Category — Vietnam

It has rained almost two days solid here in Dalat. Dalat is in the mountains, so it is much cooler than the coastal cities of Vietnam. I put shoes and socks on last night for the first time in three months. I also had a great night’s sleep.

I came to Dalat over 10 years ago with a couple of friends when I was teaching in Japan. One of my friends lost his passport in the bus on the way to Dalat, so it is place I will never forget.

The town has narrow, windy roads and cafes everywhere. There a few tours you can do out of the city, but with the weather the way it is I don’t think I will bother. The motorcycle tour guides are also very pushy and don’t leave you alone wherever you go. Their tours through the Central Highlands look interesting, but I don’t know if I could stand sitting on the back of a bike for so long.

I got a bus to Miu Ne today which is about 3-4 hours north of Saigon on the coast. It is a famous wind and kite surfing spot in Vietnam, but now it is out of season and there is very little wind.

The beach is fairly nice and there are plenty of both cheap and expensive places to stay. One problem I have is that I always compare the beaches and the places I stayed at in Thailand. It is pretty quiet here so I am thinking of moving on fairly quickly to Dalat and then on to Nah Trang.

It seems like the rainy season has started here in Vietnam. It is 1 pm and it has just started raining. The showers don’t last too long, just long enough to finish a second cup of coffee over lunch. At least it is much cooler than last month.

I went to the War Remnants Museum today. I don’t remember it much, but I am pretty sure I went there last time I was in Vietnam over ten years ago.

There are plenty of shock-horror pictures and stories, but the depressing thought I had while walking around the museum, was that we continue repeating the same mistakes. I kept thinking of a comment from a US Democrat Senator and Vietnam veteran, that the situation in Iraq is Vietnam all over again.

Yesterday I took the ferry back to the mainland of Vietnam from Phu Quoc and the long bus trip on to Saigon. The previous day I took a boat trip around a group of islands south of Phu Quoc, collectively known as An Thoi. The snorkeling wasn’t so great. In the same place as where people are snorkeling trying to look at the coral and fish, other people are fishing off the back of the boat. There was a mixture of Australians, French and an Italian guy on the tour. By the afternoon we were kicking back on the deck drinking Tiger beers.

Phu Quoc had some amazing electrical storms while I was there. Most of the bungalows are pretty far away from town, so there is not much to do at night, except for reading and relaxing in a hammock. I am sure the island is going to develop more in the future.

I got into Saigon at 11:30 pm last night and it wasn’t until 12 before I made it to the backpack area of Pham Ngu Lao. It is similar to Kao San Road in Bangkok. I found a funny little hotel for 6 bucks a night. I went out for a couple of beers and when I got back to the hotel I had to step over bodies sleeping on the tiled floor to reach the stairs to my room. I wonder if the family converted their house into a hotel at the cost of having somewhere to sleep themselves.

The room even has double doors with a balcony looking onto a small alley way.

After about a 3 hour bus ride to Rach Gia and a 3 and a half hour ferry ride I arrived in Phu Quoc last yesterday afternoon. The port is about 26 kilometers from Long Beach where most of the resorts are located.

I am staying in a nice bungalow right on the beach, priced at just $6 a night. The restaurant is right on the sand. The beach unfortunately is a little narrow and at high tide impossible to walk very far without getting very wet – which I discovered this morning.

Phu Quoc is not far from Sihanokville, Cambodia. Cambodia even has claims on the island. There are a few resorts and cheap bungalows, but it seems like a fairly undeveloped tourist destination. Although there seems to be a large number of non-tourist related businesses.

There are plenty of coffee shops selling beer and coffee but not many restaurants, which seems a bit odd to me.

I made it to Vietnam today from Phnom Pehn. It is fairly easy to take a bus from Phnom Pehn to HCMC (Saigon), but my goal is the island of Phuo Quoc – south of Vietnam, so I bought a ticket to Chuo Doc just on the Vietnamese border.

After a minibus ride, we got a small boat which took us to the border of Cambodia and Vietnam. It was funny getting out of the boat in the middle of nowhere to get stamped out of Cambodia, back into the boat and after a short trip we were at Vietnam’s immigration to get stamped in.

We changed boats at the border and took a scenic route through one of the Mekong River’s tributaries. Everyone waved to as went by, and everyone on our boat waved back. It was a nice way to see the countryside and was easy to tell you were in Vietnam by the different style of boats and people wearing the ubiquitous Vietnamese cone shaped straw hats.

This is my second time in Vietnam. The first trip was over ten years ago where I only spent 10 days in the country. I have always loved Vietnamese food and have good memories of that first trip.

I was drinking a beer in a restaurant on the street this evening, thinking that there seems a little more order in chaos after Cambodia, when a fight broke between a cyclo and motor-cycle driver. It wasn’t too serious, just a couple of punches, an elbow and a kick but they eventually sorted the problem out.

After a month of seeing things and thinking “only in Cambodia” I am wondering now what Vietnam has to offer.