Sunday, March 16, 2008

A Week in Vietnam

The second part of my mid-semester break was spent in Vietnam. Once again I met up with Kine, Hanna and Annelin - my backpacking friends. They were doing a kite-surfing course in Muine, a charming little town on the coast, so that is were I spent most of my time.

The best part about being in Muine was that it was such a great contrast to the busy city life of Hong Kong. It was nice to be able to see grass, stars and have open space around me again.
I pretty much just chilled on the beach while the others were kiting. Also used a day to explore the areas around Muine with Hanna on rented bicycles.

People getting ready to go home after a hard day of kite-surfing.

One of the scenic places Hanna and I saw on our little bicycle trip.

Fishing is what people most people in Muine live off.

After a few days in Muine we took the bus to Dalat, a mountain village. It was raining and pretty cold when we got there, so I think we all just wanted to go back to the beach again. But, being tough Vikings, we decided to rough it and stay.

We did a tour on our second day in Dalat of the local attractions. The most fascinating part of the tour was a waterfall. It was not anything special in itself, even though tourists from other parts of Vietnam seemed to think so, but the whole setup around it was quite amusing. You could for example chose whether you wanted to walk the fifteen minutes to the waterfall OR you could take the bobsleigh (bob-bane) down to it. You could also bobsleigh back, so no walking was required unless you really wanted to. Techno music was also booming from speakers skillfully hidden in the trees and there were people dressed up as bears and cowboys wandering around the place.

The tour also took us to the Valley of Love - a park filled with mostly plastic statues of hearts, giraffes and other romantic things. With classic love songs playing on dodgy speakers in background it was true bliss.

The great and mighty waterfall of Dalat.


In the Valley of Love - Hege, Hanna, Kine and Annelin.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The 'Valley of Love' sounds like a magical place. I like the waterfall, we are starting to get some of qld's waterfalls back, i will have to take you to the Gold Coast one when you come back hun.

AnneGro said...

jeg forstår vi har litt å lære her hjemme for å gjøre naturen mer attraktiv:)
Påskeferien har startet og jeg har tilbrakt 2 dager i fjellet, knallsol, gnistrende silkeføre, helt fantastisk. Du hadde helt sikkert likt det:)God påske til deg og.

Anonymous said...

hei igjen. God påske skulle ha sendt et påskeegg. kom ikke på det, dessverre. ha det til gode. Tok førpåske i år m vakkert vær hver dag fram til skjært. Da reiste vi hjhem til snø og kulde. Vært på Ølbergstranda i dag og sett på bølgene. Hils Vas! G