Croatia – Part 2
One of the things that has struck us most about Croatia is how amazingly clear the water is. Of all the places we have travelled, we can’t recall anywhere else where the water is so beautifully transparent. Everywhere we’ve been on the coast has had this amazing clarity but the inland water as well – the lakes and rivers, are just the same.
After we left Zadar we headed further south to Krka National Park. This is a lot like Plitvice Lakes but on a smaller scale. The plus side is that its nowhere near as busy but its just as expensive (€20 in the shoulder season – April, May and October and €40 in the Summer season).
Krka is a lot more manageable than Plitvice as it really only involves 3-4kms of walking.
From the entrance, a bus that takes you down the mountain into the river valley to the waterfalls. There is a pretty and easy board-walked route over and around the rivers that make up the park.
There are several waterfalls but the star attraction is the Skradinski Buk waterfall, which can be viewed from a boardwalk that crosses the river.
Conveniently for us, there is a campsite right next to the entrance to the falls so we had somewhere to relax in the afternoon sunshine after our visit.
The next morning we got going early, driving back towards the coast and the lovely little town of Sibenik.
Sibenik is a medieval city with maze like streets, a hill top fortress and an impressive cathedral. Definitely worth a stopover and a visit to one of its many ice-cream shops.
We didn’t want to stay the night at Sibenik as it was pretty hot, so we moved a bit further down the coast to a campsite right on the water (which was a little warmer than it was further North on Krk Island but still pretty cold!)
This was a great spot to cycle along the coast into the town of Primosten. Yet another beautiful little town built on a roundish island jutting out into the water but still connected to the mainland, of which there seem to be a lot in Croatia.
It didn’t take long to explore this very pretty old town, so having been tempted by all the wonderful smelling cafes and restaurants (of which there are many here), we settled down at a waterside taverna with a delicious plate of whitebait, a basket of fresh bread and a couple of cool beers. Simple but so tasty.
We had thought about staying here for a couple of days but the campsite was a bit busy for our liking and we felt a bit packed in like sardines. So we decided to move on in the morning and head for the island of Ciovo, where we had heard about a free park-up by a small beach. After following some narrow roads through the main town, we arrived at the parking area, right on the water and next to a small harbour.
It was a beautiful location and the swimming/snorkelling here was great. The water was also getting a little warmer as we made our way further South, which was definitely a plus.
We had planned on spending a couple of days here but unfortunately on our second morning, some workmen arrived early with pneumatic drills and drove us away. It looked like they may have been building a beach bar, so perhaps not a free park-up for much longer.
Right next to this big island is… yes you guessed it, another beautiful medieval old town on its very own little island. Trogir was founded by the Greeks in the third century BC and with the impressive cathedral and town hall at one end, fortress at the other end and a warren of narrow winding streets in between, it is a great place to spend some time wandering around or relaxing at one of the many eateries along the waterfront. It would have looked great from the air but unfortunately, due to its proximity to Split airport, I wasn’t able to put the drone up.
Making our way further down the coast, we stayed in a small, terraced, hillside campsite near the town of Gradac. This was a lovely location but it took a bit of careful manoeuvring to get into a spot. The access road was quite steep and the terraces were narrow. The other campers there were all in smaller van conversions, which it is probably better suited to. However, once we were in, we enjoyed a lovely few days here.
There was a nice little beach down the hill from the campsite and a few restaurant bars on the beach, although only one was open, so he was doing a good trade as there were plenty of tourists around. The end of May is still considered to be out of season despite the weather being glorious, but we could see work going on at the other tavernas, clearly preparing to open shortly. Unfortunately too late for us though, as after leaving Gradac we only had a few days left in Croatia.
We were on a self imposed limit of 30 Schengen days as we want time at the end of our trip in the Schengen zone. Knowing that we were heading inland and wouldn’t see the coast again for some time we decided to spend out last days in Croatia relaxing by the sea and our next destination was a real gem.
Flanking the Southern Dalmatian Islands is a long peninsula that juts out from the mainland, called the Peljesac Peninsula. There is actually a big new bridge linking the mainland to the peninsula and the main road runs across this to avoid the short bit of coastline that belongs to Bosnia, thereby ensuring that it is possible to drive to Dubrovnik without leaving Croatia.
We drove along the peninsula and settled into the lovely Palme Campsite in the town of Kuciste, a short cycle ride from the larger and more well known town of Orebic. Although it was fairly busy, we managed to bag a spot at the front, facing onto the pebble beach. Across the water from here you can see the island of Korcula and the namesake town of Korcula.
One of the reasons for coming here is that we wanted to take a day trip across to visit Korcula, which you can do from Orebic. The ferry only takes 20 minutes and you can travel across with vehicles, so we cycled the 5kms from the campsite to Orebic and after the short ferry ride, had another 3km cycle to get from the harbour to Korcula town. For foot passengers there are smaller ferries that dock in Korcula town harbour itself.
Korcula town is another walled medieval town set on an island and walking around it, it feels a bit like a miniature Dubrovnik but with much less tourists. Many believe that it was the birthplace of Marco Polo but this is not confirmed.
The town itself is very well ordered with a grid of tiny streets radiating from a central thoroughfare where there are several churches.
It is a lovely place for a day trip and it is crammed with very nice looking restaurants overlooking the water, so having worked up an appetite wandering the pretty, narrow, cobbled streets, we stopped for a bite to eat before heading back on a late ferry to Orebic.
The next day we explored the coast of the Peninsula on our bikes, stopping off to watch the kite and wind surfers, enjoy an ice-cream and then finally a sunset beer, before heading back to the campsite for burgers on the BBQ. A perfect end to our stay in Croatia!
Croatia – Part 1
Tourism in Croatia is growing fast and was up 9% in 2023 on the previous year, with over 20 million tourist arrivals. This has led to rising prices and some seriously overcrowded places. Fortunately for us, May is before the real summer onslaught starts and we found that most places were fairly quiet, with some exceptions.
Our first stop in Croatia was not far from the Slovenian border in the lovely Adriatic town of Rovinj. Rovinj is the biggest tourist attraction of Coastal Istria and the old town, which was originally an island, is only connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. The water surrounding the “island” is stunning and so clear.
We spent some time wandering the narrow streets of the old town and of course stopped for a cold beer at one of the many waterfront bars with their fabulous views. The difficulty here is choosing which one.
We stayed overnight in a large gravel car park just outside town (for which you practically needed a PhD to operate the pay machine – and before you think it, this was before we’d had the beers), which was made far more pleasant by meeting a lovely Polish/South African couple, Magda and Adrian (@adma_adventures on instagram) who just happened to be parked up next to us and on a pretty amazing trip themselves. So what better excuse than to spend the evening sitting outside, drinking a bit too much wine and comparing travel stories.
A little further along the coast from Rovinj is the busy commercial port town of Pula, with its two main attractions; the well-preserved Roman amphitheatre from the 1st century, which was able to hold up to 20,000 people for gladiatorial contests,
and the Venetian fortress built in 1630, which is atop a hill in the middle of town.
By this point we felt a little rest and relaxation was in order, so we decided to head to a waterside campsite on the island of Krk (connected to the mainland by a bridge). We had been recommended a great campsite just next to the tiny town of Silo.
Tiha Camp becomes expensive In the summer and the cheaper plots are all on a slope and set back from the sea. However in May you can get a pitch right on the sea with stunning views at a bargain price with an ACSI card.
We kicked back and thoroughly relaxed here, simply enjoying swimming, snorkelling and kayaking in the incredibly clear, although very cold water. The weather was perfect while we were on Krk so we also managed to have our first BBQ of the season.
Feeling refreshed after our break we left Krk and drove into the hills, having heard of a bear sanctuary in Kuterevo village where you can overnight. We saw our fair share of bears on our travels through Canada and the US (mostly in the wild and occasionally a little close for comfort) but this was our first time seeing European bears.
The bears at the sanctuary were all rescued and couldn’t be released back into the wild but they now have large pens on the hillside in which they can roam.
It was great to be able to see the bears as they interacted with each other and roamed around. They were surprisingly active. It is also possible to volunteer there if you were able to stay a little longer.
