Welcome to Vietnam!
Our first port of call was Phu Quoc island.We booked into the only the only hotel in our price range with a pool. Big mistake! It turned out to be a Communist style goulag, with an army of teenagers seemingly employed to watch the rubbish accumulate around their feet. It did have a pool, but the bathroom was almost as damp, with black mould everywhere, the stench of which did not go down well with Liz's bloodhound sense of smell. Luckily we transferred to a much nicer hotel a bit further up the beach.
This was the first time we've ridden a scooter. It was a great idea, as we got to wobble sedately around the island for a couple of days on the red dirt roads. We got covered in dust, but it allowed us to go to explore the island. The coast road at dusk was awesome, with palm trees, the shimmering silver sea and fisherman's huts dotted along it. We also discovered a paradise beach called Sao Bai, surrounded by jungle, with white powder sand, clear turquoise waters, and a few really colourful jellyfish. We spent loads of time in the water. The only downside was the litter on the beach, which we later found to be a Vietnam-wide problem, much to Liz's annoyance - Nowhere is perfect!
Next stop was the Mekong delta, a landscape with brown rivers snaking through the jungle in all directions. We spent a day on a little wooden boat, with Yick, who was determined to play tricks on Liz and make her jump at every opportunity. We visited a couple of interesting floating markets, where the old Vietnamese women still row around wearing conical hats. We walked through a riverside orchard with mango, papaya, jackfruit, bananas, and water coconuts. This is where we discovered our new favourite drink - mango smoothies.
After the tranquility of the Mekong came the madness of Ho Ch Minh City (or Saigon). Described to as once as 'like the start of the London marathon, but with everyone on motos', this is a perfect description of the roads in HCM. At junctions the traffic just merges through each other, without anyone stopping or any crashes. It takes a while to learn how to cross these roads where the traffic never stops - you just walk slowly across and the traffic swerves to avoid you. The zebra crossings mean nothing. Maybe surprisingly we've continued to make it across in one piece! Despite this there doesn't appear to be any road rage.
There were only occasionally over zealous touts in HCM, which was great! Neither of us had high hopes for this city but surprisingly we both loved it! Despite the traffic, including continuous use of horns, the city has many saving graces, including some lovely parks and wide pavements. We never felt claustrophobic as we have on occasion elsewhere . There's more of a western feel to it, whilst remaining distinctly Asian, with less poverty and mostly friendly people, although our cyclo riders did try to rip us off!
The Cu Chi tunnels were next. These are a network of 250km of complex tiny underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong to outwit the Americans during the war. It was amazing to learn how these 16,000 Vietnamese villagers lived underground by day and farmed by night during the 'American War' as it's known. Only 4,000 survived, but what resilience they showed! The tunnels are too small for us 'fat westerners' (as they like to remind us at any given opportunity, and especially when shopping for clothes ha ha) But we did crawl through a tunnel, especially enlarged for us western bloaters lol
Following this we visited the War Remnants Museum. We found this particularly harrowing and we struggled to understand the pointlessness of this war and the devastation caused. I (Liz) struggles with some feelings of anger. I'll say no more.
Happy Hoi An :) We loved this town, the old quarter especially, with it's old chinese influenced buildings and narrow streets! At night the whole town is lit by beautiful and colourful Chinese lanterns - quite the sight!
Here we attended a cookery course, which was excellent. We are now Michelin star quality Vietnamese chefs! Seriously, it was fun and we got to cook and eat some of the tastiest food we've had in Vietnam.
Our1st train ride to Hue was really cool. The scenery was spectacular to view from the train snaking along the mountain side. Vistas included the beautiful untouched beaches below and the rugged mountains - excellent! Hue seemed like a nice place, but we didn't see much, except the citadel, where the emperor and his concubines and Eunochs once lived. We also took a cyclo - like a Victorian bath chair attached to a bike - to the Pagoda. This is now Liz's new favourite mode of transport. She expects to be taken around London like this on our return!
We're writing this on the 15 hour long overnight sleeper train to Hanoi. What an experience! We're in the 'deluxe' 4 berth soft sleeper, with such luxuries as 2 coat hooks each. It's like a prison cell but with less space and more beds. It's so bumpy, and everything creeks over every bump, so you hear the bumps as well as felling them. Good job it moves so slowly. Liz became rather too familiar with the squat toilet over the course of the journey too, so we only got 4 hours shut-eye.
We love Vietnam so far, and can't wait to go to Ha Long Bay and Sapa in the mountains. We'll keep you posted next time...
