EXCELLENT HOSTS, FEELING AT HOME, LATE NIGHT JAMS, REUNIFICATION DAY AND BEACH PARTIES
HEADING TO LA GI
Another day, and fortunately another ridiculously cheap Uber ride. We were leaving Ho Tram after one night to head to the small beachside town of La Gi. I assumed Uber wouldn’t stretch this far into the more rural parts of Vietnam, but I managed to reel one in who was presumably on their way back to the city.
350,000 Dong (approx. £12) and we had a leisurely 1 hour ride through small seaside villages and farming communities on our way to La Gi.
LA GI FARMSTAY
The taxi dropped us off and we walked up a short dusty trail until we found where we were staying – La Gi Farmstay.
What a place. What a place!
We’d booked to stay in a dorm room at the property, but there’d been some mix up on the booking website and the reservation hadn’t come through properly.
As luck would have it though, another couple had just cancelled and there was one private room free. Relief!
This room was perfect. A large double bed and lovely en suite bathroom. Complete with a seating area and hammocks outside, looking over the lake.
After checking into the room we made our way up to the dining area, where the host, Tri, made us feel incredibly welcome.
The following day was the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, or ‘reunification day’ as it’s known. Tri had many members of his extended family staying at his farm to celebrate the occasion and they invited us to eat traditional Vietnamese food with them and drink home made rice wine.
We instantly felt at home here and the warmth we received from Tri’s family was incredible. I really wanted to be able to stay here for longer than one night, but with more of Tri’s family arriving the next day for the celebrations, sadly it wasn’t possible.
After lunch the heavens opened. We were getting used to this in Vietnam with rain showers being quite regular at this time of year.
We hung out on our porch, watching the rain fall into the lake. It cooled the day off quite nicely.
An hour or so later, the rain passed and we headed down to the beach, while we had the chance.
LA GI BEACH
We left the farmstay, along with a few other guests and took an ox-driven cart down to the beach.
I felt a little guilty doing this, as I felt a bit sorry for the animal being used to transport people, but it also felt rude to decline the offer. I could have walked at the same pace to be honest!
La Gi was definitely not a touristy town and the locals seemed surprised and happy to see us, including this dude who was working away in the heat:
La Gi beach was very similar to what we’d seen in Ho Tram, many fishermen working the beach and many stalls selling their catch of the day.
Further up the beach there were many more ox-driven carts, transporting people up and down the seafront. A change to the British tradition of donkey rides, I guess.
LA GI BEACH PARTY
We wandered further down the beach and got to a point where they were setting up for what seemed like a pretty huge beach party. I figured that maybe this was a regular thing, but seeing as it was reunification day the following day, perhaps this was going to be something extra special.
We sat at a tiki bar, watching the number of revellers slowly fill up, while sinking numerous G&Ts.
As the sun set over the beach, the party really started to kick off. There was a a large stage overlooking the beach, with a DJ playing to those on the shoreline and booze being sold from a camper van.
We spent hours dancing and drinking on the beach with the locals. They were so surprised and happy to see Westerners celebrating with them, that they kept coming up asking for pictures taken with us and offering us drinks.
It was such an awesome spontaneous night. These are often the best nights. We had no idea that this beach party would be going on, or that it would be so incredible. I felt so lucky to have stumbled across it and to have such great memories from it.
BACK AT THE FARM
We walked back to the farm, along darkened roads with the roar of scooters racing past and the cacophony of frogs chirping.
When we arrived back at the farm, we were greeted by Tri and a couple of his relatives, who were still up drinking Tiger beer and having a sing song.
We joined them for several hours, drinking cold beer from an ice box, courtesy of Tri and having a great jam session.
We were up drinking and singing with them until around 4a.m. where Tri came out with the immortal quote:
“The more beer we drink, the more we know.” Tri, 2017.
A truly incredible day and experience. Certainly the highlight of Vietnam so far. Thank you La Gi for an amazing time.
ONTO MÜI NÉ
After only one night in La Gi it was sadly time to move on and we headed to Müi Né.
Tri organised a driver to take us there. As it was a national holiday in Vietnam it was more expensive than normal, but we were grateful that he could arrange this for us.
We had breakfast at the farm, gathered our things and, with a moderate hangover and a headful of great memories, we were on the road again.
