Australia - Melbourne City, I love it.
10th September - Melbourne State library and Crown Casino.We left Kat's Aunties house and off we went feeling pretty refreshed with our neater than ever packed backpacks full of clean clothes and took a train into the city.
I had the most fantastic day. Melbourne is a beautiful city and so easy to find your way around. I decided to head off into the city alone today and found my way to the State library. Which is not like a normal Library, it was fantastic. It was established in 1853, and is apparently the largest public research and reference library in Victoria. Although it's not a lending library, books, information, services and reading rooms we available to me, so I was in my element. The library offered a vast range of collections that included current and historical books, manuscripts, maps and photographs.
I begun by settling myself down and doing a bit of research in the quiet reading room and then I made my way out to the 'Cowen Galery', which was a wonderful collection of paintings and sculptures illustrating Victoria's history, landscapes, early European exploration, significant events and settlement in Australia. There was so much to read and learn. There was also a 'bust collection' with the heads of governors, bishops and viscounts of both England and Australia. Apparently this gallery alone held over a million images.
Next I climbed up to the third floor, the 'Queens Hall', there was not much to see there so I swiftly made my way up to the fourth floor, which was called the 'Mirror of the world', basically showing how we learn and how we gain so much about our past through books. There were books dating back to the 1400's, old maps, big books, mini book and it was all so interesting, I could have stayed in there for hours but time was of the essence so I moved on up.
The fifth floor was called the 'Changing Faces' exhibition, where it was focused upon people, places and events that have shaped life in Victoria from the time of the first contact between the Europeans and Aboriginal people through to today. It brought stories to light using picture, manuscript, maps and artifacts. I was most excited to see Ned Kelly's armor. Before heading back down stairs I clambered up the narrow winding stair case to the top floor which had an impressive dome roof and a balcony that looked down through the lower three floors. The views outside were amazing.
Back on the ground floor I decided to check out the new Karin Catt's 'Famous' exhibition. It was a collection of portraits. They ranged from magazine covers, provocative, humorous, stylish or just really unusual. Next to each picture there was a summery of their life and what they were/are famous for. There was everything from actors to singers, world leaders to general icons. From Muhammad Ali to Busta Rhymes. Sir Richard Branson to Sir Elton John, then from President Clinton to even his holiness the Dali Lama.I knew who most of the people were so found reading all these little captions rater interesting, much like reading a girlie gossip magazine. I must have spent hours in the library because by the time I left it was dark and time to meet Kat and Jenna for dinner.
That evening we headed off to the famous Crown Casino Entertainment Complex. It is centred on its gaming rooms and its multi-storey five-star Crown Towers hotel ( a huge land mark). We had no desire to wager money at the roulette or blackjack tables, and the hundreds of poker machines. But enjoyed wandering round this huge vibrant complex, where we could grab some food and watch other people throw money down the drain, trying to figure out the rules to each game, and probably putting a lot of people off!
11th September - Museum of Melbourne
After a very uncomfortable nights sleep with springs sticking into my back, a trickle of a shower and joining the locusts for the free hostel breakfast Jenna and I made our way out to the Museum of Melbourne. It is one of Australia's largest museums and contained excellent exhibits and was divided along all different themes. We started off learning about 'Australia's History', which then led to the'Aboriginal Bunjilaka Center', which I found so interesting, and was what I was really there for. WE made our way past all the impressive art, including brightly decorated boomerangs and didgeridoos and read many sad stories about the aboriginals sad and difficult past. I then made my way up to 'Ta pacifica Gallery', where I could learn about all the pacific islands, for example: Papa New Guinea and looked around all the boats on display. I spent the rest of the day looking round all of the other sections of the museum. There was: ' The forest Gallery' - where we could look through glass to an artificially made rain forest, 'The Science and life Gallery' - where I looked round over 1500 species of primitive animals. Next was one of my favourites; 'Bugs alive' where we learnt about all the insects that could kill us in Australia and even watch ants working away in their colonies ( which I found rather addictive, almost like watching 'Big Brother'). I thoroughly enjoyed 'Marine life' where I could marvel over creatures from the most beautiful to the most scary, and even a pickled Giant Squid. The final two exhibits were 'The Evolution Gallery' and 'The Mind and Body Gallery', these sorts of things are always fascinating to see but I am sure I have seen it all in museums at home, but it reminded me how far things have come and advanced since I have been on this earth. I wished that we could have spent longer, but even after rushing round we were pushing ourselves to see everything before the place closed, enjoying free pasta at our hostel that evening and going to bed thinking long and hard into the night about all the interesting things I had seen that day.
12th September - Moving Image, then back to Sydney.
We spent the morning in a Disney Pixar's exhibition about how cartoons etc are made. It was fun, and all very interactive playing about with digital movement sensors on a blue screen and watching little clips of different types of animation. It was a good way to spend the morning before flying back up to Sydney in order to catch out flight the next morning to New Zealand.
Australia - A glimpse at Sydney and rural Melbourne
It is official I have arrived in Australia I am so excited so I thought I would start off with some facts from Bill Bryson's book that I am reading:
It is the worlds sixth largest country. The only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. It was the first continent conquered from the sea, and the last. It is the only nation that began as a prison. It is the home of the largest living thing, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (Uluru) and the facts that scared me: It has more things that will kill you anywhere else. Of the worlds most poisonous snakes, all are in Australia. Five of its creatures - the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and the stone-fish are the most lethal of their types in the world. Here caterpillars give you a toxic nip, seashells actually go for you!!!
If I am not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, then I might be fatally chomped by crocodiles or sharks, carried off by irresistible currents or get lost in the out back. It is a tough place, but not to worry, I think I can handle it :)
3rd September -Sydney
Anyway as i said before leaving Asia was amazing and arriving in Sydney was even better. After arriving at our hostel supposedly to share a room with about 15 17 year old boys and then upgrading to a 6 person female dorm, we spent our first day in Sydney. We didn't want to do too much because we would be back in a month, so we just wandered around the rough area where we were staying, called Kings Cross, which is known for its red light district and druggies - nice!
We shopped desperately for much needed warm clothes, got our hair cut and Jenna got a tattoo. Then to celebrate being in Australia we decided to go out on the beer, unfortunately Kings Cross is not the place to go for a 'nice beer' and before long we were lured into a strip club. Wasn't too bad, lots of men were getting us free drinks, but a group of Chinese men did ask us when we were on! Before long we escaped to a near by bar, full of fellow backpackers!
4th September - Melbourne
After almost missing our flight we fortunately made it just as the check in desk was closing and off we went to Melbourne. We were all exhausted from our previous day so slept the whole journey. Once arriving in the tiny little airport Kat's uncle Arnie picked us up to take us back to their house. It look about an hour off into the country side we went. They really do live in the sticks, but it is beautiful. They live in a huge bungalow with their 19 year old son, dog, sheep and chickens and acres and acres of land. The family was incredibly accommodating and we all enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal, the first for over a year...it was very much appreciated. However it was bloody freezing Melbourne. We all slept with hoodies on, Kat and Jenna had an electric blanket and I clutched a hot water bottle all night long.
We had a fabulous few days in Melbourne. Planning our future trip along the East coast, booking hire cars, catching up with our blogging, doing washing, reading our books and helping out around the house and garden. Even though it was cold outside, the sun was always shining and it was perfect weather for wrapping up warm and going for lovely long walks.
Kat's Auntie Olwyn, one day, took us to Mount Macedon and Daylesford where we had the most fantastic view of the whole of Melbourne and even got chance to visit the famous and haunted 'Hanging Rock', doing a bit of shopping in cute little villages and using every opportunity to stop for cream teas or pop onto book shops.
Kat's Uncle Arnie took Kat and I on a bush walk to 'Sanatoriam Lake' in the search for Koalas. Instead we saw the hugest trees that I have ever seen and lots of interesting birds, it was all beautiful and I really enjoyed myself.
I had the most lovely time with Kat's family and we got the well earned rest we needed to push us on to the next adventure. I really enjoyed my long walks and was so excited to see so many Kangaroos(honestly they are everywhere like rabbits), Cockatoos and Kookaburras and also grateful to see an echidna, some alpacas (they just look like big lamas) and some beautiful red and blue Galah parrots.
Tomorrow we are leaving Kat's families lovely little place and moving on into central Melbourne to check out the city and do all of the touristy things.
An apology!
I would like to say a quick apology for being so far behind with my blog...again! Also for still not managing to get any pictures up. I can understand that this could make the read a little boring. Anyway I wanted to announce that I will endeavor to try and keep on top of my blog but It is going to have to be a lot less detailed, just brief notes when I do anything particularly fun, otherwise I will end up spending more time trying to find computer rooms than I do actually travelling and seeing things, not to mention the amount of money it costs me for the hours and hours I spend in these places.
So please excuse me and I hope that you can get the general gist and I will certainly give everyone a proper update when I eventually arrive home in February.
Bangkok
We have arrived back into civilisation, to Bangkok the land of lady-boys. I am still having the dilemma of if to say 'cop-coon cop' or 'cop-coon car' i.e to a male or a female, would they be offended either way? We stayed in a much busier part of town, there was a market at the top of our road and there was a large Tesco's just a short walk away too. I couldn't believe it, and was so excited to walk around. We spend most of the afternoon looking around the food court then into Tesco for some cheep wine and snacks, we were getting no hassle, it was fantastic. I was surprised at how much cooler the weather was too, it was actually really pleasant and I could even comfortably wear a cardigan or something in the evening. It is fantastic not to feel sweaty.
We spent the evening sat outside our room on our little balcony as the rain fell down (luckily there was a roof) playing cards. I am not really one for playing cards. I have played only a few times in my life and usually when I do I can never remember the rules for next time. Firstly we played 'Rummy', which I lost, Next was 'S**thead', which I actually won despite not knowing what I was really doing, finally we played 'Bulls**t': which was certainly my favourite as it requires no brain capacity and is fun despite how much disgusting red wine you drink! We crawled unto bunks at midnight, I could hardly contain my excitement that we would soon be in Australia.
30th August - Tescos
I awoke in our hot room, with back ache from the terribly uncomfortable lumpy beds and a head ache from too much crappy red wine and to top it off a stomach ache from too much junk food!
I spent the morning on the Internet soring out my renewal of my travel insurance, I have now been away for a year and my insurance was due to run out tomorrow, I was extremely tempted not to bother but I decided against it and forked out another couple of hundred quid for another 6 months cover. It would be sods law that If I hadn't I would break my leg or loose my backpack tomorrow (touch wood)
After that we made our way to the market. It was so much nicer than the ones we had been used to seeing in Cambodia and Vietnam, the food actually looked edible and fresh too. I could see no bugs, there was no suspicious looking raw meat mixed up with the fresh fruit and there was coverings to prevent flies. However the best thing about walking around this market was that no-one was staring at us or hassling us or even really noticed us, i t was fantastic, being in this multicultural society again. It will get me used to it before heading to Australia. I did love my time in Vietnam, but now i have left it behind me I do appreciate how communist it was. It is so strange still to be in Asia but to see normal things and western influences (not to say that is particularly a good thing!)
