donderdag 21 november 2013

Vietnam adventures and.. what's next?

After all the craziness in Ho Chi Minh city I was longing for some quiet time on the beach. I headed for Mui Ne and at first I was really disappointed. The backpackers hostel where I wanted to stay was fully booked and it was the only hostel there. Mui Ne is packed with resorts and Russians. After walking for an hour I found a nice place with rooms for 10 dollar and decided to have some more luxury. I booked the backpackers hostel for 2 days later.

The next day I went on a trip to see the sanddunes, drove through it on a cart bike, so badass!!



Saw the sunset at the red dunes and slided down them. It's a good trip, costs only 7 dollars. (Riding through the dunes not included) 



The day after I hired a bike and just drove around Mui Ne, no plan, just see where I end up. It's the best way to actually see the place because this day turned out to be awesome. I parked my bike somewhere along a beach. There were only 4 people there, they were Vietnamees. The beach was filled with beautiful shells, starfish and little crabs walking around. I saw a lady selling drinks so I ordered a fanta and sat down on the beach. 



Within no time the Vietnamees people walked up to me, asked me where I'm from. They invited me over to come and sit with them at the house, they were drinking beer and barbecuing seafood. They couldn't really speak English but I had a great laugh with them anyway. Just sitting there, drinking a beer, eating, playing the guitar. I think they were arranging a marriage for me aswell... at some point I just told them I already have a husband. 



I was so happy that I could check in at backpackers, it's the best way to meet other people. And I did. Big thank you to the staff and aspecially Andy for making my stay in MuI Ne awesome. I liked it so much, I could not leave. I am definitly going back there one day and take some kitesurfing lessons.
In the sleeping bus from Mui Ne to Na Thrang I met two guys from Holland and one from Germany. I've been hanging out with them eversince. But first I was meeting my mom and brother in Na Thrang! I was so happy to see them after three months. After hanging out with them for three days, chilling on the beach, going out, I decided to go on a motorcycle trip with the three guys I met on the bus. I always wanted to do this and now I had find a nice crew to hit the road with! 

We were biking 950 km up north to Hoi An through the mountains. The scenery was so beautiful, this is the perfect way to really see Vietnam. 

The last day was really tough, it started to rain like crazy. The streets were floaded and we were biking through water that got up to our knees. The bikes broke down many times.. I was happy to arrive in HoI An after 6 hours of getting totally soaked on the bike. 

The bad weather didn't stop when we were in Hoi An. De hotelstaff woke us up in the early morning and told us to pack our bags immediately and move one floor up. When I stept out of the room the water was already half meter high and it would take only minutes for it to enter the room. We booked a bus to Hanoi for that day to avoid the bad weather. They told us the bus would leave at 10 o clock instead of one thirty so we had to hurry to take our bus in the morning. Going out of the hotel was impossible. They told us to walk there but we had all of our bags and the water would come up to my waist or even higher. There was a boat in front of the hotel so I insisted them to take us there with the boat. For whatever reason that wasn't possible and then I got a little angry because we were going to miss our bus. The hotelowner looked shocked when I raised my voice a little bit and then finally, after half an hour of not knowing what to do, he arranged some people to bring us to the bus. While sitting in the boat it was shocking to see how much damage this will bring. The whole street, about a km long I guess, was totally floaded from a meter to almost two meters high. All the shops and houses will be totally destroyed. At the end of the street the floading stopt and we got out of the boats and ran for the bus. 



When we finally arrived at the busstation we found out that the bus was leaving 3 hours later... ooohh Asia is a pain in the ass sometimes!

We ended our Vietnam adventures in beautiful Halong Bay. The weather was not that great, but it was ok. We had our own family boat, some wine, good fresh sea food and an incredible view.




 

A lot of adventures in Vietnam and the whole big adventure is almost about to end.. or is it not? I'm now starting to think about what I want to do. I booked a one way ticket for a reason. So that I have all the freedom to decide when and where I want to go.. no plans fixed yet, but I'm thinking about doing a one month course for teaching English in Vietnam. After that I want to teach English somewhere in Asia for a while. I miss home a lot but what is a year in a lifetime? I feel that now it's the time to get everything out of it and take as much memories and wisdom home with me as I can. 


vrijdag 1 november 2013

Beach and big city lifestyle

My first night on Koh Rong island with the bonfire on the beach was so amazing! I thought; I can never leave this place.. On one side of the island you have a couple hostels, bars and huts. On the other side is a white sanded beach with the clearest water I have ever seen and there is nobody there... Koh Rong has the best barbecue squid I have ever tasted, and your spending your days there in between locals, unlike Thailand or any other island I've been to. After a few days you know so many people, it starts feeling like home. We went to the full moon party with the partyboat. The party was on Koh Rong Samloem, a smaller island right next to it. It was not to crowded, on a beautiful beach, cool people, fireshows. This was full moon at it's best I think. How it used to be 10 years ago. Dancing until sunrise... this was my first sunrise during this trip. It was magical. So many beautiful colored clouds, with a storm far away in the south and the full moon still shining behind you. 



Took the partyboat back "home" with al these great people I met. 


 After 10 amazing days I left the island and then got stuck in Sihanoukville voor another week. Almost everyday the same routine: rent a bike, drive up to Otres beach, swim, chill, have an Amok chicken, hang out at this bar called "blame canada", have some drinks in the night and spend almost nothing... it's a great lifestyle. After travelling and seeing a lot of stuff, this felt like the two-week-beach-holiday in between. It was so hard to leave this place. But I was very excited to go to Vietnam. New adventures, new people. Travelling is so good, I could do this forever.

Now I am in Ho Chi Minh city, what a contrast! It's crazy! So crowded! But I like it a lot. I am sharing a four bed dorm with a really cool girl I met on the bus. And crazy enough i've bumped into some other people i have met before too.
The first day in Ho Chi Minh we went to the war museum. A lot of pictures made during that time, and they are really impressive. A must-see museum! The next day we went to the floating market, which was ok.. it was a six hour busride and a 3 hour tour, so I mostly slept that day!

 I was looking forward to celebrate Halloween. Vietnamese people love Halloween. We got our face painted on the street. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. After the facepaint everybody wanted to take pictures with us! 



The street was so crowded that at some point you just couldn't walk through it. But it was good sitting and watching al these crazy costumes. People were cheering and applauding when they saw a good costume walking by. Great atmosphere! The clubs are really fancy and big, but I liked it more on the street. Simple, but good! Vietnam and Vietnamese people are awesome!