Laurie's World

So unless something dramatic changes, there will be almost nothing to blog about for the next three days. It is currently Monday and we moved to Ho Tram today. It was a two hour car ride to get here. We hired a private car and driver to pick us up at noon and bring us out here to this sleepy resort for our last three nights of vacation.  We will head back to Ho Chi Min on Thursday at 10pm to catch our flight home (at 4am 😳). WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?😅????

We are at the Ho Tram Beach Resort. It is quite secluded and a ways out of the nearest town (8km) so I suspect while I will actually have time to blog, I am unlikely to have much to tell you…..

There is a fruit and vegetable carving class we might take tomorrow and yoga on Wednesday? Yip, that’s the speed we are currently expecting to move at.

Not too much to report today. Troy and I went to Jaspa’s for breakfast and it was really good, expensive but good (225,000 Dong for omelette), then around 11am, Ritchie, Alice and Landon came to hang out with us at the rooftop pool today. It cost them 360,000 dong ($18) each, but Ritchie assures me this is a bargain for the area. All pools are really expensive and he had paid 2 million dong for he, Vanna and Alice at another hotel a while back. It was really nice to relax and just hang out. Alice loves water so it was built in entertainment for the entire afternoon.

At check in, we were given a voucher for two free drinks at Liquid Sky bar (the rooftop bar at the hotel). I asked if we could use it at the pool bar and they said “sure”. So Troy and I ordered lime margaritas. I just don’t get why they can’t make a decent mixed drink here. It was really awful and Ritchie even said at one point “I can smell the petrol”. He’s British, so he’s really saying “it smells like gasoline”. So it kind of takes me back to the drinks that Troy and I ordered in Hoi An last year that were SO bad (and I thought tasted like gas) so I sent them back! NOT that I know what gas tastes like! But one can certainly imagine…..but when you didn’t pay in the first place, how do you send it back??  Probably using the cheapest tequila on the planet…..

It made my tummy a little woozy to look down the center of the hotel from the 21st floor…..

We were going to try to get a reservation at 4P Pizza, but when Landon called, the earliest we could get in was 9pm. Given that Alice had skipped nap due to pool and all we’d had to eat since breakfast at 10am was peanuts, nobody was going to wait that long to eat. So we decided to go back to the food market that we stopped at on our first day here over by the local market. It would be fast and it had a huge selection of vendors to choose from so everyone could get what they liked. I almost immediately became overwhelmed with the choices so randomly chose a rice and pork dish that I was colossally disappointed in. It had pork skin on it (which is disgusting) and kimchee. Which is WAY too spicy for me! Troy got ribs and I was super jealous. BUT….I was saving myself for dessert anyway. I had seen mango sticky rice when I scoped the stalls out, so I knew what I was having after the fail of a supper. Best 70,000 dong I spent all day!

We walked over to Bui Vuen street (the famous backpacker street). I’ve never seen anything like this! Thousands and thousands of people hanging out, drinking, partying, loud booming competing music from every bar, food, vendors, people inhaling helium out of balloons (how is that even a thing??), drugs I’m sure……apparently it goes until 4am and even 5am. But there are hundreds of hostels and backpacker rooms on this road…..how does anyone sleep??? Guessing sleep (at night anyway) isn’t a priority for anyone who chooses a room on this street? 

We chose a rooftop bar with a visibly more mature clientele (because that’s how WE see ourselves!) and we had a lovely time on our last night in Saigon. 

TTFN

This hotel is AMAZING. We are staying at the Renaissance Riverside for our three days in Ho Chi Min. I booked it with points from a credit card! It’s really outrageously over the top nice and is definitely out of my budget! We normally stay in smaller boutique hotels that are full of local character, decor and staff. When I’m in this room, I would not know I wasn’t in any big hotel in North America. There are no signs of SE Asia at all. Everything is English, artwork is benign, everything is modern. Anyway, it’s really nice but I am not going to get used to it. The view is spectacular and the room is really big, there’s a VERY comfortable bed (without a doubt the most comfortable bed we have ever had in 10 years here) and the service is of course above and beyond. This first photo is inside the hotel looking up. 

This one is the center looking down into a lounge.

Haha! The TP is embossed …..

Our view!!!!

