Wow, can't quite believe it. Our last night in Vietnam tonight, tomorrow we head home. This last month has gone by so fast, Halong Bay seems like such a long time ago now. .
Phu Quoc
Phu Quoc is an island off the West coast òf Vietnam. The tourist industry ís only a mểre 5 years old and so it ís one òf the few untouched and truly "real" experiences òf Vietnam. This will probably all change in the not so distant future as there are signs òf development in places, new hotels popping up and such like.
We left for Phu Quoc on Saturday 2nd July. On arrival at the airport in Ho Chi Minh city we discovered that the plane we were in fact going on was a small propeller plane. great!. However, the views flying over the Mekong delta and over the sea were amazing. The sea was so clear in approaching Phu Quoc you can actually see where the land drops down in the sea. Quite scary but also quite cool. We got picked up at the airport on the other side, (which consisted of a room for arrivals and then you are out the front door) and taken to our resort. We chose to stay at the Sea Star Resort, recommended by Lonely Planet. For once, Lonely Planet did well ( don't trúst them anymore), we had our own wee beach bungalow meters from the sea. Restaurant food wasn't great but we only ate there one night so it wasn't that much òf an issue. The first day we arrived we basically made the móst òf it and spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach under the sun, dipping in and out òf the sea when we felt like it. Our 2nd day, we decided to do a tour around the South òf the Island. Our driver took us to a pearl farm (amazing) , the coconut prison (where Americans held the VC in the war) it just so happened that day we went, old veterans in the Government on the Vietnamese side were visiting the prison, with a tv crew following. We also went to a fishing village and a beach club on Sao Beach on the east coást òf the island. Lovely lovely beach!. but was spoiled by the fact that whilst sitting having a drink in the cafe area , one òf the poor shark like fish was chosen by someone for lunch. Which involved staff whacking it's head off the stony path to kill it, in full view of all their customers. Now, i know Vietnamese like their food fresh, but really... they could have done it away from other customers . That night, we decided to go squid fishing.. Now that was interesting.!!! No1 managed to catch one, but the food we were served for dinner was definately unforgettable. There was squid porridge (did not try!), sea urchin, bbq'd squid, noodles. Needless to say, mainly stuck to the noodles.
After our fairly short stay in Phu Quoc, we arrived in Saigon again, back to our hotel and found our room had bêen upgraded, bonus! Today (5th July) we went to a cooking course which was great! we made crispy noodles with crunchy vegetables , chicken hotpot with ginger, chillies and rice and mustard leaf rolls with sweet and sour sauce. . Yum!, going to have to try make them again at home.
Anyways, can only write quick entry now as need to go finish packing my bag. Head home tomorrow evening, don't want to leave at all. But hey, hopefully will be back again soon.
sara xx
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Mekong Delta.
We did a tour for a night to the Mekong Delta, of which we arrived back from last night in the pouring rain ..uh oh!. But it was nice to get out of the city for a while. It started off early Wednesday morning when the tour guide came and picked us up from our hotel.We got onto the bus and went two streets away to the tour office where we all got divided, (some were doing one day, some two-like us- and some doing three days and onwards to Cambodia) and put onto another bus. We were then on our way. It takes 3 hours to travel to the Mekong Delta area. Looong drive! when we arrived we got straight onto a boat and went down river. This was the widest part of the Mekong Delta at 3km wide. Whilst on the river, we visited the largest floating wholesale market , where we were advised should we want to buy anything, minimum of 20kg was the norm. HA! But was interesting to see how the locals live. To show what they are buying, they tie say.. a potato to a long bamboo cane and place it vertical on their boats, boats from all around can see what they are selling. We were then taken to a factory where they make rice paper ( as in the paper they roll fresh spring rolls in out here) and all sorts of other delicious things eg.. poprice... coconut candy and so on.. yum yum!. Next door to that was a place where they make honey with specialty of honey tea. Very very sweet! the lady came around and put bee pollen in it as well.... i preferred it before she did that but supposedly it cures cancer and the like ( very bold statements to make i think!) .We then got back on the boat for another wee trip down river. Ladies pulled up along side in smaller boats to row us for a bit, so we all got in and off we went... then the heavens opened!! Luckily, the lady had given us these conical hats to wear (the round ones) which is a bit like an umbrella so that helped but still. Around 30 mins later we arrived at the place we were to have lunch. We were supposed to go for a bike ride after lunch but since the rain hadn't stopped and looked like a swimming pool was around the cafe, we opted to just relax and wait for the rain to ease a bit before heading back to the boat which would take us to Vinh Long to catch another bus to Can Tho city where we were to stay for the night.
Once we arrived at the hotel an hour later, we checked in and went to our rooms. surprise surprise, we were on the top floor again... four flights of stairs to go :(. We met two other girls on the trip from Holland so we all palled up to venture out into the unknown and find our dinner. Ha. We got abit lost and had to ask the locals the way to the river , where all the restaurants were. On the way we walked through a market, with fish still alive in tubs and FROGS!. The two dutch girls immediately jumped across the other side of the road after spotting them, guess they don't like them. We found dinner in a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet. Me and Charlotte ate Pho. Basically noodle soup but part of a staple diet for the Vietnamese. Fills you up!. While the two girls went for beef /chicken with chips.. Think they still getting used to the food.
