Through Vietnam by bus

After a couple of fantastic and lazy days on Phu Quoc it was time to move on. I had originally thought that I would go to Dalat, but it was SO nice being on the beach that I decided to go to Nha trang, a beach town on the southcentral coast. After all, it might be my last chance to go to the beach for more than a month....

So I took the ferry from Phu Quoc to Rach gia, and then jumped on the express bus to Saigon. The roads in Vietnam are not very good, and from travelling down through the Mekong delta a week earlier I knew that I was in for quite a bumpy ride. I was also the only Westerner on the bus, but luckily a sweet Vietnamese girl took pity on me making sure that I got off and on for ferry rides across the river and stops for food. After 6 h, when I started to think that my butt would need to be amputated after the quite uncomfortable journey, I finally arrived in Saigon.
After half an hour taxi ride through Saigon, I walked into one of the travel agencies in the backpacker area and got a ticket for the sleeper bus to Nha trang due to leave two hours later. It was with a sense of dread that I got on the bus, could I really handle ten more hours on a bus? I was very pleased to find out that the sleeper bus actually got fairly nice seats, almost like bunker beds. I was also a bit scared to take the night bus, as the traffic here is insane, and road conditions are not very good. However, the trip to Nha trang was reasonably smooth and I actually got some sleep.

Once off the bus I met a Canadian girl, Steph, who also is traveling alone. We decided to try to find accomodation together. Everywhere you go in Vietnam, and to some extent in Thailand, you're always met by loads of hotel toats and motorcycle taxis. It can be quite tricky, and sometimes exhausting, trying to navigate away from all of the touts. That said, many times you can find good and cheap accomodation following one of the touts, but there are times you really just want to be left alone. Anyhow, we found a really nice hotel 5 min from the beutiful beach for only 8 USD/night, nice!

We spent the first day relaxing on the beach and the next day we went out on a boat trip to some of the islands around Nha trang. It was a very interesting experience, with, among many things karaoke and a floating bar... Not really what we expected, but good fun. After just relaxing for a couple of days we decided to explore Nha trang by bike. Even though Nha trang is a fairly small city for Vietnam (around 300 000), and the traffic is very light compared to Saigon, it was still a quite adrenaline filled and nerve wrecking experience. There were a number of times I was sure that I would probably be hit by a vehicle and killed. I think I might wait to cycle again until I'm somewhere with a bit less hectic traffic...

Later that night we went on the sleeper bus again for a 12 h trip to Hoi An, a small city further north along the coast. This time the ride was quite rough and I didn't get much sleep. When we finally arrived to Hoi An early this morning we was welcomed by grey skies and drizzle. Great.

Anyhow, once we found somewhere to stay, had breakfast (I'm getting addicted to pancakes, weird as I'm never really been a pancake person, today I had a lovely apple pancake together with nice strong Vietnamese coffee), a shower and a nap, we felt restored and ready to explore Hoi An. Hoi An is a beutiful city with lots of old houses and temples, and the city is surrounded by rice paddies. There are also lots and lots of shops selling chinese lanterns, bags, shoes, and clothes, clothes, clothes.

There are also lots of tailor shops where you can get clothes custom made. I decided to try to get a suit. I hate to think about it, but I'm really going to need a nice suit when I get back to London for job interviews. It's so hard to find a suit that really fits me, so hopefully the tailor shop we choose is going to do a nice job. I'm going for my first fitting tomorrow.

The rain is pouring down again outside, I think I need to buy an umbrella or rain poncho somewhere soon...

My plan is to stay here in Hoi An for the next 3-4 days, and hope to do a Vietnamese cooking course one of the days. And if the weather improves, to go to the beach here. It would be nice to celebrate one Christmas on the beach, something until global warming really picks up, is unlikely to happen in Sweden. At least if you want to wear only a swim suit and not freeze to death....

I was going to post my Vietnamese mobile phone number, because it would be lovely to maybe get a couple of Christmas texts (hint hint hint) from you all, but I keep forgetting to bring my number with me everytime I'm close to a computer.... Will try to add the number later today.

Time to start thinking of where to go for dinner. All these descisions that needs to be made all the time, it's hard to be on vacation...