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Published: October 11th 2007
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Well, our last day in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) saw Dave having a hair cut and me having my nails done!! COst about four quid for everything!! Wow! Also had a Seeing Hands massage (massage by blind Cambodians). Dave had a foot massage and I had a fully body one. OWWWW!!! It hurt a bit and left me with a bit of bruise on my arm. On the whole it was nice...I think?!!?! Haha. The next day we caught the bus to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Only had a 15 day visa for here so everything was in a bit of a rush but in the end, we didn't mind so much as got fed up with people trying to screw us over all the time. Couple of non-city places we would have liked to have seen but just didn't have the time.
Ho Chi Minh was crazy - the amount of motorbikes there is unreal. You just kind of have to edge out and keep walking whilst maintaining eye contact! All good fun. We tried Ban Xeo there as it's suppoesed to be good. Kind of a fried pancake with prawns, pork and bean sprouts. You break a
bit up, wrap it some lettuce leaves and then dip it into a kind of clear chilli sauce. It was good! The next day we went to a Caodai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels (google it!). There was some sort of big ceremony going on at the temple so it was totally rammed with 1000s of worshippers, a cool building though. Unfortunately 4 people on our bus had their wallets stolen from tehir pockets. We became just that extra bit vigilant! Then we went tot eh Cu Chi tunnels - you can see some pics of our time there (and we have loads more, including some of the traps they used to use - nasty! Almost had a go at shooting some guns but it was pretty expensive so we watched a bit instead, with our fingers blocking our ears!!
Next we headed to Mui Ne and had the luxury of a pool at our guest house! We also had a private beach and lots of sun! It was gorgeous! Short of time, and with rain the next day, we had to miss the sandunes there and headed further up the east coast to Nha Trang. We went
on a boat trip round the islands there and watched the crazy guide get up and sing his heart out in front of us!! He had me up doing some dance I didn't understand and later we did the twist. It was a laugh. Met a great Aussie couple there too who made us laugh lots! That night, we ate (our first ever) lobster on the roadside, looking out over the sea it was caught from. Cool! And a heck of a lot cheaper than in the restaurants! YUM! Had a really nice family running the guest house we stayed at and they treated us like their own grandchildren!! Caught a night train up to Danang and then took a taxi south slightly to get to Hoi An. Loved it here despite all the rain (the typhoon was kicking in!). The little French streets and gorgeous shops were a real treat and temptation that we had to succumb to! I had a gorgeous jacket and a summer dress tailor-made for me and Dave had 2 shirts made. My jacket and one of the shirts are hopefully on their way home to the UK now (sent yesterday) - just hope they
make it!!! There was a HUGE spider in the room at Hoi An (Dave suggested it was a similar size to a huntsman - oh i can't wait for Australia!!) and so I wasn't too enamoured by that!! One of the girls who worked there killed it with a brush for me!
Next day we headed north, in the rain, to Hue - which was...well...wet! The roads were beginning to flood and we had to succumb to the delights of a plastic poncho once more! By the evening, the roads were copmpletely flooded and we waded through water up to our knees to get some food - and the best shakes in Hue - possibly even in SE Asia - yum!! It rained all through the night and the next morning, the bus couldn't get to our hotel so we waded once more through deeper water to a place a little less flooded, passing dead cockraoches (amongst other things) floating around! THe bus took us to the airport where we took a flight to Hanoi, the capital. Looked round the Ethnology museum (quite cool) and Temple of Literature - big links to Confucious - (peaceful) on the first day
- very cultural of us eh?! Then went on a boat trip (2 days 1 night - sleeping on the boat) to Halong Bay. It was raining as we left Hanoi (surprise surprise!) but the weather was gorgeous while we were in Halong. As was the scenery - it really is beautiful there - google image it! (Is that even a verb?!). Met some cool people on the boat and had a nice relaxing time. Back in Hanoi, we did a bit of shopping and tried to avoid beeing screwed over anymore - Hanoi was the worst for it! Then we, thankfully, flew back to Bangkok for a couple of days. Heading south now to the islands - will update when we leave Thailand, for the last time.
Hope everyone is very well and we look forward to seeing you soon,
Much love,
Lau & Dave :o)
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Debbie
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Vietnam memories!
Hi Laura, oh you brought back so many memories for me with your Vietnam update. I was there way back in 1996, worked in Ho Chi Minh City for about 3 months, then flew to Hanoi to work for another week before having a couple of weeks off to travel back down the east coast by bus. We stopped in Hue, got trapped in Hoi An for Vietnamese new year (bad tummy bug, couldn't get back on bus!) but had amazing time. Think we were only tourists there, everything shut down. I had a couple of Ao Dai outfits tailor made for me for my work so wore one and we were invited back to a girl's house to share NY meal with her and her family. I remember the Vietnamese being really friendly, but I guess things have changed in 10 years. HCMC was a bit touristy but I still loved it. Made it to Nha Trang too (beach massage, lovely!). Mekong Delta was gorgeous too, if you have a chance? Would love to see rest of your pics of Vietnam when you get back? Have fun, love Debs xxx