…and one last cocktail.
It’s our final night in Vietnam. Tomorrow we’ll leave Phu Quoc and head to Ho Chi Minh City, and then this time tomorrow we’ll then be on a plane back to Sydney.
Month: July 2017
Mango Bay
So basically it’s paradise here.
The water is shallow and warm and calm and clear. If I walk out as far as I can while still touching the bottom, I can still see my feet just as clearly as my hands. There are little sand-coloured fish in the water near the shoreline and little sand-coloured crabs above it. It’s the perfect temperature, refreshing when you get in but not bracing, and the air is warm when you get out, so that you don’t start shivering on your way to your beach towel.
Phu Quoc
Today, after a bleary eyed start and two flights, we’ve traveled from one end of Vietnam to the other. We’re on the island of Phu Quoc, south of the Mekong Delta, over near Cambodia. After the amount of to-ing and fro-ing we’ve done over the last few days, one of the most exciting things about being here is the prospect of being in the one place for more than one night.
Cat Ba & Trang An
Well, yesterday, after a long night’s sleep on an excellent mattress, we set out to look at more of Cat Ba island, which cemented in my mind the opinion that Cat Ba is a bit of a dive and there isn’t really much there.
Another day on the bay
Today brought to a close our time on Halong Bay. The clear skies that greeted us this morning were very welcome compared to the haze of yesterday (though the sunshine did result in both of us getting rather burnt), and after a leisurely breakfast we set off to visit one of the fish farms we’d seen yesterday.
Halong Bay
It’s 9.00pm in Cat Ba National Park, and I just out-drank the captain of our boat, who has been in the Vietnamese Army for 14 years.
In Transit
This is really just a note to myself – don’t book afternoon/evening flights anymore. We’ve had a few of them this trip, and while having some more time to spend in a city before leaving sounds like a good idea, in reality it just means spending a bunch of time in the limbo between hotel checkout and airport checkin.
Hoi An
Last night we arrived in Hoi An and instantly loved it. It looked like Gion in Kyoto, the geisha district, with lanterns decorating all the shops, and across the river we could see lights glittering in the water. The poverty and dirt we’d seen everywhere else in Vietnam seemed to have disappeared.
Dalat
We’re currently in Dalat, a city which seems oddly familiar. It has pine trees, gum trees, bottle brushes and wattle. It’s built around a man-made lake. One of the main attractions here is a flower show. The city was built with the intention of being the capital of French Indochina. Yeah, that’s right, we’re basically in the Vietnamese version of Canberra.
New Friends
It’s been a day of wildlife here at Cat Tien.
Well, we’d already had some wildlife experiences, as we have a tame frog that lives in our bathroom. He may have startled me into expletives when he unexpectedly jumped onto my leg last night, but mostly since then he’s been content to peer out at us and jump around the walls every now and then. I have yet to name him.