After leaving Laos, we headed to Vietnam. This was the longest leg of our trip and we stopped in multiple cities from north to south.
We started in Hanoi where we stayed in this hotel room that had 3 twin beds. How cool.
Anyway Hanoi was sort of just an outlet to Halong Bay. It’s a big city and we basically just went to dinner when we arrived and then went to bed. If I remember correctly, we went to a huge buffet and felt like we were in Vegas and took these pictures outside the restaurant.
The next day, we began our overnight boat trip on Halong Bay. Our boat was called Bai Tho Junk, which means “Wooden Junk” in English. Sleeping on a boat is literally my worst nightmare, and somehow I managed to get the room with the broken air conditioning (remember the hot humid Southeast Asian summer). It was an awful awful night, but the rest of the boat trip was pretty great. Fortunately, we were on the calm bay, so no panic attacks from me, and we did not die.
This was my shower, right next to my toilet, with no way of keeping the water off of the bathroom floor.
We started with an awesome seafood lunch, and probably one of the best meals we had the whole trip, but that doesn’t actually say so much. (We didn’t eat super well on this trip because we were super amateurs right out of college and the whole thing was preplanned and guided through a travel agency.) We also took a cooking class on board where I “learned” how to make a “flower” out of a tomato, and I did not do a very good job as you can see.
We saw some beautiful scenery.
We took a small boat off of the big boat to see a floating village, or “fishing village” as they called it. This is a village literally built on docks in the water, and there is no inhabitable land anywhere in sight. I assume they fish for food, and swim for recreation, which is why this is called a fishing village.
We boated to some huge caves.
And we swam in the bay.
My face looks cold. Or maybe thrilled to not be so hot anymore?
Overall a pretty good 36 ish hours and definitely worth doing if you find yourself in North Vietnam.
On our way back to Hanoi, we stopped at an arts center for people with disabilities. They make and sell jewelry and paintings and stuff, and it was cool to see and meet the people.
After that, we did explore Hanoi a little bit before leaving for central Vietnam. I hated this city. It is very overcrowded and there are like zero traffic laws or lights and everyone is just riding around on their motorcycles not interested in stopping for pedestrians. Our guide told us that you “just have to go. They’ll stop.” They did not stop. So I got hit by a motorcycle here. It wasn’t bad, like a mild bump in a traffic jam, but we couldn’t wait to get out of Hanoi simply because it was virtually impossible to get around on foot.
We did not go here, but we did get this picture of the sign. 
Like, what directions are all of these people going in and how do they know they won’t hit each other? 
We made is across. Jen did not. I guess based on the fact that she is not still in Vietnam she did eventually make it. 
See that crosswalk? It’s useless. They do not stop for pedestrians. As you may be able to tell from the pedestrian trying to cross.
Next we packed up and headed south to Danang. This was just a stop along the way to Hoi An, and there was basically nothing there except an airport and this big ceramic store. I guess ceramic stores become an attraction when you have nothing but an airport to show people.
Then we drove to Hoi An. This was a cute little town to just walk around, see some shops and culture different from your own, and relax. We also spent some time at the beach while in Hoi An. Here’s just some stuff we saw while roaming the streets.
Finally, we headed to Hue, our last stop in the central areas of Vietnam. Hue was about a 3 hour drive from Hoi An with some beautiful sights along the way.
Once we arrived in Hue, we visited the Imperial Citadel, which was where some kings and emperors used to live and stuff. History is not my thing, don’t ask me more about this. I feel like I remember them showing us some bullet holes and war stuff while we were there too. Who knows.
After that we just strolled around the city of Hue, which was smaller and more manageable than Hanoi.
The next day we went to an incense village, where, naturally, they make incense, and visited some old tombs of kings and queens before we got ready to go to Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon). You may notice from the pictures below that it was exceptionally hot and sweaty that day. Jen’s face was super red, because, 100 degrees 100% humidity, and our guide asked her if she was drunk. I thought this was a fascinating question and wondered if he knew that the red face when drunk is a predominantly Asian trait.
Ho Chi Minh is the biggest and busiest city in Vietnam, and there is a lot of Vietnam War history to see here (except they call it the American War). The Chu Chi tunnels were definitely a highlight of the city and Vietnam as a whole. They are a series of underground tunnels that were built as hiding places for the Vietnamese during the war. They’re really cool – some fully built homes underground – and the original entrances were so small that most American men would not be able to fit through them since Americans are generally larger than Vietnamese people.
I don’t know any grown man who would fit into this hole, and 11 years and 3 kids later I probably wouldn’t fit either. 
We also saw some traps. 
It looks like these fake people might be cooking? 
This reminded me of a similar exhibit at a Holocaust Museum. 
We then went to a war museum which showed how evil Americans were to the Vietnamese during the war. It was fine and interesting I guess, but I’m a super non museum person so I definitely found the tunnels to be a more interesting depiction of what happened during the war.
We went to drive by the Presidential Palace, which is fine if you’re driving by anyway, but a waste of time if you’re not. You can’t actually get through the gates, so you can basically just get out of the car and take a picture in front of the gate, and then move on with your day.
We walked around the city a little bit, and it was equally as terrifying as Hanoi was (remember, lots of motorcycles not lots of traffic laws), but we had a guide with us this time so he helped us navigate the situation making it much more manageable. I think I also maybe saw one or two crossing guards at the busier intersections.
We ended our time in Vietnam with a walk through a big indoor market where we could walk around and see some of the local shops and souvenirs. And then we packed up for the last leg of our adventure – Cambodia!
Before we head to Cambodia though, I’ll leave you with these pictures of the progression of my bruise from being hit by a motorcycle.
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 
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