The Thai New Year (Songkran) provided me a good two-week break from my classes mid-April, and almost all of my friends already had previous plans: traveling with family or boyfriends or solo travel plans. So, after some research, I decided to book a tour through Vietnam. I ultimately decided to do a Geckos Adventure, 11-day Vietnam tour as it was one of the cheapest options, and I’d be traveling with only other 18-29 year-olds. Although I kind of felt like I was cheating my adventurous-self by not doing the trip alone, I knew the saved cost and stress of figuring out transportation between each city and accommodations was worth it, and I was excited to get to travel with and meet a whole new group of young travelers like myself. Plus, as well as being cheaper than most tours, Gecko Adventures makes a point to use local guides and take its travelers to local restaurants/tourist locations to make sure your money is going to reliable and sustainable places that will help local economies, which I liked.
The weekend before leaving, I spent in Bangkok celebrating Songkran. During Songkran, tourists and locals alike flood the streets with water guns and hoses and white, clay paint as a way to wash away the misfortunes of the past year. I was overjoyed that my good friend Sam Ness happened to land in Bangkok right before Songkran to begin his few weeks of touring in Southeast Asia. So, I spent most of the afternoons at the water fights and most of the evenings at whatever bar Sam was playing at that night. Plus, I was happy to get the chance to get to try lots of great restaurants in the area throughout the weekend.
The night before I left for Vietnam, I couldn’t sleep a wink at the hostel. Not only was I a little worried about making sure I had everything I needed in order, there was an older Korean woman sleeping in the bunk below me that was snoring so loudly. My flight was at 6:30 am, so I had to leave for the airport by 3:30. By 2 a.m., I still hadn’t been able to sleep due to the snoring below me so I just packed up my stuff and decided I was pulling an all-nighter. Thankfully, I checked my ticket once more before I left for the airport because I was getting ready to order a Grab to the Suvarnabhumi airport when really my flight was out of Don Mueang! With that big mistake thankfully avoided, I arrived at the airport way too early and napped for a few minutes here and there on the bench as I waited for my flight.
Hanoi:
Our tour began in the capital city of Hanoi. When I arrived it was rainy, and I was absolutely exhausted. The currency (Vietnamese Dong) was so confusing because everything was in the hundreds of thousands. After getting money out of the ATM, I freaked out a little when I typed 2,000,000 dong into my currency converter app and typed an extra 0 and thought I had taken out $800 USD worth of dong instead of $80. My taxi driver was a little confused where my hotel was and ended up dropping me off a few blocks away, so I had to lug my suitcase down the road and around the corner in the rain.
I was so tempted to just sleep in my bed the entire afternoon. But, I only had one day in Hanoi and so instead I forced myself to grab my camera and my backpack and explore the city. Right around the corner from my hotel was a little, local market that had some very interesting smells and sights. As I was walking through, something at a little, meat vendor down the road caught my eye and made me sick to my stomach. It was the type of meat they were selling. Standing across the road, wearing my “Dog Mom” hat, I stared with my chin dropped as I watched a lady with an entire roasted dog selling bits and pieces to some others in line. I had always thought the jokes about eating dog and cat were just terribly offensive and racist jokes insensitive people who knew nothing said (Don’t get me wrong, they still are.) But, it didn’t really even dawn on me that people might actually eat and sell dog openly. Being the world’s biggest dog lover, I was so traumatized by this and spent the rest of my afternoon with it on my mind (I couldn’t eat anything until almost 6 p.m. that day.) Worried I’d encounter this commonly for the next two weeks, I did some research and learned that eating dog is really only a thing in northern Vietnamese cities, mostly in Hanoi. Plenty of people go their entire trips without encountering it at all, I just got unlucky and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The more I thought about it, the more I tried to reason that it’s a very different culture and to many people, it’s no different than eating pig or cow or sheep. But I couldn’t help thinking about it every time I saw someone with a cute pet puppy around the city.
