July1-
So today Jo
and I were off on our Vietnam adventures. Jo and I met in April at the
Elephant Sanctuary and became instant friends in the jungle. She had only come
to Cambodia for the two weeks she spent at the sanctuary so after her return
home she soon decided to come back so that we could do some extra
traveling together. Jo arrived in Cambodia on Sunday July 28th and although I
worked Monday Tuesday she was a trooper and occupied herself around town. Now
that it's Wednesday July 1st, a holiday here as my school is Canadian, and I've
taken seven days off work we can now enjoy our time exploring Vietnam for the
next twelve days! We hurriedly got our visas done at a travel agent around the
corner from my house as you cannot enter Vietnam without one. And we booked our
bus last minute. Originally we weren't meant to leave until the weekend but I
got extra days off work, which put a rush on our planning. So we got our visas
at 6pm last night and booked our bus soon after that to leave the next morning
at 8am. We made it on the bus only to be delayed by some travelers who did not
seem to understand that you had to get a visa in advance. They also refused to
get off the bus, which left all of us other passengers waiting. Soon others
started getting involved to hurry along the process. Finally half an hour later
we got them off the bus so we could proceed on our journey. The bus trip went
fairly smoothly; it ended up being just about 7 and half hours to get here to
Ho Chi Minh City. Crossing the boarded was interesting, as we had to
disembark and walk across the end of the Cambodian border then drive 600m to
the Vietnam border where we disembarked again to repeat the process. Again this
trip was not planned out fully as we thought we weren't leaving until Saturday
so we arrived in Ho Chi Minh wanting to go directly to the train station and
make our way up the coast to Hanoi so that we could get the furthest distance
now only to slowly make our way back over the course of the next twelve days.
So we got dropped off at "the train station" but ended up not at the
train but merely down the street from it. We however were not aware of our
proximity to the station and when we asked others no one seemed to understand
where we wanted to go so we were told we needed a taxi. So we got a taxi and he
literally drove around the block and up the street from where we had been then
charged us 3 dollars for it. Once at the train we could not understand
anything! We did manage to find our way to the booking floor, which was a
massive room with people waiting for their number to be called. So I followed a
man and saw that he got a number from this little box that was not marked so I
copied him. They were calling 0630 and our number was 0669. We waited for purr
number to be called and while waiting we used the free wifi to see if maybe we
could book tickets online instead... Well while looking online we realized that
the journey we were hoping to make (Ho chi Minh city to Hanoi) was in fact
a 34 hour train ride!! This was not properly understood at first as it said
departing train leaves at 22:00 and arrives at 5:30, which we assumed was the
following day, not 34 hours later! So at the last minute we decided to book a
trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang for tomorrow so that we could have today
to regroup. As we weren't planning on staying in Ho Chi Minh we didn't have a
place to stay so we took another taxi to the bus station where we would have
originally been dropped had we my disembarked closer to the train. From the bus
place we figured we could find a more central place to stay. After searching
for a reasonable place to stay we thought we negotiated a price for a hotel
room. Only after paying did we find out we got ripped off because we weren't on
the right tourist street where all the hotels were located. Trying to forget
the day’s woes we went in search of food. We had a nice dinner of fried
squid, fried noodles, and sautéed vegetables (only cabbage). As it is our first
night we had to find pub street for a beer (this is when we discovered ALL the
hotels) we chose a place along the way to stop and have a drink since their
sign said happy hour buy 2 get 1. We have it a go without understanding the
conversion prices. Turns out our two drinks added up to 10 dollars!! Not only
that but when we went to pay and leave they tried charging us a service fee.
This service fee caused quite the raucous as we stated our unawareness of this
fee and our unwillingness to pay it. Well this seemed to infuriate our server
who aggressively approached Jo and was yelling at her only inches away from her
face. Then we asked to speak to the manager and we proceeded to find him, which
is when the security blocked our way and refused to let us go. I then
negotiated Jo to stay while I look for a manager. After speaking with the
manager we were allowed to leave but nonetheless we were rattled. So after a
crazy day (people on the bus without visas, taxi driver ripping us off,
overpriced hotel with ants in the bed, and aggressive servers) we are now ready
to leave Ho Chi Minh tomorrow to head to Danang and find some kind and peaceful
people. Here's to better days to come.
July 2-
This morning
we woke with vigor as we were ready to make today a better day than the
last. Having seen a Starbucks yesterday we made a beeline there this
morning as I was ecstatic to be getting my first earl great tea latte in over
six months! It really did add an extra hop to my step just to be getting a
small taste of home as I have been missing it greatly! After enjoying our
Starbucks and chocolate croissants for breakfast we set off in search of the
markets. When stopped to look at our map a man approached to help us orient
ourselves and explain that the markets weren't yet open but that he could take
us to a different market. After some convincing we agreed, as we wanted to
approach the day a little more open minded at ease. They took us to a gorgeous
market where we found the most amazing bags! I could have bought one of each
had they been cheaper! We thought we had bargained and gotten a deal but soon
discovered we were once again played the fool. We weren't too bothered as the
purchase was a meaningful one, Jo bought a cute backpack with the map of Asia
and I bought a purse, which I later discovered has Canada at its heart and
centre just like me. After the market our drivers were determined to show
us a good time in Ho Chi Minh and we were determined to embrace it. We whizzed
through the city seeing all its landmarks in record time as we still had a
train to catch at three. In all we saw the pagoda, which brings good luck (this
is foreshadowing for later events), the post office, the cathedral, the Opera
house, and the river. To end our day with our drivers we went for a drink and
they chatted easily to us making us feel all the more trusting. After a
whirlwind of sights we then headed to the hostel to get our things and then
they offered to bring us to the train station to send us on our way. Once at
the station the tables turned and they tried charging us 1,000,000.00 Vietnamese
dong, which in other words is ridiculous! (It equates to 50 dollars!!) Astounded
and caught off guard we did manage to dispute this request but they somehow
still manipulated us into paying 600,000.00 leaving us feeling frustrated and
used once again. Boarding our train we were very unhappy campers but once the
train started to move away from Ho Chi Minh City we both wanted to start fresh
leaving our burdens behind us. We currently have been on the train for 8 hours
and we have watched the girl across from us eat two hot dogs, four hard boiled
eggs, a bag of leechees (it's a type of fruit), a helping of rice and some
other questionable items. We have thought we smelt corn on the cob...only to
discover a trolley coming through the train selling corn (as well as the eggs
with whole Baby chicks in them that you eat). And I have just finished the book
Girl on the train, which was fitting to read while I am ironically on the train
(spoiler alert: I totally called the ending of the book!). Now only twelve more
hours to go before we get to Da Nang.
starbucks after 7 months!! Heaven
So many turtles at one of the pagodas
the post office in Ho Chi Minh
worst selfie ever
Selling corn and eggs on the train
July 3-
Sleeping on
the train didn't really happen for us... We made a pretty good effort despite
the cockroaches and the lady behind us propping her feet up between us. So
instead we enjoyed the sun rising over a country we were eager to explore.
Finally by 11am we were entering Danang, which meant we were free from the
train (20 hours later). Everyone on the train was super helpful despite neither
of us understanding what the other was saying, so we relied on hand gestures
and smiling. Getting off the train we entered the chaotic world of the train
station and heat. We had previously decided to walk to our hotel this time so
as to avoid disappointment from unfair taxi drivers so we made a beeline past
the moto's and taxis and set off in the direction of the hotel. By time we made
it there we were so sweaty it was as though we had jumped into a swimming pool
in our clothes then had entered the hotel lobby dripping, we must have looked
horrid because they quickly sat us down and got us cold water and even fed us
watermelon to make sure we didn't die. From the water to the watermelon we knew
we had chosen the kindest most caring hotel staff to begin again after our
previous bad experiences. That kindness carried throughout the day as they sat
with us and made sure we knew all the best places to eat, shop, and see. We
even mentioned massages so they called a place to make sure they had a room
ready for when we arrived. Once we arrived at the spa we decided to be smart about
our choice and made a trip around town to ensure we got the best prices. We are
not getting ripped off again! An hour later we decided we had it right the
first time and happily returned to get a 90 minute full package deal including
foot bath, foot scrub, full body massage, face scrub...basically the works. We
were very excited to drift off in bliss, but that stopped abruptly when I came
to realize Vietnamese massages are all about pressure points (aka torture to
those who are not used to this type of massage). So to sum it up they basically
push as hard as possible in every crevice of your body before letting go... I
thought my skull was going to crack when they moved onto the head massage!
After our interesting massage experience we slowly moved onto dinner. We had
passed a taco place earlier, which drew my attention so we made it there and
had the best tacos ever. Cheesy deliciousness in all the right ways. Afterwards
we decided to listen to some live music at a bar down the road. While listening
to the music the power oddly went out, making for the perfect opportunity for
the entire restaurant to start singing Bob Marley "don't worry be
happy". The perfect ending to another action packed day, so we made our
leave to the comfort of a bed (after not properly sleeping on the train the
night before it was much needed).
ancient train rides
the live music before the power went out
July 4-
We had a
nice sleep in today and made our way down for breakfast around ten. The lovely
hotel staff showered us in the generosity once again, making us banana pancakes
for breakfast and getting us set up with bikes for the day. We decided to hit
up the markets first so we headed all the way through town stopping at a
clothes market and being oohed and ahhed over by all the ladies telling us how
beautiful we are (maybe so if we weren't again drenched in our own sweat and
smelling like the inside of a boys locker room). We made one more stop at
another local market since it's supposed to be the best one in town. It was big
but it smelled worse than we did (they were drying fish) and that's saying
something so we didn't stay long. Seeing as I fell in love with the taco place
we made our way there for some ape crumble since let's be honest we just biked
off a weeks worth of junk food so It was well deserved. Being the pro
bikers that we are now we headed over the famous dragon bridge to get to the
beach. We had just found the perfect spot in the shade when these people showed
up to set up for an even later that evening. Of course they had to blast the
gummy bear song while they worked, destroying all avenues for any
relaxation. Giving up on the beach we decided to bike back to the hotel a
different way, taking a different bridge which I will refer to as the bridge of
agony, pain, and self destruction. This bridge was a dead climb up hill both
ways. We bowed our heads and went full throttle into this thing with every once
of my apple crumble leading me on! and WE DID IT! We conquered that death
bridge with skill I might add. The people at our hotel must think we are
hazards since every time we come in we appear to be on the brink of fainting so
they ushered us in and helped rehydrate us with endless cold glasses of water.
Feeling indestructible we showered and decided to keep up the biking, showering
therefore was semi pointless since we were drenched again soon after. We biked
to the train station and booked our next tickets to Nha Trang, then biked all
the way to the taco place once again (we became well known there). After dinner
we were about to leave the restaurant and make our way to the dragon bridge
since every Saturday there is a huge spectacle where it breathes fire and
shoots water but on our way out these two guys called us over for a
drink. They are from Michigan and have been traveling for a while. Both
of them had been working high stress jobs back home and had quit their jobs to
enjoy the smaller things in life. They ironically were also staying at the same
hotel right in the room next to us! The four of us then tandem biked, and by
tandem I mean they biked and we sat on the hard metal back of the bikes, to the
dragon. The bridge was packed with people! It was well worth the show and it
seemed to attract not only tourists but all the locals too! We were waiting for
the crowd to clear when out of nowhere a guy on a bike with a metal soup tin
came up to us offering ice cream, now I'm sure this sounds more sketchy than it
was at the time but we of course wanted ice cream so went for it. Fingers
crossed we won't get sick. The guys are headed to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow and
we are off to Hike Marble Mountain early the next morning before making our way
to Hoi An.
one of the markets
the beach and a Mother Buddha in the distance
the bridge we conquered
ready for the show!
fire breathing dragon
friends along the way
spitting water
July 5-
This morning
we were up early to say goodbye to our wonderful hotel family. They had ordered
us a car to take us to Marble Mountain and then on to Hoi An, so we took some
selfies and said our goodbyes with the hopes to visit them again. *Note if you
ever go to Danang you must stay at the Night Sky Hotel!! The car waited while
we ventured to Marble Mountain. Marble Mountain is a cluster of five mountains made out of marble and limestone named after the five elements: Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire), Tho (earth).
It was 42
degrees and not a cloud in the sky making it another killer day of heat, sun,
and sweat. There was a point where I thought Jo might be carrying my
unconscious body back down the hill. We pushed through though and got some
awesome views of China Beach where soldiers took refuge during the war. After
spending all the time we could in the sun we met back up with our driver and he
drove us to our home stay in Hoi An. At this point I was still far from
functional after our trek up Marble Mountain and needed a minute to hydrate and
rest before my body allowed me to move too far from the hostel entrance. While
the lady running the home stay is kind she's also slightly off her rocker, she
was quite specific about check in times so she urged us to get food then to
return at 2. We managed to get 100m down the road to a cafe for lunch and to
waist time to ensure we didn't come back before she said. Turns out we were
still 7 whole minutes early and were left to wait even though she simply sat in
our room waiting until it was 2. We off loaded our bags into our room then went
to find the tailors, which was recommended to us by some friends we met back at
the Elephant Sanctuary in April. Hoi An is known for their tailors having over
300 in town so we were happy one had been recommended or else we would have had
difficulty choosing. The ladies there were lovely and we showed them some items
we hoped to have made. We chose fabrics and they measured us and told us to
return the next day for our first fitting.
Having
placed our orders at the tailors it was time to explore the rest of Hoi An.
This town is by far the cutest place I've ever seen. Its old town is covered in
adorable storefronts where I could go crazy spending money because everything
is amazing! It's even set along the river so that you can have little boat
rides while enjoying the streets decorated in lantern lights. We wandered
around scoping out the best place to eat for the cheapest price. We settled on
Cafe 99 where the owner Bup made us feel right at home with his friendly and
energetic personality. Not to mention his mothers homemade authentic recipes,
which blew our minds and taste buds! We tried the Hoi An specialty of deep
fried wantons as well as some other Vietnamese foods. Because we were vibing on
Hoi An's quaintness and authentic-ness we had to have a drink on one of their
boats. A sign saying beer bowls 15 Vietnamese Dong, or in other words less than
a dollar beers, caught our eye. Now we thought the sign may have been a typo
and beer bowls meant beer bottles but Boy were we wrong when we were served two
cat bowls of beer. Oh well, when in Hoi An you tend to go with the flow, it's
just that good. After boat beers though it was back to crazy lady hostel for
some sleep.
*At some
point during the day Jo realized she had forgotten her passport at the hotel in
Danang so we had our hostel call them and they offered to drive it to us the
next day, they are that nice! Thank goodness we left it there of all places!
goodbye to our hotel family
Big Buddha
into the caves we go
tight squeeze
china beach below where the soldiers took refuge
china beach
had to set up a timer shot!
Hoi An stole our hearts
selling lanterns
newlyweds releasing a lantern into the river
beer bowls
newlyweds
July 6-
Once awake
we meandered downstairs for our free breakfast of bread, butter, and oily eggs.
After having ordered our clothes yesterday I came to want another dress made
and after emailing them to ensure they would have enough time to do this we
made our way to the tailors to get things rolling. We put our excellent biking
skills to use again by borrowing the hostels bikes. Once at the store Jo also
had to chose new fabric since they had run out of the one she previously had
ordered, but they were kind enough to bring her to the fabric store while I
worked out prices and fabrics for my new dress. Once business was done it was
time for pleasure, to the beach! We biked up a storm to the beach and
almost immediately decided to rid ourselves of sweat and go for a swim. The
water was beautiful, cool and refreshing! We were jumping waves and trying to
avoid loosing our bathing suit tops while doing so. We had our first fitting to
make so we didn't stay too long, but even then we managed to fit in a milkshake
because you can't not treat yourself to milkshakes on the beach! Once back at
the tailors we tried some of our clothes on for the first time. Having
never had clothes made before I knew that I wouldn't love it right off the bat
but I was by far apprehensive and we had lots of alterations to be made.
They wanted us to return again before dinner to show us the new alterations so
in the meantime we headed to a spa down the road from our hostel. The lady
bargained with us but we settled on paying 25 dollars for the both of us to get
the works. We were put in one of the rooms of her home and they went to work.
The massage overall was a step up from our last skull crushing experience but
having a tiny Vietnamese woman crawl on you because she can't reach otherwise
isn't exactly relaxing either. Afterwards they shaved the dead skin off our
feet and exploded my blister on my foot leaving a huge crater in its
place. Needing a pick me up we decided to go for desert in the old town
before our next fitting. Cake really does make things better. We then had
our second fitting at the tailors with even more alterations to be made... They
must hate how picky we are! Hoi An is well known for its specialties so at
dinner we ordered them all! We had their brown noodles, fried wantons, wanton
soup, fried spring rolls, and white roses (shrimp in rice paper) all for under
five bucks each!! When food is that cheap it's safe to say this place is
paradise! The night before we had seen tons of people buying lanterns and
releasing them into the river so since tonight is a little quieter we thought
we'd do it too. We bought our lanterns and agreed on a dollar boat ride to
release them. It was all good until the lady feigned ignorance when we went to
pay and she wanted ten dollars. Well we've learnt our lesson and stuck to our
guns. We gave her what we thought she deserved and then we walked away. We are
learning and our backbones are starting to show!
on the beach and loving it!
biking from the beach and a selfie.. its a talent of mine
so much yummy food
boat ride and lanterns
Jo releasing her lantern
happy campers for sure
July 7
Getting up
this morning was not easy, for some reason I could have slept all day but we
had a fitting to get to at 11 and we had to check out. We ate in a hurry then
packed up and checked out. Luckily the hostel lady let us leave our things
there for the day since we don't leave until 8:30 this evening. We also had to
rent bikes from next door since some other hostel stayers are using ours from yesterday.
We made it to our fitting a little late and tried on our clothes. Two out of
four of my things are officially done, the other two need some minor
alterations still. We were told to come back around four so in the
meantime it's back to the beach. Today is a lot more overcast and cloudy so we
didn't get a whole lot of sun but it was still nice to sit and relax and do
some people watching. We enjoyed another milkshake after the poor server girl
spilt the first set down her front from the wind and then we took a thrashing
in the water from the rougher tide. After being whipped with flying sand for
long enough we headed back into town for our final fitting. The ladies at
Canalis are extremely accommodating and after I wasn't completely happy with one
of the items and having no more time to fix it they discounted me and were
beyond gracious about it. *Note if you're ever in Hoi An getting clothes made
go to the ladies at Canali's! Being our last night in Hoi An we headed back to
Cafe 99 for dinner to see Bup and have more of his mother’s fantastic recipes.
He even gave us free waters and sold us his special chilli sauce, which I
seriously could not get enough of! We made one last venture around town to get
a souvenir for Jo's parents and to try the local donuts from the vendors. And
of course we chose to walk back a different way than usual leading us to get
lost. But we still made it back in time to catch our car to Danang. We are sad
to be leaving Hoi An but we are headed back to Danang to catch a train to Nha
Trang then bus to Delat. Ten-hour train and a four hour bus here we come!
goodbye fried wantons we will miss you dearly
our favourite restaurant
our favourite restaurant
July 8-
We’ve become
experts at sleeping on trains. We
even had to set an alarm so that we didn’t sleep through our train stop. Once off the train in Nha Trang we had
to stop and ask multiple people where we could find a bus to Dalat. Finally after being told 1km, 300m, and
500m down the road we made it to the bus terminal. We were told Dalat was in the Mountains but I don’t think we
realized just how far up, and how windy the roads would be. Seeing as I don’t
do well with motion sickness I forced myself to try and sleep through the
journey, only to be woken up several times as we took a sharp corner propelling
my head into the window. I’m sure
I suffered from a concussion by the end of the trip. Dalat is a breadth of fresh air as we are surrounded by
mountains and trees, but with high altitude comes low temperatures, something I
am not used to anymore. I have
been dreaming of temperatures below 30, but soon regretted those wishes as I
had to bundle up with every piece of clothing in order to endure the 17 degree
weather. We found our hostel and
settled in before going off to explore.
We didn’t make it far before the rain came to we sought shelter in a pub
and thought we’d order a snack to wait out the rain. We ordered French fries but what arrived was anything but
French fries, it was a cardboard version of what it should have been. We did not eat them to say the
least. The rain slowed and we
found the center market, a chaotic street full of vendors selling every
possible thing imaginable. Markets
are difficult though when you aren’t looking to buy anything so we instead
settled in at another restaurant for dinner since we never got an earlier
snack. Having been spoiled in Hoi
An with delicious food we were left to eat ordinary tasting food, and a not so
ordinary dessert. Jo had ordered
cheese cake, which to us means a whipped creamy Philadelphia cheese, but to
people in Dalat means table cheese on a biscuit covered in silly string. After dinner we were feeling touristy
and decided to go on a swan boat ride.
I never knew pedal boats could be such a leg workout, or it may have just
been us ferociously pedaling while everyone else sat idle enjoying the
views. The rain was coming again
so we found shelter in the sky bar to enjoy some real hot chocolate before
heading back for the night.
cardboard frenchfries
silly string cake ....we miss the food in Hoi An
cheese on a plate=cheese cake
romantic swan rides
July 9-
Yesterday we
booked a private tour with the Easy Riders, a Vietnamese tour group that takes
you around on their motorbikes to places that the buses cannot reach. They picked us up from the hostel and
we set off into the South of Dalat.
