Welcome to Vietnam !

Cambodia - Vietnam Border

Around 4 pm. The first formality awaiting us at the border on the Mekong coming from Cambodia is the visa; having dealt with the paperwork in a few minutes, we find a money changer on site who applies an honest dollar-dong exchange rate at about 22,000. Having advised the other members of the group to do the exchange on site, while I was about to go back to the boat "the operator" approaches to offer me a local drink, as a sort of commission... It's the same the world over... We're off to a good start! One of our fellow adventurers witnesses the scene and promptly makes himself available to collect no less than another... commission...

From the Cambodian border to the Vietnamese banks of Chau Doc we arrive in less than an hour by fast boat; by bus in 20 minutes we climb a hill overlooking the city, from which you can see the rice paddies for kilometers; here we stay overnight at the Victoria Nui Sam Lodge. The lodge is very distinctive, not only for the view but for its position on the hill with rooms arranged in rows descending from the main hall toward the infinity pool; the only flaw is dinner, better than previous Cambodian experiences, but in the following days we'll enjoy better cuisine almost everywhere.

From Chau Doc to Can Tho

I get up early to take photos of the lodge and the landscape. Too bad there's no time for a swim in the pool. Breakfast, more non-stop photos, then at 8 we set off. Our guide Anna, whom we met the evening before upon arrival in Chau Doc, will tell us the history of Vietnam during the journey. Much milder temperature than in Cambodia, 20 degrees in the morning rising slightly during the day. By bus in an hour we cover the more than 25 km that separate us from the Tra Su reserve, and our tour in the greenery begins with a motorboat for 8 people; a few minutes amid the melaleuca and mangrove forest and we already change vehicles, dividing into groups of 3 in small boats with a rower. One of the best spectacles nature can offer is all around us, below, beside us... we pass right through it, listen to the sounds of the birds, observe herons, storks and dozens of other birds.

The passage of the boats creates wakes that make the dozens of photos capturing these glimpses of Vietnam even more spectacular. The tour ends with the ritual photos with the rowers, very happy to pose and lend their characteristic conical straw hats in exchange for a small tip. At 10:30 we're already on the bus heading to Can Tho; we decide not to make any stops and head straight to arrive in the city in good time for lunch. The choice turns out to be a good one and lunch at the covered market in Chau Doc will be one of the best of the entire trip. The Iris hotel is downtown in a residential area, about a 20-minute walk from the market and the "promenade." At 6 pm we venture out with our now tried-and-tested travel companions into the city traffic, and we learn to cross the infamous Vietnamese intersections with confidence.

We wander among the stalls and end up buying a few souvenirs at the covered market, then walk along the riverfront, paying homage with numerous photos to the Ho Chi Minh statue and its park, as well as the beautiful copy of the tree of life placed on a futuristic bridge. We have dinner with a pizza in an Indo-Vietnamese restaurant, again in the company of our Milanese and Bolognese friends, telling each other about past adventures around the globe. The evening ends on the top floor of our hotel, a colorful disco-bar, admiring the views of the peaceful and lively Can Tho.

From Can Tho - via Ben Tre - to Saigon

Early wake-up. Breakfast. Transfer to the pier to reach (by motorboat) the Cai Rang floating market, where the sale of fruit and vegetables among the boats is characteristic. Unlike the much better-known Thai floating markets, Cai Rang is right in the middle of the Mekong, so the size is remarkable and everything seems quite chaotic. I appreciated more the nearby covered market of fruit and vegetables, as well as live fish and frogs... skinned before the eyes of the world!! Very colorful, lively, full of opportunities for photos and videos.

At 9 we're already on the bus, moving east; at 12 we arrive in Ben Tre, a tour de force awaits us with boat excursions (always starting from the motorized one and this time ending on a 4-seat rowboat) to a brick factory and a coconut processing one, followed by a stop at a coconut production and marketing center (the warm candies with chocolate, vanilla, etc. flavors are excellent); then we continue by bicycle through rice paddies in search of our restaurant, little more than a local house, with a questionable lunch based on questionable local fish of an even more questionable appearance. After lunch it's finally my turn to steer... so to speak...

a little boat and take photos from a privileged position; the landscape of Cai Coi is not comparable to the wonders already enjoyed on the previous excursions, but a few selfies with the nice travel companions will be kept once we're back in Italy along with the best photos and postcards of Vietnam. At 3 pm we take the last motorboat ride, then get back on our bus bound for Ho Chi Minh, where we'll arrive after more than 2 hours. The Muong Thanh hotel is downtown, near Saigon's best-known attractions; the reviews of the hotel push us to go up to the infinity pool floor, but the cold water and cramped spaces make us give up on a swim. In the evening we head to the market intending to do some big shopping, but unconvinced of the authenticity of the products sold at the stalls we let slip what would have been the best bargains of the entire trip.

