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It was great to be back in Saigon, especially when the plane hit the ground after flying through thunder and lightening from Malaysia. You could look from one side of the plane to the other and both windows were full of fluorescent white flashing lightening.
We spent a couple of days in Saigon practicing crossing the road amongst the millions of motorbikes. It was a relief to see they have installed some traffic lights with about 80% of the traffic actually stopping on a red light! Great to see that Saigon had cleaned up their streets, last time we visited the streets were lined with rubbish, but now it is very clean in comparison, with the exception of the river, stunk like Rotorua, was stagnant and looked like black tar – yuk.
It is very hot in the mid 30’s and on our first day by 12.30 we had been out for 2 walks had 4 cold showers, 2 meals and a chocolate donut! The humidity is so high you can feel the drips running down your back and face within minutes of being outside. The donut was delicious. With all the intentions of acclimatizing flying out the door,
we turned off the fan, and on the air conditioning.
We found ourselves a bar on a street corner, ordered a Tiger beer for NZ$2 and some disgusting wine, and sat and watched the traffic.. It’s amazing what they carry on motor bikes - they use them to transport everything from large pieces of furniture, wedding floral arrangements to entire families. Mum, Dad and the kids all piled on one motor bike, sometimes the baby sits up front on a small bar stall, or stands on its feet on the seat with mum holding it under the arms. Helmets were made compulsory in 2007, but not all wear them and definitely never saw any kids with them on. They toot and toot and toot just to say “hey I am behind you - move it!" Its all about size, motor bikes move for cars, cars move for trucks, trucks move for buses and well people they dodge everything!
We love the Vietnam coffee, a little bit of condensed milk in the bottom of the glass and a filter sits on top with water dripping through to the glass, then you mix it together. Fantastic strong coffee with a
taste of chocolate.
In Saigon we stayed at the Ono Siagon for NZ$40 (see Trip Advisor if interested in our hotel and restaurant reviews). Clean, nice and quiet but I prefer to stay in middle of backpacking area in Saigon– even if it is noisier - you dont have to cross so many main roads when going out to eat.
Then we flew to Phu Quoc.
Pho Quoc We loved this place when we visited in 2007 and always wanted to come back - blue crystal clear water, bungalow on the beach, swimming, eating, drinking, sunbathing and reading. And we spent 8 days doing exactly the same, minus the swimming.
Again it was great to see they had cleaned up the rubbish from the streets and river and even had wheelie bins along the roads for the locals to use. More often than not there was more rubbish on the outside of the bin than the inside though. The reason we did not swim was a lot of the rubbish got into the sea. Other tourists were swimming, lots of Russians. After a few days we thought OK we'll go in, but it was not
pleasant, brown water and what were those suds from? One day we were walking along the beach and there was this DEAD dog lying with its fur all wet, and its mouth open showing its growly teeth washed up in the surf – dead on the beach. OMG imagine having a swim and banging into a dead dog in the water! like no way – that’s it, keep having cold showers. We are visiting in a different season though last time we visited in November, this time May.
We stayed at the Beach Club Resort on Long Beach and had a fantastic room on the beachfront, like only meters from the waters edge, all for NZ$50. Nice beach restaurant but was a hike to other restaurants and bars, and the food was not good enough to want to each there 3 times a day. So for the last 3 days we moved back to Sea Star where we stayed last time. They had since tar sealed the red dusty clay road and replaced the grass hut shop with restaurants, bars, coffee shop and a souvenir shops.
We found this little bar Mondo which had happy hour/s so we
sat drinking Rose Wine and beer, so cheap. One night we had 5 beers and 5 wines for NZ$13! So we frequented quite often until the waitress said “bye see you tomorrow” – how rude!
The iced lattés were fantastic and we started the taste test through Vietnam of chicken lemongrass & chilli & Spring Rolls..Vietnam food is pretty bland but with adding the soy sauce and chilli you can make it tasty. The standard Vietnamese tourist brekky - Baugette and egg….yawn….yawn.
We walked into the night market one night and they had stalls and stalls of fresh seafood for a couple of bucks they cook on the spot. So we feasted on tiger prawns & squid. I bought some jandals, nice green, splash of yellow and some back print. Put them on next day and like the yellow was an apple and the writing was iphone – I had bought Apple iPhone jandals!
At Sea Star one of the waiters, Khanh wanted us to help him with his English so he would visit us during his daily 20 minute break and we would help him with pronunciation or sit and he would practice talking in English.
He works 11 hours per day at the restaurant and then another 2 hours at a local shop at night. He is 23. If he can pass the English exam he can get a rise in salary and get better shifts.
I indulged in massages, manicures and pedicures on the beach under the shade of a tree - sunny day, 35 degrees, sound of waves in the background, skin tingling from the sun - jealous? Should be, its great. The men over here like their woman white, so when the sun comes up and until it goes down the woman wear socks with their jandals, thick pantyhose, long pants, hoodies, gloves, hat and face mask – all to prevent the sun darkening their skin. They cover every bit of skin, I dont know how they do it in this heat. "White is best, it makes you look younger"…they say..."men...no they dont bother".
They are building a Casino on this small Island, hard to imagine really, locals not keen. The Government want to have 2 million tourists visit Pho Quoc by 2020. There were 50,000 in 2007, and 350,000 in 2011. They are continually building more and more flash
hotel complexes along the beach. But they have a long way to go to change the culture around their rubbish disposal.
Well after 8 days, 6 books and the starting of a good tan we head back to Saigon to meet Liam to tour Southern and Central Vietnam for 2 weeks.
See more pics down below
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Hamish
non-member comment
Jealous!!
Sounds awesome. Glad to see good focus on food and drink - Trish and I would be loving that! Keep safe. H.