Good morning Vietnam!.. Nha Trang, Dalat and Ho Chi Min City

Nha Trang
The beach capital of Vietnam. Town with a lovely long beach, with not so lovely line of tall hotel buildings along it. Modern town, with traffic and chaos and construction and night clubs. Thanks to the direct flight connection with Russia, full of Russian tourists, man strolling around the beach and occasionally around the town in snug Speedoes, showing their impressive beer bellies and hairy backs.

I visited the local mad bath, got sunburned on the beach,  watched the sunset  from the roof top restaurant in Sheraton Hotel ,braved the local traffic on a motorcycle, learning that there are indeed no rules to follow while entering roundabout intersections and ate lots of local food, thanks to my friend Mark who acted as my guide.

Mud bath

Dalat
The bus ride from Nha Trang to Dalat was amazing. The bus was making it's way east into the central highlands, following curvy road with killer views.

Dalat was nothing what I expected it to be. I had an idea of a small , charming mountain town and got  rather big and modern touristy town instead. 
There is a  good night market where you can buy some of the local grown vegetable, hand made clothing and local food.

I arranged a day trip on a motorcycle for the next day with Easy Riders.
We took off in the morning and after 3 touristy stops in 30 min ( view, farm, temple), I realized this might not be the tour to my liking.
I told Tin Tin ( my driver) that I would rather drive back on the road to the mountains, the same way the bus come. I told him I wanted to go Easy Riding!" Let's get of the beaten path and ride this strong motorcycle into the mountains." I told him.
 We adjusted the price and took of ..... as soon as we left the town behind I had a big smile on my face. I wasn't the only one, Tin Tin looked rather happy himself... What a fun ride!

Coffee beans

Cemetery and the green houses near by

Dalat

There are thousands of plastic green houses on the outskirt of the town. The story behind it says that one Dutch man opened a farm and started using green houses and this  being Vietnam, people copied it and now there are green houses everywhere! I am glad  it helped the local agriculture, but sad to say it hurt the way the town looks. So much plastic everywhere!

I am sure Dalat has some charming parts, but I didn't have enough time to explore it.

Ho Chi Min City

Booming metropolis on the move that is what LP calls it and that is what it is . Centrum has a nice mix of old and new tall buildings. I enjoyed walking around, watching locals exercising in the parks, dancing and practicing tai chi and martial arts.


The traffic is crazy, motorcycle and cars, making it hard to cross the streets.
It is a party town at night, all the weirdos and bar girls  come out and mix with tourists for long nights of partying.
I liked the posh streets around the Notre Dame Cathedral ( 1877), with its luxurious stores like Chanel and Armani.

Little bit of France in Vietnam.

Old post office building

It is a town of fine dining, which I did not experience, being sick from some local food I ate few days earlier. I at least stopped at the Czech Restaurant which doubles as a Honour Czech Consulate and had their delicious fresh brewed dark beer.

I walked by a International Clinic and just popped in to see if I could get my last Hep AB shot. Sure I could, right away and it only cost $40.

Ho Chi Min City feels like ....well... modern metropolis... and I was glad to visit.

South I go... Dong Hoe, Hue, Hoi An

Dong Hoi and Phong Nha Ke Bang NP

It was a long day on the train from Ninh Binh to Dong Hoi. The view for the last few hour was spectacular, going near the Ke Go Nature preserve, with jungle, lakes and more limestone massifs around.
Dong Hoe is little town with river delta to South China Sea. There is not much to do here.

I packed my day pack and rented a motorcycle in the morning for 2 days to visit the Phong Nha Ke Bang NP.  It was raining hard, but that would not stop me! They gave me bunch of rain jackets and you would not even recognize me, all wrapped up braving the wind and rain hitting my face.



By the time I made it to the park, the weather changed and I was able to enjoy the boat trip to the 55km long Phong Nha cave.

I had an early night thanks to the fact that there was nothing to do in the village of Son Tratch and the Internet was down thanks to the weather and there was only Vietnamese TV on, all my books stayed in Trang Hoe with all my other stuff.. One of the evenings when I was regretting traveling alone.

This is how you get pig from poin A to poin B in Vietnam..

I had a good breakfast at Farmstay , 25km of extra driving, but the food was very good. The banana crepes actually looked like and tasted like banana crepes!

