'Same Same' is a phrase heard all of SE Asia and I only discovered its meaning whilst in Vietnam. 'Same Same But Different' is used by sellers of every description selling fake or forged stuff. It has transferred to everyday use and even when looking at a food menu if something is the same price it's always 'Same Same'. The town of Mui Ne is what I would describe as being 'Same Same But Boring'. There were beaches just like Nha Trang and Hoi An, but unlike Nha Trang and Hoi An it has absolutely no character. I was glad to only be their for one day to be honest.
So other than its nice beach, there's not an awful lot to say about Mui Ne (or myyy kneeeeeeee! as we called it) so I'll skip straight to Saigon. Ho Chi Minh city (or Saigon as it's called by everyone here) is a massive metropolis of a city. It's very noisy and not too expensive either. We spent 2 nights here giving us one full day to enjoy the city. Following the walking tour map offered in the Lonely Planet weset out to see the sights. There's a huge indoor market where I found myself buying more stuff I probably don't need, but it's so cheap!! We went into the best ice cream parlour in existance, Fanny's. Fanny's was brilliant! It cost a fair bit but you can get just about any ice cream combination ever. The fact that it was so hot was excuse enough to spend a ton on ice cream. We continued our walking tour and it took us over to a pagoda and on to the War Remnants Museum. You need a couple of hours to see the museum. It's not got a whole lot of information on the actual war itself it's mostly 'Look at what the nasty Americans did to us'. It was really interesting though and some of it really hard to take in. They showed a replica of the cages they kept war prisoners in and the torture methods they used, agent orange victims, the guns, bombs, and other weaponry used, and so on.
I've also started to get a strange hayfever type illness. In the war remnants museum my eyes were so red and puffy that it probably looked like I was crying, not that there wasn't cause not to! Piriton seems to have fixed me up though. That evening we went for some street food and it was back to the backpacker basics of point and hope with the menu. Worked pretty well. We walked around some of the markets for a couple of hours before heading home. Before we called it a day we organised ourselves for the remainder of our stay in Vietnam. We booked ourselves in for a trip to the famous Viet Cong tunnels (which we are going to tommorow) and booked our bus out of Vietnam and into Cambodia. We also arranged to get some motorbikes.
The following morning we had some breakfast, checked our map, got our motorbikes and drove out of the city. It's the same type of bike from before. 100cc manual fake (Same Same But Different) Honda. Driving out of one of the most densely populated areas in the country on motorbikes wasn't easy and we kept losing one another, but in the end we got out of town and started driving south. Once you get onto the open road and let loose it's so much fun. We didn't stick to the speed limits mainly because no one does since the speed limits are ludicrously low. 20km/hr in the towns and 40km/hr outside. We stopped a couple of times and it took a total of around 2 hours to get to our first destination My Tho. Arriving in the town we immediately saw the difference to everywhere else we've been to in 'Nam. No tour operators, no sun glasses salesmen/women, no tourists! Bliss!
We set down our bags (we only took our small bags for this expedition) and went for a traditional lunch of Pho. Pho is Vietnams speciality and is a noodle soup with lots of veg and meat, and it tastes amazing! We met our soon-to-be fried Truc who owned the cafe we were eating at. After lunch we drove outside of the town to the snake farm. We got a bit lost on the way but got there eventually. The farm has a lot of snakes, which we took pictures of whilst they got angry with us. It also had some bears they were nursing back to health, ostriches, otters, and loads of birds. After looking around we decided to stop there for dinner and try another Vietnamese speciality - snake! They guy didn't speak any English and we had a bit of fun miming snake actions to try and get some equal understanding. He went off and we sort of looked at each other, ready to just give up, until he came back with a massiv elive snake in his hands. He pointed at it and mimed eating. Me and Andy nodded ferverently getting really excited whilst Alice, who had gone completely white, and Briony, cowering on the other side of the table, stared at the snake. We saw our guy with the snake a few minutes later also in his hands a pint glass with some clear liquid in it, and a pair of scissors. We followed him round back and watched him snip off the snakes head and drain its blood into the pint glass!!
It took a long time for the snake to cook but it eventually came out chopped in neat slices in a sort of meaty broth dish. Our guy told us to put the noodles in our bowls and poul the broth on with some bits of snake meat. The snake meat was really nice. It tasted a bit like pork but a bit fishy. We also ate the snakes intestines and liver, which weren't so nice. The snake skin was really chewy and a bit sickly but it was okay. This was one of our most expensive dishes since we came away travelling but was definately worth it. It cost 500,000VND, around 17 pounds, so not too bad. It was dark by the time we finished so we had to drive home in the dark for the first time. We went slow and were fine. We went for a rooftop drink at a bar, which enjoyed playing a strange mix of music, dance and techno stuff. Bit strange in its setting.
We went back to Trucs the following morning for breakfast and agreed to take his boat tour of the neighbouring islands across the Mekong. We boarded his boat and he took us first to the island where he lives, Pheonix island. He took us through the island and we tasted some fruit picked from the source then and there. We also tried this strange leaf thing that tasted a lot like lemon! Out on the other side of the island our boat was waiting for us and it took us to Tortoise island. We tried some more fruit and visited the Coconut Candy factory. As far as factories go this has to be one of the most primative. It is simply and small machine for crushing coconuts and another small machine to mix it with sugar and other such ingredients. Next to that is a table with some women packing the finished sweets. Truc was a lot of fun and though we bought some, he decided to steal more off them!! We then drifted round some small rivers coming off the Mekong and it was absolutely incredible. It was like floating through the middle of a jungle. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed Elephant fish. The 1 and a half kilo fish came to us intact, but deep fried. A guy that worked there helped us with it. You take off the meat, put it in some rice paper with noodles and vegetables, roll it up and dip it in tamarind sauce. It was really good and the guy stayed with us chatting about his life. He'd learnt English by himself and wanted to practice it. He convinced us to stay there for the night.
It was a sort of homestay where the family lived there but they had another building with some rooms in it. It was basically a guest house but because it is in a really remote place (right on the Mekong and away from the city) they named it a homestay. It was great fun. We lay out on hammocks by the river until it got dark and then sat on a little bridge watching the bats swoop along eating mosquitoes.
