reflections on 'nam

Three marvellous weeks in Vietnam are now over and I'm back in London. Tomorrow is March 1 and I haven't been in the office since February 5...

It was a fantastic holiday around one of the most undisputedly beautiful countries in the world. Saigon was an all-consuming experience - great when you're well, not the best place to be if you're sick. Hue has bags of charm and terrific architecture. Hoi An was probably the highlight, as anybody who has been there will understand. Nha Trang has a great beach and good bars, but I probably spent too long there. Mui Ne was terrific - a splendid beach and wondrous sand dunes.

There are notable places I didn't make it to. I chose to give Hanoi (the capital, in the north) a miss as it is relatively cold at this time of year. For similar reasons, and because of cost, I didn't go to Halong Bay. This I really regret - not least because I met travellers who said the weather was fine there and that it was not as expensive as I had thought. I also missed the Mekong Delta and the island of Phu Quoc between Vietnam and Cambodia. There is, however, only so much you should cram into what is a holiday and not a long period of travelling. Plus, having been to Asia for six consecutive years and absolutely loving it, I'm quite sure there will be many other opportunities to see what I missed this time.

The people of Vietnam are incredibly warm and friendly, although there is the constant hassle of people trying to sell stuff. That, however, is hardly unique to this country. I also found it a very safe place - at no time during my trip was I ever worried about anything that might happen to me or my possessions. However, that is partly due to the fact that I always tried to be sensible. Others will tell different tales of their time in Vietnam.

Other than the pictures and statues of Ho Chi Minh, I cannot think of anything I saw that gave the impression of Vietnam being a communist state. Perhaps that's because there isn't anything. After all, Cuba remains a pariah while Vietnam has been visited by Bill Clinton and George W Bush. Starbucks, McDonalds and Subway are not over there yet, but KFC and Pizza Hut have made their first forays, so it's only a matter of time.

Vietnam is also a lot more developed than I thought it would be. Do not think you will be visiting some kind of idyllic alternative to Thailand. It is a country totally geared up to the demands of mass tourism. I should stress, however, that we as tourists can't have everything the way we want it. It's tempting to say somewhere is over developed, but then we all want a nice place to stay and a choice of places to eat and drink. Equally, who are we to say that countries like Vietnam shouldn't develop? 'I'm sorry, but would you please refrain from building any more hotels, because it is just so much more authentic to see you begging in the streets than getting a job'.

I didn't enjoy getting around in Vietnam, as readers of this blog (if there are any) will have seen. The roads are awful, and if you have to use them, and can afford it, hire a car to go somewhere and avoid the buses. The trains are a really good way of seeing the country, but do take a long time. There are plenty of cheap internal flights that certainly take the time out of travelling, but also the soul.

To (finally) sum up, Vietnam is a wonderful country to visit and I would highly recommend it. There are annoyances, but if you want to avoid these then you should stay in an all inclusive resort for two weeks and see nothing but your private beach. Vietnam has so much to see, and such variety for a relatively small country. If you are looking for the ultimate beach experience, then I would still say there is nowhere better than Thailand. But if you want a little bit more than cocktails and chill out in tropical heat, Vietnam is a must.

Tam biet!

the long return

I got up at 9.30am on Friday - quite an achievement on this holiday, I can assure you.

Went for my first breakfast of the three week trip (it feels embarrassing to type that) in the hotel restaurant. I had sweetcorn cakes with crispy bacon and sweet chilli sauce. It was lovely, if a little bit rich.

I then had a couple of hours spare to spend in the sun before heading off. As I laid in the pool and looked up at the sun, I felt sad that it would be ages before I saw weather like this again - but vindicated in deciding to take this holiday in February. I had missed almost all of the most miserable month of the year, and it makes sense to break up the winter if you are not reliant on going away during school holidays.

My car was due to take me to Saigon at noon, so I started to pack around 11.30am. I hadn't taken much stuff. As I was doing so, I started to feel more and more unwell - similar to how I had felt after the chundering trip to the cu chi tunnels. I drank a bottle of water, but that didn't help, and then just as I was about to leave, I threw up in the toilet. Just the preparation I wanted for a gruelling journey across the planet.

