Beautiful Vietnam

Xin chao (hello) from Vietnam! Jon and I are almost at the end of our travels - hasn't time flown! We have just spent two lovely weeks in our third country - Vietnam. As you can see on this map, it is right next to Cambodia, where we were before so there are lots of similarities between the two countries, but some differences as well.

Weather and scenery
Vietnam is even hotter than Cambodia; we didn't know that was possible! It is warmer because it is more humid (there is more water in the air). A lot of the places we have visited in Vietnam are basically jungle. Where nature has been allowed to take hold, trees and bushes cover the ground and mountains. Often it is so thick people cannot get through it, not like our spaced out trees in woods at home. When you walk near this jungle, you hear the sounds of millions of insects calling to each other. We were told that wildlife such as snakes and monkeys hide in the trees - but we didn't see any sadly.

This was from the Trang An Grottoes, in Ninh Binh, 

Of course all this jungle and wilderness made for some beautiful scenery. Movie producers obviously think so too because we went to two places where movies have been filmed. Ninh Binh has some beautiful mountains used in the recent King Kong (Skull Island) film. Halong Bay, where we had an overnight river cruise, has been in several movies including a James Bond and King Kong again!

This is one of the movie sets left over from King Kong. It's where the local tribe lived in the film. The actors who played the villagers now work there entertaining tourists.

This is one of the other boats in Halong Bay. It's called a junk. Aren't those amazing sails!

Hidden underneath some of these impressive mountains are vast caves. We went into a few; it was extraordinary how high the roofs were and how beautiful the rocks. One of the caves, called Paradise Cave, is the second longest dry cave in Asia. Even though it's huge, it was only discovered a few years ago (2005) by a local man as he went trekking through the jungle - proof of how hard it is to venture through the jungle!

Follow the lights into Paradise Cave!

Inside, the air immediately becomes cooler and drier. It's a bit like walking into a giant fridge!

History
Like Cambodia, Vietnam has an interesting history and unfortunately, like Cambodia some of it is very sad. In 1954, a war started between Vietnam and the United States and lasted over 20 years until 1975. During this time, Vietnam was spilt into two parts (north and south) who both wanted a different kind of government. America agreed with South Vietnam that their type of government was best. So the American military dropped bombs and poison on North Vietnam to try to force them to give in. Lots of people were killed. This included Vietnamese people but also American soldiers who came over to fight.

The Vietnamese people were very clever though. They used the jungle to hide themselves from the Americans, who didn't know the land as well as the local people did. The Vietnamese also dug huge systems of tunnels underground to hide themselves from the bombs and soldiers. We got to go down some of the tunnels that still exist. In the end, because of the hard work and ingenuity of the Vietnamese people, they won the war and the Americans left.

Down I go into the tunnel!

Cover me up!

Almost gone!

Vanished!

It's a tight squeeze in the tunnels!

This shows the space a family had to live in down in the underground village. One community lived down here for 6 years!

Food
Although we're missing our English favourites (fish and chips, steak, apple crumble...) it hasn't stopped us enjoying the local food! Vietnamese food is pretty similar to Cambodian. Lots of dishes are stir fries with noodles or rice but we have discovered a few new amazing foods.


This is Bun Cha. It's a soup which you add BBQ pork, noodles and lettuce to. Very yum! 

Local restaurants have the cutest tables and chairs.

Here we ate pig's feet, tofu, and shrimp paste. Delicious!

One day, Jon and I took a cooking course run by a Vietnamese husband and wife team. To start the day, she took us to the nearby food market to buy the food. It was a messy business as all the waste (bits of fat, fish guts etc) is thrown on the floor! After that she took us out on a boat to meet some fisherman and have a go with their nets; unfortunately we didn't catch anything. Our appetites were ready by the time we came to cooking and we weren't disappointed!


At the market.

Lots of these little guys were still squirming.



Having a go at throwing the fishing net.

Preparing some Vietnamese food.

Vietnam make amazing food sculptures - do you like my swan?

What a feast!

 

Conclusion
Like everywhere we've been, in Vietnam we have had an amazing time and learnt so much. Our next and final country is Indonesia but as you'll be on holiday yourself next week I'll have to tell you about that one when I get back. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again so you can catch me up on everything you've been doing and learning!

Love to you all,

Ms Aspinall xxx

Doesn't it look like Mrs Norman is standing behind me!