I don’t know if it was the dead dog or the rain or almost being killed by motorbikes everywhere I walked or the person I saw sitting on the side of the road bleeding out from his hand or simply the nasty smells I caught so often as I walked down the street, but Hanoi was the first city I’ve visited in my entire four months in Southeast Asia that I can truly say I disliked and would never want to go back to. Something about it felt off to me. The people didn’t come off as friendly, the streets were practically unwalkable due to size, upkeep, trash and crazy driving… it just wasn’t the place for me.
However, its redeeming factor for me was that the day I got there happened to be graduation day for the universities in Hanoi, so streets that were typically full of cars and bikes were blocked off for the activities and there was tons of families and games and music. This made for a great opportunity to take photos: lots of great expressions and action. I saw some dance crews making K-Pop dance cover videos, children playing with bubbles and balls, couples walking along the lake, parents driving their kids in tiny, remote-controlled cars, and graduates taking hundreds and hundreds of photos with their graduating classes. Everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves and their families, and that almost made up for everything else I disliked about the city for a little while. I had decided to do my finally photography class project on Vietnamese culture, and Hanoi really saved my project because my professor liked my photos of the people so much! So for that, I am grateful for this city.
I met with my Gecko group for the first time that night at the hotel. There would be 12 of us: me, two paramedics from New Zealand, my roommate from England, one other American girl from LA, a Canadian, and the rest were Australians. The local tour guide for our trip was a middle-aged Vietnamese man named Phat. He called our group the “Phat Boy Slim Group!” (Always with an exclamation point.) We all went out to dinner together and, although I still hadn’t slept in over 30 hours and I was running on fumes, decided to join everyone else on the walk over to a jazz bar to get to know each other a little better. I slept like a log that night, nothing could’ve woken me up.
Halong Bay:
We woke up around 7 a.m. the next morning for our bus ride to Halong Bay. I was most excited for this part of the trip as we’d get to spend the night on a boat on the bay tonight. After about 3.5 hours on our private minibus (I slept soundly the entire first half), we arrived at the Halong Bay piers and boarded our cruise boat for the night. I was so surprised by how nice it was! I had been expecting to kind of rough it in hard bunk beds or something, but our cabins were big with the comfiest bed I’d felt in months.
We had the entire boat for just the 12 of us and a chef and bartender on board with us. We cruised the bay all day and stopped to visit a cave and a beach, and we were fed lunch, dinner, and breakfast on board — all absolutely delicious! We spent the evening enjoying the sunset from the top deck and then playing circle of death and drinking some beers before all heading to bed. I had a fantastic nights sleep, once again.
One odd moment happened while exploring the Sung Sot cave. A man, who I believe was another local tour guide for a different group (but I could be wrong), asked me where I was from. I told him I was from the U.S. and he replied, “Congrats. You just dropped 200 missiles on Syria.” Luckily, I didn’t quite hear him (someone else nearby repeated it for me), because I would’ve had no idea how to respond. While I understand that Donald Trump is not the best face for global relations for our country and that shines a negative light on all Americans’ intelligence and compassion, I also sarcastically had to joke around with my tour mates later that of course, it was me who had a quick phone call with Trump that morning to give him the go on dropping the missiles. Personally, yes, that entire attack was my decision, and I did it all while in Vietnam– I am very powerful.
In the morning a group of us woke up early again to go kayaking around the bay. I was ultimately so happy we woke up early because we got the bay to ourselves for a few hours before the other groups of tourists began their kayaking tours as well.
While Halong Bay was no doubt beautiful: the islands seemed to go on forever and we saw some amazing white jellyfish and the water was a vivid turquoise, it also made me really sad to see how many tourist cruise boats were allowed there every single day. While kayaking, I saw trash and the effects of pollution everywhere. Ironically, on our kayak tour, we stopped at a cave called Virgin Cave (because “it is beautiful like a virgin,” according to Phat) and I saw a Durex condom wrapper floating along the shore. Seeing the obvious effects of tourism on such a naturally beautiful place made me feel guilty for being there and contributing to its demise. I hope the Vietnamese government starts to regulate the use and destruction of Halong Bay more soon in order to keep it a naturally beautiful spot in Vietnam.
