History in Ho Chi Minh

Another day, another bus. This time to our final destination in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City. After dropping our things at the hostel we stepped out for an afternoon of history at the Remnants of War Museum.

On the way, we stopped at a big chain cafe for a sandwich and a coffee, which we enjoyed to the soundtrack of festive Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé tunes. It was the first time we’d really heard Christmas songs on the trip and it felt completely surreal in the 30 degree heat!

Remnants of War Museum

We started off with the outside section of the museum, passing the tanks and planes on display, as well as a recreation of the cells and ‘tiger cages’ Vietnamese prisoners of war were kept in. There was information outlining the torture techniques employed by the US and South Vietnamese on the North Vietnamese. Multiple prisoners were kept inside one tiny cage where they were unable to move, shelter from the sun or the red ants in the sand.

Of course we were aware before visiting that there were serious atrocities committed on both sides during the war, but reading about the gruesome details of the torture that took place, and seeing the physical spaces it occurred in really conveys the brutality on another level.

Inside the museum was detailed information on the timeline of the war, a gallery dedicated to war photographers that died in the crossfire and an exhibition on the effects of Agent Orange, among others. Although we’d already learned a lot about the war before and on our travels, it was shocking to tangibly see the extent of the damage done and the lives of civilians that were torn apart.

With Vietnam being a communist country, the museum is very one-sided in its portrayal of these events, praising communist allies and glossing over South Vietnam’s opposition to communism. Nonetheless, it’s an informative and moving look at the vast impact of the fighting in such recent history.

Unfortunately before long it was closing time and we had to leave, not having seen nearly as much of the museum as we’d wanted to. We were hoping to make a return visit but sadly there was a lot to see and we ran out of time.

Time to Say Goodbye

In the evening we met up with the large crew we’d accumulated in Hoi An, ate street food and said our goodbyes to Ana & Rita, our travel buddies from day one in Bangkok. We’d become very attached in 2 months and we weren’t ready for the separation … it’s not ‘goodbye’, it’s just ‘see you later’!

Mekong Mishaps

On our second morning we had a very, very bad start to the day. We’d booked onto a tour of the Mekong Delta with Hoi An pals Kareema, Nelson and Luiz, so we were up early and walked to their hostel to be collected by the bus. Pick up time came and went and Nelson phoned the company, who told us to stay put and wait for the bus rather than heading to the main road to try and find it. After more confusion we were sent a Grab taxi to take us to the bus, but by the time we got there it had left without us.

We spent the next two hours arguing over the phone and in person to receive a full refund, only to be told we had a bad attitude and shouldn’t come back, no apology from the tour company. We did, however, get our refund. By this time it was far too late to book another Mekong tour, so we made alternative plans to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels.

We were able to book onto a tour with Connie, Lyra, Nat & Val, who had just arrived in HCM, and while we were waiting for the afternoon tour Annie & I went to drown our sorrows in carbs – shamefully the second Pizza Hut we had visited in Vietnam.

Cu Chi Tunnels

We were soon glad to have made it onto this tour once we met our guide, known as ‘Mr Bean’, who was thoroughly wonderful. An ex-soldier for South Vietnam, he had fought alongside the Americans and regaled us with tales of his captains and colleagues. He took a ‘no bullshit’ approach to the tour, telling us plainly when information was communist propaganda (like the apparently ‘bullshit’ War Remnants Museum) and promised to tell us both sides of the story.

On the way round the information centre for the tunnels, he showed us the various traps used by the Viet Cong and told us some fascinating stories about the ambushes he’d lived through. We were able to climb into the hatches to the tunnels that allowed the Viet Cong to make a quick escape from the Americans – they are incredibly narrow, even after being widened for tourists.

At the end of the tour we were able to walk through 100m of the Cu Chi tunnels. They are unbelievably cramped and we were crouching the whole way, on our hands and knees at points. It was an amazing thing to experience and it really was mind-blowing to think that people had lived underground in these conditions for years.

Football Fever

That night was a big game for Arsenal, so we met Nat & Val at a sports bar for dinner and drinks. It was a big night for Vietnamese football too, with Vietnam having won the AFF semi-final! The streets were overrun with bikes, vuvuzelas and flags, making the streets even more overwhelming that usual. What an atmosphere!

