An Expected Journey

Craig and Abi: Two 20-something year olds with their sights set on travelling the world.

[craigabi]

Homeward Bound - 23/07/15

Well here we are, sitting in the lobby at the Bê Hotel in São Paulo, full to the brim from a fantastic feeding session at the Fogão Gaúcho churrascaria, waiting to get our taxi to the airport. From there it is the beginning of the end, as we start our journey home! After leaving the…

Homeward Bound – 23/07/15 was originally published on An Expected Journey

[craigabi]

Franz Josef – Picton – 09/03/15 – 13/03/15

The next few days of our trip were full of just as much adventure as the previous few. On the 9th we spent the day doing the longest drive Abi…

Final New Zealand South Island post, a fantastic couple of weeks in a beautiful part of the world!

[craigabi]

Queenstown – Franz Josef – 04/03/15 – 08/03/15

We only had two nights in Queenstown, which is home to a bazillion different thrill seeking and adrenaline pumping adventure activities, most of which I was incapable of doing due…

A jet boat, an orc and a couple of glaciers...an awesome few days in New Zealand

[craigabi]

Christchurch – Milford Sound – 28/02/15 – 03/03/15

After a few canny days around Christchurch, today was the day our true journey around New Zealand began. We left our bags at Foley Towers while we got the bus…

From Christchurch to Milford with a few stops along the way!

[craigabi]

Christchurch 24/02/15 – 27/02/15

Stepping off the plane at Christchurch airport in the middle of the night was the complete opposite to when we disembarked at Alice Springs a week before. It was cold!…

For anyone on here that hasn’t looked at our website here’s a link to it, with our latest post from Christchurch. A bit behind on the times, but we are catching up!

[craigabi]

The live tale of our journey round the world!

Ok people here's our new website, have a look for photos (more coming), blogging has been slow due to A) setting up website; B) poor internet access; C) having too much fun!

From now on we'll be using that to document our trip. Have a look, comment, like & share, but most of all, enjoy!

Thanks for following,

Craig & Abi

[craigabi]

Sihanoukville – 08/10/14 – 10/10/14

Sihanoukville is basically a town that’s just a tourist destination, with western bars, restaurants and more foreigners than locals. It’s got a beach front, which was getting set up for a full moon party when we arrived (as it was the full moon that night).

We stopped at the Hibiscus Garden Hotel, which was a bit grotty and required the Mozzy net to be put up (there was one already there but only over one bed and it was a twin room…work that out). But it was a handy location and only for one night so we made do.

In the evening we wandered along Serendipity Beach, which was getting ready for the Full Moon Party and looked like it was going to be a good night! So we went back up Serendipity Road and got some tea at the Big Easy, Abi had a pulled pork enchilada and it was tremendous! She won with the food choice, again! My Korma was ok, but nothing special.

During our walks we had picked up a free drink leaflet for the Led Zephyr bar, which apparently was having an open-mic night. So we went there after our food and it was a disaster. The only good bit was the free drink. Those with the bravery to get up really shouldn’t have. Never in my life have I heard such an atrocious rendition of Hurt, I don’t know if he was going for the Nine Inch Nails version or the Johnny Cash one, but either way it was nothing like either and ultimately a failure. We finished the drink and left.

Giving up on the town bars we walked back to the beach to see what was happening with the Full Moon party. Essentially nothing. We were maybe an hour early, as I know these things kick off late, but the only people about were old western perverts with their young Cambodian “girlfriends” and a group of locals having a rather strange birthday party/ceremony. Other than that it was dead, and due to the lack of people in town we guessed it wasn’t going to get much busier. So we gave up and went to bed. As our hotel was near the beach and had paper thin walls, we expected we’d be woken up if the party got started, since we didn’t and it was quiet all night we assume nothing really occurred.

We woke early the next morning to get a ferry across to one of the islands. There are a couple just off the coast, the two main ones are Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. Koh Rong is the busy touristy/hedonistic one, and Samloem is pretty much empty. We, being the boring farts we are, went to the empty one. We were essentially stopping at a place for divers, the Eco Sea Dive Bungalows, but it had a private beach with only us and four other people there. It was very peaceful and we had a lovely time splashing in the warm sea on the deserted beach.

On the first day there we relaxed on the beach, doing a little bit of swimming and snorkelling, which was nice! We had food that night in the restaurant with a German couple and a guy from Singapore, which was all going well until a rather large spider descended on some web right next to Abi. It was like the tale of Little Miss Muffet! To those who don’t know, Abi is terrified of spiders so it had picked the right person to drop down next to. She was traumatised! Luckily we had already eaten, so we just relocated to the bar, which was spider free due to two rather large lizards living in the roof space. We had a couple of drinks and then went to sleep in our Jungle Bungalow. This was a little hut in the trees just off the beach, with a fan and a toilet out the back. I’m not sure why there was a fan, the power was only on between 6pm and 11pm, so it cut off not long after we went to bed.

The following morning we got up at 5am to watch the sunrise, which was really pretty. The dogs that lived about the lodge came charging barking at us as we walked to the beach, however they are possibly the softest bunch of guard dogs on the planet, as they just licked our feet and legs when they got to us!

While on the subject of animals, I forgot to mention the other inhabitants of the lodge area, a local herd of cows! Now I’m not sure where these came from, but there were a few of them and they enjoyed mooching about the lodge, especially around the hammock area. The hammock area was a cheap bit of accommodation that you could sleep in for $3 a night, however the downside (or upside if you are my dad) is that the cows like to use that area as shelter, meaning you wake up, climb out of your hammock and potentially stand in a nice lump of ankle warming cow dung. The employees of the lodge were constantly trying to chase them away but they repeatedly returned. A very random addition to a paradise island!

After the sunrise we had breakfast and then went back to the beach. I’d gotten about knee deep in the water when I spotted a nasty looking jellyfish swimming about, so gave up on the swimming that day. The tide then came in quite high, washing the beach out! This was all a little disappointing, as we only had the bar area left to chill in, but it was relaxing having a bit down time in a hammock (not the cow hammocks) and cuddling the cat that hung around. She actually enjoyed curling up on me while I was snoozing in the hammock!

Eventually the ferry came for us and we had a rather choppy journey back to the mainland. We had different accommodation for that night, at a place called Mick & Craig’s (it was always going to get some sort of visit with that name), where we had a great BBQ tea. Lots of ribs, steak and chicken skewers, mmm!

That was it for Snooky, the next day was going to be a crazy long bus journey to Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat, the thing I was most looking forward to in all of Cambodia! Trust me, any length of journey is worth it to go there!

[craigabi]

Kampot – 04/10/14 – 07/10/14

Upon arriving at the Raksmey we were greeted by a nice young boy (probably about 10) who was behind the front desk. His English was really superb and he sorted our check-in in a very professional manner, watched over by his mother who ran the place and was laughing and smiling about him taking over. I jokingly asked if he was the manager, causing more smiles and laughs. Child labour at its best.

The place was pleasant and was clearly going to be a nice comfortable stay. So we got freshened up and made our way out into town for a look about. There’s not a great deal to do and see in Kampot, but it was another one of those places that we enjoyed just walking round and sitting having a drink by the river.

We had lunch at a place called the Rusty Keyhole, where Abi had the most incredible half rack of ribs ever!! There was a challenge to eat a 1.5kg rack of ribs, called the Dino Rib, something I probably would have managed a couple of years ago, but my stomach has shrunk so much (believe it or not) that it would have just been a waste of money. Although I’m sure it still would have tasted lovely! I just stuck with a cheeseburger, which was great in itself!

After a little more walk about the town (there really isn’t much to see), we sat at a place called Veronica’s Kitchen, making use of the entire Happy Hour time (5pm – 7pm) to drink ourselves silly on 2 for 1 cocktails and $0.75 beers. Great stuff! We rolled back to the room and did some rather merry Skyping to my parents and our friends David and Sarah, who were at Louise’s house, another friend! So it was nice to see them, even if we can’t really recall the conversation…

We had a lazy morning (no hangover!) and after having a coffee at Veronica’s Kitchen (this became our local) the owner’s brother, Naal, drove us in his tuk-tuk to Kep, a nearby town. We’d had this place recommended to us by my sister and her boyfriend, Renish, after their trip here, purely because of the Crab Market. Within minutes of arriving at the market, which is actually just before you reach the town, I knew exactly why they had liked it. $8 for 1kg of crab. Now, I thought the crab we had back in Vietnam on the way to Hoi An was fresh, but when I told the woman we only wanted one crab each she said ok, went over to the sea, picked two big crabs out, then put them in a steam pot on a fire for a few minutes and presented them to us for $1 each. These were pretty big crabs for 60p, I honestly don’t think there is a better deal on crabs anywhere in the world (if anyone knows of one please tell me)! We then picked up a skewer of big shrimps and another with a squid on it, bought some sugarcane juice (which is just a sugar cane that has been squeezed and you get the juice, don’t think my teeth will ever recover) and sat and stuffed our faces. All for about $5!

