Good Morning Vietnam (had to be done)

When we arrived in Saigon we were surprised to find that there were no hoards of tuk tuk drivers shouting at us to get our attention, something that we had learnt to expect whenever we arrived at a destination during our time in Cambodia. Instead we found two motorbike taxi drivers who agreed to take us to the hostel area for one dollar each. We each hopped aboard a bike and set off. One of the first things you notice about Saigon is the sheer multitude of motorbikes and mopeds on the roads. The whole city moves at such a fast and seemingly unorganised, dangerous manner that it is pretty overwhelming when you first see it. The motorbike ride to the hostel district was a slightly stressful experience, weaving in and out of other bikes, cars and coaches fearlessly. However I soon realised that as scary as this technique seems, it works! No one is panicking and so no one makes stupid mistakes, they just get on with it! We turned off the main road and into an impossibly small side street until we reached a few hotels were our motorbike drivers urged us to get off and have a look around. 

By this point it was just past lunch time so we found a great little restaurant and had noodle soup and a nice cold Saigon beer (much better than Angkor beer in Cambodia). The day we arrived in Vietnam also marked something else, the 10th of June was exactly 6 months since I left ol' Blighty! That's halfway through my trip and I just manged to get into my sixth country! I had promised myself from an early stage in my trip that I would celebrate the halfway point with a bit of luxury and so while we ate our lunch I got on the wifi to search for hotels in Saigon. I found a great website called Agoda which offers discounted prices on hotel rooms and it didn't take long before I found a VERY nice Executive Suite room at the Harmony Saigon Hotel down to $75 from $250 a night! We booked and excitably got another motorbike taxi to the hotel. We arrived, massively out of place, in the impressive reception hall with our filthy backpacks and most likely the smell of many hours of being in a bus and after our complimentary juice were lead up to our room. 

Grant and I attempted to contain our excitement while being shown around the huge room which boasted a king sized bed (with a real duvet!!!), panoramic views of the Saigon skyline, a jacuzzi bath (also with views of the city), a flatscreen TV and a squidgy sofa. As soon as the porter left the room, I had a little dance around the room and got especially excited about the bath, I hadn't seen a working bath for 6 months nevermind actually being able to use it! 

After I had stopped dancing we head down to the first floor where there was an inside pool and saunas which I took full advantage of. It was truly surreal to be in such a luxourious setting after so many months of hostels. When we got hungry we decided to head out and have a walk around to find some food. The roads had got no quieter and actually seemed to be busier after the sun went down. We found some street food stalls and had a delicious $1 potato dish (in contrast to our glamorous accommodation, I mean we are still backpackers!). We also found a travel agents and booked an open bus ticket from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Hanoi with a number of stops along the way. We booked to visit the Cu Chi tunnels the following day with the agents too and after all that planning and brain work all I could think about was having a bath and sleeping under a real fluffy duvet cover! And so that's what I did, heavenly!

The next day, after the most incredible and vast buffet breakfast at the hotel, we checked into a hostel (back to reality) and went on our day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. The drive there was long and when we got there we were guided around the site which includes just a tiny part of the giant area that these underground tunnels cover. During the Vietnam war the viet cong used the tunnels as a way of moving around undetected and attacking the American forces. They were an integral part of their victory and a seriously impressive feat. We got to crawl though one of the tunnels and even though I don't get claustrophobic I found them pretty tight. We came back to the hostel and met some of the people staying in our dormitory and went for a couple of drinks with them in the hostel bar before heading to bed.

The next day we had a bus to Mui Ne booked at 3pm so we had breakfast at the hostel where we met another South African (Grant was very happy) called Heather and her travel buddy Katie from the US. We went with the girls to the war museum after it had finished chucking it down with the typical rainy season downpour. The museum was really interesting and some of the information was pretty shocking, especially for someone who has never really learnt about it in detail. 

We arrived in Mui Ne in the evening and checked into a very nice little hostel on the main strip. It was very much a beach resort and seemed to be catering for a largely Russian crowd, although it is low season so it was pretty quiet. Heather and Katie had booked into a great beachside hostel with a pool so we went to take advantage of that the next day before going on a tour of the sanddunes that Mui Ne is supposedly 'famous' for. We were in a group of 7 people and we all crammed into a 4X4 and set off. The first places we visited was called Fairy River and we were told to walk in the river and not given much more information than that. It started off just being a little trickle with lots of greenery either side, not particularly interesting, but as we continued to walk we came across crazy multicoloured sand/rock formations which just got bigger and more impressive as we walked on.

We then stopped briefly to take in the nearby fishing village woth hundreds of fishing boats sitting on the ocean. There were hundreds of thousands of shells and other dead sea creatures on the beach there so we got a good look at the local marine life too.

