Day 21/22 Vietnam: An Bang Beach (home tomorrow!)

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Mel

We enjoyed our last two days here by doing very little. One thing I have found hard in An Bang is because the heat and humidity are so high – and the UV index is 9/10 most days – we don’t venture out during the day too much. This is standard weather for July. In Thailand and Indonesia, I would lay on a beach chair all day but here…it really is just too hot. Apparently this is what it’s like all year round aside from the typhoon/rainy season. We are thinking we might try in March where allegedly it’s cooler? Still just as humid though. I love the food but the heat and intensity of the sun is just….a lot. Even for an Aussie! I firmly cemented this today by dozing off on a pool lounge for half an hour and not realising the shade moved. I made it 22 days with no sunburn and now I am a toasty-red, peeling lobster.

The beach is very rough here as well and not something I would feel confident swimming in most of the time. Still beautiful though.

We finished our holiday with a few visits to our favourite local place as well as some amazing seafood at A Bang Beach Village last night.

Things I have learnt on my first Vietnam trip:

  • Vietnamese people freaking love karaoke. I had no idea! I never expected to be on a relaxing Mekong delta boat ride while listening to karaoke from a nearby three story karaoke lounge
  • The tonal change for thank you and shut up is very minor. Same for pho and hooker. Eek…we avoided both words lol
  • I didn’t research food at all and have eaten so many delicious things! I didn’t know every single town/area has its own “regional specialties” and have loved trying them all as we moved around. I think my favourite food was the Mi Quang noodles we had in Da Nang at the Michelin Recommended place….and my daily Bahn Mi from the very local Lucky Restaurant in An Bang where I got to pat the cute baby and see grandma every day
  • there are dogs EVERYWHERE here. Most are pets although there are a few strays…everyone pats all the dogs and most of the restaurant owners feed the strays so they are a bit chonky. We also saw so many dogs on scooters including a german shepherd and a golden retriever both being exercised by the owner on a scooter 😂
  • My SIL warned us we had to be a rock in the stream of traffic and let it flow around us. This worked well in Saigon but as we went further up we discovered there were less and less “rules”. I actually preferred Saigon traffic even if I did make a high pitched panicked sound every time we crossed the road
  • B says I have to add the coffee is delicious. And that egg coffee sounds weird but is a tasty snack
  • I am definitely not cut out for this level of humidity and heat. Phew. The day we climbed the damn pagoda (700 stairs) in 40C heat at 90% humidity was definitely my undoing.
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DAY 19/20 Vietnam: Da Nang back to An Bang with a Hoi An visit!

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Mel

Day 19

We left Da Nang at 11am and it was a 30 min drive back to An Bang and our hotel I’m feeling very conflicted about -Aira Boutique. The beds are so hard I can’t sleep, there is loud music nearby (other venues) every night that NOBODY has mentioned in reviews…but it’s a nice little locally run hotel. It’s also one of the most expensive on this part of the beach (still bloody cheap compared to other places!) and they pursue you if you write negative reviews. Hmmm. We got back with our get your guide transfer during rain and napped/watched eps in the aircon until the usual 4pm happy hour at the pool started. Only mocktails for drinks today as we are a little dusty from last nights fireworks and wine effort!

Dinner was at a newer place in A Bang called Hoi A Noodle Bar. It was okay. Not amazing but not bad either.

Day 20

Well, at around 11am today I finally called it and decided I wouldn’t stay the final 3 nights at Aira Boutique. Running on about 2hrs sleep again I stomped my way down the laneway to a smaller “Aparthotel” called CHiEM Hotel and asked if they had a room. They confirmed they did have a ground floor garden room and the price was $80 USD a night. They also let me visit the room to see the noise levels and sit on the softer bed. Sold. An hour later I was happily ensconced in my new home for 3 nights. So far so good. Apparently there was a rooster issue for 3 months (he lives behind the outside wall) but someone “fixed the problem” in February. Ha.

