October 12, Hanoi, Vietnam to Seattle

We had a free morning before our flight so we went to the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts. We then began the long journey back home. Also, some reflections on the trip and Vietnam in general.

Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts

We had the morning free so we decided to head over to the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts. We had downloaded the app beforehand and decided to pay $2 each to access information about selected works (the price would have been the same if we had done the audio tour). At first, we were trying to find the six pieces in the highlights tour, but we felt we had to work pretty hard to figure out where the items were. It ended up that every time you went back to that tour, the items got shuffled, so when we found the room number of an item and then went to the map to find where that room was, we would go back and the items would have changed order.

The other interesting thing we found was that there were far more items with QR codes than just the six, and without looking at the app, it wasn’t clear to us which items were the highlights. Melody ended up listening to the audio for the highlights but just reading the transcript for other items that interested her (which is what I did for all the items). Once we got into the groove of going through the galleries, we started to enjoy the experience much more.

I found the lacquer on wood items the most interesting. They’re made by putting a layer of color onto wood and then layering other colors on top. The artist would then remove layers of colors to form an image. We saw a short film on the process, and it seems very complicated and intriguing at the same time.

A couple of other items caught my eye. One was a woodblock print of Ho Chi Minh at work, and it’s easy to imagine that we might have seen the room the print represented. The other item was a work showing the Ngoc Son Temple we had visited the day before. It was painted on silk, so the lines are a bit softer than other media. I had a hard time getting a photo of that image without a lot of reflections and ended up shooting up from pretty close, so there’s quite a bit of distortion due to the angle.

After we were done looking through the museum, we walked over to a bun cha restaurant for lunch. It was extremely busy (with tables on the sidewalk spanning multiple storefronts) but we scored a table right in front. The whole place was very chaotic, but once we ordered, things started being placed on our table (a stool that was slightly taller than the ones we sat on). I asked for a second set of chopsticks since we were sharing the order, and got handed a pair right away. Then a second bowl and serving spoon suddenly showed up. Great service!

Traveling home

We went back to the hotel and started doing the final packing. We had arranged through the tour agency for a ride to the airport, and our tour leader had told us what time to expect the ride. Other than that, we had no information or confirmation that the ride would show up. We went down to the lobby to wait, and sure enough, a car pulled up right on time. As our bags were being put in the back of the car, I was able to confirm the driver was indeed there for us. So that worked out well.

The ride to the airport started normally enough. The driver was a bit more aggressive about maneuvering through traffic than other rides we’ve had, but nothing remarkable. It was on the highway that things got interesting. He wanted to pass some vehicles, so he went onto the shoulder on the right of the road to pass a few cars. Then he thought about pulling between two trucks, driving right on the lane divider. Even though each truck was on the far side of their lanes, the driver decided there wasn’t enough room and backed off.

But the excitement didn’t stop there. As we got to the airport, there was quite a bit of traffic. He went in the opposite direction on a fork than he was supposed to, did an almost-U turn, drove the wrong way for a while, did another U-turn to go the right direction, and ended up right in front of our terminal. Dropping us off, he was nice enough to carry our bags to one of the free carts so we wouldn’t need to carry our bags.

Checking in, we kept being directed to the shortest line. As a traveler, you’re always suspicious of the short line, but in this case, it worked out well for us.

Since we had some time before our flight, we looked around for possible snacks. We had been buying very expensive (for Vietnam) chocolate bars at about $4 or $5 each. The same bars were at several stores, but $7, $8, and $9, so we figured we didn’t need them.

As we were flying to Taipei, we saw the lights of Hong Kong (too many reflections to try to take a photo). Our layover gave us enough time to take the SkyTrain to the other terminal and go through security again.

Getting on the plane, I realized that things around me felt different. I quickly realized it was because I was used to hearing Vietnamese in the background, but now I was hearing Chinese.

We lucked in multiple ways with the 11-hour flight to Seattle. First, things seemed favorable and the flight was projected to be only 9½ hours. Second, our section of the plane was about ⅔ full so we had room to stretch out and lie down.

Having Global Entry paid off upon arrival. We went up to the kiosks (no one else there), scanned our faces, and that was it. We then caught the light rail train to the University District, and with quite a bit of time before our bus connection, we got some ice cream. After the bus ride, we were at home, fortunately late enough that we just did the bare minimum of unpacking and went to sleep.

