A fortnight in Vietnam

We arrived at Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC, formerly Saigon) at around 7.30am local time, tired and wanting a bed, to be confronted by a crowd of taxi drivers telling us $25 to town (most things here are priced in US dollars, the local currency Dong is about 25000 to 1 pound, hence 40 quid will make you a millionaire!). We went to the information desk and got one for about $9, after checking in we immediately collapsed for a few hours! When we eventually surfaced later that day it was dark, we got some dinner and headed back to our room, collapsing in front of a TV that had actual channels in actual English!

The next morning we stepped out into what seemed the entire world's population of motorbikes, mopeds, scooters and pedal bikes on the one road we were trying to cross. It seems like sides of the road in this city are arbritraty, wherever there is space, the Vietnamese will fit a vehicle through it. Luckily we had a mild introduction into road crossing in China, this was now the main event. The important thing is to put your head down, don't look at whats coming and they will miraculously part like Moses controlling the red sea around you. The minute you hesitate, get scared and pause or stop to say "Ooh, look at that!", it all starts to go wrong, a great deal of screeching, honking and swerving occurs. Nevertheless we made our way through and found quite an exciting market. Unlike markets we've visited previously, there was no speciality, clothes, tourist crap, food, spirits, etc. all under one roof. Cries of "Hello Sir/Madam, I have your size, what you looking for?" followed us round. We weren't particularly in the mood given our state, but still sat down at one of the food stalls and had a late lunch. We overheard a conversation that made mention of a night market that set up in the evenings outside of the market hall.

We continued to wander round the streets marvelling at the copied books (who knew there were black market books) for just a couple of dollars each until it suddenly started raining, and we ducked into a coffee shop. Once the rain had let up, that stops and starts as if someone is in control of a magical switch, we made our way down to the Saigon river watching some boys jump into the very murky waters. Later on that evening we returned to the night market and decided to have dinner there, we found a great looking place with a big barbeque set up outside and ordered a red snapper with some noodles. The fish was served whole with a plate of rice pancakes, a few herbs and some cold noodles. The idea is to put a little bit of everything into a pancacke then roll it up. The pancakes and noodles were a bit bland, but the fish was great and we decided to return the following evening.

Rain greeted us again the next day, so we spent most of it inside. First stop was the Reunification palace which served as the HQ for the South Vietnamese army during the war. It was a bit like stepping into a villan's secret hideout from an old James Bond film. The most interesting areas were the display wall, featuring 'gifts' that included some hollowed out elephants feet, and the basement that was full of communications gadgetry and map covered walls. We then made our way over to what we thought was the war museum but became suspicous when the first display was that of a wedding ceremony. We had in actual fact stepped into The Ho Chi Minh City Museum. There was a small room dedicated to the war, but the rest of the museum told of the history and development of HCMC. Once we'd had our fill of scary stuffed animals and topographics we went in search of the actual war museum to no avail. Once back at the hotel we sorted out our Open Bus ticket, the ticket is a prepaid ticket that allows us to travel from HCMC to Hanoi, making stops at Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue in between. As previously arranged we once again went to the night market for our dinner opting for meat options this time, but wishing we'd gone for the snapper again!

The next few days were spent in Mui Ne in a pool that looked out over a beach and the South China Seas. After a couple of months spent inland it was nice to unwind and relax under the sun. We did however spend one day adventuring. On the way into Mui Ne we had seen loads of dragon fruit plantations, and wanted to go and investigate. In the spirit of the moment we rented a moped, as the roads were nowhere near as crazy here, and set off to find the dragon fruit to scoffs and sniggers from the hotel staff who told us it was too far away. One bum-breaking-knee-burning-hour-long journey later we found the plantations. They went on in every direction as far as the eye could see, and each one was accompanied by a roadside shop. We picked one and after sampling one with red flesh and one with white flesh we decided on the red, bought two and were on our way again. Boosted by our success in finding the dragon fruit we then tried to find the salt fields, unfortunately we found roadworks instead, and headed back to the hotel to enjoy our fruit by the pool, smugly asking for a knife, making sure the staff saw our enormous fruits!

The next stop along was Nha Trang, another beach town, but a little less resorty, and a little more cocktail bary. In contrast to the private beach resorts of Mui Ne, Nha trang consists of a central tourist district about a 100m walk to an enormous curved beach. The first day was spent by the sea, swimming and enjoying the weather, the second we had booked ourselves onto a tour of the islands. The tour involved taking us out to four islands with various activities along the way. At the first we were chucked out above some coral admiring the pretty fish and a couple of rays before the pain of jellyfish stings became to much and everyone clambered back aboard. At the second it was luch time, they put on a big spread including prawns, noodles and fish and then chucked us back into the water to experience the floating bar (a big bucket sat in a lifebelt with a load of cheap plonk in it. The next stop was an island where you could pay extrea to do a number of watersports, we decided against and stayed on the boat. This proved to be a great decision as we saw the crew catch and kill an octopus. Even after it was dead the suckers still worked as Nikki found out when the guide grabbed her foot and stuck it to the upturned creature. The final stop was an aquarium, we decided to stay aboard once again, but this tim it was a little less exciting, but we were treated to a fresh fruit feast and some fried octopus! On our final day in Nha Trang the weather took a turn for the worse once again so we were stuck inside for most of the day, although I (Mark) did hire a pedal bike to go and look at some Cham ruins. Quite interesting and very different from Chinese/Japanese temples. On the way back I went on a bit of an adventure into the non tourist areas, which was exciting to say the least!

The following day we caught an overnight bus to Hoi An, a pleasant sedate town next to a river. It is famed for its multitude of tailors shops and Nikki managed to pick up a skirt and a dress for about 13 pounds. Today we hired a couple of bikes and rode the 3km to the beach, again a very different kind of beach. Soft white sand was offset by huge waves that crashed into your head from all directions! We went for a rather ominous meal last night to a restaurant that had no menu, just 3 choices - meat, seafood or vegetarian. Following your choice the staff then bring out various dishes under that theme that change daily. They also demonstrate how to eat the dishes and after we had been munching on what we thought was some sort of chicken, we were informed it was baby shark! Tomorrow we head further north to Hue before continuing on up to Hanoi.

HCMC & Mui Ne: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83126&l=18c0c&id=720640428
Nha Trang: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83294&l=3c919&id=720640428
Hoi An: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83796&l=7663e&id=720640428