Susie's Travels

An account of the trips I've taken around the world, with reviews, tips and advice 

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Final days in Bangkok, visiting the Wok Pho temple and rounding off the trip in 342 rooftop bar.

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Days 20-22 - Bangkok and Home

We arrived back in Bangkok around 4pm. Bangkok traffic was awful so it took us an hour and a half to get back to the hotel - Thanabhumi. We went to small local place for dinner and shared a vegetable dish and a massaman curry. The food was very cheap but also very small portions, so after a couple of drinks at a bar just off Koh San Road we were peckish again so we shared what turned out to be the tastiest Pad Thai we've ever had from a street food vendor on the way home.

The following morning we went to the Wok Pho temple, where you can see many sights including the famous reclining Buddha. The statue is one of the largest Buddha figures in Thailand at 15m high and 42m long. We had to take our shoes off to enter each building and also keep our shoulders and knees covered as a sign of respect. You were however allowed to take pictures, but we were rather surprised when we saw a monk standing on the reclining Buddha itself, taking pictures of himself with a selfie stick!

For our final evening in Bangkok we decided to check out a rooftop bar called 342 bar to watch the sunset. As it was on the other side of the river we opted to get the public river transport across, rather than a taxi. The cost was only 14 Baht each either way and was very efficient. Unfortunately it was a bit too stormy to see much of the sunset but we could still watch the Bangkok skyline glitter as the lights turned on and the sky went dark. 

Three weeks had flown by and our Asian adventure had come to an end, so we packed our bags and flew back to England, full of happy memories but sadly no more Banh mi's!

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Beachy fun on Koh Samet 🏊

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Days 16-19 - Koh Samet 

From Bangkok we travelled to the island of Koh Samet. The journey consisted of a bus to Ban Phe and then a boat to the island. The whole thing was extremely efficient and we cruised into the island around 3pm. Our hotel was a 15 minute walk away from the port, set right on Sai Kaew beach. As we approached the hotel we began to notice quite a lot of rubbish on the beach, and a lot of people. Having read and seen online that this was a beautiful, quiet beach this time of year, we were pretty confused. Dread starting seeping in; maybe we'd got our research wrong and made a huge mistake. We had four nights here! The staff of Summer Day Hotel greeted us and took our bags, but our room wasn't quite ready so we sat down and had some lunch. Then they told us that there had been a festival that just ended which is why it was so busy! Feeling silly and relieved, we tucked into our pad Thai and Leo beers. Our room was lovely with a great view of the sea, just metres away. After settling in we explored the area - the beach offered a great selection of bars and restaurants, and in the town there were more restaurants, shops and spas. The first night was actually my birthday! So we had a lovely dinner on the beach followed by some drinks at a bar in town where we played pool and celebrated my turning 24. 

When we awoke the next day, the beach was spotless and practically empty. You would never have known there had been a festival and it now looked like the beautiful, serene beach we had expected. The following days were spent swimming, reading, relaxing and eating. Some of the best food we had was the fish. On the second day we had soft shell crab, which came with a delicious dipping sauce. Then on the third night we had a whole steamed seabass, which came served with lemon, herbs and a spicy broth. Food and drink was slightly more expensive on the island - the crab had cost us 250 Baht (£5) and the Seabass 400 Baht (£8). A small beer would cost between 60-80 Baht (around £1.50). 

One afternoon we had decided to get a massage. I wanted the traditional Thai massage, but Curran never having had a massage before, opted for a head massage to be on the safe side. When we arrived we were asked to wash our feet and then come back and lay on our fronts. We weren't sure why they needed to wash Curran's feet if he was just having a head massage but we went along with it. Then two ladies came over and started massaging our feet, twisting and turning them, working their way up our legs, every so often bashing them a bit as you get with a Thai massage. I looked over at Curran as his masseuse climbed onto the back of his legs and started massaging him with her feet. Not knowing how to say this wasn't what he asked for with his face pressed into the mat, while she was clambering over his back, he went along with it. All I could see was one slightly alarmed eye, but he said he was ok and after a while actually started to enjoy it. Turns out they had heard him and did focus on his head a bit longer than mine, but it was basically the same as a traditional massage. After half an hour of being twisted about, you definitely feel looser and knot-free. The cost for each of us was 200 Baht (£4). 

On the penultimate night there was a power cut to the entire island. We were sat in a bar drinking cocktails when suddenly all the lights went out and we were submerged into darkness. The staff frantically began producing candles and torches, whilst across the road it appeared people were trapped in 7 Eleven, because the doors were electronic! After 30 minutes or so and the power still hadn't returned, we wondered if our hotel was affected too or if they had a back up generator. Curran went and scouted it out, to find amazingly the hotel was fine! We found another shop that was operating despite the power outage, so we bought some drinks, picked up a pancake from a little stall and settled into our room for the rest of the evening. 

