Rare Adventures

Tag: hanoi

Nim Bin – the ancient and modern worlds meet

The trip to Nim Bin is one of those “must do” tours when you are in Hanoi, and it was the last on our itinerary before heading south to Cambodia and Da Nang.

We booked this tour through Tripadvisor, there are a couple of itineraries to choose from, one has a longer boat trip than the other, it wasn’t really clear how to make a choice so we flicked a coin to save on brain power.

The trip sets off at the crack of dawn with an early pick up that leaves you scrambling for some breakfast before it the hotel officially opened. To make matters worse, I had picked up some sort of horribly runny nose kind of cold and was not in great shape.

It is a long journey from Hanoi, about 3 hours to get there, and all the while the day is warming up. Nim Binh is the name of the area and there are a number of things going on, first activity involves climbing up a near vertical staircase to get to the top of a mountain and we assumed a temple of some sort. It was quite evident from the state of the people coming back down that this was going to be a hot and sweaty climb, and so it was.

The entrance involves some walks through huge fields of water lilies, with the inevitable South Koreans getting dressed up and having their photos taken in wedding outfits, while we took selfies of ourselves and tried to avoid having them in the background, though I am sure I was in in a few of theirs!

In truth, I don’t think it actually took much more than 20 minutes to climb the stairs, but it felt a lot more and was hard work on the heart and the knees in humid 40c conditions, especially when you have a cold.

On the way up there are lookouts where you can have a breather and admire the views down to the river where the tourist boats move in and out of the limestone caves, this is the post lunch activity.

When you get to the top of the climb, firstly you find the recently built Bich Dong Pagoda, after that you can join the queue to get a selfie with the recently built dragon as well, this is a rather precarious exercise on sharp rocks with hoards of young people getting their Instagram photo.

You then realise that Bich Dong has no historical or religious relevance, like many the tourist attractions it has been built for tourists to climb and have their photo taken, other than that it has no purpose. To be fair to their tourist people, it works because there were hundreds of people clambering up and down the path. There is a statue of the mountain lion in the cave, with some vague reference to a fable, but mainly it makes a good photo, this is brilliant marketing.

After the climb, it was back on the bus and off to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu. On a hot and humid day after that hard climb, all we wanted was shelter but there wasn’t any. This is potentially a really interesting place because it dates back to the 10^th century so lots of history, but not really that much to look at if I was honest.

We then headed to a little restaurant with great aircon, but first we had to go on the bike ride around the village, which involved a close encounter with a local tractor, Wooksie hates bikes but I thought she did rather well not getting annoyed, but we did all get even sweatier.

It was then time to get in our boat which promised to be a bit cooler, until we actually saw the boat, which had no shelter from the sun. Luckily, everyone was issued with an umbrella for sun or rain. A few people decided they couldn’t take any more sun and didn’t want to sit cross-legged for 2 hours and opted out, so we were lucky to have a little more space in our boat.

The rowers were all women, and they were super strong, I bet they had 6 packs like washer boards as they stood up all the way and were rowing against the tide. We then realised that the passengers were expected to help, so the chaps got to work in the boat and before long we were in a race with the other boats, which helped pass the time, it isn’t easy being cramped in a boat for 2 hours, however stunning the limestone scenery is. In fact, there comes a point when the novelty of the limestone scenery does actually wear off, but it takes a couple of weeks.

The journey along the river took us through some huge caves, and it wasn’t clear to me if they were all natural or maybe some were man made to open up the river to tourists. Vietnams investment in tourisms has been huge and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the caves hadn’t been enlarged to take the traffic.

One of the highlights was a pagoda in the middle of a lake, once again great for photos but not sure it was actually used by the locals for anything. The best thing about these trips is the people you meet, and we had the company of a couple from California and enjoyed many laughs about the state of the world and the US role in the continuing chaos, lovely people. In the photo they even leaned forward so they didn’t spoil the picture, that’s them lying in the front of the boat!

