Hanoi
21/02/2011
The plane was so small, I panicked as we took of as we had propellers not a jet engine and sitting next to the propeller I had a few disgusting panicked thoughts of it all going wrong. We made it, noisily though, into cold Vietnam. Although it was 16degrees I was pretty being used to late 30s and didn't have the clothes for cold weather really.We were picked up by a suited and booted Vietnamese driver who drove us in his leather seated car- what luxury- to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (the new one). Such a great hostel. It's clean and quiet which is a contrast to the city. The city reminds me more of India that Asia with the cars, the noise and the dirt. The damp air didn't help this. There is a restaurant/bar and a chillax pool, computer, TV area where you can do whatever to relax after being in the city. In the dorm we met a great guy starting TEFL here called Jonna (Aussie),an Irish couple and a bit of a crazy Cambodian girl who called herself Mary. We all went for food and drink. Mary claiming she could speak Vietnamese made life quite a lot more difficult when it came to getting food. They didn't really understand her, it was easier in English. Discovering veggie food was pretty hard to come by, especially with the street food, Shav went hungry. We drank at Beer Hoi- this corner on a street that sells beer. You sit on plastic tiny stools (everywhere is Asia loves these seats) and you get kegged, pretty bad but very cheap (6p) beer. Here we met the car manager who took us to another bar.
The next day Jonno, having been here a little while, took us on a walking city tour where we ate some amazing food and met two Americans who have lived here for 5months. They took us to an awesome area of town where we had some great coffee- I had Coke of course!
Not sleeping well thanks to some people coming and going all night in the room we got up to go and see Ho Chi Minh- the Mausoleum. He is here, like a china doll in perfect dead form despite the fact he wanted to be cremated. Getting there was interesting. It's only open in the morning. You try to get to the building by crossing a path, but you get whistled at by guards constantly. They have some unwritten rules that were somehow supposed to guess because they never say not to walk on the path, or the foot path yet you are constantly shuffled around and whistled at making you move only is certain areas. After getting through the security and cueing in single file, the security for this was more secure than the airport, we had to get rid of our cameras and water, then we were told to stand on a spot 2-by-2. You can't really talk much either. Then you walk 2-by-2 down the red carpet passed guards. I, of course, get pulled out of the line by a guard who yells at me saying I have a camera, but Siobhan had the little tag saying the camera had been handed in but she was shouted at to walk on. The guard didn't really speak English so I started to panic a little insisting I didn't have a camera until Shav shook the key from a distance and I made the guard see it. Quite scary. Finally inside you are shuffled around the square around his open coffin thing in silence, you can't laugh or even smile properly. Very bizarre experience. I didn't really like seeing a dead body. In the rain we tried to holler a tuk-tuk or anything but there were none. Only bikes stopping trying to get us to donate to random charities. Walking to Ho Hoan Kiem Lake we met some English 18 year olds and went for coffee, got money and returned to the hostel. In the evening Jonna took us to a nice place for dinner and spring rolls then to LP Cafe where you can Shisha and play your own music. We talked to one of the workers, 'Kong' there, he spoke the best English I have ever heard. He used the word diagonal as we played connect 4! He offered Jonno a TEFL job with his friend and he showed us some great beautiful spots that get missed by tourists that we are going to see. The next day we did nothing really. We again, with Jonno, walked around town seeing some more sight- I forgot to mention- every street in Hanoi has a theme- every shop will be the same on a street- chicken street, dog street (as they eat dog here), shoe street, sweet street, helmet street etc. Its really odd but great! We also discovered a shop that just sells one brand of milk as it's sole product!! It's quite strange. I also bought a huge collection of Disney as it is nothing here. I now own almost all Disney films WOO!! Now just relaxing waiting for our night train to go to Hue. We decided, after the boat accident in Halong Bay earlier this week not to go. :( The weather is awful so we wouldn't see anything but also the boats all have to be checked (Government orders) one by one so you cannot sleep on the boats meaning EVERYONE is on the small island, ruining the island experience and also meaning you spend your whole day getting to the island drinking and coming back the next morning. That's a very expensive night out to not see anything or do anything. I'll just have to come back, what a shame!
