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Published: March 4th 2009
So we carry on our adventures leaving Cambodia headed for Vietnam for 30 days. So much to do so little time. So here's where we begin.
Tuesday 3rd February Another border crossing "oh what to expect" so we stocked up on reserves because the five hour journey could mean anything and headed of to catch our 8am bus to HCMC (ho chi minh city) also known as Saigon to most. The journey itself went ok but the local english speaking guide was another story. For a start his english language consisted of "hallo" and he keep disappering giving us no info on what we where suppose to be doing at the border. They began by taking our passports off us then calling us through as they were being stamped but there were lots of buses coming all the time and they just had a big pile of passports and the more passports that came in went straight on top of the pile and we're talking hundreds here. (we're going to be a while)They just don't seem to understand that we are quite capable of DIY unlike them clearly. So after what seemed like forever being pushed, elbowed and trod on
Beep beep
and this was a quiet day!by the locals who clearly don't know the meaning of queueing or manners, they called my "new name" which was something like "amiejanie" rather amusing and I took advantage of my own barging skills. Steve was called through 10 min later or should I say "stefanchalles" but the victory was short lived as we had taken so long our guide had gone god knows where and they were making us go back and fill in some paper work so we did but had to get it stamped so we used the language barrier to our advantage and they just stamped it to get rid of us. When we reached the bus the guide had all this paper work filled in and stamped for us "yeah Jees thanks" The rest of the journey went fine and we arrived later than expected with all the messing around but we were greeted by hoards of tuk tuk drivers and hostel "PR'S" which we ignored as we always do and headed to one of the backstreets in search of a cheaper option. At first we where quoted $16 for some with shared bathrooms and fan, not likely! So we keep going down the street
Ho Chi Minh
Cu Chi Tunnels and bartered with one on the 6th floor for $10 the young girl took us to take a look and told us $12 and wouldn't budge so we walked all the way back down to be told by the older woman $10 is fine, Yeah that is fine if she carries my bloody bag back up. So we settled and even got a fridge thrown in as an added bonus. Later checked out the night market for food which was closed. So we looked for random vendors which didn't exist. So we splashed out (we had no other choice) and got takeaway from a resturant which was cheap enough at $1.50 and we had a movie night.
Wednesday 4th February We visited Notre dome cathedral and Saigon central mosque both very nice. We did the market which wasn't really very good then popped along to the tourist info centre to check out any extras we could do and to use the toilets as the city lacks public facilities but there wasn't any for public use and the centre didn't tell us anything more than lonely planet but it did have "FREE" internet which was pretty fast. We attempted a
Ho Chi Minh
Cu Chi Tunnels curry for dinner but they just don't cut it for me "bring on the Thai grren curry" im actualy looking forward to eating Thai cuisine again as Im not enjoying the food here everything and I mean everything is fried! Early night for an early start tomorrow.
Thursday 5th February We booked a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels which cost 332,500 (approx 14pounds) We arrievd and watched a documentry on the 200km tunnels which also have 3 levels used during the Vietnam war. The Cu Chi tunnels formed part of a huge network of underground tunnels which cover most of the country. They are equipped with weapon storage, kitchens, hospitals basically everything the soldier's would have needed. We were taken around the village by a guide who talked us through the history of the tunnels and allowed us to take a closer look at some of the devices the Viet Cong (vietnamese soldiers) used to capture not kill the American soldiers. After seeing these devices in action my mind was racing at the fact that these traps were an amazing invention by a small village of locals but the pain they would have inflicted made me shiver. The
Can we come out now?
Third tunnel got a little bit stuffy. tunnels where very thin and low that some were just used by the village children even the one's meant for everyone were very narrow. They had made a section bigger for "us westerners" going in 40 metre section's but the 3 section's got smaller and narrower until the 3rd was as narrow as the original unfortunatly all the fried food we have been eating has gone straight to the hips and I could just imagine the embarrasment of being pulled out or worse stuck forever and go down in history as "big butt girl" oh the horror!. Me and Steve where the only 2 in our group of 8 to carry on to the end and we got a little clap from everyone whoop whoop! They showed us the kitchens and the hospitals etc before we had Vietnamese tea and some strange fruit which was a cross between a potato and a wax crayon "oh it wa good" funny thing is we all went back for more probably to see if it really did tast that bad or if it was indeed a wax crayon who knows? We made our way back to our hostel and just went for a
Mekong Delta
Coconut Candy little walk after dinner before an early night as not feeling great I'm starting to think they were wax crayons!
