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  • Shahnavaz Mehta

Vietnam

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  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    The Beauty of Phong Nha

    April 18, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Wow, if this is just the beginning of what is to come in Northern Vietnam I am so excited!! Phong nhã is a UNESCO heritage zone containing the biggest cave and caves in the world. To see the biggest one it costs $3000 and you have to book at least a year in advance. Well that's not on the cards for us...

    As we had a crazy day yesterday the plan for the day was to just chill out, but after a 12 hour sleep we were fully refreshed and ready for an afternoon out. We hired a scooter and went to the Botanical Garden, did a 2 hour trek to a waterfall, saw the 8 ladies cave (8 ladies were trapped and died in a cave that got bombed) and then headed back. The views were stunning, the weather cleared and it was a really lovely day out. In the evening we met up with Elaine and Brian who travelled up that day. For dinner we ate yummy vegetarian food (such a relief after sooo much pork) and Will ordered a "Banana Penis" for dessert...    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    2 bikes and 3 Buses...

    April 17, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    As always we never want to make our lives easy... We recently heard about the Vin Moch tunnels and found them to be fascinating. This tunnel system was made by a village for them to live in during the war. The tunnels are about 26km in varying direction with various entrances. We just had to go and see them. However, it seems that most tourists either have their own bike or go on a tour which incorporates various other sites and costs a hell of a lot. So obviously we had to try DIY. We asked both the students and various other locals how to get there and it wasn't easy but we decided to go for it anyway with the aim to be in Phong Nha that evening. So the adventure began.

    As we got in quite late the night before resulting in only 4 hours sleep and then getting up for 6am was a struggle! The students were so unbelievably kind and took us on their bikes at 7am to the bus station (10km) out of town and put us on the correct bus.

    Next stop Hồ Xa, the nearest town to the tunnels. The bus journey was very straight forward, but then they dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. We spoke to the locals and one offered to bike us the tunnels and bring us back. We agreed a price, but didn't realise we would all be on one bike! Meh, we jumped on the guys scooter and let's just say I was literally hanging off and holding on for dear life. Not the most comfortable 20 minute journey... By this point we still hadn't eaten so we went to one of the cafes for instant noodle lunch... Not the most fulfilling lunch after such a journey...

    We then went round the tunnels which were actually quite impressive. We then jumped back on the bike for another horrific bike journey back to our bus drop-off. On the way we also chatted with the guy and he said he can put us on a bus to Đồng Hới where we would then catch our final bus to Phong Nhà. It was about 1:30pm when we were dropped off at Đồng Hới. We were absolutely ravishing but the bus dropped us off in the middle of knowhere again (luckily at a bus stop) so we had to ration on Rambutan. We had no idea how long we had to wait and just had to hope that this was the right stop. We waited 40 mins in the hot sun and the bus arrived. We were soooo relieved to be on the last leg. We were exhausted, felt sick from hunger and lack of sleep but we arrived safe and sound! We met a lovely Hungarian guy called Matt who was able to distract us from our true grumpy feeling!

    When we arrived we attempted to nap and then headed out for dinner. I have to admit we did go for pizza... We were craving carbohydrates and luxury. We can't walk past a guy making fresh pizza and not go in... It was yummy and just what we needed!!

    Full and happy we went straight to bed and slept for 12 hours. Bliss!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Vietnamese people are the best!!

    April 14, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    We got up first thing and it was raining... although we were a bit hesitant to have a full day out on the scooter they persuaded us to go anyway so we headed out. First stop coffee. They took us to a hip coffee shop with a terrace looking over the canal. We ordered the slow drip traditional Vietnamese coffee and sat practising English and chatted. Then the fun began! First stop was Thien An Monastery and then the much talked about abandoned water park! The water park was very fun, first we went past the "No Visitors" entrance and went to see the large dragon with the old aquarium inside. This was actually super cool, but slightly creepy! The park grounds were really big so we jumped back on the scooters to explore the other side in hope to see the water slides! When we got to the other side we had a bit of a wander round and were about to go to the water slides when a man dressed in white "looking official" on his scooter came honking his horn. We had read about this and the guy claims that he is the guard but he's not. The kids said they would go back to the gate, distract the guy and then we can quickly scooter off to the slides. It wasn't such a smooth getaway... By the time we worked out where or how to get there he was back on us. Then all of a sudden 6 other scooters with tourists came. We chatted for a couple of minutes to come up with a plan (the guy was still crazily honking). We decided to be the decoy and head back to the exit to distract him while the others disperse in every direction. It was like a scene out of Tom and Jerry. Will turned the scooter round, ended up driving on some grass, hit a mound and I went flying into the back of him causing a minor injury to his leg, but luckily it was OK. The guy led us to a completely different exit so it took a while to get back to the kids but eventually we reunited. After a couple of minutes the rest of the tourists arrived and decided to try their chances again through this entrance! We'd had more than enough excitement and decided to exit the scene of the crime and head for lunch.

    Lunch was really yummy and really different from anything else we ate. To To be honest I'm not sure what it was but it was fab 😊

    After lunch we headed to our final stop with the kids, Thien Mu Pagoda. We had a nice wander round, went for refreshing bean drink. It was just the most amazing start to our day. They were so hospitable, fun and caring. We couldn't stop beaming with happiness the whole time!!

    We then decided to part ways and we headed off to see the famous emperors tombs. The architecture was so grand for each emperor and quite impressive and the drive to each was really fun. We are beginning to love driving a scooter 😊 However... Most bikes we got over our 1 month in Vietnam always had some sort of issue. Eg only one mirror, petrol gauge not working, speedo not working. Its never been an issue until now. We were at the very last tomb and when we got there it was closed so we started heading back. The petrol gauge on the bike was broke but we had put in over 3 litres which would normally do for any day trip... until today... All of a sudden the bike cut out and we were completely bone dry. Luckily a local came to the rescue and bought us some petrol in a plastic bottle and all was fine! Phew! In the evening we went for dinner, skyped the family and had an early night!