Something not to be missed and one of the jewels in the crown of Croatian tourism is Plitvice Lakes National Park. This is a series of interconnected lakes with a huge number of waterfalls between them. Fortunately we had been forewarned by Adrian and Magda that it gets incredibly busy, so we made sure that we arrived for opening time and got into the park before the tourist buses arrived and overwhelmed it.
In the summer months it costs a hefty €40 per person to visit (June to September) but luckily for us, in the shoulder months of April, May and October it is a more reasonable, but by no means cheap, €23 per person.
This is a large site and a visit here involves a lot of walking. I ended up walking around 20km to see everything, although you can reduce this as there are boats and a land train which are free with your entry ticket to help you get around. The queues for these however can get quite long and I ended up walking faster than the boat along the lakeshore as it goes very slowly!
We had parked near Entrance 2 which is nearest to the Upper Lakes, so this is the area we tackled first and I think, the best bit of the park. There weren’t too many people on the boardwalks and it was very peaceful. This area of the park has the most waterfalls and they are stunning, as they drop from lake to lake and are covered with vegetation.
The biggest waterfall in the park, Veliki Slap, which is 78m high is in near to Entrance 1 in the lower lakes and by the time we made it down here it was getting very busy and the boardwalks along the lakes were packed with people, making progress very difficult.
It is definitely a beautiful place and well worth visiting but to make the most out of it you definitely want to go out of season and/or get there for opening time as the mass of tourists jostling for position on the boardwalks can really take some of the fun out of it.
After leaving Plitivce we drove back to the coast to the town of Zadar, the capital of Dalmatia. It’s a sizeable town with a population of 75,000.
From 1921 until 1947 Zadar was actually part of Italy but it became part of Yugoslavia under the Treaty of Rapallo and most of the Italian residents were expelled. It was also heavily shelled by Serbian forces in the 90’s so is a bit of a mish-mash of old and new.
The central focus of the old town is original Roman marketplace, although not much of this remains. Churches have been built on the Roman remains using the old Roman stone.
The 12th century cathedral has a 56m high bell tower or Campanile as it is known, which you can climb for sweeping views over the town and surrounding islands.
At the other end of town is the famous Land Gate which is a triumphal arch, featuring a row of eight cattle skulls along the top and, lying just outside the gate, a very pretty tiny harbour that I couldn’t resist photographing.
And with that, it was time to hit the road again but not before for a sneaky ice-cream – difficult to resist in Croatia when practically every other shop is an ice-cream parlour (OK I’m exaggerating but only slightly) and it is so delicious!
Balkans or Bust
After our trip to Asia we had a whirlwind three-weeks back in the UK, where, with winter behind us, we moved back into the Beastlet (our Benimar Mileo 201 motorhome), got her serviced, mot-ed and otherwise ready for our next European trip, this time around the Balkans.
With hindsight, three weeks back home didn’t provide us with much time to catch up with everyone we wanted to see, as well as getting ourselves and the motorhome ready but on the other-hand, the weather through April in the UK wasn’t brilliant and heading South in search of some sunshine seemed like a good idea.
After overnighting at the motorhome Aire in Canterbury (otherwise known as the New Dover Road Park & Ride) we caught an early morning ferry from Dover to Calais. All went smoothly and we were soon on French soil again, this time turning left, heading towards Belgium.
The ‘smoothness’ of our departure soon hit a minor bump. We had planned to stock up at a French supermarket before driving further South but unbeknown to us, we had arrived on one of the many French Bank Holidays, so of course everything was shut. We decided that after our early morning wake-up and three weeks of chaos it mightn’t be a bad idea to chill for an afternoon, so after finding a free Aire just North of Calais, we took a breath and relaxed.
Having spent the last three months travelling around Asia we hadn’t done much research for this trip, other than a rough plan to only spend the first 30 days in the Schengen Zone. This would then allow us a full three months back in Schengen at the end of the trip to make our way home. Let the Schengen shuffle commence!
We wanted to spend as much of the 30 days as possible in Slovenia and Croatia before heading out of the EU into Bosnia and Herzegovina, so this meant a few big driving days.
Our first day took us down through Belgium (avoiding the pricey French toll roads), through Luxembourg and into Germany. We had found what sounded like a good place to spend the night in the town of Merzig.
The Wolfspark Werner Freund is a rescue centre for wolves which are kept in large fenced enclosures. There is parking for motorhomes right outside and the toilets are open 24 hours, making it a great overnight stop. The Wolfspark doesn’t charge admission but there is a donation box.
After a peaceful night we walked around the park and saw some curious wolves who were keen to check us out.
Back on the road, we continued our journey South to a stop just North of Munich at a motorhome dealership, where there were probably at least 40 motorhomes staying overnight in their overflow parking – another free stop. A genius idea by them as we saw countless people coming our of their salesroom with their new buys.
This was also a good stop for us as it was just a few km’s from the Dachau Concentration Camp, which has now been turned into a memorial.
It is free to visit and there is an interesting museum on the site. Most of the buildings where the inmates were kept have been demolished but one has been reconstructed to help provide more insight.
Also still standing is the crematorium. There are gas chambers alongside it but according to the literature they were never actually used.
As you would expect, touring Dachau was a very sobering experience. However, it is important that places like this are maintained and visited so that we can never forget the horrors that were perpetrated in WW2 and hopefully never allow them to be repeated.
After a couple of hours in Dachau we were back on the move heading South into Austria. Our final stop on our headlong journey South was in a tiny village, just a stone’s throw from the Slovenian border.
We noticed that we were parked next to another British motorhome so we went over to say hello and to our surprise it was a British couple, Clive and Eva, who we had met on our travels last year in Normandy. It was lovely to see them again and we had an enjoyable evening catching up.
The next morning we drove into Slovenia and headed for what many consider the jewel in the crown of the country, Lake Bled. We stopped at a motorhome Aire just outside Bled but close enough for us to cycle to the lake.
We were only staying 2km from the lake but unfortunately road works were ongoing rebuilding the cycle path, so the diversion was a 5km route up a very steep hill. Alright for Sarah with her electric bike! However, once we were at the lake there is a nice flat path all the way around.
The lake is very pretty, with the castle on a crag above it and a church on an island in the lake. We stopped off on the lake shore for our first Slovenian pint, Lasko, which was much needed after our hot sunny day.
There are a couple of gorges in the area, so the next day we cycled to Vintgar Gorge, just the other side of the lake from where we were staying. Curiously though the river in the gorge flowed away from Lake Bled despite being higher.
The gorge consists of a walkway through very narrow sections and finishes with a big waterfall. There was quite a long walk back to the parking lot and over the cliff walls of the gorge. Overall though it was very pretty.
Roughly 25kms southwest of Lake Bled and definitely worth the short drive is Lake Bohinj. A beautiful rural area which is much less developed and consequently less busy. It was a bit of a rainy day but we had a lovely cycle from our park-up through the countryside and along the river to the lake, said hello to a couple of rambunctious donkeys and enjoyed an ice-cream despite the somewhat chilly day.
Wild camping is not allowed in Slovenia and we were finding it to be quite expensive, not to mention that we had only bought a seven-day vignette, so we moved on pretty quickly towards the tiny Slovenia Adriatic coast, all 47km of it, but first, we stopped off at the utilitarian town of Postojna.
Postojna is home to the Postojna cave which is one of the largest in the world and consists of 24km of tunnels. This though is a good example of how Slovenia is an expensive place to be a tourist – the entry fee to the cave was €30 each.
You start the journey on a small train which whisks you 5km through tunnels dripping with stalagtites to the biggest section of the cave where you have to get off and walk. After this there is a a 1.5km walk through some large tunnels where there are some very large stalgtites and stalagmites.
The walk ends in a massive cave which is known as the concert hall with great acoustics where concerts are actually held for up to 10,000 people.
You then exit the cave via the train which takes you back to the entrance. It’s an interesting cave but I’m not sure it added anything I haven’t seen before and certainly not for the price.
Our last stop in Slovenia was the pretty seaside town of Izola. This is a small town with a marina lined with bars and restaurants and a tiny beach with the clearest water. We visited on a hot sunny day and found lots of locals sunbathing on the promenade and dipping into the water to cool off.
