we headed to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. For the first time on this trip, we were not in a former British colony, so there was less English and it felt very different overall. It was the first time in my life that I had experienced such a real culture shock. Thousands of motorized two-wheelers, crossing the street with your eyes closed and hoping for the best, restaurants consisting of 12 plastic stools, 4 plastic tables, and a kettle. Gestures and facial expressions work differently. Coffee houses right next to train tracks, with weird but fantastic coffee creations. The colonial influences of China and France are clearly visible, but today’s independence is absolutely indisputable and hard-won.
This was followed by two nights on a ship in Ha Long Bay, which translates as “Bay of the Landing Dragon.” Small limestone hills rise out of the sea everywhere, almost as if an Asian dragon were slithering through the water.
Then we embarked on a real adventure, the so-called Ha Giang Loop. In the mountainous northern region of Vietnam, we joined two other tourists and four Easy Riders for a circular trip starting in the city of Ha Giang, taking us along scenic and sometimes “exciting” roads to the Chinese border and back. I even touched China, but according to the loudspeakers that went off, they didn’t like that very much. A rural life – truly, but such happy children, most of them approaching motorcycles for high fives. Toàn, my nice Easy Rider, apologized to me for not speaking English. Unbelievable, you arrive in a country, are welcomed so warmly, and people apologize for not speaking your language. So many impressions, really incredibly awesome!
After visiting Vietnam’s ancient cities (Ninh Binh, Hue), we headed to a city that has more tourists than residents, more tailor shops than supermarkets, and more lanterns/lampions than streetlights – Hoi An. A lovely little place, but so many people and 37°C with high humidity were often hard to bear. From Hoi An we went to Da Nang, the “Las Vegas” of Vietnam, as I read in an online blog. It was certainly the most modern city we saw in Vietnam. You could tell that we had come further south, which had long been controlled by Western powers.
And from there we flew to the real south, to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it used to be called. Our apartment there was… exciting. Among other things, we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong resisted the American advances. And to our surprise, there were many people who openly criticized the current system in Vietnam. And then, after almost three weeks in Vietnam, we continued on to Bangkok, and even though Vietnam was incredibly beautiful and impressive, we were also happy to set foot in more modern areas again.
Vietnam Gallery