Hue:
From Halong Bay, we took the bus back to Hanoi with a little time to get snacks and dinner before our first overnight train adventure to Hue. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the train! The cabin was small but it seemed clean enough, we had all prepared for worse. However, the A/C was blasting all night, and I was the level of cold where I would wake up because my muscles were so tense from shivering, even with three layers on, so I was very happy to get off the train that morning.
The rest of the group had decided to do a bus tour of Hue from a local guide since, you guessed it, we only had one day in the city. I decided to come along too because I figured if everyone else was, I might as well too. Our guide was nice and knowledgeable, and we toured a local market, got to see conical hats and incense being made, saw some American war bunkers and one of the Nyguen dynasty king’s tombs, we walked through the Imperial City and, highlight of the day, got to eat lunch made by a local family in the citadel.
All of the feasts that had been given to us as part of the tour so far had been incredible. This family also was making their own homemade, “medical” rice wine, which we were told a shot of would make us big and strong (“like the king with 500 wives” we had learned about today, according to our guide) But all it really made any of us accomplish was a whole lot of coughing and choking — it tasted about as good as it looks.
It was interesting learning a little more about the impacts of the Vietnam war on this part of the country. Hue, being close to the border between North and South Vietnam had strong American soldier influence during the war. Our tour guide specifically said these soldiers were there to “protect the border against the North.” He also made a point to mention that in Vietnam, they let bygones be bygones and try to “forgive but never forget.” It was hard to tell if he was saying this because he truly believed it or because he was an educated tour guide who knew his tours consisted mainly of Westerners who feel good hearing that their harmful actions have fewer consequences than they truly do. At the base of the king’s tomb stood a large temple that we were not allowed to enter– work crews were just beginning to clean and restore it from bombing during the war. In the Imperial City, we could see bases of buildings that once stood but were wiped out from bombs. Our guide also pointed out the bullet holes in the stone walls around us. It’s beyond humbling being in a place where an entire country is still recovering from destruction your own country participated in and knowing back home a majority of the U.S. citizens’ lives aren’t affected in the least.
Temple with bomb destruction from war
Hoi An:
We took our private little bus from Hue to Hoi An, stopping at pretty views and sites along the drive. We also stopped in Da Nang for banh mi, a vietnamese baguette with veggies and bbq meat and chili sauce, at a local bakery.
After checking into our new hotel, we walked around the city for a little while. Hoi An had a great feel to it. All the buildings were yellow and blue and color surrounded me everywhere. There were tons of fun, artsy shops lining the streets. Although it was hard to ignore that the town was obviously catered to tourists like me, I liked that the town made for amazing photography opportunities.
While taking photos that day, two ladies with their fruit baskets saw me and stepped in front of my lens and smiled. I smiled at them and began to walk away, but before I could turn they had their fruit basket on my shoulder, tea hat on my head, and took my camera right from my hands! Of course, after snapping my (unwanted) photo they asked me to buy some fruit. Deciding to be nice, I told them I’d take some bananas… which they wanted to charge me 200,000 dong (almost $8 USD) for! After some back and forth, I finally handed over 150,000 and walked away thinking these had better be the best damn bananas in the world.
One of the great things about the city is the plethora of tailors available everywhere — and they work quickly, cheaply, and efficiently. I decided to have a nice skirt made for me. Phat recommended a place called Blue Eye and after doing some comparison price shopping I decided to go there. My tailor’s name was Ann, and she was the sweetest person in all of Hoi An. I wasn’t sure what exactly made me decide I wanted it, but I think I was inspired by all the beautiful, bold color in the city. I got to pick my design, length, fabric, and pattern; I got to add pockets and they sized me to make the skirt fit perfectly. In under 24 hours, my skirt was made just for me! As I was paying, Ann asked me, “Are you happy?” I told her I was very happy. She said, “Good, if you happy, I’m happy.” 10/10 for customer service and for making me a beautiful skirt I can take home with me to remember Hoi An.
