Vietnam, the land of Dragons!

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Another experience, another land, new culture, different religion (almost same food!!) ...well, another chapter of my Life 😊

Im currently sitting at the International Airport of Ho Chi Minh, waiting for my flight to Kuala Lumpur.
Well well...can you believe we missed our flight? Yes, we really did. We were convinced that it was at 1pm, did not even bother to check...it was at 10.30 am. Perfect. Luckily they changed it with not much drama, so now we wait. That's good, at least I can update my travel blog, since I never had the possibility of doing it given the slow internet connections Vietnam has to offer (except in the airports!!).

So..VIET NAM. They say that few countries have changed so much over such a short time as Vietnam. If you think about it, it was just less then forty years since the slaughter and savagery of the American War, and I thought that by coming here I would feel it, still. Couldn' t be more wrong. This nation has much to offer, is so much alive, even though, I must admit, its very different than the Land of Smiles, as I found people being more rude and not always eager to help us.
We started our journey not in the best way you could imagine. The plan was to catch a bus for 15 dollars from Phnom Pehn (CAMBODIA) to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam!). Before buying the tickets we checked whether it was ok for me to get my visa once I arrived in the Vietnamese land. Both the official website and the guy who sold me the ticket said: of course!Oliver, being Danish did not need a visa for entering Vietnam. Before leaving, the first thing the bus driver asked me was of course to show him my visa, which I did not have. GREAT!You can imagine my disappointment and irritation, which Oliver was trying to smooth. They cheated us just under our nose. Our hands were tight (as it was also Sunday..so all offices were closed) but we needed to get to HCM that same day, since we had a flight the following day for Hanoi (very north of Vietnam!). A guy made some phone calls, and managed to get me an express visa in only 5 hours (what a miracle...!-.- ) and then of course we had to get on the first flight there was. Not the best start as I said. To our surprise, you could really see the difference btw the two countries. Vietnam is kept more clean and is a more modernized country. After the Odissea, we managed to arrive in Hanoi!It was coooold!! (as cold as it can get in Vietnam, 23 degrees!)
And the next day, finally: the mystical scenery of HALONG BAY!!!!
Thousands of bizarrely-shaped limestone islands just out of the emerald sea. We sailed on a caravel for 2 days, silently, in secretive channels, exploring caves (yes also the one where Jonny Depp and Orlando Bloom were disguised as pirates!!) Halong Bay is the 8th Natural Wonder with no doubts, and I enjoyed every minute of it. And it was just on this trip that we met three Swedes and one Dutch girl. We bounded so much together that we decided to continue south all together!😊 It was nice to finally stay with some other people as well😊 Christian, Sandra and Johanna from Göteborg and Jessica from Amsterdam! So from there our trip followed with another 15 hours drive to Hue. As we only had 5 hours in Hue, we did not expect to see much. Everyone said Hue was not that interesting, Lonely Planet barely mentioned it. WHAT A SURPRISE! I just loved Hue!!! When we got off the bus, we met a scooter driver who promised us that only for 5 dollars who take us to the best places the city had to offer. We jumped on one scooter each and followed him.
First we visited the Thien Mu Pagoda, which I personally loved as it was surrounded by the most beautiful garden!Then our driver, Mr. Thung asked us if we wanted to go to a local village to see how the women were making smoldering incense sticks with fresh cinnamon. It was just so nice to see their unique techniques. Then he drove us to the real best. We drove for a long way, entered a jungle and drove for some time. (for a second I did think that sth bad could have happened, as this place was veeery isolated!) but then all of a sudden, this magical Buddhist temple appears. He told us that we were just on time to hear and see the monks praying. What an experience. Especially because when we were sitting down, amazed by the prayers, all of a sudden, the cutest little monkey comes in the temple and sit right next to us. Cuuuute!!!! It was, just as us, contemplating the magical melodies of the monks.
Last, but not least, we visited the Mausoleum of Tu Duc.

5 hours after we were on another bus, "only" 10 hrs this time 😉 Next stop: Hoi An.
Hoi An was alright. The city is famous for all the tailors shops which you can find just anywhere you look.
We couldn' t miss the chance to get some brand new clothes which would just fit perfectly on us.

