After traveling through central Vietnam, it was time for us to head South for our final weeks in the country. We were not excited by 14+ hours on a bus so we flew from Hoi An to Dalat, a city in the highlands with surprisingly cool weather (it got down to ~52*F/11*C). After Dalat, we took another plane to HCMC for a few days in the heat before continuing on to the Mekong Delta (aka “Mango Heaven”). Finally, with only a few days left of our 8 weeks in Vietnam, we made our way back to HCMC where we celebrated Christmas with a flight to Thailand (2-country Christmas!?).

Touring

Dalat

Dalat has a unique climate in Vietnam thanks to its 1500 m  (5000 ft) elevation and cool weather. Way back during the French occupation, the French took note and used the area as a respite from the heat found throughout the rest of the country. At the same time, they brought over plants such as the Arabica coffee bean which grows perfectly in the area.

The chance to visit a coffee farm as well as the change in scenery found in Dalat brought us to the region. All things considered, we have to admit that Dalat was not our favorite stop. On the one hand, the area has some of the most interesting activities we did in Southern Vietnam. On the other hand, however, the city itself is boring (bad food, not much to do) and our accommodation was terrible (no heat and cold showers when it was only 52*F, brrr).

With the benefit of hindsight, we’ve decided that we would recommend Dalat to friends but:

1. Don’t stay at Big Home Dalat.
2. Stay no more than 3 days.
3. The local vegetarian food is not good. Eat at the Indian restaurant instead.

K’ho Coffee Tour

As we both love coffee, a coffee farm tour was at the top of our list of things to do and it was amazing!

Not only was the unlimited coffee delicious, we actually got to participate in every step of the coffee-making process. We sorted cherries (yes, cherries, coffee is a fruit!), broke up the beans in a large mortar, roasted a variety of beans, and more.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

TIP: If you want to do this tour, book in advance. We didn’t request a tour until we arrived in Dalat but K’ho Coffee took a few days to respond so we almost didn’t get to do it.

Waterfalls

We motorbiked to a few cool waterfalls. The farthest falls were 1.5 hours away but they were the prettiest and totally worth the trip.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Crazy House

The cities best attraction was the crazy house and it’s actually really cool. It looks like a building from a Doctor Sues novel but this one’s life-sized and you can walk around it! As we walked through, we couldn’t help but think that it would absolutely NOT be allowed in the U.S. as there are many spots where a person could fall 20 feet to concrete. As a result, this was one of those times where we were thankful for Vietnam’s lax safety laws.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Hiking

We went on a mostly unremarkable hike except for the fact that we picked up a dog. No, really, a dog started following us half a mile into our hike and he followed us for the remaining 8 miles.

• 

• 

• 

Mekong Delta

The Mekong River branches into many tributaries as it winds its way through the Mekong Delta before escaping into the East Vietnamese Sea. Thanks to this river, the delta is the most productive agricultural region in South East Asia, producing extraordinary amounts of rice and delicious fruit.

We used Ben Tre and Can Tho to explore the area.

Ben Tre

Ben Tre was our favorite stop in southern Vietnam.

For starters, our accommodation was amazing. We stayed at a remote homestay which was quiet, comfortable, had a pool, and cooked outstanding food.

On top of being remote, almost no tourists visit Ben Tre. During an excursion into the city, we were pleasantly surprised by a group of men drinking and eating fruit on the sidewalk. They called us over, chatted with us, gave us fruit, gave us a beer, and said: “we’re friends now”. After, as we walked away, we were a bit nonplussed as we’ve never met local people who were so excited to see us that they gave us stuff and wanted to be friends. Candidly, it was a really nice experience.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, we ate lots of delicious food. While in town, we picked up mangos for snacking between meals. Even better, the homestay cooked amazing food–it has been weeks and we still reminisce about that lemongrass tofu.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Can Tho

In contrast to Ben Tre, Can Tho was our least favorite spot in Southern Vietnam. Unfortunately, we struggled to find good food and, in case you haven’t noticed, that plays a huge role in how much we like a city. Still, we came to Can Tho for a tour of the largest floating market in the Mekong Delta, Cai Rang, and we really enjoyed that part.

