Category — Vietnam

What to say about Vietnam…  We came here with much excitement and possibly too high expectations.  We have now learned that what makes a place is not so much the sights or the food or whatever – it’s generally the people.  I think that’s why I personally loved Cambodia – there aren’t a lot of sights (particularly in Phnom Penh) but the people are super friendly-even given their history – they always seemed happy.

 Before we went to Cambodia we were warned that the locals basically view you as a walking ATM and while there were plenty of booksellers and beggars etc we didn’t think it was really any different from Thailand in that respect.  Vietnam on the other hand was really where the walking ATM analogy should be used.

The hotels, travel agents, tour guides, book sellers, taxi drivers all wanted more.  “You are rich.. you can afford more.. so you give me more!”  That was the attitude everywhere we went – irrespective of whether the service or whatever we were paying for was up to scratch or overpriced by local standards etc etc.  It got really painful after a while and after our Halong Bay cruise, where we got well and truly sick of it, we were really looking forward to leaving for China.

Saying that though, we did enjoy our time in NhaTrang, Dalat and HoiAn and the Mekong Delta was well worth the trip. [Read more →]

The trip at the top of our list for Vietnam was to sail on a junk overnight on Halong Bay.  When we arrived in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, it was clear that this is what most people come here to do – every single hotel, hostel, guesthouse and hole-in-the-wall travel agency sells these cruises.

Unfortunately, I think the sheer numbers of tourists means that the boat operators pretty much get away with whatever they want and once you are on board there  is nothing you can do about it.  Our boat was ok but certainly not what we were promised – the service was non-existent and the food barely average.  The weather was also against us – for our whole time in Hanoi it has been misty, cold and overcast and so the famous karsts of Halong Bay were pretty much hidden.  The kids however were telling us they thought  it looked like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean which certainly gave it a mysterious, eerie quality!

Oh well, cruise done…  Now we’re back in Hanoi waiting for our Chinese visas. 

(Just a note about Chinese visas – anyone planning on travelling through Vietnam into China – you cannot apply for your visas at the embassay in Hanoi.  You can use a travel agent and pay a little extra in commission or apply in Saigon – allow 6 working days).

We caught the sleeper bus from Hue to Hanoi, this took about 14 hours, which was fairly uneventful (thankfully). We are getting quite use to long distance travel now, the kids are generally very good, they know the drill.

I mentioned uneventful, well everyone else appeared to have a good nights sleep, while for some reason, I found myself wide awake at two in the morning, only to see a truck that had just overturned, with people crowded all around. Next we go past the other vehicle involved, which looked like a minibus with its front all smashed in – suddenly I’m even less likely to sleep!

I looked back at my family, they were all sleeping peacefully at the back of the bus, and again like a few times on this trip, I heard the voice in my head saying, you shoudn’t be doing this trip, its too dangerous – followed up by the voice saying, you shouldnt be doing this, you should be at home working like everybody else.   I write this, not to sound kooky, but to let other readers know, especially those people planning a trip like this, not to let anyone or anything rob you of the dreams that are placed inside of you. [Read more →]

My main reason for wanting to go to Hoi An was it was close to China Beach.  I was a huge fan of the show so couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go there.  As it turns out, China Beach is the name the GI’s gave to the beach which stretches all the way from Danang to Hoi An and all the different communities along the way have different names for their own bits of the beach.

Hoi An also has it’s own World Heritage listed “Old Town”.  Apparently, both sides agreed in the war to not destroy Hoi An and it is largely intact of its French townhouses and also the original ancient Chinese architecture.  At night, motorbikes and cars are banned from the Old Town which is a massive relief.  All the streets are lit up with lanterns and you can walk up and down the alleyways relatively unhindered (except for the shopowners who continually yell out to you “Madame! Madame! You buy something!”) [Read more →]

NhaTrang reminds me of the Gold Coast – lots of big hotels and high rise on the road across from the beach.  It’s a little bit different in that you don’t have to fend off cigarette sellers on the beach at the Gold Coast like you do here and you probably won’t find someone offering to cook you a lobster and a few crabs for a couple of dollars on the beach at the Coast either!