Next day we hopped back on our bikes to Ben Tre. Again we got split up when we arrived but it didn't take too long to find each other. We had some food and went to a pagoda by the lake. There wasn't really much in Ben Tre and we had already decided to pay it a visit before heading out to Vinh Long. The Lonely Planet however had given turned us the wrong way. We went by the direction on the map in the book, which led us to no where! After 2 hours of scouring the rouds we saw no way to Vinh Long other than to go back to My Tho and take the highway from there. As we were driving randomly in a direction that we thought was to Ving Long we hit some roadworks. The roads were horrible and if you break on them the bike skids out really badly. Unfortunetly Briony and Alice did just that. Briony was driving with Alice on the back and they skidded out and the bike toppled. They were completely fine bar some grazed knee's but they were a bit shook up so we stopped for a drink.
Back to My Tho we went and by the time we got there there was little point in heading out again. So we scrapped Vinh Long and stayed another night in My Tho. Truc was happy to see us again and we were happy to see more Pho in front of us. Next morning was this morning and we got some breakfast before heading back to Saigon. The drive didn't seem to take as long as before though we were worried that when we got back they might notice the scratches on the side of Alice and Brionys bike - we had signed a contract of sorts to rent the bikes which stated they can charge us $500 dollars should anything happen to the bikes. As it was they didn't notice and everything was good.
So back in Saigon again and we are internetting to try and sort ourselves out for Australia. If anyone has any useful info on finding work or a place to stay let me know. I've just noticed this internet cafe is surrounded by fish tanks.
PS. Sorry Paul, I realised that it was the jacket and shirt I bought that cost $45. The suit and 2 shirts was $95 I think.
About Me
Sunday 28 June 2009
Sunday 21 June 2009
Touring Vietnam - Nha Trang & Dalat
Hi everybody. I'm having a fantastic time in Vietnam and I feel I'm getting deeper into its culture after every city I visit. The sleeper bus to Nha Trang was the best sleeper bus I've been on by far! There was enough room to stretch legs and I even got some sleep!! We arrived in Nha Trang early and spent about half an hour going around looking for a cheap place to stay. We got a really nice place for $9 a room, following a motorbike ride around Nha Trang trying to find room. Since we actaully slept on this sleeper bus we headed straight off. Briony managed to get some sand in her eye the day before (recurring theme) so we went to get that removed first. Luckily the hospital was just around the corner and Briony was absolutely fine after. We got some breakfast and went 'round some tour operators to sort out our time in Nha Trang. We booked ourselves in on a boat tour around the surrounding islands for the next day.
Today though we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach. Andy managed to anger a 12 year old beach seller (by that I mean a girl who walks around with a basket of tat and sweets) who chased him around the beach for a while. Meanwhile we went for a swim in the sea. The beach is beautiful and sea cool, and we didn't get mauled by the crazy jellyfish stingy things. A few hours later we got ourselves dry and I walked about town. I went into a really odd art gallery that I can't even begin to describe. The people were very friendly though and some of it was really cool.A walk down the beach later took us to what we considered to be an "expensive bar". It cost 60,000VND for a ltr of beer. That's 2 pounds. Which, yes is very expensive for Vietnam. But it was own brewed, and it was really good. Also, the bar had a swimming pool, which was ace. We went back, got dinner, had an early night.
Boat day! Early pick up at the hotel and a minibus ride to the dock. We boarded the boat with some other Western and Asian tourists to find our guide was completely mental. His introductions made him sound insane but he was a lot of fun. At the first stop we threw ourselves off the boat and got some snorkals. Snorkling was amazing! Me and Alice went out to the reef and saw loads of jellyfish, corals, and all sorts of colourful and strange fish. Back on the boat and our crazy guide and his merry companions got out some homemade drums, a guitar and some mic's. Listening to some pretty good Vietnamese versions of Western rock songs and all of us singing "We all live in a yellow submarine!" they invited everyone onto the stage to dance along. Alice and Briony duly obliged while I got a really good video of the two. We had some lunch, which was really good. Though some of the other Westerners didn't like it... more for us!! At the next stop was the... urm... free wine tasting. This involved our guide floating about in the water with a bar strapped to him pouring foul tasting wine into our cups. It was made even more foul tasting since we were just swimming about in the sea trying desperately (and in vain) to hold our drinks above the water. So basically everything tasted of sea water. Great fun! Next stop was our last before going back to the dock. Me and Andy got off the boat to visit the famed aquarium. It was surrounded by massive, gaudy looking stone statues of sharks and octupi, etc, etc. It also had a really odd layoutmaking it impossible to know where you were supposed to be going. It was really cool though. We saw sharks and giant turtles (not in the same tank), and loads of really cool fish. Some I recognised from Dad's fish tank and others I saw when I was snorkling.
Next morning we left for Dalat. My seat wasn't really attached to the bus, but it wasn't too much of a bother until we started coming into Dalat. It's sort of up a mountainso there are a lot of winding roads. We had a reception I wasn't expecting when we arrived in Dalat. We are used to arriving somewhere and being mobbed by hundreds of people trying to usher us into their hotels. Not Dalat. No one wanted us at all. They all make a hand signal we worked out later to mean simply "No!" So we walked around the town a bit until we eventually found someone to put us up - about 2 dozen guest houses and hotels later. So we got a room and it only costs us $3 a night each so that's pretty good. Dalat itself is really nice and so we're out on a mission to change the locals views on Westerners. Some people love us, but some just completely refuse to give any assistance whatsoever.
