intandemwetravel

Vietnam by Moto Days 16-17: Dark beer, beach and bridges in Danang

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Amanda

The drive to Danang from Hoi An has about 3 turns max. The lower trafficked coast road was plenty fast and soon enough, we were in the suburbs of Danang.

As we approached, huge karst mountains loomed. We realized these were the marble mountains advertised on tours all around Hoi An. We stopped for a photo and a quick drive around the base. The mountains are filled with sculptures and there are shops around the base selling them if you want your own to take home. Recently, they added an elevator so you no longer have to hike up the mountains.

The whole area around the Marble mountains contains a variety of shops selling statuary, although the marble is now from China not the actually marble mountains.

Marble mountains outside Danang. The hills are filled with statues and shrines. They built an elevator (far left) so you don’t have to do most of the hike up. We just decided to take a look from the outside as there were so many bus tours there.

We stayed at the Titan Hotel in Danang just a few blocks off the coast. Best $10 a night hotel we’ve stayed in yet. It even has an amazing breakfast buffet.

Our room at the Titan Hotel. So fancy for $10.

A bathroom with separate shower. Fancy living!

After relaxing a bit in our beautiful room, we set out for a walk on the beach. En route, we found a new local snack food, bánh mi que, a toasted bread stick stuffed with a tomato meat paste for only 3,000 vnd. Two, please!Prime beach hours for the Vietnamese are early morning and early evening. We timed it right to catch numerous football and volleyball games in progress as well as packed swimming areas with folks enjoying the waves.

We had dinner at a busy local place near the hotel serving bún with a variety of meats. A very nice women helped us order. It was good but not as good as our lunch bowl.

After dinner we decided to get the motorbike and see more of the city. Some of the bridges were suppose to be near so we went to check them out. We discovered a draft beer garden full of people and stopped for a beer. They actually had dark beer!

Dark beer at the Draft beer garden. This place was pretty busy. Many tables had towers.

One of the other Danang bridges. They all put on a pretty good light show at night.

Dragon bridge profile

Dragon bridge in Danang

Concrete fake yacht restaurant on the river

After a massive breakfast the next morning, Rob went for a scenic drive by himself. At one point he stopped and got into a photo session with two women from Danang. When he got back, we packed up and headed for Hai Van Pass.

Vietnam by Moto Days 12-16: Enjoying the tourist throng in Hoi An

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Amanda

Checking into House 36 upon our arrival in Hoi An was amazing. Our $17 a night room was gorgeous! Anything this nice at home would easily be at least $100 per night. It was so modern and clean compared to anything we’d stayed in since the Yusense hotel in Taipei. Cleaned up, we dropped off our massive bag of laundry and went to see the city/EAT. Omg eat! We ended up in the tourist quarter of old town replete with fancy restaurants and souvenir shops.

Tasty meal (but on the expensive side for us) at Mermaid Restaurant. Wontons with tasty topping and eggplant with minced pork

Our favorite evening spot in Hoi An. This bar had great live music most night and only 20k vnd beers served with peanuts. It was on a street with a night market perpendicular to the river near the bar strip with tiger, tiger. The second band we saw there was really good and we managed to catch them another night at Dive Bar (unfortunately louder and more expensive)

One of the big things to do in Hoi An is to having clothing custom made. There are hundreds of shops in the city and everywhere you turn there’s another three. I wanted to get a maxi dress and a couple blouses made since I can never get these items that fit at home. Rob came along on my quest to find a good tailor but ditched me at the second shop out of boredom. I went to a total of four shops and finally chose one, the Golden Patch tailor, a newer shop that still had great reviews. They were good to work with and let me browse in peace which I appreciated. But, by the end of the day I was worn out from all the looking that I couldn’t bring myself to order yet and instead joined Rob at our favorite cheap beer place (3,000 vnd/13 cents for a glass of fresh beer). He was chatting with a guy from Wales after having done some through exploration of the area. Since he was in the same spot from the previous night, some familiar folks from previous hostels who had seen him last night asked if he’d ever moved.

The next day we went back to the tailor and both ended up ordering a few pieces. Rob got a linen suit for summer events and I picked out two blouses, two dresses and a pair of pants. We put in our order around noon and by 11 am the next day we had clothes to try on. Rob’s suit and shirt were pretty good as were my maxi dress, pants and one of the blouses. The second blouse was way too small and the other dress, which I had just given them pictures of what I wanted, was a mess. Since it was backless, they had added a built in bra, however, their idea of boob padding is crazy. The pads felt massive and were mounted so high that I felt ridiculous. The straps also hit in all the wrong places. The second fitting after another 20 hours went much better and I was relieved to have a dress that I could actually wear. They adjusted a few more things then everything was ready for us to pick up on the third day. I think we ended up looking pretty good in our new duds.

