The rest of Vietnam and Singapore

Asia
April 29th 2012

Published: April 29th 2012

Hi Everyone, we have been back in Melbourne for nearly two weeks now. Apologies for the delay in the blog, here is the last two weeks of our holiday, enjoy!

Sunday 1^st April – Mui Ne

At 2am we were dropped off on the side of the road in Mui Ne after a 6 hour trip on the sleeper bus where you are designated beds instead of seats. We were in the middle of a typhoon and it was pouring with rain as we made our way down what we assumed could only be the main street. Once we found a backpackers we were able to check in, have hot showers and jump into a warm and dry bed! We slept till around 10 am and woke up to persistent rain. We were keen to get out and about as our guide books considered Mui Ne to have the best all-round beach in Vietnam, the most dramatic sand dunes and with the seasonal weather kite surfers come from all over the world to ride the waves; however our day was spent relaxing, reading our books and watching movies. By 3pm we had a bit of cabin fever, so out came our rain jackets and we went to the bar next door to make the most of the 2for1 cocktails and the free pool table. We managed to make our way through the cocktail list, met a great couple from Dublin and a deaf lady from France. After a few drinks and games of pool we all went and had dinner at a very cheap and cheerful seafood restaurant (about $3 for a plate of prawns) before heading home after a fun night.

Monday 2nd April – Mui Ne

Today I ran over a snake…. We hired scooters for the day for a cheap $7 and made our way to the ‘Sahara’ of Vietnam - the Red and White sand dunes.The red sand dunes which are only about 5km away from Mui Ne are nothing more than a slight hill with red sand; the white sand dunes which are a further 25km from the red sand dunes however were much more impressive. We cruised the coast along to the white sand dunes, as we came closer we wanted to drive down to the ocean where some fishing boats were. We took a gravel road turnoff and half way down it I saw a snake crossing from one side to the other, but before I figured out what to do I had ran over it. There was no way I was going to stop and wait for it to pass, and afterwards I had shivers all over my body; the worst part was we had to come back up that road from the ocean and I thought the snake was going to be waiting for me on the side of the road… Once we got to the sand dunes we hired a plastic sheet from some local kids and began the trek in the blistering sun up to the peak (we could have hired 4-wheel motorbikes but we decided to tough it out). The dunes were hot and we were scorching but it was fun hooning down the slopes with sand sticking to your sweat, then making your way back up to the top again. After being sizzled to a crisp in the beating sun we cruised back to town and had a round of mini-putt golf. For the first time in a long time Dan managed to beat me by a couple of points, but I’m sure he was cheating. That night we found yet another seafood restaurant where lobster was awaiting, it was delicious and the waitresses were amazed that I managed to clean it up while Dan had his crumbed chicken.

Tuesday 3^rd April – Mui Ne – Nha Trang

This morning we managed to find the main beach which was nice, but the beaches in Thailand were nicer. It was really hard to access as there are so many resorts built on this beach you have to go through one of them to get to the water. At 1pm we jumped on the bus to Nha Trang, the bus ride this time was only 5 hours. Once in Nha Trang we checked into a hotel $15/night and went and checked out a couple of cool bars and had a big night of fun!

Wednesday 4^th April – Nha Trang

Nha Trang is really beautiful, there are towering mountains looming up behind the small city and the sweeping beach stretching into the distance, also the turquoise waters were some of the cleanest we came across in Vietnam (still a little polluted) that is dotted with little islands. We booked ourselves onto an organised island hopping boat trip that went to three different islands, the aquarium and hosted their own live band. The beaches were surprisingly nice and the water was really clear, when we stopped for lunch the crew on the boat set up their full drum kit, plugged in their electric guitars and busted out some tunes. After we had finished eating they threw a floating bar off the side of the boat that had ‘free wine’ and dozens of life rings. We jumped off the top deck of the two story boat and made our way to the floating bar for some wine (was more like whiskey and water) while most of the people on the tour stayed on the boat. It was a fun afternoon and the weather was beautiful, once we got back to Nha Trang we had an early night ready for an early start the next day.