Landon and Ritchie met us at our hotel around 10:15am and we set off in search of breakfast. On our way we saw this establishment.

We didn’t stop to eat there but it was sure nice to see my flag flying. Guessing some Canadian ownership here!

We did have a great breakfast at this place. Huge basket of artisans breads and three kinds of jam and Nutella. It was a Nutella day for me! Then our breakfasts came. The boys each had “English breakfast”, with our Brit Ritchie ordering extra beans! I had the best French toast I’ve ever had. And a Vietnamese iced coffee!

Then it was time for us to tackle some of those things that one must do when one visits a big city for the first time. The Vietnam war museum being one. I’m somewhat prepared for this very difficult visit knowing it will potentially be presented as one side of a very troubling time in our history. (As in ‘anti American’). This was true when we visited the Killing Fields and S21 in Cambodia and other war memorials in Laos over the years. 

The visit started with a part of the museum where they displayed hundreds of letters, pictures, posters and other kinds of support for Vietnam in ending the war. There was even this:in case you can’t read it. It’s a photo of a protest against the US invasion of IndoChina (Ottawa, Canada in 1966)

I really didn’t take any other photos as it was was the most disturbing and upsetting visit to any museum ever. War History in whatever form it is presented, is always gruesome but this really took the cake. I can’t believe what little regard there was for Human life for the duration of this war, the ways they tormented and tortured innocent civilians and it ending with the agent orange exhibits showing the effects of that? It’s still an issue today, the clean up of the contaminated soil and the birth defects still happening! ‘Birth defects’ doesn’t even really describe it. It’s way worse than that. And people did that to other people, innocent people…..

As we walked around the city, there were many nice parks and buildings. This us actually a huge but not offensive city….whoever thought I would say that???!

There was a people’s protest here a few weeks ago over some things the government was doing with land (if I understand it correctly) and the barriers the police (or maybe military?) used to cried control are still scattered across the intersections in the area. I can’t imagine any police force in NA being allowed to use these to control protests? If you can’t see well, they are barbed wire.

Next stop was the Independence Palace (also known as Reunification Palace). I am starting to see things more clearly now. This whole ‘reunification’ thing is just a spin on the north winning the war. The railway from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Min in the south is called the Reunification railway too. It’s a total spin to make the south feel like they weren’t taken over by the communist north Vietnam. But they were, despite the atrocities committed during the war, they still lost and when that army tank drove through the palace gates in April 1975, the then president of south Vietnam had fled and the war was over. 

Interesting to see how the president(s) of Vietnam lived in the mid 60s to early 70s. Very much could see the era come through in the decor.

We ended the evening by catching a cab over to Ritchie and Vanna’s apartment where Vanna made burgers and fries and we hung out on their rooftop watching the sun go down on another busy day! 

We are officially five hours into our eight hour train ride from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Min. I guess it could be worse, there are people on this train that have already been in transit for 16 or 17 hours. This train comes from Hanoi and apparently that is a 25 hour train ride. I can not imagine anything worse to be honest. Well maybe a 25 hour bus ride 😂😂😂. That would definitely be worse. 

The day started well as we had day 2 of our private rooftop breakfast arranged by the food and beverage manager at the Tri Giao.  I wasn’t sure I was going to like that, but it has really turned out to be a great way to start the day! We were set to check out at 9:30 and had arranged last night for the hotel’s private car to take us to the train station in the morning. The cost was 150,000 dong (~$7 USD) which is the same as a taxi would cost. Seems reasonable, but I did take a moment to reflect that that was 20,000 dong more than it cost for the 4 hour bus ride from Da Lat to Nha Trang. But maybe that bus ride was just an exceptionally good deal 😂. As it turns out that was a very slick operation as they put us all in vans and shuttled us to the various hotels all over Nha Trang when we got to town. I was expecting to have to take a taxi from the bus station like we have had to in the past, but this was truly door to door for $6. 

Anyway back to today……the staff at the hotel was so nice and incredibly attentive. I will say with certainty, if I ever come back to Nha Trang, I will stay at the Tri Giao. The driver even stopped at an atm for us as we were in need of funds. We stopped at an atm last night and the service fees were outrageous. 13% of the value of the withdrawal to them plus whatever my bank was going to charge. So we asked hotel to find us another atm in the morning. Now, that being said, the atm he took me to this morning didn’t tell me the fees. They could very well be the same or worse! The bank machines here always tell you the fees, so that was odd, but my options were limited at that point so I just did it. 