I then couldn't resist going back into Tescos to endevor to find replacements for my truly ruined tops. It was so cheap and everything was normal sizes. I can now throw out two that are stretched, stained and with holes in the seams. I felt a lot better so then went around round sampling loads of food..yum.
We enjoyed a cheep roadside meal of Duck and noodles for dinner, then we retired back to our hostel and Brian called. Again it is always lovely to catch up with him and I was excited to hear that he will soon be on his travels to Europe soon.
31st August - Siam Department store, Jim Thompsons and KhaoSan Road
We caught the 'sky-train' into the centre of Bangkok, before going to Jim Thompson's we got distracted by huge mall. It was the same one we sheltered from the rain in seven weeks ago, it seems like a lifetime ago, we have seen and done so much in the last seven weeks, but it strangely also just seemed like yesterday when we were plodding around all wet, excited for going to Cambodia and Vietnam. It was actually so cold inside with the air conditioning blasting out, so we weren't in there for long. It was all trendy designer shops, with many lady boys working in all the beauty places, they were so glamorous and many of them stunning, but for me it was still rather obvious that they were no ladies! I came away with nothing but a little torch so I can read at night when the hostel lights are off.
We eventually made it to Jim Thomson's later that afternoon. Basically for those of you that don't know his beautiful designer items, he was an American who devoted himself to reviving silk weaving. As I said he designed beautiful things such as bags, scarfs etc and did lots for Thai charities. We took a tour around his beautiful house, it was very tasteful with a strong Thai influence. It was also interesting to learn about his way of life and how he miraculously disappeared on day and was never heard of again.
Nearby was an art exhibition; displaying modern kitchen and house-ware, I also enjoyed looking round there too. By the time we had finished we were pretty hungry so headed off in search of the legendary Thanon Khao San.
When we arrived, it was certainly clear which street was KoaoSan. It was crazy, filled with sidewalks selling cheap things: from backpacks to fake designer goods, pseudo Rolex watches to ornaments. The streets were also lined with people getting tattoos, piercings, their hair braided and many thriving bars. I can't imagine that it is very good for all the drunk tourist youths I could see. I bet many of them go home with an unwanted tattoo or something. Then of course there was the sex industry, what the street is actually famous for. I actually found that it wasn't so in your face as I expected. I was actually OK for us being girls, we didn't get too much hassle. It was mainly focused on the men, with scantily clad women all over them trying to lure them into bars or off down dark alleys.
We managed to get away with out even seeing a sex-show, or ping-pong firing, instead coming away with only a cushion cover and necklace for a very good price. For dinner as we wandered up and down the street we chose a beef and vegetable skewer, a spring roll, some noodles and a chocolate and banana crepe. All together all this food cost us about a quid - fantastic! Despite my apprehension I had lost of fun on Khao San Road. I actually felt very safe despite all the drunkards and options we could have taken. I also remembered many of the smells of the food from when I was a child and came here with my parents all those years ago.
1st September - Goodbye Asia
We were our of our very uncomfortable beds bright and breezy, packed our bags and nipped back to the Siam centre for some food and also to hunt for warm clothes to take for Australia. We could find nothing but shorts and little tops, I guess there is no point in selling warm clothes in countries like this. Then off we went. I was jigging about in the taxi and really couldn't contain myself at check in. Seeing that I was in a queue saying 'Sydney' I just couldn't stop smiling and singing. I felt like I have wanted this for so long and it was finally happening! It wasn't just the fact that I have been in countries for over a year where people can hardly comprehend what I was saying and I am constantly being stared at, but also that I have wanted to go to Australia ever since I can remember and I know that my main food will no longer be RICE...yippee.
After checking our bags in, I skipped and jumped into duty free, where Kat and i tried on all the makeups and perfumes that we could get our hands, biding time until we were able to board. I said goodbye to Bangkok, but know I will be back again in three months then I settled down, trying to get my excitement under control. I was delighted to see those little TVs in the seat in front of each chair meaning that we could chose which movies we were going to watch. Needless to say I watched movies the whole way. First was 'Blades of glory", which was hilarious, then "Lucky miles" which was the sort of thing my mum would have loved about an Iraqi, a Cambodia and an Indonesian all trying to get residency in Australia. Maybe that will be me in a few months time. The next film was "Wild Hogs" about a group of grumpy middle aged men deciding to take off on a road trip on their Harleys. It was silly but pretty funny too. Finally the last film I chose was "Land of women", I decided that after all that testosterone I needed a girly film. It was good, but made me cry almost the whole way through. At 3am Asia time, 6am Australia time, I checked the flight schedule to find that we were actually flying over South Australia. I could see the sunrise, it was beautiful, just lighting up the country. After about a hour or so we begun to decent. After not a wink of sleep, I was more than ready to begin my first day in Australia.
When we landed I felt a little apprehensive seeing people out on the tarmac in fleeces, hats and jeans, but I was optimistic that would be due to the planes flying in and the time in the morning. Once we were let off the plane; my heart galloped with excitement with the realisation that the next stage of my journey was to begin. I became even more excited as i made my way through customs and withdrew my Aussie bright coloured dollars, and breathed in the fresh air and off we went into Australia.
Vietnam - Hanoi and Halong Bay
23rd August - Museum of Ethnology
We arrived in the city of the capital city of Hanoi actually feeling ok at 7am. This time it was Jenna’s turn to wait with the bags, Kat and I, neither of us with any sense of direction, set off in search of the hostels we had circled in our guide or other cheap accommodation that we happened to come across. Obviously the map we had was crap (nothing to do with us being bad map readers. he he), but somehow we managed to do ok.
After a little while we were approached by a touter, we were skeptical of course, but he was offering us a cheaper hotel than any of the crappy hostels we had been looking at so decided it was worth a shot. We both hopped on his bike, careful not to get exhaust burns on our legs (every other tourist we notice seems to have acquired one). The whole way Kat yelling "slow down" and "look at the road not at us", it was pretty funny, I just kept my eyes closed and hoped for a painless death! After enduring our hair razing journey, we arrived at the 'Queen Hotel’; it was very nice, only 2 pounds a night, with hot shower, included breakfast and free internet. Sometimes, i thought to myself, it is worth giving these people the benefit of a doubt. We headed back to Jen, collected our bags and all moved our bags in up the 1,000 steps to our room.
Once in our room, we couldn't resist a little nap, then freshened up and headed off to get some advice. The question of the day was: "Should we visit Halong Bay or Sapa?" Sadly we had left ourselves too little time to do both, because foolishly (but easily) spending an extra two days in Hoi An. Oh well a good excuse to come back one day I suppose!
At each agency we could help but be extremely skeptical. All they way up Vietnam we had heard so many horror stories or people being scammed: Not getting what they paid for, being dropped off in the middle of nowhere, boats loosing their bags, misplacing passports and countless others In the end we decided to go to the beautiful bay of Halong, for a three day boat trip. We actually booked through our hotel too, they were so confident we would get what we paid for, that we could pay when we got back! Seemed like a fair deal, so even us skeptical girls didn’t decline this!
Now, Hanoi has been inhabited for almost a millennium, it is the capital city. But the part I was most excited for was the fact that it is famous for its bakeries, delicious cakes and pastries, I hadn't seen a desert in so long, with my exceptionally sweet tooth and love to snack constantly, I knew my time here could be dangerous!
To make the most of our afternoon we decided to visit the 'Museum of Ethnology’, opened in 1989. Basically it is a valuable centre for the exhibition and the preservation of cultural heritages of this multi-ethnic country (54 ethnic groups in all). Apparently the Museum has collected 15,000 artifacts, 2,190 slides, 42,000 photographs, 237 audiotapes, 373 videotapes and 25 CD-ROMs. I wanted to come here in order to learn about the ethnic groups, their cultural diversity and the uniqueness of each group and region, as well as traditional values throughout Vietnam.
The Museum is divided into two parts: an indoor and an outdoor exhibition. The indoor part was composed of the exhibition building, office, research centre, library, storage, technical lab and auditorium. I really enjoyed it, and found it so interesting, For once it had lots of information that we could read or watch as part of a video clip (In ENGLISH), all about Vietnam’s history, ways of life, crafts, performances and all about ethnic groups and instruments. If only I could remember all I had learned, it was certainty interesting at the time.
The outdoor exhibition was apparently to highlight different types of houses in all parts of Vietnam. However we spent so long looking around the inside, we didn't have time to see the outside. It was raining anyway so I wasn't too bothered. However we did have time to visit the little gifs shop that they had there. It was beautiful and filled with reasonably priced souvenirs. Kat and I found a selection of water puppets to play with and I couldn't resist buying a myself a little red buffalo. It is strange, but will remind me of the brilliant time I had at the water puppet show. He is red, with interesting flowers on and gold leaf on his horns had a little bird perching on his back and when you pull his tail his head moves.
That evening we went for a wonder around the town; calling in at interesting shops and stalls along the way. Shortly two sweet little Vietnamese, street seller women approached us, one of the traditional tones, carrying the sticks with baskets attached, with fruit in. We had been warned about this scam, but before we knew it they had plonked the triangle hats on our heads and the stick across our shoulders. We took the opportunity to take a photo so didn't mind paying over price for a small bag of fruit. Oh well, the picture is pretty funny so I didn't mind too much. After that we found our way to quaint restaurant called the 'Bach Gilli' and all enjoyed a delicious Vietnamese meal.
24th August - Temple of Literature, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and my third male attack!
I woke up early , headed down for my free breakfast of a French stick and jam and then decided to make the most of the free internet, I actually spent morning on it, 'trying' to catch up with blog (I’m actually only a month behind now ..ha ha)
I got chatting to an Israeli boy on the computer next to me and before I knew it he had invited himself and his two friends along with us for the day. We found our way to the main street and hailed down motorbikes to the 'Temple of Literature'(Van Mieu) , which is Hanoi’s most revered temple complex. It was basically Vietnam’s first educational school for royal family members, and it was later opened to talented students as a university. My guide book informed me that it was built in 1070 in honor of Confucius.
When we entered through the huge and beautiful gate the first thing I set my eyes on was the huge pond, either side 82 stone stelae mounted on tortoises holding records and results of state examinations held at the national Academy between 1442-1779. We then passed through 'gate of success' into main temple building and impressive ceremonial hall, we amused our selves by pretending we were royal members, prancing around the halls or laying out as though we were animals on the sacrificial plaque pretending to be sacrificed. I know that is rather childish but to be honest we were getting a little sick of our highly questioning Israeli company, and hoped they would ‘want’ to move on with out us. Before we left we stopped off at the interesting souvenir shop, there were more water puppets for sale (none as nice as my buffalo) and I restrained myself from getting any more to add to the collection.
Unfortunately we couldn’t find a way to the rear or the building or the courtyards due to construction going on. (I was annoyed to find out that there was a way through that we hadn't seen, but by this time it was too late) Never the less we then headed off in our in search for ‘Fine Arts Museum. As we traipsed the streets with our hard to understand map we came across a café called, 'smile', it was much like the 'friends' restaurant that we had dined in, in Cambodia, whereby it takes underprivileged kids in off the street, giving them education and teaching them how to be marvelous chefs. I chose a delicious pasta dish, and a mini fresh fruit crumble for after....yum
Thankfully, after we had finished our ‘friends’ had decided to go off by themselves, so we went off to see some art. It was all held in a colonial style musty three-story block, which opened in 1966 after serving as a boardinghouse for French girls living in Indochina.
