Vietnam: Hanoi to Hoi An

Ha Long Bay

March 2023

Despite being (roughly) the geographic centre of the Old World, India has notoriously poor air connectivity to most of the countries in the region. You can hardly fly direct to anywhere apart from the major hubs. Hence, when VietJet suddenly opened three direct flights to Vietnam from Mumbai, our first destination of 2023 picked itself. Within a day, a new Lonely Planet was ordered, an on-line Vietnamese class was signed up, and the entire lecture series of Stephen Young was downloaded. Unfortunately, resources don't automatically translate to knowledge or result. When we boarded the flight all we had was a half-baked itinerary, inability to tell between the Ly and the Le and we knew exactly three phrases in Vietnamese. Thankfully, one of those was "an chay" which translates to vegetarian, all that we needed to ensure we don't get floating meat pieces in our meat broth based Pho.

VietJet, being a low cost budget airlines, flies only under the cover of darkness, deposited us in Hanoi at human-right violating four in the morning. After convincing the hotel front desk to let us in early, convincing our body that it was fresh and the leftover airport sandwich was food, we hit the Hanoi sights. First up, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Thang Long Citadel. After dominating Vietnam for nearly a thousand years, the Chinese were finally kicked out in 938 AD. The initial chaos of several blink and miss dynasties were stymied when the Ly dynasty came to power in 1009 AD. They built themselves a new capital to rule from, Hanoi and the Citadel was their seat of power. After one of the oldest building in Hanoi, we headed to one of the youngest - the concrete cube which houses Ho Chi Minh. As the queue to enter the monument was as long as the namesake trail, we made no attempts to join it, but worked our way around it to see a 10th century pagoda that sits besides the mausoleum, on a single pillar. Ly Thai Tong, the second Ly emperor, dreamt of being handed a male child by Avalokiteswara sitting atop a lotus and since he did eventually father a son (in the normal way - children do not come from mythical beings sitting on aquatic plants), he decided to build a pagoda that sort of looks like a lotus.

Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hanoi

By now our legs had started to revolt. So we grabbed (in ASEAN region, Grab is a taxi and hence the verb intransitive) our way to Truc Bach Lake which has an assortment of pagodas around it - the Taoist Quan Thanh, the 6th century Tran Quoc and the tiny Thuy Trung. We continued grabbing till the next biggest lake - Hoan Kiem. If you know Vietnamese language, but not its history (for some strange reason), you might be wondering why the lake is called "The Returned Sword". The name refers back to the time of one of Vietnam's greatest heroes - Le Loi. He, against all odds, defeated the Ming Chinese and re-liberated Vietnam and started the Le dynasty. Legend has it that he managed this with a divine sword which he had to return here once the task was completed. The lake houses a temple dedicated to another of Vietnam's heroes, Tran Hung Dao, the only human (alive, dead or fictional) to have defeated the dreaded Mongols twice. We downgraded from a Grab motorbike to a Cyclo (Vietnamese cycle rickshaw) and checked out the final smorgasbord of sights that the city has to offer - an Opera House modelled after the Palais Garnier, the symbol of Vietnamese resistance - the Long Bien Bridge which kept getting rebuilt as fast as the Americans could bomb it, a 4 km long ceramic mural built to commemorate a millennium of Hanoi's founding, a spectacular History Museum housing a stride stopping Avalokiteswara statue, the nation's first Cathedral and finally ending with one of the classic Hanoi attractions, its Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius and his teachings.

Hang Mua Viewpoint, Ninh Binh

Yes, all that was day one. Thankfully, the next day was all sitting and hardly any walking. We were driven to and later boated around the most famous bay in all of Southeast Asia - the Ha Long. The name means "descending dragon". Yes "Ha" in Ha Long is "descending" while the "Ha" in Hanoi is "river" - welcome to the fascinating world of tonal languages. The bay with its limestone hills jutting from impossible angles and from unexpected places is a nature's gift and one of the prettiest spots on the planet. After admiring the hills from comfort of the boat, we entered one to visit the largest cave in the region (the Sung Sot) and climbed one to enjoy one of the most unforgettable sights of our lives - the panorama from the top of Titop (an island named after the Russian cosmonaut Titov).

