We travelled to Vietnam in May 2018, a few months before we started this blog. The other day, we decided that it could be nice to write about it. Turns out, it’s not so easy to reconstruct in detail how we felt in and experienced every moment. Luckily, we remember at least what we ate!
We had 12 full days in Vietnam. We flew into Hanoi, took a train to Ninh Binh, a night train to Hoi An, a flight to Phu Quoc via Ho Chi Minh City, and a flight back to Ho Chi Minh City, from where we finally flew back home.
Hanoi
We spent about two days in Hanoi. There are some really nice corners, especially around the Union Park, and by the Temple of Literature, and we did enjoy walking around and exploring. We experienced the city as quite intense. Maybe due to the smaller streets (which are part of the charm), everything seems very hectic – cars, bikes, pedestrians, all share the street and after a couple of days, we were glad to get out of the city. The biggest challenge in Hanoi was to find vegetarian street food. Restaurants serve vegetarian fare, and there are even a few completely vegan restaurants. We love eating street food and got a little frustrated – our mistake as we could have prepared ourselves! Thanks to this great guide, we finally found our happiness. The banh cuon reconciled us with Vietnamese cuisine and the bun cha at Bun Cha Ta was amazing.
Ninh Binh
After two days in busy Hanoi, we hop on the train towards Ninh Binh, known as the terrestrial Ha Long bay. The descriptions of the crowds in Ha Long bay, together with stories of precarious boat rides didn’t appeal to us at all, so we followed our friend’s suggestion and head south of Hanoi to Ninh Binh. After a few hours on a comfortable train, a taxi takes us to the lush fields of Tam Coc, where we are welcomed by the lovely Julia.
We settle into our little bungalow and rent some bikes from the hotel. We pedal through rice fields until we find what many people come here for: a jetty with wooden boats and their owners, ready to take you through the rice fields. The rowers are exclusively women, and they row with their feet – very impressive! Our rower speaks a few words of french and giggles every time a duck dives next to us. The fields and caves are impressive, but after two hours we are ready to go home to the dinner we ordered at our bungalow. For Julia, this was one of the best meals in Vietnam and the discovery of an amazing vegetarian dish: tofu in tomato sauce. With very happy bellies, we go to bed. The next morning, we take our bikes a little further to the Mua Cave Viewpoint. We climb what feels like 1 billion stairs but the view is worth it.
On the way back, we have lunch (we know to order tofu in tomato sauce now!) and take some stir fried rice to take away – because we have an overnight train ride to Hoi An ahead of us. Julia (the bungalow lady) kindly lets us use the shower before we set off to the train station. This train connects Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in a 36 hour journey and we are going to spend 14 hours to go from Ninh Binh to Hoi An.
Danang train station
In the early evening, we board our train, curious to see what our first class bunk bed compartment will look like. Brice has very good memories from a train journey in Thailand, where seats were converted into beds at nighttime. Here, the beds are just beds, and as we booked ours only the day before, we have the top bunks. We chat, play, read and eat and at around 9pm, Brice falls fast asleep and doesn’t wake up until around 6am the next morning. Julia, on the other hand, lies awake most of the night, feeling slightly claustrophobic and watching insects crawling about. We therefore have two very different stories for you, depending on who you ask about this train ride.
Hoi An
As the sun comes up, the train races through thick forest and spectacular views of the sea. Around 8am, we pull into Danang, the train station closest to Hoi An. Once checked into our hotel room in Hoi An, which we luckily get almost immediately despite the early arrival, Julia falls asleep within minutes. Around lunchtime, we are ready to venture out, and we have a mission: Banh Mi. Anthony Bourdain called the Banh Mi at the little stall in Hoi An’s market the best in the world. Truth be told, this is the first Banh Mi we’ve ever eaten, but boy oh boy – it’s delicious! We’re certainly going to keep doing our research, but so far we haven’t found a better Banh Mi than this one. Besides the Banh Mi and despite the many tourists, Hoi An immediately captures us with its charm: brightly coloured houses and lanterns everywhere.
