Vietnam (Part 2)

We have been back in the UK for several weeks now and it is such a bizarre time, what with the lockdowns everywhere due to covid19. It has been nice spending time with my parents though. Even with the forced time at home, I am only getting around to finalising this blog post now. It is only a short ish one and I will get around to posting about Cambodia and Malaysia at some point, but for now here is the post for our last few weeks in Vietnam, enjoy…

We thouroughly enjoyed our last few weeks in Vietnam, although we did not have a very direct route of travel and ended up ping-ponging up and down the country a bit.

On the 26th December we flew down to Qui Nhon from Hanoi with some of our friends who were going for a beach getaway. We spent 3 nights (26th-28th) at Nha Muoi Homestay. It was nice and cheap to stay here and about 30 seconds walk from the beach. Our room was basically a little wooden shack on the top floor/roof and was quite cozy and modest. It was not very large in the room and there was a shared bathroom. We could hear every movement made by the couple in the room next door and unfortunately they liked to open and close the squeeky door many times at about 5-6am. There was a great communal chill out area on the rooftop which overlooked the food street below and you could also see the beach from there, it had a couple of loungers and rope and tyre swing seats as well as a table and bench.

Alex and I flew back 1 night before Thom and Dave as we had said we would meet our friend Sam who was getting into Hanoi from London very early in the morning of the 30th and would be jetlagged and in need of reassurance. We stayed the night of the 29th December back at the RedDoorz Plus near West Lake Tay Ho. It cost us more this time than the previous time but we wanted a good nights sleep so were willing to pay it. Sam got a taxi from the airport and met us there. We all had early morning showers and a cup of tea before heading over to Lily’s Travel agent in Old Quarter of Hanoi where we had booked a bus and ferry to take us to Cat Ba Island for the festival occuring on New Years Eve at Woodstock Jungle Camp. Unfortunately we stayed in the room chatting for too long before heading to the Old Quarter and several Grab taxi’s never arrived so did not have enough time to get food before the bus, although we did manage to get Sam a sim card before we set off. It took about 5 hours (I think) from Hanoi before we reached Woodstock Beach Camp, the sister hostel to the one hosting the festival. We stopped for about 10 mins where we were able to grab some crisps. There was also refreshments available at the ferry terminal and on the ferry.

We stayed at Woodstock Beach Camp for 5 nights (30th December – 3rd January) as we thought the festival was a 3 day event and that we would want some recovery time. I am not sure if the festival was in fact 3 days or not, although we thought 1 night was enough and did not want to do any more anyway, so could have spent less time here. The hostel was quite nice, we got private rooms which were gloriously dark during the day as there were no windows. There were matresses lining the balcony which our friend told us you could see sunrise over the bay from here as it was really close to the beach. There was a large communal area downstairs with many tables, chairs and hammocks.

We found the social groups a little awkward to fit into here and felt particularly sorry for solo travellers as it was quite a cliquey environment when we were here. From here, we got a taxi to the ferry which should have cost 250,000 VND although we did not get change from 300,000 VND but we were too tired to really care at this point. The ferry cost I think 12,000 VND per foot passenger and then the next taxi to the airport cost another 300,000 VND if I remember correctly. The people working at Woodstock were trying to push us to take the bus which would have been 210,000 VND each and taken us to Hai Phong centre, and then we would still have needed to get another taxi to the airport which would have taken longer and cost more with 3 of us. We think that they must have recieved a commision from booking the bus from the hostel as they were quite insistant. So just something to consider if you are travelling in a group.

We then flew from Kien An Airport in Hai Phong down to Danang where we got a transfer from the Sea Sun Homestay in Hoi An which cost 300,000 VND which was added to the room. This place was really close to the beach and we stayed here for 6 nights (4th-9th January) but then did 1 further night (10th January) at the more central Hoang Thu Homestay.

From here we got a taxi to the airport which again cost 300,000 VND and then flew down to Ho Chi Minh City as Sam was keen to experience it before we left for Cambodia. We stayed 2 nights (11th-12th January) at Nhat An Homestay in district 1.

Qui Nhon
This was a fantastic beach front city. We had a selection of beaches within walking distance which were all long and sandy. We found one here which was less busy and therefore had less litter on it, but both were nice. We also went to some more beaches which were further afield so hired motorbikes from the hotel that Thom and Dave were staying at. One of these beaches was near the big Buddah statue at Tượng Phật Chùa Ông Núi Temple, which we climbed on one of the days, and the other we had to go through the tiny streets of a little fishing village. These were also very beautiful and lovely beaches.