    The next day we went to the imperial city, visited the local market, bought more of our beloved rambutans, had 2 dinners as we forgot to eat lunch again and then met up with our Chaing Mai Family again for drinks. After being away for so long you do begin to really miss seeing your friends and family so it's so nice to see these guys every so often to give our travels a feel of normality!

    Tomorrow we have planned a crazy day... I'll start a new footprint for that.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Off to Hue

    April 14, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    We've decided to move on to Huế today so we got the bus back to Đà Nẵng and bought a train ticket to Huế. As we had about two hours to spare we went on a little explore (very little as it feels like it's about 100 degrees, like I've wet myself and am pouring with sweat, oh and my bag feels like it's the heaviest its ever been even though nothing has been added to it!) to find some fruit, coffee and lunch. It's amazing how cheap things are when you get off the beaten track. We bought a pineapple, 2 large coffees, 2 bowls of yummy noodles all for 70,000 Đồng(the bowls of noodles were the cheapest out of all!). We are now waiting for our train 😊

    Well it didn't go quite to plan. The plan was to get the train, book seats on the right hand side in the direction of the train so that we could see the lovely mountain coast. We booked seats on the right hand side but unfortunately not in the direction of the train leaving... We had a boring mountain wall view whilst on the other side was the they had the turquoise blue ocean and steep mountainous view. So Will went on a hunt and found a private sleeper birth where we could share a bed and look out the window in hope that the train attendant doesn't come and our luggage was OK. And all ended well. We had a lovely time watching the scenery go by while practising our Vietnamese.

    When we arrived we tried to get a taxi, but the Grab App once again failed us so we decided to just wander and see some sights on the way. And boy am I glad we did, while wandering through a park some students asked us if we could speak English with them and of course we said yes. We sat and chatted for a while and then walked with them to our hotel and arranged to have dinner with them. It was a great evening, we tried Cơm Hen and Bun Huế, walked down Walking street which was all lit up and full of cute little souvenirs, tried Chè (the most bizarre dessert I've ever tried but surprisingly nice), walked along the river and then organised to meet the next day for a grand biking tour.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Hỏi Ăn

    April 11, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    As we are still a bit ill we've decided to get the bus to Hoi An (a bit further south and much more to do) so that we can stay in one place for a couple of days. So we grabbed the local bus which was only an hour and checked into our hotel. As we got there at 8:30am it was a bit too early so we dropped off our bags and planned the day in town wandering around. We didn't do much else apart from wander around the old streets and people watch. The old town in the evening is lined with beautiful lanterns everywhere and it is quite the romantic scene.

    The next day we slept amazingly well with a lie in and felt a lot better so we headed out. We decided to take it easy and just wander round the town as to be honest Hoi An is a lovely place to sit and watch the day go by! We met Bianca, a girl from London, and ended up chatting, wandering and eating with her whole day. We tried white rose (dumplings made from rice paper with shrimp in), Cơm Gà (chicken with rice, not so great) and drank beer for 5,000 Đồng (25p). After dinner we went to watch the local performance in the square. After a while I realised it wasn't a performance and in fact it was bingo with singing! A man and woman were at the front picking pieces if wood out of a pot and each one would have a word which they would incorporate into their song. And people in the audience were holding panels which had words on them. So I decided to join in with the fun and play too. I didn't win but it was really good fun!

    We decided to have an extra chill out day in Hỏi and it was a truly fab day out. We hired bikes and cycled through the rice fields to the beach, did some more Vietnamese, went for a swim/ bob around in the very wavey sea, cycled back, had a slight near collision with a truck (don't worry noone was hit and it was at a stopped traffic light so lol was fine), had the famous Mỹ Quang (noodles with pork, peanuts and fresh herbs) and decided to treat ourself to some super expensive desserts (£2 not quite as good as they looked but still yummy as we hadn't eaten posh desserts for a while). Off to Huế tomorrow!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Tuy Hoa

    April 9, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    In the morning I woke up with horrific cramps and stomach pains like when I was ill before... At the crack of dawn we went to get our bus to Tuy Hao. It seems all buses have weird lying down seats and once again we were in in the top back corner. If I'm honest the whole journey was horrible. The driver was driving very carefully for once but the roads were horrifically bumpy and windy and I was constantly being thrown out my seat. But we eventually got their safe and sound to our lovely hotel and had a bit of a rest before heading out. We hired a scooted for the evening and next day so that we could do all the must sees. That evening we went to the beach which had huge waves, watched some fishermen, saw the one "must do" in in the town (Thấp Nạn) and ate fresh grilled mackerel ở nướng (mackerel summer rolls). I could barely eat so just nibbled and the headed to get some water. We only went for water and came out with so many treats... Wups...

    I had the best night sleep in a very long time! The stomach cramps were still bad but we only had the day to site see before our 10pm sleeper train so we jumped on the scooter in search of some breakfast. We did our daily "I don't know what your are saying in Vietnamese, but I would just like some food", which always seems to work and then we headed to Vietnamese Giant's Causeway. The weather was really lovely again and although sitting on a scooter for an hour and a half isn't the best it was lovely when we got there. We then took a few detours to see some other local shorelines and villages and it really was a lovely day. Only problem was my stomach was just going mental all day so Will had to do most of the exploring on his own while I just sat on the rocks practising Vietnamese. But hey I had a great day.

