After 26 days in Northern Vietnam, it was time to move south. We took the strangest train of our lives from Ninh Binh to Phong Nga, an 8-hour journey that may be the truest “local” experience we’ve had (see why in the Observations section). In Phong Nga, we found our favorite place in central Vietnam, exploring caves in the jungle-covered national park. From there, we continued south to Hue, the former capital of Vietnam and home to the Imperial City, former residence of the Emperor. Finally, we ended our short stint in central Vietnam with a stop in Hoi An, a touristy town known for its tailors, markets, and old town.

Touring

Phong Nga

Phong Nga is a national park protecting karst mountains and is known for its outstanding caves. In fact, Phong Nga is home to the largest cave in the world. Unfortunately, visiting costs $3000, takes 5 days, and requires waiting on a 2-year waiting list. As you can guess, we did not visit this cave. Instead, we checked out 2 other caves.

To start, on the day we arrived in Phong Nga, we rented a motorbike and drove to the very impressive Paradise cave. It’s massive, it’s beautiful, it’s probably the coolest cave we’ve ever seen. Peaking at 100 meters tall, it could fit a 20+ story building inside its walls! Some companies offer multi-day tours through this cave but, for a more casual experience, we chose to admire the cave from wooden platforms built along the first 1 km of this 31 km long cave.

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Next, throwing casual tourism out the window, we took a super adventurous 1-day tour of the Tu Lan Cave System. Due to the nature of the tour, we have very few photos as our phones were sealed in a dry box. Not only did we ford multiple 4.5 foot deep rivers, we also swam ~1000 feet through an underground river. Besides getting very wet, we hiked to 2 virtually untouched caves and had lunch beside the river. All told, despite being soaked and a bit cold, we had a lot of fun and consider this tour among the coolest things we’ve ever done.

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Hue

We dropped into Hue, the Imperial City and former seat of the emperor, for our second stop in central Vietnam. Our favorite activities here included a visit to the Imperial Citadel, exploring an abandoned water park, and a zen cooking class.

Imperial Citadel

The Imperial Citadel, a large complex of gardens and buildings where the emperor lived, exceeded our expectations. After many disappointing temples in northern Vietnam, we’d pretty much written off visiting old things while in the country. Consequently, we made our way to the Citadel with low expectations, thinking we were just checking a box. Fortunately, we were completely wrong. Instead of just checking a box, we found ourselves wandering the gardens and buildings for over 2 hours. Wyatt, in particular, loved walking through the gardens, totally zenned out, with a light drizzle falling on his head.

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Thuy Tien Lake Abandoned Water Park

An abandoned water park sits just outside of Hue, only 10 km from the city center. Back in 2004, with construction costs rising, the company building the park opened it prior to completion. The incomplete park failed to attract sufficient visitors and was, therefore, abandoned within a few years. Since then, as it is reclaimed by nature, it has become a popular attraction for backpackers looking for off-the-beaten-path destinations.

We drove a motorbike to the park where we paid the standard 10K Dong entry bribe (~50 cents per person). As we explored the rundown attractions, we kept remarking at how much it feels like a zombie movie – or maybe Jurassic Park. Every surface is either covered by graffiti or broken glass. Similarly, every building has plants poking out of it.

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Cooking Class and Meditation

We booked a combination cooking class and meditation for our second to last night in Hue and really loved it.

For starters, the cooking class was held at the home of a relatively well off family in the “suburbs”. This gave us the opportunity to compare upper-middle-class Vietnamese life with both the life of poor people in Vietnam as well as upper-middle-class life in the U.S. Their home compared favorably with an American middle-class home; they had a car, marble kitchen counters, and even pool table, though they didn’t have a couch. In our experience, all of these features are quite unusual here. Instead, most families have a moped, basic kitchen, and far too little room for a pool table.