Hue
A much needed refreshing change from Hanoi. After a long train ride, but pretty decent train, we arrived in Hue however the hostel was not there to collect us as promised so we walked. It was not too far and along the way we met a cycling old man who read his poem to me. I was pretty nice to him so he said I had a kind heart so he gave me his poem that he'd written. It wasn't the best I've ever read but very sweet. The hostel, not as nice as the Hanoi one but still good. We went for a wander around town, crossing theSong Huong river to the old part of town. Here we walked around inside the Citadel (Kinh Thanh) and learnt about the old way of life when the city lived within the walls. The second day we wanted to find the beach so we set off on a bike ride along with a guy we'd met called Alex. This turned out to be pretty long and took us about 3 hours. The journey was amazing though, glad to be out of the town. We cycled through the 'real' Vietnam, through the rice paddies watching children ride Buffalo, sing songs in their school and all the locals saying hi to the random Westerners who are obviously, clearly lost! This was the best day. We eventually made it to the beach which was a complete disappointment. We were going to try some of the famous local sea food however after order a drink which came with a used straw we decided best not to eat there instead buying snacks from the local 'supermarket'. The ride back was just as beautiful, a lot of thinking time, but also extremelly hot!! No shade along the fields. The next day we couldn't walk properly so we relaxed. We had found a restaurant up the road which sold THE best spring rolls-I may have had 3 plates full and had a pool table, excellent for passing the time. We then went drinking and I met some awesome Vietnamese girls on the dance floor who I spent the rest of the night with. They both had long distance foreign boyfriends. As there is very little do to in Hue we decided to move on to Hoi An the next day.
Hoi An
LOVE HOI AN!! Stunning old little streets and back alleyways and amazing old architecture along the river. The river is decorated and the quaint little bridges going over have brightly coloured lanterns lighting the way. It feels like a Disney park almost. The bus jourey down was pretty good as we were in the amazing bed coach. We did, unfortunately meet some people who we would rather we hadn't on this ride though. We spent the morning trying to find accomodaton, Hoi An is a lot more expensive. We eventually found a decent enough place. We bumped into the bus people again and went for dinner with them. The guy was quite nice however his friend, not so much, so I tried to ditch them but we ended up going for dinner and for a drink in the smokiest, most horrible bar, then we ditched them. The dinner was great, the restaurant was one long table with one woman cooking on her one stove. Great food! The next day we looked in shops to decide what we wanted to have made- Hoi An is the Tailor Town, you can get anything tailor made, including shoes and swimming costumes! We ended up being accosted in one shop and before we knew it we were being measured and choosing fabrics- these ladies know how to upsell! I ended up with a dress and a suit whilst Shav who wanted nothing got a dress, some shorts and a shirt! HAHA sucked in! I went for a dress design I had seen everywhere in Bangkok however they seemed very confused, and the next day at the fitting it was obvious they hadn't understood ad the dress was very wrong. To make us feel better about our choices we went for some nice food where I ordered some safe Carbonara however this was no carbonara, it was buttered spaghetti with egg and small bits of bacon, no cream or sauce, it was discusting. THe next day the clothes shop did manage to fix the dress though and it looks great, it just isn't the best made underneath. Shavs clothes looked awesome though, even though she'd been taken by scooter to the ladies house as she wanted more 'wild' designs'. She basically picked out the ugliest fabrics, the women found it histerical, but her taste paid off and she looked like a true lady from the 60s/70s in the end! We changed hostel after the first night to our most luxurious of the whole trip, Sunshine Hostel- en-suite and a tiny balcony and they cleaned every day!! We spent the evening in a restaurant we had found that had good food and good drink. We watched the competition they have every night as well. They sing whilst people vote and the winner gets a lantern, strange. The waiter knew us in this restaurant though as it was the third time there and he was pretty chatty and eventually persuaded us to wait for him to finish so he could drive us to the hotel as we had missed the last pick up- this was a kind favour not a sleezy favour- however it was pretty terrifying as he thought it would be fun to show off his motorbike skills weaving from side to side and bending, not fun! We spent a day at the beach as well where I very happily bumped into my Dutch friends who I'd met in Cambodia. We had a catch up and we also made friends with a lovely couple, Scotsman and Irish girl, who refused to wear sunscreen. We met up with my Dutch friends for dinner along with a GREAT girl we met. She was the best story teller I've ever met and a make-up artist to the stars! The next day we went for a bikini wax- the most torturous, embarrasing and regrettable experience of our lives. Never trust a shop which has the selling point, 'we can do discount as we hae NO customers'- read between the lines people! After sharing this experience and probably frightening our new Irish/Scot friends we had dinner. That night we shared a taxi with the couple to Danang to get the train to Nha Trang. Hoi An was lovely and a great little place to be.