The next morning we all got up and walked as a tour group (tourist alert!) through the streets to the riverside. Turns out the night before we walked in a big circle and if we had only turned right from the hotel and straight down the road we would have been there in half the time. From the harbour we got on a boat again and went on a tour around this part of the Mekong Delta. We visited a place where they make rice noodles and so on. We also visited one of the most colourful and vibrant floating markets in the Mekong Delta. Here, many different fruits and veg are sold on a daily basis, and this time it was not wholesale. The best part of that day was spent on a boat before returning to the harbour at around 1pm and getting on the bus back to Saigon.
Once we arrived at the hotel an hour later, we checked in and went to our rooms. surprise surprise, we were on the top floor again... four flights of stairs to go :(. We met two other girls on the trip from Holland so we all palled up to venture out into the unknown and find our dinner. Ha. We got abit lost and had to ask the locals the way to the river , where all the restaurants were. On the way we walked through a market, with fish still alive in tubs and FROGS!. The two dutch girls immediately jumped across the other side of the road after spotting them, guess they don't like them. We found dinner in a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet. Me and Charlotte ate Pho. Basically noodle soup but part of a staple diet for the Vietnamese. Fills you up!. While the two girls went for beef /chicken with chips.. Think they still getting used to the food.
The next morning we all got up and walked as a tour group (tourist alert!) through the streets to the riverside. Turns out the night before we walked in a big circle and if we had only turned right from the hotel and straight down the road we would have been there in half the time. From the harbour we got on a boat again and went on a tour around this part of the Mekong Delta. We visited a place where they make rice noodles and so on. We also visited one of the most colourful and vibrant floating markets in the Mekong Delta. Here, many different fruits and veg are sold on a daily basis, and this time it was not wholesale. The best part of that day was spent on a boat before returning to the harbour at around 1pm and getting on the bus back to Saigon.
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Ho Chi Minh City. (Saigon)- also known as the motorbike city.
So... Ho chi Minh, wow.Much much busier than Hanoi and much much more "western". You can actually walk down pavements where in Hanoi they were full of street stalls, and there's restaurants such as KFC and Pizza hut! (refusing to go there) . There are around 9 million people living in Saigon, if my memory is correct from what we were told and approx 5.5 million of those own motorbikes. WOW!. Yesterday we got up early and went on a tour at around 8.30am around the city. 1st stop was the War Remnant's museum which is home to some old tanks/planes from the war and has 3 floors of pictures and information from the war. Personally i was quite shocked by it all. The second floor was full of pictures of victims and in action shots. Pictures showing US soldiers holding up body parts of dismembered Vietnamese like a trophy, pictures of children shot dead on the ground. One in particular has stuck in my mind and that was of a old man , sitting on the floor, looked like he wanted to cry. The caption next to it told that the photographer shot that shot, turned his back and heard 2 rifle shots.... he didn't turn back to look. This seemed to be the case for a few of the pictures. Certainly makes you think about the effects of the war. There are many sides to this story indeed and it is very easy to forget in all the commotion about all the innocent lives being lost. On that same floor there was a gallery of pictures of the victims of the Asian Orange. Victims of the many chemical bombs that were dropped by the Americans in the war. These victims suffered horrific burns and injuries, of which i think are probably too horrific to describe on here. The sad thing is, Vietnamese people are still suffering. They are on their 3rd generation now and babies are still being born with deformities such as cleft lips, not properly formed limbs etc all because of these chemicals that were dropped. The Museum also had a replica of the "coconut prison" on Phu Quoc Island( don't think we'll be visiting this one) which kept prisoners in "tiger cages" you can imagine what they were like and had 5-6 prisoners in them at a time. There was also descriptions of the many ways prisoners were tortured.. made me feel sick to my stomach reading about it.
After this we went to a small cafe to try some authentic Vietnamese coffee. I passed on this after finding out the coffee beans are actually in fact from a weasel. Without going into too much detail, basically, weasel eats coffee beans, coffee beans go through weasel's body and then people collect coffee beans after, wash them and hey presto, you have your coffee. Once we had been here, we were taken to Chinatown and the Binh Tay market which specializes in wholesale products. Can find anything here, literally!. We then went for lunch before going to the Reunification Palace. It is not lived in now, but occasionally used for meetings and functions. It was once the President's house during the time where North and South Vietnam were separated and is famous for the two tanks bursting through its front gates and a soldier running to put the Vietnamese flag up the day that the war ended. Only a few rooms are open to the public to see, these include the extensive basement full of maps and rooms to plan military operations and so on. The movie room, dance hall and meeting rooms. We then went to see the Notre Dame cathedral, materials were shipped over from France specially to re-create the Notre Dame exactly as the one in Paris but only this one is smaller. Across the road is the General Post Office. , The biggest one in Saigon mainly admired for it's architecture.