Last week, one of the activities we had to cancel due to my insanely swollen feet and legs was a cooking class at red bridge cooking school. We were inside the no refund period but they offered us a banquet dinner instead at their well known (and apparently very good) restaurant in Hoi An Ancient Town. So off we went! The restaurant is Hai Cafe Courtyard BBQ .

This was actually our first visit to the area at night and we had been warned it’s very loud and full of party people. We arrived at Hai Cafe at 6:30pm (just on sunset). The BBQ was DELICIOUS and we highly recommend it.

After dinner we wandered for a little while at our own pace (no guide this time so I could do my own thing) and I enjoyed seeing all the lanterns. I can also see how the party reputation is gained! It was very crowded and touristy but I did enjoy the lanterns. I did some haggling at the markets but my heart wasn’t in it as I really just wanted to pat all the dogs….some sellers went home happy with what I paid.

Two more days of beach relaxation before we head home on Thursday.

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Tipping in Vietnam

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Mel

We did parts of our trip with a private tour guide arranged in each region. The organiser who connects us with local guides gave us this guidance on tipping:

Tipping is not customary in Vietnam, though it is highly appreciated. Workers from the upscale hotels (4 to 5 stars) are more likely to expect tips, although it’s perfectly fine if you don’t. In some restaurants, a 5-10% service charge is added to the bill, hence you may not need to pay a tip. Tour guides and your chauffeur will expect a tip for their service. Our recommendation is USD $5 per guest per day for your guide and USD $2 per day per guest for your driver (more or less based on your satisfaction, of course).

So based on that we tipped the following for our drivers and guides in each region:

– Saigon and Can Tho 4 days with the guide and driver: guide = $40 USD, driver = $20USD

– Ho Chi Minh Walking Food Tour with private guide (4-5hrs) $10 USD for guide

– Hanoi 2 days with guide, 3 with driver: guide = $20 USD, driver = $15 USD

– Halong Bay 2-3 days with English speaking “boat wrangler” who got us a private table when I was going to lose my mind on the crowded boat. We tipped him 200k VND and the crew the same

– Hue and Hoi An: this one was a bit messy as the guide was not great and I cancelled halfway through…he got a few free meals out of us first though. We tipped the driver $12 USD for 3 days.

Other tips were mostly in VND especially after we got out into the Hoi An and An Bang area which are more regional. They were small extra amounts at local restaurants we visited numerous times and little extras for taxis or local drivers.

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Day 18 Vietnam: Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (the finale!)

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Mel

So we had no idea this was a thing before arriving in country and a local guide mentioning it. There is some info here and there is also a Facebook page with a lot of detail. We discovered the finale was China vs Finland and anything with fireworks and China in it is gonna be good! We also realised it would be on while we were in nearby An Bang Beach. Reading about the history of the event tells me that it was first organised in 2008 by the People’s Committee of Da Nang City. Since DIFF 2017, the festival has featured 8 teams from different participating countries and 10 or 11 pyrotechnic shows. Each performance night has two teams at 20 mins each so 40 mins of fireworks! The theme for 2024 is “made in unity”.

Hotels were expensive and booked out months ahead for this but I managed to get a stay at Wink Riverside with a package including accomodation, a rooftop seat and buffet dinner with drinks package. I was not up to watching fireworks with potentially thousands of locals…and tourists….crammed into stands haha. By the time we retreated to the hotel the number of road closures and security made me very happy with this decision. Apparently hotel occupancy tonight is 99% and they are expecting over 100 000 (yep, not a typo) people to come into the area. Last year in 2023 just under a million people attended over the 5 nights which is crazy. This was some of the traffic at the end tonight!

We checked into Wink Riverside Da Nang at 12:30pm. It’s a young person/business stay hotel so tiny rooms but excellent value. Similar to Tune Hotels if you have ever used those.

Tiny room
Lovely view though

We went up to the rooftop for a brief paddle around in the pool. They really don’t seem to embrace sun covers here…I just don’t get it. The UV index is bloody 10 today!

We then walked down the road for lunch at My Quáng Co Sau where we had another regional delicacy – Quang noodles! They were absolutely amazingly flavourful. Each bowl was 40k VND which is around 2.50 AUD.

