The roads thus travelled: Ho Chi Minh City, Mũi Né, HCMC (again) – still accompanied by Ollie (he really won't leave, we've tried paying him and everything)
When planning my travels, I've always said that Vietnam was the country I was most eager to see. And writing this blog post with little less than a couple of days left (yes, I'm very behind on my writing already!) I can honestly say it has not disappointed. However … A one month visa has not nearly given me enough days to explore the country - I so wish I could have another month here (maybe more) but unfortunately time is not on my side!
The HIGHLIGHTS:
HCMC: the first thing we do in Vietnam? Celebrate young Oliver’s 23rd birthday! This means a pub crawl with matching hats, of course. We did try to be classy earlier in the day, and have expensive cocktails at the Bitexco Tower, but a pub crawl was calling our English hearts. And besides, we wanted the free hats.
Our next activity was a water park – cultural, ay? In fairness, it was cheap as chips, unsafe as hell, and we got to watch people belly flop off the zip wire. A winning day if you ask me.
We did eventually see some of the historic and beautiful sites of HCM (I swear).
The weirdest was the pink dyed doves outside the “Notre Dame” Cathedral. The yummiest was the
food at the Street market – touristy, but I got tofu spring rolls and an oyster bun – so I will never
complain!
The most important place we visited was, of course, the War Remnants museum. Now coming here so soon after visiting the Killing Fields and S21 museum in Cambodia, probably wasn't the best idea – we were still feeling quite raw. Regardless of this, the museum was still one of the highlights of my stay in Saigon. Learning about these countries histories, especially Vietnam where the physical after effects of the war – birth deformities from earlier generations exposure to Agent Orange gas, and the possibility of triggering an unexploded landmines, are still very much a threat for the Vietnamese – it feels like the war is still continuing for them. Once again, I urge fellow travellers to visit and learn from these sites to truly appreciate the hardships these lovely people are trying to overcome.
Mũi Né: Mũi Né was a very fun and relaxing little break after the city life of Phnom Penh and HCM. Arriving late in the afternoon justified our decision to lounge on a beach whilst watching hundreds of people kite surf (unfortunately, this was the only windy day during our stay, so we were unable to have lessons!) – a pretty fantastic sight, and my camera/photography skills have not nearly done it justice!
The next day was spent visiting the sand dunes – which is so cool. You get picked up in a jeep. A jeep! Automatically cool.
The sand dunes themselves were beautiful, and Fi and I got to ride quad bikes (without crashing! – I mean we got beached a couple of times, but that doesn't count … Right? RIGHT?) We also got to walk down the “Fairy Stream” - I'm still not entirely sure what this was though …
The rest of our stay was spent topping up our tans – which are on POINT, I might add – and playing Marco Polo in the pool. (Fi totally knows who that is now too – see, we’re learning so many new things travelling).
The return to HCM
So, we made the decision to continue our journey to the North of Vietnam … on motorbikes.
Yes, I bought a bike. Yes, Fi bought a bike. (Friends and family will either be pissing themselves, or crying in fear at this) – and I guess we’ll now discover whether my Dad really does read my blog, because I'll be getting a Howler.
Nevertheless, bikes were brought, and we were ready to start our big adventure.
Almost.
I made it 10km out if the city before my bike rejected me, threw me to the side of the road, decided to detach itself from its breaks, and genuinely commit suicide.
RIP Hermes.
I paid a small fortune for some weird guy with a tuktuk-like mini truck to take me and my bike back to the city. – well, not actually in the city, he dumped me in the middle of nowhere, and miraculously, hours later, Ollie and Fi managed to find and save me.
However, the next morning I had a new red bike, a lot less money, and a belly full of caffeine.
A pretty successful start all in all ;)
Next stop (on our road trip): Đà Lạt!!