Now we could have stayed there and ate all day, but we’d arranged for Naal to pick us back up and when he arrived so did the rain. Driving anywhere in a tuk-tuk during a downpour is not the nicest, it has to be said. Even with the side covers down we still got wet, but not as wet as Naal on the bike at the front, he was soaked through! He took us back to Veronica’s and guess what? It was Happy Hour! Our excuse for staying was due to the rain, honestly.

We did some more Skyping that night, which was nice as my family were with all of my extended family, so we got to speak with my Aunty Ann and Co. although it was a bizarre experience as, for some reason, the call took place in the downstairs toilet. Our Andrew couldn’t get the camera to swap round either, so they could see us and we could see their feet. But it was still lovely speaking with them.  

The next day was our last in the centre of Kampot, so we checked out from the hotel and went on what is possibly the most disappointing tour I’ve ever been on in my life. We had booked the trip the day before, through our hotel, as the general crack on both Trip Advisor and in the LP was that it was a great thing to do here. Well for anyone coming to Kampot, you’d be better off just sitting in Veronica’s or the Rusty Keyhole.

It started off badly, it was raining torrentially, something we, and the other folk on the tour, thought would clear. The aim of the tour was to go up the mountain in Bokor National Park, have a look at some abandoned buildings there and get some great scenic views. Well we kind of guessed the views would be out due to the rain, but thought the buildings would be quite cool as they were apparently the way they had been left when the Khmer Rouge came to power.

Halfway up the mountain the bus broke down with a large plume of steam issuing from under the bonnet. They let the engine cool down and topped up the radiator with water from a stream, then got us on the way again. As predicted we got some great views of the inside of a cloud and nothing else. We were dropped at the first building, the King’s old summer palace, which was just an empty concrete shell with nothing in it except for a little guard guy living there. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t grand and it was pretty rubbish for a summer palace. I’m sure the view from the veranda would have been good on a nice day, but as I’ve already said, this was not a nice day.

We had to wait here for a bit as the bus was deemed too broken to carry on, so a new one was coming to get us. After about 40 minutes the new one turned up and we were back on the road. Our next stop was the abandoned casino. During our research we had gotten the impression that this was going to be a big lavish casino, complete with tables and machines, but that it had been left to the elements and overgrown. No, this too was just an empty concrete shell with nothing inside. Here we also had our lunch, which was just a polystyrene container with some rice in, apparently the company was supposed to supply two vegetarian meals and the rest chicken, but they got mixed up. So the guide and a Cambodian guy got the two chicken meals and we all got the vegetarian options (just rice). As the building was empty we had nowhere to sit so just had to stand and eat, as the floor was wet off the rain getting in.

Next up we went to an actual casino, which was incredibly random. The place must have been quite new, but was empty except for us and three people at a gambling table, however it was staffed to the max. Every table had a dealer sat at it, there was even an attendant in the toilet to turn the tap on! I’m not an expert when it comes to corruption and money laundering, but there must have been something dodgy going on here. Apparently it was a hotel as well, but there was no sign of any guests. Just so random!

Finally we went to see a waterfall, which had been advertised as a place you could go for a swim. Now even if it hadn’t been bucketing down and (relatively) cold, none of us could work out where you would have gone for a swim. This thing was raging! It made the ones we abseiled down in Dalat look like garden water features! The pool at the bottom looked like a violent, churning, maelstrom of death, not a relaxing natural swimming pool. We left the swimming costumes in the bag and kept the umbrellas and waterproofs out.

So that was the end of the tour. We could have continued on to a boat to watch the sunset, but with the weather the way it was, there was just no point really. The bus dropped us off at a hotel where most of the people were staying, we hopped out as well and had a drink with a nice couple from Lancashire. After a quick bite to eat we got a tuk-tuk to Arcadia.

It took about twenty minutes to get there and as we approached we passed various bits of spray-painted signs and artwork showing us we were arriving at somewhere a bit different to all our previous accommodation. We got dropped off and made our way to the clubhouse area, where the reception, bar and social area was. Here we were greeted by an Australian girl called Kiki, and taken to our room, the Leprechaun Lair, which was just off the main social area. It was essentially a wooden box with a bed in it, a mosquito net, a fan that didn’t work and a light that had as much power as a birthday cake candle. Still, we guessed we wouldn’t be spending much time in there, so weren’t too bothered.

The place is built on the riverbank and comes complete with rope-swings and various platforms to jump in from. However the weather hadn’t really improved much so we gave all that a miss. It is also ran by two Aussie guys and an Irish bloke, so by about 7pm the party was on. We got sat at the bar with a nice Kiwi fella called Carl and made quite a few friends, including Liam, a British lad behind the bar, and Kieran, a crazy Mackem from Shildon. It didn’t take long for the jagerbombs and tequila to start flowing and the drinking games to start. We also all had a Baby Guinness, which was a shot of Kahlua mixed with Baileys. Dangerous!

The next morning everyone was in a very sorry state. I think we’d eventually gone to bed at about 3am, although some stayed up longer. So we lounged about the place the next day all with bad heads, doing not a great deal. That night was a bit quieter, with just a few beers consumed and we crashed out relatively early, mainly because we were to be up the next day for a bus to Sihanoukville, something we did not want to do with a hangover.

And so that was Kampot. We had a nice chilled time in the town, then a bit of a crazy party at Arcadia, enjoying both sides of the place. Although Bokor was a massive let down, we’d definitely recommend Kampot, including the Crab Market at Kep.

[craigabi]

Phnom Penh – 01/10/14 – 03/10/14

As soon as he said it, my mind flagged the scenario up as “SCAM!”, as it sounded like such a standard ploy. There was a bit of an argument and he insisted he was not a liar, but I gave him $50 and said I had no more on me as that was how much I was told it would be. He agreed to put in the extra $20 himself under the guise I would pay him back when we got to an ATM in Phnom Penh.

In the end I looked the mug as we got to the border and it was indeed the case that on October 1st the fee changed to $30, I even double checked when I got some wi-fi. So, I went to a cash point and gave the guy the extra money. I did actually have the extra, I just kept up the act that I didn’t so that I didn’t seem like a liar myself.

Upon reaching Phnom Penh we went for our first taste of Khmer cuisine at a place called the Pepper Tree on the river. I had chicken Amok, which is like a coconut curry a bit like a korma but not as sweet, while Abi ate beef Lok Lak, which is a darker curry that looked a bit more like a thick gravy and had a bit of a smoky, peppery taste to it.

We then had a bit of a walk up and down the riverside, which has lots of bars, restaurants, hotels and droves of perverts. I’d say 90% of the westerners that we saw were old white guys with a young (some very young) Cambodian on their arm, the sort of thing that puts you off a place. So before we brought our food back up, we headed off to bed.

The next morning we got a wakeup call at 7am courtesy of the hotel next door. It turns out they are getting a bit of work done there and apparently 7am is a perfectly reasonable time to start hammering, banging and drilling. This may have been somewhat reasonable had it just been one or two people working, but they had a huge squad in effectively tearing the whole place down ready to build it back up again. The work was so intense that the plaster in our hotel was actually falling off the walls! That is not an exaggeration! Also, the noise was so loud that Abi and I couldn’t hear each other at any more than a distance of two feet apart, even if we shouted. This is also not an exaggeration.

We considered packing up and leaving, in fact we did pack up, but then we wouldn’t have got our money back (due to Agoda’s no refund policy) and we were going to be up early the next two mornings anyway. Therefore, we just got up and left for the day, deciding to continue our stay there. The place is called the Local Riverside Hotel, it was ok and it was cheap, but they are seriously losing out on business due to the reconstruction of Angkor Wat next door, which is a shame because the guys there are a nice bunch. I feel a bit sorry for them for it, particularly since they can’t escape the noise during the day and have to endure it. It must be driving them nuts!

For breakfast we went to a place called Paddy Rice, an Irish bar on the riverfront, treating ourselves to a good English breakfast for the first time in an age! We then spent the day walking around the city doing some of the sites near the river. There were a few nice temples that we passed, including Wat Ounalom, which apparently has one of Buddha’s eyebrow hairs in it (although we didn’t pay to go into that bit), and then we passed one called Wat Bottom Fatty. That’s clearly not the correct spelling, but it’s something like that and that version is funnier.

We visited the National Museum, displaying some nice Khmer art and relics from the age when Angkor Wat was built (more on this in later posts). After dinner we went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which was nice for a bit of a walk around inside the palace area; there are some pretty cool murals around the walls of the courtyards depicting scenes from Hindu myths and legends, stuff I got quite into in India and it was enjoyable revisiting it. I’m fond of the tales of the likes of Vishnu and Krishna battling with demons, they’re quite fun and imaginative!

The Silver Pagoda is named so due to the floor being made entirely out of silver plating, however it’s all covered up with carpet to protect it so you don’t actually get to see any of it. There wasn’t even a roped off area that was revealed so you could get an idea, which is a shame if you ask me! But all is not lost inside, as there is a huge collection of small Buddha statues made out of gold, silver or gems that have all been donated to the temple. The centre piece being a large statue of gold, behind which sits a Buddha made entirely out of emerald and it’s very pretty.

