Here we are one week after I wrote my last blog back in Hoi An! It is hard to believe break is over and I am back in the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City. This vacation was probably the best of my life (okay... it comes in at a close second behind New Zealand.. but I was working there too so it wasn't all a vacation right??). Anyways, I give credit to my travel buddies and the places we went along the way. This trip definitely would not have been the same without Amber and Michelle by my side. I think three has become my new favorite number!
Now where did I leave off? Ah yes, our night at the spa! Monday we all woke up feeling obviously refreshed and ready for the day. We started off by going back to the tailors for fittings and picking up our clothes that were finished. I loved all of my clothes! We also picked up our shoes. Hmm. I want to keep this post upbeat so let's just say I won't be getting tailor made shoes again. It was one of the many, many lessons we learned over holiday. After clothes and shoes we met up with the Fancy Clancy's, rented some motorbikes and drove off to Marble Mountains. Marble Mountains is a Buddhist Sanctuary built inside the mountains and in caves. It is absolutely breathtaking! It was amazing to think how they built these huge statues inside the dark caves. I can't think of the words to describe it, so here are just a few of the pictures I took!
Walking through the tiny town. You can see the tall building in the mountain where we were headed.
Our group up at the top before we began exploring.
One of the scary places we had to crawl through. (Amber)
I looooved all the incense. It was everywhere!
This was my favorite of all the caves. It was literally the most amazing place I have ever walked into. I find it amazing this is where people come to worship.
This is the same cave. The only light sources were where the sun came in naturally at the top. It was so gorgeous!
Another huge, amazing statue.
Yet another place to worship. This one was gorgeous but there were a lot of people outside trying to get you to buy incense and whatnot which was a bit annoying, but pretty typical.
Gahhhh, I told you this place was amazing!!
After our day of amazement we went back to Danie and Mike's hotel to enjoy the pool for a while before going out to din din. That night we ate a local restaurant called Streets. It was a really cool restaurant where Vietnamese kids (I say this meaning older kids.. like teenagers) go through an 18 month program and learn all about the restaurant industry. By the time they have completed the program they are able to go find jobs with the skills needed to work in a five star restaurant. Since I am allll about helping kids in need, I was really excited to eat at this place. Plus the food was really amazing. So it was a double win! After dinner we took our bicycles down to the night market and then went out for a few drinks. We ended up a backpackers bar which of course had some of drink deals. For example...
On Tuesday we had a lazy lunch and then headed to Da Nang to the Cham Sculpture museum with five hours to kill before heading to the train station. Let me take a break to say that I am all for museums. I think they can be great and interesting and you can learn loads of things. However, when I am hungover and I have no clue what Cham Sculptures are and it is hot and the museum doesn't have air con... I don't like them. So here is what I can now tell you about the Cham people. They were a group of people who lived in Vietnam hundreds of years ago. They no longer exist, but when they did, they made amazing sculptures. Well now these sculptures are being preserved in a museum in Central Vietnam. It was cool at first, but after a while it just felt like you were looking at the same thing over and over again. Now I don't want you feeling left out, so here are some of the cool sculptures they had....
This is my favorite for obvious reasons. Amber fits right in!
The museum took us much less time then we expected so soon enough we were outside looking for transportation, aka a taxi, to the train station. Well we weren't finding any taxis and since we had some extra time to kill we decided to do the touristy thing and hope onto some cyclos. A cyclo is a bike (more like a tricycle really) that has a nice comfy chair for you to sit in while a guy pushes you around. In Saigon the cyclo drivers are constantly trying to get you to hop on for a ride and we are always saying no. However, since we were on vacation we wanted to do the touristy thing, so we said yes!
One poor guy had both Amber and I, plus all of our luggage.
After about twenty-five minutes of riding around the streets of Da Nang we arrived at the train station with five hours to spare. Nothing like being timely! We found a cafe with a friendly mouse (oh how I hate those mice!) to sit at for a couple of hours. Then we spent a few hours in the train station. Luckily we went and got some snacks and beer to tide us over and within no time (insert sarcasm) we were the on the train headed for Nha Trang!
Our train ride was interesting to say the least. I have definitely not been started at so much since moving here, and the people on the train were less then enthusiastic to help us find our cabin. Eventually we got there and climbed into our tiny, not so comfy beds to enjoy a long nine hours of laying horizontally and not being able to sit up. In our 'cabin' there were six beds and five Vietnamese people. That's right the bed bellow me had THREE people sleeping in it. I'm not sure how they pulled it off when I could barely get situated in mine and there was only one of me. Nine hours later, after getting minimal sleep, we arrived in Nha Trang ready for the final leg of our amazing vacation!
Ahhh, once again another long blog post and I am still not done with our vacation! We still have all of Nha Trang to cover. Luckily for you, I am tired and I can't type anymore. So, Nha Trang will have to wait for another day! I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the stories of my vacation. I feel like I have left out so many details, but if I included them all I would be typing for weeks to come! I loved every second of my time in Hoi An and can't wait to go back again soon. (And get more clothes made....)
Until Next Time,
Michelle
No comments:
Post a Comment