Monday, 6 August 2012
Friday, 3 August 2012
Photos from in and around Hội An
Around the market
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| Too Jazzy? |
At night
At the beach
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| Mr Crabbie |
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| Smug Face |
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| Cham Island |
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| An Bang beach |
Nha Trang
Although sorely tempted, we could not really afford to carry on paying for domestic flights, so opted for the sleeper bus from Saigon to Nha Trang. We booked too late and were crammed in at the back (most other seats are more individual) but apart from not really being able to sleep it was ok.
Nha Trang is not classy but does not pretend to be. It is a tourist town with a busy beach and lots of bars/restaurants. Unfortunately most of the restaurants insist on serving both western and Vietnamese food, and end up doing neither very well. There were a couple of nice places though, by far the best (and most expensive) was the Sailing Club, which doesn't appear to have anything to do with sailing, but occupies a prime position on the beach:
We spurned Nha Trang's limited 'cultural' offerings but took a scuba trip with Rainbow Divers, doing 2 dives off Hon Mun island, and a couple of days later did a snorkelling day trip in the same area. Apart from that it was just chilling out and having a few beers.
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| Just like business class |
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| Mojito time |
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| Buckets. Classy. |
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Con Dao
We went to Con Dao expecting it to be an idyllic island paradise. Geographically it is, with some beautiful quiet beaches, and forest-covered mountains.
We were surprised to be the only westerners on the short plane ride over. In fact it would appear western tourists are not that common on the island (outside the $600-a-night Six Senses resort that is). We stayed at Con Dao Camping, which was not a campsite at all but a row of A-frame huts on the beach. It was more expensive than it would have been on the mainland, but was pretty good with air-con (required) and even wifi. Everywhere in Vietnam has free wifi as standard. The UK should take note!
We had heard Con Dao has the best scuba diving in Vietnam. The guide book failed however to mention the cost: at $180 each for a 2-dive morning trip we were not going to find out how good it was. The main road around the island is only about 20km end-to-end so we had a nice day or two exploring on a motorbike; the empty roads were a very gentle introduction to driving in Vietnam.
Apart from that Con Dao was a bit of a disappointment, the restaurants were both poor quality and very expensive. English was not typically understood, and people seemed somewhat slow; often pointing at vietnamese words on a menu would only draw blank looks, as for having chopsticks delivered before your food, forget it. It took so long to check out of the place we were staying we nearly missed our flight. My guess is that tourism is a new thing for Con Dao, and the islanders are not overly bothered about having their glacial pace of life interrupted. I don't really blame them.
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| Tidy |
We were surprised to be the only westerners on the short plane ride over. In fact it would appear western tourists are not that common on the island (outside the $600-a-night Six Senses resort that is). We stayed at Con Dao Camping, which was not a campsite at all but a row of A-frame huts on the beach. It was more expensive than it would have been on the mainland, but was pretty good with air-con (required) and even wifi. Everywhere in Vietnam has free wifi as standard. The UK should take note!
 |
| Random Water Buffalo |
We had heard Con Dao has the best scuba diving in Vietnam. The guide book failed however to mention the cost: at $180 each for a 2-dive morning trip we were not going to find out how good it was. The main road around the island is only about 20km end-to-end so we had a nice day or two exploring on a motorbike; the empty roads were a very gentle introduction to driving in Vietnam.
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| Biker Chick |
Apart from that Con Dao was a bit of a disappointment, the restaurants were both poor quality and very expensive. English was not typically understood, and people seemed somewhat slow; often pointing at vietnamese words on a menu would only draw blank looks, as for having chopsticks delivered before your food, forget it. It took so long to check out of the place we were staying we nearly missed our flight. My guess is that tourism is a new thing for Con Dao, and the islanders are not overly bothered about having their glacial pace of life interrupted. I don't really blame them.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
And now for something completely different: Bangkok & Saigon (HCMC)
We spent 2 nights on the Khao San Road in Bangkok and 3 on Saigon's rather less brash equivalent, Pham Ngu Lao. After India both Thailand and Vietnam seem cool, clean and organised! Bangkok felt like a good excuse to have a few beers and enjoy being a western tourist. My friend Tim was kind enough to take us to a rooftop bar on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree hotel: NYC eat your heart out! It was nice to leave behind the essex girls and pikeys in Bangkok though, and arrive Vietnam. I came to Saigon 7 years ago and it appears to have developed a lot in that time and seems quite prosperous, will have to see if the same is true for the rest of the country. We are heading to an island (Con Dao) tomorrow, hoping to use the dive mask and snorkels we've been dragging around! Can't wait to see the rest of the country either!
The Taj Mahal
Getting a bit behind on the blog, oops.
Apparently you can't go to India and not see the Taj Mahal so after flying back from Leh to Delhi we took the train straight to Agra. We stayed a night in the Taj-ganj area of Agra and got in by 6am the next day to avoid the heat, plus it looked good in the lower sun. It's pretty much like it looks on TV. Not as good at the temples in Angkor in Cambodia, but well worth a 3 hour train each way.
That was the start of a strange day, we went back to bed and hid out in our air-conditioned room until it was time to get the train back to Delhi, and a 2:35am flight to Bangkok!
Apparently you can't go to India and not see the Taj Mahal so after flying back from Leh to Delhi we took the train straight to Agra. We stayed a night in the Taj-ganj area of Agra and got in by 6am the next day to avoid the heat, plus it looked good in the lower sun. It's pretty much like it looks on TV. Not as good at the temples in Angkor in Cambodia, but well worth a 3 hour train each way.
That was the start of a strange day, we went back to bed and hid out in our air-conditioned room until it was time to get the train back to Delhi, and a 2:35am flight to Bangkok!
Thursday, 5 July 2012
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