Vietnam!!!!!

February – March 2024
  • Shalee Gherbaz
Michael and I are off to Vietnam for 3, weeks!!!! Ho Chi Minh City - Hoi An - Da Nang - Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City Read more
  • Shalee Gherbaz

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  • Vietnam Vietnam
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  • 120footprints
  • 21days
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  • Sunworld in Architecture

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Sunworld is basically like Epcot's World section, except it's all Medieval and European. It's the weirdest place. It looks gorgeous, but it's basically hotels, restaurants and gift shops hahaha. We've walked around and snuck through random alleyways, slowly letting the park unveil itself to us. Will have a few seperate posts for the park as there is some seriously weird stuff here hahahaRead more

  • Buffet Lunch

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    As part of our Sunworld ticket, we got all you can eat buffet at the four seasons restaurant. The place is huge and there's so much food.

    We had a few plates and tried bits and pieces. Anything we were not super keen on got left on the plate so we would only eat what we really enjoyed. There was some beautiful roast duck and ham that Michael loved, and I had an amazing bowl of pho and some divine braised pork, spring rolls, and wontons.

    It's not the best meal by any stretch, but for $17 each it's easily the best theme park meal we've both had! Afterwards, Michael saw these weird coin snacks
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  • The weirdest wax museum

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    As part of our entry we got to get a free ticket into the wax museum. It was the scariest, funniest, weirdest wax museum. Like, the wax statues were actually terrifyingly bad, so bad it was funny. I laughed so much!Read more

  • Fantasy Park (inside Sunworld)

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    There is a games/fantasy weird park underneath the facade of sunworld that you go underground to explore. It had a bunch of Vietnamese Games, Arcade Prize Games, rides for little ones, a random drop ride like the Batman ride in Queensland, plus random themed areas like a Jurassic Park Themed Area, and a 4D and 5D Cinema. This place is utterly bizarre hahaha.

    Michael and I ended up going in the 5D Cinema, and it was a cowboy themed ride where you had to straddle a face horseback and shoot at baddies. It was so much fun we ended up going back and doing it again. The second time we did it Michael got the top score out of everyone (he secretly filmed the whole thing on his magnet camera), and I randomly got 3rd after getting 0 points for the whole first half of the ride. It was an absolute blast and easily our favourite part of the park.
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  • The Famous Golden Hand Bridge

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    To get back down from Sunworld, you can go via a lower level by getting a cable car to the lower level, and there's a bunch of gardens and viewpoints. But the big drawing card that everyone goes on about on social media is the golden hands bridge. Many people only come here just for this bridge.

    Michael took one look at the bridge, which hangs over the mountains with a massive view below, and said get stuffed hahahaha. I took a look at all the tourists on the bridge trying to take selfies and said get stuffed hahahaha. Either way, the golden hands bridge was not perused.

    However! When we went to find a place for Michael to sit down for a bit, we discovered an area opposite the bridge that had a direct view of it without the crazy tourists. So we quickly grabbed some snaps, called it a day, and got the cable car back to the bottom.

    Viet, our tour driver, was waiting for us at the bottom (he napped for 4 hours whilst we were at Sunworld) and we jumped back on the bikes for the hour long trek home. The venture between Ba Na Hills and Da Nang was gorgeous, with the rolling mountainscape and a cool breeze. Then we hit peak hour in Da Nang, and all chaos broke loose. I've been on the back of bikes in India which I call the land of chaos, and this was another level. It was like being in Ho Chi Minh. Crazy! I didn't film the worst of it but you can get a bit of a gist- imagine double the amount of bikes in places! Hectic! Alas, we made it back to our hotel safe and sound.

    Super happy we changed up our plans and got Viet our easy rider back for the day.
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  • Dinner at Bikini Bottom!

    March 4, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We've ducked down a few blocks to get dinner at Bikini Bottom, which is an American Diner based off SpongeBob Squarepants. The place was packed, and the menu expansive. I ended up getting a smoothie bowl with fruits, granola, berry coconut yoghurt, with a side of bacon, and Michael had Poutine fries with beef, bacon, gravy and cheese.

    Both were delicious and reasonably priced. Our drinks were great with Michael option to get boozy for a change (a baileys orea milkshake) and I had a refreshing green juice. $24 for the two of us. Can't complain!
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  • Sunrise at My Khe Beach

    March 5, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Today is a transit day between Da Nang and Hanoi. Our flight has been pushed back an hour, so we don't need to be at the airport until 2.30pm.

    I've left Michael at the hotel to have a sleep in and wandered down to My Khe beach, which is about a 3 minute walk from the hotel. I arrived when the sun was rising, with lots of people out and about to take pictures. The sand here is lovely. I dipped my toes in for a bit, and then have grabbed a lazy boy and done some data annotation work. I've been doing an hour or so in the mornings, so figured this would be a nice spot to do some!Read more

  • Back at Bikini Bottom for Breakfast

    March 5, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We have ducked back down to Bikini Bottom to have a Western Brekkie. Bikini Bottom has 2 restaurants fused together. We are eating in the coffee shop side instead of the burger garden side today.

    Michael had eggs Benedict that came with seared steak strips and on an English muffin, and I had a classic bacon and eggs that also came with fruits. We shared the pancakes together. Drinks wise, Michael had a cookie dough milkshake and I had lime juice and the BEST salt coffee of the trip. I'll be sad to say goodbye to salt coffee but my endocrine system will thank me when I get home haha (although I haven't been impacted by the coffee here (horrible come downs of fatigue) in the same way I'm impacted in Australia).
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  • Our Last Lunch in Central Vietnam

    March 5, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We walked up the road to a little local Vietnamese place to have some light lunch before heading to the airport. We had some spring rolls, roast pork, and mì quảng, which is a speciality soup in Da Nang with shrimp, pork, and thick rice noodles in pork bone broth. Delish, light and refreshing.

    I have tried a wide range of speciality soups whilst in Vietnam, and I have a rank so far as to my top 5 as follows:

    1. Hư Tiêu Nam Vang
    2. Cao Lau
    3. Đây Đu Không Giờ Heo
    4. Mì Quảng
    5. Phở

    Hanoi is meant to be the queen of Phở so we will find some good bowls tomorrow and test her out!!!! I'm keeping a record of the names of dishes so that I can see if any of the Vietnamese restaurants at home serve them and see how they measure up!
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  • JaCosmo Hotel in Hanoi

    March 5, 2024 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    We have arrived in Hanoi and settled into our hotel. So much for cold weather. It's 28 and muggy, and tomorrow is 27. It does drop to low 20s later in the week so Michael might finally get some reprieve!

    Our hotel is bougie as!!!! We are on the penthouse floor, we have a jacuzzi, a cool as shower with fancy buttons, multiple lounges, a balcony, a french girl day bed, and it's all in super bougie design. Seriously quiet, the air con is great, and the Netflix works. The only downside is the bed is hard 😭😭😭 it's at least not springy like the last hard bed we had, and the pillows are to Michaels liking.

    Photos are at night so not really showing how bougie the place is. At $60 a night, this is a steal.
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