Pristine white-sand beaches…pine forests amid temperate mountains…street-side baguette sellers…corner cafes…pastel-coloured churches and mulberry wine… You’ll find it all in this fascinating country.
Most people who think of Ho Chi Minh City imagine streets teeming with motorcycles, the clank-clank-clank of new hotels and skyscrapers going up and a never-ending whirl of locals and tourists caught up in the energy and excitement of big city life. And you can certainly find that here. But there’s so much more to Ho Chi Minh City…
“Is this the biggest Jesus in the world?” That’s the question I found myself asking as I marvelled at the imposing statue standing 32 metres tall and spanning 18 metres wide, perched high on a hilltop before me. This impressive Christ the King statue is even larger than Rio de Janeiro’s famed Christ the Redeemer but, as it turns out, it’s not quite the world’s biggest Jesus, it ranks third.
My husband, Tim, and I were 44 and 49 when we left Australia with a plan to travel for a year then work for a year. That was in 2010. Six years, and many adventures later, we’re semi-retired and teaching English in Vietnam.
It’s impossible to keep Jo Thomson and her husband Marc Brand, both in their 60s, in one place for long. For them, living the “good life” means bouncing around the globe to hidden corners of the world that some of us only dream of visiting. For many years, they’ve had a particular interest in the delights and mysteries of Southeast Asia, and they’ve found a remarkable home base from which to explore the region: Nha Trang, Vietnam.
This is Hoi An in Vietnam and it really is a special place. It’s home to the most breathtaking stretch of beach I saw in this whole region.