So the mechanism is this:
You enter the shop, and you get a laptop where you start to surf on the Internet. I personally went on the website from the Festival of Cannes of this year, to see all the dresses (but that's just me!:P). You pick a dress, let s say the one Keira Knightley was wearing for her movie premiere. Then you tell your shopping trainer which color you want it, and you go and pick the fabric you want them to use. At last, they take all the measures they need in order to just make it perfectly fit. Since they have 72 tailors working 24/7 you can get your dress after just one day. Smart, huh? Well, they make a good business and you save sooo much money. I enjoyed it so much, I felt like a VIP for one day :P
And let me tell you, the results were indeed perfect!

Next stop was Nah Thrang. They told us it had one of the best beaches of Vietnam, but if you compare it to the Cambodians beaches you just get disappointed really.
Nah Thrang didnt look that promising, especially because me and Jessica spent a whole day fighting with a corrupted police station given the fact that she got rubbed. From the morning to the evening. Just crazy, some things were just pathetic, nobody speaking English, policemen just not helping and telling us "go there, not here, come back in 3 hours" and the only thing we really needed was a piece of paper signed by the chief stating that she got rubbed in Vietnam for her insurance. Well, I can tell you that my Italian temper got out. I met an Italian woman the night before who lived in Vietnam for 16 years. SHe told me that the only way to obtain sth from the police was to make an Italian scene. So, after loosing it and seeing Jessica very sad I just did: and it worked!!😊 ahahaha

But what we did enjoy (a lot!!) were the mud baths and a whole day in a water park, at Vinpearl. What can I say, it seemed that we were all kids again.
Vinpearl is Southern East Asia's biggest water park and it occupies an entire island. We took a cable kart (just imagine it as a skylift, but over the ocean:P) and we arrived and were just amazed. The first small island was an amusement park!We tried the roller coasters like 10 times:P Then there was the hugest arcade game room ever were all games were just for free!(I think we stayed in there for 3 hours or sth:P) And then tons of water slides!!😊 And the best part was that there were not that many people at all, and the surrounding was just beautiful given the fact that it was on such an exotic island.

We left Nah Thrang after 3 days and then took another 15 hrs bus for Ho CHi Minh (Vietnam's biggest city!)
I like Ho Chi Minh, it should be Vietnam's capital city for what I' m concerned since Hanoi was not that special to me. But what can I say? Not too much since I stayed sick in bed for the 2 days we were there. But the guys did see the city and did go to the War Museum. Oliver said it was amazing. So he told me that I MUST see it before leaving Vietnam. The morning before our plan for Malaysia we went, and yes it is a nice museum, but at the same time really sad to see how horrifying that war has been.
And that btw was how we actually missed the plane. We believed we would have managed to go to the Museum and then to the airport but our flight was waaay earlier:P
But nevertheless here I am. At the moment back in Malaysia, because it took me 2 days to update this post:P. Tmw we have an early flight for Kota Kinabalu, on the exotic island of Borneo, and frankly I cannot wait, also because I will see my friend Anne, who will be at the airport with her dad to pick us up!!😊

Thank you all for taking the time to read this loooong post. I think that putting the pics is not working that well. I did put some from Cambodia, but can you actually see them on my previous post?

And another thing,
I got a Malaysian number after Anne suggested it to me. So, I was thinking, if anyone wants to call me or Oliver for Xmas or for any other matters you can reach me at:

(0060 for Malaysia 0193249158) 😊

I believe that's about it and it was about time!!!!

Cant wait to be back, miss you all as always!

xOX,

Alessiya

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Photos

Us in Vietnam
Us in Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay -enjoying the sunset!

The group on Vietnam
Us enjoying the sunset at Cat Ba Island on Halong Bay
(Johanna was taking the pic!)

Comments

[Zafer]

Flight missing
Hi Ale, thank you very much for all your updates here during your amazing trip. I am also happy that you missed your flight :-) ... Enjoy your trip and greetings to Anne and her Dady...