The trip to Phnom Penh was quite smooth because I decided to book my trip online with Giant Ibis for $18.39USD/$25.17AUD. I had breakfast at the hostel in Ho Chi Minh and then walked for about ten minutes to get to the bus office 15 minutes early. The bus came and we left just after 8am, and they gave us all scones and water. The ticket guy explained how everything would work, handed out the arrival/departure forms and visa applications, and then collected our passports with payment for the visa (which was $35USD/$47.91AUD). It was then that I realised I had left my photos in my big backpack, which was under the bus (I had completely forgotten that I would need them since it was only the second time that I was required to have a photo). However, the bus company somehow avoided me actually needing the picture, as I think they had some police officers on our bus who processed everything and put the visas straight in our passports before we even got to border control, so they only had to be stamped. We drove for just over two hours and got to the Vietnam border, so we all had to get off of the bus and wait in the building for about ten minutes. The bus worker had all of our passports and got them all stamped for us and then gave our passports back so that we could show the officer on the way out. It was such a smooth process! We got back on the bus and drove a couple of minutes to a restaurant, where we’d have a 30-minute break. I was one of the first ones to order and decided to have one last pho before leaving Vietnam, and luckily this pho did not disappoint! We all got on the bus and got to the Cambodian border, so we all had to get off again and wait in line to get our passports stamped. As I said, the visas were already in there, and the bus worker seemed to know the customs officers well because as soon as we came in, they opened three new lines for us to speed up the process. We got through quite quickly and then once I got on the other side, I went to get a SIM card. I should have known better because of course, he tried to overcharge me. I saw that unlimited data would be 6 dollars, which was a good price so I gave the guy my phone and he started to install the SIM card. However, he asked how long I’d be in Cambodia and when I said two weeks, he said that the unlimited card would only last for one week, so he was trying to get me to pay $15-$20 for one that would last two weeks. This just made me angry so I said that I changed my mind, and I’d find somewhere cheaper. I got back on the bus and we continued to Phnom Penh and arrived at about 3:30pm. I didn’t have any Cambodian money yet (and didn’t realise that I wouldn’t actually need any, since Cambodia mostly uses the US dollar
for everything) so I didn’t think I could take a tuktuk. The walk to my hostel was about 30 minutes and Cambodia has been considerably hotter than Vietnam, with constant “feels-like” temperatures of 39 degrees. Especially in Phnom Penh, my skin constantly felt wet the entire time I was there – it was similar to how the weather felt in Kuala Lumpur, except a few degrees hotter. Naturally, the walk was extremely difficult (especially carrying all of my bags and my newly acquired painting) and I noticed right away that I was underdressed. I was wearing shorts and a tank top, but I noticed that everyone (all men and women) were wearing pants/jeans and long-sleeved shirts. How were they surviving in this weather?! I got to my hostel and checked in at The Big Easy for $4.50USD/$6.16AUD per night in an 18-bed dorm. I decided to go straight to Hard Rock Cafe to get my drumsticks, which was a 20-minute walk away. I just have to say that I love Hard Rock Cafe and the way that they train their staff because it doesn’t matter what location you go to, you’ll always be greeted with friendly smiles and the workers are always so helpful. I noticed that they didn’t have any city-specific drumsticks this time, and since I knew that there was another location in Cambodia, I asked if it would be possible for them to check if there’d be any city-specific drumsticks there. They told me that they’d message the other location, but since it was 5pm, they might not write back for awhile. He said that I could have a drink at the bar, so I decided I might as well. Believe it or not, this was a first for me! I can do many things alone – sit at restaurants, cafes, go to the movies, etc. But I’ve never had the guts to go sit at a bar alone. This was a good starting point for me because there were only two other people in the bar so I didn’t feel as awkward. I ordered a drink and sat there for about an hour, and one of the workers even came and sat with me and told me about how Khmer New Year would be the following week.
I decided to go back to the hostel and come back the following day. On the way back, I stopped at Wat Phnom to take some pictures and I think I actually snuck in through an entrance because when I left, I realised that I should have paid. Oops! As soon as I got to my room, I was planning on having a shower but started talking to an American guy named Lef. He asked if I wanted to go downstairs for drinks (because we got one free welcome beer), so I agreed. I was also able to set up a SIM card at the hostel. The actual SIM card cost $4USD, and then it was $1 per week for unlimited data, so I only had to pay $6USD/$8.21AUD. The problem with Cambodia is the beer is usually the same price or cheaper than just getting a coke. We had a couple beer and then I was craving nachos, so I looked up “nachos near me” and surprisingly, there was a place less than ten minutes away called Cocina Cartel. I finally got my nachos, which were a bit more pricey at $8USD/$10.95AUD, but they definitely hit the spot! After our late-night dinner, we headed back to the hostel and I went to bed because I was told to be in the lobby by 9am to go on a tour.
On Saturday morning, I got up at 8am and then went down for breakfast at 8:30am. Unfortunately, no one else had expressed interest in going to the Killing Fields or the S21 Museum, but the lady told me to wait and see if anyone else came downstairs. At about 9:30, a British girl came downstairs and asked about getting a tuktuk, so she came and sat with me to have breakfast. Lucy and I clicked right off the bat – she came from the other side of Cambodia, so she gave me tips on what to do and see during my time there. She had been travelling with her boyfriend, but they just started travelling separately because she was meeting up with her mom in Thailand, so this was her first place being alone after a long time. We talked for at least 30-45 minutes and then an American guy named Nate came and sat with us. He said that he’d go shower and then come down so we could leave. While we were waiting, a German girl named Suzy came down and asked if she could come, but she said that she was meeting up with friends for breakfast first and still had to shower, so she asked if we could leave closer to 11 or 11:30. By that point, I had already been waiting 2 hours and by 11:30, it would be 3 hours so I felt like I was wasting half of my day sitting in the hostel lobby. Since it was my only full day in Phnom Penh, I really wanted to get going. Lucy felt the same way, but neither of us wanted to say anything. The three of us (Lucy, Nate, and I) sat and waited for another 45 minutes, but Suzy still hadn’t even gone upstairs to shower yet so we told her we wanted to leave by 11:30 (cause she was trying to push for 12). Luckily, she agreed so finally at 11:30, we were about to leave and another girl from Germany (Antonia) came up to us and asked if we were going to the Killing Fields. She needed to go upstairs and change, and I felt like we were never going to leave. However, we finally did! We had a tuktuk for the entire day, and we had to pay $5USD/$6.84AUD each. We decided to go to the Killing Fields first, which took nearly an hour to get there. By that point, I decided that I should probably get some food since it was just before 1 and we’d probably be in there for at least a couple of hours. I decided to get a morning glory, but it still didn’t sit well with my stomach (it seems like some type of spice in Asian foods was setting my stomach off every time).
Anyway, we got to the Killing Fields and had to pay $6USD/$8.21AUD for admission, which also included an audio guide. I’m so glad that we got audio guides as well, because I wasn’t very familiar with the Cambodian history, and hearing it made it so much more real. I was literally sitting there, taking notes about everything I heard so that I could share the information. It’s such a dark history, and it only happened less than 50 years ago! In the late 1970s, Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge movement. He wanted everyone to be treated as equals, who all worked at labour-intensive farm jobs. Within three days, everything in the cities closed. All of the people were moved out of the cities and ordered to go to collective farms, and religion and education became forbidden. Many people were worked to death or died of starvation, because they’d have to work 12 hours per day with unsuitable living conditions. If someone was thought to undermine Pol Pot’s plan, they would be killed. This included doctors, lawyers, teachers, professionals, nuns, anyone with soft hands, anyone with glasses.. and they would be arrested. Pol Pot created an army using many young people (teenagers) who were from the peasant class and had very little education. From 1976-1978, people were brought to the Killing Fields and they were killed the night that they arrived, one by one. The army didn’t use guns because bullets were too expensive, so they’d use every type of tool imaginable to beat the people to death – I won’t go into details but it was morbid. By 1978, trucks were coming in everyday with up to 300 people each time. During this period, 3 million people out of the 8 million population were killed throughout the country (more than 1 in 4 people!), and in the Killing Field area alone, 20000 people were killed. The bodies would then be poured into mass graves. Some of the people weren’t completely dead when they were buried, so they would pour DDT on top of the bodies to finish off the job. One of the saddest parts of the tour was when we came to the Killing Tree. This tree was used to kill babies. The soldiers would hold the babies by the feet and hit them against the tree, because they didn’t want any kids to grow up and seek revenge. It was such a heavy and emotional day and even though it was hard to hear, I also thought that it was necessary to learn about. The tour ended with a building of multiple levels – the first ten levels were made up of 9000 skulls, and each skull was marked with how the person was killed or tortured. The upper levels included other bones. In the Killing Fields area, there were 129 mass graves, and bones and teeth still get uprooted every few months. There is only one senior officer (out of four) who has started undergoing trial, and he’s the only one who admits that anything ever happened – the other three still deny everything, even though the proof is there.