It showed the evolution of Vietnamese art, in a series of pretty well presented exhibits. It was easy to make our way around, most things were labeled in English (which is more than I can say for other art galleries I’ve been to) they were also in chronological order!
There was an impressive collection of Stone Age and Bronze Age artifacts on the third floor. Also there were examples of ceramics, silks, statues, silks, lacquer ware, paint, lino prints and all sorts, including the much seen fantastical bodhisattva with 1,000 eyes and arms, a 16th-century statue from the Hoi Ha Pagoda. There were also several stone statues and wooden sculptures lining the open-air hallways too.
Kat and Jen headed off for a leg wax, so I decided to go back to our hotel alone ( a decision which I later regretted). I gave the motorbike driver the address of the hotel and he nodded and off he sped. After driving around a very busy and congested area that I didn’t recognise he stopped and asked for directions. After about 10 more minutes of driving around in circles, he pointed to a random building and said “here it is”, and motioned for me to get off. “No”, I responded and showed him the address again. He nodded his head and we accelerated off again. By this time he was beginning to get frustrated, so turned to me and doubled the price we had originally agreed. I said no, and got off the bike, holding out a small sum of money. Again he demanded double to what we had agreed. I argued that it was his fault that he had got lost and that he still hadn’t even dropped me off at my hotel. He slapped away my money and continued to argue with me. By this point I could feel my blood boiling and put my money into my bag and begun to walk away. With this he swung for me, slapping then twisting my arm and reaching for my bag. I shouted in his face and continued to walk on. He then jumped off his bike and pulled my hair. I slapped him and begun to walk faster. He continued to follow me, but I was certainly giving him no money now, especially as I thought that he would probably steal my purse. There was Vietnamese on lookers all around me but no one came to my rescue, most people didn’t seem to batter an eyelid and some young Vietnamese men were actually laughing at the ‘entertainment’. To be honest I was petrified but was determined not to show it. Luckily, seconds later I turned round to see a middle aged Aussie couple. Hastily I approached them and quickly told them what was going on. Suddenly the motorbike driver backed off, turned nice as pie, saying “I know they way, get back on my bike”...no way!!! I stayed with the couple till he had gone then found my way back. I was surprised that the Aussie couple hadn’t walked back with me to be honest but I suppose they had their own day to get on with. I felt so shaky, and was relieved and close to tears, when I got back to my room and closed the door. In retrospect I should have just given him the money he was demanding, I know that when my safety is concerned I shouldn't be so stubborn, but they do take the piss sometimes!
Due to our huge lunch we didn’t go out for dinner that evening, instead Kat and I went for a wandered round (and a sneaky slice of cake). It seemed like ‘real Vietnam’ once the sun had gone down. There were motorbikes everywhere, the streets were so packed, it was crazy. I couldn’t believe how busy it was. There were no foreigners out where we were, just locals rushing about, women selling things and men getting drunk on every corner in all the little road side, makeshift drinking places. I really wanted a set of interesting soup/noodle bowls, with chopstick holders in them, but I just ended up just getting provisions for trip tomorrow. (I hope they sell these bowls when I come back into Asia in the New Year).
25th August - Halong Bay
Halong Bay itself is a body of water in North Vietnam, east of the capital, Hanoi. The bay consists of a dense cluster of limestone islands, covered in places with thick jungle. These islands of various sizes rise out of the ocean spectacularly and cover a vast area. Many of these islands are in fact hollow and allow visitors to explore some of their enormous caves…I couldn’t wait.
I awoke very early in the morning due to the crashes of thunder in our room. The rain was pounding down onto the metal roof and with each lightning strike the whole room was lighting up. I usually like thunder and lightening, but I must admit I was a little worried being on the top floor of a very high metal roofed building.
We had the usual French stick breakfast and hot tea in a glass and boarded the mini bus. There was the usual issue of there being no room, but luckily the hotel had given us the opportunity to leave our big bags there so we had more room than others, I still had to have my knees wedged into the seat in front all the way though.
Along the way we stopped off at a workshop, where we could look at all the crafts they were selling and grab a drink. I restrained myself from buying an embroidery picture.
Over four hours later we arrived at Halong city. A group of about 15 of us was shown to our ‘luxury junk’, it was a very impressive looking boat, and just like the pictures. It was the only one with sails up. It was beautiful, we had a huge deck wit sun loungers and tables and chairs, a large restaurant and lovely little cabins with our own bathrooms. It was so posh; again I felt out of place in my stretched baggy top and dirty scruffy shorts and flip flops.
We set off out across the waves, shortly a huge lunch was served. There was so much. It was delicious too. I had copious amounts of various meats in sauces, mixed vegetables and so much fresh sea food…I could get used to this!
First on the agenda was ‘Sungsot cave’, so we all dragged our very full bodies off the boat up hundreds of steps to go and explore. There was a huge opening and once inside there were hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites all lit up in beautiful colours by strategically placed spot lights. We spotted a rock that looked like a turtle and another one that was shaped like a lions head. Apparently these animals guard the cave and keep out evil spirits so I felt quite safe, once out of the cave, I noticed what an amazing view it was from up there. (I think I had been too full to notice on the way up) We could see right across the bay, spotting our beautiful boat and the vast sea all around, as I breathed in the air from the China Sea, we begun our walk back to the boat.
Shortly afterwards we got taken to a dock that was covered with kayaks. Straight away I was so excited, remembering my “Camp Walden’ days and a canoe instructor in America. Kat and I got handed our rater large and smelling of mildew, life jackets and were shown to our Kayak. It was fun and so beautiful and we paddled through the still waters. The whole place was surrounded by mountainous rocks. I kept thinking that it looked like the perfect setting for a movie, however thankfully that would never be allowed because of the place being a national park. In no time at all mine and Kats skinny weak arms were feeling the aching of doing some work. I thought I would be stringer after lugging my bag around for the past three months, but obviously not. My favourite place was going under a rock called ‘Luon’, We could hear everyone’s conversations as they passed through. When we realized that our voices echoed, we couldn’t help ourselves shouting random phrases that we knew in different languages, making no sense at all to anybody who heard us who actually spoke the chosen language no doubt. We had a well earned break in little alcove then it was time to head back, I was relieved by the time we got back, I could really feel the lactic acid build up in my weak, pathetic arms!
Once everyone was back on the boat we were off again, we anchored just off ‘Titou Island’ with the invitation to go swimming, it was much later than planned and the sun was beginning to set in the sky and most people declined, but I couldn’t resist. We jumped off second level of our huge boat; it was so high (at least 10 feet). I soon regretted my choice to jump when I hit the water and my bikini top came off and wrapped around my head, I bit my lip and made it bleed and went so far down, I was actually worried I wouldn’t make it back up. Once I had sorted myself out and caught my breath I began to swim. The current was so strong current could believe how hard we had to swim, literally if you stopped for a second you would be half a mile away from the boat so you had to swim with all your mite. My poor, aching arms.
We got out just in time to watch the sun disappear over the horizon, it was a beautiful sunset of red, orange and pink; the sea was rippling in gold. We were all handed a fresh, tropical fruit platter and then headed in one it was dark for a nice shower.
Dinner that evening was much like lunch, lots of sea food and different meat dishes mixed with vegetables, noodles and rice. Again I ate so much; helping yourself is not good for the figure. I just didn’t know when to stop, but I guess I was hungry all that walking, kayaking and swimming. (if I say so)
We spent that night on the top deck to chat and appreciate surroundings. There was no breeze, so was very hot, but was so beautiful. The moon and stars were shining so brightly that they lit up all of the water; it was like we were on a sparkling glittery carpet. When I looked across the bay I could see a few other boats in the distance, with there little twinkling lights, but couldn’t hear a thing. It was so tranquil and peaceful, it was pure luxury. I spent most of the evening with another older English couple, called Sally and John-Paul who had sold up their house to come away for a year. Maybe that is what I would have done if I hadn’t done all this now. Later we were joined by an Irish couple, another English couple, an Australian and a Canadian guy to all drink vodka and coke long into the night. Retired to my cabin alone, it was extremely strange; it is the first time that I had been in a room alone to sleep in a year. I actually felt afraid; I was convincing myself I could here strange noises, oh that vivid imagination of mine!
26th August – ‘Thein Long Cave’, ‘Monkey Island’ and a night on ‘Cat Ba’.
I woke up early, after just a few hours in bed. I could hear people above me preparing breakfast. I was up and out in minutes and wandered up to the deck; I was glad to experience a magical special or the early morning mist, like nothing I had ever seen. By 7.30 more people had joined me and we all headed down to the dining room for cold fried eggs. By 8am we were on the move again. I headed back up to the top deck to read, however, it begun to rain before long so back inside for me.
Around 9am after a very bumpy bus ride from the bay we arrived at ‘Thein Long Cave’. It was amazing. It was actually glittery inside; it was like the walls were covered in diamonds. Maybe they were! Our guide was a small boy who leapt around the cave like a little animal. I couldn’t understand how he did it. The ground and walls were so slippery, it was hard enough for us to even walk, slowly and clinging to the walls. The best part was the opportunity to play the stalactites and stalagmites with a stone, it actually sounded really good and it echoed all around the cave for all to hear.
We all enjoyed a delicious lunch and then back on the boat to monkey Island. Basically it is a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, inhabited only by monkeys. As we hopped off the boat onto Monkey Island's beach, I was glad to see that there was just a few other people there and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Before long we noticed what looked liked a family of monkey's in the trees. We had been told to be careful as they can often scratch and bite. One tourist got a bit too close and ended up running for cover from the largest dominant monkey as I and most of the other people laughed, other people were getting their lunches stolen, the English couple from our boat was threw them the leftovers of their coconuts, which they un-timidly waltzed down the trees to collect, bearing their teeth and letting us know that this food was now theirs. I got pretty close, but I must admit I certainly didn’t want to pet these little ‘cuties’.
I was so excited for our hike that we were supposed to have that afternoon, but when we got there basically our tour guide said it was too hot, not many people could be bothered and the guide and put everyone else off by stating how dangerous it was. It didn’t however put Jenna and I off. We got shown the way and off we headed.
