So life in Vietnam couldn't be more fine and dandy if we tried! Having been here for near enough three weeks now it hasn't taken much for us to fall in love with this incredible country! Every place doesn't fail to offer us a completely different experience and the contrasts between where we have been before are becoming ever more evident.
Having spent 5 days in Nha Trang, a coastal city with hoards of Russian tourists, nothing to be excited by, we are afraid to say they are rather rude and take far too much pride in themselves to give a smile or any manners at all, but hey oh, each to their own! After two 12 hour+ journey's in less than 5 days we found ourselves in desperate need of a bit of rest and recuperation, this was soon sorted with a pj day when the weather took a turn for the worst! A night out on St Paddy's day, the Irish all came out for the woodworks for sure, soon got us back in to the swing of things however and we had a fantastic night out with April whilst meeting many fellow travellers from Sweden and the likes. However bed at 6am meant that we were back to square one with the lack of energy! Other than this though, a trip to the local mud baths and a few days spent on the beach was all we got up to in Nha Trang. Yet again the mud baths were swarmed with Russians, there is honestly only so much you can take! Despite this though it was definitely one to add to the list of interesting experiences, sitting in a pool of cold, clay mud wasn't something either of us expecting to be doing, but the hot spring baths and pools soon made up for the oddities of the experience.
Another 12 hour journey overnight along the coast took us to Hoi An, where we are unfortunately leaving tomorrow. For anyone planning a trip to Vietnam, this is a must visit! The Old Town is nothing like we have seen before, with quaint little streets and French architecture everywhere, this riverside town is incredibly laid back and easy to spend millions of dong in! Renowned for both it's lanterns and the hundreds of tailor shops that line the streets, we soon found ourselves designing dresses and jumpsuits and being measured up from every single angle. 24 hours later and we went back for our fitting, expecting a rough idea of what we were to get with pins and tacking stitch everywhere we were incredibly mistaken. Instead, we were met by nearly finished garments with only a few alterations to be made, impressed didn't even describe it!
After spending the rest of the day checking out some of the smaller sights including a Japanese bridge, common houses and their equivalent of temples, 2 day found us back on our bicycles. With the intention of doing our own version of a countryside tour we were pleasantly surprised when the sun decided to make a show, however that soon changed when we found the ridiculous sun glasses tan/burn lines on return to our hotel!! The day was a success though, starting off with breakfast on the beach after picking up cakes from the local bakery, and noodles for lunch, the food in Vietnam is to die for, with every possible taste you can imagine. There's some incredible flavours we have thrown ourselves well into it and said good bye to the pasta and pizza we found ourselves living on at the end of our stay in Cambodia. With 17km under our belts, the nap on the beach after lunch we felt was much deserved!
Despite these last few days being brilliant, the best was yet to come in today. We found ourselves fortunate enough to be invited to lunch at a local famiy's house, 15km outside of Hoi An. Aftercoming across this chance by sheer luck thanks to our choice of restaurant! Mr Phong, a waiter by evening along the riverfront, invites restaurant customers into his house during the day, offering an incredible insight into day to day life of the local Vietnamese. We were collected at 9am by Mr Phong and his friend and taken for a beautiful countryside ride on the back of peds to his house to be met by his wife and daughters-in-law, all of whom were incredibly welcoming and generous. Two hours later and Mr Phong had given us a history lesson like none other, a survivor of the Vietnam war, he was able to offer us incredibly in depth experiences of living and fighting during the war, as well as teaching us about the politics and events behind it. Furthermore he continued to explain how this all impacted on the current political situation, traditions and culture, as well as religion. After a tour around his village which is home to around 10,000 people, of which it seemed like he took us into every one of his neighbours houses where we saw how tobacco is harvested and dried, how rice wine is made and fermented, and finally we found ourselves welcomed into a local tradition which is that of celebrating the deaths of ancestors. Rather than celebrating birthdays as we do, the deaths of relatives are celebrated the day before the anniversary with huge family get together with ridiculous amounts of food and booze. With two plastic stools drawn up and glasses of beer thrust towards us we found ourselves in the middle of the celebration, something we won't forget in a hurry! The day ended with some of Mr Phong's wife's cooking, an incredible spread of noodle soup, morning glory, pork stir fry and mounds of spring rolls, stuffed doesn't even begin to explain how we felt afterwards!!
And so tomorrow we head on to the next stop on our journey, Hue, thankfully only a short few hours journey! A quick stopover compared to our recent stops, before heading to Hanoi and Halong Bay for the final 5 days of Vietnam!
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