That brings us onto today. We awoke again early and left 8.30am to go to the Chu Chi tunnels. We were picked up by our tour guide "Mr Bean" no joke! who is 61 years old and a old Vietnam War Veteran. Only , he was a captain on the US side who fought around the Chu Chi tunnel area in the War. On the way in the bus to the tunnels he told us about the War, and what he did. He told us many stories which were very interesting and it was nice to see another side of the war.Such as, how the VC deceived them whilst in the tunnels or as he put it "f****ed with his mind". The VC used to wear sandals made out of rubber, now you can imagine in the dry ground it is easy to spot where they are walking. The thing is, the VC always knew where the Americans were, the Americans never knew where the VC were as they were underground and the tunnels had many exits, most like the Vinh Moc tunnels go onto the Saigon River. Anyway, the VC only came out at night to do their things(wash clothes, shower etc. etc.) during that time they wore their sandals backwards on their feet so it looked like they was travelling the opposite way to which they actually were. Clever eh! Another story he told us was how, in the tunnels, every so often there were ventilation chambers for obvious reasons. Now he came along with his dog one day (they used dogs to sniff out the VC in these ventilation holes to which they then put gasoline and chemicals down to try and drive the VC out). But the VC were clever, to deceive the dog they put cigarettes- and other things the Americans used- to trick the dog into thinking there was just an American down there and it's ok!. However on this one particular occasion, they also had put chilli powder and black pepper in the hole so when the dog sniffed it, he started sneezing and sneezing and that was him. He could not smell anymore, his nose was burnt. The VC knew this was one of the primary ways in which the Americans could find them. He also told us he was in the same bunker as John Kerry. His family fled Saigon when the war started, his mum and dad died and his brothers and sisters are now in Australia. He only found them years after the war ended when the embargo on Vietnam ended. He is now in the middle of writing his diary which he hopes to be published.I def will be buying it if i ever see it on the shelves.
When we arrived at the tunnels we watched a 15 min video on the lives of the Chu Chi people. Over 20% of women fought for the Chu Chi in the war. Mr Bean then showed us all the booby traps the Chu Chi set, I can tell you, I would not liked to have stepped on those! But as Mr Bean puts it, you cannot blame them, it is the only way to protect themselves as they had no weapons. They made weapons out of old bombshells (of which the Americans knew this and used to put dynamite in. As the VC were sawing through the Bombshell it would get hot and sparks would occasionally fly, which could alight the dynamite and BOOM!. However, again the VC were clever, they put water over it as they were sawing to cool the metal down.). They also used bamboo and sharpened them creating traps(mostly for the dogs the Americans used, for food or other animals) . After seeing all this we descended down into the tunnel, 100m of it (just to see what it was like) . Luckily there were several exit points along the way just in case someone suddenly decided they were claustrophobic... easily done down here!. It was like the blind leading the blind, i have no idea how these people lived down there, especially since some of the tunnel has been widened for tourist purposes, of which i'm quite glad!. Mr Bean certainly helped by telling us someone got stuck the week before! But anyways, in the tunnel it is very dark, and small. you have to crouch and walk at the same time to walk through. There is the odd steep drop , or incline (used to stop flooding or to confuse the enemy should they get in) and you have to be careful with tho, bit scary navigating through all this in the dark though!
Anyway, enough for now.On my way to the Mekong Delta in half an hour so will keep you updated
sara xxx
After this we went to a small cafe to try some authentic Vietnamese coffee. I passed on this after finding out the coffee beans are actually in fact from a weasel. Without going into too much detail, basically, weasel eats coffee beans, coffee beans go through weasel's body and then people collect coffee beans after, wash them and hey presto, you have your coffee. Once we had been here, we were taken to Chinatown and the Binh Tay market which specializes in wholesale products. Can find anything here, literally!. We then went for lunch before going to the Reunification Palace. It is not lived in now, but occasionally used for meetings and functions. It was once the President's house during the time where North and South Vietnam were separated and is famous for the two tanks bursting through its front gates and a soldier running to put the Vietnamese flag up the day that the war ended. Only a few rooms are open to the public to see, these include the extensive basement full of maps and rooms to plan military operations and so on. The movie room, dance hall and meeting rooms. We then went to see the Notre Dame cathedral, materials were shipped over from France specially to re-create the Notre Dame exactly as the one in Paris but only this one is smaller. Across the road is the General Post Office. , The biggest one in Saigon mainly admired for it's architecture.
That brings us onto today. We awoke again early and left 8.30am to go to the Chu Chi tunnels. We were picked up by our tour guide "Mr Bean" no joke! who is 61 years old and a old Vietnam War Veteran. Only , he was a captain on the US side who fought around the Chu Chi tunnel area in the War. On the way in the bus to the tunnels he told us about the War, and what he did. He told us many stories which were very interesting and it was nice to see another side of the war.Such as, how the VC deceived them whilst in the tunnels or as he put it "f****ed with his mind". The VC used to wear sandals made out of rubber, now you can imagine in the dry ground it is easy to spot where they are walking. The thing is, the VC always knew where the Americans were, the Americans never knew where the VC were as they were underground and the tunnels had many exits, most like the Vinh Moc tunnels go onto the Saigon River. Anyway, the VC only came out at night to do their things(wash clothes, shower etc. etc.) during that time they wore their sandals backwards on their feet so it looked like they was travelling the opposite way to which they actually were. Clever eh! Another story he told us was how, in the tunnels, every so often there were ventilation chambers for obvious reasons. Now he came along with his dog one day (they used dogs to sniff out the VC in these ventilation holes to which they then put gasoline and chemicals down to try and drive the VC out). But the VC were clever, to deceive the dog they put cigarettes- and other things the Americans used- to trick the dog into thinking there was just an American down there and it's ok!. However on this one particular occasion, they also had put chilli powder and black pepper in the hole so when the dog sniffed it, he started sneezing and sneezing and that was him. He could not smell anymore, his nose was burnt. The VC knew this was one of the primary ways in which the Americans could find them. He also told us he was in the same bunker as John Kerry. His family fled Saigon when the war started, his mum and dad died and his brothers and sisters are now in Australia. He only found them years after the war ended when the embargo on Vietnam ended. He is now in the middle of writing his diary which he hopes to be published.I def will be buying it if i ever see it on the shelves.