So day one Dalat and we did absolutely nothing! It was a relatively long bus ride and after the ordeal of finding a place to stay we just chilled out in our room, which, by the way, is in a basement. So we stayed in and watched Jurassic Park. Day two Dalat was a lot more exciting. We got up and after breakfast me and Andy rented motorbikes and Alice and Briony got on the back of bike taxi's and we drove off to a waterfall outside of town. Me and Andy immediately lost each other. It isn't particularly easy to learn how to use gears in Dalat. It's extremely hilly, full of one way streets, and there are other bikes everywhere!! We found each other at the petrol station and headed out to the waterfall... again. The waterfall itself was a massive dissapointment. You can't swim in it and it wasn't particularly exciting to see. There was, however, a rollercoaster... Although that was pretty rubbish too! Our excitment was driving around windy countryside roads on motorbikes. It was fantastic fun and when we got back to Dalat we took the girls for a spin around the big lake at the center of the city. We stopped and watched the kites. If anyone's read the book The Kite Runner, well it looked exactly how you imagine the hundreds of kites in that. We then drove to an attraction called 'Crazy House'. This 'Crazy House' is indeed crazy though I am yet to understand the point of it. It's a surreal, Alice-in-Wonderland-esque, expensive guest house. Complete with a giant kangeroo next to your bed with redlight bulbs for eyes. It was extremely odd, didn't give us an inkling of Vietnamese culture or any knowledge about it's people... but it was kinda fun! We got back to the hotel in time to watch the third installment of Jurassic Park - haha, we're so sad!
Day three Dalat was even MORE exciting than day two! Me and Andy got up super early to fo 'Canyoning'. Canyoning is basically abseiling... down canyons. It wasn't a long day out but in 4 hours we abseiled down 4 different cliffs, all completely different. The first was a 20mtr sheer cliff face, which means lots of lumping. The second was another cliff edge that ended in the river. The third was actually IN a waterfall - not a little one either, this was huge! - where at the end, which was still 6-7 mtrs up, the rope runs out and you jump off into the pool below. The final abseil took us down a cliff to hit the top of a waterfall that drags you around into the pool. Again the rope runs out and you have to just drop. (Don't worry Parents, we had life jackets and helmets!) The bits between all these amazing abseils were just as fun. Trekking trough the jungle where you wade waist deep in rivers was just incredible! Also we got to waterfall which was really smooth rock allowing us to slide into the pool below. At first sight it looks really dangerous and stupid... which it probably was, but it was brilliant fun! The other thing we did in this trip was launch ourselves over a cliff and waterfall 20mtrs high into the pool below! I was absolutely cacking myself and still can't work out why I did it... twice!!
We got back to the hotel earlier than we thought and rented bikes to race off and try to find the girls. We somehow bumped into them (not literally) about 10km's outside of the city going to a different waterfall. We all went off to another waterfall another 20km's away. My motorbike today wasn't as good as yesterday. The speedo didn't work, not did the gear indicator... but I got by okay. It is brilliant fun driving around Dalat because of all the hills and twisty roads. This other waterfall was again pretty lame. Well actually, the waterfall itself was really cool. It's just surrounded by rubbish crap. For example there's a huge stone elephant about 15' high supplying a rickety bridge to the otherside. You can also sit on an Elephant, though you can't go anywhere, and an Ostrich, which will take you around in a small circle. So we drove back to the hotel and now I am here writing this excessively long post!
Just a few thoughts I want to get down about Vietnam. It is a beautiful country and the people here are so nice. Everything is new and up-to-date, since everything else was blown apart by bombs and little of what remains of old Vietnam exists along the coast. What ruins Vietnam for me are the foreigners. It's no surprise no one in Dalat wants to give us a room. It's much more untouched and much less touristy than most of the other places we've been and it's perfectly understandable why they would want to keep it that way. I barely spotted a single person from England in China, but SE Asia is absolutely full of them. But they aren't travellers or backpackers. They are gap year louts who want an extended holiday. They don't care about the culture or what it is they are ruining. They just want to get drunk and do the Oz/SE Asia "route". As you can probably tell it does frustrate me, so I'll keep enjoying Vietnam and SE Asia in my own way and to anyone who wants to visit in the future, just think about what it is you want out of travelling... if you don't care about a country's culture or history then piss off back to Malaga!! End rant.
Another thing: Andy has put some photo's of Vietnam up on his Flikr account. You can get to this by clicking on the link top left of this page where it says "Picture and Videos from Andy". Hope everyone is doing okay and enjoying their summer! I can't begin to tell you how much I am enjoying mine!!
PS. Paul, I think my suit + 2 shirts was around $45. I spent a lot more than that though since I bought so much other stuff! I probably wouldn't have but loads of people gave me birthday money and I thought, what better thing to spend it on!? How long till you leave? Oh and could you give me you're e-mail address?
Today though we decided to spend a bit of time on the beach. Andy managed to anger a 12 year old beach seller (by that I mean a girl who walks around with a basket of tat and sweets) who chased him around the beach for a while. Meanwhile we went for a swim in the sea. The beach is beautiful and sea cool, and we didn't get mauled by the crazy jellyfish stingy things. A few hours later we got ourselves dry and I walked about town. I went into a really odd art gallery that I can't even begin to describe. The people were very friendly though and some of it was really cool.A walk down the beach later took us to what we considered to be an "expensive bar". It cost 60,000VND for a ltr of beer. That's 2 pounds. Which, yes is very expensive for Vietnam. But it was own brewed, and it was really good. Also, the bar had a swimming pool, which was ace. We went back, got dinner, had an early night.
Boat day! Early pick up at the hotel and a minibus ride to the dock. We boarded the boat with some other Western and Asian tourists to find our guide was completely mental. His introductions made him sound insane but he was a lot of fun. At the first stop we threw ourselves off the boat and got some snorkals. Snorkling was amazing! Me and Alice went out to the reef and saw loads of jellyfish, corals, and all sorts of colourful and strange fish. Back on the boat and our crazy guide and his merry companions got out some homemade drums, a guitar and some mic's. Listening to some pretty good Vietnamese versions of Western rock songs and all of us singing "We all live in a yellow submarine!" they invited everyone onto the stage to dance along. Alice and Briony duly obliged while I got a really good video of the two. We had some lunch, which was really good. Though some of the other Westerners didn't like it... more for us!! At the next stop was the... urm... free wine tasting. This involved our guide floating about in the water with a bar strapped to him pouring foul tasting wine into our cups. It was made even more foul tasting since we were just swimming about in the sea trying desperately (and in vain) to hold our drinks above the water. So basically everything tasted of sea water. Great fun! Next stop was our last before going back to the dock. Me and Andy got off the boat to visit the famed aquarium. It was surrounded by massive, gaudy looking stone statues of sharks and octupi, etc, etc. It also had a really odd layoutmaking it impossible to know where you were supposed to be going. It was really cool though. We saw sharks and giant turtles (not in the same tank), and loads of really cool fish. Some I recognised from Dad's fish tank and others I saw when I was snorkling.
