Sorry we haven't wrote a blog in a while, we have seemed to be getting a dodgy wi-fi connection everywhere we have been. We have spent over 2 weeks in Vietnam and our time here is come to an end where we are now off to Cambodia
Bus journey from Laos to Vietnam
We wasn't too optimistic about getting on a bus for 18 hours on what they claimed was a sleeping bus, the definition of a sleeping bus in Vietnam seems to be a reclining seat for people who are under 5 foot. My legs were squashed and I had the top bunk so it seemed as if I could fall out at any moment! The journey was terrible, had to endure the Vietnamese equivalent of X factor on repeat 3-4 times, we had locals sleeping in the aisles and the bus stopped every hour to unload cargo from the bus roof! We couldn't complain too much seeing as we paid ten pound for the whole journey. Was either that or paying 170 each for a flight! As we were being proper backpackers and avoiding flights, we had to cross the land border between Laos and Vietnam, the bus stops a mile from the border, and effectively have to exit Laos and walk another half mile to enter through the Vietnamese border whilst bribing officials to check and stamp your passports. I am not ever moaning about waiting at passport control at Gatwick airport for 20 minutes ever again! Once we crossed the border we headed to our first stop, Hue in Vietnam.
Hue
We arrived at 12 after getting chucked off the bus(literally) and checked-in to our hotel and was starving after a diet of crisps and Oreo's for the past 24 hours. There was a family owned cafe next door and a meal cost around a pound, so we got 2 meals each! Got to take advantage, was almost like being in Tesco thinking its on offer, so might aswell.
The next day when we went on a city tour which wasn't a city tour, it was going down a river for about 4 hours stopping at various sites such as tombs and temples. To be fair it was pretty impressive, was just a long day. One of the stops was the Emperor's tomb, the area must have been the size of Alton Towers with lakes and forests with various smaller tombs and old buildings. Its quite hard to describe to be honest, saying "old buildings" doesn't do it justice. The next day we actually did do a city tour which was a preserved city, where the Mandarin family lived, although a lot of the buildings were destroyed in the American-Vietnam war but was still a good day out.
One of the best things about this place that we enjoyed was the weather! It was cloudy and cool, was almost like a rubbish summer day in England, it was nice not to be sweating all the time after over a month in severe humidity.
There were a few bars we took advantage of during our last night and met a nice couple who hopefully we bump into later on in our travels!
Our next stop was Hoi An, a $3, 4 hour train journey through the mountains and along the coast.
Hoi An
Arrived in Hoi An and checked-in to our hotel/hostel which included a swimming pool which instantly meant luxury by our standards lol. After a long day and a week without Indian food, we went on a mission to find an Indian restaurant. We must have been hungry when the waitress even suggested we might be ordering too much food! Never had that before.
There was a nice beach in Hoi An, and we are not big beach lovers but it was nice to be by a beach sunbathing feeling like we was on holiday rather than travelling. At this point we counted that we stayed in 20 hotels in 36 days! Too much packing and unpacking for my liking.
That night we met up with the couple we met in Hue and went for dinner and went for a couple of drinks, including a new bar which looked like someones living room with a pool table inside called "good and cheap" bar, Georgia had the habit of calling it "cheap and easy bar", maybe she may of been thinking of someone particular? The bars in Laos and Vietnam had to be closed by midnight but as this bar was fairly new and looked like someones house it stayed open until everyone left, we got back to our room at 4.15 am and suffered the next day. It was a good night out but I broke the camera playing pool so it put a bit of a dampener on the night. We ended up renting a bicycle out, which was an extreme sport for Georgia has she hasn't been on a bike since she was ten lol.
We booked a overnight train up to Nha Trang for the next day but they had only hard sleeper bunks left and no bottom bunks left but we didn't have much of a choice really. It was a triple bunk bed and I had the top bunk which was more like a coffin. The train pulled up at 8am the next day.
Nha Trang
We arrived at the station nice and early and didn't have a room booked but found a room for $10 and was one of the nicest rooms we have had. We decided to head to a theme/water park on an island just off the coast. The only way to get there was by boat or taking the world's longest cable car. To get there and for entrance was only about 14 pound but was well worth it as it had one of the best water parks I have been to and included an aquarium and a theme park! Was a good day out. Although I smashed my big toe up on some rocks and am now scarred for life.
