The mystical landscape of

Halong Bay, where over

2,000 limestoneislets rise
fromthepiercingblue
watersof theGulf ofTonkin
Vietnam
From the island-studded seas of the north to the meandering waterways
of the south, Vietnam is a country dened by the diversity of its land
and the resilience and generosity of its people
WORDS OLIVER SMITH l PHOTOGRAPHS MATT MUNRO
T he P e rf e cT T ri P
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above lefTAshing boat
sails through Halong Bay
at dusk, as seenfrom the
summit of Titop Island.
above righTVo Tan, a
guide, sits onthe bowof
a junk anchored inthe bay
Your trip mapped out
Most visitors to Halong Bay arrive as part of
an organised tour sailing from Halong City.
Bien Ngoc offers a spectrum of day trips and
overnight tours, with many itineraries
includingTitop an island with outstanding
views of the bay (two days from 60 per
person; bienngoccruise.com).
WHERETOSTAY AND EAT
Bien Ngoc Cruises
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Vietnam is a country that is always on the move, from speeding scooters in its
crowded cities to the gently cruising junks in Halong Bay. Follow our adventure by
boat, bus and plane and, if youre feeling brave, hop on a scooter taxi too
Once upon a time, a friendly dragon lived
in the heavens above Halong Bay. With
invaders from the seas threatening
Vietnam, the gods asked the dragon to
create a natural barrier to protect its people.
The dragon kindly obliged, performing a
spectacular crash landing along the coast
digging up chunks of rock with its
ailing tail and spitting out pearls before
grinding to a halt.
This scene of devastation is now known
as Halong Bay Halong literally translates
as where the dragon descends into the
sea. Less exciting explanations of this
landscape involve eons of erosion by
winds and waves but nobody disputes
the splendour of the end result. Rising
from the shallows of the Gulf of Tonkin are
thousands of limestone islands towering
monoliths lined up like dominoes, some
teetering at worrying angles.
In Vietnamese culture, dragons are the
protectors of people, explains Vo Tan, a
FURTHERINFORMATION
l whc.unesco.org
HALONG BAY
Best for coast
miles intoyour trip: 0
HalongCity is rougHlyatHree-Hour drive east
of Hanoi by bus alongHigHway 18. fromHere,
Cruises for Halongbay depart frombai CHay.
HALONG BAY
Best for coast
Sail around Halong Bay to
witness Asias most staggering
coastal scenery, and to hear
talk of fearsome monsters
lurking in the waters below.
HANOI
Best for city life
From its noisy markets to its
food stalls, theVietnamese
capital is a place where the
street doubles up as one big
communal living room.
SAPA
Best for walking
With cascading rice paddies
and misty peaks, these
dramatic mountain landscapes
are home to an ethnic mosaic
of hill tribes.
HOI AN
Best for food
Not just a pretty face,
Vietnams most attractive
town is also its culinary
epicentre, with outstanding
street food and restaurants.
MEKONG
DELTA
Best for river life
Vietnams answer to the
Norfolk Broads, the Mekong
Delta is the place where the
land, the sea and one of Asias
greatest rivers all intersect.
guide who has been bringing people to
Halong Bay for two decades. I once saw
a picture of Halong Bay taken from above,
and it even looked a bit like a dragon.
Sailing into Halong Bay, its easy to
understand the hallucinatory effect these
strange shapes can have. The islands
names testify to the overactive imaginations
of sailors whove spent too long at sea
Fighting Cock Island, Finger Island, Virgin
Grotto (which is said to contain a rock the
shape of a beautiful woman). Having
largely resisted human settlement, the
islands have become home to other
creatures. From above, sea eagles swoop
down to pluck sh from the waters,
carrying their prey still apping high
into the air, and squawking congratulations
to each other from their nests. Down below,
countless jellysh drift about the hollows
that run beneath the cliffs.
A local legend tells of another, altogether
more sinister creature lurking in the waters
of Halong Bay. A gigantic sea snake and
close cousin of the Loch Ness Monster, the
Tarasque was seen on three occasions by
19th-century French sailors, with sightings
sporadically reported in Vietnams
tabloids since. I ask Tan who would win in
a battle between the Tarasque and Halong
Bays famous dragon.
Of course the dragon would win, he
grins. In Vietnamese stories, the good guys
are never allowed to lose.
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The Metropole dates back to French colonial
rule over Vietnam, with interiors that feature
smoky woodenoors, glittering chandeliers
and whirring ceiling fans. Guests can also
explore a rediscovered bunker, where staff
and residents sheltered during the bombing
of Hanoi in 1972 (from 139; sotel.com).
