Day 1: We just landed in Vietnam last night - and wow just the airport was crazy. The Miss Universe contestants that were arriving at the same time might have contributed to the loud mass of people gathered at the airport at 11pm too. We were so glad to arrive at our guest house and rest!
Today we toured Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) - So we started the day by going to the train station to buy train tickets. Our cab driver dropped us off about a 20 minute walk from the actual station, so that was fun (not). We did get the chance to walk through a whole district of downtown that we otherwise would have missed, but reading the map to figure out where we had been dropped off was tough. But we made it to the train depot and booked our tickets on the "Golden Train" for 9:50pm that night. It is supposed to be Vietnam's only "luxury" train, so we'll see. Tomorrow night, we are on a Vietnam railways train that is also overnight. Buying tickets for that was like going to the DMV in their take a number system.
Lunch was at the Ben Thanh Markets --- a bustling (and fragrant) mix of food stands, clothes stands, jewelry stands. You just sit on these little kiddy seats next to the market stalls to have your meals. Our lunch there - rice noodles and vegetables with spring rolls and pork - was about $1.25 yummy :) In the afternoon we visited the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Surprisingly, the material was not all anti-American in the Museum - they displayed a variety of American magazine articles, along with the Vietnamese propaganda posters and wartime equipment.
Strolling around the city was ... let's call it... interesting - the motorbikes are everywhere (about 10 to 1 ratio to cars) and they don't really follow traffic rules very closely... it makes crossing the street an adventure. We took taxis everywhere rather than risk hopping on a motorbike, especially when every other person you walk past says "moto-bike for hire! where you going?" The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at a local restaurant before catching our overnight train to Nha Trang (pronounced "Na Chang") - it is a beach town popular with Vietnamese tourists for vacation, but is well known for beautiful offshore islands and nice beaches.
Day 2: We arrived in Nha Trang at 6:30am from the sleeper train. The train worked out really well last night - the 4th person didn't show up, so the three of us had our own cabin and could lock the door. Tonight's overnight train could be a little more interesting -- two beds in one cabin, one in another -- so we're going to all sleep in the same one, with two of us sharing a bed. And there probably will be some other people in our cabin too.
Once we got to Nha Trang, we immediately took a taxi into town and found a boat tour company -- Mama Linh's that was listed in our guide book. After booking, we wandered the streets looking for a hotel that would keep our luggage for us. We found one that seemed really nice and the lady said she wouldn't mind keeping them for the day -- we each gave her about 3 dollars in return (thats a good bit here) and sure enough they were still there for us at the end of the day. The hotel even let us shower there as well!
So the boat tour we went on was a lot of fun -- 3 different islands off the coast of Nha Trang from about 9am - 4:30pm. We got to snorkel at one and saw some reefs (and lots of jellyfish!). One of the staff members even decided to sing a ballad to me as we cruised along the bay - my travel mates, Kim and Lydia thought this was hilarious! The tour was a great way to meet other Western tourists, and also served really good food and this amazing fruit bar. We tasted all of these different fruits with crazy names like dragonfruit and a few others that Lydia has to keep reminding me the names of. Our tour consisted of probably about half Vietnamese tourists, and we were a little weirded out because they all wanted to take pictures with us (and the other Westerners on board). We keep joking with their captions: "And this is when we went on a boat tour with white/Western tourists!" Nha Trang was a welcome change of pace from the bustling Saigon. The motorbikes don't honk quite as much here :)
Tonight our overnight train is headed to Hoi An. After tomorrow we will finally be back in a hotel and it sounds like it should be pretty nice. Everyone we've talked to said Hoi An is very pretty and relaxing, so we'll see!
Day 3: We had another lucky train ride -- our two compartment buddies were a university teacher and her son. She spoke good English so were able to talk to her as well. It was a tad less comfortable for Kim and Lydia who shared the upper bunk, but it worked out fine. Of course Lydia I think would disagree because she was nervous they were going to come in and kick her out since she didn't have a ticket for our cabin.
Day 3: We had another lucky train ride -- our two compartment buddies were a university teacher and her son. She spoke good English so were able to talk to her as well. It was a tad less comfortable for Kim and Lydia who shared the upper bunk, but it worked out fine. Of course Lydia I think would disagree because she was nervous they were going to come in and kick her out since she didn't have a ticket for our cabin.
When we got to the train station at 6:30am, our hotel driver was waiting for us with a sign. We were at our hotel by 7:30, and happy to have a base-camp again. Hoi An is a cute little town with lots of history. We set out in the morning to just start browsing all of the stores, restaurants and shops. Lydia is a good negotiator, so its been fun to see her put her poker face on. Its also funny to watch because it will be bargaining over 1,000 to16,000 Dong, the equivalent of $0.07 to $1.00. After browsing many tailor shops (there are over 100 in this little town) we grabbed some ice cream as it was miserably hot and went back to make our purchases. I ended up spending $60 on 3 custom made dresses of various styles and patterns - one was silk fabric too! So overall we got a great deal! After all the clothes shopping, we dragged our feet a bit around town due to the heat--had a bite to eat at a cafe --- and then headed back to our hotel for a nap.