    For dinner we wanted mackerel, rice and salad. So we headed to a different local restaurant. After about 2-3 mins they eventually understood what we wanted and we understood what they meant however they didn't have what we wanted. So we had mackerel ở nướng again. The locals were so lovely. They insisted on talking to us fully in Vietnamese even though we didn't have a clue sometimes but it was great. When we got back to the hotel they were absolutely lovely, we had a couple of hours till our train and they let us in one of the rooms to just chill out and shower until the taxi came. Honestly hospitality of the Vietnamese is so lovely. They treat everyone as family and its just so lovely. After resting and finalising our next two days accomodation we headed to to the train station for our first time on a Vietnamese Sleeper Train...

    Well as we have been super under budget for the last couple of months we decided to go first class (4 births in a room instead of 6). The bed was long enough to fit Will and overall people were generally quiet. However the announcement is in Vietnamese and having read online the arrival time can be 1 and a half hour early or late... So I was terrified of sleeping through our stop. But I got some kịp and we arrived safe and sound to Danang.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Dalat

    April 5, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We've arrived, with zero sleep, but we've arrived.

    Well that journey was not great to to say the least. The sleeper buses here are individual reclining seats. Most of the seats have restricted foot space and so we had to sit at the back and top for Will as they don't have restricted leg space. We were constantly flying out of our seat and my seat had restricted legroom which was even too small for me! But hey we got to the bus station at 3:30am. Luckily I had told the hostel we would arrive at 5am and he had said we can just ring the bell and they would give us a bed for the morning. They were really accommodating and put us both up in the dormitory and we were able catch up on a bit of sleep. We replaced till 11am and then decided to have a lazy day exploring the local cable car which takes you into the valley to see a temple and lake. It was nice and got us out and about. In the evening we decided to join the hosts for their cooking class and family dinner. It was $6 dollars, pretty expensive for Vietnam, but it was OK and we got to meet some other guests in the hotel. After dinner they took us to the night market and Maze bar. Honestly I don't know how to describe maze bar so I've just put some pictures below. Look it up if you have time. It's really odd haha

    The next day we decided to hire a scooter in search of the many waterfalls dalat had to offer. When we got the scooter it had only one mirror and the petrol gauge wasn't working. Supposedly this is OK for Vietnamese but we insisted we wanted at the very least 2 mirrors, so he asked us to go to the mechanic on the way and told us how much it would cost. We went to 3 mechanics, wasted an hour and had zero luck. It was nearly 11:30am so we didn't want to waste anymore time and decided to just head off without. To be honest it was fine but we had to just be a lot more careful! It was a really really long day with the furthest water fall being 1.5 hours away. The drive was quite stressful as we were amongst the crazy Vietnamese drivers in parts but it was fun and we saw a lot of waterfalls! In the evening we just ventured to a local eat and ordered a dish we saw everyone eating. When it came it looked nothing like everyone else's and was the spiciest thing we had eaten in months.

    Us being us we obviously had to find the nearest mountain and climb it so that's exactly what we did today. It was an amazing day, the weather was perfect, the climb up was really nice with a good mix of steepness and we even saw a weasel like mammal with a yellow stripe eating some nuts. On our way back to town we headed to a local coffee farm to try light blend pour over coffee. It was fun to go but I'm still not a fan of black coffee... For dinner we decided to head back to the hostel after buying Đà Lạt wine and eat with some others who were staying and then as it was their first night we all headed to maze bar to show them the crazy place.

    The next day we decided to not hire a scooter... Dalat is pretty hilly so maybe not the best plan... We headed to town to see Crazy House, a couple of temples, the local market, the lake and ate duck with rice soup for dinner. We had quite an early night before heading off to Tuy Hao first thing.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    The hunt for suncream and deet...

    April 2, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Well I spoke too soon... Unfortunately our Vietnam mum was booked up! (I need to stop telling people how amazing she is). We had quite a panic in the 5 mins when we arrived to the bus station to decide on accommodation but we found a lovely little apartment instead. The problem was now we had to sort out dinner 🤔 After a very quick search we realised we were very much in a locals section of District 1 and actually had the dilemma of wanting to go to two places... So we just went to both!! 😂 I thought I was losing weight but maybe won't be for much longer if we keep eating 2 meals in one haha!! First we went for the famous Thịt bò nướng là lỗ which I grilled beef in betel leaf. For dinner number 2 we had Bún thịt nướng. Yum yum yum. Why I see anyone go to a western restaurant I don't know! As it was still quite early we had been advised to go that the main tourist street might sell suncream and deet so off we went. By golly they were charging 300 Đồng for a 75ml bottle! That's £3 a bottle... Although to be honest at least we found some! However we decided we will try a big supermarket on the edge of town instead tomorrow.

    Luckily we woke up to a message from our Vietnam mum and she said we can stay at hers tonight. So we headed over to drop off our bags in the morning. Then the hunt for deet and suncream began again!

    Well... When I initially started today's blog it was 7:30am and I was up and although Will was also awake somehow it took him till 11:30am to actually leave the flat. So we had Bánh xèo for brunch and then headed to our Vietnamese mum and dad. We got in and was instantly warmly welcomed by the dad and then the mum on his telephone! Also Will's credit card had arrived from the UK, which was due to expire this month, so all was great! We then did a bit of planning and headed out for bùn thit nướng downstairs and then out of town to Big C in hope that a vert big supermarket will sell big bottles of deet and suncream!

    Well we were able to get suncream and deet but unfortunately they are 90ml bottles. However it was a very successful trip as we were able to get cheapish peanut m&ms something I was craving last week! I think I'll have to save them for a special occasion! We then went to what is known as phone case street as my new Huawei came with a super crappy one. When we arrived there is literally shop after shop of phone cases!!

    In the evening we had a yummy dinner and planned our next destination Dalat. Although a very slow start it ended up being a pretty successful day.

