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Cassandra RipponCassandra Rippon
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  • World Trip
    Dia 345

    Phong Nha Cave and Bong Lai Valley

    27 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We woke up to a slightly warmer (high of 17°C), but still very cloudy and grey, day. As we are catching a sleeper bus tonight to Hanoi, we had the whole day free for activities. We decided to visit Phong Nha Cave in the morning, which is very similar to Paradise Cave, but is a wet cave instead of a dry cave. We arrived at the tourism centre, bought our tickets and shared a boat with 2 English guys. We spent a nice 40min boat ride to the mouth of Phong Nha Cave, from where the girls (one of them was no older than 14 or 15 years old) driving the boat turned off the engine and paddled us into the cave. It was a very peaceful and scenic boat ride through the cave.

    After the cave, we scootered out to a small village in Bong Lai Valley, riding past rice paddy fields, water buffalo, and small family farms. Our main reason for coming to Bong Lai Valley was to visit The Duck Stop, but we also really enjoyed the ride through the village seeing all the small farms and animals. We arrived at The Duck Stop, where we had the best banh xeo (crispy pork pancakes and rice paper) before we visited the ducks. We didn't quite know what to expect from The Duck Stop, but we certainly got a lot more than we were anticipating! After changing into some jelly sandals, we were taken to meet the ducks. The host slowly introduced us to them, and then showed us how to feed them. The ducks would run in herds to whoever had feed in their hands, and they would run over your feet and peck at your feet with their round beaks - it was the strangest feeling! After we all fed the ducks, we were instructed to sit down on a bench and put our feet and knees together. We had no idea what was happening, but we didn't expect to receive a full foot and thigh massage from the ducks! It was the strangest feeling and we couldn't stop giggling - Cass eventually hid her feet up on the bench where the ducks couldn't reach because she couldn't take it anymore! The Duck Stop was so random, but so much fun and definitely a highlight of Vietnam so far!    Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 344

    Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park

    26 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    This morning, we woke up to still cloudy, but slightly warmer weather than yesterday which we were glad for because we planned to head out to Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. After a breakfast of chocolate and bananas pancakes, we jumped on our scooter and drove north out of Phong Nha, towards Ho Chi Minh Road and the national park. We drove past rice paddy and crop fields and small villages flanked by huge limestone mountains, with the air temperature dropping the further we got into the national park. After about 1hr of driving, we arrived at our main activity for the day - Paradise Cave. Paradise Cave is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is (apparently) the longest dry cave in Asia. We spent about 1.5hrs walking through the cave, admiring the strange stalactites and stalagmites. After the cave, we decided to head back to Phong Nha for a late lunch. On our drive back, the fog over the national park turned into light rain, which over the course of the 1hr drive back to town, left us cold and soaking. We stopped in at Treehouse Cafe for hot drinks and a late lunch before returning to our guesthouse for the afternoon.Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 343

    Hue to Phong Nha

    25 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Yesterday, we woke up hoping the rain had stopped so we could do some sightseeing in Hue - we weren't so lucky, and it continued to rain all day. Instead of getting soaked, we decided to go to the movies and for the first time ever, we had the entire movie theater to ourselves! We watched Jason Statham's new movie, The Beekeeper, which was a good way to spend our afternoon. After our movie, we took a sleeper bus from Hue to Phong Nha. It was our first experience with a sleeper bus in Vietnam, and while it wasn't the best (quite uncomfortable seats, old bus), it wasn't the worst bus we'd been on this trip. The bus was delayed by half an hour, which combined with a 40min police stop, meant that we arrived in Phong Nha at 10pm, instead of 9pm. Our host was waiting for us at the bus stop and drove us to the guesthouse, where we had pork pho, tea and a warm room waiting for us.

