As a kid I used to go on trips with my mom and dad to different places in South India. We used to have a lovely time together and every trip would make me look forward to the next one. Who doesn’t like to travel!? If you don’t, you are missing out on a lot! The beauty that our world has to offer is unimaginable. The dream of taking my family on a trip abroad has been in my mind for a long long time now. And this blog post is the story of me surprising my dad and grannies with the same. In Kerala, we call our mom’s mom as Ammamma and dad’s mom as Achamma. My mom is no longer with us now, but I’d like to believe that she is with me wherever I go.
Finding a place super enjoyable and beautiful in Asia but also not super expensive is not that hard of a thing to do. I made a list of places that I would love to visit and among them were the likes of Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Usually I plan my travels on my own, make hotel/hostel/airbnb/couchsurfing reservations and flight/bus/train/blablacar bookings and that is the cheapest way to enjoy traveling I would say. But this time because I didn’t have enough time on my hand and that I wanted to take both my grandmas along for the trip, I could not make any lapses on my part. The stay had to be good, there had to be pickups and guides and transfers to make it as comfortable for them as possible. This led me to contacting some travel agencies for helping me in planning out this trip of their lifetime.
I have been following travel blogs, have been traveling a lot myself and I’ve got lots of friends who love traveling too. So I had a good idea what these countries had to offer and how beautiful they are. What I didn’t realize was that my dad and Achamma had no idea how they are. Ammamma, because she watches a program called Sancharam (Means travel in Malayalam, my mother tongue), has seen places around the globe through this show. I chose Vietnam after planning with the company and I told Achai (what I call my dad) about this. You should have seen his face! He exclaimed, “Why Vietnam!?” No excitement, nothing. He had this expression which said “Who goes there!?”. I guess he knew only what the news showed him and didn’t know much about the cultural and natural beauty of the country. And I, hoping for an awesome reaction from him after I broke the surprise, was like shit I messed it up. But I told him to wait and see for himself. I wanted to convince him properly and show him pictures but I thought I’ll let him see everything for real and decide himself if the he likes the place or not. 😉 😉
Note: He was the most excited person on the trip 😛
Below is the itinerary that we followed during the trip. Thanks to https://www.365travel.asia. This might not be the best itinerary for backpackers but for leisure travelers for a week this is a really nice way to explore Northern Vietnam. Thanks to Manna (my aunt) and Raviappan (uncle) in all their help in planning this one.
DAY 01: Arrive in Hanoi and Drive to Halong
The Noi Bai International Airport, in the capital city Hanoi, is the biggest airport in Vietnam and as our trip focused on the northern part of the country, this is where we flew to.
Even though we landed in Hanoi, the plan was not to visit the city right away but to drive all the way to Ha Long which is about 160 km or 3.5 hour drive away from the airport. The long drive through the country brought us a clear perspective of the country 80% of whose population lives on farming. There were paddy fields everywhere. And these paddy fields were dotted with tombs. Our guide told us that historically people buried their family members on their family fields. But nowadays they have separate concentrated cemeteries. On the way we stopped at a supermarket/exhibition hall kind of place where handicapped people worked to produce art works, paintings and other decorative items. We had food at the attached restaurant and later continued on our trip to reach our hotel, Halong Palace in Halong. The rest of the evening we walked around the city and visited the night markets which offered lots of Vietnamese products.
DAY 02: Halong Bay – Hanoi
Morning, we had breakfast at our hotel between 6-7 AM, and our guide came to pick us up to be transferred to the dock for boarding a cruise boat to explore the legendary Ha Long Bay. Ha Long means Descending Dragon in Vietnamese as legend has it that a holy dragon landed down there from the sky. The bay, famous as one of the world’s wonders and heritage sites whose formation dates back to 500 million years, consists of around 2,000 karst islands and islets scattered over an area of 1,553 km2.
The views are amazing! The boat stopped at Dau Go Island for visiting Thien Cung Cave (Heaven Palace) and Dau Go Cave (Wooden Stakes). Dau Go Cave in 13th Century was a depot to store pointed wooden stakes, which later were used by Vietnamese great military commander Tran Hung Dao to trap and puncture Mongolian naval boats in famous battles of Bach Dang. The trip was fun but our boat was booked only for us. I wish there were other travelers on the boat so that we could share the fun and learn more stories from their experiences. After the cruise, we got back into our van and the rest of the day was used for getting back to Hanoi and checked in to Thang long Opera Hotel .
DAY 03: Hanoi – Lao Cai – Sapa – Cat Cat Village
After breakfast, we checked out from the hotel and then we proceeded to Lao Cai via Hanoi – Lao Cai Highways – the Vietnam’s longest expressway. We arrived at Lao Cai after 4 hours of drive, and we proceeded to our Chau Long Hotel in Sapa town.
We visited the minority villages where ethnic minority people are in various styles of traditional dress – indigo tunics and leggings, elaborate pleated skirts, silver-studded jackets. The first place we went to was the Cat Cat minority village where we witnessed the unique lifestyle of these tribes. Even though they had lots of traditional methods and stories to offer us, I felt that tourism had affected most of their lives and whatever I saw felt like a staged but beautiful show.
We saw how they extracted indigo for coloring textiles. The village was scattered with marijuana plants which grew in abundance in these regions. I will be going more in detail about these villages and their lifestyle in future posts.
DAY 04: Sapa – Lao Cai – Ta Van Village
After long travel hours from the previous days, this morning we had time to relax and enjoy the beautiful landscape from our balcony. We started our day late. The journeyof the day started with a drive southwards to Muong Hoa valley.
Here we went on a trek through the valley, which is the largest paddy terrace in the Sapa area. The guide gave us interesting information about rice and its cultivation. If you visit the valley some time in between May and October, you will be able to experience how the locals plant and harvest, one of the most important activities of their daily life. The walk took us from Lao Cai village of Black H’mong community to Ta Van village of Giay community including a visit to the local Catholic Church. This trek is quite famous for backpackers and I saw lots of home stays being offered here and there around the valley. I met some awesome travelers too and throughout the trek we were sharing our experiences.
DAY 05: Sapa – Hanoi – Half Day City Tour
After breakfast, we checked out from our hotel and made our long trip back to Hanoi.
Afternoon, we visited the Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple located on an islet in the lake. Hoan Kiem Lake is the center point of Hanoi and home to a rare endangered giant turtle species.
Its name “Returned Sword” comes from the legend that a sacred sword lent to an ancient Vietnamese King by a holy turtle from the lake was later returned to the turtle.
Later we walked around the Old Quarter of 36 ancient streets. The shops offered all kinds of goods, branded shoes and everything that you can imagine of for super cheap rates. You can bargain and bring down the prices to insanely low levels. And the shoes did not seem fake at all. But for electronic gadgets I would say it’s better not to buy them from there.
Next day we took our flight back to India with a big happy smile on all of our faces.
In the next posts, I will go in detail about the trip.
Everyday Mischief 
Wow… nice travelogue. Thanks for sharing your experience . .
Unni, your naration about the trip is good! Congrads!!!
Supreme one..
Thank you for sharing – great post! Can’t wait to go there this fall 🙂