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We decided to go upper class for the latter part of our journey and stay in the hotel that hosted the Miss Universe 2008 competition. Rated as the #2 hotel in Nha Trang by ‘Tripadvisor’ the resort features pedal boats, kayaking, fishing, jacuzzi, sauna and spa.
Nha Trang seems to be the ideal place to chill out. There isn’t a lot to see here in terms of history; instead it’s more of a beach town like the Gold Coast back home.
Relaxed
When we arrived at the hotel we realised that Donald Trump (the owner of Miss Universe) hadn’t steered us wrong. It’s a true 5 star resort.
Level 1, Even the corridors are nice
Set about 15km’s from town, the resort itself takes up many acres of land. They even have mini buses to drive you around the resort its so big. It has 2 privates beaches, a massive pool, its own golf course under construction, a theme park & a night club. This is nothing like anywhere we have stayed before in any country.
It’s the best hotel/resort we have stayed in to date. The resort itself couldn’t be more than 2 years old and its finished to the highest standards.
We spent the rest of the day lying by the pool and ordering room service. The kind staff even brought us a honeymoon present, flowers, gourmet canapes, fruit platter, champagne and chocolates with strawberries . . . spectacular service.
Honeymoon Chocolates & Strawberries
Honeymoon Champagne
Later in the day we realise the resort must take up hundreds of acres of land. It has its own waterpark, theme park (with rides), parks, beaches etc.
Apart from the resort there is nothing around as far as the eye can see. It feels like such a hideaway.
Hoi An is probably the most interesting city in Vietnam for architecture and history. Most of the major cities in the country were mostly or totally destroyed in the Vietnam war, but due to agreements by both sides during the war, Hoi An was largely untouched.
This meant American and Vietcong soldiers would actually take leave during the war and both sides came to the same beaches for rest and relaxation at the same time.
Major cities like HCMC, Da Nang and Hanoi were almost completely rebuilt after the war, but as Hoi An survived it now offers travellers a lot more cultural delight than the other cities.
Today was one of the first days since HCMC that we have spent on our own. For the past week of so we have been travelled with one couple or another, so it was good to finally have some time alone again, not that we didn’t enjoy the company of the others.
After breakfast we toddled on down for a lazy swim and afterwards back to the tailors again to pick everything up. Kristy was so happy with her dress that she decided to get another one made, this time they were on a time restriction as we are leaving early tomorrow morning, as usual they said this was not a problem & to go back around 7pm.
Our Pool at the An Phu Hotel
It seems like we are spending so much money here because we hit up the ATM twice daily sometimes due to the machines not allowing you to withdraw more than 2 million Dong per transaction (about AU$150).
Both of us ended up skipping lunch today. We have eaten so much good food here that we’re stuffed.
In the afternoon I went back to the same guy as yesterday and he offers me a motorbike for the afternoon for 50,000 Dong . . . perfect.
Self Portrait - Moto Man
Kristy wasn’t feeling well so she decided to stay by the pool as I head out to explore the back streets and areas we wouldn’t otherwise see on foot.
(The video below was hard to keep steady. I had one hand on the throttle and the other holding the camera, trying not to crash).
I end up playing a game of volleyball with about 20 local Vietnamese guys on my journey. It’s great to get off the beaten track and see the country on your own terms and not on some pre-planned tour guide.
I almost wish we had set out initially to ride the entire length of Vietnam from bottom to top like the guys did in Top Gear. I fell we would have seen so much more of the countryside and had more of an authentic experience.
This man lives here!
For dinner somehow we got stuck eating with our tailor. Well we didn’t get stuck exactly, the 2 cousins were very nice and Kristy was waiting for her dress to be finished.
The younger cousin offered to take us to purchase some local food. Kristy stayed with the older cousin at the shop and the younger cousin jumped on the back of my bike and we went zooming down the street in search of authentic Vietnamese food.
We rode a fair way on the bike at rush hour. It was interesting negotiating the busier intersections with someone on the back.