Whilst we were in Qui Nohn we had lots of tasty seafood. I would recommend the seafood street which has loads of street food style sea food. I do not remember the name of the street but was quite obvious if you walked down the coastal road from Bai Bien towards surf bar. Here we were offered a squid that had just come straight out of the sea and was barbequed up in front of us, it was the tastiest and freshest seafood I have ever had. Admittedly, I have never had that much seafood as my mum was allergic so we never ate it while I was growing up. I am still to this day a little put off by seafood sometimes, although once it was on my plate I found it delicious, so I am glad I ate it here.

Cat Ba
We enjoyed Cat Ba island, however we definitely over stayed here. This was because we were expecting to party for 3 days at the festival so booked enough time to include recovery after this.

On our first day we hired bikes from the hostel and went to the national park and climbed up to the viewpoint. We got some beers from the shop where we had parked our bikes, and then another round from a stall about 20 feet inside the national park. Climbing whilst drinking beer was quite hard but it was a fantastic view from the top.

The festival was not quite what we were expecting. We filled our bellies at the family dinner at the jungle camp prior to the festival, the food here was really good and I believe cost 100,000 VND each. The festival itself cost 150,000 VND each. It started pretty slow with some singers, who initially lectured the audience on the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bike, which is an important message, but kind of brought the party atmosphere down a bit. The first few bands struggled to get anyone off their bums and on their feet dancing. This was better by the last acts playing who did some pretty cool, jazzy covers and mixing up of songs. There was some cool fire dancing acts that performed a few times, and I always enjoy watching fire spinning. There was a ticket system for drinks which was a bit annoying and I think the price of drinks either changed throughout the night or the staff serving were less able to calculate the ticket price as the night continued. In theory you could have changed back any unspent tickets to cash at the end of the night although I am fairly sure most people forgot to do this at this stage. There was a free shuttle at 6pm to the festival and then back at 6am. We did not make it until 6am so spent 300,000 VND on a taxi back to the hostel. I tried to tough it out, I even had a brief nap in a hammock there, but then woke up cold so managed to convince Sam and Alex it was time to go home. Oliver was staying at the jungle camp so didn’t need to go anywhere.

We enjoyed driving around the island generally. One day we stopped in Cat Ba town for some tasty food and drinks.

One of the other days I persuaded Alex to come with on a boat tour, although I think we may have both been too tired to really enjoy it. We went down to the docks and found a guy who had just come back from a boat tour and was willing to take us. He initally offered the tour for 900,000 VND for 2 hours but this was too expensive for us, we managed to talk him down to 500,000 VND for 1 hour. Whilst on the boat he kept trying to get us to do the larger tour by saying the small tour is very short, the big tour is very beautiful. He even came down to 650,000 VND for the large tour but by this point we only wanted 1 hour anyway. We definitely preferred the boat tours in Ninh Binh which had similar scenery, mostly because they were not on motorboats so we didn’t have the constant chug of the engine on our backs. It also just felt like less of a rip off. Cat Ba and Halong Bay are really quite touristy and therefore the prices are jacked way up. Ninh Binh is also incredibly driven by tourism, but it felt a lot nicer.

The beach area was really nice at the Woodstock beach camp and we all escaped here a few times. There were loads of hammocks set up as well as a slackline.

I managed to do a few of the days of the 30 day yoga with Adriene journey, “home” on the beach here as it started at the beginning of January. It was a lovely, relaxing area to do this and had a great view.

Sam said he enjoyed spring rolls for the first time in Cat Ba. I told him that the Vietnamese spring rolls were so much better than the ones we get at home.

We managed to roll up some D and D characters and have a couple of short sessions while we were here which were quite fun. It was quite strange playing with people we were less familiar with as their individual styles of playing were so different to what we were used to, although this brought fresh and interesting perspectives to the game.

Despite having enjoyed lots of parts of Cat Ba, we were all quite glad to be leaving by the time we did.

Hoi An
Hoi An was such an incredible city and is probably my favourite city I have ever been to. It was so lovely just wondering through the cute little streets of Old Town or relaxing on the beach. There were so many lanterns in this city that it just looked spectacular. Every other street seemed to have a temple or place of interest which was really fun to walk around, even though we did not purchase the tickets required to go inside. We spent one late afternoon, into early evening getting mojitos at a bar on the first floor overlooking the river. This was such a gorgeous spot to sit at as day turned to night – all the lanterns along the street and on the boats started lighting up and created beautiful reflections in the water.

