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Day 1 - Landing at Ho Chi Minh City Airport (Saigon) we were once again on unfamiliar territory. After a brief moment’s panic when Brad left his passport on the desk at immigration (that’s right folks - not me for once!!), we jumped into a cab and made our way to the backpacker’s part of town. As the cabbie picked his way through the mass crowd of mopeds and motorbikes that rule every street in Saigon it struck us…what a crazy, crazy place!! Yet crazy in such a refreshing way, there’s a feel of honesty wrapped up in the madness which engulfs Saigon.
Jumping out of the cab in a monsoon downpour, we made our way to our hotel….or tried to. What we hadn’t realized is that every street here has labyrinth-esque alleys running off it which share the same street name, making it impossible for us to find the hostel where we had a dry room booked. Thankfully, after 20 minutes wondering around in the rain with backpacks in tow a helpful westerner (do aussie’s count as westerners??) showed us where she was where staying…clean and dry, it suited us well! Dropping our bags in our room we
wanted to get some local food - the weather outside made a shower seem pointless so we went for the standard wander and to sample some food from the stalls dotted throughout the streets…awesome grub, a carton of marinated bbq pork with rice was 8000 dong…roughly 30p!! Appetites sated, we thought we’d try and find a drinking venue for later…bumping into 2 Canadian guys and an English girl we asked where the bars were…they were on the same hunt so we stopped off for a quick drink at the closest venue. It turned out that the guys had only met the girl 30 minutes earlier in the cafeé they were walking out of when we bumped into them…Ellen was a quality girl, crazy Sheffield chick with similar interests to us and the 3 of us got on well….Several “quick drinks” and an hour or so later we thought we may as well go straight on a club hunt! Leaving the Canadian guys playing connect 4 in the bar we all dropped some stuff off in our room and headed out on the club search. Judgment fogged by the alcohol, we thought that motorbike taxis would be a good idea…maybe not
a good idea but definitely a fun way of getting around!! All in all a quality night and a good introduction to the madness of Vietnam!
Day 2 - After a much needed lay-in we got up at about 12ish….As Brad was upstairs in the room getting ready I was disturbed from my facebooking (more messages and comments please people - it’s great to hear from you guys!) by a northern voice exclaiming “I cant believe I found it!”. A hungover Ellen had remembered the stuff she’d left in our room and after 2 hours searching had found our alley before she had to head to the airport to fly home.
So, time to get cultural. We headed out to the War Remembrance Museum. On the back of a couple of motorbikes (sorry mum!) and off we went. As we discovered, we weren’t ready for what awaited us. Photo after distressing photo, heart-rendering stories…a brutal, hard-hitting insight into a side of the Vietnam War that we just don’t see in the west without proper investigation. Brad got some photos….but not of everything. Some of the images we saw were far too upsetting for us to want our own
copies…let alone to use this light-hearted travel blog as a forum for such upsetting issues. Needless to say, we were moved.
Speaking of moving, we thought a gentle stroll back to the hostel was in order. Once again, we got seriously rained on. But this time it didn’t stop. We made our way straight to a local cafe near the hostel and watched as the water level got higher and higher. Eventually, it started to flood into the cafe!! Do not think for a second that we’re exaggerating the amount of water pouring from the sky…as the power cut off, we got chatting to Dave and Steve (2 English guys who were living and teaching in Vietnam). They clearly knew the cafée owners well and threw one of the waiters into the knee-deep water in the street! It wasn’t long before Brad and myself were joining in, literally swimming, laughing and joking, rugby-tackling each other in the street - which was now a knee-deep river! The local kids….now they were a good-natured menace! Any mopeds/cars that tried to get past were jumped on and hung off as the kids “water-skied” through the streets! I won’t try and describe the
hilarious carnage any more…just check out the photos!!
With these comical scenes playing out in front of our eyes, we were both struck by the same thought. These kids and locals, who don’t enjoy the same luxuries that we are all guilty of taking for granted back home, enjoy the smaller things…laugh more…have more of a community spirit….then anything we’ve ever experienced. Just watching them laughing and playing together, kids and adults alike…made us feel more humble, and blessed to be experiencing all of this with so much more to come, then anything we’d expected.
Its now 7pm on Day 3 and im knackered so that’s it for now. We’ll update you on today’s events and more very soon!
So after the bustling streets, cultural-depressing museums, monsoon downpoor and dancing babies of Ho Chi Minh City we thoght it was time to move on to the sandy beaches of Nha Trang.
As some of you may know we have met some awesome Danish guys ( they have not replaced or friends back home, although they have such a similar sense of humour, same same but different, and enjoy spooning). Anyway we met them in China at
the beginning of the trip and planned to meet them in a few months in Thailand. Howere whilst walking the streets of Ho Chi Minh, we saw them sitting outside 'Go 2 Bar'. It was so funny, we all jumped up and started shouting and screaming and that was the start of another messy night. Anyway the point of the story is, we said good bye again and arrived in Nha Trang, only to see them one morning at breakfasrt. Did even seem suprosed as we're used to it now...that ,meant another messy night was about to unfold.
Nha Trang is beautiful; the first night was really quiet, we were both tired and just got a meal at the sialing club (lovely food). The next few days flew by as we drank,ate and chilled as though we were on some sort of holiday....well deserved of course.
We've hadsome brilliant nights here, some of the best yet and fly today to a place called Hanoi, in the North.
Nha Trang is very laid back, its too hot to do much else. We had a great day touring around the islands, after little sleep, it was tricky but we
pulled through only to go out again that night, as we had to say goodbye to the Danes. The Island hoping was brilliant, our local friend Trung, who we met in the restaurant, took us out and showed us where to go. We visisted the local floating fishing market, where you jump on the wooden raft and choose your lunch, take the ferry over, when i say ferry i mean another wooden raft and a rope connecting to the mainland, and eat the freshest food you could possibly ask for....an amazing experience.
Overall we both agree Nha Trang is the best place so far. Crazy to think we still have so much ahead of us...
Love and miss you all
Brad and Rich
xxx
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russ
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hope you are both well ,it looks amazing and i am very jealous,things here are fine ,mum is ok still a bit depressed (but i think thats realising she is stuck with me ,rather than you being gone ,but i am doing my best to cheer her up ) work is fine ,not much changes here ,football is looking good for next year all teh signings i hoped for are coming off so watch this space . miss you both very much ,keep safe russ