Next morning we left for Dalat. My seat wasn't really attached to the bus, but it wasn't too much of a bother until we started coming into Dalat. It's sort of up a mountainso there are a lot of winding roads. We had a reception I wasn't expecting when we arrived in Dalat. We are used to arriving somewhere and being mobbed by hundreds of people trying to usher us into their hotels. Not Dalat. No one wanted us at all. They all make a hand signal we worked out later to mean simply "No!" So we walked around the town a bit until we eventually found someone to put us up - about 2 dozen guest houses and hotels later. So we got a room and it only costs us $3 a night each so that's pretty good. Dalat itself is really nice and so we're out on a mission to change the locals views on Westerners. Some people love us, but some just completely refuse to give any assistance whatsoever.
So day one Dalat and we did absolutely nothing! It was a relatively long bus ride and after the ordeal of finding a place to stay we just chilled out in our room, which, by the way, is in a basement. So we stayed in and watched Jurassic Park. Day two Dalat was a lot more exciting. We got up and after breakfast me and Andy rented motorbikes and Alice and Briony got on the back of bike taxi's and we drove off to a waterfall outside of town. Me and Andy immediately lost each other. It isn't particularly easy to learn how to use gears in Dalat. It's extremely hilly, full of one way streets, and there are other bikes everywhere!! We found each other at the petrol station and headed out to the waterfall... again. The waterfall itself was a massive dissapointment. You can't swim in it and it wasn't particularly exciting to see. There was, however, a rollercoaster... Although that was pretty rubbish too! Our excitment was driving around windy countryside roads on motorbikes. It was fantastic fun and when we got back to Dalat we took the girls for a spin around the big lake at the center of the city. We stopped and watched the kites. If anyone's read the book The Kite Runner, well it looked exactly how you imagine the hundreds of kites in that. We then drove to an attraction called 'Crazy House'. This 'Crazy House' is indeed crazy though I am yet to understand the point of it. It's a surreal, Alice-in-Wonderland-esque, expensive guest house. Complete with a giant kangeroo next to your bed with redlight bulbs for eyes. It was extremely odd, didn't give us an inkling of Vietnamese culture or any knowledge about it's people... but it was kinda fun! We got back to the hotel in time to watch the third installment of Jurassic Park - haha, we're so sad!
Day three Dalat was even MORE exciting than day two! Me and Andy got up super early to fo 'Canyoning'. Canyoning is basically abseiling... down canyons. It wasn't a long day out but in 4 hours we abseiled down 4 different cliffs, all completely different. The first was a 20mtr sheer cliff face, which means lots of lumping. The second was another cliff edge that ended in the river. The third was actually IN a waterfall - not a little one either, this was huge! - where at the end, which was still 6-7 mtrs up, the rope runs out and you jump off into the pool below. The final abseil took us down a cliff to hit the top of a waterfall that drags you around into the pool. Again the rope runs out and you have to just drop. (Don't worry Parents, we had life jackets and helmets!) The bits between all these amazing abseils were just as fun. Trekking trough the jungle where you wade waist deep in rivers was just incredible! Also we got to waterfall which was really smooth rock allowing us to slide into the pool below. At first sight it looks really dangerous and stupid... which it probably was, but it was brilliant fun! The other thing we did in this trip was launch ourselves over a cliff and waterfall 20mtrs high into the pool below! I was absolutely cacking myself and still can't work out why I did it... twice!!
We got back to the hotel earlier than we thought and rented bikes to race off and try to find the girls. We somehow bumped into them (not literally) about 10km's outside of the city going to a different waterfall. We all went off to another waterfall another 20km's away. My motorbike today wasn't as good as yesterday. The speedo didn't work, not did the gear indicator... but I got by okay. It is brilliant fun driving around Dalat because of all the hills and twisty roads. This other waterfall was again pretty lame. Well actually, the waterfall itself was really cool. It's just surrounded by rubbish crap. For example there's a huge stone elephant about 15' high supplying a rickety bridge to the otherside. You can also sit on an Elephant, though you can't go anywhere, and an Ostrich, which will take you around in a small circle. So we drove back to the hotel and now I am here writing this excessively long post!
Just a few thoughts I want to get down about Vietnam. It is a beautiful country and the people here are so nice. Everything is new and up-to-date, since everything else was blown apart by bombs and little of what remains of old Vietnam exists along the coast. What ruins Vietnam for me are the foreigners. It's no surprise no one in Dalat wants to give us a room. It's much more untouched and much less touristy than most of the other places we've been and it's perfectly understandable why they would want to keep it that way. I barely spotted a single person from England in China, but SE Asia is absolutely full of them. But they aren't travellers or backpackers. They are gap year louts who want an extended holiday. They don't care about the culture or what it is they are ruining. They just want to get drunk and do the Oz/SE Asia "route". As you can probably tell it does frustrate me, so I'll keep enjoying Vietnam and SE Asia in my own way and to anyone who wants to visit in the future, just think about what it is you want out of travelling... if you don't care about a country's culture or history then piss off back to Malaga!! End rant.
Another thing: Andy has put some photo's of Vietnam up on his Flikr account. You can get to this by clicking on the link top left of this page where it says "Picture and Videos from Andy". Hope everyone is doing okay and enjoying their summer! I can't begin to tell you how much I am enjoying mine!!
PS. Paul, I think my suit + 2 shirts was around $45. I spent a lot more than that though since I bought so much other stuff! I probably wouldn't have but loads of people gave me birthday money and I thought, what better thing to spend it on!? How long till you leave? Oh and could you give me you're e-mail address?