All of this added up to quite a long busy day in rather high temperatures. Couple all of this with our abrupt awakening and we were both left feeling pretty tired. We were also planning on going to Tuol Sleng prison and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields the next day, a day we both knew would require some emotional strength, as they are two sites from the time of the insane genocidal rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime. I warn you, the rest of this post isn’t light hearted and a big 12A stamp is probably required.

So after being woken up by our alarm clock provided by our neighbours, we went and got a tuk-tuk to Tuol Sleng. This was formerly a high school in the middle of Phnom Penh that was turned into a prison during the reign of Pol Pot, renamed S-21. Here they imprisoned and tortured those they deemed to be enemies of the regime, making up all sorts of allegations and torturing people until they confessed to crimes that were completely fictitious.

Nowadays it is a museum highlighting the insanity and brutality of the genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975 until 1979, with photographs of the victims as well as copies of the information that the Khmer Rouge gathered about each person. We actually found that a guy from Newcastle, John Dewhirst, had been imprisoned here and was accused of being an agent of the CIA. He was tortured and eventually executed for his crimes.

Where some of the rooms have been turned into photo-galleries, others have been left as they were found. Some were big classrooms that had had makeshift cells built in them out of bricks or wood, while others were torture chambers that still had the bloodstains on the floors, ceilings and walls.

From Tuol Sleng we followed the same road as the prisoners would have, to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Here, after their torture and imprisonment, the victims would be brought to meet their final end and be buried in mass graves.

These days it’s a large memorial site to those victims and the other 2.2 million people who died during that era. Upon entering the site there is a large memorial stupa that houses the skulls and other bones of 5000 people. Before approaching that monument though, we walked around the rest of the fields, where there are a number of ditches that had previously been mass graves. Since the atrocities occurred, the government and other NGOs had dug up many of the graves to piece together evidence of the crimes committed here to bring justice to the Khmer Rouge leaders. But from 2005 the government ruled that the remaining graves were not to be touched and the bones were to be left to rest.

All in all it was a pretty harrowing day. I won’t go into all the details as it was incredibly gruesome and they weren’t exactly nice places to visit. However, those coming to Cambodia must come to them, not only do you learn lessons of the hell these people went through (in living memory) but you also learn the depths that humanity can sink to. I finished the day with the same sickening feeling as after my trip to Auschwitz in 2006.  

On that evening we sat by the river back in the city and watched as a group of teenage Aussies played a hacky-sack type game and were joined by some of the local youngsters. There was also an old guy who was fishing for plastic bottles along the river on a little wooden boat, I guess they must get a little bit of money for each bottle they take to wherever. He beamed at me when I climbed down the river bank and gave him our empty bottle of coke, with genuine thanks in his eyes.

We then sat and had a couple of drinks with the guy from our hotel, who was grateful of the business as the place was dead (the place is pretty much hidden due to the destruction next door). It was nice to sit and have a bit laugh with him, what with that and the joy by the riverside it certainly brightened our day.

The next morning we were to be getting a bus to Kampot, our next destination. We went to bed feeling like we had already learnt a lot about the Cambodian people, that despite (or perhaps because of) the hell their country went through in the ‘70’s, they are determined to be friendly and are equally determined to work hard and continue with rebuilding their beautiful country - and they start at 7am!

[craigabi]

Mekong Delta & Ho Chi Minh City Part 2 – 28/09/14 – 30/09/14

The first day in the Delta area was nice, although it started off with the sound of a dying cat, sorry, I mean some Vietnamese folk music. A live band of ancient guys with a couple singing provided some fantastic entertainment, although probably not in the way they intended. I’m sure some folk music is quite nice, like the stuff that accompanied the water puppet show in Hanoi, but no one on this planet could have found the singing here pleasant. It was only made worse when one of the Vietnamese women on the trip also got up and joined in. My ears were bleeding, but we laughed.

After this was a little canoe ride through some of the mangrove areas, which was made enjoyable by the rain that kept us cool on the ride (clouds and silver linings anyone?). The boat took us to a little area where we were presented with a cup of honey tea, which was nice, were allowed to try some coconut candy, which was also nice, and we were then able to try shots of snake wine or coconut wine. Both wines gave us the shudders and made us pull very strange faces, but the taste wasn’t too bad. The coconut wine is made from the coconut water but the snake wine is made from the venom of the snake, the dead body of which is coiled nicely inside the bottle to remind you what it is.

Next was a motor boat to a little place to have some lunch, which was basic but tasty. There was an old dog that looked pretty blind sniffing round the tables. Where its eyesight had failed clearly its nose had increased in power as he followed plates of food when they were brought out and pestered everyone for a morsel of anything.

Another boat then took us to see a big Buddha, which we’ve seen a few of now! Although this one was different, as this one was a big Happy Buddha (that’s the fat bald one with the big grin)! This was mainly done as a toilet stop before a bus journey to Can Tho city. Our journey here was quite comfortable as a lot of the Vietnamese had left us, giving a lot more room on the bus and a double seat each.

On my last visit to the Delta we spent a night in Can Tho that time as well. My memories were of a dirty little room with only a ceiling fan and mosquitos flying around (think the opening scene of Apocalypse Now with Martin Sheen and the fan). Well this time was pretty much the same, but with the added bonus of an air con unit on the wall! As it happens, I think we’ve stayed in worse accommodation on this trip, so the room in Can Tho didn’t seem so bad.

That night we had a bit of a walk around the town, looking at the night market and also going for food at a local restaurant. When I asked the young waitress what she recommended from the menu her suggestion was the snake. Well I’m not one to turn down a recommendation and I thought why not!  

Essentially the snake meat itself wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t keen on the curry sauce that it came in, as it was very sour. We had some vegetables in a lemon grass and garlic sauce, if the snake had been in that it would have been much better! Regardless, I did have a crazy dream that night in which I had snakes wriggling around inside of me!

Day two in the Mekong was an early start to see the floating market. Here there were lots of boats that were floating along selling all sorts of fruit and veg, with whatever item it was that they were selling displayed on a big bamboo pole. The most impressive part was watching people throwing items from boat to boat; two guys were passing big watermelons to each other, two at a time!

We then motor boated our way to our next stop, which was a rice noodle factory. I say factory, but it was just a wooden hut where they turned the rice milk into big sheets of paper, which was dried in the sunlight and then ran through a shredder. The result was some nice long strips of rice noodles. Unfortunately we weren’t provided with a bowl of rice noodle soup to try them out, which would have been a great little touch, if you ask me!

Next stop was a little plantation that was growing Jack fruit, guava, durian and frogs. That wasn’t a mistype; they were breeding some big frogs in a pond covered by a net so they couldn’t escape. They also had their prize fighting cockerels kept in separate little pens, while the rest of their chickens were just wandering about.

Here you could have had barbequed snake, rat or frogs as a snack. As I had tried the snake the night before we gave this a miss and stuck with mangos, dragon fruit and a coconut. If you’ve never heard of dragon fruit before, well I’ll tell you it is very nice! The outside is incredibly dramatic for the plain inside, which is just white with little black seeds, but the taste is good!

After a bit time relaxing in hammocks we then got the boat back to Can Tho. After a quick and disappointing lunch at the restaurant next to the hotel, it was back on to the bus and we were on our return trip to Saigon.

Once we were back we went for tea in a pizza restaurant with a woodfired oven, which was labelled as the “best pizza in Saigon”. Not the best I’ve ever had and the only ones we’ve had in HCMC, but I have to admit they were pretty good!

The next day was our final one in Saigon and with that our final day in Vietnam, as we would be getting a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the following morning. We didn’t do a great deal to be honest, had a nice walk by the river and looked at Stark Tower, then sent a package home, stuff we have collected over the past couple of months that will no longer allow our bags to shut. We sat and had a nice couple of iced coffees in the Coffee Factory, making use of their fast and free wi-fi!

Then we had a bit walk around Notre Dame Cathedral (not the Notre Dame, just Vietnam’s equivalent). It was dark and we had thought it may have been nicely lit up, which it wasn’t. We’d hoped to get back to the Hard Rock to see Jogadanz again, but we also wanted a final hotpot before leaving the country, so we had to make a hard decision and our stomachs got the better of us! We went for one at a little local restaurant near our hotel, but it was a tad disappointing as it wasn’t as good as we had hoped it would be. A shame that in a country where we’ve had great food all the time, our final meal was a let-down, but never mind!

Like I said, it was up early the next morning for our bus to Cambodia. Final thoughts on Vietnam? Well it’s changed a lot since I was last here in some ways, western companies have invaded big style and a lot more successfully than the last attempt by the American government. Tourism has obviously brought in a huge flow of money, the marina at Ha Long Bay being the biggest single piece of evidence of this. Yet, as things stand, the country hasn’t been spoilt. The people are great, the landscape gets more lush with every year of regrowth and the food is (generally) incredible.

After two trips to ‘Nam I would definitely go back for a third. There’s a magical draw about the country that I think will always drag me back here. For Abi, well she’s been captured by the same magic, I almost had to drag her away. We’ll definitely be back!

