Hanoi (The Final City in Vietnam)

We left Hoi An late in the evening, catching a night train up to Hanoi.  We left around 6 pm and arrived in Hoi An, tired and a little hungry, at 12:30 the next afternoon!  We opted out of the sleeper cart and huddled down with the masses in the chairs.  This was the least expensive way of taking the train and after booking everything in Japan definitely a necessity!  All in all it was not too bad an experience, I slept a couple hours, although the stinkyness of the tons of people, and the screaming child at midnight did not help.  The views were nice and really looking back is was a good decision.  Definitely an experience!

We arrived in Hanoi in the afternoon, took some time to shower and relax and the headed out to explore.  For the next two days we spent time walking around the Old City exploring and enjoying the the busy streets.

Nice Shrine in the Middle of the Lake

Cathedral in the City 

Busy Streets!

We also spent time eating as I mentioned, lots of different foods!

Yummy Vietnamese Food!  Noodles, Beef, and Herbs!

Cool Designs on the Wall at an Amazing Burger Place Near Our Hotel!

Yummy Steak Dinner for 3 dollars!  And Not Even That Bad!

After two days in Hanoi we headed to Halong Bay for a night to explore the amazing sights there!  (This will be my next post).  We then headed back to Hanoi for another two days.  These were jam packed as it was the last couple days we had in Vietnam!  The first day back we spent exploring the city some more!

Watchtower Near Where We Had Lunch

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum 

Changing on the Guard

We Got There Right on Time to Watch This!

These Guys Stand Here in the Blazing Sun!

After a nice day walking around we headed to the night market, which is only open on weekends!  We spent some time enjoying our final market (at least cheap one)  We bought sunnies, and ties, belts, all those good things that are so cheap in Asia!  Definitely needed to repack my bag for my flight to Japan (luckily it only weighed 19.5 Kilo)

Our last day in Hanoi and Vietnam we spent lunch on the water, enjoying the view and watching people cross the busy streets.  Then we headed to a small coffee place that is famous for serving its coffee with whipped egg.  It tasted like a marshmallow on coffee or hot chocolate, we tried both!  It was pretty amazing.

Small Seats at the Coffee Place!

Marshmallow Coffee and Hot Chocolate

Great Coffee Place!

After the coffee we headed back to the hotel to make sure we were ready to head to Japan the following day!  Then for our last night we went to a Vietnamese Water Puppet Show. It was an hour show, all in Vietnamese, preformed on water with puppets and traditional music.  It was pretty awesome!  Definitely a cool experience.

Water Puppet Show!

And then of course our final dinner.  It was a cute place, on the street where we had great Vietnamese food for the last time!

Yummy Dinner 

Now we are leaving Vietnam and heading to Japan, our last country on the list!  Bye Bye South East Asia!  What an amazing experience you have been!

Hoi An (Best City in Vietnam!)

We left Nha Trang early in the morning!  This was our first time using the train. For a couple hours.

Our Early Morning Train!

After a long 8 or 9 hours we made it into Hoi An, or at least near there.  We then took a taxi to our guesthouse, which we shared with a nice English couple.  We finally got to our guesthouse and passed out for an awesome nap!  Then we headed  into the Old Town for some dinner on the water and exploring the city!

Cute Market with Lots of Lanterns!

 Dinner was delicious and then we headed back to our guesthouse for the night!  Tomorrow we were off to discover the Old Town and look into getting something Tailor made!

Fun Bridge Crossing the River

Japanese Covered Bridge

Typical Vietnamese 

Great Architecture in the Old City

We spent several days exploring the city and enjoying the views.  We also got some custom made clothes.  I got a suit, a dress, a coat, and a shirt all done.  They look beautiful and I can't wait to wear them when I get home.  It took several fitting and between Joel and I we did spend a lot of time in three different tailor shops.  It was tons of fun talking to the tailors and getting to know some of their stories.  We went to the nicest tailor shop, which was a crazy busy operation with lots of people running around.  We also went to a small time tailor who runs it the store with her sister.  She was very friendly and helpful!  Our last one was a spur of the moment by me random shop.  I got a coat made for 30 dollars.  Winter coat, custom fit, black and red, and it was made in less than a day! 

Other than walking around and spending time in the tailor shops we spent lots of time eating (shocking I know).  It was delicious!

We Took A Break From Vietnamese, and Had Indian Curry!  AMAZING!

Yummy Fresh Garlic Prawns

Amazing Taco's We Found, SO Delicious!

The Best Drinks We Had So Far on the Trip!

Nice View, Cider and the City!

Funny Food

We also went to an amazing tea house which is run by deaf people.  So the entire idea runs around the concept of silent tea, drinking in silence, and more importantly enjoying a couple moments of silence in a busy city.  This was one of the most amazing experiences in Hoi An.  It was a great place to try Vietnamese Tea, Cookies, and more importantly watch the city go by as we sat in silence. 

Our Delicious Tea and Cookies

Enjoying Our Quite Tea Time 

Hoi An was such an amazing place to visit.  We got to hang our the Old Town and relax, watch the locals, and try all this amazing food.  It is a bustling but also calm.  Really a great combination, so far definitely one of my favourite places in Vietnam, if not South East Asia.  I was a little upset to leave but excited to head to our last city in Vietnam Hanoi.  We hopped on the train for our next leg, overnight and 16 hours here we come!

Nha Trang (Beach Time!)

