Today was a bittersweet day, we got up early to catch a flight our first flight home. We all headed to the airport and then headed our separate ways. We are flying to Singapore for a day layover to check out the world famous airport. Thankfully this was a quick 3hour flight from Hanoi, it was very rough and choppy the whole time. Once we landed we took a bit to figure out which part of the airport we needed to be in to leave our bags, there’s 4 huge terminals. Once we got our bags ins forage we walked around and checked out the indoor waterfall and found some supper. Then we walked around scouting out a nice place to sleep tonight, hotels here are super expensive and we don’t feel like going thru the hassle of leaving the airport so we are sleeping in it. Currently all we can find is a Starbucks bench, but we have to wait till 11 till everything closes to really see what we have to work with.
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The last two days we have spent relaxing and soaking up the last bit of Vietnam it’s such a neat place to walk around. We’ve went to train street, this time at a different part and had a coffee and watched the train go by with the local puppy. We got some last minute souvenirs and walked around Kiem lake again. We walked down some sketchy back alleys and the boys found a pool hall we spent a bit of time in. We got a last cheap massage before making the long flights home. We spent a lot of time trying to make everything fit back into our bags and making sure everything was were it was supposed to be for the plane and if it was legal.
Today was a gloomy rainy day so we had a nice relaxing morning before moving hotels. We walked to a nice little brunch spot and somehow forgot our rain coats so we got some umbrellas for the rainy walk back. Then we walked to our next hotel and got all checked in before heading out to check out train street. It’s a cool little place where the train tracks are tightly placed between houses/restaurants on either side. To be able to go down train street you have to wait at the fence for a local store owner to come and get you and take you to their cafe, otherwise the guards will fine you. We didn’t have to wait long before an owner came and scooped us up. We showed up an hour and half early to make sure we didn’t miss the train and it ended up going thru 20min after we sat down, not sure if it was early or late. After train street we headed for a foot massage before going and checking out all the local shops on our street and making our way to the massive 3km long street market. We only walked about half of it before we ended up getting tired of walking and headed to the hotel for the night.
Today we headed to Ha Long Bay to tour around there on a boat. We had to get picked up early from the hotel since it’s a 2ish hour drive. We stopped at an oyster farm and seen how the made pearls and seen some of the products they make. Then we were on the way to the pier to catch our boat. We were pleasantly surprised when we got on the boat, this inside was all re done and it was really new looking. They had our buffet dinner set up and we dug right in, it was actually really good and there was lots of options on what to get. Our first stop was about a 40 min boat ride away. The first stop was a kayaking spot, it was really cool because the mountain had a tunnel underneath it that you could kayak into the middle and the inside looked like a small lake even thoe we were in the middle of the ocean. We even seen a couple monkeys almost in the water. The second stop was a massive cave system with stairs leading into all of the caverns. One of the rooms was over 10000 square feet and it looked massive when you were in it. The last stop was a temple way up on the mountain, it was over 450 stair steps to get up so we all opted to hang out on the boat and drink happy hour drinks. Rylan even took over the big speaker and we played all our own music for 40 or so strangers on the top deck of the boat. Once we got back to the bus we had a three hour drive back to Hanoi, where we grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed.
Today we all slept in before going for some breaky. We then figured out our hotels for the last few days. It’s a holiday this weekend here and all the hotels have tripled in price. After eating we headed out the the markets we went and checked out Dong Xuan market. It’s a 3 story building full of local stands. It was pretty cool to check out. There wasn’t much there for tourists to check out so we headed back to the hotel and found a street full of stores so we checked them all out before going back. Then we dropped our stuff out and headed down to Kiem Lake park for some supper. We ended up walking around the whole lake before finding a place to have some supper. We then grabbed some snacks for our day trip to Ha Long bay tomorrow and headed back. We found some more shops on the way back and checked them all out before going to beer street again for a bit tonight. We have found the best thing to get in this warm weather coconut coffee.
Today was the last drive on this incredible loop. Today there wasn’t any stops other then view points. We talked to a local last night and decided on taking the road Google maps and the guy at our hotel in Ha Giang told us not to. We were a little nervous since it said really bumpy road and had points on Google maps that said avoid this road it’s terrible. It was a very rough start but halfway thru turned around and was one of the smoother roads on the loop. We stopped at lots of spectacular view points and got to go thru lots of remote villages this was a more local road then the rest of them it wasn’t really part of the tour. We ended up driving past a coal mine and got to see how they turned a mountain into a burning faculty for the coal. Once we got back we went to the hotel keeping our bags and dropped some stuff off before heading out for some lunch before catching the bus back to Hanoi. It was another VIP sleeper bus this time the driver was very aggressive and would hit his breaks so hard you would slide all the way to the foot of your bunk. One passenger's bag slid all the way to the front of the bus. Once we got back to Hanoi we got a car for the 30min drive. Little did we now it was going to be a tiny car that didn’t even fit all our bags in the trunk so we put Dean in the front and stacked all the bags on his lap and the rest of us crammed into the tiny backseat. It was a very long drive. After we dropped our bags off at the hotel we went out to beer street for a few drinks and supper.