When we arrived at the tunnels we watched a 15 min video on the lives of the Chu Chi people. Over 20% of women fought for the Chu Chi in the war. Mr Bean then showed us all the booby traps the Chu Chi set, I can tell you, I would not liked to have stepped on those! But as Mr Bean puts it, you cannot blame them, it is the only way to protect themselves as they had no weapons. They made weapons out of old bombshells (of which the Americans knew this and used to put dynamite in. As the VC were sawing through the Bombshell it would get hot and sparks would occasionally fly, which could alight the dynamite and BOOM!. However, again the VC were clever, they put water over it as they were sawing to cool the metal down.). They also used bamboo and sharpened them creating traps(mostly for the dogs the Americans used, for food or other animals) . After seeing all this we descended down into the tunnel, 100m of it (just to see what it was like) . Luckily there were several exit points along the way just in case someone suddenly decided they were claustrophobic... easily done down here!. It was like the blind leading the blind, i have no idea how these people lived down there, especially since some of the tunnel has been widened for tourist purposes, of which i'm quite glad!. Mr Bean certainly helped by telling us someone got stuck the week before! But anyways, in the tunnel it is very dark, and small. you have to crouch and walk at the same time to walk through. There is the odd steep drop , or incline (used to stop flooding or to confuse the enemy should they get in) and you have to be careful with tho, bit scary navigating through all this in the dark though!
Anyway, enough for now.On my way to the Mekong Delta in half an hour so will keep you updated
sara xxx
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Nha-Trang-Mui Ne
Just arrived in Ho Chi Minh city today... back to civilisation... just kidding! It's much much busier here than in Hanoi, motorbikes flying everywhere, felt like we were going to have a couple òf head on collisions in the bús on the road down this morning with the bus pulling out to overtake with another bus oncoming ánd barely missing us . So... Nha Trang, we spent around 3 dáys there. The same day we arrived, we went on a city tour visiting the Oceanographic museum , visited a cathedral, the pagoda with a HUGE sitting buddha on top and we were going to visit the market but decided we were too tired after the bus journey down from Hoi An. The Oceanographic wasn't much, few turtles in dirty pools, few fish that would live in the coral reefs and then a rôom full of pickled sea creatures... lovely! That night we literally went next door and ate Vietnamese food, Charlotte having spring rolls and me eating traditional Pho.
The next day we decided to venture to the beach, being extremely keen , we headed down at about 9am to bag our beach beds for the day, paying around 35,000 dong ( ảround 75p) for the day. BAAAD move. We sat on the beach , dipping in and out of the sea for 5 hours! and... as it was quite cloudy at some points òf the day we did not put on ás much sun cream as we maybe should of, resulting in ús both looking like lobsters!! :( We made our way back to the hotel and ate dinner dơwn at the sailing club, bit more expensive than some places however , when converted into pounds, not expensive at all for us and had a lovely table right on the beach front.
The next morning we caught the bús to Mui Ne, a 5 hour journey to a popular surfer resort, also famous for it's white and red sand dunes. On arrival at the backpackers, we weren't greeted in the móst friendliest manner compared to what we've bêen used to with Vietnamese hospitality. The manager was English, not the móst authentic for a Vietnamese backpacker rẻsort, and after the usual handing over passports etc. simply handed ús our key and pointed us in the general direction of our room... hmmm thanks!... cut a long story short, he wasn't the friendliest of people we've met along the way and the Vietnamese staff working there we found to be much mỏre helpful..... Maybe that's a lesson us British could learn from these guys, being nice and helpful to everyone can get you a long way. We figured out this morning(whilst waiting for the bus) that thís manager guy was a bit òf an idiot after a mĩx up with róoms, and started shouting at one of the local staff members in front of us, not very professional and i was ready for getting up and having a right go at him. argh! i really don't like people that treat others like something on the bottom òf their shoe, especially when thís pổor guy was doing the bést he could. Anyway, Mui Ne, we found to be very small, and unless you are into water sports, there ís not much else to do. Yesterday, we booked a tour for 8 dollars ( i guess you get what you pay for), we got picked up by a Vietnamese guy in a old US jeep and started going along the one road in Mui Ne. A guy stopped him and our driver suddenly swung round and started heading back the way we had just come. Both Charlotte and i were looking at each other rather confused but turned out we had to pick up two mỏre people.. then of we went off again!. Before long he stopped again at the entrance to a alleyway and opened all the doors, indicating us all to get out. He pointed at the small sign saying "Fairy Spring" and pointed up the alley way which looked like the road to nowhere and said "40 minutes", rather confused we (4 òf ús nơw) headed up thís alley before being beckoned by some gúys saying thís way and we'll look after your shoes!... we wondered why they wanted our shoes until we saw that in order to get to the fairy spring (which ís water that springs out òf the sand dunes somehow) we had to walk up a stream,.... yep that's right, barefoot up a river. I'm so glad it hadn't been raining heavily. We got up to an area where we were surounded by red sand in a sort òf canyon which was cool but did not venture up to the waterfall as some passers-by informed ús it wasn't much this time of year. After this adventure, we made our way back to the car and we were taken to a local fishing village where thẻ fishermen fish in these little basket boats,. Then we were taken to the white sand dunes which were amazing!. Walking up them felt like we were in the Sahara desert , with nothing but sand around us. We then visited the red sand dunes, seemed like the "Blackpool" òf the area , lóts òf locals sitting , ỏr flying kites...
