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Published: November 5th 2008
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Saigon was much South and so it felt hotter than any other city in Vietnam with around 33 C and high humidity. It is a fast growing mega city of around 5-6 million people that want to compete with Bangkok. But this is still a long way to go. The city has not much space with some squeezed in park areas and streets full of motorcycles. The best in the city is the huge variety of shopping articles. It ranges from clothing to furniture or any kind of decoration articles. The shops are sometimes very stylish and taste full. We ventured also into restaurants, but had again some disappointments. We wanted to try French food which is supposed to be here the best in Southeast Asia, but the more reasonable priced one was disappointing. However our main purpose in Saigon was the visit of the Chinese embassy to obtain a Visa. The Olympics were over and we hoped that it would be now easier. We were right. The visa procedures were changed back to the old requirements since the 22nd of September. No anymore flight and hotel bookings. We went into the embassy at 10 am and got our Visa the
same day at 4:30 pm. We happily left the embassy with the road to China open for us and found on the spot a nice restaurant in an old French villa garden style building. The choice of French fries, papaya salad and boiled snails was perfect. We only annoyed our table neighbors who could not bear to see snails pulled out with tooth sticks from their houses.
The next day we left in the morning to the beach resort area of Muine. It is a short four hour bus drive from Saigon. The resorts are set in tropical setting with plenty of coconut palm trees along a 15km long beach shore line. The prices and quality vary greatly. We found a nice one with a beautiful designed garden area around a swimming pool and pleasant beach sittings. As usual we rented a motorbike and had a mix of discovering the shore line with fishing villages and restaurants. Time went fast and we enjoyed two lazy days. It seems strange, but when traveling there is always the question to stay how long, what to see and to do, what next? We had time and also skipped often many of the
so called tourist sites, but it is ones own curiosity that drives to move from one to the next destination. It takes time to slow down and to feel?a place. Sometimes we know immediately we would stay several days since the place or town felt nice and it was just pleasant to walk along the streets and to hang out.
We left Minue after 3 nights to enjoy some cool air in a former French mountain retreat at 1700 m altitude. It sounded like a garden paradise with rolling hills. It is not always as you imagine. We arrived in rain and the city had a rather crowded and untidy feeling. It had the touch of a cheap tourist place that had seen better times. Like the cake we bought in a bakery. It looked phantastic from outside, but when later tried tasted rather shallow. Fortunately the weather improved and we had a good day on the back on a motorcycle riding on side streets along mountain coffee plantations. The coffee beans were almost ripe and had already partially a red color. We also visited a silk worm factory. The workers did not bother and we could walk around
and watch the process steps until a scarf was finished.
We arrived back in Saigon next afternoon and did some final shopping. The big surprise came when we entered immigration at the airport. Yuki had overstayed her Visa on arrival for 3 days. We tried to extend it, but this would take another 5 working days. We inquired at two different travel agencies and got the answer that overstay for few days is no problem. It would cost 25 US$. At the airport this was taken much more serious and we were faced with a penalty of 200-300 US$. Luckily we could explain the situation and convinced the officer in charge that we had tried to extend it. He even waved the penalty. Nevertheless we were happy when the plane left the airport towards our new destination Macau.
Practicalities:
Visa China 30 US$ plus 30 US$ same day fee
Bus Saigon-Muine 120.000 Dong
Beach Resort Muine 20-40 US$ / day
Bus Muine-Dalat 110.000 Dong
Guesthouse Dalat 8 US$ / day
Bus Dalat-Saigon 160.000 Dong
Flight Saigon-Macau 136 US$ (Air Viva Macau)
Joerg
In guidebooks wrote Vietnam cuisine is one of the biggest attractions
for tourists. Actually, Joerg and I expected to have great meals this Vietnam trip but people seemed not to be concerned about quality of food; they would be happy if they werenę° hungry. Unfortunately, famous spring rolls were not always good. We were disappointed Vietnamese food except French fries. Most restaurants served good French fries instead of less quality of entrees.
Actually, I am a French fries freak; to have good French fries are more important for me than to have good steaks.
Yuki
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