Nha Trang in the rain

As lucky as I usually am with the weather and generally, now was the time for rain to come.
The monsoon was making quite a mess in the North Vietnam and it was coming down South. I knew we would meet at some stage, half way in the country. So it was in Nha Trang.

Never mind the weather. It was warm, friendly, with a good company to hand around in the evenings. And making some observations. Check out the wet city and the beach!

City Beach at Nha Trang

City Beach at Nha Trang

It is quite entertaining to be watching all the motorbikes putting on rain jackets while driving. It is like one minute everyone is driving normally and next minute you see a city full of weird shapes and colours under foil. You cannot even tell how many people are there on one bike anymore. Normally 3 persons are OK. My personal record was spotting 4 men on one bike. If not 5. I am not sure anymore as it was really very amusing observing them getting on the bike and driving away. All of them on one bike I mean! But it was in the North, and I did not capture that ;(.

What an amazing Vietnam! Nha Trang.

The reason why I was getting so excited about the day was that not only I managed to do everything as planned. Surprisingly as for the level of my experience, the language and the bad publicity Vietnam has got for being not user friendly..Within one day I got so many nice things happening to me that I was overwhelmed and almost drunk with happiness.

Window view today - Nha Trang

The morning in Mui Ne with relaxing beach and the sand dunes, then travel to Nha Trang with some adventures on the road, but nothing really bad just a flat tire and the delay.
Arriving in Nha Trang, I needed a taxi-motor and he accepted my price without arguing (very uncommon!) - VND 20K. Of course he took me to the hotel he had deal with first.  Instead of taking me to the hotel I wanted :). I just refused the offer and insisted on taking me to my hotel ("but why lady, this is cheaper, you want to see a room? really nice").
 Now to my Summer Hotel here. At first I thought I could not afford it. 3 star hotel in the most popular beach resort in Vietnam, must be outside of me reach. But I was at this hotel for a reason. I promised the lady from Can Tho Spring Hotel that I would use their hotel chain when in Nha Trang. It is owned by the same family and she recommended it to me. Not wanting to disappoint her for my budget and for not even trying, I went there thinking I would try negotiation, they will refuse and I will go to a cheap sh*ty hotel as usual :)
The economy room price starts from 600K per night which is 28.5 $ a night. No way I saw them agreeing tto my 15$ per night...

But they did (!).

Window view Nha Trang

as you can see they love funny-shape buildings...

What an amazing Vietnam! Mui Ne.

For the past two days, I don't know where to start. it has been an amazing time not only from experience point of view, but most of all that I got surprised so much that I am still speechless.

But first things first...





Relaxing on the beach, just me and the sea



There were some heavy storms over this part of globe this week, and in South Vietnam the rainy season started, not letting me fulfill my plan for Can Tho floating markets. So I must apologize to the nice gentleman with his boat that even though we had a date for 5:30 am on Wednesday, I did not arrive. It had been raining since the day before and my previous date with the same gentleman ended a little bit in the rain, but still manageable as the Mekong views were amazing. I will try and post photo or two for a flavor. So I was a bit disappointed but I think I needed a break from the crazy traveling as I enjoyed staying in bed a bit longer. All in all Wednesday turned out to be dedicated to bus-travels.

I committed not to use any taxi that day (I mean motorcycle ;)) and so I had to find out about all the local buses and take the right ones and arrive on time to get on another bus etc. Not everywhere people were knowledgeable enough to push me in the right direction but what's more important, in the most critical moment when switching from a private bus operator to get to another part of the city for a different bus operator, I went to the familiar district 1 with the same bus I had used before and there at the station I knew that staff were friendly enough to give me the correct bus number onwards. And so it was. 

So far so good, Can Tho the welcoming city!

As much as I was worried the day before, I am sitting in Can Tho with my tammy full and with everything organized for the next day as well. This is life in Vietnam :)

Monks School at Can Tho

I got to Can Tho for 10 a.m. using a public bus in Saigon, then getting onto private bus to Can Tho and then on the minibus to get to my hotel. I spent 100K dongs for all this. In comparison the tourist option offered in the hostel in Saigon was for 12$, which is around 240K dongs. Happy with the saving I went for a real hotel option for 8$. Crazy me :)



Fruity breakfast - my first fruits in Vietnam

It turned out a good decision actually. The Spring Hotel is a bit farther from the main tourist place in Can Tho but in return it is cleaner and very friendly. The family here helped me with organizing my tomorrow's journey so I can sit and relax now :).

Sajgon - po polsku

Z notatek z podróży...

Sajgon przywitał mnie tropikalnym deszczem, ale zanim dojechałam do hotelu niebo się przejaśniło i wyszło słońce. Po 24h podróży i pierwszym szoku temperaturowym, doceniłam chłodny prysznic i wiatrak w pokoju. Po mimo tego, że sam pokój rarytasem nie był. Pierwszy raz nocowałam w pokoju bez okna, z zamkiem w drzwiach, którego prawie nie było. No ale skoro rzekło się A i przyleciało się do Wietnamu, trzeba przyjąć z dobrocią inwentarza.

Dla mamy

Obiecalam po polsku, tylko klawiatury polskiej nie mam wiec bedzie brzydko bez fontow :)
Wszystko jest super. Chyba nie sprawilo mi trudnosci odnalezienie sie tutaj i zbyt duzo jak na razie nie przeplacilam za nic. Ucze sie codziennie wiec na koncu bede juz prawie "localsem".
Wietnamczycy maja inna mentalnosc od naszej i jak juz to sie zrozumie, to mozna sie dopasowac i z latwoscia ich "ogarnac". Generalnie sie do mnie usmiechaja i zagaduja. Jezeli chcesz cos zalatwic, to rowniez w duchu wietnamskim, znaczy bez pospiechu i nachalnosci. Zazwyczaj widzac bialasa robi sie w urzedzie, na przystanku czy w sklepie zamieszanie, i ludzie chca albo byc pomocni od razu, albo musisz poczekac az ktos nabierze smialosci do sprawdzenia swojego angielskiego. Pewnie mi tez byc sie nie chcialo gimnastykowac jezyka z obcymi...W Polsce obsluga klienta jest wcale nie zawsze lepsza, a tam gdzie nie ma wymuszonych korporacyjnie standardow to pies z kulawa noga sie nie zainteresuje obcokrajowcem, ktorego w dodatku nie rozumie.