We stopped at a great local restaurant for a seafood lunch and after we had finished exploring, we headed back to the motorhome to pick up our hammock and books and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing in park at the waters edge.
Slovenia is a beautiful country and we have left much to explore, but with limited time, we were keen to head onto our next destination, Croatia.
Now we are travelling in Europe again we have joined a travel tool called Polarsteps, which tracks our journey in real time. If you are interested, you can find us on the link below or through the Polarsteps app.
http://www.polarsteps.com/markprior3/11448382-balkans-2025
We are also attempting the ‘Instagram a day’ challenge for 2024 which is called: fromatob2024.
Ubud and Some Diving
After we reluctantly left Nusa Lembongan and took a much less bumpy boat ride back to the mainland than our outward journey, we caught a taxi from the port to Ubud. Ubud is an inland town which is famous for its temples, paddy fields and waterfalls.
Unfortunately it is also well known for its traffic and the main street is clogged most of the day and into the night with a constant stream of cars and motorbikes.
We had booked into a hotel near the centre of town down a side street that was still really busy with traffic. We had an enormous room with a four poster bed, a big terrace and a carved wooden door. The whole room had the look of a temple from the outside. The hotel of course had a lovely swimming pool which was very welcome in the afternoon heat. Perhaps the best bit of the hotel though was the home baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast !
Within walking distance of our hotel were a number of temples which were very active. The temples are not open to tourists all the time as they are active sites of worship but when they are not being used for ceremonies it is possible to visit.
The Ubud Water Palace was very impressive with large ponds crossed by a bridge to reach the actual temple gates. The carvings in all these temples are very impressive.
Also Pura Dalem Ubud is just at the end of the street where we were staying. This was closed for much of the time we were in Ubud for ceremonies but this did mean that the stairs were decorated with flowers making it very pretty.
Ubud is also situated a stone’s throw from rice farming areas. Just a short walk from the main street leads you away from the hustle and bustle and into the very tranquil rice paddies.
Despite their being plenty of things to do in Ubud itself there are also lots of interesting places to visit in the surrounding areas. It is possible to hire a driver and car to take you to these places but given the traffic we decided that it would be easier and quicker to hire a couple of mopeds and drive ourselves.
The first place we headed for on our mopeds was in the Ubud itself – the Ubud Monkey Forest. This is a forested area that is in the middle of the built up area of Ubud but there are about 1200 long tailed macaques who make it their home.
In amongst the forest are also a number of temples – it is Bali after all – which the monkeys are quite happy to climb all over.
You have to be a bit careful around the monkeys as they can be aggressive and we saw a number of tourists being hissed at. There are frequently bites when tourists get too close.
Perhaps the funniest thing we saw here was a bloke sitting down with a backpack on. Two monkeys climbed onto his back and… well you can see below what happened next! Fortunately for the backpacker it was over quickly.
About a 30 minute scooter ride out of town is an area of rice terraces called the Tegallalang Rice Terrace.
The local farmers have set a small fee allowing tourists to walk through their terraces which was well worth it. After the hustle and bustle of Ubud the peace and tranquillity here was a welcome break and it is a very beautiful place.
Of course enterprising locals have also set up swings and rent long flowing dresses to people who want to take photos for their Insta Accounts and many of the people working in the fields are more than happy to pose… for a small fee.
The area surrounding Ubud is very well known for its waterfalls and most of these have been commercialised to a greater or lesser extent. We visited a lot of waterfalls while here and they are really varied – some were very busy and others had hardly anyone there.
It is possible to swim at most of the waterfalls and as many of them involve what can be a strenuous walk in the heat to get there, it is a welcome treat to be able to jump in and cool off.
We ended up riding about 140km on our mopeds over a number of days as we zipped around the beautiful countryside. Most of the driving was on quiet rural roads although occasionally we’d end up on a busy road having to dodge traffic jams – although we tried to minimise this.
As we were driving along we came across a traffic jam on a small country road. This was, for once, a stroke of luck as there was a procession taking place to a local temple, with women carrying offerings to the temple. Bali is full of these sorts of things and there is always one temple or another having a special day or week of ceremonies.
On the rural roads they really are only wide enough for one car but despite this it gave is a giggle to see the white line painted down the middle!
While we had access to the mopeds we also visited two temples that are around a 40 minute drive away from Ubud.
The first is a very popular stop on the tourist trail in Bali and is called Pura Tirta Empul. This is famous for its pools with water running into the pools under which people can undergo a cleansing ritual. If you arrive early you will see the locals at prayer but as soon as the coaches start to arrive it becomes very busy with tourists who are provided with the appropriate clothing to take part.
The second temple we visited that day was Gunung Kawi Tampaksiring. It was much less busy which surprised us as we actually preferred this site, which covered a larger area and had more things to explore off the beaten track. lt was also less commercial and subsequently felt more authentic. There was a long staircase leading down to this temple where the main attractions are two big walls of rock cut shrines dating from the 11th century.
After Ubud we took a taxi to the East coast of Bali mainland, to a place called Tulamben. This was a 3 hour journey although its only just over 100km.
Tulamben is a really quiet region of Bali and the only real reason to come here is for the diving. There is a wreck called the USAT Liberty which has been rated as one of the best in the world.
This wreck was famous for its big schools of fish and in particular a group of Humphead Parrotfish that lived in the wreck. Having dived this wreck before on a previous dive trip to Indonesia I was looking forward to experiencing it again, however, sadly there has been a significant change. The fish life on and around the wreck is much depleted since covid. The lack of tourism for two years meant poverty for many and some locals took to spear-fishing on the wreck to simply survive.
However Tulamben is also famous for its macro/muck diving and this has not been affected. I love a bit of muck diving although I concede that it is an acquired taste. I managed to see Harlequin shrimp, big seahorses and pygmy seahorses as well as a range of octopii. My guide got incredibly excited when we realised that an octopus that we were following was a mototi, a type of blue ring octopus. They are very rare and he had never seen one before – I’d only seen one once before. Very Cool.
We only spent 3 days on the East coast but I managed to fit in 6 long dives – over 1 hour each – and really enjoyed myself.
Unfortunately this was the end of our three month tour of Asia but it has been a fabulous trip and has definitely whet our appetite for future visits. For now though, it was time for us to head back to the airport in Denpasar and catch our flight back home.
The Two Faces of Bali
Bali is a heavily touristed island that is similar to the holiday islands of Europe in many ways. There are areas of cheap bars and drunken behaviour like in Ibiza or Magaluf and there are places that are quiet and have resisted the changes that mass tourism brings. Finding the right place for you is the challenge !
We arrived and immediately discovered the horrendous traffic that is the hallmark of rampant tourism and lack of infrastructure. Taxis are relatively cheap in Bali but getting anywhere takes at least an hour even for journeys of only 10km.
After our hectic time in Vietnam we needed a few days to relax, so we picked a nice hotel on the beach in Kuta, which is only a short distance from the airport. The hotel was pretty big with two restaurants, a cafe, large grounds, a lovely big pool and bizarrely, a tattoo parlour.
What we discovered is that Kuta is to Australians what Magalouf is to us Brits, an inexpensive holiday destination. There were rows of Aussie bars and tattoo shops advertising cheap beers and 3 for 2 tattoos, all competing with each other.
The beach in Kuta has a large tidal range, but the tide brings with it lots of debris and rubbish which a small clean-up crew try to keep on top of but largely fail.
Kuta wasn’t really the peaceful retreat we were seeking after hectic Hanoi, but we were lucky to be in such a large hotel for one particular day of our stay – Nyepi Day. This is the Balinese day of Silence, their New Year’s Day, which they take very seriously. You are not allowed to leave your home (or hotel) on this day and should refrain from loud noise (including speaking or laughing), music and television. There is also no internet available and curtains should be kept drawn so no light can be seen from the outside. Fortunately our hotel let us use the pool and laid out a buffet dinner for us to help ourselves.
The plus side of Nyepi day is that the night before features Ogoh-Ogoh parades where the local communities build statues of demons that are then burnt to symbolise the destruction of evil and the purification of the island.
