Smoking in restaurants sucks people !!!
Show some respect for others.
Category: Blog
Trains and beer do mix…
Day 108, Saturday 21 April 2012, HMC – Nha Trang
My last night in Saigon was OK, a wee bit of sleep was had and I woke up feeling OK, so not a bad start to the day. I went down for breakfast quite late by my normal standards at 8.30 – longest lie in for days. I was in no rush this morning. Had a good breakfast with an Aussie couple who were heading back to Sydney – luckily they had not watched the league test last night : )
I took everything out of my pack and gave it a shake to clear the accumulated dust out and then wondered how the hell it was going to go back in again – and why I have three full cans of warm beer to lug around (now only one can of cold beer in the fridge).
I did some more photo uploading up blog writing and thank God I am almost caught up and then it was time to go down to the street and get my motorbike taxi to the station for the train to Nha Trang. The ride was ‘interesting’, first pillion ride in Saigon traffic, crazy.
I have decided to train this leg and if this works OK I will train to Da Nang. From Da Nang I will take the easy route and fly to Hanoi. The train is slower and more expensive than the bus, but I am expecting it to be safer and probably more secure.
The train left on time, yay for socialism – things are pretty reliable here in Vietnam. I was lucky and got a forward facing seat for the eight hour ride. The other westerners all had rear facing seats which must have been pretty awful.
The journey started slowly through the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, I was sitting next to a very grumpy man who had the window seat, I don’t think he liked a westerner sitting next to him, so I didn’t lean over him and snap pictures. However, the train runs so close to the walls of the buildings that any photos taken in the city would have been a blur, not that there is anything wronh with that of course. The line starts off (and may continue) as a single line so we frequently pulled into sidings to let other trains through, and vice versa. At one stop we were inundated with hawkers yelling and screaming to sell their wares, mainly fruit and drinks. The train however, sells plenty of food and drink – as i soon found out. We were soon out into the countryside and I grabbed a couple of snaps while my neighbour went for a smoke. The weather had packed in and we had quite a bit of rain for a while.
About three hours into the ride, after I had just finished a book on my Kobo e-reader (I cannot recommend an e-reader enough if you like books, these are a must for travellers !) I was just kinda drifting off in my seat, when the guy in front passed me a beer poured into a bottle (in case I don’t like drinking from a can !) and introduced himself as Tam and his friend over the aisle as Duam (I think that is how it was spelt). Duam lives in HMC but has a wife and a son in a village 14 hours away by train. It was his sons first birthday tomorrow so they, plus Duam’s grandmother were heading up to the village for the celebration. Tam had pretty good English and Duam only a little, but they shared a good few beers with me and bought me some noodles and vege for dinner when the dinner trolley came past. Once dinner was over they introduced themselves to some English travellers sitting a few rows opposite and we all moved to the diner carriage so the poms could smoke. Tam bought a case of beer and we all sat down and drank it. Occasionally we were joined by the security guys on the train for a swift glass of beer and then my seat neighbour showed up as well. Apparently he is a ‘big boss’ not sure of what, but the guys all deferred to him – I don’t think it was anything bad/criminal, just he was an important man, elder or some such. He was pretty friendly actually, shook my hand, and later on gave me a glass of his beer.
Tam and I, I am not as drunk as my eyes or the healthy glow in my face suggest !
It was a good time, we drank many toasts to train friendships and being able to share a beer with strangers for a few hours and have a good time. And soon enough we arrived in Nha Trang where all us westerners bade farewell to Tam and Duam and left the train.
I am sure that these things can end badly for us naive tourists, being scammed or robbed by “friendly” locals is something that happens all too frequently. I even left my (locked) bag with Duams grandmother while we went to the diner car. Call it foolhardy or risky, but I did spend a couple of hours with these guys first and they felt OK – yeah I know the scammers do to. But, sometimes with risk comes reward and i had a great time, they were nice guys on the way to a birthday.
A good night, and one that will go down as a highlight of my trip.