So that pretty much takes ús up to now, i'm sitting in the hotel lobby in Ho Chih Minh City. Tomorrow we are going around the sites in the city, next day we are going to the Cho Chi tunnels, then we have 2 dáys and overnight stay in the Mekong Delta before our trip to Phu Quoc (Paradise) on the 2nd. So búsy few dáys ahead.
Apologies for the funny characters, computer is set to Vietnamese language so hard getting it to recognise english words sometimes.
The next day we decided to venture to the beach, being extremely keen , we headed down at about 9am to bag our beach beds for the day, paying around 35,000 dong ( ảround 75p) for the day. BAAAD move. We sat on the beach , dipping in and out of the sea for 5 hours! and... as it was quite cloudy at some points òf the day we did not put on ás much sun cream as we maybe should of, resulting in ús both looking like lobsters!! :( We made our way back to the hotel and ate dinner dơwn at the sailing club, bit more expensive than some places however , when converted into pounds, not expensive at all for us and had a lovely table right on the beach front.
The next morning we caught the bús to Mui Ne, a 5 hour journey to a popular surfer resort, also famous for it's white and red sand dunes. On arrival at the backpackers, we weren't greeted in the móst friendliest manner compared to what we've bêen used to with Vietnamese hospitality. The manager was English, not the móst authentic for a Vietnamese backpacker rẻsort, and after the usual handing over passports etc. simply handed ús our key and pointed us in the general direction of our room... hmmm thanks!... cut a long story short, he wasn't the friendliest of people we've met along the way and the Vietnamese staff working there we found to be much mỏre helpful..... Maybe that's a lesson us British could learn from these guys, being nice and helpful to everyone can get you a long way. We figured out this morning(whilst waiting for the bus) that thís manager guy was a bit òf an idiot after a mĩx up with róoms, and started shouting at one of the local staff members in front of us, not very professional and i was ready for getting up and having a right go at him. argh! i really don't like people that treat others like something on the bottom òf their shoe, especially when thís pổor guy was doing the bést he could. Anyway, Mui Ne, we found to be very small, and unless you are into water sports, there ís not much else to do. Yesterday, we booked a tour for 8 dollars ( i guess you get what you pay for), we got picked up by a Vietnamese guy in a old US jeep and started going along the one road in Mui Ne. A guy stopped him and our driver suddenly swung round and started heading back the way we had just come. Both Charlotte and i were looking at each other rather confused but turned out we had to pick up two mỏre people.. then of we went off again!. Before long he stopped again at the entrance to a alleyway and opened all the doors, indicating us all to get out. He pointed at the small sign saying "Fairy Spring" and pointed up the alley way which looked like the road to nowhere and said "40 minutes", rather confused we (4 òf ús nơw) headed up thís alley before being beckoned by some gúys saying thís way and we'll look after your shoes!... we wondered why they wanted our shoes until we saw that in order to get to the fairy spring (which ís water that springs out òf the sand dunes somehow) we had to walk up a stream,.... yep that's right, barefoot up a river. I'm so glad it hadn't been raining heavily. We got up to an area where we were surounded by red sand in a sort òf canyon which was cool but did not venture up to the waterfall as some passers-by informed ús it wasn't much this time of year. After this adventure, we made our way back to the car and we were taken to a local fishing village where thẻ fishermen fish in these little basket boats,. Then we were taken to the white sand dunes which were amazing!. Walking up them felt like we were in the Sahara desert , with nothing but sand around us. We then visited the red sand dunes, seemed like the "Blackpool" òf the area , lóts òf locals sitting , ỏr flying kites...
So that pretty much takes ús up to now, i'm sitting in the hotel lobby in Ho Chih Minh City. Tomorrow we are going around the sites in the city, next day we are going to the Cho Chi tunnels, then we have 2 dáys and overnight stay in the Mekong Delta before our trip to Phu Quoc (Paradise) on the 2nd. So búsy few dáys ahead.
Apologies for the funny characters, computer is set to Vietnamese language so hard getting it to recognise english words sometimes.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Nha Trang
So... arrived in Nha Trang this Morning after anoth 12 hour bus ride. This one was a little more packed and alittle more bumpy as i doubt the bus had any suspension what so ever.. but hey, we arrived in 1 piece. The last few days spent in Hoi an have mainly been spent relaxing. We went to My Son, said to be Vietnam's Ankor wat... was pretty impressive even though half had been knocked down by thebombing,.However our tour guide was not so great...(i think we have been extemely lucky so far)within 5minutes of getting on the bus he immediately started trying to sell us a boat ride back from My Son for 3 extra dollars, even though we had paid for the bus back. We thought about it, but when he said to us, tell the hotel you go back by bus but you comeback by boat... alarm bells started ringing, so we declined his offer and he quite frankly looked a little pissed off. but hey! On arrival at My Son, we were shepherded through by the guide, who then proceeded to tell us many "too much information" stories-if you get what i mean!- in relation to a statue based on male sexuality.lovely!....he then left us to own devices so we could take a look around ourselves :)
Also on Tai's recommendation i got a dress tailor made in a turquoise/bluesilk all for like 15 quid.bargain not to be missed.I also went to another tailors to get a asian style dress made for 5quid. Very happy!.
Anyway short entry today and probably will be from now on majority of time we'll be on beach.:)Happy days. Have uploaded a few pictures, but only a select few as taking so long to upload...will upload rest on facebook when home. so for now... tam biet
Also on Tai's recommendation i got a dress tailor made in a turquoise/bluesilk all for like 15 quid.bargain not to be missed.I also went to another tailors to get a asian style dress made for 5quid. Very happy!.