Today we started out with a few troubles and they all happened before we started driving anywhere. We got up and went to head for breakfast and it was pouring rain outside so we headed to the market first and got everyone rain gear. After breakfast we headed to our hotel and even tho we knew it was a small elevator we all jammed ourselves in it since it was rated for 5 people. Unfortunately we aren’t not the same size as 5 Asians and ended up going over the rated weight and getting stuck in the elevator. Luckily the family that owned the hotel was at the front desk and helped us out it was a long 5min of being stuck shoulder to shoulder in a tiny elevator. We didn’t have as many stops to make along the way so we stopped at lots of view points. It was another big day of driving 120km. The first stop was just a little ways from Dong Van. It was a skywalk to us and is now closed due to too many tourists crashing in the very narrow and sketchy road up. Instead we seen a cool view point with a rock overhanging on the side of the trail we walked to and got some pictures there. The trail to the rock was loose rock and a little slippery. We hit the road again heading towards to the viewpoint of South Asia's deepest canyon. The boats looked so small on the river. It was beautiful looking out at all the fields and mountains around the canyon. We drove thru a few more villages before we hit the turn off the main road, and it got very rough and slow. The road went from pavement to dirt not gravel or a back road like home. It was straight clay with huge holes all over and massive rocks laying in the middle of the road. We also had to maneuver around road construction equipment working on the road. Once we got thru that we stopped for lunch in the next town Mau Due at a lovely little restaurant looking out on a rice field and tiny creek. Right outside Mau Due we stopped at a old French Military base. Then we made our way to Du Gia village to stay for the night we were a little nervous since we didn’t have anything booked and there was a few large groups staying in the same place but we ended up with a nice hotel. We walked around the town a little and looked for a place for supper and planned out tomorrows drive.
Today was an amazing day driving thru the different scenery here and checking out new places. We drove 155km on the bikes to our first stop and took lots of time to check out little places along the way. The first stop we made was heavens gate, it had a beautiful view of the road we took along with the valley with fields. Then next stop we made was Yen Minh for some lunch and checked out the town. The road to get here was pretty much straight up and down a mountain and had unbelievable views from the look out points. Then we headed to Tham Ma Pass and checked out the view point from there. We seen the 9 point turn road we came up from and walked on the trail along the mountain to check out another view point. The next stop was Pho Bang market town and the Chinese border. We drove right up to the border and took some pictures. We even watched a little old lady carrying a basket full of rice crossing the border. She had a card they had to stamp and everything. Then we headed to the last stop of the day H’Mong King Palace. It was a pretty cool huge old palace and a nice place to stop and stretch. Then off to Dong Van to our hotel and supper. We walked around town and checked it out before going for super and figuring out the route for tomorrow. This is by far the coolest thing we have done on our trip. There hasn’t been a single stop so far that hasn’t had amazing views the pictures don’t do it justice.
Today was a long travel day from Da Nang to Ha Giang. We started off with an early morning flight to Hanoi it was an 1hr flight. Then we got a car to the bus station where we sat in a cafe for a few hours until our bus at 1:30. We all thought we were going to get stuck on some shitty bus for the 8ish hour drive but somehow we lucked out and got a VIP sleeper bus. The beds reclined into chairs and even had massagers built into them. It wasn’t a bad way to spend the drive. When we finally got to Ha Giang we headed out to find some supper and ended up at a cool little pizzeria. Then we headed back to get ready for the next few days driving the Ha Giang bike loop.
Today we slept in a little bit before starting our day, we started with finding somewhere to have some breakfast. We then made the decisions to go My Sons Temples. We started on the hour and half drive, it was a pretty nice drive the whole way. We made it to the temples around lunch. I would actually more call them ruins, they were actually in pretty good shape until they were bombed during the Vietnam war. We walked around the ruins for as long as we could but everyone started to overheat pretty quick in the plus 43 degree heat. They were really cool to see and India has invested lots of money to restore a lot of the temples to what they looked like originally. We started the long drive back and seen lots of cool things along the way, there was a cemetery on both sides of the road that went for as far as you could see in every direction. We decided to grab a snack on the way back and make a plan for the coming days. After a cool down in the room we all got together and went to the night market for supper and shopping, we also waited till 9 and watched the dragon bridge shoot fire in the air. Tomorrow is a early start so we are off to bed now.
