day 12-1. 世界遺産、古都ホアルー 14日間ベトナム縦断・統一鉄道の旅
Good morning. Well, it’s now the 12th day of our Vietnam trip, and we’ve been able to travel across Vietnam by train. I’m now in a travel agency in the center of Hanoi. I wanted to go to Halong Bay tomorrow, so I asked for a tour of Halong Bay.
Halong Bay is a famous world heritage site that can be reached from Hanoi, but it takes about 3 hours from here, so I thought it would be difficult to go there alone. It’s a bit of a hassle to arrange a cruise and all that, so I decided to go on a tour.
I had applied for a tour online, but I never heard back, so I had no choice but to come to the office.
There is a very famous tour company called The Sinh Tourist. If you come to downtown, you’ll find The Sinh Tourist everywhere. But they’ve become so popular that there’s a forest of fake ones, and they’ve been going out of business and staying in the covid period, so the company I booked with on their website may be gone.
I’m glad to hear that the reservation went perfectly, even though I’m booking for tomorrow. I’m going to visit another World Heritage site. There are several World Heritage Sites that can be reached from Hanoi. I’m planning to go to a place called Trang An Complex heritage sites. That’s where I want to go.
Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, that’s what we call it. It’s a beautiful place called Guilin on land, about 100km south of Hanoi.
There is also a place called Hoa Lu which used to be the capital before it became Hanoi and it is also a World Heritage Site so we will visit that as well. So we are going to ride 96km on the bike, almost straight south from Hanoi.
Well, it says here that it will take 2 hours and 16 minutes. Actually, they say you can get there about 30 minutes faster by car. I heard that you are not allowed to ride a motorbike on the highway in Vietnam.
So I have to take the road but it takes about 30 minutes longer. There are probably some famous pho shops around here, so I’m going to try those and then head to the World Heritage Site. There is a pho shop that looks really good and was highly rated on Google Maps.
I’m going to go to that shop. There’s a menu over there, but I didn’t order anything and this pho came right out. The pho came out just like the name of the restaurant says. Oh, I’ll try it as soon as I can. Steamed chicken. It’s a very smooth taste of chicken.
It’s a light meal in Hanoi. Pho shops are everywhere here, it’s kind of amazing. But if you think about it, downtown Japan is also full of ramen shops. I can understand if it is the same thing, but I think there are more pho shops than ramen shops in Japan. Delicious. Very tasty.
Chicken broth with… Well, it tastes a bit like Chinese soup but also a bit like Ajinomoto. The overall taste is very light and not too greasy, very smooth and tasty. Delicious. It’s about a minute’s walk from the aforementioned Sinh Tourism. Then I eat this and head to Trang An.
Now we are in Hoa Lu, the ancient capital of Vietnam. I knew it would take 2 hours. I feel like I’ve finally arrived, but more than that, my eyes hurt a lot. I’m sure the roads in Vietnam have a lot of gravel, dust and fumes and it hurts my eyes a lot.
I need to wear sunglasses or something. I came to the ruins of Hoa Lu, but I wanted to park my bike somewhere, so I parked it in a touristy looking shop right in front of me.
The Hanoi Pho I just had was very famous and cost 300,000 VND in downtown Hanoi, but if you order it here it costs 450,000 VND, which is obviously a very touristy price. The price is very touristy but they lend you a power plug which is very nice.
*I got 30,000 and 45,000 VND instead of 300,000 and 450,000 VND. My phone is navigating me all this way, but even though I just bought a new one, the battery was already about half full. So I have to go to a place like this and ask for an outlet to keep going.
I eat pho. After eating I want to do a lot of sightseeing. But it is amazing. I am now in Trang An, Ninh Binh City, in a place called “Landscape Heritage. The area around the ancient city of Hoa Lu is part of it and it’s really beautiful.
For example, the rocky mountains there. They call it “Guilin on land” because it looks like Guilin in China. It is true that the scenery suddenly becomes beautiful when you come to this area.
