Hoi An

We took a most uncomfortable night bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An (12 hours). The seats on the bus were clearly made to fit tiny Vietnamese people and not six feet tall Mancunians.

Hoi An is an ancient coastal town and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The streets running parallel to the Thu Bon River are lined with 200 year old, wooden-fronted, merchants' houses from the days when Hoi An was a world renown trading port. The low-rise, fading yellow houses are at their most beautiful at night, twinkling with colourful, paper lanterns.

The heat was pretty much unbearable during the day and we only emerged from our air-conditioned sanctuary each day at about 4pm, to drink iced coffee and watch the sun set over the river.

Although super touristy - countless silk and souvenir shops - the town has maintained its charm and we were happy to spend three days walking through the quaint streets and drinking cheap beers on the many restaurant balconies that line the palm fringed river front.

We discovered some amazing food in Hoi An that made us upgrade our rating of Vietnamese from ok to very good. Down a small alley we found a family-run restaurant called Ba Le Well, serving a set meal of Nem nướng: pork kebabs, satay pork skewers, prawn spring rolls, salad, kim chi, rice and bamboo shoot pancakes, all wrapped up in rice paper and dipped into homemade satay and chili sauce. Dessert was chocolate mousse and fresh fruit. It's the best thing we've even here, we ate there two out of three nights! 

Hoi An street food by the river.

We took an organised tour out to My Son, an overgrown temple complex built by the Cham people who settled in Vietnam from India in the fourth century. The site contains temples and tombs of Cham kings. The temples of My Son are all that remain of a vast ancient empire that was razed to the ground by the American bombs during the war.

Tomb at My Son

We went with 'My Son Tours' and were probably the only people in the group that could understand our guide's heavily accented English; the German, Spanish and Korean tourists looked at him bewildered before wandering off to explore on their own.

My Son temple ruins.

To top off a lovely stay in Hoi An we cycled around one of the near-by river islands and then out to An Banh beach, the most idyllic beach I've ever seen. The ocean was crystal clear and the sand squeaky and white. Best of all, we had it almost to ourselves.

How To Get To...

My Son: For $7.50/£4.60  we decided it was cheap enough and easy enough to take an organised tour. The price included: water, guide, hotel pick up (bus), boat trip back to Hoi An, lunch. 

We Stayed At...

Hoi Pho Hotel: Leaky air conditioning, cockroaches and an overbearing, bossy owner - not worth the $13 we paid!

Привет From Nha Trang

I was expecting the Vietnamese beach resort of Nha Trang to be touristy, what I wasn’t expecting was for it to be full of holiday-making, upper class Russians. The city is so busy with Russians, flying in directly from Moscow, that there are restaurants and tour agencies catering solely to Russians; when we entered one to extend our visas we were met with a blank, frosty glare from the Russian rep at the desk who spoke neither English nor Vietnamese. In spite of their grumpy, sour expressions, Ric and I shared some private giggles at the Russian tourists in their speedos and their none-too flattering thongs on the beach, posing provocatively in the sea for amateur photo shoots. Fortunately, there was enough room on Nha Trang’s 6km beach for us non-bethonged beach goers to top up our tans and relax for several days of sun, sand and sea.

Ric went for his first fun dive in Nha Trang after completing his PADI certificate in Thailand at the start of the trip. He said it was great and the visibility was much better here, although after seeing the blisters he got from his flippers I’m not sure it was worth it!

As if chilling on the beach all day wasn’t relaxing enough, Ric and I booked ourselves onto a day at a mud spa. The Thap Ba Hot Springs well exceeded my expectations; it was wonderful. We started with a mud bath shared with two Russian ladies. To elaborate on how unfriendly these guys were, we shared a bath with these women and they didn't so much as make eye contact, let along respond to our friendly greeting. Two days later when we bumped into them in a shop they maintained that we were invisible and ignored our acknowledgements. Rude! After that we rinsed off the surprisingly fragrant mud in a hot water, massaging shower, and hopped into our own, private bath of thermal spring water where we stewed happily until we were light-headed from the heat and asked move on by the attendant. We spent the rest of the day lounging around the numerous, different temperature pools and jacuzzis and then returned to our hotel half-comatose from the extreme relaxation. 

Thermal baths at Thap Ba Hot Springs.

We did manage to get in some sight-seeing, visiting the Cham Towers, built in 817. The towers are basically a temple built on a small hillside over looking the fishing village at the end of Nha Trang's main beach. The temple was nice and the views from the top were lovely. Afterwards we walked down past the fishing village where men fished using an 'coracle', which looks very much like a giant washing up bowl to me. 

