Another long one guys – the past 2 weeks have been super busy & I haven’t had a second to sit down and update this!
Our time finally came to an end in Cambodia after we overstayed our welcome in Sihanoukville. We were so ready to leave – our last few days consisted of a stay at a hostel that looked like a prison block where I got attacked by a fan blade spinning on full blast 🙈 I almost lost three finger tips, no big deal! The blood dripping on the floor lead Jonny to shout “we need to get you to first aid…I’ll get you to first aid!” He meant well but I think he forgot we were at the prison cell hostel in Cambodia & not health & safety conscious NI! Thankfully my over packed first aid kit finally got put to good use – Germolene saved my little fingers from nasty Cambodian infections! I couldn’t take much more after the rat incident so we moved back to our lovely flash packer hotel for the remaining nights! So on the 19th May we got a bus back to Phnom Penh & then another bus to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
HCMC
We booked to do a city tour & the Cu Chi tunnels on our first full day. Unfortunately the city tour only allowed us 1 hour at the War Remnants museum; then took us to a Chinese temple; and then to the “locals” market which we couldn’t buy anything at because everything was aimed at the locals… Don’t do this tour if you go to HCMC!! I had my first Vietnamese dish – pho bo which is beef noodle soup – I loved it 😍
We then took an hour & a half bus to the Cu Chi tunnels which is where the Viet Cong built a tunnel system full of booby traps to defend themselves against the US army. We watched a hilarious Vietnam propaganda video which made out that life in the tunnels was the best! It was very interesting seeing all the traps & it was an interesting experience actually going into one of the tunnels (which has been made bigger for tourists 😨). At the end of the tunnel it gets really narrow & dark; there were loads of massive millipedes; and it was BOILING.. so naturally I freaked out and ran out the nearest exit..only to find no one else around so I thought I’d have to go back down. Tried again…started to forget how to breathe & made my second escape 😂 I would never have survived life in the tunnels! I don’t think my heart rate got back to normal until I was back at the hotel!
checking out the tunnels…
The Vietnamese booby traps…
That night we went out for dinner as you do. We stood outside a restaurant reading the menu when all of a sudden I felt something sharp dig into my foot & heard the dreaded “mi mi mi mi”. Looked down and there was the long pink tail & brown fur from my nightmares!!! A massive rat had ran from one side of the street to the other, clawed it’s way over mine & Jonny’s feet to get into a wee hole. I was again traumatised running down a road in HCMC like a crazy person!!
We ended up in a lovely Indian restaurant with the nicest waiters ever. They gave us a small bowl of rice pudding free at the end & I mentioned that it was my favourite dessert..when I finished they brought me out another massive bowl!! Then it was on to a local bar for 12,000 dong beers (36p) to calm down!
Lots of free rice pudding…
Day two we went back to the War Remnants museum again. We took THE best taxi there – he was playing a Westlife album & turned it up (I think to drown out my terrible singing!). As soon as we arrived at the museum I was stopped by an Asian girl to get a photo…I love being the whitest person in SE Asia!!
“But first…let me get a selfie with the whitest white girl in Vietnam!!”
I’m not going to go into detail on my views on the Vietnam war…it’s something I have become very passionate complaining about & I think Jonny’s fed up listening to my opinion. A lot of my pictures speak volumes so not much needs to be said anyway. I should also say that I am aware this museum is very one sided to the Vietnamese…but my follow up reading confirms that a lot of horrendous things went on in Vietnam particularly towards innocent civilians.
Selfie time!
Practise what you preach?!
Horrible…
This really disturbs me that a photographer could just watch on as this happened…
Napalm & Agent orange…
Children affected by Agent Orange that was spread during the war. The bottom left was born in 2008…
The award winning ‘Napalm Girl’ photo
Medals donated to the museum by a US veteran as an apology to Vietnam…
On our way back to our hotel we were stopped by a Vietnamese student who asked if he could practise his English with us. We sat talking to him for a while & then another guy came and asked if he could join in. They both had really good English!! Then two more came so we just had a group of Vietnamese people sitting around us. It was really nice chatting to them!
