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Published: October 28th 2010
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Skimboaring Amatures
Jenny teaching us to skimboard on our last day in Boracay Well we made it here!
After the affects that typhoon megi was having in Boracay we were concerned we wouldn't get off the island.
The last few days in Boracay were probably our funnest, despite the crazy wind and insane waves..
The day before news of the typhoon in Northern Luzon (quite far away from us) had reached us, we went down to the beach to see the highest tide we've seen since we were there and crashing waves (a great contrast to the lapping ripples that we had been accustomed to) we decided it was time to buy some form of inflatable and get on these ridiculous waves. The children were in the sea, attempting to jump and dive waves that were twice the size of me let alone them..so we figured if they've got the balls to play in the sea.. then it'd be silly of us not to.
I brought a blow up body board of sorts, with handles and a little peep hole to look in the sea with (which the woman eagerly demonstrated to me by holding it up to her face and smiling through it at me..how she thought anyone would be able
Streets of Siagon
I'd hate to be an electrician here! to see anything through the little bit of plastic added with the waves was beyond me, but it amused me greatly that this was the strong selling feature of the product). It was child size and had pictures of elephants,rhinos and giraffes on. Jimi took great pleasure in mocking me for this purchase..however,as predicted he eagerly grabbed it off of me when we hit the beach.
Its great when everyone assumes your really young..it means you can act like it without feeling stupid..this mantra has been echoed several times during our trip (more recently on our trip to dam sem waterpark) we floundered for hours in the crashing waves..gathering sand where there really should not be sand and after getting back to our guesthouse i felt like i had been pelted with coconuts. regardless, the next day saw much of the same and our new found american friends commented on how joyus it was to see us just playing. hehe.
Our favorite eating and watering hole had to be Cowboy Cochinas, tucked away in boat station 3. unfortunately we discovered this gem late in our stay in Boracay. The owners son,Franco was filipino born but had lived in
War museum
Vietnamese civilian victim of US bomb attack bournemouth all his life..we had a great time with him and on our second to last night in Boracay him and jenny his gf toko us out for 'just a couple' of drinks. which of course never ends this way and resulted in us returning to our guesthouse at 4 ni the morning after several buckets of cocktails and the finest pizza ive tastied on this trip in Coco Mangas. They are infamous for their 'do it for your country'15 shot challenge with 4 walls floor to ceililng of people who have completed it..and probably the best addition to a beach nightclub..BEANBAGS. the UK really needs to consider this vital comfort.
Our last night in Boracay saw much of the same antics, us starting off the night with a game of scrabble against rob and cindy our american friends..who taught us a whollleeee new load of rules to the game..and needless to say we lost terribly. Then a lock ni at cochinas. we didnt get back again until 4 and had to be up at 5 to be on a boat thatwe were *hoping* would still be sailing so we could catch our flight to Vietnam.
Exhausted, we made
our way to the jetty port and to caticlan where we caught a flight to manila. From manila we flew to bangkok and bangkok to Saigon. a silly way round to anyone that looks at a map but we enjoyed the ride and gave us a chance to catch up on 3 days worth of missed sleep!
Arriving in Saigon we couldnt believe the amount of motorbikes that rule the roads. Though the driving still isnt to UK standards of safety, atleast the drivers werent squeezing into ridiculously small spaces in order to over take the person in front ..who would then over take you in the next available crack.
We got to our guesthouse after a nice drive around and immediately noticed that although we were in a major city in a back alley of town..everything was so much cleaner than the Philippines. We stayed in Saigon for 5 nights, which didnt seem possible.
We stayed there longer mostly because we were waiting to hear back from a lady who was supposedly organizing us to work in a local orphanage, but at the time of writing we still havent heard anything back 😞 we want to just walk
Sweets in Vietnam market
Would love to try them if only we knew what they were! ha in and offer help but english is little understood and spoken in vietnam apart from the people who really need it so it would be impossible to organise this ourselves.
We did all day city tour which was well worth the money, our first stop was the war museum which was very difficult to deal with and saw me running to the loo with the feeling of being sick after what id seen. not quite sure how im going to deal with cambodia! So much stuff i hadnt realized went on..in graphic graphic detail. war is the most revolting thing.
We also went to a waterpark (ive never been to one so i was litterally like a kid at christmas on the way there and getting in ) for the price of 2 quid couldnt go wrong! and we frolicked around..SO different to any themed park ni UK, no ques whatsoever and they had little lifts taht you put your ring in instead of luggign it up flights of stairs...this amused me greatly. lots and lots of fun.
After a few days just walking around Saigon and no word from this woman, we decided to make our move
How much can noe get on a bicycle
we've seen so many things transported on bikes..ive decided im going to try and document some of the most obscure/amusing/absurd. up north. we booked our open bus ticket up north, and boarded the bus to Mue Ni the next day.
The bus ticket takes us all the way from Siagon to Hanoi with several stops inbetween that you can stay for however long you like. Its a sleeper bus too,the most surreal form of transport ive yet to encounter (yes,weirder than cramming 10 people on the back of a motorbike) we we're at the back of the bus, where there were 5 beds all closely smushed together. i felt like a sardine, with no head room you couldn't sit up either so it was lying down for the 4 hour journey. which felt so strange.certainly not a trip for those taller than 5ft 5.
Our first stop is Mui Ne which is where we currently are..we knew we'd started off with the best beaches in the world by being ni the Philippines so although the guide book says its 'THE beach to be' we're not wowed ha. and we dont fancy swimming in brown water. beach snobs much?ha.
We're in a really nice hotel for the fraction of the price we have been paying. we were planning on
going to the sand dunes toady, Mui Ne is dubbed 'the sahara of vietnam' with massive dunes you can slide down on plastic sheets so we're definatley getting on that!
But due to our netbook massively failing we've been in an internet cafe for the past 2 hours trying to download a whole new operating system for it. thus the long post! haha. We've also found an orphanage to work in though we need to get hold of a translator which seems to be quite difficult. argh why is language such a barrier 😞
Vietnam also has pavement which is a novelty and you dont feel like you are fighting the traffic everytime you want to walk somewhere, again its so clean.
I guess it because of the amount of tourists they see here, we've seen so many backpackers here, more than our entire month 1/2 in the Philippines so i guess the places we are stopping are catered for us.
Looking forward to Kirsty visiting us in Thailand for jimis birthday, and by the looks of it a few more friends which will be great fun to share the experience with them.
Missing everyone at home. wouldnt
Waterpark Monorail
best way to get around the park,hop on a ring and let it take you round! mind a bit of an autumnal chill around about now! apprently as we go further north is goes down to 18'c..which is tres cold to our tropical standards so im looking forward to that also ^_^
Much love to everyone at home!
xxxx
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Glou
Gregg and Lou
Pavements?
Having just spent a month in Vietnam, and never having been to the Phillipines the thought of Vietnam being both clean and also having usable pavements amazes me and intrigues me to know what the islands are like as the lack of cleanliness and also the lack of usable pavement space due to bikes and stalls was a huge part of the experience of Vietnam for us! It's interesting to note diferent perspectives and why I love reading other blogs so much. Have a great trip.