Anyway short entry today and probably will be from now on majority of time we'll be on beach.:)Happy days. Have uploaded a few pictures, but only a select few as taking so long to upload...will upload rest on facebook when home. so for now... tam biet
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Hoi an
Well, we arrived in Hoi An today after 3 day adventure. Where i left off before, the next morning Tai and his brother Top came to pick us up 9am to show us around Hue before lunch and setting off on our journey. They took us first to the american bunkers overlooking the Perfume River. This had an amazing view and as top said, i can see why it is now a romantic spot for couples.We then went to two Pagodas within Hue, one was interesting to see as we saw the monks singing and praying, of which they only do two times a week. The other was even more interesting as it holds the car, of which many years ago while the war was going on, a monk drove his car to Saigon and set fire to it, burning himself to death, all for freedom. After the pagodas, they took us to the tomb of Tu Duc built in period of 1864-1867 for use before and after his death.Tu Duc had the longest reign of any Nguyen monarch and although he had over 104 wives and lots of concubines... he never had any children.The heat was intense so we didn't spend too long there. Tai and Top then took us for lunch in a local restaurant where we were served rice paper springrolls and fish sauce.. Starting to get the hang of chopsticks now!
Once we had eaten we set off down Highway 1 topwards the DMZ (de militarized zone) where we would stay for the night. Thisis the area where north and south Vietnam were once divided and where the fighting first took place before moving south. Since 1975, over 5000 people have been injured or killed in the DMZ area by mines etc left over by the war. After two hours or so riding, and a very sore bum later, we arrived at our guesthouse for the night, right next to the beach. Charlotte and i were so hot we decided to go down to the sea and have a swim, which wasw nice until a load of men started coming down from the cafe beside our guesthouse with a videcamera.. We quickly decided to get out and made our way back to our room to shower and get sorted for dinner. At 7pm, we met the boys outside, and with our table sat under the stars with a view of the sea , we watched the yellow moon rise and ate a meal of rice, squid, tuna, omelette and green veg. Tai kept trying to pile food onto our plates, thereis only so much i can eat and rice fills me up quick! but was nice that he was making sure we had enough to eat. haha. We then ate dragon fruit for pudding and sat around witha cold beer talking and listening to bob marley. Was a slightly surreal experience but one i think i will rememebr for a long time. The family, who's house we were staying in started dancing, the dad and son were up. was nice to see :)
Next morning we got up for 7am and had omelette for breakfast (again!) After the boys tied our rucksacks safely to their bikes we were off. Stopping shortly after at the Vinh Moc tunnels. This is where a coastal village literally moved underground in response to the bombing and war.It took them a year to build by hand and The tunnels have 3 levels with the third level being 30m below the ground. It also had 13 exits onto the sea of which were used to get vital supplies in from the sea, albeit a risky procedure.There was a guy in the grounds who was actually born underground during that time, He couldn't speak at all but cme up to us to shake our hand. Just shows how friendly the Vietnamese are.
After the Vinh Moc tunnels we visited the Truong Son National Cemetary where North Vietnamese soldiers who died along the Ho Chi Minh trail are buried. There are five zones of which the soldiers are buried in according to their province.What really hit home ,was the majority of the tombstones were nameless. I mean literally all of them bar a few. Someone somewhere has no idea to this day whether their loved one survived or not. That must be horrible! They also took us to the bridge- on the way onto the Ho Chih Minh trail -where North and South Vietnam was actually divided by the river. . It was a very long day riding yesterday , we reached our hotel at 1pm after riding through rice paddies and eventually up into the mountains where the climate became much cooler. At 6.30pm that nice we went for dinner, local made pho soup. We sat down in thh cafe and in front of us was put a stove, plate of raw thinly sliced meat, mushrooms, shrimp, noodles etc. The pot of boiling soup was put on the stove to which tai and his brother added all of the ingredients to cook. Within maybe10 mintures or less the meat was cook and shrimps pink and so we ate. On return to the hotel we all retired to bed.
This morning (feels like last week) we got up again for 7am and guess what we had for breakfast.... omelette! and set off down the road as today was to be a long day..(boy does my bum feel it now) Not so much sightseeing to be done just the road but the views were spectacular. Loved every moment of it. Swooping round the bends on the mountainside was amazing. Can't really describe it to you without the pictures. We had to stop at a point where there had been what looked like a recent landslide. As it wasn't safe for us to stay on the bike being very slidey, me and Charlotte got off to walk across... The mud was a little bit deeper than expected and my foot got sucked down taking my shoe with it. After fishing my shoe out i opted for going barefoot (i was going to get muddy anyway) . Once across, the boys were waiting patiently for us, and had great amusement at the state we were in.. particularly me!. oooh well! Back on the bike barefoot, shoes in hand Tai promised there was a waterfall further down in which we could wash and to which we did. An hour or two down th road we stopped at a pinapple farm for a bite to eat. The fruit out here is amazing. I don't normally like pineapple at home but out here it is so sweet and juicy i love it! And off we went again. I was so glad when Tai said we were only 15km from Hoi An as i was starting to lose all feeling in my bum from sitting so long , although very fun. They dropped us off in our hotel and left us for an hour before meeting back up with us again so we could pay them the final amount for our trip and write reviews for them in their books. I feel bit sad that this adventure has ended, only wish we could have gone with them longer as they are two great great guys. Maybe next year i will come bcak and do a 9 day tour with them. That would be awesome!.