Cham Towers on Cu Lao Hill, Nha Trang.

'The Coracle'

Wooden fishing boats fly the Vietnamese flag whist Nha Trang rises up in the background.

The "longest cable car in the world", which we didn't go on because it cost $25!

We also visited Long Son Pagoda, a pleasant temple overflowing with visitors (it was a bank holiday weekend), where we saw two Buddha statues built on a hillside. The statues and the temple are not particularly special but we enjoyed strolling through the city to get there, and had a leisurely coffee next to the Buddha at the top of the hill.

Reclining Buddha half way up the hill behind Long Son Pagoda.

On our modest budget Ric and I don't have many nights out drinking, we save our pennies and try to see and do more in the daytime. We did, however, plan for a good session on the cocktails in Nha Trang, where the beach parties are said to be legendary. As luck would have it (our bad luck, that is), the night we decided to get jolly pissed was the night of the biggest storm during our entire one week stay. After a couple of roof top cocktails the heavens opened and we emerged from the hotel two hours later to find the streets flooded, the power cut, and most of the bars and restaurants had shut their doors early. Needless to say we were in bed before midnight.

First cocktails on the roof...

Two hours later.

How To Get To...
Thap Ba Hot Springs: We booked through our hotel, who offered us a 5% discount. The spa picked us up and dropped us off at the hotel for $3/£1.80 each return and the cost of the mud bath treatment was $6/£3.60 each for the day. We went for the [cheap] communal mud bath option and only had to share our tub with a couple of moody Russians, great value.

Cham Towers: Take bus number 4 from the corner of Hung Vuong in the tourist area and get off at the first stop after you see the towers. We walked back along the beach, it took approximately 45 minutes.

We Stayed At...
Thien Ma (3 nights): South of the main tourist hub, right on the beach. Room was a bit drab and dated but the staff were super. $10/£6 per night with AC, fridge, TV.
Dung Trinh (3 nights): Smack bang in the middle of the tourist hub, one block back from the beach. Room was great, staff not so much. $13/£7.80 per night with AC, fridge, TV and balcony.

Cooling Off In The Highlands - Da Lat

At 1,500m above sea level, the cooler climate of Da Lat was a welcome change from the stifling heat and humidity in Ho Chi Min. The city was established in the central highlands of Vietnam at the end of the nineteenth century by the French. Today the French legacy lives on and its colourful wooden buildings would be more at home in the Alps than in the middle of Vietnam. 

'Chalets' of Da Lat.

The city is surrounded by mountains, with a large lake in the middle. It is a favoured holiday spot among the upper class Vietnamese, particularly honeymooners, and the classy lakeside bars and restaurants reflect this. We stopped for coffee at one such bar and were devastated to have to pay two thirds of our room rate for a terrible salty brew. Money doesn't buy quality.

We spent a pleasant three days walking around the city, taking in the many tourist attractions and enjoying the weather, with the temperature in the early twenties it was like a British summer for us. The Vietnamese, however, weren't quite so accustomed to the colder climate and provided us with much amusement in their thick coats, hats and scarves! 

You can take a horse drawn cart around the lake, hire a tandem bicycle, or (as we did) take a swan shaped pedalo out onto the water.

A short walk from the city center are the Da Lat Flower Gardens, a pretty and shadey place to walk around and pass the time. Tour buses full of domestic tourists stop here briefly and we found ourselves stuck having our photos taken with several families who were more interested in us than the flowers.

National flag and a giant teapot shaped bush at Da Lat Flower Gardens.

The train station in Da Lat is the oldest one in the country and now only serves a tourist service which travels 30 minutes out to the village of Trai Lat and then back. Although at first I only agreed to the journey to indulge Ric's love of trains, the scenery we passed on the train was stunning and well worth the $6.50 each. Even better, the temple we stopped to visit at the end of the line is by far one of the most beautiful and unique temples I have seen during my 18 months in Asia. Here are lots of pictures:

Da Lat Station; oldest train station in Vietnam.

A large percent of the countries fruit, vegetables and fresh flowers are grown in Da Lat.

Stunning, colourful Chinese pagoda at Trai Lat.

Made entirely from mosaic porcelin. Can you spot Ric?

Another of Da Lat's gems is the hotel/architectural wonder nicknamed 'Crazy House'. Built by Russian-educated Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga, the ever-expanding hotel is designed to show how man must learn to live in harmony with nature, instead of destroying it. Giant concrete tree trunks house several unique grotto-esque rooms, surrounded by vivid purple flowers, fairly light cobwebs and toadstool tables and chairs. Narrow, winding, stair cases lead you around, up and over the structures and cute little hidey-holes provide miniature seating areas for guests. It is an amazing place to spend an afternoon, I could have spent forever exploring the secret nooks and crannies of the Alice In Wonderland meets Gaudi hotel.