Nha Trang
The couple had been given a heads up about a fantastic hostel so we followed them. We turned out to be the only guests apart from the owners future family once their daughter married, so it felt kike we were crashing a family party. this was the best hostel I think we stayed in though. So clean, comfortable bed and really friendly owners. They were surprised we were there as they only advertise on the Vietnamese travel website. We arrived to very bad weather as we we didn't sleep at ALL on the train thanks to some 'lovely' South Africans, we slept a lot. We did get some see some amazing waves on the beach though from the strong wind. We got absolutely drenched too. Deciding to wander around we treated ourselves in a supposed Irish bar. However it clearly wasn't in the end. I ordered off the menu some 'cheese and chips' which you would think as it was on the menu would be cheesy chips (it was rainging and cold I wanted a treat), but we had 4 different waiters come over asking in broken English if we were sure I didn't want bread with that. In the end what came was about 10 skinny cold Frech Fries and a slab of plastic cheese on the side. Not cheesy chips at all. So ended up ordering bread which came and was sweet!! Not a great day. The next day we wandered up to the 'Giant Seated Buddha' which was ok. There isn't so much to see in Nha Trang when it's bad weather. We wanted to go over to the islands but it was horrible. Eventually we, and the couple decided to leave for the South for, hopefully, better weather.
Mui Ne
Ridiculously hot here so we just stumbled into one of the first hostels we saw so as not to be in the sun too long. It was pretty nice. Mui Ne is basically a beach resort and water sports area. It is Kite Surfing mad but was also hosting the world Windsurfing Championship which we got to watch. We were quite a walk from the restaurant, beach and bar areas so we got a fair bit of excercise and it was great watching the kite surfers! The next day we tried to hire motorbikes. Shav wouldn't drive so I had a go however with broken English I was confused by the clutch situation and the owner had to physically hold the bike back from me zooming off forward at 60miles and hour. Scary! I got the hang of it in the end and could drive however I was terrified of starting the engine again so we decided to hire drivers (it's cheapish). We had a bike each and rode the long distance at a scaruily fast speed, to the white sand dunes. These were stunning but we'd left it late and it was getting ludicrously hot. The idea is to slide (like sledging) down the dunes. Turns out this is quite difficult and we weren't good at it and couldn't see how you could possibly go fast. As it was really tiring walking on the sinking sand in the heat we gave up and went to the yellow sand dunes. Along the way though Shavs bike broke down but mine had already sped off. She was left in the middle of nowhere with the driver whilst young Vietnamese mocked her- not fun! The driver got petrol, a small drinks bottles worth, from another driver and he seemed to think that would fix the problem so they drove on, and then his tire burst. My driver then got a phone call (I didn't know waht was goin on) and he ditched me at the side of the road and drove back. I was a little worried but eventually Shav arrived and all was good. We went to the yellow dunes to slide buying a sledge off a cute girl practising her English. However, it was the heat of the day and as I slid I sank into the sand and my feet started to burn then I lost my shoe but I couldn't walk as it was too hot and I was now covered in sand. I started to panic a little as it was really painful and there was no easy route back up the dune so the little girl came to my rescue directing me up an easier path and helping me with my shoe. Not an experience I want to repeat. Back at the hostel I clanber off the bike and immediately put my leg on the engine of another, gaining the classic Asia Traveller burn on the back of my knee. The owner went a put toothpaste on it to cool it down! This was pretty painful and became a conversation topic a lot for me and Shav as I liked to give her updates on the state of the swelling. :)
Phu Quok Island