From the station I took a motorbike taxi (see my comment reply to a previous post 🙂 ) to my hotel. I chose a hotel as they are so cheap here, $14 a night for aircon, TV, hot shower and fridge. I was even upgraded for free tonight to a room with a bath, which I had and would have enjoyed if I was five foot tall !
Today is Record Store day in NZ (possibly everywhere else as well) I got an email from my favourite record shop advising that as a one off, never to be repeated special they were releasing a limited edition vinyl recording of a Toy Love gig from 1979. Toy Love were an old NZ punk (ish) band and a favourite of mine. The release would be 400 vinyl pressings, no CD/DVD or digital release, so miss out on the vinyl and that would be it.
I asked my nephew, Fraser if he would mind trying to get a copy for me. He has a great taste in music for a young person as well as being guardian for all my records, CD’s and turntable while I am away, and does like visiting the store. Anyway he secured me a copy me a copy and for that I am very grateful, as well as very happy !
Here is an old clip of Toy Love from the 1979, Chris Knox the lead singer is an icon in NZ alternative music and sadly had a stroke in 2009, he survived but his ability to make music was ended. It was a sad day for music.
Vice Versa – Vung Tau to Saigon
Day 107, Friday April 20 2012, Vung Tau – HMC
I had a terrible sleep last night, for some reason I could not get my body tempreture down, even with the air con blasting away I was hot all night long and barely slept. I had a lovely room in Chris and Trish’s house with the most awesome sci-fi shower, I took a photo, but it was crap!
I was up at 6.30 and had a brief chat with Chris befor he left for work, George was up soon after me as we had decided to go visit the Big Buddha together, and get out as early as possible before the heat got up. Apart from the beach Vung Tau’s (VT) key attractions are a big Jesus statue (supposedly bigger than the Brazilian one) a lighthouse and recently a big Buddha (competition to Big J. maybe ?) These are all located on small hills on the Sth China Sea side of VT. Each of the hills had old war time gun emplacements as well.
George and I were out the door and in a cab by 8.00 for the short ride to the base of the big Buddha hill, the hill also has a small amusement park type thing at the top, with a short cable car to get there ( a la Ba Na hills in Da Nang). The Buddha was Ok, there was also a cave underneath, which has been either recently built or recently renovated – hard to tell. 
There was small zoo with some porcupines, pigs, ostriches and deer living in terrible conditions that would never be allowed in the west, some of the deer were in a bad state and I felt for the poor beasts. There was also a luge on a rollercoaster track which was a bit of fun and we had a few goes, I never made it down without touching the brakes though I am sure it is possible.
We caught the cable car back down and George went home and grabbed a motorbike taxi and got a ride to the base of the big Jesus via the lighthouse.
The lighthouse offered a good view of Big J. and VT .
I liked this graffiti on an old French gun emplacement on the hill, well i liked the fact that though I am 99% sure it was written by Vietnamese it is in English, this is quite common.
The walk up to big J. was gruelling, if it was NZ I would have run up it, but even at 9.30 AM it was hot, I just put my head down and ploughed on up, the Vietnamese and Chinese tourists struggled upwards and I passed a lot them sitting in pools of sweat on the way. You can climb up the inside of big J and the view from his shoulders was pretty big.
I had arranged to meet Trish and George for lunch so started heading back to the house on foot from Big J. I expected to be met by a motorcycle taxi within the thirty seconds of hitting the road but for a change this didn’t happen and I ended up walking along the water front for an hour, before one finally found me a hundred metres from my destination!
I went straight into the pool to cool down ! For lunch Trish took George and I (individually) on the back of her motorbike to a local cafe that specialises in Banh Khot, one of the local specialities. You get served a bowl of soup , which you soak some rice noodles, mixed with chilli paste that you add as you like, some local herbs, lettuce leaves and rice pancakes with a shrimp on top.
You then wrap the pancake, herbs and noodles in a lettuce leaf and dip in the sauce – very nice !
