...Vietnam

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Hi All 😊

Am now back in Thailand and travelling around the islands after 2 and half weeks in Vietnam where I had had lots of interesting experiences along the way!!

A word of warning though before reading the following!!! Having just re-read it...some of it sounds a little negative... Vietnam is an amazing country and we really did have a good time here! 😊

To get into Vietnam - we decided that we would do the bus / boat combination trip to Vietnam from Phnom Penh which was due to take around 12 hours. The journey took just over 18 hours and started with a mini bus for 2 hours and several boats down the Mekong river. We arrived at the border and customs after the first 4 hours on the boat - passport control and visas etc all seemed to go without any problems but we ended up staying there for quite a while as a girl on our bus had food poisoning and had to go through quarantine! After she had been checked over and it was discovered that she didnt have bird flu or any other deadly infection - we were on our way again.

We then had another 3 or 4 hours on the boat to Chau Doc. From here we had to find our own way to the main bus station in order to find a bus to HCMC (Saigon). We eventually found a cyclo (similar to a tuk tuk but on a bike) who said he would take us to the "main bus station". Rachel and I were both in our own cyclos and soon found ourselves at some random little bus company which was obviously paying comission to these cyclos to get passengers! The price was high and so we asked to be taken to the main bus station which was what we had agreed. Cyclo driver number 1 eventually started shouting and telling us that the bus station was closed and there were no buses (at 6pm)! After a while he said 'i dont have time for this!!' - took rachels bag off his cyclo and started cycling away! Cyclo driver number 2 seemed a lot friendlier and after some persuasion eventually took us to where we needed to be. 😊

At the bus station we found some initially helpful seeming people who were telling us all about the different buses - but it soon became apparent that they were in fact just making things up in order to get us on any bus...We agreed on a larger bus with a/c to Saigon which would take between 5 and 8 hours (?!?!). I went to find a toilet and when I came back Rachel looked very harrassed on the bus - there was definitely no a/c and people were forcing food in our faces and grabbing at bags etc. A lot of people here are very touchy and invasive of personal space which can become quite frustrating at times! We decided we wanted to get off the bus as the situation wasn't that comfortable which proved to be quite difficult - and when we did manage to get off it was a struggle to get our bags back!

We found another bus company to take us to Saigon and all seemed fine until we left in the mini bus and realised we the only westerners and only females on the bus. We started getting looks and comments and after a while another young guy got on the front of the bus. At the first stop he just started staring at us and smiling (in quite a disturbing way!!). After a while he started blowing kisses and then making all sorts of gestures with his tongue etc - bearing in mind this journey went on for nearly 7 hours and it was in the middle of the night we didnt feel all that safe! We had asked him to turn around several times but he seemed to really enjoy making us feel uncomfortable. At one of the next stops he moved to the seats directly in front of us and again just sat there turned around and staring at us. No-one said or did anything and even the guide on the bus started with the kisses etc. After 7 hours we arrived in Saigon and managed to quickly get motorbikes to the hotel area there and found a place to stay - both VERY pleased to get to Saigon!!

We spent around a day or 2 in Saigon and really liked it. Its quite a modern city with a good atmosphere and wish we had spent more time there! From Saigon we travelled up to Mui Ne on the coast of Vietnam. Mui Ne was great and a beautiful little beach town. Mui Ne is quite well known for its windsurfing / kitesurfing and you could see it by the number of windsurfers and kites on the beach... The atmosphere was great and I decided that I wanted to give kite surfing a go there - which I did on our last day. I didn't have that long as we needed to get a bus in the afternoon but I was determined that I would get up on the board, which I did after some practice with the kite etc...It was SOOO much fun and I had a permanent grin on my face from the buzz of it for the rest of the day...hehe. Definitely something I have to do again!

Also in Mui Ne - we visited some amazing sand dunes, canyons and river (called the fairy stream). Have some great pics which i'll post...

After Mui Ne we headed up to Nha Trang which was a big anti climax as it wasnt at all what we expected. We had booked on a tour to a few of the islands nearby but managed to end up with the wrong tour company (not quite sure how that happened!! hehe) and so spent the day around the centre of town.

After Nha Trang we went up to Hoi An which is a beautiful little riverside town which is very famous for its tailor shops. Rachel and I had decided that we were going to have some clothes made while we were there. We were recommended a place by our hotel which we went to check out (mistake number 1). It seemed pretty nice but we went to a few other tailors as well. I had a suit made at a place that I liked but we went back to 'Chic' where we had a few other bits and pieces made (Rachel had quite a bit made here). They were quite pushy but eventually we decided what we wanted and they were made within 24 hours. We returned the next day to try a few things on and then pay before we got our bus to Hue.

Enter 'Mr Bu' - a short (and by short i mean about 2 inches shorter than me!!) Vietnamese man.

Usually on printed credit card receipts some of the numbers are replaced by 'X's so prevent credit card fraud - but on this particular receipt all the numbers showed and so Rachel had crossed out the last 4 numbers for this reason. On seeing this, Mr Bu turned very red and started shouting! I had asked him to calm down and had tried to explain why she had crossed out the numbers and that we would write it on the receipt again if it was a problem. By this point, his hearing seemed a bit impaired. He eventually threatened Rachel with 'I break your face!!!' so I told him not to threaten my friend and to calm down. Sonia was also there (she is quite tall) and had come between me and Mr Bu to prevent anything from happening! Mr Bu looked as if he was about to lash out at any moment. He then told us to get the 'F' out of his shop - so we obliged.

That evening I decided to check online for some reviews about 'Chic' and it was funny to see that the first thing that comes up in google about 'Chic - Hoi An' is about Mr Bu chasing a couple down the street on a scooter shouting 'you better get the 'F' out of Hoi An or i call the police!!!'. Moral of the story: check the reviews first! hehe

We then travelled up to Hue and then to Hanoi where it rained straight for 6 days. Hanoi is a crazy city and everytime you walk anywhere you take your life into your own hands. I've never heard so much honking of horns in my life and within the 5 days we were there we saw 3 accidents - one of which I think may have been fatal where a motorbike was hit by a car. Apart from this I think Hanoi is a lively and quirky city where you could people watch all day and never get bored!!

We went to Halong Bay for 2 days too which was truly beautiful. I think it would've been a very different place had the sun been shining but despite the rain was a really good trip. Will also post some pics of that!!

We eventually left Hanoi last Sunday and flew back to Bangkok - it was sad to end that part of the trip but also good to get back to Thailand at the same time!

Every day in Vietnam seemed like a running battle - fighting for the correct change, for your life when trying to avoid being run over by motorbikes, avoiding scams with taxis, hotels, internet cafes!!! It was a really interesting and tiring few weeks. I have really enjoyed vietnam but overall the Vietnamese people have seemed less friendly and accommodating than the Cambodian or Thai people - so its good to be back in Thailand!

Anyway will update on Thailand soon! Really looking forward to seeing everyone in just over 2 weeks!!!

Take care,

Nic x

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