vietnam trip part 1

Vietnam Trip at a glance (part 1)

Hey! Back once more again from Vietnam. But instead of the parents this time, I ventured out into the unknown with a group of aero peeps, Jonathan, Kok Vui and Jiemin. The trip which we initially planned out to be a very packed trip in order to view as much as possible in the very short time span tt we had in the country seemed somewhat daunting when we set foot. And meanwhile due to the busy schedules of many of our team, we had to abandoned all thoughts of embarking on a fully-planned out trip. Which to me was a good thing of course, much to Jonathan’s dismay (woops..sorrie jon . just tt u seem to be fretting over the change of plans all the time. Haha) But nonethelss everything worked our fine and we managed to keep to our plan albeit for the minor adjustments we had to make due to transport timings.

Beginning our journey in Ho Chi Minh, the 4 of us set of for the backpackers zone in the city. There we set off to find means of tranporatation ard the country up north towards hue as well as accomadation for the night. After many minor mishaps, we managed to book 4 tickets on the open bus tours at Hanh Café which allowed us to travel without a time restriction to our destinations, Saigon à Mui Ne à Dalat à Nha Trang à Hoi An à Hue. A journey tt wld take us halfway across the country ( a considerable feat since Vietnam is almost vertical across the map stretching from Thailand to China on the other end). Therefore we set off at night immediately after a small stroll in the city under the pouring rain (W/O UMBRELLAS!!!), and we reached Mui Ne at 12pm.

Mui Ne was a reallie quiet coastal town. A place renowned for its sand dunes and its fish sauce productions. Our day tour took us to the outskirts of the town where amazing sand dunes stretched as far as the eye cld see and the wind blown restlessly across the sand plains. It was a magical sight one which instilled peace, quiet and sense of wellbeing. Astonished by the beauty of the desert, I was astounded by the existence of such a lifeless terrain right smack in the middle of the country. A group of little kids approached us to assist us in some sandboarding activites. Wary of the kids intentions to earn money off the few of us, we approached with caution as we knew tt money cld be a nasty thing in such situaitions. And true enough, the pestering of the little kids who groveled, begged, weeped and cursed for additional money aside from the reasonable sum tt we gave out totally ruined the experience. Nonetheless, the photos and the memories of the desert stay fresh in my mind.

The harsh desert behind the lush greenery

Testimonial of Jon’s Violence. Poor Kok Vui….

Lotus Flower of the Desert
The ever-changing landscape

The rest of the day got by in a flash. The Sun took a toll on us as we paid visits to the Red Sand Dunes, Fairy Stream and Red Canyon. By the time we got back to our guest house for lunch, we were all ‘nua’ and reallie tired. Lunch was topped by the most satisfying Papaya Shake ever. I must mention tt for us, ice cold milk coffee, shakes (banana and mango) as well as ice-cream were everyday treats for us due to the heat. Their shakes in Vietnam is reallie solid stuff if I must mention. Less milk and more fruit. Chunky goodness. Yumz.. hehe.

The next day, we set off early for Dalat, the highlands. Hoping to catch a bit of the cold air in the mountains. And boy did we get our wish… it got pretty cold there in the night as we trudged ard the city taking in the bustle of the quaint settlement which was founded by the French some decades ago. The cool air made for perfect conditions for sleeping anyway and we all enjoyed the best night of sleep tt very night.

Posing on a tree

Waterfall at Dalat
Beauty florishes in the highlands
Posing again!
Gorgeous…
Freezing in Dalat (thx to our failed attempt to get hot coffee instead of cold coffee! Lost in translation!)
My favourite pic! Nothing beats a cup of coffee.. *ahhh*
Early the next day, we set off for Nha Trang which supposedly was a place to ‘rest, relax and party the night away’ as quoted from lonely planet. However to our disappointment, the beaches were nothing to boast about. Thank God for the island tours the next day which brought us island hopping. The tour marked the peak of our trip as the boat took us from one offshort island to another for different activities such as snorkeling, parasailing, etc