Category: Asia

I thought Nha Trang was hot. Ho Chi Minh is even hotter.

After arriving at 4.30am yesterday and getting a cab to take us to our hotel we weren’t too impressed when we arrived and the hotel had double booked and given our room to someone else. After a few frantic calls from their end they organised another room at their ‘sister’ hotel and we walked there, got our key and slept for 4 hours. It was a decent solid sleep and if we didn’t sleep I can just imagine how angry the 4 of us would be, especially after our train ride. Which was non-eventful for me and Mark but a first time for Chris and Jess.

Chris and Jess were leaving in the afternoon so we went to Ben Than Market for them to get their last minute shopping in. Unfortunately, the market was closed for Tet Holiday so we wandered the streets and found a few stalls for them to buy some shoes and souvenirs for family.

The one thing I didn’t realise about the Tet Holiday is just how long everything is closed for. I really wanted to take them to eat at my favourite restaurant in Ho Chi Minh but after driving for half an hour in search of it, we realised we had already passed it and it was closed. We then asked our taxi driver where we could eat and Chris jokingly said “Imagine he says McDonalds”, well sure enough, after a few calls to his friends he suggested “McDonalds?”. How could we say no to that? It did seem like fate after all. After a large quarter pounder meal with a free apple pie, Chris and Jess got a taxi to the airport and that was the end of their trip. A seemingly quite end to what I think was a rather enjoyable trip for them.

Mark and I wandered around for a bit like we normally do and then ate our usual plate of fried rice, stir fried morning glory and spring rolls and enjoyed our last night away.

Today we didn’t do much apart from more walking and eating while we waited around to go to the airport.

Now that we are at the airport I’ve been thinking of our time away and have so far really enjoyed where we have been. Some places have been very testing but overall I’ve loved it and I can only dream about what the next part of our trip will be like. We do have a whole 2 weeks back home in Melbourne with so much to do, I don’t think I will be thinking about the next part until we are on a plane flying to Manila.

I hope those who have been following our trip have enjoyed it so far and I’m looking forward to sharing the next year with you all.

Mark says hey as well!

Love, THE PLACES WE

So Chris and Jess arrived on Thursday and it was the oddest thing. We didn’t hug them or kiss them hello we just kind of smiled at them. They walked into our room, sat down and we talked and shared stories just like back home. I think something like that only happens when you are really comfortable with people. It was nice. Chris also thought it would be funny to continue everyday after they arrived to knock on our door and yell “house keeping” he also thought it would be funny to yell “come in, it’s open” when we knocked on their door. We combated this by constantly ringing their door bell to drown out the sound.

We’ve seen and done heaps of things while they’ve been here, things I’ve seen before and things I haven’t. Of course we saw the temples here in Nha Trang. After a while things do start to look the same but I always think it’s important to go and look anyway. I’ve learnt that we don’t need hours to look at most attractions while we travel but each place, no matter how similar to the previous is still different and I like knowing I had the opportunity to see those differences for myself.

Apart from seeing the sites here in Nha Trang we’ve been trying to tan in any bit of sunlight we get. It was a bit overcast the other day and I’m constantly reminded by Mark and Chris that it was a lot sunnier that I think but that’s besides the point. I got so burnt while I was reading that I was barely able to walk the next day which is the same day we decided to go to look at yet another waterfall – Ba Ho Waterfall. I was so sore that I considered not going but I’m glad I did. That’s not saying getting to them was easy. Yes there were red arrows painted on the rocks showing which direction to go, but it’s a bit hard when one rock has 3 different arrows pointing in all different directions. We had to turn around a few times but once we made it the water was amazing and the view was just as good. I’m glad I toughened up and went.