    It's Wednesday today and it's our last day in Ho Chi Minh. Although I'm excited to move on we absolutely love this city and our Vietnamese family so I'm sad to say bye. The mum insisted on us staying for dinner before we headed off for our sleeper bus to Dạ Lát so we spent the day exploring with the first stop eating the yummy Bun Thit Nuong. We then explored areas not seen and saw some temples, drank coconut coffee and had some ice cream. Finally we had a huge feast with the family and then headed for our bus! Now... I decided to post this before getting on the bus... Vietnamese sleeper buses are notorious for being quite uncomfortable and a bit... hairy... But hey can it really be worse than our trips in Laos? Watch this space for an update!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Doing the tourist thing...

    April 2, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Today, my expectations are super low. A thing to do in Mũi Ne are the white and red sand dunes, but as they are quite far out and the police are quite strict in the town when it comes to bike hire the only real way of doing it is with a tour. So we bit the bullet and booked it. So we started at 4:30am to watch sunrise at the white sand dunes. We got there a bit too late but the site was OK and obviously quite hard to walk on! We then went to the red sand dunes, which I was pleasantly surprised with. In all the reviews it said it had just become a dumping yard for litter and yes there was some but I think the reviews must have been quite old as it wasn't half as bad as what we have seen in some places! We then headed to a local fishing market and then finally to Fairy stream. Fairy stream was a pleasant walk down the center of a stream with canyons towering on both sides. Maybe I set my expectations so low that I was actually pleasantly surprised that the whole tour was actually OK! The best thing was that we got back at 8:30am, booked our bus for 11am to Ho Chi Minh City and was able to spend an hour or so fresh in up and eating our yummy fruit.

    We are now on a sleeper bus to Ho Chi Minh and as its during the day it's a bit odd to be lying down the whole way... Ah well back to our Vietnam mum get some yummy dinner!!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Mũi Nè

    April 1, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    So as we splashed out a bit on a hotel in In Vung Tau we spent half the price for our place in Mũi Ne and wow, it was really good!! We basically had a studio apartment to ourselves with a cooker and fridge. Unfortunately Mũi Ne is the Blackpool of Vietnam and as we arrived quite late it was near impossible to buy fresh fish and veg without it being completely overpriced. When we arrived we looked up what to do... Here was the first line of a blog "There's not a huge amount of tourism worthy things happening in this area if you aren't a committed Russian sun bather, or pot smoking kite surfer, and there aren't many places not littered with trash unfortunately, as you will have observed if you've made it this far in Vietnam." A tad bit annoyed that we didn't do a bit more research beforehand we decided to venture out and find some dinner. The whole town is an absolute rip off for really low quality food. After eating such yummy food so far we were super disappointed but we ate for eating sake and then tried to find some fruit for breakfast. There were a couple of fruit stalls and each one of them had a huge markup on the price. So we just went back to the flat quite disappointed to practise our Vietnamese and plan for our next 2 days in Mũi Ne. Everything we read had quite bad reviews and complained about tourism ruining the beautiful sites and litter being everywhere. We decided to just get on with it and do the site seeing anyway.

    In the morning we got up at 5am to begin a mini adventure using local buses to Tacu Mountain. The town of Tacu was about 1.5 hours away, but there was no single bus that goes there so we used our broken Vietnamese and made it all the way there. Actually, I say broken Vietnamese but actually between the two of us we are actually getting quite good with our phrase structure and pronunciation! When we arrived we were starving so went to the nearest cafe and tried Bánh Mi op là, bread and eggs. We'll ya can't really go wrong and it was pretty cheap so all was good. It was about 9:15am and we began the hike up. It was already very warm so we were absolutely soaked in sweat in about 2 seconds. Honestly it's just vile how much one person can sweat here haha On the way up we saw a monkey, lots of butterflies and some interesting birds (not quite sure what they were) and unfortunately heaps of litter in parts. Fortunately it didn't ruin our trip! At the top was the largest reclining Buddha in South East Asia.

    The way down was super hot and felt like it went on forever, but we eventually got down and bought a well deserved ice-cream whole waiting for our bus back. And what fun we had... One bus went straight past us and didn't stop, the next bus stopped but said he's not picking up passengers, finally after over an hour a 3rd bus came and we were on our way to Phẩm Theit which was the main town where all the locals lived near Mũi Ne, famous for being a seafood town.

    We arrived in Phần Thiet just after 3pm and could have died of hunger so we headed straight for the sea food restaurants and the place was absolutely barron! Nothing looked open and barely any people were around. We've realised that in most of these smaller towns everything shuts between 2-4:30ish to get ready for the evening. So we wandered around the streets and headed to Coop Mart in hope we could get something from the supermarket. We aimlessly walked around and came away with nothing. Things were getting desperate... Luckily we had walked around for so long that places were now starting to open and we went to a small street selling lots of goodies! First we went for Bánh cảnh cảnh chả cá and it was the busiest tiny place on the street. So we happily sat and ate our fish soup. We then headed next door for a cà phê and wandered further down the street where we found a husband and wife making bánh tráng. Well we decided we didn't want the horrid food we had last night so might as well eat more! So we tried these too. That wasn't the end of it! We carried on and found a lady cooking Bánh xèo so we shared a plate of that too! We were so so full!! But it was our linner, so we didn't feel too bad hehe We then ventured back to Mũi Ne, bought some rip off fruit from the fruit stall and watched friends before having an early night.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Vung Tau

    March 29, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today we decided to go to the Southport of Vietnam, Vũng Tàu. Tri was so lovely and took us all the way to the bus station again so that we didn't have to wait to hail a bus on the main road. We jumped on the next bus and to be honest we just did our Vietnamese the whole way so it was a pretty nondescript journey. I feel like I need to apologise to my readers as I don't think our journeys are half as crazy as Laos!! I must say it is nice to just relax on a bus instead of fearing for my life 😂

    We booked a luxury room for vùng tàu as it was pretty cheap, so thought why not! The room had 2 double beds, a mini bar (of course we didn't take anything from it), a separate shower and toilet cubicle (honestly you have no idea how luxurious that is, being able to go to to the toilet without it being soaked is an amazing feeling!), AC and a balcony!! Ah living the dream! That evening we just wandered down towards the beach, ate crab noodle soup and headed back to practise more Vietnamese and watch Friends 😊 (Will has never seen it so when he was ill at the beginning of our travels he started watching it).

