We only had one day left to spend in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, before we had to catch our bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. We bought the ticket for the bus over a month ago, mainly as proof of onward travel, now it seemed to us as if we had bought it only yesterday. There was no way to do justice to this breezy, big city in just one day and desired destinations like Vung Tao and Con Dao had to be cancelled completely with a heavy heart. We underestimated the time we had and thought that we could at least cover the south of this beautiful country roughly, but that was way off the mark. We made our way south from Tam Coc, close to Ninh Binh where a lovely family with whom we had stayed the past few days got us on a bus that was supposed to take us to Hue. It was still really cold here at night and to be honest we were looking forward to hotter temperatures that would allow us to forget about our winter jackets.
The further we advanced into the South, the more our wishes for tropical heat were answered. In Hoi An the weather was so tropical again that there was no need to worry about warm clothes anymore. Just like the common German citizen dreams of escaping into warmer regions in the colder months, we always prefer higher degrees accompanied by sunshine and blue skies. But since our first weeks in Vietnam were very close to the local temperatures at home in the winter months, the warmer days came along just at the right moment. We could spend plenty of time exploring the city by foot or by bike, having cycling tours to the sea and endless strolls through the beautiful city centre of Hoi An which is especially appealing when the sun sets and the city is illuminated by countless lanterns and decorated boats. From Hoi An another nightbus took us to Nha Trang which was actually only supposed to be a short stop on our journey, but ended up to be the last city we explored before we had to get to Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon. For two nights we enjoyed all the luxuries of an exclusive hotel and spend our days at the pool and in the sea. One tends to underestimate the stress and pressure that you put yourself into, when you only have a short amount of time to see a city or another destination. When you travel too fast, you have no chance to process properly what you have experienced and you risk getting tired and fed up with all of these new insights.
We had intended to always take as much time to explore a country as the visa would permit us, to make the most of our time. Vietnam was the first country in Southeast Asia, except for Thailand, where we realised that this timespan was far too short to explore the whole variety of the country. Additionally Vietnam was our cheapest travel destination yet, with only 450€ per person we travelled from North to South without abstaining from anything at all. We spent our nights in wonderful guesthouses with lovely hosts, visited countless tourist attractions and profited from the superb bus network that interconnected the larger cities. Especially the sleeping busses were so comfortable and especially affordable that we wished for similar means of transportation for all of our upcoming travels. Even though the bus drivers and their rough way of driving sometimes made our blood run cold.
Again we are facing the problem that the journey went so smooth that there were only few stories that make this travelogue worth reading, as you might have realised. So we’re gonna leave you with a short anecdote, so that you are not disappointed by this bland feeling of having wasted your time reading this story: In Hoi An we booked a bus ticket with an agency for the first time ever. The times before we always booked our busses with our accommodations or went to the bus station straight away. This time we simply were to lazy to walk all the way to the bus station. Shortly before our bus was to depart the owner of the travel agency manoeuvred us into a bus filled with elderly Vietnamese people and took us to the outskirts of the city. When we arrived there the driver told us to get off and wait for a few minutes, he would have to pick up more people. And so we waited and waited, when an hour later another bus stopped in front of us and everybody got in, inbetween several busses had come and gone. Since we were all alone on the sidewalk now and it was getting dark, we decided to ask the bus driver for his destination and he told us to get in. We just made ourselves at home in the bus, when the bus driver came for us again, telling us to get off. After almost two hours of waiting seemingly the travel agency owner had returned for us and was searching for us desperately. Later on in the car he told us that he wouldn’t want us to go by the local bus, because it wouldn’t be as comfortable as the tourist bus, but we much rather think that he wanted to ease the locals past our presence, because the next bus we got onto was much older and dirtier. To expect the unexpected was part of our flesh and blood by now and to be honest this is the true allure of travelling, because it’s moments like these when you truly realise how free you really are. No appointments, no responsibilities – we get there, when we get there.