Sentence with X

After Têt, I had one more week of vacation, which I naturally wanted to use to travel around a bit more.

I decided to visit the world-famous karst landscape in northeastern Vietnam. But instead of going to the overcrowded Halong Bay, I preferred to go to a place with less tourist traffic, so I took the bus to Cam Pha. This city, located on the edge of Bai Tu Long Bay, which is supposed to have the same geomorphological features as its famous sister, classified as a World Heritage Site, seemed perfect for my short trip. Upon arrival, I made my way to my hotel. To my surprise, the streets were empty. The city with a population of 195,000 seemed like a ghost town. The fine drizzle that dominated the weather the next day fit this picture perfectly.

The lady at the reception didn't speak English, so we communicated through Google Translate. My plan to rent a small rowboat or something similar to sail around the bay was quickly dashed. There was no rental service here, and there was also no tourist information that could help me. To make matters worse, 90 percent of the shops and restaurants were closed. I thought to myself, "That's a bummer," and briefly considered going to Halong Bay after all, but after a short internet search, I realized that you can only have a good vacation there on one of those passenger ships.

So I had no choice but to stay for two days and make the best of the situation. The next day, I explored the city a bit, although there wasn't much to explore, and I passed the time by eating Pho. This was the absolute highlight of this trip because the Pho at a small street food stall at an intersection was one of the best I have ever eaten in Vietnam. And at a price of around 90 cents, it was quite affordable.

During my time in Cam Pha, I often wondered if it was the right decision to visit a place that is not known to offer anything in any way. But isn't that the beauty of spontaneous travel? Just driving into the unknown without even knowing what to expect. I find this kind of travel very refreshing, even if I didn't have much luck this time.