Our final day arrived and our island adventure was sadly over. Off we went to catch the boat back to the mainland, where we would travel back to Bangkok, our final destination of the holiday. 

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Dong Ba market and final night in Huế. Flight to Bangkok and Khao San Road 🌃

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Day 14 and 15 - Huế to Bangkok

Our final day in Huế was spent looking around the Dong Ba market and adjacent shopping mall because Curran and I have a weird fascination with looking around supermarkets in other countries, to see the different and interesting things they sell. The Dong Ba market was huge and as usual sold everything you could think of, from food to clothes to flowers. 

That evening we fancied trying an Indian restaurant we'd heard about, Ganesh Indian Restaurant. The dishes there turned out to be the spiciest of the trip so far! Until then we felt that the chefs in Vietnam had deliberately made our food less spicy simply because we were English, which had been a shame as we both love spice. Two chicken dishes, garlic naan, paratha and two beers set us back around 300,000 VND (£9.50). Afterwards, to celebrate our final night in Vietnam we went to a local Vietnamese bar. We were definitely the only tourists in there but we liked that. There was a DJ blaring out 90s dance music and the clientele were drinking beer from giant pitchers, steadily getting rowdier and rowdier. 

The following morning our flight to Hanoi was slightly delayed, but we still had enough time to change for our flight to Bangkok. On arrival in Bangkok the airport was far more organised that I remembered from visiting four years ago - now they had a taxi self-service ticket system. Our taxi cost around 475 Baht (£9.50). We were staying in an apartment right in the centre of town, where we ditched our bags and walked five minutes to the famous Khao San Road, to experience the madness of Bangkok. It's a frantic scene where you are offered just about everything including buckets of alcohol, drugs, terrible tat and ping pong shows (which don't involve any table tennis for those who don't know). 

After finding a bar where we could actually talk to each other and Flo Rida wasn't blaring so loud your ear drums would burst, we sat and had a couple of beers just watching the scenes. I thought about when I was here four years ago; maybe it was because I was turning 24 the next day but I felt very old in comparison. The vendors kept coming and we got offered a lot of awful souvenirs, the worst of which were bracelets with obscene things embroidered into them (too obscene to write here). Unbelievably tourists were still buying them! We had an early rise the following day to get to Koh Samet, so we left our fellow tourists to their buckets and wandered back. 

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Perfume River, Imperial City, Bún bò Huế and Five Spice Chicken at Elegant Restaurant & the impressive lightning ⚡️

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Day 13 - Huế

Another day of beaming sun and no clouds meant it was a very hot day indeed (39 degrees). Naturally we wanted to explore and walk around, rather than sit in the air conditioned hotel, but within minutes of being outside we were dripping with sweat. Nonetheless we psyched ourselves up for the 25 minute walk to the Imperial City across the Perfume river. The hotel staff had tried to sell us all types of private or group tours, but we preferred to just do it ourselves, at our own pace. We set off, finding shade where we could, and stopping for water. Everybody thought we were mental as we declined offers of boat rides, taxis and cyclos (bikes with seats at the front). The stretch across the river was the most relentless; with no shade at all we resorted to covering ourselves with the umbrella.  Arriving at the Imperial City, we were so hot we had to agree that we were a bit crazy, but we’d made it regardless. The cost of entry was 150,000 VND (£5). The Imperial City is one of Vietnam’s seven UNESCO world heritage sights. Before it suffered serious damage in the Vietnam war, the Imperial City was an impressive walled palace and fortress. The site was planned to be built in 1803 by the emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, Gia Long, and was finally completed in 1832. It was the largest structure built in the history of modern Vietnam. Now it has undergone extensive restoration work in order to preserve it. We spent some time moving through the different sections, reading the plaques of information and imagining the life that existed here not that long ago. 

We did give in on the way back and got a taxi to a cafe near our hotel where we had lemon juice overlooking the Perfume river. The river is extremely wide and got its name because flowers would fall into the river upstream and fragrance the river as they floated downstream. We walked back to the hotel to freshen up before going to Elegant Restaurant for lunch. Despite being prepared with a map, we got lost on the way as it appeared someone had just built their house on a road Google maps was telling us to go down. Suddenly we were in the back of someone’s house and three men shooed us away! When we finally made it to Elegant restaurant, I tried the local Huế dish - Bun Bo Huế. This was a very similar dish to Phở, with the noodles, beef and herbs, but whereas Phở broth is clear, this broth was more red. Curran also had a very tasty dish of five spice chicken. Total cost with two diet cokes was 200,000 VND (£6.50). We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, sitting on balcony and finally watching the sunset again.  