Nha Trang was a lot different to the other places we had visited, it was more like a holiday resort, most of the tourists were Russians. From our holidays in Turkey and Egypt we have not got on well with Russians and their rude culture so we tried to avoid them as best we could. There was benefits of being in a big resort, mainly the fact they played football everywhere and even had Sunday Roast dinner which I was overly excited about. After having rice for 2 months it was nice to have a roast although it was never going to taste like an English roast and it didn't have Yorkshire puddings, but for 1.60 I couldn't complain too much! We stayed in Nha Trang for 4 nights in 3 different hotels which was a big regret and a lot of hassle! Nha trang was good but felt more like a holiday resort rather than a backpacking destination.
Mui Ne
We decided at the last minute to not head directly to Ho Chi Minh and split up the journey and head to Mui Ne, where we was told there was good excursions
on the sand dunes. We found accommodation for only 20 dollars a night we stayed in a small resort with a nice swimming pool. We headed out for dinner but there was just seafood restaurants selling everything from salmon to crocodile. As we had only 24 hours in Mui Ne, we decided to take a jeep to the sand dunes for sunrise. When we arrived in darkness at 5.15am they asked if we wanted a quad bike to go on the dunes. That was a mistake. After 15 minutes our quad bike burst into flames. It was meant to be a nice relaxing view of the sunrise on the sand dunes, there was even weddings and photo shoots taking place right next to us and our banger of a quad bike goes up in flames, so we run away and left the quad bike to burn. We demanded to get out money back but we wasn't getting nowhere and got only a bit of money back. It was far from relaxing! We then tried to get conned by some 10 year old kid and then started swearing at us when we gave him a tip when he wanted a much a larger tip. All this before 8am, it was a morning to forget! Luckily we headed back to our hotel and relaxed around the swimming pool to recover from our ordeal and jumped on the bus to Ho Chi Minh at lunchtime.
Ho Chi Minh City
We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon for 3 nights and enjoyed every minute of it as we ended Vietnam on a high. On the way to the city me and Georgia decided that we would have a week off drinking after constantly having beer almost everyday for the past 2 months but that went "tits up" as soon as we got off the bus and noticed that water was the same price as beer. We booked up an excursion with our hotel to go to see the tunnels that were built by the Vietnamese during the war with America in the 1970's. The exhibition was a few hours away from the city and although the tunnels were not the original tunnels used during the war, it was a good insight into how small and hot the tunnels would have been. There was a part where you it was only possible to pass through the tunnel by crawling! That bit we wasn't a fan of so we kept to the parts you could stand up in. We learnt about landmines and the different traps created by soldiers women and children to capture American soldiers I also had the opportunity to have a few shots on a machine gun at the shooting range for a pound a bullet, lets just say the gun almost knocked me off my feet. We also visited a religious ceremony which was attended by members of the 4 main religions in Vietnam which was a good experience. It was an educational experience compared to previous days where we had been by the beach or having a drink.
The following day we done our standard "Best things to do in....." on Google and found out about a viewing deck on the 50th floor of the world trade centre for 10 pound. This is where research pays off; we found out that there was a bar on the 52nd floor with free entry and happy hours during the evening. We guessed this wouldn't be your typical backpackers bar and could turn up in a vest top and flip-flops so I wore my only smart shirt and headed to the World Trade Centre. The view from the bar was amazing with the sun setting as we saw the city in the day and at night and had a couple of beers to enjoy the view! We had 2 beers each and overall it come to 14 pound which was a bargain considering it was 10 pound each and 2 floors BELOW to go to the viewing observation deck.....we got paid to drink beer.
The next couple of days we explored the city, nearly got killed by one of the 5 millions motorbikes in the city and had a nice dinner in a street market restaurant. Our next stop is Cambodia where we look forward to exploring a country we know little about!
Bus journey from Laos to Vietnam
We wasn't too optimistic about getting on a bus for 18 hours on what they claimed was a sleeping bus, the definition of a sleeping bus in Vietnam seems to be a reclining seat for people who are under 5 foot. My legs were squashed and I had the top bunk so it seemed as if I could fall out at any moment! The journey was terrible, had to endure the Vietnamese equivalent of X factor on repeat 3-4 times, we had locals sleeping in the aisles and the bus stopped every hour to unload cargo from the bus roof! We couldn't complain too much seeing as we paid ten pound for the whole journey. Was either that or paying 170 each for a flight! As we were being proper backpackers and avoiding flights, we had to cross the land border between Laos and Vietnam, the bus stops a mile from the border, and effectively have to exit Laos and walk another half mile to enter through the Vietnamese border whilst bribing officials to check and stamp your passports. I am not ever moaning about waiting at passport control at Gatwick airport for 20 minutes ever again! Once we crossed the border we headed to our first stop, Hue in Vietnam.