Thursday 5^th April – Nha Trang

This morning we got up early and caught the 3320m long cable-car/gongola to Vinpearl Land which is on Hon Tre Island. Vinpearl Land is Nha Trangs’ Disneyland, it was fun going on a couple of the rides but the main reason we went there was for the waterpark. They have about 15 different waterslide rides ranging from children’s rides to the fast and steep rides for the big kids. After I had had enough chlorine we went and spent some time lying on the beautiful beach and swimming in the warm ocean. By 3pm we were off again as we had to be back in Nha Trang showered and changed ready for a 12 hour bus trip to Hoi An.

Friday 6^th April – Hoi An

This morning we arrived in Hoi An about 7am after a really shitty bus ride. It was another sleeper bus and while this time Dan had a bed long enough to stretch his legs out and mine was sleep able, we were frustrated by all the stopping we were doing, by the driver smoking and from being far too overloaded. During the night we stopped several times on dark roads and picked up unusual looking big white boxes, the staff on the bus wouldn’t tell us what was in them, only that there was not enough room to have the boxes and our luggage in the luggage compartment under the bus so everyone’s bags/packs were put in the bus with us. Before we arrived at the bus terminal and before the sun came up we stopped again and the boxes were unloaded… We were quite jaded on our arrival; however we found a guesthouse and made our way to the tailors. I was so excited to be in Hoi An, at the tailors we flicked through pages and pages of magazines looking for clothes that we could get made, altogether Dan got a coat, two full suits and four dress shirts, I also got three coats, five dresses, a skirt, two pairs of heels and a pair of leather sandals. By midday we found ourselves a bite to eat then we hired a motorbike and made our way to the beach for a look. Our time at the beach didn’t last long as we needed a sleep so we went back to our guesthouse and had a good nanna nap. Hoi An is a glorious place to soak up the flavour of old Vietnam, set on the Thu Bon River, it was an international trading port as far back as the 17^th century. Influences from Chinese, Japanese and European cultures are well preserved in the local architecture and art with roaming narrow lanes weaving between cafes, bars, restaurants, tailors and shops, including our favourite restaurant of the whole trip – Café 43!!! This family run tiny restaurant serves the most amazing food, everything on the menu we tasted was sensational; whole baked fish, lemongrass chilli chicken, Vietnamese wontons the list goes on. The reason we stumbled on this little delight was because Dan had read that they brewed fresh beer or Beer Hoi. Beer Hoi is a fresh beer that is brewed with no preservatives that the locals drink and only sets you back about 15cents. Articles that we looked up online state that you should always eat before consuming beer hoi as it goes straight to the head, and they were right!

Saturday 7^th April – Hoi An

This morning we woke up feeling slightly more energetic so after brekky at Café 43 we hired bicycles and went to Cua Dai beach. This beach runs all the way to Danang (about 20kms) and it is marketed as the legendary China Beach. Palm thatch huts give shelter and just like Thailand roaming vendors sell drinks and fresh seafood. About 2pm a wicked thunderstorm rolled in so we biked back to the village before it caught us for the first round of fittings for our clothes. We are quite amazed that overnight they had made 80%!o(MISSING)f our large order, so amazed and very pleased with the clothing that we ordered a couple more garments. Before we could spend any more money we left the tailors and went back to the guesthouse to have showers and scrub up for the evening. Hoi An is beautiful by night so we went for a big walk around the old village before heading back to Café 43 for dinner and beers.

Sunday 8^th April – Hoi An

Today we booked ourselves on a guided ½ day tour of the enigmatic ruins of My Son. My Son is the most important remains of the ancient Cham empire and a Unesco World Heritage Site. Although Vietnam had better preserved Cham sites, none are as extensive and few have such beautiful surrounds as this. Hidden in the mountains this is a place of beauty, however after being to visit Angkor Wat we felt that this was so little in comparison to the huge temples of the Angkor. After we returned from our tour we headed straight to Caf 43 for some lunch, then we went and had our second round of fittings at the tailor. In the evening we pre-booked into the Hai Café evening cooking class. Although this class was not so hands on, we managed to make vegetable spring rolls, fish wrapped in banana leaves and beef & papaya salad.

