The pace is pretty fast now.
I finished the previous post about Hanoi today. I’m going to write this post about Haiphong, since I’m not there anymore.
Where I am will be a surprise for the next post.
In this post, we’ll be in Haiphong.
Why?
After 5 nights in Hanoi, it’s time to leave. I want to explore more places in Vietnam.
Just two hours ago, a friend of mine asked me how I decide where to go next.
It just so happened that all I knew was that I wanted to go to Ha Long Bay.
I don’t know much about this place, but the numbers I knew called me here. 1,500-2,000 km2 of area, a 434 km2 UNESCO World Heritage Site and about 1,600 limestone cliffs and islands.
And of course, the sea.
It was clear that I would not miss this area.
I woke up on Saturday, looked at the map of this large area and decided to come here. There was no particular reason. Because there didn’t have to be a reason.
On the bus again
I bought a bus ticket. The three-hour journey seemed like a child’s play after my previous trips.
The bus left from the old quarter, which I had already visited in Hanoi. This part of the city was just as chaotic as the first time.
The experience was different this time, in that I tried a fried, sugar-coated dough ball cake. The best experience of my two visits to the old quarter was this cake.
The bus left at 2:30 PM, and the taxi dropped me off at 1:05 PM. So I still had more than an hour to walk around here.
The term “more than an hour” is inflated very hard here in Asia. Half a minute after I left the taxi, I received a message. Today’s bus leaves at 2:00 PM, please be at the boarding point at 1:50 PM.
I knew I shouldn’t come here at the last minute.
The bus was professional. Friendly staff, air conditioning, chilled bottles of water and double-checking the number of people.
One hour after departure, one of the group leaders came to me and asked where my accommodation was, because they would take me there when we arrived.
It turned out that this bus doesn’t actually go to Haiphong, where I bought a ticket. This road leads to where I finally arrived 5 days later.
He is very sorry – the young man said – for the inconvenience, the bus will stop a little further away. But he will help me, he will call me a taxi in advance. I did not accept this with thanks. I will solve it where it is necessary. In any case, I appreciated the gesture.
The bus stopped at a huge roundabout on a highway. They apologized here too, but tis is the end of my bus trip now. LOL.
I hadn’t even set foot on the road when a taxi driver was already there and said, somewhat intolerantly, that we could go.
I also used this somewhat intolerantly way. I was sure that he didn’t understand a word I said, but it didn’t bother me. Moreover, if I remember correctly, I didn’t make it any easier for him, because I said the words in Hungarian. And only in my head. There, too, only silently.
I signaled to him with my eyes that, man, I’m getting off now, you can go because of me. Then – to the amazement of many taxi drivers – I sat down on the roadside. I looked up where I was. A little far from the city meant about 25 kilometers. I also looked up where my accommodation was.
Then I called a taxi using my app and left the roadside taxi drivers behind.
After half an hour, I arrived in Haiphong.
My room
Yesterday a friend asked me how my room was now.
Comfortable. That was the first word that came to mind.
Then I said clean, actually just a little dirty, but that was absolutely within healthy limits. Three things stuck with me. The hair in the drain. The soap dish with soap relics. And the toothbrush cup.
I never thought of using this, but now for some reason I looked into it. I realized that it hadn’t been washed in a long time.
I don’t mind these kinds of inconveniences at all. This genre is like that and that’s it.
There was one more strange thing about this accommodation. The entrance hall was locked every night around 11 o’clock. Since I was out in the city all four nights, I had to wake the doorman every night. He didn’t take it badly. He slept there 4 meters from the lock. Therefore, it was a bit incomprehensible why the gate had to be closed, but just like choosing the next destination, this also doesn’t need to be understood.
However, the fact that the door leading to the staircase was also locked could be a real headache. The lock was turned outside from the door. Every room had bars on every window.
In other words, in the event of a fire, we would have been faced with severely limited options. I bet if the doorman didn’t open the lock and we couldn’t break the thick glass of the door, we might get fried.
I think a European fire safety facility manager would have a heart attack if he stayed in this hotel.
The city
AI said about this city that it doesn’t really have a lot of attractions.
It considered a single old wooden pagoda to be worth mentioning.
I visited it the next day. Sights ticked.
