Phong Nha – Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An – Nha Trang.

Thirty degrees. 26 hot bodies (temperature not aesthetically) one small bus, a very bumpy road and a 5 hour journey. Thought I’d set the scene, it must be our karma, the yin to our yang, the universe serving us some unlucky travelling conditions and balancing out the scales from the most excellent ten or so days….

Phong Nha

So we arrived to Phong Nha at about 4.30am on Wednesday and checked into Easy Tiger, you can’t pre book any rooms here as it’s so popular, so you just turn up and hope they have room. And lucky us they did, a dorm for 6 was available and had our name on it for two nights, actually the dorms are named after animals, we were in “sheep”. Phong Nha is a small town but obviously a popular stop off for backpackers as since leaving we have seen people we met here at all other places we have been afterwards.

The first day we hired bikes and cycled around the town, passing a group of Vietnamese women in their English lesson, and they asked us to stop and talk to them to help with their English (they were learning about how to check in). One of the ladies had a cafe close by so they took us there for coffees and discovered we had been drinking it wrong, you need to stir it for ages then sip it, not that we listened, we necked them like we have been doing since arriving the country.

After we went for another cycle around Phong Nha, bought a portable speaker, whacked it in Jacks basket and blasted some music as we cycled. Every time we passed a child they would yell “hello” and hold out their hand for a high five, super fun.

That evening will go down in history, or Chinstery. We dressed in our best tourist shirts, the self titled super six were looking matchy matchy and fresh, we had ourselfs a great evening at the hostel, took advantage of the free beer on offer from 5-7 and got funky with the live music. We then moved to a local bar, where Bree our small angry Australian tripped and fell forward and in almost majestic slow motion face planted a bar stool foot rest and split her chin wide open. The hostel sent us to a crappy near by hospital. It was a bit odd and there were ants everywhere so we left. To cut a long story short, her chin is fine now, but that really did ruin what was on route to being a top night. This was also the first time the first aid kid we had packed got used.

The next day we visited Phong Nha caves, took a little boat to get to one, did a disgustingly sweaty climb up a hill to get in another one and discovered that caves are just as hot inside as it is outside. Then we hired scooters again. Jack was once again great on the bikes, Nicola was once again crap.

Hue

On Friday we left Phong Nha and caught a bus south to Hue (pronounced hwey, maybe? no one is too sure). We stayed in the first shitty place of the trip so far, Bonjour Hostel. They only had 2 towels for our room of 4, and it’s a good thing we bought sleeping bag liners as I really question the cleanliness of the fleeces throws provided as bed blankets. But for £4 for the night it was a bargain, plus they threw in a free Cockroach and the first spider incident of the trip (we had to get the reception man to get rid of our eight legged bathroom roomie as it was way too big).

Hai Van Pass

Saturday 20th.

We chose to bike from Hue to Da Nang via the Hai Van Pass, a 4-5 hour drive. We hired bikes and arranged for our bags to be sent to the hostel in Da Nang. Due the lack of bike progress on the roads from Nicola, Jack drove and Nicola was on the back. On the way we stopped off at an old abandoned water park in Hue and ignored the “official” guy shouting at us for money to enter. Turns out Vietnam is full of not-so-official-officials telling you to pay to park or walk or swim or breathe in places

We also stopped off at Elephant Springs on the way, this is a waterfall with rock pools you can swim in, and rocks shaped like elephants.

The Hai Van Pass is a top Gear-esk stretch of road 21km long through the mountains famous for its panoramic views, we arrived here just before twilight.

Da Nang

We arrived in Da Nang in the evening after the longest day of driving and stayed in our hostel which was made out of shipping containers. The following morning was spent at the beach before we drove the last 30mins to Hoi An to stay the night at another hostel. We stayed at Vietnam backpackers and all the rooms are named after animals, we were in Rhino and on the third floor but room number 403, dead confusing when you’re drunk and all floors look the same.

Hoi An

In the evening we went into the Old Quater where there was a lantern festival and paid for an over priced 15 minute boat trip. Jack lost a game of Odds On and had to eat Eel.

On Monday 22nd we moved hostels again to one 5 minutes down the road called Tribee Ede (pronounced tribeey eedey), we stayed here for 3 nights mainly to have some sleep as the constant travelling around is cream crackering. The best way to meet people is to stay in party hostels but sleep is pretty hard when there’s a different happy hour every hour. It was also nice to be able to unpack for a few days and not live out of our back packs and do laundry again. You have no idea how much of a stench dirty clothes can kick up in your bag. Pungent. Tribee Ede was recommended for us to stay at by people we met at Halong Bay and we bumped into a bunch of them here too. Hoi An is a super cool beach town, it has amazing weather and everybody is so friendly. The main activities over the 4 days spent here were snorkelling, cycling about, going to the gym and hanging at the beach. Our hostel also had a great all you can eat buffet, very important when choosing accommodation.

We took a day trip snorkling to Cham Island on Wednesday 24th. We were picked up at 8am snorkled at 2 spots, had lunch and then were back by 5. We spent the evening in the bar playing Cambio (Nicola has now won and beat Jack twice) before going to a full moon party, though I’m not sure it actually was a full moon.

Na Trang

We left Hoi An on Thursday 25th and got the 5pm night bus to Na Trang. Our longest bus ride so far…12 hours. We then squeezed 7 people plus the driver and all baggage into 6 seater for the last leg of the journey to our hostel. There really is no health and safety here and no real rules on the roads.

We stayed at Vietnam Backpackers in Ninhvana Nha Trang, part of a chain of hostels across Vietnam (the one we stayed in for one night in Hoi An was also one) and this place was more like a beach resort than hostel. The two days spent here were literally spent doing nothing except hanging out at the hostel which was right on the beach and staying round the pool. That tough back packer life hits again. They had a bunch of activities of every day including football with the locals at 5pm where every one kept saying how good Jack was.

So after our 5 hour trip today we are now in Da Lat for a couple of nights before moving on South again.

We’ve done 6 places and 7 hostels in 11 days. Met met so many people. Asked the same questions to everyone, how long have you been travelling? where have you been? North to South? Where are you going next? Had a ridiculous number of spring rolls. Jack has taken a record number of naps. And Nicola has the heaviest bag of everyone.

Hoi An is definitely a favourite so far. The snorkling stole the show.