After lunch I picked up a USB flash drive from a local store and grabbed a whole pile of new music from Georges collection – so nice to have some new stuff to listen to : ) and soon after it was time to get on the ferry back to Saigon.
Many thanks to Chris, Trish and George for inviting me into their home and feeding me a wonderful home cooked meal. It was a touch of home that I missed and very much appreciated : )
Back in town I was sent off to a sister hotel as the Luan Vu was full (I expected this !) but it was a bit cheaper and just as good so no bother to me. The view out the window.
I wandered around Bui Vien and had dinner and then discovered the NZ v Australia Anzac rugby league test on a TV in a bar so went and watched, a depressing, final twenty minutes as we lost to Australia 20-12. Oh well….
I picked up a small bottle of whisky for about $10 bucks and had a shot while I did a belated blog post.
PS – I must learn to proof read before posting and not after…
Saigon to Vung Tau
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….
Walk around Saigon
Day 105, Wednesday 18 April 2012, HMC
Remarkably I was feeling OK after a few cocktails and beers last night, I think the cocktails were weaker than when they are at full price ! We were up early to get out while the day was still ‘cool’ and were at the market by 6.30 am, which was too early for most of the non-food related stalls.
We walked round the fish section and found bucket loads of eels and squid and octopus.
As well as the inevitable motorcycle – smoked pork anyone ?
We stopped for a heart starter coffee in the middle of the market and this was one of the best I have had in Vietnam, as well as cheap.
And then walked on to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was not open till 8.00 am, we then headed off to the Revolutionary Museum, but that too was closed so it was off to a street stall for pho for breakfast. See my new man bag ? “North Face” bag, $12… so much easier than humping a day pack around.
Then back to Notre Dame for a quick look inside, I loved the floor tiles, especially if you get down low !
Getting to Notre Dame was a real challenge, it is on a large traffic Island and things were moving quickly through here.
Then a walk back to the museum, there was no photography allowed in the museum, but I had to take a photo of that loo doorway !
I love these rubbish bins, I have seen them in a few places in Vietnam – why penguins ???
It was still early in the day, though stinking hot, so we decided to take the long walk back to the hotel and went via the Ton Duc museum – boring, Ton Duc was a past president of Vietnam, and the Ho Chi Minh museum, which was almost as boring – they both were comprised mainly of photos of them shaking hands with people… though the walk around is always good.
By this stage it was about 11.00 and we were in need of more coffee and some food so decided t head back into the centre to look for cafes. We decided to try the really tall building, the Bitexco financial Tower to see if they had a viewing area and cafe, they did…. the viewing area was expensive at $12 NZ a head, but the view was fantastic from just below the helicopter pad. Coffee was outrageous so we didn’t have one there.
We decided to find a supermarket and get some bread and cheese and just get back to the guesthouse to cool down and eat there, however at the mall we found a Highland Coffee and took shelter there over coffee and lunch before venturing back out into the mid-day heat back to the GH. I picked up this pack of biscuits at the supermarket – Arsenal and chocolate chip cookies, too of my favourite things !
I spent the afternoon catching up on blog posts (again) and chilling in the coolness of an air conned room, cookies were crap…
At 6.00pm we took a walk back into town again.
And had a couple of drinks at the Saigon bar at the Caravelle hotel. The Caravelle is where foreign journalists were based during the Vietnam war and the bar is still the same – though the hotel has been upgraded since. Leonie bought us a couple of drinks as she was heading back to New Zealand (and an income !) tomorrow and they were expensive – but very nice – Thanks Leonie 🙂
On the walk back to the hotel we find these guys watering the gardens, subtle huh !
By the time we got to the local restaurant we were whacked so grabbed a takeaway and ate in the room and slept.
Cocktail hour or two
Day 104, Tuesday 17 April 2012, HMC
Slow start to the day, though I wanted a down day to catch up on some blog posts as I am starting to get behind the eight ball again. Leonie had not been to the war remnants museum so she left early and I lounged around in the room for most of the morning trying to plan the next few weeks.
