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Published: March 3rd 2014
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So despite the nice pictures...not everything went flawlessly. Ho Chi Minh's insane traffic and constant being asked to be given a tour was alittle much for me. I decided to change up my plans from moving on to Na Trang and to go to Hoi An instead. As far has HCM (Ho Chi Minh) goes....alittle more chaotic to my liking. I will say that the Duc Vuong Hotel was awesome. Really great price, nice location, nice rooftop bar and great staff. Definitly recommend the hotel to anyone visiting Ho Chi Minh for a few days. Also the airport pick up and transfer is a good deal.
Besides some shopping and some good food... Ho Chi Minh was pretty overwhelming change from Cambodia. As much as i liked the 50 cent beers and 34 degree heat...it was time to move to some water. I chose Hoi An because it had some better options out of Da Nang and also was cheaper and less touristy/resort than Na trang. Na trang is known for its busier nightlife..and the one thing I know when travelling solo.. is that I must look like I have a capital S on my head..but touristy party areas have
never been my thing and really not an ideal place for me.
Finally my amusing moment from HCM is when I was at Lattern 142 bar and the bar girls always ask the patron for a drink (typically an expensive one) ... usually they sit and chat anyways and are great for helping me improve my vietnemese language skills (even the bad words)... One thinks that they are poor.. but Like in cambodia ..i asked to see the Lisa's Phone.. she gave it..which I laugh... as its an IPHONE 5... I say "You have an Iphone 5... I have iphone 4...umm I think you buy me a drink"...Its usally a good laugh, think it's funny and get my point.
So my flight to Hoi An is delayed by 3 hours and i start to think the HCM isnt going to let me go. It was a pleasure to meet... but also time to go.
I've been in Hoi An for about 4-5 days... its hard to say ...I've hit a place of relaxation and comfort... beautiful weather and varied activites that I kind of lost track of time. I took a look at the calander today and
realized that i need to now watch my time. I noticed that Ha Long bay is still cooler with rain, I havent been too eager to get up north and instead have decided to lengthen my time here. +30 at 10 am is something I can easily get used to. In my first two weeks of this adventure i was very much on the go and covered alot of territory in a short time.... and my body started letting me know that as well. My first 2 days in Hoi an i was recovering from a small cold.. and I decided to focus these couple days on rest and relaxation. This was a good place to do it. Tons of markets, great food and also pretty nice beaches. Traffic not too crazy and 50cent to a $1 beers dont hurt either. I was lucky enough to meet a girl name Tram on the plane from HCM to Danang... she and her sister owned a couple female clothing shops in town and she was really nice to recommend some places to visit, cooking schools and eat. She also helped me with how to identify quality in fabric and tailors. She recommended
Yayle. My first day I decided to do some shopping and see Yayle. The prices were higher end, but I was impressed with the time put into the tailoring... I'm feeling confident the investment will be worth it. Second day was focused on cooking school ... third followed a 5 Km walk to the beach and back. The math for that is that at a steady pace a person can do 1 Km every 15 mins.... and i was surprised how crazy accurate that is. Today.. with a Sun burn on my back I had realized I had some arrangements to make and realize it will be time to move on. I booked a full day trek tour through marble moutains and going through My Son... Fly out the next day to Hanoi/halong bay.
I happy to say that my Vietnamese has improved drasticbasic conversation and that asking the question of "how much " is something by saying "bow byoo tien" ... hasn been helping me getting some better deals. Also its helped in some great converstaion with locals being invited to sit at thier table. Many people do speak some degree of english but the efforts that has
been put in has helped in seperating myself from the conventional "tourist". A smile and a little charm also goes a long way as well.
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