Second round of my new black dress.

Rob’s spiffy new suit

Hoi An is an old port city long ago made irrelevant as the harbor silted up. With no economic importance, the old town center and river survived only to be transformed into a tourist mecca. Everything a tourist desires can be found here although getting peace and any kind of real local experience takes more effort. The city is decked out with colorful streamers and lanterns. Lit up at night, the riverfront is a lively place to be. The daytime is quieter with only the groups visiting the historic buildings. Everyone else hits the beach or tours the surrounding countryside.

A whole tour group in the cycle cabs

We spent the rest of the afternoon (and the next morning) visiting five of the sites on the old town ticket (admission for 5 sights for 150k vnd). There are some pretty neat old houses and buildings that allow you to visit.

Fishing demos on the river

Mother of pearl inlaid characters formed from birds

Amazing wood carvings

Hoi An riverfront at night

After seeing some of the sights, we wandered around trying to find an interesting more local place to eat at that A) had locals dining b) had food we were interested in and C) was not entirely men eating. Finally we stumbled on a beef restaurant and order a bowl of lemon beef soup and fixings for beef fresh roll. Afterwards, we indulged in the local pastime of pool/billards. The pool hall was one of the busiest local places and we had seen one in most small towns. Rob is much better so we employed a handicap, but what was far more successful for me was just to wait for him to shoot himself in the foot and scratch on the eight ball which he did twice. We were still a bit peckish after pool but conveniently we passed a cream puff stand (Banh Su Kem) on the way back. They add the filling when you order so they don’t get soggy.

Here’s the beef. They slice up a hunk for us to use for spring rolls and for the lemon beef soup.

Pool hall in Hoi An

Amazing cream puffs 7 for 20k vnd. We didn’t find these until the second to last night.

The next afternoon after our fittings, Rob and I took the motorbike to An Bang beach and enjoyed sun, sand and water. Rob played frisbee with some other backpackers while I read my book. Then we had a bit of sand castle fun before seeking out dinner in town at the Central Market. The food court there serves all the local specialties at very reasonable prices. If you want to pay slightly more, you can dine on the plastic chairs and tables on the riverfront for an extra 50-10k per dish. The Cau lau and white rose were great but we weren’t a fan of the mi quang noodles.

Sand castles on An Bang beach

For our last day, we picked up the clothing and got it mailed home. By then, Rob was getting hangry and had been craving bùn, so we stopped at a nearby street eatery. Their take on bùn mam (dry not soup) was different. Inside of a fish sauce style dressing, it came with a slightly runny peanut sauce. Rob quickly declared this to be his favorite Vietnamese dish. Then, we left for Danang, a short drive north.

Vietnam by Moto Days 9-12: Adventures up the coast

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Amanda

From Nha Trang, Rob and I decided to continue on the Coracle’s coastal route rather than cut inland to the Ho Chi Minh highway, which adds a bunch of miles. Our next big stop would be Hoi An, a tourist-friendly old port town back on the backpacker trail three days away.

Our only view of the beach in Nha Trang. Taken as we left town.

Nice roads to the middle of nowhere on Hon Gom Sandbar north of Nha Trang . No resorts had been built yet, but part of the road has four lanes.

Night 9: Tuy Hoa

After parking ourselves at a great hotel, Hong Hai, near the beach in Tuy Hoa, we headed to Bob’s Cafe American for dinner. Of the places in Tuy Hoa, this one had tons of reviews promising great American food at reasonable prices and an interesting time with Bob, the American Vietnam vet who runs the place with his Vietnamese wife. The food was great but it was busy and Bob was distracted, so we didn’t get much of an opportunity to chat with him. The beer was 50 cents for a liter on draft and they brought out the real ketchup for us. The red bottle on the table was not ketchup.

Bob’s Cafe American in Tuy Hoa

In the morning, we departed for Quy Nhon. We took a route following the coast ending up on a peninsula with a notable formation called Ganh Da Dia. Reminiscent of Devils Tower/Bear Lodge in Wyoming, Ganh Da Dia has the same geometric columns formed from molten lava, but these are oriented differently and eroded by the ocean. We had missed the turn and as we turned around two tour buses went past. We were able to follow them right to the carpark.

Here’s a great blog post with instructions on how to get to Ganh da dia, although it’s now 10,000 vnd per person to get in. Some lovely views of the ocean can be seen by hiking along the coast from the parking area. Heading inland, we stopped for lunch at a banh mi stand in a small village. I tried to make conversation with the woman running it and soon we were having a google translate conversation with her and her daughters, son, friends and other people. We took countless photos with them and I got to hold a baby.

