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Published: November 28th 2008
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Oh My God - I can't do this!
Da lat is pretty easy to talk about; the main thing about it was a) finding some great food b) CANYONING! Andrew and i arrived half a day before sam and Matt and were able to seek out some accommodation before they arrived. We sampled the Vietnamese speciality the Clay Pot that evening and obviously anything with ginger, lemongrass and chilli is always a winner! Then the next day was reserved for the one recommendation we'd had for the area which was Canyoning. The girls on the boat on Ha Long Bay had shown us photos and films of them doing it and it looked crazy but fun. Canyoning is basically abseiling down huge waterfalls - wicked! I never thought I would be able to do it and there were some times when I thought that I would slip and knock myself out or fall down to the rocks and water below, but I didn't. It was like when I climbed Table mountain and half way up I never thought I would be able to make the top and then suddenly i was there and I didn't know what all the fuss
smiles and buffulos
buffulos take their master for a bath was about. We spent the day in super sexy shoes and life jackets, first learning to abseil then doing it into water, slowly working our way up to the biggy. I don't know the height but the photos don't do it justice, it was bloody high, ok?! especially since there was a ledge and the water came down on you in torrents, beating down on your legs while your feet tried to find their way down the rock that was covered in slippery slime; which when combined together meant that all the time you felt like your feet were about to fly from under you and your face was about to come in contact with the rock and gallons of water. At which point you would then have had to swing yourself round if you were upside down and then try to haul your body back up into the correct position (perpendicular to the rock) while the water continued to rush over you and your feet continued to slip on the slimy rock - Fun, No? Well actually it was. Lucky I didn't fall and near the end we were able to jump out into the lagoon below just to
Rowing away
Hard working ladies on the mekong delta get us in shape for the next activity which was jumping off a cliff, much higher than anything I did in Africa! And the tour was topped off with a natural water slide. Good old fashioned fun! (they didn't tell us we then had to climb a riddick hill to get back to the bus but, se la vie!)
Sai gone with our money
Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon was an assult to our senses after the clean cool air of Da lat. The bus journey had been hounded by the monsoon rains, relentlessly hammering our windows and barely giving us a glimse of the Vietnamese country side. But through the rain I could see the coloured houses and churches thronged with sunday worshippers. There were churches, big ones, in every little town we passed through; ornate, modern, whatever took your fancy and everysingle one of them were full to bursting. You could see them all as they waited for the rains to stop so they could go home, masses of them leaving after their sunday service. Once in the city I set Sam down with the bags so that I could more expeditiously search for accommodation, always easier
doing the crawl if you don't have heavy bags hampering you and making you look (and feel!) desperate. I found the best of the bunch, which is pretty grim in Vietnam on our budget! The next day we agreed to take a cyclo tour of the city - this is one of those times that I feel well and truely shafted. the guy told us a price (can't remember how much now) and we said too much so he said OK pay what you feel like at the end. I knew this was a little con but felt that if he was shoddy we'd give him less but he seemed alright so we still said the lower price and agreed to go with him and his friend. They told us we were going to places that we didn't go to, he took us to the War Remnants Museum about 20 mins before closing time and then at the end the 2nd guy demanded higher rates than the other guy even started with! To be fair the original guy looked a little ashamed of his friend but didn't stop him. Sam coughed up the high original price, I was ready for
a fight but the guys cut and run. I wish that locals wouldn't do this, don't reneg on a price and don't treat us like idiots. I'm ready to pay more than locals, I understand that but at the end of the day I hate it when they think they can shaft you because of the colour of your skin. Sorry very bitter about this, it's not about the money it's about the principle.
The sights in HCMC are definitely worthwhile visiting. The war remnants museum was very informative even if a little haphazardly curated. While we were there they had an exhibition on war photography which was amazing, seeing what people would do to get the shot, to show it how it really was. Then of course there is the gore factor, pickled agent orange babies etc. Unfortunately we didn't spend that much time there, but it isn't very big. We also went to Phuoc Hai temple which was a very beautiful temple in the centre of the city, very dark, rich and musty inside but with some areas where the play of light was integral to the architecture, it was definately one fo my favorite temples. At
the end there was a little room filled with dolls the guide told me to touch about 10, then he said 'Is that enough?', 'Enough what?', 'Enough children!' Well apparently it's a fertillity room and you're meant to touch the dolls, boys or girls, to 'bless you with children' - apparently I am now having 10 - hehehe Fat Chance! We spent the rest of the day after trying to hide from crazy monsoon bursts and hoping it would stop before the boat trip we were taking into Cambodia the next day!
Cruising down the Mekong
We wanted to see a bit more of the country as we left than you can through a bus window so decided on the mekong delta cruise that takes you from HCMC to Phnom Penh in 2 days with plenty of stuff thrown in. (much better than sitting on your arse for hours!) We took a combination of bus and about 3 different types of boat through floating markets, coconut sweet makers, Islamic communities and on the 2nd day we went at about 7am for a cruise through a floating Village before getting in our final boat which would take us all
the way into Cambodia. This is when the rains started. the whole of the boat trip up the mekong from when we left the floating village to when we arrivd in cambodia was pounded by a monsoon. The boat's roof was apparently not watertight and we all had to move around the boat so as to dodge the trickles of rain water that would suddenly appear. When we entered Cambodia the mood seemed to change, the people and children from the riverside villages would smile and wave, cattle roamed free around the waters edge and women happily stood washing their hair in the murky water as we passed. I don't know whether it was psycological but everything just seemed a little bit more relaxed here. The relaxed view was really shown when we were turfed out of the boat into what looked liek someones back garden and as our 'guide' had somehow dissapeared along the way we all just trapsed through past the house and waited around front, hoping that someone was going to do something with us! eventually a minibus was opened up for us (surprise, surprise, not really enough room for everyoen, but Hey! we'll make it fit!)and
we were finally taken to Phnom Penh. (on the way talking to a lucky yankee bastard who took travel photos for his living, he gave me a few pointers and was actually quite sweet. Still .... bastard! 😉)
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