Vietnam - September/ October 2005

On September 26th of this year, I left Australia indefinitely, to come to Ireland. On the way to Ireland, I stopped in Vietnam, where I had arranged to meet my mother and spend three weeks seeing the country.

Vietnam is a long thin country with two main cities, Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Mihn) in the South and Hanoi in the North. Most people fly into the North and travel South, on trains, planes or buses, depending on their budget or time. We flew into Saigon in the North and because we didn't really understand the whole thing til we go there, we had arranged to fly out of Saigon too. either way, people travel mostly along the coast, occasionally going inland to see some of the more mountainous regions.

Stop 1 Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon
Arriving in Ho Chi Minh was probably not the ideal first impression of Vietnam. With over a million motorbikes, and even more people (around ten million in fact) it's a busy busy place. Picture if you can, every street at almost every hour packed with motorbikes. Now imagine trying to cross the road! Forget that there are zebra crossings, they aren't acknowledgeed by anyone except hte guy who painted them. In fact, were it not for some friendly locals, we might have been still there trying to cross a road! In the event of no friendly locals, the trick is to just start walking, really, really, slowly and hope for the best!

There's nothing wrong with Saigon, per se, it's just a little intimidating at first. We stayed in a crazy little hotel called Madame Cuc's in the backpacker area. Our rooms were on the very top floor of this six floor building with no lift.

When I was no longer shocked by the novel way they got your luggage to the top floor, I was pretty fascinated by it - a cable reaching from the roof down to the ground, tied around your case, and then pulled up by erm... some type of power (oh yes, I'm good at elctrical stuff) - you get the drift but in case you don't , there's a pic on the right.

After visiting the war museums and a little walking tour of hte city, we decided to head for the warmer climes of the East coast of Vietnam.

Stop 2 - Beach Bliss at Mui Ne
After around four hours on a small, but air-conditioned bus, and for only SU$5 each, we arrived at the the most beautiful town of Mui Ne. Just above Phan Thiet and a few hundred kilometres south of Nha Trang, Mui Ne is a very small coastal town consisting mostly of "bungalows" overlooking the beach. With the average bungalow, constructed of bamboo (in fact most things in Vietnam are made from bamboo), costing around US$10 per night, we found a slightly more expensive one that gave us air-conditioning, ensuite and a lovely little balcony! God, it was stressful - trying to decide if we should spend the day reading, swimming, eating or a combination of all three! We did a few day trips to see the local sights; a fishing village; red and white sand-dunes, a fairy river (we didn't see any as it was the fairies' day off).

After four days of relaxation we were ready to leave to head further North to another beach resort for more sun, shopping a some Vietnamese culture.

Stop 3 - Lovely Nha Trang
Another lovely seaside destination, slightly further North, Nha Trang is a more populated, tourist resort filled with backpackers, tour buses and hotels. But it's quite pleasant nonetheless because it's warm, clean, small enough to be easy to navigate around with lovely sights.

We found a nice little hotel in the centre of town with a huge rooftop garden, with hammocks and a fantastic view of the town. We spent many happy hours in the evening, relaxing there reading, swigging in hammocks and eating oreos! Tough times!

There are lots of great sights around Nha Trang including a lovely reef only a few miles out to sea. I spend a day scuba diving and exploring the underworld of Vietnam. While I didn't meet or see any sharks, I saw some lovely creatures and bright sealife. We also spend a day touring the local historic sights which included natural mudbaths and hot springs - it was very relaxing!

One of the interesting features of this town is the way that the locals set up little outdoor areas where they sit with their friends and relatives to eat and drink. We couldn't work out why they did this if they had perfectly good houses to go into. But when we asked a local the yexplained "We live by the sea so why would we sit indoors? It's much nicer to sit outside with our family and friends". So they do!

Stop 4 - Beautiful Hoi An (via Danag)
Completely different from anywhere else we had been and possibly my favourite stop was Hoi An. We travelled there via train and stopped enroute just South of Danang, a small town. The train journey wasn't too bad considering we were sitting upright for eight hours. In the Socialist democracy of Vietnam, a train ticket also affords you a free meal. And if you're brave (read stupid) enough to eat it, with a Western stomach, be prepared for the effects.

On arrival in a seaside town just South of Danang, we found a new though empty hotel, where our room overlooked the beach. In the town we found, well very little except a small beach. That evening, we found a local restaurant, and as soon as we went inside we were surrounded by around 15 locals, who stared at us, completely unabashed and quite fascinated. Eventually I stared back and even took a photo in attempt to beat them at their own game - but they just posed for the camera!

After one night at hotel strange, we took a taxi to Hoi An. A small town with streets filled with tailors, beautiful little shops and a pedestrian cobble-stone Old Town, Hoi An is a gorgeous place filled with culture and history and heart. Although it was raining almost constantly, we spent three very happy days there, wandering through the streets, sampling local culinary delights, going from tailor to tailor for clothes we were having made.

We found a fantastic cookery course at The Red Bridge Cooking School. As well as learning how to make rice paper and fresh spring rolls from scratch, carve flowers from tomatoes, we got a tour of the local markets to see how the locals shop. During this cooking class, we met up with two Australian ladies (Carmel and XXX) whom we had met in Nha Trang. We spent several hours with them, mostly laughing and eating! What better way to spend an evening

Stop 6 - Hue
Our next stop was Hue, only a few short hours away on the bus. Another old city, though far bigger than Hoi An, Hue is a stunning place with a citadel that you could wander around for hours. We found some cyclo drivers who happily drove us around the edge of the citadel, to the local markets and to a swanky restaurant for a five course meal with pineapples carved into the shape of a peacock, bearing spring rolls!

The nice thing about Hue is that it's still small enough to walk around and see the sights within a couple of days. It's got lots of wide space, fields, a lovely river and a great market - and a fair few headstone shops! Yep, if you're after a headstone for your grave, this is the place to go! We decided against buying one on this occasion.

Back to Saigon After almost three weeks of travelling the coast of Vietnam, we flew back down to Saigon from Hue (only US$40 each). We had saved doing a tour of the Mekong Delta to the end, so we set off on a two day, one night trip via powerboat of one of Vietnam's most famous areas. We were pretty fascinated by the stories we had heard about the Mekong. From the boat and it was worthy of our curiousity. We saw barges carrying tonnes of cement down the river, families living and washing on the edge of the river, with their houses almost in the water, locals trading at a river market... It's upsetting to see how poor the living conditions are in this region and how some families live. They live on, wash in and, well, excrete in this river. This is definitely the poorest area we had seen so far.

Well, after three weeks in Vietnam, we flew to Ireland! I, to start a new part of my life, and for my mother, well, to go back to reality.