Since our drive for the day wasn’t too far, we also had time for a stop outside of Quy Nhon. Life’s a Beach and Big Tree hostels are located next to each other in a small fishing village about 10 km south of town. We decided to stop in for a cold drink and potentially stay there for a night. Sadly they were out of beds, so we eventually continued on to Quy Nhon.

Fisherman launching a coracle (round boat from the beach). It was interesting to watch how they propel and steer it from the front.

Night 10: Quy Nhon

I had messaged the Quy Nhon kids English club (send them a message if you’re going to be in the area for a night), a group of people who are interested in practicing English conversation and we ended up setting a time to meet up later that night. In the meantime, we checked into our hotel (the only one so far that we wouldn’t go back to although its location was convenient) then walked along the waterfront.

Finally we met up with Vu and his wife, Oanh, for a dinner of banh canh and ban cuon at a local place. They were both so friendly and engaging. It turned out that they were about the same age as us and had a one year old son. It was so fun just to talk about normal life! I feel like we have the same obligatory conversation with so many other travelers that’s useful and interesting, but it was so great to break out of that mold.

Rob and I didn’t quite realize what was planned for after dinner, but we ended up grabbing drinks at a street side cafe. As we sat down, tables kept getting added around us and a group of 15+ other people (mainly a class of kids with their teacher) showed up to talk with us. They drove over 10 km on Saturday night just to practice their English, which was pretty amazing. With our limited classroom management skills, Rob and I ended up splitting the group in two and tried to have conversations with them all – a difficult challenge indeed. Some of them were very willing to talk (two of the little boys spoke great English constantly and at high volume) and others who were less confident, I tried to engage them the best I could to give everyone a chance. Especially with the pop culture stuff, I am way out of date. We tried to talk about music and movies and I struggled to find common ground. I did get them to try to teach me some Vietnamese for awhile, but I don’t know how much of it stuck. In the end, Rob and I learned some more about Vietnamese culture and really enjoyed meeting so many people. We were both exhausted, though. Being a teacher takes skill.

I got everyone to make silly faces with me.

Oang and one of the older club members invited us to join them the next morning for their weekly hike. Great! No problem! Wait, it’s sunrise hike and we meet at 5am!? Rob took a large deal of convincing but let me drag him out of bed in the dark. Meeting at the road to the trail head, we couldn’t believe how many people were there. More and more kept coming. Our smaller group was around ten people including Oang’s son, who got handed around the group for the long uphill slog. This mountain is the highest of the four surrounding Quy Nhon. The group rotates mountains every week. We took tons of photos at the top and then hiking down, everyone (and I mean everyone) out hiking posed for this massive group photo. A few other folks took photos with Rob. After hiking, we had a breakfast of crab (cua) noodle soup with part of the club before everyone went home to nap time. It wasn’t even 9 am yet. We fit in a few more hours of sleep before setting off.

View from the top. Sunrise hike in Quy Nhon.

Night 11: Quang Ngai

Our first stop this morning was the memorial at My Son, the location of the terrible My Lai massacre during the American War. This article from the NY Times is an interesting retrospective look at why it happened and the aftermath.

Rob and I both felt that we needed to visit here to confront the horrible acts committed by American soldiers/government and remind ourselves of the great responsibility we have as US citizens to hold our government and political leaders accountable for their decisions. I feel our institutional memory is too short. Rob and I both were ashamed about the paucity of our knowledge about the Vietnam War. As far as I recall, my US history classes would make it through WWII and the school year would be nearly complete. If we had better remembered or passed on the knowledge of Vietnam war, how could we have put ourselves into Iraq and Afghanistan? I remember one day during an AP US history class (2004) being shown an article talking about how the majority of the Iraq war protesters were middle-aged. They had all lived through the Vietnam war.

We passed so many dilapidated beach resorts between Quang Ngai and Hoi An. We couldn’t tell if they were operating or not.

Random roadside monument. Sign in Vietnamese only.

It was clear when we reached the outskirts of Hoi An as all the signs had English too.

Vietnam by Moto Days 7-9: Underwater in Nha Trang

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Amanda

Nha Trang is known as a huge beach destination for Russian tourists. As soon as we arrived, we started seeing signs in Russian. Many of the locals also speak better Russian than English. Nowadays, there are also many Chinese tourists thanks to a direct flight from Beijing.

