Leaving Indonesia behind we flew to Ho Chi Minh City in the south of Vietnam. HCMC is a large hot frantic Asian city without any notable tourist attractions as such, but we did find an interesting war museum, failed to find another museum… but found a micro brewery in the process 😀🍻

The memories we took away from HCMC was the sheer volume of motorbikes and how interesting that made crossing the road!

For our next stop we headed for cooler climes (about 20 degrees C) up in the hills to Dalat, the honeymoon capital of Vietnam apparently. It was a novelty being able to walk around town without sweating buckets, however what we did get in buckets was rain. 

20 degrees in Vietnam is their equivalent to a cold winter in the UK. The Vietnamese children get wrapped up in heavy winter jackets, boots and woolly hats so we were often chastised for BB being out in just trousers and a long sleeved t-shirt. We had to explain on so many occasions that we are from England which is really cold so 20 degrees is actually quite warm. We just got disbelieving ‘you’re bad parents’ looks in return 😧

The Christmas season had just started so the town’s businesses were in the process of putting up their decorations. It’s humbling when a predominantly Buddhist country knows how to celebrate Christmas better than we do at home. Here’s BB and the girls from our Dreams 3 hotel 😍. 

The sun did eventually come out so we decided to do family transport Vietnamese style and rented a moped for the day. Seeing a family of 5 on a single moped is not unusual in Vietnam so the 3 of us buzzing around town blended in quite nicely, even with Dad’s lack of grasp of the local road rules (anything goes). 

From Dalat we took a short flight to Hoi An which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The ancient town is just beautiful with loads of traditional old buildings converted into cafes, restaurants and boutique shops. It’s a shopping and photography paradise so had plenty to keep Mum and Dad happy. 

Dad was distraught when on the first day there was a torrential downpour and the river flooded submersing a large section of the heritage site which nearly scuppered his photography plans. Dad wasn’t deterred though and spent lots of time muttering under his breath about tourists haplessley wandering into and ruining his photos.

The rain didn’t have any adverse affect on Mums shopping abilities either and she got a new work dress and suit made at one of the many tailors in town. It required a few fittings at the tailors to get the dress just right which gave BB ample time to charm the girls. Thanks Miley from Yala Couture for a great suit. 

 Almost exactly 9 years ago Mum travelled north from Hoi An on a night bus. It was never to be repeated as she and Sian arrived at their destination pleased to be alive. This time around we were organised and booked onto the Reunification Express train to Hanoi. A small baby sharing bunks on a noisy overnight train, surely that’s a brilliant idea?!  Thankfully BB quickly made himself at home in his sleeper cabin and Mum and Dad tucked into their victuals… a bottle of Captain Morgan and some tasty looking sweet Vietnamese cakes which unfortunately turned out to taste suspiciously of shrimp 😧

The train journey went smoothly and we were deposited in Hanoi station still half asleep at 5am. It was a brilliant adventure but not one to be repeated in the near future due to the narrow bunks, let’s just say BB slept well!  

The story of BB’s adventures in Hanoi and beyond will be the subject of the next post. Watch this space…