Yo ho from Vietnam!
Sitting in Mellow guesthouse right now with a bunch of drunken expats making a ruckus outside… waiting for a bus to come and take us to Dalat! Arrived in Ho Chi Minh city around noon after a long bus ride from Siem Reap. We took a night bus which left at midnight, but upon boarding found that we were sat at the very back, right in between two rather large Cambodian men. Unable to lean on the frame of the bus, Ellie and I set up a makeshift pillow out of our bags and attempted to get some sleep. As soon as we got on the road, we realized this attempt was futile… the bumpy road meant that we shot out of our seats every 5 seconds, landing wherever fate took us. Apparently driving at night gives Cambodian bus drivers a shot of confidence as we seemed to be bombing along at quite a rate, and whenever we had to slam on the brakes to avoid a wandering cow I very nearly slid along the aisle to the front of the bus. We got to Phnom Penh after 6 hours of this hellish journey, waited another two in the city and finally boarded the bus to Ho Chi Minh. The border crossing was a bit of a faff but nothing too bad, and next thing we knew we were outside Hotel 64 (aka, Madame Cucs). We were welcomed with a free lemon juice and banana, and were then told they had no rooms in this particular building, so would be transported by moto to their other location. Shortly after we arrived at Hotel 127 (aka Madame Cucs number 2) we were told that they didn’t have any rooms either, so would be staying across the road. After lugging our bags up three flights of stairs we couldn’t face searching for another room and settled in asap.
Ho Chi Minh was an amazing city, with the most insane traffic we’ve seen and plenty of sights to keep us entertained (including an air conditioned cinema! Civilized or what??!). Went to the Cu Chi tunnels where they referred to American soldiers as “Crazy barbaric devils” (sorry U.S readers, it was all a bit overdramatic) and where we crawled through tunnels which the Viet Cong inhabited during the Vietnam War. The guide was hilarious but kept referring to us westerners as fat… “The tunnels are small, too small for big westerners. Yes, westerners are tall, but also big (as he mimed someone who’s stomach looked the size of a pregnant woman)!” He also insisted that a triangle was in fact a rectangle and that the tunnels were “5 meters deef”… all rather amusing. The highlight of the tour was our opportunity to shoot an AK-47… Ellie was bouncing off the walls with excitement whereas I just wanted to say I’d done it! The actual shooting was fairly uneventful, just really loud. We also met a lot of other travelers in HCM which was good fun. Another highlight was the discovery of what may have been the cutest dog in the world. We came across it in a small hole in the wall restaurant hiding under some plastic chairs. The owner told us it was only a month old and it was SO sweet! This puppy looked identical to a black bear cub (but much smaller). He was a complete fluffball and I fell in love immediately (see pics for photographic evidence, I will be back to kidnap him!). Ellie had yet another mishap in HCM when getting off a motorbike… she burned her calf with the exhaust pipe and what initially just looked like a red mark has now turned into a brown bubbling mess! (don’t worry, I’ve been forcing her to clean it and we are going to the doctors soon).
After Ho Chi Minh was Mui Ne, where we are right now. This pretty little beach town is just one long stretch of road, which means that it’s not overly touristy and is a really nice place to spend a few days. Bummed around on the beach yesterday before crashing a 5 star resort’s pool, after which we got a massage (luxury day or what!?). Had dinner on the beach and finished off the day with incredible sea food. (Just a heads up, we have found that Vietnam has the best banana shakes of any country so far!)
Went to bed reasonably early to wake up at 5 o clock this morning to get to the sand dunes for sunrise. The motorcycle ride there was beautiful; the sun rose in a red haze over the water and highlighted tiny fishing boats as they rowed out to sea. When we finally got to the sand dunes we were very windswept but in awe of the beautiful scenery… definitely one of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve seen since we’ve been away. The sand dunes were stunning and we had a lot of fun taking various pictures on each sandy peak… too much fun in fact as the camera ran out of battery almost as soon as we got there! After a while on those dunes we moved onto the larger Red Dunes, which were beautiful but much more crowded. Our final stop was at “Fairy Stream” which was a beautiful little river that carved through the sand dunes… we walked barefoot in the water with three kids who served as our guides and even gave us some four leaf clovers! All in all an amazing morning!
Writing from Dalat now (paused the blog to get onto the bus)… the bus ride was definitely not our best trip! Instead of the nice coach we were expecting we were shoved into a minibus which seemed to have 5 extra seats in it. It was incredibly hot, sticky and cramped and as soon as you thought you couldn’t possibly fit anyone else in the bus, another family climbed in! The usual Vietnamese music soon started blasting, and as soon as we were truly on the road we discovered why we were in a smaller vehicle. The road to Dalat is a long winding and BUMPY one my friends, and with children crying, Vietnamese men groping and a general lack of space one quickly becomes frustrated to the point of tears. When we finally got to Dalat it was heavenly—it’s a gorgeous town in the mountains which is actually COOL! We don’t need AC in our room and might even need to wear long sleeves outside… heaven!
Heading out for a trek tomorrow which should take all day… went and got Ellie’s burn cleaned at the local hospital today which was traumatic to say the least! They did a very good job but the language barrier meant we were both terrified of what they were actually going to do to her, especially as they started fiddling with various scissors and other blades! (There were two kitchen knives by the sterilizing station, I kid you not!! Ellie thought her leg was going to be amputated). As soon as he started messing with the wound I felt faint and had to move closer to the floor to avoid a dramatic fall… Aren’t I just a great travelling companion? Now it’s all clean and bandaged up though, so no worries.
Will keep you posted on future travels, going off into the mountains as of tomorrow! Wish us luck, all our love!!