Today we got up early and headed towards Hoi An. We made a pit stop at the Golden hands bridge only to find out it was really expensive to go to so we jumped back in the bikes and went for lunch in Hoi An. It was another extremely hot day +40, so we didn’t really feel like doing anything once we got there. We ended up at one of the local markets and looked around for a place to eat and cool down. Then we looked for a place that took you on a basket boat ride. It was a pretty cool experience we got to go out on the river. It was an hour boat ride then we made our way back to the hotel stopping at marble mountain to check out the caves and temples. Thankfully there was an elevator up the mountain to the first temple that we took instead of the million stairs. Then we checked out the caves, we stayed in them for a bit since they were so cool. Then we headed back to go to the night market for some supper and look around. We tested out the seafood and some chicken skewers and are hoping we don’t need to try out our food sick pills. While we were eating we watched the lightning until a huge wind picked up and all the locals started taking their stuff for cover so we headed back to the hotel. We got back just in time right as we parked the bikes the rain started pouring down so we went up to the roof and watched the storm for a while. Today we slept in a bit before heading to drop off laundry and find bikes. We had big plans to drive to Hue and see an abandoned amusement park. We made it about 20min into the 2hour drive before getting pulled over and told we couldn’t drive down the road with scooters, so we decided to head back to the hotel. None of us could handle the heat it was 37 felt like 41. You didn’t even cool off driving with the wind at some points it was hotter then when you weren’t moving. When we got back to the hotel we headed up to the pool and spent the rest of the day trying to stay cool. Then we headed over for supper and ended up stumbling upon a decent size night market. We walked around there for a while looking at everything and scoping out supper for tomorrow. They sold seafood by platters and lots of chicken skewers that looked pretty good. There was even little carnival games scattered throughout the market. Then we had to hurry back to the laundry place before it closed. After we walked around checking out the streets and dragon bridge up close. We also went and checked out the huge yacht they have parked and ended up getting kicked off it because it’s closed but had the lights on so we decided to go and tour it ourselves before going to bed, we are going to try to get up before the heat and head towards Hoi An tomorrow.
The train arrived around 10 am to Da Nang, it was definitely not the greatest but not terrible at the same time. We got a grab to bring us to our hotel where we were told that we could not check in for couple more hours. So we asked where we could find some restaurants and the girl told us that there was a local market just up the road, after walking for a long ways we ended up not finding it. We decided to just get a grab into the Centre of town where we knew that we could find some food. We also decided to check out the local market it looked pretty little compared to others until we got in and realized it was 2 stories. We then went back the hotel and decided to try out the rooftop pool for a little bit. We then headed towards the pier to try and find some supper while we waited for our boat to arrive for the river tour. We ended up having food at one place and stopping at another bar for some drinks while we waited. The boat tour was really cool, there's lots of lights and all the bridges we went under are lit up different colors. There's even a bridge where they made the supports look like a dragon. We were a little disappointed to find out the dragon only shoots flames out on weekends so we will have to wait a couple more days to see that. On our walk home we decided to go to a club that was having a Hawaii theme party. Sandi even pointed out that there was a sign saying if we bring three girls with the group we get a free cocktail tower. It was really good and we definitely got our moneys worth there.
Today was a travel day to Da Nang. We got up and found a breakfast place and decided what we were going to do. The boys wanted to go back to the Billards club and the girls headed up to the rooftop infinity pool. Then we all met back up to go for some lunch and walk around a bit. Then we went and found some supper before walking down to the beach. At the beach we ended up getting a tour of the city on a golf cart like thing. After the tour we went and sat in the hotel waiting to go to the train station. Our train doesn’t leave until 11:30, but when we got to the station the board said 12:15. We didn’t know if we should trust it since it was a tv screen with a word document projected on it. The train ended up being late and we were all so tired waiting for it. We all slept in the same cabin, it had 6 bunk beds they were stacked 3 high on each side. The ride started out very rough and never really got smooth other than a few moments, but we still slept pretty good all night other than Rylan getting a little cold.