Reflections

For anyone who has considered a trip to Vietnam, it’s a great place to spend time. There is a lot to do (especially if you go beyond Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi) and the food is extremely accessible.

Prices

Another thing to consider is the exchange rate, which was quite favorable for us at 25,000 VDN to $1. We found banh mi and pho to almost always be $2 or less (sometimes much less). A generous serving of bun cha (grilled pork, greens, and noodles in broth) was $2. Smoothies, sparkling water, and juice were almost always less than $1.25. Many museums hovered around $1. Even in relatively nice restaurants, all of our entrees were well under $10.

Even lodging was pretty reasonable. For both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, we were in pretty spacious mid-range hotels with a free buffet breakfast that was less than $60/night.

Traffic

Traffic, especially in the major cities, is well beyond what you see in the States. True, lanes are often recommendations, and going a bit after a light turns red or a bit before it turns green is the standard. But the biggest difference is the number of motorbikes on the roads. Imagine taking the traffic on streets in a major city (New York, Los Angeles, and yes, even Seattle) imagine removing half to two-thirds of the cars and replacing them with motorbikes packed tightly enough that there’s very little space between them. Even then, that doesn’t take into account that the motorbikes swarm in every direction, taking any available space (even on sidewalks).

Crossing the street is a different skill than here. Traffic won’t stop for you, even if you have a walk sign. You have to just start walking at a consistent and relatively slow pace and let the traffic flow around you. If you speed up or slow down, you become unpredictable, making it harder for traffic to avoid you.

Most streets have very narrow sidewalks if they have them at all. You’ll find that many sections are used up with seating for dining, and most of the rest with parked motorbikes. You end up walking on the street more often than not.

Other

Another thing that takes getting used to is most places don’t like toilet paper to go into the drains. There’s a spray nozzle next to the toilet that acts like a manual bidet, and a trash can to put the toilet paper. Sounds unsanitary, but it’s not as bad considering the spray nozzle.

While there are many places where you can use a credit card, cash is still king. Many ATMs don’t accept international cards, so sometimes you have to try several before finding one that works. And once you do, you’ll find you can only take out 3,000,000 VND ($120). However, our tour leader mentioned that it’s annoying for Vietnamese, so they just take money out multiple times in a row at the same ATM.

Air quality ranged from fine to bad. Especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, all of the vehicle exhaust was noticeable. In the remote areas, especially the villages we visited, things were much cleaner, but there would still be burn piles in the area.

Tour group

This was the first time that Melody and I had done a tour with a group. It was hard to tell how it would go since we would need to click with the other members and the tour leader. Fortunately, that was the case.

Our group was eight people out of twelve maximum. We were the only people from the U.S., with five from Australia and the last person from New Zealand.

One Australian couple was about our age, and we ended up having breakfast together almost every morning. Because of commonalities, they were probably the people we clicked the most with. When the tour was over, they were going to stay in Hanoi for a few more days and then spend almost a week in Bali before going home.

The other Australian couple was a woman in her 30s and another woman who I think was in her late 20s. The older woman had done a lot of international travel, but this was the first time the younger woman had done so other than for netball (similar to basketball) tournaments. They were the ones who would always find the best coffee spots wherever we were.

The fifth Australian was probably in his 40s and had done a lot of travel, including another tour through Cambodia which ended the day before our Vietnam trip started. He seemed very used to traveling on his own but still kept people at home up-to-date. We got to meet his mom on a video call.

The last woman was the one from New Zealand, and had the quickest laugh of the group; I'm guessing she was also in her 30s. She had also done a lot of travel, and her thing was to do headstands in all sorts of locations. At first, she would pick a spot and ask someone to take the photo, but that evolved into our tour leader having fun with making suggestions and then taking the picture.

Our tour leader, Bao, was not only very capable but a genuinely nice person. He knew when to participate with the rest of us, and when to back away and let the group do their own thing. He was extremely organized, and even when plans changed, he had no problem regrouping and making sure we all had a great experience.

I would certainly consider doing a group tour again, but mostly for places where the logistics seem much more difficult than we would be able to easily handle. This was the first trip that was the case, and it also gave us access to some things we either wouldn't have thought of or that having a guide made getting in and understanding what we were looking at much easier. The tour also went much faster than we would have; I imagine we would have added a night or two at almost every place, so we would have ended up missing some places we did see with the group.