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Published: December 30th 2006
Who needs a family car?
How cute is this family of 5 heading off to the Saigon version of the myer christmas windows!Hey everyone, don't expect anyone to see this until after NYE, so hope you all have a big one planned. Matt and I have made it to Koh Phangan with our group of 9, very ready for a big night on Hat Rinn beach for the full moon party tomorrow. We arrive home next Friday (the 5th, just in time for your party little Weena!) so this will be the last blog.
Last time I wrote I think we were in Mui Ne (Vietnam) about to head off for Saigon. That is a city and a half. Its like a cheap, asian copy of New York, massive neon lights and heaps of traffic. Very very westernised compared to Hanoi (north), but we really enjoyed the time we had here. Lots of great shopping, but that has also resulted in lots of heavy baggage!
We based ourselves in Saigon and visited the Mekong Delta and Cu Chi Tunnels on day trips. Definetly not recommended, day trips suck! you end up on a massive bus, on which you spend more time travelling and visiting comission based tourist shops than you do at the attraction you were hoping to see. Mekong Delta
Mekong madness
not really, quite a boring day trip, not advised if you only have one day to do the mekong. was pretty exciting wearing the hats tho... wasn't anywhere near as nice as the scenery we had seen up north, wouldnt bother going back unless we did it solo over a few days. Cu Chi tunnels was really intresting, but im glad we'd read a book on it before we went because our tour guide was terrible. Was really morbid having someone discuss in detail hoe they killed the americans (and australians) with their homemade weapons. I did hold an AK47 tho, quite empowering...
The best thing we did in saigon was get talked into doing a impromtu tour on the back of local motorbike riders. These guys drove us around the crazy city for a few hours, taking us to the major sites, but also to local places that were thankfully devoid of tourists. So much better than following the Lonely Planet guide, was a great way to get our bearing in the city.
We flew to Bangkok, then to Koh Samui on the 23rd. Very built up little islnad, barely any sand and the beach is dominated by expensive resorts (which we were not staying in!) After a ridiculously large night on christmas eve (including beach party AND dancing with lady-boys) we woke
Viet Cong Claire!
getting some practice for the next time matt steps out of line... very late on christmas morning to no families and no presents but large hangovers. Definetely the least memorable christmas in a long time! There was 12 of us for Xmas lunch at a english pub, so at least we had the traditional meal.
We then headed to Koh Tao for some more relaxing. Beautiful place, very hard to leave, Best thing we did was take an all day snorkelling tour around the island,. We stopped at four dive sites, including the gorgeous Koh Nang Yuan, where the water is so clear that you can be hip deep in water and feed schools of fish with bananas by hand! They were so hungry they even ate off the french manicure I had done in koh samui!
We are now in Koh Phangan (party island) for 4 nights over NYE. Then to Bangkok for 2 nights (no more shopping though, matt and I are over the weight limit) then home! Cant wait to see everyone, missing a melbourne summer! I think Im the only person in thailand who has zero tan but plenty of freckles!
to everyone who went to falls, we're both thinking of you! What a line
up, bet it was awesome. to laura and tim in europe, hope you have stopped spewing on all your new friends!
see you very soon!
Claire and Matt xoxo
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