[craigabi]

Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) Part 1 – 25/09/14 – 27/09/14

Ho Chi Minh City got its name after the country was reunified in honour of Ho Chi Minh, who lead the North but died before the end of the war. However, to everyone and anything expect officials and official publications, it is still known as Saigon, a name that stirs images of bars, clubs, restaurants and, of course, the girls. Where Bangkok is (in)famous for the Lady Boys, HCMC is renowned for the Miss Saigons, an image obviously helped by the musical of the same name! To be honest, Boublil and Schonberg really captured the atmosphere of Saigon in the opening scenes of the show; even today the streets have the same feel. Although the Western guys there aren’t American GIs anymore, they are still being entertained by girls who could have been from the stage show. If you’ve no idea at all, this link gives an idea of the feel of the place, well the first 30 seconds or so. But watch the rest, it’s worth it.       

Back to our time there! We arrived in the mid-afternoon and had just got to our hotel, Phan Lan 2, when the roads were yet again turned to rivers (we did come to Asia in the wet season after all)! We tried to wait it out but it seemed relentless and as our stomachs were growling in anger (we’d only had a fried egg sandwich for breakfast off Strawberry), we pretty much swam to the first food establishment that we came to, which was Burger King round the corner. We had a Whopper of a time there (boom boom) but still the rain came down. So we got the canoe out and paddled back to the hotel to hide from the downpour.

The following day the floods had subsided and we went to the Ben Thanh indoor market, pretty much slap bang in the centre of Saigon, like a traditional shopping mall, selling clothes, food, utensils, jewellery and all sorts of other stuff! There’s even a food court in the middle, if you dare…

We refrained from parting with our Dong (Vietnamese currency) at the market and headed to the War Remnants Museum. For anyone going to the city this place is a definite MUST, it gives quite a dramatic demonstration of the horrors of the Vietnam War. Critics say it’s very one sided, which it is, but history is told by the victors, right? At the end of the day, this small nation in the corner of Asia fought the US and drove them out, if things had been the other way round how honest would the South have been about the war?

Regardless of the politics, the museum is basically a collection of photographs taken from all sides in the war and nobody can argue that they don’t picture the madness of the whole thing and how devastated the country was because of it. Estimates vary, but to give you an idea of the scale of the bombing and shelling, the US dropped between 3 and 8 times (depending on the source) the amount of bombs on Vietnam than was used in the entire Second World War. On top of that was the hell on earth that was created by the deforestation toxins that were used, the worst of which is known as Agent Orange. The legacy of this still lives on today, as children are still being born with severe deformities and cancerous tumours caused by the chemicals in water supplies and also the genes of the parents affected by the substance. The injustice of this is that the American veterans who are affected by the Agent Orange sued the chemical firms and got a canny pay out, which is fair. What’s not fair is that when the victim association from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia tried to claim, the international courts wouldn’t even entertain it. Maybe 5 million victims aren’t enough to give evidence of the damage done or something… This is the only battle still waging from the war that ended in 1975, the battle to get some justice to a people who are still suffering.

Sorry for the rant, but when you see the victims first hand it makes you sick to think they have nothing and most can’t work so have to live off meagre support from the government and charities. I guess the museum did its job in stirring emotions!

There is also a photo gallery dedicated to the photo-journalists who died during the war, showing iconic photos taken by them, most from their final reels of film. I admire the journalists and film crews that cover wars these days, but the photographs taken during the Vietnam War are much more iconic than the video footage we get on the news, an art form that only really had its heyday during that conflict.

After quite an emotional trip around the museum we then headed back to the backpacker district to lighten our mood again. The food we had at the Xich Lo BBQ certainly sorted that out, even though we didn’t have much appetite after seeing the displays and exhibitions at the War Remnants.

The next morning we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were used by the Viet Cong around Saigon to attack the South and American’s behind their lines. The Viet Cong, or VC, were made up of locals who supported the North and were waging a guerrilla war against them, supplied by the secret routes of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (which we saw part of on the DMZ tour in Hue).

We got to crawl through one of the tunnels, highlighting how narrow and dark they were, I’m sure this one had been enlarged a bit as well so us bulky Westerners could fit down them! The guide gave us a demonstration of the various booby-traps that the VC set for the American’s, all of them pretty deadly and none of them very pleasant! After this we got to climb around the wreckage of a US M-41 Tank, with time to go inside and pose for photos. Then you remember some poor guys probably died in the thing.

The final part of the tour is the shooting range, where you can pick from an array of rifles and machine guns used during the conflict and pay to have a go. Last time I was here I had a go of an AK-47 and missed the targets by miles, so I tried again hoping for more success, which I failed at. Let’s hope I don’t get called up during WW3! Abi then had a go and was equally hopeless, the gun kept jamming as well so maybe that was just putting her off! Or she was just a rubbish shot as well.

Once we had established that we would be the first to die in a conflict, we then made our way to a little cinema hut and basically watched an old Vietnamese propaganda movie about how good the tunnels were! Huzzah!

Soon we were back on the bus to Saigon, bumping and jolting along as per usual. When we were back we did a bit of shopping, buying some more vests and trousers to look hip and cool in. Then we went back to the room, got washed and changed then hopped in a taxi to the Hard Rock Café. We gorged ourselves on big burgers, fries and onion rings, while watching a really great cover band. Called Jogadanz and from Indonesia, they performed three 45/50 minute sets and played a really good range of songs, taking requests from the audience and pulling them off as if they’d been practicing them all day! The two vocalists were really superb; the guy was great, really showing off his talent with some belting rock numbers, and the girl was just phenomenal, jumping from the likes of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep to Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Paradise City! All of the songs were done to an incredibly high standard! We had hoped to get back to see them again before leaving Saigon, but unfortunately we were unable to, which was a big shame! I took some video footage, which I will put on YouTube at some point!

Ok, so that’s our first part of Saigon, the next day we went to the Mekong Delta on an overnight trip and then two more nights in HCMC. I’ll cover all that in another post, since this one was long already with plenty of links and additional reading for you to do! So go get your homework done and I’ll get working on the next post!

[craigabi]

Mr Peace in action at the karaoke! What a star, Louis Walsh would love him!

[craigabi]

Dalat – 23/09/14 – 25/09/14

Eventually we bounced to a stop in Dalat. We hadn’t booked anywhere to stay, but we had shortlisted a few options from the internet, the number one being Mr. Peace Backpacker’s House. It wasn’t far from where the bus stopped, so we walked off to find it, down a little back street which was quite steep. As we trekked up towards it a young Vietnamese guy came running wildly down the street crying “hello! I’m Mr. Peace! Do you have a booking?” to which we replied with, “no” expecting him to turn us away. But he didn’t, he just exclaimed that that was great news and that he had a room and then gave us both big hugs. Crazy, but in a good way, just how we like it.

We were introduced to his wife, Strawberry, and their adorable 9 month old daughter, Laura. Both mother and daughter were very small and very cute, we knew they were going to be a lovely family to stay with.

The room was ok, but anything would struggle to look good after our stay in Hoi An, however the lounge area upstairs and the kitchen were where we spent most of our time anyway. It was such a great social place, Peace really did an excellent job of bringing all the hostel guests together and creating a fun and enjoyable atmosphere.

On our first afternoon Abi and I had a bit walk into town around the lake. There wasn’t much to see, but we had some nice food for lunch and it was a pleasant enough walk.

When we arrived back at the hostel in the evening Mr. P took us and some other guests down to the market to get some food for the BBQ party he had planned for that night. It was a bit like shopping at the market in Yangshuo, but with no dogs hanging up and this time the market was spread along the roadside. We also had Mr. Peace with us this time, adding to the entertainment. He bought Abi a lovely bunch of flowers, just because we’d had to wait half an hour while they finished cleaning our room when we first arrived. That was nice, but I’m not sure what he expected us to do with them on our travels (we gave them to Strawberry in the end).

Back at the house we all pitched in and gave Strawberry a hand preparing the tea, chopping the squid, meat and vegetables, then putting them all on skewers ready to cook on the coals. It was all a good laugh; a Scottish lad who was with us, Michael, who is the son of a butcher, thought gutting the squid was gross! Apparently he can handle cutting up meat but not seafood.

We then sat on the balcony area with a couple of BBQs and a few (maybe quite a few) beers, cooking the skewers and feasting on the food. I didn’t count but I think there were over twenty of us from all over the world, mainly Germans mind. I’m seriously starting to wonder if there are any young Germans left in Germany, we’ve met so many over here! Not that that is a problem of course.

With the food consumed Abi and I went to bed, we needed to recover from our journey from Hoi An! The others were talking of heading to a night club or karaoke bar, but next morning we found this hadn’t happened due to a lot of people leaving early the next morning.

Speaking of the next morning, that was another reason we wanted an early night, we had our canyoning trip to go on! Now in case you missed any of the photos on Facebook, the canyoning trip turned out to be the most fun and crazy thing we did in Vietnam. Basically it involved trekking through the jungle, swimming down a river, jumping into pools oh and erm…abseiling down waterfalls. You know, as you do.