The picture perfect weather of Halong was too good to last. The next day greeted us with dull skies and incessant rain. We took the long route to Ninh Binh. First up, the Thay Pagoda, a 11th c temple with a floating Vietnamese pavilion in the middle of a serene pond, the place where Tu Dao Hanh, the inventor of Vietnamese water puppet made his grand debut. Next up, the holiest pilgrimage site in all of Vietnam, the Perfume Pagoda Complex. Gods, everywhere, always play hard to get and Vietnam is no exception. To reach the main temple, you need to drive forever, then take an electric car, then boat along a river and finally cable car up a mountain to join a Tirupati level crowd jostling its way into a cave. Now, imagine doing all that without the means to pay for the various transportion along the way and you can imagine the devotion of the locals. The cave houses the holiest sanctum hidden behind a gigantic stalagmite. After an transcendental couple of minutes listening to "Om Mani Pamme Hum" reverberating in the natural chamber, we headed out to enjoy one of the perks of visiting a pilgrimage site - all food stalls sell veggie affairs. We could finally taste meatless street food of Vietnam. And it was delicious. And we packed enough for the next couple of days. Ergo, prayers work? Before the day ended, we did manage to get to Ninh Binh where the weather cleared enough for us to check out one of the myriad attractions the place has to offer - the Hang Mua Viewpoint. A 30 min climb brought us to a jaw dropping view of verdant rice fields nestled in rolling limestone hills, a vista that could take on any the Ha Long bay offered the previous day. The day finally did end despite the hotel doing its best to prolong it with a snap karaoke party.

Paradise Cave, Phong Nha

Ninh Binh has to go down in our travel annals as the place with the most varied set of tourist attractions. We did see a literal high point the previous night. We started at the literal low one, canoeing the waters of Trang An, a waterway that flows around and through the hills of Central Vietnam. We floated through many a long tunnels barely high enough for the stalactites to avoid our heads, past many stunning pagodas nestled between towering hills and around many islets housing gorgeous pavilions. The whole place is deemed an UNESCO Heritage Site for its sheer scenic beauty. The subject changed to History when a short 15 min ride brought us to Hoa Lu, the capital of Vietnam between 968 and 1009 AD. It was here the first emperor Dinh Bo Linh and his general and successor Le Dai Hanh lorded from and here is where they lie for eternity in their tombs. The subject now changed to Theology when another short drive brought us to Bai Dinh, the largest Buddhist complex in the country, so large that we needed to be ferried pagoda to pagoda on electric trams.

The following day was the worst day of the trip, weatherwise. It rained all day. But, it worked out well, as the plan for the day did not involve heading outside at all. We had to sit in the car for the entire day as we drove (well, were driven) to Phong Nha. Unlike Ninh Binh, Phong Nha is just a one trick pony. And the trick is (or rather "are") its caves. Not any old cave. But easily the most spectacular set on the planet. Ensconced in the oldest Karst mountains in all of Asia. One of which being the biggest cave on the planet, so big that it has a rainforest inside it, so astonishing that it adorned the front pages of the National Geographic. Unfortunately, all the record breaking caves are off limits to casual tourists. Getting there involves serious caving and survival skills. But there are enough also-rans that are not only pot-bellied middle aged couple friendly, but also impressive enough to make it to anyone's top ten. We checked the two of the best the following day, the massive Paradise Cave which drives home your insignificance by its sheer size and the waterlogged Phong Nha where we got to watch for the first time in our lives impressive formations floating past us as we were rowed through the cave. Four more hours in the car brought us back to civilisation.

Ngo Mon Gate, Imperial Enclosure, Kinh Thanh, Hue

The city we now found ourselves in was Hue, the capital of the last Vietnamese dynasty. The Nguyens took over from Le in 1802 and ruled the country till the end of the World Wars. And since they were the lords of the South, they shifted the capital to here from Hanoi, built themselves a sumptuous Imperial Complex to spend the ephemeral and even more impressive tombs to spend the eternity. We started at the former, bright and early making the good use of early opening times and earlier breakfast times, two great things about Vietnam which I hope the rest of world will eventually emulate. The benefit we reaped was to have the stunning lacquered corridors of Thai Hoa, the majestic To Mieu complex, the imposing Dien Minh Than, the serene Truong San and the never ending array of iconic ornate gateways, all gleaming in soft morning light, all devoid of crowd. With the morning well spent, and a memory card filled up with viral-worthy selfies, we headed to check out the Royal Tombs. We decided to do them in the chronological order. We started at the wonderfully remote tomb of the founder Gia Long and worked our way through the tomb of his successor, Minh Mang, with its towering three storied Toa Minh Lau and that of Tu Duc, the longest reigning Nguyen, with exquisite pavilions reflected on serene ponds and finally crescendo-ing at the over-the-top embellishment of Khai Dinh, the tomb that was the proverbial last straw that broke the peasants' back and pushed the country towards Communism. Somewhere in between all these superlatives we managed to squeeze in the Thien Mu pagoda. The 1601 temple would not have been relegated to the footnote had it not been drowned by the royal opulence that surrounds it.

