The end of Vietnam

We had just under two weeks left in Vietnam, and we felt like we deserved to spend the majority of that on a beach or by a pool. So it was good that we finally had blue skies and hot weather to enjoy the final stretch. 

The first of these stops was a small city called Quy Nhon, which was about a four-hour train ride from Da Nang. This was the first train we got on our travels, so we got there early to get an idea of the level of chaos to expect. To our surprise, it was a simple journey and in fairness to Vietnam, it was better than most trains in the UK. But not surprisingly, it was delayed by over an hour so we had more than enough time to wait at the train station.

By the time we arrived, the sun had set and we found that this is the best time to arrive somewhere new in Vietnam as the streets were lit up with fairy lights and there is a lot more hustle than in the daytime. 

El had booked us into a serviced apartment in a highrise building with an ocean view, a balcony and our own washing machine. It had all we needed and more. It’s sad to say that we were more excited about the washing machine than the balcony due to the number of mishaps we have had with other people doing our laundry for us.

Quy Nhon was nice. We got to enjoy a couple of good meals here and get a taste of beach life in Vietnam. With it being off the tourist trail, the beach was quiet and there wasn’t a lot going on there, so two days was a good amount of time. 

From here, we planned to get another train down to Nha Trang. Someone we met at the beginning of our trip recommended a cheap 5* hotel she stayed in and said we had to stay there for a bit of luxury. So when we found it on booking.com within budget, we booked 4 nights and hoped it lived up to expectations.

And it did. A 40-story high building with a grand lobby, rooftop infinity pool, morning buffet breakfast and an upgraded room with a balcony, all for £20 a night. It was more than enough compared to what we were used to. 

Not wanting to waste any time after check-in, we made the most of the facilities with a quick trip to the gym. This was also on the 40th floor so we spent most of the time just looking out the window at the sea, before laying by the pool with a view of the mountains surrounding the city. 

With most of the morning and afternoon taken up by travel, we only had an hour or so before dinner was calling. So after freshening up, we headed out for some dinner and explored a bit of the city at night.

The next day, the mission was to soak up as much sun by the pool and do as little moving as possible. But first, the buffet was calling and with most breakfasts in Asia, you can expect fried eggs and cereals, next to beef curry and vegetable fried rice, topped with some spring rolls and jam on toast.

And that is basically what my plate looked like – when in Rome!

After a major dumping, we completed our mission by finding ourselves still by the pool by 3pm and then we made the effort to walk down to the beach to catch a bit of the sunset – a top-class day.

But the following afternoon, we were in for a treat. Our day began in a fairly similar fashion as before – a slow gym session and far too much breakfast. We gave the pool a miss and headed straight to the beach and paid for a couple of loungers for the day.

We were graced by the usual beach punters offering Fay Bans – fake ray bans if you didn’t catch that – bracelets that looked doomed to snap as soon as you wore them, and a nice bonus of fresh exotic fruits cut up in front of you. But we would save that for another day. 

What really caught our eye was a lady walking down the beach with a bamboo rod over her shoulder, with a makeshift fridge on one side and a barbecue grill on the other. And she was cooking up freshly caught lobsters for about £10 each. 

She must have thought we were really struggling as she offered a hush-hush 2-4-1 deal and before we knew it, we were indulging in buttery lobster metres away from the sea.

From my limited experience with this crustacean in the UK, the price was unmatched and the flavour was incredible. It was definitely a fun experience, and as we write this two weeks later, we can report that we had no dodgy bellies which is just a bonus.

With a couple more days in Nha Trang, we did more of the same by spending as much time by the pool and the beach as we could, as well as enjoying the abundance of good food on offer.

We even treated ourselves to some local pale ales. Who knew Vietnam had a growing craft beer scene? We enjoyed a Jasmine IPA and had a couple of other tasters which were different to the usuals you find in England. 

We were sad to be leaving Nha Trang and the 5* luxury hotel but we knew we had more of the seaside to come so it wasn’t all bad. The next stop was a place called Mui Ne which was a bit unknown to us but headed there anyway.