The next morning, I wanted to wake up before sunrise to take photos of the town without the hoards of tourists. It was a great decision. My friend Haley got up with me and the two of us walked down to the river. Although the sunrise itself wasn’t super colorful, it was fantastic seeing the town with just the locals awake with us. We were greeted by everyone with smiles or waves and able to actually get photos of the town without anyone in the way.
The rest of the group was paying for a $25 biking tour through the local village, but, in an effort to save some money, Haley and I decided to rent bikes from the hotel for $1 and explore the countryside. I can honestly say this was one of the happiest moments of my entire trip — freely exploring such an incredibly beautiful place. We passed a man lounging on his water buffalo along the side of the road and stopped to take a photo. Before we knew it, he had Haley on his buffalo and me following soon after. Of course, like my favorite banana ladies, we had to pay him for our involuntary participation but it’s ok, my $5 goes much further for him than for me. Haley and I biked through some rice paddies and through a little fishing village down to the beach and then back. We were sunburnt and soaked in sweat by the end, but very happy too. That afternoon we shopped a little and found Bahn Mi Queen, the world’s best bahn mi shop. I do not say this lightly. This was possibly the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. I mean it, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Although I loved Hoi An, it’s a small town and besides shopping or biking, there wasn’t a ton to do. I was happy for all the picturesque photo opportunities and happy to do a little souvenir shopping, but by the time it was ready to catch our next overnight train out of the city we were ready to move on as well.
Nha Trang:
Even though Phat had warned us many times that the second overnight train would not be as nice as the first, I was slightly horrified when I first walked into our cabin. The beds had obviously been slept in before us and the sheets were definitely not cleaned. But the worst part, our cabin had a mosquito infestation. I thought Haley’s top bunk was covered in little pieces of fuzz when I first walked in there were so many mosquitos covering the mattress. One of the other girls on the tour gave me a bottle of bug spray and warned me, “be careful — it’s really strong.” But I was a girl on a mission to not sleep in a swarm of bloodsuckers all night. So, with Haley on the top bunk, I closed the cabin doors and just began spraying everywhere. I made clouded the entire tiny room. It wasn’t until I could taste it going down my throat (yes, I know how unhealthy that is and I’m sure I took a few years off my life) that I finally stopped and opened the door — bad choice. My cloud escaped into the hallway and the rest of our train carriage complained for the next twenty minutes about how bad it smelled. Oops…
On the bright side, I killed all the mosquitos…
When we arrived in Nha Trang that morning, we had about twenty minutes to change and freshen up then it was on to our snorkeling tour. The tour included a visit to a local island as the first stop. This was kind of weird to me, to just walk through local villages as a giant tour group. It felt like we were taking advantage of people just living their everyday life. I feel weird walking through a local street with a tour guide explaining how the local people live, right in front of the local people. It’s a very odd way to distinguish that there are differences in how we are all raised, and it made me uncomfortable. I enjoyed many aspects of the tour, but these types of activities were one of the things I despised. It’s one thing to explore a local village on your own, but to have a guide walk you through one makes it feel too much like watching other humans in a zoo. We did stop briefly at a little daycare center and the children were really excited to see us. One little girl held my hand and stroked my nail polish, she was so intrigued by the color, I wished I could’ve sat there and painted all their little nails.
We snorkeled and swam in the water for a while in the early afternoon then had lunch and drinks on the boat. I was amazed at the amount of food they could cook for us right on our small, basic boat. And it ended up being one of the tastiest meals I had the entire trip! All of our drinks and cocktails were included in the price of the tour, so two others and I decided to get the most out of what we paid for and took advantage of the free beer. We spent about an hour just floating in the water, drinking beer and cocktails and enjoying the sun while everyone else napped on the boat or did some more snorkeling. This goes down as the second moment of pure bliss I had this trip — I was a little buzzed, I was with great, hilarious people, and I’m always happy when I’m in or near the water.
