We had planned to cover ~1,000KM over two days from Hoi An to Saigon. Vietnam is a thin and long country. The distance of 1,000KM would take us from central to southern Vietnam. For the second time, we had to jump-start the car in the morning to get it going. On the way, we stopped by a mechanic shop to replace the battery. At this point, the locals in general were quite piqued by foreigners driving a white number plate with right hand wheel drive, often confusing us with diplomats. The mechanics were smitten by Faris’ lanky frame towering at 6.1ft. Faris became a local celebrity sort with folks wanting to take a photo with him. With an ironic coincidence, on this day, Faris had a T-short with the text ‘No Photos Please’ inscribed on it. This trend of folks wanting to take photo with Faris continued on in Saigon as well. Guess, Faris provided a stark contrast to the short frame of a typical Vietnamese.
The rest of the drive was along the coast lines dotted with beautiful landscape and fishing villages. We stopped by one of the fishing villages. The coast line was filled with a number of anchored colorful catamaran sailboats and small oval floats. The colorful display drawing a weird comparison with the famous Pakistani lorries with its own colorful personalities. A number of fishermen seemed to have retired for the day while some were preparing for the night time squid fishing. The kids were frolicking around and a grandma next to us was feeding her grandchild.
Finally, we arrived at the planned nightly stop over at Nha Trang, a coastal city in South Central Vietnam. One could say Nha Trang is a modern Russian Enclave – seems like a Tourist mecca for Russians. All shops had displays in Russian language and a number of them run by Russians. It seems there are more than one daily direct flights from Russia. The city was bustling with touristy neon lights, sea food outlets, trinket markets, juice stalls, and eateries.
After walking around the beach and city blocks, we dined at an Indian place run by an Indian pilot who works for Vietnam Airlines. We shared our adventure stories and learned about his impending overlanding adventure from India to China on a bike. The Overlanding scene seems to be taking off well in India.
Next day, we hit the road along the coastal lines. We saw a few dilapidated relics of once burgeoning Hindu champa kingdom along the highway. The Champa kingdom’s architectural output transitioned to subsequent kingdoms and culminated with the marvels of Angkor Wat which we subsequently visited.
Continuing on along the coast line towards Saigon, we hit a large patch of sand dunes resembling what would one see in Arabian Peninsula. Apparently, it is a natural phenomenon of finer beach sand being blown towards land over a long period of time to form this seemingly out of place sand dunes by the sea coast. We went for an ATV ride along the sand dunes. A very odd experience of riding on an expanse sand dunes with water coast on one side and going around little swamps in the middle of the expanse whereas in Middle East it is typically endless emptiness of sand dunes.
After mini breaks along the way, we reached Saigon, aptly got into the infamous traffic with swarms of motorbikes maintaining a decent traffic discipline. With the slow moving traffic, the entertaining part was the curious stares from other commuters, often converts into friendly nods and smile. We got pulled over by a cop to go over the routine paper check. Win, our guide with his charm and funny disposition, produced our local permits and paperwork, accompanied with a friendly banter. Over the last several days of driving, we came to know a lot about Win’s personal life and through him gain insight into Vietnamese culture and regional geo-politics. In general, talking to the folks from Myanmar and Vietnam, there is a reservation about Chinese influence and commercial trade involvements as they think they are inequitable.
So, so interesting to read!!! Especially about Nha Trang being so popular with Russians!