Vietnam: Phong Nha to Hoi An

May 16: Phong Nha at Gecko Hostel.

We arrived at 4am, slept for 2.5 hours, and woke up to have some breakfast and get picked up for an INCREDIBLE tour to Paradise Cave and Dark Cave. Huge thanks to Phong Nha Discovery Tour and our guide, Sunny. She really was smiley all day long despite the rain, and so funny!

We first walked through forests and rain to a waterfall in the Botanical Gardens.

Paradise Cave was discovered by a farmer in 2005, found largely by accident. Seems he saw a hole, tried to get in and made it about 10m down before realizing that it was huge and he couldn't see anything. The British Cave Research Association and Hanoi University began mapping out the cave system and made it tourist-accessible for only 1km of the 31km as of 2010. It's called Paradise because the temperature, somehow, doesn't change; it's 20-22 degrees all year round. I actually found it quite chilly, since we walked up the mountain in the pouring rain. We were given an hour to wander through, and didn't actually make it the whole way because we were enjoying it so much. Check these out! The geokid in me was SO. DAMN. HAPPY.

After Paradise, we drove to Dark Cave and ate a delicious meal. Then we got changed and strapped in, because we zip lined to the cave! It was Andy’s first zipline and he was not a fan. I, however, absolutely loved it! We took a quick dip in some rather cold water to get to the cave entrance, and were very excited about all of the bats!

We got to walk through a bunch of caves and go mudding! There is one particular cave portion that is tricky to get to but totally full of awesome muddy water. It’s super cool, and very slippery to get to. One rule: no throwing mud. We were wondering how all of the tourists impact the ecosystem. The water is such that you can't see a thing, but you can float VERY easily. It's lovely. Andy said: It's icky and I don't like it.

This photo is my hand within the water, and the light comes from our headlamps! HA

After the mud cave, there's an awesome lake/river within the cave that we could clean off in. Then we hopped in kayaks and inflatable canoes to paddle back to the play area. Swimming is awesome. The water was quite cold and I couldn't feel my fingers so was ordered to shower and change (by Andy). Meanwhile, he played on a ropes course and canon balled. We were very happy to be in the van and get back to Gecko hostel.

I almost fell asleep at dinner, but didn't want to go to bed at 7 because I thought I'd wake up in the middle of the night. This was dumb. I should have gone to bed when I was super tired, because I got a second wind and didn't feel like sleeping until about 10. Thank goodness, because we had to wake up at 6 to hop on a bus to Hue.


May 17: Hue

Arrived in Hue around noon. We had a super cheap, vegetarian lunch and hung out to get ourselves organized. Hue used to be the capital of Veitnam, so we wanted to head to the Imperial City, built in 1362, and the Citadel, built in 1804 and it looked super old and awesome, but it closed at 5pm so we missed it :( Instead, we walked around through the walled city, which looks just like any other city in Vietnam (rather disappointing, I was hoping for something different).

As we were walking back, we were enthralled by the night walking street along the Perfume River. On either side, there are lovely parks full of statues and greenery, and plenty of shops, restaurants, and street food vendors.

We have decided that spending one night in a place does not work for us. We want more time, to wander about and get our bearings. We need at least 2 nights, preferably 3 or 4, so that we don't feel rushed.

I was craving pizza, so we found a huge Western restaurant and paid far too much money for some home comfort foods. We went to bed around 10, and were woken up several times between 12 & 2am by our very drunken roommates returning from the bars. Ah, hostel dorm life.

May 18: Hue to Hoi An with Road Trippers!

This was incredible. We were in a convoy of 3 old US army Jeeps that have been repurposed. They were left behind when the war ended, as were many other things, so it's a clever tourism option to travel the Hai Van Pass in a Jeep.

The Hai Van Pass is absolutely gorgeous, when it's not raining and full of clouds. We still loved it, because we are huge fans of the rain and clouds. Luckily, our Jeep had the rain cover up the entire time. This trip was great, because while it is only 180 km, it takes all day to stop in various places to have awesome photos and food.

      

         

We arrived in Hoi An around 430pm, made our way to our guesthouse, had a much needed shower and food, and watched Finding Dory as we fell asleep.

May 19: Hoi An!