I was picked up in a nice air conditioned people carrier and thanked the Lord that I wasn't travelling by bus. With me was a big cool bottle of water and packets of mints to try and keep down the vomit. As we set off, I noticed it had become really cloudy, and I suppose it was fortunate that I was travelling on a day like this rather than hoping for clear blue skies.

The journey to Saigon was pretty horrible. I felt lousy, although sat in the front of the car I was never in danger of being sick. The landscape of this part of Vietnam is also depressing and uninviting. There are endless unattractive buildings lining the road south, the occasional dreary little town and a shocking amount of litter everywhere. It was as far removed from the beauty of other parts of the country as is possible to describe.

After about five hours, the mental scenes of swarms of motorbikes indicated we were in Saigon. I said in an earlier blog that this is not a city you want to be in when ill, and that is how I felt again. We got to the airport, and I pulled out from my backpack some imodium I had ironically bought in Bangkok last year to stop me being ill, took a couple and then checked in for the 19.05 Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong.

I spent the remainder of my Vietnamese money on two cans of Tiger beer, which actually made me feel a lot better, and looked out over the darkening Saigon skyline. It was now tipping it down with rain, and I started to wonder if I was attempting too much travel at once. Drive to Saigon, wait at airport, flight to Hong Kong, wait at airport, flight to London etc. Perhaps I should have broken it up with a night in a hotel close to Hong Kong airport, but that would have been yet another expense.

The flight to Hong Kong was awful. It only took two and a half hours, but it was packed full of some of the most annoying people I have ever come across. Annoying because of their selfish inability to see or care about how their behaviour affects others. The guy sat next to me on this plane insisted on invading my personal space by putting his legs and elbow well into my side of the chairs, and just ignored my repeated attempts to subtly let him know that I was rather pissed off about this. In the end I kicked him. And then there was the fat Russian sat in front of me, who just ignored the stewards and sat with his chair fully back and his ipod on as we started our descent into Hong Kong. Now I've always been sceptical that listening to music crashes planes, but what really fucked me off about this guy was that whatever it was he was listening to was total crap, and was so loud that half the plane could hear it. And he couldn't care less. I eventually punched the back of his headrest in sheer fury at the selfishness of this turd of an individual.

When we landed, I told myself to calm down and relax. Trouble was, if a two and a bit hour flight could get me this wound up, what would the 12 hour epic journey to London be like?

Hong Kong Airport. A huge, stunning example of modern architecture. And one of the easiest places to part with your cash. I had quite a long wait until my flight, and so I withdrew £20 worth of Hong Kong dollars to buy some drinks. It got me three pints of Heineken and a bit of change. Even the duty free is expensive, with some drinks costing more than they do in supermarkets in the UK.

We left Hong Kong at 1am, which is easily the latest I have ever caught a flight. Fortunately I had an aisle seat with no chairs in front of me, which was a real bonus on the leg room front. We were served a meal, a stewardess served me two gins when I asked for one, and then I settled down to watch a Bond film. This was more like it. After a few more drinks, I dozed off just after noting we had almost eight hours to go before reaching Heathrow. The next thing I knew the same screen was telling me it was two hours. I couldn't believe it - six hours' kip on a plane. This has never happened to me before and made the journey so much more tolerable.

We landed at around 6am GMT, back where it all began at Terminal 5. Say what you will about airport and runway expansion, this is a very impressive building in which to welcome people to London. Got the tube home to save money and it took forever - partly because most of the lines were suspended. This is not an impressive way to welcome people to London.

I've stayed awake all day today (Saturday) to get myself back into the groove body clock wise. Tomorrow I will post my reflections on Vietnam as a country, and then it's back to work...

thoughts on mui ne

Mui Ne has been a great place to bring this trip to an end.

The beach is lovely, the sand dunes are incredible and this part of Vietnam gets more sunshine than any other. My hotel has also been the perfect chill out resort - lovely rooms, a great pool by the beach and a restaurant serving amazing food. It's on the pricey side for this country (around 50 quid a night) but when you consider that in England that wouldn't buy a room in a fucking Travelodge, it puts it into perspective.

