After my few days in Cambodia I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. To me, this city felt more like Korea to me than the rest of SE Asia. I think it was due in large part to the neon lights everywhere! I spent a couple days in Saigon; I really liked the city. I spent one day just walking around and exploring part of the city. Another day I went on a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. It was quite interesting, and a little hard as an American. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the American War (known to us, of course, as the Vietnam War). We had the opportunity to go into one of the tunnels. It had been widened for us, and they also added some lights... yet after just a couple of minutes (if that) down in the tunnels we were all ready to be back out and felt no need to go back down! I can't imagine spending hours, days, weeks... down in the tunnels - with no lights, and less space. Wow.
After the tour I headed to the War Remnants Museum, which was filled with photos and news clippings from the war. I really liked this museum; some people have called it biased, but I really don't see how it was - many of the photos and news clippings were from American magazines and newspapers! They were the very ones that our family members read during the actual war. I'm fairly sure this museum presents more of the truth than we'll ever read in our American history books.
After a few days in Saigon I took a sleeper bus to Nha Trang. Sleeper bus, you ask? Well, it's simple - it's a bus with seats that recline, allowing passengers to sleep while traveling between cities. I got on at night, and arrived at my destination early in the morning! I had a seat in the back of the bus, so mine actually reclined fully. I managed to get a decent amount of sleep. In the morning I walked with an Irish couple (who had slept next to me on the bus) to the main backpackers area, found a hotel, changed, and hit the beach! It's an absolutely beautiful beach! I spent about two days in Nha Trang. Unfortunately I spent part of it feeling quite ill, but at least I had an air conditioned hotel room to crash in and rest - and a beautiful beach to walk along (and a refreshing ocean to swim in; the water was the perfect temperature!).
Next, I took a sleeper bus to Hoi An. This sleeper bus was a lot more bumpy than the first; I was once again in the back, this time with 3 German boys to keep me company. We all bumped our heads several times, and were awakened often by bumps that landed us back on our seats that had several random hard places in them. Sigh. Just another joy of traveling! The destination, Hoi An, was great. The town is known for its tailors - you can get anything you want made! There are also many great little cafes. I enjoyed a couple days of walking around, reading at cafes, and had a skirt made (I wanted to have more clothes made, but didn't want to spend too much money - nor did I have enough space in my backpack for much more!).
My next stop was Hue; it's only a few hours from Hoi An so I took a bus in the afternoon instead of overnight. Upon arrival at my hostel I was given a free beer - definitely a good sign! The town itself was ok; the tourist destinations are all historical. I spent part of my day in town walking around the citadel. After a night and day there, I'd seen enough and hopped on another sleeper bus!
This time I headed up to Hanoi. I didn't like Hanoi as much as Saigon. For some reason it seemed louder to me, and the traffic definitely seemed to be worse! In Vietnam traffic often doesn't stop for pedestrians; instead, you just slowly walk across the lanes of traffic and it goes around you! I learned to time it when a car had just passed (harder to walk around) but before too many moto bikes (though they were very good at going around you!). Upon my arrival in Hanoi I went with a girl from my bus to the hostel. We had to kill a few hours before we could get into our rooms, so we decided to walk around a bit. We went to a museum and sat down by the lake for a while. We also signed up for a Halong Bay tour through our hostel. In the afternoon she took a nap, and I treated myself to a movie (have I mentioned that movies in SE Asia were only about $3-$3.50?). Unfortunately I had an awful toothache that night and went to sleep early.
The next morning we headed out on the Halong Bay tour. Our tour consisted of 7 of us foreigners and a Vietnamese family. Our tour guide was nice, and the bay was gorgeous! We walked through a cave during the first afternoon, then dropped the Vietnamese family off at an island where they spent the night. That left just the 7 of us, plus our tour guide and the crew. We went kayaking around sunset and then they anchored the boat for the night. We all jumped in for a night swim before eating dinner. The afternoon/evening on the boat must have made us all tired because we all went to sleep fairly early. The crew, however, had a party! They were very loud for a while, keeping all of us awake longer than we'd hoped. And they kept trying to get us to go join them. Andrea, the girl who I shared a room with, and I went up for a bit, but soon went back down to our room to get sleep. The next morning some of us went for a morning swim before breakfast. We showered and packed up our stuff. After breakfast we all lounged around on top of our boat as we made our way back to the mainland. It was a relaxing morning! I enjoyed the tour a lot, especially getting to know 3 of the girls fairly well. The other 2 girls and the guy were nice, too, but we didn't talk a lot (I think due to English being their second language).
We headed back to Hanoi after lunch. In the evening I met up with Andrea and Jasmine (one of the other girls from the tour); the 3 of us walked to the train station and caught a train to SaPa. We spent the next couple days there. SaPa is up in the mountains, near the Chinese border. Because of it's high elevation it's a lot cooler, which was a very welcome change! It also tends to be quite rainy. We chose to trek to Cat Cat Village our first afternoon there. The day was sunnier and warmer than we'd expected!! But the village itself was nice! After wards we headed to another village that had hot springs... or so we were told. This village was located further down the mountain, so it proved to be quite hot. Not exactly hot spring weather.. once there some lovely mountain women offered to show us the way (they are all over the mountains, dressed in their traditional clothing; they walk and talk with you, offering their help, etc, and then expect you to buy stuff from them - tourist trap!). They ended up taking us to a waterfall "where we could swim" - um, no - dangerous! Instead Jasmine and Andrea waded in a bit and then we hit the dirt path once again. This time they led us to the hot springs. Or, should I say "hot springs": a hole in the ground with a tap of lukewarm water. Not what we had expected!! We decided not to use the "hot springs" and made our way back up the path and around to the village where we drank a lot of cold water before heading back to SaPa. The next day was typical SaPa weather - cool and rainy. We had a nice breakfast and then the girls went to a waterfall while I tried to find medicine for my toothache (which had been bothering me for several days by that time). I had no luck with the meds, unfortunately. We met back up at a cafe that had delicious hot chocolate and then I took a shower before heading back to Hanoi. The girls stayed one more day and returned to Hanoi on Friday.
I spent Thursday in Hanoi. My train got in around 5am, and I couldn't get into my room until after 11... I slept a bit on the couch at the hostel until I could drop my bag off (around 6) and then went to a cafe until I could check in. Then I took a nice nap! In the evening I went to a water puppet show. On Friday I walked around the city a bit, took a nap, and then met up with Andrea and Jasmine. We ate dinner together on the roof of our hostel and then Andrea took off to catch her bus to Hue. Eventually I had to go back to my room and pack up... the next morning I got up bright and early to fly to Bangkok - my next post!
Here's the link to my Vietnam photos!
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