I put together a bit of a plan for Vietnam, Laos and Nth Thailand and realised I do not have enough time to do everything I want as well as do justice to Sri Lanka, so have decided to flag Sri Lanka this time and will go back there for a proper trip another day, so I will stay here as long as possible and go direct to London.
So….. with all this mind, I have booked myself a flight to the UK on Malaysia Airways, from KL on fifth June ! This gives me eight more weeks in SE Asia.
After Leonie got back and had time to cool down we went off to find some vege food for lunch, we found a nice Sth Indian restaurant on Bui Vien (the main tourist drag) and I had an exceptionally good vege korma and mango lassi – possibly the best korma I have had – it was that good !
After lunch I took a walk around some of the back alleys of Bue Vien.
It is incredibly hot here at the moment, the sun is brutal and even a few minutes in the early afternoon is enough to get a major sweat on, so I soon headed back to the guest house for an air con respite. I got a whole pile of washing done and hand washed my day bag as it was rank and dusty as all heck – you should have seen the colour of the water !
Late in the afternoon, I was reading the blog of someone who “liked” one of my posts and she had been to the bar on level 23 of the Sheraton Hotel in HMC for happy hour and sunset . The photos were fab, so Leonie and I decided to make a rapid twenty minute walk over to the Sheraton to get there before the two for one cocktailsshappy hour finished. It was rush hour…
We had a couple of drinks
And admired the awesome view over Saigon as the sunset.
The famous Caravelle Hotel
After a few drinks and a wee wee stop – love the ashtrays in the loos….
We walked passed the Louis Vuitton shop, amongst other big brands,
Then had dinner at a street stall, and no, I had none of these options. Though I was not entirely sure what the ‘seafood’ I did have was.
The Mekong Delta Tour
Days 101 -103, Sat/Sun/Mon 14-16 April 2012, Mekong Delta tour
A new first – a three day post. I have managed to post pretty consistently for the past hundred days, odd glitch here and there, but the record has been pretty good I reckon. My enthusiasm for it is waning some what, I am not sick of doing it, I still enjoy the photography and the review and selection of images and I still enjoy the writing, once I get going. It is the getting going that is the hard part !
I decided to do a tour of the Mekong rather than try and get around on my own, the guide book said it was easier and cheaper, and on reflection it was probably correct, all up the tour for three days and two nights, including one dinner, was $60NZD. I would be pushing to do that on my own.
I was disappointed, with the tour, not really the tour’s fault, maybe I was more disappointed with the Mekong Delta, as the most fertile area in SE Asia I was expecting to see vast rice paddies and the ‘typical’ rural community that I have seen elsewhere, of thatched huts and water buffalo. However for most of the eighteen hours I spent on mini-buses and vans over the three days we passed through town after town and after town, with virtually no breaks between. So I got to see a whole lot of houses and shops. I found out on the tour that twenty two million people live in the delta, with a large number living on the main road and water ways. The tour also took us to a few small businesses (as expected, though not all had shops !) including a honey farm, fruit farm, rice noodle making and coconut candy. The highlights were a home stay that I did one night plus the time on river systems that make up the delta.
As this is a three day post there are a few photos here, so I will let them do most of the talking…
Day 1. There a three tour options for the Delta, 1, 2 or 3 day and we all started out on the same mini-bus and over the few days we changed vehicle five times and people joined and left at various locations on the way. There was only four of us who made it to the end ! The mini-bus was pretty cramped – built for Vietnamese legs not Western ones and the ride was fairly long to Ben Tre (I think) where got on board the first boat of the tour and visited Dragon Island, where we got to hear some traditional Sth Vietnamese music.
I discovered that they have the eyes on the front of the boats to scare away the crocodiles – and old tradition.
Then on to some small canoes for a short but very crowded ride up a small river, that seemed a wee bit pointless – my paddler – seemed women did most of the work.
