Category: Vietnam

The morning I was leaving Mui Ne for I received word that a friend had passed away after being caught in an avalanche a few days earlier. Kira was someone to aspire to be like. She had a passion for everything she did. This included her job as a nurse, but definitely included travel. Every time I’d see her she’d tell me about some amazing place she’d been or what adventure she was about to embark on next.  I think this picture taken at Camille and Liam’s wedding a few months earlier captures the kind of person Kira was, always helping out and doing it with class and a smile!

If you want to see what kind of amazing person Kira was her family has started the Kira Goodwin Legacy Fund. They are working to fund several worthwhile causes in Kira’s name. Check it out:

https://www.facebook.com/kiragoodfund

And so in a state of disbelief that someone with such a zest for life was gone, and wishing I could be there with my friends I made my way to Da Lat.

Da Lat Town:

Having decided that she didn’t want spend the rest of her time in Vietnam in Mui Ne, and that Da Lat was still close enough to HCMC to get back to for her flight in a few days Aliona had also decided to go to Da Lat and I met up with her there. Having someone else around helped and got me to explore this really cool place. Here is what I saw in Da Lat.

The design of the city and the architecture of the town makes Da Lat somewhere worth visiting. Situated in the hills it is cooler than the surrounding areas. In fact, one of the first things I did when I got there was to get my pants out from the bottom of my bag, where they had been nestled away since I last wore them in the Cameron Highlands over a month earlier.  Afterall it was “winter” in Vietnam and was 15 C that night!

Near the middle of the town is a lake, which is surrounded by parks and walking pathways, making it a very pleasant place to explore by foot. On one side of the lake is the local market, where you can find local wares and fruits, especially strawberries.  Nearby is a botanical garden which is a nice walk and has a number of large things including a windmill and a bottle of wine.

On the other side of the lake are two buildings. One is shaped like a lotus flower and the other a sunflower. Upon closer inspection we found out that this was actually the towns main mall, which besides these structures is hidden in the side of a hill. It definitely adds to the charm of the town. Within this mall, which lacked an H+M or rollex store, was a bakery which had delicious French pastries – c’est bon!

The town also contains an old train station, which was built in the 1930s and is an example of French architecture of the period. The train itself is a tourist attraction and apparently goes only 7 km to a nearby village, although there is talk of extending it down to one of the main lines.

Walking around the town there are a number of interesting parks and buildings to see but one of the most interesting buildings, and something that is a must see in Da Lat is the Crazy House.

Close up of the Lotus Flower

The mall

Large wine bottle in the flower garden

The Crazy House:

The architect behind the Hang Nha Guesthouse, or as its known in english the Crazy House, apparently was inspired by a number of contemporary sources for her design. Initially a private residence she eventually opened it as a tourist attraction/ guesthouse in the early 1990s to help recoup some of its costs. She apparently still lives in it and it is still being built almost 30 years later.

Entering the property you make your way thru this crazy labyrinth of halls, tunnels and bridges that take you up and down the property. It’s a surreal experience and gives you the impression that you’ve entered some sort of children’s fairy tale.  The pictures here don’t really do it justice and its somewhere that really needs to be experienced to be appreciated.

The Countryside surrounding Da Lat:

Aliona and I decided to take a countryside tour of the area around Da Lat. This ended up being a great day that took us to a number of interesting places including temples, waterfalls, and a grasshopper farm!

We started by visiting a flower plantation where flowers are grown for flower shops and where many were getting close to being ready for Valentine’s day and Chinese New Years, which was in a few weeks time.

I then was exposed to the most pretentious, and if you were to have it at home the most expensive, coffee I had every had. We visited a coffee plantation where the coffee cherries are fed to civit cats (weasels). The weasels love the cherries but can’t digest the beans so they poop them out. The beans are then collected, cleaned, roasted and turned into a delicious cup of coffee. We got to drink the coffee in their cafe which overlooks the rolling green hills. A very civilized way to spend the morning and something that began my belief that Vietnam has some of the best coffee in the world, so much in fact that I’ve been carrying a bag of civet coffee beans around in my bag every since!

Civet Cats waiting for their coffee fix

Me getting my coffee fix

After this we visited the Linh An Pagoda. In addition to having a big Buddha it has some pretty graphic depictions of what will happen to you in the next life if you do a particular activity in this life.

This was followed up by a visit to the Elephant waterfalls. Despite being beautiful, and us going down to the bottom of it, and behind it, I failed to see the elephant shape for which its known.

After lunch, we visited a silk factory where I got to learn about the stages of larvae, the process of harvesting and extracting the silk fibers, and what happens to the remaining bugs and dirty silk. Lastly, we visited a grasshopper plantation, where I got to eat more tasty bugs, which were on par with the ones that I had eaten in Koh Phanagan, this was washed down with some rice wine.

