Vietnam 2017 - 18



Viet Nam



With my daughter Sophie at the tender age of one travel was limited to travel inside Vietnam



Phu Quoc - Autumn 2017

Long Hai  - May 2018

Vung Tau - June 2018

Nha Trang - August 2018



A short one hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City Phu Quoc was my favourite spot of the last year.

The level of development is low with the exception of one or two spots on the island. Long may it last.

The beaches and one or two parks inland were exceptional, rustic and still very fresh. The white sand beach in the south of the island was quite wonderful and the so-called coconut prison quite a place to visit especially in the heat of the day.





Coconut Prison

*


 Long Hai was a so-so experience. Really it was just about having a long weekend. Long Hai has a long beach. And that is pretty much it. There is a temple with rhesus monkeys in attendance.



Sophie in the homestay garden



*

Vung Tau is somewhere I have been five or six times. Initially I was disappointed, having been to say Phang Nga Bay in Thailand, Caye Caulker in Belize the black beach at Amed in Bali and another black beach at Corcovado national Park in Costa Rica. Ahem, but Vung Tau appeals to me more and more each time I go. The so-called back beach is cleaner and cleaner each time I visit (first time in 2013). Many parts of this ocean city are quiet but there is a certain energy there. Like Nha Trang there are more than 400,000 people in Vung Tau.

With woods, parks, swimming, restaiurants and a laid-back atmosphere and only 85 km from Saigon its a great place. As an indicator I stayed there for 4 days; hotel, food and motorbike travel there and around the city for $215 all-in. I like the economics of this trip.






*

I visited Nha Trang for the second time in August. Thuy, Sophie, nephew Ben and I stayed on the 24th floor of an apartment building overlooking the crystal clear blue sea of another white beach. Nha Trang is city beach environment but with lots of pluses. The terrain aroundabout is quite remarkable though quite arid.
A week for all of us with food and motorbike rental and travel to and from Saigon on the train came in at $384 in a 2 bedroom apartment 40 metres from the beach.



View from the apartment at sunset and sunrise




Rocks on the northern road to Ninh Hoa



Happy Travelling

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

R & R in Nha Trang

Image
I would like welcome the first Chinese readers to GuerillaZ. Ni Hao. 是 And a big thankyou to all readers of Nha Trang. The number of readers of this post is still ahead of any other post. Thankyou. Cam on. спасибо. Nha Trang R & R This city was where US troops came on their rest days. For R & R. It is perfect for that. A commercial beach resort but somehow not really. There is plenty of available beach away from the sun loungers and umbrellas. How Nha Trang makes me feel:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qlBDqQCAM 'Remember Me' by Tame Impala US Troops arriving at Nha Trang, 1968 The year 1968 was a key year in the war against US forces. The turning point. The Tet offensive. The brilliant general Võ Nguyên Giáp , also the victor at Dien Bien Phu (when the French were finally forced from Viet Nam) was assumed to be behind The Tet offensive but it was not the case. He disapproved of the plan. For this blog it is the beginnin...
Read more

Pariah Dog

Image
First of all a big thankyou to Lonely Planet for following this blog on Twitter. The Pariah Dog: Part II A few more thoughts on my favourite subject. The Pariah Dog. These creatures exist in poetic contradistinction to the pampered dogs of the UK, the King Charles spaniel always comes to mind here. I can also boast a co-researcher, a rather alert Danish woman called Mette I met in Varkala, Kerala, who demonstrated considerable acumen when it came to this curious species, the feral canines of the highways. The Pariah Dog leaves no droppings whatsoever. In Paris spoilt pooches, holed up in apartments leave odd orange waste behing them, in England larger droppings can be found. In India droppings are, incredibly, completely absent. The P Dog sets up night communication in waves of howls that run across palm groves and beaches. Like coyotes the howls spring up in an automatic way and all dogs join in. The pack behaviour also appeared when a European family rolled up with tw...
Read more

Fuji-ko

Image
Welcome to readers from Taiwan, South Korea, China and Peru Mount Fuji from my window in Narusawa.  Narusawa really was such a small village. It sad astride the equivalent of a B road. Like most villages in England you could walk around it and barely see anyone. On one side was an escarpment with pine trees on its upper reaches. On the other side of the village woods that gave out to the rising landmass of Fuji itself. You needed some kind of permit to climb Fuji and well I've more or less stopped climbing now unless it is on a bicycle. Fuji from space The tallest mountain in Japan Fuji stands at 3776 metres. Each year around 250, 000 climbers scale Fuji. In the non-climbing season another estimated 150, 000 manage it. It is the most visited peak in the world. The View from the summit, c 1910 Being near Fuji  draws out the impulse to be blase. From its base Fuji looks like a stroll with some slippery stuff halfway up. The Eiger, Mont Blanc, P...
Read more