The Vietnamese paddle canoes like they ride motorcycles !
We hopped back on the boat and off to a coconut candy making place.
And then to Phoenix Island for lunch and we finally were allowed to roam. A few of us grabbed bicycles and went for a ride. The bike guy was the surliest person I have come across in Asia so far, man he was miserable – even worse than the grumpy guy at Inle Lake when I didn’t pay to take photos. Of the five boys bikes all were un-rideable for various reasons so I took a chicks bike and he was not happy, I asked (via hand signals and pointing) for him to pump up the tyres that were flat on two of the boys bikes, and he just sat down with his back to me, so that I thought “f**k you Jimmy” and rode off. We only had thirty minutes but had a nice (though hot) ride up the side of the river.
We then drove to Can Tho where the five us of doing a home stay were picked up by the homestay man (HM) and i have really stupidly forgotten his name. It was dark by now so the fifteen minute ride in the taxi followed by another fifteen in a canoe up the river were interesting. HM lived with his wife, two children and her (I think) parents on a small tributary off a larger tributary of the Mekong. We had no idea of what to expect, though he did tell us that five of us will sleep in the room with the five of them and it would be cosy (his English was great) though he also had a wicked sense of humour and when we arrived we found we all had basic bungalows along the river side with bed, fan and mozzie net.
As it was late his family had already eaten so we had dinner together and were shown how to roll spring rolls filled with fresh elephant fish, rice noodles and vegetables. The food was great.
This was followed by a few (quite a few) rounds of rice wine shots to the call of Mot, Hai Ba, Yo!, (1 2 3 – drink – guess Yo is drink !). I was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to try some of the snake wine, this is a stronger (40%) rice win that has a small cobra and scorpion in the bottle – I have yet to get a good photo of this. It was fine – no stronger than a shot of scotch and tasted like a normal rice wine. Rice wine is the local home brew and tasted like sake, just stronger. It was a fun night, but fortunately over by 9.30.
Day 2. Up at 6.00 for breakfast at 6.30.
As is the norm in SE Asia, the river is the source of everything, washing of our dinner dishes.
Mrs HM checking the nets – do you love that single trunk bamboo bridge to the neighbours ?
HM
We were on the boat by 7.00 for the ride up a confusing collection of channels and tributaries back to Can Tho where we met up with the rest of the group who had elected to stay in a hotel, I think we had the most fun, the ride up river was a highlight of the tour.
Once back on the main boat we visited one of the floating markets at Can Tho.
Some of the boats have poles sticking up with what ever they are selling attached, though the pineapple seller forgo the pole thing.
A trip to a rice noodle making place – the most interesting of the making things places we visited.
A fruit orchard – with a bamboo bridge specially for photographic purposes.
And some more time on the river
A gas station.
It was then back on the bus for a couple of hours (thank god for MP3 players) of driving through never ending towns to Long Xuyen, where we visited a crocodile farm – fortunately they only farmed and sold live animals from here, though the conditions were not ideal. This religious scene was in the entrance, I liked the armless child and was wondering if they had fallen in…
Moving the one year old crocs to a new pen.
Back into the van and another thirty minutes up to Chau Doc where we visited a hillside temple built in 1747 on Sam Mountain (278 metres, so a small mountian). Sadly it was fully renovated in 1980 !!
There was a cave with buddha and monk statues though my shots are all blurry. There was a great wall with shutters though ! I love simple lines and colours.
From there it was a quick ride to the hotel, where three of us had to go and sleep in a separate hotel to the other 8 people as there was no room. At the second hotel they tried to put the three of us, a couple and me into one room, we told them NO WAY, which they accepted, though my twin room had a mouse pooh on one of the beds ! Oh well. We caught up with the others for a good meal in a local cafe and then another early night. Hotel reception and parking lot.
Lonely Planet describes Chau Doc as “charming”, perhaps they were drunk when they visited.
Day 3. Up early again as off to walk a couple of hundred metres to the river at 7.00 where boarded a boat and went to visit a floating village. I loved the motors on the back of the houses.