We got to the train station and I was ready to figure out how this train thing works.

We have never used a train to get around over here. Any trains we have been on are touristy trains and I’m sensing it’s going to be closer to the “getting on a bus” experience than not. I online booked two tickets for ‘soft seats’ on Wednesday and I have my digital e-tickets on my phone. Hoping this is enough! I go to the information booth and the girl there says “in 15 minutes we will call you and go to gate two”. It was 10 am so I note the time and take a seat, assuming she means I can get my ticket in 15 minutes from booth #2. I get in line around 10:07am at booth #2 so I can be closer to the front by 10:15. The line isn’t moving, there’s a lady at the front flanked in all sides by “helpers” that is causing quite a delay. And now it’s past 10:15 so I’m scoping out my options. Seems like all booths are the same, I see no signage that says otherwise,so I bail lines. Then as is usually my luck, that line gets jammed up, so I bail again as we are seeing the clock moving towards 10:30. (Our train is scheduled to depart at 10:51). Ironically, I end up back at booth #2. This girl speaks slightly better English and after I show her my screenshots on my phone, she tells me to go wait in the other room and just show my screenshots when I get on the train. Could it POSSIBLY be this easy???? So we take the leap of faith and move to the other room. Maybe the first girl said “they’ll call you in 50 minutes wait through there”! I don’t know….

There’s no seats so we have to stand but lo and behold, I see another white person so I walk right up to him and ask the phrase I’m becoming famous for “do you speak English?” He says yes and then I start asking questions. As it turns out he’s from Illinois and he’s ridden trains here before so he gave us the skinny. Which the highlight of that turned out to be “make sure you get on the right train”. As apparently he didn’t one time!! The train was late arriving and we didn’t board and head out until 11:15 or so. A few people got off, we got on and found our seats. All is well. They have food and beverage service in the train similar to a plane. (That’s a little joke). They did come through with a cart that had a large bucket of rice, various meats and a veggie selection. And something really odd in a drink cup. Cabbage soup??  I didn’t take a photo as I thought the guy sitting across from us would think I was rude if I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures of his food.  It looks like people were passing them 35,000 dong (so ~$1.75 usd). Prolly a good deal and a lot less than airline food. We however passed on the opportunity because we planned ahead and brought our left over pizza from supper at the culture cafe last night with us! Let’s just say we got some really interesting looks when we pulled out the pizza box around 2pm. Plenty of interest….

 A beverage cart and snack guy also came through. He was making Vietnam coffee which I TOTALLY would have gotten other than that would significantly increased my chances of needing to use the washroom on this trip. And I can guarantee you i am NOT going to use the train washroom. Troy scoped it out and advises against it. I am pretty tolerant of washroom situations in emergencies but will be holding it based in his feedback. 

There was a lady who chose to lay in the aisle for the entire trip the train provided blankets so she laid one down and then put herself and her baby there in the aisle.

Unless the snack cart was coming through, then she got up. Otherwise everyone who needed to walk through had to step over them. Gotta admit, that takes cahonies!! Doesn’t look particularly comfortable but maybe 25 hours jammed in a seat isn’t comfy either??

The train itself has been an ok experience other than we feel a little like we are in a fishbowl.

Troy loves taking selfies with me🤣

There’s something really unnerving about being so different from other people, and the further we get off the beaten path, the more different we appear. I don’t feel this in Thailand or any other country we’ve been to. I think it’s because there’s so much less English. Spoken, on signage everywhere. 

Flying just didn’t seem a feasible option for this particular leg of transport. A flight that didn’t leave at 5am or 1am was going to be almost $200 each, so a $20 train ticket was far more palatable. The bus was OFF THE TABLE! 

