KEY POINTS:
The guards at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, in Hanoi, are notoriously stern. So getting two of them to smile as we paraded solemnly past Uncle Ho's embalmed corpse made it on to our list of holiday highlights.
It wasn't your standard highlights list. But travelling with a blond 2-year-old in Vietnam rewards you with experiences most travellers miss out on.
We'd journeyed to Vietnam a little reluctantly. We were experienced travellers, with passports full of stamps from developing nations, but with me pregnant and a small child in tow, Vietnam wasn't high on our holiday wish list. However, we'd been invited to a family wedding just outside Hanoi and it seemed an opportunity too good to miss.
So we assembled a first-aid kit the size of a suitcase, booked into a mid-range hotel instead of our pre-child, budget option, and drummed a list of rules into our toddler's head: don't eat without washing your hands first; don't touch the animals; and don't drink the water, even in the shower.
We agreed we would be mainstream tourists for a change: we would take guided tours, ride in tourist buses rather than local transport, and eat at restaurants rather than street stalls. In between organising visas, packing toddler clothes for all seasons, and working out how many disposable nappies we'd need, there was more than the usual level of pre-holiday angst.
We needn't have worried. In the end the only things that we used from our first-aid kit were a few band-aids for blisters and some oral rehydration powder for grown-up tummy upsets; we organised our own tours, on local transport; and our son became expert at slurping noodles from street stalls. We had a blast, and appreciated Vietnam as if we were first-time travellers, thanks to our son.
Sure, we had to fit in daytime naps and did less each day than we would have on our own, but we visited attractions we might have skipped without a child and experienced new delights in familiar places thanks to our son's delight in small pleasures.
After all, how many people can say they squeezed in three visits to Hanoi's Water Puppet Theatre in under a week? But when your child sits enthralled for the entire 40-minute performance, cries when the fisherman gets dragged into the water by a big fish, and then asks for "more" immediately after the show, you develop a whole new appreciation for the ancient art.
Seen through a 2-year-old's eyes, it's just plain good fun: bright wooden puppets glide across the water, telling simple stories understandable even without being able to interpret the Vietnamese narration.
Hanoi's Central Circus was another unlikely tourist gem: held every night at 8pm, on Sundays there's also a 9am "children's performance". We joined the crowd of Vietnamese families and one or two expat families on the banked seating and spent two delicious hours watching incredible acrobatic feats.
The sequinned performers made their gravity-defying acts look so simple that by the end of the show you had to remind yourself that it really would be incredibly difficult to balance that dagger on the end of a sword held in your mouth while balancing on a 2m ladder propped on a table. With an entrance fee of 20,000 dong ($1.70), it was a great morning's entertainment.
At Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake, we walked across the quaint red wooden bridge leading to a small island and Ngoc Son Temple. We bought a pack of incense and our son placed each burning stick, with great care, into the huge pot at the front of the temple, and made a "wish".
Inside he was excited by the "money box" for donations and took great pleasure into stuffing notes into the slot. We stood for 20 minutes watching an elderly man create beautiful calligraphy with a brush and ink and were asked to explain the carvings of dragons and lions.
In the temple's small museum was a stuffed giant tortoise, a marvel to a little boy. A sign explained that this one weighed 250kg when it washed up dead in 1968, and the few that are believed to remain in the lake are rarely seen.
That created the opportunity for a great game: we walked hand-in-hand beside the lake peering into the murky waters, hoping to see one of the elusive beasts. With beginner's luck we spotted a crowd staring at a bubbling section of lake and the rare sight of a prehistoric head surfacing for air. It was hard to tell whether the child or the grown-ups were more excited.
It was a bit like that when I stumbled across "toy street" on one of my nap-time solo rambles. Hanoi's Old Quarter is a warren of narrow streets and lanes named after the product that was sold there in the 13th century. While the trade guilds that controlled each street's commerce no longer exist, stalls selling similar items still cluster together to create strips of, say, headstone carvers or temple suppliers or silk embroiders.
Though most tourists made a beeline for the streets selling lacquerware or housing tailors' shops, I was planning a return to Pho Luong Van Can, a 200m strip of tiny toy stalls where towers of dolls and trucks spilt on to the road and shopkeepers demonstrated noisy plastic toys. It was toddler heaven and I had as much fun from seeing my son's delight as he did from playing with the merchandise.
I did make it to Pho Hang Gai, famous for its silk and embroidery, but my expanding waistline meant I could only stare wistfully at the beautiful ao dai, those long elegant dresses worn by Vietnamese women. I had to satisfy myself with several exquisitely stitched wraps and a quilted silk jacket for the new baby.
They made great packing material for my son's treasured souvenirs: a miniature water puppet and a singing and dancing street-cleaning truck. And besides, we were already planning a return trip: would two children double the fun?
Checklist: Vietnam
Getting There
There are several options for getting from New Zealand to Vietnam.
Malaysian Airlines flies from Auckland to Hanoi via Kuala Lumpur for around $1350 plus taxes. See www.malaysiaairlines.com. Emirates goes via Bangkok for about $1650 plus taxes. See www.emirates.com. Air New Zealand will take you via Kuala Lumpur for $1850 plus taxes. See www.airnz.co.nz. Singapore Airlines flies from Auckland and Christchurch, via Singapore, to Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, and Hanoi. See www.singaporeair.com
Getting Around
Around Hanoi, xyclos, bicycle rickshaws, provide an atmospheric way to explore the city and cost around 20,000 dong ($1.70) an hour. Metered taxis should cost around 7000 dong a kilometre. Tourist cafes offer package tours for all budgets and your hotel can guide you to the bus station if you want to brave a local bus for long trips.
Where To Stay
Hotel accommodation in Vietnam is great value and has something for every hip-pocket. You can get a budget room for under $15 per night or treat yourself to some serious decadence at the elegant Sofitel Metropole Hanoi for around $340 a couple (kids under 12 are free using existing bedding). A mid-range room in an historic Old Quarter hotel will cost around $50 for a couple and child.
Further Information
Lonely Planet's Vietnam and World Food Vietnam guides. Visit www.vietnam-travel.com and www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/asia/vietnam.