At this stage it was starting to get very busy in the local area as people arrived for this evenings finale show. We retreated to the hotel room and enjoyed the river view and some reading with the soothing background noise of endless car/bike horns 😀

The rooftop fireworks was an excellent idea. It wasn’t too crowded, the food was decent and the free booze was Australian wine! It’s worth being aware we booked very late and the table was crap – which is understandable. I was grumpy though as the advertising did not represent that (Vietnam things) and made my feelings clear. We got moved further forward just before the fireworks which I was really glad about.

The fireworks started at 8:30pm and went for two 20 min slots. Although we missed a few bits on the roof it was still pretty amazing. My rooftop pics don’t do it justice so I borrowed some off their social media – well done team Finland for the win! Well deserved. Also well done team Mel for finding out about this, booking it in country and getting a rooftop view!

Team Finland
Team China
Team Finland finale
What 100 000 people could see down on the side of the river
Well done team Finland!

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Day 17 Vietnam: Da Nang on the river

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Mel

We left An Bang Beach today to enjoy 2 nights in Da Nang. This wasn’t originally planned but came about after I found out there is an all night rave in front of our beach hotel tonight (no thanks) and the Danang international Fireworks Festival Finale is tomorrow night!

Da Nang is not our usual sort of place. It’s a resort town and has hundreds of expensive high rise beach resorts lined up one after the other. They also block locals from the beach which I’m very opposed to. The tourist stuff around here is very cheesy. With that said, I really needed a decent bed for a night as I am struggling with Vietnamese rock solid mattresses. Our Melia Vinpearl riverside hotel for tonight has very nice beds! And a next level view….

Dragon bridge

Da Nang has two “touristy” areas with the huge beachside resorts and then a big group of riverside hotels. The new one-kilometer-long (actually, well over that) walking zone runs from the foot of the Dragon Bridge to the Tran Thi Ly Bridge in Hai Chau District and only opened a couple of months ago. We missed the walking street though as I was in charge of directions and we went the wrong way haha.

The Dragon Bridge is very Da Nang haha. Its unique design makes the bridge look like a dragon rising from the river to fly to the sea. The Dragon Bridge can “breathe” Fire and Water with performances at 9 pm on the weekends. The Vietnamese tourist info said only Saturday and Sundays but the internet told us Fridays as well…and eventually I found a link to this site which verified it. Vietnam are not great at updating their websites.

Initially, we were going to visit Asia Park and go on the Ferris wheel evident in some of the photos but it was a real hassle to get to and reviews say the park is not great value. Again…tourist area. Given our epic view from the hotel room tonight we decided we didn’t need a Ferris wheel as well. So we walked down and across the dragon bridge then up the other side. We had dinner at a place full of Vietnamese locals with no instructions on how to put this Da Nang specialty dish (Bahn Cuon) together. Luckily Google helped! https://vietnam.travel/things-to-do/da-nangs-special-pork-rolls

We walked back to the hotel around 8pm and got some lovely photos while walking across the Han Bridge.

Then it was 9pm and time for the dragon to do his fire breathing thing!!!

Tomorrow, we are checking out of here and into a waaaaay cheaper hotel for the grand finale night of the Danang International Fireworks Festival. It was very difficult to get accomodation for that event and prices were about 30x the usual amount for riverside stays…so no panoramic river view from the room tomorrow 😂

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Day 14, 15 and 16: An Bang Beach Relaxation

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Mel

Day 14

Today was a designated rest day which meant lunch at a local family owned restaurant called Lucky’s. Great food and prices about 3 mins walk from our hotel! The Bahn Mi was about $1.20 AUD and the pineapple smoothie was $2 AUD.

After lunch we read some books and then floated around in the hotel pool during happy hour. Happy hours in Vietnam are amazing – they range anywhere from 1 – 7 hours haha.

Dinner was at another local place call Passion Restaurant, this time we had mains of Bahn Xeo and Chicken Rice. Plus two cocktails and two beers which came to a grand total of…$18 AUD.