    Today, we slept in after getting into Phong Nha quite late. We had a slow day of doing some trip admin and rode some bikes along the river.    Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 341

    Hue

    23 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    After a sunny and peaceful 8 days in Hoi An, we woke up this morning to rain - lots and lots of rain. Today was also a travel day for us, as we were moving on north to Hue, approximately 2hrs north of Hoi An. After an early breakfast and checkout, we failed to find a Grab that would take us the short distance to the bus stop so we had to walk in the rain. As we'd done a decent amount of shopping in Hoi An, we had to upgrade one of our 40L backpacks to a suitcase, which poor Mike had to drag 900m over uneven roads, kerbs and footpaths full of scooters. We boarded our minibus, which made a stop at Da Nang Airport, and then we were on our way. When we arrived in Hue 3hrs later, and feeling rather car sick, the sliding door of the minivan jammed - after the driver spent a good 20mins trying to open it, we eventually had to climb over the front seats to exit the van. A short walk in the rain and 5mins later, we checked into our hotel and grabbed some beef pho for lunch.Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 339

    Kim Bong Island

    21 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We decided it was finally time to stop being lazy and to explore a bit further than 1km from our hotel, so we booked ourselves in for a bike tour of rural Hoi An. Our group of 10 cycled from Hoi An over the bike bridge to Kim Bong Island, where we cycled through peaceful rice paddy fields, past traditional farm houses and fishing villages. Along the way, we had three stops to visit local businesses. Our first stop was at a wood carving workshop, where we learnt about traditional carpentry and got to make our own sandalwood keyring. The second stop was our favourite, which was the home of an 80 year old couple where we drank tea and got to make our own handmade rice noodles. Once we'd all made the noodles, we got to eat them as banh dap (smashing rice paper). The last stop was at a weaving house, where we learnt how traditional mats and placemats are woven. As machinery has largely taken over this market, there are only 3 families left in all of Hoi An who still weave by hand - they are also likely to be the last generation, as younger generations have stopped learning the practice. After the bike tour, we cycled back to Hoi An old town, dropped off our bikes and went for lunch and coffee. A great way to get out of the old town for a morning and learn about how the locals live in Vietnam.Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    22
    Dia 338

    Hoi An*

    20 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We've spent the last few days taking it slow wandering the old town for cheap coffee, shopping and catching up on life admin (laundry, washing dirty shoes and clearing photos). Last night, we did an evening basket boat tour where we were rowed in the famous basket boats through the coconut forests, fished for crabs and released some lanterns while we watched the sunset. Our time in Hoi An has been very slow and peaceful, with not a lot to report back on, other than we are finally getting good at bargaining with the locals (Mike got a suitcase down from 500,000VND to 300,000VND today!).Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 335

    Hoi An

    17 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We've made it to our home for the next week - Hoi An! We are excited to spend our days slowly exploring the yellow streets of the Old Town, drinking coffee and shopping. We flew from Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang, arriving in Da Nang around 7.30am, where we took a taxi to Hoi An. We spent our first day here on a walking tour to familiarize ourselves with the area, tick off some sightseeing and understand market prices. By the time the walking tour ended at midday, we were exhausted and felt like we'd already been awake for three days straight, so we rested for the remainder of the day.

    The next couple of days were spent eating at the Central Market, getting some clothes tailored and visiting art galleries. One gallery we particularly enjoyed was the Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum, which is a permanent exhibition of Rehahn's project to showcase and preserve all 54 ethnic groups within Vietnam. As the Vietnamese government try to unite the country, and younger generations lose interest in centuries old traditions, many Vietnamese ethnic groups, their culture and traditional costumes are slowly being lost to the modern world. This gallery showcased photographs of the different ethnic groups, as well as their costumes and heirlooms. It was a wonderful experience to read about all the ethnic groups and Rehahn's adventures to find them while they are still around today.

    We spent the rest of our days n Hoi An taking it slow wandering the old town for cheap coffee, shopping and catching up on life admin (laundry, washing dirty shoes and clearing photos). We did an evening basket boat tour where we were rowed in the famous basket boats through the coconut forests, fished for crabs and released some lanterns while we watched the sunset. Our time in Hoi An has been very slow and peaceful, with not a lot to report back on, other than we are finally getting good at bargaining with the locals (Mike got a suitcase down from 500,000VND to 300,000VND!).    Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 331

    Cass’s Birthday!

    13 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Today was a big day! The big 3-0 !