The roof of Crazy House has an impressive 360 degree view of the city.

A ten minute bus ride from Da Lat centre is Dalanta Waterfalls, stunning natural waterfalls that have been turned almost into a theme park in the way that only Asia knows how. The bus drops you on the road at the top of the falls where you pay an entrance and then take a self controlled roller coaster down to the first level where you get your first glimpse of the waterfalls. This is pretty much as far as anybody goes as most visitors are on a whistle stop organised tour. 

At the top of Dalanta Falls.

From the busy top level we took a cable car down over the next waterfall, and then a glass lift down even further, where there were no other people. In dry season there are all sorts of activities to do at the falls, from swimming to abseiling. However, as were we visiting in the rainy season is was very quiet and as if on cue, as soon as we reached the bottom of the falls, the heavens opened.

How To Get To...
Dalanta Falls: Take the number 1 bus from the town centre, ask for the falls. 
Cost: Bus = 5,000VND each way. Entrance = 10,000VND. Roller coaster = 45,000VND (round trip). Cable car = 40,000VND (round trip).

We Stayed At...
Hang Nga Hotel opposite the Sinh Tourist Office. $8 (£4.80) got us a large, new, shiny room with a balcony, hot water and a fridge. 

Couchsurfing in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh Skyline

After nine nights in the small towns of the Mekong Delta it was a relief and somewhat of a culture shock for us to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The traffic, the lights and the throngs of tourists took us quite by surprise at first and it took us a few hours to adjust to the hustle and bustle of the city after the slow pace of life in the delta.

The traffic in HCMC moves and flows and pulsates like a living organism. 

We spent two nights in a hotel and then moved a few blocks up the road to stay with our couchsurfing host, Dung Le. I haven't couchsurfed since I met Ric three years ago, but with our tight budget and ambitious travel plans we thought it might be time to find some free accommodation and experience life as the locals live.

Dung ushered us into her kitchen, sat us down and gave us cold water and chilled fruit before showing us to our room. There was no couch this time, we had our own room with a double mattress, pillows, sheets and a fan. Dung lives with her mother, son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and husband in a three story house right in the center of HCMC. Their home is like a rabbit warren with ladders leading up through tiny hatches to reveal whole floors above. She made us feel right at home and cooked for us in the evening. We tried to return the favour by cooking for her and her family one night but I'm not too sure is Grandma enjoyed the garlicky spaghetti and meatballs! We had such a great time couchsurfing with Dung, it really enriched our time in HCMC and hopefully we'll keep in touch.

Dung (right) and her mother and granddaughter.

We visited the botanical gardens and were surprised to find that the ticket price also included the city zoo. The flora and fauna wasn't that special and seeing the animals cooped up in tiny crowded cages isn't really our thing, but the shaded park that houses the zoo made a pleasant break from the heat of the sun. From the zoo we walked for ages to find the ancient Cantonese 'Jade Emperor Pagoda', it's old and crumbling, nestled in between blocks of flats, hotels and shops, which is why it was so hard to find!

Jade Emperor Pagoda

One of the main stops in any tourist's trip to HCMC is the War Remnants Museum, a mainly photographic museum that documents the war crimes committed by the Americans between 1954 and 1975. Galleries include: the international anti-war movement, showing protests  around the world against America's invasion of Vietnam; the legacy of the war crimes, showing how second and third generation Vietnamese people continue to be affected by the DNA-altering chemicals used as weapons of war; photographs from the war taken by war-time photographers. In addition to the photo exhibits there are also displays of bombs, weapons and instruments of torture used by the invading forces, as well as survivour testimonies. I found the displays at the museum very informative and not nearly as one sided as they might have been. The collection of war-time photos was incredibly moving, amazing photography that captured the action on both sides so vividly. I was equally horrified by the images of the dead, mutilated bodies, as I was by the survivours' testimonies. In Vietnam there is no benefits system like there is in England, children born with deformities resulting from the chemical warfare used by the Americans have little to no hope for the future. It is a depressing reality that it is often the poorest and weakest people in society that suffer the most hardship.

On a lighter note, we spent our final day in HCMC at Dam Sen Water Park, the best water park I have ever been to outside of Florida. It was mid-week and the park was quite, we had the slides almost to ourselves, the other visitors (Vietnamese teenagers) preferring to canoodle in the jaccuzzi. We had a fantastic day whizzing down the slides and chilling on rubber rings in the lazy river.

