The next day we set off on foot to Little India, where we had a delicious breakfast in a remarkably clean food hall/market. Then we walked around Little India, returning to the food hall for lunch and walked back via the National Library and a few shopping malls to the hotel for a siesta. That evening we visited Chinatown and the Chinese cultural center before dinner at the Lau Pa Sat food market and back to Marina Bay to watch the light show (meh) from the opposite side of the bay. The next morning we had breakfast near the hotel and made our way slowly to the airport, which was a tourist attraction in itself. We hung out in the "rainforest" and had a great late lunch at Violet Oon and then got our flight to HCMC.
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| Marina Bay, and a full moon. |
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| Market in Little India - spotless! |
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| Hanging out...at the airport! |
Ok, at this point, I realize this is going to be a really long and rambling post if I describe what we did every day for six weeks! I have already gone through the Google Photo albums and added descriptions to the photos so they pretty much tell the day to day stories. So I think I'll stick to highlights and impressions here. That said, Vietnam was great - much better than I remembered it from 15 years ago (when I thought it was just too stressful.) Of course our daily budget was double that of last time, tools like Grab, Google Translate, Agoda/Booking.com and others really made things a lot easier. And, for the most part, I wasn't my usual super-cheap self (just regular cheap) when booking hotels. That was important because we needed afternoon siestas to cool down and comfort was key. All hotels had water cookers and most had smart TVs, when they didn't I had my Google Cast stick at the ready. So we could watch German and Singaporean/Asian news (loved the CNA channel!) over coffee in the mornings, and enjoy Netflix at night. Sweet.
We arrived in HCMC in the evening and got our first GRAB taxi to the hotel. Grab is like Uber/Lyft in Asia, and worked in all three countries and most cities we visited. It was amazing to "grab" a taxi (or tuk tuk) and get conveniently to our destination without need for translation, haggling, or worrying about getting ripped off. Our hotel in HCMC was convenient, and comfortable once we got the A/C working, with the help of the hotel reception guy and Google Translate (something else that would come in super-handy as the trip progressed!) The contrast between Vietnam and Singapore was pretty stark. We marveled at the cacophony of motorbikes in HCMC that made crossing the street an adventure every time, while in Singapore the luxury cars and pedestrians generally obeyed the traffic signals. In HCMC we visited markets for delicious noodle soups, had some good ramen in Japan town and enjoyed evenings sitting outside just watching the traffic. And of course, just after I mused aloud how amazing it was that there weren't more accidents, we saw our first (but not only) collision.
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| Breakfast in HCMC - Vegetarian deliciousness! |
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| Matthias buying shorts at the market |
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| Main market, HCMC at dusk |
After HCMC we took a bus four hours north to Mui Ne, a seaside "resort" town, which touted breezes that kept temperatures in check. Our hotel was lovely, except it didn't have bikes for rent as advertised. It seems many more people opt for scooters/motorbikes so bikes weren't as ubiquitous as expected. Anyway, we found bikes to rent and took a few rides along the coast, to the fishing village and the "fairy stream." We also took the bikes to some fish restaurants where Matthias selected our meals from tanks. Yummm!
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| Fab hotel in Mui Ne |
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| Biking along the coast |
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| Fairy Spring - you walk right up the middle to the dunes |
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| Sunset in Mui Ne |
From Mui Ne we took a bus back through HCMC to My Tho. There were no direct buses to My Tho so we had to make a dizzying change in HCMC, on a Friday afternoon before the New Year holiday! The adventure of finding the connecting bus reminded me of old times, but Google Translate came to the rescue and we nabbed the last two seats on the next bus, which, along with an (unexpected) free shuttle van at the end, got us right to our hotel. I was thinking of skipping My Tho because it is mainly visited as a day trip from HCMC. I only really wanted to stop there because I thought we could get a cargo boat to our next stop, but this was no longer the case. But we really liked this town. It had a vibrant market, a cool temple complex, good restaurants, and a lovely location right on the Mekong.
