Month: April 2012

Day 106, Thursday April 19 2012, HMC – Vung Tau

Felt completely wasted after yesterday, we spent a lot of time walking in the heat  and it does take it out of you. I am going to have a couple of days by the beach at Nha Trang soon, hopefully will get a couple of dives in as well, but my main aim will be relaxing , rehydrating and fueling and getting some detail into the planning for the next few weeks and then booking some of the transport and accommodation.

Even feeling whacked we were still up relatively early and back on the street for the short, but always chaotic walk to the Reunification Palace. The palace was built in 1966 as the presidential palace for Sth Vietnam as we renamed the reunification palace after the war was over in 1975. The palace is now a museum with exhibits from the site over the years. As a museum it was not my cup of tea as there was very little information at each exhibit, tour guides were offered which would probably have made it more informative – then again I heard one of the guides talking about the rectangular table being a dining table, and that kinda almost describes the museum – lots of furniture!

My favourite part was the basement, which housed a Sth Vietnamese military head quarters, though the rooms had little in them and signs that said ‘communications room’, they were so spartan.

The highlight was walking through the narrow passage way – in what appeared to be the wrong direction and meeting a massive school group coming the other way, 100 or so hellos were exchanged with the kids.

The palaces main claim to fame (in my head) is a photo taken when the Nth Vietnamese T-54 tanks broke through the gates at the very end of the war, this isnt one of the original ones sadly.

From the palace we went for a walk to find a Hindu temple that we saw from the tower yesterday as it appeared to be close to the market, I found this great street art on the way.

And then we found the Subramaniam Swamy temple (and motorcycle park!) which was interesting, but small, there are some distinct similarities between some of the symbols in Hinduism and Buddhism and I must do some reading on them one day. This statue is definately Hindu !

On the way back to the hostel we found this small Buddhist temple that I must have walked past ten times without noticing, we were looking through the gates and were beckoned inside by a man sitting on the street.

It was a nice little modern temple, not sure if this was a real monk or someone hamming it up as he had a photographer friend with him and he was being a bit silly…

When we got back to the guesthouse I found my boat to Vung Tau was leaving at 12.30 rather than 1.00 so it was a quick pack of some clothes into the day pack, and chuck the rest into the big pack as that was staying in the hostel until I returned. I said a hurried farewell to Leonie – had a great time hanging with her in Saigon, thanks : ) and then off on a quick – but horribly sweaty fifteen minute walk to the ferry terminal, where I must have gotten one of the last seats on the hydrafoil to Vung Tau (VT).

The boat ride was OK, I had a backward facing seat in a corner with no view, so it was headphones on and head down for a rest (no – I didn’t sleep) for the hour and half journey. I arrived in VT and hour early and had lunch in KFC on the wharf – I was being picked up from the wharf, plus it had free wifi and it was the first KFC I have had in years!

Vung Tau is a beach town and is so much quieter than HMC – especially during the week, though it did not appear to be much cooler ! While I waited I went for a short walk along the water front and checked out a couple of temples. The Vina express was the boat I came in on.

I met Trish and Chris, an English couple, in Borneo and they have been living and working in Vung Tau for a few months now. Their son, George who is in his late twenties, has recently joined them there.

Trish and George picked me up in a cab and we went back to the house they are renting in the expat part of town.The neighbour’s wall and the power lines blew down in a typhoon at the beginning of April – the power lines are at garrotting height !

Trish was teaching a class in the afternoon so I spent a couple of hours chatting to George about music, we both like punk rock and he was playing drums in a band – Cannons and Tanks back in England. When I told him Meliesha (my daughter) lives in Bristol he said I had to go live there too as it had a really good music scene with loads of good gigs.

When Chris arrived home we had dinner and a drink up on the deck. Lovely chicken dish with baked spuds and beans – very nice to eat some home cooked food for a change. Dessert was a fantastic lime meringue pie – yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….

http://cannonsandtanks.bandcamp.com/

Day 99, Thursday 12, April, Ho Chi Minh City

Up early again as we had to be at the airport for 8.30 for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HMC), Dan and a few others were still really unwell so it was a quiet trip out to the airport where Van’s family met us to say good bye to their daughter.

