A different plan 

Our first plan was to head from Australia to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, then the UK before going to Cuba and Mexico.

Due to various changes in the world, our plan had to change last minute to Bali, Vietnam, UK then Mexico – pity we have always wanted to go to Cuba and now not sure if we ever will – but who knows what the future holds.

Arriving at Ho Chi Minh airport everyone faced very long queues at Immigration – not quite as bad as Mauritius but still well over an hour.

Having been to Hoi Chi Minh city in 2003 and 2007 we were only staying a couple of days, we booked this lovely little homestay but after 1 night we had to move – we had forgotten about some places having rock hard beds and our old bodies can not cope with them anymore.

Wandered around and saw a park with beautiful colour – great from a distance but the trees and the horses are fake.

Also forgot that nearly everything is cash so had to find one of the few banks that allow you to take out a reasonable sum.  Walking around we found that both the guest houses we stayed in in the earlier years are still there – quite an achievement. 

Wandering the pavements is never easy with so many motorbikes parked on them, plus piles of cables, drain covers missing etc.  Safer to risk the traffic and walk on the road.

Decided to take a look at the Cathedral as it is mean to be a lovely building – unfortunately for us it was shut and also covered in scaffolding.

A couple of my favourite things here are the Bahn Mi and the fresh Tangerine Juice, also some pretty good other local food too.

In 2003 the majority of the traffic was rickshaw, bicycle and motorbike, by 2007 there were a few more cars.  Now virtually no bicycles, did not see one rickshaw, and a lot of cars – still plenty of motorbikes though, rush hour is crazy.  Crossing the road is the same – shut your eyes and walk slowly and they go round you – in saying that the traffic does seem quite a lot more organised now.

Steve wanted to re-visit the war museum (visited in 2003), massive change here with nearly all the horrific scary stuff gone (things in jars, most of the torture stuff etc), now the museum is mostly a photographic memory – still awful but not quite so horrifying.

A day birding on our way to Cat Tien National Park was great and our homestay for 1 night overlooking the river is just lovely, the owners really friendly and helpful. Apparently there are no leeches in this park because of Agent Orange devastating the forest, mosquitoes have come back but not the leeches – interesting.

We wanted to stay in the park and on-line it says to what’s app or email – we did both with never a reply.  Once arriving it appears they do everything only the day before, so even if you ask to stay 3 nights you can only pay for 1 and have to do that each day.  Seems like a lot of extra work to me.  Meeting up with a lovely girl from the UK, we shared the cost to go to Crocodile Lake – a jeep for 18km then a 5km walk.  Such a great place to stay overnight with Langurs, birds and of course crocodiles.  While walking the trail there were workmen putting in a cable all the way to Crocodile Lake – so people can have Wifi.  Pruning trees in the forest – why can people not cope without it for a day trip or one overnight…. Interesting installation though, a guy on a motor bike pulling the cable.

The bridges around the lake and on the way were not in great shape with notices to not lean on anything.

We really wanted to see a Pygmy Slow Loris that is Critically endangered but were told by many people that they are rarely seen in the wild now.  Low and behold on our night walk at the lake the ranger took us into the forest and got so excited when he spotted a Loris – not close and I only  got a bad distance, branchy shot of 2 eyes – but amazing to be so lucky.  We managed to see 1 of the Langur species and the Gibbon’s but not the other Langur – also critically endangered and hard to see in the wild.  No snakes either as it has been so dry – but on the plus side that also meant no leeches. While we were there we tried wild banana wine which was more like arack than wine.

Off to Dalat for some tourist stuff and some birding,  we found a lovely little place to stay that was friendly and comfortable for under 50 Aud a night – if you wanted to splash out for less than it costs us to stay in our home town in the UK you could stay in a palace with huge rooms and really fancy old decor – not really us though.

The first night after having limited choice of food in the park we opted for Indian.  Wow, we have never seen naan bread this large – one would do 2 people as a whole meal.

Our bird guide was telling us how quickly Dalat is changing – they have only had traffic lights for 2 years and still most people have no idea how to use them.  There is also a zero tolerance to drink driving and if you get caught you are fined the average of 1 months salary (around 100 USD).

Dalat is very touristy with so many Selfie set up fake stuff – wonder what will happen to it all when the fad dies.  Even the roundabouts are different.

There is a famous house called crazy house built by an architect in 1990 and “is an expressionist masterpiece designed to look like a giant, enchanted tree stump.”  It is certainly odd and I got the jitters walking around the high bits with the low odd branch railing.

There are some lovely old buildings though and in general the architecture really makes the town.

Below is the historic railway station built in 1932.

Surprisingly almost all birding in the area (and apparently the whole of Vietnam) is done from feeding in bird hides and the birds are really skittish.  We were told if they leave the hides up locals come and use them to shoot the birds – or animals so everything is scared of people.  So sad.  There are more leeches here but still not many as not really had much rain yet (although there was one on Carols neck).

A couple of the things we really enjoyed seeing where a Buddhist Temple – made entirely of mosaic’s from broken glass & pottery shards – and it only took 1 year to do, incredible.

The other is the Sculpture tunnel and although again it was done for insta or whatever the carvings are all done from local clay and very impressive.

The sculpture tunnel had section on music, food, transport and the funniest one Covid.

Another thing we enjoyed was a trip on the last remaining steam train in Vietnam. Great Stuff. Although in reality the scenery was not good, but the old carriage and the live 30’s music made up for it.

Last section of this blog is Whale Island and Nha Trang. Food on Island was limited to a fixed Vietnamese set menu (sea urchins?) or a choice of fried rice, noodles or spagetti. We chose the island for snorkelling and it’s environmental policy – rebuilding reef etc. Well maybe once but not a sign of that now and although the reviews said about great snorkeling off the beach it was not at all worth while.  

A boat trip out did produce some good coral but not a huge amount of fish.  Not at all surprising when the shorelines are covered in rubbish and there are floating fishing houses and nets everywhere around.

We did not realise we had also picked the wrong week as it was a holiday week for Vietnam so lots of noise from people, plus the fishing boats did not have exhaust’s and were running most of the day. Well maybe once but not sign of that now and although the reviews said about great snorkeling off the beach it was not at all worth while.  A boat trip out did produce some good coral but not a huge amount of fish.  Not at all surprising when the shorelines are covered in rubbish and there are floating fishing houses and nets everywhere around.

The world has no hope.

We visited Nha Trang with the children in 2003, then a small village with a new sign about 1 development coming.  Now the place is a sprawling metropolis with tons of high rises and packed to the hilt.  

Nice old church built in 1955 is still standing.

The day before we came while on the island we received a message from our accommodation booked through booking.com.  They claimed they could not reach us (even though we have a string of message on what’s app from them about check in etc) saying it was a pre-pay accommodation, deposit money to a bank account within 60 mins or booking will be cancelled.  For a start we were out snorkeling when message first came, when I did respond I said booking.com just said to pay on arrival and no point transferring money now as they would not receive for 2 business days.  Instead of a response they just cancelled the booking.  Not that we really cared at that point as they were very rude about the whole thing.  The issue came when trying to book something for the next day – hardly anything left that had any kind of rating other than awful.  Our 4 days is now 2 in Nha Trang and 2 down the coast towards the airport.

Not a bad thing as this city is too busy for us, especially as the 2 days we are here are 1 Reunification day and 2 Labour day – packed with locals on holiday along with the many Russians that seem to make up the rest of the people here. 

We had planned to visit a temple but it is far too busy to be worthwhile.