That night we had the pleasure of enduring our first 10.5 hour sleeper bus to Nha Trang. We were put at the back of of the bus in between 3 other people…it was horrible. End of story.
Nha Trang
We arrived in Nha Trang very early in the morning. I almost felt like I had taken the sleeper bus to Russia & had left Vietnam completely. They were EVERYWHERE!! Every restaurant, bar & hotel has menus & signs in Russian. People tried to speak to me in Russian (which slightly offended me…)! It was so strange. One day a Vietnamese man actually said to Jonny on the street, “you’re smiling…that’s how I know you aren’t Russian!” 😂
Anyway, our stay didn’t get off to the best start. We had been told that our bus would take us straight to our hotel so when we pulled up in Nha Trang someone shouted “where are you staying?” So I told them. The next thing 2 moto drivers were holding cards for our hotel & told us they’d been sent for us. We were so tired that we didn’t even think. It was my first time on a moto as I am terrified of them..especially on SE Asia’s crazy roads!! They took us on a 5 minute journey & parked across the road from our hotel – this was when I realised there was something not right. He told me it was 500,000 dong (around £14 which we had paid for 2 12 hour bus tickets). I refused to pay and they started to get cheeky telling us it was to cover their “insurance” (as if they had insurance!!). We ended up paying far much more than we should have but we stood our ground about not paying the 500,000. We were not happy bunny’s! It was all forgotten after we checked into our hotel & got a good sleep! And the people running the hotel were super friendly which helped change our initial impression!
Nha Trang is very touristy with people on holidays & for a good reason – the beach was really nice & there were lots of lovely little bars/restaurants along the beach front. Some of them had pools which was lovely to get away from the sand for a while!
The pool at Louisiane Brewhouse
Passionfruit beer…
We spent a day at the mud baths in Nha Trang which was good fun!
Mud bath fun!
well & truly muddy!
And we also went to the Vietnamese Disney Land – Vinpearl Land! The child in me loved it!! It had an amusement park with a few Barry’s style rides & one big Alpine rollercoaster which went all around the side of the mountain. It was pretty cool apart from the fact you were in control of your speed so if someone in front of you braked then you had to unless you wanted to give them whiplash! They also had a 4D cinema and free indoor amusements which were awful. Then there was the underwater world aquarium which was class! So many big sharks 😍 ; little Nemo’s & Dory’s; and some fish/eels I hope I never come across in the ocean!! Then it was on to the water park – my fave! The slides were surprisingly good & there were quite a few wedgies provided!!
Vinpearl Land!
Vinpearl Underwater world!
Vinpearl Waterpark!
We spent a few days chilling in Nha Trang before getting the next horrible sleeper bus to Hoi An…and guess what?! We were shoved to the back again!
The loveliest homestay ever!
Hoi An
What was supposed to be be 10 hour sleeper bus turned into a 12 hour sleeper bus. We chose to stay at a homestay a wee bit out of the main area in Hoi An. It was one the best places we have stayed on our travels so far – Li the host was literally the nicest person I have ever met! I highly recommend a stay here if you ever make it to Hoi An – Full House Homestay!
We had to take bicycles to get around in Hoi An which was totally out of my comfort zone. Thankfully the roads in Hoi An were nothing like those in HCMC (really busy!) so they weren’t too bad to navigate…still pretty scary though!! I did almost get knocked down once… (Don’t read that dad!!)
On our bikes!
We went out on our first bike ride into the ancient town and were stopped by a lady on a moto telling us to go to her family shop to get a suit made. We politely declined (which took about 10 minutes to do) and went on our way. 15 minutes later and we were lost & who just happened to find us but the moto lady with the family tailor shop. She told us we could park our at her shop if we just had a look. 2 hours later & we had bought a suit and two playsuits 😂 all for $130 (about £85!!).
Hoi An is really beautiful. It kind of has a European old town feeling about it! We drank many 5000 dong (15p) beers & a few 4000 dong (12p) beers – a little too expensive haha 💰🍻
Beautiful Hoi An!
