Good Morning, Vietnam!! From HCMC to Nha Trang

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So we are on our way to Vietnam and very excited about it. Ian has never been there before and I only visited the South, so hopefully a lot of new and exciting things to discover.
We arrive in Saigon or formally known as Ho Chi Minh City during peak hour. Our first impression on the cab from the airport is: CHOAS. The traffic is manic and unfortunately we are not very lucky with our cab driver who, although he promised to take us on the meter, decides to ask us for 4 times the usual price ("very far and lots of traffic"). After a long discussion with no progess ("ok, meter than you buy ticket" "what ticket??") we have to get another cab. This time the driver takes us without any problems to Pham Ngu Lao, the traveller district. We are immediately approached by an elderly woman offering us a room. Its in the families house on the second floor. Actually the family has rented out the two upper rooms (1st and 2nd floor) while they sleep on the ground floor (only one room) with their sick son who cannot walk, see or speak and their 3 dogs. They are very lovely and so we decide to stay.
We also have to get used to the currency here: The Vietnamese dong has a current exchange rate of 100000 dong = 3,30 €. So finally I am a millionaire or even billionaire 😊.
The first evening after having a lovely pho bo soup (the national dish) and while exploring the area close by we meet a few Vietnamese guys who are inviting us to join them for a beer. Within no time we have all sort of seafood offered to us and happily drink and practice the Vietnamese "cheers" (mot, hai, ba, yo - or something similar). I only got a little suspicious when one of the guys tells us that those very chewy mussels we were just eating are usually around 400000dong (14€) each but we were very lucky cause here they are much cheaper. It all became quite clear as one guy sitting next to me shows me proudly his knife with the explanation "mafia". Great! Exactly what we needed. So I try to tell Ian, who is still chatting happily away with the other guys about the new situation by telling him that the guy next to me had a knife (in German - so that no one would understand). Unfortunately, Ian could not exactly remember the name for knife in German and so he had to do some guesswork. I: "Messer" He:"Fork?" I:"No, not Gabel, Messer". He: "Plate?" I: "No, not Teller...but eventually he got it right and we slowly worked on our exit strategy. They asked us for 40 US$ which of course we didnt pay. We even got followed home by one of them demanding money but in the end we managed to get away paying only for our beers. What a first day...
The next day we try to apply for our Chinese visa. After filling out a 10 page application form with questions like: name of all family members, contact details of all previous employers... and just making it in time before the embassy closes for the day (running and sweating) we get told that we cannot apply for the visa here but have to go to Hanoi... After that we are stuck in a coffee shop for a few hours as it rains, rains, rains. Well, it can only get better after these first not so very happy experiences in Vietnam...

The rest of the only two day visit in Saigon we spend exploring the city, playing some foot shuttlecock with the local schoolkids and visiting the war museum. This is definitely worth a visit, however not easy to digest. There are many pictures on display on what happened during the Vietnam war. According to the lonely planet it is a little patriotic and yes, they do show the war from their perspective but then again what can you expect if you go to a museum in a country which was involved in a war for 8 years, loosing hundreds of thousands of people, in a war which wasnt even officially declared, in a war without a reason and not wanted by the Vietnamese. But of course, people on both sides were suffering and loads of cruel things happened. Anyway, the most shocking thing is that there are still 3 Mio Vietnamese affected by the chemicals etc used e.g. Agent Orange. Still, many babies are born without limbs or other defects and since the end of the war in 1975 still 40000 Vietnamese have been maimed or killed by undetonated explosives. The US never paid any war reparations to Vietnam...
So overall we still had a few interesting few days in HCMC but are also quite happy to move on now.

The next stop is Mui Ne, a quite popular beach town especially with the Vietnamese. However, the beach there is not the most beautiful with loads of resorts lined up (there is no access to the beach so you have to walk through one of the resorts). The weather is rather average with loads of rain in the afternoon. Mornings are alright though and we rent a scooter and visit the sand dunes which are pretty amazing. Especially the white sand dunes make you feel like being somewhere in the Sahara. The kids there have plastic sledges and it is quite fun to slide down the dunes. We also visit the Fairy Springs, a stream coming from the red sand dunes. The scenery here is absolutely stunning. It is nice to be in a rather quite place after those few crazy days in HCMC and we stay for three days before moving on to Dalat.

Dalat is a town in the mountains, 1500m above sea level so temperatures are rather spring like instead of hot and humid. Quite nice after a few weeks of sweating. Built during the French colonial times it does look a little like a Swiss Alp town (even with Swiss cable cars). Its funny to see all the locals wearing winter jackets and hats (this weather could actually still be a German summer day 😊). Additionally, this area is very fertile due to the good weather conditions. There is all sorts of vegetables and you can even buy Dalat strawberries at the market. Its also Vietnam's wine region... well, it does maybe not taste like French wine but it is not too bad either.
We find a lovely hotel (Dreams hotel) with sauna, Jacuzzi and steam bath (maybe not the things you would consider of high priority in Vietnam but very nice in Dalat).
Unfortunately we are not very lucky with the weather and have a lot of rain there. We do however visit the Crazy House, a guesthouse with loads of bridges and very weird architecture. Its is actually a really cool place and probably a great place for a party (although there might be some health and safety problems). There is also a man made lake with cowboys renting out horses and paddleboats looking like swans... yes, they do love a bit of kitsch.
There are also loads of waterfalls around so we drive to one of them. It is absolutely crowded with Vietnamese tourists (due to Vietnamese school holidays) but there is a luge and you can also do some archery so its fun.

As our suntan is already fading it is time to hit the beach again. After a 4 hours very curvy (loads of people vomiting) but beautiful bus trip we arrive in Nah Trang. After a few days in rather cold weather it is HOOTTT here (approx 38C). The next day we visit the water park Vinpearl which is located on an island with Katie and Sean, a lovely English couple we met the night before. To get there we have to take a cable car (yes, they do love their cable cars) but the view is amazing. So is the water park!! Hardly anyone there in the morning so we have enough time to try out all the slides and they do have some really good ones. There is also an amusement park, a beautiful beach and an aquarium which makes it easily worth a day trip.
We also go on a boat tour visiting several islands around Nah Trang. The boat is jammed with people but thanks to Mr Funky Monkey, the tour guide, entertainer, boy band member... it is quite good fun although the islands we visit and the snorkeling is rather average. But with Karaoke, a floating bar and free cocktails everyone gets easily over that.
The beach in Nah Trang, which we finally visit on our last day is also beautiful but rather busy. However, the turquoise water is just amazing.

So after a rather mixed start we did enjoy the last few days in Vietnam. The weather is good again and we met some really nice people. Although there seem to be loads and loads of scams here (have I mentioned that half of the scooters petrol we rented in Mui Ne disappeared over night?!) they mainly occur in the tourist areas. Tourist=Money. However, the countryside is beautiful and outside those tourist spots people are really friendly.

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