We spend a chilled afternoon wandering around, sipping coffee, and scouting dinner options. We opt for a vegetarian place, and slurp some delicious soup next to a mixed crowd of locals and tourists. In the evening, our friends from Saigon join us in Hoi An and we catch up over some beers by the river, in the garden of our hotel. The next day, they take us all around Hoi An, showing us their favourite spots. Our friend has to get a dress made – Hoi An is known for its tailors – so Julia decides to join her. You can pick the tissue and pattern, the cut and they can make anything you can imagine. As a rule, the more complicated your request, the longer it should take and if you order something like a suit, plan time to try it on several times for the final alterations, which a quality tailor will offer. We order a summer dress each, which will be ready in about 24h, just in time for our departure. After the dresses are ordered, we spend our morning admiring the Chinese colonial architecture of the town,
before heading to lunch in a shadowy garden. The midday heat makes us crave a nap, and a dip in the hotel’s pool, before heading out again for some cocktails and dinner, where our friends introduce us to a delicious vegetable called morning glory, or sea spinach. Cooked with garlic, this tasty green should become Julia’s “no other veggie option” meal more than once. Hoi An is buzzing with people, strolling through the streets and markets, cheering for the street artists. The lanterns that decorate the entire town, create an amazing atmosphere with their colourful, dim light. Even the river is illuminated with lanterns.
The next morning, we only have time to pick up our dresses, eat a Banh mi and have a delicious coffee at Cong. The four of us take a plane to Saigon, where our friends live. We will see them there in a few days, but before that, we are headed to Phu Quoc, one of Vietnam’s best known holiday islands.
Phu Quoc
After being quite active for the last week, we are looking forward to a few slower days. On our first day, we walk towards the closest beach – not a great idea, as the street is incredibly muddy. The beach is quite lovely though and we chill in the sun beds all day. In the evening, we order a cab to take us to the main town on the island to check out the night market. The market is very touristy, but we find a lovely little vegan place with a buffet, and treat ourselves to some coconut ice cream afterwards.
The next morning we take a scooter to Sao beach. Our slightly out of date guide book tells tales of a dirt road that leads to this part of the island, off the beaten track, and of no gas station in sight. However, times have changed. The road is perfectly cemented and gas stations are plentiful. There’s also plenty of tourists, and while the beach possibly has the whitest sand on the island, it is quite dirty and the large restaurants take away the paradisiac feeling. Tourism development on Phu Quoc has left its traces here, but the next day we should find out that it could get much much worse. After a pretty overpriced lunch, we head back westwards to our hotel.
On our last full day in Phu Quoc, we drive northeast to Bai Thom. We are off season, and while Bai Sao was still quite busy, the northeast is almost empty. We enjoy coconuts in two different places right by the sea, and apart from the owners, only the odd dog is walking by.
We sit out a thunderstorm with a view on Cambodia, before continuing onwards to the northwest. The guidebook recommends a few beaches with cute little restaurants. When, according to the book, we should be arriving at said beaches, we only see buildings and guarded roads. At the turn that we should take we ask the guard if we are on the right way. We are, only problem is: the entire area belongs to a large holiday complex now, Vinpearl, complete with theme park and golf court. Disappointed, we make our way further up until we finally reach a bay with free access. As we are starving, we sit down in a large restaurant, which seems to be cut out for large groups of karaoke loving tourists. Luckily, it’s quiet now and the food is quite good.
On our last morning, we play it safe and return to the beach of the first day, this time by scooter. The weather is wonderful, and reconciles us with the island. After lunch, it is time to leave for the airport and to Ho Chi Minh City, where we would spend the last full day.
Ho Chi Minh City
In Ho Chi Minh City, we have dinner plans with our friends, and we are not disappointed. At Hum Vegetarian, we enjoy delightful and creative pan-Asian vegetarian cuisine, as well as delicious cocktails.
The air is heavy in the city, so the next the day we move around like sloths. We are on a mission to buy coffee and other souvenirs and presents, and with a list of the best shops, handpicked by our friends, we are quite successful. In the afternoon, Julia treats herself to a visit to l’Apothiquaire spa – one of the fanciest places in the city, but very affordable compared to Brussels prices.