We had almost reached our destination when we were passing a man on a pushbike at low speed (about 10kms/h).We were travelling in a pack of traffic about 5 bikes abreast when he decided to gradually turn into us. He bounced off once then twice as I started beeping my horn but he kept turning in until he bounced off us a third time and I had a gap in the traffic to gas it.
The young girl on the back said un phased, “oh don’t worry about him, he just had too much wine tonight”. Back at the shop she mentioned she knows of the guy. He has 4 little children, no job and is always drunk on the streets.
Luckily neither the bike nor us were injured in any way at all; it was more of a fright than anything else. Sitting down to eat another very cheap Pho Bo meal for 15,000 Dong & Kristy having vegetarian Cao Lao for 10,000 we just laughed about what happened earlier.
After dinner I doubled Kristy on the back of the moto and we cruised around the streets in the dark, eventually making our way down to the waterfront. It’s tough doubling 2 people on bikes with less than 100cc engines but it was another memorable experience of the trip.
Hoi An is known to have some of the best silk in the world. For hundreds of years it was used as a major trading destination for Japanese and Chinese travellers amongst others. Even today it’s still known for its tailors and fine materials.
Similar to Hanoi this city also has and ‘old town’. But unlike Hanoi this one has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Cars and motorbikes are not allowed through the old town, only pushbikes and pedestrians.
We were tired from staying up late last night wandering around the city so we decided to sleep in and meet with the others at about 11am. On the walk back to our hotel Kristy decided she wanted to get a dress made, so into another tailor we go, I can’t complain a fully lined silk dress for $25 is a bargain, so I’m told.
In the morning we wasted a fair bit of time going back and forth to tailors and shoe makers to make final adjustments for all the stuff we bought.
Finally we decided to get with the local culture and grab a motorbike like everyone else here. All 4 of us got a bike each. The NZ couple were a little weary at first having never ridden before, but the bikes were automatic and easy to ride and the traffic is very quite.
We kept speed with the rest of the bikes at a measly 20 – 30 km’s per hour. At that speed it didn’t seem too dangerous to be riding, in fact some pushbikes were going faster than us.
We began heading to Cai Dua beach around 2pm and we saw this nice little restaurant.
Riverside Restaurant in Hoi An
We were about a quarter of the way there & it started to pour down with rain. We were all soaked but the rain was warm and it actually cooled us down. Since it was raining so hard we turned around and ate lunch at the same place as yesterday back in town.
Eventually the rain ceased and we finally headed towards the beach in the evening. It was perfect timing to catch an awesome sunset. We ditched our bikes, stripped off our clothes and went for a swim.
Sunset just out of Hoi An
Later in the evening, we returned the bikes and came back to the An Phu hotel for a late night swim before heading out to dinner.
That night the 4 of us went back to the same restaurant for dinner as the night before. The food here is incredible and most importantly cheap, you can’t fault it even though it’s a government subsidised outdoor food court. All the tourists and locals seemed to be eating here.
Before bed we had to say goodbye to Luke and Julia who were leaving for HCMC in the morning and then off to Cambodia a few days later.
We left our hotel at 6am for an early flight to Da Nang (the centre point of Vietnam on the coast). The cab driver was blaring rock music way to early in the morning. For some reason he was on the horn a lot more than the others cab drivers.
It all made sense when we suddenly stopped on the major bridge out of the city. Our poor little driver was tired, he was standing beside the car splashing water on his face.
Instead of pulling over somewhere safe, he pulled over the Vietnamese way, somewhere very dangerous on a high speed 2-lane bridge. Most surprising was that the cars and bikes behind thought nothing of it and just swerved around us like every other obstacle in their path.
I couldn’t imagine pulling over in an actual lane on a very busy freeway back home.
After he got back in the car, he turned the radio up even louder, continued on the horn at other drivers and kept repeating the same cheesy rock song (I’m so lucky lucky) over and over on the CD player. (You need sound for this funny video . . . imagine this at 6am).
