As I was walking to catch the sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue (down South), I bumped into an English guy I’d met back in Luang Prabang. After talking with him for a bit we both agreed that we were looking forward for a change of scenery and perhaps the chance to see a different side to Vietnam. At the same time he introduced me to a few Swedish guys he had met on his Halong Bay cruise, all of whom were 19, and it’s always nice to meet other younger travelers so we hit it off and all boarded the bus.

During the bus ride I realized that I actually had barely any time left in Vietnam if I planned to spend a week in Cambodia and still be back in Bangkok on December 14^th. The Swedish guys were on the exact same schedule as me so we agreed we’d all skip Hue, stay on the bus for a further 4 hours and go to Hoi An. In the morning when we arrived in Hue, we all got off for a moment and then the Swedes lost their seats so we were split up, them in Hue and I on my way to Hoi An. Fortunately I was still with the few English people I knew back from Luang Prabang, so when we arrived in Hoi An, we walked into town and found a place to stay for the night.

The city is made up of purely tailors, restaurants, travel agents and hotels. There are over 300 tailors in this small city, so needless to say 10 minutes after arriving I was getting some pants and shorts made. The next day they were ready and extremely cheap to have made, considering the quality of them. There isn’t much else to do in Hoi An. John (the English guy) and I went down to the beach that day, and whilst it was nice to see a beach for the first time in a while, it was cold and far from beautiful. Afterwards John and I found a few places where they sell 15 cent glasses of draft beer. Cheapest beer in South East Asia.

Later that night John, the two English girls we were with and I went out for dinner, and then across the river to a place called Aussie Bar, which featured me as the only Aussie. We played a little pool, had a few beers with some others at the bar and then went back home, whilst it poured down during a thunderstorm so great that it flooded our street- lovely Vietnam. I should note that immediately that day we’d noticed a change of attitude in the locals. They were extremely friendly, less annoying and went out of their way to make sure you were enjoying yourself. For example, after dinner we walked up a street trying to find the market. 10 minutes had passed and we heard someone beeping at us. It turned out to be the girl from the restaurant who had spent 10 minutes looking for us because I left my $2 in change by accident!

The next morning we woke up too late to join one of the cheap tours to the My Son ruins- the remainders of the Cham Empire or something like that, so we had to organize a private one ourselves. This meant spending $7.50 each on a private minivan, as well as the $3 entry fee, just to walk around in confusion for a couple hours. It’s sad because when you’re there you can only imagine how beautiful My Son would have been 50 years ago before America decided to destroy it in a seemingly pointless war. Check out the photo of them with the bomb- it was awkward because we knew we weren’t meant to smile but Jon related it to a penis… so we did.

We walked around it for an hour or so and then went back as I had to pick up my clothes from the tailor and catch the bus with Jon to Na Trang, a place famous for its beaches, which really aren’t that great at all.

The night bus to Na Trang arrived at 5am, which is quite inconvenient when you can’t check-in to your hostel until 12pm. Jon and I dropped our bags off there and found somewhere open to have breakfast. We later headed to the beach, which was an experience in itself. You literally never get more than two minutes of peace, with vendors approaching you in an attempt to sell you anything from alcohol to bracelets, massages to marijuana. If you do intend to have a few beers, it’s essential to make a deal with one of the girls so that she gives you a large discount in exchange for you buying your drinks exclusively off her for the day. With the others, in an attempt to have them leave us alone, we would start talking to them about pointless subjects, try to sell them our cigarettes, beer and fruit, and at times even ask for their love and devotion. Our record was 5 separate vendors at once- I’d only go back to try and set a new high score. Not much else to say about Na Trang. We went out that night to a bar called Why Not?, where I tried to sell my services as an internationally-acclaimed promoter, but only scored a free beer. The people were a lot nicer there too, especially the staff at the hostel, Backpacker’s House, with my friend there even giving me a dragon fruit as a farewell present!

I left early the next morning to catch a bus down south to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), as I wanted to meet up with those Swedish guys back from the bus out of Hanoi. I was with a couple guys I’d met in Halong Bay. It turned out we were the only Westerners on the bus, which was actually half full, instead of the usual ‘over-flow, sit on the floor’ situations we’d been having before. It’s actually hilarious with these buses because every time they try and make the foreigners sit at the back of the bus in the shared seats and on the floor, even if the bus is empty. You just need to basically ignore them and just sit wherever you want until they get physical. The bus driver and his friends decided to play a joke on us and try move us to a small public bus instead of our own, constantly laughing at us for playing along. I watched some Vietnamese Pop videos at the lunch-stop, which was enjoyable.

After a long bus ride we finally arrived in Saigon, where I was reunited with the Swedes after a sad few days apart. We found a guest house where we were shown a private 5 person room for us 4, with fridge, bathroom, TV, free breakfast etc. She told us $6 a night but she felt adventurous so we told the lady that we wouldn’t pay more than $5 each a night. We started to leave and she finally gave in, as long as we wouldn’t tell anyone how much we were paying. We became quite good friends with her though.

We found a place later that night with $1 beers and $2 buckets, where we could also choose the music. Needless to say, a night of me playing ABBA for them as they begged me to turn it off took place. Photo of the Swedes and me at dinner below.

The next day we planned to go see the Viet Cong tunnels, but with the tour starting at 7am we had a repeat of the My Son day, and missed the tour. Our only option was to get either an expensive taxi there or catch the public. We caught the public bus. 2 hours and 25 cents each later we had no idea where we were, no one spoke English to us, and we were hot and tired, so we spent another 2 hours getting back.

A productive day. Afterwards we got dinner, where again we were bombarded with people trying to sell anything and everything. We decided to play along and every girl who came up with a huge stack of books, we’d ask that they find us Lonely Planet Sweden. An impossible task. Some would just say no, others would run off for 20 minutes on the phone and come back almost in tears, but at the end of the day they all learnt their lesson. Don’t mess with an Australian and 3 Swedes.

We woke up early the next morning to catch the bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I’ll continue with that next post.