Mekong Delta

After leaving Nha Trang we flew down to Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon), where we took a day trip down to the Mekong Delta.

We travelled to the city of My Tho, about a two and a half hour drive from Ho Chi Minh where we  took a long tail boat to an island on the Mekong Delta. Here we got to sample some of the local coconut candy and a very sweet honey drink. The very strange delicacy that I also got to taste was snake wine, pictured below with a snake and a scorpion in the bottle. It sounds much worse than it tastes!

After lunch and a ride around the villages on a motorised tuc-tuc, we took a further boat trip around the coconut swamps before heading back to town. Whilst it was a nice day out, it was all a bit too touristy for me.

Relaxing in Nha Trang

Sometimes travelling around exploring new countries can be very tiring, so when planning our trip we decided to arrange a few nights somewhere nice just to relax and recuperate - it is supposed to be our 10th anniversary trip after all.

We booked into the An Lam Ninh Van Bay villas. This was a lovely little resort with only 32 villas. We drove for about an hour North of the airport to the hotel's welcome lounge. We were then escorted on a private boat for about 15 minutes to the island itself, where we were met by the hotel manager and our private butler Hung.

Our mountain villa was spread out over three floors, the first having the private pool, the second the living room and bathroom and on the third floor was the bedroom complete with four poster bed.

The most amazing thing about this part of our trip was that coincidentally it fell exactly over the Eid holiday, so we had no emails and no phone calls to deal with - we were able to completely relax.

After a couple of days of pure indulgence, we decided that we should at least try and experience the local area, so we took a day trip into the town of Nha Trang and explored the temples and pagodas.

The hotel offers free bicycles to get around the island and runs daily treks into the jungle. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed one morning to go on the beach hike, which was definitely worth the effort. 

I can not recommend this place highly enough. It has to be one of the best hotels we have stayed in and the staff here were top notch. But unfortunately all good things must come to an end and we had a flight to Ho Chi Minh to catch so we had to wave bye to this little piece of paradise.

Hoi An Motorbike

I spent most of my youth on a motorbike riding up and down the fields of Lylehill, so I was very excited when I found Hoi An Motorbike Adventures on TripAdvisor. They offer day trips on old Minsk motorbikes. We opted for the Mountains and Delta Explorer, a 150km ride into the mountains and through the Thu Bon river delta. It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike, so I was a bit nervous, but I suppose it's "just like riding a bike" and memories came back straight away.

I found the guide, Duncan, delivered the right balance of stopping at a few historical sights and giving us some historical information, as well as just having fun on these old bikes! There were a few occasions when some black smoke appeared from these relics but we had a support crew keeping an eye on us and these guys knew every inch of the bike inside out. 

One of the more interesting sections of the ride was boarding a river boat to cross a river. Basically, as the bikes loaded, the boat moved along the jetty allowing more and more bikes to join. By the time the boat departed there must have been 20 or 30 bikes stacked in a row on this boat!

These bikes could also double up as a bed when a rest was needed

I have to say crossing this floating bridge had me holding my breath. The interesting part is that when a boat needs to pass by, they simply un tie one end of the bridge and let it float down parallel to the banks. Once the boat passes, they pull the bridge back across and tie it up. Sometimes the simple things in life, work best. 

Overall this was one of the highlights of my trip and the saddle sores in my backside were well worth the grin I was left with.

Halong Bay

After deciding we were going to Vietnam on holiday, Ha Long Bay was the first name on our must visit places. After arriving in Hanoi to find that a typhoon was about to hit and all trips had been cancelled we were pretty disappointed. Fortunately for us, the path of the typhoon changed course at the last minute and after a late booking the night before, we were back on track.

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site. The bay consists of nearly 2,000 limestone karsts rising from the emerald green water.

We drove for about 3 and a half hours North of Hanoi to Halong City, where we joined our boat, the Dragon's Pearl III and set off on our two day cruise around Bai Tu Long Bay, which is a less visited area within the larger Halong Bay site.

The boat had only 11 cabins spread over three decks. Just after we set sail, the crew served what was purported to be lunch, but turned out to be a never ending stream of freshly cooked and very delicious seafood.

After cruising around the bay we stopped at of the islands for a few hours, where we were able to explore one of the famous caves. We also took the opportunity to get out in a couple of kayaks and explore a bit ourselves.

The next morning we stopped at one of the fishing villages, which comprised a handful of floating houses, a shop to sell the cultured pearls and a school. It was quite a humbling experience, to see people living quite happily without  any of life's little luxuries that we take for granted.

Whilst the whole trip was super relaxing and very peaceful, I think Jenny got a bit carried away with the camera. There's no doubt that the scenery was stunning, but once you get home there's only so many pictures of what is essentially just rocks that you can actually look at. Anyway, here's a time lapse video of the boat trip.