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| Vietnamese border after a 2km walk |
We arrived at 12 after getting chucked off the bus(literally) and checked-in to our hotel and was starving after a diet of crisps and Oreo's for the past 24 hours. There was a family owned cafe next door and a meal cost around a pound, so we got 2 meals each! Got to take advantage, was almost like being in Tesco thinking its on offer, so might aswell.
The next day when we went on a city tour which wasn't a city tour, it was going down a river for about 4 hours stopping at various sites such as tombs and temples. To be fair it was pretty impressive, was just a long day. One of the stops was the Emperor's tomb, the area must have been the size of Alton Towers with lakes and forests with various smaller tombs and old buildings. Its quite hard to describe to be honest, saying "old buildings" doesn't do it justice. The next day we actually did do a city tour which was a preserved city, where the Mandarin family lived, although a lot of the buildings were destroyed in the American-Vietnam war but was still a good day out.
One of the best things about this place that we enjoyed was the weather! It was cloudy and cool, was almost like a rubbish summer day in England, it was nice not to be sweating all the time after over a month in severe humidity.
There were a few bars we took advantage of during our last night and met a nice couple who hopefully we bump into later on in our travels!
Our next stop was Hoi An, a $3, 4 hour train journey through the mountains and along the coast.
Hoi An
Arrived in Hoi An and checked-in to our hotel/hostel which included a swimming pool which instantly meant luxury by our standards lol. After a long day and a week without Indian food, we went on a mission to find an Indian restaurant. We must have been hungry when the waitress even suggested we might be ordering too much food! Never had that before.
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| Train journey through the rainy hills |
That night we met up with the couple we met in Hue and went for dinner and went for a couple of drinks, including a new bar which looked like someones living room with a pool table inside called "good and cheap" bar, Georgia had the habit of calling it "cheap and easy bar", maybe she may of been thinking of someone particular? The bars in Laos and Vietnam had to be closed by midnight but as this bar was fairly new and looked like someones house it stayed open until everyone left, we got back to our room at 4.15 am and suffered the next day. It was a good night out but I broke the camera playing pool so it put a bit of a dampener on the night. We ended up renting a bicycle out, which was an extreme sport for Georgia has she hasn't been on a bike since she was ten lol.
We booked a overnight train up to Nha Trang for the next day but they had only hard sleeper bunks left and no bottom bunks left but we didn't have much of a choice really. It was a triple bunk bed and I had the top bunk which was more like a coffin. The train pulled up at 8am the next day.
Nha Trang
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| On the way back from Vinpearl looking extremely happy |
We arrived at the station nice and early and didn't have a room booked but found a room for $10 and was one of the nicest rooms we have had. We decided to head to a theme/water park on an island just off the coast. The only way to get there was by boat or taking the world's longest cable car. To get there and for entrance was only about 14 pound but was well worth it as it had one of the best water parks I have been to and included an aquarium and a theme park! Was a good day out. Although I smashed my big toe up on some rocks and am now scarred for life.
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| Georgia getting fishy |
Mui Ne
We decided at the last minute to not head directly to Ho Chi Minh and split up the journey and head to Mui Ne, where we was told there was good excursions
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| Georgia doing her best not to get her dress wet |
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| Crocodile on a skewer |
Ho Chi Minh City
We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon for 3 nights and enjoyed every minute of it as we ended Vietnam on a high. On the way to the city me and Georgia decided that we would have a week off drinking after constantly having beer almost everyday for the past 2 months but that went "tits up" as soon as we got off the bus and noticed that water was the same price as beer. We booked up an excursion with our hotel to go to see the tunnels that were built by the Vietnamese during the war with America in the 1970's. The exhibition was a few hours away from the city and although the tunnels were not the original tunnels used during the war, it was a good insight into how small and hot the tunnels would have been. There was a part where you it was only possible to pass through the tunnel by crawling! That bit we wasn't a fan of so we kept to the parts you could stand up in. We learnt about landmines and the different traps created by soldiers women and children to capture American soldiers I also had the opportunity to have a few shots on a machine gun at the shooting range for a pound a bullet, lets just say the gun almost knocked me off my feet. We also visited a religious ceremony which was attended by members of the 4 main religions in Vietnam which was a good experience. It was an educational experience compared to previous days where we had been by the beach or having a drink.
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| Religous ceremony |
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| 52nd Floor of the Vietnamese World Trade Centre |
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