Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 9

Day 12 - Today we left the dazzling lights and bars of Saigon and headed for the more sedate and tranquil Mekong Delta known as "the rice bowl" of Vietnam. To reach our homestay in Cai Be we hopped on board our river boat and stopped along the way to see some small cottage industries including the making of rice paper and coconut candy and of course got to sample some of the local produce. The woman making the rice paper had three pans on the go and had to have excellent hand eye coordination and timing as it took 15 seconds to make each one. A real skill and one that she got paid per sheet, producing over 3000 a day! Back breaking, exhausting work. The highlight of the day was a canoe boat ride. ... read more

Our two night stay at the four star Grand Silverland hotel cost more than all our other hotels in Vietnam put together, but after all that travelling, interspersed by illness and mountain bike crashes, I think we were due a treat. And still, the nightly rate worked out not much more than something like one of those hotels that Lenny Henry does those awful adverts for. We were supremely well looked after and the room was beautiful; this would be a great place to come back to after a day of sight seeing in Saigon. The fact that Saigon is Vietnam's economic power house is clearly evident, the skyline is littered with gleaming skyscrapers and new ones under construction. On the ground meanwhile, we spotted plenty of upmarket designer retail establishments and coffee shops, and the ... read more

Day 10 - Today we caught the flight from Danang to Ho Chi Minh City. It was an afternoon flight so unfortunately we didn't arrive until later afternoon. Just time for a quick dip in the small rooftop pool before dinner and then a tour of some of the rooftop bars of Saigon. Our hotel was in an excellent location right in the heart of District One so in striking distance of Sheraton, Caravelle and Rex. There were great views over Saigon and I enjoyed working my way through the cocktail menu. It had to be a Good Morning Vietnam and Saigon, Saigon on the 9th floor at the Caravelle followed by a Cosmopolitan at the Sheraton and a boogie on the dance floor :-) A lovely way to spend an evening, just a shame we ... read more

Day 7 - Today we had a long drive to Hoi An going over the beautiful and scenic Hai Van Pass. On the way we stopped to see the China Beach, the Cham museum and Marble Mountain. Here some of the caves were used by the Viet Cong during as a hospital during the Vietnam War. I was also surprised to see a giant marble Budda inside and one on the hillside which looked so white apparently it had been painted to restore it. We walked up the steps to the Mountain but there is a life on the outside which really looks out of place and was for the very lazy tourist! We will spend three nights here in Hoi An which will be a welcome rest. Day 8 - We had the morning to ... read more

After a 17 hour bus ride, Beka, Emily, and I arrived in Hoi An, Vietnam. We will spend a day here and continue our trek north. While we are happy to, finally, be in Hoi An, we were very sad to leave our last temporary home of Dalat. Arriving in Dalat is what I imagine it is like to find a lake in the middle of a desert. When we stepped out of our bus, we could immediately tell something was off about this place. We were cold. I kind of forgot cold existed. (for reference, cold is 80 degrees). We made our way to our hostel which was back in this little alley. Our hostel owner's name was Joseph, and he is opened the first hostel in the area (it opened about a month ago). ... read more

Vietnam is truly a beautiful place. I may make fun of it sometimes for being a bit too dirty and I may make jokes about how they can fit 10 people on a motorbike, but there really are not many places in the world where you can see such beautiful mountains and waters together at the same time. While traveling to Hanoi this time around, my great-uncle took my family and their friends (total of 15 people) on a mini guided tour of one of the most interesting places that I have been to; Trang An - The lake of a thousand caves. The lake of a thousand caves probably isn't its correct name, but I couldn't find a translation anywhere on the Chinese Google so i'm going to name it myself for the time being. ... read more

I felt a little reluctant to be leaving Hoi An, but it was time to move on to our next destination. Our second (and final) night train journey of the trip was a fair bit shorter than the first at ten hours, but the train itself was a little grim. Worn, dark wood paneling lined our soft sleeper cabin, while the bed sheets, one of which had blood stains on it, looked like they hadn't been washed in a good while. Still, it was much more comfortable than the hard sleeper we'd taken to Danang, and yes, it had a proper toilet!! Our two days were spent lazing on the beach and eating anything from hamburgers to cashew chicken, served in half a scooped out pineapple. We did pretty much nothing else, and it was bloody ... read more