Blogs from Vietnam, Asia - page 13

Dec 2019 & Jan 2020 - I spent three weeks travelling throughout Vietnam and revisiting all my favourite places. It has been some years since my last visit and there were a couple of places I had never been to. The main purpose on this trip was to see the Golden Bridge near Đà Nẵng city in central Vietnam. The sculpture which is two hands holding a bridge up on the Bà Nà Hills was opened a couple of years ago and became very famous. I flew to Đà Nẵng city and booked a taxi to visit Bà Nà Hills, which is a 45 minute drive from the city. The weather was not great that day. It was raining and misty, but it gave the hills a mystical atmosphere. It was the last day of the ... read more

Hue's only a measly 3hr drive from Hoi An, so it's ideal for you when you're heavily hung over! The city feels a lot nicer than some of the bigger places we've been in Vietnam and less touristy than Hoi An. There's still enough going on, still plenty of tourists, but it's not over crowded. I've signed up for the Motorbike tour of the city, so myself and two others from the group jump on the back of two older Vietnamese guys bikes. Prior to signing up for this, we had to sign a disclosure confirming we were happy with high speeds, heights etc - so I'm not really sure what to expect. As it turns out, the whole trip, their speed was very civilized, I think mostly in part because we had a girl from ... read more

First day with the new group - 8:30am start and only 2hrs travel time! That's better than our current alert shortest trip of 4 hrs and considerably less than the two 11hr trips we've done. We get to the Mekong Delta, expecting a nice clean river and see the opposite. There's rubbish close to shore, floating along the river and the water looks filthy. We pick up our local guide Kai - who's s bit flamboyant, struggles with English and rolls his eyes into the back of his head like The Undertaker whenever he speaks. We get in our boat and head off to one of the Islands. The first place we stop is just a shit tourist gimmick. We try some local fruit, all of which are disgusting except for the Jack Fruit, they have ... read more

Sidste stop på turen er Saigon eller Ho Chi Min City som den hedder i dag. Ca. 70 km uden for byen ligger Cu Chi tunnellerne som er blevet bygget af Vietcong i perioden 1940-60. Tunnellerne var en del af det mere end 250 km lange tunnel system som gjorde det umuligt for bl.a. amerikanerne et bekæmpe Vietcong. Tunnellerne er meget snævre. Også her er det uforståeligt hvordan vietnameserne har kunnet leve på den måde i så mange år. Ud over tunnellerne så vi også nogle af de frygtelige fælder og våben som Vietcong havde udviklet bl.a. dyrefælder som Amerikanerne kunne falde i. Turen fortsatte til Genforeningspaladset som står som det blev forladt ved sydvietnams fald i 1975. Den sidste dag, inden flyveturen hjem, var der byvandring i Ho Chi Min City, forbi det gamle franske ... read more

Hoi An har mange områder hvor der vokser vandkokos palmer som omkranser små øer ude i floden. Det skaber områder med mange små vandløb hvor man kan fiske og have dambrug. Ude på floden kan man fiske med større net, enten ved at kaste dem ud og hive fisk ind, eller ved at have nettet liggende nede i vandet og om aftenen med lys tiltrække fisken og hive nettet op med en sindrig mekanisme. Vi gik i land ved et landbrugsområde hvor man dyrkede økologiske grøntsager, salater og urter. En bonde demonstrede hvordan man forberedte jorden og vandede de lange bede. Hoi An er kendt for at lave lanterner. De hænger over alt i byen og lyser op når mørket er faldet på. For et par år siden var der en som havde fået den gode ... read more