The statues themselves are huge, many metres high, and some have sound effects and moving parts. There is a competition where votes are collected for the best statue of the year.
After Nyepi day was over and we were able to move freely again, we caught a taxi to the Sanur region where you can take a ferry to the islands. We were heading for Nusa Lemobongan, which is about 30 minutes from the mainland.
Sanur itself has a beach, which is a favourite with locals at the weekend.
At Sanur, we stayed in a little guesthouse just 100m from the port for an easy transfer the next day but despite its proximity to the port, it felt like a real oasis of calm and we spent the afternoon chilling by the pool.
The ferry to Lembongan had airline like chairs inside and was very hot and stuffy. The journey out was pretty rough and not very enjoyable but it wasn’t too long before the island drew into view.
To our surprise we realised there was no dock here and we were going to land on the beach. The boat pulled up as close as it could to the shore and we all clambered down off the back with the waves breaking beneath us. With the rough weather, we had to time the climb down with the waves to avoid a soaking but even so, we both ended up quite wet and this is the side of the island protected by a barrier reef. It’s all part of the fun though and when it’s this warm you dry off pretty quickly!
The hotel we had booked was only a 100m walk down the beach from where we landed so we didn’t even need to put our shoes back on to walk there. We were soon checked into our room, with a beautiful view from the balcony overlooking the beach. The hotel even had a small infinity pool right on the beach, amazing really for only £20 per night.
This was a welcome change of pace from Kuta. The island of Lembongan is really chilled out and this was the laid back Bali we had been looking for.
The hotel had beanbags right on the beach and it was the perfect location for a sunset beer or two. Finding a restaurant for dinner was easy as there are a number of small places along the beach – no need to even put shoes on to get there, but you did have to eat early, many were already closing up by 8pm! Our favourite restaurant by far was a Japanese place right on the beach, Warung Pacific Lembongan. The family who run it are incredibly friendly and the food is amazing, they even do freshly baked cinnamon buns in the afternoons. Needless to say we were frequent visitors!
While on the island it wasn’t all lazing on the beach – we hired a couple of scooters to explore the island. Our first stop was the mangrove forest, where we hired a kayak to explore the narrow tidal channels through the roots of the plants. This was where we got our first soaking of the day as we managed to capsize the kayak!
Who knew that mangrove roots are so strong and springy. When we lifted a low lying branch to get through a narrow channel, it sprung back hitting us and tipped us over – luckily the camera was in the dry bag at the time. Seeing as we were already wet from head to toe, once we made it through to the beautiful beach we decided to stop off for a swim. There is also fantastic snorkelling off the shore here, which we discovered on a boat trip on another day.
Just as we were getting into the kayak, before the capsizing, we saw a baby turtle swimming by our feet!
Once we had dried off we returned the kayak and scooted around the back side of the island where there is a small yellow bridge – known unsurprisingly as, The Yellow Bridge – which allows foot and scooter traffic to cross to Lemonogan’s sister island, Nusa Ceningan. This is the smallest of the three Nusa islands.
At the tip of Ceningan Island is a small restaurant built into the cliffs overlooking the sea from where you can cliff jump (for a fee), although not the day we were there as it was too rough. This was our second soaking of the day.
As we sat at a table close to the edge watching the surfers, a giant wave crashed against the cliff and drenched us – we weren’t having a lot of luck staying dry today! Having moved tables, we stayed for a leisurely lunch to dry off once again, before heading back to discover more of Lembongan.
Here we stopped off at a couple of beautiful beaches, Mushroom Bay and Dream Beach and also visited the Devil’s Tears, where the rugged coast is pounded by waves and an undercut cave swallows the waves and then breathes back a cloud of spray with a hollow booming sound.
Soaking number three of the day was on the scooter ride back to our hotel when we got caught in a tropical downpour which flooded the narrow roads back. Definitely a day to remember.
As well as its beautiful beaches and laid-back vibe, Lembongan is also know for its diving, so I took advantage to fit in a few sneaky dives while we were here. All the diving is boat diving and there aren’t a huge number of dive sites around the island but the dive sites they have provide good quality diving.
The two stand out dives were Mangrove point and Manta point.
Mangrove point is a drift dive that can be a wild ride, depending on the tide. The hard coral reef is in very good condition and there is a ton of fish life. Although nothing particularly big, except for turtles.
Manta point is a fairly long boat ride away and is off the island of Nusa Penida. It is a manta cleaning station, which depending on the season can be quiet or fairly busy. I was lucky and on the day of my dive there were around 15 mantas being cleaned.
The biggest of the Nusa islands is called Nusa Penida. This is about a 20 minute ferry ride from Lembongan and is a much bigger and wilder island. This is a mountainous island with the majority of the interior undeveloped. It is 202km2 compared to Lembongan’s 8km2 .
We decided to take a ferry over to Penida where we had arranged for a driver to pick us up. The roads in Penida are pretty rough, and their aren’t many of them so they are very busy with tours and it takes a long time to get anywhere.
Our first port of call was Broken beach which is a small bay separated from the sea by an arch. The views of this bay are spectacular and it was made even better by seeing three mantas at one point swimming around in the protected bay.
Just outside the ‘bridge’ is the very popular snorkelling area of Manta Bay and we stood on the cliffs for a while just taking in the views and manta spotting before our driver came to hurry us along.
Our second stop of the day was Kelingking beach in a headland shaped like a whale, which you can see from the cliffs above. There is another stunning beach next to Kelingking which is only accessible by boat or a big staircase, so it usually deserted. The viewing area for Kelingking was home to a family of cheeky monkeys who were as busy watching the tourists as we were watching them.
After lunch our driver took us to Crystal Bay which is a nice beach on the island, although it was quite crowded as all the tours go here. We got to spend a bit of time on the beach to relax and swim before we had to head back to the ferry to pick up our ride back to Lembongan.
I’m glad we visited Nusa Penida but the traffic was crazy and it didn’t have the laid back feel of Lembongan – the downside of having spectacular highlights for day tours from the mainland !
Ha Giang
At a street food stall in Da Nang we had met two backpackers who told us they were going to do a motorbike trip in the far North of Vietnam. This was the first we had heard of the Ha Giang Loop.
Some research later, our interest was piqued and we were sold on the idea of this 350 Kilometre loop around the very North of Vietnam, which reaches to within sight of the Chinese border. So once in Hanoi we arranged the trip through our hotel. You can hire motorbikes and do the loop yourself or in a group following a guide but we chose the Easy Rider option, i.e. travelling pillion with our drivers as guides. The roads are rough and can be treacherous in places so it is much safer to be driven (although much less comfortable), with the added bonus of being completely free to enjoy the views.
While we were in the North of Vietnam there was an unseasonal spell of bad weather which brought with it much lower than average temperatures, in single digits. As we had come on the trip with no warm clothing we had little choice other than to buy some warm weather gear for the trip. Fortunately, the old quarter of Hanoi has lots of shops selling knock-off North Face clothing, so for around US$20 each (after some pretty intense haggling) we each came away with a warm down jacket and a waterproof outer jacket of surprisingly good quality, to keep us warm and dry.
The trip started with a 7pm pick up from our Hotel in a little minibus to take us to rendezvous with a sleeper bus for the 6 hour journey to the town of Ha Giang, which is the starting point for the loop.
The sleeper bus was really comfortable with flat beds, curtained-off into private alcoves for each person. The Vietnamese onboard were fitting at least two to each bed but that would have been far too cramped for us. The journey flew by as we sped through the darkness and arrived outside our guesthouse in Ha Giang at 2.00 in the morning.
We were directed upstairs with the other travellers to the sleeping area, which turned out to be a large space (with areas separated by curtains for privacy), filled with very thin and incredibly firm, mattresses on the floor – oh to be back in the comfort of the bus! We were however pretty tired by this time, so we did manage to get some sleep despite being pretty uncomfortable and what seemed like a party going on downstairs.