Day 15

We were supposed to attend a local cooking school on Day 15 but my little swollen feeties weren’t up for the challenge. Instead, we had a leg massage which really helped with the fluid in my ankles. Then we visited Phuong’s Beach Cafe for lunch where we enjoyed lemongrass chicken and a local dish Cau Lau. Phuongs is to the far left of An Bang Beach and comes highly recommended by expats in the area. You can also use the beach chairs as long as you buy something but the humidity and UV index is way too hot for us, even in the shade.

After lunch it was nap time before happy hour and pool swimming at the hotel. We then watched a beautiful sunset on the beach along with half of Vietnam 😂

Dinner was at purple lantern which was a little bit too touristy for us…yummy seafood though.

Day 16

Breakfast today was at Lucky’s where B finally got to try his pancakes. He’s been hanging out for these for a few days!

I had a few hours work to do in relation to grant applications so I knocked that off while B watched tv eps. We also changed rooms at Aira Boutique today as the noise levels have been….a lot…at night. I’ve been making a fuss (who…me?) about it each day. It’s not getting any better though which is interesting. They really wanted me to remove my 1 star review….

Then it was happy hour and pool time again! We drank lots of mojitos with belgiums, NZs and aussies before dinner at Nya Hung nearby.

Tomorrow we are off to Da Nang for two nights to avoid a giant beach rave taking place on An Bang Beach which will be a nice change of pace.

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Day 13 Vietnam: Hue – driving to Hoi An Ancient Town – An Bang Beach

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Mel

We headed of for the drive to Hoi An (on the central coast of Vietnam) at around 8:30am. The drive included stops on the top of cloudy Hai Van pass and Lang Co white-sand beach.

We arrived in Hoi An Ancient Town around lunchtime and Mr Hung took us on a short walk to visit a 400 year old Japanese Bridge, a 300 year old Chinese temple and a 200 year old Vietnamese former merchants’ house. We also had lunch at a popular local eatery Bahn Mi Phuong which was delicious but also full of westerners.

After the walk we drove the 4kms to A Bang Beach and our hotel Aira Boutique. This is our base for the final 10 nights of our stay in Vietnam and from here we will explore Hoi An, Da Nang, Marble Mountains, Son Tra, some local homestay activities…and have some “do nothing” days of beachside relaxation too! We went to the beach at 3pm and it was empty but by 5pm it was flooded with locals. It was absolute madness!

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Day 12 Vietnam: Hue

Posted on July 7, 2024 by Mel

The little kids here are obsessed with B and it’s hilarious. They all wave and say hello and then every now and then we get a brave one who comes over and wants to talk to him. They are way less interested in me.

Our new guide (Mr Hung) agreed to a sleep in today before we were off to explore the ancient architecture Hue is known for. We visited the Imperial Citadel in Hue. Our wandering (in absolutely insane heat and humidity) included the Flag Tower, Ngo Mon Gate, Nine Dynastic Urns, Nine Holy Cannons, Thai Hoa Palace and Forbidden Purple City (Tu Cam Thanh). It’s a large area to explore and really interesting – the history of the kings and the French occupation is particularly fascinating. It is also quite different to what we have seen elsewhere in Vietnam! You will notice I look a bit damp in some of the pictures…I literally dumped a bottle of water over my head to try and regulate my temperature 😂 it didn’t work haha.

We also took a dragon boat upstream on the Perfume River to the Thien Mu Pagoda (means the “Heavenly Lady”) which was built lt in 1601. Thien Mu Pagoda is one of the oldest religious buildings in the country.

We came back to the hotel a bit earlier than planned as I have very swollen and puffy feet currently. Poor me. I did manage to make it across the road to have some roast pork rice noodles for $2.50 AUD though!

From here, we had a free afternoon/evening. After resting my feet a bit more we went off to explore Hue at night! Our hotel is very central so we walked 10 mins away to the Trang Tien bridge which was designed and built by Gustave Eiffel in 1899.