Mekong Delta Tour

Our last day in Ho Chi Minh (and Vietnam!) was the big Mekong Delta tour, take 2. This time we actually made it, playing it safe and booking through our hostel. The Mekong Delta is a 2 hour journey away from HCM, so we strapped ourselves into the minibus for a long ride.

The first part of the trip was a boat ride down the main river, usually home to a floating market, which unfortunately only opens early in the morning and was closed by the time we got there. Without the charm of the floating market and on a fairly grey day, the views weren’t quite a picturesque as we were hoping, but we were still glad to have seen the main village made up of houses on stilts along the riverbank.

Once on dry land we stopped at a small riverside factory, this time for rice paper and pop rice! We were able to see the products being made and sample some of the different flavours of pop rice, most of which were a big hit.

The part of the tour we had been eagerly awaiting thanks to the pictures, was the small boat ride down a smaller tributary river, with jungle vegetation towering over on both sides. It was just as I’d pictured it, being rowed down the river with our Vietnamese conical hats on. However, it was cut far too short and was a much smaller part of the tour than we’d anticipated. Although we really enjoyed it we had hoped to be in the boat for longer, as it was the main image used to sell the tour.

Lunch was a local feast, followed by the opportunity to ride bikes around the countryside. We cycled along the river, through a local village, but didn’t stray too far, once again fearing being left behind!

With that it was time to pile back into the bus for the two hour journey home. Overall we had enjoyed the day, but like others we spoke to on the tour, it had been a little underwhelming. But hey, they can’t all be 10/10!

Goodbye Vietnam

We were very sad to be leaving Vietnam after the most incredible time there. Almost four weeks had flown by and we had seen so many amazing things and had our eyes opened to a completely new culture in a beautiful country. That being said, we were very much looking forward to getting to know our next destination, Cambodia.

Chloe x

Delightful Da Lat

We stepped off the night bus from Hoi An feeling pretty groggy as usual, but after a quick pit stop at the hostel and some recommendations from our hosts, we were powering through with a full day of activities.

We walked into town armed with our map, heading first to Da Lat railway, only 7km of which is still used, to catch the old steam train that takes tourists to Linh Phuoc Pagoda. The train ride is a charming little adventure in itself and we loved sitting on the deck on the back of the train, watching the tracks run away from us.

The pagoda itself is very different to others we’ve seen, a quirky building covered in colourful mosaic, with a dragon made from recycled beer bottles and a Buddha made entirely of flowers.

Waterfalls and Rollercoasters

We had been excited to visit Datanla falls ever since we’d heard about it from Annie’s friend who had visited. The main draw is the unorthodox method of transport required to get there – a mini jungle rollercoaster! You’re strapped into a toboggan with a lever to control your speed down the track. We had so much fun hurtling through the trees – definitely one of our highlights from Da Lat.

Once you reach the bottom of the course you can get out to see/be soaked by the falls. We love a good waterfall, but could safely say the rollercoaster was the star of the show here.

On the way back up we didn’t enjoy the ride quite so much – starting from the bottom of a very steep, very high track, you are cranked up by one, not very healthy sounding cable. Thorpe Park this was not.

Countryside Capers

Da Lat is famous for its agricultural produce, most notably its flowers and wine. Our hostel offered a countryside tour of Da Lat’s rural farmland and we thought it would be the perfect way to get to know the local way of life. Once again we had a fabulous tour guide who gave us all sorts of fun facts about the workings of the countryside.

Firstly we were taken to a huge flower farm, the source of a huge percentage of all of Vietnam’s flowers, sent to cities all over the country from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh.

Then it was onto a coffee plantation where we witnessed one of the first of many unethical practices involving animals that day. The plantation makes weasel coffee, a luxury product whereby the beans gain flavour by passing through the stomach of a weasel. This practice in itself doesn’t pose too many problems, as the weasel poo was originally collected from the forest, leading to the high value of the beans. Now, however, the weasels are kept individually in small cages with a wire mesh floor, living out their days as coffee eating machines.

Safe to say after seeing the weasels we weren’t too enamoured by the idea of a coffee, but instead enjoyed the picturesque views over the plantation.

The next stop was a tour of a rice wine factory, of course involving several shots of the stuff (before the alcohol proof has been reduced) pre-11am. For some reason the factory also featured a strange little zoo of exotic creatures in concrete enclosures far too small for them. We were told this was set up due to tourist demand – I’m not sure where this came from but seeing crocodiles, ostriches and guinea pigs in little pens did not add anything to the experience.

