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Published: December 25th 2011
One of the only countries that we have decided to revisit so quickly after our first visit. We had such an interesting time earlier in the year, and we still had a lot of other places to visit so a quick revisit was warranted.
As we had already spent quite a bit of time in Ho Chi Minh City, we made straight for an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta. All very interesting because everything revolved around the river, especially when, during a rowing boat excursion, the rower at the back started to flag and asked Andrew to take over! In the evening the heavens opened and we were caught in a flash flood: very inconvenient as we had to take our shoes off & roll our trousers up to get back to our hotel.
After being joined by our friends, Jane & Kayleen from Australia we set off for Phu Quoc Island – a tropical paradise located off the Cambodian coast. We thought we’d do our bit for the environment by staying at an ‘Eco-resort’. Well, that’s all well & good apart from the fact that there were giant geckos above the bed and it was baking at
night because of there being no aircon. But a fantastic way to wind down for a few days, with really good food and only the sound of the waves to send you off to sleep. (Off course lots of Gin & Tonics on the veranda to celebrate Jane’s birthday helped).
We were now joined by our friend Lydia from the UK, and the next stop was Halong Bay. This was the main reason for returning to Vietnam. Recently voted as one of the 7 new Wonders of the World, we can see why – it is an absolutely amazing place. There are over 2,000 limestone karst islands dotted about the place and we loved kayaking in and out of the small caves and into the isolated lagoons.
The journey to Halong Bay was not perfect as we ended up getting on the slowest indirect ferry in the world: rather than a fast 30 minute crossing it ended up taking over 4 hours criss-crossing some small islands. But we did meet the loveliest group of people on board who were going to Halong Bay to take some pre-wedding photos. Their names (roughly translated from Vietnamese) were: Miss Letter, Miss
Smell, Mr Hero & Mr Strong, and they made the journey very bearable.
One morning Lydia & Jane decided to splash out on a ‘private tour’ to the Cat Ba National Park. However, they were mortified to see two local lads on motorbikes turn up (with spare helmets of course) expecting the girls to hop on the back.
As we didn’t really like Hanoi the first time round, we just whizzed through before flying south to Dalat in the Central Highlands. The whole area was a huge contrast to the rest of sweltering Vietnam: beautiful rolling countryside, fresh air & mild temperatures.
The highlights included travelling to the bottom of a waterfall in a ‘bob-sleigh’ type of roller coaster and a cable car down to a Zen Monastery by the shores of a beautiful lake. We also visited a summer palace owned by the final Royal family, where the thing for the locals to do was dress up for photographs in royal attire. We decided to join in with David being the King, Andrew the Prince and Lydia the Princess. As someone has since commented we look ‘ridiculous’!
Before returning to Thailand we spent our last
few days in Ho Chi Minh City. We decided to hit the town & say goodbye to the girls and headed off to the ‘Crazy Buffalo’ area for a few drinks. The mixture of rum & cokes at only $1 and pounding music made sure we had a nice hangover on our last day. Goodbye Vietnam (until the next time anyway).
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John McLauchlan
non-member comment
Vietnam
We are very envious. Now Dianne wants to go to Vietnam instead of Kenya. Cant keep up with you guys. See you May