We have dinner in an elegant little restaurant that closely resembles an ordinary fast food place, where the clumsy waitresses brighten our dinner. On the way back to the hotel with our Bolognese fellow adventurers, luck abandons us for a few minutes in the rain, after having spared us for a week.

From Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi

Breakfast. Agreeing with Anna, the guide, we decide to start the day by moving out of Saigon to avoid rush-hour traffic, and reach the Cu Chi tunnels; we'll return to the city at 2 pm for a brief tour. We arrive at Cu Chi around 10; before going through the tunnels and into the site we'll watch short films about the "American" war; Anna will translate the account of a Vietnamese guide about life in the tunnels, the defense systems and the constant search by both sides, Americans and Vietnamese, for tools useful to win the battles. If the Americans tried with bombs, gas, bombardments, to destroy the Cu Chi shelters, the Vietnamese managed underground to experiment with systems that allowed them to isolate the tunnels against any attack; they also managed to experiment with deadly traps invisible to unwanted guests.

Even the width of the tunnels, in which I, a Sicilian of pseudo-American build at 184 cm tall and 98 kg, pass with considerable difficulty without a backpack, let alone an American soldier with camouflage and weapons in tow... My wife, on the other hand, manages to squeeze into the narrow entrance of a vertical tunnel, humiliating a fellow countrywoman who had just gotten stuck, immortalized in photos and the hilarity of the bystanders, convinced as she was that she had a top model's figure... At the end of the site visit there are a few minutes left to refresh ourselves, or alternatively devote ourselves to shopping, or for the more sadistic to try their hand at a shooting range. We consider buying a liquor made with cobra venom, proudly displayed in all its splendor inside the bottle for sale, but in the end I think the in-laws can still be useful to us for a few more years.

At 2 pm we're already in a restaurant in the center of Saigon, where we'll have a decent lunch. The city visit will be limited to a quick tour from Notre Dame Cathedral to the Central Post Office; we'll make a stop at the Emperor of Jade pagoda, Phuoc Hai Tu, then head to the airport. The group shrinks even further, the young Neapolitans had already flown to Indonesia in the morning, while 2 Milanese globetrotters prefer the central Vietnamese coast to our company. Vietnam Airlines flight vn272: the gate at the airport is impossible to find, information scarce and wrong. We depart late, after 7 pm, bound for Hanoi. We land around 9 pm. Of the original group, 7 of us are left and the Halong Bay goal is now very close. Waiting for us at the airport is Andrea, a Vietnamese guide with a study background in Palermo, who will accompany us directly to the hotel.

Now begins the second tour purchased with Gorgonia Viaggi. The Quoc Hoa Hotel doesn't make a good impression on us; from the Southern Vietnam we came to know in the early days it's much farther than the kilometers traveled; the chaos in the old town reigns supreme and the disorder in the lobby seems a direct consequence; the problem with the air conditioning in the room and the nighttime battle with a cockroach contribute to making the impact with Hanoi even more difficult.

Hanoi

Breakfast on the top floor of the hotel. Then departure to visit the Thai Pagoda north of Hanoi (where we witness Buddhist rituals and take the opportunity to photograph the lake where puppet shows were once held) and then the village of Duong Lam, where a bicycle ride will allow us to reach several temples, ending the tour at the Mia Pagoda, admiring the 287 statues depicting Buddha and other deities. Lunch will be eaten at a local home; for a few minutes we'll be part of a typical Vietnamese family, and we'll even witness a pre-wedding photo shoot. We'll return to the city in the afternoon, and after a short stroll through the streets of old Hanoi, we'll taste a characteristic egg coffee at a café with a view of Hoan Kiem Lake.

The guide will abandon us to reclaim his motorbike, while together with our travel companions we'll head to the shopping area along the lake, which is also a place where local artists perform and where families have fun with street games in an area closed to traffic. In the evening the chaos of Hanoi reminds us of Bangkok, though on a much smaller scale. Motorbikes everywhere, it's hard to cross the street, but even on the sidewalks the situation is complicated: where the motorbikes don't pass, we find street food stools, or even tarps where customers of the venues lie down casually. The heat is noticeable, the humidity is high, and in front of some venues fans are being used.

