Week one - Ho Chi Minh, New friends, Nha Trang and Almost to Hoi An.
We did it, we have made it past week one, only 23 to go! It's strange because on previous holidays after the first week is over I constantly moan about how quick the holiday has gone and how I need more time. However here, we're saying to each other every day how it feels like we have been here forever already! It probably has something to do with the fact you have to make each place part of your life and become submerged in it. After all it is your life, not a luxury holiday you've booked to grab yourself a suntan, although my tan is getting there, thanks Nha Trang.
So we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, it's safe to say it was crazy! I have never in my life seen traffic like it, and I'm not sure I will again. There are hundreds of motorbikes and very few cars (this is due to the tax price on the cars here, we learnt this from a 20 yr old local called Zing who came and sat with us to test his English whilst we watched his school friends play a popular game called Thai) there are no traffic lights, no traffic signals and crazy of all, no pedestrian crossings! You literally have to step out into the traffic and go for it with the hope the moving vehicle will avoid you!
We landed on my birthday, so we was set for a good night. After having a mooch around the city to get our bearings, we popped back to the hotel to freshen up and headed on out. After an amazing 4 course meal costing us just £4 each we headed to a bar which looked ideal for a nice bit of people watching. In front of us sat 2 Canadian girls who we quickly began talking to, after that 2 Australian guys joined us, then two UK girls and later on, over our very drunken pool tournament, two NZ guys. And that was that, we had our travelling group for the night set, everyone was quick to jump on the fact that it was my birthday as it gave us a massive excuse to party... Oh and we did! We headed on to a club were we danced, drank and laughed all night. The company was great. The night escalated and we ended up at a rooftop pool watching the sunset and got back to our room at 11:30am the following day, it probably would of been 10am if we hadn't got ridiculously lost . It's fair to say I was feeling a tad fragile!
After a nap, we visited the cities indoor market, it was beautifully chaotic. Stalls and stalls of everything you could think of, brightly coloured and connected by tiny paths with locals forcing their stall goods in your face. That night we went back to the first bar from the first night, the guys that worked there loved us and so we thought, why not. We spotted another bar that looked more chilled out across the way so decided to go over there. We bumped into our two NZ friends and a group of girls from the UK. We relaxed and casually drank Tiger beer (which works out at about 47p a bottle!) and had a 2 course Mexican at 3am, the boys walked us back and we was asleep within minutes.
On Friday, we visited Cu Chi Tunnels, the tunnels that the Vietnamese soldiers created during the Vietnam war, it was interesting, airy and quite sad. That night we compulsively booked a flight to Nha Trang for the following day, it wasn't in our plans but we had heard too many people rave about it not to visit.
On Saturday, we arrived in Nha Trang and god was we happy. Being honest, we couldn't of spent another day in the city, it was hectic, hot and not a spot of sun in sight. Nha Trang was non of those things. As we jumped into a taxi from the airport, we took in the calmness of the roads and put our windows down and smiled at the sun. We arrived at our hostel, we stayed in a hotel in Ho chi as we pre-booked it back home. We stayed in the Backpackers Hostel, it was fine, the toilet leaked and the shower didn't work but not sure what you can expect for £4.50 a night - plus how much time do you actually spend in your room.
Again, we dumped our things, got changed, and headed out to scope Nha Trang. There was lots of restaurants, and promo people similar to the city but non of the hussle and bussle. Excited about the beach, we walked and had a peak at this rated place. It was perfect. Palm trees, sandy beaches, warm sea and nothing to look out to other then a few other islands. This is more like it!
Our UK girl friends and our NZ boy friends were already in Nha Trang, so we all decided to meet up that night and go to The Sailors Club beach party. It is expensive for a travellers budget however we had heard so much about it we decided to go. And thank god we did, it was epic. The place was amazing, it cost us 150,000 dong to get it but that didn't matter (that is only £4.30 by the way, but expensive for here). If this place was in Marbella, Ibiza or Dubai you would be looking at paying hundreds! The beach party was just amazing! The only upsetting thing was that the music stopped at about 2am!!! With drinks still in hand, a group of us decided to sit on the beach until the early hours. I was slowly loosing my heart to Nha Trang.
Once again, in a fragile state, the following day we decided to spend the day on the beach. After being introduced to Barry (our NZ friends Dad) he invited us to have dinner with them that night. They were only holidaying for 3 weeks and were staying in a swanky 4 star hotel, we obviously leaped at the chance, after all, I am sure that will be the only meal of its kind for the next 6 months. The boys picked us up and we headed on over to their hotel, it was a mouth open, jaw dropping kind of experience. There must of been almost 70 buffet dishes that we could help ourselves too. Oh and we did, we had been living off 70p street food! We quickly came to realise that the boys and Barry lived idealic lives, owning a Backpackers and a place on a paradise island that they called The Batch. They were sweet and all had lots of stories to tell. We enjoyed being around them.
On Monday, we headed to Vinpearl, an island across the way which you got to by getting a cable car ride over the sea! Vinpearl Island had a water park, amusement park and aquarium, we spent the whole day there. Barry once again, filled us with his interested stories, I could listen to him all day. We arrived back on our island, grabbed some street food and prepared to say goodbye to Nha Trang.
We had decided to move onto Hoi An on Tuesday. Once again, we found ourselves playing pool, drinking seriously inexpensive alcohol, smoking shisha, visiting the Sailers Club and visiting the beach. On Tuesday, we had a well needed lie in until 11am, packed up our things, and headed to a tourist information spot and booked our sleeper bus to Hoi An for that night. It would take us 10-12 hours and left at 7.30pm.
And so it was back to the beach, we only had a few hours to spare before we would need to get changed. Of course, our new favourite people offered us their room and shower to use so we could get ready for our journey. To go in line with the buffet we had there a few nights before, the bathroom did not disappoint. I haven't even seen something that swanky back home! It was bliss. The boys helped us with our luggage to the station, we said our goodbyes and looked forward to seeing them again in NZ where they had promised to show us their world.
As we climbed aboard the bus, which arrived 45 mins late, we were fuming to be told we were at the wrong place!!! With backpacks in tow we ran down the road to the place she directed us to, after asking a local for directions, he sent us back to our original place. Our backpacks were extremely heavy and I could of easily dumped it on the ground and pulled a massive strop! Again the women told us we were at the wrong place, we didn't have a clue what was going on and so I begged a local man to help us. After contacting the booking office, it came about that she had given us the wrong address, 09 instead of 90. The lady apologised and said we could catch the bus the same time the next day. I quickly regretted being so nice to her early on in the day!
We stayed in a room above our stop for just 212,000 dong. Wednesday was another lie in, a visit to the beach and a shower in a cleaners cupboard to prepare for our sleeper bus to Hoi An once again.