We haven’t booked a hotel yet for Hoi An, we’re just going to wing it and see what happens. We did the same last night and ended getting some presidential suite with 2 beds a little sitting table & lounge for US$22 per night.
It seems in Vietnam if you book online you wont get a bargain. All the little hotels don’t even have websites. So it’s the big hotels you end up having to book on the Internet and naturally they are much more expensive.
Da Nang Beach (inside cab)
We arrived at Da Nang and searched for a cab to Hoi An. Again the mafia try to con you, but we hooked up with a nice New Zealand couple and jammed 4 of us into a cab for US$10. We had to walk out of the airport to get that price. Then our dodgy cabbie makes a few stops of the way, not before asking if we had a phone so he could call his “boss” to inform him he was driving to another town (yeah right!!), dropping us at marble carving attractions and the like, so that he could get a backhanded commission.
Marble Carvings (Gigantic Scale)
Luckily the hotel he dropped us at was ok and the other guys were happy too. It’s got a nice pool and we got a balcony on our room, breakfast too all for US$18.
The New Zealander Luke and Julia are both only a year younger than each of us and have been the most fun the travel with thus far. Incidentally they have been travelling for over 3 years.
Hoi An is the culinary capital of Vietnam and its not hard to see why. Lunch and dinner were both some of the best meals we have had yet, and they were reasonably priced as well.
We found the locally brewed beer that I didn’t know existed till now. You can’t buy it from a bottle is comes direct from the local who brewed it, Boi Hoi I think it was called. 4,000 a glass (about 30 cents), it’s not the nicest beer, but how could you complain for that price.
Most of the little streets in Hoi An have either tailors or shoe makers in every shop. I got 2 suits for US$90 and 6 shirts for US$8 each and all tailor made from the fabric of my choice in my style of shirt and suit.
Kristy got a large winter overcoat for US$45 as well. I can have a copy of any shoes made for between US$20-25.
I got some nice Italian style black leather shoes made for US$25. I will see tomorrow how they turned out.
Nothing can beat a cruise on Halong Bay, but aside from that this place is by far my favourite.The streets are unsealed and the traffic is down by about 80% on Hanoi and about 95% on HCMC. The pace of life here is a lot more relaxed.
Quieter Hoi An Streets
Hoi An is more of a shoppers paradise than the other 2 cities. We may even hire a bike here to cruise around. The going rate seems to be about 10,000 Dong a day for a pushbike (not even a dollar) or about 100,000 Dong a day for a motorbike.
You have never tried a spring roll until you have tried one here. They are so different to the ones back home. The ingredients are straight from the markets down the road only hours old and the coating of the roll is only deep fried for about 10 seconds. They are still clear and you can see the insides. The most delicious spring roles ever. I can’t forget the wonton’s either, they are a must have at any restaurant here.
We pool was perfect at dusk. The water is still warm but now there is some shade from the ever burning sun in the daylight hours.
Sadly this morning is the end of an awesome 3-day 2-night adventure. I managed to scrape out off bed at 5am this morning to try and catch a warm sunrise, but there was an angry storm brewing.
After breakfast we were offered the option to kayak again, but let me set the scene, its raining more than you could ever imagine back home. Huge droplets are falling from the sky in rapid succession. The normally calm bay has developed a light swell and visibility is poor, all the more reason to hop in the kayak and get the adrenalin pumping.
I didn’t have a raincoat so I just went in shorts and a shirt, I was instantly saturated, but we had heaps more fun than the day before.
We had another large lunch before being taken back to the docks. I’m disappointed at having to leave so soon, it’s been so peaceful and relaxing. Halong Bay was truly a memorable experience.
Our French, American and Australian friends on the boat made the experience all the more enjoyable, we couldn’t have hoped for a better group.
Now I can kick back or a few hours on the bus ride back to the best streets of Hanois Old Quarter.
(You can see from the videos below the small amount of space in the streets).
We grab another 10 DVDs from a shop tonight for 10,000 Dong each (about 80 cents).