Silk worms as they come into the factory

The stages of the silk worm

Workers extracting silk

Grasshopper Farm

All and all this was a great tour, and definitely good value for money!

The next day Aliona was catching a night bus back to HCMC but before she did we walked to a nearby monastery and then took a cable car back to the town after feasting on a huge cup of strawberries that cost ~ 1 dollar.

After saying good-bye to Aliona I stayed another day in  Da Lat another day before continuing north. From Da Lat the next logical stop would have been the beach resort of Nha Trang. But not really wanting to hit up a party place I decided to suck it up and take the 15 h sleeper bus to Hoi An. It was better than I expected.

I had only a vague plan of what my South to North route thru Vietnam would entail but I did know that I wanted to go to Da Lat. With no desire to take a long direct bus which would arrive at 2 in the morning, or to have to connect thru HCMC, I decided to break it up by first going to Mui Ne. Since this checked off their desire to find a beach Alex and Aliona decided to come too!

From Vung Tau a few hours up the coast is Mui Ne. It’s known for kite surfing, its beaches and nearby sand dunes. While not as popular as Nhang Trang, or so I’m told – I didn’t go, it’s a holiday destination for Russians.  In addition to Vietnamese signs and menus in Mui Ne more often than not included English and Russian. As you walked along the main street restaurant staff had an uncanny ability to know which language to greet you in. Aliona, who was born in Latvia, got greeted equally in English and Russian.  On-the-otherhand I was always greeted in English. I guess those Irish genes are more noticeable than I thought!

To date Mui Ne was the cheapest place I’d stayed throughout my trip, costing ~ 4 dollars per night. It was also probably the most party like place I stayed since Camille, Liam and I mistakenly stayed at the party hotel on Koh Samui. But it was clean and fun. They had multiple pools, including one which had a daily jousting match with wet pillows. Although he fought a battle worthy of a knight, Alex was sadly defeated. Interestingly, the reception of this place also happened to be ran by the guide that I had when I was at the Elephant Orphanage in Thailand a few months earlier. This running into people I had previously met was a characteristic of Vietnam, but I guess there really is only two ways to go (north or south) so its bound to happen.

Kite surfing

There wasn’t much really to do in Mui Ne. Not wanting to spend the time (5 days) or money (300 USD) to become proficient in kite surfing, Alex and I settled for renting jet skis and zipping around the water front for a while. I also went on one of the tours organized by the hostel to check out some of the nearby attractions.

I had chosen an afternoon tour which was to end with watching the sunset on one of the dunes. The tour took us thru the “fairy stream”, to the white dunes, showed us a harbour full of fishing boats, and ended with watching the sunset on the red sand dunes. Only problem with that was that our “guide” was overzealous to return to the town and made us leave before the sun had actually set. But I guess what can you expect for 80 000 Dong (~ 4.5 dollars)

At the “White dunes”

Fishing Village

Fairy Stream

“Sunset” at the red dunes

White dunes

After feeling that I had seen all that was worth seeing in Mui Ne I made arrangements to continue North to Da Lat and  probably the best coffee that I had in sometime. It was definitely the most unusual!

A few hours from HCMC is the beachside town of Vung Tau. Although a favourite escape for American and Australian soldiers stationed in HCMC during the Vietnam war today it has very little international tourism and is primarily an escape for locals. It was here that I was meeting up with Alex and Aliona and where we would spend New Years.

Needing a break from hostel life I decided that I would splurge and get a hotel for my time in Vung Tau. The primary obstacle to this was that the address was incorrect on both Maps Me and Booking.com (where I had made my reservation). After walking around for a while, and in an area that was clearly not the hotel, I came across a group of older women sitting on the steps of a building. With the aid of some non-verbal cues and google translates I set off in a new direction for something that I could only guess was a few blocks east and south.  A few minutes later one of them came by on a bike and pointed to the street that I was to turn south on. I arrived at the hotel a few minutes later. The friendliness of the Vietnamese and this kind of act of kindness was something that I observed several times thru out my time in Vietnam.

Tired, and with the quietness of having own room for the first time in weeks, I fell asleep pretty early. Well besides being awoken by the giant, and surprisingly resilient, cockroach that was scattering around the bathroom.

The next morning I set out towards the beach hoping to spend some time there only to find that it was way too windy for swimming. In the afternoon I met up with Alex and Aliona and we explored the town side before finding some random side street Pho for dinner.