    The next day we hired a scooter to sight see everything in in vung tau and I mean everything. First stop was to get some Banh Khot. You get a plate of crispy egg pancake filled with prawns, a huge plate of salad leaves, herbs, veg and a sweet fish sauce dip. You then roll the ingredients into the lettuce leaves and dunk it in the sauce. Its delicious!! It was a very very filling breakfast but amazing! We then headed to the lighthouse on top of "small mountain". It was a fun drive up the winding mountain and although it was a bit cloudy it had a nice view.

    We then headed to "big mountain" where we were hoping 6o get a much nicer view of the island. We drove all the way to to the top, it was pretty rough terrain, to find a huge gate for the theme park. Bit annoying... but spirits still high we decided to try the other side of the mountain. We were able to see a couple of viewpoints along the way but had the same problem at the very top. It seems the entire top of the mountain is dedicated purely for a theme park and a super expensive one to get in too.

    On our way down we grabbed a Bánh mì for lunch and headed down the tiniest little alley to the shoreline to watch the fishing boats. The alley was full of locals eating their lunch or sitting outside socialising. All the kids came up to us and watched to say hello and say the few words they could. On our way back to the bike I saw Bánh xèo! I've been looking for this everywhere so we had a second lunch 😂 We practised our Vietnamese by ordering the Bánh xèo, asking how much it was, asking where can I get coffee, I even understood their replies! We were very excited and they were very impressed 😊 Banh xéo is a big coconut pancake filled with prawns and bean sprouts. You then wrap small bits of this with salad in rice paper a bit like a summer roll and dip into a chilli pickle. We were so so full but sooo happy.

    We then carried on seeing the sights including climbing up 700 steps to the top of a hill to see a cross and nearly dying. The one must see in In Vung Tau is the Jesus at the top of 837 steps. When dying on our way to to the top of the Cross we realised we were running out of time before Jesus closed so we sprinted down and rode back to small mountain to see the huge statue of Jesus. Just our luck... It was closed for Good Friday! To be honest I don't think I would have made it up another 800 steps... We finished the day going to a recommended ice cream place (it was absolutely terrible and grainy and unbelievably overpriced) and finished the evening with Tốt Lon, noodle soup and planning our next destination Mũi Ne.

    In the morning we went for breakfast at the same Banh Khot restaurant and then jumped on the bus to Mui Ne.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler
    3

    Ben Tre

    March 25, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    When we woke up we did not have a clue where our next destination was going to to be but didn't think it was time to go back up northwards to HCMC so we asked our hotel owner and he suggested Ben Tre, which is where we had also read about. So we went to the bus station and bought a ticket. We thought it was quite expensive at the time of buying but the lady insisted on its price so we paid and then waited for the bus. After getting on the bus and speaking to a local Vietnamese we found out that we had been scammed. She tried arguing with the bus driver for us but we were told we would have to go back to the lady who sold us the ticket, but that the had to leave now so couldn't let us off. We were pretty annoyed as if you can't even trust the actual bus station for selling you the correct ticket then who can you trust! Ah well its all part of the adventure I suppose! And that wasn't the end of our adventures! Once we got to the bus station in Ben Tre we realised the hotel we booked was miles out of town... next mini adventure - how the bloody hell do we get there. We looked for a taxi and it was pretty expensive, luckily the Vietnamese lady we befriended came to our rescue again. She happened to live in the direction of our hotel and said we could catch the same bus. She checked with the bus man and everything was good... Phew! What we thought was going to be a simple 2 hour bus from Can Tho to Ben Tre turned out to be a 5 hour ride on 2 buses! I suppose it could have been worse but we were starving when we arrived at the hotel! The one time I really wish we were back at the homestay in Họ Chi Minh City and the lovely mum would take pity and cook us a big dinner! By the time we went out for dinner it was dark and this little village had barely anything open, so we just went to a tiny little stall and the noodle soup was soo tasty and unlike the others we've had. This one had quite a thick meaty gravy with Pork and other questionable meats. Most of the time the meat you are eating is unknown... On our way back to the hotel a lot of the locals invited us to drink with them at first we said no but then some mechanics convinced us to join. It was great fun, it's amazing how much you can discuss with broken Vietnamese, broken English and gesturing! We told them about our travels so far and where we are thinking of heading next. They even offered to rent their personal scooters to us for half price of our hotel but they didn't have automatic ones so we kindly declined. They were so lovely.