We went with Michael and Hannah from our hostel and were joined by two Aussies, Peter and Catherine (I think that was her name). We got to the canyoning area and were taken by our two guides/instructors, Mr Win and Dragon (yes, Dragon was his name, Fly was his surname), into the jungle. We were given our harness, helmet, life jacket and a pair of thick woollen gloves then climbed up to the top of a 5 meter cliff where we were shown the essentials in abseiling and allowed a few goes up and down.

To those who don’t know, Abi is terrified of heights, especially after a nasty experience while rock climbing when she was dropped quite a way by her belay partner and crashed into the ground, luckily avoiding serious injury. As you can probably imagine, stood at the top of the cliff face she was just a little bit terrified. But she took a big deep breath and gave it a go, actually quite enjoying it after a couple of attempts!

After the practice one we then did an 18m dry abseil, which was down a dry cliff face next to a waterfall and ended with a drop into a pool at the bottom. That was our first taste of getting wet, the water was cool and refreshing but gave you quite a shock when you were all of a sudden submerged in it. We then swam under the waterfall, something I’ve never done before and I have to say the power of the water dragging you towards it was pretty incredible! You just had to let it suck you in and spit you back out! Mad.

We trekked a bit through the jungle, which was cool in itself, to our next destination, a natural water slide! This sounds like it would be quite fun, which it was, but it was also a lot more frightening than any waterslide at Wet ‘N’ Wild or Blizzard Beach! Essentially you lie down at the top of some rapids and let the current drag you through them. You just bounce down the rapids in a few short seconds and come out in a pool at the end not really knowing what the hell just happened!

As if to give us time to recover from the rapids, we then just floated along in our life jackets, trying to get our breath back. This led us to the last dry cliff, it was only 16 meters high and ended up with us stepping in a shallow bit of the river at the bottom, nothing fancy! But after a little more walk through the trees we got to the second water slide, which was just brutal. Not only were we thrown about like rag dolls down the rapids, but we then got thrown off a small waterfall at the end and well and truly dunked under the water. Normally when you jump/drop into water you are under for a bit and then you either pop back up or swim back up. With this you were thrown in and because of the power of the waterfall you kind of get pushed down deeper for a longer time than is actually comfortable. Me being the wally I am, I’d given a scream of “kowabunga” as I’d dropped off the end, something I regretted due to the fact I no longer had any air left in my lungs during the submerged period, adding to the uncomfortable feeling.

Once we had battled through the jungle a bit more we came to the Big One, the 25 meter-high abseil down the waterfall itself. I took one look over the edge and for the first time thought, “what am I doing?” so I volunteered to go first. Strange how my mind works, right?

There were three parts to the route, the first you walk backwards and then go over the edge, feeling the full power of the river pushing against your legs as you shuffle along with your back to the drop. During this stage Mr. Win is visible at the top indicating if you needed to go left, right or keep going straight. I can’t stress enough the power of the water on your legs at this point, the Aussie guy actually lost his footing and slipped against the rock because it’s just so strong!

The second part you go over a ridge and can no longer see Mr. Win, so instead you have to look at Dragon who is on dry land at the side. This is pretty much vertical and the water is hitting you in the face, making seeing anything seem difficult. At this point I heard Dragon shout “Stop!” he then said something else, which I didn’t hear, then he counted “one, two, THREE!” so what did I do? I smiled, thinking he wanted to take a photo of me in the rushing water (as he had our camera). What had I forgotten? Well Mr. Win had said at the top that at this point we were to just let go, but with the chaos of the water this had slipped my mind. Until Dragon imitated letting go. “Oh…yeah” I thought. So without even looking backwards I trusted the mighty Dragon and let go with both hands. I can tell you falling backwards 7 meters takes quite a long time, just when you think you’re never going to hit the water you feel the slap against your back and the rush of wind explode from your mouth. Christ On A Bike.

I swam to the surface, let Dragon help me out and I think my words were along the line of “Holy sh*t! Can I do it again?” So once everyone else had had their turn, me and Michael rushed back to the top to go again. Might as well get our monies worth right?

Abi did the thing no bother, like a pro! She even thought ahead and managed to hold her nose as she dropped off the end! Turns out she had tried to chicken out and climb back up from the end of the first part, stopped by Mr Win declaring she couldn’t turn back now.

My second time round was much more enjoyable, I was a bit more relaxed and ready for the drop, making it awesome fun!

After a bit more trekking and a couple of jumps off a 7 meter cliff into a lovely pool below we then arrived at the final abseil, the Washing Machine. To sum it up, you go over the edge down the dry cliff face, which has a water fall crashing down the cliff face opposite with a gap of about three feet between each side. At a certain point the water from the other side starts to grab hold of you and you run out of dry face on your side to put your feet on, so what do you have to do? Give up and let the waterfall drag you down, once more demonstrating the sheer power of the river.

The instructions were to let go once you were waist deep in the river at the bottom and let the current drag you under and then away. This was all well and good, but I think I may have let go a tad too soon, as I dropped into the river and was pushed right under. The next few seconds were probably the most terrifying of my life as my knee got wedged between some rocks with my head completely under water. I say a few seconds, but my word it felt like a life time! Eventually I wiggled my knee free and was instantly dragged away by the flow, my head popping up again in moments. As I say, it felt like an age but was probably only seconds. Even so, it was enough for me to think “oh my God I’m going to die”. It wasn’t enough to stop me doing it a second time though, as I ran back to the top wanting to do it all again. Abi didn’t bother with this one. To be honest, she would have hated it so it was probably better she left on happy memories of the 25m one and not this. Second time round, I did it fine and didn’t nearly die!

So that was the canyoning. By far one of the craziest things we’ve done so far, but my word it was awesome fun and a great day! Anyone looking to do it, we went with Dalat Passion, Mr. Win and Dragon were great fun but also very good with demonstrations and explanations. Mr Dragon also took some great photos for us! Thank you to them!

Back with Mr Peace and Strawberry we all made spring rolls together, with a fresh intake of meat for the Mr. Peace house grinder (new guests) who all helped as well. Strawberry fried the rolls in a pan while also making a mean chicken curry! So tea was again quite simple, curry, spring rolls and bread, but it was lovely and great fun getting involved!

After tea everyone in the house went to the local karaoke bar, including Strawberry and baby Laura! It was a great night, Mr. Peace is quite the performer! You can tell he really, really wants to be in One Direction! He’s probably a better singer than them as well! I’ll post the video of him in action again after this.

As everyone knows that reads this, I’m the shy and retiring type that likes to keep my voice to myself and doesn’t like performing in public. So my first song was Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, purely because the German guy who started it gave up after the first couple of lines, so I helped out and picked up the microphone! I then sang the Rollin’ Stones’ Satisfaction with Rema from Australia, Abi then did her karaoke song I Love Rock and Roll, then we did Crazy Little Thing Called Love together. My highlight of the whole night was when the group of Germans all got together and sang Nina’s, 99 Red Balloons (obviously the German version)! Although Mr. Peace and Cha Cha Cha will stay with me forever.

We left Dalat the next day after an amazing stay, the canyoning, the company and the karaoke were all great fun and I’d go back there in a heartbeat! Mr. Peace was amazing, Strawberry was a saint to put up with his hyperactivity and also very lovely herself, and baby Laura was just the cutest. She was (like most babies) obsessed with my glasses and even gave me a kiss and a wave goodbye!

Next post we travelled to Ho Chi Minh City, or as everyone in the world knows it (through both fame and infamy) Saigon, and yes, the Heat truly was on!

[craigabi]

Hoi An - 19/09/14 – 22/09/14

After we had dropped our bags in the room we went for a little walk to find something to eat. The guest house was about 20 minutes away from the town centre, but there were some smaller, local restaurants on the main road to it, which we decided would do to save the walk. After all, it was dark and the road into town wasn’t the best lit; it didn’t look great to walk down especially since we didn’t know the place yet. We had some nice food at the local place anyway, all the veg and meat was fresh enough!

This was where I made friends with a couple of the regulars here, as they invited me across for a game of Vietnamese (Chinese) Checkers. Now I had no idea how to play the game, they didn’t speak English and my Vietnamese is limited to the equivalent of hello, thank you and goodbye, so them trying to convey the rules to me was a bit of a challenge! I watched the guys, Ti and Gull, play a couple of games and managed to follow a little bit. Then Gull offered me his seat, so I had a go. I went through each piece trying to work out what it could do by moving it in a direction and them saying “Yes” or “No” (sometimes both). The trickiest part was remembering what the symbols on the pieces meant, it’s not like chess where both sides have the same, my symbols were different from his and all different anyway. But after a few games I think I sort of had the hang of it and it was all a good laugh!