Rob had talked me into the party hostel in Nha Trang. We arrived just in time for their free beer hour (6-7pm) served on their rooftop patio. Upon check-in, we were given these spiffy bracelets to make we could get ourselves back at night, which reminded me of the t-shirts lower fourth made their prospective students during one Owl Days at Rice (if found lost, etc. please return to Baker lower fourth).

The next morning after the great breakfast buffet at iHome, we joined the $16 snorkeling tour from the hostel. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the water was very clear, but slightly on the chilly side. We visited three different locations for snorkeling. The first two are reasonably close together so unless you come in early, there’s not much time to warm up and dry off in between sessions. Rob and I saw a good variety of fish (Rob saw a squid!), but not having a waterproof camera, we don’t have any underwater pics.) Rob wasn’t feeling great but managed to snorkel even after taking a few breaks to feed the fish.

Rob ready for the first session of snorkeling.

Snorkel spot #2. The beautiful blue area is sand not coral and the reefs are very shallow here.

Lunch on the boat. Quantity not quality. Rob could barely eat so I knew something was wrong.

Our third and final snorkel spot.

These guys with the foot jets appeared as we were leaving.

After a day in the sun with an early morning, we had shower/nap time upon returning to iHome. We grabbed a quick dinner of noodle soup to make it back in time for free beer hour. A number of the awesome folks from the tour came too and we spent a few hours hanging out. At some point, one of the bartenders broke out a guitar. He and a guest took turns playing any singing. Rob took a turn on the drum box for awhile.

The next day, we packed up and headed north up the coast.

Vietnam by Moto Day 7: The road to Nha Trang and Bidoup Nui Ba National Park

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Amanda

After breakfast at the hostel, Rob and I hit the road bound for Bidoup Nui Ba National Park. Winding through some of the countryside we passed on the canyoning tour, we stopped to take photos of the amazing country. Da Lat is the veggie growing capital of Vietnam. The markets in town had strawberries, artichokes, huge avocados and more. Leaving town, we passed the fields growing everything. Greenhouses stretched as far as you could see.

Greenhouses stretch forever, except the hillside to the left which has graves.

The main stop of the day was Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, 5 km off the main road. Sadly since we were unable to contact them the day before, we weren’t able to get a guide to visit one of the minority villages in the park.

The park visitor center has a great display about the culture of the local people with a variety of their musical instruments. Rob gave this wind instrument a try. It was pretty hard to get a variety of pitches.

Instead, we did their 3.5 km waterfall hike. The rangers were extremely nice and gave us a little map. Most of the hike was through pine forest reminiscent of back home, although were water was plentiful, more jungle-like vegetation flourished. As with more modern/foreign national parks, land use is not just preservation. We passed houses, a fish farm and a coffee plantation.

Fish farm and coffee plantation in Bidoup Bui Na National Park. We got a bit lost on the return finding the correct road back in the fish farm area.

The waterfall was a bit underwhelming. A few of the folks that were at the visitor center when we first arrived had beat us there and were lounging around.

Returning to the visitor center, we crossed their riverfront plaza (still under construction) to the restaurant building. It was deserted except for 3 people working there. We chose a table out on the patio next to one already set up with a tablecloth and utensils. That one was reserved!? We ordered the rice plate of the day, which was a pretty amazing meal for 40,000 dong each. It came with a bowl of soup, rice, veggie and a fish steak. As we received our food, the group from the waterfall sat down at the reserved table and along with a few other people including the man working the visitor center. They had ordered a feast. I couldn’t read the menu, but it seemed like they had ordered many of the things priced per kilo. Also, they had a case of Tiger Beer (Bia). Rob and I debated whether they were all employees taking lunch and couldn’t decide. A couple of them were definitely were park staff.

The rest of the drive to Nha Trang was beautiful, even better than the drive to Da Lat. Getting into Nha Trang was a bit hairier as Google directed us down a couple tight alleys with oncoming traffic. We made it at last to iHome hostel in time for their free beer hour.

Road to Nha Trang. One section had waterfalls practically around each bend in the road.

Vietnam by Moto Days 4-7: Cooling off in Da Lat

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Amanda

Rob and I departed Mui Ne early in the day. We had heard that the stoplight by the sand dunes was a common police checkpoint where foreigners are often stopped. Mui Ne has had numerous motorbike accidents involving tourists so there was some crackdown on foreigners driving motorbikes (not that this had stopped rental companies). Thankfully, we made it out of town without any problems except the fact that we hadn’t had breakfast. Finally, when we intersected Highway 1, we finally found a multitude of local food sans tour buses and a great breakfast bowl of pho bò.

