Two weeks in Vietnam

A 18-day adventure by Melinda Read more

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Trip start
September 27, 2019
Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Perth Singapore Hanoi
September 27, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Hyden to Perth to Singapore to Hanoi with a 7 hour stopover in Singapore. We found some carpet in a quiet area only to wake up surrounded by Indians about to board to Chennai. They don’t value personal space like we do. They had surrounded us.
We were picked up at the airport and taken to our travel agent to finalise details and pay. Wasn’t quite as cheap as we thought as their price was in US $, not AUD. Still good value but not what we were expecting. Had pho for lunch, checked in to Hotel, went for a walk, found a French bakery and ate too much!
Early night tonight.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Day 1 Hanoi
September 28, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
We walked to the French Quarter today en route to find a coffee house that sells good egg coffee, famous in Hanoi. It was delicious. We walked back to the hotel then got a taxi to catch up with Dan Brown and watch the grand final. Then late lunch and chilled out in the hotel. We have to wait until 9pm to collect our washing which will be the biggest challenge of the day. The traffic here is crazy - no rules but it seems to flow somehow. It’s a skill to cross the street.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Day 2 in Hanoi
September 29, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
A quick summary of the day as we are leaving on the night train to Sapa.
We did a tour of the city visiting the mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh’s body is kept. We saw the President’s Palace, the process of lacquer art, the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology, lunch, the Centre of Literature then the Pagoda. It was an interesting day and our guide seemed very knowledgeable.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Sapa
September 30, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We spent the night on the train arriving in Ga Loa Cai at 6am. We travelled to Sapa by mini bus, had breakfast then started our hike. We were a bit disappointed to start with as it was all downhill on a road but wasn’t long before it was more like we expected and after lunch was really tough uphill. We arrived at the homestay which looked great. There are lots of others staying here - from Israel, Colombia, Germany about 15 in total. We have a choice of hiking 20 or 12 kms tomorrow and initially thought 20 but after this arvo we are leaning towards 12!
We had dinner which was prepared by many family members then everyone was basically force fed happy water, their name for rice wine. A local musician then performed for us local instruments and also taught us some songs.
Even though we had our own room, the walls were not to the ceiling so not the best nights sleep!!Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos from Day 1 trekking
September 30, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Day 2 trekking
October 1, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
We started with eggs, pancakes and bananas for breakfast then headed off with a different guide. Yesterday was Mau, today was Moo. Our hike today was beautiful. We cut across a mountain and as we were already staying high up, it was a steep decent. We went through a bamboo Forrest and there were beautiful flowers. We had lunch in a village and for the 2nd day, harassed by ladies trying to sell their goods.
We finished our hike at a waterfall but none of the waterfalls are flowing too much because they haven’t had much rain. We had a swim which was a nice way to finish our day.
The car trip back to Sapa was pretty rough - probably he roughest stretch of road I’ve been on. It was comparable to some of the windy roads in France and Croatia that we did so glad we were being driven.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos Day 2 trekking
October 1, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Sapa - Hanoi
October 2, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We had time to kill on Sapa before catching the bus at 3pm. We scoped out our stop according to google maps and nothing indicated a bus stop but our girl Tracy said to wait there. We headed there about 2.30 and when we could see no large green bus we established we were not in the right spot. We had to head back down the hill and around a couple of bends but got there. It was a sleeper bus so a bit weird lying down in the afternoon. The trip out of Sapa is incredibly scenic and our bus driver was a little bit crazy! They pass on hairpin bends just using their horn to let any on coming traffic know. We had a couple of stops along the way and arrived in Hanoi at 9.15. We thought we were being dropped at the hotel and amid the chaos were shuffled on to another bus to be called off and put in a taxi. The taxi had supposedly been paid for but claimed he did not get enough so we had to fork out another 80000 dong. Not sure if we were scammed 5 Aussie dollars??
Checked in to same hotel as before and straight to bed.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Hanoi - Halong Bay
October 3, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Today we were picked up at the hotel in a bus to head out to Halong Bay. Today was the first day we had rain and it rained for most of the trip. We got out to the boat at 12.30 and it stopped raining. We have some nice people on board with us - New Zealand x 4, Saudi Arabia x 3, America x 5, Poland x 1 and a couple more. We had lunch then at 3 hopped onto the tender to see a cave. The cave was impressive but the amount of tourists is horrible! Then we went to another of the limestone rocks and climbed the 420 steps to the top and then had a swim - definitely did not put our heads under!
