Same Same, But Different!

After our quick stop in Singapore, we flew to Thailand's massively hectic capital city, Bangkok, to start the next part of our trip: 10 days in mainland Thailand, spent in Bangkok & Chiang Mai, followed by 3 weeks travelling down the coastline of Vietnam, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh.


A map of Thailand and Vietnam


In Bangkok, we stayed on the popular Khao San Road in Khaosan Palace Inn. Khao San Road has a great market and is definitely the best area to stay if you want to meet other backpackers, although I would recommend staying one road over on Thanon Ram Buttri (Thanon is Thai for street) if you want to get some sleep! Plus, Thanon Ram Buttri has a much better selection of restaurants and street food.

We spent our entire first day in Bangkok at MBK shopping centre, which is essentially a ginormous indoor market! Prices weren't actually that cheap, but it's a good place to pick  up fake  handbags and purses, if that's what you're looking for (same same, but different!). On our second day, we visited Wat Pho, the Reclining Buddha Temple, in our full on temple gear - bloody boiling! Having previously visited the Emerald Buddha Temple with my family, I would say either is a good choice to visit, as they are both equally beautiful!

Wat Pho

That night we went out on Khao San Road, where we met some guys and decided to go a ping pong show together! If backpacking in Bangkok, it's just one of those things that you have to do - it was both disgusting and hilarious all at the same time! If you go though, you have to be aware that it's more than likely that you will be ripped off.

From Bangkok, we took the overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. We bought our train tickets on the day, from Hua Lamphong, the main train station. This is the best place to buy your tickets, as travel agents will overcharge you! The train journey took 12 hours and though we didn't get much sleep, I felt completely safe and the beds were actually quite cosy. On arrival in Chiang Mai, we took a 'sawngtheaw' or red truck (similar to a taxi, except there is a set price and the driver will stop and pick people up wherever he fancies) to Vanilla Place Guest House, which we found on Tripadvisor (so useful!). That day we visited a museum, then headed to the Sunday walking market - the best market I've ever been to, stocked with all sorts of local handicrafts, rather than the typical commercial tourist crap! Bought loads!

We spent our second day in Chiang Mai at the Mae Sa waterfalls, which I also found on Tripadvisor! I knew I wanted to visit some waterfalls in Chiang Mai, as sadly we didn't have enough time to visit the town of Pai - which my friend Danielle had told me was her favourite place in Thailand, partly because of the amazing waterfalls - and the Mae Sa waterfalls hopefully compensated for this! A series of 10 waterfalls surrounded by picnic tables and barely any tourists - lovely day out!

One of the waterfalls at Mae Sa

Our third day in Chiang Mai was spent at Thai Farm Cooking School, where we learnt to make 6 Thai dishes including green curry and pad Thai. I love to cook so I really enjoyed our day at Thai Farm, especially as we got to eat everything that we made!

Our cooking teacher at Thai Farm

We spent our last day in Chiang Mai at Patara Elephant Farm, which was the most surreal experience ever! If you ever go to Chiang Mai you HAVE to go to Patara (make sure you book in advance), as it is literally amazing! Patara adopt domesticated elephants from circuses, illegal logging camps and from families who are no longer able to take care of them. The elephants are free to roam around, thoroughly looked after (as they would be unable to survive on their own in the wild) and, when the time is right, breeded, in an attempt to increase the massively declined population of elephants in Thailand. 

You become the owner of one of the adopted elephants for the day; mine was the smallest elephant, named Bang and she was 7! During the day I got to feed her, as a bonding experience, check she was healthy (which included checking her dung - ew) and ride her bareback to a waterfall (her daily exercise) where I washed her! We then got to visit the elephant nursery, where since Patara was founded, 14 years ago, 18 baby elephants have been born. Adorable!

Washing Bang before riding her to the waterfall!

From Chiang Mai, we took the train back down to Bangkok to then fly to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, as we could find no direct flights from Chiang Mai.

Vietnam was under French colonial rule from 1883 until after WWII and the influence of the French is still very visible in Hanoi, with some beautiful French-style buildings, such as the opera house, and tree-lined streets throughout the city.

We spent 2 days in Hanoi, where we visited the Temple of Literature, explored the Old Quarter and booked our Halong Bay trip. There are an unbelievable amount of tour companies and hotels in Hanoi offering boat trips with different cruise operators, and with incredibly lax anti-piracy laws in Vietnam, there are many tour companies all operating under names of reputable brands, making it not only a really confusing decision but one where there's a chance that you are being conned and may end up on a boat that is no where near as nice as the one you paid for. After lots of research, and again with the help of Tripadvisor, we decided to book on the Alova Gold Cruise for a 2 day, 1 night trip of Halong Bay!

