Vietnam is a Communist country. This is the first Communist country I have visited, despite spending lots of time in post-Communist countries, and indeed doing my post-doc on the former East European communist states, researching the aftermath of socialist regimes moving to a more market economy.
Two weeks in, what does this mean for us?
Very little, except that our journey through the country is being logged by the State. The owners of every home stay, house, apartment we stay in, have to check our passport and visa, manually fill out a form copying our details, bring it to the local police station, who then input it into a database. A tracker system (just in case anyone was worried we would fall off the grid here). At least someone knows where we are, as I feel blissfully lost in new places I had never heard of!
We got out of Hanoi, taking a six day tour of the North of Vietnam with a tour group called ‘Ethnic Travel’.
We chose ‘Ethnic Travel’ because they use local families to visit, and seem to spread the money around the communities.
Interesting tourism partnership model, as the company have a certain standard of accommodation, and provide all linen and crockery with their insignia in the houses we visited/stayed in. The owner of the company is our age, and set up the company about 10 years ago. They have their own fleet of mini vans, charter boats and really organise everything from schedules, to food, to transport, to activities – so, against my better independent judgement, it was a real holiday…… for a whole week, we had very little to think about, other than to observe and absorb all that we saw, while passing through some iconic Vietnamese places and also visiting some less travelled areas.
And what a feast of places, things and people unfolded before our very eyes! A riot of colour and culture……and did I mention food? We have been eating like kings and queens, on the most delicious freshly cooked food. The tastes are sublime, not unlike Thai food, but with much less chilies.
We first visited Mai Chau, after a hair-raising dodgem style bus journey (overtaking cars and trucks while in the wrong lane going round hair bends up mountains!). I decided to divert my attention elsewhere, and accept with conflicting resolve that the majority of tourists survive their road escapades in Vietnam. Mai Chau is to the west of Hanoi.
We cycled through villages, watching the sweat and toil of meager rural living. There were lots of women carting heavy loads in baskets, and doing heavy manual labour. This was my first experience of rice fields – they have three crops of rice per year up here in the North, compared to four crops in the South (no Winter).
Each family gets allocated a field of 150m x 150m to grow rice. They do not own the land. We saw women washing clothes in the irrigation channels for rice, kids splashing around in rivers/creeks, dust swirling everywhere from the activity of construction and building, sparks flying from casual welding on the side of the road, vegetables growing in every available space, dogs roaming and hanging around every alley and street corner, people peering out curiously at us (peering curiously at them – mutual interest) from their houses up on stilts.
We stayed in a traditional stilt house of the White Thai ethnic minority group on the first night, in a little village. The kids enjoyed fishing in the pond outside their house, flanked by rice fields on all sides. We met about six other travellers who stayed in the house with us. I fell asleep (early to settle the kids) listening to the banter and camaraderie of the exchange of travelling stories (one couple have been on the road for two years; another older kiwi couple had tales of surviving floodwaters amongst others) and the playing of a traditional bamboo flute by the house owner.
We went walking through agricultural land the next day, seeing the hunched over solitary figures in the rice fields, with conical ‘non’ (hats) bobbing, as they sifted through, tending the crop by methodologically weeding by hand. We also saw gangs of people harvesting the peanut crop, which is ready now. I tasted fresh peanuts the evening before – they boil the peanut and it is soft – quite different to the roasted peanuts I am accustomed to.
We visited a craft village, and Ilona had lots of fun dressing up in traditional Vietnamese gear – again the White Thai dress. We travelled on to Nihn Binh, which is a city south of Hanoi. It is described as the inland Halong Bay. Massive karstic landscapes, so picturesque.
We spent time walking, cycling, rowing on the rivers and through caves, visiting a temple built into the mountain, lunching in local houses, hammocking, eating more and having a blissful time. Lots of time to ponder the wonders of the world, and the forces that have created such diversity in these picture-perfect landscapes.
It is difficult to describe these bizarre and beautiful places. Halong Bay was next up on our itinerary. Fabulous Halong Bay has limestone monoliths extending out of the water. This UNESCO world heritage site is majestic, humbling and inspirational. It was incredible to spend a night on a boat in this spectacular place, with the changing light, balmy temperature……the ability to get into the water on kayaks, observe floating villages…even a floating school! People can live in such diverse conditions, that seems so alien to our way of living. 
We shared the journey with Christian and Vicky from Germany and Rachel from the US. All were great with Ilona and Tadhg, playing “Kniffel” and cards, and Rachel introducing the “20 question” game, which the kids loved.
We swam off the back of the boat, had deck chairs on top to lounge on. We heard some stories from the bay, from our guide. We also took an early morning kayak to a cave, which was fantastic.
After a short soujourn back to land, and a bus ride further up the coast, we arrived at a hive of fishing activity at Cai Rong. Bargaining, bartering, iceing of fish, weighing, packing, haggling, lifting, transporting and other nuances associated with the exchange of fish as the fishing boats arrived back onto the quay.
Rachel and I went for a coffee on the quayside, drip-drip sweet Vietnamese style in the tin percolator. We boarded a smaller boat, joined by two more German couples and a French couple, and set off through the glorious Bai Tu Long Bay. It was less busy/touristy than Halong Bay, and had a much more serene feel. Four hours later we landed at Quan Lang Island, one of the outermost islands, very close to the Chinese border. Tadhg wowed the newcomers to the boat with his newly learned card tricks, while Ilona who didn’t feel too well read her book.
We cycled to our home stay when we arrived on the island. It reminded me a bit of Loon Op Zand , in the Netherlands. There is definitely more affluence on this island, than what I saw elsewhere in Vietnam so far. Houses are more generous, and seem to be built better, albeit more recently. The island only got electricity five months ago, which may have explained the noticeable visibility of turned on TVs through open doors, without anyone in the room watching them!
again the food in the home stay was amazing. Lots of fresh veggies, and fruit only for dessert. Tadhg taught us a new card game called cuckoo, which was fun. There was a storm that night, so it was touch and go whether we would get off the island the next morning. The captain of the boat has to get police clearance to leave port. The weather had changed, a bit colder and the water choppier than the previous few days……but what a treat to see these bays indifferent conditions, the blessing of us with the sprinkling of the spray from the tumultuous sea. Ever so atmospheric.
It was a five hour bus trip back to Hanoi, which didn’t seem such a bad place upon rearrival! Perhaps I am just truly relaxed after such a pleasant week of exploring, feasting and experiencing such a different life that is Vietnamese rural living, and life on the sea.
One observation however is that there is rubbish everywhere. People dump bags of rubbish willy-nilly at every juncture, stop-bank and water course. I am interested to look into the cumulative effects of this, as I am sure there is leaching of plastics and toxins into the waterways and soil.
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