The journey through Vietnam

Our next stop was Ninh Binh, a city famous for its neighbouring villages that host the Bich Dong Pagoda, a beautiful riverside with farming villages and the Trang An cultural heritage consisting of a network of temples and natural formations connected by water. However, since our accommodation was closer to the center of Ninh Binh city, that's what we explored first.

As we strolled through the streets towards the city center, we got a glimpse of the authentic local life. It consists of men enjoying their vietnamese tea on the iconic plastic chairs, a boy learning to ride a bicycle assisted by his grandmother and people preparing food in their home-restaurants. We even got to see some wedding preparations.

We ended up in a park, where we became walking attractions for a few kids that were playing. As we were walking by them they greeted us with a nice "Hello!". We replied the same way and they became absolutely ecstatic. They started repeating "Hello hello hello...!!" followed by joyful and contagious laughter. It was a refreshing change of pace after all the street vendors and taxi drivers pushing their services onto us in the previous locations. Even a few older ladies greeted us with "Hello!" and moved on with giggles after we greeted back. It's clear that this specific area is much less visited by foreigners.

In the park we visited a nice Buddhist temple, then made our way to the cultural center of the city with a colorful walking street and a beautiful pair of Pagodas whose names we don't know. (To educate yourselves more on Buddhism: NatGeo) The street was filled with food stalls and souvenir vendors. Here we could also see much more foreigners exploring and enjoying the vibe.

For dinner stopped at a street side restaurant selling Pho (of course). We were expecting to have another nice Pho soup as we had many times before, but were greatly surprised when a (slightly tipsy) gentleman from the neighbouring table came over to greet us and offered a shot of the local alcohol. And this was only the beginning. A few minutes later we got invited over to the table where the gentleman and his friends/family were enjoying their time. We got offered another round of drinks, while barely understanding a few words of the broken English they were trying to use to communicate. Most of the time it was just Vietnamese, so we replied with our best smiles and laughter. After one or two more drinks we finished our dinner and said our good-byes to our new friends. If we understood correctly, one of them was a professional football player back in his youth; we were partying with a star. Definitely the most eventful meal we've had.

The next day we explored the previously mentioned nearby sights on bicycle. We made our way to the Bich Dong Pagoda where we learned about the Law of Cause and Effect. There were 150 pairs of cause and effect - how your actions in the present affect your future in the current life or life after rebirth. Generally they were examples of good deeds now leading to good fortune and health later on and vice versa. However, our favorite one: "Wasting time travelling for fun causes mobility problems when the blessing ends."

Afterwards we made our way to the Trang An natural heritage tour. We took a three-hour boat ride through various temples, caves, monuments while being surrounded by beautiful mountains covered with forests. This is one of those things where a picture says a thousand words, so I'll just leave it at that. Next up we took a night train to our next destination, Hue.

Hue is quite a big and hectic city. Not quite like Hanoi, but it could be the younger brother of Hanoi. As soon as we arrived, we were surrounded by taxi drivers and vendors again - we knew there will be no shortage of tourists here. The local specialty is a soup dish called Bun Bo Hue. It's similar to Pho soup, but with thinner Bun noodles, a slightly spicier broth and homemade meatballs. We tried it right away for breakfast - very tasty.

Since it's central Vietnam, it's the middle of the rainy season. In short, that means rain - all day, every day. This limited our mood and motivation to be outside all the time. We still managed to visit the local market, the An Dinh palace (residence of the last kings of Vietnam), and a huge shopping center (the first one we've been to in Vietnam). On our way back to our accommodation we sat down for dinner at a cozy street restaurant again. We were trying to decipher what the different things are that they serve, since everything was obviously in Vietnamese. Before we could even finish our task, we already had two bowls of soup in front of us. We weren't really sure what we got, but the huge smile and encouraging gestures of the grandma serving it gave us confidence that it will be good. And of course it was - it's Vietnam after all, the concept of bad food doesn't exist here. We ended up paying 20 000 vnd per portion... less than 1€. Insane.

The next day it was raining again, but we decided to participate in a free walking tour once again. It's become almost a tradition for us at this point. We learned a lot of interesting facts during the tour, although overall it was less enjoyable than the previous ones we've done. Anyways, we learned that Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam, positioned strategically in the middle. That means the imperial city and residence are also located there. Inside the imperial city, there is the forbidden city. It's called the forbidden city, because only the emperor and eunuchs were allowed to enter. Why? Because it was the residence of 500 ladies for the emperor's pleasure. The women were mostly daughters of highly ranking officials, who hoped their daughters would catch the emperor's attention and provide them with a royal offspring. The eunuchs were there to please the ladies and report to the emperor about which ladies are the best - without risk of reproduction.

After the tour we made our way to a restaurant recommended by our guide. It was a great dinner experience, I had another local Bun Bo Hue, great as always. Ola had a similar soup, but with seafood instead of beef. Afterwards we tried two kinds of dumplings.

The following morning we took a bus to Hoi An, the leather and tailoring capital of Vietnam. Every other stall is either for tailored suits and dresses, or buffalo leather products, like wallets, bags, belts, etc...

The rain here was even worse than Hue. Having an hour without rain felt like a miracle. The city itself doesn't have any grandious sights to see, the main attractions are its old town and culinary scene. As such, we decided to participate in a cooking class where we prepared four different local dishes, and a simple but absolutely delicious and essential dipping sauce. There were around 20 people participating in the cooking class, but funnily enough, everyone apart from us and a dutch friend duo, was Korean. Afterwards we started noticing most restaurants and massage parlors had their menus available in Korean. Seems like it's some kind of travel destination for Koreans. We didn't find out why, but a funny observation nonetheless.

Next up we're hoping to escape the constant rain by taking an overnight train to the beach town called Nha Trang. The forecast says we will have another day of rain but plenty of sunshine afterwards. Let's hope the forecast is to be trusted... We'll give updates about that in the next post

This marks the halfway point of our trip. A sad and happy moment at the same time. Even though so much has happened, it feels like the past 6 weeks have passed extremely quickly. It remains to be seen whether the second half will feel equally quick, slower or quicker.

Until then...!