Advertisement
Published: February 27th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Hello everybody,
Well after a longer delay moving through smaller villages of central Vietnam here we are in Saigon or as is known by state officials Ho Chi Minh City. Must say it is a bit of a shock for us as we have spend last 3 days swimming in south china sea in Mui Ne beach, but we are ready to explore.
After we left Hanoi we made a short way trip to Ninh Binh, which is a small town South of Hanoi...the landscape was absolutely stunning.It is basicaly Halong Bay except not on the sea it self but sea of rice fields. We chose to explore it from the river so we have hired a boat and went on a 2 hour ride through many caves and plentiful ricefields together with hundereds of Vietnamees and Chinees who were enjoying their new year holliday...I think there were more photographs taken of us within that hour then in all of our lives together till then. We were planning to stay only two days but then we have encountered Camel travel company for the first time...basicaly during TAT all prices shoot to twice or three times their usual value, which forced
us to go for the cheapest option...soon we have realized our mistake-Camel travel will keep on selling the tickets but would not supply enough busses. This meant we had to stay in Ninh Binh one more day only to be in the same situation the day after. But then we did not hesitate and fought for our place in the bus. After about hour of debaiting we got our places to Hue on a sleeping bus. Our happiness was short lived as we found our places were taken from two Chinees tourists who were thrown out of the bus becouse woken up failed to find a ticket within 1 minute only to produce it seconds later when we were sitting in their places...in the end they were placed in the way in between the seats and we moved on-saying this story only becouse it sort of summarize the things you encounter avery day...most of the time is intertaining but we have already seen few people who have lost it...so a little advice-brace your self should you ever plan to visit. Ofcourse this is the way the backpacking has always been and our eperienceis exactly the same after few stresses there
is the amaizing market or a temple to blow our mind all over again. One of the most interesting sites was Emperors palace in Hue. It has been distroyed a great deal during the series of wars it has encountered...unfortunately for Comunist regime it is not an important to restore this to its original beauty so they have relesed only little money for the works, but it shorely is a majestic site.
From Hue we were planning to go to Bach Ma national park for some proper treking but the weather has turned against us and we have moved through the mountains to Hoi An to be greated with sunny weather and beautifull Cham architecture. This town is like from a different country. It was founded by a Chinees maechants about 200 yrs ago and the mixed culture is easily noticible untill today. We have visited many workshops and theaters...Katka as usual wanted to buy half of the town and put it in her backpack but quick recap on our budgets was enough to stop her. After this peacfull 3 days we went on to Nha Trang the beach town, which is described in lonely planet as a partuy town
that never sleeps...well we are not sure what happened but we could not get any drink after 10pm and at 11 the street were almost empty...not saying that was unpleasant...just surprising... After 2 days of lazying on the beach and visiting local sites we took another over night bus to Muine beach the newly found resort popular with young backpackers...not surprised why....it had so much to offer...great beaches, wonderfull sunsets over white and red sand dunes...or a 3km walk in the shallow Fairy spring river. Here we have decided to spoil ourselfs a little and booked a nice hotel on the beach front with a small pool - thank you Libby 😉
Well and from there...here we are in Saigon...officilay 8+milion city, but soon we have learned only about a 1/3 of the population is counted here, so that means that would be the most populated city we have ever been to (I know Sam and Bru that it is still small village compare to the ones you have been in India and China-but my record is there to be broken)
Here I'm planning to work with few NGO's so we are not sure how long we will
stay yet...which reminds me...I should tell you guys...I'm planning to do a little project about voulenteers comming to south east asia , so should you know about some nice organization somewhere on our way...please let me know...I will be happy to contact them and offer my help.
Well this is it for now...miss u all!
there will more photos later ...the upload here is horific
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0501s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Libby
non-member comment
Hi Radim and Katka Quick log on to check where you are - and catching up on your travels. It sounds amazing and all I imagine you hope it would be! Delighted to hear that you have treated your self to a hotel on me - it is nice to be remembered in that way. The boys and i miss you - still getting used to our new regime. Hungarian Kate lasted only a few weeks and we now have Jodie and Portuguese Ana Maria who is a demon cleaner and discovering all sorts of things as she goes through the house! We saw Sasha on the weekend who is very happy in her new flat and having lots of fun. my mother is here from Australia and all ready preparing a room for you when you get there in about a year! Anywya I'm at work and busy as usual so just to say have fun and take care