Dien Bien Phu

Dien Bien Phu is located about thirty kilometers from the Tay Tang boarder passing and is basically the last stop going west before crossing into Laos, on my way over to Laos I decided to spend one day here in order to break up the twenty hours of bus rides involved.

My exploration here started on the south side of town where the jungle is dotted with several French Military relics from the first Indochina War. There aren't really any signs describing where to go around here so you can kind of just wander around the jungle until you bump into something important. One of the pieces of artillery which I found was surrounded by piles of mud and getting up to it to take a picture was a bit of a challenge, I'm not sure if it was even meant to be on display however it added a bit of adventure to the morning.

French tank

Xin Chai @ Sapa

Cat Cat is a village right down the hill from Sapa which is a bit fake and pretty much inundated with tourists, however, if you continue on the same road another couple kilometers you arrive at a much more interesting place called Xin Chai. In between a couple of rainy days, I had one day of sun, so I took advantage of the opportunity and had a taxi drop me off here for some exploration.

Xin Chai

Hmong dude playing music

Tavan and Lau Chai @ Sapa

Located about seven kilometers to the east of Sapa, you can find the villages of Tavan and Lau Chai coupled next to each other at the bottom of the Muong Hoa valley. My effort to visit these villages started on foot until after about two kilometers when I gave in and decided to ask a motorbiker for help, minutes later I was zigzagging down the hillside into Tavan. Entering from the north there is a bit of a hip newer area dotted with upper-class cafes and homestays, not far past this begins the path into the more scenic area. The first hundred meters or so of this path has been taken over by local Black Hmong minority group who have set up a long row of trinket shops, until I made it past this stretch I was basically fighting off hawkers left and right.

Looking into the Muang Hoa Valley

Pig Brain in Ho Chi Minh

With one day left before my flight was due to leave out of Ho Chi Minh, I had to find my way out of Phan Thiet. My original intention was to get back by train, however after speaking to several travel agents in town the best price I could find was twice what Id already paid to get from Ho Chi Minh all the way to Nha Trang. Rather then trying to get to the train station on my own to fisk out the truth, I decided to purchase a ticket for one of the fancy tourist buses(no van this time).

Night @ Phan Thiet

At night time I walked up and down the street amongst the other tourist to take in the local area around my hotel. It's a nice mix of high end waterfront resorts and low end local run shacks, the one thing they have in common is most of them offer freshly caught seafood brought in through the fishing village. Between the Hanoi vodka I kept in my room and all the drinks I had on the strip, the two days turned into a blur of annoying russians and cheep vietnamese food. Heres a couple pictures:

Mui Ne Fishing Village

In an effort to see some of the local tourist attractions, I grabbed a map from the front desk of my hotel listing the top things to see around the area. The options were basically the dunes, the town of Phan Thiet and a fishing village to the east of the tourist strip. I'd seen the town the previous day on my way in, and the dunes were the furthest away so I decided on the fishing village. After getting the price for the local tourist bus which frequents the fishing village (8,000VND), I shopped around for a couple minutes and was able to get a motorbike taxi to take me there for the same rate. 

looking west on the beach

The Road to Phan Thiet

After I went to sleep last night in Phan Rang, I had nightmares about what a whole day spent there could be like. I worried about scenarios like running into the restaurant owner that wanted me to party at his house or bumping into the Russian's who'd shared there rum with me. After a shot of the Hanoi vodka from the night before to calm my nerves, I packed up my stuff in a rush to prepare an escape south toward Phan Thiet. I wrote down the names and addresses of several hotels in Mui Ne in an effort to avoid yesterdays mistake, and made my way through the pouring rain to the front desk to get a cab.

view from my hotel room in Phan Rang

Phan Rang

By the time it got dark my cab driver had helped me locate a livable hotel on the beach. To my disappointment, the hotels along the beach were inclusive resorts far separated from the city of Phan Rang. The only evidence of local business here was 5 or 6 tin roofed shacks lined up across the street from the hotel. In search of some local atmosphere, I left the safety of the resort and visited some of the shacks.

across from the resort

The Road to Phan Rang

After running through my options for the next place to go I decided south would be my best bet. I'd have to make my way back to Ho Chi Minh eventually, so why not do it in a couple of smaller trips instead of going north and then having to take an 8 or 15 hour train ride back. The next city south, Phan Rang, was about a 2 hour ride away.