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Tailor Made EVERYTHING
Still in Hoi An and having an excellent time. It's a really cool city and I've managed to buy lots and lots of stuff with my birthday money. I'd been deliberating for a while as to whether or not I'll bother with a suit; since I don't need it while I'm away, I can't carry it while I'm away, and I have no idea when I am going to be home! However because so many people remembered my birthday and sent me money, I was able to spend it on buying the following:
# 1 suit jacket
# 1 suit trousers
# 2 formal shirts
# 2 casual shirts
# 1 pair of shoes
# 1 pair of sandals
# 1 smart jacket
# 3 tie/cufflink sets
All of it was custom and tailor made just for me!! It was great fun picking out materials, choosing designs and all that. I had no idea whether any of it would look any good at all, I didn't really know what I was doing. By a stroke of luck everything looks good (at least I think it looks good) and I have sent a HUGE package home containing all the above except for the casual shirts, sandals and jacket.
Also Hoi An is great for its food. Everything is really really cheap and fresh. This afternoon I rented a motorbike and drove down to the beach 4km's away. It took a while to get used to the bike and I never really did get the hang of the gears... but I'm not dead or injured so I must have done okay! So at the beach we had our lunch at a restaurant and sitting outside on such a great day, smashing up a crab with a nutcracker, a fork, and a pair of chopsticks made for an excellent afternoon! The drive back was a bit scarier because it suddenly got really busy on the roads, but I pushed on. It cost 50,000VND to rent a bike for a day (that's not even two pounds) and 55,000VND to have a seafood lunch (that's just about two pounds!) I love Vietnam. Night life is also pretty cool. Last night I drank beer listening to rock music and watching football... something that doesn't sound so strange but it isn't too often that happens out here. The music is much more... ... ...
So thanks for my birthday present! I have sent it home this afternoon by air so it should arrive in about three weeks (fingers crossed), don't forget to show it off. Tonight I head for Nha Trang, another beachy place, and another 12 hours on a bus!!
# 1 suit jacket
# 1 suit trousers
# 2 formal shirts
# 2 casual shirts
# 1 pair of shoes
# 1 pair of sandals
# 1 smart jacket
# 3 tie/cufflink sets
All of it was custom and tailor made just for me!! It was great fun picking out materials, choosing designs and all that. I had no idea whether any of it would look any good at all, I didn't really know what I was doing. By a stroke of luck everything looks good (at least I think it looks good) and I have sent a HUGE package home containing all the above except for the casual shirts, sandals and jacket.
Also Hoi An is great for its food. Everything is really really cheap and fresh. This afternoon I rented a motorbike and drove down to the beach 4km's away. It took a while to get used to the bike and I never really did get the hang of the gears... but I'm not dead or injured so I must have done okay! So at the beach we had our lunch at a restaurant and sitting outside on such a great day, smashing up a crab with a nutcracker, a fork, and a pair of chopsticks made for an excellent afternoon! The drive back was a bit scarier because it suddenly got really busy on the roads, but I pushed on. It cost 50,000VND to rent a bike for a day (that's not even two pounds) and 55,000VND to have a seafood lunch (that's just about two pounds!) I love Vietnam. Night life is also pretty cool. Last night I drank beer listening to rock music and watching football... something that doesn't sound so strange but it isn't too often that happens out here. The music is much more... ... ...
So thanks for my birthday present! I have sent it home this afternoon by air so it should arrive in about three weeks (fingers crossed), don't forget to show it off. Tonight I head for Nha Trang, another beachy place, and another 12 hours on a bus!!
Saturday 13 June 2009
Good Morning Vietnam!
Thank you to everyone for my birthday messages!! I really appreciate that I am still remembered by so many people on the other side of the globe, and that of course you spend all your waking moments refreshing the blog to see if I've posted anything. Don't deny it. I had a fantastic birthday and if you care to read on I'll fill you in on some of my exploits... or at least the parts I remember!!
Hue (aka Wahaaaaay!) (aka Hawaii!)
We arrived in Hue after possibly the worst bus trip of the journey so far. It was 13 hours, no where near the longest I've done roaming around the world, on a sleeper bus, so there were beds. The problem wasn't the roads or the sharp corners or other people. The problem with this bus is that I was in a "bed" that was so small that even curled into some crazy feotal position there was no chance I was ever going to fit. The back half of the bed was raised at such an angled you just slide down if you try and lie on it. So I didn't actually sleep that night, which made it all the more fantastic to arrive in Hue. It made me terribly annoyed that I didn't stick to my original plan and buy a motorbike and drive down. Unfortunetly this wasn't to be since I can't afford it and my visa runs out at the end of the month, thus not giving us enough time to drive down. So I'm a bit disappointed about that, but I hope I can rent a motorbike in a few places and drive around.
We decided against having a sleep as we only had the day in Hue so we rented some bikes and went into the Imperial Palace enclosure. It's one of the few places in Vietnam where there are still some original bits of architecture that survived the American War. Although most of it did and still is rebuilt now. On the way there the chain came off my bike 3 times!! I got bored in the end and walked back to get a new bike. It was a bit dangerous on the roads since its a complete free for all. Plus we had to cross a huge bridge which isn't wide enough at all for the amount of traffic that runs through. It looked amazing though. Actually inside the complex we went for a really nice bike ride around the walls, although this was by accident because we missed the entrance. Still it was nice. Inside there is a huge a assembly hall and courtyard and I met an artist called Phong who showed me some of his work. I enjoy collecting art in different countries but the whole no-space-in-my-bag thing remains to be a problem.
We went for a nice lunch that was amazingly cheap and tried some of Hue's local beer. I enjoy that everywhere we go there is a local beer, love it. It was searingly hot so after another ride into the complex to see a really nice lake we went back to the hostel. Cooling down in the middle of the afternoon with some air con is always a good idea in 40 degree heat. A nice Vietnamese meal and a few drinks later we got an early night. For tomorrow we go to Hoi An and for tomorrow is my birthday!
Tomorrow
Got up early to get some free birthday breakfast and to listen to a remarkable rendition of 'Happy Birthday' performed in Vietnamese by Alice, Briony and Andy. Also I really need to learn how to specificy a black coffee with no sugar. Somehow I keep getting starved of the fantastic Vietnamese coffee by having it ruined with powdered or condensed milk or a ton of sugar! So we got the uneventful bus to Hoi An, which only took 4 hours, giving us the whole afternoon and evening to enjoy my birthday!I had a traditional Vietnamese lunch of Cao Lao and "Cauliflower" Beef with some locally brewed fresh beer that cost 4,000VND (that's 11.2p). We caught motorbike taxi's to the beach and spent a few hours resting on the beach. We tried to go in the sea but something was stinging us and it really hurt. We found out later that it was Phosphorensence (spelling?!), but we are yet to work out what that actually is.
Foolishly I agreed to go for 22 drinks in a day for my 22nd birthda. So after my 5th drink so far we started some drinking games and ordered some pizza up to our room. At about 9pm we left to find some bars and managed to get lost. Andy (mapbearer) forgot which way we left the hostle and took us in the wrong direction for 15 minutes. Eventually we found our way to the bar and had some more drinks whilst playing pool and fussball. When the bar shut we made our way by motorbike taxi to the beach bar (incidently on a beach) where we stripped off and threw our drunken selves into their swimming pool. Some more drinks on the beach and the hours seemed to drift by until suddently it started getting light (by this point I had succesfully imbibed 22 drinks!!) and we watched the sun come up. It was stunning. We taxi'd back to the hostel where we had a breakfast of noodles before passing out in bed, where we stayed until 3pm this afternoon!
I had a fantastic day and I thank everyone who reads this and who has sent me birthday messages/eCards. I'll try and get back to everyone but I'm running short of time. Oh, and GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!
PS. It's 5:45 in the afternoon... can I pretend I'm on England time and I'm jetlagged so that I can get away with saying it's still morning???
PSS. The spellchecker doesn't work on this and I'm too tired to proof read, sorry.
Hue (aka Wahaaaaay!) (aka Hawaii!)
We arrived in Hue after possibly the worst bus trip of the journey so far. It was 13 hours, no where near the longest I've done roaming around the world, on a sleeper bus, so there were beds. The problem wasn't the roads or the sharp corners or other people. The problem with this bus is that I was in a "bed" that was so small that even curled into some crazy feotal position there was no chance I was ever going to fit. The back half of the bed was raised at such an angled you just slide down if you try and lie on it. So I didn't actually sleep that night, which made it all the more fantastic to arrive in Hue. It made me terribly annoyed that I didn't stick to my original plan and buy a motorbike and drive down. Unfortunetly this wasn't to be since I can't afford it and my visa runs out at the end of the month, thus not giving us enough time to drive down. So I'm a bit disappointed about that, but I hope I can rent a motorbike in a few places and drive around.
We decided against having a sleep as we only had the day in Hue so we rented some bikes and went into the Imperial Palace enclosure. It's one of the few places in Vietnam where there are still some original bits of architecture that survived the American War. Although most of it did and still is rebuilt now. On the way there the chain came off my bike 3 times!! I got bored in the end and walked back to get a new bike. It was a bit dangerous on the roads since its a complete free for all. Plus we had to cross a huge bridge which isn't wide enough at all for the amount of traffic that runs through. It looked amazing though. Actually inside the complex we went for a really nice bike ride around the walls, although this was by accident because we missed the entrance. Still it was nice. Inside there is a huge a assembly hall and courtyard and I met an artist called Phong who showed me some of his work. I enjoy collecting art in different countries but the whole no-space-in-my-bag thing remains to be a problem.
We went for a nice lunch that was amazingly cheap and tried some of Hue's local beer. I enjoy that everywhere we go there is a local beer, love it. It was searingly hot so after another ride into the complex to see a really nice lake we went back to the hostel. Cooling down in the middle of the afternoon with some air con is always a good idea in 40 degree heat. A nice Vietnamese meal and a few drinks later we got an early night. For tomorrow we go to Hoi An and for tomorrow is my birthday!
Tomorrow
Got up early to get some free birthday breakfast and to listen to a remarkable rendition of 'Happy Birthday' performed in Vietnamese by Alice, Briony and Andy. Also I really need to learn how to specificy a black coffee with no sugar. Somehow I keep getting starved of the fantastic Vietnamese coffee by having it ruined with powdered or condensed milk or a ton of sugar! So we got the uneventful bus to Hoi An, which only took 4 hours, giving us the whole afternoon and evening to enjoy my birthday!I had a traditional Vietnamese lunch of Cao Lao and "Cauliflower" Beef with some locally brewed fresh beer that cost 4,000VND (that's 11.2p). We caught motorbike taxi's to the beach and spent a few hours resting on the beach. We tried to go in the sea but something was stinging us and it really hurt. We found out later that it was Phosphorensence (spelling?!), but we are yet to work out what that actually is.
Foolishly I agreed to go for 22 drinks in a day for my 22nd birthda. So after my 5th drink so far we started some drinking games and ordered some pizza up to our room. At about 9pm we left to find some bars and managed to get lost. Andy (mapbearer) forgot which way we left the hostle and took us in the wrong direction for 15 minutes. Eventually we found our way to the bar and had some more drinks whilst playing pool and fussball. When the bar shut we made our way by motorbike taxi to the beach bar (incidently on a beach) where we stripped off and threw our drunken selves into their swimming pool. Some more drinks on the beach and the hours seemed to drift by until suddently it started getting light (by this point I had succesfully imbibed 22 drinks!!) and we watched the sun come up. It was stunning. We taxi'd back to the hostel where we had a breakfast of noodles before passing out in bed, where we stayed until 3pm this afternoon!
I had a fantastic day and I thank everyone who reads this and who has sent me birthday messages/eCards. I'll try and get back to everyone but I'm running short of time. Oh, and GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!
PS. It's 5:45 in the afternoon... can I pretend I'm on England time and I'm jetlagged so that I can get away with saying it's still morning???
PSS. The spellchecker doesn't work on this and I'm too tired to proof read, sorry.
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Hanoi and Halong Bay "Trip of Lies!!!"
Firstly, I think I've been writing about Hanoi in completely the wrong way. After arriving a week ago it is arguable that we have done so much and/or so little. Let me explain: Hanoi is not a city where you set day to day activities. Yeah, we saw Ho Chi Minh's embalmed corpse (which to me looked a bit more like a wax model at Taussauds!) and got terrible confused by pretentious modern art at the Ho Chi Minh museum where we learned nothing about Ho Chi Minh or Vietnam! We've also spent time walking around the Ancient City and eating all kinds of amazing foods. But really it's just being in Hanoi and seeing how chilled out and relaxed its people are, which is an incredible achievement given how fast and loud the city is. There isn't so much of a pavement as it is a parking spot for motorbikes. The locals are well trained at dodging people meandering into and across roads. It's such a fun and vibrant city and I'll be sorry to leave tonight.