We had dinner then Mark tried his luck squidding (unsuccessfully) however jagged two fish about 3cm long.
It is really beautiful here. It looks like a town at night with all the lights on the boats.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos - Halong Bay
October 3, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Halong Bay - Hanoi
October 4, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We had breakfast then a look at an Oyster Farm and did some kayaking. We had early lunch, chilled on the boat for a while then headed back to shore. We had to wait around got out bus for a bit then back to Hanoi.
We checked in to the same hotel for the third time. We did some washing, headed out for dinner then bed.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Hanoi-Tam Coc-Nimh Binh
October 5, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Headed south from Hanoi. Looked at the old city Hoa Lu then had lunch. We were rowed down the river at Tam Coc then dropped at the train station with a long wait for our train. The people rowing use their feet. The turn around trip is 6kms and goes through 3 caves. We are currently in a bar killing time. We are catching another overnight train to Phong NaRead more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos Tam Coc
October 5, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Nimh Binh - Phong Na
October 6, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Before leaving the bar last night we met two Vietnamese families who were keen to practice their English with us. After walking back to the train station, the same thing happened. Parents bring their children there so they can have English conversations. They had to stay there until 10pm talking to people.
Our train was much more modern than the one we took to Sapa but was still quite noisy with a very firm mattress. We had to get off the train at Dong Hoi so set out alarm for 5.45. We did not need it though. We were collected from the station at driven to our accommodation and luckily for us, they let us check in as our room was ready. This meant a shower which was pretty exciting!!
We were collected for our tour of Paradise and Phong Na cave. They were both incredibly beautiful- Paradise is a dry cave, Phong Na is a wet cave.
We had a swim when we got back and dinner with Tony, Tim and Claudia who we shared the boat with in Halong Bay.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos - Phong Na
October 6, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Phong Na - Hue
October 7, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C
We travelled by private car from Phong Na to Hue - about 168kms and it took about 3.5 hours. The highway is 80kms per hour. After check in we did a tour of the tomb of the 2nd Emperor and the the 12th Emperor - both very impressive however the 12th Emperor’s was more elaborate due to being built later.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos - Hue
October 7, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos - Hue
October 7, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Hue - Hoi an
October 8, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We travelled by private car from Hue to Hoi An via the Hai Van Pass with some stops along the way, including a lagoon, Lang Co Beach and Marble Mountain. I had a swim at the hotel then we caught the shuttle bus into the old town.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos Hue - Hoi an
October 8, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos Hue - Hoi an
October 8, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Photos Hue - Hoi an
October 8, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Hoi an
October 9, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
We did a tour to My Son, a series of temples from the Champa people from 200BC to 1200AD. 10 million tonnes of gold was moved from the region through the years.
The majority of the temples were bombed in one week during the Vietnam War by the Americans.
It is now a UNESCO site and several temples are currently under restoration by Italy and India.
We then saw how rice paper was made and had lunch at out guides house cooked by his mother and grandmother. We had a boat ride back to Hoi an and got off in the fish markets. We were meant to do an afternoon tour but decided not to and had a swim instead then wandered down to the beach for dinner.Read more
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Hoi an
October 10, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
A lazy day today. It rained for most of the morning and we just chilled. We went into the old town in the afternoon. It’s our last night in Vietnam tonight.
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Two weeks in Vietnam Melinda Ditchburn
Da Nang - Ho Chin Minh - Singapor
October 11, 2019 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We left the hotel early and had the slowest driver in Vietnam take us to the airport. The first glitch was our ticket to Ho Chi Minh had not been confirmed. That flight had been delayed and if it hadn’t have been delayed we wouldn’t have made it anyway due to no ticket. We purchased a new ticket then the 11.40 plane was delayed. As a result we got in late to Ho Chi Minh and missed our connecting flight to Singapore. We had to buy new tickets and still had to run to the boarding gate. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare because the flight was delayed!
We got a taxi to Ness’ house then walked for to a Hawkers Centre for a delicious dinner.Read more
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