I haven't mentioned yet that at some point Matthias decided to become a temporary pescatarian (just fish and veg) during this trip because he was concerned about getting sick. I'll admit I rolled my eyes and got frustrated at first trying to find vegetarian restaurants and dishes. But I also have to admit that we found some really tasty vegetarian food, although I opted for meat when it suited me. And we didn't have any major digestive issues the whole time.
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| Keeping warm on the A/C bus to My Tho |
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| View from our My Tho hotel |
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| Temple in My Tho |
From My Tho we got a Grab taxi to our next destination near the town of Ben Tre. I booked a family-run guesthouse through Booking.com, confirming that they indeed did have bikes available for us to ride. The Grab taxi didn't exactly find the destination, getting us just a few steps away (but a little scary because there wasn't much else around.) It was a very nice location, fairly remote, but not too far from the town and market (where Matthias bought another pair of shorts). Breakfast and a delicious dinner were served on a bamboo platform (with fans, of course) overlooking a pond. It was lovely and peaceful, except the one night when a neighbor blasted their Karaoke so incredibly loud that we were serenaded throughout dinner and the evening (fortunately only until 10pm) as if we were right there. This was somewhat of a recurring theme in Vietnam: Karaoke EVERYWHERE. They seem to just love it, belting out songs at the top of their lungs and aided by huge amplifiers. Our host said there was a boom in sales of karaoke equipment during the pandemic. Anyway, we enjoyed our time at this guesthouse, the (relative) peacefulness of the area, and riding the bikes around the Delta.
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| The "restaurant" at our guesthouse |
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| Scenes from the bike ride |
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| Mekong Delta |
After three days cycling around the delta by Ben Tre, we booked a taxi to Tra Vinh, another town I thought of skipping because it wasn't exactly on the tourist route or on the way anywhere. But I'm glad we didn't! The hotel we booked there was really nice and it was a fun city for watching everyone get ready for the lunar new year a few days away. Our favorite activity in Tra Vinh was sitting on plastic stools drinking fruit smoothies watching the nonstop parade of fully laden motorbikes (flowers, families, cargo, etc.) go by. We also found a great vegetarian restaurant where the server alerted me to the photo function on Google Translate. All I had to do was take a picture of the menu and the translation appeared! Duh! Okay, it was a lousy translation (some dishes just can't be translated) but it saved a lot of time and aggravation.
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| Enjoying a papaya smoothie and watching traffic. |
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| Market in Ben Tre |
The next stop on the itinerary was Can Tho, where I wanted to stay a few days to cycle, and perhaps do a floating market tour. Well, the tours weren't offered because of the new year holiday, which was probably just as well because it was so hot it might have been miserable anyway. Our hotel did offer bikes, but Matthias didn't care for the bike rides because it took a bit to get out of the city and onto the quiet roads, Plus (did I mention?) it was really hot. We managed by taking lots of coffee breaks, joining the locals passing time over chilled, sweetened iced coffee (hot, unsweetened tea for Matthias) or fruit smoothies. Vietnam has lots of cafes serving this purpose. I also got to try some local specialties in Can Tho, including a new year snack (rice and other goodies wrapped in seaweed), fried shrimp cakes and summer rolls that we wrapped ourselves. New years eve was festive and I could see the fireworks from our hotel "balcony."
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| On the ferry in Can Tho |
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| Wrap your own spring rolls |
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| Papaya smoothie for happy hour |
We took a local bus to and stayed overnight in Rach Gia on the way to Phu Quoc Island, but there's not much worth mentioning except that the hotel was crappy and a lot of places were closed due to the holiday. We were conveniently located for the ferry, though, and the next morning we set off to the island. I had booked a rather basic hotel in Phu Quoc on Booking.com because it was near the town and night market, and offered bicycles. But when we got there, we found the hotel to be way too "basic" and they didn't have bikes anyway. So we left, walking through the sweltering heat to another place I found online. Double the price, but 10 times as nice. So after a relatively brief spell of arguing, we settled in happily. It was just as hot in Phu Quoc as on the mainland, and though we never found bikes to rent, we enjoyed walking (a bit) and the expansive, but touristy night market. I also did a day boat and snorkeling tour, which was fun! It was an English tour but I was the only western tourist onboard our boat, and I met some nice folks from China, Korea and Hong Kong on their New Year holiday.