After spending two or three hours there, we all got back into the tuktuk. It was a very quiet ride at first, as I think all of us were still processing everything that we had just learned and seen. Nate was pretty good at lifting everyone’s spirits while we were on our way to the S21 Prison Museum. We got there at about 4pm so it was only open for another hour. We saw that admission would be $5USD/$6.84AUD but then an audio guide would be an additional $3USD. We decided not to get the audio guide since we didn’t have much time, and we assumed that there’d be information written down. However, we were very wrong and I kind of regretted not getting an audio guide because I think it would have helped a lot more. We walked through all of the buildings, and saw all of the prison cells with single beds, along with pictures on the wall of the prisoners on those same beds. The cells seemed to get smaller and smaller, and there were bloodstains still on the floors. At the very end of the tour, they had hundreds of pictures of the prisoners and then they also had pictures of the dead bodies holding numbers, which was extremely difficult to see.
Once again, I just felt heavy again. I have heard multiple stories about people thinking of doing the Killing Fields one day and then the prison the next day, but then decided not to do the other one because they didn’t want to have two full days of sadness. I’m relieved that we did everything in one day, even though it was a lot to take in. It’s crazy that I had no idea that any of this happened, but made me realise how important it is to make myself aware of this kind of stuff. We got back to the tuktuk and made our way back to the hostel. By that point, we were all soaking wet because it was so hot that day, so everyone decided to shower. I decided to take a Grab Bike back to Hard Rock Cafe in order to get my drumsticks (since I had heard back from the other location and they said they didn’t have any), and then when I got back, I showered and met up with everyone for drinks. I
found out that the restaurant had poutine, and I was beyond excited to have one! It was pretty good too! After a couple of drinks, we decided to get some food for everyone else, but everyone had difficulty agreeing on a restaurant so we ended up walking for quite awhile. FINALLY, everyone agreed on a restaurant, so everyone else got dinner and we all chatted some more. This restaurant had pints of beer for 50 cents each! After dinner, we ended up separating from the group, and Lucy, Antonia, and I headed back to the hostel. Lucy and I continued having drinks at the hostel bar, and sat with some of the expats who were living in the city. It’s been weird because everywhere in Cambodia, there seems to be expats who have lived there for years, and all of the hostels I’ve stayed in (with the exception of one so far) are run by those expats and not by locals. This was one of the first
times in all of my travels where I went out for more than just a couple of drinks, and it was because Lucy and I got along so well. It was nice to feel like I had a normal friend to vent with about everything, and both of us were so sad that we only had one day together because I think we could have been really good travel partners. However, we’re still writing each other now so I wouldn’t be surprised if we met up again in the future. Lucy went to bed at about midnight because she had to catch a flight the next morning at 8am, so I stayed up and talked to some of the workers there. I went to bed shortly after because I’d be leaving the next day for Kep, which I’ll save for the next post. Love always
The 13-hour bus ride to Ho Chi Minh went by pretty fast, and I think I actually ended up falling asleep for a bit. I was given 30 minutes to feel sad before we already stopped for a 30-minute bathroom/food break. I figured I should probably eat since I had only eaten a sandwich at 4pm, so I went to the restaurant and ordered a pho for 48000 dong ($2.83AUD). I’ve been picky about my pho, and this one wasn’t that great because there was a really low noodle-to-broth ratio (and they weren’t even the good type of noodles). I finished eating and got back into my top bunk, put on my seatbelt (if I didn’t, I probably would have rolled out of the bed at least 100 times – the driving is crazy!), and wrote some friends before trying to sleep. The entire trip actually ended up taking just under 12 hours, and I arrived just after 6 in the morning. As usual, before I even got off the bus, there were a whole bunch of people standing in the entrance, asking if I needed a taxi. I said no and went to find somewhere to sit down and try to wake up. I looked up how much it would cost to take a Grab to my hostel and found out that it would cost about 80000 dong for a car, which was quite pricey! I then looked at how much it would cost to take a Grab BIKE, and it said 39000 dong ($2.30AUD), more than half the price. I tried to decide whether I could take a Grab with my huge backpack, and my day bag in one hand and a bag of food in the other. At this point, money was more important for me (with the 2 million dong that I paid the day before!), so I decided I’d take a bike. Conveniently, two guys came up to me and asked if I needed a bike and I said yes. I showed them where I needed to go and they replied, “100000 dong.” Seriously?! That was more than taking a Grab car! I was so angry, showed them my phone and said, “39000 dong. I will take this one instead.” And they just replied with an, “Oh.” I requested my Grab bike and went on an extremely long ride – I didn’t realise that it would take over 20 minutes. It was difficult because every time we stopped at a red light and started back up again, the weight of my backpack would pull me backwards, so I only hoped that I wouldn’t fall off along with it! I got to my hostel right after 6:30 and the door was open so I walked in. This time, I was staying at Long Hostel and paid 131000 dong ($7.72) per night to stay in a 4-bed mixed dorm (which ended up being only girls during my entire stay). There was a man who woke up on the couch, saw me, then turned around and went back to bed. I decided to let myself in and sit in the outdoor area until everyone woke up. It was then that I saw my first rat scurry from one side of the door to the other on the patio, and it was massive! I had forgotten about being warned about the rats in Ho Chi Minh, and I don’t think I ever got used to seeing them running around on the streets during my three nights there. At about 7, everyone started waking up because it was time for breakfast, so I moved into the common area inside. All I wanted was to shower and maybe get something to eat. I went to the counter and explained that I still needed to check in, but asked if I could get breakfast (which I was fully willing to pay for), but they gave me one free of charge! Again, I ordered banana pancakes (which I did for the three days I was there), and they were the best ones that I’ve had! While I was eating, another girl came and sat beside me, and I found out that she was Canadian, but living in Melbourne and teaching with the same agency as me! So weird! She was leaving within the next half hour, but we exchanged information because we’d both be getting back to Melbourne at the same time (at the start of term 2) and hopefully we’d be able to meet up. After eating, I asked if it would be possible for me to use the shower (since check in wouldn’t be until 2pm). They let me use the bathroom, and it was so nice to have a shower after spending so long on the bus! I was still so exhausted, so I researched different things that I could do that day and then at about 11:30, I decided to head out. I went to Bun Cha 145, which is one of the more popular bun cha (noodle bowl) places, but to be honest, I didn’t love it. The reason for this is that depending on the region of Vietnam, some bun cha places serve everything mixed together in a bowl (as they would at any Vietnamese restaurant in Saskatoon) and other bun cha places serve everything separately.
Agent Orange is a herbicide chemical that was used by the US military, and has had major consequences on the health of many individuals. About four million people were exposed to Agent Orange, and three million have suffered illnesses because of it. Agent Orange seems to affect the genetics of individuals, which in turn affects second, third, and fourth generations of these people. Some effects include mental disabilities, extra fingers and toes, loss of limbs, short stature, etc. This area of the museum included pictures of people who were affected by Agent Orange, or even pictures of foetuses in jars. It was a very difficult area to walk through, and I found myself looking away and speeding through faster. We stopped at a gift shop, which included artwork made by kids affected by Agent Orange, and the gift shop workers were all individuals who were affected as well. Itamar said that he wasn’t too keen on going through the rest of the museum (we were about two thirds through and it had been two hours), and I agreed. The museum was just very heavy, so it was difficult to get through the entire thing.