Friday 6th February Not well today so we just took a little walk to book a Mekong Delta trip. The mekong river is the 12th longest in the world and is 4350km long. It runs from Tibet through China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We were going to DIY the trip but after looking into it we discovered it was cheap to do an organized trip and less stress. So we paid 332.500dong (approx 27pounds) for two and this included 1 lunch, 1 breakfast all transport inc boats and accommodation. So we are looking forward to that but not packing boo hoo!
Saturday 7th February Up and bursting with energy after my extra strong coffee. The bus on time and everything seemed to be going well. We drove to My tho and took a boat down the river to a coconut candy factory. We got a taster of the fresh warm candy it was yummy! We then boarded our 6 man boats which took us to the bee farm where we tasted honey tea it was like
cough medicine but nice. Got chatting to a couple from Canada who were really nice and were doing a similar route to us. We then had lunch before heading up the narrow river in our 4 man rowing boat where we put on our hats and looked cool! We travelled the rest of the 3hr journey to Can tho where we were staying in a hostel overnight. The journey was an experience to say the least. I think my arse is actually bruised. We headed out with the canadian couple and had food before we all headed for early nights.
Sunday 8th February Started the day with a yummy brekkie. Our guide arrived with a bit of a sore head me thinks but he got a coffee and then took us to get our boat to the Cai Rang floating market which is the biggest floating market on the Mekong and the main reason we booked the trip. We were disappointed as we didn't go around the market we just climbed on a pineapple boat for 20min then left. We later discovered that the market wraps up around 9am so we were to late one reason why DIY is
better but we didn't let it sour our mood. We stopped off at a rice noodle factory and got to see how they were made and they had a huge pig and I mean HUGE! Nothing to do with the rice noodle but it was amusing. Last stop at a fish market and there was a guy begging covered in huge lumps it really freaked me out and Steve got a cheeky photo but I felt awful for him I couldn't even look at him which made me feel so rude but I kind of ran past him poor thing. We watched them scale a huge fish that started moving as she cut it and the poor thing was still alive (im going to be an emotional wreck at this rate) We stopped for lunch then braced ourselves for the bumpy ride back to HCMC 4hrs should be fun. Expectations were met - the journey was horrendous, but amazingly we both "knocked a few zzz's" out. Got back ahead of schedule so booked our 8pm overnight bus for Nha Trang. Looking forward to it as we should have a pretty chilled out week there.
Monday 9th February Journey went
Cai Rang Market
Local boat seller well last night except for being stuck to a leather seat for most of the night. Plenty of toilet stops along the way but it seems the bus driver and the locals ate at every stop - even at 2am. For once we got dropped off more central than expected so headed to find a hostel. The first few were quite expensive so we did a lot of searching and ended up ignoring all the ones from Lonely Planet due to them having "Lonely Planet-itis." Settled for one for $6 with a private bathroom and you can see the sea from our window (if you tiptoe and crook your neck enough). So we grabbed a shower. Discovered it was either freezing cold or boiling hot. No in between. The weather wasn't particularly very good so our plans for hitting the beach may go on the back burner. Even more annoying we were told the weather had been beautiful until today. Checked out the beach though and it looks very nice and also had a look at recommended restaurants from Lonely Planet. Typically, most have tripled in price so we're hoping for good, old fashioned, vendors for our evening meals. Looks
like a pretty cool place for nights out. Plenty of bars in competition which means cheap drinks. Had a look around the market. Lots of locals charging tourist prices and tuk tuks not taking no for an answer. Had a beef and egg concoction for evening meal in some weird watery sauce. Later chilled out with our fingers, toes and legs crossed for sun tomorrow.
Tuesday 10th February Shopping day. Steve needed a new pair of shorts and the weather wasn't particularly very good so we had a look round and I just couldn't resist. I ended up buying 2 vest tops, and some new combats because my other ones are too big. In between all my shopping Steve managed to buy a pair of shorts. After my buzz from all the shopping we decided to have a night out. Ended up in a bar called, "Why Not Bar" which served buckets for 35,000 dong (1 pound 40p) and beer for 15,000 dong (60p). These prices could be dangerous!! Had a really good night. The bar was quite quiet but played good music and I got a bit tipsy.