Having a really nice place to stay has helped in Mui Ne as I have not been that impressed with the nightlife. There are plenty of decent bars and restaurants, but it is more the geography of the area that is a problem. Mui Ne isn't really a place - it's more a long road of resorts by the beach, and everything is very spread out. At night it all appears uninviting and rather desolate, so I've prefered to eat in the hotel's restaurant by the beach and then read books in the garden outside my room. And chug back a few beers, obviously.

I have never been on holiday anywhere in the world where there are so few British holidaymakers. I came across one group at the yellow sand dunes on Tuesday, but that's it. Everyone else is overwhelmingly German. There are lots of Germans here, but the mildly amusing thing is that the locals can only communicate in English with them. I wonder why there are so few Brits here compared to the hordes that descend on Thailand. Strange...

I've tried to avoid the news while I've been away, but there were two events yesterday that it was impossible to ignore. David Cameron's son died and a plane crashed in Amsterdam. The coverage I then watched on CNN and the BBC World News Channel intrigued me. Firstly, neither mentioned Cameron at all. This is unsurprising in a way given that hardly anyone outside of the UK will have heard of him, but then again English football gets saturation coverage across the news networks over here. What also intrigued me was the CNN coverage of the Amsterdam crash. They hadn't got a fucking clue what was going on, how many people were affected or anything. Their coverage was totally reliant on following people on Twitter who were close to the scene. What this says about the state and future of the news industry is a moot point.

Tomorrow, and indeed Saturday, are going to be gruelling days. I'm determined to get up in time to have my first breakfast of the holiday and spend a couple of hours by the pool before my car picks me up at noon to take me to Saigon. Then it's a four to five hour drive, and a couple of hours' wait at the airport. I then have a three hour flight to Hong Kong, a two hour wait at the airport and a 12 hour flight back to London. Oh and then there is the worst bit - travelling across London...

sand dunes

On Tuesday I decided to go and visit the sand dunes of Mui Ne, which are apparently one of the more photographed parts of the tourist trail in Vietnam.

You need to hire a driver and a jeep to get to them, which costs around $40 for an afternoon. At least this tour started at a civilsed time. We set off at 2pm in a jeep that must have been about 30 years old at least, and may well have been used in the Vietnam War. I sat back and felt relieved there was no 8am starts, buses and puking on this tour.

Our first stop was the Fairy Spring, which is basically a stream that flows down from the dunes and to the sea. You can walk through it and there are even a few people doing a nice little trade of selling cans of Tiger beer by the side of the water. It was very nice, although I did misjudge the depth of the water at one stage and almost end up arse over tit.

We then drove past a fishing village with a gorgeous fleet of boats and to our next destination, which was a valley of bright red rock and sandstone. I would tell you what it's called but there is no reference to it at all in Lonely Planet, which I find bizarre. It felt more like I was in the centre of Australia than Vietnam.

After half an hour of taking photos and wandering about, we then set off for the yellow sand dunes. Upon arrival I was left literally open mouthed at the sheer beauty of them. If I felt like I was in Australia earlier, now it felt like the Sahara desert. Words cannot describe what an incredibly beautiful part of the world this is. As I climbed my way up the dunes, I felt so grateful that I had the opportunity to see these dunes. I'm not sure who I felt grateful to, but I did feel grateful. At the summit, I cracked open a beer and noticed a group of English travellers had decided to mark getting to the top in similar fashion. Well it is hard work climbing up sand dunes, you know...

I spent an hour at the yellow dunes before we then headed off to the red dunes to see the sun set. Again, the scenery was stunning as the sun fell behind the vast hills of red sand with the sea behind us. And again, I cracked open a beer.

What a magical afternoon, and what an amazing country this is.

mui ne beach

If only every Monday could be like this. I have spent the day just laying by the gorgeous Mui Ne beach, reading and getting a tad sun burnt.

I can never normally summon the attention span to be by a beach for too long, if that makes sense. I can walk along one and drink by one, but just sitting still and doing nothing has never really been my bag. Today was the exception.