I decided that I’d come back later if I was still thinking about the painting (and I was, so I went back and bought it – I figured I could carry around a painting for three weeks). Afterwards, I went to buy my Christmas ornament. I was going to walk around for a bit, but it suddenly started to rain so I ran into the nearest shopping mall and was pleased to see that they had my favourite cafe, Paul. I decided to treat myself to a chocolat viennois, and spent the entire time FaceTiming Sonia in New Zealand. It was so nice to have a normal conversation with someone who knew me – I had almost forgotten what it felt like, it had been so long! When we finished talking, the rain had stopped so I walked around for a bit.
I then went back to the hostel to get my Vietnamese dong exchanged into US dollars, went back to the art store to get my art, and then went back to the hostel to drop it off. That night, I ate at The Hungry Pig again, and this time I ordered the Little Miss Piggy panini AND a Bloody Mary. While it WASN’T a Caesar, it still hit the spot after not having one in so long! AND I FaceTimed with my friend Crystal and her kids during my dinner, which was nice to see some smiling faces! I think I was really just needing some familiarity at this point, and was noticing the effects of being alone. I went back to the hostel and called it an early night cause I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to go to Cambodia. To be honest, Ho Chi Minh was my least favourite place in Vietnam, and many people I’ve met have felt the same. The other cities had a lot more culture and life to them, so this ended up being just a place to stop over on the way to Cambodia. Love always
The bus was supposed to pick us up at our Hoi An homestay at 11am, and it would take about 7 hours to get to Quy Nhon (or so the sign said). Originally, I had been planning to go straight to Ho Chi Minh City from Hoi An, which would have taken about 16-19 hours, so this way I was able to cut down that number. We drove for less than ten minutes when the driver dropped us off at what must have been the bus depot. He said that our bus would arrive at 11:30. We waited and just after 11:30, someone called out for Quy Nhon. We got into our “luxury van,” which fit about 15 passengers, and luckily had air conditioning. It was one of the bumpiest rides so far – the roads never seem to have any smooth points in Vietnam! We stopped at about 1pm for a lunch and toilet stop. I decided to use the toilet and went to the back, but was extremely surprised to see that not only was there not a regular toilet, but there also wasn’t a squat toilet. It was just the floor with a spray gun. I decided to pass on this opportunity, mostly because I didn’t know how it would work. Nick got something to eat, but I still hadn’t gotten my appetite back (for most of my meals that week, I wasn’t able to finish my entire plate). We arrived in Quy Nhon at about 4pm and by that point, I was starving! Our hostel was about a 20-minute drive away, but when we tried to order a Grab, we found out that they weren’t available. Luckily, someone came up to us and asked if we needed a taxi, so we agreed on 170000 dong ($10.03AUD). Our hostel had two locations and we weren’t positive which one to go to, but luckily we chose the right one. We were staying at Life’s A Beach Backpackers for $9 US ($12.67AUD) per night. The hostel had a really nice bar area with hammocks, and it also had its own private beach. The other cool thing about this hostel was that it had a good combination of local workers and backpacker workers. They had about 5 or 6 backpackers who were working for accommodation and food, and some had only been there 1 or 2 weeks. It was technically a party hostel, but it was also a place where you could go and relax if you wanted to escape all of that. The only really bad thing about this hostel was that it was so far from the city so we were forced to get all food and drink from them. This was fine, but they just kept a running tab so we never knew how much money we owed until the very end. This is where I lost track of my spending completely, and Nick and I both ended up being extremely surprised when they gave us our grand totals at the end of our stay. It’s also weird because now that I’ve hit my budget limit, I feel comfortable with spending more money on everything (even though I’m now cutting into my Australian rent money!). Somehow because I’ve already passed that point, I figure I might as well keep going, so at least I’m nearing the end of my trip! As soon as we got there, I got something to eat because I hadn’t had food since breakfast and it was already 5pm. I ordered another Asian dish, but once again, I couldn’t finish it because my stomach seemed to develop a sensitivity to something. At this point, I was just starting to get annoyed that I couldn’t eat anything. We also decided to extend our stay for another night, from 2 nights to 3 nights because we already knew that we’d enjoy it there. That evening was just spent visiting with other backpackers and playing UNO.
and one of the locals pointed us further down the road but we still couldn’t find out where to turn. We continued asking different locals, but many didn’t know what we were talking about and many continued pointing us further down the road. I was watching the landmark on my maps.me get further and further away (yes, the landmark is on maps.me but the road to get there doesn’t exist on maps.me OR Google Maps). We finally decided to turn around and go back to the hostel to ask for better directions. On the way back, we passed a cute, little fishing village so we decided to take a quick stop to check out the beach.
and worse, and we really started questioning whether we were going in the right direction. I knew that we WERE going towards the waterfall – I just didn’t know if we were taking the worst way to get there. The plus side was that the views were nice, but I think both of us were too hot and getting too annoyed to really care. Nick kept saying that he was done, but we also didn’t want to turn back when we had already come all this way. After about an hour (so much for 20 minutes), we finally got to the point on my Google map where we were just south of the waterfall. But there wasn’t a path going north. I was trying to stay optimistic for the both of us, but it was getting more and more difficult, and I was so thirsty! We finally decided to give up and turn back, much to both of our dismay. All I could think was that if we were a team on The Amazing Race, we would fail miserably… The last step on the detailed list was that there would be a black pipe and if we followed it, it would lead us to the falls. On the walk back, I suddenly noticed a black pipe in the forest. This HAD to be it! I said that we had to follow the black pipe, but Nick seemed dubious that I knew what I was talking about. I was still determined to find these falls because I felt bad that we had wasted most of the day looking for them. He said that he’d go park the motorbike, so I ran through the forest to see if I could find the falls. And lo and behold, they were there! Maybe we’d do alright on The Amazing Race afterall… I breathed out a huge sigh of relief and went back to the front of the path, where Nick was just starting to walk. We headed back to the falls and when we got there, there were only three local kids and three foreigners, all who left about 15 minutes later because the sun FINALLY decided to hide behind the clouds (it couldn’t have done that an hour ago?!). We happily jumped into the pool at the bottom of the falls and welcomed the cold water. The water was full of little minnows that constantly nibbled us – we didn’t even have to pay to get one of those fish foot massages, we ended up getting a full body massage for free! I actually got cold quite fast after the sun went down, so we checked out the other two pools (there were three in total) and then decided to head into town.
It literally felt like we were celebrities – everyone was looking, waving, saying hi, and everyone was so friendly! We found out that the plaza didn’t have any SIM cards but decided to walk around anyway, and checked out the grocery store. After our adventure in the mall, I found a mobile shop about 15 minutes away so we went there and they gave Nick a SIM card (which actually took extremely long compared to my usual experiences). We were both craving pizza so I found a pizza shop less than five minutes away and we ate there. The tables were the typical Vietnamese short tables with tiny stools, which made Nick look like he was eating in a doll house. I decided to try something different and go with a pork floss pizza because I had loved pork floss so much when I was in Taiwan. The pizza was really good too! I’m going to have to find myself some pork floss when I get home! We decided to drive along the beach before heading back to the hostel. There was some kind of festival going on, and there was an open van with people in the back, playing music. Again, while we were driving down the street, everyone got so excited when they’d see us – it was so funny!