It was a really old building. Very peaceful, a bit overcrowded with objects. However, the wooden structure and the roof gave it a special atmosphere. The apparently old plaster on some parts of the walls contributed to this.
And the beautiful garden. With quite a few statues and a small pond full of goldfish. The garden was so friendly that I started meditating while sitting on one of the benches.
The mosquitoes voted down my plan. So I looked around for a while longer.
Then I concluded that this was a hospitable city. I had to realize that the difficult escape route mentioned in the hotel was probably just a tradition.
Because while I was looking inside the temple, everyone else quietly left the area. And then someone locked the exit.
I immediately remembered how great it was to live in a Buddhist temple for 10 days in February. Well, maybe this will be the opportunity again. I shuddered a little at the thought that if I slept here in the courtyard, the anti-meditation insects would eat me till the morning.
I even wondered a little about how many points from a cultural perspective the stunt of climbing over the fence would be worth. Luckily, a monk appeared at that moment, whom I had politely greeted with a bow and a wai a few minutes before.
Maybe that was my luck? LOL. He was let me outside. And we didn’t even need a fire to do it.
Anyway, I walked around the city a lot in the next few days.
In summary, I think I managed to get to know a very nice town on my chance trip.
The city center, located a few kilometers from my accommodation, was bustling with real city life. Lots of shops, gyms, restaurants, street vendors.
And my favorite, the many cafes.
I spent the next three days in the city center from morning to night. I tried quite a few cafes. The coffee was delicious everywhere, the wifi was excellent, and the chairs were comfortable.
This city surprised me with a really special experience. In one of the cafes, they didn’t speak English, the drink menu was in Vietnamese. So I chose a drink pointed on the picture.
I love the courtesy with which they treat me here. I point to a picture with the clear intention of wanting to drink it. But they always ask for confirmation whether I’m sure of my choice. This was the case again. The only problem is that they definitely want everything to be in Vietnamese. Since I don’t understand the question, I usually just give a thumbs up to indicate that the choice is OK.
It’s a simple process. I point to the picture. She’ll probably repeat what I ordered. I use an international sign to say that I want to drink what’s in the picture, but whatever you bring, it’ll be good.
Now the lady really wanted that confirmation, not just on a symbolic level, so on the third try she said two very interesting words: avocado smoothie.
I think she saw from me that from now on she wasn’t getting the confirmation that it won’t matter, but that I really want to drink this.
We both won.
I’ve never had an avocado smoothie before. But here I had two. I think if I don’t say more about it, the quantity will say for me how delicious it was.
I will tell you: it was incredibly delicious. The soft creaminess that made it melt in my mouth, the softness of the avocado, its raw yet ripe flavor, the right amount of sugar, and the excellent foam on top.
For some reason, I didn’t care how many calories it had. I just had to have a second one!
The Belarusian connection
There will be one more person who will remind me of the city, not just the isolation and the avocado.
Arriving at my accommodation, I saw a – presumably – European guy, with whom I greeted each other.
Then I retired to my room for a couple of hours. Then I set off to explore the surrounding evening streets a bit.
At that point, we ran into each other again. We introduced ourselves to each other, got talking. After a few sentences, he asked where I was going. I said I had no destination, I just wanted to walk around the area.
His next question was, “A beer, maybe?”. With that, we established our habit for that day and the next three evenings.
That day, we drank beer and talked for two hours before going to bed.
On the following days, we would gather in the city or around the accommodation around 6-7 pm and have dinner together and drink draft beer.
The record was set the next night, when we both drank 5 large jugs.
I think the beer here works as an energy drink, because even with the four liters per night consumption, I didn’t feel much in my head, but I could hardly fall asleep.
After we repeatedly passed the padlock at his place.
Evgenij (I don’t even know why my blog is anonymous for such acquaintances) first came to Asia 20-25 years ago, and has spent many years here since then.
I learned a lot of linguistic, historical and cultural interesting things from him.
Apart from all this, we said goodbye to each other this morning, saying that we were both very happy about our chance meeting again, because we appreciated the conversations.
We also parted ways with him in a way that we would keep in touch and we were almost both sure that we would meet again.
There was nothing left to say:
Бывай, Хайфон!
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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Short introduction