WHERETOSTAY
Sotel Legend
Metropole
lefTCommuters cross Hanois Long
Bien Bridge inthe morning rush hour.
oPPosiTe, clockwise fromToPlefT
HienDoholds postcardsof his war
propagandaposters; birdcages inthe
OldQuarter; afruit seller headingto
market; HienDoinhis studio; amarket
stall outsideanOldQuarter temple
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HANOI
Best for city life
miles intoyour trip: 90
regular buses runfrom HalongCity to Hanoi,
andtHe journey takes aroundtHree Hours.
Its rush hour in Hanoi, and the streets of
the citys Old Quarter throng with hundreds
of scooters. The pavement and the central
reservation are fair game in the chaos;
zebra crossings exist more as a personal
challenge than a guarantee of safe passage.
These are streets where Evel Knievel might
have written the highway code; where a
grandma on a scooter will think nothing
of driving headlong into a tidal wave of
oncoming trafc.
Hanoi is a city that refuses to grow old
gracefully a millennium-old capital of
crumbling pagodas and labyrinthine
streets, now undergoing a werewolf-like
transformation into a 21st-century Asian
metropolis. In the Old Quarter, ancient
temples now neighbour karaoke joints, and
dynasties of artisans ply their trade next
to shops selling cuddly toys the size of
grizzly bears. Hanoi is a city that muddles
up its past with its present where a statue
of Lenin raises a clenched st to teenagers
who skateboard past him every afternoon.
Few have studied the changing face of
the city as closely as Do Hien, an artist who
has spent a lifetime painting Hanois
streets. He welcomes me to his studio, and
idly leafs through sketches of city life
couples waltzing beside the willows of
Hoan Kiem Lake, and alleyways where
hawkers prepare steaming bowls of pho.
Hanoi is a place that runs in your blood,
Hien says thoughtfully, sitting cross-legged
among stubs of incense sticks and
paintbrushes strewn across his studio
oor. Had I not lived in this city I might
not be able to paint like I do.
There are reminders of darker chapters
in Hanois past among Hiens collection.
He began his career as a Viet Cong
propaganda artist applying brushstrokes
in between dashing off to ght the
Americans during the Vietnam War and
witnessed the bombing of his home town
during Christmas 1972. He shows me
propaganda prints of anti-aircraft guns
ring into skies above the city, and a giant
Vietnamese soldier grabbing an American
B-52 bomber from the air with his bare
hands, King Kong style. Today, posters like
these are in much demand among
collectors yet Hien struggles to paint
with the ferocity of his younger years.
I can copy these posters technically, but
I dont have the right kind of spirit, he
says. I try to remember what I was feeling,
but I dont have the same anger any more.
Like Hiens artwork, Hanoi too has moved
on. Hanging beside his front door is an oil
painting of Long Bien Bridge to many
locals, the enduring symbol of Hanois
resilience. Blown to pieces by American
bombs forty years ago, the bridge has long
since been patched up and repaired. It
now creaks under the weight of so many
scooters passing through.
WHERETOEAT
lLittle Hanoi offers good-value noodle and rice
dishes in an atmospheric dining room where
birdcages dangle from the ceiling (main courses
from 3; 9 Ta Hien Street).
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SAPA
Best for walking
miles intoyour trip: 300
overnigHt sleeper trains runtHe eigHt-Hour
trip from Hanoi to lao Cai, near sapa.
An evening fog hangs over Sapa a dense,
B-movie fog, mingling with smoke rising
from bonres on the valley oor. The clouds
sporadically open up a bit to reveal a village,
a chunk of a mountain, a patch of jungle,
before obscuring them from view again, like
stage scenery sliding into the wings.
Eventually the clouds lift, and the Hoang
Lien mountain range emerges. It is a
landscape of extraordinary beauty the
Asian highlands half-remembered from
childhood picture books and martial-arts
lms. Above are peaks thick to their
summits with greenery. Below, rice
terraces run down the hillsides at right
angles, as neatly as the folds in origami
paper. Here and there, water buffalo
stumble about rice paddies, chomping on
foliage and occasionally looking up to offer
gormless looks to passers by.
Sapa is a town where the weather seems
to operate on random rotation switching
between brilliant sunshine, thick fog,
driving rain and occasionally a dusting of
snow, before coming full circle to brilliant
sunshine, often all within the space of a
few minutes. A hill station settled by
Vietnams French colonists, Sapa now
serves as a trailhead for hikers happy to
run the meteorological lottery of a walk
in these mountains.
We have four seasons in one day here,
explains Giang Thi Mo, my guide,
shimmying along the edge of a rice paddy as
a rain cloud approaches. Theres no way to
predict the weather just be lucky!