The next day we explored the town a bit. Now there’s not really a lot to do in Hoi An, but it’s a lovely place, very relaxed and lots of nice cafes and bars down by the river front to people watch from, with a lot of clothes shops on the criss-crossing streets. If you like Next clothes and/or Asian silks, Hoi An is the place for you! The streets are lined with tailor shops that you can go in and they will make you anything from their catalogue that you can collect the following day. I say their catalogue, but it’s not really, it’s the reason I said if you like Next clothes, as the catalogue they hand you is THE Next catalogue. The first price they offer is about what it says in the book but I’m sure a fair bit of haggling would get them down a bit. But, as neither of us has any need for Next styles at the moment, we passed this one up, buying some more “backpacker” clothes for a couple of dollars each instead. Other than shop and eat we didn’t do a great deal that day, we just walked back to the guest house and drank a bottle of Dalat red wine, while an epic thunderstorm struck outside. We had unintentionally arrived back just before the rain came, maybe Lucky the dog must have brought us some luck there!

In the morning we borrowed a couple of bicycles from the family and rode to the beach, a ten minute ride in the opposite direction from the town. The beach was similar to the one we went to on our way to Hoi An, but with a heck of a lot more people! I mean it was hardly crammed and we weren’t fighting for beds, there was just more than the four that had been at the other one. Still, it was relaxing and we ate at a nice beachside restaurant for lunch, indulging in grilled crab and scallops covered in garlic and chillies, spicy but yummy!

Once we had had our fill of sand and salty sea, we rode back to the guest house and got changed. We then walked back down to town for more food (tiger prawns in garlic and seafood noodles) at the Seafood Garden and then a few drinks at the For You restaurant at the side of the river. For You seems to get mixed reviews on Trip, some are really bad, but we enjoyed it there for a drink that night and went back for lunch there the next day, which was good! I left them a positive review as I felt they were nice and so was the food!

The riverfront was all quite nice at night, I think if we’d been there at a busier time of year the bars and nightclubs would have been bouncing, but as it is low season they were all empty. I’m not complaining though, it was nice to walk around without it being crowded. The famous Japanese Bridge was quite pretty with the lights shining on it that changed colour, but hardly a sight worth travelling to Hoi An for.

That brings us to our final day in the town. We’d booked an overnight bus to Dalat through the Golden Bell, which was to pick us up from the guest house at 5pm. I did clarify with the woman whether the bus would pick us up from there a few times, which she assured me it would. So we headed off into town on the bikes to enjoy the last of our time there.

As I said before, we went back to For You for lunch and had stuffed crab, pork satay and some wontons, which were all great, especially the crab! That was so good we in fact ordered a second round of it! These are the crabs I referred to back in the Hanoi & Ha Long Bay post, just awesome!

We had planned to have a bit more cycle around town and pop in a few of the shops, but as we were eating the rain came and then didn’t stop. I’m not talking a bit of drizzle, this was the usual tropical storm kind of rain, but without any easing. It didn’t take long for the roads to flood and I was very aware that our bikes were chained up outside! We accepted that we would get a soggy bottom on the way back but decided that we should skip the shopping to avoid getting drenched. So we sat in For You with a couple of beers and waited for the rain to clear.

It did ease eventually, so we polished off what was left in our bottles, wiped the thick of the water off the seats and set off back to the guest house in a light sprinkling. The worst part was the puddles and getting splashed by passing cars and motorbikes. Drivers either didn’t think, didn’t care or were just deliberately trying to catch us with waves as they passed us. Regardless, we were pretty wet when we got back, Lucky seemed to be having a little laugh at us as we pulled up.

They let us use a shower to clean up a bit and get changed, ready for our first sleeper bus experience. We waited inside the entrance area of the guest house for our bus to turn up and at 5pm a little guy came in and gave us a shout, no bus in sight. As I had kind of expected we were getting a transfer to the coach, I had thought it would be ambitious for a big bus to come down the little street to the house. At first he wanted to get both Abi and I, with our big bags, on one little scooter, he quickly realised getting a bus down the street would have been an easier option. But within a couple of minutes another guy was there and each scooter had a rucksack in front of the driver with one of us behind them.

I wish I could have videoed this as it was probably crazier than our tuk-tuk ride in India and a lot faster, although with this there were no cows! When getting off the blooming thing I caught my leg on the red hot exhaust pipe, giving myself a nice little burn! As my sister did a similar thing during her travels and ended up with a foot infection, I quickly applied Germolene as I did not want an amputation.

The sleeper bus was a bit of an experience, I must say I prefer trains. The seats are in a bunk bed layout, which recline allowing you to lie out at full length, with your legs in an encased compartment area. Except that my full length is longer than a Vietnamese person’s full length. As well, since your legs are in the daft box, you can’t even curl up on your side, making you feel like you are trying to sleep in half a coffin! I was actually tempted to just sleep in the aisle, at least I would have been able to stretch out. It also stopped every couple of hours for a toilet break (tab break for the driver), which would be fine during the day or if you managed to get into a deep sleep. But the problem was that they obviously turn the engine off while stopped at the services, meaning the air con goes off, meaning the bus instantly becomes an oven. The coffin now becomes a sweat box!

Now take all of that and then put all the usual bumps, jerks and abrupt stops that you get on a Vietnamese bus, with the constant horn tooting in the pile as well, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for the worst night’s sleep in the world. Horrible. We’ll be trying to avoid those in future as best we can.

Looking back, it seems we didn’t do a lot in Hoi An, which to be honest, is the beauty of the place. There isn’t a lot to do there, allowing for a lot of time to just chill and enjoy the place for what it is. On any future trips to ‘Nam, Hoi An will definitely be on the list again, just because it was such a nice, gentle place. I really hope it doesn’t get ruined. We had a great time there relaxing and getting ourselves ready for Dalat (although all of that was erased by the bus trip), as we knew Dalat would be a bit different. We had no plans, but we knew it would involve some sort of jungle treks and adventure-style fun. Well we certainly got that with our abseiling down waterfalls malarkey.

But that’s for next time. For now, goodnight.

[craigabi]

Hue, the DMZ & the Drive to Hoi An – 16/09/14 – 19/09/14

We think the old guy may have been a Vietnamese War veteran as he seemed nervous about us at first, one of the sons asked where we were from and seemed to transfer the information to his dad who then relaxed a bit. The sons then said goodbye and pretty much asked us to keep an eye on their parents. As the journey progressed I noticed more and more signs which made me think the old guy had probably had a bit of a traumatic time during the war, for example sleeping sitting up on his bed and jerking awake every now and then. We did our best to help them though, the compartment door was a bit of a struggle and only I could actually open it, so I kept hopping off the top bunk to help them if they needed in or out, not that I minded. It must have been appreciated, because as we left the train the fella shook both our hands and we got a big smiling wave from his wife, which was nice.

So we got to the Valentine Hotel at about 10am, where we were greeted by some lovely staff and taken to our nice comfortable room, which had good air con! After a little nap (and I mean little, just after our heads hit the pillows workmen started in the room above hammering and drilling) we got back up, had a shower then headed out for a look round Hue.

We walked to a place called Nina’s Café for some lunch, recommended by both Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor as being good for food, which it was. I tried a traditional Hue style curry and thoroughly enjoyed it; it was well timed as I’d been craving a curry for a couple of weeks, so my needs were satisfied.

In the afternoon we headed to the Imperial Citadel, which used to be the seat of power in Vietnam in times gone by, but now it is pretty much a ruin. The city had been a major battle ground during the war with the Americans, especially during the Tet Offensive, causing a lot of damage to the old citadel, the walls are in fact peppered with bullet holes and shell damage. They’ve started to rebuild the city to how it used to be, although no one seemed to be in any hurry with this and I think they could be on with it for a while. It would be nice to see it how it was in its glory days, but for me, I think it’s important to leave the war scars in some parts of it. It’s not that the Vietnamese need many more reminders of the damage done to the country during that time, but it gives an idea of what the citadel went through.

The following day we went to see more sights from the war, as we went on a tour around the area of the De-Militarised Zone, the DMZ. As a bit of a history lesson for you, the DMZ was created after the War of Independence against France, in 1954. The idea was that the North would be controlled by Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party and the South would be ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem and his right-wing dictatorship. The DMZ ran across the middle of the country splitting it in half, with no bases or soldiers allowed within 5km on either side of the line (which was marked by the Ben Hai River on the 17th Parallel) so that an election could be held in 1956 in peace, the winner of which would then be in charge of a unified country. The election didn’t happen and instead fighting broke out again, with the Americans getting involved in the early 60’s, stepping up the action in the mid-60’s to a full scale military operation. The DMZ then became a zone of fierce fighting between North and South, and a place where many US bases were established.

On our tour we visited some of the key points in the DMZ area, such as the Rock Pile (a US artillery position); the bridge that was built in 1973 by the North (which was actually opened by Fidel Castro) to commemorate the success of the Ho Chi Minh trail; the Khe Sanh US military base, the largest they had in the area; and the Vinh Moc tunnels, where Vietnamese locals lived underground for about 6 years hiding from the fighting and supplying guerrilla troops in the area. Khe Sanh was pretty cool, they have a few bits of American wreckage there, as well as a couple of planes and helicopters on display that were captured as the US pulled out. You can also see what remains of the original sandbag bunkers and trench systems, as well as the old runway. The museum there tells of how the North attacked the base during the Tet Offensive to draw attention away from the real targets of Saigon, Hue and various other southern cities, with some incredible photographs that really captured the chaos of the war there.

