Vietnam 2017

Day 16

Today I met with a motorcycle-driver who drove me also last night, we wrote on Facebook and he was kinda my “personal” driver for today^^
When I walked out of the hotel a woman asked me if I want to go and visit her store, where I could get some good clothes. So I went there and it was a store for suits and stuff, after some negotiation about the price we agreed on ~ 100$ for two tailored Shirts and one full tailored suit. I can pick them up tomorrow afternoon. That’s not just incredibly fast but also pretty cheap! I hope the quality is also good, but I think it will be good, there was a guestbook with many reviews in different languages who all wrote that this Tailor makes a good job, so let’s see.

Scenes from the motorbike rides today

After that I bought some souvenirs for my friends and family back home and went then to a restaurant called “Blue Dragon” at the small river at the Market. I ordered a fried duck with lemongrass and ginger and a mango lassi, which is not really Vietnamese but holy shit was it good, I had really a LOT of Mango lassi in my life and this one was really one of the best I ever drank, it was freshly made and tasted so intense of fresh Mango 😍

After this good meal, Bon, my driver, took me to the Terracotta park. I didn’t went inside because he meant he can show me everything without a ticket. I think I missed some things but for that he went with me directly to the potterers and I could see how all the things were made and I could speak a little with them, so it was fine.

Bon then had something to do and I went to a café and waited for him. After about 15 mins he took me to the beach and I stay there some time and enjoyed the last glances of the sun before it went down. The beach was fuller than the one in Da Nang but it was still very nice. I didn’t jumped in the ocean, although I would have really liked to do that, but sadly I had nothing to change with me. I think, by seeing the others in the water, the ground was much deeper than in Da Nang, there you could stand in the whole area and the water would just go to your hips.

On the way to the beach we stopped at a place called the vegetable village, which is a big area where many vegetables and greens are grown, Bon showed me the different greens and I could also try them fresh from the ground, awesome! There were greens like Thai Basil, rosemary(?), Salad, chives and many more. It was really nice to see and try them 🙂

Before Bon dropped me at my hotel we went to his house and he introduced me to his family, he has four children, they and his wife were all very friendly and it was nice to really see a Vietnamese family 🙂
In the evening I went to the food festival again and ate some high-class cotlett from Russia and an really authentic and awesome Lamb Curry from India 😋😍
If you love food and you’re accidentally in Vietnam between the 20.-27. March in Vietnam you should definitely go to Hoi An and check it out! There’s also a live show with music and lights and everything.

After watching this show a little bit I went for a beer and a place to sit in a bar and loaded my smartphone so I had enough battery to find my way home with Google maps. If you’re traveling you should really take a power bank with you so you can load your phone even if there are no plugs around. It can sometimes really save you from running out of battery which happens pretty easily when you’re taking many pictures and using Google maps very much^^
Also when you’re in Vietnam you should definitely get a Sim card at the airport or somewhere else, it’s so cheap! Freaking 9$ for a whole month unlimited high-speed Internet *-*
If that would exist in my home county…
Oh yeah, the bread that you see is a fried baguette, the woman said there was meat in it but I didn’t find any^^ pretty tasty though!
Allgemein

Day 15

Today I went to a Hill full of Temples called “Chùa Non Nước”. I went there by bicycle which I could use for free from the Hotel as I said. It’s very nice to ride the bike to this place, the street is very calm and it’s only about 15 mins away. At the hill there are many shops who offer you to park your bicycle/motorbike for free in exchange to look through their items when you’re back from the Hill. At the hill is a elevator which can bring you up to the temples if you’re to lazy or can’t climb the stairs, it costs 15k VND. The Temples at the mountain are awesome a hell! There are also some big caves which cool you a little down from the sweating climb up and there’s a way to the “Heaven Gate” which is one of the highest points of the hill,the view is awesome! Although you have to really climb to get there because at some point there are no more stairs. But it’s pretty fun to climb up there and the view is really worth it. There are about 5 Temples or so and they are all so beautiful, you really wonder how the managed to get all the statues and everything up there. The climb itself costs 40k for adults, which is pretty good. If you go there and want to see everything and take your time, you should plan at least 3h. I had about 2½ h and I had to kinda hurry because I had to be at my hotel at time so I won’t miss my bus to Hoi An. It wasn’t like I had to rush through the temples but if you want to see everything with calmness and walk slowly through the temples you definitely need some more time.

