I thought I’d start this second Vietnam post with my observed difference in the South…
After a great time in Hue to the North of Vietnam, we wondered if our troubles were behind us which besides the relentless sales patter from some hotels and learning to give exact money for goods at the listed price rather than asking the price and requesting change we did feel a definite change in mood. We certainly no longer felt unsafe even in the big city of Ho Chi Minh and when we were overcharged we simply smiled and said what we thought the price should be which like the rest of Asia was greeted with a smile back and “ok ok that’s fine” rather than the arguments we had found ourselves in when visiting the north. I don’t know if this is down to attitudes being different in the south or that we did anything any different such as book onward travel through hotels that made the place more welcoming but there was a difference in most places we stayed in the South of Vietnam although the rain did get worse!
Hoi An:
We arrived in Hoi An later than expected due to the bus breaking down in the rain so resided to having a nice meal in the local restaurant to our hotel and an early night ready for a full day exploring the ancient city the following day. It was at this restaurant that for the first time in Vietnam we got chatting to a family member who showed us how to use chopsticks, explained the local food and that Saigon will always be called just that by Vietnamese. The conversation proved further to us how challenging the first part of our journey here had been as everything she had spoke about would have been known by us already usually in the first couple of days.
We hired a scooter and set off the following day first to the ancient city to see the many beautiful buildings and river boats with our 120.000 dong entrance ticket. The ticket gives you entry not only to the city but also 5 of its many ancient buildings. It is possible to explore the place without a ticket but you will not be allowed inside any of the listed sites without. There are many great places to eat in Hoi An with our favourite being the charity restaurant ‘Streets’.
Across the bridge is the island of Cam Kim where you get a sense of Vietnamese life away from the tourist industry with its paddy fields, fishing boats and rice paper making.
Hoi An also has a beach that is within easy reach but as the weather was so bad we gave it a miss.
Danang:
We only had a day in Danang waiting for our sleeper train to dalat and again the terrestrial rain fell so it meant we didn’t see the marble mountains on the way or the beautiful beach of long co. There are some beautiful bridges in Danang with bars and restaurants that over look them promising a good night but not much else.
Dalat:
We caught the sleeper train to Thap Cham mistakenly thinking there would be lots of options for tourist vehicles to go the 90km up to Dalat as it is the closest station. We were wrong! Nobody really spoke English but we found a cafe just outside the train station with a wonderful lady with no English at all that let me use her phone to figure out what to do next and enlisted help from her friends to figure that we had no choice but to pay a taxi £30 to take us to our dalat hotel. She even gave us correct change when we needed to pay for our 30.000 drinks bill with a 500.000 note!
Dalat was incredible! The rain had flooded most parts so it did mean we were regrettably unable to take advantage of the local mountain bike trails or to see the many waterfalls in the area. The fog meant it would be pointless taking the cable car up to the local monestrey too for the views. But enjoyed trekking the highest point at Langbiang with G leading the way through thick forest and very steep inclines rather than taking the path… It was incredibly touristy at the top however with people opting to take jeeps to the summit so don’t expect that rewarding feeling you usually get when trekking from isolated views at a mountain summit.
We happened to be in dalat over the weekend meaning we got to sample lots of tasty street food at the night market on the Saturday. Sunday we learned was family day so we were treated to a very lovely couple of hours drinking and eating with our hotel hosts before our bus arrived to take us to the coastline of Mui Ne.
Mui Ne:
‘It never rains in Mui ne’. I needed the sunshine and beach at this point in our trip. I was missing home, i was missing Christmas, the rain and dark skies for the last couple of weeks were getting me down as well as the bad experiences we had had. Mui ne is a pretty fishing town with vietnams best beaches and more incredibly 2 different sand dunes to play on.
We unfortunately didn’t see any of it due to the rain flooding the place out so left the next day to Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City:
We just had the 1 night in Ho Chi Minh City so I can’t go in to too much depth about what it has to offer. We were lucky that our room for the night (well second room as our original booking ushered us away saying it was now full) was in a great back alley full of cheap restaurants where we found ourself drinking the night away at less than 50p a beer!
Just around the corner in district 1 there are many more pricey bars which line the streets with neon signage attracting tourists and expats. Ho Chi Minh being a city there were opportunities to shop and drink cocktails in several sky bars and unfortunately as well many sellers wishing to overcharge, hassle and abuse you for not buying.
Chu Chi tunnels are a great day trip if you get chance. They are a network of tunnels miles long that the Vietnamese used during the war and you get to go down if you not too scared of very tight spaces! We left the following afternoon after a stroll round the city in the rain to Cambodia by bus. I would go into detail about how easy this border crossing process is but I found a great website that has beaten me to it so shall post the link instead! You can also go on to the Mekong Delta and Phu Quoc island both promising to be very beautiful and friendly but both also completely flooded during our time there so we hoped Cambodia may give us a craved sunshine and opted to head straight there.
We definitely finished our time in Vietnam on a better note. G now says he loved it all apart from Hanoi so maybe I was taking everything too much to heart whilst visiting. I just don’t like it when people treat each other poorly ❤️
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