Saigon part 2

We booked a flight from DaLat back to Saigon. It costed €25 per person, big luggage included, and it took only 40 minutes. It is a free airport, you can smoke inside and take pictures outside.

When we landed in Saigon again, we took Uber, as we were told. It costed only 100k and worked perfectly. This time we stayed in the backpackers district. I booked a tour to Cu Chi tunnels and left 1h later.

There are tunnels like this in more areas, but not under all Vietnam :) These tunnels were made already during the French colonial times, to provide a hideout for the locals, probably because their colonist friends were being too nice. Anyway, they were extended during the Vietnam war. As we were told, the people were small and thin due to the lack of food, so ot wasn’t soooo hard for them to move along the tunnels. The average mcdonalds fresser would have been left outside

It was no pleasure either. The Vietnamese could only go out at night, suffered due to the lack of sunlight, malaria, hunger, not to mention the invaders. But they had all these traps for them

All this area was destroyed by US with the agent orange. And still, they lost.

At the end of this tour we watched a propaganda movie describing the people who used the tunnels for about 21 years. It showed happy people, and children having a normal life, eating, dancing, and fighting against the invaders. 

Next day we booked a tour to the Mekong Delta, which proved to be a Mekong River tour. We went around with different boats.

Here we see a Bootstau or bateau bouchon pour les connaisseurs

We drunk schnaps from this jar full of dead snakes

And we seen future purses and belts

Last evening in Saigon, we went to the Bitexco Financial Tower, 262m high, 68 floors, 2nd tallest in Vietnam. We chose the Heineken experience, since it’s €1 more than the sky deck and you go to 60th floor and get beer.

We’ve been up there where is green

To the airport we took Uber again and we were pleased with it. I will only use Uber in Vietnam next times.

DaLat

We booked a bus to DaLat from the place we stayed in Mui Ne. The bus came, luckily we got good sits, but it only left when it was full, even the foldable sits.

It’s a 143km ride, it took 4h. After the last passenger boarded the spaceship. This is one of the reasons we didn’t travel more this time in Vietnam, because unless you fly, it takes forever. Even with a motorbike.

But we crossed some mountains

And when we arrived we treated ourselves with Vietnamese food. Like home.

Then we booked some tours. Without renting a motorbike, it’s the only way.

We visited Pongour waterfall 

We tried elefant and weasel coffee...

Then we went under the Prenn waterfall 

Some things that are normal in Asia, are verboten in Europe because of a small country in Middle East and a big one in America

We took a cable car and visited Truc Lam temple, a nice a quiet place... I felt like I could retreat there and be quiet until I go...

Then this beautiful swan showed us around the lake

Then we climbed the highest peak close to DaLat called Langbiang 2167

We went twice to this bar called Maze. It must have had a good designer, it’s like a labyrinth, but we made it to the top, met and chatted with nice people.

Mui Ne

After 3 nights in Saigon, with sauna, jacuzzi and breakfast, we took the bus to Mui Ne. Everybody told us to get a motorbike, it’s the best way to travel in Vietnam. I’m not sure they’ve seen this busses.

Ok, they are slow, it took 4-5h for 200km. But you don’t need t worry, just lay down and relax.

Mui Ne looked like a resort for Russian tourists, but they must have become poor meanwhile because there were only few of them. Shops and restaurants sold mostly things Russians would buy.

One day we took a tour and we got the crappiest “jeep” in the whole village.

Then we went to the Fairy Stream

And then we witnessed the invasion of Vietnam... fishermen village

Then we got lost in the desert 

This was the first holiday from holiday, we relaxed and did almost nothing the 4 days we stayed here. 

Now off to DaLat.

Museum of War Crimes

WARNING! THIS IS A SAD POST!

The other point of view or what you don’t read on Wikipedia.

Nice French colony, brought with it some friendly inventions from the brother French nation.

And they (and their american friends) treated the locals very nice.

But as the americans themselves say: the first rule of colonization is the extermination of the indigenous population.

International treaties are for suckers only.