The tunnels are quite cool, these aren’t like the fighting tunnels down in Saigon, which are tiny, these ones were made as bomb shelters and living quarters underground. In fact a guy that works there was born in the tunnels and he’s very, very small, even for Vietnamese standards, as well as being deaf and with terrible eyesight. I suppose if you spend the first 5 years of your life underground in the dark, getting bombed all the time and eating nothing but tapioca, it’s going to have a life-long effect!

In general we had an enjoyable tour, the guide knew what he was talking about and the other people in the group were all nice. The driver was insane though, really crazy. He just didn’t slow down for anything: potholes, pavements, people, it was either go full speed or do an emergency stop. We all felt a little bit whiplashed by the time we got back to Hue!

The next morning we had some relaxing chill time, since this was the only room we’ve had with a bath in weeks we both had a good soak, even if it was Vietnamese sized! We then had a bit walk about the shops and called in to the Hue Backpacker Hostel. Well we were supposed to be just calling in, but we ended up staying there all day indulging in the cheap beers and the good fun atmosphere. All in all it was a nice day of battery recharging.

That was it for Hue, we didn’t do a great deal but it was a nice stop with a good trip to the DMZ area. The next day, day 60 of our trip (the day Scotland voted No) we hired a private driver to take us down to Hoi An, stopping at some great stops along the way! 

We called at the Elephant Springs, which was a collection of natural pools formed by streams from the springs. The water was delightfully refreshing on a hot sunny day! Next stop was a fantastic white-sand beach, which had us and two more people on it. The sea was like a hot bath and was waist deep for about 50 meters out, lovely for a bit splash about in!

The driver took us to a nice little restaurant for lunch, which was built on stilts out over a lake just inland from the sea. We got to pick half a dozen giant tiger prawns from a tank as well as a nice looking crab, which were then taken to the kitchen and brought back cooked to perfection. The prawn tank actually housed the biggest prawn I have ever seen in my life, it was bigger than some lobsters I’ve seen! They wouldn’t let us have that one though, which was a shame as it would have been like a prawn steak!

After we had gorged on seafood we were back on the road, crossing Hai Van pass, a road that snakes its way up through a mountain pass and down the other side into Da Nang. It provided a spectacular view of the coast line and the route we had just come along with our destination in sight in the other direction. So we came down to Da Nang and headed to the Marble Mountains, well one of them at least. They aren’t really mountains as such, just big rocks jutting out of the ground, with the town built around them, which is cool. We went up to the top of one of them, where there are small caves with Buddhist shrines built inside with a monastery up there as well. Oh and then there is the Big Cave. A little monk pointed us in the direction of it, which had a small fissure as an opening to it, and then inside was like something from Indiana Jones. It opened out into this huge cathedral-sized hall with a large stone carving of Buddha up on the wall, surrounded by various shrines. Truly incredible, with pretty much just us inside, we really felt like we had discovered an ancient beauty, a nice surprise as I thought it was just going to be the small caves and small shrines!

Eventually we left the mountain and finished the drive to Hoi An. We had debated whether or not to get a bus from Hue to Hoi An and do a trip from Hue to the giant caves of Phong Nha, but instead we didn’t do the caves and hired the driver to Hoi An, with all the stops instead. To be honest, I have no regrets. We’d done the cave in Ha Long bay and yeah we might have missed out, but what we got to do on the road, as well as the sights we got to see and food we got to eat, made the choice well worth it. We’ll save the caves for our next trip to ‘Nam.

Next post is Hoi An, so far our favourite place in Vietnam, which says a lot as the country is wonderful!

[craigabi]

Hanoi & Ha Long Bay – 10/9/14 – 15/9/14

So we both arrived in Hanoi with high expectations, mine from my memory and Abi from hearing me bleat on about how good the place was. We flew to Vietnam’s capital from HK with Vietnam Airlines, which was a slight change to our original plan. We had been going to get there via trains, three days of them in fact. But we decided we had done a lot of trains recently (eight sleepers since arriving in India) so went for luxury instead. It confirmed my first memory of ‘Nam, that the food with Vietnam Airlines was fantastic! I had fish with noodles, while Abi had pork with rice, both were delicious and as good I’d remembered!

We then got a bus trip into the city centre from the airport, which took a couple of hours due to traffic, but was only $2 each. For $2 I can live with a bit of traffic! On the bus we met a canny English guy, called Andy, who is working as a doctor in Laos but was on holiday in Hanoi for a long weekend. We gave him our email address but didn’t hear from him, which was a shame because it would have been nice to meet up with him in Laos, but never mind!

We stayed in the Culture Hostel, which was more of a nice hotel than a hostel and was in a great location near the lake in the centre of Hanoi’s Old Town. Upon arrival we were greeted with a lovely warm welcome and some fantastic fresh lemon juice. Somehow we were given a free upgrade to a Superior room, we never really found out why, as the place was quite busy, but it was nice all the same!

After check-in we walked down the street to the Countryside Restaurant (my review of which you can find here) and had some great grilled fish, spring rolls and fried rice! The girl that served us, Hien (sounds a bit like Ian), was funny and smiley, which was lovely, but she also gave a great recommendation with the grilled fish!

That’s more memories confirmed, nice people and unbeatable food, not bad for only being in the country for about six hours!

As I had mentioned in the HK post, we had arranged to meet up with Tony from the China tour on our first night in Hanoi, so we walked round to the opposite corner of Hoan Kiem lake, which is beautiful by the way, and went looking for Binh Minh Jazz Club. Only Tony would have arranged to meet up in the only jazz club in Hanoi! It took some finding, as it was tucked down a side street (surprisingly) but we got there to find no Tony. Luckily the bar had Wi-Fi so I could access WhatsApp on my phone and found he had been in touch. He’d made friends with the management team of his hotel and had gone for a hotpot with them, then would be at the bar soon. That was followed by another message to say they had gone to a karaoke bar after the meal but would still be heading to the Binh Minh. The last message had been from about an hour before, so I presumed that we probably wouldn’t be seeing him.

We hung around and had a drink as a live band came on and although I’ve never been a massive fan of jazz, they were good and it was quite enjoyable. About ten minutes later Tony arrived with his Vietnamese cohort: the hotel general manager, the entertainment manager and the food & drink manager. The fact that he had befriended the top dogs of the hotel is no surprise if you’ve ever met him, he really is a great guy, thoroughly nice and easy to make friends with! So we had a few drinks, a catch up and a bit reminisce about China, while enjoying the band in the back ground. After the band a guy got up to play some solo saxophone, making us feel like we had been transported into Miss Saigon! Then Abi and I said our goodbyes and started our walk back to the hotel. Despite the fact that it was dark and nearly midnight, it felt quite safe walking through Hanoi at that time, probably something I wouldn’t have liked to do even back in Newcastle. But it was peaceful round the lake with a few couples still sitting about and the odd group of teenagers just chilling. We managed to make our way safely back to our hotel, which had a nice smiley guy on reception waiting to welcome us back.

The next morning we booked our overnight trip to Ha Long Bay for the day after, then walked to the train station and booked a sleeper train to Hue for later that week. With all that done we then went round the little shops and markets near the lake where we kind of cooked ourselves a bit. It was such a hot day and we did quite a bit of walking, I think a bit too much sun and not enough water left us a bit dehydrated! We had tea back at Countryside and then went for an early night, so that we were nice and fresh for our trip to Ha Long.

I hate to keep referring back to the last time I was in Vietnam, but when I went to Ha Long Bay eight years ago the boats that took you out around the limestone karsts picked you up from a wooden pier in a fishing village. Well when we arrived there, after a long bus journey from Hanoi, the bus pulled up in a parking lot in front of a big and very grand building, a little bit like the White House! Inside was a bit of a shopping area and a departure lounge, with drinks and snacks available. On the other side was a big concrete harbour, lined with apartments and hotels, and full of small boats ready to take you out to the bigger, luxury boats anchored just off shore. It just goes to show the amount of money tourism brings to a place!

Our big boat was called the V’Spirit Classic and was a pleasant enough stay. On board were Abi and I, a young German couple (Hendrik and Gabi) and a big group of elderly Malaysian Muslims. In short, the Germans were pleasant but quite quiet and the Malaysians were a bit of a hoot. A couple of the women were very excitable and were a good laugh.

Now, where the pier area at Ha Long has changed dramatically, the Bay itself is still just as beautiful as ever. It is made up of about 1,960 limestone karsts sticking up out of the water, covered in greenery and with steep, sharp sides dropping into the sea. If you want to read the tale of how the place was formed by dragons during a battle click here. Alternatively if you would like to read the geographical take on how the thing was created over millennia, try here. Regardless of whether you like to believe the legend or believe the geologists, the unescapable fact is that the place is magnificent! The peace and tranquillity between the karsts is wonderful, or it would be if it wasn’t for the engine of the boat chugging away, but hey you can’t have everything can you?

