For my entire adult life I’ve loved nothing more than a bit of solo independent travel in an interesting part of the world, with mainly my camera for company.
Thankfully, I married a HUGELY UNDERSTANDING wife, who sees how these adventures recharge my batteries. So during a winter quiet on work she gives me a roughly 2 week pass to fly somewhere interesting and quench my wanderlust.
Many of our pals think she’s mental letting me do this, but I obviously beg to differ and think she’s a superstar.
For a few trips, I traipsed around India – in my opinion still one of most inspiring places for travel photography (often following in the footsteps of my NatGeo mancrush Steve McCurry). Last year I gave China a whirl (overland from Hong Kong to Shanghai), and this year I thought I’d fill a glaring hole in my South East Asian jigsaw…Vietnam!
Home of a dizzying smorgasbord of regional street food (including stuffed baguettes and unusual takes on coffee harking back to French colonial rule), stunning natural vistas and no shame karaoke!
I’d always wanted to visit the lumpy limestone stacks jutting out from the sea in the north and ancient imperial cities and trundle down the country on their ancient trains. So with a load of Virgin Air Miles, a Rough Guide to Vietnam and Lonely Planet’s ‘Eat Vietnam’ books, I made a plan to fly into Hanoi, fly to Hue in Central Vietnam, train to Hoi An, then fly to the South, where I’d catch up with a pal and we’d enjoy the Vietnamese New Year (AKA: Têt) in Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon).
I’ve shared a larger gallery of Facebook pics (complete with captions) to my business page here, but these are the highlights from part 1: Hanoi > Hué…
Landing in Hanoi, I took a bus the the Old Quarter and strolled through a comically busy ‘beer street’ scrum to my hostel.
This was the first pic I took of the trip, literally outside my hostel, of a table of inebriated gents chugging local beer, eating messy Hotpot and mainly ignoring their friend’s attempt at Karaoke.
Singing ability is in no way a pre-requisite, and mobile PA’s are wheeled up to punters and set to 11 – so they can be heard on the next block.
Along with the wafting smoke of grilling pork skewers and chaotic bikes darting by had a fun “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” feeling.
For a few days I took in the streets of Old Town and French Quarter Hanoi, spotting crispy dog meat vendors, men smoking giant tobacco bongs and ladies gathering around Hoàn Kiếm Lake to play mystery card games.
These awesome ‘Non La’ conical hats are still widely worn and give a real Eastern flavour to every frame
I’d heard there were interesting ‘Ethnic Craft Villages’ outside Hanoi, so after getting acquainted with the cheap local Uber style ‘Grab Taxis’, took a motorbike taxi an hour and a half each way to an incense village for a nosey.
In these villages, the entire community make one thing, and I snooped around the factories and side streets for a while.
The pic of the lady arranging bundles of incense sticks to dry in the sun was one of my fave pics from the trip!
(Along with the opening pic of the train trundling down a narrow alley of Hanoi tourist cafes, with only inches to spare)
With a numb bum from a total of 3hrs on a bike (and for a grand total of about £20) I headed out for dinner with a lovely Canadian couple from my dorm (more on them in Part 2!)
We decided to skip the Chicken Foot skewers stand (above) for a noodle recommendation they’d found via Ms. Yummyface in Instagram (@curiousaboutvietnam).
Before leaving the North I wanted to spend a day on a boat seeing the stunning limestone karst geology of the Ha Long Bay area.
I chose to visit the less touristy Cat Ba Island, which had loads of fascinating floating villages…
…and striking lumps of rock that looked like Apple wallpapers!
A quick internal flight (Using Virgin Atlantic’s SkyTeam alliance with Vietnam Airways for $20 taxes and a few air miles) and I was in the far more parochial coastal Central Vietnamese city of Hué!
Hué (pronounced “Hoo-ay”) was the seat of the Nguyen emperor dynasty who made it the capital of Vietnam during the 19th century and built glorious cities and ever more OTT mausoleum parks to themselves!
These days, teenagers pay other teenagers to go on extended photoshoots. Especially in the run up to Vietnamese New Year.
I was more interested in finding an abandoned waterpark. I always did enjoy a spot of ‘Urban Exploration’
A UNESCO world heritage site, it’s a city within a city, with a distinctive architecture, and a stronghold of Emperors for many generations, until the French essentially robbed them of their power.
Unlike in India, where locals generally seem quite happy to be asked if I can take their portrait, most people turned me down, so my next tactic is to head to the biggest most bustling market in town and see what’s on offer.
In Vietnam, that’s generally all variations of tripe!
If I engage with working folk, ask what they’re selling, buy a little bit of this and that, people are much more up for having their picture taken.
It was fun to see folk outside making traditional sticky rice and belly pork, wrapped in banana leaf, later steamed for hours and eaten at new year.
All this lovely grub set my stomach grumbling, so I hit the local specialty, Bun Bo Hué – the regional take on beef noodle soup. Delicious!
This lady found it hilarious feeding me her lunch (tiny Hue Crudités of mini pancakes and prawn bites) across the counter. Also yum!
This first leg was such a great start exploring this wonderful country.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my highlights from Hanoi > Hué and there’s a larger gallery of Facebook pics (complete with captions) on my business page here.
Stay tuned for part 2 soon, charting Hoi An > Saigon!
