Well, I'm still in Vietnam and still sweating like crazy, don't think I'll ever acclimatise to this crazy weather! Hoi An was great fun, the beaches were incredible and we met up with lots of friends from our Halong Bay trip to enjoy several buckets of alcochol with (Vietnam is a very dangerous place for my poor liver). We also managed to squeeze in a bit of culture, my going to the Myson ruins. They were a 1000 year old cluster of Hindu temples, which were bombed quite heavily during the war, as the Viet cong were hiding there. There were an awful lot of lingams there, which I found highly amusing (would love to upload pics but my brand new memory stick immediately got an evil worm when I put it into a pc... think I'll give up on downloading pics until I get out of Vietnam!).
After Hoi An we travelled down to Nha Trang, which is essentially Vietnam's best beach resort. What we didn't know is that it's also one of the dodgiest places to go in Vietnam. Just after we arrived, we bumped into three of the Halong bay boys. We literally couldn't believe our eyes, they'd been beaten up really badly. Apparently they'd got into a disagreement with security at a bar which had ended up with two of them in hospital. Not a good introduction to the place, we quickly decided to spend only one night there! As we spoke to various travellers, more and more stories came out about muggings, violent robberies, etc. I have absolutely no photos of the place as I was too scared to take my camera out! Nonetheless, Nikki and I managed to survive unscathed, well apart from giving our livers another battering and depriving ourselves of sleep once again (6am bedtime is never a good idea... fun though!). I'm not sure if I'd recommend the Nha Trang really for the safety reasons, plus the beaches are actually much nicer in Hoi An... possibly best avoided.
After another few hours on the open tour bus we arrived at Mui Ne, at the unpleasant hour of 2am. We lucked out with our accommodation though - when we arrived, we were told the cheap room we wanted was still occupied, so they upgraded us to a big bamboo bungalow right by the sea, with two large double beds. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves, and woke up to see palm trees out of the window. Beautiful. There wasn't an awful lot going on in Mui Ne, but we did have fun going to the nearby red sand dunes, where you could hire out a plastic sheet and ride down the dunes!
After our last bus journey in Vietnam (woohoo!), we're now at Saigon. First impressions are good - it's busy, chaotic, but clean and you don't get too many hassles. After a much needed nap, we headed straight out to a bia hoi place. I'm going to miss squeezing into these tiny places, full of people, sitting on plastic chairs surely made for 5 year olds, and drinking ridiculously cheap beer. Vietnam has certainly been a lot of fun.
After Hoi An we travelled down to Nha Trang, which is essentially Vietnam's best beach resort. What we didn't know is that it's also one of the dodgiest places to go in Vietnam. Just after we arrived, we bumped into three of the Halong bay boys. We literally couldn't believe our eyes, they'd been beaten up really badly. Apparently they'd got into a disagreement with security at a bar which had ended up with two of them in hospital. Not a good introduction to the place, we quickly decided to spend only one night there! As we spoke to various travellers, more and more stories came out about muggings, violent robberies, etc. I have absolutely no photos of the place as I was too scared to take my camera out! Nonetheless, Nikki and I managed to survive unscathed, well apart from giving our livers another battering and depriving ourselves of sleep once again (6am bedtime is never a good idea... fun though!). I'm not sure if I'd recommend the Nha Trang really for the safety reasons, plus the beaches are actually much nicer in Hoi An... possibly best avoided.
After another few hours on the open tour bus we arrived at Mui Ne, at the unpleasant hour of 2am. We lucked out with our accommodation though - when we arrived, we were told the cheap room we wanted was still occupied, so they upgraded us to a big bamboo bungalow right by the sea, with two large double beds. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves, and woke up to see palm trees out of the window. Beautiful. There wasn't an awful lot going on in Mui Ne, but we did have fun going to the nearby red sand dunes, where you could hire out a plastic sheet and ride down the dunes!
After our last bus journey in Vietnam (woohoo!), we're now at Saigon. First impressions are good - it's busy, chaotic, but clean and you don't get too many hassles. After a much needed nap, we headed straight out to a bia hoi place. I'm going to miss squeezing into these tiny places, full of people, sitting on plastic chairs surely made for 5 year olds, and drinking ridiculously cheap beer. Vietnam has certainly been a lot of fun.
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