So there I was, leaving behind Melbourne and on to the next adventure. I thought the moment would be a poignant one, that I would shed a single tear as I looked out of the window as the plane took off. As it were, my head was face down in a sick bag, while I tried my best not to vom on a long haul flight. I didn't really know what was going on. A hangover too long? That sushi I ate the day before? Too much coffee? I suspect it was all of those things, plus the fact I was tired from a month of non stop doing stuff. Before we took off, the flight attendent gave me two options: get off the plane or, endure the flight but I'd have to quaratine in Vietnam if I threw up. I had visions of 8 hours of hell, but took the risk and stayed where I was. Luckily, I was sat next to a Doctor who had some drugs. So 8 hours and 30 crosswords furiously completed to distract myself later, I landed, chunder free.
Ho Chi Mih was manic. My taxi driver couldn't drop me outside my hostel as it was near a walking street, so there I was, bedraggled and exhausted, navigating the pavementless streets. The road outside my hostel was temporarily flooded too (burst water pipe perhaps?) so I needed to use bricks stepping stones to get in. It wasn't exactly clean either, but I needed to sleep. By 5am (I was on Melbourne time), I'd booked myself into a hotel round the corner and by 8am, I had packed up and checked out early. Serves me right for paying £1.50 a night for my accommodation. In my defence, it had near perfect reviews and I didn't really know the relative price of things yet. Plus I thought it would be good to make friends as I was flying solo. My own hotel room was exactly what I needed to recoup. And at about £10 a night was still a bargain. I also learnt it was better to pay after you've looked at somewhere in Vietnam. Though the hostel did insist in refunding me which was nice.
After some planning in the morning (no one ever talks about the amount of admin you have to take care of when solo travelling!) I headed out to explore. I didn't get very far due to the monsoon like rain, the subsequent flooded streets and the absolute nightmare it is to cross the road. Eventually I made it to a Bhan Mi cafe my cousin Jo had recommended. Bhan Mis are basically a load of Asian goodness (veg, meat/tofu, pate and a whole bunch of spices and sauces) in a baguette, thanks to the long French occupation. Once the rain had slowed down, I went to a couple of museums. One was the war museum. It was a "must do" in Ho Chi Minh/Sigon, but I actually found it a bit too harrowing for my delicate sensitivities, so walked round most of it trying to avoid looking at photos of dead children.
The next day, I went on an organised day trip to the war tunnels and mykon delta. The war tunnels were quite interesting, from what I understand, they were dug by those in the communist north in order to hide/transport goods to the American occupied South. I realised that I actually knew nothing about this war, apart from moments in American films (The flashback in Airplane! didn't tell me much) and, somewhat embarrassingly, I asked the tour guide who won the war. I hadn't even realised Vietnam was a communist country haha. There was a moment where you could go through a 20 metre tunnel, but the idea of near crawling through a dark, 32c tiny tunnel with 20 other tourists didn't appeal to me.
Next up was a boat trip on the mykon delta. There are thousands of islands and floating markets along the river (which goes through 5 countries) so we visited a coconut sweet factory, that also made snake wine with an actual snake fermenting in a jar of wine. I declined. We then went on a pretty cool raft ride through the forest, powered by a woman in her 80s rowing.
The next day, I was making a swift exit from the madness of Ho Chi Minh to Dalat, a chilled out mountain town. The bus said it would take 6 hours, but it took more like 10. It was quite fun to experience a Vietnamese long distance bus. For starters you are sat practically lying horizontal with not loads of headspace to sit up. Great if you want to nap. Not so much for staying awake or post lunch. I'd made friends with a Czech couple in the bus station, so we grabbed the seats at the back which was like one giant sofa. The other random thing is that the buses also deliver packages, so you are forever stopping like some sort of long distance deliveroo.
I'd had a tip off that generally speaking homestays were better than hostels/hotels. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is, other than homestays being a bit more like bnbs- family run and smaller. I'd opted to stay at one up in the Dalat mountains where you stayed in "Teepee" huts and people walked around barefoot meditating or painting. It was an influencers dream with fairlights everywhere and campfires. I got upgraded too to my own personal hut which is good. I'd only scheduled in two nights, which was a bit of a mistake as it was such a faff to get to. After seeing that the bus to my next place was 14hours, I opted to cut my losses and fly out.
The next day I went to a cafe that roasted and made it's own coffee. I had my first and last Vietnamese coffee. It was nice, with condensed milk, but absolutely blew my socks off caffeine wise and led to an almighty crash and feeling sick all day. I headed to a waterfall that had it's own Alpine toboggan coaster which was fun and a much better way of travelling back up. They should definitely install these in Bristol.
I then met my Czech pals and we headed to the most beautiful temple. It was a bit like the Sagrada Familia, covered in mosaic tiles and hidden turrets.
A nice cuppa with a view later, I went back to the hostel and questioned my life choices with the coffee.
If I'd realised the travel time, I would've probably skipped out Dalat for somewhere on the coast that was easier to get to.
Then it was on to central Vietnam.
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