Today we got up early and headed out on a snorkelling trip. It was a quick drive to the pier to get to the boat, little did we know we booked a party boat. When we all got on the guide immediately started playing really loud music while him and the other guide started singing karaoke. It was about half hour boat ride to the snorkel spot so we all grabbed a beer and joined in on the music. When we got to the next spot the guide stood up and said all you Koreans get off here and kept the 5 of us on the boat along with 2 Aussie girls. It was pretty funny they didn’t want to get off the boat but he insisted they did and even helped gather their stuff and walked them off the boat. He kept saying how Koreans are lazy and don’t listen, also that they are no fun. We took the boat out a little ways then started snorkelling, it was pretty cool but definitely not the best we have seen on this trip. We all went back to the boat and started jumping off top deck while we waited for the guides to set up the slide. After messing around for awhile they set up the floating bar and gave us rings to sit on while we drank. It was quite fun and entertaining and they had a bucket full of free shots that they kept re filling for us. Next stop was the floating fishing village where we got a fresh seafood buffet. The food was amazing and definitely fresh, they have nets in the water where they actually keep the seafood alive then bring it up to cook. The guys that sat with us at the table even taught us how to use the chopsticks. Once everyone was done with the food we made our way to the beach where we got to relax and hangout for a couple hours before getting dropped back off at the hotel. We all had a quick break before heading out for supper, then eventually finding a billiards pub that Dean and Rylan played pool at for awhile while the girls drank.
Today was an early start we headed straight to the airport at 6am to catch our plane to Nha Trang. We were all really tired because last night we had a crazy thunder and lightning storm, it was the loudest we have heard. The rain sounded like hail it was coming down so hard. We luckily didn't have too much trouble at the airport, other than Rylan having to argue with security and tell them there was no fluid in the Zippos we had. He pulled up the airline regulations and everything. Once we landed in Nha Trang we found a luxury van to take us to our hotel. We ended up in a very fancy apartment/hotel with a sky bar on the 40th floor. Once we dropped off our bags we walked around the streets looking for some lunch and checking out the town. When we finally where able to check in we cooled of in the rooms for a bit before heading to the beach. We found a nice little spot with bean bag chairs we had a drink there before we were able to go check out the sky bar. It was a pretty cool view of the city, we figured out the next couple days and headed to bed. We have an early day of snorkeling tomorrow.
Today we got up and headed back to the cable cars and hoped the sign was right and they were opened today. When we got there there was a huge line up to get on them. When we jumped in line we got pushed and shoved by so many people that we eventually made a wall with the 5 of us. The cars were super cool, it’s the longest cable car in the world. It went over 3 different islands to get to the water park, we got to see some pretty cool views from up there. When we got to the water park we couldn’t believe how big it really was. We immediately hit up the lazy river to cool down before attempting any of the slides. We ended up going back and forth between slides and lazy river for most of the day, every-time we got on a slide they made us weigh sometimes even all 5 of us at once. Then when we were done swimming Rylan really wanted to check out the huge wooden roller coaster that got up to 80km/hr. So we went and checked that out and there ended up being hardly anyone over at it so we went on it 3 times, we sat in a different place each time. It was super sketchy it looked like there was just nails and a few screws holding the whole thing up. After the rollercoaster we headed back to drop off the scooters and pick up laundry. Then we headed out for supper for our last night in Phu Quoc.
Today we got up early and got all of our laundry together, we started to walk and look for a place to get our laundry done and ended up finding a place that also rented motorbikes which worked out good. Once we got our bikes sorted out and everyone got a quick rundown on how to drive, we started off down the road in search of a place to have some breakfast. We found a pretty nice little place that had great food, after breakfast we started heading towards the sunworld cable car and water park. Just before we got there we had to drive through a really cool little town that was fully built during covid and is just about done. It's fully modelled after a European town, with really cool colorful buildings and brick road. It was weird to drive through because it looks almost finished but there's no one in the shops or rooms yet. We were a little disappointed to find out the cable car was closed for maintenance but our moods picked up when we found out that it was reopening tomorrow. We decided to just drive around and check out the ghost town then we headed to one of the largest prisoner camp in vietnam during the war. It was neat to see but so hot out that we ended up leaving before seeing everything to find a pool. We then cooled off in the pool for the rest of the day. We finished the Day off at a cool English bar owned by a canadian. He was even able to explain to the Vietnamese cook how to make Rylan a poutine.
Today we got up and had breakfast before packing up to leave the hotel. We were headed to Phu quoc for the next few days. When we got to the airport we had nothing but trouble. We waited in a long line up only to find out our tickets didn’t match the passports so we had to go out of the line and to a different counter to change that. Then when We got back in the line up and they told us we didn’t have any baggage tickets so we had to leave once again to go add baggage to our flight. Once we finally got thru security we thought we were in the clear we had a bit of time to sit and relaxe after everything. We jumped in line to get on the plane and aS soon as they scanned Rylans ticket they told him his bag was locked and he needed to go back out and open it. We had bought some zippo lighters and they wouldn’t let them go under the plane they needed to be in our carry on. Thankfully he made it back in time despite the ticket scanners telling him he didn’t have time to go back and unlock it and they weren’t going to wait for him. When we landed we realized it wasn’t that bad for us the other guys got on there plane and had to sit in it for 30min on the tarmac with no A/C or air flow. Then when they got in the air the a/c still didn’t start. Once everyone got to the island we headed out for some supper and a few drinks.
