We had a blast in Vietnam and we did make some great notes along on the way on places we’d visited and things we'd done, but unfortunately, due to a mysterious computer error, we managed to delete the postings! So instead here is a quick snapshot of the rest of our adventures in ‘Nam:
Ho Chi Minh City
What a crazy place. It’s so busy that somehow the scooters outnumber the population! (apparently there’s 7 million people and 8 million scooters).
What a crazy place. It’s so busy that somehow the scooters outnumber the population! (apparently there’s 7 million people and 8 million scooters).
Crossing the road is a bit tricky, given there are no pavements or crossings and no real gaps in the traffic. Fon warned us about this beforehand and advised that we should just go for it and ignore the beeps. It took five us a while to pluck up the courage just to cross the road outside our hotel!
We spent our one day in the city visiting the Resurrection Palace and shopping at the indoor market – hands down the busiest and most hectic one we’ve been to yet, but we did successfully manage to haggle on some sleeping bag liners; essential for the next part of our journey.
Nha Trang
We took an overnight train to Nha Trang. We were a little apprehensive at first as Fon had done a good job of lowering our expectations by saying we shouldn’t expect the same level of safety or cleanliness as we would get back home, but the journey was fantastic. We were in first class, four berth cabins and shared with another couple from our group. The cabins were great, they looked like something straight out of Harry Potter or an Agatha Christie novel!
All was well until morning, when Laura, one of roommates, told us she spotted a massive cockroach walking around our cabin last night - eek!
Nha Trang was a lovely seaside town. Pretty touristy, but we had a great (and very relaxing) couple of days there.
Our highlights would have to be chilling out with drinks on the beach and visiting the mud baths and mineral springs!
Hoi An
The overnight train to Hoi An was as before, although this time, not as clean so our sleeping bag liners came in handy.
No cockroaches in the cabin, but as I was getting up, I did spot another stowaway scampering around...a mouse!
Hoi An is a beautiful, historic town. Fon said when we arrived we wouldn’t want to leave and she was right. Really wish we had longer there.
Some highlights of Hoi An would include:
- Drinking fresh beer for 12p a glass (local beer by the keg that is only fresh for one day so its so cheap!)
- Getting some clothes tailored made
- Taking a Vietnamese cooking class
- Taking a bicycle tour around town in the evening and seeing the paddy fields, peanut fields, riding a water buffalo and taking a river boat back along the river.
Hue
Another really pretty town, although not as nice as Hoi An (I think that must have to be our favourite town so far).
When we arrived in Hue, we joined the rest of the group on a motorbike tour of the town. It was a fanstic tour for the price of $10, we managed to pack in a lot of sights on the way including visiting some paddy fields, old American bunkers (which are kept locked and closed to public, just in case they are needed again one day!), visitng a conical hat maker and watching the sunset over the perfume river.
Halong Bay
Our last overnight train in Vietnam was to Hanoi. This time we drew the short straw and ended up sharing our cabin with a couple of locals…that turned out to be a couple of British travelers, so it made for easy conversation and a comfortable journey.
When we arrived in Hanoi it was just a short four hour bus journey to Halong Bay (although it was one of the most dramatic bus journeys to date, with a couple of emergency stops en route…I could have sworn the bus driver hit something at one point).
Halong Bay is an amazing place. It’s now recongised as a natural wonder of the world. It is surrounded by over 3000 islands, rocks and beautiful crystal clear water.
We took an afternoon boat tour with our group on board a junk boat. A junk boat, it turns out, is a very fancy cruise liner!
The best bits would have to include
- The lovely big seafood lunch on board in the fancy dining room.
- Reaching the floating village and exploring the nearby caves in kayaks.
- Chilling out on the sundeck with a few Hanoi beers on the way back to the mainland.
Hanoi
We spent our last two days in the Vietnam’s bustling capital city.
Hanoi is far busier than Ho Chi Minh City, so much so in fact that we got stuck in traffic, walking back to our hotel from a nearby restaurant one night!
Hanoi is far busier than Ho Chi Minh City, so much so in fact that we got stuck in traffic, walking back to our hotel from a nearby restaurant one night!
Our highlights in Hanoi would have to include:
- Visiting the Hanoi Hilton Museum – former POW prison. Interesting place but it feels like you don’t exactly get a balanced view of things.
- Seeing a water puppet show.
- Sampling the weasel coffee
We really loved Vietnam and the people. In fact, I think it is probably one of our favourite places on our trip so far.
Next stop Laos!
