My last long trip in South East Asia was to Vietnam. I was bit doubtful at arrival cuz all the people who came here before told me all this bad stories about the Vietnamese people and about the country in all. So we arrived in Hanoi International Airport in the middle at the night / btw im still angry why I choosed such a shitty time to go to a foreign country which supposed to be not that safe at all. I dont know where my mind was while booking. Anyway. We knew that the airport cabs cost around 15 USD - but we wanted to check if there is a nightbus to go to sapa. So we negotiated or at least we thought we were negotiating two stops for 15 usd. When we got to the bus terminal we recognized that its closed...and so we didnt get out we just wanted to continue. BuuuuT the cab driver asked for another 10 usd to drive us to our hotel. We started discussing with him our initial negotiation. But he spoke not one single word english. So I managed to make him call his boss at the airport..and after arguing with him for half a hour on the phone, he accepted to bring us to our hotel. So this was not a nice welcome to Hanoi at all. The city itself was bit scary. All the men offering transport all the
time...and being dropped off in the middle of the centre without knowing where to go..was not the best introduction :) But we managed to find a place to stay and also a place to eat. Not the best food!! Vietnamese food is again not my taste at all :) We also booked straight ahead our first tour to Halong Bay. The bus took off the next morning at 7...around 10 am we were in Halong City and got to the Ferry to Halong Bay. It was freaking cold in Halong City and more in Halong Bay. The fog, the wind and hunderds of ferrys in this bay..was amazing to see. Somehow mystic as well. Very nice experience. Tough i was freezing...i really enjoyed every second of this trip. The night after our day trip to halong bay we continued our trip with SAPA. We took the nighttrain to Sapa, which takes around 10 hours. Since we are economic backpackers we of course took the seats and not the sleepers. But was comfortable tough. My plan to prepare for my upcoming exams during this ride was of course also not that successful. We slept :) With one eye open because we were afraid that our stuff could get stolen. We arrived in SAPA quiet early. Right after check-in, breakfast we did a 6 hour hiking with 2 villages to stop by. There are several minorities living in SAPA (which is btw quiet in the north of hanoi), and you can distinguish the different minorities from different villages by their head clothing. Different tribes have different colors our different way of wearing their 
traditional clothes. They followed us during the whole walk..trying to make friendship so that we buy things at our final destination. They try to manipulate your buying decision by using their sweet voice "you may buuuy this fromm meeee". :) They are all really very lovely. Even tough its a lot of show behind all this. But their way of smiling right into your face is, I believe, really honest. After Sapa we really had a exhausting trip back to hanoi and in hanoi things got even worse. We arrived again very early..and in hanoi everything is dead at 6 am. We had a hard time to find somewhere to sit and have a cup of coffee...when we found a place...all of us were so damn tired that we just ordered something but then forgot about drinkin cuz we felt asleep :))) crazy...we had to kill around 8 hours till we could fly to ho chi minh - so we changed from restaurant to restaurant :) The ones with WIFI were the prefered ones :)So we arrived the night in Ho Chi Minh and this city appeared to us much nicer than Hanoi. I dont know maybe its because we got used to the system and so we didnt had a culture shok anymore like we did have in Hanoi. Anyway we got to this backpacker area and the day after we went to a wonderful trip to Mekong Delta. A lovely place. You're always on the water..driving along the lovely houses on the rivers crusing through this "islands". Very very nice! Since we just had four days in the South..we went to Mui Ne with the NIghtbus right after our Mekong Delta Trip. Mui Ne is actually just about Sand dunes, red and white ones. Its crazy how this country is build. On the one side in the north there is this green paradies with rice fields and
mountains...then in the south there are this wonderful beaches and then sand dunes like in a dessert. A great diversity. I was not aware of this since I got back from vietnam. Cuz once youre there..its exhausting. You cant be laidback and see what happens. You always have to be
careful..especially in the big cities there is not a lot space where you can just relax. But if I look on this country and on my trip from the distance...its really a great place to go. and there is so much more to see still!! Im looking forward to go back...SOOON!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen