During this segment we felt trusted into some of Vietnam’s most tourist hot spots with our stays in Can Tho, Da Nang and Hoi An. Until our arrival in Can Tho, we used our (small) stack of Canadian bills to obtain local currency in exchange, hence we had not done any cash withdrawals at an ABMs since our first day entering into Malaysia – almost two months ago. As we found very few money exchange offices in Can Tho, we thought we would withdraw some funds at an ABM to get us to the next town. Unfortunately, it was not that easy. Well, we guessed that when we contacted the Tangerine call center last January before our trip, the agent must have been bored of recording the list of countries we were going to visit as they dropped off a few from their system.

2023.03.13 – Can Tho – Can Tho (Vietnam)

As much as the streets were overflowing with folks last night, this morning they were deserted. We kept on wondering where everyone was. We decided to try our hands at cycling along some countryside roads. As we located a bicycle tour/rental company on the outskirts of town, we took a Grab to a location outlined on the company’s website. As the Grab dropped us in a small alleyway, we knew we were in for some unexpected saga. After walking in the area for a bit and asking (via Google Translate) every local we could find, we concluded that we would not find the expected cycling rental business. We opted to walk 1.5kms to the Cai Rang Floating Market area where we hoped we could catch a boat ride back to the town pier. Unfortunately, we could not locate any boats either for our journey back. We took a Grab back to the town center. As we were strolling along the riverfront, we came across an old lady who was selling a 3 hour tour to the main tourist attraction in Can Tho: the Cai Rang Floating Market (including three other typical attractions). We liked the proposed duration and the fact that we would be riding on a small boat called sampan. We left a small deposit with the old lady with the understanding that we would be meeting up with her tomorrow morning at 5am. Upon returning to the hotel, we inquired at the reception about a lingering cigarette smoke smell in our room. We were stunned to learn that we had been assigned a smoking room. We promptly requested a change of room to a non-smoking floor. In the afternoon, we visited a few ABMs to replenish our local fund stash. Surprisingly, I tried 5+ ABMs from different banks with no success. Thankfully, our restaurant accepted our credit card for dinner. In the evening, I reached out to our bank’s client support and realized that they had failed to register the proper authorization for four countries where we were traveling to – Vietnam was one of them. I was told that the issue would take 1 to 2 business days to get resolved!

2023.03.14 – Can Tho – Can Tho (Vietnam)

We woke up at 4:20am to reach the pier for our Cai Rang Floating Market tour. To our delight, the old lady was waiting for us. She quickly brought us to a sampan operated by another lady. We started at 4:45am for our 6kms journey down the river towards the market in total darkness. It was really surprising to see how many local activities took place in the early hours of the morning. An early arrival at the floating market was essential to fully appreciate the peak of trading activity. We arrived in the area as the sun was slowly rising. The river leading to the floating market was overwhelmed by tourist boats of different sizes. Sadly many floating markets in Vietnam kept on shrinking in size as the locals adopted the larger grocery store convenience. We were back at our hotel by 7:45am in plenty of time to enjoy our hotel’s breakfast. Although our sampan lady driver did not speak English, nonetheless we appreciated our modest tour at $23cdn total while other similar tourist packages were $23 usd per person. Later, we visited two additional tourist sites with the help of Grab. Along the way, we exchanged some cdn dollars into local currency at a jewelry store. Shortly after noon, we returned to our room for a well needed nap in order to recover from our early morning wake up. Now we understood where all the tourists were during the day: they were all resting or sleeping. In the early evening as we stepped out of the hotel for our dinner, we stopped at an ABM I had tried the previous day and to my surprise, the machine dispensed a stack of 50K local notes. Along the way, we discovered an inexpensive hot pot restaurant in a nearby shopping mall where we ate our dinner.