Now dangerous was certainly an understatement, this climb was lethal. We had to climb up shear rock face and scramble on jagged volcanic looking rock, they were so hot and sharp, we needed our hands for support but when we placed our hands on the sharp red hot rocks it was extremely painful. Again, i was wearing my flip-flops, I don’t know why I am never prepared for things like this, I should be aware by now that my trainers (however hideous) would be useful for days like this. The whole way up I was also a little nervous that a monkey would come scampering out to attack me beads of sweat dipped from my head on to the leaves below, from both fear and the stifling 40 degree heat, with 95 percent humidity! I could hear my heart beating faster and faster, I was sure a surprise attack was imminent. I was listening intently for any monkey noises or rustling from the bushes, I was on high alert, poised but also aware that I could easily slip to my death. (or a painful scrape at least. he he)
One we reached the top, we were drenched in sweat but it was well worth it, the view was astounding, we could see people swimming, I even spotted Kat sunning herself on the beach. We could also see the islands on the other side, our beautiful boat and the amazing jungle all around. We stood for a while, taking in the views while Eagles circled above the cliffs on the island presumably searching for some afternoon dinner, before we became desperate to get in the sea and headed back down. It seemed even harded getting back down, it took a while and we both had a few bumps, scrapes and burned hands and feet by the time we reached the bottom. As soon as our feet hit the sand we stripped off and ran into the lovely cool water. It was amazing and cooled our bodies swiftly. We were still feeling adventurous so passed all the other swimmers and went out quite far. The best part was lying on our backs relaxing in the cool water with the warm sun on our faces and schools of fish leaping over us. It sounds like something that only happens in books and movies, but it is true, flying fish jumped over us numerous times. It was magical.
That evening we all settled into a Hotel on ‘Cat Ba Island’. The island encompasses a forested zone, costal mangrove, freshwater swamps, beaches, caves and water falls. In 1986 the North East side was designated as a national park (as I said before), apparently it consists of 350 limestone outcrops adjacent to Halong.
I took my third shower of the day, then met everyone for dinner on roof. Again it was the usual spread and I again made a bit of a pig of myself. We then a walk around the rather tacky looking town, There were tights all the way down the water front, they looked to me like Christmas lights, and seemed a little odd. There was absoulutely no breeze so before long we headed back to our air conditioned rooms to relax after another very long day.
27th August - Back from Halong Bay.
Having air conditioning is novelty so Jenna and I decided to make the most of it. Putting it on full blast. However I woke up freezing, I hadn’t wanted to turn it off so during the night I had actually got up and put on my anorak and wrapped my sarong around my head. We had both felt the same so were happy to turn it off and open the windows to let some warmth in. We then rushed upstairs for the bit of breakfast, I found myself a cream caramel, some fresh fruit, one piece of bread (only the crust had been left) and some pancakes. I was delighted that there was some food left and even more happy that it wasn’t just Vietnamese style of soup and rice. Even after almost a year in Asia, it still makes my stomach turn thinking of eating this sort of thing for breakfast..
We all got back on the boat, unfortunately it was raining so we couldn’t, spend our last journey sitting on the deck. I was very glad that the rain had waited until then though. I just sat inside, wrote some postcards at last and opted out of swimming in the rain. We went to a hotel for lunch, I actually feel a little sick of the same foods after three days of it. I know that I mush have put on weight after being such a pig. I couldn’t actually eat very much though as it was only 11.30am, I was still full from breakfast; I have been constantly full on this trip. I won’t eat for a week now….maybe!
The three hour journey back to Hanoi, I had the usual complaints, my knees jammed into the seat in front, the roads extremely bumpy and I actually got rope burn from sticking to plastic seats, and with each jolt and swing got ripped off the seat again...just gets better and better doesn't it? However I can't let the journey taint what a wonderful time I had. Halong bay was the perfect antidote after too much time in cities. It was definitely a rewarding three days where I spend my time indulging on far too much food and travelling through the thousands of whimsically sculptured islands anchored in the aquamarine waters! Beautiful.
Once we got back, Kat and I went book hunting, we found a few good second hand places, there is always these sorts of things where tourists go, which is good for me because I can sell off all my read books and with the money I got I could have another for free! We had Planned to go to the circus that evening too, but alas after trapsing across the city to get there it was closed. So we just headed back to our guest house for an early night and a good chance for me to start my new book.
28th August - Ho Chi Mins Mausoleum and presidential palace
Up early to attempt to miss the queues in order to pay respects to the late Ho Chi Min, otherwise known to the Vietnamese as 'Uncle Ho'.
When we arrived in 'Ba Dinh' square; the same place that they read the decoration of independence on 2nd of September 1945, we were met by hugest line ever. It reminded me or when we went to the Imperial palace in Japan for the emperors speech. Apparently the line is this long every day of the year here!!
The Mausoleum was pretty big, infront of the building was a Vietnam flag, and surrounded by the snaking queue as the people weaved among the rare ornamental trees and flowers planted to represent the different regions throughout Vietnam. Once joining the queue, we got our bags and cameras taken but I was pleased at how fast it moved, within an hour were inside the building getting pushed and barged by guards with what looked like harpoon guns.
Inside everyone moved very quickly, probably because there were no cameras, so people weren't faffing about trying to take the perfect shot. Once I looked inside his glass coffin I was surprised at how much he looked like a wax work. But I suppose he had died in 1969, and he must have been coved in something pretty wax-like to preserve him. (Not very nice to think about, yuck)
Once we were hurried out we went to look round his house, it was actually kept how it was found. Through glass doors we got to see his work room and bedroom in his little house on stilts.
The Palace used to be known as 'Indochina's General Government Palace'. However when 'uncle Ho' lived and worked there from 1954-1968 it changed to 'Ho Chi Mins Mausoleum and presidential palace'. Everyone loved and respected him very much, he seemed to be a good man, doing lots of good for the poor and to generally help Vietnam the best he could.
The day was good, there wasn't many tourists, so Jenna and i with our fair hair probably turned out to be the main attraction. School groups were asking for photos and a group of girl actually followed Jenna stroking her hair for most of the way around the gardens. This is what it must be like to be celbrities.
We spent all afternoon relaxing and blogging. Then Jen and I spent last few pennies on some pasta dinner, I phoned Brian then back to pack. I was so excited I could hardly sleep that night...We are going back to civilisation!
29th August - goodbye Vietnam.
Goodbye, land of bomb craters, shimmering paddy fields, sugar white beaches, beautiful cities, vulnerable yet overwhelming pagodas. Also to cyclos and hustle and bustle of the markets and crazy roads.
I have had so much fun as we travelled up the long thin strip of coast hemmed by rugged mountains, passing coical hatted farmers with their buffalo along the way. Sometimes I found it so hard to describe the beauty i saw, words simply couldn't describe. I loved the Mekong, the delightful sand dunes of Muni, shopping in Hoian and the watter puppets. I will always remember the fantastic architecture and classic landscapes and good food, but the horrendous traffic, sometimes rude people and the women in pj's all day long! It is a shame that we couldn't get to Sapa with its traditional hill tribe villages and amazing landscapes that I saw in the pictures, but, as I said...next time!
Anyhow I hope that you get the gist and can make the most of my appallingly written and rushed blog. Today, apart from saying goodbye was reasonably uneventful, we got a taxi to airport with a couple of English boys that I had got chatting to yesterday (we spontaneously meet up with these guys later too). The flight was nice, usual we slept most of the way and were over whelmed when we got to Bangkok airport to find a BOOTS, we all stocked up on the products we missed then made our way to our hostel!
Vietnam - Hoi An
15th- 18th August - Shopping, shopping and more shopping!
I was glad to finish our horrendus journey at 6.30am and feeling utterly knackered we hunted for a place to stay. After about two hours we found a nice place (as usual on the top floor) for only 2 pounds a night, an we all actually hav our own beds, which is really novilty, so we decided to settle there. We headed for breakfast then went for a much needed nap. Freshened up in our bathroom with no door and headed out in to the famous Hoi An.
The town was small and quite peaceful. There were lots of motorbikes, but not as many as usual. It really is a shoppers haven, with the wurring and 'clackerty-clack' of sewing machines resounding through the place. Fabrics were piled high in every shorp. Chord, silk, cotton, leather and every other material you could think of. We were soon lured into shops filled with tailor made garments. Magazines and catologues wer thrust under our noses, with the option of choosing what ever we wanted.
I had never seen anything like it, I couldnt see any time in the forseeable future to have this oppurtunity again for such a cheap price so I decided to treat myself. The shop owners stripped us off in the middle of the shop (leaving us with no dignity) and measured evry length and angle of our bodies. By the end for these four days I came away with:
-A pair of smart cream trowsers, with a silk brown wasteband
-A pair of brown casual trowsers
-A green and white summer dress
- A short brown flowey summer dress
- A long multi coloured evening dress
and - a smart silk green dress.
Now this seems like a hell of alot of clothes, and I do feel like I went a bit crazy but the total cost was only came to about 50 pounds, and to have all those tailor made clothes now and I certainly won't need to go dress shopping any time soon. To make me feel better I only got 6 items, but Kat 10 got items and Jenna got a whopping 18. I can safely say that we wont be going shopping again any time soon. Going for fittings and re fittings and more clothes being shown to me, I was actually sick of the sight of clothes by the time we left. We didn't intend to, but we actually got stuck here for five days (even though we had only scheduled to stay for two or three). Other than shopping the only other things we did was, eat, sleep, visit a cute little market, party with free rum and cokes all night in the King Kong bar, but we did manage to fit in one other trip:
19th August - My Son Sanctuary.
I was actually excited to not be shopping when we woke up at 4am. We had booked a 'sun rise' tour, so went outside our hotel to wait for our bus at 4.45, unfortunately the bus didn't pick us up until 5.25, by which time the sun had already started to rise. We felt a bit dissappointed as in the booking office we had been told that we would 'enjoy breakfast while overlooking the Champa Kingdom'. We all got handed a dry cheese and tomato baguette to eat on our cramped mini bus, then took n hour bus journey to get to the 'My Son' sancuary. What a con - 'sunrise tour' - my ass!
Top be honest, it was nice to get away from the shops but there was not really much to write home about. My Son towers are basically all that remains of the onece powerful Champa Kingdom. It was built in the 4th Centuary, but most of it had been distroyed by bombs, the weather and time. Our guide informed us that the ancient champa people were rased to be 'masters of art in building brick', this I could certainly see. There was lots of amazing brickwork and interesting sandstone heads, but that was about it. My favourite part was the beautiful mountain in the distance, that was apparently where hindu gods hide. I would have liked to go walking up there to be honest.
I didn't like our guide, he was always hurrying us on, and telling us what to do, before long we 'accidently' lost him, and had a quiet wander around by ourselves, and spent about 20 minutes filming the tough sensitive Mimosa plants. We found that the speed of the response depended on the magnitude of the stimulus. When we touched the leaf with our finger closed up in the blink of an eye whereas a gentle touch or blow to the tip of a leaf resulted in a slower response. It was very interesting and much better than following our guide around.
We went back to Hoi An, got our last few items of clothing, packed up our (now bulging) bags and boarded another hot bus to Hue. We spent the whole journey, looking out of the window at beautiful coast lines, as we went along hairpin bends, and chatting to some people that we had met in the Hong Kong bar a couple of nights before. The journey actually went very quickly. We had Pizza for dinner and quicklt found a place to stay in the new part of the city.
Vietnam - Nha Trang
13th August - A round boat, Ba Ho waterfalls, Cham towers and two big white Buddha's.
When we got in last night we had darted into the travel agents (that we had found in our guide book), booked a tour for today and swiftly checked into the cheapest guest house we could find in order to get a good nights sleep.
