On some days, if you asked me at 7pm what I had done that day, I could tell you that I had snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. Or that I had spent the day feeding baby elephants. On other days, I would be able to tell you that I had re-watched an episode of Friends (undoubtedly for the 45th time), and err… that’s about it. So, today was (you guessed it) the second kind of day, and therefore the perfect day to start my blog.
I recently came back from a three month trip travelling through Australia and South East Asia with my boyfriend Ben, where we really did spend days at the Great Barrier Reef and with baby elephants (definitely future blog posts), and whilst we did plan as much as we could, there was a lot that I didn’t expect from all the countries we visited. Vietnam was 100% one of my favourite countries, and we definitely went without knowing what to expect.
So, here are the five main things I didn’t expect about travelling in Vietnam:
1. Sleeper trains can actually be great!
To be honest, I was kind of dreading these. Our first sleeper train was from Hanoi to Hue, which was a 13-hour journey – that meant a trip to 7/11 to stock up on food (which ended up being crackers, Nutella, and Milo bars… Vietnam apparently does not have Tesco meal deals). The first thing we noticed was that there was no train platform, so we had to pull ourselves up onto the train from the train tracks. Easier said than done when you’re wearing a 14kg backpack. Ok, 14kg may not be a lot to you, but don’t judge!
Considering the not-so-modern state of the trains and the ‘cosy’ conditions of the cabins (two bunk beds in each!), I didn’t have high hopes for my night’s sleep. However, seven hours later, I woke up fresh (ish) and so well-rested! So maybe we were just lucky, because I definitely have heard worse stories about sleeper trains, but I am 100% an advocate for them now!
2. How hard it is to walk around!
This one definitely applied to Hanoi the most, which was our first destination in Vietnam. After we had arrived in the Old Town of Hanoi, where our hostel was, we went for a walk around the area. Crossing the road in Vietnam is a complete experience in itself – it takes a few times of waiting patiently on the pavement to learn the all-important lesson: nobody is going to stop for you. We had to ignore that natural human instinct that says, “don’t walk into oncoming traffic!” and go for it. The scooters just end up going around you, which kind of feels like when you’re swimming in the sea and a group of fish swim around you!
In some places, the pavements were interesting too: whilst trying to avoid power tools that were switched on and left on the pavement, the people cooking raw ducks on the ground, and, again, the scooters (which drove on the pavement if there wasn’t any more room on the roads), I ended up thinking it was probably easier to just walk in the traffic. After a few days though, we were pros!
3. How much the weather can vary!
Living in England, experiencing all four seasons in one day is not a rare occurrence. However, we experienced this to a whole new level in Vietnam! Whilst we were there, the north of the country was humid, but nothing crazy. By the time we got to central Vietnam, it was POURING. Our new (matching) polka dot umbrellas became our best friends for that week, but to be honest made no difference at some points.
When we were in Hue, the one thing we wanted to see there was the Imperial City, which was at least a half an hour walk from our hotel. It was already raining when we set off, but with our raincoats and umbrellas at the ready, we thought it would be an adventure, which it definitely was! I was glad to be wearing flip flops, because we ended up being knee deep in rainwater. We did seem to be the only people walking around in the flood, which, to be honest… made sense. When we reached Ho Chi Minh City in the south of the country, the weather was completely different! 'Humid' was an understatement. However, it really didn’t seem to affect the locals! Standing at the mirror of a public toilet trying to deal with my hair (think Monica Geller in Barbados), next to two Vietnamese women looking completely pristine with not a drop of sweat to be seen, was not my finest hour.
4. How nice the people are!
The Vietnamese people we met were all SO nice. The staff at the hotels we stayed at all went out of their way for us, including ordering a takeaway for us on a rainy night! Some of the towns we went to were not that touristy, so we met quite a few locals who were over the moon to meet people from England! One of my favourite people was the owner of a homestay we stayed at. If you go to Vietnam, I definitely recommend going to a homestay! The one we went to was pretty much a hotel but with just a few rooms, and the whole place was run by a couple (and possibly some of their other family members). The biggest advantage of a homestay is that because it’s their home, it’s a much more personal service – the owner even learned both of our names straight away! He also brought us hot water for our pot noodles (probably judging us that we had come to Vietnam and were eating pot noodles), let us shower after we’d checked out, and sat and reassured me that Ben wasn’t going to bleed to death when he cut his finger on his razor (wasn’t really a concern of mine but a nice gesture anyway).
5. The value for money!
We came to Vietnam having just spent a month travelling in Australia, which was definitely not cheap, so the prices in Vietnam were a sigh of relief for us! On our first night in Hanoi, we were walking around searching for somewhere to eat dinner. We came across a nice looking restaurant, and the prices seemed good to us (we ended up paying around £18 for both of us to have starters, main course and drinks). When we were waiting to be seated, we looked at the wall and noticed a photo of Prince William from when he ate at this restaurant. So… potentially one of the fanciest restaurants in the whole city?!
After that, we found that you can eat a full meal in a restaurant for around £3 each, so that was our last visit to Prince William’s restaurant. After having spent a month paying quite a lot for some very average shared hostel rooms in Australia (some even came with complementary spiders), we were relieved to see the hotel room prices in Vietnam – we even paid £5 a night for a four-star hotel at one point! As a backpacker, there is nothing better than free toiletries!
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