We travelled to Ho Chi Minh city for a very short night before flying early to Phu Quok. We had to buy different plane tickets strangely so were on different flights but after we had both arrived we took a taxi to the hostel area. We found one where we stayed in a hut on the beach. Great place. We spent out time here relaxing, however the beach hut stank so we moved into a much city garden hut that smelt less. We spent a lot of time on the stunning beach, reading and eated AMAZING food in this Italian restaurant we found. We spent the 3rd day on a trip. We hired a taxi for the day and it took us to a lot of the island, it is a very small island. We visited the Pearl Farm and saw how they get pearls, visited another beautiful beach, but full of rubbish, in a different area and he took us to a Pepper Farm where we saw a lot of pepper plants. It was quite bizarre. But I cannot forget the waterfall he took us too which was out of season so there was no water. We spent the time walking up the path until we found a little bit of water. Good exercise and fun to play in the woods. We did meet some Vietnamese who were pickining in the middle of where the water should have been but who mocked us for looking. The island is stunning and a very nice relaxing holiday place where you don't have to do anything.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
We stayed in the Pham Ngu Lao district of the city as this city is massive. Here it is a very busy place but with little side streets full of nice restaurants and hotels. We spent our first full day doing the tourist thing and visiting Reunification Palace and the War Remnants museaum. This was pretty intense as, just like Cambodia, we don't hear much about the wars hear or we are taught a very different version, i.e. the Vietnam War rather than the 'American War' as they call it. After a long walk around the park, as we got lost, we found the Palace. It is incredible and it's great to see how the President lived and the amazing rooms they have there, along with the 'war room' they have in the basement. The Palace was seized by the communists as they crashed through in 1975 when the South surrendered. The War Remnants museum is very humbling, some horrible images and stories of what happened then. I realise it is very biased in the way it is portrayed but pictures don't lie and the facts about the chemical weapons and lack of monetary support for the surviving families and victims of the brutality and the gases doesn't lie. Families are still devastated generations later from the chemical weapons the Americans experimented on the country. Horrible stuff. After this we were pretty stumped so went for tea to pirk up.
- Mekong Delta (My Tho) The next day we went on opur first official 'tour'. Boy do I not like tours. Your moved around from place to place, waiting for people, going to preplanned 'tourist' spots that pretend not to be, very strange. However, you can't really go around the Mekong Delta without a tour, especially if you're short on time. It was fun though, we rode on the river as this is the only mode of transport round there, wore the Vietnamese hats, had a ride on a horse and cart, saw how they make these coconut sweets and made things with the shell. All in all it was good fun and an experience. This area is stunning though, pretty untouched as it is so inaccessible and has been fought over for so long. I wouldbn want to go back for a better look next time and go deeper in.
Off to Thailand again...
21/02/2011
The plane was so small, I panicked as we took of as we had propellers not a jet engine and sitting next to the propeller I had a few disgusting panicked thoughts of it all going wrong. We made it, noisily though, into cold Vietnam. Although it was 16degrees I was pretty being used to late 30s and didn't have the clothes for cold weather really.We were picked up by a suited and booted Vietnamese driver who drove us in his leather seated car- what luxury- to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (the new one). Such a great hostel. It's clean and quiet which is a contrast to the city. The city reminds me more of India that Asia with the cars, the noise and the dirt. The damp air didn't help this. There is a restaurant/bar and a chillax pool, computer, TV area where you can do whatever to relax after being in the city. In the dorm we met a great guy starting TEFL here called Jonna (Aussie),an Irish couple and a bit of a crazy Cambodian girl who called herself Mary. We all went for food and drink. Mary claiming she could speak Vietnamese made life quite a lot more difficult when it came to getting food. They didn't really understand her, it was easier in English. Discovering veggie food was pretty hard to come by, especially with the street food, Shav went hungry. We drank at Beer Hoi- this corner on a street that sells beer. You sit on plastic tiny stools (everywhere is Asia loves these seats) and you get kegged, pretty bad but very cheap (6p) beer. Here we met the car manager who took us to another bar.
The next day Jonno, having been here a little while, took us on a walking city tour where we ate some amazing food and met two Americans who have lived here for 5months. They took us to an awesome area of town where we had some great coffee- I had Coke of course!