After the climb down I drove back to my hotel, packed my stuff and went to the place I booked a shuttle bus to Hoi An, which was like 5 min away. I can really recommend my Hotel, the owner is very nice and helps you with everything, you get a bicycle and laundry service for free and the location is also pretty good, with 10 min to the beach and 10 min taxi drive to the city. And it’s really cheap.
The drive to Hoi An was pretty fast with nothing special on the way.
Hoi An itself is awesome from the first impression! The small river through the city looks very nice, the streets are full of local markets and souvenir shops, there is a pretty nice nightmarket and at night there are so many colors! Also at the time I’m here there’s the “international food festival” with stands of countries from all over the world with chefs who cook awesome food for you! *-*

The festival goes until the weekend and everyday they cook a different national food, it’s like heaven for me!
I ate fried seafood noodles from the Malaysian stand and a Russian fish soup called „Ukha“ stand, both were really tasty! Sadly it’s a little expensive with 60k per plate and the plates are not that big^^ which is okay because you want to try everything but it makes it a little more expensive. But it’s totally worth it to spend there some money 😋😍

Vietnam 2017

Day 14

Today I ate a chicken noodlesoup in a Restaurant next to my hotel, as you can see the noodles are a bit different than the ones they used in Hanoi, the soup itself tasted a little bit different, a little fresher I think.

Next I went to the Cham Museum in the city. It’s a small museum about many statues they found buried in the ground. For 30k VND ( ~1,20$) it’s nice to see them, not really a must, but if you have 15-30 minutes time go ahead and check it out.

Almost the rest of the day I wandered around the city with no real destination and looked at all the small market stands. I went for a break in the Wind Café which was very calm and nice. I then walked to the river that divides the city and watched it at the nighttime, it’s really beautiful with all the light mirroring in the water and at the street lights there are small speakers which play calm music, which gives it a even nicer and relaxing touch.


I finished the day with some fried noodles at the same place I had breakfast. Those noodles were also different, they were almost transparent and had a little different texture than the white ones, a tiny bit more chewie, but anyways very tasty! 😋

Vietnam 2017

Day 13

Beachtime! When you’re in Da Nang you should definitely go and check out the awesome beach! It’s really clean and you just go and jump into the water! Or better said walk, it doesn’t go very deep^^ but the waves are coming towards you and some of them are really strong, so it’s quite fun to spend a few hours in the Sea. Also there are volleyball nets and frisbees you can borough from the bars at the beach. You can also get up in the sky by getting dragged by a motorboat while you have a parachute on, like you see on the picture. And jet-skis are available too.
Together with the awesome weather you can spend there a very nice day.
You can also eat something at the beach bars but I just took a little bit of money with me so I could just afford some French fries, the prices at the beach are a little bit above, but I think that’s normal.

In the evening I went this restaurant called “Lam Vien” which I can really recommend going to, the staff is very nice and the food was really good! I didn’t ate anything big though, just fried rice with salted fish and salted duck egg and for desert a flan cake with coffee topping. Both were really delicious and I think the rest of the menu is too. The restaurant was also completely full, not only with tourists but also with many natives, which is also a sign that this restaurant seems like a pretty good deal.

For Breakfast I was in a small stall near my hotel which was filled with locals. It looked like they were all working people coming there for lunch. The restaurant was a porper local restaurant where you would go up to the counter tell them what types of sides you want with your rice and they plate or pack it for you. It was super cheap and incredibly yummy! The locals all looked at me, was probably very unusual that a foreigner would come and eat there^^
Vietnam 2017

Thoughts on traveling alone

Traveling alone can be very great, you take as much time for something as you want, for example I spend more than 1 h just sitting at the street and listening to street musicians, which my friends would have found very boring. You have also very much time for yourself, you can think about very …

Vietnam 2017

Days 11&12

The ride on the sleeping bus was really nice, it’s not the comfortablest thing in the world but you can really sleep in it, I can really recommend it. Especially for the price of 25$. You could also fly, if you’re lucky for about 35$, but because you drive in the night you don’t real waste your time on the bus.

When I arrived I went to the hotel I booked a day earlier, it’s a little outside, by foot you would have to walk about an hour to the city centre but because of that it’s pretty cheap, I’m spending about 13$ for three nights. It’s called “V Wander”. The owners are really nice and help you I you have any questions. You can also take a bicycle for free and the rooms are also very clean.
As you can see I ate a last time the noodlesoup with the marinated pork in Hanoi, because it tastes awesome *-* I also drank a lychee iced tea which was really good.

The other noodles you can see are from a restaurant next to my hotel. You can already see the difference between northern food and the food here, the noodles are different and also the greens on the side are others. It tasted anyway very good although it was pretty oily.

For lunch I had some shrimps and frog which I had to grill myself. They were really tasty and grilling by yourself is also fun. I forgot how the place was called but I’ll look it up and edit it. I can really recommend it, it has a big variety of foods you can try and they looked all very good on the menu.

After that I asked the owner where a good café is and he told me about the “Cong Caphe” which was really nice. The service was good and the Vietnamese green tea I drank too.

On the last picture you can see the river in Da Nang at night which looks pretty nice with all the reflecting lights in it 🙂
As far as I noticed on the first night now, there’s a little nightlife going on in Da Nang, but I didn’t find really big party locations or touristic bars, maybe I’ll find them the next days.