Hoi An is considered ‘The place to go’ for getting tailor made clothes in Vietnam. There are tailors in virtually ever other building. They can produce fantastic clothing within 24 hours and then invite you back for fittings which may take a few more sessions. I got myself a multi-way dress and Sam got himself a full 3 piece suit. I went in with a vague idea of what I wanted with a couple of pictures, I liked the top of one and the bottom of the other. They took my measurements and created the combination of what I had shown them in a fabric that I chose. The style I chose is called an infinity dress so there are loads of different ways to wear it. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

In all of the time we were away on our travels, we got the slackline out of the bag for the first time in Hoi An. We set it up a few times, at Kahunas beach and the beach near where we were staying. Sam had said he was never going to be able to do slacklining as he tried many times before, although with some encouragement, a few tips, and a bit of practice he was taking multiple step – like a pro! Well, nearly!

Part of the reason we went to Hoi An when we did was to meet up with our friends Nico and Erin that we had met at Ban Gioc waterfall before they went away to Thailand and beyond. It was great to see them again.

Whilst in Hoi An we had some really delicious food at Kumquat BBQ restaurant, it took awhile to find this place but it was so worth it. I totally would recommend it. It was in and amongst the vegtable village setting.

We also ate a few times at The Old Man restaurant and bar which was absolutely amazing the first time, but I was a bit disappointed when we ordered the same dish the second time.

Siagon
Sam was keen to check out the big city before we left Vietnam. Although, the first night we found our accommodation and went straight to bed leaving us with one full day in Siagon. We attempted to go to the Little Hanoi Egg Coffee cafe that we had been to before, but that one was full. They told us about their other shop just down the road so we went to go there as Alex felt Sam should experienve this egg coffee as it was his favourite coffee in Vietnam. We found the sign of the shop on the corner at the crossroads but did not read it thoroughly enough as we should have gone upstairs. We ended up in the cafe on the corner which was not the one we had intended. Alex and Sam both got an egg coffee but they were not as good. It did not occur to us at all that the menu didn’t look the same and there was no “Little Hanoi” branding on anything and the food choices were much more limited. We did not fancy any of the snack food on offer in this other cafe so only had drinks there. As soon as we stepped outside of this cafe again we realised that we had simply gone into the wrong place. At this point we decided just to go for a second egg coffee and food at the place we had originally intended – resulting in Alex and Sam being very jacked up on caffeine afterwards. It was worth it though as it was much better, and the food here was delicious, as it had been in the partner shop, previously.

After this we wondered the streets looking for a few bits and pieces that we wanted to buy, including travel to Cambodia. We managed to find all, or most of the items we required and decided to celebrate by drinking cheap beer before heading back to shower and cool off in the air conditioned room.

We went to Baba’s Kitchen again to close our time in Vietnam with some delicious Indian curry. We managed to convince Helene and Mats to come and join us for drinks later in the evening and had a very silly evening. It was very different to our previous stay in Siagon as that time we had been avoiding the booze. I have to say, as much as we enjoyed the backpackers street sober, it was more fun when cheap beer and great company was added.

We arrived the next day at the travel agents that we had booked our coach to Cambodia with plenty of time to spare. Our plan was to grab food nearby, although the guy at the desk of the travel agents made it seem that we had a lot less time than we did and directed us to one of the banh mi stalls you could see from the shop front. We got a sandwich from here and as we were ordering the guy came out of the shop and said we had more time than he initially said but by this point we decided to stick with it. I had learnt from previous banh mi’s to avoid the meat and the pate, although I had not communicated this with Sam and so unfortunately Alex and Sam both could not eat their food. They then went over to the central market to buy a smoothie just so that they were not completely empty for the entire 6 hour bus journey. We made it back to the travel agent still with plenty of time to spare. The plan was that a mini bus would be picking us up to take us to the main bus. The time this was due had come and gone. The guy behind the counter took a phone call and then informed us pretty calmly that we might want to get ready. As we were putting on our bags, his tone changed somewhat to rather hurrying. He told us directions about which bus we needed to get on the corner, but then decided just to come with us down the street and ushered us to the end of the road where the bus we needed was pulling up to the corner. He flagged it down for us and virtually pushed us on the bus with all of our baggage. I was expecting to be able to put the luggage in underneath but it was just piled high in the back few seats. At this point we were not sure if this bus was taking us to the main bus, or if it was the main bus. It turned out this was the main bus, but that it circled around the city for about an hour before actually setting off so the rush was not really necessary.

We had booked to go all the way to Siem Reap which was 1 bus to Phnom Penh and then a sleeper bus from there. Both buses were quite strange in their own way, especially when we didn’t really know what to expect. The land boarder crossing was quite peculiar. We had paid ＄35 USD for the Cambodian visa (＄36 for Sam who had an eVisa for Vietnam) whilst we were on the bus and the guy on the bus took the money, and our passports. We had to all get off the bus and go through security, although our big bags remained on the bus. The guy called our names as they did some paperwork with the passport. When we got our passports back they had 2 sheets of paper in them with made up contact details for us. Prior to getting back on the bus, we handed over our passports again. We were on the bus for about 100m and then had to get off the bus again. At this stage there was a small food court where you could buy some food although you had to be ready again for when the bus was ready to go again. We did not get food here but did get a small can of beer which an American man bought for us out of ease with paying with big notes, which was very kind of him.