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Harvesting has begunon
the terraced rice paddies in
avalley close to Sapa, the
main market townof
northwest Vietnam
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Set over rice terraces a short drive outside
Sapa, the Hmong Mountain Retreat has
small guest bungalows made from bamboo
and thatched with palm. Set dinners
(which are often vegetarian) are served in
a traditional Hmong house nearby. The
owners also offer trekking itineraries in the
surrounding hills (from 37 per bungalow;
hmongmountainretreat.com).
WHERETOSTAY AND EAT
Hmong Mountain
Retreat
lefT Riceharvestingnear thevillage
of BoLu; Lupeoplechewblackbetel.
oPPosiTeGiangThi Mo (left) and
friend in Black Hmongdress.
belowRipeningpaddies near Sapa
THE PE RF E CT TRI P
Destination name
THE PE RF E CT TRI P
Vietnam
Mo may live in Vietnam, but she
considers herself rst and foremost a
member of the Black Hmong a hill-tribe
originally from southern China who sought
refuge in these mountains centuries ago.
Black Hmong is just one of 53 minority
groups in Vietnam many of whom inhabit
the countrys highlands. Walking in these
valleys entails packing a different
phrasebook for every hour of the trek. Close
by are communities of Red Dzao, White
Thai, Lu and Giay all tribes with cultures,
languages and dress distinct from those of
lowland Vietnam, all equally well-practised
at life lived on steep gradients.
We pass through a village, and Mo points
to bamboo irrigation systems that send
trickles down the hillsides and into rice
pounders that see-saw with the current.
Theres a Hmong saying that we ow
with the water, she explains. It means we
dont worry too much, and take things easy.
Dusk begins to settle on the mountains
bonres are extinguished and water
buffalo herded homewards. The villagers
around Sapa all plump for an early bedtime.
Very soon the valleys are engulfed in a
profound stillness. The blinking lights of
reies cartwheel about in the gloom for a
short while, before disappearing from view,
presumably lost in another thick fog.
FURTHERINFORMATION
lsapa-tourism.com
LonelyPlanetTraveller November 2012 60
Actually nothing to do with the sport,
the Golf Hoi An Hotel offers large rooms
with dark-wood furniture, air conditioning
and balconies overlooking a central
swimming pool. From the hotel its roughly
a fteen-minute walk to downtown Hoi An
(from 30; golfhoianhotel.vn).
WHERETOSTAY
GOLF HOI AN HOTEL
lefT Le Hanh gives ademonstration at her
cooking school, Gioan.
oPPosiTe, clockwise fromToP lefT Shallots,
garlic and ginger at the market; astreet vendor
makes smoothies; breakfast onthestreet; a
ChinesetemplededicatedtoGoddessThienHau
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HOI AN
Best for food
miles intoyour trip: 910
direCt fligHts operate from Hanoi to danang
andtake 75 mins. Hoi anis 18 miles soutHof
danang loCal buses take less tHananHour.
Hoi An is a small town that likes a big
breakfast. As dawn musters strength on the
horizon, a small army of chefs sets to work
on Thai Phien street ring up gas cookers
and arranging plastic furniture on the
pavements. Soon, the city awakes to sweet
porridges; coffee that sends a lightning bolt
of caffeine to sleepy heads; sizzling steaks;
broths that swim with turmeric, chilli and
ginger. In Vietnam, street food is a serious
business a single dish prepared day after
day by the same cook, perfected and honed
by a lifetimes craft.
Food in Hoi An is about yin and yang,
explains Le Hanh, a young female chef
scrutinising vegetables at the morning
market. Its about balancing hot with cool,
sweet with sour, salty with spicy.
Carrying bags full of shopping, Le Hanh
leads me to her cooking school in a quiet
backstreet of Hoi An, where she quickly
sets about chopping up green papayas and
grilling sh in banana leaves. True to
Hanhs philosophy, cooking in Hoi An
goes big on contrasting avours; food that
plays good cop/bad cop with the palate.
The sharpness of sh sauce blends with
the subtlety of fresh herbs; cool lemongrass
makes way for the eye-watering panic of
accidentally chomping on a red chilli.
Food tourism is nothing new to Hoi An.
Japanese, Chinese and European merchants
sailed here in the 17th and 18th centuries,
trading in silks and ceramics and making
off with sacks of spices, tea and sugar. Still
standing in the centre of the town is a
Chinese temple to Thien Hau the Goddess
of the Sea with murals of her guiding
cargo ships homeward through stormy seas.
The ports fortunes waned, and Hoi An
has long since slipped into a state of
graceful dishevelment. Today, purple
bougainvillea springs from mustard-
coloured warehouses where merchants
once kept their goods, and the teak and
mahogany shutters creak on their hinges.
