Category Archives: Epic Journey 2

Phu Quoc Island

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Phuc Ol Phu Quoc is reputed for having the best sunsets in the whole Vietnam. It makes sense, as it is one of the few places in Vietnam that has a coast facing the west. Phu Quoc is quite big, some 45km long and some 20km wide at its widest point. The island is already not a paradise retreat, but not yet fully developed. It is somewhere in between and developed parts do not look nice at all. Proper roads are being built all over the island and by proper I mean wide avenues that could pass highways. Construction of resorts is not far behind too. Most of the tourist action is centered on the central west part of the island on Long Beach. The beach is rather long indeed, but that is about the only great thing about it. Other than that, it is dark sand and rough sea and new piles of garbage every day. On contrast, the whole eastern part of the island has almost entirely escaped the fate of development. No long beaches here, but instead there is squeaking white sand, turquoise sea, small fisher villages and battered dirt roads. Bao Sao beach in the South East has early signs of tourist development, but it is all very neat so far. Other equally brilliant no name beaches have absolutely nothing on them. No resorts, no bars and no people . Now writing these words, I kinda regret that I did not go to any of them, but instead drove past them. Oh well.

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It rained every day, but storms were no match for spectacular thunderstorms in Laos. Just boring rain, grey clouds and sometimes thunder in the distance. Somehow Laos has mastered delivering awesome nature presentations, be it in the form of clouds or tropical storms. The weather and crappy accommodation did not make a good first impression of the island. But then I found nice accommodation and met nice people. Good-looking spacious bungalow with wi-fi, sea breeze, a hammock and nice garden area. Three girls from Helsinki ending their exchange studies in Bali by doing a quick tour around Vietnam and Cambodia. Niels and Stephanie I had met in Da Lat arrived too. So it was alright after all. Seafood at the local night market was excellent and cheap too. Considering all of the above, I almost overstayed one more night, but the journey had to be continued towards the wonders of Cambodia.

Once upon a time in Saigon

Fact #1: Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, not Saigon (came as a completely surprise to me)
Fact #2: Ho Chin Mihn City is the official name, but nobody in the south ever uses it. It is Saigon.

Arrived to Saigon at 4:30AM. Shared a taxi with Singaporeans I had briefly met on Lang Biang mountain in Da Lat. A guy on a motorbike found me a room for the 1€ fee. I made him carry my baggage to my room too. Continued sleeping. Woke up two hours later. Went outside and met a fellow traveller from the Laos phase, who was about to leave Saigon. Funny how it goes.

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Saigon has got nice bustling energy. It is sometimes compared to Bangkok, but not as large and not as wild. Saigon is the city of ubiquitous motorbikes. Reputed for its mad traffic, where crossing a street can be a challenge, but I did not find it that intimidating. The worst traffic I saw was in Ulaan Baater with its too many cars, no traffic lights and complete disregards for any traffic rules. On the other hand, Ulaan Baater taught me how to cross a street. The secret is to just go, full of confidence and clearly showing your intentions. Saigon is piece of cake comparing to the capital of Mongolia, as most of the traffic is motorbikes with higher maneuverability. As a bonus, uou can cross the street in any fashion (diagonally across a roundabout for example). Unlike Bangkok walking around Saigon and gazing at the local street-life is surprisingly pleasant, although the heat was killing. There are some parks scattered around the center and tree alleys French style providing a refuge from the heat. The dehydration was ever-present and no matter how much I drank I could never quench my thirst and during the day body hardly produced any urine. In a true backpacker fashion I saved 2$ on A/C in my room, but had to pay with constant sweating. On my last day I went to Botanical Gardens to escape the heat and chill out only to find out that the “garden” was full of caged animals and theme park attractions.

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Saigon has two “must visit” sights: The Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum. The Reunification Palace is left in its more or less original form after the war ended and is a fascinatingly strange place, indeed. There are very few individual exhibits, the whole place is rather one gigantic exhibit. Very 70s and very charming. The basement is particularly interesting with its semi-empty office rooms, outdated communication equipment, metal tables and wall maps. The roof has a replica of the helicopter Americans used to flee, when North captured the city. Good stuff. The War Remnants museum is, on the other hand, a proper museum. The front-yard proudly displays captured American war machines and has got a replica of prison cells used to hold Vietkong prisoners.
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Inside the museum are the exhibitions dealing with a brief history of the war, Agent Orange, aftermath and so on. The exhibitions are very graphic and sport in your face attitude. No toned-down Western style. The general message of the museum can be summed up as: French came, we kicked their asses. Americans came, we kicked their asses. Chinese came, we kicked their asses. Several travelers have complained that the museum gives an one-sided picture of the war, but hey what can you expect. It is Vietnam, it is communist and it is their war.

I like Saigon. There is nothing much to do in terms of sights, but said before the city sports nice energy. You get constantly pestered by motorbike drivers (Hello! Motorbike?) offering their service, but their attitude is good-natured and friendly, although persistent. Not for the weak-spirited. After two days in Saigon it was time to move on. I pondered between Mekong Delta and Phu Quoc and finally settled on going to Mekong Delta. But after talking with fellow travelers from Canada, Niels and Stephanie, who were going to Phu Quoc, I suddenly realized that I had seen Mekong already and change my mind to fly to Phu Quoc. So the finale beach phase has begun.

Progress of my journey (Part 4)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Not really up-to-date. I am currently in Kep, Cambodia, but anyways.