Not sleeping well thanks to some people coming and going all night in the room we got up to go and see Ho Chi Minh- the Mausoleum. He is here, like a china doll in perfect dead form despite the fact he wanted to be cremated. Getting there was interesting. It's only open in the morning. You try to get to the building by crossing a path, but you get whistled at by guards constantly. They have some unwritten rules that were somehow supposed to guess because they never say not to walk on the path, or the foot path yet you are constantly shuffled around and whistled at making you move only is certain areas. After getting through the security and cueing in single file, the security for this was more secure than the airport, we had to get rid of our cameras and water, then we were told to stand on a spot 2-by-2. You can't really talk much either. Then you walk 2-by-2 down the red carpet passed guards. I, of course, get pulled out of the line by a guard who yells at me saying I have a camera, but Siobhan had the little tag saying the camera had been handed in but she was shouted at to walk on. The guard didn't really speak English so I started to panic a little insisting I didn't have a camera until Shav shook the key from a distance and I made the guard see it. Quite scary. Finally inside you are shuffled around the square around his open coffin thing in silence, you can't laugh or even smile properly. Very bizarre experience. I didn't really like seeing a dead body. In the rain we tried to holler a tuk-tuk or anything but there were none. Only bikes stopping trying to get us to donate to random charities. Walking to Ho Hoan Kiem Lake we met some English 18 year olds and went for coffee, got money and returned to the hostel. In the evening Jonna took us to a nice place for dinner and spring rolls then to LP Cafe where you can Shisha and play your own music. We talked to one of the workers, 'Kong' there, he spoke the best English I have ever heard. He used the word diagonal as we played connect 4! He offered Jonno a TEFL job with his friend and he showed us some great beautiful spots that get missed by tourists that we are going to see. The next day we did nothing really. We again, with Jonno, walked around town seeing some more sight- I forgot to mention- every street in Hanoi has a theme- every shop will be the same on a street- chicken street, dog street (as they eat dog here), shoe street, sweet street, helmet street etc. Its really odd but great! We also discovered a shop that just sells one brand of milk as it's sole product!! It's quite strange. I also bought a huge collection of Disney as it is nothing here. I now own almost all Disney films WOO!! Now just relaxing waiting for our night train to go to Hue. We decided, after the boat accident in Halong Bay earlier this week not to go. :( The weather is awful so we wouldn't see anything but also the boats all have to be checked (Government orders) one by one so you cannot sleep on the boats meaning EVERYONE is on the small island, ruining the island experience and also meaning you spend your whole day getting to the island drinking and coming back the next morning. That's a very expensive night out to not see anything or do anything. I'll just have to come back, what a shame!
Hue
A much needed refreshing change from Hanoi. After a long train ride, but pretty decent train, we arrived in Hue however the hostel was not there to collect us as promised so we walked. It was not too far and along the way we met a cycling old man who read his poem to me. I was pretty nice to him so he said I had a kind heart so he gave me his poem that he'd written. It wasn't the best I've ever read but very sweet. The hostel, not as nice as the Hanoi one but still good. We went for a wander around town, crossing theSong Huong river to the old part of town. Here we walked around inside the Citadel (Kinh Thanh) and learnt about the old way of life when the city lived within the walls. The second day we wanted to find the beach so we set off on a bike ride along with a guy we'd met called Alex. This turned out to be pretty long and took us about 3 hours. The journey was amazing though, glad to be out of the town. We cycled through the 'real' Vietnam, through the rice paddies watching children ride Buffalo, sing songs in their school and all the locals saying hi to the random Westerners who are obviously, clearly lost! This was the best day. We eventually made it to the beach which was a complete disappointment. We were going to try some of the famous local sea food however after order a drink which came with a used straw we decided best not to eat there instead buying snacks from the local 'supermarket'. The ride back was just as beautiful, a lot of thinking time, but also extremelly hot!! No shade along the fields. The next day we couldn't walk properly so we relaxed. We had found a restaurant up the road which sold THE best spring rolls-I may have had 3 plates full and had a pool table, excellent for passing the time. We then went drinking and I met some awesome Vietnamese girls on the dance floor who I spent the rest of the night with. They both had long distance foreign boyfriends. As there is very little do to in Hue we decided to move on to Hoi An the next day.