Nick and I arrived in Hoi An after the sun had set, and we had to drop off the motorbike at a random tailor shop (naturally…). First of all, let me just say that Hoi An is FULL of tailors. All over the place! Everybody in the city must know (or be related to) someone who’s a tailor, and the amount of times that we were approached and asked if we were interested in doing some shopping was too much. This was only the first of many times when someone would attempt to persuade us to use their services, (plus with a 10% discount!). I had already done my research ahead of time (no surprise), and thanks to a few blogs that I had read, I already had a tailor in mind. We picked up our backpacks and ordered a Grab to take us to our hostel, which was about a 10-minute drive outside of the Old Town, but has been one of the best places I’ve ever stayed in! We were staying at 
colour scheme picked out, but not a style. I told her what I was thinking, and she agreed on what type of style would work best for my body-type. Then she brought out a huge binder of different fabrics and asked what colour I would want. It was so much to think about at once, and since I didn’t have any set-in-stone answers from my sister, it made it even more difficult. It was already night-time at home, so I couldn’t even contact her to ask. The lady said that a dress would be anywhere between 90 and 120 dollars US, which was alright for a custom-made dress, but still seemed a bit high. I explained that I needed to wait to hear back from my sister, so I’d have to think about it until later that day. Luckily, that got me off the hook so she stopped pushing everything on me. Nick came back to the front and I could tell that he was just as overwhelmed as I was. When we said we still wanted to look at other shops, that just made them try harder. They showed us how they were the 3rd best shop on Trip Advisor, but it made me wonder why they were still trying to pick people up off of the street. They DID seem to know what they were talking about though! I suggested that we go for lunch to get some food before going through all of the measurements and everything. They said okay, and let us go. I think both of us took the biggest breath of fresh air when we stepped outside – it was definitely a situation where I felt like I was being suffocated. We walked back over to Ha Na Tailor, which was the exact opposite of what we had experienced – no other customers, just the lady and her two helpers, and she never once tried to push anything on us. She was extremely patient, and gave us different ideas for what we wanted. Nick was getting a suit made, so they measured him first. I kid you not, they took a full page of measurements – it was insane! Then it was my turn… Because I was just getting a dress, I didn’t need as many measurements so I finished a lot quicker. Not only that, but they keep our measurements so if I ever decide I want another dress made, I can just write her, she’ll make it, and then ship it over! I’ll need to make sure I don’t drastically gain weight by eating all of the travel food though (however it might already be too late for that!). We chose colours and fabrics for the outfits, and I told her the style I wanted. This was the picture that I gave her.
Then we entered the crazy busy streets of the Old Town, which were packed with tourists. All we wanted to do was sit at a cafe and people-watch, but all of the cafes were so expensive in the Old Town. We walked a bit further out of the Old Town and found a coffee shop to enjoy some refreshing iced coffee and iced tea. Then, we went to one of the beaches to do some more people-watching until the sun started to go down. On the way back to the hostel, when we were about the exact same distance as when the motorbike broke down the last time, the motorbike broke down again! We waited for about ten minutes, and then as soon as I wrote Phu to say that we were stuck again, I asked if he had turned on the lights and as soon as he did, the bike started working again! We decided that we’d ask for a different bike for the rest of our stay. We went back to the hostel 
to relax and visit for a few hours and then decided to check out the night market. However, once we got there (just after 9pm), a lot of the stalls were already starting to shut down. We decided to eat at a nearby restaurant, but found it difficult to find anything that would serve us because again, nearly everything would close at 10pm. Finally, we found a place that would serve us (although the waitress didn’t look too happy about it, especially when more and more people kept coming in). I decided to go for some pasta, as my stomach was craving Western food and I’m not sure it would have been able to handle anything else. The pasta was definitely my typical university meal – penne noodles with tomato sauce from a jar, but I still welcomed it. Right at 10:30, the waitress started putting bills on everyone’s tables, so we paid and kept talking to the table next to us. However, then the waitress came and said that she needed to stack all of the chairs, so we were forced to leave. We decided to head back to the hostel and visit with everyone before going to bed. Eileen has a Dutch friend who owns a vegetarian restaurant in Hoi An called Nourish, and he agreed to let her come in and work as a waitress the next day because she’s never worked in a restaurant before and wanted to see what it would be like. We all agreed that we’d go there for lunch the next day.
our stay. We were meant to check-out that day but liked it so much, we decided to stay for another two nights. We decided to have a relaxing morning at the hostel: have breakfast, hang out by the pool, and visit with everyone else. We all agreed to head over to Nourish at 1:30, so Nick and I got there first since everyone else was cycling. We went ahead and ordered, just because we had to leave for the tailor in about an hour. The rest of the crew joined shortly after we ordered, and we all enjoyed some really great vegetarian food! I ordered a mixed bowl of assorted foods, and it was so tasty!
(and kept waking up at 5am because of the rooster next door), plus for some reason, my mattress was covered in plastic, which made it very difficult to be quiet when rolling over, but also made it extremely hot at night – I felt like I was sticking to the bed! And that night was the worst of it… It was 1am, and then 2am, and then I left the room to sit outside and talk with my family, and then it was 3, and 4, and then I think I FINALLY just started dozing off, when an alarm went off just after 5 because everyone wanted to go watch the sunrise. So my short slumber was over 🙁 Everyone else left and I stayed in bed, but still couldn’t manage to fall asleep. On Thursday, we headed to the tailor again so that Nick could try on his second suit. I spent the next 30-45 minutes chatting with my sister and her fiance to see if they’d want any ties made, and kept having to send pictures of different colours. They shipped Nick’s suits back to the Netherlands, but I told them to wait to ship mine just in case my sister decided to order something the next day. We went back to the hostel to have breakfast and then hang out by the pool again. Eileen had already left, and Sara and Taylor were packing up to go. We decided to all go for one last lunch to Annen Yoga & Vegetarian at 1:30. I decided to get the eggplant in a clay pot with rice because it was Sara’s recommendation. After lunch, we all said our goodbyes and then headed back to the hostel. Nick and I had to decide where we’d be going the next day, so I asked Phu where a nice place would be that’s not too busy, and she suggested Quy Nhon. We looked up pictures on Google and were instantly sold – it looked gorgeous! We spent the afternoon picking out our accommodation and booking bus tickets, and did some more relaxing by the pool. That evening, we had plans to meet up with Simon and Tamara because they had arrived in Hoi An. They’re both vegetarian, so they had plans to go to a certain vegetarian restaurant (which would have been our third vegetarian restaurant in two days). First, we stopped at their hostel for a drink and then a couple of other people joined us. Then, we went searching for the restaurant but after about 15 minutes of walking, we realised it was closed. They searched another vegetarian restaurant, which also ended up being closed. Then Nick led us to a restaurant, which asked if we had a reservation. A reservation? In Vietnam? The man said that it was an all-you-can-eat menu for 400000 dong ($24.27) per person! Absolutely not! I saw that there was a burger place across the street (Chef Burger) and suggested we go there, since they’d HAVE to have a vegetarian option. They did (thank goodness!) so we finally got to eat at about 8:30pm. It was so weird being able to have burgers while listening to country music playing in the background, as I’m sure it’s the first time I’ve heard country music since I started my trip. It definitely gave me that familiar feeling of home though! By the time we finished eating, I had absolutely no energy left. I felt so bad because Simon and Tamara were really keen on going out, but I just didn’t have it in me. I was fully prepared to take a Grab home, but Nick said that he’d take me home, so we said our goodbyes and went back to the hostel.
heard that the best way to get to Hoi An was to rent a motorbike and go over the Hai Van Pass. It would be possible to hire a driver and ride on the back of his bike, but it would cost 900000 dong ($54.45), which was a bit out of my price range. My other option would be to go with Nick, which would cost 225000 dong ($13.28) each, if he was comfortable with it (because he had just gotten in a motorbike accident the week before). Otherwise, I’d just have to take the bus. Therefore, I had the afternoon and evening to decide what I’d want to do. Nick and I decided to go for lunch first, since it was after 2pm and we were both starving. We went to a nearby restaurant called Madam Thu, where I ordered a bun cha, and Nick (being the nice guy that he is) paid for everything. We then decided to walk to Imperial City, which was about 40 minutes away. We paid 150000 dong ($8.85) to enter, and then spent a couple hours exploring the grounds. It was just a bunch of ruins and buildings, and had the potential to be really nice if they added flowers to the landscape. But honestly, it was pretty drab and didn’t interest me much.