We had lunch on the boat before doing anything else, which suited me perfectly. It was a moment of bravery and adventurism for Abi, as we were served fish, squid and oysters, with her only ever trying the first before. Her opinion was that the fish was delicious, the squid was nice (if it was a bit that didn’t look like squid) and the oysters tasted ok but she didn’t like the texture. I enjoyed the lot and could have eaten it all again!

In the afternoon we pulled up at one of the karst islands, where we got to walk up to the top for a fantastic view! We also discovered that the humidity on the island was sky high, giving us a drenched look like we were back in the Indian Monsoon! Luckily the reward was that you came back down from the top to a gorgeous white-sand beach. The sea water was a delightful temperature, warm enough so that there was no sharp intake of breath moment, but cool enough that it was refreshing from the walk. After a bit splash about we made our way back to the boat.

The next destination was a lovely lagoon in amongst a circle of karsts, where the ship would be moored overnight. Here we had a bit paddle in a kayak around in the water, passing through a cave in one of the karsts into an even smaller lagoon, which really was peaceful! We came back out and headed to a gap in the islands to watch the Sun go down, my word what a sight. It’s up there with one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen! The colour changes in the sky from blue, to yellow, to orange, to fire-red, along with the silhouettes of the islands through the bay, made for a truly wonderful sight.

Another wonderful sight came when they brought out the food for our evening meal, tiger prawns! Followed by more fish and then some stuffed crab. The whole lot was good, but the crab was divine! The shell of the crab was presented to us stuffed with a mash up of crab meat, prawns, rice noodles, bits of veg and chillies. As I write this, I’ve just had another couple of these crabs in Hoi An and I’m still drooling over how good they were! One of the best things I’ve ever tasted, seriously!

Once the meal was over we had a little competition to see which table good get 7 shapes of wooden blocks back into a little box. It was a little tricky, but our table (Abi, Gabi, Hendrik and I) got there first, with just a little bit of help from our guide Su. This won us all a free beer. We then stood at the back of the boat with little bamboo rods with a line and a hook attached trying to catch squid! The principle was easy, bob the stick up and down so that the hook jumped about in the water, staying close to the light that the crew had rigged up off the back, in the hopes of catching a squid.

We played at this game for a while, I, along with a couple of the old women, was quite persistent and we all got quite excited when a little squid started swimming amongst the fish. Yet none of us were successful in catching any and in fact, when the guy came back to see how we had gotten on I pointed out the little squid we were trying to get. He just laughed, said too small and basically said we should give up; “no big squid here tonight”. A question I asked myself even at the time was what I would have done had I actually caught a one, I probably would have gotten so shocked that I’d have fallen off the edge and ended up in with the squid. I also wondered if the little bugger swimming about was bait itself, and that indeed a much larger kraken like beast was lurking underneath, about to launch a great tentacle out the water and drag one of us in. I know, I need to stop reading fantasy novels!

Since we all survived the squid fishing, we awoke nice and early for a bit Tai Chi at 06:30 on the top deck. It wasn’t as good as the Yoga or Kung Fu lessons that we have had, as it was more just copying the guy as he did it, but it was still quite enjoyable. The boat then dropped us off at an island that is home to a huge cave inside the karst, called the Amazing Cave. The use of lighting inside really makes the place look special, also helping to pick out the various rock formations that look like things, such as the happy Buddha, a turtle and a form that sticks out and looks like (I’ll go for the clean version) a finger. You can use your imagination for the non-clean version.

On the way out of the cave Abi had to dig up some more courage as above the path lurked a spider quite literally as big as my hand. I’ve read on the internet that the UK is having an invasion of big spiders this autumn, well kids I can tell you they’ll have nothing on this bad boy! No matter how much I told her she wasn’t a big fly and would therefore be left alone, she still had to run underneath to escape him. Even some Australians kicking about were about cautious when passing under him!

Once more we boarded the boat and then we had a nice little cooking demonstration from the chef. He basically showed us how he carves out various fruit and veg to make the lovely little table decorations that sat with us for every meal. It was very clever and arty, no way would I be able to replicate it!

We then had a go at making our own fresh spring rolls, with prawns, egg and vegetables in them, very nice! This was followed by a proper lunch with more prawns, fish and some aubergine, which was also very nice.

Then it was back to shore for the bus trip back to Hanoi. It was a thoroughly nice trip and great to see Ha Long bay again!

That night back in Hanoi we went to a restaurant called Koto, “Know One, Teach One” which is a foundation that was set up by an Australian to take street children in and train them up to be chefs and waiters, teaching them English and other lessons that will put them on a much better life path. It hadn’t been open long when I was last there, but now the place was in full swing and served us some fantastic food. It maybe costs a little more than we’d usually spend on a meal here, but it was good food for a good cause, so why not?

The young girl we had serving us was lovely but clearly hadn’t been there long and was just learning English. She was fine with coming and asking us things and taking the order, but if we said anything off the script so to speak, she panicked, raised an eyebrow and ran off to find help. Still, I admire her courage for being there and trying to make something better of her life.

After this we had two more days in Hanoi, the first of which was incredibly unproductive. We walked for miles without actually accomplishing anything. First of all we had planned to see Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum, where his body is on display. Except it wasn’t on display as it goes to Russia every year in September for a touch up, or as Lonely Planet says, some people believe it actually goes back to Madam Tussauds and that his body is just a wax work. Either way he wasn’t at home. Luckily we found this out before even leaving the hotel. For those who don’t know who I’m talking about, Ho Chi Minh was Vietnam’s Lenin or Castro. He led the Communist north in the struggle against France and then against the US, but died before the US pulled out of the country. To get his full story see here.

The next failure of the day was the National History Museum, which we walked to only to find it was shut due to “electrical problems”. I was almost tempted to offer my services, but I’m on holiday and there were other museums to visit.

We walked up the street from the History Museum to look for the Revolutionary Museum, except it has disappeared, hiding from us like the Viet Cong hid from the Yankie GI’s! After much hunting we, like the American’s, gave up and moved on, with our next goal of going to see a Water Puppet show. Except we got there and all the shows for that day were sold out! We booked tickets for the following afternoon, our list of things to do for the next day growing ever longer!

Then we spent a nice bit of time sitting around the lake having random conversations with locals who kept coming over just to chat and practice English. Most of them were really good already although a few had incredibly thick accents, making it a little challenging, but hey, good on them. They were better at English than I was with my three Vietnamese phrases (hello, thank you and goodbye).

The day ended with some success at least! We went to the Temple of Literature which was Vietnam’s first university, built about one thousand years ago. It was nice and relaxing to walk around it, but not a great deal there to see unless you know what you are looking at. We didn’t to be honest, so it was a quick jaunt around there and then off for something to eat.

This was the best bit of the day; we went for a Vietnamese hotpot, one of my favourite memories of the country! For those that don’t know, the hotpots come as a big dish with a broth in, already steaming hot, and placed on top of some sort of fire, either hot coals or in this case a gas stove. The broth already has some chillies and vegetables in generating a flavour, but you also get a big platter of raw veg (lettuce and bok choi) with another platter of raw meat or seafood. We had ordered a mix, so we had beef, chicken, squid, fish, fish ball patties and tofu. The idea is you cook the stuff in front of you and over time the broth develops in flavour and the vegetables and tofu steep in it, soaking it in and making them delicious. The whole lot was amazing, incredibly filling and a nice entertaining way to eat a lovely meal.

 On our final day in Hanoi we managed to have a successful trip to the History Museum, which is made up of two buildings, the first about Vietnam before 1900 and the second from 1900 to now. Both were good, but more effort had clearly been put into the second one as there were more and better displays. Lots of nice artefacts from the War of Independence and then the American War (as they call it, the one we know as the Vietnam War), well I say nice, interesting is probably a more appropriate term. I don’t think guns, knives and bits of bombs can really be classed as nice, somehow! As Abi pointed out, a little bit of back story to the various exhibits would have been nice for those that didn’t know exactly what was happening in the periods that the stuff was from. She was lucky, she had me, but not everyone has someone with them that knows a ton of useless information about the various wars of the 20th Century.

After this we went to see the Water Puppet show. This was really as random as it sounds to be honest. There was a live band with a couple of singers at the side of the stage, who were performing various songs in Vietnamese that I can only guess had something to do with the action on the stage. The stage, by the way, was a big rectangular pool with a Pagoda-like back drop at the rear. On the pool, various puppets splashed about acting out scenes that made very little sense. This time Abi got to be the informed one, as she had picked up a program which told you what was happening, so she told me what was supposedly happening during each short story. I took her word for it, to me it was just random puppets splashing about to some Vietnamese folk music (they always seem to miss the L from the word folk when pronouncing it, making me giggle childishly every time they say it).

Once that random, funny and entertaining hour was over we went for our final meal in the capital back at Countryside. The standard was as high as usual and the staff were full of joy and “Hello again!” which made for a pleasant evening. So then it was Dam Biet (goodbye) to Hanoi as we had to get the 19:30 train to Hue.

[craigabi]

This was our lunch yesterday, selected from the tank, cooked in the kitchen, devoured by us. Bloody lovely!