Our route stayed on highway 1 for ~2 blocks before we picked up a smaller road headed inland. This road climbed gently for awhile taking us past a series of reservoirs before climbing a mountain pass in earnest. Along the lakes there were plenty of shaded refreshment stands with hammocks, however, we passed them by having just stopped for breakfast. We didn’t reach another one until way over the pass. At one point, I asked Rob if the burning smell was the bike and he replied that it was just people burning stuff (which we did pass too). We kept going. Finally, we find a shady spot to stop. The engine is smoking. We give it awhile to cool before continuing more slowly. At this point, we pretty much at the top and had a glorious descent down the other side.

We reached a roadside rest stop at last! Rob got his sugarcane drink, nước mía and we lounged in hammocks for awhile. Getting closer Da Lat, we joined Highway 20 for a period. This was some of the worst riding of the trip with trucks passing each other on a two lane road blaring their horns to clear the bikes traveling in the designated direction. Some sections of the road were undergoing construction, which didn’t help. We reached an expressway at some point with a great scooter road alongside. The scooter road quickly turned into a dirt path which led back to car road for a stint then branched again onto dirt. At this last split, Rob decided just to continue on the car road marked with no scooter signs as that’s what our route had marked. About 12 km out of Da Lat, the scooter road returned.

Out of nowhere, we reached a parking lot full of tour buses and pulled over to investigate. It turned out to be a waterfall, but I was more interested in lunch. Trying to move the bike from our initial stopping point to the food stall, Rob couldn’t get it to start and refused to have someone start looking at it while we had lunch. The food was extremely disappointing. Rob ended up with Pho again and I had a baguette with fried egg that I was happy with until I noticed the abundance of black speckles in the bread that were cooked little bugs. After lunch, the bike still didn’t start. Another backpacker tried a few things to no avail. The large parking lot with the restaurants has a mechanic. He tried a variety of things for an hour or more before sending us down a bit of hill to another shop. The new mechanic did a couple tests before pointing at the engine and indicating that he needed to take it apart. We ended up getting a new head for the engine for $20. It took over an hour, but the bike finally started and we made it into town just before 7 pm.

Bike repair just 11 km from Da Lat. At least it broke down nearly in front of a mechanic. $20 for a new head for our engine. 2 hours later we were back on the road.

We found our hotel without too much issue despite it having a similar name to so many others. On the way to My dream hotel, we passed dreams hotel, dreams hotel 3, sweet dream hotel and more.

Weekend night market in Da Lat city center. All the streets close to motorized traffic after 7pm. Best grilled corn covered in herb butter. We had two ears!

For dinner, Rob and wandered tasting food from a variety of vendors. After dinner, we headed to 100 roofs, a crazy bar recommended to us by some folks we met at a hostel heading the opposite direction. Rob had arranged to meet another friend from Siam Reap and Saigon there. While waiting for him, we ran into the Canadians from the previous night in Mui Ne that we had told about the place. We had a great time great lost in all its levels and passages. The décor is ridiculous with sculpted faces and such everywhere.

The next morning, we woke early for a canyoning trip with Groovy Gecko (motto-Be crazy not lazy!) I was a bit lazy and skipped out on the cliff jumping. Other than that, this was a pretty awesome day. We did a bunch of off-road driving (the guide not us, but it was pretty rough just riding in back), 1 dry rappel, 4 waterfall rappels, cliff jumping and 1 small waterslide with a spot of lunch to break up the day. The waterfalls were very slick and we all fell at different points, especially on the long one at 65m, which took awhile to get down.

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Group for Canyoning trip

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The headfirst natural waterslide

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The 65m waterfall at the end of the day.

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The 25m falls. Our second rappel.

Since we wanted a full day to drive to Nha Trang, we decided to stay one more night so we could get a few bike maintenance things done (oil change, spoke fix, new rear bearings) and explore around Da Lat for a day then and leave in the next morning. Our great $10 budget hotel was sadly not available so we moved to a hostel with a fun atmosphere, Easy Tiger.

After checking in, we realized that my sunglasses were missing, so we had to made a trip back to the first hotel. Turns out, they were in our first hotel room that the staff had moved us out of and had fallen under a curtain. Then, we spent awhile trying to find the national park office to book a tour for the next day. Eventually, we located the correct building accessible from a side street one over from the listed address. The building was full of motorbikes but not a person in sight. One person showed up as we were about to leave and explained that this is just an admin office. Oops!

Ravenous Rob demands feeding, so we headed to Artist Alley to get him the ostrich burger that the Canadians had raved about. It turned out to be an ostrich steak but it was darn good. My avocado salad was fine but they weren’t as flavorful as I hoped.

