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Good Morning Vietnam!
Finally got over the border and off the beaten track down to Phu Quoc island. All very nice and very peaceful, if not a bit too peaceful I had to splash out $16 a night (ouch!!) so I could stay somewhere there were people so I didn't go crazy . Club Tropicana resort, all very Wham. Saying that it was worth it and the beach was lovely and made the most of it by topping up the tan. Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon) next and my word what a journey 2 motorbikes, 3 buses, 1 boat and 2 taxis and 12 and a half hours later, bright lights big city. Only to chat to a couple who had just done the same journey by plane in 45 mins for only $10 more than I payed!
I figured that I would be in the city on the anniversary of Saigon falling that would mean big party. So I headed to where it fell and found the big crowds as expected only for it to turn out to be the end of some big bike race. Asian holidays confuse me.
There isn't really much to do in
Mui ne beach
Tough life hur? HCMC, just the war museum that was 'slightly' one sided as you would expect and the network of underground tunnels the Vietcong used in the war in Cu Chi. So did the obligatory tourist thing and scampered into the VERY dark tunnels, god knows how they lived in them for all those years. Also took advantage of the opportunity to fire a gun. Well when else are you gunna get the chance? So bought my bullets and put them in an AK47 and 'aimed' not to good at the aiming but was a crazy experience that made me appreciate war and guns even more and how scary it must all be my bullets defend me so how they reel them of in the middle of a war i don't know.
More beach duly needed so Mui Ne was my next port of call and again what a beautiful beach. Its a cute little town and is surrounded by stunning sand dunes, red, pink, white and yellow ones. Had a really cool slide down the biggest dune around and ended up with just a little sand in my knickers, but wicked fun. There is also a tiny little inch deep
steam that you can walk up with a red sand floor. Was absolutely stunning, you could see all the different colours of sand at the side of the river as they broke down into the stream. Reminded me of being in the Isle of Wight as a kid and putting all the different sands into the glass tubes. All the sunbathing is so far very much worth it and I probably have the best tan I've ever had!
A nice cool break from the stifling heat was needed so I headed up to the central highlands and Dalat it was. My word what a place, Crazy. Kitch. Started with one hell of a bus journey, meant to arrive at 1, 10 we pulled in! Lucky another girl from my hotel was heading the same way as we got booted off the air con bus we had paid for and put on a local bus without a clue where we were going. Crazy doesn't even describe this place and the lonely planet describes it as kitch- doesn't even come close. We were told we would have to move to the sister hotel just up the road as we checked in
and asked if we would like any laundry done and we declined only to fine she was very persist ant and asked EVERY time we saw her for the next few days. She also decided to 'clean' the room and broke the key in the process and didn't even clean. Funny woman, but only the start of it in Dalat. We had heard that you could hire 'Easy Riders' these bike riders with old Russian bikes to drive you the sights, not as easy at it would seem. We chatted to this guy who was like yer we can do that, but not today, not tomorrow you can book a long trip for a few days, oh and your from? strange man. So we decided to do some sightseeing in the city, every were was closed or just not as it would be. Its such an odd place we both started to question our own sanity. In a restaurant ask for soy sauce get noddles, ask for the toilet get shown urinals?? They close all the streets off to traffic at night for no real reason and just play badminton in the street. Its so kitch here its unbelievable, Christmas trees in the street all fully lit. Some of the sights we did on our tour were just so kitch I had to laugh out loud. We did mange to hire some easy riders and had a really cool trip seeing the Dalat sights, either 'crazy' sights including a Crazy guesthouse and crazy monk or just plain odd places including the Valley of Love, just a big lake, odd, and the Vietnamese seem to love any cement animal figurines. This doesn't really explain this place well but I think the craziness is rubbing off on me. They must all have altitude sickness! Back to the beach I think!
P.S will be more piccies to come!
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Fellow Easy Rider
non-member comment
Dalat, Vietnam
I just finished an Easy Ride through Vietnam and it was great - they've even got a website now - www.easyridersvietnam.com'