    The next day we hired a scooter and went to Phung Island aka Phoenix Island well known for their Coconut Candy Factory. To get to the island we had to hire a boat. And here the adventures begin for the day... So we got to the pier and we were told it would cost 50,000 Đồng each. We knew this was a scam but we said we would pay half now and then we could see how much others paid after. So we got to the island which was nice and we wandered around, tried some coconut candy which actually tasted like peanuts, we cycled around the edge of the island and then got back on our boat to return. A few locals also got on with us and we asked them how much they paid and they confirmed it should only be 20,000 đồng each. Our pilot was yelling at the locals as she realised we knew she had scammed us. When we got off the boat she went ballistic. A Vietnamese girl was trying to help but gave up after a while so we just walked to our scooter to get out of the situation. To be honest we knew we were right as even the security guards didn't get involved. She followed us and stood next to the scooter to stop us going. To be honest in most situations we would just pay to get out of it but after being scammed yesterday as well we were getting a bit tired of it so we put the key in the bike and began turning it to move it out the way. She then sat on it and took our key. We shouted robber at her and to be honest the next bit was a bit of a blur but Will tried grabbing the key back and the lady tried pushing him off. (This lady was tiny so she knew she could never win this situation). She threw the key into a tiny cafe, Will leapt for his life onto a tiny chair, slipped and ended up toppling over another scooter. The lady ran off as she thought she'd hurt him and the cafe lady couldn't stop laughing at the whole situation. Honestly I wish I had filmed it! Luckily no one was hurt so in the end we could all just laugh about it. We quickly jumped on our scooter and cycled off!! We went to see another coconut factory on the mainland and also sat there for a while to calm down!! In the afternoon we just rode around the mainland and headed to the main town late afternoon where we heard they have a good night market. When we parked up we checked our lights and annoyingly they were barely working and cut out the bike so we had a coffee, did some Vietnamese and headed back to our village before dark. For dinner we tried Bún riêu and summer rolls and it was yummy! Then we headed to the mechanics shop again for our agreed beer session. Yesterday they wouldn't let us buy a single beer so this time we came with our personalised Heineken bottles as gifts. They loved them! We told them all about the fiasco from earlier and they were so nice and told us a lot of Vietnamese assume that all Westerners are rich and so scam them out of a lot of money. They told us to always threaten to get the police and they will generally go away. Anyway we were able to have a good laugh and it was a nice end to our stay in Ben Tre.

    The next morning we decided to book a homestay about an hour away as we heard the owner was lovely and spoke English, so we wanted to use the time to get some advice on things to do in the area and also practise our Vietnamese. We stayed there two nights and finally got to go shopping at the local market and cook our own fresh food. We even cooked for Tri on the second night. Tri was so lovely he was always checking to see if he could help, in the evening he taught us some Vietnamese and told us all about his life and how he remembers the war etc

    Today is Thursday 29th March and we decided to move on to Vung Tau which is a small beach town with a couple of hills at the south of Vietnam. Tri took us all the way to the Bus station (about 30 min ride by scooter) so he could make sure we get the right bus and aren't scammed! So off to Vung Tau we go!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Can Tho

    March 24, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Well we couldn't come to Vietnam and not do the famous Mekong Delta. So in the morning we headed to Can Tho which is the larger city in the area but has access to the more quiet floating markets. I was actually surprised with how busy and city like this place was. We checked straight into the hotel and then went to find a good deal for our Mekong Delta tour. As time has taught us the best way is to always go directly to the source of the sale and miss out all middlemen. Our hotel was trying to charge 550,000 Đồng for each person, but when we went to the pier we found a guy that only charged 600 Đồng total for a private boat and the same 7 hour tour. He wrote us a ticket on the back of a blank piece of card and said 2 motorbikes will pick us up in the morning and his son will be our guide. The tickets didn't look very legit so we decided to only pay him 100 Đồng now and the rest the next day... just in case... We then wandered round for the evening and went for duck hot pot dinner on Hot Pot Alley. I think we accidentally ordered a family sized hot pot as there was soooooo much food! It came with 3 different types of noodles each with a serving for 3 or 4 people... Wups 😂 It was yummy though!

    The next day we got up at 4:30am ready for our 5am pick-up for our Sampan. I'm now absolutely full of a cold so let's just say I was very quiet... Although slightly worried it wouldn't pay off it was actually a fantastic day. We started the trip before sun rise and watched the sun rise over the Mekong. Our Sampan pilot was a lovely lady who did not speak English and our tour guide for the day was a 10 year old boy 😁 We saw two floating markets Cai Rang and Phong Dien. Cái Rang was the larger out of the two and seemed to sell wholesale bags of fruit and veg. Phong Dien had much smaller boats which I much preferred as we could sit among the smaller boats and see the local people trading around us and we even saw a black Smith on one of the boats making knives! For breakfast we went to see a noodle workshop and ate freshly made noodle soup with our cà phê sửa ( coffee with milk, literally can't get enough of the stuff ha). When back on the boat she also gave us a whole pineapple that she had been cutting up while piloting the boat! We then visited a local village and wandered around with Han Junior who showed us various plants and fruit trees and then we floated down smaller canals with not anoyher boat in site. It was so peaceful and with the hum of the boat so relaxing that we kept nodding off! Finally we stopped at Mr Han's homestay where we were shown their fruit garden and even got to Kayak around their narrow canal. Han Junior laughed at us lots, firstly Will nearly toppled the tiny boat when getting in and we were pretty terrible at steering our way round the canal. But it was fun! We then just journeyed back down the Mekong for about an hour back to the pier. We got back around 12pm and it felt like 12am so we wandered back, over an hour, to the hotel for a well deserved nap and rest! I was feeling quite ill again so we rested for much longer than expected.