The flight to HMC was a wee bit bumpy and the landing was pretty bad, I am going to try Jetstar for any further flights I think, depending on cost of course ! I spent the whole flight head down in the Lonely Planet and have pretty much come up with a plan of what I want to do, so now all I need to do is join in all the dots and maybe book a couple of flights. I have decided to fly on some of the longer or more complex legs, one to save time, but more because I think after five months on the road I will be over long bus rides and hassles associated with land border crossings.

Van had organised a bus to pick us up from the airport, take us to our various hotels and then on to the bamboo bike factory and the Cu Chi tunnels. Such awesome organisation ! most of the group were staying at the highly expensive (and luxurious) Rex hotel, but I found the Luan Vu, a decently priced guest house about a ten minute walk away in the backpacker zone. Van said the area was very dangerous and was horrified we were staying there, but it appears to be safe as houses, loads of westerners around, I have stayed in much much worse… We all checked and dropped bags and then back on the bus for the fifty or so km ride out to the bamboo bike factory.

Dan and Malcolm want to build bicycles made from bamboo and have been working with a small meditation centre that has been making bamboo furniture. They are well on the way to design and have been testing out the manufacturing, the visit was for Malcolm to have a look and to discuss some design. However, Dan was still really crook and didn’t make it out with us.

The factory area is very rudimentary.

Malcolm testing out one of the hmmocks. I havent seen a lot of hammocks in SE Asia until we got to South Vietnam where they are everywhere.

The meditation centre made us a delicious vegetarian meal, lots of locally grown vegetables and a coconut to drink. that is tea by the way – not beer…

It was all a bit much for this lad.

We had a look around the gardens and the factory and then left to go to Cu Chi tunnels a couple of minutes up the road.

Cu Chi is district just outside of Saigon, (HMC) during the Vietnam (or American war, depending on where you come from) that was heavily it was a stronghold of the Viet Cong and was bombed by the US Airforce. The villages moved themselves underground and built a massive tunnel system – up to 200kms long, linking with other Viet Cong tunnels all over southern Vietnam. The tunnels were used to move troops and supplies around under the noses of the US military as well as being entire villages with hospitals, kitchens and living areas all built metres under the ground.

We arrived quite late so the tour was a wee bit rushed especially as there was an opportunity to fire weapons used in the war, and we really did not want to miss out on that ! Our guide through the site was really good, fantastic English and very funny, the best guide I have had in SE Asia by a long long way. He showed us a couple of the tunnels and they were tiny, I could not imagine living underground for years or moving around in things so small and so dark. The local woman were the guides for the tunnels, he called them ‘maps’ and each woman only knew a small section of the tunnels so that the whole system would not be compromised if one was captured or turned traitor. He led us into a clearing and asked us if we wanted to go down the tunnels, and then asked us to find the entrance, one of the guys was standing on the trap door, it was very well disguised. The entrance was tiny, and I am not sure i could have actually got myself into the tunnel at all once I was in the ground. Luckily these tunnels were not the ones us westerners got to experience, and we walked through a 30 metre section that had been enlarged to all us to move about. It was still pretty narrow, and quite dark at times…

We then had a look at some of the horrific man traps the Viet Cong used (and I am sure the southern Vietnamese and Americans had similar). This was my favourite – or worst, not sure which, a rolling trap that gets you all the way down.

A number of the traps were designed to only trap legs, but in some cases they would then put explosives underneath so that when someone tried to free you from the trap it exploded, this was not done often, but often enough to spread fear amongst the Americans, as they would never know.

We then went an spent a vast amount of money (I spent $40 USD on 2 rounds) and fired Ak47s, it was short, loud and a lot of fun. The barrel ends were strapped down, to reduce the recoil and to prevent anyone accidently shooting someone else…

Uncle Ho

Then it was day over and back on the bus and back to the hotel. I was sharing a room with Malcolm and after showers etc we met Mark and Hayley and went to a local vegetarian restaurant for food and a beer or two, followed by another earlyish night.

Day 98, Wednesday 11 April 2012, Da Nang.