It was Lunar New Year on Sunday night and we really shouldn’t have left dinner so late – so many restaurants were closing early because of all of the celebrations but our Italian favourite was opened. The boys were definitely happy with the outcome and stuffed their faces with pizza, acting as if they hadn’t had one in year when in fact they had one the night before. Tet (Lunar New Year) is the major celebration for Vietnamese and there were people everywhere. The city square had been set up with a stage, decorations and was packed. We didn’t stay for long as we were constantly being pushed from pillar to post, but we were able to watch from Chris and Jess’ hotel room. To get into the spirit of things we ordered cocktails and a cheese platter on room service and played Monopoly while we waited for the fireworks, which in the end were simply amazing. They went on for a good 15 minutes and while the Vietnamese were celebrating the end of the year and start of the new year, Mark and I were in a way celebrating the end of the first leg of our trip. It was a fitting end for us.

Yesterday we took the cable car across to Vinpearl Island, something I had never done on my previous visits to Nha Trang. We were all pleasantly surprised. It was super quiet because of new year so we went on pretty much all of the rides and even waited over an hour for the Apline Coaster at the end of the day. After the ride we wandered over to the cable cars only to find a massive long line. You should have seen us. First Mark realised that there was a ferry leaving at 5pm on the other end of the amusement park. Then we all checked the time – it was 4.55pm. Then we all looked at each other and ran. There was no way we were lining up again for an hour just because we missed the ferry. Turns out that just because they say it leaves at 5pm doesn’t necessarily mean it does, so we sat on the ferry for 15 minutes waiting for it to leave.

We’re sitting at our hotel lobby now waiting to go to the train station (we are getting a taxi this time) and waiting for Jess and Chris to experience their first overnight train. Mark and I are waiting to see what they think of the whole overnight train thing. I think it will be slightly amusing.

Cheers 🙂

It’s so hot here in Nha Trang. I love it. This is my third time here, Mark’s second and I oddly find myself relishing in the fact that I know what it’s like here. I normally love experiencing new places but it was nice to arrive somewhere and know what to expect.

The walk from the train station to our hotel was a bit full on in the heat but we made it eventually and I downed a whole bottle of water as soon as we got to reception. It’s a bit frustrating though when you’ve walked for half an hour in the heat and arrive at the hotel to check in to find that they’ve checked you into a dorm. We’ve spent 3 days here so far and are super relaxed.

My brother Chris and his girlfriend Jess arrive here tomorrow afternoon from Hoi An and it will be nice to see some familiar faces. We’ve not really done anything the past few days as we are waiting for them to arrive and it would be pointless to go and do something only to go do it again with them. That’s probably not the only reason why we haven’t done anything, the other reason is probably because we just haven’t cared that we we’ve been doing. We’re ok with doing absolutely nothing and that’s unusual for us but a relief. We are finally truly relaxed. Yay!

much love, (a very relaxed) B

We arrived here in Hue on Thursday after being on a train for about 24 hours which was pretty much the usual train ride except I got given a baby, luckily, not to keep though… When we first got on the train there was a lady and I assume her baby in our carriage. He was wearing so many layers that he couldn’t move and he looked so cute! Once she removed his number of jackets she handed him to me and then got off the train. Just like that. I laughed at first and then got a bit nervous as I noticed she was walking towards the exit on the platform… She came back shortly after and I was glad to hand her baby back to her. Apart from that we slept, read and watched a movie during our journey.

It’s our first time here in Hue and it feels like such an ancient city which probably explains why visiting the Imperial City is one of the top things to do here. We went to see it yesterday. For such an overcast day it was nice to be able to see so much colour in one place. We’ve both been to a number of ancient cities throughout Asia but we still like to go and see them if we can. They are always so different even if on the exterior they just look the same.

I think I’ve mentioned it before but we aren’t really tour people. It’s not just the cost associated with them, we’ve worked out that it’s being on someone else’s time that we don’t like. We don’t like being told when we have to be somewhere, what we have to stop to take a photo of or what we have to look at. We also don’t like being dragged around for hours when we could have finished earlier. In saying all of that though we booked ourselves to go on a tour. Mind you we didn’t really read what it was we simply read the main attraction and thought it would be interesting – the DMZ.

We thought the DMZ would be interesting, however we didn’t quite realise how far away it was from the city. A couple hours later we arrived in Khe Sanh where we walked through the small museum there. I don’t know if museum is quite the right word as it was more a humble reminder of what happened there during the Vietnam War. It’s also slightly confusing and points to the fact both America and Vietnam claim victory from the battle in Khe Sanh, but how can both claim victory? Simply from the way both countries teach the younger generations about their versions. It seems so wrong but I guess when you think about it, this type of things happens everywhere. While in Khe Sanh I couldn’t help but remember that classic Cold Chisel song. After that it was stuck in my head for hours.