So for now and maybe nxt 3 days we are in Hoi an. Halways down Vietnam now pretty much. Time is going so fast!!
Once we had eaten we set off down Highway 1 topwards the DMZ (de militarized zone) where we would stay for the night. Thisis the area where north and south Vietnam were once divided and where the fighting first took place before moving south. Since 1975, over 5000 people have been injured or killed in the DMZ area by mines etc left over by the war. After two hours or so riding, and a very sore bum later, we arrived at our guesthouse for the night, right next to the beach. Charlotte and i were so hot we decided to go down to the sea and have a swim, which wasw nice until a load of men started coming down from the cafe beside our guesthouse with a videcamera.. We quickly decided to get out and made our way back to our room to shower and get sorted for dinner. At 7pm, we met the boys outside, and with our table sat under the stars with a view of the sea , we watched the yellow moon rise and ate a meal of rice, squid, tuna, omelette and green veg. Tai kept trying to pile food onto our plates, thereis only so much i can eat and rice fills me up quick! but was nice that he was making sure we had enough to eat. haha. We then ate dragon fruit for pudding and sat around witha cold beer talking and listening to bob marley. Was a slightly surreal experience but one i think i will rememebr for a long time. The family, who's house we were staying in started dancing, the dad and son were up. was nice to see :)
Next morning we got up for 7am and had omelette for breakfast (again!) After the boys tied our rucksacks safely to their bikes we were off. Stopping shortly after at the Vinh Moc tunnels. This is where a coastal village literally moved underground in response to the bombing and war.It took them a year to build by hand and The tunnels have 3 levels with the third level being 30m below the ground. It also had 13 exits onto the sea of which were used to get vital supplies in from the sea, albeit a risky procedure.There was a guy in the grounds who was actually born underground during that time, He couldn't speak at all but cme up to us to shake our hand. Just shows how friendly the Vietnamese are.
After the Vinh Moc tunnels we visited the Truong Son National Cemetary where North Vietnamese soldiers who died along the Ho Chi Minh trail are buried. There are five zones of which the soldiers are buried in according to their province.What really hit home ,was the majority of the tombstones were nameless. I mean literally all of them bar a few. Someone somewhere has no idea to this day whether their loved one survived or not. That must be horrible! They also took us to the bridge- on the way onto the Ho Chih Minh trail -where North and South Vietnam was actually divided by the river. . It was a very long day riding yesterday , we reached our hotel at 1pm after riding through rice paddies and eventually up into the mountains where the climate became much cooler. At 6.30pm that nice we went for dinner, local made pho soup. We sat down in thh cafe and in front of us was put a stove, plate of raw thinly sliced meat, mushrooms, shrimp, noodles etc. The pot of boiling soup was put on the stove to which tai and his brother added all of the ingredients to cook. Within maybe10 mintures or less the meat was cook and shrimps pink and so we ate. On return to the hotel we all retired to bed.
This morning (feels like last week) we got up again for 7am and guess what we had for breakfast.... omelette! and set off down the road as today was to be a long day..(boy does my bum feel it now) Not so much sightseeing to be done just the road but the views were spectacular. Loved every moment of it. Swooping round the bends on the mountainside was amazing. Can't really describe it to you without the pictures. We had to stop at a point where there had been what looked like a recent landslide. As it wasn't safe for us to stay on the bike being very slidey, me and Charlotte got off to walk across... The mud was a little bit deeper than expected and my foot got sucked down taking my shoe with it. After fishing my shoe out i opted for going barefoot (i was going to get muddy anyway) . Once across, the boys were waiting patiently for us, and had great amusement at the state we were in.. particularly me!. oooh well! Back on the bike barefoot, shoes in hand Tai promised there was a waterfall further down in which we could wash and to which we did. An hour or two down th road we stopped at a pinapple farm for a bite to eat. The fruit out here is amazing. I don't normally like pineapple at home but out here it is so sweet and juicy i love it! And off we went again. I was so glad when Tai said we were only 15km from Hoi An as i was starting to lose all feeling in my bum from sitting so long , although very fun. They dropped us off in our hotel and left us for an hour before meeting back up with us again so we could pay them the final amount for our trip and write reviews for them in their books. I feel bit sad that this adventure has ended, only wish we could have gone with them longer as they are two great great guys. Maybe next year i will come bcak and do a 9 day tour with them. That would be awesome!.
So for now and maybe nxt 3 days we are in Hoi an. Halways down Vietnam now pretty much. Time is going so fast!!
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Hue
So after a long day yesterday we got onto the bus.Was surprised at how many "beds" they managed to fit in. Was rows of bunkbeds either side of the bus and on row down the middle. never seen anything like it! We were shown to our assigned bunk, hopped up and got comfy (or as comfy as we could) for the night. We weren't the only foreigners on the bus, there were two australian couples behind me and charlotte and an american family with young kinds in front. The rest of the bus was all Vietnamese. When we saw the pull down screen tvs,we thought oh good... maybe it won't be so bad afterall... however, when the film went on.. some kung fu one with jet li and subtitled in vietnamese we found other things to do,... such as read a book.... which worked for all of five minutes but then they turned the lights out.... 11 hours to go!. great!