First bites

I got one or two mosquito bites today. Do you think I am going to die soon?
I think there were cockroaches in the hostel too, but I don't dare thinking if they were in my room...

And so I started to use repellents I got with me.

Today was a better day. I managed to get cheaper and nicer food and cheaper everything. I guess you have to stay long enough in one place to get closer to the local going rates and get your head around the rules.

Tomorrow, a first big challenge (like it wasn't enough). Because I am stubborn, I am rejecting all the civilized offers for transportation and I am taking a local bus to get to Can Tho. It is said to be 4 hrs drive.
I was at the local bus station yesterday to see if I manage to find out about anything. After understanding the layout and the roles, I asked one guy behind the counter and... can you imagine that the guy started writing an answer for me in English? Obviously his English wasn't great and he was hesitating to speak, but I got all the information I needed. The bus numbers, the schedule for Tuesday and I hope all this if for where I want to go. :). After watching buses coming and going (not that I didn't trust the guy:), bus number 2 is a really local open type little van where people sit on top of each other. The bus 39 seems more European type, with modern type of sits and closed cabin. And so tomorrow morning, I will be on the bus with locals trying not to get killed and actually get where I want. Then I want to organize a boat trip on Mekong for myself, or join a group rather and I will have to see about accommodation.

I could go for an easier option and get a tour organized here for only 25$. But I want to become better traveling ninja and see how much money is really needed for traveling. I am keeping track of my expenses so I will know exactly how much and where :))

More news from Saigon

Another handful of funny information.

Now I know that in Vietnam byuing a SIM is not necessary an easy operation. I got one in Hanoi airport, thinkin it should be straight forward with my unlocked mobile. How silly it was to thinki, I learned yesterday :) Of course I had problems and I couldn't use it. I thuoght it was probably some phone settings and that I will be able to sort it out quickly. I still haven't. Moreover I locked the phone SIM by accidant, and they do not give you your PUK with the card.
Thanks to firendly hotel service we called the customer service and they said that the only option is to go back to the place where I got the SIM and they should sort it out for me. No way I am going back to Hanoi before end of my second week I said. So as a bargain I will go to their shop in Saigon and maybe they will help... Fingers crossed!

Would you dare crossing the street?

The journey

I cannot say it was a short one...but at least without major complications. Lucky me!

We arrived in Moscow on time and I spent the 4 remaining hours at the airport reading Polish magazines and planning my next steps. I also had the most awful sandwich with chicken ever. It was called "club sandwich with chicken" but as you can expect Russian staff probably never see one, a  good one I mean. So I got something which tasted like half-cooked toast bread with chicken and lettuce. What's worse the lettuce was cooked 100% because of microwave treatment. Imagine the taste...
I didn't complain however, giving myself some room for future dealings with all the food-options in Vietnam.

Connection Moscow - Hanoi was looking good at the start, but in the morning I realized there was a delay. Like 45 min dealy. And my plan with visa on arrival with checkin for another domestic Vietnam flight had only 2,5 hrs window in total. So minus the 45 already... it started getting tight.
I shoott off the aerloplane before the BC members and arrived and visa window first. I think this was the key to success, avoiding the queue there and everything went quite smooth onwards.

On the domestic flight however I was the only European face.It was completely new to me. I must admit that I felt weird. Now I understand other guys arriving in Europe...

what I will remember from this?

Moscow airport customer service

Probably the funny Russian approach to customer service, including also the fact that you could order a fancy green tea with jasmin or posh coffee, or a cake with caviar, BUT they served you in plastic cups (!). Maybe normally I wouldn't bother but they serve tea in proper pots...

I confused the gates in Moscow and almost boarded for Tokio. Imagine! :)
I was looking at all the faces trying to find an European mate, but there was none! Then the hostess told me my gate was 23 and I was at 22..

Boarded!!

At the airport there was no sit for me so I got upgraded. Not a bad start of my trip :)
I am now boarded for Moscow. So far so good. Only 10 kg luggage checked in, I am proud of myself I must say.

Fingers crossed.

Saturday still in Europe.
Sunday Indochina...
Is it really me going for this crazy trip or I am just watching a TV show with starring someone like me?

TBC

W Warszawie wszystko o czasie. Smutno było pożegnać koty i psa. Prawie spakowalam jedno do plecaka żeby mi smutno nie było... Ale to chyba nie byłby dobry pomysł. Dziś jeszcze będę cieszyć się Europą, od jutra Azja, Indochiny.. Kto by pomyślał...

The count down..

I have 1 day to go, not even 24 hrs.
I am freaking out on my organizational stuff. I feel like I did all the things I planned but still at the back of my head there is this little "planning monster" sitting telling me that this is not enough. I hope this monster will disappear once I hop on the plane...Any advice to make it go away?

Just before packing..

The other thins is not to leave too much mess behind. To make sure my pets will be OK, how I will survive so many weeks without them? I wish somebody invented a convenient way of travelling with pets. If I could take my doggy at least, imagine that...

This evening the backpack will get filled a bit, hopefully no too much. The plan is to take as little as possible with me and get all the remaininig stuff there, eventually...
More news this evening on the packing event :-)