Late last year Tony and I spent two gloriously long weeks in Vietnam. It was a bit of a spontaneous holiday (like most of ours are!). We purchased the return flights mid last year when JetStar launched their international routes. We got such a bargain on the flights - a fraction of the normal tickets.
We decided that this holiday was going to be very "selfish" - no postcards sent back home, no touristy things, no souveneirs, just a holiday to unwind and do nothing. It was fabulous - and because Vietnam is so cheap, we wined and dined like royalty and spoiled ourselves with massages, facials, manicures etc (a one-hour massage cost US$3!).
We spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), flew north to Nha Trang (seaside resort town), and then bused it south through the highland town of Dalat and then back to HCMC. A few of our happy snaps are posted below.
View from our hotel room in HCMC. It was hot and smoggy and during the day you could hardly hear yourself above the honking of motorcycle horns.
Check out the motorcycles everywhere!
Spring rolls, $1. Exotic cocktail, $3. Knowing you've got another two weeks of indulgence, priceless.
View from our $15/night hotel room in Nha Trang.
Drinks by the pool at the Lousianne Club - the $3 beer prices are too expensive for the locals. The place is owned by an Aussie.
Another exotic cocktail and samosas. Maybe this is why I've put on a kilo or three...
Floating homes (shacks)
We did two "touristy" things on the whole trip - the first one was a boat trip around the islands of Nha Trang.
And the second "touristy" thing - we hired a driver, his 4WD and a tour guide for the day in Dalat. Cost $40.
Yup, they do wear those conical hats.
Check out the pot plant!
That's a 300-year-old bonsai!
Our tour guide took us to this place where we could elephant riding by the lake. Much cooler than the jungles of Thailand (Dalat was so cold at night that we bought a beanie each!)
I even got to feed him sugar cane treats.
There's always a chicken - and check out the size of him!
Some lovely waterfalls - and that's Tony standing on the rickety bamboo bridge in the foreground.
A very big, fat, happy Buddha.
There's no place like home - we had a great view of the Harbour as we flew over Sydney.
