Vietnam (Part 2): Central and South

June 19, 2023. Hoi An Night Market on the Thu Bon River. Lanterns are placed in the river with a wish.

Trying to get this post off quick since we're about to head to the Sub-Saharan Africa portion of our trip and we'll be traveling with friends, so I don't anticipate having much computer time. I wanted to get something off about the rest of our time in Vietnam because I know when I look back a month from now to write it up, I won't remember anything, so here is part 2 of my favorite country so far, Vietnam.

Flying back into Vietnam after Laos was a breeze (no visa issues this time) and our first stop of Vietnam, round 2, would be the beach town of Da Nang. Initially, we hadn't planned to make it a stayover, but after hearing about the beaches we decided to park it there for a couple nights and ended up loving it. We were there on the weekend so we were able to catch the Dragon Bridge fire show and found a night market for our dinners. They had incredible seafood spreads for a great price that I definitely took advantage of. We took motorbikes one day to explore the coast and just check out the countryside and Thuan An Beach. We also stumbled across a random beach spot that also delivered on a seafood snack. The food in Vietnam has been some of my favorite.

After Da Nang, it was a quick car ride over to what would end up being my favorite spot of the trip to date, Hoi An. This place had everything, the prettiest "Ancient town", night markets and beautiful shops, AND beaches. I definitely need to come back here when I have a job because there are tailors everywhere with stunning clothes. I didn't have anything custom-made, but even on our limited budget, I couldn't resist picking up a couple pieces to add to my meager travel wardrobe. We braved the heat and took bikes out one day to ride around the rice fields and check out the Cam Thanh Coconut Village with its colorful basket boats. The evening rainstorms (which are the norm now as we have made it through the whole dry season in SE Asia) trapped us at a beach bar while we waited it out, but there are worse places to get stuck. 

It was back to Da Nang to catch a train to our next stop of Nha Trang. This was one of those budgeting decisions that I'll probably look back on and laugh, but to save a bit of money, we opted for the 10-hour train ride rather than a quick flight. I prefer to travel by train or bus whenever possible because you get to see the countryside and airports stress me out, but by hour 8 of the ride, I was starting to question our choices. Luckily, the train was comfortable enough and after a full day of travel, we were in the beach town of Nha Trang. This was a chill stop without too much planned other than one of my favorite ways to pass a day, lounging around on a beach. We also randomly used this opportunity to get our teeth cleaned for less than $11. Famous for its seafood, we did splurge one night and went all out on a seafood feast. You show up at the restaurant and there's not really a menu, just tanks and tanks of live seafood. We walked around with the owner and pointed out what we wanted, gesturing with fingers to indicate how many of each. Shrimp, scallops, oysters, crab, clams (and I'm sure I'm forgetting something)...we had it all. And it was so worth the $35 (which included beers AND a small bottle of vodka). 

Our next stop would take us to the mountain town of Da Lat. We opted for the VIP minibus, but no amount of luxury could account for the intense mountain drive that left everyone feeling queasy. Unlike some of our fellow passengers, I was able to keep it down, but we were both left feeling a bit off for the rest of the day. As per the norm, we rented a motorbike for two days to be able to explore the area and get to the tourist spots without having to pay for a tour. We visited the Elephant waterfall, made even more impressive by the giant Budda statue that stands next to it. Johnny also found us a route to take us through the countryside, full of greenhouses of flowers and fields of tea. Unfortunately, the route also took us through a still-under-construction roadway that made for a somewhat bumpy, muddy ride. Johnny's motorbiking skills once again pulled us through. We also got to visit the tasting room for what appears to be the only commercially produced Vietnamese wine (not counting of course the homemade plum and apple wines of the hill tribes). 

The following day we visited the Alpine coaster at Dantanla. This was something that Johnny was especially excited about, to the point where we got up early and were the first ones in line when they opened. Since you control the speed of the coaster with a handbrake, he didn't want to risk getting stuck behind a "Koren grandma" (his words) who was riding her brake the whole time. It was a blast and totally worth the 200,000 dong (about $8.50). We also found one of the coolest bars of all time, the Maze bar. You order a drink when you walk in, then you can just wander around this house maze. That was cool in and of itself, but then add in a fat, fluffy cat on the roof...well, I think you all know how I feel about cats at this point. 

Learning from our long train ride a few days prior, we spent the few extra dollars to fly into Siagon and avoid the 8+ hour bus ride through the mountains. Ho Chi Minh a.k.a. Siagon ("same, same" as they say here) would be our very last stop of Vietnam and of SE Asia. We should have planned more out to do here, but we also like to use the bigger cities as our sort of "administrative time" to get caught up on various responsibilities and recharge a bit from all the moving. One thing I knew I wanted to do while here was visit the War Remnants Museum. My knowledge of the Vietnam War has always been lacking, and I was interested to learn about it from their perspective. Something that stood out to me was the sheer amount of resources that the US invested into the war, especially when you consider the size, population, and GDP of the two countries. They also had a powerful exhibit on the after-effects of agent orange and the birth defects and clean-up efforts still happening today. 

The rest of the time was spent with Johnny attempting to try every single coffee shop possible, and people-watching with a drink in hand on the busy Đ. Bùi Viện bar street. Although it looks like a "walking street" (a street closed down to traffic for parts of the evening), it is in fact not, which means you have traffic flying through large crowds of drunk partiers, making for some entertaining viewing. One funny happening was watching the shop owners shout down the street to each other when the cops were approaching so they could quickly pull all the tables and chairs off the street. As soon as they'd pass, everything would get set back out again. The party was foiled when one sneaky policeman walked up instead of passing in the police truck that was making the rounds. The bars didn't notice him until it was too late so at least one seemed like they were being written up. So silly given the hundreds of people in the street already blocking traffic.

The only thing left to do in Ho Chi Minh is get to the airport to fly out to Africa in order to start the next leg of our journey. We already hit a hiccup, but in the end, it was a solvable problem... When I booked our flights a couple months ago, we choose to take a long layover in India so that Johnny and I could actually have time to leave the airport and get some real Indian food to celebrate his birthday, which of course would mean getting our India Visas sorted at some point. Easy peasy, right? I submitted my application no problem and my visa was issued by the next morning. Johnny, however, was not so lucky. We were first suspicious when there was a question that specifically asked something along the lines of "were either of your parents or grandparents born in Pakistan". When we filled out that portion and hit submit, his e-visa application was immediately rejected. Part of the whole abandoning me in Manila to sort out my own visa issues back in May was because Johnny had an appointment with the Indian consulate in Hanoi on May 15th. He was able to sit through an interview and submit an in-person application (for $123) that would be sent off to India for processing and he was told it could be anywhere from 7 days to 7 weeks to get a response. We were rolling the dice that it would come through in time. Spoiler alert, it did not. 

On Friday, June 23rd, almost 6 weeks after he applied, we still hadn't heard anything so we booked him a new flight to meet up in Arusha in Tanzania, but passing him through Bangkok and Ethiopia to avoid India. He actually ended up with a better/shorter flight than me, but now he'll be by himself on his birthday (which for those of you who know Johnny, also know that was probably the best gift he could have received 😂). I, on the other hand, will have not one, but TWO 10-hour layovers by myself, of which I am not looking forward to at all. Especially since I decided against getting a transit visa for Kenya, meaning I'll have a whole day to kill in the Niarobi airport. Fingers crossed for some gluten-free eats.

In the end, as long as we both end up in Tanzania by June 29, we'll be good to start safari on the Serengeti with one of my besties from back home, something I am very much looking forward to as we take this crazy adventure to the continent of Africa.