Looking forward to the three nights in Ho Chi Min. Used points to books room at the Renaissance Riverside (partner with Marriott hotels) should be really nice and I may just get used to it. Especially after the white glove service at the last hotel 😉

Not going to lie, I was kinda nervous about this rooftop breakfast thing. I kind of like things the way I like them in the morning, the amount of coffee I like at the pace I like. Flying under the radar in my corner in air conditioned comfort….so now my first thought is, I’m not going to be able to pick my own breakfast and they are going to bring me some weird Asian food I don’t recognize and how am I going to fill my coffee and it’s going to be 1000 degrees up there? I know, it’s like seeing inside the mind of a madwoman isn’t it ???? Hahaha! Why do I worry so much…..

As it turns out, they invited me (and Troy also) to come down to breakfast room and choose whatever we wanted, they put the plates on a cart where, get this, they had my own pitcher of coffee, sweetened condensed milk and fresh milk, fruit, special juice, cool lemongrass cloths, and tea! We loaded it up with whatever we wanted and they whisked it away. We were ushered to another elevator and taken up to the rooftop. And GUESS WHAT?? They had turned the AC on and Lionel Ritchie’s “say you say me” was crooning in the background.

Our food magically appears along with another plate of bacon, ham, and sliced cheese. REAL CHEESE! REAL BACON- cooked perfectly. So now I’m the happiest clam in the world. The manager came to check on us a couple times but other than that it was waaay different than the past two mornings, very peaceful and ya…..I’ll just leave it at that so I don’t sound like an hateful white person.

After breakfast we were feeling fat and happy so we went back to our room to get ready for whatever adventures we felt up to for the day. Lo and behold, our key doesn’t work…..so I go down to desk and after working through explaining that, they send me back up to the room with the bellhop and a master key. It didn’t work either, so he had to call a technician. And we wait….the technician pops open a flap in the panel where they can use a traditional key to open the door. He goes through the whole ring, and none work. It’s getting funny now….he disappears and comes back with another set and they make their way through those keys and find one eventually. We get into our room and back into ac comfort. It’s already 90+ degrees by 10am so that’s nice! They come back 20 minutes later to replace the batteries in the thing that reads the keyboard and we are in business. 

We did go on a nice long walk in the afternoon in an attempt to find the local market (as far as I can tell it’s the only market here).

It’s quite a hike but what else do we have to do. The market was ROUGH. I just don’t have a stomach for the smell, flies, garbage, raw meat and occasional rat….I thought there might be a little trinket shopping, but nope! Not a bit.

There was a gigantic pile of watermelons though! 

On our meandering, we saw them installing a new street lamp. Right across from a guy welding in his flip flops with no face mask and a baby watching on. This just would never happen in ‘Merica.

We walked back towards the hotel with the determination to find a restaurant we were looking for last night that we couldn’t locate. Cafe Culture. It was recommended on a couple sites so we wanted to try it. We did eventually find it. It was in a terrible location as it turns out, we almost missed it again! We were the only customers.

It was amazing pizza though, owned by an expat Brit, Scott. Nice guy and we sure hope he makes a go of it!!!

I noticed something yesterday and today it was confirmed. I am a minority here and while 99% of the time that seems to put me at a disadvantage, it seems at this hotel, it is NOT a disadvantage! Yesterday when I came down for breakfast, a sweet girl greeted me and ushered me to a table, brought me a placemat, silverware, a nice linen napkin and watermelon juice. Then a manager in a suit came over directly to me and greeted me, checked in on me, asked how I was doing? I was wondering what all the fuss was. Then I got up to get my food and he rushed over to walk me through the food and answer questions. He came over to the table two more times after Troy came down and while we ate. He was making sure we were doing ok?

Then today the manager greets us right at the elevator and eagerly shakes our hands and ushers us to a table and the girls with the placemats, linens etc magically appear and today is a very yummy lemon juice. (I’m not a fan of watermelon) as I reflect back, i bet if I had asked for a different juice yesterday i am sure they would have accommodated me! Also I forgot to mention that yesterday I looked at all the other tables in the giant restaurant and not a single one had placemats, linens or special juice. Just us and it was the same today!  I went to get some coffee and on the way back I see the manager talking to Troy. Shocker! As I walk up I hear them discussing how many more days we will be staying. (It is two more nights) The manager says he wants to arrange for a private roof top breakfast for us tomorrow. They have a dining area on the rooftop here (which is the 15th floor. We scoped it out on the first day we got here.) As an aside, the the third floor is entirely dedicated to karaoke (which blows my mind). They do love their karaoke here!!! We also scoped that out 🤣

So I can’t quite figure out why we have been singled out for this special treatment other than we are not Asian. At first I thought it was because of the room I booked. But I don’t think that’s it! This hotel is completely full of Chinese (and Vietnamese) people, but mostly Chinese. So maybe they are trying to get good reviews from other countries to build up that clientele. He knew we were from Canada as one time today when he was “checking” on me he asked if I was from Vancouver or Toronto? (Spoiler alert-neither) He must have checked at the front desk about our passports to be able to make conversation.

