Our first stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh city, probably one of the most difficult places to cross a road I've experienced in my life so far. Even when the pedestrian lights are green you still get a few random mopeds ready to run you down! 

Seeing as we arrived quite late in the afternoon after a 7 hour bus journey we didn't get up to much on our first night other than some food and a few beers! 

On our second day in the city we visited the Vietnam war museum. Personally I absolutely despised history in school and dropped it after junior cert so I'd literally never actually learnt anything at all about the war so visiting the museum was so eye opening and some factors were simply truly shocking. So many years on the war still has an impact Vietnamese people today! 

It was super cheap to visit the museum too, whilst I cannot remember the exact price we paid in Vietnamese dong it was under €1 for the entry fee and to complete the whole museum it takes about 3-4 hours. It does require some patience and a lot of reading but it's so worth it! 

We only spent two nights in Ho Chi Minh however had we had another, one thing we definitely would've done was the war tunnels the day after the museum!

DA LAT

After Ho Chi Minh we jumped onto our 3rd 7 hour bus of the week and headed to Da lat. First impressions... we were all absolutely freezing! Da lat is surrounded by a lot of mountains so the temperature was maximum low twenties or high teens, you may think being 3 Irish gals we'd manage this well but I think we've all become a little to comfortable in 30 degree heat! Also it didn't help that I literally brought nothing warm! 

Despite the temperatures we still made the most of our time in Da lat. Similarly to Ho Chi Minh we arrived quite late in the day so just went out for a bite to eat and headed back to the hostel to catch up on some well needed rest!

On day 2 in Dalat we were taken around the countryside by the owner of our hostel. He took us to two beautiful waterfalls, 5 weeks into our travels and we finally got to see some! 

We visited one first which we never got the name of and then visited the one that a lot of people visit while in Dalat which is the Elephant waterfalls which was much more challenging to see as we had to climb down and up some slippery rocks to get a good view, we also got soaked while doing so but it was so worth it!

Once we were done at the waterfalls we were brought to a coffee farm in the countryside. The coffee was so nice and the cafe looked over an incredible view but the best part was the owner was a woman who owned 27 dogs of all different breeds, shapes and sizes, many of which roamed the cafe whilst we enjoyed a cup of coffee!

Once we finished up our coffee we made our way back to the hostel but on the way stopped at a super cool view point on one of the mountains! 

The whole day our cost us about €16-17 all together as we went with the owner of our hostel normally this type of day out would cost about $25.

The hostel we stayed in while in Da lat, King kong was absolutely amazing. It was run by a family which was why they were so willing to take us around Da lat. The same day as we had our tour us and a few other guests enjoyed a family dinner with them. Vietnam was actually so great for vegan/vegetarian food and at the family dinner we had the most amazing tofu I've ever had. It was cooked in tomato which seems to be quite a common dish in Vietnam but was the nicest I had whilst there! There was also loads of rice and vegetables as well as a meat option served and we only paid 50,000 dong which is literally about €2! It was also super cheap to stay here at about €4 per night and it was very clean! 

Da lat was also where I finally said goodbye to my beautiful braids that had gone a bit gross and hello to my short blonde locks again!

HOI AN

After a great couple of days we headed up to Hoi An, one of my favourite towns of the trip so far! We rented bikes for a day for just $1 and cycled to the beach and a little around the town. During the evening time we headed up to the old town twice out of 3 nights, it was really adorable the whole area is little by little lanterns and the shops all sell really gorgeous Vietnamese clothes, souvenirs & jewellery etc.

We spent most of our time in Hoi an relaxing either by the beach or by the pool at our hostel. It was nice after a very busy week of travelling and activities!

HANOI - HALONG BAY

After 3 nights, we waved goodbye to pretty Hoi An and made our way to a busy Hanoi to organise our trip to Halong Bay. We stayed in Hanoi for one  night to give us time to get some rest before the trip and to be honest one night was perfect. Hanoi is quite a busy city and good if you want to go shopping but personally I found one night there was all we needed! 

We stayed in Hanoi Rocks hostel for about €4 and we booked our Halong bay tour through them!

The tour we went on was stunning! The company was called ocean tours and the cruise was the cocktail cruise. 

We were collected from our hostel at 7.30am and brought by bus and boat to our tour boat it took about two and a half hours to get to the tour boat overall. Once we were on the boat we started to sail into the bay. 

We got the chance to go kaiyaking around Halong Bay and then at a different stop the chance to swim and jump off our boat which was fun! 

At about 5.30pm we were brought to a private island where we spent the night. The island is owned by Ocean tours not the government so we had no wifi for the two days which was so refreshing! I think it's too easy for people to become so wrapped up in the Internet and social media on a day to day basis we sometimes forget to appreciate what is around us. It was nice to appreciate all of the beautiful scenery around us through our eyes rather than through the screen recording a snapchat or instagram story! 

We had a chance to relax before we had dinner and drinks as well as a bonfire on the beach!

The following morning we had another early start with a hike up to a viewpoint on the island! It was so challenging, especially as in Vietnam the sun is incredibly strong! 

We then had lunch and we brought back to Hanoi. The company do offer a 3 day 2 nights stay which includes trekking in the national park on Cat Ba island  however we opted for 2 days 1 night due to time and costs! 

The whole tour cost about €75 euro. This included our transport there and back, the overnight stay, the activities and all of our meals. The food on the tour was also absolutely delicious and for me the best I've had on any day trips so far as they made me vegan food which was really really tasty!

Vietnam as a whole is actually really great for vegan/vegetarian food. Almost every restaurant we visited had a separate veggie menu and in Vietnam they love tofu it's everwhere. The prices were always fairly reasonable too! You could nearly always get a decent meal and a beer for about €3! 

Our time in Vietnam was sadly cut a bit shorter than planned due to a slight mistake in our planning. Initially we intended to travel back to Thailand via land (bus or train) but discovered it was pretty much impossible without going through Laos too. So we had to fly and unfortunately the cheapest flight was about 2 days earlier than we had intended to leave to we didn't get a chance to visit Sapa which is always highly recommended by everyone. 

Now after a 2 hour flight, 13 hours waiting in DMK airport and a 15 hour train journey on a third class carriage we are finally in Chiang Mai with plenty of fun lined up for the last leg of our journey!!! 

Grainne 

XO