Halong Bay

Breakfast. We leave some luggage at the hotel, we'll spend the night on a junk boat in Halong Bay to return to Hanoi the next day and spend the last night in Vietnam before departure. Halong Bay is 180 km from Hanoi, over 3 hours by car; we stop for a break halfway, taking the opportunity to visit a craft center producing artifacts and paintings; the artists are young people with disabilities. We reach the bay before 12; after the guide reassured us that our junk would be the largest and most comfortable of those available from Oriental Sails, this is contradicted by the facts. The boarding procedure is unclear to us, and we understand moreover that our guide will sleep in the kitchen, or in a room with the sailors; it's a motorboat that takes us to our floating hotel.

The junk is in any case clean, in good condition, and sharing it with just a few other couples ultimately gives us considerable freedom of movement, and a lot of peace. Once on board we have time to settle our luggage and immediately sit down to lunch, while the junk starts moving. The lunches and dinners on the boat will be among the best of the entire trip. The afternoon passes quickly, starting with a boat excursion in the bay, there are 4 of us together with the slight rower who poses for photos and even lets us take the helm for a few seconds; we observe life in the floating villages and circle some sea stacks enjoying the beauty of this experience.

Back on the junk, after a relaxing break complete with a toast on the ship's deck, at 6 pm we position ourselves in a safe spot to spend the night, surrounded by rocks and other boats; once the anchors are dropped, someone tries their hand at a cooking class. After dinner, relaxation, someone tries to fish, others remain on the ship's deck lying down enjoying the peace. We go to sleep happy to have enjoyed this enchanting place, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world.

Halong Bay - Hanoi

Woke up at dawn, or rather, before. I use the GoPro to film a timelapse of the bay. At 6 the ship's deck is already occupied by the willing who want to relax with tai chi; a great opportunity to continue the photo book of my good wife. Then breakfast. The morning's program includes only one shore excursion, to a lovely beach on a small island, from which you reach a cave. Back on the junk we have time to pack our bags, leave the room free, and finish the photo book of the bay; at 11 we disembark. Halong Bay is surely one of the wonders of nature, the goal of our vacation, one of those 7-8 places on earth that I have always dreamed of visiting; I dedicated over 1000 photo shots to it, I even changed clothes to take better photos, but I am convinced that no image can convey what it is like to live this experience in person.

Before leaving the bay we visit a pearl cultivation factory, with an attached shop. I skillfully manage to prevent my wife from squandering a lifetime's savings. We leave the bay and head toward the next destination, the water puppet theater in Yen Duc: original, but whether it was the operators' waiting, or the approaching lunch hour, the yawns are already countless after 10 minutes; more interesting instead is the use of certain farming tools. We have lunch nearby, in a hotel in the middle of the rice fields, then set off again for Hanoi. On the road we risk getting off the bus because of the driver, annoyed by the small tip received, and having become quite irritable. At the airport in Hanoi we say goodbye to 2 other traveling companions while the Bolognese family will stay with us for the last Vietnamese dinner, at the hotel restaurant, La dolce vita.

Hanoi

Last breakfast at the hotel. We are alone, and without a guide. It's hot. The goal is to discover how much of Hanoi the guide was unable to convey to us, as well as to finish buying souvenirs for friends and relatives. A few steps down the street and we realize the day will be long and tiring, so we decide to negotiate an hour-long ride on a tuk tuk; the driver is clever and thinks he'll drop us off right away at the entrance of a museum, or on the avenue of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to catch our breath and make us go well beyond the agreed hour. We, instead, make short stops until we reach the farthest goal, then return on foot. We will therefore visit the evocative Quan Thanh Temple, but above all the Tran Quoc Pagoda, surely the site of greatest interest in the city; photos to our heart's content...

then we move on foot first along the lakefront, then plunge back into the city traffic, stopping for a few visits to small temples and pagodas, until we reach the Old Citadel of Hanoi, a UNESCO Heritage site, an oasis of peace in the center of the chaotic Vietnamese city, to which we will dedicate over an hour of our time. We have lunch at a fast food place, at 3 pm, and stay just long enough to dry off from the sweat of over 5 hours of touring. The market stall tour still awaits us. In about an hour we manage to negotiate the purchase of two brand-name backpacks, a characteristic straw hat, T-shirts, magnets, and even some paintings that will be commissioned from us in real time thanks to the Wi-Fi of the Buddha Gallery. At 5 pm we are at the hotel, where we left our luggage in storage; we use the facilities and change, putting on heavier clothes to face the next hours on the plane.

At 6 pm our punctual taxi reaches us at the hotel to take us to the airport. At 10:20 pm we depart with airturkish for Istanbul, where we will land at 04:40

Good Bye Vietnam

At 6:45 we set off again with Turkish; we land in Catania at 8, on time. We spent fantastic days, saw dozens of UNESCO World Heritage sites, met fellow globetrotters with whom we still stay in touch a few months later. Beautiful adventure. I hope the next one manages to give us just as many emotions.