Vietnam & Cambodia

09/10/24

We left home after lunch and reached Mumbai airport Terminal 2 around 7:30 pm. Since Veena World sent the tickets and visas by mail, we checked in. All airport formalities were done without any problem.

10/10/24

From Mumbai, we reached Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. Travel time is around 7 hours. Vietnam time is one hour and 30 minutes ahead of Indian time. The currency is the Vietnam Dong (VND). One US dollar is equal to 24,845 Vietnamese Dong. Handling currency in this country is confusing because of the large numbers. 5 lakh VND, 2 lakh VND, and 1 lakh VND notes are in circulation. Generally, prices of things are expressed in 'k', like 200k VND.

We reached Hanoi around 7 am local time. After Immigration, we collected our luggage and proceeded to the domestic airport. We boarded the flight for Da Nang. It is an hour's journey.

We reached Da Nang around 11:30 am. After collecting the baggage, we had lunch at an Indian hotel called Indian Kitchen. Then we went to our booked hotel, the New Orient Hotel. The hotel was too good, located in a nice place close to a river, perfect for a long walk. The city was very clean like any other European city.

11/10/24

After a continental breakfast, we left the hotel by bus to Ba Na Hills. It is an hour's travel. To reach the top, we go by the longest cable car in Asia. The journey was about 45 minutes and was spectacular.

After reaching the top, we first visited the Golden Bridge. This bridge is designed as if one pair of hands is holding the entire bridge. On that day, the weather was very cloudy and drizzling, so we could not take many photos. At the end of the bridge, we saw a beautiful garden and a few statues.

Next was the food court. They adopted a buffet system with a separate food table for Jain food. After lunch, we went around the wax museum and the French village. Around 4:30 pm, we proceeded to Monkey Hill. Here there is a Buddhist temple with a beautiful garden and many bonsai plants. A beautiful Buddha statue of large size is seen in the middle of the garden.

Every night at 9 o'clock, a show is conducted at the Dragon Bridge. The dragon starts throwing flames through its mouth, followed by jetting out water. After this show, we returned to the hotel.

12/10/24

Our first visit was the Marble Caves. We saw marble Hindu deities and Buddha in marble. Then we proceeded to the Coconut Village. Here, a boat ride was arranged in circular bamboo vessels. Only two persons are allowed per boat.

The ride was for an hour, and we enjoyed sweet coconut water beforehand. Afterward, we walked for a village tour and saw a very old house, about 200 years old.

We also visited a Chinese temple and did some street shopping. Our last program was to float lanterns in the river at Hoi An. We went in a boat and dropped the lantern gently to float.

Afterward, we took a buggy to the bus and went for dinner.

13/10/24

We flew from Da Nang to Hanoi. We visited the first university of Vietnam, which dates back to the 11th century. Later, we saw the Water Puppet Show where puppets float and dance in water. We checked into the West Lake 254 D hotel, which provided Airbnb-style facilities.

14/10/24 - 15/10/24

We visited the One Pillar Pagoda, erected over a single pillar in a pond full of lotus flowers. Then we proceeded to Halong Bay to board the Peony Cruise.

The cruise had an open upper deck with a swimming pool. On the 15th, we reached Cat Ba Island and visited the Trung Trang Cave. We had to climb 140 steps to the entrance.

Inside, some places were very narrow where we had to bend and bow our heads. After the visit, we took a 3-hour bus ride back to Hanoi for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

16/10/24

We visited the Angkor Wat heritage site. These temples were constructed in the 10th century by King Surya Varman. Originally dedicated to Lord Vishnu, they were later changed to Buddhist temples.

We saw carvings depicting stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. In the evening, we saw the Apsara classical dance and had a Cambodian dinner of sticky rice, soup, and salad.

17/10/24 - 18/10/24

On the 18th, we went to the Mekong Delta. We traveled by ferry and then transferred to small boats through narrow channels lined with coconut trees. We reached Unicorn Island.

In the afternoon, we visited the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. It was a sobering experience seeing the history of the Vietnam War and the effects of chemical warfare (Agent Orange) on generations of children.

The photos of the victims showing the cruelty done to the human race were very moving. After the museum, we had dinner at Hotel Banaras.

19/10/24

On our last day, we visited the City Post Office and the Cu Chi Tunnels, where we saw the guerrilla tactics used by the Vietnamese. We reached Ho Chi Minh airport at 4 pm and returned home to Mumbai at midnight.