The next day was New Years Eve and one of the things about Vung Tau was that it went from a sleepy beach town with almost no one around to a bustling place where you could hardly walk around within a day. Then just as quickly it reverted back to its sedate beachside self.  This influx of people was centred around the beach and a stage that was constructed along the street that ran adjacent to it. The atmosphere was very party like but like the town itself the crowds emptied out only a few minutes after 2018 started and by 12:30 it was pretty much just us. You can see a link to a video of the stage here : Happy New Years!

New Years Eve in Vung Tau

Besides the beach, the other big thing to see is the Christ of Vung Tau.  You can climb to the top of it and look out into the South China Sea. It was definitely worth the climb. It was a bit off to see the high-caliber guns on either side of the statue, but I guess Jesus is well defended!

Christ of Vung Tau

As 2017 ended I couldn’t help but think of what a year it had been for me. I quit my job, put my stuff in storage, and set out on a big adventure. This had taken me not only to some far off places in Canada but also the world. I’m excited to see what adventures 2018 has in store for me!

I will say that by the time I left Vietnam it was amongst my favourite countries that I’ve been to, and I was revitalized and excited about continuing on my travelling adventure. But I didn’t arrive to Vietnam that way. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally and was considering going home. Despite having slept pretty much the entire flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (HCMC) aka the city formerly known as Saigon, I was still tired as I walked down the stairs of the plane into the Vietnamese heat of the tarmac and made my way into the airport.

Since I had an E-Visa I went straight to the passport control line, hoping that I had made the right choice and didn’t need to go to the letter of arrival part first. My fear was somewhat elevated when a Dutch girl in front of me was escorted away from the booth by a guard. The look on her friends face was sheer horror, I never found out why, but I hope they made out ok. Luckily, I reached the desk showed a smiling guard my e-visa and passport, got my stamp and was on my way in less than a minute. Phew!

After getting some Vietnamese Dong from the ATM I got a SIM Card and used my phone to hire a Grab to take me into the city. Want to be a millionaire? Go to Vietnam the exchange rate is ~ 1 CDN to 18 000 VND (it fluctuated a bit while I was there).

The first thing I noticed as I left the airport was the motorbikes. They are everywhere. I thought Bangkok was crazy with motorbikes but this was next level! I’m planning on writing a separate post on the motorbike and Vietnam so stay tuned for that! The second thing I noticed is this city had a soul. It’s different from that of Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. It was more of the experience that I had imagined when I planned on going to Asia.  It was chaotic, dynamic, and overloaded your senses. But this is what made it great!

I got dropped off on the street and told that my hostel was down this road. I made my way thru this crazy labyrinth of narrow “walking only” roads and even narrower side roads. None of them seemed to go in a straight line, and all of them had the occasional motorbike that you had to dodge. Luckily my phone and Maps Me navigated me to the right place. The included breakfast at this hostel made it worth it alone.  After breakfasts of toast and maybe a banana the smorgasboard of fruit and a menu of way too many options was a nice change. I particularly liked the brewed coffee and smoothies.  I was not the only one that agreed, I met an American who had been staying at this hostel for almost two months while he was learning Vietnamese.  He later showed me the best local place to have Pho, it was delicious and the 3.50 dollar price tag (beer included) made it even better!

The next morning I set out on a planned route that would take me to some of the highlights of the city. This started with a walk along a park that ran adjacent to the main tourist area where I saw several groups of seniors engaged in a morning dance exercise routine. From there I made my way to the Independence/Reunification Palace. It was the presidential palace and the site of the South Vietnamese Government until it fell in 1975. It has been preserved as it was at that time and included a number of relics including the presidents rolls royce. It also has a replica of the North Vietnamese tanks that first entered the palace. I took an audio tour of the place and it was interesting to hear about the Vietnam war (or the American war as they call) it from the Vietnamese perspective.

From there I walked by one of the impressive cathedrals that date back to the period of French colonization. After this I made my way to the old post office and nearby statue of Ho Chi Minh. After checking that out I had started on what should have taken me to the War Museum which is a must see in HCMC. However, the streets along my way were blocked off due to a fire in a nearby office building. With paramedics arriving and police and firefighters redirecting traffic I decided not to continue that way and gave up on going to the museum in favour of have my first, and definitely not my last Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sub) in Vietnam.

Park exercise

Independence Palace

Replica of tank that took the presidental palace, the original is in Hanoi

I then returned to the hostel and figured I’d try again the next day.  However, the hostel was full the next day and instead of trying to find another place I decided that I would just continue onto Vung Tau as originally planned. It was here that I was going to meet up with Aliona and Alex for New Years.  Although it was a short trip to HCMC and I didn’t get to see some of the key things it’s an exhilarating city to visit and made everywhere else in Vietnam (and Asia) seem sedate by comparison!