Our arrival in Hoi Chi Min City, or as it's still called by the locals Saigon, was smooth - no major problems crossing the boarder by land, no scams, better roads (wait for it, as it was false alarm), massively populated city, thousands of motorbikes, a lot of war memories and glimpses of old European cities. 

Our overall plan at that time was to spend Will's anniversary in a party city - easy to meet people, have some fun and celebrate the arrival of a new decade. We decided to do it in Nha Trang. We thought that we could even rent an apartment for few days where we could finally cook our own food, wash out the dirt of our sneakers and rest. It happened almost that way... We had to adjust it a little because Will got really ill on our way there - feeling like vomiting, vomiting, diarrhea, vomiting a little more, more diarrhea and fever. Gladly we stopped in a city called MuiNé where just wind and sand could stop us, so we did a lot of healing and -resting and yeah we paid a visit to the closest hospital to completely kill the bad-ass bug that attacked him.

MuiNé and Nha Trang are touristic cities. They have loads of restaurants, bars, Russians tourists and also loads of people ready to sell you their soul- books, fruits, drinks, sunglasses, ice cream, cigarettes, motorbike's tour, drugs. They approach you in all different kind of ways, the most common by honking or saying hello. You can ignore them, sometimes, but most of the time you can't because they move around in groups...if you say no to the first one, the next one asks you the same thing, hoping that your decision changed after 1second.

Being polite while saying no, can generate other questions too - the most common: "where are you from?!". When answered the reply is so happy - futebol, Cristiano - that even if I want to get mad, I simply can't.

We moved to Hué skipping the very touristic, shopping orientated and known for the remarkable tailors, Hoi An. Hué gave us a little more "where are you from?!" questions, with less Russians around...

And that's about it...the English level in the streets of Vietnam doesn't allow them to have a chit-chat or build up a connection. You may ask "are you from around?", and the answer is "cigarettes?! buy one from me!". Maybe they don't answer because they don't care, instead of not understanding...but that's exactly where I lose the contact and the connection with that person. And that's exactly what I'm missing in Vietnam, the connection with the people.

I wouldn't be far if I say that all Vietnamese I met are like this...not true. The further North we get, the more differences I notice (or maybe it's just me not caring much anymore). I will write a separate post about the best decision we made so far: visit the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. 

Vietnam is beautiful and worth the visit. Beautiful people, funky almost-roads, a lot of growth specially in the cities, some poverty specially in the villages, loads of history to soak and shock you, loads of cheap clothes, stylish air cuts, nice very nice food, beautiful sand beaches and coast lines, and also nice people, just not as nice as in Cambodia, I warn you.

Lassi, Diana and Will, the professional travellers in Halong Bay