The next stop was the white sand dunes which were exactly what they said on the tin! They were massive soft white sand mounds. You could hire a quad bike to ride around the dunes but I decided not to when I saw the price and the shoddy quad bikes.

We climbed a few dunes, enjoyed the surrounding and witnessed someone fly off sand dune on a quad bike and spectacularly crash into the sand. Luckily the sand gave her a soft landing, but the bike seemed to have fallen apart on impact. Our last destination, the red sand dunes, were essentailly the less impressive, busier, noisier and dirtier cousin to the white sand dunes and as soon as we arrived we were hastled none stop by people trying to sell us stuff. We got bored of this very quickly and returned to the car which dropped us back at our hostels. That evening we had dinner with the girls and an early night. 

In the morning we were picked up by a dated minivan for our trip to Da Lat, an inland town in the mountains. The journey itself was awful as we whizzed over terrible roads and were thrown around in the van the whole time. Tired out from the constant jolting I fell asleep for the last half an hour of the journey and awoke to find myself in the ridiculously European looking town of Da Lat. It was very surreal looking around and seeing French looking buildings, a big lake with swan pedalos, pine trees and clean hilly streets which looked a world away from the usual Asian towns I have visited. Even the weather was more like home, a nice cool 23 degrees when we arrived, it felt great to finally not be sweating all the time, I even got to wear my jeans, a rare treat so far on this trip. When we arrived we booked into a hotel run by a very friendly and helpful family and after a nap we ventured out for some food at a delicous restaurant around the corner. That evening, after a rain storm, we explored the huge night market in the centre of the town. 

The market was very different to other markets. Yes, there were the usual fruit sellers and tacky jewellery but what struck me the most was the range of clothing that was for sale. Jumpers, coats, leggings, hats, scarves, gloves, items I had not seen for sale for a long time and all the local people going crazy for it. They were all covered from head to toe in winter clothing which gave the already European feeling town a ski resort feel even though the temperature was only just cool for my standards. With these conditions Da Lat has the chance to grow things that the rest of Asia struggles with, namely vineyards for wine, strawberries, blackberries and apples. We bought some apples for the next day when we would be taking part in an activity called canyoning.

I was initially very nervous for canyoning but had hard some amazing reviews about it and so decided to suck it up and give it a try. Grant, Katie, Heather and I were picked up at our hotel in the morning and joined by 6 very energetic Irish boys. We drove out of the town and into the surrounding woodland where we were given harnesses, helmets, gloves and old soggy trainers then lead further into the woods. Our first activity was learning how to abseil. It was a very quick crash course in abseiling then downwards to the river. The first raging waterfall we came to our guide introduced as a 'waterslide' although their was nothing smooth of slidey about it. I watched as a couple of people lay down and got carried by the fast current down the waterfall to the pool at the bottom, it looked pretty aggresive but actually doing it was pretty easy and fun. However, it was worrying that this was the first and seemingly least scary activities that we would be doing that day.

We walked through the woods and up and down slippery mud tracks or jumped in the river to be carried by the current until we reached the huge and daunting 25 metre waterfall which we would take in turns abseiling down. Ah. I watched a couple of people do it before I walked over the top of the fall and was attached to the rope and began my descent. I focused on the rope and DID NOT LOOK DOWN stopping for a photo halfway down and feeling a smile creep across my face as I realised that I was actually doing it! When you get about 4 metres from the bottom of the waterfall a guide on the riverbank counts down from 3 and you leap backwards into the water letting go of the ropes (apparently I did this very gracefully). When I reached the riverbank I looked back up the watefall which looked even bigger from the bottom and was so happy that I had done it! That is something I wouldn't of dared to do before I came travelling and just goes to show how this trip is changing my attitude for good. 

The rest of the day consisted of a 7m high cliff jump (there was an 11m one but you has to take a running jumping to avoid the cliff face and I decided I have been brave enough that day) and another abseil into what they called the 'washing machine', a vertical waterfall which you literally dropped yourself in the middle of (photo above). The day as a whole was amazing and so exhilarating and after a gruelling half an hour walk up a steep slippery path we got back to the minivan for lunch with, surprisingly, only a couple of bumps and scratches. That night we went for a celebratory drink and dance with the Irish boys (who had great craic!) and then passed out from all the excitement.

I have fallen behind on my blog once again (humph) so I will have to stop there. Vietnam has been a country full of amazing places, the most delicious food and most importantly really hospitable, friendly and happy people and I would recommend a trip here to everyone! Next post will be all about the northern half of Vietnam so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading again!

Emma x