So that is happening….I’ll defintely keep you posted on the private rooftop breakfast!

It really is hot here, I know three days ago I was complaining about freezing! But the heat is impacting our motivation to spend large quantities of time outside. Thus the importance of choosing a good hotel. I am currently blogging from the indoor pool which at first I thought was a dumb idea. As it turns out, it is amazing. It’s all windows, so the beautiful Sun shines in without the 95 degree heat.

Now all that being said, we did venture out for one big adventure today. Troy had seen on his map a trail that goes to the top of the mountains right here behind the hotel. It is called To Chien mountain (also known as Fairy Mountain). As we are never ones to shy away from a novel hike, we venture out with our sunscreen and bug repellent applied and water bottles in hand! The trailhead was super sketchy and I am doubtful that this is the right place, but the map pinpoints this as the starting place.

So either we are getting soft or old or maybe this was just a really tough trail (I prefer to think the latter) but we didn’t make it to the top.

Not sure if this qualifies as “trail” or a “path” or what.

We stick with it long enough to see some spectacular views of the ocean and town.

Feeling a bit nervous about the sun exposure and heat as well as the rocky terrain (I am still not 100% confident in the ankle) we decide we have seen and done enough and we start the trek down.

Mission accomplished and we are happy with our outing.

Yikes, slow start is an understatement.  We did get down to breakfast by 8:45am and then I promptly got back into bed when we got back to room at 9:30. I fell asleep until housekeeping came at 12:22pm and so rudely woke me! Hahaha. I call this ‘finally embracing vacation’ mode. So we had to vacate while they cleaned the room, but then I came right back in and vegged until 2:30 or so, when we figured we better get up and do SOMETHING.  We did rally and go for a walk heading right out of the hotel this time (toward City Centre). We walked a long ways and while the pictures, for some reason, look gloomy and cloudy, it was actually a nice sunny hot day? About 94 degrees….😅

A nice walk along the beach took us to a bridge that seems quite busy. This place is bigger than I thought it was going to be!

On our way back, we stopped in at a pizza and coffee place for some supper around 5:30pm.  I am starting to crave food I recognize. I forgot to tell you about supper last night. We were quite hungry and tired when we got back from our walk and had cooled off in the pool on day 1, so grabbed a seat at the first place we came to when we headed out for supper.  NOT always (or ever) your best bet. The food was mediocre at best. Troy had pho (Vietnamese soup) and a ban mi (sandwich) I had sweet and sour pork dish with rice. Based on the chewiness and fattiness of the meat, it was likely the oldest pig they could find, or not pig! Who knows. Kind of turned me off the dish to say the least, and troy was not super impressed with his meal ether. So pizza it was tonight! News flash- it also WAS mediocre pizza….but at least it was recognizable. We did eat too much, but figured it would make terrible leftover pizza so just went ahead and finished it. The side dish of sauce tasted like ‘pizza sauce’ to me, Troy thinks it was ketchup. He said it tasted exactly like what they put in his omelette in the morning🤣🤣🤣. I went ahead and dipped my pizza in it bcz the pizza itself didn’t have any sauce under the cheese.

TTFN

Our pace has slowed significantly since arriving in Nha Trang. We are back to mid 90s for temperature. So after the four nights in Da Lat with highs of 70 and rain/breezy weather conditions, this is another shock to the system. In a good way of course!

When we got here Monday,  set out on a walk about. We went left out of the hotel and walked for a few Km’s along the beach and while we were able to walk there, it is clear we are situated at the northern end of the Nha Trang area as there wasn’t much for services as we went along. Clearly more ‘local’ than ‘touristy’ and we welcome the more peaceful area.