Otherwise, it’s pretty much like most other beaches we’ve been to in Asia.  It’s fairly sheltered so there are no waves and the water is nice and warm.  Although we didn’t swim much here because we found this great place called the Louisiane Brewhouse.   It’s a microbrewery with a fullscale menu of their own beer, variety of different international food, including sushi and cocktails etc.  If you buy something off the menu, you can use their pool and lounge around on the sunbeds.  Why sit in the sand when you can swim and sip sand free I say!  BTW the sushi was just divine! [Read more →]

We went to the weirdest place ever called Vinpearl. It was an amusement park with hardly anyone else there. It had a waterpark with a lot of slides, indoor games and outdoor games. The first ride we went on was the rollercoster. The first time we went on it, it was really scary but then when you go on it 5 more times it is just really fun! After we then went on the pirate ship ride, it was so funny watching all the other people on it  covering their face and screaming, while we were  sitting there laughing at them. Then inside for the bumpercars, 4D movies ect. We went on the bumpercars a few times and went and saw Aladdin in 4D – it was really just like a simulator. Then before we went to the waterpark we had burgers for lunch!    Our first water ride was a family ride where we all sat in a gaint donut and slid down a 2m wide white water slide –  it was one of my favourites of the day. Then on to the tsunami slide! The tsunami waterslide was really scary but fun, because you have to stand from a 20 m platform with your donut and then….             by Caitlin

…You sit in your two seater donut and the thrill ride begins! you’re almost flying off the ramp, (make sure you don’t have your butt touching the ground when your doing this ride - IT WILL HURT.)  After the Tsunami we went to the toilet bowl!. Me, Caity, Boodle and Daddy went on it. But when we got to the top we started to question if we really were going to do it…Caity went first to show everyone how to do it, then Boodle, then ME! Only  to find that this ride really hurts. After that we went on the family slide again and we went on it 3 more times. Then it started getting late so we went and saw a water light show…..     by Georgie

…Then we went to a place were you sit down and music starts playing and water comes out to the beat. Then we went to go on the cable car but the line was huge so we went back to the indoor games where we went on the bumper cars again and we played racing cars ect. Then we went and stood in the line for the 8 minute long cable car, & we finally got back to our hotel…     by Ashlea

…I had Fun! But when we had to go  back on the cable car it was scary because the lights started turning off and the music was cutting out…     by Michael

On this blog I have written a lot about drivers, traffic, minibuses etc.  It seems that this trip continues to evolve in the variety of hairy driving experiences!  This time we took what seemed like a non-descript drive in the countryside from Saigon to Dalat – a beautiful town in the mountains – which thanks to the French occupation looks more like a ski resort than Vietnam. 

Unfortunately, our coach driver  – and I mean coach, not a little minibus – thought he was driving a minibus and drove up the mountain “path” at full bore.  Typically beeping his horn madly to warn anyone stupid enough to be coming from the other direction that he was coming through!   I guess this wasn’t anything we hadn’t previously experienced, until the road became more like a one lane track through rock falls and road works – including over rocks.  The sheer drop from the side of the road down the mountain was enough to make most of us close our eyes and pray to God that Dalat was just around the next bend.

Needless, to say there are no cute photos or funny video of this drive as I was too busy hanging on!  We did take some photos when we left Dalat going down the mountain – not quite as hair-raising as the driver was a little more conservative.  Check out the state of those roads on our Flickr photos. [Read more →]

Ok so Saigon is completely nuts.  It’s the traffic that makes you feel that way.  The population is about 6 million and there is no MRT or underground here so that’s a lot of people on motorbikes.  Unlike Bangkok, which spends the day in various gridlocks around the city, there are less cars and buses and way more bikes, so the traffic does move but that makes it way harder for pedestrians. [Read more →]

So we made it alive into Can Tho (just!), found a seriously cheap hotel and booked our dawn cruise to the floating markets.

The kids are so not into this whole dawn thing – Angkor Wat was bad enough, but getting into a little boat to see what?  People selling fruit?  Oh COME ON!!

They have become addicted to cable tv and their only pre-requisite for our accommodation is that it must have cable – preferably Disney Channel.  We shake our heads and hope that something of what we have seen or experienced, especially in Cambodia is sinking in.

Anyway, back to those people selling fruit – it was quite a pleasant cruise and yes we saw the people who live and work out of their boats.  Some were absolutely packed to the brim with fruit or veges.

We also went down some of the more narrow canals to see the people who live along the banks and some rice fields.  We had come specifically to CanTho to do this and it was well worth while.

Every comment I’ve made about crazy drivers on this trip were erased from my mind after we caught a minibus from Chau Doc to Can ThoCity.  This man did not attend Eval Kenival’s school for mini bus drivers.  This man was Mr K himself re-incarnate! [Read more →]