We took another bus from Mui Ne to Nha Trang which left at about 1:30 (read it picked us 2:30pm) and we arrived at around 8pm (I think, to be honest all the bus rides are kinda blending together in my head!)  We got dropped off in the middle of a crazy busy town!  Lots of lights, clubs, and restaurants, as well as the beach!  We headed off to our hotel where we dropped of our bags and headed out to dinner!

Nice View From the Bus

Yummy First Dinner in Nha Trang

We headed to bed then!  The next day we decided to explore the city, as there is a lot to explore.  Our first major discover was something called GOLDFISH!  I was so excited to see them, as I was craving them hardcore!

So AMAZING!

 We went to take a look at the beach and walk through the warm sand, the weather was not amazing as I am sure can see, but it was still nice to enjoy the sea air and the cold water!

Getting My Feet Wet!

Nice Beach!

Nice View of the Area!

 We then headed to lunch for a DELICIOUS lunch of Vietnamese cuisine.  It started with Spring Rolls, that we made, a delicious noodle/beef combo, and then of course a Mojito (with Lychee flavour).  All for something like 7 dollars per person!

Us Enjoying A Yummy Lunch!

Making Spring Rolls (Also see Mojito in the Background)

My Yummy Lunch!

After lunch we walked around some more for some more discoveries before heading to the Night Market, which was nothing compared to the markets in Chiang Mai, but always fun to go to a look at!  I even got myself a nice 1 dollar bracelet!

Nice Little (Very Little) Night Market!

Then it was off to dinner, we headed to a place famous for making your own BBQ!

Yummy BBQ!

And finally we ended the day with crepes we found on our walk home!  Pretty packed day, mostly filled with food!  But delicious and fun!

Crepes for the First, but NOT the Last Time!

The next day we headed to the pier for our snorkeling tour!  We heard that this was one of the nicest places in Vietnam to see some awesome fish!  So after a late pickup (traffic was VERY bad) we made it to the pier and on the boat.  We spend about 1 hour heading to our first location!  On the way we went by a floating market!

The Cool Floating Market We Went By!

Then we headed to the first spot, which was pretty awesome, after about an hour we headed to the second spot!  Also pretty great, this second place had some jelly fish though so I was careful.  Pretty cool stuff!  Then lunch and one more spot.  The sun did come out for a little, although it never got too hot, which was nice, cause that means NO SUNBURN!

We Also Got to Jump Off the Boat!

Rammy Ram Also Came Along for the Fun!

Heading Home After a Long Day Snorkeling!

After a whole day of snorkeling we headed to our hotel for a warm shower and then off to dinner. This time we had some sushi, which was cheap and delicious (not quite as good as Vancouver!)

We had one more day in Nha Trang which we spent more time on the beach and walking around.  It was nice to have some relaxing time hanging out in a city enjoying the food and not having to worry about much!  Then it is of to Hoi An for some tailoring and our last city on the beach! 

Enjoying Some Ice Cream Together!

Mui Ne

After leaving Ho Chi Minh we headed north to the Beach town of Mui Ne.  We planned to spend one full day there taking in the sights and the heading further north.  So we hopped on another sleeper train, this one left aroud 1 30pm and we got to Mui Ne about 8 30pm (apparently it is supposed to be a 6 hour ride!)  But we are definitely getting used to this kind of "on time" transit!

But we got to our nice room safe and sound!  It was pretty cool, and a nice view of the beach as well!  Oh and a pool :)

Our Nice Place, Check out the Pool!

Our Great Lunch!  More Pho for me!!

View From Our Room!

After lunch we headed out on a tour which would take us to Faerie Springs, the Red Dunes, and the White Dunes.  All of which are pretty popular around here!  So we waited for our jeep pick-up which was late (shocking!).  We hopped in the back of the jeep, which already had 6 people (although we had been assured that the tour would have 2-6 people, I guess 8 is same same!).  The we headed down the road, for about 2 min, to our first stop, the Faerie Springs.  Guess we could have walked there! 

Here we payed 5,000 Dong (about 25 cents) per person to walk through the river.  Pretty sure we didn't need to pay but some of those kids are pushy!  Oh well, it is not that much money! So we took our shoes off and hoped in the water (I was a little worried since I had some open wounds on my foot, but oh well, I will disinfect it when I get back to the room!)

Can You Find the Rammy Ram?

A View From Above, Pretty Cool!

Rammy Ram Came Along For the Ride!

The River We Walked Through

After the amazing walk through the Faerie Falls, which halfway through it poured, and I mean full out raining cats and dogs, we headed to the White Dunes.  I got absolutely soaked, Joel threw on a rain jacket real quick so I could put my camera under it!  I was not as quick but it felt nice to walk through the rain in the river.  Although it did mean we had to hop back in the jeep nice and wet!  Then it was about a 40 min drive along the ocean to the White Dunes! Here we walked around for a while, you can also rent a 4 X 4,  but we decided against it.  It was really fun to walk around and we hiked all the way to the top dune and had a nice view of the whole area!

View From the Dunes!

Heading to the Top of the Dune!

After spending some more time here, and drying off a little, and running down some dunes as fast as we could, we headed to the Red Dunes.  These are the ones I was really excited for, although they turned out less impressive then I expected.  The White Dunes were not too busy, the Red Dunes were PACKED!  People everywhere and kids trying to sell you sleds to ride down them on.  Pretty crazy. But the colouring of them was pretty cool!  We had fun!

Having Fun at the Red Dunes

The Amazing Colours of the Red Dunes

After spending the day wondering around Mui Ne we headed out for a delicious dinner and then off to bed, tomorrow we head north to Nha Trang, another beach town where we plan on going snorkeling!