Vietnam: Hanoi and Ha Long Bay.

Vietnam is a country with 90 388 000 people, lots of history and different  landscapes like rock formations, beaches and jungle. The capital city is Hanoi, a big city with 6.5 million people and about 5 million motorbikes, as the locals always said. There are lots of things to do in Hanoi, like visit the historical old quarter, the War Museum, walk around Hoam Kiem lake, try the local food and meet the locals. One of the main destinations in Vietnam is Ha Long Bay, one of the world´s natural wonders.

A taxi to Don Mueang airport (Bangkok) cost about 500 bahts from the center, but the hostel arranged a shared mini van for 150 bahts. I flew to Hanoi with Air Asia and it took about 2 hours, arrived  and pay 45 usd for my stamp, I got a visa in advance with Vietnam-visa.com  paying 21 usd online. Hostel sent a person to pick me up from airport, then we drove 1 hour to town (cost me 15 usd). I stayed in Golden Times hostel,  nice rooms, breakfast included and very helpful staff, they gave me a map and all the directions, I also booked a 3 day trip to Ha Long Bay with the hostel, it cost about  109 usd.

My hostel was  located on the centre, close to the old quarter. Go for a walk in the center of Hanoi it´s an experience, motorbikes everywhere, people having green tea or beers and talking on the streets, markets, random street shows and the Hoan Kiem lake. On Friday night you can´t even walk because there are thousands of people on their motorbikes everywhere driving like crazy, was fun!

There are lots of things to do in Hanoi, like the puppet water show (cost 100 dongs), shopping, visit the War Museum (30 dongs plus 20 dongs to take pictures),  Hochiminh Mousoleaum (20 dongs). Hoan Kiem lake is nice for a walk, you can see some the locals walking, having street food and wearing traditional clothes, there are also shops and bars around.

Travel around Vietnam it´s not that hard, as they have an international airport in Hanoi (north) and another one in Hochiminh city (south), there are bus companies and trains to travel around this country but the drives are long and not everybody speaks English. Some hostels offer hop on hop off bus services, bus and train tickets.  

The sorroundings of Hanoi are also interesting, me and some friends made a full day trip to Ham Toc, located at 2 hours from Hanoi. This area has rock formations, forests, temples and rivers, people say it´s the inland Ha Long Bay because the landscape. We made a great group of friends with some Brasilians, Colombians, English and Mexicans. After this day trip we went out in Hanoi and had a few beers on the street, with lots of people everywhere sitting on small chairs and having beers for 0.25 cents per glass. So cheap and a great atmosphere.

Another places to visit are Perfume Pagoda and Sapa, located on the north of this country, here you can do some trekking and enjoy the countryside and its culture. You will have to catch a train to get there.

Ha Long Bay was the main reason to visit Vietnam, it´s one of the world´s natural wonders, it name means ¨Descending Dragon Bay¨ and it´s located at 4 hours from Hanoi, in Quang Ninh province,  It’s a bay with an area of 1533 Km2 and more than 1 thousand islets, most of them are limestone.  Our group took a boat to explore this place, we had a tour guide, good cabins, bar and a whole area on top of the boat just to sit down and see the landscape talking with other travelers.

Ha Long Bay has one of the best landscapes I have ever seen, huge limestone formations everywhere, beaches, some locals fishing on their  boats, at night you can see the stars and enjoy this natural wonder. We stopped a few times on some of the islands to see the lanscape, swim  and  explore the caverns. We also had time to do some kayaking around the islands.

The second day of the tour we visited Cat Bah Island, the biggest on this area, we did a nice hike on the forest and then took a bus to town, after lunch we went to Monkey Island to enjoy the beach. At this small island we could do a short hike to the top of a rocky hill and enjoy an amazing landscape. At night we went out to a local bar called Rose Bar, there were many travelers that we saw during the trip, it was interesting to meet people from so many countries. We had a fun night.

The third day of our trip we woke up early and we went to the boat, we sailed around the islands for a couple of hours, watching for last time this amazing landscape. This one was of the highlights of my trip and the most beautiful places I saw in Vietnam. Anyway I think that I should spent more time in Vietnam as the coast has amazing beaches and Ho Chi Minh city sounds like the best place to see the culture of this country. 

A good option is to travel along the coast from Ho Chi Minh city to the north and see Nha Trang and the beaches, Hoi An, Hue, then get to Hanoi to see Ha Long Bay. You can also travel from North to South and then go from Ho Chi Minh city to Cambodia and then to Thailand. But you need time to do this route and really enjoy it, I would recommend to don’t rush and spend a few days in every place as it´s too much to see and the bus or train journeys are very long.

