Hanoi, possibly the prettiest town in SE Asia. when planning this trip both Annie and I were on the same page and knew we wanted to spend some time here. Located on the coast in between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh- it is known for the Ancient Town, surrounded by bridges and canals. with beautiful country side and many styles of architecture there is tons to do in this town and we did not spend nearly as much time as we could have. Getting there was fairly easy, however I was surprised at how big Vietnam is, I had no idea that to get from Hanoi to Ho An was a 16 hour train ride (very expensive to fly). Overnight train it was. Cost $45 per bed, we rented all 6 beds to make sure we had a berth all to ourselves (best idea ever). The quarters were quite tight, beds were hard, but all in all it was a pretty sweet way to travel. We boarded at 8 pm and arrived at noon the next day.
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| Not so comfy for Annie with a broken rib, but she managed... |
Known for its colourful lanterns and colonial building,full of nooks and crannies, walking the streets was pure eye candy.
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| one of the many alley cutting through Ancient town |
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| renting bikes is totally the way to get arround, beeautiful country side surrounds ancient city |
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| this was one of the many stunning streets in Ancient Town |
We only had a few days and wanted to get tailored made suits. Tailors are every where in Hoi An and we wanted to go with a good one. Our hotel suggested Blue Eyed tailor, not as cheap as what we thought, but very beautiful work and we all walked out with some pretty awesome clothes, (Johnny finally bought a new suit after about 20 years, he was due!). After the terrible weather we had in Ha Long Bay, Annie was ready for some beach time, Hoi An delivered with a pretty decent beach, and wouldn't you know it...the name of it was An Bang:)
Johnny was a little beached out, so while Annie, Anneka and I headed to the beach, him and Liv took a bike and explored Marble Mountain, caves, temples and Pagodas. He said it was an awesome day and totally worth it to visit.
As lovely as the town is by day, at night it's is even more spectacular. Everything is lit up and the canal is full of floating lanterns and gondolas. We happened to be there over St Patty's day and could not give up the chance to find an Irish pub and get our "Irish: on.
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| Some green lanterns for St Patty's day |
Sadly after 4 days we had to say good by to Hoi An, definitely could have spent longer here, as touristy as it is, there is still an authentic felling to it, (you just have to get past all the umbrella carrying tourists.
Mui Ne
Our last stop with Annie on our Vietnam tour was the beach town Mui Nei, Originally the only reason we planned to come was so Annie and Johnny could do some kite surfing, the beach is pretty spectacular but very windy and waves are quite choppy (Vietnam's kite surfing capitol). Not much swimming happening, (thank goodness our hotel had a nice pool). We had wanted to stop in Nha Trang for a few days (suppose to be an awesome beach town), but with Annie still in a crazy amount of pain we wanted to limit the amount of travel so we headed straight to there. Another overnight train and we arrived.
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| Annie and her little buddy collecting shells. Much of the beach her has erosion, so not nearly as pretty in some parts |
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| The best part of Mui Ne is the kite surfing, and this beach was so amazing... |
Unless you are kite surfing I would say skip this town, I still had an awesome time, but I was with by best friend and the sun was shining, (what more could you ask for). Nothing much to do here except visit the sand dunes, stop in at the fishing village, a small hike through the "ferry stream" and kite surf...pretty underwhelming place overall.
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| visiting the sand dunes |
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| The fisherman's village |
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| They call this the Fairy Steam, not sure why, except it does resemble something out of a story |
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| Good bye to Mui Ne and Annie |
Three days later, we got in a a shuttle and drove to Ho Chi Minh City, bittersweet as we were saying goodbye to Annie, I felt like our time together flew by and I did not want it to end....
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| the view from our balcony |
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| the park across the road from our place |
After an amazing sleep in the best AirBnB, (Vinholmes Central Park, a recommendation from fellow travelers), Ho Chi Minh is quite the city, modern and fairly clean, we had packed in tons to do and explored many of the sites. We did a walking tour of the city, stopping at post offices and churches and touring the Saigon Skydeck.
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| Back Packer street (seems there is one of these in every South East Asian city |
On our last day, Johnny wanted to go on a tour of the Chu Chi tunnels, girls and I opted to stay home.
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| Pretty tight squeeze |
We all really enjoyed our time in Ho Chi Minh, and after a few days we said good bye to Vietnam, what an intoxicating, diverse country with so much to see and do. It's a country bound to make an impact on you no matter where you go.