The tour continued in this vein with a visit to a silk factory. I knew that silk worms were used in the production of silk, but unfortunately I was unaware that this process involved boiling them alive in their cocoons. We were each allowed to take away a cocoon, and Annie & Alpa tried to help theirs to make a break for freedom.

Whilst I felt uncomfortable during a few parts of the tour, it was fascinating to see how all these products are made and to observe traditional farming and manufacturing methods that have been used in Vietnam for centuries. It’s a reminder of where our animal products come from, and it can be quite brutal seeing it up close.

Elephant Waterfall

We stopped for a lovely lakeside buffet lunch before the afternoon’s more animal-friendly portion of the tour, starting with elephant waterfall, the biggest falls in Da Lat and so named because they look like the hide of an elephant from afar.

As is often the case in Asia, there is no health and safety, and the path down to the falls is just a ‘climb down the slippery rocks and hope you don’t fall’ kind of deal. At the bottom of the falls we bumped into Chloe, a girl we met on the train the day before, and as we were taking a group selfie, disaster struck. Chloe dropped her entire handbag into the gushing water, passport and all. It was a moment of panic but thankfully it hit a counter-current and a man nearby was able to grab it. She then proceeded to take out all her valuables and try to dry them on the rocks, our nerves couldn’t take it.

Crazy House

Our final stop of the day was architectural wonder, tourist attraction and functioning guesthouse, the ‘Crazy House’. Designed by Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga, the Crazy House draws a lot of inspiration from nature and looks like a cross between a fairytale and a bizarre treehouse. The attention to detail is incredible and every inch of the place is formed from weird and wacky shapes. Around every corner is an otherworldly surprise, and we had a great time exploring, wishing we were staying in one of the rooms.

A Night on the Da Lat Wine

On our last night we went for drinks with our new Canadian friends from the hostel. These wine lovers were seriously feeling the lack of it in Southeast Asia and couldn’t resist the chance to sample the local offering. We spent the evening on a rooftop bar and spent many hours playing a competitive dice game with the barman.

We crammed a lot into our two days in Da Lat and really enjoyed our whistle stop tour of this little mountain town. We could have easily spent a little longer exploring, but Mui Ne was calling and it was time to press on.

Chloe x

Hue in a Day

Hue was the logical next step on our way down to Hoi An and we’d heard it was possible to see quite quickly, so with a limited number of days on our visa, we decided to make it a one day/two night stopover. With Alpa extending her stay in Phong Nha for another caving tour, this was the first day in 6 weeks of travelling that we’d been on our own and not part of a larger group!

The major draw of Hue is its Imperial Citadel, and the entire walled city that has been expertly preserved and rebuilt after the Vietnam/US war. It was originally built in 1804 and became a world heritage site in 1993. We could have easily spent an entire day just exploring the citadel, which was incredibly well restored and contained a plethora of artefacts and information about the former Imperial capital of Vietnam. The city is surrounded by two thick walls and a moat, and is home to gardens, pavilions, the peace hall and the purple forbidden city.

Lovely little pavilions in the Forbidden City

We explored all morning and by early afternoon our empty stomachs prompted us to begin what would turn out to be an epic quest for food. For some reason we could find nowhere to eat in the walled city, which was much larger than we’d anticipated, and we only came across coffee shop after coffee shop. If we could make any recommendation for visiting the Imperial City, it would be to come armed with snacks!

We had just enough time to fit in one more attraction in Hue, Thien Mu Pagoda. Unfortunately it’s very easy to get scammed when trying to get there, as the tourist transport is monopolised by rickshaw drivers that charge astronomical prices to take you to the main tourist haunts. We were able to take a Grab taxi to the pagoda, but it was not so easy on the way back, as it’s too far out of town to call one out and you’re forced to pay more to get back to the city centre. Given our time in Hue again, we may have planned our transport differently, but we were glad to have seen the pagoda and its pretty riverside location.

Thap Phuoc Duyen – Pagoda of the Celestial Lady

In the evening we went for dinner at Nook Cafe, one of the most delicious curries we’d had on the trip so far! And a shining moment for Annie who had her first proper cup of tea in 6 weeks.