We had a bit of a lye-in, until about 8am, then found ourself a western style cafe which offered 'English Breakfasts', we thought that it would give us the perfect start to our day, little did we realise, our bodies are no longer used to western food. We couldn't even eat half of it and all that meat and grease actually made us feel sick. (Remind me of this when I am eating fry ups every weekend when I am back home). I couldn't believe it, I should stick to noodles, rice and French bread. We arrived at the travel agents at around nine clutching our full stomachs and got in to the car with our very strange Danish Tour guide. He actually seemed quite drunk, so I was relieved that he wasn't the one driving. Again, it was just us three on the trip. We had had such a fantastic time on our private trip in Mui Ne, and such a crappy one when there was 45 of us on the Mekong Delta, we decided to pay just a little bit more to go it alone.
Anyway, with great speed we headed off on our trip. Firstly we stopped off at the our Danish guys friends house: A very friendly Austrian guy. He gave us some green tea with lime and then we went out on a 'round boat' with his wifes oldest son. Basically these boats are traditionally used in south Vietnam for fishing, or to transport yourself to the bigger boats. It was more like a large round wicker basket than a boat, and the whole time we had to scoop out all the water that was coming in to avoid sinking. It was pretty hard to move, but with Kat and I each side with a paddle each we actually got pretty far out. Not many people get the opportunity to ride in one of those I thought to myself. Once we got back to land the Austrian guy gave us a guided tour of his house. It was huge and so lovely and open. He had four floors and from the roof was the most amazing view of the bay and his own private beach. I couldn't help but as him how he could afford all of this, he replied saying that it was incredibly cheap and with the money he spent on his house and his boat he could have barely bought a small flat. Now he said that he just comfortable lives on his Austrian pension. What a life huh. I wouldn't mind retiring out here one day.
We all got back in the car and headed off in the direction of 'BaHo Waterfalls', along the way we stopped off at 'Phu Huu' village to pick a few lovely bright pink, ripe dragon fruits. the Danish guide and the driver then dropped us off, showed us the direction to walk and said that we could meet them back there in a couple of hours. It was quite nice to go off on our own actually and not have to worry about trying to make polite conversation. Now the guide had made out that this was a 'nice little walk', but he had certainly never done it because, it was crazy. Well it started off ok, semi-paths, and small rocks to clamber over, but the further we got the harder it got. Every time we passed a water pool we wanted to stop for a swim, but were determined to get to the top. After what seemed like hours of heaving and clambering, I had to take off my flip-flops (not designed for climbing sheer rock face) The rocks were burning under my feet as i clambered and scrambled over boulders, wedging myself up between two rocks and heaving my body up onto any ledge I could find. It really was incredibly difficult.
By the time we got to the top, wit in seconds we had stripped off and immersed ourselves into the cool water pools, bathing our poor blistered scraped feet. Once we had cooled off we reaised how far and how high we had actually climbed. The view was amazing. There was no one around at all it was like we had the whole place, the whole mountain to ourselves. As we say in the pools with the beautiful backdrops, with trees and the bright blue sky, then the waterfalls I felt like we should be in some kind of 'herbal Essences' advert. Until now I didn't actually believe that places like this existed. I lay back simply amazed at where I was.
Before long, our two hours was almost up and we had to quickly make our way back down. This seemed even more dificult than climbing up. My feet were so sore that I had to wear my flip flops, but every time I stretched my leg down for the next rocky ledge, it would fall off my foot. Kat actually lost one of hers at one point, it fell down between two rocks and it was a bit of a mission to get it back. We were a bit late meeting our guide, but all was well and we headed off to our next destination.
After about twenty minutes we arrived at 'Po Nagar Cham Towers', they were built in the seventh Century, and actually took five century's to make. The Danish guy told us that they were originally built for Hindu worship, but now used for Mahayana Buddhists. The grounds had been used from as far back as the second century. Originally there were eight towers, covering 500 meters squared, but now only for or the towers were remaining along with the last bits of ten pillars leading up the staircase to the towers.
Thee place was swarming with local Vietnamese worshipers burning incense, praying and giving offerings to the gods. I tried to go inside one of the towers but my lungs immediately filled with smoke, and I fell out of this quiet place of worship coughing and spluttering.
We were right in the center of Nha Trang by this point so our guide offered to take us to meet his 'friends', who lived along the Mekong River, under the main bridge that leads into the city. I believe they called the fishing village next to it 'Dam'. I couldn't believe that people actually lived under this bridge, they had a whole community, all their beds made up, makeshift kitchens, even a little area with tables, where they served drinks to passing fishermen. Our guide insisted that these people simply trying to get on with their daily lives were his friends and told us that "They love it when I bring people down here", I didn't quite believe him though, because not one of them even acknowledged him and I didn't see anyone smiling at us either. It was rather awkward, but before to long he got the hint and we all moved on, passed all the fisherman and more fish drying in the dun (this time with chillies sprinkled on them too), back to our car.
The final stop of the day was 'Long Son Pagoda', it was very impressive, you can see it up high from pretty much all over the city. Half way up, behind the colourful pagoda, decorated with dragons, we marveled at the huge 'White Reclining Buddha', we also had the opportunity to actually sit inside a huge bell as it was struck, it was a very strange experience, it was loud but sort of dim too, inside the bell were prayers and Vietnameese writings.
Once we had climbed up the 152 large stone steps (with legs still in pain from this morning) we could look down on the whole of Nha Trang. Up here was another Buddha, this one was 30 feet high, sitting on a lotus pedestal. This huge Buddha is the one that I definitely recognise from my guide book most typical of the postcards you see around of Nha Trang. Behind this Buddha there was an entrance whereby you could actually go inside the Buddha to pray. Behind was a memorial site dedicated to the Buddhist monks who died protesting against the US supported Diem regime. On the way down I bought a nice cold fresh coconut to drink then we all headed back to the travel agents.
We all felt exhausted, but that we had had a very good day. It was nice because the trip was personally tailored to us, basically we had looked on the internet and in our guide book and along with a little of his advice we went exactly where we wanted. We literally paid about twenty quid for the hire of our guide, a car and its driver for the day. It was definitely an action packed day!
That evening we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Cyclo cafe, the decor was beautiful. We then went for a few drinks then headed off to bed.
14th August - Mud Baths and hot springs.
Today we had planned to go and visit a museum where Lewi Pasteur had one worked, to be shown how they still produce vaccines today, and then go and visit one of the local markets, but lethargy and aching legs got the most of us so we instead decided to set off to spend the day at 'Thap Ba Hot Spring Center'. I was so glad that we did.
The place was quite far out, but when we got there it was beautiful. Quite literally in the middle of nowhere. WE got changed into our bikinis and got shown to our own tub (it was about the size of a four man jacuzzi). we took a seat then the tub slowly got fulled with warm sloppy mud. It was almost green in colour and it actually smelt of weed. As the tub filled up to our necks it was so hard to stop yourself from slipping and sliding about. Once your hands were covered you could no longer wipe your mouth or mud that splashed into your eyes. We just lay there squirming about in the mud. All of a sudden a photographer came along and persuaded us to use some coconut shells to poor the mud over our faces for a picture. Of course we did, it was pretty fun actually. After about 20 minutes of soaking, and massaging each other in this mud that was supposed to be rich in sodium , silicate carbonate and other micro-elements that were supposed to be good for our skin and stimulate nerves etc, we got out looking and feeling like swamp monsters.
We were then to sit and 'dry' in the sun. I couldn't stop laughing, the other two looked ridiculous, absolutely COVERED from head to toe, (as I am sure I did too). Next we all took a fresh water shower to remove all the dead skin cells, then we plunged into some 40 degree salty mineral pools. It smelt really funny, apparently the minerals were from 100 meters deep and were meant to deposit all these special elements into our open pores and anti-stress us. It did feel good, but was bloody hot, our whole bodies were bright pink and it actually discoloured all of my silver jewelry within seconds :(
The next stage was 'High Pressure Jets', where we walked through a little passage way with water blasting through giving us a water massage. Once this was over it was time to move onto the swimming pools and waterfalls. It was pretty strange as the swimming pool was actually a fresh water pool and was 38 degrees, needless to say I didn't do much swimming. After a couple of hours we decided that we better go, we got dressed and left smelling of salt and weed and headed back into Nha Trang.
We collected our backpacks from our hostel and went out for some food, I had the most delicious bowl of pasta with mixed seafood in a creamy basil sauce. It was the best meal I had had in ages. We then boarded our bus bound for 'Hoi An'. It was actually a local bus, and was filled with Vietnamese people. The first half of the bus was filled with boxes of hideous statues, so we all had to quash up near the back. It was very hot back there, and I could see that I wasn't going to get much sleep. It was a horrible journey. Thankfully I could open my window to get a little air, but it was still very hot and I kept having to peel my body from the sticky, sweaty plastic seat. There was a family of Vietnamese people who were playing music from their mobiles really loudly. It was dark so I couldn't look out of the windows and all of the lights on the bus were switched off so I couldn't even read my book. Every time we tried to dose off a loud honk would wake us up or a Vietnamese foot would come poking through the gap in my seat.
After we stopped off at a very grim rest stop, apparently one man decided that he didn't want mosquitos getting in and that we had to close all the windows, All the Vietnamese obayed, but when he came to my seat. I tried to explain that I was too hot. He was having none of it and leant over me and closed my window. With that my already hot blood began to boil. I pulled the window open again, the he slammed it closed. This went on for a few minutes before he started hitting my arms. Then scratched me with his long nails. With this I was livid, yelling from the top of my lugs for him to 'get away from me' and I must admit a few swear words popped out. My scratch was actually bleading, but before long he went back to his seat and the bus set off. To be honest I should have just done what he said. You never know how crazy these people can be and I could have got chucked off the bus in the middle of nowhere. I just think he couldn't understand how hot us westerners get. I hope he got bitten by a lot of mosquitos.
Vietnam - Mui Ne
11th August - A relaxing day in the SUN (well almost)!
We awoke in our nice cool clean room, and headed off for breakfast. Kat opted for a 'bean and cheese' toasty. Beans here are clearly 'green peas' in Salsa, not what she expected. That is the problem with ordering western foods in countries like this. Often things are quite literally 'lost in translation'.
The Monsoon doesn't seem to have affected this part of Vietnam, we were delighted to see no rain, but apparently Mui Ne is known to be the driest area,(it actually “sheltered peninsula” in Vietnamese) We couldn't resist a day on the beach.It was the most beautiful tropical beach, lined with groves of swaying palm trees.
Most of the day it was pretty overcast, but never the less, we spent our day relaxing, reading our books, swimming in the sea and playing with the guest houses lovely dog and her four beautiful puppies. That evening we went out for a rather expensive meal, it seems that this touristy area can up its prices, and we also bumped into three Italians that were on the Mekong Delta trip. That always seem to happen, we kept bumping into people we had met before on our travels.
12th August - Sand dunes, canyons and a Fairy Stream.
We were up very early to meet our personal driver in his open top 4x4 jeep and were headed off down highway one by 6am. Along the way there were fantastic views of the Pacific Ocean to our right, tall mountains to our left,fields of huge shrine like gravestones. We also spent a lot of time dodging herds and herds of animals including,cows, sheep, goats and of course water buffalo ,that were moving fields.