On Sunday morning we left our hostel for Halong Bay. We managed to get a tour for $45 each, which gave us 2 nights out in Halong. It's a 4 hour drive to Halong City and from there we boarded our boat to head out through the karst scenery in Halong. Remember how I described Yangshuo? Probably not, but it's like that only in water. There are roughly 2,000 islands coming out of the water. Some are massive tall limestone cliff edges. Others are small outcrops barely bigger than the boat. It also includes Cat Ba Island, a massive inhabited island with amazing natural beaches and some excellent trekking. Sunday afternoon was spent drifting lazily through the islands, viewing one of the worlds most beautiful natural settings. We then got a kayak and paddled around the islands for an hour. It was great fun and surprisingly flat considering we were in the sea! We then swam around the boat for a while, diving and flipping off it. That evening the boat went to some islands further out to see and we watched as the sun went down and the moon came up. It was absolutely incredible. The moon was nearly as bright as the sun!! When the boat anchored we sat on top of the boat having some drinks with the other people on our tour.
We quickly made friends with Philip, Emily and Andy and as the conversation slipped from discussing who was from where, what they do, where they've been, etc, etc, to talking about Channel 4's 101 worst sexual accidents, it became abundantly clear we made some new friends. Also on the boat were some girls we all became annoyed with after a short period of time. Fresh out of school they'd come out traveling for a massive piss up. As Philip pointed out the next day, you often find in SE Asia that you are lumped together on tours speaking to people you wouldn't associate with at all in England. We all got quite drunk and had a great time in the middle of the night throwing ourselves off the roof of the boat into the sea. The crew got a little annoyed with this but Andy (new Andy) "politely" explained to them that this is what we have paid for and we want to enjoy ourselves. It worked, and we really did enjoy ourselves!!
The following day we got up early to get some breakfast and before long we were in Cat Ba Island. We got dropped off at a completely different hotel to what we were told when we bought the tour but it didn't matter since we got a shower got some superb food and headed out. Me and Andy (Hodgson) decided to rent kayaks and go out into the sea hoping to find the beach that the others were heading to. This turned out to be a bit of a life risk as further out to sea the waves are incredible choppy and actually really scary. Never mind the fact that my oar broke in two while I was paddling! If we had separate kayaks it might have been disastrous, but me and Andy were in the same one so we just about got out okay. It was fun though and we did find out own little beach that you can't get to from roads or paths. There were massive chunks of fossilized coral that looked really cool.
We decided to drop the kayaks and the oars (or at least one oar and a half of another) back and got a motorbike to the beach. We spent a few hours chilling out at the beach which got extremely busy by the time we left to go back and get some food. After another excellent meal we played some pool and I decided to head up to bed. We spent the next day basically traveling back. Not that this was a problem since traveling through Halong is just incredible. We got back to the hostel at about 4pm yesterday and at 6 we met up with Andy, Phil and Emily to go get some dinner. This turned out to be a mission to get pizza. We faced restaurants not having pizza, pizza being to expensive and a power cut, cutting out power for pizza!! Eventually we got some pizza and by the time we were half way through the others had to rush off as they needed to get a train.
Today we relax and tonight we head to Hue. You may be wondering what the title "Trip of Lies!!!" entails. Basically we call it trip of lies since the tour operaters lied to us about a lot of things in this tour. It was supposed to be catered but they didn't supply water, nor were we allowed to bring our own. They said we'd have fans in our room but mine and Andy's didn't work and Alice and Briony didn't have one. They said we'd be in a hotel near the beach and it turned out we were in a completely different one. Not that this really matters but we are in the process of getting some money back from the tour operator. I need to check out so bye now!!!
On Sunday morning we left our hostel for Halong Bay. We managed to get a tour for $45 each, which gave us 2 nights out in Halong. It's a 4 hour drive to Halong City and from there we boarded our boat to head out through the karst scenery in Halong. Remember how I described Yangshuo? Probably not, but it's like that only in water. There are roughly 2,000 islands coming out of the water. Some are massive tall limestone cliff edges. Others are small outcrops barely bigger than the boat. It also includes Cat Ba Island, a massive inhabited island with amazing natural beaches and some excellent trekking. Sunday afternoon was spent drifting lazily through the islands, viewing one of the worlds most beautiful natural settings. We then got a kayak and paddled around the islands for an hour. It was great fun and surprisingly flat considering we were in the sea! We then swam around the boat for a while, diving and flipping off it. That evening the boat went to some islands further out to see and we watched as the sun went down and the moon came up. It was absolutely incredible. The moon was nearly as bright as the sun!! When the boat anchored we sat on top of the boat having some drinks with the other people on our tour.
We quickly made friends with Philip, Emily and Andy and as the conversation slipped from discussing who was from where, what they do, where they've been, etc, etc, to talking about Channel 4's 101 worst sexual accidents, it became abundantly clear we made some new friends. Also on the boat were some girls we all became annoyed with after a short period of time. Fresh out of school they'd come out traveling for a massive piss up. As Philip pointed out the next day, you often find in SE Asia that you are lumped together on tours speaking to people you wouldn't associate with at all in England. We all got quite drunk and had a great time in the middle of the night throwing ourselves off the roof of the boat into the sea. The crew got a little annoyed with this but Andy (new Andy) "politely" explained to them that this is what we have paid for and we want to enjoy ourselves. It worked, and we really did enjoy ourselves!!
The following day we got up early to get some breakfast and before long we were in Cat Ba Island. We got dropped off at a completely different hotel to what we were told when we bought the tour but it didn't matter since we got a shower got some superb food and headed out. Me and Andy (Hodgson) decided to rent kayaks and go out into the sea hoping to find the beach that the others were heading to. This turned out to be a bit of a life risk as further out to sea the waves are incredible choppy and actually really scary. Never mind the fact that my oar broke in two while I was paddling! If we had separate kayaks it might have been disastrous, but me and Andy were in the same one so we just about got out okay. It was fun though and we did find out own little beach that you can't get to from roads or paths. There were massive chunks of fossilized coral that looked really cool.
