After our month in Laos, we decided to explore Vietnam for a bit before travelling on to Japan. We had our first accommodation booked and were ready to go, when they messaged us, and told us that upon arrival we would have to pay again as their fee is double during a holiday. Obviously, they texted this AFTER the period of free cancellation had ended and we were pretty upset by this. So, we went there, and David let them show him the room – which was abysmal: small, dirty, windowless. We had a little chat with them and luckily they agreed to let us cancel and refund our money via Agoda. But this left us without a room – at 11pm in a new country. However, I had used the time to research alternatives and found a street with a couple of better rated hotels and a hostel nearby. We went there and the hostel still had a private room available – which we took and even extended when we wanted to stay a bit longer in Hanoi. Funnily enough, we met a friend the next day, who had been staying at this hostel for 2 weeks at that point – and no, we did not know this was her home. We soon discovered that finding a decent accommodation in Vietnam would be the most annoying part of our stay there – many reviews and ratings are faked and occasionally they are full on scams. But after the first one we only picked good to decent ones, so you could say, we learned fast…
But enough about hotel searching. The real surprise was, how much we liked (northern) Vietnam. Starting in Hanoi, we had an amazing time in this colourful city. Even though the roads are busy, and full of motorbikes, the inner city has an undeniable flair and we enjoyed strolling through the streets, eating delicious noodles in various forms and exploring some of the more famous sites.
From Hanoi, we took a bus to Cat Ba, an island in the south of Halong bay, with beautiful (but mostly overcrowded) beaches and stunning views. The soon discovered one beach without a huge hotel right next to it, which therefore was almost empty. From there we also did a day tour to Lan Ha Bay, which is pretty much the same as Halong bay but with less tourists (still plenty though, this is no longer a secret spot).
Our next stop was Tam Coc, a small town right next to Ninh Binh, from which you can easily explore the gorgeous nature of the area. In our case, we did a boat tour around the caves, rivers and temples of Trung An and then hiked up the Sleeping Dragon Mountain over Mua Cave for a spectacular view of the area. With hiked I of course mean climbed up a solid 400 steps to the first top, then halfway back down and up the other side (I gave up counting after the first one, but the second is higher). It was a long, but beautiful day and we were sad to go to the airport the next day to fly down to Ho Chi Minh for our last couple of days.
Finally, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh, where the temperatures were back up to 35-38°C (previously we had a comfortable 25-30°C in Northern Vietnam, which we quite enjoyed). Still, it was a lot better than Laos. On our way to our accommodation we wanted to take the bus 109, which is supposed to come every 20min. After 50min of waiting, we gave up on it and moved to another bus stop, where the local 152 is stopping and caught the last one of the day to go to the city center. From there we walked through the party street to our hotel, which was quite an experience, I have not seen so many barely clad women dancing on tables in a while… Anyways, we only had about 2 days in Ho Chi Minh and mainly used to time to run errands and get ready for Vietnam. The one thing David wanted to visit – a church – was closed both times we tried, but we have some nice pictures from outside.
So, that was it. Our final stop in Southeast Asia, which has become something like our home over the last five months. Even though we changed country a lot, we somehow got used to the way things are here and especially the fresh fruits and delicious foods will be missed a lot. However, we are looking forward to the next chapter of this journey and can’t wait to tell you, how it continues.
Until then, let us know in the comments below, what you thought so far of our journey and this blog, any wishes, complains, feedback, longings to voice your opinions, feel free to do so!
xxx
German 
English