The first stop was the 'Hon Rom' White Sand Dunes, It was amazing, so vast, like a Saharan-style deasart, and had a beautiful lake at the foot of it filled with lotus flowers. It was surreal walking up these sand dunes as the day began seeing nothing but sand. Two little boys approached us; firstly introducing us to their interesting pets, such as puppies, monkeys, iguans, racoons and porcipines. Then they handed us a thin piece of blue plastic with string threaded through the top, offering them to us for a small price so that we could try 'sand stedging'. Of course we took up the offer. We walked as far as we could then sledged back down. It was hard to get speed at first but once you got going it was pretty funn, apart from the fact that the sand went EVERYWHERE...(I was still getting it out of my shorts pockets weeks later) The walk back up each time was pretty exhausting, with each step you took it seemed you slipped a third of the way back down again, so after about four turns, we gave the boys back their sledges and decided to move on before the sun got too hot.
Our driver was waiting for us and we then sped off to the Red canyons. They too were amazing. They were made entirely of hard sand that didn't crumble under foot. A little girl greeted us at the beginning to show us the way, but near the top she had to go back down, by this time the sun had climbed its way through the sky and reached its zenith so it was stiflingly hot. Kat decided to go back down and find some shade but Jenna and I were desperate to reach the top. I am glad that we did,were able to walk up amongst the ridges and grooves of the ridge to view the incredible appearance and colours of this natural phenomenon. There, no one hassled us trying to be a tour guide or offering a service to take our money, and it was very nice to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the spot. The views from up there were amazing. We could see so far, surrounded by these red sand mountains, with sand dunes in the distance and the sea to the other side, it was breath taking. If only it wasn't so hot, we could have stayed there a little longer.
The next place we visited was the Pink Sand Dunes, by this time it was becoming more busy and touristy. It was much better earlier in the day, when it was cooler and before the crowds, but I still enjoyed the sand dunes. As we climbed these ones, every time our foot slipped off our flip-flops the sand beneath us burned our feet, before to long we gave up and decided to visit a fishing village that we could see in the distance. When we got back to our driver, he said the fishing village that we must have seen would have been 'Muine Port'. My Dad would have absolutely loved it, the place was huge and full with local people hopping on and off their boats, men bringing in nets and women drying out millions and millions of little fish in the sun. To be honest the place stunk to high heaven, but it was an amazing place, and fun to see all these people getting on with their lives, not even noticing us three western girls paddling in the sea and taking photographs.
On the way back to our hostel our driver advised us that we should take a walk up 'The Fairy Stream' we started walking along the bed of this which led to a waterfall and had colourful sand banks along the sides. The water was really shallow and we walked along the stream in water for just over 1 km. A group of kids offered to be our “tour guides” as we walked towards the waterfall, but as the water was only 2-4 inches deep at the start of the stream, we declined their offer – we knew that they would ask for money for this service, and didn’t want to disappoint them or listen to them try to guilt us into not paying them anything when we got to the end of the stream. When we explained that we would not be handing out any cash to anyone, most of the kids left to haggle money out of other tourists, but three continued on, informing us that the water was very deep in places, and that we needed him to guide us away from the treacherous deep areas ( I doubt it). In the end after we told the boys, who looked at us with big sad eyes, that we had no money to pay them (which was actually true, we had left it all behind), I felt bad, but was relieved when they reluctantly departed our company.
As the sun begun to set in the sky we came back to our hostel, had a quick swim and shower then packed up and got on the night bus in the direction of 'Nha Trang'.
I think I can safely say that this has been one of my favourite days so far. I absolutely loved it, the sun was shining, everything was beautiful and I really enjoyed myself.
Vietnam - The Mekong Delta.
8th August - DAY 1: Honey tea, narrowboats and coconut candy.
Today is our trip up the mekong Delta, I am so excited. It is the extensive artery of waterways provided by the Mekong River. Home of the Rice Paddies and house boats. After too many days in the city I am excited to be going where I can get some fresh air and no Motorbikes.
However the day didn't start off too well, a few arguments, rushing about and Kat somehow managed to lose our Kitty purse (the money we bugeted for food and accomodation) Never the less we made it to the bus on time. To find FOURTY FIVE people boarding. We had been assured that our group would exceed 15, some might say 'the more the merrier' But I can just imagine trudling around with all these people tre anoying, I don't like being rushed along, told what to do and where to go and not even being able to hear the guide. Well we will see.
The first stop was to try Honny tea. It was already raining so we trudged accross the fields to a quaint little farm withtheir own bees and cumquats. We were greated by a huge snake, I think it was a bower constricter. He was in a small wooden box, and when we arrived he was passed from person to person to be grabbed and gosstled with for a photograph. I felt so sorry for him. Anywya, the tea was actually delicous and really refreshing. I bought some crunchy honney and peanut brittle too.
By this time it was lunch time, so we stopped off for some noodles and a large selection of fresh fruit. The only thing I hadn't tasted before was a bunch of little things that tasted a little like lychees, called 'Ramtans', they were very nice and noone else on my lable liked them so filled my bag withthe remainder of them. After lunch we say and enjoyed some traditional Vietnamese music. It was certainly anaquired taste, much like two cats fighting or somone scratching their nails down a black board. The band was called 'Am Dieu tue Huong' and they played four instruments that I had never seen before. They were: The 'full moon instrument'. the 'five string guitar'(that looked nothing like a guitar), a 'stalk gunner' and a 'som warn'. The female singer was beautiful but I must say I was delighted when she had finished.
Next on the agenda was a narrow boat down a small bit of the river. It was still raining, but we were provided with traditional hats and off we went. It was pretty fun, slipping throught the magroves and all the trees. The people who manoved our boat however were rather rude in the way they kept hinting for 'tip money' all they way down. I guess that is now they make their money though.
The next stop of the day was my favourite place 'Ho Chau' where they were making coconut candies. They showed us how thay were made using fresh coconut, nuts, tapioka leaf and coco beans, then also how they were packaged. It was all very organised and profeshonal. They were absolutely delicious too chewy like toffees, especially when they were still warm. I ate so many samples that I actually feltt pretty sick. they were slicing us off big end peices that they couldn't cut into the square sweets. (n.b. I did buy some to send home but ants managed to find their way in and so I had to eat them up quickly)
We then boarded a large boat to take us back down the Mekong. With the 45 of us on it, it felt like it was going to capsize, not that it would have mattered because everyone was drenched to the skin, through our sopping wet reain coats. Soon after we got back on our bus and headed to the Capital of Mekong, to our hotel. The place was nice enough and it was great to get tinside and change ito some dry clothes.
That evening we didn't fance getting wet again so we decided to eat in the resturant next door. There were cadges whereby you could chose your own dinner. Either a selection of snakes, turtles or frogs. We decided that we weren't happy choosing our live dinner and weren't particularly hungry anyway so just decided to share some fresh spring rolls and some dumsums. I think I would have prefered live snake. This must have been one of the most fowl tasting meals I have tried (just writing about it now is making my stomach churn). They smelled so bad and had so many suspect meats and fish eyeballs and sucha strong sent of rotton guts that I must say we didn't clear our plates. I found some biscuits in a shop near by to take the taste away then headed off to bed.
9th August. DAY 2: The floating market and a Crocodile farm.
We found out this morning that the reason why there is so much rain, is because there is a typhoon near by. That would explane all the torrential rain. Well I hope that it passes soon, a guy told me that it will probably last about three more days amd that 53 people have already died because of it. We joined the rest of our group at 6am for the usual cambodian treat of a stale baguette and a fried egg. I was pretty hugry though, despite all the candy yesterday, and it went down really well.
We all put on our damp rain coats and wandered off to the local meat market at 'Cai Rang'. Now I have seen some things at these markets, but this tops them all. Slabs of red meat with eyeballs mixed in. What do they do with that? It is like Indiana Joans when he has that eyeball soup. There was also women who where pulling the fins off live fish, ready for sale, there is no such things as animal rights in this country. It was pretty funny seeing peoples faces as we slipped through on all the bloody and fish guts. At the other end of the market was our boat waiting for us. The seats were drenched and there was some very unhappy people. The more annoyed they got, the funnier I found the situation, I don't like being wet either, but at the end of the day it is only rain!
We arrived at the famous 'Phong Dien' floating market, unfortunately due to the typhoon I think most of the people had stayed at home and most of the produce was covered up with tarms to protect them from the rain so we didn't actually get to see much. To let buyers know what they were selling they would put their main products on a pole, so you could see it from far away. Before to long, after not much happened we moved on.
The next stop was the 'noodle factory' where they pulp down rice to make all different types of noodles, We basically walked down a small river to get there, I was glad to be in my flip flops and not trainers as we were ancle deep in thick smelly sticky mud. Unfortunately due to the rain we arrived at the noodle making spot, but, all this had been stopped too. All the workers were inside and production had to be stopped until the rain had cleared. But I went exploring and found the hugest pig that I had ever seen. He looked more like a cow. We saw something exciting after all. I don't think many other people on the trip were as impressed as I was. I know my dad would have liked him though.
Second from last stop fo the day was a fruit farm, again, most people stayed under the shelter but a few of us, who knew we couldn't get any wetter, went for a snoop around the farm, looking at all the dragon fruit, bananas, coconuts etc. When we got back we joined the rest of our group for a drink. Lots of people had moved onto beer, but seeing "Hot Tea" on the menu, Jenna and I decided to get a nuce cuppa. When it came I didn't know what on earth they had done. At first I assumed that they had put milk with herbal tea, but that wasn't it, then I thought it looked so woerd becused they were using condnced milk, bu that wasn't it either. It wasn't until I took a sip that I realised that they had used some kind of fish paste. It was fowl. Even the Vietnamese people around me agreed that it stunk of fish guts. We tried to ask the waitress about it bus she spoke no English, so we just paid up and left. We headed off across a 'monkey bridge' ( basically a couple of branches stretched accross the river). It was hillarous seeing pertified people slipping and sliding around on the wet wood, trying their hardest to ballance. We soon arrived at a very wet and flooded village, no one was really out and about because of the rain so we grabbed some lunch and all left soon after that.
Next stop was the crocodile farm. It was quite amusing hearing all the french people moaning all the way there, some of them even refused to get out of the bus, stating how rubbish the trip was: as if it was our tour guides fault that it was raining. In fact Kat, Jenna and I were the only ones from our group of 45 that actually went for a look around the farm. There were supposedly 13 thousand crocodiles there, most of them were pretty small, but there was one huge enclosure inside that had a load of huge ones. They are mean and scary looking things. I hope we don't bump into a wild one next time we are boating it down the Mekong. The only thing that upset me was they had two bears as pets near the enterance in a very small cage with no shelter. They were just sat looking entirely miserable in the rain, drenched to the skin. Poor things. I also didn't like the fact that all of these crocodiles were being bread for their leather, but I guess it is no worse than breading chickens for their meat, and atleast they were kept in pretty good conditions. On the way out you could but crocodile bags, belts, purses and even whole stuffed babie ones to keep as an ornament. No thank you.