up. Simon thought I was just looking at nature! I chugged about half of my 1.5-litre bottle of water, and Tamara said that I looked flushed. However, I felt better so I thought I’d be okay to walk around for a bit. I was wrong though because after about five minutes, I started throwing up again. Everyone decided that we’d have to find a pharmacy as soon as possible, but that’s the difficult thing in Vietnam – pharmacies aren’t so easy to find when you’re relying on the internet. We drove along the lagoon, which was nice but I was too sick to worry about trying to take pictures. Then we stopped about 15 minutes later and I threw up again. This time it was the entire bottle of water that I had drank, so I hoped that was the last of it. Tamara suddenly remembered that she had Gravol, so she gave me some and I was determined to keep it down because I wasn’t sure if we’d see a pharmacy anytime soon. When we looked for a pharmacy on Google, it led us to a place that looked like a natural remedy store. I used Google Translate to ask for “something for a sore stomach and vomiting” and the man took a bottle of liquid and showed me that I had to dab some of it on my tongue and some of it on my chest. It was like VapoRub and I seriously doubted that it would do anything, plus it would cost 120000 dong. I said no, and we continued on our way. However, about five minutes later, we noticed a little green cross, and Nick circled back so I could check it out. I showed the owner the same translation, and she took out four very bright pills and told me to take all of them. I have no idea what they were, but I did as she said. She gave me an extra one of each, and charged 20000 dong ($1.21) for all of them. We continued driving for about a half an hour to Elephant Springs. We had to pay to enter the park, and we first stopped at a temple with a whole bunch of Buddha statues.
Phong Nha is famous for all of its caves but in order to get to them with a tour, I’d have to pay a MINIMUM of 1000000 dong ($60.76). I needed to decide if I would do a tour by that night so that it could be booked for the following day. That day, I decided that I’d just explore the surrounding area since the hostel was outside of the city and there was a lot of countryside to see. The hostel had free bikes to use so I biked about 15 minutes away to Bomb Crater Bar, which is exactly what it describes – a bar made in a bomb crater. I ordered some instant pho, which was interesting with little balls of instant meat that I decided to skip. However, as soon as I ordered, I realised that I had left my phone charger 
plugged in outside of the hostel and started freaking out that someone would take it, so I ate my food as fast as I could, biked back, and luckily it was still there. I then asked the hostel owner if it would be better for me to bike to the Botanical Garden or through the Bong Lai Valley, and he said the valley would be a lot easier because the botanical garden was really hilly to get to. The trip to the end of the valley was about 10km so it would take just over an hour to get to. It was also a ‘feels-like’ 42 degree day, so I was seriously questioning why I was crazy enough to go biking for over two hours in the sweltering heat. However, the slight breeze of the bike made the weather a lot more bearable, so it wasn’t that bad! I biked along the main road, past Bomb Crater Bar, hit a highway, crossed the highway, and then started on the gravel road through the valley. At one point, there was a man who waved at me so I waved back, but then he started yelling so I stopped. I had just gotten on a really bumpy section, so I thought that maybe he was going to give me some advice. However, he pointed to my bike and then pointed to the road, and it
looked like he was suggesting to push me up the hill. Nice! Okay, yeah sure… I got ready to start peddling again but my bike wasn’t moving. The man had jumped on the back of my bike and was trying to get me to bike him down the road! No, absolutely not. Especially when I was hardly even confident riding the bike down the road on my own. He kept insisting and saying motorbike, and I kept resisting until he finally got off. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to say that he’d give me a ride on his motorbike, but that’s when the language barrier gets the best of you. I continued on my way and eventually got to a place called The Duck Stop. It was a duck farm that was run by a local family, and as soon as I got there (completely sweaty and gross), there were two younger kids (a teenager and an 8-year-old) there to greet me. They sat me down and offered me some peanuts with salt and pepper, and then asked if I’d be interested in doing a duck tour. I had the choice of spending time with the
ducks and having a pancake and drink for 100000 dong ($5.90), or do everything AND ride a buffalo for 150000 dong. I decided to do the first option, and joined a group of about 8 people to visit the ducks. We were first shown how to be duck leaders, by quacking around the area with the food dish so that the ducks would follow you (and basically feeling like you were making a fool of yourself!). Then, we were told to sit down and hold our feet in a cup position so that the leader could pour some food in the “cup” and then the ducks would eat all of the food and give you a “foot massage” at the same time. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience, and it tickled so much! We were given a duck to hold and were told to make a wish and throw it into the air so it flew into the pond. That one I felt bad about doing, but I guess they fly and like water, and they didn’t seem to mind. We only
spent about 10-15 minutes with the ducks and then went back to the main area, where we were served traditional pancakes (which might have actually been duck…).
the end of the valley and once I got there, I sat at a cute cafe on the riverside and enjoyed an iced Vietnamese coffee. The river was quite low at that time of the year, so even though the views were already nice, I’m sure they’d be even nicer during wet season!
on the other side of the valley. It was like day and night – as soon as I crossed that bridge, every single person would yell out hello. The people were so friendly, and all of the kids were so excited to see a foreigner – they’d always point and yell out hello, even the kids under the age of 2.
However, after my shower, everyone started to arrive. I went outside and met a girl named Shantaliah who was from New Zealand. She was thinking of renting a motorbike to go to the caves the following day, but she didn’t feel comfortable going by herself. I suggested that I could go with her if she wanted, and it would halve the price of the motorbike. She had never ridden a motorbike with someone else on it, but she said that she would give it a try, and we decided to go to the caves the next morning. We chatted for quite awhile – I ordered dinner from the hostel and we continued talking until after dark.
beside me and introduced himself as Nick from the Netherlands. Shantaliah came and joined us, and we realised that it might rain that day so we figured we should get started as soon as we could. Nick said that he would join, and then when we got to our room, we ran into a guy named Tom from Germany who said that he would also join us. There were a bunch of caves to choose from, but we decided to start with the Phong Nha Cave because the Paradise and Dark Caves were the most popular and also the most expensive. 
We got our stuff ready and rented our motorbikes (Shantaliah and I paid 100000 dong/$5.90 each), and made our way to the cave. It wasn’t too far away and we had to pay 190000 dong ($11.21) for the three-hour tour. Once I realised it would be three hours, I decided to buy some snacks because I didn’t think I would last until 2pm. We needed 10 people for one boat, so we had to join other people who were waiting for a group of ten. The nice thing about this tour was that most of it was on a boat. We started by going about 20 minutes down the river past a bunch of villages, then the ladies turned off the motor and paddled through the cave.
sandwiches, and then the four of us decided to go to the botanical garden (which was really a forest hike with an alright waterfall). However, as soon as we got there, it started misting down with rain. We paid 40000 dong ($2.36) and only had about an hour and a half until the park closed. As we walked, 
the rain started getting heavier and heavier, and the rocks started getting slipperier and slipperier. We finally made it to the waterfall, where some people were swimming, but we decided to keep going.
being extremely hot or extremely wet. On the walk back, we had to step over some rocks across a stream, and that’s when I finally slipped. Luckily I didn’t actually land in the water, but on a rock so I was able to stay relatively dry. We made it out of the park right at the closing time (4:30) and then decided to make our way back to the hostel. However, the rain was a lot worse when going at a faster speed on the motorbike so it was impossible to stay dry. Tom’s motorbike suddenly stopped working, so we all had to stop and figure out what to do. He needed to catch a bus in about an hour, so he was really pressed for time. He could only drive at the slowest speed, so we all followed him for about 10-15 minutes. Then all of a sudden, his bike started working again (thank goodness!) so we drove the rest of the 30 minutes at a faster speed. We decided to join in on the family dinner that night, which has a bunch of food cooked by the homestay, so we each paid 70000 dong ($4.13) for that. It didn’t start until 6:30, which gave us all time to shower and then chat until dinner started. There were about 12 people at the family dinner, and it was so nice! They had so many different types of food, and it was a good way for everyone at the homestay to get to know each other.