So the road was very bumpy, and noisy and there were lots of sudden stops i presume when a motorbike pulled in front in which we all nearly got thrown out our beds... nightmare!. It wasn't alll bad but certainly don't look forward to doing it again in a hurry. 15 hours later (should have been 12) we arrived in Hue. Very tired and dying for a shower. Lots of people were crowding aroudn the bus so was difficult to even get off for a start and some people were carrying on, on the bus til Hoi an... they were getting off to make sure their bags stayed on the bus. A guy approached us wearing a black vest thing with freedom riders asking if we had a hotel... i bluntly replied yes it is all sorted.... having read stories about people tryiong to take you all sorts of places... eg.. not the right hotel and so on.. but he said have you got a taxi and he would take us to our hotel. i asked how much, he replied 10,000 dong.. roughly 50 cents. which sounds about right, so tired as we, were we agreed, just dying to get in shower and rest. Little did we know we would be going on back of motorbike... which as i've mentioned before is main mode of transport around here.
Was fun! Turns out, his name is Mr. Tai a freedom rider in Hue... and he does tours for a living.. Me and Charlotte have been wanting to go off the beaten track abit and seen the REAL Vietnam instead of the touristy stuff, so we sat down to coffee with him and discuss our options. He and his brother pulled our two full books of reviews from people he has taken on tour and he is recommended on trip advisor.. one of the legit ones. We decided to take a 3 day 2 night tour from Hue to Hoi an, going up to the DMZ zone and down through the Ho chi minh trail through the mountains, minority villages to Danang and finishing in Hoi an. Everything is included in the price except meals... so thats transport, guide, tickets, accomodation.. everything. good deal :) so we leave tomorrow 9am... on a motorbike... top gear style haha. Don't worry those of you reading this thinking i've gone off my rocker, i would not be doing it if i didnt think it was ok, loads of reviews have said he is a really safe guy, takes care of you and he seems like a real nice easy going guy and his brother is too. tai has been doing it for 7 years now and his brother for 4 so i feel we are in safe hands.. :)
Anyways after meeting them and organising, we went to visit the Citadel,unfortunately was hard to enjy most of the sites as Hue is wayyyy hotter than Hanoi, it is a very different heat, and it is impossible to walk around in without feeling like you are burning to a crisp.... even with sun cream on! We looked around, some of the walls still have bullet holes in it form the war, sudddenly makes it all real , of which im sure will hit home even more when we go to the DMZ tomorrow.. The area where Vietnam was divided into north and south and where the majority of the fighting took place in the war. After a little sightseeing we reitred to our hotel room. Not exactly vietnamese but we felt we earned it after our 18 course vietnamese food binge the other day. as nice as it was!.
Anyways thats all for now, time to go shower and bed. long day tomorrow.. will write again in Hoi an probably.
love sara xxx
So the road was very bumpy, and noisy and there were lots of sudden stops i presume when a motorbike pulled in front in which we all nearly got thrown out our beds... nightmare!. It wasn't alll bad but certainly don't look forward to doing it again in a hurry. 15 hours later (should have been 12) we arrived in Hue. Very tired and dying for a shower. Lots of people were crowding aroudn the bus so was difficult to even get off for a start and some people were carrying on, on the bus til Hoi an... they were getting off to make sure their bags stayed on the bus. A guy approached us wearing a black vest thing with freedom riders asking if we had a hotel... i bluntly replied yes it is all sorted.... having read stories about people tryiong to take you all sorts of places... eg.. not the right hotel and so on.. but he said have you got a taxi and he would take us to our hotel. i asked how much, he replied 10,000 dong.. roughly 50 cents. which sounds about right, so tired as we, were we agreed, just dying to get in shower and rest. Little did we know we would be going on back of motorbike... which as i've mentioned before is main mode of transport around here.
Was fun! Turns out, his name is Mr. Tai a freedom rider in Hue... and he does tours for a living.. Me and Charlotte have been wanting to go off the beaten track abit and seen the REAL Vietnam instead of the touristy stuff, so we sat down to coffee with him and discuss our options. He and his brother pulled our two full books of reviews from people he has taken on tour and he is recommended on trip advisor.. one of the legit ones. We decided to take a 3 day 2 night tour from Hue to Hoi an, going up to the DMZ zone and down through the Ho chi minh trail through the mountains, minority villages to Danang and finishing in Hoi an. Everything is included in the price except meals... so thats transport, guide, tickets, accomodation.. everything. good deal :) so we leave tomorrow 9am... on a motorbike... top gear style haha. Don't worry those of you reading this thinking i've gone off my rocker, i would not be doing it if i didnt think it was ok, loads of reviews have said he is a really safe guy, takes care of you and he seems like a real nice easy going guy and his brother is too. tai has been doing it for 7 years now and his brother for 4 so i feel we are in safe hands.. :)
Anyways after meeting them and organising, we went to visit the Citadel,unfortunately was hard to enjy most of the sites as Hue is wayyyy hotter than Hanoi, it is a very different heat, and it is impossible to walk around in without feeling like you are burning to a crisp.... even with sun cream on! We looked around, some of the walls still have bullet holes in it form the war, sudddenly makes it all real , of which im sure will hit home even more when we go to the DMZ tomorrow.. The area where Vietnam was divided into north and south and where the majority of the fighting took place in the war. After a little sightseeing we reitred to our hotel room. Not exactly vietnamese but we felt we earned it after our 18 course vietnamese food binge the other day. as nice as it was!.
Anyways thats all for now, time to go shower and bed. long day tomorrow.. will write again in Hoi an probably.
love sara xxx
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