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Published: December 12th 2008
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Bus ride
An example of the buses that we've been catching around, this one was for four hours. We actually like catching the local buses more than the big double-story AC buses - it makes for a more comfortable ride. Hi everyone!
Can't believe it's only 11 days until we leave to come home. With these jam-packed days, the time has gone so quickly. This morning we left Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - otherwise known as Saigon, and crossed the border to arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia which is where we are now.
So after Hoi An, it was a 10 hour train ride to Nha Trang. The train ride was surprisingly comfortable, despite the squat toilet (not so easy when the train's rocking back and forth), and the length of time. We're getting very good at long bus and train rides - we now have the capability to sit for up to four hours without even reading anything or listening to the iPod. We can just sit. For the entire train ride to Nha Trang, we were forced to watch really loudly dubbed Vietnamese sitcoms and random scenes from the movie Home Alone dubbed over with Christmas carols. On repeat. Nha Trang is a small city right on the beach shore, so our couple of days there was a nice chance to relax and get some sun. We hired some sun chairs and tried to snooze, but
Beach at Nha Trang
A good chance to kick back and relax for a little bit. the thing is, you constantly have roaming vendors approaching you and trying to sell you anything from postcards to snacks to massages. And these people do not take no for an answer - we probably said 'no thanks' on average about ten times before they would leave us alone - and the next person would come up ten minutes later! The second day we decided to get talking and joking to everyone that came up to us, which made for some great conversation. One lady brought us up to speed on which nationalities are the meanest and nicest to the vendors, which was a good laugh. The weather cleared up while we were there so we got some sun in!
From Nha Trang is was a sleeper train down to HCMC yesterday morning. We were meant to arrive at 5am, but when we got off the train and into a taxi, we realised it was only 3.45am. We woke up our poor guesthouse hosts, learnt we couldn't check in until 2pm, so dumped our bags and went off in search of food. Funnily enough, nothing was open, but it was a great opportunity to see Saigon start its day.
We roamed the streets as the darkness turned to daylight, and watched all the early birds flood the parks and do their Tai Chi, Aerobics, Salsa dancing, and general jogging and walking. It was cool to see the city come alive as all the stores opened up and things got going for the day. At about 8am we left for our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. About 15km from Saigon, there is this massive underground tunnel network that stretched 200km, made during the 40s and used for the American/Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s. All around the tunnels are massive bomb craters, and other things on show like the booby traps the Vietnamese used during the war (pretty gruesome). Fascinating to learn about - we had a chance to go undeground through the tunnels, which Perry did (no way was I going down there) - claustrophic, dark and hot, everyone had to duck walk and Perry even had to crawl hands and knees through some parts. And this was just the top tunnel - there were another two lots of tunnels beneath which apparently were even smaller but Westerners can't go through because they'll get stuck. We watched
Vendors at Nha Trang
The smile left this little girl's face when I wouldn't buy her Mentos. She liked Perry though! a Vietnamese movie made in 1967 about the Cu Chi and the war, which was really interesting. We also had a chance to sit down in our tour goup and eat some tapiaco, which was what the Vietnamese soldiers pretty much lived on during battle. Funnily enough, both Perry and I think it's the yummiest stuff ever, so while everyone else had a bite and screwed up their faces, we filled up (free lunch!). By the time we were done here, we were absolutely wrecked what with the restless couple of hours sleep we had on the sleeper train. It was straight back to the hotel (after a quick stop for a Snickers and Mars Bar ice blended) for a nap.
We really liked HCMC, it's fast paced like any other big city, but it has a cool, fun vibe about it. People are really friendly. Last night we went in search of the Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Institute, and had a one hour massage for $4 AUD each. The place is run by blind masseurs and we were treated to the the best massages we've had thus far (ah what a hard life, having all these massages).
Today
we crossed the border into Cambodia and here we are in Phnom Penh, but that will be left for the next blog entry.
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