Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 219

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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 14th 2007

This is a plug for the azfamily.com website. They have agreed to publish our stories and more importantly, compensate us for them. Currently the content is not much different from this site, but if if you are interested the website is http://azfamily.beloblog.com/uprooted/ Today we are off to China . . . and back to work . . .... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City » Cu Chi February 13th 2007

Greetings Fellow Perfusionist', After Saartje and I had successfully negotiated a trade deal between Vietnam and long time enemy China we felt we deserved a little time to see the sites just outside the city. And so it was that we made our way (again) to our good friends at the Innoviet tour company to organise a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels about 70kms from Saigon. We assembled outside the company orifice (bad joke but Sarah wanted it in there) at 7.30am and met with our guide, Em Toan and two pommie geezers named ...I can’t remember but we will call them Bertie and Agnes. We made our way to Benh Tanh Bus station and boarded a bus bound for Cu Chi. Innoviet give you the real experience so we traveled like Vietnamese on ... read more
VC in the trenches...
Rusting and Silent
Sarah and Toan

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 13th 2007

Hi, it's Ilene writing from HCMC, back from fun on the beach in Mui Ne and cycling in the Mekong Delta. What did Chekov say? A pair of underwear in the first act. . .? Anyway. Since so many of you have expressed concern about the underwear situation. . . let me provide an update. Last I left you, I was in a bit of a bind—the not-really-XL XL underwear on, laundry still out until the next afternoon. That morning, I went to Cholon, the Chinese neighborhood, with my friend Chi, who is anxious to show me the markets and bargain on my behalf. We head into one of the big markets, where Chi’s friend works selling baby clothes, and she asks me what I’d like to buy. I look around. We’re surrounded by blue jeans. ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 12th 2007

We preferred Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi, although in hindsight, we only stayed in the Old Quarter in Hanoi and think that the new area was probably more like Ho Chi Minh city. The city is still packed with a zillion motorbikes that constantly use the footpath as their parking space though! ;-) It was nice to be in warmer climate too, we finally reached about 27 degrees each day. With the Tet festival being from 17-19 Feb (the Lunar new year celebrations) the city was awash with colour as all the decorations were hung and all these fantastic lights were hung all over trees, statues, temples and buildings…. was pretty spectacular, especially at night. Our hotel, the Riverside Renaissance, was in a good location beside the river and within walking distance to the Notre ... read more
Cu Chi Tunnels
Cu Chi Tunnels
Cu Chi Tunnels

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 11th 2007

Cesar nisva vedeli o vojni v Vietnamu ze prej, sva danes izvedeli na izletu do Cu Chi tunelov, v War Remrants muzeju in zvecer na pivu. Pa po vrsti. Zjutraj sem vstala pred Maso in sla do najinega atata na caj, se prej sem spotoma nekaj pohrustala. Potem sva sli skupaj na bus z ostalimi turisti in na pot do tunelov. Imeli smo res enkratnega vietnamskega vodica po imenu Khan, ki se nam je preko dneva povsem osebno razgalil. Zgodba je svetovna. No, najprej smo se (turisticno pac) ze na poti do tja ustavili v neki trgovini oz. delavnici, kjer delajo samo invalidni, potem pa do tunelov. Vodili so nas gor in dol po obmocju, ki je bilo konec vojne povsem zminirano in torej tudi brez rastja, tako da je danasnja "dzungla" stara pac od leta ... read more
Shooting range
Bia Hoi!
Atov kafic

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 10th 2007

Slon in Sadez bi tu zagotovo dobila navdih za part deux svojega komada: tile Saigoncani so ene prave komercialne pi*de! (se opravicujem, ampak izraz se najbolj sede) Pri Tajcih je vsem jasno, da te prinasajo okoli in placas prevec, vendar tu je druga scena. Najprej ti lokalci, ki zal nimajo osnovnih pojmov o anglescini, navrzejo dve razlicni ceni, recimo za neke nudlne 5000 ali 10.000 dongov. Ko pogledas ko tele in zahtevas jasno nizjo ceno, das denar in potem ti modeli ne vrnejo nazaj tocne vsote denarja! Danes se nama je kar nekajkrat zgodilo, da sva morali podrobno pogledati vrnjen denar in zahtevati se tistih nekaj tisoc dongov preostanka (naj se enkrat povem, da je en dolar enako 16.000 dongov). Ampak po vrsti. Zjutraj sva sle iz najinega res enkratnega hostla na potem. Najprej cez nek ... read more
Market
Cholon

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 10th 2007

We returned to Saigon via a 9 hour bus journey of death from Dalat, it was only 300 Km but the buses are not in a rush and the chaos of the roads doesn't help. We went back to Saigon to meet my parents and some family friends who are now here for two weeks on a mini tour of Vietnam. This tour kicked off with three nights back in the crazy, dynamic city that is Saigon. Staying at the Thang Long Hotel (really nice place) in the centrally located Dong Khoi area we spent a few days and nights gawping at the sights and sampling the local brews and cuisine. Saigon is still an impressive city that never fails to entertain, there is always something going on and it is simply completely different to anywhere ... read more
Reunification Palace
Bia Hoi
Local Hang Out

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 10th 2007

Greetings Fellow Phlebotomist', Today the blog comes courtesy of the Peoples Committee for Roasted Peanut Sales and Animal Husbandry, where Sarah has been doing some consultancy work. She is after all one of the world's most reputable Animal Husbands. This blog will be a mixture of events and happenings since our return to Saigon after trying to get to Phu Quoc, like the time Sarah was so drunk that she spent the night in a Vietnamese lock-up after she climbied the flagpole of the Peoples Committee Building in downtown Saigon and replaced the Vietnamese flag with a piece of Vegemite on toast...But more about that later. Well the Swiss arrived back from Phu Quoc for a day in Saigon before they left. We hung out and laughed about our failed attempt to reach the island and ... read more
Some fine stuff!
Baggy Green!
Kiss Army

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 9th 2007

No, pa sva v mestecu strica Ho-ja. Do sem je bila pot kar zabavana. Iz Phnom Penha smo odrinili okoli osme ure zjutraj in nekaj pred dvanajsto smo bili na meji. S Kmeri ni bilo nobenih problemov, spet pa so ta pokvarjeno potegnili ob vstopu Vietnamci. Ko so nama vpisovali vizo, so kar tako zahtevali en dolar. Prosim? Malo sem zabulila in odlocno rekla, da vizo ze imam in da nimam kaj placevati ekstra, pa je model samo pomahal z roko in rekel Go, go. Enako je bilo z Maso, le da je njej carinik malo bolj tezil. Ampak na koncu sva vsaka prihranili svoj dolar. Po naslednjih dveh kontrolah je bilo spet presenecenje, za kar neko potrdilo o zdravstvenem stanju ali kaj vem kaj sva morali placati 2000 dongov. Naj povem, da je menjava en ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 8th 2007

today..on our last day in vietnam i left the camera in a taxi...oopps well we hav been around the world trying to sort it out...but realistically with 500 million people and 200 million yellow taxi's we knew it was gone so we set off to get a police report to claim for our insurance. well the policeman was the most unhelpful, unfriendly person we have meet in vietnam which was fantastic coz that made it all so mush easier for us! He didnt speak one word of english (probably on purpose) so we had to go and get the tourist sercurity guards to help us translate. I thought sheree was going to attack him for a moment there he was soooooo frustrating...then he decided maybe if we come back in the morning he might write us ... read more
just a preview of the shopping we have done!!
balloon anyone???
typical moto driver!!




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