A Holidfay and Business Trip around Vietnam
In August 2000, we were on a five-day tour of Vietnam in Nha Trang, Dac Lac and Saigon, where Jari had a confirmation seminar for the Danish government development project in Dac Lac until Saturday. The trip there was not exactly simple, as the options were a couple of hours of flight, either a four-hour (from Nha Trang) or a six-hour car trip (from Saigon).
So we decided to take it a little easier and spend a day in Nha Trang first and then two days in Dac Lac and Saigon. We flew to Nha Trang in an hour and a half on a Fokker jet and we were greeted by a better destination than we had expected.
Our hotel, Nha Trang Lodge Hotel, was almost on the beach and we were sorry that we didn't have time to spend a day here. The weather was of course nice and warm. The hotel room was on the 7th floor and although it wasn't the best designed, it was really nice in terms of interior design. In addition, it had a large balcony directly overlooking the sea, which was just a stone's throw away, as you can see in the pictures.
The only thing that delayed us a bit was that Jari had only brought long pants, but luckily there were shops in the city where we could get decent shorts. The traffic was considerably calmer than in Ha Noi, but the density of shops seemed almost the same. There was only one supermarket in the city, but this time it was more than enough for us. The people seemed calm and cheerful, but we didn't pay attention to it until we thought about it.
The sea views were great and there seemed to be a lot of islands on the horizon. We noticed that there were also various boat and diving trips on the beach, so it might be worth taking those next time. Unfortunately, we also noticed one jet ski, which caused its own disturbance along the entire length of the beach. The riders had fun, of course, but...
The beach was quite windy at least in the afternoon, but there were significantly more people than on the beach in Da Nang. Of course, the proximity of the city was the main reason for this. And there were quite a few tourists, even though the high season is in winter and Aurinkomatkat trips to the same hotel also start in November. When we visited Finland, we unfortunately noticed that Da Nang's Furama was not on the lists, apparently they had raised their prices too much.
There were all kinds of vendors and beggars again, to the point of being a nuisance. Fortunately a shake of the head usually helped and of course the fact that they had a potential second customer in sight. At the time when we were the only tourists in Vung Tau, there was no way to get rid of them.
The next day we rented a car and then drove to Dac Lac. Renting was not an end in itself, but this was simply the easiest way to get there without having to spend too many days there. We set off on the trip in a slightly older Nissan Maxima, a 1990 model, which was quite comfortable to drive. It was a bit difficult to keep track of the speed at first, as the car had an odometer, as it was a "American model".
The four-hour journey went quite smoothly, following other traffic and landscapes. Dac Lac is in the highlands and the road leading there is in relatively good condition. At one point, the journey was like a snail's pace, but then again it was often a snail's pace. The serpentine nature of the road also told us that we would be ascending somewhat.
At the rest stop we got to know the locals again, who were very interested in us and Finland. We also saw the "green dragon" of the Dragon fruit tree for the first time.
In Dac Lac, the hotel was more popular and the noise of the city waking up in the morning was loud. On the night of arrival, it was really raining hard and people had to completely stop under the eaves to wait for the rain to stop. The streets also turned into rivers and the water then flowed somewhere.
While Jari was at the seminar on the first day, Sinika was organized an elephant safari, which unfortunately was limited to inspecting a single elephant in a horn tree. Both parties seemed to be averse to riding, but Sinika still had to hold on to the Finnish girl's brave reputation.
The return flight from Dac Lac to Saigon was only an hour. Luckily, we didn't have to go there by car, as it would have been a six-hour experience. The airport was a bit of a sweaty place and we still had to get our hotel room key, which of course had been left in Jari's pocket when we left the hotel.
In Saigon we stayed again for a couple of days at the familiar New World Hotel, where we got exactly the same apartment as the previous time, and we also visited the familiar Bavaria. While waiting at the airport, a little boy came in with an interested video camera to watch the recording activities and stuck his head really tightly against the glass wall between us. And we flew back to Hanoi in two hours on a Boeing plane.