We spent the afternoon exploring more of town and visiting crazy house, a ever-growing house with sections connected by soaring bridges, ladders or small passages. Da Lat is much cooler then much of Vietnam, so it’s a common domestic vacation spot, especially for honeymoons. This is their winter but still it’s not that cold. We were heartily entertained seeing locals everywhere in hats, scarves and all manner of down jackets.

Many of the hostels here do a family style dinner for a few dollars so we joined out hostel’s one. With a small group, we pulled tables and chairs street-side for a meal of soup, pumpkin, rice, BBQ prawns/dried squid(fishy and very chewy), stir-fried spleen of some animal(well-seasoned but very chewy)/meat/veggies and of course, happy water. The happy water arrived in a two liter water bottle. When it was gone, it was replaced with a bottles of Men brand vodka. Rob bought the third bottle. Someone else bought a fourth. Each was $3.

Street-side family dinner at Easy Tiger Hostel

Rob’s Da Lat drinking buddy.

This was international women’s day, which is a big deal here because men and women are not considered equals as far as we can tell. We had seen flowers for sale everywhere walking around the city. From what we saw, women’s day meant the women got offered shots with everyone else and the husbands drank as per usual. I hope our host wife at least got a rain check on it.

Vietnam by Moto Days 2-4: Pool and Sand in Mũi Né

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Amanda

Near H’ô Tràm, we picked a yellow cantaloupe like melon to eat later and continued northward.

As the fields changed from melons to spiky dragon fruit trees, we pulled over in a town to look for the roast pork sandwich stands mentioned in the Vietnam Coracle since I thought I had seen a pig sign. Rob pulled over in a shady patch outside a house to check the map. Turns out that a large group was lunching on seafood on the patio. They motioned us over to join their feast and plied us with beer and a variety of seafood. Luckily we had our recently purchased melon to share.

With a combination of the only Vietnamese we knew (1, 2, 3, cheers! – mot, hi, baa yo!) And the Lonely Planet dictionary, we managed some conversation. We learned how to say spicy and tried áwp/snail. Rob responsibly refused beer refills (the Vietamese think it is perfectly reasonable to have 5 beers with lunch and then get back on a motorbike, we disagree) and we managed to get back on the road north.

We stopped in Phan Thiet for a 10k dong bánh mi and an ATM before continuing on to the Mũi Né Backpacker Village. We paid a premium $25 for a large double room with en suite bathroom and access to a gorgeous pool across the road from the beach. The poolside was so pleasant we actually never made it to the beach proper. We played pool volleyball for awhile then tossed a football around. Dinner was a beach front restaurant (sand on top of a concrete pier) that served tasty and reasonably priced seafood and beer. Recommended by Lonely Planet, Lam Tong Restaurant was our go to spot for food and drinks with a view. The squid with garlic was so good!

Tasty dinner on the beach at Lam Tong!

View of the kiteboarding beach from Lam Tong Restaurant

We signed up for the sunrise sand dunes and more tour for the next day. It was slightly more expensive than the afternoon tour, but came with free breakfast and would allow us to spend the afternoon by the pool (and not baking in the sun on the dunes). Four am the next morning came quickly and it was a bit hard to drag ourselves out of bed in the darkness.

Vietnam by Moto Days 1-2: Escaping Saigon

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Amanda

Thanks goodness that the Vietnam Coracle has great routes for leaving Ho Chi Minh/Saigon (We followed his Ocean Route to begin our journey) that it wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Rob and I were doing pretty well getting our stuff packed and errands run. The mini market in our alley had bungee cords for 50 cents each and cheap face masks. Getting a SIM for Rob’s newly unlocked phone took longer than expected since the first one was bad, but we got it figured out.

So, we get the bike, load the bike, maneuver down our tiny alley to the main street then promptly find out that we can’t take the way we planned to the gas station. While trying to navigate to it, Rob realizes the bike isn’t riding right and sure enough, we have a flat tire. Everyone took one look at the bike and pointed to the nearest mechanic shop. An hour and a half or so later, we have gas and two holes in our back tube solidly patched (Only $1!).

Despite one wrong turn, we manage to escape the chaos of the city via a tunnel then a super cheap ferry across part of the Mekong. After hours of riding and perhaps a nap on my part, we made it to the coast and eventually Hô Tram, a small beach side town surrounded by a few mega resorts. After some brief searching while having refreshments at a beach side hut (not too pretty with lots of trash and flies around), we booked a room at the river ray estates with our hotels.com credit. We wanted to spend the afternoon lounging around a pool and that was the only one in our budget.

