Today, we headed for Cambodia via bus.
Once we finally arrived in the capital, Phnom Penh, we went on a cyclo tour, which was a great way to see the city before we went for dinner.
Seeing the great hornbills was pretty amazing. They are huge!
For dinner, we had pizza, and they were so big we shared!
Last activity in Vietnam and it’s another boat trip lol
The Mekong Delta is a network of smaller canals that feed from a huge river. This river starts in the Himalayas and passes through China, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia before reaching Vietnam, which explains why the water looks dirty. More than half of Vietnam’s rice and fish come from the delta region, which earns its nickname as the rice bowl. Our guide mentioned there are over 300 types of fish! There also used to be crocodiles, not anymore. Seeing it is on a lot of the menus, I’m guessing they ate them all!
There is currently 17 million people living in mekong delta area, which is spend over 4000 islands. We passed 3 and visited 2.
The three we passed were:
We then stopped on 2 of the islands:
Once off the main boat, we walked through their fruit and vegetable groves. We met some locals, and they sang songs to use about the Mekong Delta and love, with the Monochal – bamboo instrument.
They also provided us some fruit from the island, including Pinapple with chilli, Jackfruit, Sapodila fruit (looks like kwik), papaya, mango, and Dragonfruit.
There are two different kinds of Dragonfruit, white and pink. The tree they grow on looks a bit like catus, and we were told if the leaves curle up, its a pink fruit. They can get up to 15 fruits from 1 tree.
Another first for me was seeing Potatos growing from vines. Did not know that was possible!
We walked to another area of the island where they kept bees and produced honey and honey products. We had a lime and honey tea.. super sweet!
Once off the boat, we went to a coconut shop, where they create crafts and sweets from the coconuts. They also had some rice wine, which strangely they store with snakes in! Though she said it was only 23%, it tasted over 40% to me!
The flowers on the island were beautiful and to finish the Coconut island trip we had a tuk tuk round the island, before getting back on the bigger boat to the mainland while Zam sung to us (badly bless him).
In the evening, we went to dinner at a homecook meal with Mrs Hang Troung from Phan Anh Backpackers Saigon. She has been doing amazing work with feeding the homeless and disabled people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to food or afford it. Our meal that g-adventures paid for, she sent the leftovers and extra she made to people I mentioned above.
Was sad to leave my luxury hotel, but that soon turned to anger and disappointment when I arrived at my new starting hotel, as stated by the G-Adventures communications…only to find the hotel closed and empty! Just a sign on the door…
There were two workers there when I arrived, that couldn’t speak English. Neither of the numbers worked for me, and when I got one of the men to call, the person on the other end hung up!
I called G-Adventure HQ to ask what the hell was going on and also messaged by the old CEO from the Vietnam tour. Even though he had time off, he responded to help me and managed to get the new hotel address. When I arrived, my new CEO Zam was there to meet me, I was the only new addition to the tour, so everyone else didn’t have the same issues as me. I then found out that the other hotel had been closed since October. As soon as I got in my room, I wrote a complaint email to G-Adventures! What if it had been a 19 year old on her first big trip! It was just not acceptable that they had not communicated anything on it! To make matters worse for the new CEO as this was my 7 G-Adventure tour this year I got upgraded to a VIP so Zam got calls about me lol Though I’m still waiting for an official response from them! Zam brought me a cocktail to cover my taxi cost from the old hotel to the new one, but I want them to confirm they have fixed this for others!
1 person was leaving the group, and I was joining, so after dinner, we headed for beer street! I heard it was more mental than Hanoi, and there weren’t joking!
The music was so loud and the light crazy! There were dancers, though very slow, I’m assuming due to the heat, though some of them looked drugged up! We went to Lost in Saigon for drinks before heading back to the hotel! I found out there are two groups within the tour.. Team Bar and Team Bed!
Now the tour has ended. I moved to a luxury hotel and I choose well! The staff were so lovely here, the room had a huge bath which I didn’t actually get round to having, a shower on the balcony and of course the pool on the roof. Everyday from 2.30pm-5pm they served afternoon tea on the roof! Was so good!
Noir dining in the dark experience
The other activity I booked was thr Noir dining the the dark. As it mentions in the name, you eat your meal in complete darkness. The wait staff here at blind and to walk into the dining room I had to hold her shoulders and follow blindly.
Before dinner, they give you a game, with shapes and blindfold. The idea is to get used to feeling in the dark. It made sense once in the dining room as the bowls they serve the food in are different spaces and you lift them to eat and then return them to the tray they are carried on which has indents for the bowls.