El pulled it out of the bag again and we were both very pleasantly surprised with the room at the hotel. The highlight was the balcony with nothing but an ocean view which we could enjoy from the four-poster bed, and with it being South West facing we got a couple of amazing sunsets to top it off.

Mui Ne was a small fishing village but had all you needed within a 10-minute walking radius. And just next door was a highly-rated food court – not the kind you find in an airport with a Maccies and Burger King which to be fair is still a fave – but it was outdoors under a bamboo roof. It had food vendors all around the perimeter serving up the usuals, a fresh fish counter and even an Indian that was up there with the quality we had in North India. 

It’s shameful to admit that a week before coming back to India, we ended up having a curry from that place twice but it was too good to pass up.

One of the main touristy things to do in Mui Ne was a visit to the sand dunes for sunrise or sunset. And hoping to catch the cooler temperatures, we opted for the 4am start for sunrise. After being picked up in the dark by the Barbie mobile – pictured above – we set off for the white dunes.

We had no idea what to actually expect, but once we arrived we were asked if we wanted a quad bike ride to the sunrise point. Initially saying no as they were charging far too much, we were told by an English couple that this was a must because after sunrise you get to go for a fun ride, apparently. Sceptical still but the fomo hitting hard, we paid and got the 5-minute lift to where we would wait for the sun to appear. 

As we have found with the few times we have got up to watch the sunrise, it is typically slightly underwhelming with a bit too much cloud cover but fun nonetheless. 

Just as we thought this was a bit of a rip-off, we heard screams and watched as the first group of people sped down a massive sand dune on the back of one of the quad bikes – this is where El looked at me in both excitement and absolute fear. 

It was our turn and clinging on for dear life we sped across the desert, going up huge dunes and racing back down them. All the while our driver was doing his best to add further excitement by throwing in a drift or two.

There was zero health and safety but it was a load of fun. With a very shaky and bad video of the whole experience, we felt it was all worth it in the end and carried on with the rest of the tour. 

After the white sand dunes, we headed over to the red sand dunes – which you can guess was the same but bright red sand. We finished off by heading to the main fishing village and got a glimpse of what the fisherman brought in that morning. It’s weird that we eat something that smells so foul raw. 

It was strange to have done so much and be back at our hotel before 8.30am, but it meant we could lie around all day without feeling guilty for not doing much. 

It was our last day so we headed back to the food court and enjoyed some fresh fish. We imagined it was what we saw earlier that morning and were thankful it smelled much nicer once cooked. 

With that, we had come almost to the end of our time in Vietnam. All that was left was 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City. And the day we arrived was their Lunar New Year – AKA Chinese new year. 

This is their biggest celebration of the year, where most people have about a week off to go back home and the entire country comes close to a standstill. Luckily Ho Chi Minh is one of the few areas that has some life in it, albeit far fewer people than usual and it was expected to have a big firework display and a lot of parties happening around the city.

Not knowing too much about what to expect, we headed to the walking street that evening – which is fairly ill-named as it was motorbikes galore with them racing down amongst hundreds of people. The walking street is quite similar to Khao San Road in Bangkok, with pumping music from every direction, lots of street food and loads of people trying to entice you in.

We found a place playing the least bad music and got a drink whilst we got our bearings on what was going on. We ended up bumping into the English couple we met in Mui Ne – the ones that convinced us on the quad bike ride – and spent the evening indulging in the craziness on the streets. 

As things got closer to midnight the chaos seemed to heighten. With five more minutes until the new year, people start popping metre-long party poppers full of confetti. And by midnight, almost everyone in sight was popping them and there was even a small makeshift firework display on the road about 100 metres away. 

From what we have seen in our six weeks here, the Vietnamese know how to party and especially when it's their new year, they go all out for sure.

It was cool to see a Lunar New Year in an Asian country and a memory we’ll definitely remember for a long time. We quite literally finished our time here with a bang.