An unlikely Asia, Vietnam (especially Nha Trang) is like a mini Europe; french patisseries, quaint boulevards crossed between a seedy La with grotty high rise buildings and near perfect palm trees lining a enourmous stretch of generic restaurants along the beach - a section from the Lonely Planet rings true, it says you could be anywhere in the world!
But real Vietnam is there, you just have to look very closely. On our way towards Nha Trang at 6.00am in the morning I spotted a typical postcard fishing scene; every single woman sporting bamboo hats surrounded by all sorts of shellfish.
Just like Laos I entered Vietnam with no previous expectations. I didn’t feel the warmth in Hanoi like I did in Luang Prabang. Being able to interact with the Lao people without having to do a tour to do so.
Hanoi
After a hectic 20 hour bus ride from Vietianne, Laos we arrived in one of Hanoi’s many bus stations. A usual occurance at the end of a longhaul bus journey in Asia is for a tout to make a lengthy speech at the header of the bus. This speech always consists of the following: that the whole of Hanoi will be out to rip you offand if you get this bus without holding my hand then you’ll get eaten by wolves. So we tried to convince the others on the bus to cover their ears but the little lambs got herded into the minibus heading towards a $30 room per night. Nat and I, hardened travellers that we are, jumped into a taxi and landed ourselves an amazing hostel in the old quarter of Hanoi: Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, like something out of Harry Potters Hogwarts!
Halong Bay
This cruise made me realise my hatred of organised tours/cruises! Being on somebody elses schedule sucks. We practically got blamed for ruining everyones dinner as we were 5 minutes late and nobody was allowed to start eating until everyone was there! Bollocks. If we hadn’t have been with a decent crowd then I may have thrown myself off the top of the boat (we were ordered not to do it!) into the dirty water that 15 million other surrounding boats create by dumping everyones waste! It may have been a vast improvement to…the deadly schedule!
Hoi An was also an experience! Lots of seafood shacks line the beautiful stretch of beach 15k outside of the town, and if you ask sweetly you can ask to fish your meal aka crab from the tank and cook it yourself! My crab and I had a moment before I shoved it into the stove…well it didn’t fit so the cook had to slice him through the middle and chop a few legs off then put him back in! So we steamed him for 10 minutes and there he was on my plate, accompained with a dish of dipping sauce (which had ginger, garlic, salt and pepper and oil). It was soooo yummy! My first and not my last crab! Photo to come!
Nat and I did a cookery lesson at Cafe 69, a small family run restaurant, made spring rolls, bamboo wrapped fish and pappaya salad. We also ate rose dumplings which is a Vietnamese specialality which has prawn and shrimp inside and comes with a chilli dipping sauce. We also made friends with a 22 year old girl who was trying to learn english, she was really shy but we took her email address to help her out.
Hoi An had an amazing Patisserie and restaurant called Cafe Cargo with amazing food!
One of the main reasons you go to Hoi An is to get suited and booted. Nat and I got dresses made – they turned out really well. You can browse lots of magazines and styles and literally get anything made up! It took overnight so god knows which poor sod has to stay up all night making these complicated designs!
Dalat
One of the last stops on our agenda. The ride to Dalat was a slightly hungover one, but only took 6 hours – I was mostly asleep. There was beautiful mountainous scenery, lakes and french colonial architechure. We only had a day to spend in Dalat so we went to the crazy house, followed by canyoning down waterfalls! Scary stuff but also amazing for scenery.
Saigon
Went to museum – night out, caves, night out with Ciaran.
Next day to Cambodia!
