Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 220

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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!!

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 6th 2007

In the space since his last entry the boy wonder crossed the ocean to the the island of Borneo and: nearly broke his neck when he was catapulted a metre in the air and hit his head on the roof of the bus as it flew down the worlds most bumpiest roads on the way to the South of Borneo was stalked by a mentally deranged Indonesian man who wore pink lipstick and kept trying to kiss him in Banjamasin in South Kalimantan met an engineer of a coal mine on a bus to Samarinda and drove the companies 4 by 4 down to the mine with his little hard hat on as if he was a worker there nearly frooze to death when the silly willy climbed the tallest moutain in South East Asia in ... read more
Is a tree, a tree or a tree. None!! Its a tree!
Kinabalu Nation Park
Balikpapan, East Kalimantan

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 6th 2007

Robert here. Nothing very adventurous to report. I've come down with what I hope is just a summer cold (at least it's summery) and have been in bed most of two days eating oranges. I think I'm past the worst of it. Yesterday I explored a modern supermarket looking for Tylenol. Today I discovered that fish Pho does the job of chicken soup. Right now, I'm sitting in the corner coffee shop watching the traffic. ONe thing I've been admiring is how "people scaled" the streets and buildings are. There's more French colonial architecture left here than I anticipated, and certain blocks look like pictures of the French quarter in New Orleans. ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 4th 2007

Vcera som dorazila do Vietnamu - cesta minibusom bola jedna z najhorsich - moje sedadlo bolo rozbite nemalo operadlo a este sa prepadavalo do strany - cesta bola rozbita a samy hrbol - 4 hodiny jazdy bez moznosti sa poriadne opriet bolo mensie peklo. Stretla som par skvelych ludi a vecer som sa ubytovala na izbe s dvoma chalanmi z Kanady (26 rocny). Po prvy krat som s viac ako jednou osobou na izbe a je to super. Dnes sme obisli par miest v okoli Saigonu a vecer o 20:00 smerujeme na sever do mesta Mui Ne kde mame v plane "snowbordovat" na pieskovych dunach a kupat sa v mori - mali by sme sa par dni zdrzat. Open ticket autobusenka dnes posledny den stoji 20 USD od zajtra je to 40 USD lebo bude Cinsky ... read more
Hady a skorpiony
Vstup do tunela (uz rozsireny pre turistov)
...

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 4th 2007

The bus ride from Chau Doc to Saigon was hell. We were literally stuffed into a tiny minibus that kept stopping to pick up more people. Aside from the several Vietnamese in the bus, we shared the vehicle with an english couple (sort of) and a dutch guy. Among the many things we did to keep ourselved entertained was a game that involved going around in a circle saying how many US states, beer brands, colors, flowers, etc. that you could name. If the person next to you didn't believe that you could name 10 (for example) beer brands, they would say BS and you'd have to prove them wrong (or right). It was actually a great game, but I sat next to the dutch guy, and no matter the topic he was always able to ... read more
Mmm...frog
Ox tail
Escape from Saigon

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 4th 2007

we are in our element...last night we discovered HCMC (as the locals like to say!!) has the best shopping...umm dvds, cds, sunnies, bags..ohh so many bags, clothes great for boys but mostly girls have to be a size 2 to fit into them!, and just about anything else you could want to buy! we stayed out shopping til late, then back to our hotel room to watch some charlies angels even more exciting..it was in English!!! Today we have spent the day exploring the cu chi tunnels...an exact replica of what the Vietnamese lived in during the war..it was definately very interesting! But before we made it to the tunnels we got to buy or own bullets and shoot a m-16.... At a target though, no one was hurt in the process!! ha ha Only problem ... read more
umm..this was tight!!
scary!! haha
sooo smalll!

Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City February 4th 2007

Robert here. The internet connection is slow today, and I'm likely to get booted, so briefly and without pix . . . It's Sunday afternoon. Up early again. After breakfast, I left Ilene to work and I hit the streets and ended up walking for about 4 1/2 hours. I headed west in the direction of the backpacker's ghetto and wandered through a lot of neighborhoods where I didn't see any other tourists for a long time. While I did that, the constant salesmanship let up -- no one was expecting me to walk by I guess -- but the motorbikes never cease. It's hard to describe much else that would sound interesting here, but every block of everyday life is something vivid and unexpected to me -- buidybuilder's gyms and tenament buildings and school buildings ... read more




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