Arriving at the River Ray Estates, it appears to be pretty deserted. We were upgraded to a large section of a villa on the beach. The best feature above all was the washing machine. The thought of having all our clothes clean was amazing.

More immediate though was the fading daylight. We put on swimsuits and headed to the beautiful pool. Since the resort is located on a sandbar between a river and the ocean. It has water views on both sides. Our room was on the ocean side and the pool is on the river side.

Dinner at the resort seemed a bit expensive starting at $4 entrees so we took the motorbike about 1 km to a roadside com (rice) restaurant. The main recognizable thing was shrimp. Rob ordered some for him but the lady grabbed the rest of the tray and heated it up. I ended up with shrimp too. These weren’t able the large or even medium shrimp of the Western world. No, these were the itty bitty fried rice shrimp and just slightly larger with full heads and shells. Too big to eat without shelling but difficult to peel. Dinner choice fail. We should have just eaten at the resort.

We returned to our room full but unsatisfied. After a bit of laundry and some internet time, Rob and I called it a night.

The next morning as we went to check out the proprietress called us over to join her for a water and coconut. It was freshly picked and easily the best coconut we had ever tasted. After drinking the juice, she had it cut open so we could gorge ourselves on its sweet flesh. She told us about her children who live all around the world (she said we remind her of them) and the many places she has traveled. Eventually, we got on the road to Mũi Né.

Ho Chi Minh from the Rooftops to the Riverside

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Amanda

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WordPress seems to be intermittently non-functional, so I’m pretty behind on posting. I will try to get back up to date when it works again.
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After a wonderfully uneventful bus ride and board crossing into Vietnam (I just downloaded the Ticket to Ride and Catan Board Game apps, which made the ride go super fast), the Sorta/168 bus dropped us a few blocks from our guesthouse (Ngoc Thao). Down a narrow alley, you still had to dodge motor bikes. For $17 a night, we had a private bunkbed room with ensuite bathroom and breakfast.

After dropping our bags, we made our first Pho run to Pho Quoyn. The pile of fresh greens that arrived with it was ridiculous! Some greens we never tried before and some extremely spicy pepper slices. The other backpackers from our bus were already there. Then, we wandered around and picked up a Vietnam sim. All around the backpacker district, the sims cost about $10, but we finally located a phone dealer and got one for $6. Having normal speed data is so worth it after suffering on gimped T-Mobile for months. We also found a laundry place for half the cost of the hotel service. Oh the anticipation of clean clothing!

All these chores done, we found a beautiful rooftop bar with 12,000 dong ($0.65 usd) Saigon beers served with peanuts and proceeded to determine that red Saigon has more flavor than green Saigon. The green Saigon is a larger bottle with a half percent less alcohol.

The View Garden rooftop. We went here almost every day.

The next day, we explored Saigon doing the Lonely Planet city walk and visiting the ~~American War Museum~~ War Remnants Museum.

Along the river

One of our best lunch decisions. Bún bó, beef with veggies and rice vermicilli. Just grab some tiny stools and a table. It was packed with workers.

Ice cream at a place known for coconut ice cream. The dessert did not live up to the price, but the ac was nice and they served cold iced tea.

Cathedral

Historic post office with portrait of Ho Chi Minh. I mailed all are Cambodia postcards since Cambodian post is suppose to be very unreliable.

We finally made it to the war museum and spent a few hours revisiting the atrocities of the Vietnam war/the war of American Aggression. The museum is reasonably one sided (perhaps somewhat rightly so), but they do cover the horrors of agent orange on both sides of the line.

American war museum

Returning to the hostel, we had just enough time to cool off before meeting up with Shane and Sarah to buy their motorbike. Rob took it for a test ride first then I joined him for a jaunt around the block. We left Sarah and Shane with Rob’s passport. Apparently their hotel lady saw us go and asked them if we left collateral. When they said they had a passport, she asked if it was real. Then when we had to go grab the cash, she asked them if we had left a deposit. She was so worried that we were going to screw them over. Sarah and Shane had bought us beers to celebrate, which was funny considering we were going to offer and to treat them to some beers at our favorite rooftop bar. They wanted to get cleaned up so after we finished their beers, we agreed to meet on the rooftop later.

Rob and I went up there early and ran into a whole group from the downtown hostel in Siam Reap. Shane and Sarah joined us for a couple rounds then we found an foodie street recommended by the Vietnam Coracle and got some tasty local non-touristy food.

I didn't know they did this style of noodles in Vietnam.

The next day, I dragged Rob to barber next to the guesthouse and she trimmed him back a ton.

The hairdresser didn't have much beard experience but she got it did pretty well.