On the bus ride back we stopped at the Vĩnh Mốc tunnels to see how the locals survived and lived during the war. I quickly found out that I don’t like dark underground spaces and was glad to get out of there as quickly as possible. Mark found this quite amusing especially when we were just standing around underground doing nothing. I was amazed though at how our guide was able to wear small heels as she guided us through the levels of underground spaces.

We just got back to our hotel from a day walking around and are waiting to catch yet another train to Nha Trang. We met some locals today who invited us to their house for beers. We thought they could speak English but they couldn’t and we don’t speak Vietnamese so I sat with a laptop on my lap and typed conversations into Google translate. After an hour there we were starving so began our walk back and on the way we stopped into a pub to eat which was due to show the Australian Open live so we hung around and watched Djokovic beat Murray quite convincingly. I also watched Mark get hustled by a waitress at pool. He won both games but I have the slight feeling she let him win.

 

Our train trip from Hanoi to Sa Pa was nice and relaxing as we had our own cabin which meant we had both of the bottom bunks which in turn meant I didn’t have to climb to the top bunk and hit my head several hundred times. After arriving in Loa Cai we got on a minibus for the drive to Sa Pa. We got the very back corner of the mini bus and after half an hour of polite small talk with a Dutch couple I had to bow my head and close my eyes before the winding roads got the better of me.

It was freezing outside. I could tell because it was snowing and because I couldn’t feel my feet as we walked the 1.5km to our hotel. Once we reached our hotel I was so happy because it looked so cute and so almost-European. I imagined that when I walked in I would be hit by the heat and I would be able to put my feet up to thaw and drink some tea while I finished re-reading The Kite Runner. I wasn’t hit with heat as I walked in the door. Instead I was hit with more cold and a bright round light. The hotel workers gave us some tea which was such a welcome relief as we waited the 4 hours until we got given a room. As we sat on a cold couch I worked out what the bright round light was. It was a heater (I later came to love those heaters) that reminded me of the heat lamp lights you can put in your bathroom that emit heat while on.

3.5 hours later (we got our room earlier…) we ran up the stairs to our room which I imagined would surely be warm. It wasn’t warm. It was just as cold as downstairs and I very quickly figured out that as lovely as the balcony would be in summer, it wasn’t so great when it was snowing and there was a 2cm gap between the bottom of the door and floor. I think this was the source of the cold.

I don’t do too well in the cold if I’m not prepared for it. I’ve learnt that some people can just adapt, they chuck on a beanie and are on their way. I’m not one of those people. I need thermals, thick socks, down jackets (yes I need 2), a beanie, gloves and snow boots. If I have all of this I will happily embrace the low temperatures. If I don’t, which I didn’t in Sa Pa, I will try to avoid the coldest temperatures as much as possible. We weren’t expecting such cold temperatures on this trip, we didn’t pack for them, but I get the impression a lot of people weren’t – we met a few people who had to go out and buy some warmer clothes just like we did. I’m not exactly sure why it was so cold but we saw on the news that Hong Kong experienced their coldest day in 60 days. There must have definitely been something in the wind…

Our first 2 days in Sa Pa were so uneventful I won’t say much more than we watched a lot of movies, waited out numerous power outages and occasionally ventured outside, mainly just to get food.

And on the third day the clouds opened up, the sun shone through, the ice melted and we left our hotel. It was beautiful outside and some people might say we didn’t embrace our first days there but I’m glad we didn’t try to do too much, we would have had foggy memories of sights we tried to see but couldn’t through all of the fog and clouds. Instead, on the third day we got a driver to take us up the mountain side where we then climbed up to the waterfalls and breathed in the fresh air and smelt the crispness of the greenery. I find water so fascinating and I especially love the sound of waterfalls. We stood for quite a while listening and watching the water cascade down and despite the loudness of the water it was peaceful.

