Hải Vân Pass

 

Insipired by Top Gear we decided the best use of our last day was to motorcycle from Hoi An to Hue along the Hai Van Pass - one of the most beautiful roads in the world. I was petrified, convinced I was going to fall off and hurt myself. We got on the bikes and rode north through Da Nang to Marble Mountain. We went up and saw the most amazing sculptures from 1,000 years ago and hiked to the highest vantage point (not fun in 38 degrees and 80% humidity!). 

We then set off around the Hai Van Pass which was an hour of amazing scenery and stops. It was VERY hot and time for a cool off at the waterfall which was amazing. Another half an hour later and we were at lunch, fresh lobster on the beach for only $50! Finally we drove through a tiny fishing town and as the clouds rolled in arrived at Hue airport. 

Time to fly, stay a night in Ho Chi Minh and fly home to Australia now.... 

Hoi An - City of Lanterns

 

We arrived at Da Nang airport eventually, along with our bags, and were picked up by our hotel and driven the 40 minutes to Hoi An. After checking into the hotel, we decided a drink and snack was in order as it was SWELTERING and we hadn't eaten all day. We wandered over to the hotel restaurant and ordered a Mango Caprioska and Pina Colada of course as well as some spring rolls. The spring rolls were incredible, they were triangle shaped and had a whole prawn. Doug of course HAD to know how to make them. We already had an offsite cooking class booked in for the next day, but after some chatting, we also had a cooking class booked in with the hotels executive chef! 

Always the talker, somehow Doug got chatting further to the waitress and she ended up reccomending we get some clothes made. No less than 2 minutes later, Doug was on the phone, chatting to her uncle, who offered to pick us up and keep the shop open late!

We ended up doing the Hotels "street food" banquet that night before heading into central Hoi An to meet Doug's new tailor, Moon from Rubin's Tailor. Doug ended up settling on a peacock velvet smoking jacket and a shirt and I, a copy of a Viktoria Woods coat. We walked through the streets back to our hotel and settled into the room, ready for a 8am start to our day of cooking!

We woke up and ate very light before crossing town to Miss Vy's cooking school. As Vietnam is really struggling for tourists, we ended up on a private tour for the huge sum of $45 each! We wandered around the local markets, and let me tell you, it is a genuine shock we didn't get sick all trip despite the questionable food storage solutions! After spending an hour learning about the market (women work there, while the men are at the cafe!) and walking around, we were ready to start cooking! Clearly not my forte as I struggled to chop, boil or do any other basic skills but we learnt how to make a cabbage soup, rice paper rolls, vietnamese pancakes and spicy chicken! All were amazing! 

Hoi An was by FAR the hottest place we'd been so after our self cooked lunch we headed back for a quick dip before visitng our tailor! A few alterations here and there and we were back at the hotel for our second cooking class of the day.

Doug has been desperate to learn how to cook a good satacy sauce so we learnt that, our special spring rolls and another version of vietnamese pancakes. Once again, I struggled and was asked to step aside! 

After a few chill hours we headed back into the city to finally pick up our finished pieces from the tailor. They were amazing and we were both so happy with the finished products. We were struggling to get home, so Moon offered to drive us on the back of his bike. Probably by far the least responsible thing I've ever done! 

After we dropped off our goods we headed into the Ancient Town to see all of the lanterns. It was so magical just walking around, however was acousted by a small girl and her Mum to take photos with me! It never ends!

Off on a motorbike tour tomorrow through to Hue and then hometime! 

Nha Trang

After a 6.30 check in to our Clifftop villa at Mia resort we headed down to the hotel restaurant, which also happens to be the #1 restaurant in Nha Trang. We had a very quiet dinner where we debated the differences and benefits of Coke Light vs Diet Coke and had an early night in.

As it was dark when we checked in, we really didn't know what we were in for. Waking up on Monday morning to our view was magical. We headed down to brekky and checked out the beach. This was one of my two allocated R&R days so I did just that. A morning of reading, followed by a light lunch (calamari and prawn salad - yum!) and an afternoon of reading. We had a few cocktails at Mojito Bar, drank the champagne they left in our room and then went to the "Italian" restaurant at the resort (we were staying about 40 minutes out of Nha Trang so not alot around). Turns out due to COVID they only operate one menu across the entire resort (which would have been max 15% full) which was totally understandable. We shared a few things and had another early night.

It was an early start the next morning as we were off to Vin World, Nha Trang's very own theme park! It's actually an island off Nha Trang that used to be accessible by cable car but since COVID only by boat. It was SO EMPTY, like most things have been to be honest. We didn't wait once for a ride or even to get on the boat or into the theme park. There couldn't have been more than a few hundred people at the movie world sized park. We went on a few roller-coasters and it was nearing 11.30 and getting unbearably hot so we changed into our bathers and went to the water side of the park. Lots of water slides and obstacle courses (both in and out of the water) and we didn't have to wait once! By about 1.30 we were both exhausted so headed into Nha Trang for the first real time. We ended up having a late lunch at the Sailing Club which was a trendy restaurant/bar on the beach before catching the 3.30 courtesy bus (runs 3 times a day) back home for a swim. We both were feeling average (too much sun) so popped a movie on and had room service pizza in bed.