Cai Rang is primarily a wholesale market. Sure, there are a few small boats selling either coffee or soup to tourists but the main action is vendors selling fruit/vegetables with a minimum 10 kg purchase. As a result, the market is very authentic–we saw no souvenir shops here.

Sadly, however, it’s also a dying tradition. With the advent of scooters and a robust road network, fewer and fewer people are buying their goods from floating markets. Furthermore, these merchants live full time on their boats–a rather uncomfortable life–and their children don’t want to follow in their footsteps. In fact, our guide told us that, not only has she noticed far fewer boats in recent years, she expects it will cease to exist in the next 5.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest in Vietnam. Most tourists either fly into or out of Vietnam via HCMC and we’re no different, electing to make it our final stop in the country.

We stopped in HCMC on our way to the Mekong then returned once more for the days leading up to Christmas and our flight to Bangkok. We did the standard touristy things–a trip to the Cuchi Tunnels as well as a visit to the War Remnants museum–then, with little else to see, we made a game of trying to find the best Christmas decorations in the city (Saigon Center won, in case you’re curious).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Cuchi Tunnels

The Cuchi tunnels were built by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. They’re outstandingly impressive–hundreds of miles long but built with simple hand shovels.

As we toured, we couldn’t help but be impressed with how clever the Viet Cong were during the war. For example, American soldiers figured out they could use dogs to find tunnel ventilation shafts. To counter, the Viet Cong put hot peppers in the shafts which prevented the dogs from detecting the tunnels but made them sneeze. Observant American soldiers noticed and realized the sneezing indicated tunnels. As a result, the Viet Cong countered again by putting old American soldier uniforms in the shafts, which the dogs didn’t recognize as foreign, brilliant!

The original tunnels were so small that most westerners wouldn’t fit but, happily, they’ve enlarged and reinforced a few so visitors like us can get a feel for life in the tunnels.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Misc HCMC

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Observations

City vs Country

After 8 weeks in Vietnam, we came to the realization that we liked the countryside there better than the cities. The country tends to be quieter, prettier, friendlier, cheaper, more comfortable, more interesting, and tastier. In contrast, we preferred staying in cities in Europe.

European cities tend to have lots of delicious food, a variety of accommodation options, and a plethora of things to do. Vietnamese cities, on the other hand, tend to have limited “attractions”. Instead, the attraction is the culture, but, after 2 months, it didn’t have the same draw for us. Furthermore, with a few exceptions, the best food we ate in Vietnam was at homestays.

In retrospect, we wish we’d spent more of our time outside of the cities, reserving cities mostly for travel between destinations.

“1 meter, it’s only a small flood”

The more time we spent in Vietnam, the more we realized how pampered our lives are in the US. Several times, we had a guide or a local person shrug off a 1-meter flood as no big deal. Many areas are so used to flooding that they’ve built for it. In some places, for example, everything on the ground floor can be moved to higher ground during a flood or is resistant to floodwaters. Even more extreme, the houses in another area we visited were built to float in 15-foot floods! Floods that would be catastrophic to us are just everyday life in Vietnam.

For what it’s worth, every person shudders in fear when we tell them how cold it gets back home in Boston (let alone Saskatchewan), so we suppose all suffering is relative.

Aren’t you cold?

Speaking of frigid cold, people here have a completely different standard for “cold”. We were wearing tank tops in 75*F (24*C) weather and were asked multiple times “aren’t you cold”? All we could think was “No, it’s beautiful out. Aren’t you hot in your fleece-lined jacket??”

Conclusion

All things considered, Southern Vietnam wasn’t our favorite and by the end, we were ready to leave. While we did do some fun things, we found it less fun than Northern Vietnam (which was AMAZING) and a few things wore on us.

To start, 8 weeks in one country is a long time, we think 6 weeks would have been a better choice. Next, we miss home. After 4.5 months away from friends, family, and gymnastics we found it especially trying to miss the holidays–normally one of our favorite times of the year. Looking back, we have to wonder if skipping the holidays was the right choice. Finally, a few things about Vietnamese culture got to us–aggressive salespeople on the street, aggressive motorcycle drivers, a lack of walkable sidewalks, and noise pollution, to name a few.

With all of that said, we left excited to visit our final two countries–Thailand and Cambodia–before finally flying home on January 15th/16th.

Bonus