For dinner we went to a place called Tipsy Pub & Bistro, which served a mix of Vietnamese and Western dishes. I had the best Vietnamese pancake yet, super crispy and filled with egg, prawn, chicken and crunchy veg. We were sat in the rooftop terrace and had learned this was a good tactic because passing vendors selling sunglasses and the like can’t see you up there! Enjoying the atmosphere we had a couple of cocktails, and then as rain started descending again we ran home before the full storm took hold. 

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Sights from the bus, drivers at lunch, welcome fruit at Serene Palace Hotel and a wonderful sunset 🌇

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Day 12 - Hội An to Huế

After 4 fabulous nights in Hội An, it was time to move onto our next city - Huế. The Hội An Village Villas staff had been so friendly and attentive, we were sad to leave. After a long chat with one of the excitable reception staff members - Son - she even asked us if she could add us on Facebook. As they waved us off, we got a taxi to the Sinh Tourist office to board our bus to Huế. The journey wasn’t too long, around 4 hours, and it was very picturesque. Scenes of vast farming land and the coastline made the journey more pleasant. We stopped for 20 mins at a place connected to a hotel where you could use the loo or buy some snacks, and the drivers of another Sinh Tourist bus were there. As they sat down, several waitresses brought them bowls of Phở (Vietnamese noodles) and slightly alarmingly, pints of beer! We couldn’t help thinking that if a bus driver in England stopped for a pint at a pub there would be uproar!

We arrived in Huế around 6pm and conveniently our hotel was just around the corner from our drop off, so we could avoid the hoards of shouting taxi drivers. Our hotel was called Serene Palace Hotel and we were welcomed with fresh fruit and juice. The room was on the top floor, with a balcony that looked out over the Huế skyline. There was even a computer in the room! After freshening up, we watched a beautiful sunset on the balcony. With such clear skies the sun burned from yellow to orange to red, finally descending out of view and leaving Huế in darkness.

After consulting Trip Advisor again we went to a restaurant called Nina’s Cafe for dinner, which was run by a Vietnamese family and served Huế’s speciality dishes. Having spent some time in smaller towns, we’d almost forgotten what a big Vietnamese city felt like, and had to readjust to the busy roads and more hectic pace of life. Huế has a lot of ‘roads’ that are more like narrow alleyways, so we kept missing our turns and getting lost. Eventually we found Nina’s Cafe right at the end of a narrow side road, which felt a little dodgy at first, but on arrival the restaurant was lively and welcoming. Starting with a couple of the local Huda beers, we perused the menu and Curran opted for clay pot pork and I selected the yellow pork curry, both of which had a generous amount of meat and delicious sauces. Total bill cost: 194,000 VND (£6.25).

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Hola Taco restaurant & cocktails overlooking the river 🍹

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Day 11 - Hội An

We’d enjoyed cycling so much the day before, that we decided to borrow the bikes again and cycle to the old town late in the morning to buy a couple of souvenirs.  For lunch we tried another local dish called Cơm gà, which is a simple chicken and rice dish but it’s served with chicken broth and what we believed to be chopped daikon (a long white radish) and dressed with chilli sauce. The combination of all three was very enjoyable and with two drinks the bill came to 105,000 VND (£3.50). Afterwards we cycled back to hotel where we cooled down and had a dip in the pool. The weather had been glorious the past few days, but with no cloud cover we really felt the full 37 degrees. 

We got a taxi back to the old town later that evening, which unfortunately was our first bad experience with a taxi driver. All the taxis are fitted with a meter and so normally there’s no discussion on price, you just pay what the meter reads at the end of the ride. However this driver quoted us 70,000 VND at the start, to which we asked to use the meter instead, and he just said ‘same, same’. Knowing it normally costs about that much we didn’t really mind, but when we got to old town and the meter read 48,000, I handed him a 50,000 note and he kicked off. Without wanting to get into anything we just walked away, but it was a shame as all our other drivers had been so polite and honest.