I took off for my adventure . I was going to drive on a small road through the Nat. park to come back to Dong Hoi on a different road. I was told by one Australian guy who lives in the town, that it is not used a lot,   it being a military zone and sometimes they don't let you in. He said it was probably the most beautiful ride in Vietnam.  I was lucky the guys at the gate let me in, no problem.

What a place! Hills covered in jungle. Green and lush. I kept going deeper in and the curvy road ( or should I say path... one lane made of concrete blocks) let me up the big hills for more amazing views. I was glad the bike had good brakes for the way down. I kept going and soon came to the Ho Chi Min road, that I was taking south. I wasn't sure how far I have to go. I didn't have a good map, just my GPS on my phone. The road got even more curvy and was taking me now way up high into the mountains. I came into the clouds level and it started to mist, I had to slow down, worrying about the road being slippery. The visibility got worst. I was told to stop by the mile 35 and look for the opening for the biggest cave in the world that is now not open to public yet. Well I looked but with the visibility being some 15 m, I wasn't seeing anything.

So here I was, on the road for more than 2 hours, still going up and down the hills, not seeing any people. The only 2 houses I saw had aggressive dogs that would actually run at me and chase me. The second dog was particularly annoying running next to me with his teeth out, barking, I had to speed up and speed up to get away.... scary!

The jungle just kept going. I got out of the rain when I started going down in elevation.  Hour later and I only met few locals passing. I was thinking about how much  trouble I would be in if my tire went flat, or my bike broke down. There was not cell phone reception.I used half of my gasoline.

I was glad to see that my GPS was working and showing I was more than half way there. And still, jungle and jungle around, no people, no houses.

Finally I came back to civilization. Now I know that Phong Nha Ke Bang NP contains the oldest karsts mountains in Asia. Most of this park is near pristine tropical ever-green jungle, over 90% of which is primary forest.

I got back to Dong Hoi in the afternoon. Tired but happy after my little adventure. I spent the evening exploring the few  beaches and watching fisherman fishing.

Hue
I took a train to Hue. This time only short time, some 3 hours, watching the rice fields and villages passing by. The countryside is getting more interesting as coming south.

Hue is the intellectual, cultural and spiritual heart of Vietnam. It is rather modern town, with Citadel ( formal imperial city) as a main attraction. I spend few days here exploring on foot. There is a real super market in the town and I hope this will not sound silly, but once I found they have a real Gouda and Edam cheese in the fridge department, the town got some extra points.

It was my birthday and I bought some cheese and red wine to make my day special ( you know I didn't eat cheese since Thailand!). I walk around the Citadel, trying to imagine the concubines walking around in silk dresses with little sun umbrellas....

I went out at night to the only one bar in town. I met some nice new friends and we spend the night dancing and drinking. I even got free special drink on fire and T shirt with the bars logo.... I stayed till 2 am and I must say it was rather fun BD after all.

Waking up at 7am was not so good, I had a bus to take to Hoi An.
My napping on the bus got interrupted when they turned the AC on and it being as old as it was, was dripping out of control at me! So forget the sleep, the dripping turned into pouring every time we took sharp right turn.
Maybe it was good I got woken up. We were driving through mountains near Bach Ma NP and the views got amazing. 


Hoi An
How could somebody not like Hoi An! Little town with the old center with a river front, that gets lit up with hundreds of lanterns every night. So many nice restaurants. It is also has tradition in clothes making. It is hard not to get something, with so many shops and the prices so low. I got a skirt and a dress made for me ( $15, $20). I almost forgot the lanterns are made here too, from bamboo and silk.

I rent a bicycle one day and biked the 6 km to the beach and was happy to find my first beach with palm trees in 5 months! I spent the afternoon getting sunburned and swimming in the South China Sea.

I made a trip on a motorcycle to the near Marble mountains. 5 marble outcrops topped with jungle and pagodas. There are caves with Buddhas and amazing view from the top of the mountain.  It is set in the suburbs of the Danang city, with lots of marble workshops at the base.

Note the dragonfly in the corner.

I am going to be heading more south tomorrow. To the beach town of Nha Trang. Unlike most people I decided to pay little more and take the day train, so I can see the stunning country side on the way down. 11 hours on the train, I am glad I got few new books at the book store.