Monday 9^th April – Hoi An-Hanoi

This morning we figure we will try to use up as much energy as possible, in preparation for our 18 hour bus trip in the afternoon to Hanoi. Once again we hired bicycles and in the blazing heat biked out of town to take some photos of the lush rice fields. After hooning around for a few hours we thought we would make our last visit to Café 43. We gave ourselves a few hours before the bus left and in the time we had an amazing lunch, and filled ourselves up with beer hoi; however before we knew it it as time to leave and jump on the bus. The beds we were designated on this sleeper bus was different to all the rest, it was the back seat of the bus so instead of having an individual ‘bed’, there were five ‘beds’ connected and they didn’t recline like all the others. It was so squished and uncomfortable I’m not sure if we even slept the first half of the trip, until about 2am we dropped some guys off to catch a connecting bus and the people on the back seat with us took the other beds so Dan and I had the whole back seat to ourselves.

Tuesday 10^th April – Hanoi

We arrived at our backpackers about 8am, but to no surprise we could not check in until 1pm, so we dropped off our packs and went exploring. Imagine a city where the exotic chic of old Asia blends seamlessly with the dynamic face of new Asia, where the medieval and modern coexist, and a mass population of motorbikes that constantly swarms through the tangled web of streets that is the Old Quarter; welcome to Hanoi. The intense atmosphere and way of life lead us to a hawker café stall where we tried our first ever weasel shit coffee. Weasel shit coffee is basically what is sounds like, there are farms that feed weasels coffee beans, collect excretion, then brew coffee from this excretion. After our first coffee we didn’t think it was so bad and couldn’t be bothered moving so we ordered another and chilled out for a bit. Within 30 minutes we went exploring, but we were exploring at high speed. For two people who should have been deliriously fatigued we were scurrying all over the place, taking photos, crossing what seemed like impossible roads and taking in all the sights. On our way back to our backpackers we found a little hawker stall that sold beer hoi, we sat down and had a few and that’s when the sleep deprivation kicked in. We checked into our room and after a little snooze we went down to happy hour at the backpackers where we made the most of the passionfruit mojitos and beer towers. We met a few other travellers from Melbourne and a couple of people from the States and went to a couple of bucket bars close by for some cheap and cheerful partying.

Wednesday 11^th April – Halong Bay

Today was an early start as we have booked ourselves on a two day Halong Bay tour through our backpackers. Along Bay is described as majestic and mysterious, inspiring and imperious as a Unesco World Heritage Site where 3000 or more incredible islands rise from the Gulf of Tonkin. When we booked this tour we didn’t realise that we were booking ourselves on a two day booze cruise, until we boarded the junk (boat) and had to torpedo a beer before we got shown our rooms. We finally got going and were served lunch immediately, as we ate we were amazed by the beauty of the bay, however it was really disappointing how polluted the water was. After a couple of hours and a few more beers the anchor was dropped and it was time to try and redeem your first free beer. If you were up to it, you had to do a forward or backward flip off the top story of the junk, the junk is three stories high so it’s no mean feat, however a free beer is a free beer to Dan so he attempted a forward flip which resulted in a serious belly-flop and a bit of pain for the following 30 minutes. Everyone jumped off the junk in the end; it was a big drop and lots of fun, however most people were more concerned about the rubbish in the water and the mega jellyfish than the drop to the water. After we had a few turns each the kayaks were out, we were advised to take at least three beers each and we went off exploring a big cave and the island cliffs. Kayaking was fun, we were in doubles which was even better and of course led to the Kiwis verses Aussies in a race; we totally won!! After kayaking around for 90 minutes we went back to the junk, had hot showers and got ourselves ready for more drinks and dinner. After another delicious meal it was compulsory happy hour, our guide told us to get at least six drinks each to start the drinking games and it’s all a blur from there…

Thursday 12^th April – Halong Bay

This morning I woke up feeling fresh as a daisy (unlike my husband) as I wasn’t one of the ones up until sunrise….. After breakfast we slowly made our way back to the docks where we disembarked the junk, jumped on the bus and made our way back to Hanoi. We had a quiet evening in our hotel chilling out and got a good night sleep.