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| Snorkel Tour |
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| View from our fab Phu Quoc hotel |
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| Sunset in Phu Quoc |
From Phu Quoc, we got the ferry back to the mainland to a different town, Ha Tien, which was better than the last one. But I think the heat was beginning to get to us and we were starting to get tired of exploring new towns and markets, and basically looking for places to cool down with iced coffee. We did have a great dinner in Ha Tien where we tried some crawly shrimp-like seafood along with a (vegetable?) dish we never could quite identify (translated as "sea buds.") Our last day in Vietnam was in Chao Doc, where our hotel had bikes available for us and we were able to take a nice morning ride to bid farewell to the Delta.
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| Festive Tuk tuks in Ha Tien |
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| We ate these guys - covered in garlic |
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| Bike ride in Chao Doc |
From Chao Doc, we took an express tourist boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I kept going back and forth in my mind if the boat would be worth the extra expense (compared to the bus), but I'm really glad we did it. We arrived early and were able to snatch seats outside in the aft area (inside seating was airplane style - no A/C!) and we got to experience the morning mist and local traffic on the Mekong. Immigration was easy and we arrived in stifling hot Phnom Penh early that afternoon.
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| On the boat to Cambodia |
Fortunately, the hotel I booked in Phnom Penh was up to our (new) standards and had a rooftop pool! We stayed for three nights, checking out the markets and some sights we didn't visit (or remember) from our last time here over 15 years ago. We also enjoyed some good food (fish amok for me, hand-made noodles for Matthias) and cafes and bars along the riverside.
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| Express boat on the Mekong |
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| Rooftop pool in Phnom Penh |
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| Pretty temple in Phnom Penh |
The next (and last) stop in Cambodia was Battambang, where I booked a cozy guesthouse outside of town because they offered bicycles. However, once again, no bikes to be had at the guesthouse. Although we found a rental place in town, Matthias was starting to feel sick and it was (almost even for me) too hot for biking. So we took it easy there, enjoying good food at a restaurant/cooking school where we had taken a class on our first visit. I felt bad that Matthias was feeling sick, but was even more worried about what might happen at the Thai border (would they let him in?) I had heard lots of bad stories about the border crossing we were heading to: long waits (in the hot sun), confusion and scams galore. Most tourists pass through with a direct connection to Bangkok, mitigating the confusion, but we weren't going to Bangkok so were doing it on our own. So the days in Battambang, an pretty laid-back town, were a tad stressful.
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| Battambang Market |
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| Riverside happy hour in Battambang |
We took a "shared taxi" from Battambang to the border and were pleasantly surprised with the process. We had to wait on line both to exit Cambodia and enter Thailand, but the rooms were cooled with giant fans and A/C units. And while I was worried about Matthias making it through with his sniffles, I was the one almost detained. Apparently, they did not have a record of my leaving Thailand the last time I traveled there. And since I had a new passport, they couldn't verify a stamp for my departure. After a bit of back and forth, however, they decided to let me through. Then it was a bit more of an adventure getting to our next destination, Korat, than I had expected. We had to first find, and then take, two buses and didn't get there until about 8pm. Fortunately, the very nice hotel there had a restaurant so we didn't go to bed hungry. Also, I had the best TomYam soup at the bus station, so that was a win!
