar & Cafe, Hanoi, Vietnam
While exploring the Old Quarter, we found this place, where we’d eat dinner overlooking the Hoàn Kiếm Lake for the next two nights. There was some live music and a great night market. I really wanted to go to Train Street, however, it’s closed during certain hours. After talking to our tour guide, he said now you need to be invited by one of the local business hours. to grab a table right there.
Old Quarter, Hanoi Vietnam
After a good night’s rest, we connected with our tour guide the next day. Our first stop was the Temple of Literature. This was Vietnam’s first national university. From what our tour guide Lee explained to us, it was only offered to a very few elite handful of propsective students each year. This temple also served as a site historically and to this present day- as a desitnation for students to come pray for the success of their academic endeavors. Here are some of the original documents and texts for the students.
Temple of Literature Hanoi, Vietnam
Later that morning, we finally got to try a Vietnamese egg coffee. And there’s no better place to try it, than where there the ORIGINAL egg coffee was invented at Cafe Giang, which opened in 1946!. Egg coffee is made up of 3 eggs, coffee and condensed milk. This place serves over 1,000 cups of coffee a day!
Cafe Giang Hanoi, Vietnam
Halong Bay
After leading Hanoi, we headed up to Halong Bay. We went with our tour group via a charter bus. Along the way, we stopped at the pearl farm. The size of the oyster shells really suprirsed me!
We booked our boutique cruise with Seneca Cruises. The ship had amazing woodwork detail in all of the cabins. The ship had 3 floors which included a rooftop dining area, and bar. The second floor had most of the cabins along with a nice sitting area and small library tucked next to the staircase.
The cruise staff prearranged an action packed activies schedule that included a canoe ride through the caves, a cooking class, and some night fishing. My favorite part was trying the cocout vodka!
The views of Halong Bay are magical. The islands that popped up over time (over 2,000 of them) are very majestic. I took so many- but here’s my favorite one. Please see more in the gallery link on the front page of my website.
Hoi An
Our next step in our travels, took us to Hoi An. Since we were only going to be in Vietnam for two weeks, we did not do one of the sleeper buses. We decided to fly. Once landing, we had quite a bit of miscommunication from our driver. He took us to the wrong hotel. Once we arrived at the correct hotel, he dropped us off at the wrong entrance, but we finally made it. We stayed at the beautiful Mulberry Silk Village. This is a small resort with restaurants, a spa, a bar, and as the title says- a silk museum. In the middle of the courtyard was this beautiful fountain and statue of a large silkworm.
The night market in Hoi An is exactly how you see pictured in all of the YouTube videos and Instagram pics and TikTok posts.
The beautiful colors of the lanterns really light up at night when they are reflecting upon the water. If you are so inclined, you can hop in a small canoe and go around the lake. You can light a lantern for good luck.
The next day, while touring Hoi An, our tour consisted of : Trieu Chau Assembly Hall, Ba Le Well, and lastly, my favorite part: a demonstation of making sweet black sesame soup. They serve it to everyone that explores their town. It’s served cold, and it’s really good. After that we ventured on to the Tan K’y National Heritage Merchant House, walked across the Japanese Covered Bridge, had lunch at Mai Fish, and a coconut coffee at Vi Que restaurant.
xi ma phu (sweet soup of black sesame seeds) made by two generations of Ngo Thiểu’s family Nguyen Truong To Street
Hue
On our way to Hue and then DaNang, we had a driver take us to Marble Mountain. Marble Mountain was so tall! The mountain is made up of 5 limestones fromed into peaks. They are named after the 5 elements:metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Walking through different areas of the mountains you can see numerous Buddhist sanctuaries.
One of the 5 peaks of Marble Mountain. Da Nang, Vietnam
We took the elevator up, and then walked through all of the areas on the way down. Here is one of the Buddhist statues.
Buddhist Statue Marble Mountain Da Nang, Vietnam
Da Nang
Once we arrived in DaNang, we saw so much. This might have been my favorite part of the trip. On our way, we passed the famous dragon bridge. Next time when I return, I want to go back to the bridge in the evening, when it’s all lit up and actually spits fire! It’s really supposed to be an amazing sight for sore eyes.
Hue
Our first stop, in Hue, we toured The Citadel and walking around The Imperial City. The Imperial City was the former imperial capital of Vietnam back in 1802, during the Nguyen royal dynasty. There are many monuments, gardens, statues and shrines to view.
We went to the Mekong River. We took a ride on a dragon boat.
We went to a tiny village along the Mekong River, I tried some snake wine. It was strong! That will probably be the last time I try it.
We had a traditional Vietnamese 7-course lunch in a nearby fishing village. The fish tastes better than it looks. We also had some enormous tiger prawn shrimp.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Our last destination and end of our trip took us to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saignon. While here, we stayed at the Harmony Hotel. It was a really nice hotel. It was unique, because the pool was on the top floor. It had a great view of the city and a nice fitness center, and relaxing sitting area near the pool. I loved relaxing, and it gave us a chance to recharge, before the last set of tours before we were to fly home.
The first part of our tour we went to was the Cu Chi tunnels. This was very somber, ane very difficult to imagine. We viewed the tunnels where the Viet Cong soldiers would hide. The tunnels are very narrow, and you need to be smaller, and physically fit to walk or crawl through them. It didn’t feel right to take pictures while down there, but I did walk through 60 meters.
The second place we went to was The War Remnants Museum. The museum has 4 floors divided into different parts of the war from 1946- 1975. The museum displays some aircraft outside the main entrance, there’s artillery and armor. There’s many large posters displaying people, soliders, journalists. This museum is the largest toursist attraction in HCMC. We only spent about an hour here, but I’d definitely like to go back and take my time going through each floor. This was also very somber to walk through, and it didn’t feel right to take pictures inside of here either.
War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Our last stop in HCMC, was probably my favorite part. We visited Independence Palace. This was the site of the Fall of Saigon. But it’s original purpose was the residence and workplace of the president of the Republic of Vietnam.
The Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Check out all of my pictures from my trip on my Gallery page.