Bangkok (bus, 13€) ⇒ Chiang Mai (hitch-hiking, three cars, 0€) ⇒ Pai (via Chiang Mai; hitchhiking, 4 cars, then a local bus; 1.5€) ⇒ Chiang Rai (a local bus, 1.5€) ⇒ Chiang Khong (a boat, 3€, taking into the account the passport adventure) ⇒ Huay Xai, Laos (a slow boat down Mekong with an overnight stopover at Pak Beng, 20€) ⇒ Luang Prabang (minivan, 11€) ⇒ Vang Vieng (bus, 4.5€) ⇒ Vien Tiane (VIP bus, 13€) ⇒ Thakhek (a bus, 6€) ⇒ Pakse (bus, longtail boat, 6€) ⇒ Don Det, 4000 Islands (6€, minivan) ⇒ Champasak (3€, tuk-tuk) ⇒ Pakse ⇒ A three day motorbike adventure around Bolaven Plateau (10€ for motorbike rent and gas) ⇒ Pakse (17€, bus; half a night spent sleeping on the floor in a dodgy place in Lao Bao) ⇒ Hue, Vietnam (4€, minivan)

Total: 118€

Travelling in Laos is very slow. Partly poor infrastructure and sorry state of roads, party the local mentality of doing things slow. The journey from Huay Xai to Vientiane felt like a very long one, but after looking at the map I realized that I did not make much progress at all geographically wise. Travelling in Laos is also more expensive than in Thailand, which is probably due to little competition between companies. Local buses are fascinating. Usually packed to the max with a stack of spare extra chairs placed in the aisle for latecomers. Roof of the bus serves as a storage space for motorcycles and even goats and chicken. How they get those on the roof is something I have never figured out. How goats cope with a journey at 60km/h tied to the roof of the bus is also a mystery to me.

The trip from Don Det to Champasak was particularly memorable. Me and Ben arrived late only to find that there are no seats left. Ben got the crappiest seat and was without a seat at all. People around made jokes that I could see on the floor. My response: “Why not, but I will go make inquiries first”. I went outside and there was this guy who told me that we were in the wrong bus. I go back to get Ben and to much surprise of other travelers we are guided to an A/C minivan with only two of us. What was surprising other travelers to Champasak stayed in a cramped bus. We made it to Champasak river crossing way before other travelers and “wasted” the advantage by sitting by a river before crossing drinking refreshments. Much to annoyance of the travelers from the first bus, who finally showed up later. Go slow travelling!

Highlands again – Da Lat

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Da Lat, the City of Flowers. A third stop in Vietnam, 13 hours by bus from Hoi An with a short stop-over at Nha Trang. It is the third highlands I have visited so far after Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and Bolaven Plateau in Laos. All the three are very different to each other and Da Lat is almost taiga-like with very little resemblances to the tropical nature. It is also the most developed of the three and in fact is a sizable city with population of 120000 (and probably the equal amount of tourists), bustling traffic and flourishing tourism industry. Da Lat itself is rather boring. If you go by the recommendations of Lonely Planet, it will be most certainly a big disappointment. There are many places to eat, drink and have fun, but not a lot in terms of sights. There a lot of pretty French built villas, who built them back in the day to escape the heat of lowlands, so Da Lat shines on the architecture front. There is even a mini version of Eiffel Tower or at least something that looks like one.
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One fascinating thing is Crazy House, which fully lives up to its name. It is a partly hotel, partly tourist attraction designed in Alice In Wonderland meets Middle Earth style. Very bizarre and very not socialist art-like. The architect studied in Moscow back in the Soviet Union days, which makes it even crazier. Room rates start from 32$, but I would imagine constant hordes of tourists (dominated by Russians) would make the stay well rather crazy. Flower Park, another attraction in Da Lat, is rather bland. I would rather go see the nature instead flowers planted in an organized fashion.

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The beauty of Da Lat is outside the city. Just rent a (motor-)bike and go to any of four directions to marvel at the beautiful nature of highlands. Сoniferous forests, greener than green hills, some waterfalls, vegetable plantations and at least one climbable mountain, Lang Biang. Elephant Waterfall is nice, but after seeing so many amazing waterfalls in Laos, I was not all that impressed. The waterfall and cave quota is exceeded on this trip. Lang Biang, on the other hand, was more exciting. There are two peaks. The lower one with a paved road leading do it and a restaurant on the top and the higher one just a mud path. Motorbikes and bicycles are not allowed, but visitors are encouraged to hire a mountain taxi to go to the top. I opted for walking to both peaks instead. I made it to the first peak just minutes before the storm, waited the storm to calm in the cafe and continued to the second peak after. The end result was climbing up a really slippery mud path in a rush and trying to make it there and back before the sunset. Made it to the top, took a couple of pictures and almost immediately clouds obscured the view completely. Five minutes on the top and I had to start a hasty descent before the sunset. Somehow I always end up in the jungle on a mountain just before the dark. Never been stranded on the mountain for the night so far, but the prospect of navigating my way down in the dark is not appealing at all.

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It rained every day and at times was rather chilly and even cold, but it was a nice change after the heat of “lowlands”. Dorms are scarce in Vietnam, so I got into habit of sharing a room with strangers. First it was a Chinese guy I met on the bus, then David from Catalonia, whom I had met in Hoi An using the same tactic. A great company and half the accommodation costs. Why not, indeed. Furthermore sharing food is always a plus in Asian countries. Deep-fried frogs and a deer salad on one occasion and seafood delicacies on the other one. 5€ per person for a selection of exotic seafood plates and a bottle of Da Lat red wine. I shudder to think what the same set would cost in Finland. Food is definitely one of the best things about Vietnam, especially after rather bland Lao food.

I spent three days in Da Lat and did not reach the “I wanna get out of here now” point, but it was enough for the first time. I arrived to Da Lat by a sleeper night bus and left the same way to Saigon. I can think of better ways to get a good night sleep, but the hectic schedule dictates its own rules. To be continued…