Golden Bridge, Ba Na Hills, Da Nang

The following day was the long drive to Hoi An with a sumptuous pit stop at the country's fifth largest city, Da Nang. Da Nang has two famous mountainous attractions. Strangely, the taller one is called a hill and shorter one a mountain. We headed to the hills first, Ba Na being its official name, which is now developed into a high end resort. The pilgrimage involves taking the longest cable car ride on the planet to top of a hill overflowing with readymade photo points and then jostling with the crowd to enforce your birth-right to photobomb everyone's Instagram pictures. This elaborate tourist trap which sets you back $50 per head is well worth the trouble. It is hard to believe something this tacky can be made to look this elegant. If Ba Na Hills is all modern and fancy with a new attraction popping up every new moon, the Marble Mountains (the second of the two previously mentioned attractions) hasn't changed a bit in millennia. These five limestone outcrops (marble is what you get when subject limestone to ungodly pressure and heat) hides large cavernous chambers and many of which have housed temples since at least the 5th century. Walking through these cathedral like spaces and stumbling into a peaceful Buddha statue meditating quietly in a corner is a truly surreal experience, the picture perfect example of which can be seen at the Huyen Khong, a place so otherworldly that I wouldn't even bother to describe it. Just Google its image and do it yourself. After the mountain and the hill, all that was left were the sundry Da Nang sites. The decade old Dragon Bridge, which I am told literally breathes fire over the weekends, the century old Pink Cathedral and the intriguing Museum of Cham Sculpture housing a millennium old Cham artefacts, the largest of its kind on the planet.

Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An

And just like that, we were at the end of our trip finishing at Hoi An, the city whose name is an anagram of the one we started at. Hoi An was founded in the 16th century as a port town built up and inhabited mostly by Chinese and Japanese merchants and sailors. The town is made up of lavish old houses, their congregation halls and their temples. Most of these have now been converted to shops and restaurants. Thankfully, a score of these remain as how they used to be and are now ticketed monuments. The pick of the lot are the four Chinese Assembly Halls and a covered bridge dating from the 1590s. The whole old town is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, an absolute pleasure to walk, wander and get lost. And the icing on top of all these are the abundant vegan restaurants dishing out modified (i.e. tofu-fied) authentic Vietnamese dishes for the woke-American tourists, Gujju uncle-anties and Tam-Bram mama-mamis, a disperate group brought to gether by their dietary preferences.

An hour away from Hoi An sits My Son - note the capitals - I amn't talking about our son, but an actual physical place, the largest and the best preserved Champa ruins. While the north changed hands from Ly to Tran to Le to Nguyens, the south was steadfastly held onto by the Champa Kingdom. And while the Chinese love writing jotting down every yawn, sneeze, and giggle, the Hindus, on the other hand, would rather memorise the entire Vedas than etch an apostrophe. The result: all we know about the My Son site is that it can be dated back to 4th century to the reign of one Bhadravarman. And the temples today are imaginatively named as A, B, C etc with the longer original name lost to history. Having ranted that, what's in a name? Misquoting Shakespeare, an ancient temple in this setting by any name would look as dramatic. Roaming the remote My Son was a perfect place to contemplate and conclude any trip. At the end of the day, what really stood out on this trip is the sheer variety of things we saw and experienced. In Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An, we had three cities as different from each other as possible. Between Ha Long and Phong Nha, we covered the best the nature had to offer. My Son and Ba Na spanned two millennia of human ingenuity. The food was the biggest surprise of all. We had enough vegetarian choices and our extreme fear of having to live on coconut water for a fortnight was idiotically unfounded. And all this was just one-third of this wonderful country, the central bit. Hopefully the direct flights would last long enough for us to check the rest off our bucket list.