That evening we had planned to watch the sunset from the Chau Doc pagoda, but again due to the rain it had been cancelled. We just found ourselves some noodles (which were very tasteless) for dinner then headed off for an early night.
10th August - DAY 3: A Fish Farm and a Cham people village.
We went down for breakfast early this morning to find that our guide had been replaced with a sleezey horrible man, and that most of the people had gone back to Saigon, but a few stragglers from other groups had joined ours. It is funny how you book a certain trip because of its itinery but you all get thrown in together anyway and all do the same thing (at least we didn't pay very much).
I spent the whole day avoiding eye contact with our guide, who was called 'Hi' and trying my best not to talk to him. I did pretty well to be honest. He was hard to understand anyway, I took to listening to him (without eye contact) and trying to pick up the odd words and then stringing them together to make some sort of sense - usually not getting much though!
First on the adgenda was Chau Doc Floating Village. It was still raining, but not too hard so we were able to see alot more, and at points I even took my hood on my rain coat down. The village was very basic and their weekly market was taking place too. I saw a few people exchanging fruits and vegetables, but again most of the produce was under cover. There was a few motorised boats, but most of them were small thin, stand up rowing boats. It was interesting but not the bustling, brightly coloured market that I was hoping for.
We then made our way across another facinatingMonkey Bridge, called 'Cau Khi', this one was more of n arch, again made three logs ballanced togeher, making it only about 30cm wide in total. It looked more like makeshift scaffolding to me, so I decided to take my flip flips off for extra grip, as I didn't fancy plunging into the water or onto a rock below. I felt like a circus preformer walking a titerope, and I still can't understand how the locals do it with such ease. The otherside of the bridge was the 'Cham village'. The people seem really nice and happy, smiling at us with their big white smiles. The Cham people are actually Hindu and came from India as long ago as the second Centuary, from the kingdoms of Champa. We watched them making some clothing and weaving silk scarfs and table runners to sell. A small group of children approached us to sell some of their locus produce or rice cakes and other snacks, but hey were more than happy with a few sweets and a pen.
We all slipped and slided down a path to a near by fish farm. Apparently Vietnam provides tonnes and tonnes of fish to other countrys around the world, but they only earn as little as about 50 pence a day. I was amazed at how many there were. Basically they are in huge cadges under floating houses, with ventelation holes arond the whole bottom of the house. Each house has a worker that lives on the structure full-time. Our guide told us that it costs less than 6000 pounds to build one of these using local materials. To me this structure seemed a perfect example of the industrious nature and ingenuity of the Vietnamese people. It was not at all high tech, but was clearly effective at producing fish. I couldn't believe my eyes when we got to witness feeding time. The owner threw a handfull of pelets in to the trap door type hole in the ground and within half a second the water was bubbling and moving with fish. The looked like paranas as they jumped all over each other to ge to the food. I certainly wouldn't have liked to have fallen in there, that is for sure.
We got back on the boat, then back on the bus and back to the aweful resturant that we had eaten the first night (the disgusting won tons and spring rolls) None of us could face trying anything else for there, so instead stocked up on crackers and biscuets for the bus journy back to Saigon.
Back in Saigon, we grabbed some dinner and then boarded another bus to take us to Mui Ne. It was really not what we fancied after a very wet few days and being sat on a bus for the last three hours , but it was time to move on. At around midnight we arrived. The bus driver 'converiently' dropped us in the middle of nowhere, but before long we found a nice place to say and went straight to bed.
Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon.
2nd August - Vietnam
Despite getting up at 5am we still managed to be late for breakfast, luckily our bus was late too so everything was ok, apart from the fact that it wasn't actually a bus, it was a very small and cramped mini-bus. We all had to have both of our bags under our legs (not that we would have been able to fit our legs in the space anyway). So mu knees were up under my chin, then to make matters worse the back of my fold out char had broken, so I couldn't even relax in the slightest. Oh the joys of travelling! These journeys keep getting better and better, I still don't think this one tops the hot bus from Kampot to Phnom Penh in Cambodia (Even though Kat and Jenna both thought this journey was far worse.) I think I would rather be squashed with back ache than pouring with sweat and sticking to my seat!
Anyway, I can hardly complane, others on our bus had it much worse. One couple actually had to share a seat, and another women spent the entire journey throwing up into a plastic bag (for all to smell). After four long hours we arrived at the boarder, everyone seemed very delighted to be piling out of our bus . We all sat down for our last meal in Cambodi, wich consisted of noodles and vegitables, then headed off in hopes of getting accross the boarder swiftly. I hopes were shattered when we arrived at the desks. There was about 6 check in desks, each one with a long que of people patiently waiting with all of their bags and their passports in hand, for a moment I wondered why no one was moving, but as I looked closer I realised that there was no staff at any of the desks.
Suddenly, an un fazed looking mand slowly sauntered accross the room with a handfull of passports and slowly started stamping them and checking visas. I realised that he was the only one working in the whole place. By this time we saw that were were going to be there for a while, so took off our backpacks and sat on them. The guy moved from row to row and after a couple for ours made it to our line, within seconds are passports were stamped and we were through. It took a while to find our bus the other side. We were slightly worried that it had left due to the fact that we had taken so long to get through. Thankfully soon enough it turned up. It may not seem possible but this bus was even smaller than the one before. Kat and jenna actually had to sit on bags and my knees were even higher under my chin. I don't mean to moan, but it just got worse....About half an hour down the road we got a flat tire, we all bungled out of the bus into the road while the driver 'tried' to fix it. After about an hour of standing in the burning sun with no water we got back on our bus and finally headed to Ho Chi Minh City (formally known as Saigon). Our driver honked and got honked at all the way. I couldn't quite believ how much they used their horns. I couldn't even see what on earth they were honking at, perhaps the muddle up the horn and the brakes or something. Honk, honk, HOOOOOONNK!
Looking out of the window I noticed an imediate difference to Cambodia and Thailand, their houses were not on stilts, they were on the ground. I wonder why. I was also delighted to see all the people wearing the traditional veitnamese hats, the triangle ones. I wonderd if the people actually wore them, and they really do, and not just the women.
I was happy once we had arrived, when spent a while walking around looking for a guest house for a reasonable price. It seemed a lot more expensive than places in Cambodia. Eventually we found one for just One pound fifty each, with a hot shower, fan, fridge and even a little balcony. The only bad side is that it was on the top floor. After lugging our bags up about one hundred flights of stares, we were very pleased with our luxuary room. The first think I did, was jump inthe shower. It felt amazing to have a hot shower, for the first time since leaving Korea. I actually felt clean and I figured out that my shower gells and shampoos actually give off nice aromas when they are warm. I could get used to this.
We headed out for some dinner and found the town to be very busy and absoulutely swarming with motor bikes. Apparently there are over nine million motorbikes in Vietnam, and when I called in to a motorbike shop, just to check our prices I was surprised to find that the average price was only about 200 pounds each. Maybe I will get myself one....I think not! I enjoyed wondering around all the interesting little shops. Again there is so much beautiful stuff, I was interested to find that like Cambodia, they do still used the American Dollar, but that most or their prices are in 'Dong' so we are going to have to get used to working out yet another currency! Kat was delighted to find a street seller with a photo coppied book of the last Harry Potter, I don't think I will be getting much conversation out of her for the next few days..ha ha.
3rd August - Ben Thah Market.
I awoke early to make the most of my day, but due to the weather being rainy I spent the morning writing letters and trying desperately to catch up with my diary. By mid day, we all had a travel cup of cerial and headed out in search for tours we could do. This might be a difficult job, there was so many places that we wanted to see and fun trips that we could do. I was not sure how we would possibly decide, let alone chose a travel agent to do it with. Eventually we booked a trip to a very intersting sounding temple, where would be able to see the practicing worship of Cao Dai. I am currently reading 'The girl In the picture' about the little nine year old girl named Kim Phuk, who was severely burned in the 1972 napalm attack in South Vietnam. I am sure evryone is familiar with her photograph, which I think is one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century, of the little girl running naked down the street. Anyway the book is about her life, and she worshiped Cao Dai, so I felt intersted to learn more.
We also organised to go and see the famous Cu Chi tunnels too.
I found it almost impossible to cross the roads here, someone advised us that we were to 'simply' walk into the flow of traffic and that the motorbikes would move out of our way. This is how they crossed througt the ever flowing stream of traffic so we gave it a go. I was petrofied but it seemed to work. The most important thing to remember was not to stop. Apparently it would just confused the drivers and we would end up causing an accident.
When we arrived at the market, the air was filled with he sents of Jasmin and Insence as we walked in. It was lovely not to be greated with the horrible sench of fish and raw, rotting in the sun, meat. Soon after entering the corridors of potterey up to the rafters and brightly couloured bonnets (the traditional Vietnamese hat) , we were soon greeted by abuzz with stalls offering ill kinds of things, from dried fish, pickled vegitables, chillies pounded before our eyes and many more strange looking foods. We swiftly passed the food part and Jenna and I came a way with a brightly couloured wine holder, and she also bought an interesting eggshell laquer painting too. We all also bought a little interesting spoon each (so we could eat our cerial). It was actually made out of a combination of bafallow horn and wood, it sounds strange but it is certainly unusual. Again this place could be dangerous, so many beautiful things, for such a cheap price.
That evening we went out for a traditional mean of 'pho' (vermichelli soup), it was really nice and so cheap. It was kind of watery but filled with vegitables and little bits of beef. I found it MUCH nicer than Korean soup, there was no suspect meat in this soup and no recontituted fish :) After some mor time looking around our locas shops we found ourselves a nice little coffee shop called "bobby Brewers", basically if you buy food or drinks in there you got free access to the cinema upstairs. We hadn't seen even a tv fora while, so this opportunity was one too good to miss. We got ourselves a coffee and a cake and settled down to watch Die Hard 4. I thought it was pretty good actually. When we left Bobby Brewers it was raining so hard, we raced back to our hostel to find that we had been locked out. It was only 10.30, but we spent the next 20 minutes (along with two other girls who had also been locked out) Ringing the doorbell and banging and shouting as loudly as we could. We could see the owners sat in reception. Apparently when we eventually got in, they said that the couldn't hear us because of the loud rain. I don't believe that for a second. I think they just found it amusing to see how wet we could get.
Before I headed off to bed I found out that my boyfriend Brian is coming to meet me in Australia for a couple of weeks in October. I can't wait for that, it will be great to see him after so long.
4th August - The Fine arts Museum and the History Museum.
Again I awoke early but it was raining so hard, that we didn;t vacate our room until more like lunch time. We then took a long walk to 'The Fine arts Museum'. Inside we saw some of the countries best Cham and OcEo relics, lots of interesting sculptures (which were mainly images of soilders, War Zones). There was also lots of information on Ho Chi Minh 'Uncle Ho' and of course Buddahs and antiques. I liked it, but as usual there wasn't very much information, so Jenna along with her guidebook full of useful facts opted herself to be our 'guide'.
The rain had almost stopped so we decided to wander down a near by street that wa sknown for it antiques and bric-a-brac, I was hoping to pick up a cheap Apsara dancer made from wood. Alas the only one I found was a large one that was well out of my budget.
