Vietnam

Thursday, January 24- Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

One of my favorite cities of all my travels so far in life! I was so excited to take the free shuttle in from the port of Phu My and just be dropped off to explore the city for the day by myself. Luckily, I had also contacted the lovely guide who toured Shaina and I around the city 4 years ago, Diem, and she gave me some great food and shopping highlights to hit since I’ve seen the majority of the touristy things already. It is about an hour and a half drive in and I hit the ground running. I need to use the bathroom, of course, so when we are dropped off right by the HCMC Sky Tower I decide to go up and take a look at the city. (After going up in the KL Tower and being really impressed with the view, as well as enjoying the air con, I’m slowly becoming a fan of these)

I start to go down Diem’s list of shops. The first place is not showing up on Google maps and it’s a bit of a confusing online search, but I think I’ve found it so I just start walking. Almost got hit by a big, red bus but that’s part of the charm of being a pedestrian in HCMC. Searching, searching. Ok, give up on the military shop. Next I hit the antiques road she suggested. There were some great items and I did my best at bargaining but my prices were too low for them, so I left empty handed. I’ll be back in HCMC in the next month or two I think, so I might go back. Next, I hit the first clothing market. I forgot how much I love this city! I love the small vendor stalls selling everything under the sun that’s up for negotiation. I buy a few things and move on. Time to eat.

I decide on a restaurant Diem recommended with “home cooked Vietnamese food.”  I ordered a spring roll appetizer and a dish, new to me, with wide noodles that are fried and mixed with beef and vegetables.  Absolutely fantastic!  But I really wanted some fresh noodles too, so I ordered a second entree of beef noodle soup and ate it all.  No regrets, it was fabulous.

Now to walk all that off…I headed to Ben Thanh Market, my personal favorite from my previous trip.  It’s a gigantic indoor market with about everything under the sun for sale.  There are many food stalls, clothing, Vietnamese souvenirs, fabric, shoes…all at great prices and negotiating is half the fun.  I found a stall that had lots of fabric I liked, so I looked through her huge inventory of pants and settled on 3 I liked.  I had 330 Dong (around $15) and that’s all I wanted to spend.  She started out at 900 Dong and I told her no, I was walking away, all I had was 330.  She told me to go to the ATM.  Hell no.  Then she said 330 Dong plus $10US.  No.  I told her I’d been there before and gotten 3 pairs for $10US.  She claimed no way, so I told her I’d go somewhere else.  As I walked away, she caved and I got my pants for 330.  Sweet victory.

Then I found a really cool hand woven purse I love!  I paid $15US for that happily (negotiated down from $20).  After my shopping victories, I went walking about until I had to meet the bus to take me back to the ship.

My sweet friend, Diem, met me back at the ship as I was getting on to give me and Mama a lovely gift bag of Vietnamese goodies including cream puffs, two types of coconut oil for your skin, amazing peanut candies, and dried ginger.  So thoughtful and I’m loving every bit of it!  Our time was brief but it was so great to see her.  I promised her I’m coming back on my own!

I seriously love the chaos and life of this city.  I can’t wait to return!

Friday, January 25- Nha Trang, Vietnam

It took forever to get a tender from the boat to the shore. I almost gave up and stayed on the ship all day, but miraculously I got a boat before my patience wore out and got into town. Nha Trang is basically tall hotels on the beach and lots and lots of Russians in too-small bathing suits. All the signage in town is in Vietnamese, Russian, and maybe English.

From where the bus dropped me off, I walked the beach strip down the coast. Thankfully, the temps were in the low to mid 80s and it felt amazing compared to the mid-90s only a few days ago. The town was lackluster and I failed to find any great restaurants or shops. It was nice to walk around and it was a pretty day, but overall it wasn’t a win for me. Perhaps if I had more time to explore (or did more research on where to go in town…), it would have been different?

