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Published: January 25th 2011
Travelling with four boys was an interesting experience, and it confirmed for me just how different the two sexes are. The conversations that boys have are totally different to the sort of things girls talk about. For example, the currency in Vietnam is called ‘Dong.’ As you can imagine, the boys had a field day with this and made comments about having too much dong, or how one of them had so much more dong than the other! I had great fun with the boys, but it was a relief to finally get some female company when we got to Hoi An and met up with more of the Goa crew, Sara and Emma.
One thing we all enjoyed was the shopping in Hoi An. It is a gorgeous little town with attractive narrow streets which lead down to the river. The streets are full of cafes, restaurants and most importantly, shops making custom made clothes and shoes. Apparently there are over 200 tailors shops crammed into the small town making unbelievably cheap suits, dresses and anything else you may desire. You would think all these shops would spoil the look of the place but somehow they seem to blend
in with the architecture. We spent a whole afternoon looking around the shops and I think everyone ended up buying something. Dima and Verbal bought themselves a fake designer watch each. They spent at least an hour and a half deciding which style and colour they wanted. The woman in the shop had to keep leaving to get different watches from another shop to meet their demands. By the end of it she was so annoyed with them that she ended up smashing the glass cabinet as she slammed the door shut!
Dima has asked me to comment on how cheap the beer is in Vietnam. We found a place in Hoi An down near the river that sold beer for 3000 Dong, that is 10 English pence. They may as well give it away for free! I don’t really like beer but it was actually really nice.
There are things to do other than shop and drink cheap beer in Hoi An. On the second day we booked a trip to My Son which are remains of the ancient Cham empire and a Unesco World Heritage site. They date back to the 4th Century and are pretty
impressive. They would be even more impressive if the Americans hadn’t bombed them during the war. You can still see the evidence of this and there are several large bomb holes around the site, which now just look like grassy craters. We got a boat back to Hoi An and then cycled to the nearby beach in the afternoon. It had been a scorching hot day so it was nice to cool off in the sea and then drink beers on the beach as the sun went down.
We found a brilliant little restaurant in Hoi An and we ended up eating there all three nights because it was so good. Foolishly we never made a note of the name. The place itself was nothing to look at, and when we asked where the toilet was we were just directed to the field at the back of the kitchen. That didn’t matter because the food was amazing, the staff were really friendly and welcoming and it was full of locals which is always a good sign. They found out that it was coming up to my birthday and told us to come back on the 16th and they would
make me a cake. We went along and sure enough there was a cake and some flowers waiting for me. Everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday to me. It was quite painful to listen to but it’s the thought that counts! I had a great birthday night out with everyone but sadly we had to say goodbye to them all over the next two days and we were back to travelling solo again.
Next stop for us was Mui Ne which is on the coast. We were looking forward to relaxing on the beach for a few days before moving on to the busy and noisy Ho Chi Minh City. The main beach in town has lots of posh resorts and is full of Russian tourists. We decided to hire a scooter and escape the crowds so took off to find a more secluded beach. It didn’t take long to find an empty stretch of sand so we parked up and went for a swim. Dima decided to take it one step further and take advantage of an empty beach in the middle of the day by going skinny dipping! He was like an excited child running into
the sea, it was very funny to watch. We do have photographic evidence but I won’t subject you to Dima’s skinny white ass!
After the beach we went to find the sand dunes which are one of the ‘sights’ in Mui Ne. As you arrive, loads of kids surround you trying to sell plastic sheets to slide down the dunes on. The dunes really didn’t look big enough for this so we decided not to bother. The kids are clever though and follow you as you walk saying they will only leave you alone if you rent a sheet from them. We didn’t mind the company so we let them come along! We asked one of them to show us how he slides down the dunes. He set off but only got about two meters before stopping so we weren’t overly impressed and knew we had made the right decision. As we walked back the kids started to get annoyed and I’m pretty sure they were shouting obscenities at us in Vietnamese!
Our next and final stop in Vietnam was the fabulous Ho Chi Minh City, although most of the locals still called it Saigon. It was one
of those cities that you instantly know you are going to like. It has a similar feel to Hanoi but on a much larger and grander scale. The traffic is crazy. HCMC has a population of around 10 million and has over 5 million bikes whizzing around. We decided against hiring a scooter because it is likely we would have been killed! The first day we did a walking tour of the city but it started to rain so we jumped into a couple of cyclos to take us around and then back to our hostel. The drivers are fearless and think nothing of positioning you directly in front of a stream of oncoming traffic or weaving in and out of the bikes and cars as they cycle along. You can’t help but feel slightly exposed and vulnerable when travelling amongst the sea of traffic. Obviously they know what they are doing and we made it back alive. It was well worth doing and a great way to see the city.
We booked a few trips to explore the surrounding area. The first one was to the Cu Chi Tunnels which were created and used by the Viet Cong
during the war. It was unbelievable to see how small the tunnels were and even more amazing that the soldiers spent days, weeks and even months underground in such confined spaces. We were able to go down into a section of the tunnels to experience it for ourselves. They were tiny and we only managed to crawl a few meters before escaping out of the first exit. Apparently the tunnels have actually been made bigger for tourists so I can’t even imagine what it must have been like in reality. We were also shown some of the traps used by the Viet Cong. They were pretty brutal and would have caused some painful injuries. There is also a shooting range at the tunnels, where you can shoot various guns from the war. Dima shot two rounds of an AK47 and loved it. After the tunnels we stopped off at the War Remnants Museum which was both fascinating and disturbing. My knowledge of the Vietnam War (or the American War as they call it in Vietnam) is limited, but having seen the information and pictures at the museum I just cannot comprehend how and why the war ever started.
Our
Empty beach Mui Ne
Clothes still on for now!next trip was to the Mekong Delta which basically involved getting on and off various shapes and sizes of boat all day! It wasn’t the best tour and it was a bit rushed because we only had one day but it was nice to get out of the city and see the networks of rivers, canals and streams that make up the region. We also got to try the snake wine that we keep seeing everywhere. It looks disgusting in the glass jar with all the dead snakes coiled up but it actually tasted ok. I don’t think I will be rushing out and buying some but it was good to try.
Christmas was quickly approaching and we had both agreed we didn’t want to be travelling on Christmas day so we booked our bus to Cambodia for the 24th and said a sad farewell to Vietnam. We both loved Vietnam and could easily have stayed longer. It is such a fascinating place to visit and the people both in the north and south are unbelievably friendly and accommodating. The food is amazing, the beer is stupidly cheap and the accommodation is really good value for money. Definitely one
of my favourite places so far.
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