The busy Old Quarter that had frustrated me previously didn’t have the same effect anymore. I can only put it down to the blissful Halong Bay trip of a lifetime.
The alarm sounded at 5:15am. I was supposed to get up and see the sunrise over the bay, not today . . . too tired.
We get up in time for a large and exotic breakfast with had bacon and cucumber, toast with butter & jam, nashis, oranges, bananas and cheese. This Columbus tour group was known for giving good food and its spot on.
We had spoken to other tourists from other junk cruises that had been told to smuggle extra food on board because they don’t feed you enough.
We are down to 6 passengers now for the whole boat with 12 crew. So we have the best of service. We kayaked around Halong Bay for about 2 hours before getting on a smaller boat and landing at Cat Ba Island.
Fishing Villages - Halong Bay
Awaiting us is a 3-4 hour hike to a remote villages. The scenery is spectacular, but as usual is hot. Everyone’s clothes are soaked with sweat, but the adventure makes up for it. On the return home we stop as a random island, drop anchor and jump overboard. The water is cool and we swim to the nearest beach. You can see my living down on the beach under the rock if you look closely.
Private Beach
Pushed Overboard
I have never done anything so cool. Nothing can compare to being on your own private beach nestled amongst thousands of stunning limestone islands.
Later we head back for a rest before another dinner fit for a king. Afterwards we fish for squids again by torchlight, having even more success than last night.
The pace of life out here is so different to the city. It’s definitely where we needed to end up. There 2 days have been extremely relaxing and enjoyable. Our guide Kang is very funny as well.
Days later, Kristy is still a vegetarian. How long will it last?
We awoke early for breakfast and early checkout. After an argument with the front counter about the bad quality stay and service we ended up only paying for about ½ a night out of 2 full nights.
Right now we are on the bus heading to Halong Bay (3 hour trip). I’m looking at the vast rice fields along the way, the primary crop in Vietnam. There is some heavy rain showers at the moment. Hopefully it clears for Halong Bay.
Rice Fields
The countryside reminds me a lot of China, from what I have seem on documentaries. The road out to Halong Bay seems to be a busy route for trucks with a lot of trade between the border of Vietnam and China.
Pho Bo (beef) & Pho Ga (chicken) signs litter the streets on the way through the countryside, the same way McDonalds and KFC signs dominate the landscape back home. (Pho is the national dish for Vietnamese people, it’s a very nice tasting clear soup usually with either Bo or Ga).
What surprised me most was the lack of McDonalds signs here. In fact there are none! Our tour guide had never even heard of McDonalds, nor did he know of the Big M symbol . . . amazing. McDonalds hasn’t yet conquered the world, but there is plenty of KFC around here.
Vietnam has only 2 seasons each year, not like the 4 seasons most western countries are used to. They have the dry season and wet season, unfortunately we have already entered the start of the wet season but the upside is that its tourist low season.
We arrive at Halong Bay after a drive through the countryside. Off in the distance are sprawling mountainous ranges far in the background, its China. We are only 60 km’s from the border now. It’s still raining at the docks.
Halong Bay is the most magic place in the world you could ever imagine. It’s so idyllic that words cannot describe what you see here. It’s in the running to be classed as one of the 7 ‘new’ wonders of the world. That gives you some idea of what we have here.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is made up on 1960 individual limestone islands. Some large, some small and some with giant caves.
The ‘junk boats’ as there are refereed to by the locals are incredible old wooden boats that line the harbour. The staff manning the boats are so friendly compared to a normal hotel in the city.
Junk Boat
For lunch we were rewarded with a 8 courses meal fit for a prince. Tiger prawns, smoked clams, fresh squid, pork, chicken, rice, morning glory vegetables and fruit.
During the day we took a small boat out and explored some giant caves and saw an amazing view over Halong Bay (image above).
Surprise Cave - Halong Bay
Just before dinner we all jumped overboard and went for a swim for about an hour. That was great fun, except when Kristy dove into the water she hurt her shoulder so she couldn’t keep swimming.
