My Semi-Disastrous Trip to Ho Tram, Vietnam

Yes, I traveled during a global pandemic. No, I’m not encouraging travel. But I will say for some of us out there, travel is actually kinda safe. Not 100% safe, but safe(ish). Or so I thought when I chose to travel in Vietnam in mid-July.

When I made the decision to take a mini-beach vacation from Ho Chi Minh City to Ho Tram there had been no community spread cases of Covid-19 in nearly three months and no deaths. Vietnam was (and is) doing an incredible job.

After five months of pretty much hanging out in my apartment in Saigon, I decided it was time to get out of the city. The government was promoting domestic travel, most everyone I know was taking trips (domestic of course since Vietnam’s borders are closed), and people in the travel industry were desperately seeking tourist dollars. So, Aaron and I decided to go for it.

After being in the city for 156 days, we just wanted some fresh air, a little bit of nature and a change of scenery. We were so looking forward to a getaway. After a challenging few months, we both really needed it.

But this is us we’re talking about and travel doesn’t always go smoothly for us. Remember our disastrous anniversary in Bali or that time we crashed our motorbikes on Nusa Penida or my taxi ride from hell in Jakarta?

Aside from being walking disasters when it comes to travel, our trip to Ho Tram might not have been such a great idea for a myriad of reasons!

A Literal Guilt Trip to Ho Tram

Tourism is a huge part of Vietnam’s economy and because borders are closed, tourism has come to a grinding halt here. For those of us who are in Vietnam, it’s pretty crazy to be able to experience what are typically jam-packed tourist hotspots while they’re relatively empty. It’s like going back in time to when Aaron and I first Visited Vietnam in 2005. Another perk is that most hotels have drastically reduced their prices by roughly 50%. Clearly none of this is good news to anyone working in the travel industry.

Because we only had a few days before Aaron started work, we opted to go somewhere close to Saigon. We’d heard nothing but rave reviews about a resort in Ho Tram (I’m not going to give the name because I can’t say I was a fan). Typically, we don’t pay more than $30 on hotels in Southeast Asia. Maybe we’ll go up to $50 if we’re splurging. But because we hadn’t traveled in so long and because it was only for a few days we decided to go big and spend $75 on what is typically a $150 room at a beachfront resort.

I kind of cringed when we booked the room because I’m frugal by nature, but at that point I hadn’t had a steady job in four months. The guilt of spending so much money was immediate and it was about to get worse. But Aaron was sweet enough to shell out the $$$ for what was a much-needed trip.

What we didn’t think about is that the only way to get to Ho Tram from Saigon is by driving or taking a ferry to a neighboring city and getting a taxi to Ho Tram. Taxis are generally cheap in Vietnam but not when it comes to getting to Ho Tram. When we booked this particular hotel, we were told that there was a free shuttle that would take us from Saigon to the hotel and back.

When we contacted the hotel, we were informed the shuttle was already booked up for both our arrival and departure dates (odd since there were very few people staying at the resort). Since this trip was so last minute the only option we could come up with was to book a private car for roughly $50 each way. The guilt got even more real.

The next day we got into our private car, masked up of course, and took the 3-hour drive to Ho Tram. The traffic was real. I actually felt like I was in Southern California again. (Those of you who live in Southern California will understand the bumper-to-bumper traffic I’m talking about.)  

Fumigation and Deforestation and Mosquitoes, Oh My

When we got to the hotel, we were blown away by the grounds. The place was like being in a small village in the forest, surrounded by pine trees and a short stroll to the ocean. I’m mean this place was so big we literally got lost trying to find our room on more than one occasion. OK, I got lost. Aaron has excellent navigational skills. I on the other hand literally get lost going in a straight line. True story.

But it really was beautiful.

As we’re being walked to our room we hear a pretty loud buzzing sound and then we start smelling some super noxious fumes. The hotel worker turns around and explains that they are fumigating for mosquitoes from 2:30-4:30 pm. I was like, that seems excessive. The smell was so strong and when we saw the guy with a full-on blower spewing out god knows what it was a bit disconcerting. But this is the tropics and spraying for bugs is normal. I figured this must be something they have to do every now and again. Little did we know that they would do this every day from 2:30-4:30 pm.

Tree Trimming and Chainsaw Buzzing

So at first, we assumed the loud buzzing was from the fumigating but as we were exploring the grounds we found out that a team of workers was actually trimming the trees. Actually, they were pulling down huge branches, felling some trees and cutting all of it up with chainsaws. Over the course of the three days we were there they did this all day, every day. Kinda makes the whole trying-to-relax thing difficult. Thankfully, the grounds were extensive so it didn’t wake us up but trying to chill by the pool was loud. Really loud.

Masses of Mosquitoes

We visited Ho Tram during the rainy season. We expected potentially rough waters, mosquitoes, rain and all that. We’re used to it. But holy shit the sheer amount of mosquitoes was off the hook. If you’ve read my blog for a while you’ll know that mosquitoes love me. And I also have some sort of allergy which makes things worse.

I started getting eaten alive immediately. But I always travel with tons of repellant and my magical salve (see above) that helps stop the itching and irritation. I immediately understood why they were fogging the grounds so aggressively. I also wondered if it was actually helping…or what it would be like had they had not been fumigating.

The Underwhelming Room

I wish I would have taken photos. The room was nice and all but it was pretty much what you’d get for like $25-35 in Vietnam and it was a bit rundown. It was comfy and nicely decorated but I was kind of like, people seriously pay $150 for this? This is very expensive for Vietnam. Obviously, the grounds, pools and oceanfront location are what you pay for at this particular resort.

The Bizarre Open-Air Bathroom

Open-air bathrooms are a thing in Southeast Asia. Sometimes they can be really cool and typically have no roof so you can bathe in the sun. This one wasn’t like that. It was kind of like they just didn’t create a whole wall. There was a roof but on two sides the wall went up for about 12 feet and then just stopped leaving about a 5-foot gap between the wall and thatched roof.

I realize this is designed to allow air to flow into the bathroom and reduce moisture. But seriously, there were some design flaws that posed some issues.

Despite the fact that there were only about 10 guests in the whole place, we were positioned right next to the kid pool. This is a family-friendly resort so all the other guests had kids. The sounds of kids playing sparks joy and all. But not for me at 7 am. Did I mention that the bathroom door was glass? Yeah, so you could hear everything inside the room. Kids included.

The bathroom also filled with mosquitoes at sunrise and sunset each day because the open section had no screen. For me, that’s utterly terrifying. And when they fumigated it would fill our bathroom with whatever chemical they were using.

The wall we shared with our neighbor’s bathroom also had the same 5-foot gap. Nice right? So we could basically hear everything the family next door was doing, even if they were in their room. And if they left any lights on it would light up our room, thanks to the glass bathroom doors. Thankfully they only stayed one night.

And don’t get me started on how awkward all this makes the bathroom situation.

The Ho Tram Shower Incident

This still makes us laugh. Aaron was washing his hands in the bathroom when all of a sudden he hears the man next-door turn on the shower. Aaron opens the bathroom door and silently beckons me. When I get into the bathroom we hear this guy taking the most orgasmic shower ever.

Now, nothing salacious was going on. His young son could be heard splashing around in the bathtub with him and during the rather lengthy shower, he periodically exchanged words with his wife who was presumably in the bedroom. We just kinda stood there dumbfounded. I mean he really enjoyed that shower. Maybe that’s why people pay $150 for these rooms?

Some Unwelcome Ocean Friends

We were super excited to go to the beach. The first thing we did after checking in was walk down to the beach. It was really pretty. Despite being the rainy season, the water looked inviting and I was sure we would spend all of our three days floating in the ocean. After taking a little walk on the beach, we spotted a sign that warned of jellyfish and instructed us to speak with the staff if we got stung.

We had an incident in Gili Trawangan in January where we accidentally swam with and got stung by jellyfish. I can’t say I’m a fan. We didn’t even attempt to go into the ocean in Ho Tram the entire time. Though there were very few guests at the resort we didn’t see anyone else in the water. That’s usually a bad sign.

The Isolation in Ho Tram

Ho Tram is weird. The whole point is to hang out at your resort. Resorts are situated along the coast and everything is really spread out. It’s not like you can walk to other resorts, restaurants or attractions. The resort is all there is. Between the daily fogging, the incessant noise from tree-cutting and the scary jellyfish, we honestly were kind of over it after one night.

Neither of us is generally a fan of massive resorts. Maybe we’ve stayed at one or two during all of our travels. I’m not sure what we were thinking. I think our thoughts were beach, discounted expensive hotel room, get out of Saigon. I think that’s where our thought process ended.

The Longest Checkout Ever

I’m not kidding when I say this resort really looks over your room when you leave. We sat there for 30 minutes as they combed through the room. The lady at reception finally came over after about 20 minutes inquiring about one of the ceramic teacup saucers. I explained that I broke it and that I would gladly pay for it. 10 minutes later she returns with the second saucer, which was chipped. This was not my doing but who’s going to argue about a chipped saucer, so I said I’d pay for that too. These things are mass-produced in Vietnam and cost next to nothing.

We were finally allowed to pay the bill and they explained that the saucers and teacups come as a matching set. So we needed to pay for the two teacups too (these were not broken) and that’d they be happy to wrap them up for us as a souvenir. I smiled and said thank you, but I was perplexed and fairly annoyed. I’m assuming they have a whole stockpile of these things somewhere, but maybe not? So we are now the proud owners of two teacups and a chipped saucer that cost us a whopping $15 (that’s actually really overpriced). At least they bring back fond memories whenever we see them…

The Positives

Yes, there were positives. I might come off sounding super negative about this whole trip but really so many things went wrong it was just kind of comical. In the end, we did manage to have a good time. A lot of people love Ho Tram, it’s just not really my cup of tea (see what I did there?).

A Nearly Abandoned Resort in Ho Tram

First, there were seriously only 10 guests there so we kind of had the place all to ourselves. While most of the trip was a bit of a disaster, we did manage to relax, be really lazy and spend most of our time in the most incredible saltwater pool ever. I love that pool. The best part was, we had it all to ourselves the entire time. Because we were the only people there with no kids, all the other guests were at the kid pool!

The only exception was when a woman and her two little girls dipped in for a few minutes and another time when a dad and his two little boys hung out for about 30 minutes. When do you ever go to a resort and have an enormous and stunning saltwater pool to yourself for three whole days? That pool was our saving grace.

It was also nice to watch the sunset at the beach for the first time in a long time. The beach was really pretty even if we were too scared to swim with the jellyfish. As a San Diego girl being at the beach always makes me happy.

Feeling Safe Traveling During a Pandemic

With so few people at the resort, we felt super safe. There were no cases of Covid-19 in Vietnam (aside from a few caught in government quarantine) and traveling felt fairly normal. It was as if a pandemic didn’t exist in Vietnam. And for the time that we were in Ho Tram, it didn’t. Or so we thought.

Vietnam’s Second Wave

Looking back, I wonder if we should have traveled. Vietnam’s second wave started on July 27, less than two weeks after we returned to Saigon from Ho Tram. The unexpected outbreak started in Da Nang (which is in central Vietnam) but over the course of the following six weeks, various cities in central and northern Vietnam went on lockdown, including the tourist hubs of Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An.

Aaron and I had plans to visit Hue in July, which we had to cancel. But had we visited Hue, we would have had to self-isolate for 14 days here in Saigon and get tested for Covid-19. A lot of our friends who visited central Vietnam in July were required to do this, which wasn’t exactly fun for them. 99 days of no communal spread and wham Vietnam went from roughly 300 cases and no deaths to over 1,000 cases and 35 deaths in a little over a month.

Thankfully, Vietnam has had no new community spread cases for a couple of weeks now. And the second wave appears to be contained. Even still, everyone here is still taking measures to be as cautious as possible. Just about everything has opened back up (aside from borders) and domestic travel is resuming again. It’s a very stark contrast to what is going on in the US, but I’ll save that for another post.

Given my employment situation and the fact that I really need to focus on getting a job, I’m probably going to stay put in Saigon for the time being. I have very strong feelings about travel right now. Most people in most countries shouldn’t travel for leisure, in my opinion. And while I feel like Vietnam is an exception, I still have mixed feelings about travel here. I thought it was safe to travel in July and just like that we got a deadly second wave that was far worse than our first wave. Anyway, we’ll see if a third wave hits. I really hope not but it feels inevitable to me.

I realize that this super lengthy post is one long rant from a person of privilege that’s complaining about some super stupid stuff. I partly wrote it because I’m trying to get writing again and this is what came out. I also just think the whole experience was rather comical.

I know I’m lucky to be in Vietnam, I’m lucky to feel safe, and I’m lucky to have the option to travel safely(ish). I also understand that these tiny complaints make me sounds like a total travel snob. I swear I’m not. I also realize how trivial my complaints are, especially considering the world we live in right now.

Stay safe out there everyone!

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Have you ever had a trip that didn’t go according to plan? Do tell in the comments below!