Hoi An
LOVE HOI AN!! Stunning old little streets and back alleyways and amazing old architecture along the river. The river is decorated and the quaint little bridges going over have brightly coloured lanterns lighting the way. It feels like a Disney park almost. The bus jourey down was pretty good as we were in the amazing bed coach. We did, unfortunately meet some people who we would rather we hadn't on this ride though. We spent the morning trying to find accomodaton, Hoi An is a lot more expensive. We eventually found a decent enough place. We bumped into the bus people again and went for dinner with them. The guy was quite nice however his friend, not so much, so I tried to ditch them but we ended up going for dinner and for a drink in the smokiest, most horrible bar, then we ditched them. The dinner was great, the restaurant was one long table with one woman cooking on her one stove. Great food! The next day we looked in shops to decide what we wanted to have made- Hoi An is the Tailor Town, you can get anything tailor made, including shoes and swimming costumes! We ended up being accosted in one shop and before we knew it we were being measured and choosing fabrics- these ladies know how to upsell! I ended up with a dress and a suit whilst Shav who wanted nothing got a dress, some shorts and a shirt! HAHA sucked in! I went for a dress design I had seen everywhere in Bangkok however they seemed very confused, and the next day at the fitting it was obvious they hadn't understood ad the dress was very wrong. To make us feel better about our choices we went for some nice food where I ordered some safe Carbonara however this was no carbonara, it was buttered spaghetti with egg and small bits of bacon, no cream or sauce, it was discusting. THe next day the clothes shop did manage to fix the dress though and it looks great, it just isn't the best made underneath. Shavs clothes looked awesome though, even though she'd been taken by scooter to the ladies house as she wanted more 'wild' designs'. She basically picked out the ugliest fabrics, the women found it histerical, but her taste paid off and she looked like a true lady from the 60s/70s in the end! We changed hostel after the first night to our most luxurious of the whole trip, Sunshine Hostel- en-suite and a tiny balcony and they cleaned every day!! We spent the evening in a restaurant we had found that had good food and good drink. We watched the competition they have every night as well. They sing whilst people vote and the winner gets a lantern, strange. The waiter knew us in this restaurant though as it was the third time there and he was pretty chatty and eventually persuaded us to wait for him to finish so he could drive us to the hotel as we had missed the last pick up- this was a kind favour not a sleezy favour- however it was pretty terrifying as he thought it would be fun to show off his motorbike skills weaving from side to side and bending, not fun! We spent a day at the beach as well where I very happily bumped into my Dutch friends who I'd met in Cambodia. We had a catch up and we also made friends with a lovely couple, Scotsman and Irish girl, who refused to wear sunscreen. We met up with my Dutch friends for dinner along with a GREAT girl we met. She was the best story teller I've ever met and a make-up artist to the stars! The next day we went for a bikini wax- the most torturous, embarrasing and regrettable experience of our lives. Never trust a shop which has the selling point, 'we can do discount as we hae NO customers'- read between the lines people! After sharing this experience and probably frightening our new Irish/Scot friends we had dinner. That night we shared a taxi with the couple to Danang to get the train to Nha Trang. Hoi An was lovely and a great little place to be.
Nha Trang
The couple had been given a heads up about a fantastic hostel so we followed them. We turned out to be the only guests apart from the owners future family once their daughter married, so it felt kike we were crashing a family party. this was the best hostel I think we stayed in though. So clean, comfortable bed and really friendly owners. They were surprised we were there as they only advertise on the Vietnamese travel website. We arrived to very bad weather as we we didn't sleep at ALL on the train thanks to some 'lovely' South Africans, we slept a lot. We did get some see some amazing waves on the beach though from the strong wind. We got absolutely drenched too. Deciding to wander around we treated ourselves in a supposed Irish bar. However it clearly wasn't in the end. I ordered off the menu some 'cheese and chips' which you would think as it was on the menu would be cheesy chips (it was rainging and cold I wanted a treat), but we had 4 different waiters come over asking in broken English if we were sure I didn't want bread with that. In the end what came was about 10 skinny cold Frech Fries and a slab of plastic cheese on the side. Not cheesy chips at all. So ended up ordering bread which came and was sweet!! Not a great day. The next day we wandered up to the 'Giant Seated Buddha' which was ok. There isn't so much to see in Nha Trang when it's bad weather. We wanted to go over to the islands but it was horrible. Eventually we, and the couple decided to leave for the South for, hopefully, better weather.
