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Published: April 3rd 2013
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Three and a half weeks after flying into Hanoi, I have left Vietnam. Time really flew; it doesn't seem like that long ago I was leaving Thailand. I guess that means I had fun? I'd heard a lot of positive things about Vietnam before I got there, and at first I may have been slightly underwhelmed, especially after coming from a place I loved as much as Thailand. However after seeing the entire country I can definitely say it is a great place to visit and I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there, just don't get bogged down in Hanoi like I did. The south and the north are quite different places, and although I enjoyed Hanoi I probably preferred the cities in the south.
After the bus from hell I spent a day looking around Hue. A lot of people I met who had already been in Hue complained that there wasn't much to do there. However I found it to be quite picturesque and had enough sightseeing to justify spending an entire day in the city. I had a look around the Citadel, where the emperor lived during Hue's time as Vietnamese capital. However
the majority of this was destroyed by the war, so most of it had been restored recently. After this I took a boat up the river and had a look at a Pagoda and watched the sun set. After this I just went back to the hostel (the sister hostel of Hanoi Backpackers that I had previously stayed in), and went for a drink with some English people that had shared the bus ordeal with me. They had the exact same bus ticket as me and I ended up spending a bit of time with them in each city on my trip down the coast.
I'd spent quite a long time in the north so I only had enough time for two nights in each city on the way to Saigon. After two nights in Hue I got another bus to Hoi An. This time the bus was almost brand new, and somewhat comfortable. Seems we'd just got really unlucky on the nightmare bus journey, all of the buses I took after that were completely fine. Hoi An is a nice beach town and is the tailoring capital of Vietnam. Most people order clothes as soon as they get
there, and then just sit in the sun waiting for them to be finished. After opting out of getting a suit, I decided to have three shirts made. They were turned around in 24 hours, and after one fitting they were ready to go. $20 per shirt wasn't insanely cheap but they're well made, and I got them for the experience of having clothes tailored in Hoi An more than anything else. Just have to figure out how and where I'm going to post them home from now, can't be bothered carrying them all around the world with me.
After Hoi An was the night bus to Nha Trang. I wasn't looking forward to this but again it was a relatively new bus and a lot more comfortable than the first overnighter. Visiting a chemist in Hoi An may also have helped this journey go a little smoother for me. Nha Trang is a beach town, and not somewhere you should go if you're looking for culture. It seems to polarize backpackers as some people rave about it and others hate it, I thought it was great. I'm not into beaches at all, but this one was really nice.
After a night spent boozing I headed off to Vinpearl land, a water park built on an island just off the coast of Nha Trang. Actually a really cool place and only about €15 to get in (where I spent the entire day). There's a cable car across the water to get to the park, which is a nice way to get there as opposed to a boat. Also a bit of a novelty getting the cable car over the ocean instead of a ski slope. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos in Nha Trang as I thought my camera would get wrecked (even more so than it already is) so you'll have to make do with these images I just googled to give you an idea of what the place looks like. Also if you ever find yourself in Nha Trang, make sure to get yourself to Omar's Indian restaurant. About €5 for a two course meal with a beer, and one of the best Madras curries I've ever tasted.
Onward to Dalat, a mountain town north of Saigon and apparently where all the Vietnamese go on honeymoon. I found Dalat a little disappointing, there were no hostels
Valley of Love, Dalat
Nice place, crap name so I had to fork out for a private room in a hotel (which also means less general craic). Also didn't find too much to do at night. On my full day there I did the city tour, there are a couple of sights worth seeing like the waterfall and the valley of love (a purpose built lake), but the rest of the tour was spent looking at yet more temples and even a catholic church. The English people I knew did an easy rider motorbike tour around the countryside outside Dalat instead, and I really wish I'd chosen that over the city tour as it sounded great.
Finally I spent three nights in Saigon, which is a fairly nice and reasonably modern city. It's a lot more western than Hanoi, with most of the usual western fast food places present. That said I never saw one even remotely overweight person in the north of Vietnam, yet saw a few when I made my way south. Don't get me wrong, they have nothing on the Irish when it comes to obesity, but you could notice the western influence on their diets when compared to the north. They should lay
off the burger kings, the fat bastards.
Had a look around the war museum, which should really be renamed the Americans are a bunch of pricks museum. The most anti American thing you will ever see, way more so than the Hanoi war museum, but well worth a visit. You need to take most of it with a huge pinch of salt, but you can't help coming out from it agreeing that the Americans should not have entered Vietnam. There are two sides to every story though; maybe I've just been turned into a brainwashed communist. On my second full day I travelled outside Saigon to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were the tunnels built by the Vietcong to aid guerrilla warfare originally against the French, and then the Americans. Worth a visit, but I am unashamed to say that the real reason I went was to visit the firing range they had there. At age 27, I have now finally fired a gun. Ten bullets with an AK47, all missing their target. It's a lot harder in real life than it is on Xbox.
So after three nights I left Saigon and took a bus across
AK47
If I'm ever sent to war I'm screwed the border into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I spent slightly longer in both Thailand and Vietnam than I had originally planned so my stay in Cambodia will be short. I fly to Tokyo on Monday, so I only have enough time to spend one full day seeing Angkor Wat, and then one full day in Phnom Penh. I originally thought after nearly eight weeks I'd be delighted to get to Japan and return to the western world, but in reality I have loved Southeast Asia and can completely see why some people spend six months travelling this region alone. Besides, both Thailand and the south of Vietnam are fairly western anyway. Perhaps I should have spent an extra week here and cut Japan short by a week (my wallet is going to take a pounding there), but the flights are booked and I'm sure Japan will be great too.
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tommo
non-member comment
where's the tan?
Either you have a great sun block or you are spending all your time in bars??!!