We saw the local people setting up for what appears to be a family fun night, a bouncy house, some carnival rides etc. But as we passed it we see on the other side, it’s set up right next to one of the local garbage collection  areas (trying to word that nicely)! And clearly someone’s burn pile……

 Appreciating the nicely manicured shrubs along the road. Seems like a maintenance nightmare though!

The ocean here is really beautiful as long as you don’t look directly down at the beach. There is a lot of garbage here and as always it is mind boggling to see the impact that plastic has on our environment. 

Down on the beach we saw two fishermen working on refurbishing their nets. I’m sure they can get another 25-50 years out of these nets!

We are staying at the Tri Giao hotel. It’s a four star place right across the road from the ocean with spectacular views out one set of windows of the ocean, and Mountain View from the other set of windows.

All for $43/night. I know, spendy for me! But the proximity to beach and ocean views seemed worth it. It also had really good reviews😉

Just in case you were wondering

…..if I’m going to survive (and thrive) here!

So here I am again, on a bus ride death trap. Always good to write a blog entry during one of these rides so that the emotion is raw and you all can feel my fear leaping off the page. Plus it helps pass the time. We need to get ourselves to Nha Trang and options are sort of limited if you are trying to keep costs under control. So in a foolish weak moment I agree to take the four hour bus ride for 130,000 dong ($6.50 usd) vs lord knows what for a private car and driver. (Prolly well over $125??). The hotel ‘arranged’ it for us – which means they called bus depot and prebooked us two seats on the 11am bus. They assured us that a shuttle would come get us and that we should be ready at 10:15am. We were, and at 10:25 I checked with desk. “Yes, everything ok-he coming”. At 10:42, asked again, she called “yes, he coming soon”. A small red bus pulls up at 10:44 and honks his horn, desk girl gestures us out. And we are off. Bus depot is about 5 minutes away, so in we go and I get in a line to buy the tickets. Under the “Nha Trang” sign. I fight the good fight and get to the front despite many attempts at being cut off. (Similar rules in bus ticket line as at the washroom-but I’m getting BADASS at this now). The ticket girl says to me “do you have a ticket?”  I say “no” (isn’t that what this line is for?????) do she ushers me over to another line. Uh oh….

I get myself to the front of THAT line, and there are two ladies flipping through a book of names. I (rudely I guess) interrupt them trying to buy my two tickets and they look at me like I’m from mars. They say something like “do you have booking??” AHHH YES I DO! I get what is happening now. I should have told the girl at the first line yes. Bcz in theory my hotel reserved me the seats. I just have to pay now. I go back to the first line and manage to get to the front without getting cut. Had to physically intervene when a lady straight up barged in front of me right as I was about to get my tickets. The ticket girl gave me the nod like she knew I was next. Felt vindicated 😏 Gotta be less Canadian here I think! Get my Asian on. 

Got my two tickets, walked out at moments past 11, bus just starting it’s engines. Said goodbye to the bag as it goes under the bus and tbh we might never see it again. (In its current condition- busses are notable here for having problems with bag security). We got on the bus with our carry-on bags (that have everything valuable in them) and the sleep machine. We have to take off our shoes and put in plastic bags (which is a gigantic pain in the butt) and we grab the first two seats we find. I’m thinking this will be ok as at least my seat adjuster works and I can put my seat up (unlike the bus ride from Sappa last summer where I had to do the entire thing laying down- scariest ride of my life coming down off that mountain). We just get settled in and a guy comes along and asks for our tickets. I happily pass them over, thinking it’s a ticket checker. Ha! Sort of. It’s a guy who is checking our seat numbers….apparently it’s assigned seating?? So we have to move to the back of the bus on the lower level. Which is fine with me as personally, I think the top seats are scarier. It seems more like you’ll tip over up there. And just visualize Troy and I hiking our North American selves up to those bunks up there! No small feat. Anyway, all is fine other than guess what??? I got the crappy broken seat again that doesn’t sit up. 😤😤😤

So here I LIE terrified of going over this mountain. At least I’m in the middle so don’t HAVE to look out the window……hundreds of these busses go up and down daily and I’m not aware that many don’t make it. So I guess it’s all part of the adventure. And it has WiFi so I can blog, play words with friends and catch up on Facebook that pass the time.  (more…)