In the morning, with all our layers on, we came downstairs for breakfast, met our drivers and were kitted out in a helmet and red high-viz vest. Our guide, Windy, introduced himself and explained that we were the only ones that had booked the four-day loop (everyone else on the bus had booked the three-day option – maybe they knew something we didn’t!). On the plus side, this meant that we would be getting a private tour! When we got to the bikes we were a little surprised by their size, having assumed they would be similar to the bikes we rode on the Hue tour in central Vietnam. In fact, once our bags were strapped to the back, there really wasn’t a lot of room for us to sit comfortably. We started to think it might be a very long 4 days!
It didn’t take long for us to leave the town behind and head up into the mountains, surrounded by terraced rice fields. Growing rice up here is much harder than in the South where they are able to harvest four crops a year – only one per year is the norm up here.
Our first major stop was a viewpoint called Heaven’s Gate with a fantastic view over a neighbouring valley… allegedly. Unfortunately, due to the poor weather we would have to use our imaginations, here and at many of the viewpoints along the way. The whole region was socked in with low lying cloud that persisted for the whole trip. This meant that every time we headed up over about 850m we went straight into the cloud layer and there was nothing to be seen.
We started to realise that the bike tours had specific routine stops along the route, many of which were high up at the ‘stunning’ viewpoints. It took a couple of days for our guide to understand that we would prefer to stop below the cloud line so we could enjoy some views, rather than right up in the usual spots where it was a complete whiteout.
After dropping down from the mountain pass we visited a village called Lung Tam and a family that has been making clothes and material the traditional way for 100’s of years. The oldest member of the family was in her 80’s and still working every day. It was a fascinating insight into traditional methods of production.
It was with some relief when we reached our stop for the night, just outside the town of Yen Minh. We were shown to our room, which had missing panes of glass in the window – with the temperature already in single figures by late afternoon and dropping. After a quick discussion we got a new room – still no heating but an extra blanket and this one was at least weather tight.
After dinner, eaten very quickly as the dining area was outside and all the food, other than the rice, was cold, we jumped into bed fully clothed to warm up. There was no hot water so a warm shower was out of the question. Under the blankets with all our layers on we were warm enough but we weren’t keen on getting out. In good weather none of this would have been an issue and I am sure we would have had a very different experience. It’s a real shame we were so unlucky with the weather. Fortunately for us, this turned out to be the most basic homestay on the loop. After this, the others did have some form of heating and hot water, but all the meals were still served outside so dinner was not to be lingered over.
The next morning we hopped on the bikes again to ride North, close to the Chinese border and the Lung Cu flagpole. This is basically a tall tower that can be seen from China with a large Vietnamese flag flying from the top. It’s a big symbol of national pride! Again, the views from the top were pretty limited while we were there.
After this we headed to the Lo Lo Chai Village in a hidden valley in the mountains. It seemed to have its own microclimate because as we descended to the valley the clouds cleared.
We were greeted by young girls carrying bunches of flowers – earning their money by being in shots for Instagram. We visited a traditional clay family home in the village of the Lo Lo ethnic minority people. The house was built around a courtyard and the rooms were sparsely decorated with almost no furniture.
The next stop was the Palace of the H’Mong King. This large house was constructed in around 1919 as a house for King Meo who was the leader of the H’Mong people, who are the majority people in the Northernmost region of Vietnam.
The building cost was 150,000 Indochina white silver coins which is the equivalent of about 6 million USD today.
We ended the day at Dong Van which is a sizeable town and to our relief at a much more comfortable homestay – with heating.
Overlooking the town is an old French fortress on a karst buttress above the town. I walked up to this first thing in the morning and had some good but intermittent views across the valley as the clouds came and went.
Day three was when we really started to feel achy from being on the back of a motorbike on rough roads for seven hours a day – perhaps this is what our fellow travellers were aware of! We had to grit our teeth a little, the whole experience was starting to feel like a test of endurance. We weren’t the only ones feeling it. At breakfast, we overheard a couple of people asking to be driven to the nearest bus station, making an early exit.
This was the day when we would go up to highest point of the trip at over 2000 metres and of course completely socked in by cloud. We had got into a rhythm with Windy though and were stopping at the point below the cloud where we could get some views. Much better.
We skirted the Chinese border at one point and were the other side of a valley from the big fence that comprises the border. Our guide took the opportunity to vent his feelings about the Chinese by shouting a big FU accompanied with appropriate hand gestures. We’ve found that the people in Vietnam are not the biggest fans of China and their neo-colonial politics.
The highlight of the day was arriving at the final homestay of the trip in the Dua Gia village, which is a melting pot of seven different minority peoples. The homestay was set in the middle of rice fields in a verdant valley and the village market was in full swing when we arrived. This was a great insight into the lives of the Northern Vietnamese.
At dinner there were bottles of mineral water on each table – or so it looked. Luckily we didn’t pick it up and take a big gulp, as this was in fact “Happy Water”, which is home distilled rice based fire-water that our host encouraged us to drink with chants of “Một, hai, ba, dzô!” (the last pronounced Yo) or literally “1,2,3 Cheers”. After a couple of shots we left the younger backpackers to it – and judging by their sore heads at breakfast the next morning they had enjoyed quite a lot of it.
Our last day started with a visit to a small waterfall near the Dua Gia Village and then we had a lot of driving to do to leave the rural North and get back to Ha Giang town. The weather on the last day was a bit drizzly and we were more than grateful to arrive back in Ha Giang by lunchtime.
Then it was a case of getting on the sleeper bus (this time not an alcove sleeper but just reclining chairs) for the journey back to Hanoi. We arrived back in Hanoi at around 10pm pretty exhausted after the last few days.
We are glad we did this trip, it will certainly be one we remember, but I think neither of us would want to spend four days doing so much bike-riding as an Easy Rider again, at least not on bikes of this size and quality. It was hard on the body, which I felt sure was to do with our age, so when I heard a much younger rider complain that her knees hurt it definitely made me feel a little better! We were clearly unlucky with the weather, which must have been unusual because even our guide said he wasn’t taking any more trips off the company until it had warmed up! It is a real shame that we missed out on the spectacular mountain views but unfortunately you can’t win them all!
And with that, our time in Vietnam had come to an end and it was on to our next stop, Bali.
Hanoi and Halong
A short flight from Hue airport and we were in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and its cultural heart.
We settled into a small hotel right near Hoan Kien Lake in the historic quarter of the city. Like many of the buildings in Vietnam the hotel was in the architectural style of a tall, narrow ‘Tube House’ – our small room was the entire width of the building.
The central location of our hotel was great for walking around the historic quarter and there was always something interesting going on. Many of the streets have clusters of shops selling the same thing. We saw streets selling lights, hardware and even headstones.
On our first day in Hanoi we asked the receptionist at our hotel for a lunch recommendation and she sent us to a nearby restaurant which soon became our favourite. The ‘kitchen’ of the restaurant was in the narrow alleyway that you walk through to get to the small room at the back laid out with small tables and tiny plastic chairs. We returned to this restaurant a number of times, it was always busy but they never failed to squeeze us in.
The restaurant serves only one dish, Bun Cha. This is a Hanoi speciality of noodles and grilled pork balls served with herbs and a spring roll. All the components are made separately and then added into a delicious broth and it was really the depth of flavours that impressed. The restaurant is called Bun Cha Hang Quat and we recommend this very highly to anyone visiting Hanoi (it’s only open between 10am and 2pm).
In the Northern part of the Historic quarter is the Dong Xuan market. This is a big non touristy market selling everything from food through to hardware. There were some stalls with big tanks of seafood and cages in the front holding freshwater turtles. That’s the first time we’ve seen that.
Something that Northern Vietnam is famous for is Water Puppetry. This is an art that has been practised since at least the 12th century. Historically, ponds or flooded paddy fields were used for the puppet displays using puppets carved from fig tree timber (which is water resistant) and suspended on poles from behind a curtain. Now a pool of waist deep water is used in a theatre. The puppets are used to tell the stories of legends and depict pastoral scenes.
We visited the Municipal Water Puppet Theatre for a performance of their Water Puppetry which was entertaining and definitely different. There is lots of splashing water and thrashing puppets. The best bit was the music and singing which was performed live by musicians at the sides of the stage using traditional instruments and was very good.
