Travelling up the coast, Vietnam

So then, finally, the beaches! We've had some difficulty zeroing in on beaches whilst travelling. Strange as it may seem, we should have already gotten bored by them... Not so, however, as it was Brazil when we last had good beach access (yeah ok, there was that 1 time in Bali - at the idyllic private beach resort). Our decision to stay clear of Thailand didn't help matters (we were looking forward to the island-hopping round Phuket, Ko Samui etc.), and other countries, whilst hot, didn't really present good beach opportunities over an above some cultural sites. Given all of this, we decided to spend a little more time in Vietnam and sample all it's facets. We'd read and been told some of it was like Thailand 20 years ago. Not sure if thats a good thing or bad thing...



Mui Ne

Our first stop on the 'open tour' (read hop-on hop-off, all the way to Hanoi from HCMC) bus was a small town called Phan Thiet, in the district of Mui Ne. Here is where a string of resorts and guest houses compete for stretches of beach as well as those seeking to take advantage of strong winds and have a go at kite surfing/parasailing and the like. The beach itself was nice, and clean but only if the resort was bothered to clean it. Otherwise the street sellers, fishermen and locals could take the shine off it somewhat. Through an unfortunate quirk in the booking of the bus to the next stop, we actually stayed in 2 resorts.

The first was nice enough, but a little far out from the main strip and livelier restaurant/bar scene. It was squarely aimed at budget travellers. Navita and I definitely got our kicks from the sun and beach. We lounged by the pool, sat under huts on the nice sandy beaches, and read many a novel whilst sipping on Mojitos. All good fun, but somehow it fell short of delivering that true beach experience, mainly due to the ridiculous bug problem (mosquitoes and very virulent ticks!) and very stale atmosphere at meal times / evenings (I won't blame you if you think I'm a spoilt brat by the way!).

Our second resort was actually booked through necessity upon finding out there was a problem with our onward bus journey. Actually this resort hit the sweet spot, and we stayed a few extra days. Combined with the World Cup ramping up and the beach bars all showing matches on huge beach front screens, Mui Ne ended up being a great destination for beach fun. We even came across a surprisingly good Indian restaurant called Ganesh, whose waiters doted after us (we didn't see a single other Indian enjoying these beaches whilst we were there!)

Nha Trang

Known as the party and beach capital of Vietnam, we reached Nha Trang in the evening and booked ourselves into a hotel. Here resorts are replaced with hotels/shops/residential buildings and a somewhat more active night life compared with Mui Ne. All Navi and I bothered ourselves with was where we'd eat, what book we'd read next and which part of the beach we would sit on today. Believe it or not, this didn't get tiring! We found a great stretch of beac near the hotel called the Sailing Club, which had everything you could want for a day at the beach. Superb!

We did look into diving again, but the dive sites weren't providing new enough dive experiences so we knocked it on the head.

We did, however, go on a day long island-hopping boat tour which started off a little slow but actually ended up being quite fun. The tour took us to 4 islands. The first was to an island which is home to an aquarium. The aquarium was small but actually good and had some large fish which we hadn't seen before along with some great tropical sharks. The second island had live coral and allowed us to snorkel. I managed it with dysfunctional equipment so it wasn't that much fun. Close to the 3rd island, and the going gets good; we moored up for a Vietnamese feast on the boat. So much food! After lunch, we were treated to the Best boy band in Vietnam... apparently! I kid you not, they assembled a make shift 4-piece band and 'serenaded' (actually it was more a case of 'who is strangling the cat?!') us with Wonderwall by Oasis and other pop songs. Hilarious fun! And then we had free cocktails handed to us from a floating bar as we rested on rubber tubes in the open sea - idyllic!



The highlight for us was awaiting on the 4th island - what was meant to be a 1 hour relaxing time on the beach-side sun loungers ended up being the biggest adrenaline-fuelled thrill-seeking experience of our trip. We went parasailing!! - for those of you not sure of what this is: Alkesh and I are strapped on to a parachute which is then launched in to the wind, steered by a speed boat on the water. Our 5 minute ride gave us the feeling of flying up over the islands and sea we'd spent the day exploring. It was awesome! - an unforgettable experience!



Finally invested in some wide rimmed hats to shelter us from the never ending heat!


Hoi An
The small city of Hoi An was our chance to experience the way life used to be for the Vietnamese, before modernisation and Westernisation took ahold. On our first evening we explored the central quarter - it was lovely, decorated with many lit lanterns and structures along the riverfront. The locals were friendly and welcoming as we browsed the many handicraft and souveneir shops. Many of the buildings in Hoi An are quite old and it made for a very pleasant evening stroll - somehow, even the heat was bearable!



Hoi An is known for 2 attractions in particular. First off, is the abundance of cheap tailors. It is a remarkable enterprise - many outlets, armed with the latest Next catalogue from UK, create the latest designs for suits, shirts, trousers, skirts, cocktail dresses and even winter coats - all for cheap prices. One could have had an entire new wardrobe stitched! - Navita wishes we had the time, money and luggage space to have done this!



The second attraction for travellers visiting Hoi An: it is the foodie capital of Vietnam. We found the most amazing Vietnamese restaurant for our first night's dinner and then enjoyed it so much, we went back the 2nd night! The menu had so many interesting items that we hadn't previously sampled in our time in Vietnam. And even for Navi as a vegetarian, there were lots of delectable choices. We tried to get ourselves on to a cookery course at this restaurant but unfortunately they were all booked up for the next few days. We really enjoyed our time in Hoi An, and wished we could have had a few more days here to enjoy the culinary and tailoring opportunities!

Hanoi
Marking the end of our open tour bus route from HCMC, we finally made it to the capital city of Hanoi. This coincided with the overwhelming realisation that our travels were coming to an end. After almost 2 months in S.E. Asia, we've got just Tokyo (1 week) and India (2.5 weeks) left.

We organised ourselves for a city sightseeing day tour. The main area to explore in Hanoi centres around the Old Quarter. This area originated from an amalgamation of several villages, each with their unique trade ranging from pottery to hand-stitced paintings to shoe-selling. The result is a confusing maze of small alleys, packed with stalls - one street for selling toys, another for selling wood-craft. It was fun to just spend the late afternoons, soaking up the atmospere. The tour took us to visit several pagodas and temples, in particular the Temple of Literature - were students studied Confuscianism. Hanoi is centred around a big lake, Hoan Kiem lake, named after a legend where the King returned his battle sword to the lake by offering it to a golden turtle.



Also on the day tour, we visited the Ho Chi Minh complex. The highlight was this emperor's mausoleum constructed in 1975 to house his body. Vietnamese honour 'Uncle Ho's' achievements in the independence and reunification of their country; so much so the goverment chose to embalm his body rather that follow his wishes of being cremated. It was eery to see his body so well maintained. Of course, security was uber-tight and photography not permitted.



During our time in Hanoi, we also took the opportunity to see a performance of an ancient Vietnamese art - water puppetry. This is where puppets are animated in water, handled by hidden men and long sticks. Our performance was accompanied by a traditional Vietnamese orchestra - they had some fantastic instruments that we'd never seen before.



As is often the case with our time at the end of a country, Hanoi was also a chance to do the usual tasks of blog-writing and laundry. We split this up with catching the England game after an Indian curry - how very British of us! We've really enjoyed the slower pace in Vietnam - chilling on beaches, observing day to day life and culture, not to mention some great food. Tokyo will definitely be a complete change of scene... just the small matter of a series of connecting flights to get us there (Hanoi - Bangkok - Ghangzhou - Beijing - Tokyo)... see you on the other side, folks!!