Sunday, January 27- Da Nang & Hue, Vietnam

It was a long drive on a rainy day to get from Da Nang to Hue. It took almost 3 hours, but it was a beautiful drive through many small villages and rice fields on the way. When we arrived in Hue, we went to the Imperial City of the Nguyen Emperors. It was incredibly gorgeous, even though only about 15% of the original complex is still standing after the bombing of the Vietnam War (the Tet Offensive). The detailing of this palace complex was impressive and the story of how the last emperor was driven out of Vietnam by the Communists was a sad one. Walking the grounds was majestic, and that was with lots of tourists roaming about. I can’t imagine how breathtaking it was in its heyday.

Next we went to Tu Duc which was a mausoleum for an emperor which was actually something he used during his life as a “retreat” of sorts. There was a building where he did work, that now is a shrine paying tribute to him and his late wife, as well as elaborate gardens, a lake with a boat house, and his remains are somewhere on site but no one is sure where to prevent anything from happening to them.

We then had a Vietnamese lunch buffet which was pretty good and got on the bus for the long drive back to Da Nang.

Da Nang in and of itself is quite the bustling city. There are some really interesting bridges crossing the river as well as lots of new high rise buildings on the skyline. I couldn’t help but notice how different the vibe was there than in Saigon. Much cleaner, less chaos, and felt a bit more modern. It might be a good place to return one day to explore for a few days.

January 29-30 Halong Bay,Vietnam

Tuesday, January 29- Delta

I have been to Halong Bay before so I skipped the classic boat tour and visit to the caves. Of all the places I’ve been in Vietnam, I have never been to the delta so I chose the Delta Villages and Culture tour. When I was here previously, it was June, so much muggier and buggier which presents the possibility of mosquitos that carry anything from malaria to Dengue Fever. I’m very prone to mosquito bites, so this was ideal for me to go in a time when there were very few bugs!

We drove out of the city into a very small village called Lam Dong. A local girl joined our group and took us on a walking tour of her village. We started on the main street where the market of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs…anything you might want, were on sale. The colors of all the produce were beautiful and it was really nice to experience what felt to be an authentic look into daily life in a small Vietnamese village. There were school kids heading home from lunch on their bikes, farmers out wading in the rice fields, and we even had the pleasure of going to visit the home of our local guide. It was a meager place with many people from one family sharing a very small space. They were gracious hosts who presented us with a variety of bananas, oranges, peanut candies, green tea, apples, and other small local treats. The real treat was watching the process of making tofu. It was fascinating and the final product was so beautiful!! I wish I could have purchased some to bring back and cook myself!

After leaving the village, we proceeded into the larger town of Haiphong to visit two beautiful pagodas. They were so intricately carved and had beautiful open beams inside. The spaces had a very peaceful and holy vibe to them, very special spaces.

I was really pleased with this tour. It felt so authentic and the group was very small so we didn’t feel so intrusive as we paraded around together like a school of fish.

I liked the vibe of Haiphong a lot too. My experiences with Vietnamese cities has usually been the gigantic ones like Saigon (10 million people) or Hanoi (9 million people), so this was much more relaxed, although the traffic just as bonkers.

Wednesday, January 30- Ha Long City

I just had a free day to walk on my own today. I ventured down the long pier into town to check out the few shops and restaurants that are actually open during the low tourist season. The taxis and motorbikes that are constantly honking at you for a ride just about drove me to insanity. I just wanted to walk to enjoy the nice day and get some exercise, but they literally will not leave you alone!

I eventually settled in a great little restaurant/coffee shop/bar on the water and ordered a delicious bowl of beef pho and a white wine. I had to use up m leftover Dong, so obviously I had this cash to burn! Ok- I had 2 glasses of wine 🙂 I finished off my cash by buying two face masks and a can of Vietnamese brand Pringles (weakness), then made my way back to the boat. It was actually a nice outing but the town is pretty dead this time of year. Nothing too exciting, but nice for a relaxing day on your own to finish a book.