Wednesday 11th February Weather still not very good so
A local seller
on his very Hi-tech boat we decided it would be a good day to do Thap Ba Hot Spring Centre. We got the bus from the hotel for 40,000 dong each, return (1 pound 50p), and 100,000 dong each (4 pound) for the entry which included the thermal mud baths, hot tubs, jet sprays etc. We didn't really know what any of it was so we just headed in and went with the flow. We began with 30 minutes in the thermal mud which we shared with 2 girls from Australia. Then we had to sit and wait for the mud to dry before showering. On to the jet sprays which I can't decide whether were pleasant or painful before jumping into the thermal hot tubs. I'm not sure whether they thought we were honymooners or a special couple because they gave us a love heart shaped tub just for us. All the others were shared between 6 to 8 people but we didn't correct them, as the saying goes, "ignorance is bliss." After our 45 minutes of the
love-tub we got a run of the hot swimming pools, cold jet sprays and the pretty little waterfall. We didn't last long in the hot swimming
pools due to them being 38 degrees C. It was pleasurable for a while at a time, and for once, the weather worked in our favour as it wouldn't be nice if the sun is blaring. It was amazing value for money. You'd be paying about 50 quid in the UK for the same thing, and that's with group discount. We were completely chilled out when we left. Deciding on a quiet meal out but on our way we decided to have a drink which lasted until 3am. Steve got chatted up by a gay guy but I'm quite used to that now. We should be leaving tomorrow but we have to be out by 10am so I'm not banking on it.
Thursday 12th February We had planned to leave today but typically the sun was blaring through our window when we woke up (past check-out time) so we decided it was time to hit the beach. A little bit over-enthusiastic we spent the whole day in and out of the sea, fighting plastic bags mind, because the locals don't know what a bin is. Later I regretted my use of factor 8 because my headlights are not an
Hot mineral mud
It really does feel nice attractive look. The worst part came when I removed my glasses. I looked like I was still wearing them. Oh the wonders of make-up. Overall it was a really nice day and we finished off at a set meal restaurant. The food was nice but we wouldn't go back 'cos the portions were very small. Steve had to go to the bakery to fill his poor, rumbling, tum-tum,.
Friday 13th February Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuunnnnn. Friday the 13th! I think I got my bad luck early as I'm so sunburned and sore and to top it off I look like an idiot with my "panda eyes." Huge sunglasses should be banned. Had a little walk but I think I have a little bit of sunstroke so spent the day drinking lots of water and later skyped my family.
Saturday 14th February Valentines Day. We headed out and bought our bus tickets to Hoi An for tomorrow night. We decided to go out for drinks rather than a meal as we quite like the bar here and who knows whens the next time we'll be going out, When we arrived at the bar we recieved a number and you had
to match your number up with somebody else at the bar. It was rather amusing. A guy came over who had my number and they invited us over to their table. We got a few funny looks off the others sat at the table but I got chatting to one of the girls. Discovered they were all from Finland and were travelling in a tight clique. I think they started warming to us until I went to the bathroom and one of the girls asked me if I liked her dress. It was one of those moments in your life when you know you should lie and say, "Yes, it's lovely," but the thought of her thinking that I'd actually like something as monstrous as what she was wearing, my mouth just wouldn't allow me to lie. Can't really remembered what I said but it includes my grandma and they all left and didn't invite us along. I must say, it was amusing. We went inside to claim our couple's drinks but because it was after 12 they wouldn't let us - bummer. So we bought one for the road. Strange evening but good fun.
Sunday 15th February Overnight
Through gritted teeth
This does actually hurt travel to Hoi An leaving at 7pm so we had to fill in the day. We decided to have a walk up to a bridge over a river which we'd passed coming back from That Ba hot springs. It was along the promenade and took about an hour each way. We got some really cool photos and got to see locals sorting out the fish and their gear. After our walk we were hot and thirsty. One of those times only a beer would do. We sat in a little bar and planned what to do in Hoi An before grabbing dinner. Our bus left nearly on time. A little sad to be leaving Nha Trang because we only got to go to the beach once due to my silly sunburn.
We have another 2 weeks in Vietnam travelling to Hoi An, Ninh Binh, Cat Ba and Hanoi. Decided to do two blogs for Vietnam due to the amount of different things (and the photos) we've done.
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