nice to have the sound of the rain in the background! Nick said that he would join me on the bus trip to Hue the next day, so we decided to wake up at 6am because we’d be picked up between 6:30 and 7:10. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Shantaliah that night because she would be heading north (one of the difficult things about travelling in Vietnam is many people are going in opposite directions). After our goodbyes,
we just had a relaxing evening before going to bed. Love always
Tam Coc was one of my favourite places that I’ve ever been, and likely my favourite place in Vietnam thus far. It had everything that one would look for in Vietnam – the bright green rice fields of Sapa, and the tall surrounding cliffs and mountains of Ha Long Bay – it was a combination of the two, and I absolutely loved it! To be honest, I didn’t actually step foot in the actual city of Ninh Binh because I heard to stay in Tam Coc instead. I ordered a ticket to Tam Coc through my hotel in Cat Ba since I was too tired to walk to one of the travel companies to 
order a nice bus. However, every time I book transport through a hostel or hotel, it doesn’t seem to be the best option (yet I continue to keep doing it!). I paid 260000 dong ($15.34AUD) for the bus to pick me up at 9:30 on Tuesday morning. I got into an extended golfcart-like vehicle and we drove around Cat Ba to pick up about 10 people to go to the bus. We then got on the bus and
it completely filled up. Even though it was cold and rainy in Cat Ba, the trip to Ninh Binh got more and more hot because there was hardly any air conditioning and any time I opened my vent, the guy beside me would close it. The seats also weren’t built for a normal-sized person, so everyone ended up leaning their seats backwards, and you would either have your knees digging into the seat in front of you, or have to try to find some space in
the aisle. We stopped at around 12:30 for a bathroom and food break, and then I ended up arriving in Tam Coc just after 3pm. I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be as hot as it was in Tam Coc, because some of the people who I had met in Cat Ba had come from there and said that the weather was the exact same as in Cat Ba. It was a pleasant surprise, especially since it had been so cold for the past week. I decided to stay at Tam Coc Rice Fields Homestay for 115000 dong ($6.79) in an 8-bed dorm. This place was so nice because it was only a five-minute walk from the main part of town (through a dark alley), but then it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, with a beautiful view of the rice fields off of the patio.
ordered some chicken pho and a smoothie for 60000 dong ($3.54), but it took so long (which we discovered is normal for most restaurants in Tam Coc). After eating, we decided to walk over an hour to the nearest pagoda, called Bich Dong. The walk was so beautiful, and we both couldn’t believe the views!
The pagoda wasn’t anything special, but we still spent some time exploring it and then made our way back into town. We went back to the hostel to do some research and make some plans about what we’d do the next day, and then decided to go for dinner. We were both exhausted and were only planning to go for dinner and go to bed, but that didn’t end up happening. We stopped at a restaurant right by our hostel because it looked popular (and we continued going there everyday at least once per day – I don’t even know what it was called!). When we got there, there weren’t any free tables available but they directed us to a table with a French lady, who ended up leaving shortly after. Julia and I both ordered burgers (which we were so excited about!) and a coke for 80000 dong ($4.72). After we had ordered, two guys sat at the table next to ours and we got talking. Their names were Mike and Charlie, were from the United States, and were just doing a few weeks away from home. We told the guys what our plans were for the next day because we were starting with a boat ride in Trang An, which needed a minimum of four people. We all agreed to meet back at the restaurant the next morning at 8:15am so that we could order a Grab and get to the boat rides before 9am (which is when it tended to start getting busy).
On Wednesday morning, Julia and I got up and had breakfast at our hostel (I just got a crepe with a coffee), and then we headed to
the restaurant, where Mike and Charlie were already waiting for us. We ordered a Grab, which was only supposed to be 160000 dong total. However, we honestly thought it might have been one of the first times that the driver drove a manual vehicle because the amount of times that he stalled or we jerked back and forth was insane. Not only that, but when he found out that the guys were American, he
asked if we knew a song, which was ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time.’ He ended up having multiple Britney Spears songs available, so we were all trapped listening to the driver singing along while slowly making his way to Trang An. I was confused when he took a wrong turn down a backroad and we drove the whole way down, only to find out that there was a whole bunch of construction and a tractor
was blocking the way. We waited for about ten minutes, while the driver honked his horn and the tractor didn’t change position. We suggested that maybe we should go back and take the highway, so he finally turned around and went the way that we were supposed to go. Then when we got there, he charged us more (200000 dong) because he had to drive all the way around (which wasn’t our faults), so we just paid it and
left. We got our tickets to the Ecotourism Trang An Boat Ride for 200000 dong ($11.80) each, and decided to take Route 1. We heard mixed reviews about whether to take the Trang An or Tam Coc boat ride, but I heard that the Tam Coc boat ride is a lot more touristy and they constantly ask everyone to tip the driver. On our boat ride, they didn’t ask for tips because there’s a survey that
we have to fill out at the end (which questions whether we were asked for a tip). However, as soon as we filled out the survey, the driver said, “Tip, tip!” He definitely deserved one though, so we were happy to give him one. Anyway, our tour ended up being about three hours long and included boating through 9 caves and stopping at two temples. We were given about 20 minutes at each temple, and the rest of the time was spent on the boat.
We finished our boat ride at about noon and decided to head back into Tam Coc to get lunch. After lunch, the plan was to rent some bicycles in order to bike to one of the lookout points about five kilometres away. However, considering the last time I was on a bike was in 2012 in China, I was trying so hard to get out of it. I suggested going for iced coffee and everyone agreed, but only after we rented the bikes for 50000 dong ($2.95). Julia was
more nervous than I was because not only had she not been on a bike in 7 years, but she was also in a motorcycle accident before, so she was really hesitant about getting on a bike. However, despite both of us hesitating, we ended up going through with it cause we didn’t want to let down the rest of the group. And I’m so glad we did! We got to see so much more on a bike, and the scenery was beautiful to bike through.
sleep (thanks to the roosters and the plastic wrap on the mattress, which seems to be a common occurrence in Asia). Julia and I had breakfast at the hostel and then decided to rent bikes for the day again (since we were pretty much experts at that point!). I had to pack up all of my stuff since I’d be catching a night bus that evening. We biked around for a bit before deciding to stop for lunch and then Charlie and Mike met up with us to have some beer while we ate our lunch. For the rest of the day, we didn’t do a whole lot – just biked around, enjoyed the views, and chatted with random people who we ran into. We followed as many trails as we could find on maps.me, which was so useful! Julia and I biked to an area that we had seen from the viewpoint, where we could watch everyone on their boat tour.
hour tours! We then went for an iced coffee before getting on our bikes again and finding the Beverly Hills of Tam Coc. The houses were so nice, and they even had cars parked out front (Tam Coc mostly only had bicycles or motorbikes). Everyone was so friendly too – if anyone was outside while we biked by, they’d always yell out hello.