Now, some few insignificant nations protested against those war crimes. Maybe some significant others too. To deaf ears.

And when they fled, they forgot some things, they were in a hurry.

I don’t even want to go into the agent orange story.

Saigon

We arrived in Saigon, passed the visa control, and now we had to take a taxi to the city. Looked like that was the only way. Some guy came to us, we negotiated 120000 dongs, he said he had a taxi, but he didn’t, so we go back to the place where taxis came. Louise said we could only trust 2 conpanies, V and M, so we tried to take one, they chased us away, saying we needed membership card. What?!? So much bullshit. Anyway, we went to the “not agreed“ taxis, a woman directed us into one, and here we go.

Busy traffic in Saigon, but in about 1h we arrived in front of the hotel. The taxi driver asked 750000 dongs plus tip! Hahahaaaa... the meter showed far less, he said something about parking and other invented taxes that he had to pay, bla, Louise gave him 400k and we’re out. I still felt that was a bit too much, but the next taxi trip with one of the “agreed” companies proves that was quite fair.

The hotel looked nice, a guy opened the door for us, we got a key and went into the room 112. Surprise, someone was living there! We went back to the reception and got the 312 room, 2 levels above, and that was much better!

Ho Chi Minh City Hall

Vietnamese coffee


Vietnamese pancake Banh Xeo, exactly like the one we eat back home in Istanbul, äähntschuldigung, Saigon...äntschuldigung again... Bärlin.

Interesting combination, must have been a famous architect.

I need a visa... again

As a proud citizen of the most beautiful country, I also need a visa for Vietnam. Louise didn’t need a visa, probably because her country gave the world ABBA. And IKEA (btw, Ingwar Kamprad just moved on to the next world). What did mine give to the world? Anyway...

When we are about to checkin the big bags, problem again. I can’t just get a visa on arrival, it seems that I need one more paper from vietnamvisaorg.com some application request. 2h before the flight. Luckily, for idiots like me, they have an emergency service, $90 and you get it in your email in 15 mins. Yeeeeey, problem solved.

Now out of Thailand. I paid the fine for exceeding the visa time for Thailand, 500baht/day, it will not happen again, promised to myself.

Short flight with Vietnam Airlines, they have nice tradional clothes. 

We landed and headed to fill in the arrival paper. Louise said someone was yelling my name. Ok, maybe she’s tired. We filled the paper and then I heard it too. Who the **** knows me in Saigon? It turned out that I paid VIP visa services, so a woman took my passport and disappeared. Confused and not knowing what to think, I sat down and waited. In less that 5 mins the woman comes back with my visa! Nice service. 

Huge waiting lines at passport control, but they have many workers, so we’re soon out to Saigon.

Chom tong, Pai, and Chiang Mai

We stayed two nights in Chom Tong after the meditation course was over, to get some rest but also so we could visit the National Park Doi Inthanon. It was a nice day trip, we went there with taxi and then the hike was around 3 km on the top of the mountain. We visited Thailands highest point which is about 2465 meters.

We were advised to try the eggs, very tasty

On the 21st of January we went with taxi to Chiangmai to catch a bus to Pai from there. The taxi went slow and I thought it was good because usually they drive like they stole the car. But then Radu noticed that the driver was constantly looking at her phone instead... The bus ride to Pai was three hours and we arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. Our hotel was lovely but it was cold there. Probably because it was just next to the river. Anyway, in the evening we both had long trousers, jackets and was still feeling cold haha. 

Pai was very relaxed, mostly backpackers and hippies.

Found a craft beer bar

After two nights in Pai we went back to Chiangmai. We checked in to our hotel located in the old town. It turned out it was a party place, the French owner seemed pretty stoned most of the time and they played loud music by the pool. The water in our room didn't work the first day so we had to shower in another room but it was fine :) I really liked Chiangmai, it's a city but still small. The old town had many temples and cosy small streets. 

Unicorn time by the pool

Wat Chedi Luang

Khao Soi at Kat’s. If you miss it you were not there.

-Louise