Ok, wrapping up the last post in this thread of blog posts. Sometimes it is crazy how there can be a period of a month where I do nothing, so not much to post about, but then there can be months where I need to post multiple posts (I also did go on vacation so this does make sense I need to keep an update).
My mom and I went down to Phnom Penh together to do tourism, but then when she got on her plane to go back to the United States, I got on a plane and headed to Hanoi. This was my first solo trip, ever (which I feel like shocks some people because I love to travel, but I have always done it with someone). My family was not too happy to hear that I was traveling alone, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from going to the places that I wanted to go! So although I too was also nervous about going alone, I still went. The reason I was always (and still kind of am) deterred from solo travel, is that it is a lot harder than it looks. It can feel isolating when you see other people with friends or family traveling around and you are by yourself. I can walk around alone no problem, but eating alone and trying to go out and do fun activities (that takes 2+ people) is difficult to go out of your comfort zone and rapidly find those people to do things with. I will say, that was the beauty of staying at a hostel because I found some people to do lots of things with the first two days (but then when they all left on day 3 it felt like pure heartbreak!) Ok, now I will finally dive into the traveling part of the trip, but this is just a PSA that if you see a solo traveller, especially one who seems a bit more shy, don’t be afraid to invite them over or talk to them (we will get to that later when I told some Australians that during a little chat on the side of a small hike).
*also sorry if this is a little step-by-step/boring to read over, so also enjoy the pictures! I am going to dip less into history and talk more about my order of events, and so I encourage you looking more into history stuff and also a trip to Vietnam to see the sites!
Hanoi
I landed in Hanoi and went to the Old Town, where the hostel was, and it felt like I walked into an instant party because there were so many people in the street. Apparently it is usually like that on the weekends, but also I did not realize that I was in Hanoi the same week of the 70th year of Independence, so every day there was something going on. That night was chill, and I got dinner by myself and then went back to the hostel. Test number one (mentally) to be more outgoing, I absolutely refused to go up to my room at 8:00 at night. So I saw this other girl hanging out in the lobby and I asked to sit with her and we ended chatting for awhile, and it turned out that we were in the same room! Her and I wanted to do similar things for tours the next day so it worked out well. The next day, we went to get breakfast at a cute place that I saw on Instagram and then we joined in on a free walking tour through the hostel. It was nice because we got to walk by the local markets and then we also got to see the famous train street (and actually see a train drive by it)! The girl I initially met was British and then we met two other American girls who we became friends with and went to see other sites with after that! We went to the Temple of Literature which was actually not a temple, but a school and then we also walked to one of the pagodas. I am skirting around the details because we genuinely did pure tourism stuff but it was fun! We then decided we wanted to go to the Water Puppet Show, and so before realizing that it was not on the actual lake/pond that is in Hanoi, I crossed the street (gold star to me) to get us tickets. We all realized that it was actually in a building and so everyone ended up crossing the street so we could see the show. Before the show started, we had a little time to kill, and so we walked around to some of the tourism shops and walked into one of the fabric/clothes stores. With a huge group of ladies already in there trying on clothes and stuff, we were just browsing around. Long story short, we all ended up picking out the same top to buy (which we later all decided that it would be fun to wear to dinner). After the water puppet show, one of the girls mentioned how there are a lot of cheap Michelin star/Michelin recommended restaurants in Hanoi, and so we decided to go to one (and actually we went to one on the pricier side because it was $12 for my meal… what!) (Also I ended up going to two more Michelin places, one was Pho —> this place I just stumbled upon with two newfound hostel friends-and one was Bun cha which was recommended to me because this is where Obama and Anthony Bourdain had lunch once).
Matching Shirts and Food
On my second full day in Hanoi, my hostel roommate and I met another girl in our room who ended up spending the day with us walking around going to more sites. We also went to some vintage thrift shops and this is when we got pho at the Michelin place (totally by accident). In the afternoon, we ended up at the hostel’s free 30-min beer time and met some more people, so we all went out for dinner and drinks after this. So like I said, it became easier to meet people at the hostel! That night I also had a really good time talking to all of the people I met at the hostel and it was really great to get to know them. And who knows, maybe you will run into them again in the future! The next day I was supposed to go on a tour to Ninh Binh alone, but then it turned out that the girl who was my other roommate in the hostel was also on the tour with me! Everyone else was in couples on the tour so it was nice to have a friend that I semi-knew because we did tourism together the whole day before.