I tried to get the contrast between the floating houses, the river side shanties and the comparatively wealthy city folk.
And then to a Cham minority still village, where we were shown some silk weaving. The Cham people record the flood levels each year – hence the houses on stilts….
The Cham are muslims and we visited the local mosque.
From there it was back on the van, then a bus and finally a horribly cramped mini-bus for the six or so hours back to Saigon.
This was one of the few glimpses of paddy fields through the endless towns.
One of the few towns that was interesting as it had a small river between the road and the houses.
One of the many many bridges we crossed.
Relentless towns…
I arrived back in Saigon about 5.00 and Dan’s sister Leonie had already arrived from Hanoi, after a shower we went out for dinner at the place I went to with Hayley, Mark and Malcolm we then went and had a couple of drinks on the side of Bui Vien, the road we are staying on, it is a bit of a small scale Ko Sahn Rd, with small liquor stalls filled with young westerners getting shickered on $2 drinks. We didn’t stay out late!
Hmm, didn’t let the photos do too much talking did I!
War Remnants Museum
Day 100, Friday 13 April 2012, HMC
Wow, one hundred days on the road, and still enjoying it too!
All the remaining wedding guests were flying home today so some of us agreed to meet at the War Remnants Museum as it opened at 7.30 AM, a fifteen minute walk from both our hotels. The museum was interesting, I loved the names of some of the collections – obviously the Vietnamese side of the story is so different to what we have learned in the west.
I really enjoyed the photograph collection, there was a very good exhibition by photojournalists from both sides who were killed during both the French and American wars, including Robert Capa who is one of my favourite photojournalists. This photo shows how dangerous it was (excuse the reflection !) This Japanese photographer survived the experience, though I neglected to note his name.
As we were walking the exhibition we were invaded by a hundred or so Vietnamese school children, I must have said hello to each one at least twice, they were very friendly and their smiles were quite catching – especially in such a place as this.
I enjoyed the museum, it was getting a bit crowded when we left, so it got harder to see and read the information – it was pretty biased, but not terribly so, and the section on Agent Orange and its effect on families even 40 years later was quite moving.
On the way back to the hotel I stopped for a filter coffee, Vietnamese style, then found out it was $3 – five times the price of a coffee in Da Nang, so was pretty pissed off. I wont go back there again thats for sure.
In all the cities I have visited in Vietnam I have seen sculptures in parks, I really liked this piece, though there is no information about it.
At lunch time we wandered over to the Rex Hotel to meet everybody else, Dan had been in to the hospital that morning and had some sort of chest infection, he was not moving from his bed, not a great way to end his wedding week. Those of us feeling up to it went and had a swim in the hotel pool, luxury ! and then I bade every one farewell and went back to my guest house so they could finish packing and head to the airport.
The view from the Rex, the modern business centre.
And the contrast, Socialist Republic of Vietnam flag against the Sheraton hotel.
I have arranged to share a room with Dan’s sister Leonie for a couple of days, when she returns to HMC from Hanoi on the 16th, so booked myself on a three day Mekong Delta tour starting tomorrow morning.
I haven’t had a good walk around the streets of HMC yet, but this show how narrow they are in the backpacker area.
I had dinner in a local bar, got ripped off on expensive beer and watched half a game of rugby league – Dragons v Knights. I miss rugby league !
Goodbye to a bunch of very nice people, Dans mum – Jessie, bro – Russell, cousin Karen and friends, Hayley and Mark, Malcolm, Nolan, Debs and Keelan (apologies for spelling names wrong : )) It was great meeting you all and I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Many many thanks to Dan and Van for having me at the wedding, you are a great couple and it has been lovely to meet your families.
I also want to say a special thanks to Van for organising everything for us, the trips, the buses and hotels. All was great and so very much appreciated ! Van – you are a star !
Cu Chi tunnels
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.
Da Nang – failed planning day.
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.
Where is Phil now? 
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