Hội trường Thống Nhất

Day 10

After a beautiful sunset last night I thought it would be a great idea to hand wash my clothes and hang them out to dry over night, however, when we woke up in the morning i discovered it had been raining all night long and my clothes were more wet then when I put them outside! Very annoying but I plan to wash them once we get to Vietnam as I’m running out of clothes!

Having a quick breakfast we said goodbye to this beautiful island and climbed onto the speedboat to head back to the mainland but due to the storm it was VERY bumpy and it was honestly dreadful. Flying out of our seats every few minutes was not ideal and it definitely didn’t do wonders for my back! Grateful to be off the boat we climbed onto the pier and as we did it started absolutely POURING. I managed to grab the captain who had an umbrella and charm him into escorting me to get my bag off the boat! However I had to make the 100 metre dash to the van and still got soaked so not sure it was worth it!

Drying off in the bus we headed towards Chambok village where we would have our first home stay experience. Arriving in the middle of nowhere where with no phone signal and no cars the bus dropped us off and we wondered to our families house. A tin house of stilts with no running water with beds on the floor and a mosquito net to cover yourself with was what we were greeted with. In 38°c we weren’t too happy about the lack of air con but we did have one small fan which we took turns to sit in front of! Sitting back and enjoying our time like a local we watched the children playing badminton and they were all very excited to see us.

A local guide took us on a tour around the village stopping every now and then to show us plants that the local village used for different natural remedies which was really interesting to see as they don’t use any western medicine here. Although we weren’t entirely convinced when the guide said “sometimes works sometimes not 50/50 chance of surviving”!

Hiding from the heat we watched the sun go down and had a locally cooked meal which gave me “the fear” we have nicknamed it! I then sat with some of the local ladies who taught me how to make bamboo bracelets and rings for a very small price which was really fun but very fiddly - I don’t think I could make a living off it!
We played some cards until we retreated to our “beds” to get an ealry night. I can’t say I slept well with cows and chickens wondering freely below us making a lot of noise but it was actually a really fun experience and fun to live like a local for one night- but only one!

Day 11

Waving goodbye to our lovely host family at 5am we climbed into the bus and the air con was very welcomed by all of us as we settled in to head towards the Vietnam border! It was a very long travel day today with 5 hours to the border and then another 3 hours to our hostel in ho chi manh city.

The border took us about 2 hours which was a pain as we had to queue in the heat with our bags and after a few people had visa problems we finally all made it through and could make the final journey to ho chi manh city!!

Having the nicest shower ever once we got in we quickly got ready and headed downstairs in our hostel to have a locally cooked dinner. This was very nice with lots of different dishes to try and the diverse flavours were amazing. We then met the 5 people who are joining our group and went out for a few drinks with them before heading home for the night.

Day 12

This morning was our first full day in Vietnam! We had a free morning so the girls and I headed into the centre to see the pink church- which in fact is very pink! Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside but it was still worth seeing the outside!

We then headed to a market to pick up a few souvenirs and it was pretty overwhelming! Hundreds of tiny stalls crammed into a building with all of the stall owners putting things in your face grabbing you to try bring you into their stall so we definitely had to stand out ground! But we did get to pick up a few bits before heading back to meet the rest of the group.

Then the main activity of today- the cu chi tunnels which the Vietnamese soldiers used during the war. This war was due to northern Vietnam wanting to reunite the country under a communist rule but southern Vietnam fought back allied by the US but northern Vietnam eventually won and Vietnam was united as a communist country. Their secret weapon- the tunnels! These are tiny, you have to crouch and at points crawl through and these have been widened for tourists! I managed to go 50/100 metres before I headed up as it is seriously claustrophobic and the heat is stifling.

The tunnels allowed Vietnam soldiers to gain advantages on the US soldiers as they could sneak up on them and also lay many traps which looked absolutely lethal! To this day you can’t go off the path in the jungle as they suspect there are many traps still left that have not been found!

Our guide was excellent taking us around and showing us original traps and tunnel entrances. It was really interesting I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the heat! One of my favourite activities so far!

We then headed back to grab a quick sandwich from 7/11 before boarding our overnight train to Nha Trang which will take us around 10 hours. We are in second class so there are only 4 of us per cabin rather than 6 if it was 3rd class and we have aircon and a small bed each. I’m feeling pretty optimistic about tonight although as the hours tick by I might change my mind!Read more