For the evening, we had signed up for a cooking class at a local Vietnamese restaurant. It was a lot of fun, especially since the 3 of us were the only ones in the class! We each helped with one of the three dishes - Squid Papaya Salad, Vegetable Spring Rolls, and White Fish wrapped in banana leaves :) After cooking the food, we sat down to a huge meal of it. It was very good (Hoi An is known for it's food, especially the secret "White Rose" recipe). Now we're back at the hotel and excited for a good nights sleep before SCUBA diving tomorrow :)
Day 4: This morning was my first real chance since we arrived to go out on a run, so braving the 100% humidity, I ran down the main road almost to the shore and back - about 3 miles - it was nice to see the town in a quieter state than its usual crowded sidewalks and people moving about. It definitely made me notice the scenery of the land. After an early breakfast, we got picked up by our tour bus and driven to a boat for our SCUBA/snorkeling trip. We were happy to learn that the boat was mainly owned and guided by westerners that spoke English. It was also a more relaxed atmosphere as there weren't any Vietnmese tourists (the Vietnamese tourists were loud on our last tour boat!).
Kim and I and an Austrian doctor were the only ones doing the certified diving, so a Canadian guide named Josh took us around. This 1st dive site had so many brilliant colors--- one of the prettiest dives I've been on thus far. We stayed down for a full hour! The second dive was supposed to be a 30 meter dive around a rock, but when we got there by boat they decided the visibility was bad. Instead we took the boat another 30 minutes around the island and dove around these large rock canyons/caves. There were lots of schools of fish and diving between the rock walls was gorgeous as well.
We got to the beach at the island for a really good lunch--- a random assortment of food to choose from around the table. Then we laid in hammocks for another hour until the boat took us back. It was an absolutely beautiful and fun day --- we're really glad we chose to do the diving here instead of Nha Trang which is supposed to be the more obvious option.
By dinnertime and all through the night, I became fairly sick - my stomach just felt awful. I still have no idea how it happened. I ate all of the same meals as my friends Kim and Lydia, so I guess it was just a stomach virus of some sort. Needless to say, I did not sleep very much this night nor eat much the next day.
By dinnertime and all through the night, I became fairly sick - my stomach just felt awful. I still have no idea how it happened. I ate all of the same meals as my friends Kim and Lydia, so I guess it was just a stomach virus of some sort. Needless to say, I did not sleep very much this night nor eat much the next day.
Day 5: This morning was our last in Hoi An and though I was not feeling well, I got up at 6:00am and rode my rental bike to the beach (regular bikes, not motorbikes!) with Kim and Lydia. We decided to go really early due to A. less heat, and B. less traffic. I still wasn't feeling well after a breakfast consisting of a few bites of bread with jam, so I stayed and slept in the hotel while Lydia and Kim rode the bikes into town. They picked up our custom-made clothes that were finished, shopped/bargained for some more gifts, and tasted slices of cake at 10am at a local bakery.
The rest of the day was far less interesting. I laid on a bench in the hotel lobby trying to sleep while Lydia and Kim surfed the internet and talked to family. That evening we were scheduled to fly to Hanoi in the northern part of Vietnam to continue our trip. Lydia checked our flight status for that afternoon, and the search only brought up a flight to Hanoi at 9 pm instead of 5pm (without mentioning a delay). We checked our tickets, which said 5pm, so we went with it and stuck with our 3pm airport pickup. When we got to the airport, the flight board said 5pm and we got excited to leave soon after all. Well when they gave us our boarding passes, it was back at 9pm! I was actually not surprised as almost all of our flights had been late or changed up to this point in the trip. Usually I don't mind waiting at airports, but this was not what most people would consider an airport - just on the other side of security was 2 gates (Gate 1 and Gate 2) and just a bunch of hard-backed chairs (with a bunch of people already in them). Needless to say, I was already not feeling well and this did not help. I tried to sleep on the rows of chairs, but finally I gave up and laid on the cement floor to sleep. Once we had boarded the flight that night, Lydia and Kim informed me that sleeping on the floor between the rows of seats had brought a lot of stares (one woman looped back around to look at me?!).
Anyways, after an additional hour flight delay, we landed in Hanoi at around 11pm. With a long taxi ride to our hostel, we were in our dorm room by 12:30am. Oh, and the air conditioning didn't work --- what a day!
Day 6: This was really the only day we slept in the whole trip. Once we did get up, we were able to check out the hostel a bit more. Its run by two Australian guys and most of the other guests were backpackers too - from all over the world. We took care of the logistical stuff in the morning (booking our Halong Bay trip, going to the bank, etc). Then we walked around the big lake in he center of the Old Town area, got some mango ice cream, and visited the pagoda in the middle of the lake. I actually felt better for most of the morning, but after visiting the pagoda and the town I couldn't stand the 98 degree heat anymore. I was determined to feel better for our Halong Bay trip starting the next day, so I relaxed in our dorm room for the rest of the afternoon while Lydia and Kim explored the city and its sites.
