The people of Vietnam know how to get things done. This was brought home to me the day we arrived in Saigon for a 14-day tour, and met two young women who had just found out that they had arrived for their own trip early, indeed a year early. The company representative didn’t so much as blink, merely saying, ‘Give me a moment.’ Shortly thereafter, their trip was organised, and they were off. This level of flexibility when business was on the line was reinforced over the next two weeks as we discovered that we were not, in fact, on a single tour, but rather half a dozen tours stuck together end to end. Our group morphed in size daily, anywhere from 40 to 4, with the smallest number consisting of the two of us, a guide, and a driver. Despite all this, everything ran like clockwork.
Barter is, of course, expected. I was offered a kind of doughnut on a stick, and after I asked how much it cost, the seller looked me up and down before saying 5000 Dong. At the time, the exchange rate to the Australian dollar was 14,000 to 1, so I handed over the money and enjoyed my treat. My girlfriend contrived to pay 2,000 in a fit of competition, and another traveller told us he had paid 10,000. We later found out that the base price was 1,000, but I would have felt bad paying that little.
The cities in Vietnam are scenic, fascinating, and swarming with motor scooters, but the smaller towns are the place to be. Hoi An is a particularly charming example, with the only downside being the fact that the river running through the middle floods every year, putting the nearby houses several metres underwater. The residents deal with this simply by moving everything up to the second floor to wait it out. The nightly markets are relaxed and great value, and since the streets are closed to vehicles they are a peaceful blaze of colour, light, and food.
If you see a line of people at a store in Vietnam, it’s a good idea to join it. There is likely to be a treat at the end so good that even the locals, who are surrounded by vendors who have devoted their lives to perfecting one particular delicacy, are willing to put up with the wait. In Hanoi the line was for Banh Ran, a deep-fried glutinous rice ball traditionally filled with a sweet filling, and well worth the wait.
Ha Long Bay is a beautiful place, with almost 2000 towering limestone islands that march into the ocean, and buried beneath one of these islands is the magnificent Sung Sot cave. It is unreasonably huge, with giant pillars of stone and a roof that looks like it was carved by Tolkien’s dwarves for dramatic effect. If you zoom into photo 14 you will see a visitor for scale, but one simply has to see it in person.
With half an hour’s notice and for a modest sum, Vietnam will make it happen. Highly recommended.
1 - The Linh Phuoc Pagoda, Da Lat, decorated with recycled glass and ceramics
2 - A floating market in the Mekong Delta
3 - Just married
4 - Sleeping Buddha
5 - A night market in Thanh Binh
6 - Family transport
7 - Po Nagar Temple Nha Trang
8 - Stumbled on a model shoot in Hoi An
9 - The Hoai River that runs through the middle of town
10 - One of many buildings that are flooded each year
11 - Traditional wedding dress
12 - An old but charming building
13 - A colourful gate in Hue
14 - City street scene
15 - The Presidential Palace, Hanoi
16 - Graduating students wearing the traditional Ao Dai
17 - Sung Sot Cave’s massive main cavern
18 - Ha Long Bay