2023.03.15 – Can Tho – Da Nang (Vietnam)

After breakfast, we took a Grab to the airport where we checked in for our 12:35 flight to Da Nang. While we were waiting in the departure lounge, Jenny heard her name was called over the airport lousy intercom. She showed up to the airlines counter to be told that her checked-in backpack contained a restricted item. It turned out that her small headlight we had bought in Malaysia for our Mula cave visit was deemed dangerous as it contained a small battery. Based on this experience, it seemed like the previous dozen of airports we went through failed their safety screening or some zealous safety people working at the small Can Tho airport were justifying their job. We moved the headlight to our carry-on daily backpack and everyone was happy. Our flight was delayed by 45mins due to a late arrival of the airplane. This was our first time we encountered any flight delay on this trip. From Da Nang airport, we took a Grab to our hotel. We had some tacos for dinner at a nearby Vietnamese Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

2023.03.16 – Da Nang – Da Nang (Vietnam)

Our hotel offered us breakfast “à la carte”. Later, we took a Grab to visit the nearby Marble Mountains. We spent almost 2hrs visiting the site as we enjoyed the work-out going up/down stairs. As we were about to order our Grab to return to our hotel, a local offered us a ride for the same price as Grab – we accepted. The driver spoke reasonable English. We learned along the way, that Grab typically took 35% or so commission on their fare. At the end of the ride, we exchanged WhatsApp numbers in order to call him for our drive to Hoi An on Saturday. We spent most of the afternoon doing some trip planning including our Laos eVisa application, our Halong Bay 3d/2n cruise booking, airfare purchase, hotel reservation, etc. In the early evening we took a Grab to a shopping mall in the hope of purchasing a replacement USB-C cable that started to fail. We left the shopping mall without any purchase. We walked along the riverfront to the lively Son Tra Night Market where we had our dinner. We selected a combo plater of fresh seafood (3 small lobsters, squid, prawns, oysters, clams, etc) which the staff cooked everything to perfection for us. We did like the locals – we sat on tiny plastic chairs and low table while we ate our delicious seafood. Later as we strolled along the market’s alleys, we managed to purchase two USB-C cables for the price of one at the shopping mall. There’s a good reason that Son Tra Night Market was considered a tourist attraction as the atmosphere was really full of life – even the tour buses dropped off their guests there to enjoy the vibrant night life. We returned to our hotel with another Grab.

2023.03.17 – Da Nang – Da Nang (Vietnam)

After breakfast, we spent some time for additional trip planning and expenditure tracking. Later, we took a Grab to temple site some 11 kms away. The tallest Buddha statue in Vietnam, dubbed the Lady Budha, at 67m stood on this site. The site was overwhelmed with tour bus guests which made the visit less enjoyable. We were pleased when our Grab driver offered to wait for us while we visited the site. Unfortunately, we struggled for 15 mins to find him in the parking lot at the end of visit. We finally understood from another Grab driver that he had likely taken on some other passengers for his return into town. Back at the hotel in the early afternoon, we rested in our room for several hours. We reviewed and selected some our photos before heading out for dinner. We wrapped up our evening, with a long walk along the ocean walkway. We stopped for modest sampling of ice cream before returning to our room. The Irish Pub near our hotel was in full St-Patrick’s Day mode when we passed by.

2023.03.18 – Da Nang – Hoi An (Vietnam)

We relaxed while enjoying our last breakfast à-la-carte in Da Nang. We checked out of our room at 12:00pm and waited 15 mins for a driver who we had enjoyed on our ride back from Marble Mountains the other day. Unfortunately, the driver failed to show up in time. We ordered an official Grab to the ride to Hoi An – some 21 kms away. As we arrived in Hoi An, we could see that the city was highly coveted by foreigners of all countries. As we stepped out of our hotel before sunset, we joined a chorus of visitors walking along the night market stalls setup on the street in front of our hotel. We splurged on a 20 mins boat ride lighted with Chinese lanterns. The river was covered, at time, with so many boats. For our dinner, we opted to try out different food items from the street market.

2023.03.19 – Hoi An – Hoi An (Vietnam)

We were looking forward to cycling the Hoi An countryside with the free bicycle offered by our hotel. When we came down for breakfast, there were six bicycles waiting at the door. By the time we finished our breakfast and prepared ourselves for our cycling outing, there were only 2 bicycles left. We enjoyed most of our 27 kms loop – except for the last few busy kms. Back at the hotel, only one bicycle was still unaccounted for. We picked up some beer and water before returning to our room for a well deserved shower. In the early evening, we exchanged some additional cdn bills into the local currency. The sheer quantity of money exchange booth was indicative of the touristy nature of the town. We had a great meal at a Vietnamese restaurant we found on TripAdvisor. As it was located some distance away from the touristy area, its plates proved to be very good value.