Situated just over two hour’s drive South of the city is the province of Ninh Binh (pronounced Ning Bing). This area is famous for its karst mountains and rivers that cut through them. It is a very popular place for a tour from Hanoi and having seen the pictures we decided to check it out for ourselves.
Our first stop for the day was Hoa Lu which was the first capital of Vietnam between 968 and 1009. There isn’t much left of the city that once existed here and covered 300 hectares but there is a complex of temples which are dedicated to the first emperors of Vietnam.
We cycled to the Hoa Lu from a restaurant a couple of Km’s down the road and after seeing the temples we looped back to the restaurant via some rice paddies and around some of the karst outcroppings, where we stopped for lunch. Like all the tours we have been on, it was a fairly bland buffet which didn’t reflect the beautiful food of Vietnam very well.
After lunch it was time for the highlight of the day which was a boat trip on the Tam Coc river. We were duly loaded onto a small boat with room for only two-three people and the rower. The interesting thing about these boats is that the rowers use their feet to push the oars. Some use a bicycle motion and others push the two oars together.
The river winds its way through the karst scenery and passes through several caves where you have to duck your head even sitting in the boat. It’s a beautiful ride.
Our final stop of the day before heading back to Hanoi was the Mua Cave. Now the cave is not much to get excited about but here it is possible to climb up to a high view point on one of the karst pinnacles and the view of the rivers and paddies around is spectacular.
There is a dragon statue at the top of the pinnacle but the path up to it is very narrow and there was a queue of people wanting to take selfies so it didn’t really move.
From Ninh Binh we went onto one of the top tourist attractions of Vietnam, a boat cruise around Halong Bay. This is an area of karst outcroppings that form small islands in the sea. There are a lot of boats here that are basically floating hotels that vary in size, quality and of course price.
As we thought this was probably something you only do once, we decided not to cheapskate it and splashed out on one of the more exclusive boats called Nostalgia, which only had 10 cabins and a jacuzzi on the top deck (much needed as the weather wasn’t great).
The Journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay is around 3 hours by minibus. On arrival at the port in Halong City we were transferred to a tender boat which took us out to the main boat. All of the ‘hotel boats’ stay out in the islands most of the time and don’t come back to port unless they have to.
We arrived at Nostalgia and were greeted with a lovely lunch. The food on the boat was absolutely fantastic and the service from our stew, Green, was friendly and very attentive.
Our first excursion of the day was a visit to Cat Ba island (the largest island in the Halong Bay area) and Trung Trang cave. We left the main boat on a tender and headed to a bay on the island and were then taken by bus {along with people from other hotel boats) to visit the cave. The cave was ok but we have seen far more spectacular cave formations.
After this it was back to the main boat and time for the Jacuzzi while have sundowner cocktails on deck and watching the sunset.
The boat had moved into Lan Ha bay which is a bit further afield than Halong Bay and a little less busy (supposedly) but there were still lots of boats there.
On Day 2 we started with an early morning Tai Chi lesson on deck and spent the rest of the day on a big day boat. The day boat headed further into Lan Ha Bay and we were dropped off at the other side of Cat Ba island where we did a cycle trip to Viet Hai village in the interior of the island. The scenery on the way to the village was interesting and it was nice to have the opportunity to cycle however the village itself was not particularly interesting. We did however get to try Snake wine (wine made in a vat of dead snakes) which was predictably not entirely pleasant!
Back on the day boat we had lunch followed by the chance to go kayaking around some of the karst islands. The weather wasn’t brilliant but we jumped at the chance and set off around the islands in a double kayak, which we really enjoyed.
After the kayaking we headed back to the main boat for sunset (although this didn’t happen as the weather really came in), a cooking class where we learnt to make Vietnamese spring rolls and dinner.
The next morning we were given another opportunity to go kayaking, at 7.30am. Either the early time or the persistent drizzle failed to entice the rest of the guests onboard but we had a lovely kayak around the bay, which was particularly peaceful at that hour and gave us the chance to see some local fisherman and watch the birdlife. We were quite wet and cold by the time we returned to the boat but that was soon remedied with a dip in the jacuzzi followed by a warm bath back in our room.
After this, there was just time for an early lunch before we were leaving the boat and reversing the journey back to Hanoi.
We both really enjoyed the trip and the service and the food on the main boat was very good. However it did feel a bit rushed despite having done the three day/ two night trip. Many people only do two days/one night trip and you barely arrive before you are leaving again. We were there in low season and unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best but there were still a lot of boats. High season must be very crowded.
It is also worth mentioning that we were offered the chance to swim off the back of the boat every day. No one that I saw took this up on our boat or any other. This may have been due to the weather but I fear it was more likely due to the state of the water which didn’t look particularly clean and had a lot of plastic waste and polystyrene floating around in it which was sad to see. The impact of over tourism is definitely being felt in this area.
The Vietnamese Centre
Vietnam is a very long country and its overland transport is really slow. Our second destination after Ho Chi Minh City was the central region and the city of Da Nang. This is an 18 hour journey by bus or 19 hours by train. Neither of these were particularly attractive so we decided to take the 1 hour flight instead, which was in fact cheaper than the train!
We arrived in Da Nang on New Year’s Day to deserted streets but a warm welcome from our very quiet, almost empty hotel, which we had no problem locating due to it being 15 storeys of bright yellow. While the building was a nice sunny colour the flight northward to the central region meant a big change in the weather and a temperature drop of around 10-15 degrees.
Da Nang is famous for its Dragon bridge which breathes fire (and water) at 9pm on weekend evenings. Luckily we arrived at the weekend so after settling into the hotel and getting our bearings we headed down to the bridge to watch the display… along with hundreds of other people who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Next to the bridge is a large street food market, so with some time to spare before the show started, we wandered the stalls and tried a few of the local delights. One of our favourites was the snail stall, which had a vast array of molluscs (both marine and land) for us to try.
We walked over to the bridge with the rest of the crowd to watch the show and then back towards the market where there was a performance on a big stage with dancers and a DJ hyping up the crowd.
Although Da Nang isn’t really a big hitting tourist destination we actually really liked the feel of the city and there are a few tours that run from here but unfortunately for us, not during Tet. What it does have is a pretty lovely beach but as you can see from the picture, it wasn’t really beach weather.
After our brief stop in De Nang we headed to the stunningly beautiful and uber touristy town of Hoi An, which is about 30 minutes away by taxi.
Hoi An is an historic port town that dates back to the 2nd century when it was a busy seaport of the Champa kingdom. The town avoided damage during the Vietnam/American war and as a result there are over 800 historic buildings, meaning the town looks much as it has for hundreds of years.
Unfortunately the Japanese covered bridge, which is one of the top attractions, is being refurbished and has been completely deconstructed but there were still plenty of temples and historic buildings to wander around and admire.
Just a few metres from our homestay was a street which became a vibrant night market with lots of vendors selling all sorts of food from frogs on sticks to Vietnamese pizza (which are nothing like pizza but are absolutely delicious).
In addition to foreign tourists, the town of Hoi An is really popular with Vietnamese tourists and therefore, we assume because of the Tet National Holiday, the volume of tourists was unbelievable. Think Venice and then double or triple the numbers. Early in the morning it was really pleasant with not many people around but by about 5pm the streets were packed and it was difficult to walk around.
Many of these tourists (when not taking selfies in front of everything and anything) were taking small boats up and down the river, particularly at dusk when they would light small paper lanterns to float them down the river.
Hoi An is about 3km from An Bang beach, and when we woke up one day to a warm sunny day we decided to escape the hustle and bustle of town and head to the beach, only to find that everyone else (well, the Westerners) had the same idea! However, the crowds were clustered around a bunch of bars and restaurants with sun loungers and after a little walk along the beach the crowds fizzled out and we were treated to an empty sandy beach that stretched as far as the eye could see.
From Hoi An we also arranged a car to take us to the My Son ruins. It takes about an hour of driving through the countryside to get there from Hoi An.
My Son, meaning Beautiful Mountain, is the site of Vietnam’s biggest Cham remains. My Son was a religious centre and was occupied between the 4th and 13th centuries. Unfortunately many of the temples were destroyed by American bombing. At one stage the tops of the buildings were covered with a layer of gold but this is all gone now.