At sunset, our friends join us for cocktails at our hotel bar, which has a lovely view of the river. After a delicious dinner at Quan Bui, where we munch ourselves through portions of crispy tofu and soft shell crab, we finish our vacation with a stop at Marou – a Vietnamese chocolatier.
To sum it all up…
We enjoyed our vacation in Vietnam a lot, but truth be told, it didn’t leave us enchanted like Thailand or Costa Rica, where we didn’t want to leave. Our favourite place was Hoi An without a doubt. For the food, there were a few highlights and discoveries (Banh mi, tofu in tomato sauce), but we also had mediocre experiences. We liked Phu Quoc as we really wanted to relax, but we think maybe visiting the north or the Mekong delta would have been a richer experience. We do hope to come back one day to visit those places, and also see Hue, which we couldn’t fit into our trip this time. All in all, our itinerary was paced well, it would have been nice to have a couple of more days in Ho Chi Minh City at the end. All this being said, Vietnam is a great place to discover with so many more things to do than we mention here and we will be back!
Accommodation:
Hotels:
+Nice rooms, helpful staff, convenient location.
-breakfast not very good in general and no veggie options.
Green Peace Bungalows, Ninh Binh
+Definitely our favourite accommodation during this trip; about 10min drive from the train station, have the phone number ready for the cab driver (ours called for directions); The bungalows are simple but have all you need; surroundings are quiet; Julia is a lovely hostess and a great cook. You can rent bikes here to explore the area. A busier street with a few restaurants is less than 5min walk away.
Vinh Hung Emerald Resort, Hoi An
+Comfortable hotel, walking distance to old town. Enjoyable pool area and garden, right by the river; good breakfast.
Camellia Resort and Spa, Ong Lang Beach, Phu Quoc
+Nice family oriented hotel, large room and bathroom; pretty good breakfast (we asked for eggs and created our own Banh Mi); possibility to rent scooters; beach is about 20min walk away (careful, it gets muddy), or 5min by scooter. Staff very friendly and helpful
-As the rooms are next to the pool, we think it could get a bit noisy in high season, so not great if you want to sleep in;
Liberty Central Riverside, Ho Chi Minh City
+Good hotel with comfortable rooms and excellent breakfast; very convenient location; lovely roof top bar with great view
-We were a bit disappointed, as this was by far the most expensive hotel we paid during our trip; we found it to be quite noisy and we had to ask for hot water to be turned on (didn’t seem to be a normal thing)
Our favourite restaurants and cafes
Hanoi
Quán Bánh Cuốn Bảo Khánh for these delicious little rice pancakes (sort of), filled either with porc or egg, served with crispy shallots and spicy sauce
Bun Cha Ta for Bun Cha (a broth served with herbs and noodles and crispy spring rolls, either with meat or without)
Hoi An
Banh Mi Phuong for the “world’s best Banh Mi”
Cong for a delicious iced coconut coffee
Phu Quoc
Khan Ly Vegetarian Restaurant (Phu Quoc town) for vegan all you can eat
No Name BBQ (Ong Lang Beach) for fish as fresh as it can get
Ho Chi Minh City
L’Usine for any time of the day (we went to the Dong Khoi location); this is more of a western style bistro/cafe with a great selection of original souvenirs (we bought hot sauce, fish sauce, and cocoa nibs)
Hum Vegetarian Lounge and Restaurant for some crazy delicious vegetarian food and cocktails
Quan Bui for a stylish yet authentic Vietnamese dinner
Souvenir tip: Vietnamese coffee
While in Vietnam, we enjoyed drinking our coffee with condensed milk and ice cubes. The coffee filter sits on top of the cup or glass and water drops slowly. We bought the coffee as well as the filters as presents and for ourselves and while we use the filters much less than we care to admit, we have a definite coup de coeur for the Vietnamese coffee beans. We got ours at Phuc Long Coffee as recommended by our friends. It’s a chain you can find all over HCMC and the coffee comes in big bags, unlike in the hipster places in Hoi An. We’re thinking of stopping by Vietnam during our next trip just to buy some more coffee. 😉
lookingforcoconuts 