Friday 13^th April – Hanoi – Singapore

We had a flight out of Hanoi at 2pm however we had to leave the city at 10am because of the early check in time and the airport is also quite far from the city. We flew into Singapore about 5pm, we managed to navigate the ultra-modern mass rapid transport (train) and found ourselves a hotel in a suburb called Orchard for the night. Once we checked in I was roaring to get out about and explore one of the cleanest cities in the world that never sleeps, so we got changed (tried to find the nicest clothes that we had left), and stepped onto Orchard Road. For a couple who have just spent the last two months backpacking and are at the end of their trip, Orchard Road probably wasn’t the best place for us to be looking for a drink and some dinner, we were stunned by the prices of everything and by the glitz and glam of the area, but how could I resist my first glass of wine in two months and a steak.

Saturday 14^th April – Singapore

This morning we had to change hotels so we got up early, checked out, checked in then started our day of exploring. We went to the famous Raffles hotel and checked out the surrounding area, on the way Dan found the International Toy museum from the 1930s onwards so went and had a look, in the afternoon we went to Marina Bay Sands Skypark. Marina Bay is an integrated resort fronting Marina Bay. It is billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property which features, among other things, a museum, two large theatres, seven celebrity chef restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink and the world’s largest atrium casino. The complex is topped by a 340m long Skypark which has an infinity swimming pool, bar and restaurant set on top of the works largest public cantilevered platform that looks like a boat. From the top of the Skypark we watched a massive electrical storm roll in, however once it began to rain we went back down to sea level, jumped on the train and headed back to our hotel for an afternoon kip. For dinner we made our way to Chinatown for some more affordable cuisine, after dinner we walked up to Clark Quay and it was humming with party goers and friends catching up over beers on the riverbanks.

Sunday 15^th April – Singapore

We had a nice sleep in today before heading to Little India for lunch. We found an amazing Indian restaurant, had lunch, then went to Merlion Park in the Harbour and took a cruise up the Singapore River. At the mouth of the Singapore River is a freakish statue called the Merlion, it is a bizarre hybrid lion/fish creature that was built in the 1960s as a tourism icon for the Singapore Tourism Board. After our boat cruise we went back to our hotel for a swim and a sleep before we went out for our last night on our holiday. For our last night out we decided to head to Clark Quay which is a pumping area of nightclubs, bars and restaurants that has been transformed from old warehouses. We had a really nice dinner on the river, watching the reflection of so many beautiful city lights dance on the water and reminiscing over our last few months. After dinner we went to Marina Bay and watched an amazing light, water and sound show complete with a huge bubble machine, two takeaway bottles of red wine and a block of dark chocolate.

Monday 16^th April – Singapore – Melbourne

Our last day on holiday was spent at Universal Studios Singapore on Sentosa Island. The first ride we went for was the Transformers 4D ride which we both loved and consequently Dan bought a ‘souvenir’ transformers t’shirt. We made our way through the Sci Fi area which had the most amazing roller coasters the Battlestar Galactica; these two coasters start at the same time side by side, one is the Cylon and the other the human. One of them goes upside down 5 times, plunges you through a pit of mist twice and is timed so well you are sure you are going to hit the other coaster, the second one is not as hardout but does shoot you off with a hiss and a roar and gets up to 80km. Dan and I were like children, so pumped with adrenaline that after the fifth time we went on them it was time to move onto the Egypt, Jurassic park, Hollywood and New York areas. Although all other rides were considerably lame compared to the Transformers and the Battlestar Galactica rides, we still had a fun day cruising around the park. By 3pm we headed back to the city where we grabbed our bags and went to the airport to catch our flight home to Melbourne on the massive A380. We thought we would have slept all the way home after being drained of adrenaline, however I think we were both really excited to be heading home, not only to see our friends and family who we have missed loads, but also to start our next adventure – building our first home.

The rest of Vietnam and Singapore

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved