We should have just taken a taxi

Day 73 - Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) to Melbourne (Australia)

Our last flight of the trip, a bit over 8 hours flying time at an easy departure time of 11am. We were a little concerned that we were travelling with VietJet again, it did take us an hour to get through check in, immigration and security but we'd arrived early in anticipation of this so everything went smoothly.

The flight was better than we expected, the food was average and the service was basic but we knew what to expect. At least this time we were given the food we ordered, though for some reason we were given two meals.

We arrived in Melbourne just before midnight, and after collecting our luggage we went to take an Uber home, to find there was some sort of issue. No Uber-X at the normal waiting area, and a very long queue of confused people.

We eventually managed to get a more expensive Uber after 40 minutes of waiting, and noticed as we drove past the normal taxi rank that there were plenty of taxis there ... next time I think we'll get a taxi! 

The locals still call it Saigon

Day 72 - Ho Chi Minh City

We caught a Grab to the start of our 10am Ho Chi Minh walking tour and we were quite concerned about managing four hours of walking in the heat. The tour guide was very good at moving us to air conditioned buildings and standing in the shade, and fortunately after a while the sun disappeared behind the clouds.

The tour started off interestingly with information about the French, the end of the war in 1975, the communist take over and the name change from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh. The guide made it very clear that he and others would always call the city Saigon, often dropping his voice as he said "there are spies around" (not sure if he meant it or if it was just for show).

He explained about the opium poppy and even had some two year old opium wine ("happy wine") for us to taste, it was rough. He showed us around various buildings, some interesting like the CIA building where they managed to helicopter 2000 people out as the city was falling.

We spent the afternoon escaping the heat and getting packed for our flight home. We found a much better place for a tasty dinner and walked home via the craziness of Bui Vien Walking Street and the back laneways to our hotel where the locals were spending their evening in a very different world from us.

Lightning McQueen!

Day 71 - An Bang to Ho Chi Minh City

A travelling day today, every step closer to home reduces the time we need to spend flying home.

After a tasty last breakfast (fourth pho in a row!) and a farewell to our host at our nice beachside villa in An Bang we left for the airport at the very civilised checkout time of 10.45am.

Our Vietnam Airlines flight was on time and the difference in quality with our previous VietJet flights was noticeable, we even landed in Saigon early, so we were ready and waiting outside the terminal with our luggage before our driver had arrived. 

After checking in to our hotel we walked to the famous Ben Thanh  market to buy Lightning McQueen and Spiderman knock off Crocs  (no, not for us), going between stalls to see who we could haggle with to get a reasonable price. 

We then walked down the Bui Vien Walking Street which was very busy with cars and motorbikes. We stopped briefly at one of the bars for a drink before finishing the day with a bland Vietnamese dinner, disappointing after the great meals we'd had during our stay in An Bang. 

The Magic Faraway Tree

Day 70 - An Bang

Our seaside villa with the $5 cooked breakfast delivered to our veranda has really grown on us and we will be very sorry to say goodbye.

K wanted to visit the Ba Na Hills with the famous Golden Bridge held up by giant hands. Our villa host had warned us that we needed to keep an eye on the weather as there is no point going if it's foggy or raining and the weather is very different up in the hills compared to the beach. As the weather was forecast to clear after lunch we arranged for a driver to take us up and wait for us as we took the cable car up the mountain.

We were really under prepared for what we were to see. First of all the site is so huge that there are multiple cable car routes to choose from. The cable car from the base is the longest non-stop single-track cable car in the world, almost 6 kilometres long, gaining 1.4 kilometres in height and taking 25 minutes to reach the top. 

We went up until we passed through the clouds, as we got closer we could see buildings appearing in the mist, reaching this entire "land" just like the Faraway Tree. There is a French village, amusement rides, castles, Roman and Greek buildings complete with statues of the gods, and the Golden Bridge that we came to see. It was quite impressive to see something so big so far up in the mountains (and sometimes we can be hard to impress)!

For our last night in An Bang we enjoyed dinner overlooking the beach. The food here in An Bang has been excellent, with the great breakfasts and the stir-fried lemongrass and chilli it's been M's favourite food of the trip (except perhaps for the spice bag in Dublin). We could easily have spent more time here, we think we have a new favourite Asian beach holiday destination.

Terracotta world

Day 69 - An Bang

We decided we should see something of the local area rather than just hang around the beach so we caught a Grab to the Thanh Ha Pottery Village near Hoi An. They had mini terracotta replicas of famous monuments around the world, including the Sydney Opera House. There was a museum with pottery from the many different pottery villages around Vietnam, and about archaeological sites around the area where they had excavated ancient pottery. 

We then went into the old town of Hoi An and wandered the streets and bridges until we were caught in the rain. We sat it out in a coffee shop, then explored a little more as the sun came out and the temperature jumped. We decided that the beach was a better place to be in the heat so we headed back just as another downpour started.

We waited that out and before long the sun was out again, so we headed to the beach for lunch and a swim. The beach was quieter than yesterday, probably because it was overcast and there was still a chance of rain.

Bali 30 years ago?

Day 68 - An Bang

When we arrived last night it was dark, so we were greeted by a nice sea view from our window when we woke.

Breakfast was provided by the family that look after the villa, K went for bacon and eggs while M thought he'd try the pho, which was a great choice, very tasty and better than what we can get at home!

There was a little bit of rain so we waited for it to finish before we went for a walk, along the beach and towards town, passing small beach restaurants and bars with sunbeds and umbrellas, and circular fishing boats dotted along the way. 

We ended up at the place closest to our villa where we sat on a sun bed for spring rolls, pina coladas and iced coffee, very relaxing!

Our end of An Bang beach is quite under developed, giving it a chilled quiet vibe, though it gets busier and a little more touristy closer to town, which has larger restaurants, more sun beds and more tourists. One Aussie we met described it as Bali 30 years ago.

VietJet strikes again

Day 67 - Lan Ha Bay to An Bang 

We woke up early in our lovely suite while our boat cruised around the bay before breakfast. 

After our 6:45am breakfast we took a speed boat to Cát Bà Island, the largest island in the Cát Bà Archipelago. We jumped onto a local bus and travelled to Trung Trang Caves, limestone caves which were very hot inside even though it was still early in the morning. There was lots of crouching and bending required to negotiate the winding passages.

Back to the boat and it was time to pack up, followed by brunch (yes, even more food) while we waited for the speed boat to take us back to the mainland.

We had a driver ready to collect us and take us to Hanoi airport, a two a half hour drive, Part way into the trip he informed us that he would be stopping for lunch for half an hour, and we were taken to a large touristy souvenir shop, selling jewellery, pottery, and various other craft items. 

The traffic was bad as we approached the airport but we eventually made it after three and a quarter hours. We were flying VietJet however, so of course it wasn't that straight forward. It took an hour and a half for us to drop our bags off, and then our flight to Đà Nẵng was delayed an hour.

Finally arriving in Đà Nẵng we had a driver waiting for us at the airport, after a 40 minute drive we checked in to our beach side villa at An Bang beach by 9pm where we were staying for the next four nights. A little closer to home now, every flight means our final flight home will not be so long (but it's with VietJet so who knows ....?).

Upgraded!

Day 66 - Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay

We were collected in a fancy van by Orchid Cruises and joined six other tourists for the two and a half hour drive to Ha Long Bay where we would take an overnight cruise. We had booked a Classic cruise, the middle standard of their three cruise types, but on the way K received a message to say that we had been upgraded to their top of the range Premium cruise, and also that our cabin had been upgraded to their best cabin, the executive suite! It seems strange, but we've now been upgraded on cruises three times over our travelling history (this happened previously for a Nile cruise and also for Antarctica). 

We arrived at the harbour and were taken by speed boat to the main boat. There were only five cabins on board, and our suite was at the rear of the ship with a wrap around veranda, a king sized bed and a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi. 

While we had lunch the boat moved from Ha Long Bay to Lan Ha Bay. The scenery was beautiful with huge islands formed from tall limestone rocks rising from the sea. There were a lot of boats (at one stage M counted 19 that he could see) but they all managed to keep a distance from each other so that it rarely felt crowded. 

While K stayed on the boat and had a massage and facial in our room, M went kayaking with the other seven passengers to see a small temple and then around some of the islands in the bay.

During happy hour we were given a cooking demonstration on making Vietnamese spring rolls, tried our hand at rolling our own, then sampled the results after they were cooked.

Dinner was another multiple course affair, with soup, entree, main and dessert, all nicely cooked and well presented. We skipped the squid fishing, deciding instead to retire to our spacious room for the evening.

Posers

Day 65 - Hanoi

Not many plans today but K wanted to check out Bát Tràng Pottery Village, a 45 minute drive from the hotel.

We visited a huge shop with a large array of impressive pots (so many pots!), then visited the 19th century multi chambered wood fired climbing dragon kiln at Lò Bầu, followed by a walk through the market where K picked up a new piece for her collection.

Back in Hanoi we went for coffee at a fancy coffee place near the cathedral, sitting on the balcony watching the girls posing for their photos ... and posing .... and posing. Social media has a lot to answer for! 

In the evening we walked down to the lake where they were preparing for the Hanoi Marathon which was to start at 3am. We visited the night market, not much there of note, it was almost just a bigger version of the large Chinese junk shops you see back home.

Good decision

Day 64 - Hanoi

Our driver picked us up at 9am, and our first stop was the Quang Phu Cau incense village an hour and a half south of Hanoi. It was set up for photos with coloured bunches of incense sticks arranged in patterns, and ladders to climb so you could get a view from on high. There was someone pushing us to buy "tickets" so we could take take photos, we'd been told by our driver that tickets weren't required, and another tourist told us the tickets were just to use the ladders, so we ignored the tout and he went off to bother someone else. A quick look here was enough for us so we hit the road for Ninh Binh.

Our original idea was to take the two hour boat trip from Tam Coc, but after K looked up the boats and found that they were just basic benches with no shade, we changed the plan so we would take the boat trip at Van Long,. This was the best decision, we had a lovely, peaceful hour long boat ride with a lady rowing us and the river practically to ourselves. The only thing we would have changed is we wished we'd brought umbrellas as there was a lack of shade.

After the boat ride we visited Hoa Lu, Vietnam's ancient capital, and explored the grounds and the historic temples.

From there it was only about 10 minutes to the Trang An river complex, which was quite a contrast from peaceful and serene Van Long. It was very crowded, people and buses everywhere, and the whole set up was like a theme park. There were hundreds of boats, as well as shops and souvenir stands (there was even a Starbucks). We were relieved that we'd taken the much more relaxing boat ride earlier. 

We were back in Hanoi by 5pm after a very enjoyable day in the country outside of the city.