Today the Cham people remain a sizeable ethnic minority within Vietnam with around 140,000 people.
We have been really enjoying the food in Vietnam and each of the regions has its own speciality. In Hoi An there is a dish called White Rose which we absolutely loved. These are dumplings that are only made by one family who were Chinese immigrants and have been making White Rose for 130 years and only in Hoi An. They distribute the dumplings to many restaurants in town.
Our next port of call was to be Hue (pronounced H-way) which is about 120km North of Hoi An. The most interesting route is to drive over the Hai Van pass.
Through the owner of our homestay we arranged to do an easy rider trip (which means being a passenger on the back of a motorbike) across the Hai Van Pass.
We were picked up in the morning and rode back towards Da Nang. The bikes were actually really comfortable and the views were great.
Our first port of call were the marble mountains just outside Da Nang. These are a series of five marble hillocks which are topped by temples. There is an elevator to reach the top but there are still lots of steps when you reach the top to get between different areas. There are also a number of caves around the summits which have been converted into temples.
From here we looped through Danang and along the coast until we started climbing up the Hai Van pass. The pass is only 496m high but Hai Van means Sea Cloud which means that it is often buried in dense cloud. And so it proved for us. We stopped at a viewpoint but all we could see was white with the occasional glimpse of the rugged coast beyond.
After stopping for lunch at a lovely fish restaurant on the beach we headed along the coast towards Hue. Stopping to learn about the fishermen who live in the Phu Loc Lagoon area.
The weather this side of the pass was completely different and much better than it had been in the South so we next visited a waterfall for a refreshing swim.
We were now getting close to Hue and detoured through the rice fields on narrow dirt tracks and paths between the paddies before eventually entering the city and finding our hotel.
It had been a really good day despite the weather so we asked our guides whether we could book them the next day for a tour of the area around Hue, which they were happy to do.
Early the next morning our guides/drivers turned up again and we were off to explore Hue, which is a much bigger city than Hoi An. Hue is sited on the Perfume river and was a centre for trading in the past with access from the sea and from inland. Traders came from all round the world to do business here. It was also the capital of Vietnam between 1802 and 1945 as the home of the Nguyen dynasty emperors.
For the morning we headed out of the city to visit a number of tombs of the emperors of Hue which are in the vicinity of the city.
Before starting with the temples we headed to the Thanh Toan Japanese footbridge (built in 1776) which is in a small village just outside Hue. There was a local market just next to the bridge and we stopped in a little unmarked restaurant for a breakfast of soy eggs in a sizzling skillet which was delicious.
While we were looking at the bridge one of our drivers took part in a gambling game which was taking place near the bridge. It involved wooden battens with different drawings on which needed to be matched. The gamesmaster was a woman who would chant until someone claimed a match. It was all very mystifying.
The first tomb we visited was the Tomb of Khai Dinh, built into the hillside and accessed by a grand staircase. Khai Dinh was the penultimate emperor of Vietnam and died in 1925. The interior of the tomb is decorated with a colourful ceramic mosaic.
Next was the Tomb of Tu Duc which was completed in 1867. This has a lake just inside the entrance with a small island and a beautiful pagoda overlooking the lake. In the grounds of the complex are a number of tombs.
As we rode between destinations we wound our way through a valley of gravestones. This ‘cemetery’ filled an entire valley and was at least 4kms long. We have never seen anything like it before, it was absolutely filled with small tombs and gravestones and quite a sight.
The next stop was a break from the history of the area as we visited an abandoned water park. This is due for demolition soon and the slides that used to be here have already gone.
Around lunchtime we rode back towards Hue, via a viewpoint over the perfume river where old American bunkers from the war are gradually crumbling, to a local restaurant down a back street where we were treated to some fantastic local food and were the only westerners in a very busy restaurant.
The biggest attraction in Hue is the Imperial Citadel and we had saved this for last, although it is huge. This is a city within a city and was built between 1804 and 1833. The whole citadel is surrounded by thick walls (2m thick and 10km long) and a moat (30m wide) so is well defended.
The centre of the citadel is the Purple Forbidden City which was the reserved solely for the emperor and his concubines. The only servants allowed here were eunuchs who wouldn’t be interested in the concubines !
The stunning Kien Trung palace has recently been opened after being fully restored following its destruction in 1947 during the Indochina wars. This was the most recent and ornate of the palaces in the Citadel and was used by the last two emperors of the dynasty.
We managed to see the highlights of the Citadel but its sheer size defeated us and after a long day we were absolutely exhausted by the time we found our way out. We had seen temples, palaces, gardens and even a theatre in this vast site. It would definitely reward multiple visits. But this was the end of the day as we made our way back to our hotel (the themed Scarlet O’Hara hotel!).
We said goodbye to our drivers and guides from the last two days – HueToGoTours– who were absolutely excellent and we would thoroughly recommend.
Ho Chi Minh (or is it Saigon?) and the trials of Tet
Ho Chi Minh City may not be the capital of Vietnam but it is its biggest and most prosperous city, with a population of 9.5 million. Before 1976 HCMC was called Saigon and many Vietnamese still refer to it by the old name. After some discreet enquires of the locals it seems that either name is acceptable.
We arrived in Vietnam in the early evening but fortunately a cab into the middle of town was only 45 minutes. We had a great taxi driver who told us all the places we should visit and the foods we should eat – all while showing us pictures on his mobile phone and driving at the same time.
Our hotel was definitely not one of the best on our trip with no window but at least it was quiet at night and situated in the central District 1 near to all the tourist must sees.
We had booked our trip to Vietnam before learning about the Tet holiday which was due to start soon after we arrived. Tet is the biggest holiday of the year in Vietnam and is the celebration of the Chinese New Year. A lot of businesses shut for a week around this time and most of the growing Vietnamese middle class go on holiday.
The upshot of Tet was that lots of tours weren’t running and many shops, restaurants and bars were closed. There were also huge numbers of Vietnamese tourists around making some places unbelievably crowded. Not the best for our first week in Vietnam.
On the plus side however, there were huge numbers of decorations around the city, masses of flowers everywhere (the Vietnamese love their flowers) and there was a real party atmosphere in the lead up to the celebrations, which are usually spent with their families. A massive open air flower market opened up in District 1 to provide flowers for people’s Tet decorations.
A major road in the centre of District 1 had been pedestrianised and decorated with flowers and dragons and there were signs everywhere saying “Chuc Mung Nam Moi” or “Happy New Year”.
Despite all of this we did manage to see some of the city. Our first port of call was the Independence Palace, which served as the seat of government between 1962, when it was built and 1975 when the puppet government in the South was overthrown by North Vietnamese forces to conclude the American war. (Unsurprisingly the war with America that is called the Vietnam war in the West is referred to as the American war in Vietnam).
The building is in a Modernist style but the interior has been preserved in a gloriously 70’s style !
It feels like it could be a set for a Bond film and even has an underground bomb shelter with communication equipment from the 70’s and a situation room with maps of troop movements from the war.
After visiting the Palace our next stop was the highly thought provoking War Remnants Museum. This museum showcases the Vietnamese side of the American war and focuses on the atrocities committed by the American forces during the war. It also has a wing dedicated to the prison systems in the South of Vietnam where the North Vietnamese soldiers were incarcerated and the various tortures that were employed.
When trying to understand history it is important to realise that every source of information is biased depending on who is telling the story and there were clearly atrocities on both sides. However, the facts of the American war are horrendous with over 7.5million tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam by the Americans and their allies and 13 million gallons of Agent Orange (a herbicide designed to clear forested areas) sprayed in Vietnam leading to devastation of the environment and cancers, birth defects and neurological problems in the population for years to come.
This is a sobering as well as thought-provoking museum and well worth a visit.
In the evening we jumped on a bus tour of the city which drove us around and gave us a great view of the skyline of Saigon. It’s a big modern city with lots of skyscrapers. At night they are all lit up with many having lightshows on their exteriors.