The next day, we decided to spend the day at the mud baths, which is supposed to be a big thing in Nha Trang. It was an odd experience… You start by going into the mud bath, which is warm and grainy. It felt strange to willingly pour it all over myself. After soaking in the mud, you sit in the sun and let it dry on you, then you wash it off. After the mud, you have a few sessions in different warm, mineral water pools and hot tubs and such. We ended up spending most of the afternoon here. The mud is supposed to have magic healing powers. It’s also supposed to make your skin feel really soft… I’m not sure it had either of these effects on me, but hey — I’ll do anything once.
That night, before our next overnight train adventure (which I was dreading after the previous one) we decided to get something for dinner close to the hotel. Phat recommended a vegetarian place across the street and told us he’d come with us and order us the best meal. Oh wow… I saw the first plate coming out and almost stood up and walked out. Nothing but a pile of bitter vegetables I didn’t recognize with a pile of oddly flavored tofus on top of some white rice. Everything was cold; I’m sure it was cooked hours ago, and it was so so not tasty. None of us finished even half of our plates, besides Phat — he ate everything. We walked down to a bakery a few blocks away (for the second time today) to get a second dinner.
Ho Chi Minh City:
I didn’t really have big expectations for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I had read it was chaotic and dizzying and truthfully didn’t think it would be much different from other cities I had been too, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Saigon! We arrived super early in the morning, but unfortunately, we couldn’t all check into our own rooms to sleep because check-in wasn’t until the afternoon. So, Phat walked us over to a local bakery and we got some breakfast and coffee.
I had been somewhat lazy with exploring the last few days, I really didn’t end up seeing much of Nha Trang, so I had done my usual research and a little planning for HCMC to give me optimal adventure and photo time in the city. Opting out of the $40 tour of the Chu Chi tunnels, I decided to spend the morning at the War Remnants Museum instead. Of course, this was a difficult museum to spend the day in, being an American and all. It was interesting seeing the war we know as “The Vietnam War” as “The American War” instead.
The exhibits made little mention of America being teamed up with Southern Vietnam against Northern Vietnam, instead of making it clear that the history is rewritten that the war was the U.S.A. versus Vietnam. There was one room dedicated to MAG (Mines Advisory Group) on the efforts being made to clear up areas affected by unexploded landmines, which did shine a light on the U.S. attempting to reconcile the past. Still, I often wished I had my dad with me while I was looking through the rooms to help me understand how much influence Vietnam’s government might have on how the stories of the war are told here today. Either way, it was impossible to ignore the destruction we caused by participating in the Vietnam War. One room, in particular, made that clear: an entire exhibit dedicated to the effects of Agent Orange, the herbicide we spread across the country. The effects of agent orange have caused cancer, death, mental retardation and physical deformations you can’t even imagine — but you don’t have to at this museum because they have pictures to show you. And, unfortunately, agent orange is not just harming those alive during the war, but effects have been found in children two generations after those originally impacted.
I actually teared up reading a letter one second-generation agent orange victim wrote to President Obama when he was elected into office. Would someone even bother writing that letter to President Trump today? What’s the use when he’s already decided “shithole countries” don’t deserve his help or time?
After the museum, a group of girls came with me to visit a place I had been recommended by some other friends: A nine-story apartment building that used to house military officials had been converted into nine floors of cafes, art galleries, boutiques, and bakeries. We had fun exploring all nine floors before deciding to hit up a burger shop on the third floor to sit and enjoy some A/C for awhile.
After some time cooling off in the hotel, I was joined by some others to explore a market and park nearby — with my camera in hand, of course, since I was still frantically working on my final photography project.
