1. Places visited.
Danang, Hue, Hoi An and day trips to My Son, Cua Dai beach and Marble Mountains from Hoi An.
2. Expenses.
Air fares on Silk Air $360. Travel insurance $33. Total Hotel USD$20 for whole trip. Transport about US$20. Food, admission fees, shopping: about US$100. The whole trip cost about SGD$650.
So far, of all the countries I visited, Vietnam has the best deal in terms of accomodations. Our accomodations costs were : Danang US$22 for 2 rooms. Hue US$9 for tripple share. Hoi An US$12 for tripple share. At about US$3 a person, I am getting attached baths with hot showers, aircon, TV and mini fridge! The day before we left, we popped into a nice hotel in Hoi An, they quoted us US$20 for 3 people, with much nicer rooms and free buffet breakfast and use of their small swimming pool!
For the record, the cheapest accommodation I've stayed in so far was about US$1 at Vieng Vang in Laos! It was US$10 for 3 rooms shared by 9 people.
3. Interesting experience
I got to row the bowl shape bamboo craft used by the local fishermen! (no photo evidence because I did not bring my camera the day I went to beach.)
The owner of the Karma Waters Cafe at the Cua Dai beach was kind enough to let me try it when I asked him about it. You move the craft using a sculling draw (figure of 8 draw) with a paddle, similar to the sculling draw used when kayaking.
The local markets also offered interesting experience. We had interesting time bargaining and buying slippers, fruits, chilli, tee shirts, coffee powder and snacks in the local markets.
4. Food
Vegetarian food turned out to be pretty easy to find. And food is really cheap. A bowl of pho at a local stall cost only about 60 cents. A lot of Vietnamese observe vegetarian food on the 1st, 14th, 15th and last day of the lunar calendar. On these days, many of the road side stalls changes to selling vegetarian food. All I need was to look for the tell tale word "Chay" which means vegetarian. (Same pronunciation as the Chinese word 斋)
It turns out that it was not easy to find good vegetarian pho. A couple of places used dried pho instead of fresh one. I ended up liking the Bun noodles and Mi Quang more. It was also difficult to get fresh spring rolls. most of the time, what I ordered turned up to be fried.
In Hoi An, we found a restaurant called Riverside which we liked very much and ended up eating there most of the time.
The coffee was also very good. Very strong and potent, with a nice aroma. We bought many packs of the coffee powder back.
5. Things missed
It might have been nice to cycle to the tombs in Hue, and in the Cham Kim island.
I found out about the excursion trip to Lonely Island and Cham Island a little late. Would have been nice to do that.
We went to Marble mountains en route back to Danang Airport. It turns out to be quite a pleasant place. We were only stopping 1 hour and there was not enough time to visit the whole place. Should have spent more time there.
If I ever go back to Hoi An, I will make sure I look up the catalogs and bring them there! You can get clothes and shoes tailor made very cheaply.
And I want more good pho and fresh spring rolls!
No comments:
Post a Comment