Why Vietnam is the best place for your first solo travel trip

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This was published 5 years ago

Why Vietnam is the best place for your first solo travel trip

By Elspeth Callender
Ha Long Bay jetty.

Ha Long Bay jetty.Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK

So you want to visit a new country but would rather not go it alone – at least not the first time around. A guided tour is, of course, the obvious choice. But being human is a constant battle against laziness and co-dependence. How, then, do we stay engaged and observant, get to know a place and possibly equip ourselves to return for some independent travel when someone else is taking care of everything from transport and accommodation to ordering food and crossing roads?

There are various solutions I'm sure, but on a recent trip to Vietnam with Webjet Exclusives, on which the days were filled and the evenings free, I found the nightly forced independence saved me from becoming a walking dead tourist. You know, those ones who don't know where they were yesterday or the name of the place they're in today and always ask the guide, whose name they don't know, what the weather is like even when standing outside.

We all have the potential to go that way and I'm even more scared of being that kind of traveller than I am of the impending Zombie Apocalypse.

Fresh vegetables in a traditional street market in Hoi An, Vietnam.

Fresh vegetables in a traditional street market in Hoi An, Vietnam.Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK

Our trip began in Hanoi where we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, One Pillar Pagoda and the Temple of Literature as a group with local guide Hieu, before heading to Ha Long Bay in a minibus. The halfway stop-off was a roadside emporium with extra bus parking and staff who spoke beautiful English. Despite an interesting morning, I was listless by the time we arrived into Ha Long in the late afternoon – until I remembered we had to fend for ourselves.

Our hotel faced the bay, was a little out of town and had a line of bicycles for hire at a dollar an hour. There was a hotel restaurant but we wanted to see Ha Long, and they could have called us a taxi but we wanted to ride. After establishing the tandems weren't up to the job we pedalled independently into a small city none of us knew and followed our noses to a main street where we joined the evening traffic.

Because I'd been to Vietnam before, the other three in my travel gang had voted I find dinner even though I'd never actually been south of Hanoi. Nothing jumped out until we turned up a side street and passed a place with several tables occupied – and not by tourists, who tend to skip Ha Long and stay overnight on the bay – with half the kitchen floor dedicated to live seafood in polystyrene boxes.

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An, VietnamCredit: SHUTTERSTOCK

"I would eat there," I said to the others.

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Still considered in charge, I chose a cuttlefish and some other type of fish I didn't recognise and ordered a plate of noodles and something green. The most outgoing among a table of young guys translated for me and the chef. We sat outside near our bikes – borrowed sometimes for errands and for fun – and ate and talked and smoked and raised our glasses to some people who insisted on sharing their beer with us.

When it was time to leave we rode along a footpath nearer the water, past a convenience store, where we stocked up only on snacks we'd never seen before, then wandered through an indoor market before finding our way back to the hotel.

It was one of those nights where, we all agreed without having to say it: we were really travelling.

The next day we chugged around the islands of Ha Long Bay in a junk with everything laid on. There was lunch on board, the boat got as close as possible to the kissing chickens rock formation, we got off on an island and walked through a limestone cave. By that evening we were in Hoi An – having flown to Denang – staying at a hotel where the bicycles were free to use at any time, so two of us decided to roll off into the quiet night.

Vietnam's third largest city and former capital is no night owl. After 10pm there was barely anyone on the streets or alleyways or bridges of the old town (our guide the next day explained that locals prefer to stay inside in the evenings, watching TV with Wi-Fi and making babies). There were just a few casual food places open and a string of bars alongside Thu Bon River leaking drunken backpackers. The main light source was traditional-style coloured lanterns.

A morning walking tour of the historic district with Thien took us through the busy central market we'd cycled the evening before when it was empty. And to the Japanese covered bridge we'd come across in the dark. And into the Chinese temple of Phuc Kien and the trading house, Phung Hung, which we'd ridden past a few times. I appreciated it all the more having seen it already in, literally, a completely different light.

That evening we flew to Ho Chi Minh City and, after checking into the hotel, we were again on our own.

To get to the night market outside Ben Thanh for a barbecue dinner we had to cross some serious roads, and our as-a-gaggle method was clumsy and dangerous. A small group of men in hard hats came towards us across the road we were contemplating. They walked in a perfectly straight line parallel to the curb and maintained that formation and steady pace all the way. The person closest to the oncoming traffic determined the speed and waved their hand a little at the traffic for attention.

The next two days included a drive out to the brick kilns near Rach Mieu Bridge, powered and unpowered boat rides on the Mekong Delta, seeing coconuts cracked and sweet things made with the cream, staring into whiskey bottles at dead snakes biting dead scorpions, and tasting seasonal fruits such as longan, pomelo, mango, jackfruit. We walked on jungle paths and cycled backroads and had lunch in a restaurant used to tourists, and napped afterwards in hammocks. There was a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels and, in the city centre, stop-offs at Notre-Dame Basilica, Saigon Post Office and the War Remnants Museum – all accompanied by the often candid and always thought-provoking commentary of local guide Ly.

We were let loose again, the evening in between, into a city already familiar from our first night out. When I stayed on in Ho Chi Minh City for an extra day after the tour finished, as planned, it felt virtually seamless to go from supported to independent, having kept my travelling instincts switched on for the week and my inner zombie at bay.

Elspeth Callender travelled as a guest of Webjet Exclusives.

FIVE WAYS TO CONNECT WITH VIETNAM

1. WALK A CITY

Whether it's Hanoi, Hoi An or Ho Chi Minh City, head off on your own and take it all in. If you're worried about getting lost then just find a straight street and walk as far as you can then back again down the other side.

2. SAMPLE MARKET FOOD

Rather than just wandering around making awkward partial eye-contact with market vendors, buy something or try a sample if someone offers. If you see fruit you don't recognise then ask about it and eat it.

3. GET IT TAILOR MADE

Having clothing created just for you is an intimate exchange between humans that enriches travel and gives you something to remember the trip by when you're home. Hoi An is particularly well-known for its tailors.

4. EXERCISE LIKE A LOCAL

The people of Ho Chi Minh are typically super early risers and many exercise in parks with a group. Apparently they're happy for others to join in so ask your hotel or guide to help you find one. .

5. GET ON YOUR BIKE AND RIDE

If you're confident riding a moped or motorbike then rent one for a few hours. It will give you a whole new perspective and will make you a better road crosser forever after.

TRIP NOTES

MORE

traveller.com.au/Vietnam

vietnam.travel

TOUR

Webjet Exclusives offers a range of Vietnam tours, including nine-, 10- and 16-day itineraries departing Sydney and Melbourne, with airfares and accommodation included, from $999 per person twin share. See exclusives.webjet.com.au

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