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Vietnam

March 2018 - April 2024
An open-ended adventure by Shahnavaz Read more
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  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 18

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 21

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 25

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 27

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 30

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 30

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 33

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 34

    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

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 35

    Caves, Scooters, Boat and Views

    April 19, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today we headed off with Brian and Elaine to explore some caves. First we headed to Phong Nha Cave where we got a boat ride through the cave. The caverns were huge and it was super cool. And this was supposedly the "least beautiful" out of all the popular tourist caves... Wow we must be in for a treat.

    Next stop Paradise Cave. The drive was just picture perfect. Blue skies, green rice paddies and towering mountains, just beautiful. When we got there kg was past lunchtime but we were worried it would close so we headed straight in. If I'm 100% honest when we eventually got to the cave I was so disappointed. At the entrance there was a lot of work being done on the bridge walk and all you could hear was drilling. I was so disappointed, but everyone told me it was just the start and not to judge just yet... And wow was I wrong. This was by far the biggest, most beautiful cave I had personally ever seen. It was just stunning.

    We then headed back finishing the famous Phong nhã Ke Bang loop. Once again we didn't have lunch but gorged on yummy dinner with wine and celano ice cream (Vietnamese version of cornetto). An absolute fab day!!    Read more

  • TravelerVietnam
    Day 36

    No. 1 on TripAdvisor - the Duck Stop...

    April 20, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    In the morning we had no idea whether to stay another day, do one of the crazily expensive tours through more caves or just move on to our next destination. So we decided to check out anyway and get on with our day. First stop the infamous Duck Stop. Now, I would like yo remind you... Phong nhã is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for having some of the biggest and most beautiful caves in the world, the scenery is beautiful, but guess what is Number 1 on Trip Advisor... A Duck Stop. This is where visitors can feed and hold ducks, get a duck massage (they put feed on your feet and the ducks nibble the feed) and take many pictures of the cute waddling creatures. Well we just had to go and Elaine was particularly excited. So we scootered all the way down winding and bumpy country roads. When we arrived all 200 and odd ducks were waddling around looking very happy being fed by some tourists. We found out that the cost was 50,000 đồng, so we decided to just watch Elaine have the time of her life. It was pretty fun to watch to be honest 😀

    Next stop, vegans look away now, the must experience Cold Beer Pub. Fromthe innocent title on a hot day you'd thing "Oo this is just what I want on a hot day", well actually it's not so famous for it's cold beer than it is for its "Catch, Kill, Pluck and Cook a Chicken". Well we were hungry... Don't worry, we didn't do it!! If completely honest I was very much intrigued and up for doing it. I feel if you eat meat you should know and be able to do the full process. When we got there however we watched a video of the previous group doing it and it was horrific. They didn't give them a sharp knife and let's just say it was even crueler than killing it in one clean cut. So we just had good old noodles for lunch instead 😀

    Afterwards we want on a little scooter ride around around a village, along the river, stopped for a quick beer at the bomb crater bar and then headed back to town. We then went to Brian and Elaine's Hotel, which had a lovely rooftop to book our night bus to Tam Cốc and enjoy a couple more beverages. The hotel were so kind and then invited us to their family dinner! It was an absolute treat!!

    We then jumped on the sleeper bus, which for once wasn't horrific and I was actually able to sleep a bit! We arrived at 4am to To Tam Coc but luckily we had already told the hotel our arrival time and they let us check in so we were able to have a good couple hours more sleep!    Read more

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