Good morning Vietnam!!
Here we go again- another flight, another visa, another stamp in our passports, another airport, another slow march through an unmanned airport security station, to finally emerge out of the airport new born in the world.... dazed confused and not knowing what way is up. (in our case what side of the road is the right side to drive on)
We now feel like professional travellers, we smirk and chuckle at other people who are being scammed or plain old ripped off. Not that we are immune to it but we are a lot wiser to most of the scams, we too were once the fresh newbies ripe for picking.
We make our way to a professional looking taxi and don't pay attention to the touts trying to take us down town for 50$ US dollars, we slide into the well marked cab and tell him straight up to turn the meter on and take us down town. 5$ US dollars later we are in Pham Ngu Lao, the tourist hub of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh to the locals ).
Our first impressions of this place were.... extremely tourist friendly..... to say the least! After coming from Bangladesh where there are only a few thousand tourists a year, to Vietnam, where they get that amount of tourists a week, we were a little freaked out. Every where we looked there were tourists wearing provocative clothing, from women in bikinis or see through tops with nothing on underneath, to men walking around in just shorts and no shirts! We were shocked and slightly embarrassed, for ourselves and for the locals. For us when we travel we do as the locals do, eat like the locals do, dress like the locals and behave like the locals, so our first impression of Vietnam was that these tourists were trying to do everything opposite! They were dressed in a way they wouldn't dress in their own homes let alone their own countries, they yell and carry on, often offending the locals (most of Asia do not yell or scream at each other as this causes loss of face.... well except for china that is) and there is a million other things they often do without being aware of how they are upsetting the locals......
After finding some cheap accommodation we set of on a walking tour of the main tourist area with shops selling pizza, pasta, chips, fish, burgers, burritos, and roasts we could hardly find a shop that sold Vietnamese food! And out the front of every shop you had a shifty guy lazing on his scooter bugging you with the catch phrase of “you want some weeeedddd!” often said more like a statement than a question. We soon found out that even settling down inside a restaurant did not mean you were safe from hawkers, if anything you were now a captive audience. “You want a book misteerr!” “You want sunglassesss misses!” “You buy cigarettes misteeerrr!” “Here you take toothpaste missessss!” The only way to get them to go away is a quick but simple “no” and a shake of the hand in a kind of go away motion, then quickly keep talking to the person you are sitting next to.
We often loved watching tourists sitting there saying things like “i'd love to buy..... but I don't have money....” to the hawker this polite nicety means game on! As long as someone is looking at them, let alone interacting with them they will never leave (even if you are half way through a meal).
We decided to do the tourist thing and did a day trip to an old Cao Dai temple and the Chuchi tunnels.
One of the religions in Vietnam is called Cao Dai and its kind of a mix of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, which makes it really interesting but also a little odd. Going into a temple that looks like a church, but decorated like a monastery while people are dressed like Muslims.
After watching their midday prayers, we jumped on a bus and headed further out of Saigon to the Cuchi tunnels. These tunnels were used during the Vietnam war by the north VC and were a series of tunnels that covered hundreds of miles and which were used as supply routes and ambush points. The tunnels were originally half the size they are now, but had be widened to allow for fat westerners to squirm their way through. And they were still pretty narrow! After this we meandered down towards the shooting range where for a few dollars a bullet you could shoot a pistol, a M16 or an AK47 if you felt like spending 4 dollars a round you could even shoot a M60 machine gun! And of course it was mainly the young foreign men who were the ones who wanted to blow stuff up!
From here rob and I decided it was time for the beach. The original plan was to go half way up Vietnam to Hoi An and work our way back down, but we soon realised that we just didn't have the time so instead we opted to head 4 hours north of HCMC to a place called Muine. This sleepy fishing town has been converted into a sleepy fishing town with a hundred guest houses and hotels, a night club, numerous massage parlours, a million restaurants and all the other things that go with an over-touristed sleepy fishing village/ kite-surfing mecca.