Just as importantly, they taught us to cook 3 absolutely delicious vegan dishes plus they made us a fourth, equally delicious dish. Then, during dinner, we chatted about Vietnam, the U.S., and travel with them happily providing candid answers to our questions about Vietnam.

Finally, we attended a 1-hour meditation in a nearby Buddhist temple. At the end of the meditation, the 4-foot tall master monk told us how excited he was to have us and gave bracelets to both of us.

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Misc Hue Pics

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Hoi An

Hoi An is among Vietnam’s most popular destinations with ~4 million annual visitors. Each year, visitors are attracted by cute architecture, nighttime riverboats, beaches, and inexpensive tailors (custom-tailored suits can be found for under $100).

All things considered, we should have skipped Hoi An. Many people love the place but, other than cute architecture, we were not excited by the town. Unfortunately, the weather was not suitable for the beach and our small bags have zero room for new clothes so we didn’t really do the standard “Hoi An Things”. Instead of touring, we booked all of our travel and lodging in Thailand as we were concerned things might fill up – we’ll be there during the peak holiday season.

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Observations

Short Honk = “Here I Am”, Long Honk = “You’re in my way!”

In previous posts, we’ve remarked on the ridiculous amount of honking in Vietnam but we think we’ve finally decoded what various honks mean. In most countries we’ve visited, honking is used as either a last resort signal – “We’re about to crash!!” or to indicate annoyance with another driver – “Turn off your brights, asshole!” In Vietnam, in contrast, honking is completely different. Drivers constantly use short honks to indicate their position on the road. For example, they might honk when coming around a hairpin turn or before passing a vehicle that is in front of them. Long honks or a burst of honks, on the other hand, indicate that you’re in their way. As an example, drivers burst honk when you’re in front of them in a crosswalk or when a vehicle in front of them is holding them up.

Who buys weed off this guy!?!

We were asked if we wanted to buy weed literally every day we were in Hue. At its peak, we were asked 4 times in one day! A few guys cruise the tourist area on their motorbikes, pull up to every tourist they see, then whisper “Marijuana? Weed? Marijuana?”

They’re out there all day so someone has to be buying but our question is who. Who buys weed off some random dude on a motorbike?? You don’t know what’s laced in that stuff.

Hello!

We can easily tell how far we are from the standard tourist circuit by who shouts “Hello!”. In the least touristy areas of Vietnam, we’re constantly inundated by enthusiastic calls of “Hello!”, from playing children to lounging adults. Similarly, in the moderately toured areas, children continue to enthusiastically say “Hello!” but the adults either ignore us or ask us to buy things. Finally, in the most touristy areas, adults and children both ignore us.

Trains

In the intro, we noted that our train to Phong Nga was the strangest we’ve ever experienced. Here are a few highlights:

• Multiple couples brought bamboo mat’s on the train which the wives used to sleep on the floor while their husbands slept on their seats. One of these women even stayed on the floor to eat a dish she shared with her husband.
• Jackie drank a diet Coke during the trip then left if on her tray table. Later, the man in the seat in front of her put his arms over his head, draped them over the back of his seat, and, on encountering her can, fondled it for several minutes. Any person we know would have apologized for accidentally touching her can but he played with it instead! What?! Fortunately, she was already finished so she was bemused instead of outraged.
• One family walked their bare-bottomed baby up and down the aisle. Hope they don’t need to poop!
• One man brought 3 giant potato sacks with unknown contents on the train. He sat with one between his legs, another on his lap, and the third in the isle. At one point, he argued with a few train officers for 15 minutes but nothing more came of it so… Potato Sack Guy -> 1 — Train Officers -> 0

Conclusion

Vietnam continues to be beautiful and culturally fascinating. As we travel south, however, we’ve come to the realization that the best of Vietnam is in the north where it’s the cheapest and also the prettiest. With that said, Phong Nga was beautiful and we really enjoyed Hue. Next up, we end our time in Vietnam by visiting a few locations in the south; Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City, and the Mekong Delta.