I found the market quite amusing. It was absolutely packed and every vendor was selling basically the same things. As we walked through the aisles we were hounded with people peaking around the corner and calling out, “Hello miss, you buy?” or “What you look at?” “You want t-shirt?” We couldn’t walk past anyone without having something called out at us. I couldn’t help but laugh at the whole thing. It was like celebrities trying to walk down the red carpet past the paparazzi.
The park was beautiful. I stopped for awhile to watch a game going on that was something like a mix of badminton and hacky-sack. I don’t know what the name was, but it was impressive to watch! Then, I stopped to photograph a group of men playing badminton nearby. After a while of watching them, they approached us and asked if we wanted to play with them during their water break. Seeing we weren’t very good, they set up another net just for us and lent us some rackets so we could play too. It was a perfect way to kill a few hours, and the men were so kind.
On the walk back to the hotel, I noticed a group of younger adults and teens sitting around in a circle smiling nervously at us from a distance. I had seen that face before many times here in Thailand; it is the “I’m about to ask you to speak with me in English and I’m very nervous so please be nice” look. I’ve gotten it by students practicing their English or working on an assignment in malls, grocery stores, restaurants, temples, you name it. Sure enough, a few of them approached us and told us that they all met in the park sometimes to practice English, and they wondered if we’d come talk with them for a while. We were in no rush, so we agreed and sat and talked about where we are from, where we had been, our favorite foods and more. They said most of the time when they try to ask tourists to come talk to them, the travelers cross the road or keep their eyes down; they act like they are going to be mugged! When we got up to leave, they were so appreciative we stopped that they gave us each a little paper fan to take home with us as thank you gifts. Of course, we had to take a group photo for their Facebook page too.
That evening we all went out for one last dinner as a group and went to some of the nearby bars to dance. Luckily, I was still able to get to bed early!
The next morning, the final day of the tour, a few of us met up for a brunch, then got ready to explore again. I had read about a military resale market I wanted to check out nearby. This was a very interesting find. Everything from old combat boots to old wartime journals and random bundles of family photographs, along with as much hardware, screws, bolts, nails and tools you could ever want, was sold here. I couldn’t figure out the authenticity or value of some of these items… If they were really from the war, why were they being sold in this little, sketchy warehouse instead of being displayed at a museum?
Then I walked us over to this street that was supposed to be an art market. However, when we got there all we found was a street of old antique shops that were of no interest to any of us. Oops! Deciding we were already hot and tired so there was no reason to turn around now, we took a long walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral and stopped along the way to do some souvenir shopping (I’m adding in here that I bought Austin a gift because I know it’ll drive him crazy to not get to know what it is, hehe.) Haley and I got some pho at a restaurant called Pho 2000 before heading back to the hotel to say our goodbyes. Pho 2000 has an interesting history. Its slogan is “Pho for the President” because its claim to fame is that President Bill Clinton stopped by their restaurant for a bowl of pho in the year 2000. It was a huge deal because he was the first U.S. President to visit Vietnam after the war, so it’s really kind of a beautiful story. I laughed a little thinking how if Clinton went to a restaurant in the states, that restaurant would more likely be trying to cover it up for the rest of forever instead of creating their entire brand around the moment.
After saying goodbye to all my new pals, I ordered my Grab to the airport. Although I loved my Vietnam adventure, I was so excited to get back to my apartment in Thailand. It was a weird feeling to only be able to picture my flight home taking me back to Bangkok. It was much harder to imagine going back to Wisconsin at this point. However, everyone else I was traveling with got to fly home at the end of their trip. They were excited to see their beds and dogs and moms and it made me a little sad to not be flying home to my bed and dog and mom too. But soon enough… I had Bali, Nepal, and Hong Kong to look forward to still! As well as an amazing two weeks traveling with Austin too. Still, so much good stuff to come! I’ll see Wisconsin, and everyone I love soon too. Until then, miss you all and can’t wait to see you soon. Thanks for reading!
Mckenzie Lena Halling 