Woche 17 - Hue, Tam Coc, Hanoi

Oh man, I completely underestimated the Vietnamese winter! After I had finally acclimatized well to the heat and had temperatures over 30 degrees every day for 1.5 months, the 25 degrees in DaLat were very cold for me. But in Hue it's a completely different story. 12 degrees and rain🥶 Apparently the cold seems much colder due to the high humidity. That's why I didn't do anything here. However, this was hardly possible due to the constant rain. So I went from restaurant to cafe and tried the local cuisine, which is again very different from the southern one. My only picture from Hue😂:

On the train to Hue there was a little Vietnamese girl next to me (who stole my window seat) and she had two huge bags with her, one of which was in my leg seat and one in hers. And then she just told me to put my feet on her bag. It was definitely much more comfortable for her because her legs were half as long. We then took a selfie. At lunchtime we had lunch on the train with real ceramic plates?😂:

Afterwards I actually wanted to go to Phong Nha for one night, but since there is really only nature to admire there, I skipped it because of the weather. Directly with the sleeper bus to Ninh Binh (I find the buses really pleasant now and you always save a night 😅). Except that I arrived at 4 a.m., the bus driver kindly drove me to the neighboring village. From there I was able to walk to the accommodation (gate locked) where I hung around in the dark for another hour. Luckily the Vietnamese are always awake at the crack of dawn and she let me in at 5am. And I was even able to check in straight away. Luckily I booked a private room here because I was so cold and I was able to take a hot shower and hop into a cozy bed and turn up the heat👌🏼 Since I still couldn't get my ass up from the cold, I did Used the day to plan my trip and I realized that my original plan of driving overland from Vietnam to Laos wasn't working at all because you can't get a visa there🙄 I also had to book a few tours in Vietnam because now the really exciting things about... Country is coming up and the weather is getting better again yay. But I'm also a bit pressed for time because Tet (Lunar New Year) is coming up on February 8th. This is celebrated extensively here and everyone has 10 days off, which means there is nothing touristy here.

Well the next day I rented a bike at the hotel and rode through the hotspots. Wrapped up in five layers, it was totally possible and I cycled through the beautiful landscape with the marble rocks. First to Mua Cave, where you can climb a few steep stairs to a wonderful viewpoint! I really liked that and felt hot afterwards😁 At the top you could climb around a bit along a dragon like this. I thought it had a bit of a Chinese Wall vibe to it😂:

Then we went straight to the hotel in Hanoi to stay with Mom and Rudi. Hanoi has a super cute old town and therefore has a more pleasant atmosphere than the other big cities. The water puppet theater was also super interesting and otherwise you hop from café to café. A few new and well-known dishes were tested via the Michelin Guide: Bun Cha with pork and crab filled rolls, Bun Bo Hue etc. I was also finally able to replace my backpack and radically minimize the contents. I've been looking forward to it for months now and it immediately feels much easier. Then it was time to say goodbye and I was alone again in the middle of Southeast Asia!