Hue

March 29 - 30

One day in Hue was plenty of time to explore this little town.

Hue is most famous for its citadel - the imperial city, a walled fortess in the centre of town. 

It was occupied by the emperors of the Ngyugen Dynasty from 1802 until the mid 1900s. Large parts of the structure were destroyed by termites, war and a cyclone. However, key buildings have been restored.

After roaming the citadel we checked out the markets and sampled local food - bun thit nuong twice in one day.. My new favourite dish!! We also had a very odd drink/dessert thing. I don't even know what it was!

To kill some time before our bus the next day, I went for a run..aaaand we ate more food (surprise!) I had bun bo hue - the local specialty rice noodle soup.

Hoi An

March 27 - 29

Our first day in this delightful little lantern-lit town was spent cooking and shopping!

We went to Gioan's Cooking School to learn all about Vietnamese food. First we were taken to the local market, where we bought veggies and tasted snails! Delish.

Our chosen dishes were beef pho, savoury pancakes, chilli & lemongrass chicken and spring rolls. Everything was incredibly delicious and seemingly easy - though I'm sure it won't be so easy to replicate back home!

Hoi An is famous for its tailor-made clothes and shoes. 

You can get just about anything made in less than 24 hours. Phoebe went in with a picture of a prospective dress and I took an old dress (that is getting a little too well-worn!) hoping to have it remade in a brand new pattern. Success!

Many drinks followed by many bahn mi made for an excellent night out with our hostel crew.

In the morning we took advantage of the hostel's free bike tour. We cycled through town, stopping at many key points. One that I particularly enjoyed was an ancient family home. It was one of the oldest buildings in town and has been occupied by the same family since it was built. A beautiful place.

Going a bit further out of the city, we found ourselves at an Eco-farm surrounded by huge open fields filled with buffalo. 

They even let me have a go at watering the crops.

After a short stop at the beach we cycled back into town.

We ran into forceful fruit-ladies who shoved their fruit at me, asked Phoebe to take a picture and demanded 50k dong (a bit over $3) ..I gave them 20k and scored two oranges!

As lovely as Hoi An is during the day, we discovered that it really comes to life at night! There's street food all along the river front and lanterns lit up absolutely everywhere.

We roamed around for hours, tasting every kind of food available and admiring the colourful lanterns.

Nha Trang

March 24 - 26

Nha Trang is known as a very westernised "party town." It seems to be very popular with Russians - signs and menus everywhere are in Russian. 

Our first day in Nha Trang we relaxed on the beach. It's incredibly beautiful, with mountains surrounding it and islands out ahead, but sadly it's very polluted. 

We then headed for the mud baths, advertised to keep our skin "most whitest and purest" The mud bath was fun! Slimy. As well as a mud bath we also got to use the sauna, steam room, foot spa, jacuzzi and swimming pool. A lovely relaxing afternoon.

In the evening we played drinking games at the hostel's rooftop bar and headed out for drinks after.

As a result... The next day was very lazy. We are a lot of food and did not do much else. A walk on the beach was about all we could manage. 

Luckily, our last day was much more productive. Waaaaaterfaaaaallllll!!! <3

First, we had a little hike. Little, but difficult! We climbed on and around rocks, with our path marked by painted arrows.

The waterfall was lovely. 

We swam, we explored, and we watched crazy locals jumping (and flipping) off high places into the pool of crystal-clear water.

Dalat

March 21 - 24

Almost five hours in a tiny 'local bus', stuffed full of people (and a few sheep!) landed us in Dalat; a quirky little modern city up in the mountains.

We spent our first afternoon checking out the Crazy House - and it is literally just that. A crazy house! It was designed in 1990 by a Vietnamese woman who studied architecture in Russia. 

The maze of buildings had us going up and down stairs and climbing over the roof, stopping to check out some of the themed bedrooms where you can stay a night for a hefty price.

The gardens were filled with colourful flowers.

When we were up the top we got a pretty stunning view of the town.

We walked back via the market. As well as all the usual atuff, they had tons of flowers!

A 'family dinner' was provided at the hostel, giving us a chance to eat authentic Vietnamese food and to mingle with other backpackers.

The next morning we went on the cable cars. They took us just over 2km, looking over the city and the surrounding mountains, to the Truc Lam pagoda.

Once there we roamed the stunning grounds and wondered down to the nearby lake. 

  

Later in the afternoon we took a train, built in the 30s, to a little village called Trai Mat to see the Linh Phuoc Pagoda.

This was much more touristy than the pagodas we saw earlier, but incredibly beautiful.

The whole thing is made out of old mugs and bottles, creating colourful mosaics. 

That night, after family dinner, we went to the 100 Roofs Bar. Incredibly cool place. And packed full of backpackers. It reminded me a little of the Crazy House - it's like a maze, with multiple staircases taking us up and down and all over the place, leading us to small rooms and dimly lit hallways. Dalat is not known for its nightlife...so it was closed by midnight. But great fun while it lasted! 

Our last day in Dalat was spent hiking. We were told the hike up Lang Biang Mountain would be "easy" we were even told it would only take us half an hour to get to the top. 

Initially we followed a road winding up the mountain and then it eventually led us to a dirt path where we struggled up never-ending stupidly-steep stairs. 

Two and a half hours later, dripping in sweat, we made it to the top. 

Luckily, the view was worth it.