Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 219

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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 15th 2007

Ho chi min city. What a place. And there I was thinking that phnom penh was busy! At first I was terrified because it was like nothing I have experienced before. But now I absolutely love it! Our hotel is really nice. Very up market. I would say the Vietnam equivalent of the Hilton. Well nearly. We have arrived in the middle of the New Year here. Basically it’s the same as our Christmas, the run up is absolutely mad and then everything is dead. Today is New Years Eve. And it is absolutely crazy! People doing their last minute shopping etc. we are expecting a few problems over the next few weeks as everything just shuts down. The poor people normally celebrate for about 3 days and the people that can afford to celebrate. Celebrate ... read more
thank god thats over!
enjoying the food atthe market
me with two officers!

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 15th 2007

How lucky can we get, 2 New Year's to celebrate in the space of 2 months! The city was gearing up for a big party, everything was decorated in red and gold and people were calling "Chuc mung na moi" all over the place. We spent the day walking in the city visiting some attractions. First stop was the Reunification Palace that the President had built in the early 1960s as his former residence was bombed. It's a terrific 60s Art Noveau (in my untrained opinion) building. The president saw himself alright with his personal casino and cinema as well as many other sumptious rooms including the roof terrace with bar, stage and dancefloor. Most of the building has been kept as it was, although it is no longer lived in it is still used for ... read more
Moe New Year Fireworks!
Happy New Year!
Front view from the Reunification Palace

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 14th 2007

Danes se sploh ne bi prevec vznemirjala, da je valentinovo, ce ne bi bila radovedna, kako se do tega osredotocajo v kvazisocialisticni drzavi. Odgovor: dokaj komercialno, ceprav niti slucajno ne do take mere kot pri nas. Ali pa mi morda ni bilo dovolj ocitno. Kakor koli, ze takoj zjutraj mi je receptorka zazgolela, da je dobila valentinovo cestitko od nekega Angleza, ki je pri njih ostal te dni. Njeno veselje je bilo nepopisno, kljub temu, da je cestitka pihala na duso celemu osebju hotela in ne samo njej. Ampak ni vazno. Sama sebi pa sem za valentinovo privoscila bolj na easy dan, zacinjen s sopingom. Najprej sem se za zajtrk sprehodila skozi bliznji market in zadnja stvar, ki bi mi prisla na pamet, je komad Sam po parku se sprehajam. Guzva je bila nepopisna in spet ... read more
Pimp my cyclo
Roze so zakon

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 14th 2007

Greetings Fellow Structural Integerity Designers, Well with our mission to bring the music of Human Nature to the citizens of Ho Chi Minh almost complete it is time to think about moving on. So one last blog from the halls of the Peoples Ministry for Social Justice and Boy Bands. So basically we have just been hanging out in Saigon meeting people, eating, drinking, laughing. But over the past three weeks Sarah has been working on a project of global proportions. About a month ago I was sitting in a cafe watching Australia play New Zealand and an older western gentlemen comes and sits next to me and in a broad Australian accent asks me how I am. We start talking and it turns out that he is an ex-SAS member who fought here during the ... read more
A Fair Dinkum Fry Up
Two brides in waiting
Slight Size Difference

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 14th 2007

This is a plug for the azfamily.com website. They have agreed to publish our stories and more importantly, compensate us for them. Currently the content is not much different from this site, but if if you are interested the website is http://azfamily.beloblog.com/uprooted/ Today we are off to China . . . and back to work . . .... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » Cu Chi February 13th 2007

Greetings Fellow Perfusionist', After Saartje and I had successfully negotiated a trade deal between Vietnam and long time enemy China we felt we deserved a little time to see the sites just outside the city. And so it was that we made our way (again) to our good friends at the Innoviet tour company to organise a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels about 70kms from Saigon. We assembled outside the company orifice (bad joke but Sarah wanted it in there) at 7.30am and met with our guide, Em Toan and two pommie geezers named ...I can’t remember but we will call them Bertie and Agnes. We made our way to Benh Tanh Bus station and boarded a bus bound for Cu Chi. Innoviet give you the real experience so we traveled like Vietnamese on ... read more
VC in the trenches...
Rusting and Silent
Sarah and Toan

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 13th 2007

Hi, it's Ilene writing from HCMC, back from fun on the beach in Mui Ne and cycling in the Mekong Delta. What did Chekov say? A pair of underwear in the first act. . .? Anyway. Since so many of you have expressed concern about the underwear situation. . . let me provide an update. Last I left you, I was in a bit of a bind—the not-really-XL XL underwear on, laundry still out until the next afternoon. That morning, I went to Cholon, the Chinese neighborhood, with my friend Chi, who is anxious to show me the markets and bargain on my behalf. We head into one of the big markets, where Chi’s friend works selling baby clothes, and she asks me what I’d like to buy. I look around. We’re surrounded by blue jeans. ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 12th 2007

We preferred Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi, although in hindsight, we only stayed in the Old Quarter in Hanoi and think that the new area was probably more like Ho Chi Minh city. The city is still packed with a zillion motorbikes that constantly use the footpath as their parking space though! ;-) It was nice to be in warmer climate too, we finally reached about 27 degrees each day. With the Tet festival being from 17-19 Feb (the Lunar new year celebrations) the city was awash with colour as all the decorations were hung and all these fantastic lights were hung all over trees, statues, temples and buildings…. was pretty spectacular, especially at night. Our hotel, the Riverside Renaissance, was in a good location beside the river and within walking distance to the Notre ... read more
Cu Chi Tunnels
Cu Chi Tunnels
Cu Chi Tunnels

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 11th 2007

Cesar nisva vedeli o vojni v Vietnamu ze prej, sva danes izvedeli na izletu do Cu Chi tunelov, v War Remrants muzeju in zvecer na pivu. Pa po vrsti. Zjutraj sem vstala pred Maso in sla do najinega atata na caj, se prej sem spotoma nekaj pohrustala. Potem sva sli skupaj na bus z ostalimi turisti in na pot do tunelov. Imeli smo res enkratnega vietnamskega vodica po imenu Khan, ki se nam je preko dneva povsem osebno razgalil. Zgodba je svetovna. No, najprej smo se (turisticno pac) ze na poti do tja ustavili v neki trgovini oz. delavnici, kjer delajo samo invalidni, potem pa do tunelov. Vodili so nas gor in dol po obmocju, ki je bilo konec vojne povsem zminirano in torej tudi brez rastja, tako da je danasnja "dzungla" stara pac od leta ... read more
Shooting range
Bia Hoi!
Atov kafic

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 10th 2007

Slon in Sadez bi tu zagotovo dobila navdih za part deux svojega komada: tile Saigoncani so ene prave komercialne pi*de! (se opravicujem, ampak izraz se najbolj sede) Pri Tajcih je vsem jasno, da te prinasajo okoli in placas prevec, vendar tu je druga scena. Najprej ti lokalci, ki zal nimajo osnovnih pojmov o anglescini, navrzejo dve razlicni ceni, recimo za neke nudlne 5000 ali 10.000 dongov. Ko pogledas ko tele in zahtevas jasno nizjo ceno, das denar in potem ti modeli ne vrnejo nazaj tocne vsote denarja! Danes se nama je kar nekajkrat zgodilo, da sva morali podrobno pogledati vrnjen denar in zahtevati se tistih nekaj tisoc dongov preostanka (naj se enkrat povem, da je en dolar enako 16.000 dongov). Ampak po vrsti. Zjutraj sva sle iz najinega res enkratnega hostla na potem. Najprej cez nek ... read more
Market
Cholon




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