Day 9 - Leaving Vietnam, Saying Goodbye, Arriving In Tokyo

August 25, 2019 Matthew Johnson

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Today was a day of travel and goodbyes.

We woke up at 3:30 AM for our taxi ride to the airport.

It went smoothly except my stomach had been bothering me the day before and again today. So I felt off all morning.

Here’s a post I made about waiting for the plane.

The food on the plane didn’t help my queasiness.

Our arrival at Narita airport also brought about the splitting up of our travel group. Hailey and Noah headed back to Seattle. It was awesome to spend the last 9 days together and sad to have to say goodbye. The time went so fast.

We love you and miss you Hailey and Noah!

We continued on to immigration and customs. There’s a very definite Nintendo vibe going in here!

Long train ride to our Airbnb…

Are you sure you know where we’re going Dad?

The Airbnb is great. Very Japanese!

Noodle soup and Japanese beer before bed. Yum!

Tomorrow our Tokyo adventure begins!!!

Day 8 - Ho Chi Minh City

August 24, 2019 Matthew Johnson

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It’s our last full day in Vietnam. We got up early to catch a flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City.

We arrived too early to check into our hotel so we went to eat lunch and make one last pass through the big market.

We wandered around before shopping to try one more coffee shop called “Legend Coffee” famous for their “energy” coffee. It was very snooty and expensive! My Cafe Sua Da cost $7.50 USD! 😳🤯 It didn’t taste any better than the $1 coffees. Oh well, we wanted to try it and we did. Plus I think whatever made to coffee so expensive also made me feel ill the rest of the day. 🤢

Jaedan contemplating if he can drink his sour orange drink. It was super duper sour!

Then we did some shopping. One last trip to the big market.

Jaedan trying on a cool jacket pant combo.

The girls bought áo dàis to wear for some photos in front of the “Notre-Dame” of Vietnam.

In front of the old post office building.

Well that’s a wrap on Vietnam. We get up at 3:30 AM local time to go to the airport. We all fly to Japan. Hailey and Noah continue on back to the United States. 😔 We don’t want to part ways yet. It’s gone by too fast!

Okay.. one more group photo! Catching a late dinner at the Street Food Market. Then off to bed.

Day 7 - Da Nang & Ba Na Hills

August 24, 2019 Matthew Johnson

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Our last day in Da Nang started out with a swim.

After cleaning up we took a taxi over to the part of town where Tien’s aunts live. We stopped for lunch before visiting the aunties. We were all hungry and the restaurant that Lam recommended delivered on that recommendation! The food was outstanding.

We walked a couple blocks to where the Aunties live. It was full of good coffee shops according to Lam.

From the Aunties house we took a “Grab” car to the Ba Na Hills. It was about a 30 minute drive and took us out to see some of the countryside.

Our plans was to see the giant hands bridge. We had no idea they were part of a huge amusement park built on top of several mountaintops.

Everyone takes cable cars up to see the hands bridge at visit the amusement park.

The bridge is very beautiful, even if it’s all a bit artificial, an attraction in a much larger amusement park area.

You can see Da Nang off in the distance.

Um, that’s a Starbucks up here on top of a mountain in this huge amusement park complex. We barely saw any Starbucks in Vietnam.

We did not expect a full fledged amusement park at SunWorld.

Shelby is serious about riding the alpine coaster at SunWorld.

We had this running joke where one of us would say “There’s the Buddha” every time we saw the giant Buddha statue, which was a lot.

One more trip to the bridge on our way to the giant Buddha.

Visiting Sunworld in the Ba Na Hills was like an episode of the twilight zone according to Caelan. It was so totally not what we were expecting and yet a tremendous amount of fun!

This was our last full day in Da Nang. We have 1/2 a day tomorrow in Ho Chi Minh City and then we head to Japan.

Day 6 - An Evening In Hoi An

August 23, 2019 Matthew Johnson

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After cleaning up and cooling off a bit from our swim we headed to Hoi An via a taxi. It’s about a 30 minute drive from Da Nang.

Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site and was recently voted the best small city to visit in the world by a leading travel magazine.

Our first stop was dinner at a pho restaurant along the river.

After dinner we walked along the river through the outdoor markets. It was a perfect night to be out wandering through this ancient city.

And then the magic happened. The markets thinned out and we were in the old part of town with the lanterns and the boats. The light from the fading sunset was just enough to give the water a blue tint to enhance the reflections from all the wonderfully colored lanterns.

We spent the rest of the evening wandering through the streets taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. We shopped for lanterns and other gifts and just enjoyed our time together.

This is a magical spot in the world. I’ll never forget being here with the people I love.

Tomorrow we’re going to the beach, to visit the Aunties, and tour the Ba Na Hills.

Real-time Update - Friday, August 23 at 5:30 AM (local time in Ho Chi Minh City)

August 22, 2019 Matthew Johnson

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Due to intermittent or slow WiFi and not much downtime during our trip, the blog is a few days behind with where we currently are and what we’re currently doing.

As I type this we are at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City waiting for our flight to Narita airport to begin the Japan leg of our trip.

Stay tuned for more post about Vietnam and then updates from Japan!