Pho A Leg Over - A Month in Vietnam

4 weeks ago we farewelled Cambodia after our awesome stay there and made our way to Vietnam - we had decided that we had had enough lounging by the pool with cheap beers and needed to trade up to lounging at the beach with cheap beers instead. I will warn you reading this that there is going to be even more complaining about the heat in this post than the last one - did you know that it is actually possible to sweat from your knee caps?

Our first point of call in Vietnam was the small and sleepy island of Phu Quoc just off the southern coast. We met a Scottish couple on the bus who didn't mind a beverage or two and they followed us along to our hostel, which was essentially a road side bar that had some beds out the back. It was hot AF, but the beers were dirt cheap and the island had some spectacular beaches! After a few days of cruising around on scooters, lounging by the beach, sweating uncontrollably and getting our first taste of the amazing array of Vietnamese food we headed off to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City - we still don't know what to actually call it.

Amazing views and cheap beers - it's a tough gig!

More amazing beaches

To be fair, the table and chairs here for small even for Vietnamese standards

Saigon was definitely a change of pace from everything we had experienced for the last month or so. It was big, loud, noisy and there was a stupid amount of stuff to do! It was also the first place in a long time (like 10 days) where we could find decent Western food, so in between amazing meals like pho (noodle soup) and banh mi (baguette with any number of ingredients), there were also a few cheeky yiros and some NYC style pizza. Our first major stop on the tourist trail was the War Remnants Museum, or the museum formally known as the American & Chinese War Crimes Museum. As you can imagine it was pretty bleak, it was full of pictures and information about what caused the Vietnamese War and the effect it had on the people, it really drove home just how pointless and damaging the whole conflict was.

KG in front of the Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minge City

Pretty typical street in Saigon, although the traffic was usually A LOT worse

We also ventured out to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which the Viet Cong created during the Vietnam War and the day was an absolute shamozzle. To paint the picture for you, anyone who uses a weather app/website will see the actual temperature and then a "feels like" temperature which takes in to account humidity, wind etc. The "feels like temperature" for this particular day was 49 degrees. To compound this it also happened to be that we spent all night knocking back 50c stubbies with our Scottish friends and were operating off of about 3 hours sleep. It was a demanding, and physically and emotionally draining afternoon, but we survived... just.

After a few more days kicking around Saigon we decided it was time for us to do nothing for a few weeks and let someone else do all the work, so we jumped on an Intrepid tour that would take us north over the course of 2 weeks.

Our first stop on the tour was a home stay just south of Saigon in the Mekong Delta, we spent the day riding around the local village, learning how to roll spring rolls (it's immensely harder than it looks) and lounging around in hammocks - it was a tough day out. Being a home stay the facilities were a little rough and it was during the night that we discovered that you can actually produce sweat from the back of your ears, it's quite remarkable.

KG trying her hand at making rice paper rolls

Who wore it better? KG in a conical hat at the Mekong Delta

Tom wearing a conical hat over his regular hat

After the home stay we took a surprisingly comfortable overnight train up to Nha Trang, which can be best described as the Vietnamese Bali, it's chock-a-block with Chinese, Russians, Australians, Europeans, you name it - we weren't the biggest fans of Nha Trang but it is where Tom discovered Nep Moi. Nep Moi is Vietnamese vodka made from rice and retails at $4 per half litre bottle. It's as appealing as it sounds - smooth on the palate, a pleasant and inviting aroma and it's the classy type of beverage you want to be seen with... in actual fact it was none of those things and produced a hangover so bad it induced a condition that became known as the Nep Moi Sweats or NMS for short.

Tom decked out in a robe to visit the Po Nagar Cham Towers in Nha Trang 

KG at the Po Nagar Cham Towers

Tom grilling up some goat at a Vietnamese BBQ joint

Following another overnight train  from Nha Trang was one of the highlights of Vietnam, Hoi An - we absolutely loved our few days there and absolutely recommend a visit there! The food is absolutely incredible, our guide directed us to the best banh mi store in Vietnam, there was a boat on the river that sold you beer in a cereal bowl and we also found the time to get a tailor to whip up some clothes for us! The town itself is amazing, there is a beautiful old town and then about a 5 minute drive away there are spectacular beaches. Hoi An is definitely a spot we will be returning to.

The Japanese covered bridge in Hoi An

Tom and his tailor, Ty discussing the lining colour of Tom's jacket - Ty was absolutely tiny!

The next stop on our tour was the former Vietnamese capital of Hue. Katherine was in need of a bit of "me time" so we decided to peel off from the group for a day in Hue and go on a self-guided scooter tour of the royal tombs that surround the city. The following day saw us visit the royal citadel for the morning, it was a beautiful complex but the day was marred with yet another bout of the NMS after some horrid decision-making the evening before... you can probably see a pattern forming here.

KG touristing it up at the tomb of Tu Duc outside of Hue

Yeah, not sure what's happening here...

Tom airing himself out at the tomb of Dong Khanh

I want this blokes job...

More airing at the tomb of Dong Khanh

The final stop of our tour was the bustling capital of Hanoi. After a brief 24 hour stop in Hanoi it was time to head out to Vietnam's biggest drawcard, Ha Long Bay. We jumped aboard a boat that far outweighed our expectations and spent 24 hours cruising around Ha Long Bay, there was even a small amount of kayaking thrown in for good measure. It was absolutely stunning, an incredibly beautiful place and we both agreed it was the highlight of our tour of Vietnam.

A shot outside Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - our 3rd Communist President mausoleum, only 1 to go!

Tom with his new love, Nep Moi, and a couple extra kilo by the looks of it

KG with some of the rubbish scenery in Ha Long Bay

Some more hideous Ha Long Bay scenery

Last one

Katherine enjoying a cocktail on top of our boat - not sure if she is trying to squeeze out of fart or is sneezing

With the tour coming to an end we were back to fending for ourselves, luckily however our great mate Todd now resides in Hanoi and was all too happy to so us around! Our time with Toddy took in zero Vietnamese restaurants, one of the best sandwiches we've ever had, an awful lot of beer and an amazing scooter tour around West Lake.

After much debate we went with the controversial decision to NOT visit Sapa and instead head down to Ninh Binh, and it was a decision that most definitely paid off. We hired a last and easily our worst scooter, Siddle, and headed about half a hour out of town to get to our home stay, The scenery is absolutely incredible, it was like Ha Long Bay minus the bay! We spent the next 3 days scootering around the amazing scenery, eating the incredible food  that the mum at our home stay was churning out and getting gawked and laughed at by the local tourists that were in the area.

Shot at Trang An in Ninh Bing

Tom awaiting his imminent death

Roadside beers in Ninh Binh

KG atop the Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh

Tom taking some family shots with the local tourists

That brought an end to our time in Vietnam, next stop, Hong Kong!

Yeah/Nah Index

Phu Quoc - yeah
Ho Chi Minh - yeah defs
Nha Trang - nah to Nha Trang (ha!)
Hoi An - yeah
Hue - nah
Halong Bay - yeah
Hanoi - yeah
Ninh Binh - deffo!