    Later in the afternoon we wandered to the lake in the middle of Can Tho to practice our Vietnamese and watch sunset. As per usual outcame all the Vietnamese of all ages to do their evening exercise wanders. It's actually really great to see. People from the age of 20-90 always come out just before sunset to socialise and exercise in little groups. While practising our Vietnamese 2 ladies came up to us and complimented us on our pronunciation and gave us a few tips on places to see and eat while in Can Tho. And I'm so glad they did as our dinner was scummy!! We had Nem Nướng, which is a plate of meat, rice noodles, salad leaves and herbs, pickles, chilli and rice paper. You take a bit of everything, wrap it in rice paper and dip it in a scummy sweet and sour peanut dip. Yum! After dinner we decided to get a grab taxi home, a bit like uber, to save me walking another hour back... we should have just walked... I'm not sure if it was because of the location or what but 4 grabs cancelled the pick-up, and before ordering the taxi we bought a 6 litre bottle of water (we just use it to top us our smaller bottles which is much cheaper and more importantly we waste a lot less plastic), which meant walking home truly would have been difficult! 20 mins later one came to pick us up... I went straight into bed!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Ill and rest days

    March 22, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    We slept in a bit longer than normal as I was feeling very ill. I was beginning to get the flu, my body agonised when I moved it and my throat was completely swollen so we had a very slow morning and went for brunch to the small stall downstairs. The food was so yummy but unfortunately I wasn't able to enjoy it so much and had to head back to bed. To be honest I just led in bed all day as I just couldn't move. It was a shame but hey these things happen! While I was resting Will went out for a wander and read his book.

    I was soo glad to be in a homestay as when we went down for dinner my homestay mum truly looked after me giving me lots of yummy dinner and home remedies and teas.

    The next day I was feeling a bit better so after breakfast we wandered to the river and walked along until we got to the botanical garden and zoo. It was very very cheap to get in and part of me wished they had charged more. I suppose it would be OK if you had little kids... and in need of something to do in a city but honestly the zoo was quite sad. The animals had little to no room to roam around. The birds had more room than than the tigers! The botanical garden was a very very tiny part of the site, but ah well it was something to do in our last day IN HCMC. We then headed to the famous chocolatier, Marou, that supposedly do an incredible hot chocolate. Having tested I'd say the chocolate is very good, but the hot chocolate was neither hot nor thick enough for my liking. We ended the day with our usual yummy dinner with the family.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler
    1

    Cu Chi Tunnels and Splashing Out

    March 21, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Apologies for the delay in the last couple of posts I've been getting quite ill, but here you go!

    I think I'm beginning to get ill again. My throat is completely swollen... Ah well can't let it stop our very busy day ahead! Today we visited the famous Cu Chi Tunnels,which was an underground tunnel system that the Vet Cong dug during the war to hide from the Americans. Although its a must see sight, we were a bit sceptical as we had heard various reviews of how touristy and inappropriate the tour guides and tourists are. But we did a bit of research and Dhu recommended a Agency so we went ahead. Actually we were pleasantly surprised, yes there were a lot of tourists, yes sometimes you might have to wait for another group to finish explaining before your group and yes the allowance of shooting guns is somewhat inappropriate, but our tour guide was very informative and effective in showing us everything without it feeling to rushed or busy. It was amazing how small these tunnels really were. As they were made for the Viet Cong they were very narrow burrows, impossible for large American men men to get through. Will tried one of the original holes and could barely fit! We then went to a tunnel that had been "made bigger for tourists" and crawled for about 20 metres with ups and downs but it felt much much longer. Wow if these had been extended I don't want to know how it must have felt before!

    After the Củ Chi Tunnels we went for lunch at a the Secret Garden restaurant, another hidden gem we read about in the hip part of town. The food was nice, but jeeze it was expensive and after having some really yummy street food for half the price I think I'd carry on with the street food!

    Having had quite an early and full on day so far we went back to the flat for a quick nap and freshen up before heading out for our posh night out to the Bitexo Tower.

    It was actually pretty cool up there. As we'd seen quite a few different parts of Ho Chi Minh it was nice to see them from so high up. We watched sunset from the top and then carried on up to begin the "Heineken Experience". It was actually a lot of fun! For only 50,000 Đồng, £1.75, on top of the entrance to the sky deck we got a tour around the Heineken museum, we got to pour and drink our own Heineken, 2 more free ones, a couple of activities including a dj set and another free bottle of Heineken with your name on it! Bargain! Oh and the highlight cheese and onion crisps (we were starving!!!). After our free drinks we headed for some cheap and cheerful Bánh mì. Yum!! We met two Australians while having our dinner and gave them a couple of tips of where we had been.

    Our final stop for the evening was Snuffbox and the Australian guys came with us. Snuffbox is a snazzy cocktail bar and it just happened to be ladies night. I got free cocktails till 10pm! Woohoo! What we thought was going to be a very expensive day turned out to actually be a lot cheaper which was great! I think the best looking cocktail was by far Will's Pirate cocktail which came in a treasure chest and when opened out came lavender scented vapour.

    Finally it was home time 😊 What a great day! Culture and cocktails, now that's the way to travel!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Eating Great Food and Exploring District

    March 19, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Yesterday evening we went to the craziness of Walking Street which is basically full of tourists, bars and loud music, but we were recommended a restaurant so we decided to head over for brunch. We headed down the tiny streets off the main walking street and found a really cute coffee shop and a family run Pho stall. We are determined to get more confident in Vietnamese so we ordered our coffee and Pho in Vietnamese and sat practising. The owner said our pronunciation was spot on! Such a compliment!

    After lunch we took the local bus to explore Ben Xe Cho Lon aka Chinatown. Now this is what I wanted from a market! Fresh fruit everywhere and for super cheap!! We may have overbought but we got a pineapple, oranges, dragonfruit and rambutan. Rambutan are sooo yummy!! I'm really going to miss the fruit here, 100% better than in the UK. We wandered round the markets, saw some really lovely Chinese temples and headed back in a bit of a rush. Our plan for the evening was to go back to the house, shower, dress up, go up the Bitexo Tower, watch sunset and do the Heineken experience. But we were running very late... When we finally got there they told us they had an event happening so we couldn't go! Disaster! Ah well, as we were in the area we heard there were boutique shops and coffee shops in Old run down flats, so we went and it was like stepping into Shoreditch. You go up very dodgy run down staircases and each flat has its own hip coffee shop or boutique shop. I'm really loving Ho Chi Minh, it really is like London for its food, hidden gems, vast amounts of history and just such a cool place to live! After coffee, which I am loving here by the way, we went back home for another outstandingly yummy dinner. Met some new people in the homestay and then went for an early night before our busy day tomorrow.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Such a great start to the day!

