Up until yesterday I was starting to despair. What wasn’t I getting? Why was everyone saying how Vietnam is the new Thailand? Why wasn’t I really enjoying myself? Had I made a HUGE mistake??

No, I hadn’t. Turns out I just hadn’t been to Hoi An yet. I loved this place within 3 minutes of arriving and as each hour passes I love it a little more. I am even finding that since arriving here I am thinking back more fondly on the places I have just visited, the ones that I wasn’t all that sure I had liked at all.

It is only day 2 here in Hoi An and although I was originally going to be staying 5 nights I am already thinking I will extend my stay by another couple of days. I know there is so much more for me to see and do here so I am not going to say anymore about Hoi An for now. I will write another post once I leave and tell you all about this place. For now I will bore you with tales of what I have been doing and the places I have been for the last couple of weeks.

So, you already know a little bit about my time in Ho Chi Minh. Between being robbed of my thongs and then my mobile I actually had a nice time there. It is another big city but I am a big city girl so the craziness wasn’t a turn off at all. The hostel wasn’t too big and had a very social atmosphere so I met quite a few cool people. While in Ho Chi Minh I visited the War Remnants museum which was quite confronting but definitely worth the visit. I also ate a heap of street food which was all really yummy and soooo cheap. I was averaging about $4 per meal (always including a beer!).

Next stop was Dalat and thanks to being a chronic organiser I had managed to book a cheap flight 3 months earlier, so rather than spending $10 and enduring 7 hours on the bus I paid $35 and spent a little over 50 mins in the air. When checking out of the hostel in Ho Chi Minh I happened to start chatting to a lovely English couple who it turns out were not just on their way to catch the same flight to Dalat, they also happened to be staying in the same hostel. This was super convenient as we shared a taxi to and from both airports. It was also nice arriving and already knowing someone. I shouldn’t have worried though because this hostel was even more chilled and social than the last.

Dalat is a lovely little town that centres around a lovely lake (swan peddle boats and all) and is surrounded by countryside, mountains and waterfalls. Its higher in altitude which means that it is also significantly cooler than Ho Chi Minh. It was a welcome change! My days in Dalat mainly consisted of breakfast at the hostel, a walk around the lake and then some other activity in the afternoon – visiting a pagoda, waterfall, flower park etc. Every night I partook in the “Family Dinners” that they did at the hostel. It was basically everyone in the hostel crammed into the living room all eating together that amazing local dishes that the hostel staff spend all afternoon preparing. This hostel really was amazing and I think I am going to find it hard to top it anywhere along the way. The beds are super comfy, the bathrooms are huge and private, the atmosphere is super friendly and social, the meals are great and the staff are incredible. They learn everyones name straight away and always greet you and ask you how your day had been and seemed to genuinely care about the answer.

After my 4 nights in Dalat I reluctantly said goodbye to the staff and all my new friends and made my way to Nha Trang by bus – this one only took about 3 hours. I unfortunately don’t have that much great to say about Nha Trang. It is a coastal resort town but the beach isn’t that great and the place is full and I mean FULL of Russian tourists. All of the signs, shops and tour agencies are all geared towards the Russians and I was finding people talking to me in Russian before trying English. I don’t know why but I found this really off putting and I think put me in a bad mood from the beginning. I stayed one night at the hostel I had booked for 5 nights and then decided the next morning that 10 days of dorm life was enough for me for a little while and I promptly found a cheap mid range hotel near the beach and checked in. I spent the rest of that day sitting in the hotel room watching shit TV and feeling sorry for myself (poor me, boo hoo right?!).

The next few days in Nha Trang did get better though. I think I was already suffering a bit of “people fatigue” and just needed to have some alone time to chill out and not get asked and answer the same 10 questions over and over again. For the next few days I went to the beach every afternoon and hired a sun lounger and spent my time drinking beer and eating fruit from the beach vendors …. ok, maybe this place wasn’t so bad.

Once my 5 nights were up another flight (another flight I managed to still have no anxiety on!) took me to Da Nang. I was only there the one night and found that it was really just a big city by another uninspiring beach but I didn’t really care because I knew I was going to Hoi An the next day and I was feeling excited again. And so, here we are …

Sorry for the thousand indulgent words, hopefully you have made it this far and I haven’t bored you to death. The next post should be more interesting, or at least more generally positive. Hoi An really is a gem and between starting this post and finishing it I have decided that I definitely will extend my time here and spend a full week.

Thats all for now friends! Talk to you all soon xxx