So Nim Binh was the last of the tours in Northern Vietnam so it is now time to head to Cambodia and have a look around Da Nong and Hoi An, a few hundred miles south.

24/07/2026
Unforgettable Jeep Tour Experience in Hanoi

Having done the walking tour of Hanoi, it still felt that we still needed something else to complete the trip. On the way to Halong Bay, we shared a minibus with a mum and daughter who claimed to be Portuguese and from Porto, (where we went last year), but with strangely Russian accents.

Their story unraveled pretty quickly, but it was very interesting that they didn’t want to admit to being Russian, not that it made any difference to us, they were just nice people. They told us about the Jeep Tour and how much fun it was, so as we had a spare evening, we booked ourselves on to the tour.

Evening was a good choice, as Hanoi is hot and steamy so to have the tour at dusk was great as it was a bit cooler and we could really enjoy the Vietnamese love of bright lights. We booked our tour with Back Street Tours and were picked up about 4pm by our guide, DuyVu.

Duyvu was excellent, very knowledgeable and lots of fun to have around.

The jeep was the real deal, really rough and ready, bouncing around along the road and a great vehicle for negotiating the holes in the road. We were lucky that we didn’t have any rain, so the top was down and we really felt part of Hanoi, and scooters and bikes buzzed past us on both sides as we made our way through the traffic.

The Jeep is a 6 seater so we had a couple of companions, this time from Israel. With the war in Iran charging ahead and Israel being hit by rockets, it all felt too raw to discuss, so we focused on football instead, normally.

First stop was the Long Bien Bridge, a crazy long train bridge over the Red River and an introduction to the quirky Vietnamese sense of humour, in the little café at the station, they were using the casing shells from bombs as flowerpots and light holders!

We then popped into Train Street, this was the new one that they are “developing”. The one in the Old Quarter seems to be so overwhelmed by tourists that they needed another one. So, they have given the people in another street where the train runs permission to turn their front rooms and courtyards into bars. When the train is gone apparently it all changes back.

Next stop was the B52 War Museum, DuyVu our guide was full of information about the war and clearly very proud of his countries achievement, having survived being at war with the most powerful country on earth and coming out as winners, I’m sure tours of Iran will have a similar theme in years to come.

Many of the relics form an open air park, or playground, so we saw kids happily clambering over fragments of B52 bombers having a fine time.

We then headed for the backstreets of West Lake and a tour of the alley ways where people lived, often alongside their scooters. The intensity of their living spaces was amazing, crammed into miles of little lanes, you certainly wouldn’t want to fall out with your neighbours or have an up and coming trumpet player living next door!

By now, it was getting dark, so we went on a long open top tour around the city. This part of the trip was great because it filled in a lot of gaps. The trip took us around the government buildings, most of which were twinkling with bright lights.

Then on to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, this is quite a tourist attraction to see his body at rest. I have to be honest, standing for hours in a queue to solemnly walk past his body didn’t really tickle our fancy so I was happy to have seen it, that was enough.

The trip then took us through as shopping district with some of the most famous and expensive designer brands that were the real deal, a total contrast to the shops of the Old Quarter. One had the ask the question, who in Vietnam could possibly afford to go shopping in these places, unless of course there was a ruling elite or had very wealthy tourists!

The last stop was the Hidden Gems café for dinner. This was a great little place tucked into an alleyway, as always. I love the Vietnamese innovations, all the furniture was made out of bits of scrapped motorbikes and scooters, which were turned into tables and chairs.

After great food and more egg coffee, conversation with our Israeli pals about who would win the English Premier League, it was time to head back to the Old Quarter in the Jeep and to say goodbye to everyone.

Thanks to DuyVu and Back Street Tours for a great evening.

18/06/2026
Hanoi Travel Tips: From Train Street to Egg Coffee

Once you have settled in Hanoi and adjusted to the crazy pace of traffic, the intense humidity and probably got wet, it is time to have a look around. When you start to wander the streets, it will quickly dawn on you that the whole place is a labyrinth and within a couple of minutes you will be lost and looking for Google Maps to get you out of trouble.