We went to a bar called Why Not? bar on our first night. It normally doesn’t get busy until after midnight apparently and we had got there around 11 – we asked the barman where was good to go for a drink & he named a bar but wouldn’t tell us where it was 😕 we stayed for a game of pool & a drink. The next thing two crazy Russians came in & chatted to us briefly. the barman closed the door between the bar & the area we were playing pool in..one Russian stood staring through the window then he went over to the bar. I looked through the window & the other Russian was just sitting watching me – it was CREEPY! We sat down to finish our beers and were accompanied by around 15 cockroaches 😷 we made a quick exit! The walk home in the dark was fun – we got lost & saw lots of little 🐀 friends. One even made Jonny wet himself 😂 ask him for the details…
Day two we cycled to An Bang beach which is known as the locals beach. It was beautiful! That night I fell of my bike – not so beautiful & ever so slightly embarrassing.
An Bang beach!
Day three we did a cookery class at Thua Tinh island. We went around the market to get our supplies in the morning – the time when all the locals go to market! It was MAD! So many smells, sounds & crazy heat!! It was cool to learn what a lot of the different foods were. Then we took a boat ride down the river to the island. We took a smaller boat to go through the water coconut forest. We got off the boat & learnt how to make rice milk. Then the cooking commenced! Jonny just loved it… He was a natural when it came to making his salad look pretty. We made 4 courses – Vietnamese salad rolls with peanut hoisin dip; sizzling Vietnamese crepe with chilli dip (like a Vietnamese version of a taco!); beef vermicelli salad; and Hoi An beef noodle soup (pho bo). It was all very tasty!
At the market!
These hats are AWESOME!
Prepping…
My culinary delights…
Jonny’s culinary delights…and the award winning salad!
Sunday was another beach day. Then we went to the number 1 restaurant on trip advisor – Phi Banh Mi – this is a little street food place literally in the owners front living room! Banh mi is a Vietnamese baguette – they are delicious & this one was especially good! I am going to miss banh mi’s when I leave Vietnam!
Sunday night was Hoi An’s lantern festival & it also happened to be Buddha’s birthday 🎈 Hoi An looked even more beautiful all lit up!
Hoi An lantern festival!
We left our lovely little homestay yesterday to get yet another sleeper bus to Hanoi. We took a 3.5hr bus from Hoi An to a place called Hué which was totally fine. Then the supposed 12hr sleeper bus to Hanoi began.
Before it went downhill..
Jonny fits in there perfectly!
It started well with a half empty bus but it all went downhill when it was time to go to sleep… We have met some really lovely Vietnamese people but we have also come across so many f*%king inconsiderate people. Mainly on sleeper buses I should mention. And also on the roads…
E.g. So you’re trying to go to sleep…but they want to turn the light on randomly every half an hour…you’ve just nearly got to sleep…well they need to overtake every lorry on the road which involves blasting the horn 10 times per minute…you’ve finally got to sleep… Oh they have a stop at 1.30am & it seems they’ve overbooked the bus, time to put the light on for half an hour & shout all over the bus in Vietnamese…they turn the light out eventually so it’s time to try to sleep again…no no no it’s time for the bus driver to watch some Vietnamese music channel loudly from 2am – 7am…you finally get to sleep but Vietnamese people are early risers…it’s time for them to start listening to music & play games on their phones with no headphones in…a DELIGHTFUL experience, the best yet. And the supposed 12 hours turned into almost 14 hours. This is the downside to Vietnam being so bloody long!!
Tomorrow we’re going to another war museum (not sure if that’s a good idea for me…) & the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ (it’s actually a Vietnamese prison!). Then we’re going on a street food tour with some Vietnamese students!
Hope you’re all still awake after this! We’ve just got back from dinner – while sitting outside the restaurant 2 pick up trucks full of Vietnamese police (in real military style uniform) pulled up on the street & the people running our restaurant pulled the table from under us shouting “get inside, get inside!!!!” I was genuinely convinced that was us about the get gunned down 😂 no idea what the reason for this was…just another crazy day in Vietnam!
To be continued…
P.s, if anyone knows how to get a honey chilli chicken & gravy chip to Vietnam please let me know asap!!
50 shades of freckles 