I really loved HCMC; the wide streets lined with tall trees, the shaded parks and squares with their distinctly European feel, the towering narrow buildings, the crazy traffic, the street hawkers selling coffee from a cool box outside Starbucks, the brightly coloured Communist propaganda posters on every corner, the buzzing De Tham tourist area, the power walkers in the central park... The city had a great feel to it. I hope we'll go back there again some day, soon.

Communist propaganda posters, Ho Chi Minh.

How to get to...

Dam Sen Water Park: take the number 11 bus from Nguyen Trai (behind 23/9 park) going South. Get off at Dam Sen bus station and carry on walking for 10 minutes, the water park is on the left. Cost = 5,000

Cu Chi Tunnels (Independent Trip Without Tour)

50km outside of Ho Chi Minh City lies a vast network of underground tunnels that served as a military camp for the Viet Cong soldiers during the war in the 1960s ad 70s. The tunnels cover over 250km and once contained hospitals, kitchens, bunks, store rooms, meeting rooms and munition assembly rooms; everything you need to wage an underground war against invading American soldiers.

The soldiers and villagers of Cu Chi were forced to dig the tunnels and move their lives underground to escape the carpet bombing of their village, on the outskirts of HCMC. The construction of the tunnels is amazing, an architectural wonder. The Viet Cong used hollow bamboo to ventilate the tunnels, concealing the bamboo in termite mounds at the surface to hide it from the Americans; they channeled the smoke from the kitchens to be released far away from the tunnels into an area of dense vegetation so that the smoke would not be seen. The tunnels had booby traps, secret escape hatches, hidden peep holes from which they would shoot the enemy, even trapdoors that once closed would protect them from chemical such as agent orange and napalm.  

The tunnels at Cu Chi have been preserved and the area has become a war memorial where tourists can go into some of the tunnels and see what life might have been like. The tunnels have been widened and made 'safe' for tourists but it was still a struggled to move around inside: hot, dark and claustrophobic, bats flying around your ears. There are displays of the deadly traps used by the Viet Cong, some constructed out of unexploded US bombs, and photographs to show what life was like living underground.

The tour agencies and hotels in HCMC were charging between 100,000 and 130,000 VND ($5-7) for transport to the tunnels and an English speaking guide. We decided we'd do it alone, partly to save money, partly because we like a bit of a challenge. We took the local buses and made it to the tunnels in just under two and a half hours - thank God the local buses were air conditioned! We made a friend on the bus, a young man from Hanoi who was also visiting the tunnels, he acted as our translator for the rest of the day so we didn't even have to pay for an English speaking guide (Vietnamese guides are free.)

The visit started with a very anti-American film from the war, shot in grainy black and white. Then we visited the different tunnels that are open to tourists. Going without a tour group meant we had the place to ourselves, we could spend as long as we liked looking around the tunnels and the exhibits, and it was perfect silence in the jungle where the tunnels are situated.

Ric almost getting stuck in the tiny tunnel entrance.

Tips...

• If you're thinking of going solo to the tunnels, aim to arrive there for about 11am, just as the morning tour groups are leaving, and before the afternoon groups arrive.
• Take mosquito repellent! The area is surrounded by tropical jungle full of hungry mosquitoes.
• You don't need to befriend a local on the bus, English guides are available at the entrance for tourists without a group.

How We Got There...

• From district one, take the north bound number 13 bus from 'Cach Mang Thang Tam' (one of the main streets that runs through the centre) out of the city centre to Cu Chi bus station (the terminus). Cost = 7,000 VND
• Change onto the number 79 bus at the bus station and it will drop you off outside the entrance (look out for signs in English signaling the entrance and tell the bus driver you want the tunnels). Cost = 6,000

Vinh Long and Ben Tre, Vietnam's Mekong Delta

Leaving the luxury of Holiday One Hotel in Can Tho, we took the local bus to Vinh Long, about 45km east. For once, the bus dropped us in the central bus station. Usually we get dropped in the middle of nowhere, without a map, and have to rely on over-charging moto-taxi drivers to take us to the centre (we ask for the market which tends to be the central hub of any town). It made a nice change to be able to walk away from the bus station and find our way around but the downside of walking to your own choice of hotel is that the heat of the day is unforgiving when you're carrying 15kg on your back. 