    March 18, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    Having had only 4 hours sleep I dragged Will out of bed to watch the performance. We were the only tourists there and it was a really lovely start to the day. They played a mix of classical, Disney and even New a York New York 😊 I think it was a bit too early for Will though... We are now unbelievably shattered so nap time for us!

    In the afternoon we went to get the famous Banh Mi which is a Vietnamese sandwich. We ordered 2 and they were huge!! Nowadays we just can't eat big portions mainly due to the heat but also because in restaurants they don't generally overfeed you. The sandwich got us in a bit of a food coma, but as it was 2:30pm and dinner was at 7pm we realised it might have been a mistake! Ah well it was very yummy all the same 😊 Then we walked around the city to a see the French colonial architecture of the post office, city Hall, Notre Dame Cathedral and then walked along the river to find a secret bar selling craft beer I had read about. When there we read more about the area and its actually where all the hip jazz bars and coffee shops are so I think we will be back! We tried the Cashew Cream Ale which was pretty nice and practised some more Vietnamese before walking back for dinner.

    As it was Sunday Yu, our host, cooked up a feast!! (We really shouldn't have had dinner!) we had spring rolls wrapped in rice paper and we all genuinely thought that was the main dinner... Nope that was just the starter and we were already super full! Then out came huge bowls of chicken noodle soup. When we were half way and truly struggling to eat she asked if we wanted more, everyone said no thank you and she came round to each of us with more food! It's really lovely but myself and Will were on the floor! For dessert she served green lentils with water chestnut. It was a bit odd, but honestly we just couldn't eat anymore! So had to waste it 😔 Over dinner we sat and chatted to Pao who we met the night before also staying in the homestay. He's from the Philippines and his English is truly excellent! I wish we were better at languages. He was so lovely and really reminds me why we love travelling so much. We don't meet new people everyday but when we do they are so incredible and you create a very close bond very quickly almost like being in a family. Unfortunately he's off back to the Philippines tomorrow but I'm sure we will meet again!

    After dinner we went to Beu Vien to meet the Chiang Mai family before they all move on. Having had a crazy long day already we were pretty shattered so decided to get an uber home. When we arrived home we realised we hadn't paid so had to trek all the way back to the pub. Bit of a nightmare, especially as the total cost of the uber was the same as the drinks but hey these things happen! I think we might take it easy tomorrow 😊 Although we probably won't!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaVietnamTraveler

    Good Morning Vietnam!

    March 16, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    (I couldn't resist!)

    We have now arrived in the long awaited Vietnam, first stop Ho Chi Minh City!! I have been so so excited!! We have decided to immerse ourselves into the Vietnamese culture a bit more and are trying to learn Vietnamese (so far we know our numbers and a few basic greetings), so we tried saying a couple of things when out and about and jeeze it's difficult. However, day 1 and we said our numbers correctly when paying for our sim card 😂

    We are also staying in a homestay which is so great!
    The mother insists on cooking for us and wants us to join her family every evening! We had a couple of hours to kill before dinner so we ventured out to get a sim card and cash. Wow... the traffic... It's absolutely crazy but with an odd sense of order. For pedestrians if there's no traffic light you just go for it and it's like the parting of the red sea. You'll have bikes just weave in and out of your path, but don't stop or you might get a bike up your ass! We wondered round the streets and found dance, outside gym, aerobics and even ballroom dancing classes in the main park. Definitely going to have to try it out.

    For dinner we headed back to the Home. She is just like an Indian mum and if your plate is slightly empty she fills it up, or if you take a minute to breathe instead of eating she thinks something is wrong. We are currently only booked for 3 nights here but think we will stay till Wed, although I might gain a couple of pounds if she carrys on feeding us like this haha If you are reading this and have friends in Vietnam please hook us up as we really want to meet locals.

    Today is St Patrick's Day and the Chiang Mai family are together once again! During the day we walked around the central area near the park, around Independence Palace, went for a coffee and then went to the War Remnants Museum. The museum was so sad. It told the story of the US and Vietnam War Times with stories from the US veterans, showed news articles from the time and incredibly detailed and graphic pictures and videos of the events that occurred.

    In particular the stories and images from the after affect of Agent Orange was shocking. Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops so they could see the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops,who were hiding in the forests. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, the chemical has caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed. Up to four million people in Vietnam were exposed to the chemical. The government of Vietnam says as many as 3 million people have suffered illnesses because of Agent Orange. They showed pictures of veterans, their children, their wives and 4th generation offspring that are still exposed to the chemical which damages genes resulting in deformities among the offspring. It was just inhumane to see.

    After such a heavy afternoon we walked back through the park and went home to freshen up before dinner and Paddy's Night! Dinner was once again fantastic and I was soooo full!! Yu just keeps putting more food in my plate hehe

    After dinner we went to join the family and brought Pow, staying in the homestay too, who had never experience British drinking culture. Being Irish the others were already quite a few drinks in when we joined and the Irish Pub was heaving! It was soooooooooo hot and sweaty inside with every singing and dancing! So much fun and so nice to see everyone again 😊 It was a very late night though and when I got back home I read, every Sunday morning at the Opera House they have live music, so obviously I had to go!    Read more

    Trip start
    March 16, 2018
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