Halong Bay

Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, made up of 1969 limestone islands and it is absolutely beautiful! Our trip included a stop at Titop island where we walked to the viewpoint at the top, kayaking round a floating fishing village and visiting the aptly named Amazing Cave, which really was pretty amazing!

After our return to Hanoi, Alex and I sadly said goodbye to Laura who was headed home at this point, then made our way down to Hue, halfway down the coast of Vietnam, on an overnight train.

In Hue we visited the Dong Ba market, where we were the only non-Vietnamese people and went to explore the Citadel - a former Imperial City, which was home to 4 emperors before being heavily bombed by the Americans during the war!

A beautiful building in the Citadel

From Hue we took the relatively short bus journey to Hoi An. Hoi An was my favourite place of our trip so far, such a picturesque little town! In Hoi An we stayed at a brand new hotel called Vaia Boutique, once again found on Tripadvisor. At £8 a night each, including  breakfast, it was literally the best value for money ever. If you go to Hoi An, you have to stay in Vaia Boutique.

Vaia Boutique

Hoi An is famous for tailoring, so we spent our first morning there designing our own dresses at To An Cloth Shop, a few doors down from Vaia Boutique. Before we got to Hoi An, I spent quite a while researching how to choose which tailor shop to go to (there are over 500 to choose from) but I think this is all the advice you need - choose somewhere close to your hotel so it's easy to get to for fittings, and if you want to pay more find somewhere that looks expensive, if you want to pay less find somewhere that looks cheap. Easy! We spent the rest of our day at a traditional Vietnamese tea house, where you are served by speech and hearing impaired waitresses to make you appreciate the beauty of a cup of tea or coffee drunk in silence. How lovely!

Traditional Vietnamese coffee!

We spent the next 3 days at Hoi An's nearby beaches, which we cycled to, and spent the nights exploring the restaurants and shops of the old town. Also, one night whilst we were there, there was a festival to celebrate the full moon and we bought lanterns to float down the river, which are meant to bring good luck to your family!

Nha Trang was our next destination in Vietnam. Very popular with the Russians, Nha Trang is a beach resort filled with high rise hotels. We spent three days there, which included a visit to a mineral mud spa (which left our skin silky smooth!) and a trip to Vinpearl Land, Vietnams answer to Disneyland. Vinpearl Land is a waterpark, theme park and aquarium all rolled into one, built on an island which you have to take a cable car too - great fun!

The cable car to Vinpearl Land

From Nha Trang, we headed to Mui Ne on the Southern coast of Vietnam for 2 nights. Mui Ne is famous for its red and white sand dunes, which we did a half day tour of. At the white sand dunes, Al and I rented a quadbike to ride around the dunes on and, of course, we managed to get stuck... Twice. Oops!

Quadbiking at the sand dunes in Mui Ne

Our final stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City, which is still referred to by its previous name of Saigon by the locals. In HCMC we stayed on the backpacker road of Bui Vien which was great for bars!

From HCMC we did two popular day tours: one to the Cu Chi tunnels and one to the Mekong Delta. The tour to the Cu Chi tunnels was so interesting! In the Vietnam war, the communist Viet Cong, from North Vietnam, were fighting the anti-communist South of Vietnam, along with the American Army and their allies. However, the area of Cu Chi, although in the South, was under Viet Cong control. The local Cu Chi fighters constructed a 200km long underground tunnel system to assist them in battle - it protected them from American bombs and allowed them to ambush the Americans when they attacked, by running through the tunnels undetected, then taking them by surprise! On the tour we got to crawl through a 25m section of the tunnels (it was SO small!) and we saw some of the booby traps used by the Cu Chi fighters - scary stuff! What made the tour even more interesting was that our tour guide, Mr Bean, a half Vietnamese, half Filipino man, served as a lieutenant in the American Army and his platoon fought at the Cu Chi tunnels! He told us that after the war, because he chose to stay in Vietnam, he had to serve 5 and a half years in a communist prison!

Me in one of the Cu Chi tunnel entrances!

Disappointingly, the Mekong Delta trip was not so interesting - especially combined with a hangover from a crazy night out the night before with Alex's friend from Uni, Anna, and her friend Kaz! I did enjoy the part where we rowed along a canal through a mangrove forest though.

Alex & I at the Mekong Delta wearing traditional Vietnamese hats!

I really enjoyed visiting Thailand again, after a family holiday there 2 years ago, and I absolutely loved Vietnam! Such a great place and with so many lovely French bakeries and coffee shops, I didn't even feel that far from home!

Next stop... Cambodia! x