A 6.30 start on Wednesday morning meant only one thing, diving! We got a quick but filling brekky in and were picked up at 7.30 from the Hotel and driven to the Nha Trang Marina. The boat drove about an hour to our first site where we went down 18m and spent 50 minutes under the water. We saw alot more than we were expecting, bright purple and orange coral and lots of little nemo hiding. We then drove to our second site which was far shallower but we got to navigate through rock formations and I made a few fish friends along the way. Afterwards we were exhausted so made our way back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon before heading back into town for dinner. We ended up accidentally going to the opening of a very nice Thai restaurant! Not as good as Brighton's Thaicoon but still very good haha. Afterwards we walked back to the Sailing Cub and crashed some tech company's event which was funny. We hung around as the next bus back to the resort was at 9pm.

Our final day was another negotiated Katie R&R day. I had my biggest sleep in of the trip and woke up at 8am! We then had a lazy morning and had a late breakfast at 9am, hoping it would get us through until dinner. I finished a book and started another while Doug tried to read (he's on page 177 which isn't bad!) until it was happy hour! A few Mango Mojitos later and it was time for dinner. We ended up having dessert in bed in front of a movie.

Our last morning we both woke up at 6am, not ready to leave so we had an early swim as the sun was rising. A very sad and quiet brekky followed, with us vowing to visit again and prepping eachother for the big day of travel ahead. A quick cab ride to the airport and our plane was delayed by 40 minutes. We only had a 1hr45min transfer in Ho Chi Minh enroute to Da Nang so we were getting anxious. The flight was only 50 minutes but we were late and counting the seconds until our checkin gate closed. We split up, as Doug ran for the checked luggage, I sprinted up and around to departures trying to check in 5 minutes past the due time. After a well placed argument with the poor man at Viet Jet and what we were pretty certain was a $25 bribe we somehow were checked into our flight in "Sky Boss" class no less. Although I've never had to carry my checkin case through airport security and onto the plane.... at least we knew it was going to arrive on the flight to Hoi An with us!

Saigon

Feels a little odd to be writing this when the only person who read this no longer can but anyway.

After a surprisingly easy flight and immigration process despite COVID, we arrived into Saigon at around 9.30pm on Saturday. After being harassed for 45 minutes by dodgy taxi drivers we finally got a real one (with a working meter) and were checked into the Hotel des Arts with room service in belly by 11.30.

Sunday morning we woke up, had one of the most amazing hotel breakfasts and walked down to the Saigon Notre Damme. It was built by the French, entirely from French materials in the same design and interestingly also covered in scaffold - although it didn't burn down! We couldn't go in as Sunday mass was running but it was quite amazing to hear all the voices from the choir singing.

Doug was insistant that we went to the central post office across the road which was really nothing special, but some people were taking their wedding photos there and they had 14 bridesmaids! Seems excessive if you ask me!

We then walked down to the reunification palace which was the HQ for the south. And where the famous picture of a viet cong tank crushing the gates to end the war. I particularly liked the 'interestingly worded' captions and information making it sound like the South never did anything wrong, definitely didn't engage in any bombing and it was all just 'extremist groups' haha. As Doug always says, history is written by those who won.

We were clearly in a "war mood" so started to walk to the War Remmants Museum. On the way we met a lovely gentleman who let Doug carry his coconut "stall" for a photo... Doug tried to give him some money to say thank you but the guy wanted to give us something in return, some coconuts.... which somehow Doug was tricked into paying for haha.

The war museum was good but quite confronting, particularly seeing all of the images of the Agent Orange victims and their children.

It was getting REALLY hot so after a stop in the park it was time for some very cold drinks and some lunch at a rooftop restaurant.

We couldn't handle the heat any longer so it was time for a swim and cocktails at our rooftop pool before dinner at Anan (which had been recommended to us a few times).

Anan was amazing, the prawn tacos were so good we ordered two servings! We tried to head to the night markets afterwards but they were closed, a COVID casualty I think. We headed back to the hotel but there was a massive commotion out front and we couldn't figure it out. Turns out Vietnam were winning the soccer final in the SEA Games (like the Commonwealth Games - but for South East Asia). D and I watched the last few minutes while googling the weird and wonderful rules of the SEA Games, like for example the host country can choose ANY sport, no matter how niche and it will be played. This often is a massive advantage as they will choose sports that are only popular in their country!

Vietnam ended up winning and the streets went crazy! People were riding around on their motorbikes and honking until the early hours of the morning. Lucky we were tired so getting to sleep was easy!

Sunday we had a few hours in the morning to explore so went down to the markets and looked around Chinatown (is there a Chinatown in the world that I've not visited?). Our flight out was delayed but we finally touched down in Nha Trang around 5.30 Sunday night.