For dinner we were treated like Kings, this time with an astounding 11 courses. We were told they would keep bringing out food till we stopped eating, eventuallty our stomachs stopped us all. The presentation of all of the dishes were out of this world.
We ate chicken & corn soup, chicken and shredded vegetables, prawn cocktails with amazing flower vegetables, corn coated in batter, mixed seafood spring roles, sesame seed chicken, tomato and battered fish, beef dish, rice, cabbage and carrot salad, dragon fruit as desert.
After dinner we fished for squid by torch light for 3 hours. When you pull those little critters out of the water they ink everywhere. Kristy managed to catch 3 while no one else caught any.
We awoke to a much cooler day, in fact we couldn’t run the air conditioner on full speed in the rooms anymore, it was too cold. But walking the streets will still bring on a good sweat.
We decided to stay in what’s known as the old quarter of Hanoi. A community of about 60 streets that all specialise in something different. One street sells fish, another silk, another shoes.
Its shitty, dirty and in my opinion there is nothing to do here. We walk the endless streets that all look the same getting lost. Its like being stuck in an endless Chinatown, but worse. Maybe we aren’t doing Hanoi right, but in my opinion HCMC was much nicer.
Old Quarter Streets
Welder
Halong Bay tours are best booked here, as it’s the closest major city to the bay. We end up decided on a 2-day cruise of Halong Bay. Heading to the ATM it’s hard to fathom talking out 6.6 million dong for 2 days on a ‘junk’ boat. (About AU$500). But it doesn’t matter whom you speak to, or what you read, everyone says that Halong Bay is amazing. It’s a world heritage listed site with thousands of islands jutting out from the sea.
I would love to come back in a few years when I have a little more money, it would be great to be a billionaire just once in my life. I’d only need 77 grand Aussie.
It’s very hard to find restaurants in the old quarters. There are lots of Vietnamese people cooking on the streets (actually in the gutters) but that’s not my style, especially after being really sick a few days ago.
Evertually we find a restaurant and order our meals.Instead of the waiter heading back to the kitchen he runs off down the streets and comes back a couple of minutes later with our food from god only knows where (obviously a gutter stall) and we just paid a premium price for it. Had I know I would have picked the cleanest of the gutter stalls and ate there directly.
Taxis are expensive and so are cyclo drivers just to move around a few streets at a time. I try to convince Kristy to get a motorbike, its only US$5 for a day. Very cheap, but they still drive crazy here too and it might cost you your life, we continue walking.
Metal Worker
The most surprising thing about Hanoi and HCMC is there are no major shopping centres, no movies theatres, just little junkie shops everywhere. This is in stark contrast to both Thailand and Malaysia that have shopping centres everywhere just like back home, which are a great place to escape the heat.
The saving grace for the day was our dinner. We looked online for recommendations and found a nice place. Entrees, mains, deserts and 6 cocktails. About 30 bucks Aussie. It was a great dinner and we stumbled back partly drunk to our hotel.
I hadn’t mentioned the terrible hotel yet from last night and today. Leaky roofs, leaky bath a sinks.
We were moved twice to different rooms. Under the sink was so bad that the pipe just fell off. It wasn’t screwed in place to the wall or under the sink, it just sat precariously balanced so that the slightest knock would send it flying. That wasn’t hard considering as soon as you lent on the sink it also moved. Nothing was done right in the hotel. We had maintenance guys in our room to night before till 1:30am. That’s no way to spend a Honeymoon.
As this was our last morning in Ho Chi Minh City and we had limited time, Kristy and I got massages. Quite a bargain.
One hour full body and half hour foot for 100,00 Dong (about AU$7.50) each. I feel so relaxed now. They aren’t as good as a Thai massage but they are still really nice.
I’m glad we are leaving the busy city and looking forward to something a little more quite. Even though Hanoi is the capital, it isn’t as busy as HCMC.
Our tour guide yesterday told us there are approximately 4 million motorbikes in the city. Even at midnight, its still rush hour on the streets. The local people never seem to sleep and are always going to their next job.