We decided to drop the kayaks and the oars (or at least one oar and a half of another) back and got a motorbike to the beach. We spent a few hours chilling out at the beach which got extremely busy by the time we left to go back and get some food. After another excellent meal we played some pool and I decided to head up to bed. We spent the next day basically traveling back. Not that this was a problem since traveling through Halong is just incredible. We got back to the hostel at about 4pm yesterday and at 6 we met up with Andy, Phil and Emily to go get some dinner. This turned out to be a mission to get pizza. We faced restaurants not having pizza, pizza being to expensive and a power cut, cutting out power for pizza!! Eventually we got some pizza and by the time we were half way through the others had to rush off as they needed to get a train.
Today we relax and tonight we head to Hue. You may be wondering what the title "Trip of Lies!!!" entails. Basically we call it trip of lies since the tour operaters lied to us about a lot of things in this tour. It was supposed to be catered but they didn't supply water, nor were we allowed to bring our own. They said we'd have fans in our room but mine and Andy's didn't work and Alice and Briony didn't have one. They said we'd be in a hotel near the beach and it turned out we were in a completely different one. Not that this really matters but we are in the process of getting some money back from the tour operator. I need to check out so bye now!!!
Friday 5 June 2009
A Tale of Two Capital Cities
Shortly after writing my last post I jumped into a coach and 4 hours later I was in Laos' capital city Vientiane. Vientiane is a great city. In some places it was like stepping straight back into the West but you could turn a corner and find massive gold statues and an arch going into one of the cities many temples. There are many French colonial buildings and establishments; including a rich tapestry of bakeries! On our first day we went and saw the Laos equivalent to the Arc De Triomphe. As Tom would say: "nice from afar, far from nice" - though that in a very different context! The monument itself is called Patuxai but is often known as the "vertical runway" since the US gave them the money to build an airport, hence Laos still doesn't have an international airport! After that we saw another major Laos symbol that's printed on most of their currency. It's a temple called Pha That Luang and is said to hold the Buddha's breastbone according to the Khmer. We struggled a bit walking around in the heat and decided to go back to the guest house to cool down a bit.
Second day we didn't do an awful lot. We did however go to the most amazing cafe and have the most amazing bagel ever! It was fun having an explore of the city. We had some dinner along the riverfront which looked pretty cool when the sun was setting.
As soon as the sun did set we were mobbed by mosquitoes but other than that it was nice. Also in Vientiane we tried renting motorbikes, but with no space and no where to practice it didn't go as well as planned. Have to try again in Hanoi. Me and Andy also went shooting. The guns were just crappy rifles that weren't particularly powerful but it was still a cool experience. We were shooting paper targets and had two go's, five shots each. First go I got a miserable score of 8 and the second I got a mildly respectable 32.
The Laos National Museum was interesting. And very anti American, though that isn't too much of a surprise. The museum was a bit odd since it wasn't very big and had a sort of round circuit of prehistoric, ancient history, and then working the way through 14th to 20th centuries. It was nice doing it in our own time and since everything was in English we didn't need a guide. Since we haven't seen too much of Laos, and barely anything rural, it was at least decent to get a grip on some of the Laos culture and history.
The ride from Vientiane to Hanoi wasn't particularly enjoyable. It took just under 24 hours but the roads weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be. I guess since going through Eastern Europe and China on public transport we're probably just used to it. We also had 2 seats each so we could at least stretch out a bit. We arrived late afternoon and got to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel in the ancient town.
Hanoi is literally buzzing. This is because everywhere you look there are a million and 10 mopeds and motorbikes. Crossing the road can be a bit tricky since there aren't any traffic laws here. Or if there are you wouldn't know! We went for a walk around the ancient city yesterday. Every road is a massive stall of markets, it's really cool just wandering around, getting some eats and just exploring the place. We also saw the tortoise lake (that probably isn't its name) where as far as we are aware there aren't any tortoises but there's enclosure of the remains of a massive tortoise that was apparently in that lake... though that didn't look particularly real.
That's it for now. I'm looking forward to exploring Hanoi further and seeing some of its temples and museums. Until next time!!
Second day we didn't do an awful lot. We did however go to the most amazing cafe and have the most amazing bagel ever! It was fun having an explore of the city. We had some dinner along the riverfront which looked pretty cool when the sun was setting.
As soon as the sun did set we were mobbed by mosquitoes but other than that it was nice. Also in Vientiane we tried renting motorbikes, but with no space and no where to practice it didn't go as well as planned. Have to try again in Hanoi. Me and Andy also went shooting. The guns were just crappy rifles that weren't particularly powerful but it was still a cool experience. We were shooting paper targets and had two go's, five shots each. First go I got a miserable score of 8 and the second I got a mildly respectable 32.
The Laos National Museum was interesting. And very anti American, though that isn't too much of a surprise. The museum was a bit odd since it wasn't very big and had a sort of round circuit of prehistoric, ancient history, and then working the way through 14th to 20th centuries. It was nice doing it in our own time and since everything was in English we didn't need a guide. Since we haven't seen too much of Laos, and barely anything rural, it was at least decent to get a grip on some of the Laos culture and history.
The ride from Vientiane to Hanoi wasn't particularly enjoyable. It took just under 24 hours but the roads weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be. I guess since going through Eastern Europe and China on public transport we're probably just used to it. We also had 2 seats each so we could at least stretch out a bit. We arrived late afternoon and got to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel in the ancient town.
Hanoi is literally buzzing. This is because everywhere you look there are a million and 10 mopeds and motorbikes. Crossing the road can be a bit tricky since there aren't any traffic laws here. Or if there are you wouldn't know! We went for a walk around the ancient city yesterday. Every road is a massive stall of markets, it's really cool just wandering around, getting some eats and just exploring the place. We also saw the tortoise lake (that probably isn't its name) where as far as we are aware there aren't any tortoises but there's enclosure of the remains of a massive tortoise that was apparently in that lake... though that didn't look particularly real.
That's it for now. I'm looking forward to exploring Hanoi further and seeing some of its temples and museums. Until next time!!
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