Mui Ne
Ridiculously hot here so we just stumbled into one of the first hostels we saw so as not to be in the sun too long. It was pretty nice. Mui Ne is basically a beach resort and water sports area. It is Kite Surfing mad but was also hosting the world Windsurfing Championship which we got to watch. We were quite a walk from the restaurant, beach and bar areas so we got a fair bit of excercise and it was great watching the kite surfers! The next day we tried to hire motorbikes. Shav wouldn't drive so I had a go however with broken English I was confused by the clutch situation and the owner had to physically hold the bike back from me zooming off forward at 60miles and hour. Scary! I got the hang of it in the end and could drive however I was terrified of starting the engine again so we decided to hire drivers (it's cheapish). We had a bike each and rode the long distance at a scaruily fast speed, to the white sand dunes. These were stunning but we'd left it late and it was getting ludicrously hot. The idea is to slide (like sledging) down the dunes. Turns out this is quite difficult and we weren't good at it and couldn't see how you could possibly go fast. As it was really tiring walking on the sinking sand in the heat we gave up and went to the yellow sand dunes. Along the way though Shavs bike broke down but mine had already sped off. She was left in the middle of nowhere with the driver whilst young Vietnamese mocked her- not fun! The driver got petrol, a small drinks bottles worth, from another driver and he seemed to think that would fix the problem so they drove on, and then his tire burst. My driver then got a phone call (I didn't know waht was goin on) and he ditched me at the side of the road and drove back. I was a little worried but eventually Shav arrived and all was good. We went to the yellow dunes to slide buying a sledge off a cute girl practising her English. However, it was the heat of the day and as I slid I sank into the sand and my feet started to burn then I lost my shoe but I couldn't walk as it was too hot and I was now covered in sand. I started to panic a little as it was really painful and there was no easy route back up the dune so the little girl came to my rescue directing me up an easier path and helping me with my shoe. Not an experience I want to repeat. Back at the hostel I clanber off the bike and immediately put my leg on the engine of another, gaining the classic Asia Traveller burn on the back of my knee. The owner went a put toothpaste on it to cool it down! This was pretty painful and became a conversation topic a lot for me and Shav as I liked to give her updates on the state of the swelling. :)
Phu Quok Island
We travelled to Ho Chi Minh city for a very short night before flying early to Phu Quok. We had to buy different plane tickets strangely so were on different flights but after we had both arrived we took a taxi to the hostel area. We found one where we stayed in a hut on the beach. Great place. We spent out time here relaxing, however the beach hut stank so we moved into a much city garden hut that smelt less. We spent a lot of time on the stunning beach, reading and eated AMAZING food in this Italian restaurant we found. We spent the 3rd day on a trip. We hired a taxi for the day and it took us to a lot of the island, it is a very small island. We visited the Pearl Farm and saw how they get pearls, visited another beautiful beach, but full of rubbish, in a different area and he took us to a Pepper Farm where we saw a lot of pepper plants. It was quite bizarre. But I cannot forget the waterfall he took us too which was out of season so there was no water. We spent the time walking up the path until we found a little bit of water. Good exercise and fun to play in the woods. We did meet some Vietnamese who were pickining in the middle of where the water should have been but who mocked us for looking. The island is stunning and a very nice relaxing holiday place where you don't have to do anything.
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
We stayed in the Pham Ngu Lao district of the city as this city is massive. Here it is a very busy place but with little side streets full of nice restaurants and hotels. We spent our first full day doing the tourist thing and visiting Reunification Palace and the War Remnants museaum. This was pretty intense as, just like Cambodia, we don't hear much about the wars hear or we are taught a very different version, i.e. the Vietnam War rather than the 'American War' as they call it. After a long walk around the park, as we got lost, we found the Palace. It is incredible and it's great to see how the President lived and the amazing rooms they have there, along with the 'war room' they have in the basement. The Palace was seized by the communists as they crashed through in 1975 when the South surrendered. The War Remnants museum is very humbling, some horrible images and stories of what happened then. I realise it is very biased in the way it is portrayed but pictures don't lie and the facts about the chemical weapons and lack of monetary support for the surviving families and victims of the brutality and the gases doesn't lie. Families are still devastated generations later from the chemical weapons the Americans experimented on the country. Horrible stuff. After this we were pretty stumped so went for tea to pirk up.
- Mekong Delta (My Tho) The next day we went on opur first official 'tour'. Boy do I not like tours. Your moved around from place to place, waiting for people, going to preplanned 'tourist' spots that pretend not to be, very strange. However, you can't really go around the Mekong Delta without a tour, especially if you're short on time. It was fun though, we rode on the river as this is the only mode of transport round there, wore the Vietnamese hats, had a ride on a horse and cart, saw how they make these coconut sweets and made things with the shell. All in all it was good fun and an experience. This area is stunning though, pretty untouched as it is so inaccessible and has been fought over for so long. I wouldbn want to go back for a better look next time and go deeper in.
Off to Thailand again...
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