After learning that Laos does not give VOAs at the nearby border post, we abandoned the plan to visit the Plain of Jars and Luang Prabang, and return to Hanoi to get the bus to Ninh Binh. The hotel booked us on to a sleeper bus directly to Hanoi which left at 9 pm. I should plug the “Frontier Hotel” at this point because a room is only £3 a night and has all the facilities needed by aging (and young) hippies, and the people are utterly charming. They do everything to help, able to speak a sufficient amount of English, without being obsequious, an irritating habit we have noticed in some other Vietnamese people. I feel like grabbing these people by the throat and saying “you beat the Japanese, French and Americans: you don’t need to suck up to us”. Although I suspect they are only trying to exhibit traditional Vietnamese hospitality. I should also mention the guide, Son Lo, who is a lovely man and made our tour with him utterly memorable.
With a day to kill, we decided to walk back to the Museum because it really is an incredible experience. We took a different route and found ourselves walking in torrential rain along a muddy path next to the river, together with long-horned cattle, a water buffalo, pigs and geese as well as farmers on scooters who laughed at us in a friendly (I think) way. Getting back on the right road we got lost again and got directions from a man who sent us through the military cemetery. It doesn’t feature on Tripadvisor but is well worth a visit; you can see the special graves for Phan Vinh Giot, who stuck his body in front of a French machine gun embrasure on 13th March 1953 while his unit was attacking Him Lam hill. There is also the grave of Tran Cam who lead the unit which attacked Hill 507, allowing the Viet Minh to charge across the Muong Thanh Bridge and capture the de Castries bunker. Tran Cam died on 7th May 1954, the final day of the war.
Our new friends
Vietnam has lots of weird fruit and veggies. These look like melons growing on tree.
Grave of Phan Vinh Giot
Grave of Tran Cam. Unusually for Vietnam, the flowers are real.
Feature at the cemetery
The cemetery
I didn’t know there were so many types of rice.
Fish at the place we got the Hanoi bus
Our coach for the long and bumpy ride to Hanoi. We had to sleep on the top bunk and managed not to fall off.