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Published: August 14th 2007
Oh really Lesley!
And whom may I ask is Anoi?!Hola Guys and Gals
So, there's quite a bit to tell you since we left Cambodia. So here goes!
The bus journey from Phnom Penh to HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City formally Saigon) was okay, probably one of the most comfortable so far and it was made all the better that we didn't have to pay some ridiculous fee or squeeze into any buses with Chemical waste or batteries in them!
Great!
So we arrive in HCMC and even before we got off of the bus it was noticeably cleaner, but in addition to that there was a real buzz about the place... It's hard to describe, HCMC genuinely feels alive and kicking, unlike Phnom Penh which has about as much vibrance as a euthanasia centre...
We tracked down a place to stay using our Lonely Planet (which, we've learnt, is limited to being useful for maps and emergency toilet roll) and ended up staying in a really cheap little hostel... It was cool and accommodated to all our needs. It was though, a very strange place...
As we walked in it clearly doubled up as a restaurant and was packed with locals, however, I have to say it was weird the next day to leave our room walk downstairs and out of a shoe shop... Hmm? No, I hadn't gone insane and I took photo's to prove it, our Hostel was also restaurant and a shoe shop with a laundry business on the side...
I'd love to tell you it was run by two midgets with webbed feet and forked tongues, but they didn't have webbed feet and I wouldn't want to mis-lead you all...
Anyway, we were in HCMC so we had to see the sights, so that day we decided to treat ourselves to a trip around the city on blisteringly fast man-powered tricycle...
The tour was pretty cool, taking us around some of the old colonial French architecture, an impressive art gallery and a Bonzai tree collection... The main part of the trip though was the War Remnants Museum, formally named - and I swear this is completely true - 'The Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes'. They changed the name as to not offend tourists!
The Museum contained hundreds of pictures, an absolute ton of stuff on the Vietnam War, as you'd expect. The most fascinating part though was the
Our serial bigamist tour guide!
I was actually surprised we managed to get through the day without heraring details on his 'technique'... life size replicas of the Tiger Cages used by the 'Cruel, Evil, South Vietnamese'...
The Museum was interesting but undoubtably our biggest treat was yet to come, for after the following day I would truly learn the meaning of suffering!
Anyone who knows about the Vietnam war knows that during it, the North Vietnamese (Viet Cong/VC/Charlie) were bombed to kingdom come by the Americans...
If you want a figure to work with, it's estimated that the Americans dropped somewhere in the region of 6 billion gallons of Napalm, not to mention the billions of gallons of herbicides they dropped in an effort to gain the advantage. However, knowing they were doing this, the VC went underground, constructing a vast network of tunnels stretching across 250km!
So this we had to see!
We booked the tour and headed off on the bus for the Cu Chi tunnels...
About 10 minutes into the journey the guy at the front stands up and says
Hehrow, ma name is Misser Binh
He started quite pleasently, by telling us about some history about the war, but he also started mixing his facts and at one point he was fighting for the Americans in North Vietnam as
part of the Viet Cong! I was totallly confused, but that was just the start...
Then he starts banging on
I know how da war went, I'm not gunna bull**it you
What?! Excuse me?
But no, he wasn't finished yet...
I live in America for two year before the war in New York wih ma wife, who is American, so I f***ing know about America
Really? How very interesting, please continue and speak up, I'm not sure those children in the back can quite catch it all...
Peepol say dat the VC was bad but dey was clever, anyone who tells you anyfing else is talking bull**it
I swear to you this is all true, he blatently swore at a coach load of people - including a good few children - and told us about his American, Thai and Vietnamese wives and a girlfriend in Cambodia, with absolute sincerity!
And later on told us that the reason the North won the war was because they were smaller and faster than their American counterparts, also stronger as well, oh and the best one was when he actually tried to tell us that the reason the Viet Cong could use the tunnels so efficiently was because they use a squat toilet and the Americans used a 'lazy western' toliet... Who'd have thought ey?!
The man was an absolute disgrace and after being sworn at and lied to for the last 4 hours by their tour guide, the group of clearly insane indivduals clapped him!
I could have done a better job drunk!
We actually only enjoyed once we walked away from him...
Honestly, there is so much more to tell you about him but, I've already babbled for long enough!
Vietnam is great though and we're so pleased we've finally found somewhere that captures exactly what we expected of South East Asia...
The food is pretty good and the prices are good so we're happy!
Please keep commenting and sending us messages they certainly perked us up after we thought all was lost with the blogs, luckilly we managed to restore them! Sweet!
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Take Care
ANDI
MUI NE
So we left Saigon with a bounce in our step, things are going well and we just hoped this was our break!
We arrived at our resort all ready for the beach which we have read so much about (once again the Lonely Planet!IDIOTS!). We checked in to our resort which was good enough...a bit expensive as we had no hot water or aircon but it was clean which was the main thing!
We took a romantic stroll to the beach....hand in hand This is us attempting sand sledding!