For dinner we had some help from trusty Trip Advisor which showed us that surprisingly one of the best rated places in town was a taco restaurant! Having tried all the local dishes in Hội An we didn’t feel guilty chowing down on some nachos and chorizo tacos, accompanied by Saigon beer and a very palatable lime margarita. The meal was actually our most expensive yet at 485,000 VND (£15.50), but they were probably some of the best tacos we’ve ever had! The Mexican fusion style, using local herbs and sauces, really made them burst with flavour. The place was owned and run by a friendly Aussie guy, and as you could probably guess, the only clientele were tourists. After dinner we had some cocktails on a rooftop terrace overlooking the river, enjoying our final night in Hội An. 

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Curran's new shirt, biking around & heading out for dinner 🍷

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Day 10 - Hội An

We collected Curran’s tailored shirt in the morning - it looked great and (unsurprisingly) was the perfect fit! The ladies desperately tried to sell us something else, pushing magazines into our hands, but we managed to resist. They had all the latest English magazines and they told us they had family in England who would mail them or bring a bunch with them when they visited. 

Our hotel had bicycles we could borrow for free so we decided to cycle down to the beach, about 15 minutes away. We had been informed the nicest beach was An Bang beach, and there was also one slightly closer called Cua Dai beach. Our plan was to visit An Bang, but after around 20-25 minutes cycling, we just couldn’t find it, despite having a map. Tired and hot with the sun beating down on us, we changed plans and went to Cua Dai instead. Quickly parking the bikes, we found some seats in a beach restaurant and cooled off with a refreshing beer. Vendor after vendor came up to us, trying to sell us postcards and bookmarks and key rings. Kindly we refused and they moved on, but one lady in particular spoke good English and found Curran very funny. Especially when he became the salesman and opened the restaurant menu and asked if she wanted to buy something. 

We biked back to the hotel, enjoying the empty roads through the agricultural fields. In Vietnam the majority of vehicles are mopeds and motorbikes, there are few cars except for taxis. The way Vietnamese drive is very different to the way we drive in England. Here you can basically overtake whenever you want, and they use the horn to warn other drivers they are coming, rather than to tell them they’ve done something wrong. The result is a lot of beeping when you are on the busier roads, and some dubious overtaking with inches to spare!

For dinner that night we had freshly caught fish sat by the river. Many restaurants brew their own beer, and if it wasn’t cheap enough already, this beer was unbelievably cheap. At 4,000 VND a glass (13p), it even tasted pretty good. I also wanted to try Vietnamese wine, made in the vineyards of Dalat. I opted for red, which was interestingly kept cold. We thought it might be because it is so hot here it would cause it to go off. A glass was 29,000 VND (90p) and although not what I expected, it was actually quite pleasant. 

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Day 9 - Hội An

We awoke feeling revitalised from a nice long sleep and fuelled up on omelettes, fresh fruit and tea before getting the morning shuttle bus into the ancient town. We wanted to see some of the historic sights of Hội An, and started with the Japanese bridge. They have a ticket system in Hội An where you pay 120,000 VND (£4) and you get to see 5 sights of your choice, as many times as you like. The Japanese bridge was enchanting and authentic, and upon reading the plaques inside we learnt that one side is guarded by monkey gods and the other dog gods. The other sites we visited were two assembly halls - the Quang Trieu Assembly Hall and the Phuoc Kein Assembly Hall, which were very beautiful and impressive. Various sculptures filled the rooms, and giant coils of incense hung from the ceiling. We thought it would be nice to have a picture together, so we asked a Vietnamese couple to take a picture of us - but they misunderstood this and the lady came and put her arm around me to have our picture taken instead! Then they insisted on the man and Curran having a picture too! 

We went to a place called the Secret Garden for lunch, where Curran had Cao lầu and I had the most delicious catfish marinated in ginger, chilli and lime. Accompanied with some ice tea the meal cost us 190,000 VND (£6). We were scouted in the market by a lady called Binh who was very sweet but also very persistent and before we knew it she had got our life stories out of us and steered us conveniently towards her tailoring shop. We had actually been thinking about getting Curran a new white shirt so after a little look and finding the exact material he was after, they quickly sized him up and we paid the 415,000 VND (£13).  It was now getting unbearably hot so we jumped back on the shuttle bus to cool down in the hotel pool and sit on our balcony.

That evening we had booked onto a cooking class at Vy’s Kitchen. Our instructor was very lively and she spoke excellent English. The cost of the class was 550,000 VND (£18 each). The class was in a food hall and we were led around different stations, learning and cooking as we went. The first was a machine that made the very thin vermicelli noodles. Once the dough is pushed into a tube and the machine turned on, the noodles begin to come out at quite a pace. The chef would efficiently and easily break off the noodles into folds, with a quick back and forth hand motion, laying them down neatly on her tray. However, what had looked simple was actually rather tricky in practice! We both struggled to keep up with the pace of the machine, and as more and more noodles emerged, we frantically tried to break them off. The end result was a sad looking pile of noodles on our tray, much to the amusement of the chef. We were also taken to the ‘weird and wonderful’ section, showcasing several dishes containing speciality ingredients. Amongst the delights that we were brave enough to try were silkworms, pigs brain and baby snails! However we drew the line at the frogs and duck embryo, not sure our stomachs could take it. Probably sensing we might want something plainer after this, we were given some different types of rice to try, which Curran labelled the ‘nice and normal’ section. 

