Vietnam

Hi hi!

It's me again! I haven't been writing for a while, didn't have much opportunity to go online or oh well, just being lazy and too much enjoying my time here haha.

After Xmas I traveled to Vietnam together with a German couchsurfer Juni. I saw her post on the Kunming group saying she wants to go to Vietnam. We emailed back and forth and eventually she bought the busticket for me without even meeting me before! This couchsurfing thing is really based on trust!
Luckily for her, I'm this trustworthy person haha, so yeah, ofcourse I showed up at the busstation!

We traveled to Sapa together, did some trekking with Hmong people in the surroundings of Sapa. I was kinda shocked how touristy Vietnam was, especially compared with the Yunnan Province, China. It was really nice to see the beautiful surroundings of Sapa, the beautiful people in their traditional clothings. Most of them were Hmong people since they live close to Sapa. Our guide for the day was Tshe, it was really nice to be able to communicate in English with her. She told us much about their lives their, her family, we ended up having lunch in her village and drinking too much ricewine. So at the end of the day all of us had our 'purple Asian glow'. Juni from Germany has Vietnamese roots, so yeah, even she was purple at the end! So good not to be the only one who's 'purple' haha!
After Sapa we were couchsurfing Hanoi, exploring the city and the streetfood together. Hanoi is a very busy and noisy city, but there is something about it. I love it!
For New Year's eve we joined a couchsurfing event. About 25 couchsurfers from all over the world gathered together for dinner and party! Unfortunately there was no firework, they save the big party for the Tet festival (Chinese New Year)
It was a very good night anyway and I met with Marta, a couchsurfer from Portugal. We decided to travel together to the South. But first: Halong Bay! I expected much from it, after seeing the beautiful pics! So I went on this 2 day tour, but unfortunately it was superfoggy those 2 days. It had a mysterious look, but not exactly what I had in mind...

So back to Hanoi, where Marta was waiting for me to travel further.
On the bus we immediately met Gabriela from Mexico. And we ended up travelling together all the way to the South! It was supergreat having these ladies as my travelbuddies.
We spent 1 rainy day in Hue, went to the Citadel where the emporers had lived. I'm quite amazed how big the Chinese influence is in Vietnam, especially in the architecture! Unfortunately the rain was lowering our mood so we decided to move on to Hoi An the next day.
Hoi An is freaking beautiful! It reminds me of Georgetown Penang, Malaysia. The houses/ temples etc were so Chinese, so beautiful! We spent 4 days there, just strolling the streets of Hoi An, cycling around, swimming in the rough sea (we were the only ones!) tasting all the good food, drinking beer for 16cents! On the last day there was this lunar festival which happens once a month by full moon. During the evening all lights were shut down, you could only see light from the lanterns. No vehicles were allowed in the center of Hoi An. I guess this could have been very magical, if it didn't rain that hard... The next day we wanted to visit the ruins of My Son by motorbikes, but it was raining too hard. Oh well, at least we were in good company haha.

After Hoi An we went to the beach in Nha Trang, just being lazy and did some partying. The sea was quite rough, but hey, we were at the beach right. So yes, again swimming in the sea while the locals were wearing 4 layers of clothing because of the winter!

Eventually we reached Ho Chi Minh City, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels; a large network of tunnels used by the Viet Cong back in the days of the Vietnam war. In some places there were 3 layers of tunnels, every layer had another function. We could also crawl through the tunnels, though the first part was adjusted for the tourist. I did 100meters and the last part was really narrow (even for me!), that was the original size of the tunnel back then.
After the tunnels we went to the War Museum which was emotionally impressive, but not too much based on facts which I thought was a pity. Well, a very impressive day after all.

The next day we decided to Saigon because we ran out of time and we went to the Mekong Delta. I think I would really love Saigon as well, very busy but again there's something about it.

The Mekong Delta was superrelaxing! We went to the island An Binh, close to Vinh Long to do a homestay for 2 days. We were just relaxing there, went to a floating market (which was already closing by the time we came), cycled around, chatting, having a good time and enjoying our last days together since Marta had to catch her flight to Malaysia. So bye bye Marta, Gabriela and I continued further for our last day in Vietnam.
We went to Cantho to visit the biggest floating market in Vietnam, this time we were on time! They picked us up at 5.30AM, so we were very on time! It was a nice day, after the floating market we went to the little canals to enjoy our time their and practiced our rowing skills. Results: I suck in it, Gabriela masters it! In the end she rowed quite a bit and our guide was just relaxing in the boat next to me haha.

We were leaving Vietnam and entering Cambodia by a slow boat which was a beautiful experience. People who were living in the houses along the riverside were just smiling and waving at us, kids were running out of their houses to wave and scream hello. In Vietnam I wasn't sure if I liked the people that much. I was getting ripped off all the time and they really angry when I wanted to pay the real price. I came to my conclusion that the Vietnamese people in the tourist areas might be just a bit tired of tourists and therefore a bit cranky when it comes to tourists. In the rural areas where there is not many tourists, the people are really nice!

I'm now in Cambodia, together with Floor. Tomorrow we will visit Angkor Wat, looking forward to it!
So next time more about Cambodia since I've been eaten alive by these damn mosquitos now!

Hope everybody is doing well, let me know!

Ciao!