Whilst it was annoying getting sand everywhere, it was very fun! with love hearts flying above our heads.......all of about 50m and then it hit us......the worst beach so far!
As I looked straight ahead I just saw the waves and a few people either side of us so Andi decided to put the blinkers on me to prevent me looking up and down the beach. It was AWFUL! Just litter everywhere......no I really mean everywhere and once again the frustration of them not bothering to look after their beaches considering it was one of the only attractions of this place just makes me mad! We didn't even venture to the sea as I think we may have caught dirty sea disease! And that is a killer!
So with our hearts bashed again we decided to see what else this place had on offer. The travel agency offered tours that were just extorsionate....20 dollars each!!!
After umming and arhing about it we decided it was too expensive but I really wanted to go sand sledding so we decided to organise our own trip with the locals for the following day!
That night we thought we would treat ourselves to some fresh fish, Andi ordered a BBQ where they brought out
the raw fish and cooked it in front of him and I ordered grilled fish. After sitting there for ages with just a plate of rice waiting for my dinner to arrive we realised that my dinner had arrived..been BBQ'ed and eaten by my lovely boyfriend!!! What a thief!
I knew food was important to him but, to risk his life stealing it from me.........he must have been brave that night! So I enjoyed my plate of rice whilst Andi revelled in the calories
and delicious taste of my fish!
The next day, I guarded my breakfast, just to be sure! That afternoon we began our tour. We were able to choose which places we actually wanted to visit so skipping out a stupid fairy stream walk which was walking through a dirty stream for miles until you hit a waterfall....not really for us. So the trip went like this...we both got on the back of different motorbikes with our guides and headed off into the sunset...well almost.
We started off visiting the fishing village, just a quick one here as it was fly-tastic and smelt like Andi's knickers!
We saw how they dried out the fish to make
fish sauce and trust me if you knew how they made it you would stop putting it on your cornflakes!!I have!
From here we were gagging to get on the slopes...well the sand slopes. We travelled for about 40mins until we hit the white sand dunes and we couldn't wait!
We were taken by some kids who almost scammed us but Andi managed to half the price, so off to the slopes we skipped...kinda do you realise how hard it is to walk up these dunes?!
We didnt think that when we got to the bottom we would have to get back to the top again...I just thought we payed so much money that there would be a portal in place.
The sled was just a sheet of plastic with a rope at one end and after the kids piled it high with sand we were pushed over the edge. There is a real art to it though as at first we went down in slow motion but we eventually figured out how to speed up especially when the competitions started!
We had a good hour and a half running (sort of..as best we could) up the Dunes
Cool Bananas!
The Sand Dunes were awesome! and slidding back down, covered in sweat and sand but had a great time..not quite like the ski slopes though!
From there we went to the Red Canyon, it was really cool and yet another place for monkey boy to play!
The Canyon was pretty impressive and had some great views, check our photos! There isnt much more to say about that place apart from it staining our clothes, not the best colour to wear!
Our last stop was the yellow sand dunes for the sunset, we just had to put our names in the sand and as all big kids do, practice our handstands and cartwheels!!!!!! For the olympic cartwheel handstand championship!
Overall we had a great day, we were sweaty and covered in sand but it was all worth it and it gave us a better impression of the place which was what was needed!
We left the following day with a renewed sense of the enthusiasm of place, better than we originally had on arrival. We caught the bus to Dalat, our guest house is cool with two huge beds in a huge room with TV and hot water!!!
The first thing to strike us about
this place is that the temperature is like that of Europe..alot cooler and fresher as we are at a higher altitude here. This means Andi's sweat glands get a break and I'm cold!
Once again they tried to collar us here with their tour guides and it is just so expensive and these people can be really pushy. We just wanted to see a few things from the tour so our idea was to hire a scooter and do it ourselves.
We wanted to skip the pagodas and climb the mountains here but we later found out you need a guide to get up the Mountain and that would make it expensive. So we were stumped, we had to get a guide really, we spoke to a few Easyriders (guys on motorbikes that take you around the sights) and eventually got the price down. These guys can also double up as a guide up the mountain and we are going to visit a coffee plantation and a bee.... er?...hangout?
So its an early one for us tomorrow but it should be fun!
Stayed tuned for the next episode of Lesley's & Andi's adventures!
Hope you enjoyed this one, send
us lots of messages to make us feel wanted!
Lesley
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Sam
non-member comment
Finally!
I've been trying to add coments to this for about the last three entries, but the comment thing has kept breaking. Lesley, I feel your pain, I too know how it feels to have that selfish glutton steal your hard earned meal and show no remorse! At least you didn't sunburn thrown in for free! I've agreed with a lot and disagreed with a lot of the last few entries, but it's good to see your having fun now (and I can't get arsey and pick holes because I've not done Vietnam). Well, chuffed you're enjoying yourselves. It all plods on back here, Hockey season about to start in a few weeks so I'll be getting even busier. Take care, keep enjoying it. S.