louiseinlimbo

I had heard how very touristy Hoi An is, so wasn't sure what I'd think of the place.  & it's true that there were thousands of tourists there, and the vast majority of the buildings in the UNESCO-listed old town are restaurants/bars/cafes/tourist shops - but it is still beautiful.  I happily wandered its streets for days, although helped I suppose by my staying in a hostel-homestay in what I can only describe as a "middle class suburb".  A twenty-minute walk out of town, it was so clean and quiet, probably one motorbike going past every ten minutes on otherwise empty roads. The town is crowded full of old houses, temples, community centres and museums, and there are also a few venues which put on cultural performances.  But walking the other way out of my hostel I could avoid all of the touristy sights and walk beside rice paddies and a nearly-deserted beach - so a nice mixture.  & nearby are towns with yet more temples (most of them seeming to contain a...

From Ho Chi Minh City I took a bus to DaLat, the so-called 'city of eternal spring'.  Whilst I was there that meant lovely warm days (24-28⁰C range) and cool nights (around 18⁰C, so easy to sleep), and it was easy enough to walk long distances up and down the narrow streets and alleyways of this very hilly town. I suppose the best-known site there is a modern one, being the so-called 'crazy house'.  Designed by an architect (an official at the Architecture Design Institutes of the Building Ministry and Cultural Ministry) who wanted to "break traditional practices by forming free volumes with free curves and structures", and built during the years 1990 to 2010, it really is a "crazy" house, which I spent a couple of hours wandering around.  No straight lines anywhere, tunnels from some 'rooms' to others, giant spiderman hands on one outside wall ... it's really not possible to put across in words quite how crazy it is. It is possible (alth...

 ... or Saigon, as many people still know it (so even its name has different sides). As usual, I opted to stay in the cheapest hostel I could find, which in HCMC was just off Bui Vien, or "walking street" as it is also known.  The heart of the tourist district, this street is full of bars (with the odd beauty parlour or tattoo place squeezed between) pulsing with bright lights, with the loudest music I have ever heard, and for those not tempted in for a drink by that, some of them also have scantily-clad young Vietnamese men and women dancing on some of their tables.  Thankfully you could neither see nor hear any of this from my hostel, but I walked through it most evenings on the way to meet a friend.  It was kind of fascinating, although it never tempted me inside any of the venues.  One afternoon, however, I was pulled in by someone I knew from my hostel, sitting at a table with a friend, and I joined them for one beer.  We got onto the subject of the se...