They decided first to visit a large market to get some souvenirs. but found the market was quite different from the one in Saigon - it was geared more towards the locals. In the afternoon, they went to the prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton (where John McCain was held as a POW). They said it was neat to see the history there and very well preserved. They also saw another pagoda, stopped for some summertime che (cold dessert), and relaxed at the coffee shop while talking to two Princeton students that were there studying for the summer. By dinnertime I was actually feeling much better than even that morning, so I joined them for a pizza dinner and then crashed early in our dorm. On our way back from the pizza dinner, it actually rained for the first time since we've been here - very surprising as June is the middle of monsoon season!
Day 7: We got picked up at our hostel at around 8am for a very long 3 hour bus ride eastward toward Halong Bay. Once we got there, it was completely worth it. We boarded our Junk boat with two Danish families and one other backpacker. Contrary to belief, the Junk boat was great! The style and design of the boat is Chinese, and our boat was small with only 6 cabins, but very clean and nice. We had fresh seafood for about every meal, though I decided to stick to the basics like rice and vegetables for the first few meals just to make sure I didn't feel sick to my stomach anymore.
For most of the afternoon we just cruised the bay - It is absolutely gorgeous. There are limestone rock formations everywhere --- all directions looking around. After cruising, we went to one of the rock formations/islands and toured a large cave which was really cool. We retreated to the boat for some laying out on the sun deck and relaxing in the cabins. We also stopped on a little beach nearby to swim for a bit. That evening was particularly amazing - I especially enjoyed standing on the top deck, looking out over the numerous other Junk boats. They were all lit up, anchored all over this alcove of limestone islands - the light shimmered on the water below them and provided enough light to see all the limestone formations nearby. I listened to music and watched the start of a lightning storm with Kim and Lydia from the deck --- this was possibly my favorite night of the whole trip.
Day 8: I woke up extra early this morning to watch the sun rise from the top deck, only to be foiled by a layer of soft gray fog which was covering the Sun in the east! Still I enjoyed the morning alone - watching the local fishermen row their boats out past the Bay, taking in the beauty of these limestone wonders and clear waters. Everyone else woke up at around 6am to hang out and enjoy the bay before our kayaking excursion. By 7am, we got into our kayaks and kayaked past several of the limestone islands, under a tunnel and into a little horseshoe-shaped lagoon that was enclosed by one island. It was very peaceful out in the open ocean while everyone else aboard the other junks was still sleeping. Back aboard our junk, we went around the bay back towards the mainland for another 4 hours, eating breakfast and lunch in the middle. Those last few hours were mostly spent on the top deck taking posed pictures of each other, and talking with the two Danish families and their impressive well-traveled multi-lingual kids (ages 6-12). We took in the sights of the bay and snapped as many pictures as possible until the limestone formations finally faded into the distance. When we arrived back into the mainland dock, we immediately boarded the bus back to Hanoi. The rest of the evening was just relaxing in the hostel in Hanoi, trying to frantically update journals, and copying Lydia's pictures (she was continuing back to Thailand to see family and then onto Cambodia). That night we went to a restaurant with traditional, though clean, "street food" and a celebratory slice of cake to celebrate the great trip (now that I am finally feeling back to normal!)
Day 9: Our last day! This morning was our flight back to Saigon, then we walked around the city for a few hours before heading back to the airport for our overnight flight back to Sydney. I can't believe it is already over! My favorite places by far were Halong Bay and Hoi An (and the SCUBA there!)
Day 8: I woke up extra early this morning to watch the sun rise from the top deck, only to be foiled by a layer of soft gray fog which was covering the Sun in the east! Still I enjoyed the morning alone - watching the local fishermen row their boats out past the Bay, taking in the beauty of these limestone wonders and clear waters. Everyone else woke up at around 6am to hang out and enjoy the bay before our kayaking excursion. By 7am, we got into our kayaks and kayaked past several of the limestone islands, under a tunnel and into a little horseshoe-shaped lagoon that was enclosed by one island. It was very peaceful out in the open ocean while everyone else aboard the other junks was still sleeping. Back aboard our junk, we went around the bay back towards the mainland for another 4 hours, eating breakfast and lunch in the middle. Those last few hours were mostly spent on the top deck taking posed pictures of each other, and talking with the two Danish families and their impressive well-traveled multi-lingual kids (ages 6-12). We took in the sights of the bay and snapped as many pictures as possible until the limestone formations finally faded into the distance. When we arrived back into the mainland dock, we immediately boarded the bus back to Hanoi. The rest of the evening was just relaxing in the hostel in Hanoi, trying to frantically update journals, and copying Lydia's pictures (she was continuing back to Thailand to see family and then onto Cambodia). That night we went to a restaurant with traditional, though clean, "street food" and a celebratory slice of cake to celebrate the great trip (now that I am finally feeling back to normal!)
Day 9: Our last day! This morning was our flight back to Saigon, then we walked around the city for a few hours before heading back to the airport for our overnight flight back to Sydney. I can't believe it is already over! My favorite places by far were Halong Bay and Hoi An (and the SCUBA there!)