We managed to find a nice little sleepy guest house right on the beach for a few dollars and proceeded to kick back and relax. (something we hadn't had a big chance to do of late)
The following day we rented a motor bike with the intention to head further north to a sleepy fishing village (this one apparently was spared the super tourist conversion). However after 3 hours of riding into a strong head wind on one of Vietnam's national highways, midday and with no shade at all, we managed to be no closer to this elusive secret fishing village. With sore bums and farmers tans, we decided to turn the bike around and head back to Muine and find food along the way. We stopped at a regular sight inVietnam, a roadside shack selling pho (noodle soup). Pho is a basic rice noodle boiled in water (sometimes meat flavoured water)served with your choice of boiled meat (or the choice of cooked meats) this is then served up in a very large bowl with a side serving of a large plate full of different types of greens and herbs (including fresh coriander and basil). All in all its a very filling and tasty meal (even if your meat is dog meat like mine was on this day). Another 2 hours later and we dragged our exhausted and sunburnt bodies off the bike and collapsed on the beach for an ice cold beer....another Asian lesson learnt... sometimes scales on maps are wrong, very wrong.
The following day we left and headed further north to Nha Trang only another 5 hours away. Nha Trang is one place almost everyone goes to in Vietnam, and it is sold being a place that has stunning beaches and a great atmosphere and great diving. In our opinion it had none of the above - the beaches were very so so, the atmosphere was that of a bunch of inconsiderate tourists getting around in inappropriate clothing acting like nerf hearders, and the diving..... well that was fun, but not great.
So we spent time on the so so beach, trying to ignore the touts that came past roughly every 40seconds or so, whilst trying also not to mingle with the nerf headers and did some fun but not great diving.
One night rob did manage to meet up with an old friend she had met in Vietnam 7 years ago and had a fun old time catching up and reliving memories and talking about how Vietnam has changed.
Tired of the touts and the so so beaches, we decided to head west into the interior of the country towards a place called Dalat, a region reknowned to be of similar quality and beauty as the Swiss Alps. Again the people who decided this clearly had never been to the Swiss Alps or ever seen anything beautiful, I know that seems harsh but from my point of view if you say something is great, back it up with something. Sure it was nice and hilly, yeah there were some lakes (mostly dried up or full of men wadding through mud looking for crabs) and sure there were some nice pine trees like one would imagine in the Swiss Alps, there was even some very interesting architecture. But at the end of the day the amount of hawkers and sellers, the town planning, and the number of kamikaze motorbikes and maniac drivers made sure that this place was as similar to the Alps as much as Charles Manson is to the that stupid Irish band the Corrs!!!
After a day and night in Dalat we left to make our way South again back to Saigon, to catch up with Danny and Adele, 2 good friends we made while working in China. They have both left China (or should that be fled?) and found a better teaching job and awesome lifestyle in Saigon. We spent a great first night drinking beers on their roof before moving down to the river to listen to the Vietnamese version of the “Australian Big Day Out”. It was a great setting, little chairs by a dark moving river, and our waiters were a show as well. Every time we ordered a beer the price would change, the highest was 20,000 VND (1$)and the lowest was 7,320 VND (40cents)and we paid everything in between. All in all it was a great weekend with fantastic friends!
Sending Danny and Adele back to work, we kept going down to the Southern most Island of Vietnam - Phu Quoc. This island is said to be the crown jewel of Vietnam's islands, and going by how difficult it was to get there we were were super keen to explore it. Upon arrival we found ourselves a driver, and made our way to a cheap guest house. Over the past week we had been trying vigorously to secure ourselves a cheap beach side place to stay, but as it was going into high season, and also a public holiday was almost under-way we were feeling very sceptical as to whether this holiday adventure was going to turn out with us sleeping in a hammock on a beach. As things turned out this ended up being not far from the truth, after a cheap first night in the main town we spent the next day on a motorbike heading from one beach to another looking for a cheap place to stay, with our fears were slowly coming to fruition, every thing was full, or very expensive. Finally after a full day on a bike in the sun we stumbled upon a place to rest our weary dusty sunburnt bones, a beautiful guest house was willing to let us sleep on their beach for a few days, so for 2$ we got a mattress and a mozzie net and slept only a stones throw from the waves. We were so happy with our find, (we found out later that people who were paying to stay at this guest house were paying 30euro a night, which we still laugh at). So finally we got to relax, we spent the next few days swimming, working on evening out our suntans, and drinking beer. Over all this island turned out to be one of the nicer places we had seen in Vietnam, it was cool, green and tropical but as for the diving, well that turned out to be another one of those well talked up white lies....
With out time well and truly running out, we hastily boarded a bus and sped through the lower Mekong delta with its stunning waterways, and tiny fishing hamlets that look like they did when they were first erected, and back again to HCMC.
