"We're finally here!" my friends and I said as we sighed with relief and disembarked from the train. The ride from Ninh Binh to Hue, the third destination on our trip in Vietnam, was a gruesome 14 hours long. After setting our belongings down in the hotel and freshening up, we went out to explore the Imperial City of Hue. Located in the central portion of Vietnam, Hue was home to the Nguyen emperors and briefly the capital of the country. My friends and I walked along the busy streets to the Citadel, a declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was amazing to roam the same hallways that emperors from the past. Hue also has dozens of charming coffee shops and restaurants that serve dishes from all around the world including American, French, and Italian. One of my best meals in Vietnam was a curry chicken and rice dish during a friend's birthday celebration dinner in Hue. Unfortunately, our visit in Hue lasted for a day as we had a bus ride to Mui Ne the next morning.
Apparently my friends and I really enjoy sitting in the same space for dozens of hours because after spending 14 hours in a train to Hue, we embarked on a 23 hour journey in a bus to Mui Ne. To keep ourselves busy we played card games, took multiple naps, and told each other scary stories in the night. Luckily, we were in a sleeper bus which meant that the seats reclined almost all the way down. Along the journey, we stopped at a city called Da Nang around 5am and had to switch buses. However, the second bus took over two hours to arrive which meant I saw the sun rise as I waited. The wait was not too horrible as I discovered we were one street away from the beach and saw the sun rise from there. Eventually, we reached Mui Ne and found our lodging consisted of several huts that had mattresses on the floor. Unlike the other destinations in Vietnam, Mui Ne has a unique geography. It consists of both beaches conducive to fishing and sand dunes similar to those found in a desert. Often times, Airbnbs in Vietnam will either provide tours for guests; we took a three hour tour through several different attractions. The first place we went to on our tour was the Fairy Stream, a light stream of water that flows through the sand dunes. The second location we went to was the fishing village where we saw the boats from the edge of a cliff that overlooked the South China Sea. The last two locations were white and red sand dunes where my friends and I rode a jeep up and down the steep dunes. We also rented plastic boards to slide down the dunes.
From Mui Ne, my friends and I went on to our last destination: Ho Chi Minh city (also known as Saigon). Ho Chi Minh is the largest city by population in Vietnam. Even though it was midnight when we arrived, the streets of Ho Chi Minh were bustling with people and lights. I couldn't help but feel like I was walking in streets similar to those in Tokyo in the pictures my friends visiting Japan for recess week had sent. In Ho Chi Minh, I visited iconic buildings like the Saigon Central Post Office and Notre Dame Basilica. I also learned how to bargain at the Ben Thanh Market where hundreds of local street vendors sold souvenirs. The most impactful site I went to was the War Remnants Museum where I spent over two hours reading posters about international protests to the Vietnam war, the horror stories of the brutality of the war, and the impact the war still has on current generations. For example, Agent Orange was a herbicide that contains dioxin, one of the most powerful human carcinogens, that was sprayed onto hundreds of villages and killed thousands of people. Moreover, dioxin is capable of mutating genes which has intergenerational effects. I even had the chance to meet children who were genetically affected by Agent Orange and gave them physical impairments. It was enlightening to learn about the Vietnam War from the perspective of the opposing side. My last day in Vietnam ended with a socializing event for guests at the hostels where I talked to backpackers about their adventures and suggestions for trips.
Now that I am back in Singapore and have had the chance to reflect on my trips, out of all of the countries I have visited so far while abroad, Vietnam has easily been my favorite. One interesting fact that my friend pointed out was that we took every form of transportation on our trip including cars, scooters, trains, buses, boats, and airplanes. I also had the chance to experience different landscapes as I went from the city to mountains to rice paddies to the desert. I am so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to explore a few of Vietnam's gems. Even as I write this post, I can't help but to miss Vietnam as I look back on the memories I made there. However, I know that I will visit again some day and explore new areas that I wasn't able to go to on my first trip. So I guess it's not a goodbye, it's a see you later Vietnam!