Then it was time for us to do some cooking! We were given a refreshing towel as it was very hot in the kitchen, which Curran pretended to eat as it was rolled up like a spring roll, making everyone (the instructed included) giggle a lot. Amongst the dishes we made were Banh Xeo (crispy Vietnamese pancake) and Banh Nam (steamed rice pancake with pork and shrimp wrapped in banana leaf). The whole class was a lot of fun and executed extremely well, and we would definitely recommend it. The night was still young so we found a bar where we sat outside and drank cocktails, watching the nightlife around us. 

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Hotel patio, Hoi An day and night & more tasty dishes 🍜

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Day 7 and 8 - Mũi Né to Hội An

The next leg of our journey was the longest - 16 hours in total. We left Mũi Né on the 1pm bus to Nha Trang, where we boarded the 7pm night bus to Hội An and arrived at 5:30am the following morning, achy and groggy. As we stepped off the bus we were pounced on by taxi drivers, all pointing at maps asking where we were going. We couldn’t see any cars about so eventually we haggled with a motorbike taxi guy who agreed to take both of us and our bags on separate bikes to the hotel for 100,000 VND (£3). He called his mate over, Curran and I got on the back of the bikes, and off we went. Despite assuring us he knew where he was going, it felt like we were going around in circles, and about 5 minutes later he pulled over and asked Curran for the hotel number. A short phone call later and we were back on our way, enjoying the views of the farmland and the breezy air. 

Amazingly even at 6am our room was ready when we got to the hotel - Hoi An Village Villas. This was the best room yet with an exquisite patio overlooking the lake. It was green as far as the eye could see - tall coconut trees swaying in the wind and well tended to plants neatly arranged around the patio. A couple of hours later we were refreshed and ready to explore, so we got a taxi (car this time!) to the ancient town for 8:30am. Hội An really is a beautiful town, the windy streets are sheltered with overhanging trees, and neat shops and restaurants line the sides. We were in need of some breakfast and keen to try some of Hội An’s local dishes, we found a street food vendor selling Cao lầu. At first they were going to sit us with their family and a very overexcited daughter, then they changed their minds and sat us nearby.  Cao lầu contains a special type of noodles, only produced with a specific type of water from an ancient Cham well just outside the town, and it is only sold by a few families. It comes served with a broth, various herbs, salad, pork meat and pork crackling. The texture of the noodles against the bean sprouts and the crackling made for a very tasty dish. 

We spent the next few hours walking all over town - along the river, in the shops and through the markets. Everywhere we went we were targeted by the vendors - ‘Excuse me! Buy something’, ‘Hello! What are you looking for?, ‘Sir, you want boat ride?’ Managing to stay nice but firm, we didn’t buy anything but didn’t make any enemies either. For lunch we had to check out a place we had seen on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain - a small shop selling what claimed to be the best Bánh mì in Vietnam! Curran had decided these were the ultimate sandwich and we were intrigued to see if Anthony Bourdain was right, having sampled quite a variety so far in this trip. Actually, they came in second best, after the ones sold at the street food market in Saigon - sorry Anthony! We hopped on the 1:45pm shuttle back to our hotel where we chilled out for the afternoon. 

That evening we planned to go back to old town to see to the night market. Hội An transforms at night - every street is scattered with lanterns and tasteful lights, and the river is highlighted with floating candles. We ate dinner in a Vietnamese fusion restaurant called Nu Eatery, which served small but well thought out dishes. Our favourite was the chilli lime shrimp - which was served on three prawn crackers with pickled veg and what looked like a tumeric mayo. After dinner we attempted to stroll along the river but the bridge in particular was inundated with Chinese tourists. Dodging numerous selfie sticks we found some less crowded areas, and wandered around these for a while enjoying the cooler air. I tried a local dessert called mango cake, which looked a bit like Turkish delight. However it was very misleadingly not filled with mango at all, but peanuts! Wanting to tell the ladies they had got their translations very wrong, but knowing it would be a lost cause, we decided to head back to the hotel for a well needed sleep in a much comfier bed than the previous night.