Here we go again- another flight, another visa, another stamp in our passports, another airport, another slow march through an unmanned airport security station, to finally emerge out of the airport new born in the world.... dazed confused and not knowing what way is up. (in our case what side of the road is the right side to drive on)
We now feel like professional travellers, we smirk and chuckle at other people who are being scammed or plain old ripped off. Not that we are immune to it but we are a lot wiser to most of the scams, we too were once the fresh newbies ripe for picking.
We make our way to a professional looking taxi and don't pay attention to the touts trying to take us down town for 50$ US dollars, we slide into the well marked cab and tell him straight up to turn the meter on and take us down town. 5$ US dollars later we are in Pham Ngu Lao, the tourist hub of Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh to the locals ).
Our first impressions of this place were.... extremely tourist friendly..... to say the least! After coming from Bangladesh where there are only a few thousand tourists a year, to Vietnam, where they get that amount of tourists a week, we were a little freaked out. Every where we looked there were tourists wearing provocative clothing, from women in bikinis or see through tops with nothing on underneath, to men walking around in just shorts and no shirts! We were shocked and slightly embarrassed, for ourselves and for the locals. For us when we travel we do as the locals do, eat like the locals do, dress like the locals and behave like the locals, so our first impression of Vietnam was that these tourists were trying to do everything opposite! They were dressed in a way they wouldn't dress in their own homes let alone their own countries, they yell and carry on, often offending the locals (most of Asia do not yell or scream at each other as this causes loss of face.... well except for china that is) and there is a million other things they often do without being aware of how they are upsetting the locals......
After finding some cheap accommodation we set of on a walking tour of the main tourist area with shops selling pizza, pasta, chips, fish, burgers, burritos, and roasts we could hardly find a shop that sold Vietnamese food! And out the front of every shop you had a shifty guy lazing on his scooter bugging you with the catch phrase of “you want some weeeedddd!” often said more like a statement than a question. We soon found out that even settling down inside a restaurant did not mean you were safe from hawkers, if anything you were now a captive audience. “You want a book misteerr!” “You want sunglassesss misses!” “You buy cigarettes misteeerrr!” “Here you take toothpaste missessss!” The only way to get them to go away is a quick but simple “no” and a shake of the hand in a kind of go away motion, then quickly keep talking to the person you are sitting next to.
We often loved watching tourists sitting there saying things like “i'd love to buy..... but I don't have money....” to the hawker this polite nicety means game on! As long as someone is looking at them, let alone interacting with them they will never leave (even if you are half way through a meal).
We decided to do the tourist thing and did a day trip to an old Cao Dai temple and the Chuchi tunnels.
One of the religions in Vietnam is called Cao Dai and its kind of a mix of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, which makes it really interesting but also a little odd. Going into a temple that looks like a church, but decorated like a monastery while people are dressed like Muslims.
After watching their midday prayers, we jumped on a bus and headed further out of Saigon to the Cuchi tunnels. These tunnels were used during the Vietnam war by the north VC and were a series of tunnels that covered hundreds of miles and which were used as supply routes and ambush points. The tunnels were originally half the size they are now, but had be widened to allow for fat westerners to squirm their way through. And they were still pretty narrow! After this we meandered down towards the shooting range where for a few dollars a bullet you could shoot a pistol, a M16 or an AK47 if you felt like spending 4 dollars a round you could even shoot a M60 machine gun! And of course it was mainly the young foreign men who were the ones who wanted to blow stuff up!
From here rob and I decided it was time for the beach. The original plan was to go half way up Vietnam to Hoi An and work our way back down, but we soon realised that we just didn't have the time so instead we opted to head 4 hours north of HCMC to a place called Muine. This sleepy fishing town has been converted into a sleepy fishing town with a hundred guest houses and hotels, a night club, numerous massage parlours, a million restaurants and all the other things that go with an over-touristed sleepy fishing village/ kite-surfing mecca.