Eventually we found a hotel, showered and explored the small riverside town. The market was a chaotic hive of activity with stalls spilling out down the narrow lanes surrounding it, selling everything from roast duck heads to rice tacos. To cool down we stopped for an ice coffee at a riverside cafe.

No other country in the world (that I have visited) has such a coffee culture as Vietnam. From road side stalls to expansive elegant gardens, Vietnamese coffee is everywhere. Coffee cafes (selling only coffee, as the name suggests) are everywhere, they outnumber restaurants by at least ten to one and are always packed with people no matter what the time of day. Vietnam is the second biggest exporter of coffee after Brasil and its brew is served strong, sweet and black. It comes in a metal filter, hot, along with a tankard of ice so you can cool it down once it has completely filtered through. If you ask for milk you get a dense slug of condensed milk at the bottom of your glass. The combination of strong coffee and sickly sweet milk is as delicious as it is addictive.

Ca Phe Sua - Vietnamese coffee with sweet milk.

 We booked on to a tour of the river islands and floating market for the next day. Private boats were $25 or a group tour was $6 per person. We went for the cheap option but when it came to get on the boat in the morning we found we were the only people booked on the tour! We got a private tour for the price of a group tour. We set off along the river and stopped at a local market for breakfast where for about 40p we got a meat baguette and some coconut milk rice cakes. 

The produce at the local market couldn't get much fresher!

We crossed the Mekong and passed floating excavators that were removing sand from the bottom of the river. The sand is used for building and even for cooking as a substitute for oil.

Next, we went around Cai Be floating market. It wasn't as busy or as touristy as Cai Rang floating market in Can Tho and felt more authentic. The boats sold wholesale fruit and vegetables which are sold on at the local markets in the surrounding towns.

Boat selling a variety of fruit.

Cai Be floating market, Vinh Long.

After the market we stopped at some factories to learn about the production of local products including coconut caramels, rice paper, rice wine and popped rice crackers. It was interesting to see how no material is wasted; even the flesh from the coconuts and the husks from the rice are dried and burned as fuel. At the factory we saw the rice wine that Ric got drunk on at Mui Nai beach in Ha Tien. It's made from dried sticky rice and bananas and is flavoured with different fruits or snakes! We tried some rice wine with fermented poisonous snakes, yummy! 

Snake wine.

 We made the most of the free samples of all the delicacies, walked through the village and then boarded our boat once again for a relaxing cruise through the canals to a river island where we stopped to have lunch at a homestay set in tropical gardens and fruit orchards.

Ric enjoying the boat trip.

 The people at the homestay dropped us off at the local bus stop and we caught a local bus to the next town in the delta, Ben Tre.

Arriving in Ben Tre was a little bit more complicated than our arrival in Vinh Long. The bus took us to an intercity bus station in the middle of nowhere, they must have thought we were catching the bus straight to Saigon as no tourists ever visit Ben Tre, least of all on the local bus! Following quite a kerfuffle in the bus station, where nobody spoke English, we eventually got back on another bus and got off in the middle of town. Our problems didn't end there; once we got to the centre we couldn't find a hotel anywhere and the only person we could find who spoke English was a very pushy tout for a local homestay, who wanted to charge us the equivalent of two days budget for a one night stay. 

One hour and several litres of sweat later, we found a bed for the night and set off to explore the town. The waterfront was alive with a vibrant night market selling clothes, shoes and accessories. It really felt like we were off the tourist trail as people in the streets would stop and stare at us. 

We later found out that there are several hotels around a small lake just two blocks back from the river, too bad there wasn't anybody around able to tell us that when we were roaming the streets asking for a hotel!

Ben Tre's small lake, fringed with hotels and coffee cafes.

After nine nights in the Mekong Delta region we were ready to move on to the bright lights of Saigon. We'd crossed into Vietnam at Ha Tien, then stopped at Chau Doc, Can Tho, Vinh Long and Ben Tre. In some places we felt like we were the only tourists in town, in the last two places I'm certain that we were. It's been nice meandering slowly through the rivers and canals of the delta, we've enjoyed the laid back pace of life in the small towns and have been blown away by the kindness and welcoming attitude of the locals, even in the absence of a common language to communicate in. We've traveled on local transport as the high-priced tourist buses don't run much further south than Ho Chi Min City (Saigon). It's been a fun, cheap, sweaty, uncomfortable and interesting experience. On the bus between Chau Doc and Can Tho, for example, the driver and several of the passengers chain smoked for most of the three hour journey, whilst incense burned en masse on the dash; and we shared the back seat of the bus to Ben Tre with a drunk man asleep between us, who flopped alternately onto our shoulders every time we rounded a bend.