After this trip I took a flight back to Bangkok and had a couple of free days to plan the next part of this journey.

  

Bangkok.

Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, it has about 8´280925 million of people and Thailand has about 66´720153 million. This is a huge city with many things to do, places to visit and a great nightlife. There are old temples, palaces, great street food, markets and amazing hotels, restaurants and clubs. You can find 2 different sides, the crazy, busy and random Bangkok and also the posh and exclusive clubs and restaurants, hotels and sky bars, all in one city, mixed and crazy. I had the good luck to see a bit of Bangkok.   

I travelled from Lima, Perú to Sao Paulo, spent a night there and then flew to Johannesburg to connect with a flight to Bangkok. One month in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia was not enough, I could spent 3 or 4 months there.

I stayed on Sam Sem Road, very close to the touristy bit Khao San Road and 20 min, walking distance to the Chao Phraya river, Royal Palace, and the temples of Wat Arun and Wat Pho, some of the main tourist attractions. I stayed at Sam Sen Sam Place hostel, nice and quiet place, very clean and safe, the staff knows about every tourist attraction and have all the info ready for you. Great place to stay and plan a trip. Close to the hostel there are local bars and restaurants, also street food and markets.

Khao San Road is the touristy area, nice for party and meet people but I would recommend the street that is parallel to it, as there are better restaurants and bars, good food and is cheaper. A good place for a night out is The Club, great place for dance and meet people, entrance fee is 100 bahts and you get a beer. The street food here is great, try a Pad Thai or just the fried scorpions and worms. Around this area there are many small streets with restaurants, markets, local bars and street food, is a good place to go for a walk.

About the tourist attractions, I can recommend the budhist temples Wat Arun (built on the 17th century) and Wat Pho (1781 AD) with more than 1000 Budha images and the famous reclining Budha, both close to the area I stayed, both temples has great buildings, river views, Budhas, statues and nice architecture. This temples are located  next to Chao Phraya river. Entrance fee to Wat Arun is 50 bahts. And you have to take the boat to cross the river, that cost an extra  3 bahts. Wat Pho cost 100 bats to enter and is in the other side of the river of Wat Arun, so you can see both in one morning.

The Grand Palace (1782), located in the center of Bangkok,  is a beautiful complex with temples and statues, it has been the official residnce of the Kings since 1782 until 1925 but the Palace is still used for official events, you should visit this place and spend 2 or 3 hours there. Entrance fee cost 500 bahts. and you have to wear long pants and a shirt or t shirt. Here you can see the Emerald Budha palace as well.

If you want bars and party I will recommend Sukhumvit road, on this area there are loads of bars and shopping malls like Terminal 21. the club I want is called Level, its located on Soi 11, where all the best bars are located. Free entrance but drinks are expensive, like 200 bahts for a Tiger beer.

At the end of my trip I stayed in Silom, the business area, I decided to have my last night at Lebua hotel, got a room with a nice view and breakfast included. The service was amazing. They gave me a free upgrade to a river view room, including breakfast. After check out the people in reception let me put my bags at the storage and use the pool, sauna and gym. 

This hotel has a roof bar called Sky Bar and a restaurant called Sirocco, I went there, had a few drinks and met really nice people, the restaurant was really good as well, but is very expensive. They also have a bar called Breeze. On this hotel was filmed some scenes of the movie The Hangover 2, but is not allowed to take pictures on the famous areas.

Close to Lebua hotel, on Silom Road,  there is a Chinese restaurant called Magic Choo´s , great food and at 19.30 they open a small door and you can have access to one of the best bars on this area, the decoration is amazing, good drinks, music and sometimes the invite artists, make a reservation if you want to go on the weekend.

There are many tours you can do around Bangkok, like the Tiger Temple, The floating market and Ayutthaya historical park.

I didn’t want to visit the Tiger Temple as I heard they don’t treat well the animals and is more like a tourist show. The Floating market is just a tourist market as I heard, but somebody told me you can go early on your own and enjoy the local stuff. So I decided to visit Ayutthaya historical park, I booked a full day tour through the hotel and had a great time. We drove 2 hours to this city that was founded in 1350 and was the capital of the country until 1767 when was destroyed by the Burmese army. Some of the the  park sites are Wat Mahathat (with the Budha head on a tree), Wat Phra Ram, the Pagodas and the reclining Budha.  






Bangkok was a great place to start my trip, an amazing and crazy city full of culture and lot of things to do. It´s very easy to travel around Thailand and South East Asia from this city.