We headed back to our regular restaurant to catch happy hour, and then Charlie and Mike wrote and asked where we were. They met up to join us for a drink and then we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. However, I think we waited too long to go because I had to be back at the hostel by 8pm to catch my 9pm bus. I wasn’t too sure why I had to be there so early, but I didn’t want to risk anything so I ended up
asking to get my meal packed up so that I could bike back to the hostel in time. These goodbyes were so difficult – this was one of the first places in all of my travels where I forgot that I was actually travelling. I just felt so comfortable, and absolutely loved my time there and the people who I was able to spend it with. I got back to the hostel and the lady gave me a towel and asked if I wanted to shower. Guess I didn’t have
to be in a rush.. I said I was fine, and tried to eat my food as fast as I could but after I was about halfway done, the hostel owner got off of the phone and said that we’d have to leave in five minutes. I put on my big backpack while holding my day pack in one hand and a plastic bag in the other, and jumped on the back of the pregnant lady’s scooter. I was definitely a pro at this point! She drove me five minutes
down the road to the bus terminal (basically a random parking lot) and then after about ten minutes, my bus to Phong Nha arrived, which will be for another post. Love always
The trip to Cat Ba was pretty simple since it had hotel-to-hotel pick up and drop off. I booked my ticket through Bookaway for $12USD ($16.90AUD) and I was supposed to be ready by 9:45 in order to leave by 10:30am. However, it was kind of pointless being there 45 minutes early because the bus didn’t show up until just after 10:30am. We spent the next hour driving around Hanoi to pick up the rest of the people until the
bus was nearly full. At about 1pm, we arrived at the ferry terminal and had to wait for the ferry to arrive. We had to take all of our stuff off of the bus, sit for about 5-10 minutes, and were given tickets to get on the ferry. The ferry ride only took ten minutes, and went from the outskirts of Haiphong to the northern part of Cat Ba Island. Then we had to grab our stuff again, get on ANOTHER bus, and drive to Cat Ba Town, which took about 20 minutes. It was raining by the time we arrived and it continued to rain for the majority of my time in Cat Ba.
lunch since it was already around 3pm. I went to a place called Yummy and ordered a Tom Yum soup and a coffee for 50000 dong/$2.95 (the restaurant had so many Thai dishes and they were WAY cheaper than any of the dishes that you’d actually get in Thailand). I then decided to do some walking around (even though it was raining and foggy) for the last two hours of daylight.
I walked to one of the public beaches and along the coast to one of the other beaches, but the beaches were both construction zones, as there were huge resorts being built right on the beach (actually, most of Cat Ba Town was a construction zone). When it started getting dark, I headed back to my hotel to dry off before meeting up with Mathijs (the Dutch guy who came with me from Hanoi) for dinner at a place called Quan Cat Ba. Cat Ba is supposed to have really good seafood so we each got prawns and squid with lemon dishes for 135000 dong ($7.97) – it was just alright, I think it was a tad over-cooked, but I’m very picky about my seafood! After dinner, we walked around for a bit and then called it an early night because we were taking a tour the next morning.
There was a bit of fog, but it added a kind of mysticism to the surroundings so it looked really cool. We had an hour to take pictures and get used to being on the boat, and then Thang shared some stories about the fisherman villages that we were passing. These people spend their whole lives on the water, from birth until death, and they have their own fish farms to sustain themselves. Most houses also have dogs that live with them in order to scare off all of the hawks that try to take the fish. The parents boat their kids to the mainland each morning to go to school, and then pick them up at the end of the day.
(and continued for the rest of the day) and then we arrived to a certain area of Lan Ha Bay. We all got off of the boat and were given an hour and a half to kayak around the bay and go through caves. It was absolutely beautiful! The only problem was that I just wanted to go slow and enjoy my surroundings, but Mathijs (and some of the other guys) kept wanting to race, so we kept speeding through everything.
After kayaking, we were soaking wet and had the option of changing into normal clothes or eating lunch in our swimsuits and going swimming after. I decided to switch into normal clothes before lunch, and the lunch was the best one I’ve ever had on a tour!
there weren’t as aggressive as the ones that I had seen in Thailand, but there were a few (stupid) people who kept trying to feed the monkeys and obviously continued getting attacked. The walk up to the viewpoint wasn’t the most enjoyable walk – let’s just say that I thought I was going to die at any moment. Especially in the rain, the smooth rocks were so slippery, and if you took a wrong step, you could fall onto the razor-sharp rocks below.
I think we were only doing the hike because we didn’t do Ha Long Bay and the company didn’t want to get bad reviews. I didn’t go up to the top viewpoint, only the second one, and then I made my way back down because I wanted to go slow and steady. I got back to the beach where I got to watch 
some of the monkeys play, and then we went back on the boat to head back to Cat Ba Town. We arrived back at around 4:30 and Mathijs, Julia, and I made plans to meet up again at 7pm for dinner. However, I was still cold even after showering and once I lied on my bed, I didn’t want to get back out, so we all decided to just stay in our rooms and relax. I knew I needed to eat at some point so I walked to Yummy and sat down to have dinner. Right after I ordered, two Dutch girls asked if I wanted to join them so I said yes. They were really nice and had come from the south of Vietnam (so were travelling in the
opposite direction) so they gave me some tips about my next destination. I was originally planning to stay in Cat Ba for three nights, but after looking at the weather and realising it would be cold and rainy the next day as well, I decided to start heading further south in order to get to some warmer weather. I headed back to the hotel to hang up all of my damp clothing (which never dried) and called it an early night. Love always
The trip to Hanoi has definitely been my most comfortable trip so far! I booked a ticket online through bookaway.com (which a couple had told me about in Sa Pa, and it’s great for booking bus and train trips in Asia!) and paid $13USD ($17.79AUD) to get a seat on Green Sapa Bus. My bus was leaving from Sa Pa Town at 8am and I was supposed to be there 30 minutes early, so I made an arrangement to take a motorbike taxi with my homestay at 6:45am for 100000 dong ($5.90). One of the brothers took me along the horrible road to Sa Pa after stopping at a little shop on the side of the road, grabbing a big Aquafina water bottle with a greenish liquid, and pouring it in the tank under the seat. He dropped me off at the Green Bus station, I checked in and got my seat number, and then ordered a coffee. While I was drinking my coffee, some of the local workers were sitting at the table next to me and started playing a card game spelling different words in English.
English speaker played an English game, but I pulled up a chair anyhow and helped everyone out at the table. It was nice how friendly everyone was, and how easy it was to integrate myself in with them. Someone came in and said that we were going to leave, so we put the game away and I got my stuff to get on the bus. We were required to take off our shoes and put them in a plastic bag, as well as leave any food that we had at the front of the bus. This bus was the nicest bus I’ve ever seen!
$7.34USD ($10.78AUD) per night. It was a really nice hostel, with a bar on the bottom floor, a cafe and pool table/games room on the second level, a TV room on the 6th level, and a rooftop patio on top. Plus they gave free breakfast, which not only included your typical toast and cereal, but also some chicken pho (which not many people other than me seemed to take). I’ve realised that I thought I wasn’t a breakfast person my entire life, but maybe I’m just not a WESTERN breakfast person. I’ve never been a huge fan of breakfast food – hate cereal, not a huge fan of toast, eggs are alright… But give me a big bowl of noodles or soup, and I’m happy! Hanoi is an extremely busy city, however it’s not just a typical busy city, but a city full of LIFE.
of the costs of the guide, but seeing as I was the only person there, the prices added up quite quickly so I may have actually been better off paying for a tour. The tour guide ended up coming a half hour late because the original tour guide had some motorbike issues and was unable to come, so Alex replaced him. All of the guides are university students, so they’re giving up their study time to give the tours. The first place we went to was St. Joseph’s Cathedral, so I just took a picture from the outside.
We then walked to the Hoa Lo Prison Memorial, which was a pretty emotional place. The entrance fee was 30000 dong ($1.82) for me and then 15000 dong for Alex. The prison had been used by the French colonists on Vietnamese political prisoners in the early 1900s. The way that the prisoners were treated was extremely sad, and when I saw the guillotine, there were chills that ran through my entire body.
All of the materials used to make the prison were transported from Europe in the late 1800s. The prison was later used during the Vietnam war for the US prisoners of war, but it was kind of interesting how they portrayed this part of the museum because they had pictures of the prisoners enjoying themselves, such as playing basketball or chess. I’m not sure if that part was sugarcoated, or if the prisoners were actually treated well. After going to the prison, we walked to the train tracks, where many people stop to take pictures.
45000 dong ($2.66). It was around lunch time, so we were hoping it would be quiet, but unfortunately there seemed to be an entire school there on a field trip, and none of the kids seemed interested in the citadel so they were running around and playing games. We tried to keep our distance as much as we could, explored the citadel (which at this season, the entrance was beautifully covered in sunflowers), and then took a Grab back towards the hostel, which cost 35000 dong ($2.07).
