Nha Trang - Photographs Part 1

From a distance the beach at Nha Trang looked much like the beach in Hoi An. The beach was littered with palm umbrellas and deck chairs. Unfortunately, unlike Hoi An you had to pay for the priveledge of laying underneath one. Having said that it was only $2 per chair and well worth the money.




You might remember from our Nha Trang post that we mentioned the very noticable Hon Tre Island (more commonly referred to as Vinpearl). You can see here in this photograph the enormous Hollywood-esque sign high up on the hill. The cable car was a 3km ride from mainland to island. I didn't particularly enjoy the 9 minute trip. In fact, I was petrified the entire journey.







Not the best of photographs (the light was fading) but these were a few of the rides we went on a the deserted water park on Vinpearl.




Looking from Vinpearl back towards the mainland.



We weren't really sure what this place was as it was closed when we got there, but one can only imagine. Not the sort of thing you find at Dreamworld!



These dodgem cars were awesome. Everyone really got into it and was ramming into each other as hard as they could.



A lot of the stuff at the theme park seemed to be out of order, but there were a few games we go to have a play with. Horse racing was one of them!




I hadn't been on a Merry-Go-Round in ages! Andy chose the tiger while I chose a giraffe!




I really didn't expect a lot from our trip to Vinpearl, but we both really enjoyed it! Well, except for the cable car ride.

Hoi An - Photographs Part 3 (My Son)

My Son (pronounced Mee Sun) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 30km from Hoi An. On our last morning there we went on a 5am tour to visit these temples. We were told they were Angkor on a much smaller scale - and after visiting Angkor I totally agree. Some of the temples were in good condition, and some were quite literally a pile of rubble. One of the temples was even housed under what looked like an enormous carport to protect it from further weathering. Sadly, much of the destruction was caused by the US bombing of the area in 1969 during the Vietnam War. A major restoration project in underway. The Group that you can see in these photographs was still in very good condition.

So not technically from our holiday....

... but we're wearing t-shirt we got from Vietnam =P. Today we went to fly the kite I made at Vacation Care over the school holidays. As it was such a beautiful day we headed down to St Kilda and took it for a spin.

Hoi An - Photographs Part 2

So you're probably wondering why on earth I look so ridiculous in the pictures below. Well first night we were there we were just about to head out for dinner and this torrential rainstorm began. In true Vietnam style the roads began to flood. After sitting around waiting for it to pass we decided that we would be brave and venture out into it. To be honest it had died off quite a bit by the time we departed the guesthouse, but it was still raining a fair amount. Not wanting to become saturated we came up with the brilliant idea of wearing a garbage bag. A very pretty garbage bag at that! It was a bit of a laugh, and I got a few smiles and giggles from the locals too.







More pictures showing the beautiful streets of Hoi An









The guy in the boat in this picture had the most amazing toothy smile. Basically he sat in his boat most of the day waiting for someone to take up his offer for a boat ride. He didn't speak so all communication was done non-verbally.










Not far from the town centre was the beach. The water was so blue and warm and the sand so clean. One afternoon we hired a couple of push bikes from the guesthouse and made our way to the beach. At first I wasn't sure we would make it as my chain fell off within 5 minutes of leaving!











We had quite a few things made in Hoi An at the Silk Road tailors (you can read about it here) and these were the lovely girls resposible.

Hoi An - Photographs Part 1

Hoi An was just gorgeous. The buildings, the people, the food... all of it. Set on the banks of Thu Bon River, Hoi An was probably my favourite place in all of Vietnam.








Across the other side of the Thu Bon River are two small islands, An Hoi and Cam Nam.







As I mentioned previously in our Hue post, the other Japanese covered bridge we were lucky enough to see was in Hoi An. This bridge was the entrance to the Old Town.





Our guest house in Hoi An was lovely. We were up on the top floor (in the smallest room they had available), but the facilities were gorgeous.