I would consider living over here in Vietnam, there are some big advantages. The people pay NO tax at all. They also don’t take out, nor have much access to loans of any form. Instead everything is paid in cash, even houses, all in cash.
What’s more interesting is there is no government help for non-workers. If you don’t work then you don’t earn money. Australia could learn some lessons here.
The average wage for most of the population is about US$100-200 per month.
Cheap Chinese made motorbikes are about US$200 and for a nicer Japanese Honda bike about US$2000-3000. We are told that a boy cannot meet a girl unless he has a motorbike. According to our tour guide the better the motorbike, the better the girl.
It’s interesting seeing the young men and women going to the park at night to be romantic. They lay on the back of one single motorbike in each other’s arms. Somehow they made it look comfortable.
As Vietnam is mostly a Catholic country people marry early, as girls are not really allowed to meet boys on there own, nor live together before marriage.
Cars are so rare on the streets that even construction workers use motorbikes, carrying steel girders, plain glass windows and bikes all on their motorbikes. Its seems there isn’t much you cant fit on a motorbike. We say a family of 6 on a bike. Mum, dad, 3 kids and one in the belly of the mother.
Sitting at the airport, I will be glad to leave the heat of HCMC. It didn’t let up the entire trip. 3-4 showers a day are mandatory in the city if you don’t want to smell like sweat. The streets are also very dirty. After a day in the city walking around in thongs it looked like I had walking through soot.
Hanoi is approximately 2 hours flight north of HCMC. So it should be a lot cooler when we get there as we are flying away from the equator. Fingers crossed.
We arrive at the aiport early. About an hour and a half before the flight. Only to find out as its almost time to board that our flight was delayed by 2 ½ hours. There wasn’t much to do in the airport and nowhere to plug in the laptop.
On arrival in Hanoi it was 27 degrees. It went from ugly hot in HCMC to pleasant hot here. There aren’t anywhere near as many motorbikes on the streets here. They easily still out number cars though.
We arrived at our hotel at about 9pm and decided to hit the streets in search of food. It was lightly raining and we didn’t want to venture too far in an unfamiliar city late at night in the wet streets.
We came across another couple an finally found a restaurant. There aren’t many restaurants in Hanoi . . . weird.The travellers were from Denmark and the states.
The Danish guy decided he wanted to try Dog for dinner, he was into the exotic dishes. After that Kristy couldn’t eat any more of her beef noodles she almost vomited the next bite.
Today we were up at 6:30am for another 8am tour start, but its easy because it’s 9:30am back home, so it feels late in the day as my body still hasn’t become fully acclimatised to this time zone yet.
Unfortunately when I work I discovered today would be diahorrea day. Something I ate last night didn’t go down well. Although the pizza was bad, Kristy didn’t get sick so I can only assume it was the pork bun that I ate with the suspicious egg in it. I should have gone with my instinct and flicked the egg out on the street. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a mushroom or something else.
I considered not going on the tour after breakfast, but I didn’t want to miss out so I went anyway. I felt really sick. headache, stomach pains, and join ache all over, especially feet. I felt like a wanted to die, or at least sleep. I didn’t enjoy any part of the long full day tour and just wanted to get back to the hotel.
After the tour, I skipped dinner and went to bed at about 5pm and slept through until the this morning. I feel much better today (Day 4).
The tour was quite boring, we spent a lot of time in traffic and only saw limited places. I was most disappointed by the Notre Dam Cathedral, which I thought would be the highlight of the day. It was very plain, nothing like a European cathedral that you see in the movies. Post office, boring. Chinatown, boring. Bing Tang market boring. Maybe this was just my biased attitude due to how I felt.
The Chinatown markets were supposed to be wholesale (i.e. very cheap), but they turned out to be very expensive, and they didn’t want to sell to tourists in individual lots, instead they prefer to trade with each other in large quantities.
The most interesting part of the day was the Vietnam War Memorial and the Reunification Palace. It had some great photos and monuments from the wartime.