One of the most popular tours from Ho Chi Minh is to visit the Cu Chi tunnels. These are a preserved example of the tunnels that the Viet Cong lived in and used as a base to strike against American troops in the war.
The half day trip to visit them is rounded out with a stop-off at an arts and crafts factory, providing work to those born with disabilities due to Agent Orange, and rather ironically, at the other end of the scale, a shooting range where you can shoot, among others, ak-47s and M16s.
The tunnels that are open to tourists have been stabilised and enlarged for our western bodies to get down them. The original tunnels were absolutely tiny and with the heat and humidity in this part of the world must have been incredibly uncomfortable.
The whole tunnel complex was incredibly well hidden with ventilation pipes hidden in fake termite mounds. The area was also heavily booby trapped with traps designed to severely injure the American troops.
The tour was an interesting history lesson and a good insight into how horrific the war must have been for both sides.
From Ho Chi Minh we also did a two day trip out to the Mekong delta which although only a 100km away is a good three hour drive on the congested roads.
It was a really interesting trip that gave us an insight into the way of life in the delta which is of course based around the water ways which are branching with big and small channels.
Fishing is obviously a very important activity in this area and we visited a floating fish farm which had a number of pens with both fish for consumption and ornamentals. All of this in the middle of one of the biggest channels of the Mekong Delta.
We also visited some of the narrower waterways and took a boat trip in a traditional hand paddled boat but for me, the most interesting part of the tour, was the trip to the Cai Rang floating market. This is close to the town of Can Tho and is different from the floating market we visited in Thailand as it’s a wholesale market.
On each of the boats a pole with a sample of the goods that they sell is raised aloft to show what they deal in. Each of the boats tends to deal in only one type of product.
The action in the market happens early in the morning and we visited first thing but even then it was beginning to wind down. It all starts at 3 or 4am so by 7am it’s almost over but we got a glimpse of the action and really enjoyed the experience.
Siem Reap – A Templetastic Time
We arrived at Siem Reap’s new international airport quite late but it was fairly easy to get a taxi for the 1 hour journey to town. The airport has only been open a couple of months and replaces one that was only 7km from town. The locals are not so happy with the new airport as there are fairly significant fees for using the new road to the airport and for parking.
Hotels in Siem Reap are great value and we had a lovely room facing onto a pool complete with wet bar. Given how hot it is in this part of the world we would use this pool a lot.
The reason that everyone comes to Siem Reap is for the Angkor ruins that consist of 100’s of temples spread over a huge area of 1000sq km’s. This was the capital of the Khmer civilization and is considered to be the site of the largest pre-industrialised city in the world with a population of up to 1 million people.
The city of Angkor flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Since being named a world heritage site in 1993 there has been considerable preservation work carried out on the site, involving investment from a range of countries but using Cambodian workers, to preserve and restore many of the temples.
The Temple complexes start about 5km from town and the best way to access them is to hire a driver for the day. It’s possible to hire a car but we chose the option of a Tuk Tuk. The Tuk Tuk’s in Siam Reap are a bit different from the standard type. They consist of a motorbike with a connector (a bit like a semi-truck) to a carriage which holds up to four people. They are definitely more comfortable than a standard Tuk Tuk and we only paid US$18 for a day hire.
There are two standard tours around the Siam Reap temples: The Big loop and the Small loop. They both travel around a similar area but visit different temples. The big loop actually visits smaller temples so takes less time, although it has marginally more driving.
We decided to spend three days visiting the temples so did the small loop, the big loop and then a bespoke day visiting temples that weren’t on the two loops.
Angkor Wat is the biggest temple and the one that everyone has heard off. This means that it is by far the busiest of all the temples. It is in fact considered the largest religious structure in the world.
Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu by King Suryavarman II. However over time it was converted into a Buddhist temple. There is a large moat surrounding the complex which is over 5km long and 200m wide. Inside the moat is a gatehouse and wall and then inside this is the temple complex proper (a 350m walk inside).
I decided to come to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise, as this can be really spectacular. Unfortunately on this day the sunrise was more a gentle lightening of the sky with no particular stunning colours and of course you are sharing the experience with all the other like-minded tourists. It reminded me a bit of when we watched sunrise at Machu Picchu as it was similarly crowded. Just you and 1000 other people! If you want to pick and choose your position for photos you need to arrive in the pitch dark at least an hour before sunrise and then you’ll have no chance to reposition during sunrise as it is just way too busy.
Actually my favourite bit of Angkor Wat was one of the gatehouses (the South) which contains a small Buddhist shrine. This was seemingly off the beaten track as there were no other tourists there – only a handful of locals visiting the shrine and there was a group of monkeys crawling over the building – trying to get at the food offerings made at the shrine.
Definitely take some water when walking around Angkor Wat as its so big – the walk from the taxi/ Tuk Tuk drop off point to the central temple complex is 1 km itself.
After leaving Angkor Wat we headed towards the walled city of Angkor Thom which was the capital of the Khmer empire and was built in the 12th century. The city covers 9km2 and between 80k and 150k people lived there at its height.
The city was abandoned sometime before the start of the 17th century although it is not known exactly when.
At the centre of the city is the temple of Bayon. This temple is striking for its towers decorated on all four sides by the smiling face of Buddha (said to have been modelled on the face of King Jayavarman VII). In all, there are 216 faces carved into the temple.
On the outside walls of the temple are detailed bas-reliefs of lots of different scenes including battles and armies. There is some debate on the meaning of many of these scenes.
Once inside this temple feels claustrophobic and densely packed in real contrast to the sprawling nature of Angkor Wat. This made it one of our favourite temples to visit.
In the area around Bayon there are a number of other temples in walking distance. These are all less visited as they are not on the Big or Little circuits.
Baphuon is a big blocky temple with a long raised walkway to approach it.
You can climb this temple but like all of the temples in the area it just isn’t quite high enough to see over the tops of the surrounding trees.
In the same area are the two impressively carved terraces: the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King. It is not known who the Leper King actually was although it is suspected it might have been Yasovarman I.
After leaving the city of Angkor Thom we visited a lot of other temples:
Preah Khan
Banteay Prei
Neak Pean
Ta Som
Eastern Mebon
Ta Prohm
Pre Rup
Banteay Samre
Srah Seang
Banteay Kdei
That’s an awful lot of temples but there is a lot of variety in there. Some are big like Ta Prohm which is a kilometre from one gate to the other side and some like Neak Pean are very small (It’s a small temple in a pond on an island). Some are very tall like Eastern Mebon and some are single story like Preah Khan. And they are all in different levels of being swallowed by the jungle, reclaimed and restored.
Ta Prohm is probably the most famous of the temples other than Angkor Wat. Its other name is the Tomb Raider temple and it was featured in the tomb raider film starring Angelina Jolie. Construction on Ta Prohm started in 1186 by King Jayavarman VII.
It was abandoned In the 15th century and the jungle took over until restoration works started in the early 21st century. Since then the restoration has been sensitive to the fusion of ruin and Jungle leaving the very picturesque remains today where large trees still grow atop many of the ruins.
The town of Siem Reap itself is built around wide streets and is fairly quiet. There are very few cars, as these are expensive, and motorbikes have been adapted to many different roles. We’ve never seen such a variety. My favourite was definitely a florist that must have been more than 5m long.
At the centre of town is the lively Pub Street which has the bright lights and music of places like Patong but none of the seediness. It was actually quite a nice place to wander around and have a cheap beer. The best bit was that a beer could be had for as little as USD 0.5.
Right next to the Pub Street area is the local market which has the normal tourist tat around the outskirts but inside are the food sellers for the locals where women perch on top of their produce tables offering there wares to anyone that passes by.
We really enjoyed our time in Siem Reap and were really glad to have a few days to enjoy it. Most people seem to fly in and fly out with only enough time to do a couple of days at the temples. This can be exhausting because of the heat and lack of shade in many of the ruins. We took a day off between our visits and enjoyed the pool (and pool bar) which made us much more enthusiastic when we visited the temples.
Our time in Cambodia was over for this visit but we’ve seen enough of the country to want to come back and travel more widely next time. For now we were heading to Vietnam and the sweltering heat of Ho Chi Minh City.
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