Blogs from Qui Nhon, Binh Dinh, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia

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Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon April 20th 2012

It is time to descend the highlands and return to the coast. But first the inevitable transportation adventure. From Da Lat I take a bus to Nha Trang, an ocean side town about 11 hours north of Saigon. The road is windy, swithcbacks most the way. My seat companion rolls and stuffs orange peels up her nose which I admit I find odd. I also take offense because it's one thing to know you smell but entirely another to have someone else point it out in such an odd manner. But by hour two I realized that my companion's world does not revolve around me and my attempts at hygiene because I understood as another woman threw up for the third time that citrus must counteract car sickness in some way. Note to self: must learn ... read more
Quy Nhon Beach
Fishing boats just off shore
Small one man paddle boats beached

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon December 10th 2011

So myself and Vinny left Hoi An at the ungodly hour of 6am, when all of Vietnam seemed to be out and about! Vinny got his vietnamese breakfast roll while I naively thought that the bus would make stops along the way as it was a five hour bus journey to Quy Nhon, a fishing town on the coast half way between Hoi An and Nha Trang. No such luck, we were bet onto a small minibus and off we went for probably the strangest bus journey I've been on (so far!). First of all, the horn on the bus was broken and as anyone who has been to Asia will know, the horn is as important for navigating the roads as the steering wheel! But that didn’t stop them, as one guy was given the ... read more
Searching for food!
Fishing boats
Beautiful scenery

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon February 28th 2011

Quy Nhon beach is a 4-mile long crescent of fine amber-colored sand. The harbor is sheltered by a bowl of green mountains. On their slopes you can see faint dimples that were created by the 2,000 lb bombs dropped by B-52s during the Vietnam War in this strategically important area. The now calm waters are laced with fish nets, traps, squid shacks and round rattan boats piloted by small, sinewy, sun-darkened men. They control their craft with a single wooden paddle held at the front of the pitch-sealed bamboo bowl. By using a series of complex, wrist twists they navigate across the water at will. Fifty-foot square dip nets in the north end of the bay are controlled with a series of rope and levers housed in little pup-tent control rooms that stand on stilts. A ... read more
Beach Promenade
Karen's Morning Jog
Our Room at Hoang Yen

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon December 12th 2010

Suzanne here... On to another beach town, but Quy Nhon has none of the facilities or tourist trappings of Nha Trang. Surprising really as there is a large stretch of sandy beach. Still, we were ready for something a bit more 'local' and less touristy. Budget hotels were few and far between, so we decided to splurge. We chose the 4* Saigon Quynhon. At £30 it was about three times what we'd usually pay. Might sound cheap to those back in England, but we're on a budget. Still, we decided it was worth it on this occasion. The hotel was not the most luxurious we've ever stayed in, but certainly one of the best on this trip (not counting the Saigon apartments of course). The room was large, modern and clean, and had sea view. It ... read more
Quy Nhon
Quy Nhon
Quy Nhon

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon September 17th 2010

We have made a little side detour on our trip south down the Vietnamese coast. The trip from Hoi An to Nha Trang would have been 11 hours and we thought that it would be too much for the kids in one hit. So we decided to stop over in Quy Nhon for a couple of days. We hired a car to take us as the only other way would have been to get 3 buses, all of them local non air-conditioned ones, included a couple of waits on the side of the road for drop-offs and pick-ups (now that would have been very low on the old CF scale I can tell you). Although it was only 300km it took almost 6 hours. No-one tends to speed in Vietnam (we did see one crazy local ... read more
These piggies go to market
Quy Nhon harbour
Fish baskets

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon June 29th 2010

We’ve been very busy over the last few days after our long spell in Hoi An. Hoi An was lovely, we had a great hotel and it was’t too touristy, but touristy enough to have everything we needed within walking distance. Last time we wrote we were off to watch the football and we found an awesome bar to watch it in. Full of English and I got chatting to a nice couple so didn’t have to watch too much football! Paul was very happy we had won and ended up having quite a few drinks and a bit of a late one. Got back to our hotel to find the gates locked and had a bit of a panic before we realised there was a man asleep waiting with our key. Had lovely lie in ... read more
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Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon April 20th 2010

In early March I received a message from a representative of Viettelco, which is a calling cards firm in the US. He wrote: "I came across your blog while searching the internet for interesting Vietnamese articles. We are currently giving away a few small grants for talented Vietnamese. These grants are in the form of free international phone calls. We are looking for Vietnamese who can write well, appreciate the world and share it in a nice way with others." I replied to him that I had no demand of calling overseas. He affirmed again "We are very interested to assist you in some capacities to widen your travelling experiences", and US$300 was the amount which the company decided to send me in order to sponsor a trip. Everything was so fast and next day I ... read more
Phú Yên fishing port
Ruins at Dương Long towers
Little boats at Phú Yên fishing port

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon July 1st 2009

As we continued our journey north, we visited two coastal areas in the central portion of Vietnam - first the very popular beach-party city of Nha Trang and then the much quieter, less touristy town of Quy Nhon. We only stayed in Nha Trang for one day, enough time to try the micro-brews at the New Zealand-owned “Louisiane Brew House” - the first microbrewery we’ve seen in Vietnam. For those of you who know Joe well, you won’t be surprised to hear that he was very happy about this particular stop, so much so that he tried nearly every beer on the menu. I was intrigued by the ginger beer brewed with passion fruit and wasn’t disappointed. Very fruity! The next day we got back on a mini-bus (not as comfortable as the big bus) and ... read more
Town beach in Quy Nhon
Colorful fishing boats in Quy Nhon
Joe gets a ride to dinner in Quy Nhon

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon March 25th 2009

It just keeps getting better!- Quy Nhon 17th - 20th March 2009 The previous nights 1:30am walk of 5km carrying our fully weighted rucksacks actually made little impact on the following day’s energy levels, despite having only managed 4 hours sleep the reason being; as we’ve travelled further south the temperature has gradually increased from quite cold in the north, until here in Quy Nhon where it’s actually beginning to get so warm it’s difficult to sleep at night. I only managed to find a little information regarding Quy Nhon on the internet as it doesn’t seem to attract a lot of visitors, perhaps due to its close proximity to Hoi An and Nha Trang both of which are supposed to offer more for the tourist. I’ll admit Quy Nhon didn’t seem particularly interesting at a ... read more
Exercise in the evening sun
Bai Neng beach
A town beach along the coastal highway

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Dinh » Qui Nhon January 15th 2009

It’s been over a month since our last blog update and this reflects the small out of the way places we’ve been staying at on our cycling tour (good internet connections have been scarce). We bought our bikes in Bangkok and cycled Northeast towards Laos stopping in places like Ayuthaya, Lop Buri, and Nang Rang. We saw many crumbling old temples, one of them overrun by monkeys who jumped on Nick to steal is apple. (Jen didn’t know if Nick was more frightened of the monkeys or the prospect of loosing his apple). We cycled across the Thai-Laos border at Chong Mek and had to cover 140km to get to a town with a guest house. That was our longest days cycle so far and the last few kilometres in the late afternoon sun were a ... read more
Catching the early morning ferry
New years eve football match
Christmas Waterfall




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