Wire birdcages hang from the branches of
tropical almond trees pet pigeons,
grackles and turtledoves cooing and
trilling inside. It looks like the Orient as
imagined in Graham Greene novels a
backdrop to period dramas involving khaki
suits and grim telegrams from London.
The merchants who brought Hoi An its
fortune have long since departed, but their
presence lingers on in the towns
gastronomy. Hanh reaches for a plate of
cao lau a noodle dish thought to have
been inherited from Japanese and Chinese
merchants, but which purists insist should
only be made using water from a particular
well in a backstreet of Hoi An.
In Hoi An, we cook food from all over the
world, says Hanh. We just make it better.
FURTHERINFORMATION
lHanh teaches at Gioan cooking school her
students learn to cook the likes of seafood hotpots,
spring rolls, beef curries and banana pancakes
(courses from 18; gioancookery.com).
WHERETOEAT
lSet in a French colonial building with an ornate
faade, LanternTown serves up numerous local
specialities. The upstairs balcony has waterfront
views (from 3; lanterntown.com).
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Apopular optionfor travellers in the Mekong
Delta, homestays see guests staying with
local families and helping them cook dinner.
One of the best is the Hung family
homestay, close to CanTho, which offers
hearty food and simple bungalows set along
a quiet riverbank. Excursions to the oating
market nearby at Cai Rang are also available
(0084903849881; stayfrom7 per person,
including dinner, excursion 5 per person).
WHERETOSTAY AND EAT
Hung homestay
Oliver Smithis staff writer at Lonely
PlanetTraveller. The highlight of his trip
was eating approximately one billion
spring rolls.
clockwise, fromToPlefTMrs Nguyen
brews a herbal medicine at home;
watermelons beingofoaded at Cai
Rangoating market; a boatyard;
Chau Ty, a boat builder at Cai Rang;
aferry crosses the Cai Chanhcanal
THE PE RF E CT TRI P
Vietnam
A heavy rain is falling on the Mekong Delta,
ooding the footpaths, swilling in the
gutters, turning riverbank mud from light
tan to a rich coffee colour. In the villages,
everybody runs for cover men, women,
infants, enough animals to ll Old
MacDonalds Farm: chickens, geese, dogs
and cats, all scurrying under iron sheet
roofs and looking hopefully up at a
slate-grey sky.
It is the rainy season, and water, water
everywhere might be the job description
for the Mekong Delta. A tangled network of
rivers, tributaries and canals, the waters of
the delta criss-cross the lowlands of
southern Vietnam, before emptying out
into the South China Sea through mighty,
yawning estuaries. For centuries, life here
has ebbed and owed in tandem with
the current of the Mekong an all-in-one
launderette, bathtub, highway, toilet,
dishwasher, larder, social club and
workplace for the communities surrounded
by its waters.
If you live on a river island with twenty
other people you have to learn to get along
with everyone, explains Mrs Bui Nguyen,
beckoning strangers to shelter in her
bungalow beside the Cai Chanh canal.
Thats the reason why people in the
Mekong are so friendly!
A 77-year-old who attributes her
longevity to a lifetime avoiding doctors,
Mrs Nguyen wistfully reects on the delta
of old in days when the only articial
light came from peanut oil lamps dotted
along the riverbanks; an age long before
roads had reached the villages.
Times have changed. However, human
life still instinctively congregates on the
waters edge. Lining the riverbank nearby
are grocers shops, cafs, a gym, a billiards
club and a blacksmiths, whose owner
makes kitchen utensils from helicopter
parts left over from the Vietnam War.
Floating markets, too, are still held every
morning at nearby Cai Rang with creaking
barges from across the delta bashing into
each other as they ofoad cargoes of
watermelons, pineapples and turnips.
The rain eases, and the rhythm of delta
life slowly begins to gather pace sampans
cast free of their moorings, children arrive
home from school on ferry boats and mud
skippers hop along the riverbanks. Setting
out downstream, the Mekong seems a
place of Eden-like abundance. Rafts of
water hyacinth drift along in the current,
spinning in the eddies. Skirting the
riverbank are shady papaya groves, banana
trees bent double under the weight of their
fruit and palms that seem to bow
deferentially to the boats that pass by.
Swollen with rainwater, the river seems
to quicken as we round a bend. The current
tugs at boats tethered to wonky jetties
seemingly inviting them to join the river in
its procession onward through the delta
and into the sea.
MEKONG DELTA
Best for river life
miles intoyour trip: 1,310
fligHts operate fromdanangtoHoCHi minHCity
andtake 75 mins. anexpress bus serviCe runs from
mientay stationinHo CHi minHto CantHo, tHe
largest City intHe mekongdelta, intHree Hours.
NEXT MONTH: THE PERFECT
TRIP TO QUEENSLAND
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