It is said that this is a karst mountainous area that is unique in the world, and for those who love nature, it is a great place to visit. Bon appétit. Delicious. It’s a very scenic place. In case you were wondering, these are the ruins of the former capital of Hoa Lu.
But I heard that there is almost nothing left here from those days. They say there are some things left that were made in later periods. The legend of the water buffalo is said to have been told, so they put a water buffalo there and take a picture with it.
Well, here we are in Hoa Lu. It doesn’t look like there are many ruins here. I’m not sure this is a good idea. I’ve been looking at Wikipedia all day and it says that the first independent Vietnamese dynasty was founded here in 968.
The dynasty was called the Dinh dynasty, but the Dinh dynasty collapsed after about 10 years and the next dynasty was the Early Le dynasty. The Early Le Dynasty, which collapsed after about 30 years, so there were two very short-lived dynasties… So there were two very short-lived dynasties that had this as their capital.
It says 968 to 1010 years, so it’s really short. 42 years. Then there’s the place I wanted to see yesterday. Thang Long.
Thang Long Palace, I went to see the ruins yesterday, it’s a world heritage site and this is where the Ly Dynasty moved their capital and Hanoi has been the capital ever since. Thang Long is the ancient name of Hanoi.
The Nguyen dynasty was founded and from 1802 to 1945 this is also Hue, the world heritage site I visited last week. So there’s a rule that this is the entrance and this is the exit. Hue was the capital of the Nguyen dynasty. and after September 1945 Hanoi was the capital again.
I like to think that for me the journey through Vietnam is like a journey through the capitals of Vietnam. Well, I heard that this was the first capital of Vietnam, even if it was only for 40 years.
I think Hoa Lu must be a very important place for Vietnamese people because in the beginning of Vietnam’s history. Before that, many areas were ruled by the Chinese Han Dynasty or something like that. Dragon bed. It says “national treasure”. It says no photos allowed, so I’m going to cut it off once.
The Japanese speaking guide told her earlier that most of what remains here is from the Ly Dynasty. There is also this one. I wonder if this is a national treasure of the Dinh dynasty.
The Dinh Dynasty that I mentioned earlier was the first dynasty in Vietnam and this is also the character for Dinh.
Now, the Dinh dynasty was short-lived, and I heard that the previous Le dynasty was also short-lived. It seems that the Dinh Dynasty was born in turmoil and disappeared in turmoil, so it can’t be helped that there are not so many things left.
I’m going to go around to other places, but I’m sure there will be a lot of stuff left when they excavate the ruins here. It’s like a big empty prairie now. For now. It says “king’s temple” here, so I guess it was a family temple of the king.
It’s a nice ride for the emperor. It’s not allowed to take pictures inside. The camera is closed. Hoa Lu is surprisingly the only one. What a waste. I think it’s a very important historical site, but it doesn’t look like a tourist attraction and there are only two buildings, the temple I mentioned earlier.
I heard that the first temple over there that you saw was the tomb of the first emperor of the old days. So it’s like only these things are left, but there’s very little left from the Dinh dynasty or the early Le dynasty. It’s a bit disappointing.
Well, it may be natural that there are not many things left because they were destroyed, but still it seems like there is nothing left. Hmmm… Well, it’s less than 10 minutes by bike from here to the place famous for its Trang An scenery. I will go that way.
レイオフされたので、年末年始に統一鉄道を使ってベトナムを縦断してきました。
ベトナムには、国土を南北を縦断する鉄道があります。
正式名称は『南北線』ですが、ベトナムはかつて南北に分断されていた歴史があるので、『統一鉄道』という呼称で親しまれています。
最南端のサイゴン駅（ホーチミン）からハノイ駅まで、1726㎞を寝台列車に乗って旅しました。
１２日目（１）は首都ハノイから９６キロ南下して、世界遺産の「チャンアンの景観関連遺産」を見に行きます。まずは、その世界遺産の一部であり統一されたベトナムの王朝史上の最初の首都である、古都ホアルーを見に行きました。
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