Minutes into our journey a huge tree fell in front of us from the strong
winds, but that didn’t stop us from visiting the Old French Quarter, the Old
Railway Station, the Giant Golden Buddha, the Dragon Pagoda, the Coffee
Plantation, the Silk Factory, K’Ho Village, Elephant Waterfall, and the Flower
farm, all in a days work. First up was the Giant Golden Buddha, which is 28m
high and sits upon a huge Lotus flower.
The Lotus represents the purity of a woman who is able to stay with one
man despite being surrounded by many, just as a Lotus is surrounded in mud but
it regrets to become dirty and remains white and pure. We believe that the Buddha was the
chief Buddha (not too sure because our guides accent made it sound like ship,
but he kept saying leader so we put two and two together). There are also the Happy Buddha (which
we saw later), the Baby Buddha, and the Lady Buddha. We also learned that the German Nazi sign, which we often
see on the Baby Buddha’s chest is not meant to be a Nazi sign but instead it
represents the four stages of ones life: birth, aging, illness, death. Things seem to be in fours here as we
also saw statues for the four Vietnamese spirit animals: the phoenix, the
dragon, the turtle, and the unicorn (which was not your typical fictional horse
unicorn but a lizard like thing).
Leaving the
Buddha we stopped to take in some of the gorgeous views around us. Dalat means Mountains and there are
plenty of them! The tallest
Mountain we saw stands at 2169m high above sea level. Some of the Mountains were used as hide outs during the Vietnamese
War, and landmines are still scattered about, requiring army to come scavenge
the land before farmers lay their fields.
At the
Coffee Plantation, Jo tried some of the worst coffee ever (although we think it
was meant to be nice but it just did not agree with our taste buds). It was called Weasel Mokah as the
Weasels eat the coffee beans then poop them out. They of course are then cleaned before used but it still did
not make for a nice drink.
The Silk
Factory was super cool! There were
millions of cocoons being soaked in hot water to release the larva from inside
(if you shake the cocoon you can hear the larva still inside), then the silk is
transferred to cold water and strung onto turning spindles. One cocoon produces up to 800m of
silk!
Next up was
the Minority Village where the K’Ho people live. These people used to live freely in the Mountains but they
were cutting down parts of the forest so the Government has paid to have them
come down from the Mountains and live in this Village, getting free education
and learning new trades. It was
difficult to see, as they are so very poor still, often having up to ten
children in a tiny little shack with not heating. These children grow up to be extraordinarily strong, if they
can make it past infancy as many are not strong enough to endure their
circumstances.
We were able
to then go to Elephant Waterfall, where Elephants used to graze before people
populated the area. It was a
massive waterfall, brown in color due to the rich red color of the earth in the
surrounding area, I however would
not want to be swimming in it.
We also enjoyed
a questionable local lunch with our guides (they eat dog here so we avoided the
meat), before our last stop at the Flower Farm.
Once back at
the hostel there was a break in the rain so we wanted to walk around the
lake. We made it around just in
time before the rain began again, and remained the rest of the night. So after dinner we took shelter in our
room, only leaving for a snack run between rain breaks.
train station
golden buddha
although beautiful, land mines still threaten these hills
coffee beans after the weasels have digested them
weaving
so many cocoons
the larva before they are removed from the cocoons
threading the silk
minority village
flower farm
selfie on the bikes!
July 10-
Today we
head back to Ho Chi Minh City as we want to be back in Phnom Penh
Saturday. So we had breakfast and
then the bus came to pick us up.
We got a sleeper bus, which was a cool experience. There are two levels of reclining bed
like chairs. My recliner was
broken (“mines broken” as Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman) leaving me in a
lying position the whole 6-hour journey.
In Ho Chi Minh we found a cheap (emphasis on cheap) hostel but having
been in the room for ten minutes and Jo being attacked by ants we had to move
to another hotel. We spent our
last night strolling the markets and streets, enjoying ice cream and just
relaxing. Tomorrow we head home.
July 11-
Before catching the bus we managed to
spend every last Vietnamese Dong at the Bakery buying pastry treats. I’m home now and full of Chocolate
croissants. Vietnam was great, and I can only hope to visit again soon.