I approached a couple of tourist booking shops near my hotel and asked about trains or buses south to Phan Rang. There was a lot of confusion about the train departure times so I decided bus was the way to go. The guy at the last shop I visited said that it was too late for him to sell me a bus ticket, but that if I got to the bus station within 20 minutes I could still buy a ticket there for 150,000 VND.

Upon arriving at the bus station I explained where I was headed to the first person I saw. This guy brought me around to the other side of the station toward a small beat up white van with a card board Phan Rang sign in the front window. The guy then asked me for 200,000 VND at which point I turned around and walked away to go find my tourist bus, but then they guy changed the price to 75,000 VND and I decided maybe the van was worth a shot.

After about 15 minutes we left the bus station and appeared to be on our way, but as I would learn the van doesn't work quite the same as the bus. After about 5 minutes we pulled over at some random shop and one of the guys yelled something out the window at a group of people, one of the people stepped forward and hopped in the van. On the way out of town the van did this repeatedly, eventually picking up 4 people, a bird and a mysterious brick shaped package.

The Package

A Cat and a Gecko

While walking around during the day I noticed a sign with a cat on it that seamed to be advertising a restaurant hidden in an alleyway. The cat stuck in my mind all day so when dinner time came around I decided to go back and investigate. After ordering a noodle bowl I waited for a while and sipped on my beer to pass the time, after about 15 minutes something interesting happened. A car drove up next to the restaurant and a kid hopped out with a large box and rushed into the kitchen area of the restaurant, literally 20 seconds later someone popped out of the same door to bring me my dish and the kid ran back to the car. The dish was a great value and the owner seamed like a cool person to chat with, but I'm pretty sure there was no kitchen behind that door.

cat

Morning in Nha Trang

After scanning the immediate area for places to eat, I settled for a little shack next to my hotel which had slightly more reasonable prices than the surrounding places. For about 3 dollars I was able to get a nice alligator dish to get my morning going. Later on in the day I noticed several other clones of this place around town using the exact same menu, I was slightly disappointing that I'd chosen the Nha Trang's equivalent for Mc Donalds, but I guess I should have realized that a place called "Same Same But Cheaper", might not be the most original place around.

Same Same But Cheaper

Train From Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang

After spending a couple days exploring Ho Chi Minh I decided it was time to get out of the city and find some smaller destinations in southern Vietnam. The train seamed to be the most logical route, so I made it to the train station and booked a ticket for Nha Trang, a city about 800 km north. At the train station I purchased a burger at the fast food joint Lotteria and waited around a bit for the boarding call. While I waited I determined that either all the train stations clocks were an hour behind, or all my devices clocks were an hour ahead. As it turned out, Vietnam is in a different time zone then Beijing, leaving me with another hour to wait around for the train to leave after the boarding call.

Lotteria burger

Reunification Palace

With some time to kill in the afternoon, I managed to get out of the hotel and walk my way over to the Reunification Palace. The ticket in was about a dollar and can be purchased in a building to the left of the entrance gate. On the inside the grassy grounds around the palace are littered with trees, war artifacts and a couple gazebo's to sit down and relax in.

Aimless Morning in Ho Chi Minh

Due to some sort of singing competition across the street from my hotel, I woke up early this morning and decided to make an early start to my day. As made my way out from the hotel I was immediately bombarded by passing motorcycles, shop owners yelling and me, and humidity that worked up a sweat within minutes.