Ninh Binh
Ninh Binh was really beautiful, we rode in paddle boats and we got to hike up the hill/mountain(?) that I have seen famously in pictures. There were so many people, once again, but it was nice to hike up (also gave me flashbacks to Kyle and I’s “healthy” trip to Thailand). I said bye to my hostel mate because she stayed in the town, whereas I went back to the hostel. That was when I was newly by myself again. After a couple days surrounded by people at the hostel, I was newly alone, and so on my “day alone” I went to get a haircut and my nails done in Hanoi, because why not. After that, I just walked around which is something I always like, but usually I like walking with music (I will shamelessly say I really like it when you think your life is like a movie and the music in your headphones matches the music that is the music soundtrack to your life - I know that is cheesy but I stand behind this statement).
The next day I went to Halong Bay, which was the thing I was most excited about for the trip, but now looking back was my least favorite. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but the story behind this one is that I ended up on a tour boat with only Spanish people. Literally it was a whole Spanish tour group and me. I do not know Spanish (and I wish I had Ana and Ainhoa there to help). And before you say “Alex you could have used Google Translate” or “Maybe someone spoke English” yes you are right, but they were all on vacation and it was clear that even within the group people were traveling in pairs, and so yes I could have made more of an effort to be outgoing, but that’s life. So it was a little bit of an isolating 24 hours, but it was nice that I sat outside listening to music and watching the rocks (land masses?) in the water as we drove by, so maybe I was still thinking my life was a movie at this point. Two girls on the boat did talk to me but we spoke in short sentences with the little English and little Spanish combination we both knew (also all the older Spanish people on the boat only spoke to me in Spanish and I kind of understood what they said but I only know Sì in Spanish and “very hot”). But this comes to the hike we did the next day. On day one in Halong Bay we saw the rocks and a cave. On day two, we woke up early and went to a small little island to swim and also hike up. I will proudly say that I hiked up that hill fast and was the first one up (besides the seller selling water) and it was peaceful before the masses of tourists started to hike. On my hike down, I passed a group of older Australian ladies. They asked me how much farther it was up the hill and I gave them a bit of encouragement. I forget how it came up, but we talked about how I was traveling alone and they asked how it was and I said it is sometimes difficult but overall ok, and then I mentioned the Spanish tour boat I ended up on. They mentioned how there was one girl traveling alone on their boat and they said they had been thinking about inviting her to come chat with them, but haven’t yet. It kind of felt like I was speaking for this girl but I said that I think she would really appreciate it if they invited her over. As I am typing this out this sounds like something that would happen in high school, but it was a group of nice ladies. But again, this just reminds me too (and I remind you too) that maybe if you see someone alone invite them! Maybe they want to be alone, that is a possibility, but it never hurts to invite someone first.
Ha Long Bay
Back down at the bottom of the hill I hung out before going back to the boat. When we came back to Hanoi, I walked around waiting for Kyle and her family to come back to Ninh Binh so I could go get dinner with them (I also got drinks with her and her sister after my Ninh Binh tour). I was slowly walking around the lake and some little kids and their teacher stopped me to practice speaking English with them (and for 7 years old their English was awesome!) As I kept walking I saw lots of teachers doing this with their students and other foreigners and I thought it was a nice activity to practice with native English speakers (this also happened to me later speaking English with some other kids too to practice, one even started telling me about the Typhoon).
Although all of my travels were booked alone, I ended overlapping my travels with Kyle’s, but in the first part, we only occasionally saw each other because she was with her family and our tours were on separate days. We walked around a large festival that was being set up for a marathon that was starting the next day (or should I say starting that night because the marathon was set to start at 3am).
Bright and early at 4am (only 1 hour after that marathon started) did I have to wake up to take a taxi to the airport (taxi was at 5). I have become too paranoid about missing a plane or a taxi not coming on time because of too many bad experiences, so I left a bit too early for the airport and ended up sitting in the terminal with Kyle and her family (on the same flight) for about 2 hours. We landed in Hue and parted ways to where her family and I did similar things, but I went at the tourism alone. Hue was absolutely gorgeous, especially the Old Imperial City. Of course, when I showed up another celebration was going on (I swear I was conveniently at every city during the exact time an event was going on). This time, it was a Knowledge Competition that was going on right outside the Old Imperial City. People were cheering loudly and throwing hats, and it turns out the city of Hue (the city that I was in) won the whole competition, so I actually ~accidentally~ watched the final moments of the competition of when the city won.