We were slightly disconcerted by the handing over of our passports before we got on the bus at the boarder, although I am pleased to say we did get them back when we got back onto the bus. This time one of the pieces of paper was gone and a stamp had been gained.

Slightly further in the journey we stopped for a short comfort break and bought some crisps. After this we did not stop until Phnom Penh where we were told we had to be back at the travel agents in about half an hour, although the bus we needed was at least an hour away. We got a terrible goat meal to share between us from a (/the only) nearby restaurant and were slightly over the half hour time we were told before we got back to the travel agents, so we were a little worried. We got a tuk tuk transfer to another travel agents where no-one seemed to speak any English. We arrived at this new travel agents with plenty of time before the bus we were expecting was due. The time the bus was supposed to be came and went, (this seemed to be a reccuring theme…) along with many other fancy looking sleeper buses. We kept getting our hopes up with body language from the people who worked here, but each bus that came and went was not ours, or so we hoped. After a lot of waiting around, we were ushered into another tuk tuk. At this stage we did not know if it was due to take us all of the way to Siem Reap. We hoped not as we were crammed in and it was not that comfortable and we were hoping to get some shut eye on the second 6 hour bus – which certainly would not happen in the tuk tuk. We were not in the tuk tuk for too long though before we were ushered out at another travel agents where again, no-one seemed to speak English. At this point we realised that we could not even read the Cambodian alphabet. It just looked like quite pretty squiggles, potentially a mix between Arabic and Hindu. Some more buses came and went from this travel agents and we were really starting to feel that the lack of communication might become somewhat awkward. I had previously tried to find Khmer on Google Translate to download although I could not find it. We were worried that we might not be able to find accommodation in Phnom Penh if we should need to and had no idea where we were at this stage. We had not downloaded maps for Cambodia either at this point and had no access to WiFi. Eventually we were ushered onto a sleeper bus. Again, we had to take all of our luggage onto the bus and could not put it underneath. We had learnt from our previous sleeper bus that you do not want to take anything extra into the sleeper bus, but we had no choice and had to take all of our things with us. As soon as we stepped onto this sleeper bus we realised we were expected to pair up on the matresses, and have our luggage in with us. We were truly regretting not staying one night in Phnom Penh at this stage like we had debated on the previous bus journey. Myself and Alex went in together with one of our big bags and both small bags tucked in the bottom corner of our double matress. Thankfully Sam took our other big bag and put his in the isle. I really did feel for Sam though as he was shoved in with some random Cambodian person. The beds were not very big at all – all of us were too tall to fit lying down straight. We were really regretting every decision that had lead up to this point, especially as the bus was so crazily hot. There was air con but it was limited and hard to angle in an appropriate way. I managed to angle the air at my chest and just lifted my top to try and cool down, it was no time for modesty. I had my legs curled up ontop of my bag and Alex was rammed in next to me.

Considering all of this, we did actually manage to sleep on this bus which we were not expecting. We stopped for a pit stop and as soon as the bus stopped the bus temperature rose again to unbareable temperatures so I had to get off, even just for a few minutes. I managed to log into WiFi at this services and tried to download maps and also check where our accommodation was booked. We were back on the bus before the maps had finished downloading so I was not sure if it would be any good still. After this stop I lay curled up on my side, as did Alex and again managed to fall asleep. We got kicked off the bus at Siem Reap and were dazed and confused. We managed to gather our thoughts for long enough to get a tuk tuk to our booked accommodation at Okay 1 Villa. Although we realised the next day that he took us a weird route. We got to the hotel at 4am and went straight to bed, awake only for long enough to congratulate ourselves on picking a very fancy looking hotel.

I shall tell you more about our adventures in Cambodia in my next blog, which will be a short one as we were not there for very long, espeically in relation to Vietnam. After that, I shall go on to tell you of our awesome travels through Malaysia.

I shall close off now by advising other travellers that are keen to go to Vietnam to focus their time in the Northern parts. If you can ride a motorbike, I would highly recommend the Ha Giang loop, and if not it is still possible to do this with an easy rider tour – although we loved the freedom of our own vehicle. We would also highly recommend Vu Linh Homestay at Thac Ba lake, Viet Anh Homestay in Tam Coc, Nguom Ngao Homestay at Ban Gioc, and Hoi An as a whole. We did enjoy the other places we went to as well, but these areas will always hold a fantastic place in our hearts.

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