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| Shared taxi to the Thai border |
Korat is located in Isan, eastern Thailand, which is known for its hot weather and spicy food - two things Matthias was keen to avoid. And it didn't disappoint, though it wasn't any hotter than subsequent destinations. I had a few things planned there that fell through because of the heat (bike rental and side trip to visit Khmer ruins) but we did enjoy a couple of delicious Japanese dinners there (we never found out why there were so many Japanese restaurants) and found a fabulous shopping mall for air-conditioned browsing and dining. It was modeled after an airport (called Terminal 21) and each floor was a different country. Yes, we also visited the old quarter and night market, but these were sweaty blurs.
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Market in Korat
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| The fabulous mall in Korat |
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| The bathroom in the Turkish section of the super mall! |
After Korat, since we still had about a week before our flight home, I thought we could spend a couple of days in Ayutthaya before ending up in Bangkok. Ayutthaya is located just outside of Bangkok (a popular day trip) and on the direct Korat-Bangkok train line. I figured it would be easy and delightful, but it turned out I couldn't book train seats online in the first class A/C wagon. So we went to the train station the day before we were to leave, where the clerk confirmed no A/C seats available and suggested we take a minibus. We then went to the bus station to check that out. It was possible, but involved a change and stopover somewhere (ugh.) We decided to opt for the non A/C wagon on the train, which turned out to be pretty manageable (open windows and fans) and kind of a fun experience. Arriving in Ayutthaya, we got a Grab taxi (cost more than the train!) to our cool and comfy guesthouse, run by a German expat and his Thai wife. Of course there were bikes available here! We took them around to see the old temples and to the night market, where we melted as we sipped fruit smoothies (extra ice for me!) We ordered yummy fish at the night market, but unfortunately it was served over hot lava stones - so hot, I just couldn't take it!
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| On the train to Ayutthaya |
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| Hot fish dish at Ayutthaya night market |
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| Riding alongside elephants, Ayutthaya |
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| Viewing temples from an air conditioned coffee shop. |
We opted again for the non A/C train to Bangkok, which took just 90 minutes and it was an easy connection to the BTS (metro) and our nice (and cool) hotel. Though we had been to Bangkok a number of times, this time we stayed in an area far from Khao San Road, the old backpacker quarter, where we used to opt for cheap lodgings. Our neighborhood (Bang Rak?) had lots of shopping malls (for our cooling pleasure), restaurants and little markets stuck in here and there. We were also across from a (very touristy and not too impressive) night market and Soi 4, a street lined with gay bars, which made for a couple of nice evening happy hours. While we were more than ready to head home, we enjoyed our days and nights in Bangkok. I also got to meet up with my cousin Mark, who generously took me to two of his favorite restaurants. It was nice to see him and the food was delicious!
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| Bangkok street scene |
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| Happy hour on Soi 4 |
Somboon seafood restaurant with Mark (I didn't warn him I was taking a picture)
As we were ready to wrap up our trip, we received the news that German rail workers were going to strike (again!) on the day we returned. That goofed up my brilliant plan to fly into Frankfurt and take the direct train to Passau, so I quickly booked a hotel in Frankfurt where we could bide our time until the strike was over. It was actually fine with us (we like Frankfurt), but then we learned of a planned ground crew and airport security staff strike at Frankfurt Airport, also planned for the day we were to arrive! That made for a stressful day leading up to our flight, wondering minute to minute whether we would fly. But thankfully ours was one of the very few flights that day that actually landed in Frankfurt. So after our two-hour BKK-SIN flight and 14-hour SIN-FRA flight (which was fortunately empty), we got a bus (no trains) to our hotel in Frankfurt, where we had to wait another four hours before we could check in and NAP. We were delighted with the cool weather, but ended up having to buy coats (I found a great second-hand store) because we didn't have enough warm clothes along. To end our trip, mom treated us to a beautiful dinner at a restaurant high up in a tower - where we had drinks a few summers ago. The next day, we got the train without a hitch (ok, one hour delay) home!!
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| Apfelwein Sour (with soda) in Frankfurt |
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| Fancy dinner in Frankfurt |
Links to photo albums below. I don't know why I decided to do three separate albums, but there you go. Each photo has comments attached; not sure if this shows up automatically on a phone, so let me know....