Hue Imperial City
Then I went into the Imperial City and did a walk around of the grounds. I met up with Kyle’s family later to go to an abandoned water park that you can walk around at. After that, Kyle, her siblings, and I went to go get coffee at one of the cutest coffee spots and then we went to get some of the traditional food of Hue at some random place, but nevertheless good. That night we walked around some more and played cards at my hostel before they had to leave. The next day, Kyle and her family left Hue, but I was still there, so I did one of those City bus tours. If you know me, you know that I do not like these tours, I cannot explain why. But I am not allowed to ride on a motorcycle and I did not want to pay for a lot of cars to take me around to different places in the cities, so I think this was the best choice to still see the sites outside the imperial city (and it honestly worked out pretty well). While I was on the bus, one of the girls I met in Hanoi was actually in Hue, and so we made plans to get dinner and drinks later. In the meantime after the hop-on-hop-off bus finished its round, I asked if I could just ride the bus around in a circle again. The lady on the bus looked at me like I was crazy. I mean, I had nothing else to do and I already paid for the bus ticket, so I just wanted to ride around on the bus and listen to music and look out the window. OK that does sound a little weird but like I like riding around in cars and I didn’t have to think about where I was going). So I did that. I met up with that girl I knew and we got drinks at a cute place before going to get food at a place recommended to me by the guy at the hostel. It turns out the food was one of the stands that is on the road with little tables and chairs on the sidewalk, but what is a trip without a food adventure (also the food was good). While we were sitting on the sidewalk, it started pouring down rain, but luckily there was some sort of a cover.
Pagoda and Mausoleum Stops on the Bus
On the road again, I took some buses at 6:45am from Hue to Hoi An. I say some buses because despite being at the exact location of what the ticket said, I got in a bus, then they moved me and then I got in another bus and then halfway through the drive, I was told to change buses. There were other people there (especially the second bus was only tourists). Also it isn’t too good to mention that I ran out of cellular data and so my phone was briefly not working, but hey I made it to Hoi An. This was when I got to meet up with Kyle because her family headed back to the US. We walked around Hoi An and saw the cute old town. Shout out to one of my favorite place which was a teahouse that supported people with disabilities and had these cue blocks to tell the staff if you needed something since the staff was deaf. It was a nice and quiet place (Reaching Out Teahouse)! That afternoon we hung out at the beach for an hour and Kyle went swimming but I actually was a little cold. I went to a bamboo circus show that night (which was AWESOME) and then we met back up and ended up getting dinner that night and then walked around and listened to live music at a bar.
Japanese Bridge, Teahouse, Lanterns!
The next day, I did a Vietnamese cooking class, and a guide walked us around the market. The market was similar to the ones I have in Cambodia, but it is always nice to have someone show you around the market, because it can be overwhelming! The cooking class was half the day and I learned how to make rice paper and also I made a spring roll dish (but I am not good at presentation so that was a bit of a struggle). I met a lot of nice people on the tour so it was nice too to chat to some different people (older couples and also families). I met back up with Kyle and we ended up walking around and decided to make lanterns, which I guess Hoi An is known for because there were lanterns everywhere. Clearly I am struggling in the presentation department because with the lantern, I put way too much glue so the lady helping us kept having to fix my lantern. That night was the full moon for the lunar month (something like that) and so we rode in a boat on the river and got to release a candle on the river. There were so many beautiful lights so it really felt like Tangled (except for those lanterns were released in the air, which I look forward to doing for a Cambodian holiday). We went back to the live music bar and ended up meeting two RPCVs from Zambia who just finished and are traveling in Southeast Asia (crazy small world!) We chatted with them for so long, and so it was a bit of a late night to then once again have to be at the airport early for our 9am flight to Ho Chi Minh City (we still had to leave early because Hoi An is 45 minutes to an hour drive away from the Da Nang Airport).
Walking Around and Lantern Making
Me Trying to Make a Lantern
The Festival, On a Boat!
Ho Chi Minh City was a quick, less-than 24 hours experience, so I for sure did not get to see it all, but my wdonerful walking-tour-guide aka Kyle, read me some fun facts while we walked around the city! We also go to go to the Cafe Apartments and also went to a speakeasy through a telephone booth. We went to some museums and read more about the Vietnam War at the War Remnants Museum as well as went to the Post Office (and send a postcard). This all wrapped my trip up nicely before catching the bus back to Cambodia to then go home the next day to then turn back around and go to Battambang with Caroline just two days after that!
Like I said before, this blog was more of a step by step/things that I did on my trip (which was also me trying to remember everything I did because I had many long tour days and many early morning catching transportation!) This blog is to keep everyone updated with my life, but it is also to remind me of the specific anecdotes that I don’t have pictures for, but I have the memories for.
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