Anyway, I paid for lunch for me and the tour guide, which cost 140000 dong ($8.26) and then at the end, I wasn’t sure if I should tip as well, but I gave 100000 ($5.90), so the entire tour ended up costing quite a bit. I went back to the hostel to relax for a bit and then decided to go for coffee. I went to Đinh Cafe, which is owned by the daughter of a man who invented egg coffee. The cafe is almost hidden away, so I actually walked past it the first time i was trying to find it. However, I walked in, up some stairs, and found an open table
(which in Vietnam, are like kids’ tables – the chairs are tiny so you feel like a giant!). This location was a lot less crowded than the original (which I checked out the next day), and it was actually cheaper (and better in my opinion). I ordered an egg coffee for 20000 dong ($1.18) and it was so good – it tasted like an egg nog latte, with foamy, sweet egg mixture floating on top and an extremely strong coffee in the bottom.
wrapped around minced pork. I ordered a set with a Pepsi for 60000 dong ($3.54), but the service was pretty bad at this place and the food didn’t have much flavour (even though it’s rated quite high). I walked down the night market for a bit and then headed back to the hostel.
These rolls were a lot better, and the friendly service was a nice plus. I paid 60000 dong ($3.54) and then made my way back to the hostel. There, I met Mathijs, a Dutch guy who had JUST arrived from Europe and only had two weeks to spend in Asia. He was planning to go to Sa Pa the next day, but when I said I was planning to go to Cat Ba, he booked a ticket there as well. So I had a travel
partner for the next destination! Which I’ll save for another post (and hopefully I’ll write it faster than I wrote this one!). Love always
I finally arrived in Sa Pa at 2:30pm on Monday afternoon. It was waaaaay more touristy than I thought it would be, and a lot colder – I had to find my rain jacket deep down in the bottom of my suitcase! It definitely reminded me of another mountain city like Banff. I went to the tourist information centre to ask what I could do, and they tried to sell me a 2-day/1 night trekking tour for $40 USD. I’ve learned that no matter where I go, people will try to sell me stuff. And usually for a way more expensive price than I could get on my own. It actually shocks me how many people give into paying without researching how to do it on their own first.
can’t walk around without a guide, but I did for two full days and it was completely fine. My next step was to find out where I could get a SIM card. The tourist centre pointed out a street, where I found a VinaPhone shop and got a 5GB/30-day plan for 150000 dong ($8.85AUD). Even though I
was staying in a homestay outside of Sa Pa, I decided to find a coffee shop and relax for a bit since I still hadn’t had a coffee and was feeling a bit groggy after my 8-hour bus ride. The Vietnamese coffee that I got was one of the best coffees that I’ve had in awhile, but cost a bit more at 40000 dong ($2.36). I then requested a Grab to take me to my homestay. I read that they’ll normally charge 200000 dong
($11.80) and it would take at least a half hour because the roads were so bad, so when my driver messaged me saying 200k, I replied okay. The reviews weren’t lying when they said that the roads were horrible – there were potholes everywhere, and I felt bad that the driver was putting his nice, shiny car through such a tragic experience. I was staying in a village called Ta Van in the Muong Hua valley, at Chopai Homestay. And I got it for a steal, at $4.66 per night, in what was supposed to be a 10-bed dorm but it turned out that I was the only person there, so they put me in my own twin room. The homestay was run by two brothers, both married and with their first kids (each less than a year old), and they had a huge fluffy dog named Sam. I was kind of sad that I was the only person there because it made it more difficult to interact with people, plus it felt more like I was imposing on their home, especially when they were having family dinners. However, everyone was very friendly and welcoming, and it was definitely a different experience. Within five minutes of me being there, I was sitting and waiting to check in, and I turned and there was a lady standing there. “Hello.. shopping?” she asked and pointed to the numerous purses she was carrying. I quickly learned that every lady who’s wearing the same traditional outfit will start every conversation with either, “Hello… shopping?” Or “Hello… where you from?” And then “What’s your name?” And when I continue to refuse to buy things, they’d persist, “Something little?” “Maybe later?” I definitely started losing my patience towards the end of my time there because it happened non-stop. I decided to walk around for a bit before the sun set and by that point, it was a bit hazy. Little did I know that this moment would be one of the clearest moments during my entire time there. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I kept finding myself saying, “Wow!” out loud.
Bún chả (a vermicelli noodle bowl) with a cinnamon tea just to try to warm up.
want to stand under the cold shower to wait for it to happen. I decided that this would be my only shower during my stay. The homestay provided free breakfast (but not free coffee) so I opted for banana pancakes, which were bananas wrapped in crepes with a side of honey. They were so good! I also got my first Vietnamese drip coffee, which is given with condensed milk but not so much that it’s overpowering – however the caffeine was definitely overpowering (in a good way!).
experience everything around me and hear every sound while doing everything at my own pace. So this was likely making me feel more uncomfortable than it would the average person. After about 15 minutes, I turned and said, “It’s okay, I’ll go by myself.” “No, it’s okay. I follow you to waterfall.” “No, I’ll just go alone, it’s okay.” “I go that way too, I follow you to waterfall.” Finally, I just said, “Okay, but I don’t have any money to give you.” “When we get to waterfall, you give me something little. Buy something.” “Sorry, I don’t have anything to give you.” That seemed to get the point across because the lady turned around and went back. However, I still had to do that a few more times during my walk because ladies kept trying to join me. I got to the waterfall, which wasn’t much of a waterfall compared to the beautiful Kuang Si in Laos, and then crossed a bridge and walked back towards the homestay.
dogs, cats, cows, pigs, chickens, and horses. By that point, the fog already started to set in, so I had lunch at Dzay Restaurant (pumpkin soup and spring rolls for 110000 dong/$6.49) and relaxed for the afternoon.
booth, I’d have to pay 75000 dong to get back into the villages. I finally found an open restaurant at 2pm and by that point, I was starving. The restaurant (Good Morning View) had a set menu advertised at the front, so I decided to get that for 130000 ($7.67). My first course was pumpkin soup, which was much better than the one that I had the day before. My next course was the biggest plate of food – with a curry portion, a morning glory portion, and a rice portion. I didn’t even end up eating it all because I still had to eat dessert! The dessert was a banana pancake with honey, which seems to be a staple here.
I didn’t want to walk back the way I came – I wanted to cross the river and walk back on the other side of the river. I walked further into Sa Pa and started heading down a huge hill to go towards the 
river. However, the path that I was supposed to take had a huge crowd in front of it and they were charging 75000 dong to go through because it led to Cat Cat village. Sometimes my stubbornness gets the best of me… I continued walking further down because I refused to pay. I eventually got to another street and turned down it. All of a sudden, I heard, “Miss! Miss!!” I turned around and a man was there, and asked for my ticket. He said if I was going to Cat Cat village, I needed to pay. I tried to explain that I was going to Ta Van, and he replied that I’d have to go back up the steep hill for about one kilometre, and turn right (which was the way I came). By that point, it was about 4pm and I realised that I likely wouldn’t get back to the homestay before dark if I walked back, so I decided to order a Grab to drive me back. However, when I requested one, it said that none of the drivers were available. Guess I had no choice but to walk back up… I had only been walking for less than
two minutes when a taxi driver coming down the hill opened his window and asked, “Taxi?” I asked for Ta Van, he said 200k, and I got in. I had done 12km and climbed 112 floors that day, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about getting a ride back. However, when we got to the ticket booth leaving Sa Pa, the guard came up and asked for my ticket. There was no way I was going to pay 75000 dong on top of the 200k! I explained that I was going to my
homestay and luckily, he let me through. It’s weird because I didn’t experience that at all when I first came to my homestay so I wasn’t expecting it to happen. I relaxed for the rest of the day, and then had one more dinner at the restaurant across the street. I honestly don’t know why I kept going to this restaurant because the food was sub-par (however the service was so friendly, so maybe that’s why). I ordered pho and a hot chocolate, but this pho was half onions, which is very difficult to distinguish from noodles.
and I’d love to see it in the summer months when the rice fields are greener and there is less fog. However, it was still a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the cities! Love always
Prairie Girl Abroad 