On the way down from the waterfall we thought we would take the second path other than the one we used to get up there. After walking for a bit (I was leading at this stage and I kind of feel like this only happened because I was leading) we came to the end of the path, it didn’t just stop, we could see the path continue on up ahead but between us and the rest of the path were fallen trees and part of the river that was just there. We walked back up the path and across the river there was a local telling us we had to jump across. We know he was telling us to jump because he kept running and jumping on his side of the river and pointing. We gave him the thumbs up, smiled and nodded and he continued on his way. Mark found the point he thought would be best to cross at. Why didn’t we just turn around and walk back? Well where’s the fun in that? So we easily passed the middle of the river without getting wet and then there was a gap without anything for us to step onto. I thought we should just jump it but Mark kept telling me it wasn’t safe because it was so slippery and taking into account how clumsy I can be we shouldn’t risk it. I should have just jumped when I first thought of it because when Mark eventually jumped across I knew I could have easily made it. Before Mark and I were together I would have jumped without a second thought and so I was annoyed when he moved a wooden log for me so I could walk across. Next time I’ll show him that I can keep up with him.

I’m so glad we ended our stay in Sa Pa the way we did. Today was perfect and on the drive back to Loa Cai this afternoon I pictured just how beautiful the area would be in full bloom. Maybe one day I’ll see it for myself but at the moment we are sitting in a restaurant across from the train station waiting for yet another train, this time to take us to Hue, via a train change in Hanoi.

Much love, B xxx

This is our first time in the north of Vietnam and we both love it as much as the south. We arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday night and instead of catching a cab to our hotel we got on the local bus which cost us less than AUD$1! Soon after getting on the bus a young Vietnamese guy got on and started talking to us straight away. He had just flown in from Ho Chi Minh where he had been doing qualification testing to be able to work on a cruise ship as a bartender. He had studied business and commerce at university but couldn’t find a job so started working as a bartender shortly after graduating and now he was hoping to work on a cruise ship to earn better money. He made the bus ride go a lot quicker than it would have as he was giving us information on Hanoi and places we should go.

Once we got off the bus and walked to our hotel we thought it would be nice to go have a beer and some food. It was all happening on the street. We saw a fight, a guy passed out on the street, a guy so drunk he couldn’t get into a cab and banh mi. We avoided everything but the banh mi (vietnamese bread roll) and sat down to eat and have a beer while we watched all of the other things we were avoiding.

Thursday we didn’t really do much but our usual, walking, eating and drinking. We had been pretty happy up to this point as neither of us had gotten sick so far on our trip (this for me was a major achievement) but while I was sitting at a road side restaurant eating a bowl of beef pho, Mark was gradually going downhill. One of the downfalls of staying at a hotel with a shared bathroom is that sometimes it can be really far from your room. In our case it’s downstairs and so when Mark thought he had thrown up everything already and went to bed I knew better (multiple cases of food poisoning will teach you to know better) and moved the bin next to him. Sure enough, 2 hours later he was bent over that bin throwing his guts up. Of course I didn’t like seeing him sick like that but I will admit I was happy it wasn’t me – it’s normally always me.

We took Friday morning and afternoon easy as Mark still wasn’t feeling the best but by dinner time he had his appetite back so we splurged and went to an Argentinian BBQ restaurant. 500gm of Australian Black Angus Beef steak, some beer, passionfruit mojitos and caramel vodka made our night. We made a pact that while away we would aim to eat 1 nice meal a month – I’m looking forward to next month.

That now brings us to today, and I think we are now officially in our relaxed mode. After a decent 10 hour sleep we eventually got up and did a whole lot of nothing but walking. One of my favourite things to do when I’m overseas is to just walk around and look at everything. We have been able to do that so much here in Hanoi and it’s so nice and calming, even if it is Melbourne-worthy cold and we didn’t pack appropriately! We went through the old Hanoi prison earlier one which was quite interesting and will go out again tonight to explore some more.

 

It’s been nice having a few days in one city, no need to constantly pack or think about the time. We have a full day here again tomorrow and then are on a train to Sa Pa.

xx