After leaving Ho Chi Minh city I got to know the diversity of Vietnams nature! Within only one week I saw white beaches and wide sand dunes in Mui Ne and Nha Trang in contrast to the waterfalls and green mountains in Da Lat.

Mui Ne is known as a beautiful beachtown but unfortunately it was raining a lot when I was there so I didn’t see that much of it. The highlight of my stay there was a tour to the sand dunes that Mui Ne is famous for. The tour started at 4am (!) so that we could see the sunrise. As the sky was pretty cloudy we didn’t see a spectacular sunrise but it was still beautiful to watch the changing colours behind the wide, calm sanddunes. Afterwards, we stopped at a fish market just at a beach. It was interesting to watch the busy people at the market. Some were just arriving by boat with fresh fish from the sea whilst others were sorting out shells and crabs or just selling their goods. Even if the smell was horrible I kinda liked this market as it showed that besides Vietnams modernisation and growing economy many things are still kept very authentic and traditional!

Here in Vietnam most travellers have more or less the same travelroute. Either they travel it from north to south or vice versa as I do, so it’s very likely that you meet people again in a different city. In Mui Ne I met a nice group of backpackers who were all going to Da Lat on the same day as I did. So there we ended up in the same hostel. It felt more like a homestay than a hostel though as it contained only two rooms and Lucky the owner who lived in the same building treat us like friends. The facilities were definitely not the best as our room was pretty humid and some of the beds were just a mattress on the floor but therefor we got free breakfast and laundry and one evening Lucky showed us a bit of the city and bought us some dinner at a street restaurant. For less then three euros there was nothing to complain about!

Enjoying a nice cablecar-ride over Da Lats nature

Vietnamese fashion

Our ‘hostel’ in Da Lat

My next destination was Nha Trang a beach-city full of Russian tourists and known for good parties.Unfortunately, I couldn’t really enjoy the beach nor the parties. Somehow, I managed to get a heat stroke and a cold at the same time after the first day! So for three days I was lying in bed trying to cool down my head on the one side and keeping myself warm on the other side. It was not fun at all! These are the moments when I wish to be back home in Germany with someone around who takes care of me…

Nha Trang

Big Buddha at Long Son Pagoda – Nha Trang

But after a down comes an up so therefor the following days in Hoi An got really nice!