Our starting point for these situations is to find a guided walking tour so that you get your bearings and then maybe a bus or something so you see the sights. One of the big attractions that everyone goes to is Train Street, you don’t need a guide to find it and it is a lot of fun, so we ticked that box on the first evening, which got us off to a flying start.

You do, however, need to be aware that there are TWO Train Streets. There is the original one which is packed with travellers and lined with cafes and bars, and there is a second one that is building up but isn’t as popular yet.

We went to both; they are both fun and you can have a pint of their local (expensive) craft beer and enjoy being nearly crushed by a train. Safety is impressive, when they hear the train horn, bar owners appear blowing whistles and basically everyone gets out the way of the train, the alternative is to die or be seriously injured by the aforesaid train. Self-preservation is at the core of Vietnamese safety culture.

Beer Street was another essential drop off point on our first night. This is the hub of the backpacker community with strings of music bars spread around a block. I think this is the local authorities cunning plan to keep beery Westerners together in one place, and be prepared for Karaoke, it is almost their national pastime.

To avoid wandering aimlessly in the heat, we booked a walking tour for the next morning with these guys. It was very cheap, only costing $5, and that is because the guide is a volunteer. They are normally students aspiring to become guides, it is their way of learning their trade and improving their English. This worked well for us, our guide was quite inexperienced but we had a nice morning with her, visiting the French cathedral in the centre of town (bit boring), and then walking to the Hoem Kiem Lake.

The lake is famous for its giant turtles, which are now extinct as the last one died in 2018, the bodies of the last two are held in the Jade Temple, which sits on an island accessed by the Huc bridge. It is a really cool place and really gives out a good vibe about the history of Vietnam and its various gods and ancient dynasties.

Our guide then took us through back streets and winding staircases to her favourite little bar, where we were introduced to the wonders of Vietnamese Egg Coffee, which sounds revolting but it is really rather wonderful, and there is also a Salt Coffee which is equally as good.

The guide was very flexible and was happy to take us anywhere, but the problem was, we had no idea what we wanted to do, which was why we had a guide. So eventually we settled on visiting the French Prison, but it might have been more helpful if there had been an itinerary to be honest.

The French Prison was a particularly dark and daunting place. It turns out the Vietnamese are not easy to concur, in fact they fought of Genghis Khan 3 times, not to mention a long list of Chinese dynasties that followed.

The French bit off a bit more than they could chew back in the day, with lots of uprisings going on at regular intervals. They took a very European approach; they built a prison and threw all the troublemakers in jail. The tour of the prison is quite a blood curdling experience showing the miserable conditions the French imposed on their prisoners, male and female, it is amazing what humans can cope with.

One of the most poignant displays related to the history of the US bombing of Hanoi. The prison was used to house the US aircrews that were shot down, there were plenty of propaganda pictures of the crews having a lovely time which was clearly nonsense, but the pictures of the devastation caused by the bombing were deeply moving.

The key message to the world is that carpet bombing doesn’t work, you cannot conquer countries from the air, and that you can’t defeat a religion or a philosophy, in this case Communism. So, 50 years on, the message is still there, Afghans, Syrians and Libyans survived blitzes from the air.

In 2025 we have an active war in the Middle East where the US is trying, once again, to defeat one of the most dogged and hard core philosophies from the air. Just look at history, the weapons change but the outcomes don’t.

When it was all finished, we tipped our guide, said goodbye and felt in need of a cooling off. Inexplicably, we tried to walk the 15 minutes back to our hotel using Apple Maps, 45 minutes later, very hot, and still lost, we changed to Google Maps and found our way back to the hotel and slumped into the pool with an ice cold beer.

Basically, a walking tour of Hanoi is very hard work. On this visit we didn’t get to see the political buildings and designer shops as they weren’t of much interest to us, The other big attraction is the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, once again, not of much interest to us.

15/06/2026