Although there were a few things we missed in Hue, we were happy with the things we’d managed to fit into our limited time there and felt we’d definitely got our culture and history fix!

Chloe x

Exploring Ninh Binh’s Countryside

Ninh Binh is often described as ‘Ha Long Bay on land’, a nickname that made sense as soon as we pulled up on the main street and saw the huge karst mountains in every direction, rising from the ground here rather than water. We were staying in Tam Coc, a little town just outside of Ninh Binh city, the perfect base for the rural excursions we had planned.

Our friend Emel was only stopping over in Ninh Binh for a few hours before catching her night bus to Hue, so we went for a farewell-for-now dinner, a wander around the town centre and a few games of pool at the hostel bar before her departure.

Ninh Binh on Two Wheels

In the morning it took us a little longer to get going than originally planned, due to various pharmacy visits over an allergic reaction I was having to a mosquito bite. It had blown up rapidly over the last 24 hours and was showing no signs of slowing down! We decided to rent bicycles instead of scooters and stick to the closer sightseeing spots for the day.

We cycled a way out of town through rice fields and past lush green capped karsts, blissfully enjoying the wind in our hair and some of the most impressive scenery we’d seen so far on the trip.

Reason enough to fall in love with Ninh Binh

Our first port of call was Thung Nham Bird Park. Despite the lack of actual bird sightings on our visit, it was easy to spend a good few hours roaming the park and taking in the pretty lakes, bridges and fields of crops.

Next up was Bich Dong Pagoda (with a goat encounter along the way of course). The pagoda is built into the mountains and its entrance looks like something out of a fairytale. If you climb all the way to the top you’ll be rewarded with a temple built inside the cave and another stellar viewpoint.

Meanwhile, the bite on my arm had blown up to the size of a golfball and was burning hot, so we cycled back to town pretty quickly. Our kind host at the guesthouse called the local doctor for me and she arrived within half an hour, 5 star service! The language barrier was an issue so the whole consultation was carried out over google translate and some quick online searches of the medication she was prescribing me. Thankfully the pills brought down the inflammation within a couple of hours and I was cured.

Trang An

The next day we were ready to cover some ground and explore some of Ninh Binh’s further away sights, so we rented scooters from our hostel. We’re still pretty inexperienced, so it always takes us a little while to figure them out (why are the lights not working? I can’t open the seat? Usually because the ignition’s not turned on) and get used to the roads in a new place.

We’d heard the boat tour on Trang An Lake was a must when visiting Ninh Binh, so that was the first journey we braved on our bikes, only getting lost a couple of times. There are several routes you can choose for the boat tour, we went for the longer route that included the King Kong: Skull Island film set, 3 temples and 3 caves. We piled into the little rowing boat and set off, gliding past the limestone cliffs – a freshwater lake doppelgänger of Ha Long Bay.

We were so impressed by the strength of our guide who presumably rowed this three hour trip a couple of times a day. We took up the spare oars and tried to contribute to the rowing, but I think we were more of a hindrance than a help to be honest.

The caves were a particular highlight of the trip as always, with us having to duck right down in the bottom of the boat to avoid stalactites and the very low ceilings.

Towards the end of the route we were dropped off on a little island to visit the King Kong movie set. Whole stages from the film, including an abandoned boat and a tribal village have been preserved there and opened as a tourist attraction. Some of the locals that appeared in the movie are now employed there by the tourism board, posing for photos and recreating scenes from the film.

We skipped the far away Bai Dinh Pagoda in favour of Hoa Lu ancient city, which we somewhat regretted when we heard other peoples’ glowing reviews of the former. The ancient city was definitely worth a visit, but there isn’t a huge amount to see and you can walk around the temple and the walled city fairly quickly.

Our plan was to head back to the hostel before dark, but we couldn’t resist making a pitstop at Hang Mua cave which was only 1km from town. When we arrived we saw that there was a viewpoint that was too good to miss, so we made the mad scramble to get up there in time for sunset. It was absolutely worth the stitch and the next day’s leg pain for the ridiculously beautiful views over the valley and the town below.

We ♥ Ninh Binh

Ninh Binh wasn’t actually on the original route we’d planned, but we were so glad we listened to the hype and made the detour, as it ended up being one of our favourite places in Vietnam. Just cycling around the untouched countryside alone is reason enough to make the trip down from Hanoi!

Chloe x