I had the 15-course mystery menu and 2 glasses of mystery wine. Afterwards, they show you the dishes, which I have cheekily added below. There were 4 starters, followed by 2 soups and a sobet, 4 mains and then 3 deserts. All tiny positions, of course. I really do eat with my eyes as I was rubbish at trying to guess what the difference flavours and textures were. I really recommend going once though and with a group would be better to discuss what your eating!
We finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh, also known as Siagon.
We did a walk with Tring and then had lunch at this great food court.
Really liked book Street, yep the whole street is book stores and stands! The central Post office architecture was pretty incredible, it looked more like a train station to me.
War Remnants Museum
As we all know, there was a very long war in Vietnam. It’s started with the North and South in conflict as the North was under communist rule, and they wanted the South to follow too. As the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states were supporting the North, American chose to support the South, as if the whole country went communist it would affect trade and strong holds in that part of the world.
The museum was well laid out but was heartbreaking to read and see in photos the monstrosities that occurred. It always surprises me how cruel people can be to each other. As you can see below, some of the stats were:
3 million Vietnamese were killed
2 million were injured
And 300,000 were missing during the war
The chart with the length and cost of war was very surprising as well. Outside of the museum is where they had the tanks, planes, and bombs, which were huge!
Night bus tour
As the last activity together, 5 of us went on the hop on hop off night bus. It was loud and busy, and people did not remain seated! We changed buses as we were told too and ended up going around again, though it was much better the second time.
Another beach stop, but this one at least had a good hotel!
Sand dunes
This tour kicked off with a Jeep ride, though I picked the wrong one as ours had some engine issues, and we had to stop twice on the way. After the dune 4×4, we had to squeeze into 3 cars as they couldn’t fix it, lol
We broke into groups of 5 per car and as you would imagine they went up and down the dunes and the more we screamed the faster they went lol we stopped by a lake on the white dunes as well.
We then popped to the red dunes but didn’t stay longA
We then went to what they call fairy stream, though it was also called the mini grand Canyon.
The afternoon was pool, sea, cocktails and sunset!
Another beach city!
From the beach, we could see Vinpearl Island, the owner is the founder of VinFast, a Vietnamese car manufacturer. He is one of the richest men in Vietnam. He owns the island, and our CEO told us the cable cars to get over to the island have been decommissioned as there was an accident where one of the cable cars fell into the ocean and killed the 4 people inside. The island has a resort and theme park on. You can see the ferris wheel.
We went out in the evening to try Banh Xeo tom, which is a shrimp pancake, very oily, with bean shoots. Not the best thing I’ve eaten on this trip.
We went to the night Market, but the goods seemed cheap quality.
Before we left on the bus for the next stop, we went for massages!
On arriving, we walked down to the beach and went for a swim in the sea. The waves were massive! Was really fun, sand everywhere, though, and it glittered.
As with most of Vietnam, there are statues and memorials to Ho Chin Minh. Here there is a statue of him and his father, as it was the last place they saw each other!
Banh Mi for lunch, I’m getting obsessed.
Mud spa
We spent a couple of hours in a lovely spa! Not only did we have a mud bath but also stream room, sauna, jacuzzi, and pool.
We leave Hue to go to Hoi An, didn’t realise until we arrived, this is where all the photos you see from Vietnam are from. So, for me, this looked the most like Vietnam with the laterns, boats, and rice fields enroute. Below are a couple of photos on the way.
As I already mentioned, the hotels on this trip have not been great, so 5 of us moved to a much better one! Mulberry Silk Collection Village! I got a great deal as when we arrived, our rooms were upgraded to suites, and my room was due to my hotels.com level. I received a free bbq meal and afternoon tea!
Hoi An is famous for its tailoring, and this hotel had its own silk village, which we got a free tour of while we stayed. I wasn’t aware that silk worms life cycles less than 40 days!
The silk worms you see in the photos below are only days old. They sleep for 1 day and then eat for 3 days and continue that cycle. They feed them Mullberry leaves as food and interesting when the worms have their heads up they are asleep. Here at the Mullberry Silk Village, they have yellow and white worms.
1 cacon can make 600m of silk. To start the process, they boil the cocoon at 70c and by the afternoon can spin the thread.
The worms silva is what creates the cocoon.
The raw silk doesn’t require killing the worm as all manual and isn’t an easy process.