From here we walked another few minutes to the start of walking street. We followed a restaurant suggestion from both the guide and hotel staff to try out Madame Thu which was really tasty. B got to knock another Hue specialty off the list with Bun Bo Hue. He also got stalked by a school group of 5-6 year olds who desperately wanted to be his best friend 😂

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Day 11 Vietnam: Ha Long bay – Hue

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Mel

After my Long Island iced tea adventures last night I woke up at 4am from all the sugar (I felt fine – thanks to B for making me have hydralyte lol) and watched the sunrise.

After an early brekkie we joined a guided tour to explore Luon cave. We chose to go in a sampan rather than a kayak which was a good call as we watched all the kayaks ram into each other. We went through the cave and into a little inlet area, then came back out and saw monkeys!

We were back on the boat around 9am where we had time to shower and then move all our stuff to the dining area. We were then able to sit on the deck or in the dining room – the deck was hot but the dining room was full of idiots. It was a tough choice. They served a light brunch at 10am and then we settled the bill before it was back to the terminal and the 2.5hr drive with a private driver to Hanoi Airport. Settling the bill required me to stand up for about 10 mins on a boat that was ricking back and forth which made me very motion sick…that kept up for the entire rest of the day. Lucky me. I almost threw up multiple times in the car and then at the airport so ended up aching to use one of my odansetron wafers. That definitely helped.

The flight to Hue took just over an hour and it’s a very different kind of place! A little slower paced.

We went to dinner near the hotel – a place called “Hahn Restaurant” which was recommended. It had lots of local people in it which is always a good sign! We tried one of the “Hue specific dishes” here called Nem Lui.

This dish is made up of grilled minced pork rolls on lemongrass stick served with rice paper, vegetable and peanut sauce. You stick it all in the rice paper, wrap it up and then pull the lemongrass out. Then dip!

We are staying 2 nights in Hue at the Eldora Hotel which is a bit flash!

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Day 10 Vietnam: Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay.

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Mel

The boat has early starts which isn’t that big a deal since all the children on board are up early anyway….and they are not quiet. The sun also wakes you up! For those who wanting to be up very early, sunrise is 5:15am followed by 6am Tai Chi on the deck. We skipped both on the first morning on the boat but made it for a 6:45am light breakfast.

Between 7:30 and 8am our group split into those returning to Ha Long Passenger Terminal after 1 night and people like us (across multiple boats) who are staying 2 nights on board. We hopped on a smaller “day boat” with a mixed group to transfer to Lan Ha bay. Lucky us had a group of Australian backpackers on board…behaving exactly as the stereotype suggests. Sigh. On the way to Lan Ha Bay we stopped at Bo Hon Island and had the option to kayak at Dark and Bright caves area. This was a no from me due to the twisting. We got to walk through the cave on Bo Hon island instead which was really cool…and full of bats! Then sit for a little at a beautiful beach.

We were then supposed to head to Ba Trai Dao beach (Three Peaches Beach) for swimming in the crystal water and lazing on the white sand. Apparently there was a change of plans and instead they anchored in Lan Ha Bay and people were able to swim in the bay and jump off the boat. I was a little disappointed as I had been looking forward to that particular beach.

Lunch was served on the boat at 12:30 before we started the 1 hour return to Ha Long bay. We had one additional short stop at the Pearl Farm Exhibition Center and Museum to learn how to raise a pearl farm and harvest pearls. It was hugely touristy /sales focused and you could tell most of the people on the boat were not impressed with it and would have much preferred the beach visit. In addition, they left us there for an hour! I was pissed.

We transferred back to our main boat around 3:30pm to freshen up and relax in the cabin as there were no staff on board – they had gone to collect the new overnight guests. From 5-7pm we had another happy hour (cocktails…yum) followed by 7pm dinner. The boat was totally full last night and I was not coping with the noise levels or the people…I drank 7 Long Island iced teas to help lol. We requested a private dinner this time after seeing the dining area was set up for multiple larger groups and eventually they moved us upstairs which was really nice of them.

I didn’t have to take meds this time after I ate shellfish the night before….despite being assured it wasn’t in the food. They definitely had that sorted this time. It was another beautiful sunset as well, we have been lucky with the weather.

Last night on the boat tonight before we transfer to Hue tomorrow!

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