Coasting Along Vietnam

After our exploration of Hanoi, we took the night train (our first night train of our travels, and Jennifer’s first train ever) to Da Nang, which is near Hoi An.  The train took about 15 hours, and when we arrived the next morning we found a café near the station to eat breakfast and explore our accommodation options with their wifi connection.  

With Hoa and Jessica, our fellow Canadian traveler

A few coffees, a brief hunt for a SIM card around the town, and a phone call later we were on our way to Hoa’s Place, a guesthouse in Da Nang. 

Beautiful, peaceful beach in Da Nang

It is low season right now in Vietnam, and we had the entire beach and guesthouse to ourselves.  Hoa has incredible English because he fought alongside the American troops during the war.  We had been warned about potentially receiving some hostility in central and northern Vietnam since we were American, so we preventatively pretended we were Canadians - all the time.  We kept up our new personas when we initially met Hoa, and he graciously asked us how we liked living in Toronto.

"Oh it's much colder than it is here" happily chirped Jennifer, and I joined in.  A few "ehs" later, and our well-disguised front was foiled when a real Canadian showed up…oh well, we had a good run.  Jessica was actually from Toronto.  When we were all at the beach later we explained ourselves and had a good laugh, though I'm sure she had her doubts about our sanity...

Exploring Hoi An

Our next stop was Hoi An, and if we had not already booked our train tickets a few days in advance, I could have easily spent more time here.  We rented bikes and explored the surrounding beaches and countryside, enjoyed fantastic food, had a number of custom-designed clothes made, and met up with some old friends from Phnom Penh.  

The town is quaint, and though it is a main tourist stop, the small streets and people biking everywhere gives it a lovely, and very relaxed beach town feel where the days quickly pass.  I would strongly recommend at least a few days here to anyone heading for Vietnam, and would absolutely insist on at least one visit to Morning Glory for those in the area!

Our next train headed further south was going to be much different from our first.  It was cheaper than the night train, and allowed us to soak up the local Vietnamese culture.  We were riding in the cheaper, hard seated car with screaming babies, many curious passengers who made their curiosity known, a notable language barrier, and a vast array of smells (including partially developed chicken fetuses boiled inside the egg, a local specialty that not even I could stomach), but we greatly enjoyed the trip. 

The ride was supposed to take about 15 hours and we would be leaving at 7 AM from Da Nang.  If you want to hear about this experience in its entirety, it might require buying Jennifer or me a drink one day…

When we arrived in Nha Trang, Jennifer selected our next accommodation.  Although it took longer than expected to arrive at the reception desk, we were placed in a shared apartment with 6 Canadian guys who we had a great time with over the few days.  They were the greatest – each morning they would wake up to make breakfast and surprised us with morning coffee.  

Evening in Nha Trang overlooking the bay

During the day we relaxed on the beach and visited the famous temples of the city, and at night we played cards and went out to Why Not? bar with our roommates.  It was such a fun stop off before heading further south to Da Lat, a much more relaxed part of Vietnam. 

Overlooking Nha Trang 

The bus ride to Da Lat reminded me of the road between Chiang Mai and Pai in northern Thailand.  If you’ve experienced it, you know how extremely windy it is, and would understand the stupidity in our choice of going out the night before a drive like this. 

Luckily, we were not the only Westerners, and passed the time chatting with a British couple that had made reservations at Paradise Backpackers in Da Lat, which saved us because we had done no such thing.  We decided to join them there and see if we could find an open bed.  We were able to secure the last two beds in the dorm that night before heading out to dinner and pastries with Paul and Nicole.

Da Lat's beautiful scenery

Da Lat is stunning and seemed to have a very similar feel as Hoi An, except that it is located in the mountains.  During the days in the town, we were fortunate enough to have fantastic weather, which made for enjoyable explorations of our new environment.

Countryside view from the coffee plantation

We opted for an Easy Rider tour of the countryside of Da Lat with two guides we met when we arrived.  Mr. Viet and his friend Chili would be our tour guides and made our experience worthwhile. 

The day consisted of a trip to the Elephant Waterfalls, a Flower Greenhouse, a nearby Coffee Plantation that produced Weasel Coffee, a Silkworm factory, a Rice Wine Distillery, and an “Ethnic” village.  

I.LOVE.COFFEE - Mocha and Arabica beans behind me at the plantation

It was so much fun to see the countryside and explore on a motorbike – this was Jennifer’s first time riding one!  It definitely puts biking through Vietnam on my Bucket List – I’m already targeting my future biker gang members – you know who you are!

Our last leg of our trip would consist of a bus ride to Saigon and a night at the same hostel we stayed in with Brad and Caroline.  These three weeks of our trip absolutely flew by, and Vietnam – I will be back!