We’ve now arrived in the sixth country of our trip, Laos. Whilst we’re excited to see this new country, we are also very sad to leave Vietnam. Easily our favourite country so far, we made some incredible memories there, ate some fantastic food and had once-in-a-lifetime experiences. If you ever get the chance, you must visit.

Our entry into Laos was simple. A visa is required to enter, and you can either obtain the visa on arrival or online. We chose the online option so that we could simply turn up at immigration and present the approval letter. You also pay online whereas in person the visa has to be paid in cash. We had to present our covid certificates at check-in for the flight but that was all, and a small form has to be completed which can be done on the flight.

📍 Vinh, Vietnam 🇻🇳

Vinh was a random stop but it is located just over halfway between Hue and Hanoi, so seemed like a good place to break that journey up. We used our time in Vinh as down time and to relax, as we knew we’d be busy in our last week. Fun fact: Vinh was the home of President Ho Chi Minh, who ran the country from 1945 to 1969.

There wasn’t a lot to do in Vinh, but we did find a huge lake with crocodiles in an enclosure next to it, and an abandoned theme park.

When we first discovered the theme park, we didn’t know what the name of the park had been. However, my mum later sent me an article she had found, and the park had been called Vinh City Central Park.  From this article, we learnt the park opened in 2005 but closed in 2014 when a planning decision was made, but work never implemented. I am fascinated by pictures of abandoned buildings, so this was really interesting to me.

From the lake there was nothing to stop people from walking around the park, and due to the swan pedalos, I assumed that the lake had been a part of the park during it’s heyday.

📍 Ha Long, Vietnam 🇻🇳

The journey from Vinh to Ha Long was one of the most stressful ones we’ve had. We had booked two modes of transport – a sleeper bus for Vinh to Hanoi and then a minivan from Hanoi to Ha Long. The bus was meant to arrive into Hanoi at 6:15pm, so we booked the minivan for 8pm, thinking this would allow us plenty of time once off the bus, to get to where the minivan would be leaving from.

The first problem came right at the start of our journey, when trying to find the location we needed to be at to get onto the bus. The operator had sent a link with where we needed to wait, but when we opened it in Google Maps, it kept moving up and down the road. It also stayed in the middle of the road, so we didn’t know what side we had to be on.

After a lot of moving and crossing the road, we decided we would wait on opposite sides of the road, in open spaces. That way the bus would see one of us stood waiting, and we could flag it down. It turned up 15 minutes later than scheduled, but we had no problem getting on. The driver later told us he had tried to contact us to make sure he could be find us, but the operator had provided him with a completely incorrect number.

Our worries weren’t over however, as we arrived into Hanoi an hour late. Departure times in Vietnam are so unpredictable, that we had started to grow concerned the minivan would be going without us. On top of this, there was still another 15 minute drive to get to where the minivan was.

However, at 7:50pm we made it to where we needed to be and were quickly bundled onto the van. The van was also another luxury vehicle, with huge individual chairs that also turned into massage chairs.

We arrived into Ha Long late at night, and we were worried that this would mean we wouldn’t be able to check in. However, our host had messaged us with instructions on how to get in, and a note on our door so we knew it was ours. It was definitely one of those “all’s well that ends well” type of days!

Of course, the highlight of Ha Long is Ha Long Bay. We booked on to a tour through our accommodation host, and spent the day on a boat sailing around the bay. The boat went past some famous rock formations – the Fighting Chicken and the Lonely Island – before we stopped at Sung Sot (Surprise) Cave. The cave was found by the French in 1901 and there are 50 steps leading to it. We were given 45 minutes to explore the cave by ourselves, followed by a lunch that included fresh sea food dishes.

The next stop was Luon Cave, where we were given the choice to kayak or go on a bamboo boat. The bamboo boat was rowed by someone for you, and due to the large lunch we had just had, we chose that option. It also allowed us to take in the views completely and to sit back and relax. You go through a small cave that exits out into a lagoon on the other side – apparently monkeys live in the lagoon but we didn’t see any.

Our last stop was Titop Beach. Here, we had a gruelling hike up to a viewpoint that gave panoramic views of the Bay. The views were stunning though, and we were rewarded with a swim in the sea once we had made it back down.

The trip was certainly a highlight of our time in Vietnam, and we were lucky to have gorgeous weather all day. Certainly a lot better than the last boat trip we had in El Nido where it rained all day!

📍 Hanoi, Vietnam 🇻🇳

The day after our trip of Ha Long Bay we moved on to Hanoi. It chucked it down with rain the whole day, so we had timed that well! On our first day in Hanoi, we went to Hoa Lo Prison Relic.

Used by French colonists to imprison political prisoners, Hoa Lo prison was given the nickname ‘hell on earth’ due to the awful treatment of prisoners. In 1954 there were 2,000 prisoners detained despite it only meant to hold 600. The prison would later hold American Prisoners of War who sarcastically called it the ‘Hanoi Hilton’.

The translations in the museum suggested that they were very proud of the Viatnamese people who had been in there, and for their fight for independence.

We also went to a water puppet show at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, which is a tradition dating back to the 11th Century. The show is performed in a pool and the puppeteers are hidden behind a screen so that all the audience see is the puppets. There is also a small band singing and playing Viatnamese instruments to accompany the performance.

There were about 17 different scenes performed by the puppets, and it was a beautiful show.

The hostel also offered a free walking tour of the city that we went on for our last day. There were other people on the tour, who had just arrived and were just beginning their travels of Vietnam. They asked us a lot of questions about our trip and where we had been too, and we enjoyed being able to offer our advice and to share our experiences.

Here are some pictures from Hanoi that I took when walking around:

Hanoi is certainly the busiest on the roads out of all the other places we’d been to in Vietnam. We saw 4 people come off their mopeds, when previously we’d only seen 1 in Hue.

Instagram vs Reality

As we said at the start of this blog, we are now in Laos. We’re spending a few nights in Vientiane before moving on, but we’re not sure where the next stop will be yet. As always, lots of love, Caitlin and Luke