Today we got up and had some breakfast at the hotel its the first hotel in quite awhile that's had breakfast included and it was actually pretty good. After grabbing some snacks we all went to a tour office to try and find a car to drive us to the tunnels. We found one for a pretty good price and next thing we knew we were headed two hours out of town to the Chu Chi tunnels. These tunnels were used by the Vietnamese during the war. Its crazy how small they are and how elaborate they are. Some of the tunnels are up to 200 km long and have everything from hospitals to bomb building shops under ground. They came up with a lot of simple but smart ideas to throw the Americans off. They also built lots of booby traps that were pretty gruesome. We even got to crawl in one of the tunnels but its pretty hard to walk when you are completely bent over, I couldn't imagine the stuff they went through living there during the war. At the end of the tour Rylan and Dean paid to shoot the M60 Machin gun, Ak-47, and carbine sniper. It was pretty cool because the guns where the actual ones they would have used in the war. After the tunnels it was a long drive back, then we went for supper and finished the night off with some drinks and pool at one of the bars on walking street.
Today we got up and got all packed to move to the next hotel down the street. After dropping off our bags we headed or some breakfast and a nice little walk around before we met up with Kelly's cousins. Once they got here we headed out to the market to kill a bit of time before we could check in. After the market we headed up to the pool until supper. We headed out to walking street for supper and to find a place to eat. After supper we decided to head out and check out a different place for a drink. We walked by this packed bar and decided to go check it out without realizing what was happening, we ended up crashing a locals 65th birthday party.
Today we got up and decided to rent a scooter. We started out just driving around the city looking for some gas and ended up finding a huge tool and parts market. Rylan quickly pulled over when we seen that. Once we started walking thru it we couldn't believe how big the market really was, they had all sorts of tools and accessories and even parts of every kind. We looked around there for some time, Rylan priced out a few items that thankfully were too big to fit in our backpacks. After looking around there we headed towards a pier, it was 12km from the market and only took us a short hour and bit to get there. We did get to go over a very cool suspension bridge on the long drive which made it worth it. Once we got there we realized we actually can't get to the beach or the pier from there because it was actually a container shipping dock that had a lot of security checking in and under all the vehicles. So we found another place to go and started the journey to Rin Rin park. It was a beautiful park that we walked around and watched the fish swimming in the lazy river. There was huge rocks with sculptures on it and cherry blossom trees everywhere. We were a little skeptical of the park at first since the drive there was very gross. Everywhere you looked you would see huge heaps of garbage everywhere and it really stunk. After the park we headed back to the hotel and grabbed supper. We realize that this city is very busy and not the ideal place to drive, the traffic here is worse then anywhere else we have been.
The last few days we haven't been feeling the best and have just been resting before we meet up with Kelly's cousins. We have walked around the streets by the hotel and even found a nice park to walk around to get out of the hotel for a bit. The one park had a tourism fair going on and we got to check out the little travel booths. We even stumbled upon an underground mall in the park, which we checked out to get out of the heat. We have also been having a bit of a cockroach problem in our hotel room which has made us a bit skiddish.
We are feeling much better and plan to go do some sight seeing tomorrow. Today was a pretty chill day we just walked around and checked out the parks and a couple of the malls in the city. We both cant believe how busy this city actually is. After grabbing some late lunch we went hotel scouting to try and find a room that actually had working ac as the warm room we had was getting old. We ended up finding a really nice place that was 80 percent off on Agoda and got the vip suite for next to nothing. Not much else to report today.
Today we got up and grabbed some breakfast while we figured out what to do. We ended up going to the Bitexco building and to the observation deck. It was pretty cool since we got to have a 360 view of the city and they even had huge binoculars up there. We were checking out some hotels after the tower and while we stopped to look something up a local came up and took Rylan’s shoes off without saying anything and started cleaning them and gluing them back together. He didn’t speak English and for awhile we had no clue what was going on. After we got the shoes back it was pretty funny. Then we headed back to the market. We were trying to walk thru the whole market before we leave. This sounds like an easy task but this market is huge and it almost seems never ending. If you’re not paying attention you get lost very easily. After walking thru the market for a couple hours we headed for some supper.
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