Mui Ne beach, on the south eastern coast of Vietnam, is stunning. Its only down side, from my perspective, is the wind and choppy waters. These conditions make it a prime haven for surfers and thrill seekers, while I prefer utter tranqulity and for the sea to be as clear and calm as posssible.

I waited until a respectable 2.30pm to have my first beer of the day, and then spent the afternoon engrossed in Tony Benn's diaries from 2001 to 2007. This is my third book of the holiday (I've just finished reading Fatherland by Robert Harris, an excellent thriller set in 1960s Germany as if the Nazis had won the war) and I've been very lucky with my choices so far. I would say that having a good book is the most essential element of travelling alone. Provided you can lose yourself in whatever you're reading, you can forget whatever else pops into your mind when alone. Last year in this part of the world I didn't like two of the books I had taken with me and was reduced to buying copies of The Sun that had been imported.

I've not been reading the news from home while away, but I have been looking at the sport every day. You can't escape English football here even if you wanted to. Norwich only drew with Burnley at home on Saturday, a game they really needed to win. It looks bad - we really could end up being relegated to the third tier for the first time in 50 years. Yet further proof that when I get back there will not be many Mondays like the one I've had today...

on the buses...

I fucking hate buses. They make me feel unwell, they are unreliable, boring, claustrophobic, smelly and just generally fucking shite. When I come to power, I shall abolish them.

Unfortunately, bus is the only way you can get from Nha Trang to Mui Ne (my next destination) so I had no choice. I also had no choice over what time the bastard thing would depart. It was either 8am or 8pm for a supposed four hour journey - no in between, no civilised late morning departure, just the crack of dawn or the arse end of the day.

The bus was at least on time as it picked me up from my hotel at 8am on Sunday morning. This was as good as it was going to get. We then spent half an hour waiting for one person to get on board at another hotel. We then spent another half an hour at a petrol station - not to get petrol, but to allow the driver to speak to what seemed to be one of his mates.

As we made our way out of Nha Trang, I noticed the landscape was different to other parts of Vietnam I had seen so far. Gone were the lush green paddie fields. This was barren and rocky - more akin to the American mid west than anything I had seen in Asia before. It was still very attractive.

After a couple of hours, we stopped at a roadside restaurant/shop of sorts. I felt queasy as I got off the bus, and then felt even worse as we were greeted by this establishment choosing to belt out at full volume what can only be described as a load of shit Euro pop. I didn't know what was making me feel more ill, the bus or the music...

When we were back on the road, the driver then proceeded to go the wrong way and miss a stop where people were waiting to get on the bus. By the time we got to Mui Ne it was almost 2pm and we had been on the road for six hours - two longer than scheduled. When I have to return to Saigon from here, I'll be getting a taxi. I don't care how much it costs. Fucking buses...

Anyway, I shall stop whining now. Mui Ne has a terrific beach and I am looking forward to this leg of the trip. However I am typing this from a bar which just played a Gary Glitter number. A bit tasteless, wouldn't you say?!

beside the seaside, beside the sea...

It's easy to forget when you're on holiday what day of the week it is. Or indeed whether which day it is actually means anthing. It's not as if any normal person will turn down a beer on the grounds that it is a Monday lunch time. Saturday afternoon in Nha Trang, however, really did feel like a Saturday afternoon. Locals played football on the beach, everyone seemed to walk round with a smile on their face and, of course, the sun was shining.

I had been planning to leave Nha Trang on Friday. Although I do really like the place, there is something a bit too 'nice' about it, too catered for the tourist market, too unlike South East Asia. So on Thursday afternoon I decided to leave the next day for Mui Ne - about a four hour journey down the coast. Then a spanner was thrown in the works - I got pissed. Let me explain. It was my first full day in the place, the weather was lovely and it would have been such a shame to be an internet cafe booking hotels rather than sitting outside enjoying a beer. So, I left it until the sun set just after six, identified a place to stay online, went back to my hotel, cracked open another beer and rang them up to reserve a room. They were fully booked. In no mood to trawl the web for alternatives, I decided to just chill out in Nha Trang a bit longer.

There is nothing to do here apart from sit in the sun and chug beer. I know there is probably more to life than that, but it is good fun...