Thursday April 7th (Hanoi - Hoi An)
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| Note the toilet door |
-Lisa
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| Cau Lou... A Local DIsh |
Friday April 8th (Hoi An)
Waking up to a nice day we decided to pull the trigger on renting a scooter for the day to cruise around and make our way down to the beach. We quickly found the cheapest scooter in town, fueled up and then joined the flow of traffic. I have little to no experience driving a scooter and was a little nervous driving through all the traffic. It turned out to be a blast, ripping around through the traffic with Lisa hanging on for dear life. In true scottish spirit I refused to pay for parking and luckily got waved in by a lady to come and sit in her restaurants section... thats the thing, you park and sit for free but are subject to there expensive prices. The joke was on them, we were extremely prepared with drinks, snacks and fruit for the day. We didn't bring much money with us, so saying no to people trying to sell us trinkets along the beach was easy. It's kind of sad, we found out from another traveller who spoke Vietnamese, that if you say no, they say extremely rude things about you in Vietnamese :( Not to worry, we had a good time soaking up the sun. We spent the evening having dinner at a good cause restaurant who gives all proceeds to charity. We hoped to go out and experience some of the Hoi An night life, but we were really tired after the days excitement. We sought out a donut cart and headed to bed.
-Jason
Saturday April 9th (Hoi An - Nah Trang)
We were torn between deciding if we wanted to take a tour somewhere or just hang out at the beach again, and in the end we rented another moped and were on our way back to the beach. We figured we'd see a different part of it and parked at a different spot, where ladies are waiting to usher you to a sun lounger. Nice change to laying on the sand.Time went by so fast and then it was time for us to head back into town to catch our next night bus.
-Lisa
Sunday April 10th (Nah Trang)
After a quick power nap we were up and at it. You never feel quite right after missing a nights sleep but we were eager to explore Nah Trang. Turns out it's Vietnams beach hot spot. Being extremely urban with lots of money invested it has a Miami feel to it... even though I've never visited Miami. We walked part of the beach (which is 8km) and then explored the main part of town. It's crazy because prices and establishments vary from high high class back home to local vietnamese standards. Out of all the cities that we've visited though, this is by far the most expensive. We spent the afternoon sitting in the sun on a roof top patio sampling southern vietnamese beers and then went out for dinner. For some reason I was extremely extremely hungry and after walking back to our hotel we went out for a second dinner (Lisa only had dessert) after polishing that I walked across the street and got a baguette sandwich before heading back to the room. A nice relaxing day.
-Jason
Monday April 11th (Nah Trang)
After booking a boat cruise last night, we woke up early and were ready to see some islands around the area. In the lobby of our hotel we met another couple who were from Calgary who were on our boat trip. They were at the end of their year long trip and had seen everything from Australia to Vietnam. I was very surprised to find out that they had only graduated high school last year and were the same age as Wyatt, my younger brother. They take you from your mini bus to a boat port that was just as chaotic as the boat in Halong Bay. Our guide introduced himself as Barrack Obama and was very energetic and upbeat, making sure everyone was involved and asked us all where we came from. Our first stop was 45 minutes away and we were told we were going to go snorkeling. When we got there, they gave us each a mask and told us to jump in, right on the shore line where about 100 other people were already standing in the knee deep water. The water was crystal clear and not one fish to be found. It was kind of a site to see that this is what they were calling snorkeling. We ended up just going for a swim and lounging on the beach. Next we had some lunch on the boat, everyone circled around our benches that had been transformed into a big table. After everything was cleaned up a live band started to play Vietnamese music that sounded kind of like Santana. Then our trusted guide Obama came out dressed up like a woman complete with a wig and dress. After the band we tied together with 3 other boats and in the middle they threw down a floating bar, where passengers could jump off the top of our boat into the circle and get free rice wine. "Happy hour" as they called it. Jason was one of the first to jump in, and I didn't want to be one of the only ones not to go in, so a few minutes later I ended up jumping in too. When all the wine was gone happy hour was over and it was time for our next island. It was a pretty rocky beach but 10 of us joined together to play a game of volleyball, pretty unsuccessful but fun and better then laying on the rocks. Our last stop was an aquarium, but we ended up deciding to stay on the boat because we figured we do that tomorrow instead.
-Lisa
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| Our guide is dressed up as the lady boy :S |
Tuesday April 12th (Nah Trang - Ho Chi Minh City - Phenom Phem)
Waking up to another perfect day we decided that if we didn't visit the island of Vin Pearl we would always wonder. We checked out of our hotel and headed to jump on the gondola that takes you to the island. You can go by boat for cheaper, but I had read that the gondola is one of the best bits. Its maybe the weirdest thing that we've done, it felt out of place. The place was almost empty but it showed signs that it could handle a lot of people. It was all pretty much brand new. We split up our day by going to the water park until 2, then had a bite to eat, ran through the aquarium and ended the day in the amusement park... tough life, I know. The water park was good fun, it had maybe 15-20 different slides, a water half pipe, wave pool and lazy river. The slides are only open at certain points during the day because it wasn't busy enough, so we coordinated things so we could try each one. It was a real hustle to fit it all into a 3 hour window. At lunch Lisa ran into the weirdest meal of our trip, it was cold bean soup with yogurt and egg in it.... it looked disgusting. The aquarium was exciting, the highlight for me were Giant Arapaima which are one of the biggest fresh water predator fish in the world, they were massive weighing about 200-300 lbs a piece and at least 6 ft long. We ended the afternoon by going on the 3 main rides which were all pretty tame, which included the worlds smallest roller coaster which was fun. The only time we ran into a line was leaving. All and all a fun action packed day at Vietnams Disney Land. For those who don't know, I collect hot sauce from all of the countries that we visit, so we went on a quick shopping trip to get a bottle. Unfortunately we are boarding another night bus tonight to HCMC and then a bus tomorrow morning to Phenom Phem, Cambodia to meet up with my parents. After all that, I'm hoping I sleep like a baby.
-Jason
PS: A weird factoid, Vin Pearl Island was funded by a Vietnamese businessman that introduced instant noodles to the Ukraine.
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| Picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was really impressive standing next to this tank with 6 massive fish in it. |
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