This Is A Lake - A travel blog

Want to discover Vietnam, north to south, but don't have two months to do the backpacker experience? Here's a great, compact two-week itinerary that will get you to the country's main highlights without making everything feel like a blur: Hanoi Day 1: Arrival in Hanoi Read : The Old Quarter of Hanoi Day 2: Hanoi Read : The Imperial Citadel, the Temple of Literature Day 3: Hanoi Read : The French Quarter, the History Museum, Hoa Lo Prison Halong Bay Day 3: Hanoi → Halong Bay Read : Halong Bay, Part 1 Day 4: Halong Bay → Hanoi → Sapa (by night train) Read : Halong Bay, Part 2 Sapa Day 5: Sapa Read : Sapa, Cat Cat Village Day 6: Sapa → Hanoi (by night train) Read : Sapa, Lao Chai, Ta Van Hue Day 7: Hanoi → Hue Read : From Hanoi to Hue Day 8: Hue Read : The Imperial Citadel of Hue Day 9: Hue Read : The Tombs of the Emperors  Hoi An Day 10: Hue → Hoi An Read : Hoi An: First Contact Day 11: Hoi An R

When I opened the curtains this morning, I found the sun was staring me in the face. I was picked up at the hotel at 07:15 for my tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, around 50 km out of HCMC. We were driven to a pier nearby and boarded a speedboat on the Saigon river. It was a pleasant ride -the weather was nice, we were shielded from the sun, and the wind on our faces was a nice way to wake up! I was surprised to find that only another tourist boat and we were in the river at the time, I expected more traffic. Every once in a while we'd cross a barge with locals who were having breakfast or working and would wave at us as we passed by. It took a good hour's time to cover the distance between the pier at HCMC and our arrival in Cu Chi. The river has entire sections completely covered by floating plants, fairly big, green plants that look like bushes on solid ground but are really just floating on the water's surface. Our boat seemed to part them with ease, and o

Today it's sunny and a sweltering 30°C again! Now I finally understand why so many people are out the door by 6AM, get stuff done before the sun's high in the sky, then take a break until it goes down again. I didn't do it, mind you, but I get it. I had the hotel call me a cab and I went to the Jade Emperor's Pagoda, as recommended by my LP guide. It's 3 km away from the city centre, which came down to 51,000 VND (€2,15). It was... not what I expected. For one thing, I didn't see any pagodas. It's a shrine, built in the early 20th century in honour of the highest Taoist god (the Jade Emperor). It was dark and filled with statues and incense urns. It's very much a place of worship and not geared for tourism, as evidenced by there being only one word in English in the entire place -"Exit". I know how to catch a message. On the outside, there's a tiny pond with dozens of turtles sunbathing lazily over each other. Since I'd g

So today I said goodbye to Hoi An and took a cab to Da Nang airport to catch a plane to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. I was surprised to note that the Da Nang terminal was a lot nicer than the one in Hanoi, at least it didn't look positively sovietic! Also, I was warned about this so I'll pass it on: when you leave a Vietnamese airport, you have to show your luggage ticket to staff to prove that you're leaving with your own bag! So don't throw it away until you're out! After a one-hour flight, the first thing that greeted me in HCMC was the heat, as the city is at a smoldering 32°C these days. There's a taxi terminal right outside the exit gate, so I boarded one for a trip to the city centre that took about 30 min and cost around 180,000 VND (€7,5).  On the way there I was shocked to see how different HCMC is from the rest of my Vietnam stops. It has sidewalks! Streetlights! Skyscrapers! Actual stores! It felt closer to a Western city than the chaot

It was sunny today! For real, all day, not just for a quick moment between the clouds. After going from San Sebastian to Vitoria to London to Versailles, sun and heat are not things I have learned to handle, so I'm looking forward to finding out what new patches of skin I managed to get burnt today despite my precautions. After checking the weather, I went off to have breakfast. After the dreamy array of delicious treats at the Pilgrimage Village, breakfast here is woefully disappointing, but at least you can have it outside sitting on the veranda, overlooking the rice fields. After that, I boarded the Jeep to the old town! Today I was more disciplined and began crossing off items on the list of Hoi An's historical sites. You have to buy one ticket to the Old Town for 120,000 VND (€5) and that gives you access to any 5 Hoi An sites of your choosing. I used my first stub on crossing the Japanese Covered Bridge, a holdover from when Hoi An was a bustling trade port

This morning I jumped out of bed to see if I could take a quick dip in the pool before leaving. Nope. Still cloudy and cold. Three days in a paradise resort with a dreamy ocean-blue 40 m pool and I didn't even get a foot in! (It goes without saying that the sun parted the clouds the moment I got into the car to leave.) So today I left Hue for Hoi An. The two cities are really pretty close but there's no direct public transportation between the two. There are trains and buses that link Hue and Da Nang, and then from Da Nang there are buses to Hoi An. What many people do instead is either rent a car or hire a driver to make the trip faster and more direct. Because I'm a spoiled urbanite, I opted for the second choice, which has the added benefit of being able to take the Hai Van pass in the mountains, where the ruins of some American bunkers from the war overlook both sides of the mountain right before Da Nang. The drive also takes you past the fishing village of Lang Co

Today it didn't rain! It's been overcast all day and sometimes the skies would go dark, but my umbrella stayed safely inside my backpack. Apparently it's gonna be sunny tomorrow, when I leave... Sigh. I reserved today for a tour of the tombs of the Nguyen emperors, the same ones that lived in the Imperial Citadel. The tombs are spread apart from each other by a few kilometres, outside of the city, so you can't just walk to any one of them. You have to rent a car or book a half-day tour. I tried to get my hotel to put me in a group, but it looks like they only work wih their own tours. I could have looked online, but whatever, I let them book me a driver to show me around. We first visited the tomb of Minh Mang, the second Nguyen emperor. It occupies a vast expanse of land, with a lake, lots of trees, very green and peaceful, all around the actual structure. The tombs weren't just tombs, but small cities designed to be used by the emperor as a retreat in life

Sigh. So, another day to explore priceless architectural and historical wonders of the world, another day that's rainy, cold, and foggy. Google Weather and my iPhone said that it would stop raining at 10:00, but it was a filthy lie. It never stopped raining. It hasn't stopped yet . After chaining boats, buses, and trains, I slept like a baby and treated myself to a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. I ate as much delicious food as I could and left at ten. They didn't have room for me in the hotel shuttle to central Hue so they sent me in a taxi at their expense. Works for me! The main attraction of Hue is the Imperial Citadel, a vast complex built by the Nguyen (pronounced "gwin") emperors much more recently than I expected, at the turn of the 19th century, when they united the north and the south of Vietnam. Looking at the state of the buildings and, well, the fact that it's an imperial citadel, I thought we'd be talking about the 17th century. Their reig