I think this was the first day where nothing was planned to start at 7.30 am for days, though I was still up early and down for breakfast for 7.30. Quite a few people were sick with various ailments and I needed some time to start planning the next few weeks, so it was a slow day in the hotel for all.

As I have now committed to being in England for Mal’s run in mid-June I need to get around Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand before heading to Sri Lanka. I will spend a few days there and then head to England around the first week of June to prepare.

I am so hopeless at planning, I spent the morning on the internet, reading my guide book and not making any useful decisions at all. I did download some music and write a few emails – avoidance, one of my specialities… I did email Chris and Trish who I met in Borneo, as they said to come visit them when I am in Vietnam, they live in Vung Tau a beach town an hour and a half from Saigon by ferry and they have now invited me to come and stay on the 19th which is very cool of them.

By this time it was mid-afternoon so I decided to go and procrastinate further over pizza and beer at Temple bar for a couple of hours, I made some progress in planning, but still have nothing concrete. The hard part is trying to fit all the things I want to see into a logical, and cost effective order to best make use of the 6 or 7 weeks I have left in SE Asia, it seems like a lot of time but there a lot of places to go.

That evening we were all invited around to Van’s parents house for a meal as this was to be Van’s last night in Vietnam for three months as her and Dan go to Australia. It was a lovely meal and a nice time with the two families. After a couple of hours we left Dan and Van to say there farewells and went back to the hotel.

Day 98, Wednesday 11 April, Da Nang

Today was a rest day, really tired after a few bad nights sleep, some busy days and far too many nights spent over a glass or three – not that I have had any huge nights, just many small ones in a row. I was also still a bit sore from playing football – amazing how the fitness goes so quickly. A number of the others have been suffering from minor head colds and travellers belly so there was not a lot happening in the group either.

I also need to plan what I am going to do when everyone goes home and I am back on my own, as well as plan my medium term travel as I have made a decision to get to the UK for early June and support my running buddy Mal Law on his 1000km 14 day charity run along England’s south coast.

So, after breakfast with the crew in the hotel restaurant I wandered back up to my room and spent a few hours trying to conjure up a travel plan from thin air, reply to a bunch of overdue emails, edit photos and do blog posts. None of which were done successfully  I had so much trouble focusing – too many days away from work I think, and to be honest, focusing was never a strong point (Jana – if you read this  – please ignore, I have been drinking, I will make a wonderful employee should you place me in a role !).

After a few hours of dedicated procrastination I went down to the lobby to say goodbye to Dan’s sister Leonie, who was heading off to Hanoi and I finally moved myself and my laptop to Temple Bar and had a cheese feast pizza (I so miss cheese) and a few beers for lunch, and continued my online procrastination until my laptop battery ran out.

Tonight was the last day in Da Nang for all of us, including Dan and Van, with Van leaving her family to go to Australia with Dan for a few months. Van’s family had invited us all around for dinner and some went in a taxi and I got to ride for the last time with Dan on the back of the bike as it was also being returned to Van’s house.

I will miss the bike riding – I do not have the confidence to ride in the insanity of a Vietnamese city myself but being on the back is a blast. It is such a great way to travel, though highly dangerous – one of Dan’s friends, Debs, spent some time in the orthopaedic ward of one of the Da Nang hospitals as part of a work program – a huge number of their patients are the result of motorbike accidents – we saw a (probably fatal) accident on the wedding day between a small truck and a bike.

On the way to Van’s we stopped at a pharmacy so Dan could grab some throat lozenges and i wanted to see if they could supply some sleeping pills, I have been using Zopiclone off and on  for years for insomnia – (more off than on – I have used 25 since November…) or some Tamazapan, but they didn’t have any of those, but they did sell me 10 valium for $4 NZ, so I at least have something to help sleep.

Dinner with Van’s family was wonderful, the food was just outstanding and Van’s family were very welcoming and lovely and obviously distraught that they are losing a daughter overseas – though I am sure not for ever as Vietnam is a wonderful place and Dan and Van  will be back here to live sooner rather than later.

It was a good night!

I will be back to Da Nang soon enough, a few kick around with Vans Bro Luc and some snooker and beer with her bro-in-law Win. Cannot wait.