We managed to find a nice little sleepy guest house right on the beach for a few dollars and proceeded to kick back and relax. (something we hadn't had a big chance to do of late)
The following day we rented a motor bike with the intention to head further north to a sleepy fishing village (this one apparently was spared the super tourist conversion). However after 3 hours of riding into a strong head wind on one of Vietnam's national highways, midday and with no shade at all, we managed to be no closer to this elusive secret fishing village. With sore bums and farmers tans, we decided to turn the bike around and head back to Muine and find food along the way. We stopped at a regular sight inVietnam, a roadside shack selling pho (noodle soup). Pho is a basic rice noodle boiled in water (sometimes meat flavoured water)served with your choice of boiled meat (or the choice of cooked meats) this is then served up in a very large bowl with a side serving of a large plate full of different types of greens and herbs (including fresh coriander and basil). All in all its a very filling and tasty meal (even if your meat is dog meat like mine was on this day). Another 2 hours later and we dragged our exhausted and sunburnt bodies off the bike and collapsed on the beach for an ice cold beer....another Asian lesson learnt... sometimes scales on maps are wrong, very wrong.
The following day we left and headed further north to Nha Trang only another 5 hours away. Nha Trang is one place almost everyone goes to in Vietnam, and it is sold being a place that has stunning beaches and a great atmosphere and great diving. In our opinion it had none of the above - the beaches were very so so, the atmosphere was that of a bunch of inconsiderate tourists getting around in inappropriate clothing acting like nerf hearders, and the diving..... well that was fun, but not great.
So we spent time on the so so beach, trying to ignore the touts that came past roughly every 40seconds or so, whilst trying also not to mingle with the nerf headers and did some fun but not great diving.
One night rob did manage to meet up with an old friend she had met in Vietnam 7 years ago and had a fun old time catching up and reliving memories and talking about how Vietnam has changed.
Tired of the touts and the so so beaches, we decided to head west into the interior of the country towards a place called Dalat, a region reknowned to be of similar quality and beauty as the Swiss Alps. Again the people who decided this clearly had never been to the Swiss Alps or ever seen anything beautiful, I know that seems harsh but from my point of view if you say something is great, back it up with something. Sure it was nice and hilly, yeah there were some lakes (mostly dried up or full of men wadding through mud looking for crabs) and sure there were some nice pine trees like one would imagine in the Swiss Alps, there was even some very interesting architecture. But at the end of the day the amount of hawkers and sellers, the town planning, and the number of kamikaze motorbikes and maniac drivers made sure that this place was as similar to the Alps as much as Charles Manson is to the that stupid Irish band the Corrs!!!
After a day and night in Dalat we left to make our way South again back to Saigon, to catch up with Danny and Adele, 2 good friends we made while working in China. They have both left China (or should that be fled?) and found a better teaching job and awesome lifestyle in Saigon. We spent a great first night drinking beers on their roof before moving down to the river to listen to the Vietnamese version of the “Australian Big Day Out”. It was a great setting, little chairs by a dark moving river, and our waiters were a show as well. Every time we ordered a beer the price would change, the highest was 20,000 VND (1$)and the lowest was 7,320 VND (40cents)and we paid everything in between. All in all it was a great weekend with fantastic friends!
Sending Danny and Adele back to work, we kept going down to the Southern most Island of Vietnam - Phu Quoc. This island is said to be the crown jewel of Vietnam's islands, and going by how difficult it was to get there we were were super keen to explore it. Upon arrival we found ourselves a driver, and made our way to a cheap guest house. Over the past week we had been trying vigorously to secure ourselves a cheap beach side place to stay, but as it was going into high season, and also a public holiday was almost under-way we were feeling very sceptical as to whether this holiday adventure was going to turn out with us sleeping in a hammock on a beach. As things turned out this ended up being not far from the truth, after a cheap first night in the main town we spent the next day on a motorbike heading from one beach to another looking for a cheap place to stay, with our fears were slowly coming to fruition, every thing was full, or very expensive. Finally after a full day on a bike in the sun we stumbled upon a place to rest our weary dusty sunburnt bones, a beautiful guest house was willing to let us sleep on their beach for a few days, so for 2$ we got a mattress and a mozzie net and slept only a stones throw from the waves. We were so happy with our find, (we found out later that people who were paying to stay at this guest house were paying 30euro a night, which we still laugh at). So finally we got to relax, we spent the next few days swimming, working on evening out our suntans, and drinking beer. Over all this island turned out to be one of the nicer places we had seen in Vietnam, it was cool, green and tropical but as for the diving, well that turned out to be another one of those well talked up white lies....
With out time well and truly running out, we hastily boarded a bus and sped through the lower Mekong delta with its stunning waterways, and tiny fishing hamlets that look like they did when they were first erected, and back again to HCMC.
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