Backpacking in Vietnam

Bangkok was the last place and the hottest place of our journey. We took the chance to use Bangkok as a stopover for our return flight from South Vietnam to the North to visit Thailand. Bangkok is a huge city with its 11Mio inhabitants and there are also many tourists with around 23 Mio a year. The visit of the palace was way too crowded for us and we could not enjoy the beauty in the loud and hot places. We preferred the less touristic Wats(temples) which were characterized by calmness, tranquility and peace. Temples in Bangkok were much more decorated with gold and in a better/more expensive state than in Vietnam. On the other side the temples in Vietnam were more worshipped and more local people visited them. In the temples you must wear long trousers, so I joined the tourist armada of elephant trousers. Not pretty, but effective. Food The food in Thailand was amazing. We preferred it over Vietnam. We directly fell in love with Pad Thai, Green Thai Curry, Khao Soi, Kanom Jeen Nam Ng...

Ho Chi Minh is the biggest city in the south of Vietnam and is named by the president of former north Vietnam after uniting whole Vietnam.  We visited the party streets of Ho Chi Minh. We visited museums and learned about the history of Vietnam.  Play this song during reading this blog to feel what we felt, not for minutes but for hours. This song in a loop. The food availability in Ho Chi Minh is immense and we tried local burgers and Korean Topokki. A highlight for us was the so called "small Tokio" hood. It's a kind of closed district not far away from the center. You can find typically Japanese food and services. We didn't dare to take many photos, especially of the lady's in white dresses pulling guys inside. In general the temperature was hot around 35° and never going below 30°. In combination with shops cooled down to 20° it's like an unwanted constant sauna Session. 

To arrive in Can Tho we took our last and longest night bus. Can Tho is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta and the heart of supply distribution. Most of the fruits, vegetables, rice and other products from the Mekong country side arrive here and are sold via dealers. A few decades back the goods were sold on the Mekong rivers and canals via boats, unfortunately nowadays there are only a few boats left   selling touristic goods on the water. At the moment of our stay it was the end of the dry season, so the water level was pretty low. For the ones hating mosquitoes thats the perfect season, on our monthly journey we haven't seen more than 20 mosquitos and got no more than 3 stitches together. 3 for Clarissa, 0 for Joni.  In our experience Can Tho was the poorest city we have visited. In our neighborhood markets are small and dirty.  We were unable to find a adequate place to eat for over an hour and ended by KFC with a vietnamese burger alternative and fries. Apart ...

Nha Trang is the stronghold of beaches. The city has a wonderful big beach with nice sand, waves, wind, sun and perfect temperatures almost for the whole year. Here you find everything, palms, Beachvolleyball on the beach, surfing, kiting, mountains and at the same time it is so cheap. The sea temperature never goes below 25° even in winter. The Russian people have early discovered this place. Vietnamese people approach us in Russian. By Russian I include Russian speaking countries like Kasachstan and others, because we couldn't know the difference cause of language similarity. There are huge skyscraper hotels with rooftop pools.  Our room was 24€ a night. This was the most expensive hotel we took in Vietnam, but totally worth it. Just take a look out of our window: We found a staircase to the roof of the hotel above the pool with a unused dance floor, scary but soooo cool. It looked like nobody has been there for months. Part of our included breakfast buffet, how beautiful is this...

Hoi An was the most touristic place we have visited so far. In older travel guides described as romantic fishers village it is now a flourishing, crowded and touristic city. As a result there are lot of museums, nice building and a lot of markets to buy souvenirs. At night the city center is full of Lampions, which creates a nice atmosphere. In this region there is a bigger influence of Chinese religion's which is reflected in the style and monuments of the buildings and religious places. In the streets there is a lot of handwork, workshops and craftsman. Not for the show like ones you find in Europe, but it's their real job and they make their living with selling their goods. Painters, wooden goods or as a tailor where Clarissa commissioned a dress. People in Asia are shorter than in Europe. In Hoi An they seemed especially short. And lastly Hoi An was our first time at the beach with >30°. With the coconut palms it's like you arrive at those holiday magazine front cove...