Then, we attempted to pick out some motorcycle riding clothes and accessories, but shopping was a complete failure. All the clothing was too expensive and we didn’t see a store with the bungee cords and face masks. We did check out the local microbrewery at Pasteur street brewing as recommended to us by Steffen and Audrey who honeymooned here over the holidays. It was so good to have hoppy and sour beer again. The US level prices meant we nursed our small beers. The dude that sat down next to us was also from Seattle and lives near Greenlake – another small world moment.

After the frustrating day, we splurged a bit and got some fancy Mexican food at
Khói Thom. Yum cheese!

Queso flameado with homemade tortillas only 95,000 dong.

On the way back to guesthouse, Rob spotted coconut ice cream so naturally we stopped for dessert.

Coconut ice cream with a variety of interesting toppings - corn, sweet rice and some green jelly. Served with a glass of coconut water.

Finally, the next morning, we managed to buy at least bungee cords and face masks at a market in our little alley. Turns out you just have to ask and they have a wide variety of stuff in the back. Finally, we hit the road headed for the coast.

Seeing the past, present and future in Phnom Penh

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Amanda

After 7+ long hours on the bus (omg the bus WiFi actually worked!), we arrived in Phnom Penh in time for rush hour. Our bus crawled the last 2 miles to the bus station. Happily, our tuk tuk from the hostel was waiting and could tell the descending hordes we were already accounted for. We ended up hiring our driver for the next day to visit some of the outlying sights starting at 8 am (free pick-up with hope that you will hire them for the next day seems pretty standard).

We chose 88 hostel because it wasn’t too crazy but still had a pool and bar. They have a pod room with double beds, so we were able to share a pod for $15 total. Since we booked directly with them, we got $3/each bar credit. We were a bit lazy the first night and just had the incredibly tasty bar food for dinner. Their potato wedges were perfectly battered and fried and their chicken skewers were well-seasoned. Rob went out later for snack with a group and ended up at the same chain if Mexican food we went to in Siam reap.

The next morning, we found two other women to share our tuk tuk headed to the Khmer Rouge historical sites, so we had a full cab. While waiting on them, our driver mentioned that much of his family perished in the regime’s rule. I couldn’t do anything but try to express my sorrow for his loss. It was a good reminder of how recent the tragedy is to the Cambodians. Our first stop was the Killing Fields outside of town where the Khmer Rouge did their “disposal.” This Killing Field (many have been found) requires a drive outside of the city and through a small village ending in a pleasant seeming garden area with a tower among the trees. Not until you approach the tower can you make out the bones housed in its soaring crypt and the depressions of mass graves surrounding it. As much as it can be, this once terrible place has been transformed into a peaceful, verdant resting place for so many. Watching a video of the man who first stumbled upon the site describe his discovery was particularly heart breaking. Bullets were too expensive to be used so blunt force trauma followed by DTT poisoning was the method of choice.

Memorial among the mass graves at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields.

Then, we went headed back to town to visit to the Tuol Sleng/S-21 prison museum where people were cataloged, tortured and made to confess their “crimes” before execution. En route, our tuk tuk got a flat tire so we spent some time at a sugar cane stand waiting to get it fixed. We bought the hardest mango from the nice folks who cleared off a sitting spot for us. Here, they serve the green mango with a bowl of salt.

The prison museum looks remarkably non-sinister from the outside. In a neighborhood of shops, the former school is tucked back behind a large wall. You start by visiting the torture cells where dead prisoners were found after the Khmer Rouge abandoned the facility. Many of the original cells were kept intact so you can imagine the deplorable living conditions. One floor contained thousands of mug shots of all the S-21 victims; many were children. The methodical documentation of each person was incredible and included their background as well as their photo and confession. One of the foreigners tortured there and later killed laced his confession with pop culture references, so people would know it was a load of crock. Six people managed to survive imprisonment there by having useful skills. Two of them have written books and were on hand to talk to visitors.

After the museum, we dropped off the Canadian women at the Russian market and continued on to the Cambodian television network station where the Pradal Serey fights were being filmed. A form of kick boxing, it was pretty brutal but no blood. One of the fighters look pretty woozy after being knocked out. When the competitors have each other in a head lock hug then try to knee each other, it looks pretty silly. We watched four matches with increasingly bigger and older fighters.

Pradal Serey (kick boxing) at CTN studios 2-~4 pm on Saturday (someone mentioned more at 5 or 6 pm too) and again on Sunday at 2 pm

CTN films the fights with a live audience so anyone can go watch for free. The fighters ranged from 17 to upper 20s. We saw a couple knockouts and a couple decisions, including one we both incorrectly guessed the winner.

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