Next we found our way to 'The History Museum'. The building itself was very impressive, it was huge and beautiful with a crazy looking tree outside. Inside there were 15 galeries illuminating Vietnams part from primative times to now. There were many beautiful buddha statues, from all around the world. . There was also crafts and exquisit ceramics. The hight light of my day was seeing the body of a woman that had been mummified over 100 years ago, she stil had hair, all her teeth and jewelry and clothes on, it was a little creepay but pretty amazing I thought. I tried to remember all the factual information about her history but it was so long ago now (it had taken me forever to find time to catch up with this blog) I have now forgotton it all. On the whole the museum was very descriptive and I got a much better idea about Vietnams history.
After an informative day, we enjoyed an early dinner and couldn't resist going back to Bobby Brewers for a coffee and another free movie. This time we watched 'Evan Almighty', the follow up to 'Bruce Almighty', it was verry silly but i found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Kat on the other hand had her nose burried in Harry Potter through out the whole film. She really does act out the frase "I can't put this book down'. Before going to bed I managed to Phone home form a busy internet cafe. It was lovely to find out what has been going on at home and that everyone is ok. Wen't to bed happy.
5th August - Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels.
We all got up early and were delighted to see that for once it wasn't raining (for the first time in weeks). We gobbled down a travle cup of cerieal (using our new bufallo horn spoons) and headed off to catch the bus. Thank fully I got a decent seat, but I did feel rather sorry for the large Korean boy who had to sit next to me on the fold out chair, that he couldn't even fit on. Our tour guide was very informative and actually had really good english too, giving us lots of information about Vietnam in genaral and about Ho Chi Minh city too.
The first stop was the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. (the actual one that the girl from my book used to worship in) As we approached the devine temple. I was slightly amused by its apperience. As jenna put's it is is like 'Buddah meets Walk Disney) The place was certainly very colourful, I felt like I almost needed my sun glasses in side, it was an outragious mix of colours. Primarily yellow, with florescent blue and pink draggons, with mosaic-mirrored tiles and the giant 'Divine Eye'. To me it almost looked like the intire place had been constructed from sugary candyfloss. Perhaps Michel Jacson was their interior designer or something!
We were allowed to watch a service take place, from a balcony above. I didn't want to seem rude, but I wondered how I would keep a straight face. Especially when I looked up at the celing to see painted on glittery,fluffy clouds, stars, bright pink lotus blooms and a huge glittery blue sphere. I almost felt like I had taken some a far-out hallucinagenics.
The gong sounded and hundreds of elderly poeple entered the room, in their strange pointly hats to take their positions on the vast floorspace below us. Rows and rows of gracefully attired worshippers knelt down before the elevated altar. Gongs then beated time with the string instruments and then the harmonious voices chanted like in some surreal dream. It seemed almost sacrilegious to take photographs but amazingly, it's allowed so Jenna and I snapped away taking pictures of this strange service and even stranger temple.
The service took about an hour. I could see the nine steps, but with only seven filled, like I had read about. I also noticed the seven empty arm chairs for the popes and nuns (when they eventually get elected). Most of the worshipers wore While (for Cao Dai). The men at the front represented the different encoperated religions wearing either Red (catholic), Yellow (Buddhism) or blue (Taose)
I actually felt that I learned quite alot about this very strange religion. Basically Caodaism, is the third largest religion in Vietnam (after Buddhism and Roman Catholicism). "Cao" means "high"; "Dai" means "palace". Caodai refers to the supreme palace where God reigns. The word is also used as God's symbolic name.
Caodaism begun in the 1920's and is a syncretistic religion which strangely combines elements from many of the world's main religions, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, as well as Geniism. Hard to comprehend isn't it? But apparently they have about 8 million followers in Vietnam and about 30,00 members elsewhere, (primarily in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.) They believe all sorts of strange and farfetched things such as the worsip of their 'saints', which were people like Joan of Arc, Lenin, Shakespeare, Chinese nationalist Sun Yatsen, and French poet Victor Hugo. Pretty funny really, but who am I to judge, each to their own. (there were numerous statues of these icons, dotted among the devine eye's and dragons too.) It was certainly an interesting morning if a little amusing too.
The second half of the day was spent at the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were dug by the Viet Cong in the 1940's and were their 250km of network of underground supply lines. The Americans could never find them, and in fact, built a military base on top of them. It's been turned into a popular tourist spot, which was a bit of a shame, with hundreds of people taking numerous pictures of rusty tanks.
We firstly down to watch a 'Tunnel History Video' I have to say that the people who made the video didn't do a particularly good job. The footage was very old and the voice-over was wobbly and almost unaudable. The narrator spoke in a wooden-sounding monotone, resorting to cliches like, "The people of Cu Chi were triumphant over the Invader" over and over again.
There was an exhibition of various man traps, booby traps, consealed trap doors, abandoned tanks, weapons and photos. There was also the opportunitly to see what it would be like to go in one of the man 'secret trap doors' That were used to strategicly surprise and attack the enimy and then disapere into. Pretty clever I thought. Stupidly I opted myself for a go. I jumped down, and was passed the lid (covered with leaves and grass) It was verry small and cramped in there, and i felt like I was in an upright coffin or something. I was quickly ready to get out. However, me being me, I got stuck. I was wedged in fast and had no where for my arms or legs to manover myself out. Much to the amusement of Kat and Jenna I got lifted out my two passing men, as I was heaved through the hole my shorts almost fell down too. (as if i wasn't embarraced enough already). Kat then jumped at the opportinity to fire an AK 47 ant a target, almost bursting my ear drums, before heading off
We then we went on to the tunnels. There was a part of the tunnel that was widened for Westerners, to 80cm squared. We I followed an army officer in. He had done this hundreds of times and knew how to move around without getting dirty. We on the other hand had not figured this out. It was dark, sweaty and claustraphobic inside. At points I couldn't see a thing and kept putting my hands in wet patches and on milipedes. I tried not to think of he other animals that might be lerking, especially the story of the boy who had been bitten by a poisionus spider down there and died. Shortly Jenna discovered that we could used to flash on her camera as a light so using that I guided us out. I mist say I was delighted to reach the end. I was dripping with sweat and absoloutely covered with mud and durt. It was hard to believe that people lived down there for months, had their own hospitals and kitchens, and came up with some very ingenious ways to disguise their cooking smoke.
That evening we went for an Italian meal and Jenna and I headed off to do some much needed bloggin, leaving Kat with her nose still burried in Harry Potter.
6th August - Stroling around the city.
We were up and out early this mornig to take ourselves on a proper strole around the city. We had planned to go and find some more markets that were in our guide book, a mosk and a grand theater, but instead ended up spending most of the morning in more travel agents trying to book ourselves a trip to go down the 'Mekong Delta'.
It actually stopped raining an the sun came out, so we just saundered along in the sun calling in at any shop that took our fance along the way. Needless to say it took us a while to get to the market. The first part was the 'meat' section, but I wouldn't particularly called any of the items for sale Meat! Kat quickly disapperared to hang around in the fruit section as the women behind the counter, who spoke no English, delighted seeing Jenna and my faces as she mimed what all these rovulting looking things were. There were tongues, hearts, livers, cojealed blood, osofigus, stomach and much more.
After many more distractions along the way of wierd and wonderful things, we made it to the main inside market, there they were selling lovely things and beautifully made silk clothes. Once through the market we found our way to the opera house, throught the crazy traffic and multidude of motorbikes, trying our best not to get killed. The Saigon Opera House (or Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theater) Originally built by the French to host Opera shows. In 1955 it was transformed into the South Vietnam's Assembly House and is pretty impressive, unfortunately we didn't have the time or money to see any of the musical shows that they hold there. We were also advised to see the samous central post office. We had nothing to post, but were impressed by this beautiful building, built by Gustave Eiffel, dates from the time when Vietnam was part of the French colony of Indochina. There was a huge painting of 'uncle Ho' at one end and even two large gift shops at the other.
Next Kat and Jenna wanted to go to the 'War Remnants Museum' contains exhibits relating to the Vietnam War, displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism. Apparently the exhibits include graphic photographs, information covering the effects of'Agent Orange' and other chemical defoliant sprays, the use of napalm (like the bomb that changed the life of the girl in the book I am reading) and other atrocities and massacres. I had also heard about the 'tigre cages' and the jars of preserved human fetuses that had been deformed by exposure to Dioxin. I don't think that I could have psychologically handled it, I know what I was like when I went to S21 in Cambodia, and reading the book about 'the girl in the picture' again would make it all to recent and real for me to handle. Jenna and Kat went and I headed back to the hostel.
I am so glad that I didn't go, as Jenna informed me that it was even more graphic thanS21. She said there were pictures of: mass graves; filled with women and children, handicapped kids, injured GI's and lots of other horrific sounding things that I don't even want to write about. I know it is history but I don't think that I can ever put myself through seeing something like that again. Reading books and educating myself in other ways is enough I think. As I said, the book I am reading is all about Vietnam War from a Vietnamese womens point-of-view. It is a book that described everyday life during the terrible war. That is upsetting enough. I think it will most certainly have a life lingering effect on me.
That evening we headed back to Bobby Brewers (mornic I know), this time we ate there. I chose the best chicken cesar salad I had ever eaten and we managed to watch two movies. The Transformers' and 'The Simpsons Movie' I really enjoyed both. I know I won't watch another movie for a long time now, and I have most certainly had my 'film fix'
7th August - Independence Palace and A Water puppet show.
We were up early again, this time to book our trip to the mekong Delta, and also drop of some clothes an the Laundry-mat (no hand washing for once - yippee). We wandered aound the 'Notre Dame', The cathedral was built in the 18th century and decorated with stain glass windows, it was pretty beautiful but we could not go inside. WE then headed to the 'Independence Palace', also known as the 'Reunification Palace', or the Norodm Palace'. It was the work place of the President of South Vietnam during the War and also the site of the official handover of power during the 'fall of Saigon' in 1975. It was a prety hideous building to be honest, no charicter to it at all. It had a very cold feel to it, however the surroundings gardens covered by green trees, fountains and grasses were nice.
We had a guide who took us round but she was incredibly hard to understand, so my brain kept tuning her out, which was a shame because I was pretty interested at points. Icould understand when she told us about the different colours or the meeting rooms (which could holf up to 800 people). If they met in the Green Room, it was supposed to make everyone calm, if in the Yellow Room, it would make people look more beautiful, and if in the Red Room, this was supposed to increase the power of the speaker. All a little strange to me I must say.
WE had a tour around the basement, the Kitchen, the hei-pad site and were shown where a tank had crashed through the gates and where bombs had exploded, leaving big parts of the palace to be rebuilt. By the end of the tour we all felt pretty hot and lathargic, so caught a taxi to china town insearch of refreshments and a change of scenery.
Firstly we headed in to the market there: It seems markets are our favourite things to see, but this one was very diferent to all the others. It was more like a local market selling things primarily for the Vietnamest, not tourists. The aisles were narrow, the din was loud, there were hundreds of people are scurrying about or squatting in the narrow passages to talk or eat. The variety of goods here is positively astounding and gave me an uncanny glimpses into real Vietnam