    Last night we had an acrobatics show booked and we were lucky enough to get seats in the 4th row. It was a cute show which was very well choreographed about the history and growth of Vietnam into what it is today.

    On top of the show last night and to further celebrate the big occasion, Cass wanted to make the most of being in Vietnam and eat all day, and eat we did. After a wake up call of Mike poorly singing happy birthday we started our food tour with a roadside phố and bún (8/10). A lady with a bike cart happened to ride by with some fried banana so we stopped her for some breakfast dessert and after a quick laugh with the lady about her ripping us off (we paid her anyway as it was a few cents only) we ate our coconut sauce - topped fried banana (7/10) on our way to our target for the morning - an egg coffee. These are absolutely delicious (11/10) and will become a regular fixture in our days in Vietnam. After wandering around for a few hours looking for a tour to the Cu Chị tunnels we found ourselves ready for lunch - where we discovered crispy phố and pork bún chả! The phố was not soupy as we expected, but more saucy with fried noodles (9/10). The bún chả was deconstructed, but each mouthful was delicious and so full of flavour (10/10). We couldn’t eat much more before a quick mid day nap so that’s exactly what we did.

    Dinner was a degustation of street food. First up was pork sticky rice and a custard bảo (both 10/10) from a place we visited on our walking tour 2 days prior), then spring rolls (7/10), xíu mại (8/10) and then bột chiên (fried tapioca cake) (6/10). Lastly, we had dessert which were in essence profiteroles, but were beautifully decorated and filled with a variety of flavours - we got a passion fruit, almond and chocolate, and 2x chocolate topped and chocolate filled (10/10). I count 8x food and drink stops - we couldn’t possibly have eaten more today!    Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 329

    Ho Chi Minh

    11 de janeiro, Vietnã ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We have finally arrived in the country we've been waiting 4 years to visit - Vietnam! After a day of lounging in Negombo, we boarded our 11pm flight to Bangkok, where we had a 3hr layover (nb. nap for Mike) before our flight to Ho Chi Minh. We landed in Ho Chi Minh around 9am and were in our apartment by 11am, and napping by 12.30pm. We are SO happy to be in Vietnam, to eat the delicious food and see the familiar smiley faces and sights of South-East Asia again.

    While we were exhausted from our travel day (and 29hrs of no sleep), we wanted to make the most of our time in Vietnam - this meant doing a street food tour, so that we knew about all the delicious things we should try and how to eat them. We spent a fun 3.5hrs walking around Ho Chi Minh, trying out so many things we wouldn't have thought of trying on our own including banh trang nuong (a Vietnamese "pizza" made of grilled rice paper), bo la lot (Vietnamese beef in lolot leaves), banh xeo (stuffed crepe), pork xoi (sticky rice), longan ice cream and others. A great first day in Vietnam!    Leia mais

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  • World Trip
    Dia 326

    Ella to Kandy train

    8 de janeiro, Sri Lanka ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    We got up early today to ride the famous blue train from Ella to Kandy, which is said to be one of the most scenic train rides in the world. We arrived at the train station around 30min before our train was due to arrive from Badulla. When we arrived at Ella train station, there was a long line of backpackers waiting to buy a last minute ticket for the unreserved carriages. We were extremely glad that we'd reserved seats in advance, as the line was massive, taking a long time to buy tickets, and as the unreserved carriages were packed to the brim of people, which would surely make for an uncomfortable 7hr journey.

    Our train arrived right on time at 6.40am, and we hopped into our carriage and stared out the window, watching the scenery of waterfalls and tea plantations pass by. We sat with and got to know an English couple (Sam and Emma), and took turns hanging out the door and taking some fun photos at the front of the train with the conductor. The weather turned from cloudy to thick fog, to eventually rain, the closer we got to Nuwara Eliya. We spent the rest of the train ride watching the scenery change from tea plantations to rainforest and towns the closer we got to Kandy, listening to the locals play music and drums to Justin Bieber and sharing train snacks and travel stories with Sam and Emma.

    We eventually arrived at Kandy around 1.10pm, only 20min later than the scheduled time, checked into our guesthouse and went for lunch at Secret Alley Cafe and a walk around Kandy Lake.    Leia mais

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