One of the highlights of our Vietnam trip was Hoi An. We loved the charming flair of the city. Colorful lanterns in every street, cute little shops and markets in the old city, and palm trees at the river banks. Especially in the evening, when the sun sets and the lanterns are lit everywhere, the whole town looks like out of a fairytale. As soon as it gets dark, the small alleys are getting lively. Several night markets, street food, and live music at every corner and rivers are small paper lanterns with candles floating.
Close to Hoi An in the middle of a Jungle, you can find the old Hindu sanctuary, My Son. Most of the buildings got destroyed in the war, but the remaining ruins are still important, and we could imagine how fascinating this place must have been many years ago. The statues, ornaments, and temples are still beautiful, and no one knows today how the ancient people built them.
Another 14 hours in a night bus led us to Dalat. An idyllic town that is surrounded by mountains. We did a tour of the countryside, and Fabian could test some of Vietnams culinary specialties. Our first stop of the day was a coffee plantation. They also produce the most expensive coffee in Vietnam here, Weasel Coffee. Weasels eat the coffee beans, digest them, the poo gets dried, the digested beans are washed, roasted, and grounded. If you like coffee, this should be really special. I don’t drink coffee at all, and Fabian also doesn’t know much about it, so it wasn’t that exciting for us, but still interesting to see and try.
At the next place they produced rice vine, that was really nice. And on the same farm lived hundreds of crickets, and yes, they farm them to eat them fried. I didn’t try any, but Fabian said they tasted like crisps.
The huge Lady Buddha Statue was impressive. In the middle of coffee plantations was this amazing temple. There was also a big white happy buddha, a golden buddha, and thousands of other statues.
Our last stop of the day was the Elephant Falls. They are beautiful but for our taste a bit too touristy.
From Dalat, we traveled east to the beach town Mui Ne.
Where we watched the sunrise from big dunes.
In the fisherman village close to the town, where so many seashells. We wanted to take them all home, but the smell kept us from filling our backpacks…
The Fairy Stream is another unique Landscape. It is a sweet water spring that flows into the sea. The little river remodels the sandy ground into amazing sculptures. And the red and white sand make a pretty cool play of colors.
Our last main stop was the Mekong Delta. It is difficult to reach these southern places with public transport, so we decided to book a three-day tour from Ho Chi Minh. After the long bus ride on the first day, the locals welcomed us with traditional music. After that, we floated in small boats to a small factory, where we learned how to make traditional rice paper for spring rolls and rice noodles.
We started the next day at the floating market. Local traders sell and buy vegetables, fruits, and other stuff from their boats. Every boat has a stick with some pieces of fruits or vegetables on the top. Everything that is on the stick is sold on the boat.
On the boat tour on the Mekong river, we came across some local houses that have been built directly at the river.
We drove to a bird reserve in the afternoon. There we had another boat tour through the incredible landscape. Some rivers are completely grown by water plants, and on both sides are trees growing out of the water and reflecting in the calm water. This tour was definitely a highlight of our time in Vietnam.
On our last day, we visited a village of the Cham Clan. The ancestors of these people built the My Son sanctuary we saw a few weeks earlier. Today they live on houses built on stilts here in the Mekong Delta, so they are safe from floods.
After that, we took the bus back to Cho Chi Minh, where our flight to the Philippines started.
Our résumé of one month in Vietnam
We got used to life in Vietnam after the first few days, and this colorful country inspired us a lot. The landscapes are so diverse and beautiful, the locals lovely and hospitable, and the food was amazing (especially if you like rice and spring rolls 😉 ) traveling with public transport is super easy and uncomplicated. We also enjoyed that it was possible to book everything spontaneous and last, but not least, Vietnam is super cheap compared to Europe.
