We travelled to the northern part of Vietnam a few times while we were living in Vietnam. These were a few of the places we explored:
Hanoi
Vietnam’s capital city is bustling and vibrant with lots to see and do. On weekends, the main street around the lake is closed to vehicles, and so people can play games, listen to live music and enjoy the cooler evenings and illuminated buildings. We tried the famous egg coffee- hard to describe- egg white, sugar, vanilla over top of an espresso? It was delicious! The Cafe Giang claims to have invented the egg coffee. We toured the Museum and grounds dedicated to Ho Chi Minh and we booked a great food tour that took us through the many small streets of the old downtown section. We booked a beautiful boutique hotel with a rooftop bar with Expedia called the Hanoi Emerald Waters Hotel
Ha Long Bay
Our trip to Ha Long Bay was wet but beautiful! We took a one night cruise on a boat with 33 others. We met people from Ireland, Israel, and Korea. We got in a quick kayak paddle before the rain pelted us. The water was warm. The huge thunderstorm was extra exciting while out in the tender boat! Later, we learned that a typhoon had passed nearby! We sailed to the Hang Sung Sot Caves and we were able to explore them on foot. The limestone caves and mountains are a designated UNESCO site. It is a beautiful place but was very crowded tourist destination.
Sa Pa
Normally, October is a much drier time to visit Sa Pa, but we experienced a lot of wet weather as a tropical storm passed through. Luckily, we still got to see the beauty of the mountainous place. Our 17 year old local travel guide, Li, didn’t seem to mind the weather. Despite her petite stature (about 4′ 8″) she successfully guided us down a few very slippery parts of the path! We walked through small villages and saw how indigo dyed fabrics were made. The town of Sa Pa is quite pretty. Many buildings reminded me of chalets. There were lots of restaurants to choose from. We used Expedia to book our accommodations, and we relied on TripAdvisor to review dining options. Unfortunately, there had been a land slide just before our planned train trip. As a result, our overnight train trip to and from Sa Pa also included a detour by bus. We were shuttled onto busses for 70 km (in the middle of the 300 km route). The tracks were up and running the day after. Vietnam can experience severe weather, but things are always repaired quickly. Normally, this is a great way to get to Sa Pa from Hanoi as you can avoid the windy bus route. We were lucky that we were not on the train when the landslide occurred!