We slept in and had a leisurely morning, and went to a recommended coffee shop for brunch. Turns out, it was Western (read: expensive, but not noodles for breakfast ha) and called Dingo Deli. The pastries looked beautiful, and they had coffee cheese cake, which looked SUPER tempting. Cursed dietary restrictions. Harumph. We spent our time at the Deli making decisions on what sort of clothes we wanted to have made. Hoi An is known for its tailors.

We went to a place really close to our guesthouse, showed pictures of what we wanted and picked a bunch of fabrics. The tailor, I assume Sarah because the place is called Sarah’s Boutique, took our measurements and said ‘see you tomorrow for the first fitting!’ Exciting!!!

I wanted a massage and mani/pedi so we stopped at a place with a decent deal. But, it was actually shite. The massages were uncomfortable and didn’t actually do much, there was a very long facial massage that included far too much chest massage, and the mani/pedi was entirely disappointing. I assumed that since all of the best manicurists at home are Vietnamese, anyone her would be amazing. Put in my place; silly me and my assumptions. We had a really great chat over yummy dinner, and went back to the guesthouse to watch a movie.

May 20: Hoi An

Went for a walk through part of the city to the market; haggled for sandals (the vendor was rather displeased), swim shorts for both of us, and a waterproof bag – and a good thing too since we were then out of cash. 

As we were walking back to get to our first fitting, we noticed a free museum so stopped in. Turns out, it was the sweet museum our friend from Mai Chau raved about: Precious Heritage Collection. It was amazing: a French photographer has been traveling sporadically through Vietnam since 2010, interviewing various tribes throughout the country to create this museum to help keep the different cultures from dying completely. He even collected traditional clothing, many of which are no longer made and rarely worn. Some of the photos have been in National Geographic, and the photographer is getting recognition. But more importantly, he sometimes takes Vietnamese television crews with him on his second or third visit to a village so that others can know more about them and preserve the heritage.

We went for our fitting, had a delicious dinner (I am a big fan of the soups here; particularly tomato chicken and chicken rice), and wandered back to the guesthouse in the rain. There seems to be a thunderstorm every night and it’s glorious.

May 21: Hoi An

Picked up our clothes (see photo below), and went to the beach on rented bicycles!  I LOVE what the salt water does to my hair; I’ll have to take a picture at some point. I like that so many people sell things on the beach. An older woman sat in front of me with snacks, then another came with souvenirs, and another with drinks. I partook in the snacks.

We biked back, showered off the sunscreen, sand, and sweat, and got dinner. We decided to try duck, since it seemed to be everywhere in Hoi An. Yummy! We spent the evening watching Grace & Frankie (had to introduce Andy to it, especially since season 3 just came out), which was precisely what we both wanted after a tiring day in the sun.

May 22: Hoi An

Spent the morning packing up and downloading more Netflix to watch when there’s no wifi (often). We rented bikes, grabbed brunch, and biked around the old quarter; I say around and not through because there is an entrance fee that we didn’t feel like paying. We would stop wherever we thought looked interesting or pretty, which is a lot of places because there are old buildings and lanterns EVERYWHERE, and I am actually super grateful that we did.

This is the famed Japanese bridge. It's pretty. 

I wondered why there was an abandoned pagoda, or what looked like it had been a lovely temple. We were walking around to see some other buildings and were ushered over by an elderly man with a huge smile. He showed us his lantern workshop, a place that employs and houses people with various disabilities. Not only that, this was the man who brought lanterns back to Hoi An in the 90s, after decades of war and thus no time/interest/money for lanterns, and he was SO proud to share his craft. 

He even offered lantern-making workshops. I should’ve taken pictures of the process; it was great, and made the stupidly hot bike ride totally worth every second.

                          

   

We grabbed a bunch of snacks for the bus, including fresh veggies from the market (AMAZING AND SO NEEDED), and picked up our bags from the guesthouse to head to the hostel to wait for our second overnight bus. To clarify the sweatiness: too hot for a bra and I literally sweat through my romper. Thank goodness I packed a change of comfy clothes in my bus bag.

We got in a van to get to the bus, and the reverse sound on this van was the tune of Jingle Bells. No lie. It made everyone laugh, and was pretty great, and then we boarded the bus. It was an 8 hour overnight from Hoi An to Nha Trang, and this time we were seated beside each other, which was nice, though we opted not to watch any movies this time. 

We liked Hoi An a lot, but were ready for some beach time.