We also saw their Weaving loom machine that uses bobin and weaves both ways. This machine was invented in 1935. The second loom is more skillful, with the weights being adjusted to create the pattern on the fabric.
There are 3 types of silk:
– Taffata silk – multiple threads
– Finer silk – really thin
– Raw silk – slightly thicker
The last part of the tour was now to identify if it is real silk or not. She gave us samples to guess from look and feel. She then showed us its how they burn that really shows. Pure Silk stops burning once the flame is removed, whereas Synthetic will carry on burning.
Hoi An old quarter
As mentioned previously, I loved Hoi An. This is what I expected all of Vietnam to look like! The old quarter is closed to vehicles. However, there are still bikes to be careful of.
We had two birthdays on the trip and went to Tiger Tiger for boogie. However that day it rained so much the river over flowed and once I got out the taxi I had to pull my dress up and wade through the water (half way up my calf) to the bar. Where it was busy, and I was trying not to get wet, I didn’t get my phone out. By the time I came out of the bar, the water had gone.
Oodles of Noodles
As you will know by now, reading this, g-adventures tend to support projects across the globe. This one in Hoi An is called Oodles of Noodles and is part of the streets organisation. They take children from the streets and train them in hospitality and catering with lodging, training, and English lessons. They will then support them in finding jobs across the country.
We were taken through how to make the noodles, and then we all had a go! They also served a bowl of Noodles for us that were really flavoursome.
Latern Making
Really enjoyed this latern making and a lovely keepsake to take home! The frame was already built, we choose the fabric we wanted and then started the class. We glued the fabric to 4 stokes while stretching it out. Continued on the opposite side and then once dried the two other sides, too. Then cut carefully to tidy it up. Lastly, we choose the fabric to go round the top and bottom of the latern and the tassle.
Vịnh Mốc tunnels
One of the only included activities on this tour was the Vịnh Mốc tunnels. These were located between the North and the South for the villagers to hide in during the Vietnam War. From 1955- 1964, the North tended to win the battles in this area. However, in 1965, a US patrol was attacked, and that sparked US troops coming to this area in force.
They started construction in 1966-1967 of these tunnels, which total 42km in length. They were used up until 1972.
The tunnels were spilt into 3 levels:
The 2nd level was built on a slope to allow the rain water to drainage into the sea. Gate 10 is the lowest point in terms of sea level.
I only ventured into the first turn, I was too scared to go further like the others. Sounds like I made the right decision, not only did they have to step over a dead rat, there was a local guy that was mute that scared them. While we waited for the others we visited the small museum. We also saw one of the ventilation shafts, which was 28m deep to take air down to the lower levels of the tunnels.
On our way to Hue, we crossed the Hien Luong Bridge, which is the official border between North and South. The northern half was painted red, and the Southern half was blue. Tring mentioned that there were times that one side would paint the whole bridge in their colours, and then it would be redone in the correct ones.
Tring mentioned that after the war ended, the people of the South were punished. The soldiers could go into camps, and if they survived 2 years, they could go to the US to live. Depending on your parents’ or grandparents’ roles in the war or region, it would have an effect on what jobs you could get. Tring wanted to be a police officer, but due to his grandfather being in the war for even 2 years and his Catholic meant his is not eligible.
Issue is for 3 generations – next generation should not have this problem. However, in the North, the soldiers’ families would get more benefits such as land, extra points on exams, and better jobs.
Dang Nắng is where the French and Americans started within Vietnam. It’s a good central location and important for both political and military positioning.
Huế
The optional activity recommended for this afternoon was a motorbike sightseeing. There was no chance in hell I was getting on a bike, so I decided to plan my own tour and was grateful some of the others wanted to join me.
We had 3 stops: Khai Dinh Tomb, Thuy Xuan incense village, and Thien Mu Pagoda.
Khai Dinh Tomb
Khai Dinh was the twelfth Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. He wasn’t very popular due to how closely he worked with the French, and therefore, to ensure he had a tomb, he started construction before his death. The layout before you get to the Tomb is broken into 5 areas to represent the 5 elements.
Thuy Xuan incense village
Unlike the incense village I visited in Ninh Binh, this one was very commercial and touristy. Some of the incense were faded from being in the sun.
Thien Mu Pagoda
Its iconic seven-story pagoda is regarded as the unofficial symbol of the city, and the temple has often been the subject of folk rhymes about Huế.
In the evening we went to a restaurant and had a 5 course set menu of Vietnamese cuisine.
Big Ginger Adventures Blog 