Last Stop Saigon!

With another early morning arrival from the sleeper bus, we had a look around the local hotels in Pham Ngu Lao- a local hangout of the backpackers and the travelers. Down another 'budget alley' we soon found our hotel the Ngoc Linh. For $15 a night we get big room, hot water, satellite TV, free breakfast, free Internet....you really can live it up for a little in Vietnam! After a short sleeper bus catch up we decided to head out into the big city! Having read our trusty lonely planet guide book we decided to make a start on the walking tour around the bustling busy busy city!!!


On day 2 we completed the rest of the walking tour by going to all the major attractions such as the War Remnants museum, Reunification Palace and HCMC History Museum and Ben Tanh market. The War Remnants Museum is a must see, it's a heart wrenching museum currently showing a exhibition of war photographs from a number of countries including Sri Lanka. The rest of the museum also contains photographs from the Vietnam war, some of which are truly harrowing and make you question humanity, some of the things the Americans did to the innocent Vietnamese and their country is simply disgusting.

As a day of relaxation and in order to allow Geth to release the child trapped within went to a water park one day - fantastic fun!
We also booked ourselves on a day trip to the Mekong Delta and (despite our apprehensions due to previous day trip experiences) found ourselves on a highly enjoyable and relaxed tour! We took a minibus - yes we in a reasonable sized group for once! - to the Mekong Delta and then hopped onto a boat to the floating market, from there we then went a coconut candy factory and rice paper factory. After this we went to an island for lunch and a bike ride before heading back to the mainland and the bus. A very pleasant experience indeed!
We also took a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, felt a little bit like sheep on this one but crawling through tunnels was great fun! We were a little gutted we didn't get to fire the guns on offer but the bullets were simply extortionately priced for our limited budget!

After a week exploring in Saigon we were then getting ready to jet off to our fifth country in as many months...Malaysia!

My apologies once again for the lack of photographs but yet again the computer won't upload for us...we will hold an exceptionally long and arduous slide show upon our return to which all family and friends will be made to attend and bored to death...jokes!

Much love to everyone back at home
Susy and the Ginger One x

Mudbaths and Booze Boats!

Nah Trang!

We arrived early hours off another sleeper bus in Nah Trang, the coastal town just south of the Vietnamese centre. Know by travels for it's beaches and laid back attitude, giving you a chance to sip cocktails by the sea! We soon found accommodation down 'budget alley' But we had to wait for people to check out before we actually got into our room! we were right next to the sea front in perfect view of the Hollywood style VINPEARL sign over the sea from us. Vinpearl is an island which the Vietnamese have decided to turn into an amusement park/show/man made beach..... not really our scene! We slept off our bus hangover!

Having made our way to Nah Trang for one reason only, go visit the islands. we booked ourselves onto a boat trip at Mama Linh boat tours. Known for their party tours with some drinking and dancing but also to get a good look at the islands for only a few dollars. (since we've been in Vietnam it all works in dollars, going to be strange to get back to good old sterling!) The tour also include a floating bar which we thought could be a lot of fun, all the pictures of past boat trips looked great. We arrived on our bus to find that we were the only white westerners......

Having taken the bus we soon picked up a few other 'whites' and soon arrived at a very busy dock! our boat was already filling up and it even included a very strange Swiss guy.... we'll talk more about him later! We were heavily outnumbered by Vietnamese children and families, not really the boat trip we'd booked! and soon we were at Black Island, headed into the sea for some snorkeling! it wasn't Thailand but the waters were clear if a little busy with bodies off our boat. we soon found a good spot and watched the world beneath! got a look at a yellow box fish which was cool! i even manged some high diving off the boat! getting off the boat did cost us a fair bit unfortunately!

our lunch was served on the boat at a different location just around the corner from Black Island. it was good food if not a little strange.... our Vietnamese friends got to eat upstairs on their own, they had an awful amount of booze by the time they came downstairs! As food was cleared we were told there would be a show! Brought out by one of the crew was maybe the best musical instrument ever made, a drum kit made entirely from old bottles, or plastic barrels! the band treated us to to some Vietnamese songs before the real party began! first up was our strange Swiss bloke, a little pissed by now! he sang some song, and he was followed by a wealth of nationalities including English, French, danish, Chinese, Korean but no Welsh! sorry guys but i lied and said i was English to stop the embarrassment of having to stand up and sing!

we were allowed to go swimming and the rolled out the floating bar.... a man on a tyre in the sea holding a crate of Vietnam mulleberry red wine... rancid. the western people had to share one rubber ring and even our now steaming swiss friend decided to make an appearance, swimming up through the ring..... hysterics soon followed. he didn't quite know why? our sanity was saved as we got chatting to some of the guys on the tour especially a Aussie/New Zelander couple and a lovely chap called Raphael! We regaled other with Vietnam stories! we stopped at a 'beach' and paid to get off the boat once again! no idea as to why as the beach was about 20m long with stones and murky water, and about 150 tourist! no more money!

We arrived at our last destination which was a aquarium on another island, but along with most of the other westerners we stayed on the boat, not wanting to waste any more cash! we made our way back to shore and with some new friends decided to meet up for dinner! this was a short taxi ride outside town, a restaurant where you cook your own food on grills! we were all top chefs if i do say so myself!

having finally found a decent gym i decided to spend some of the morning there until myself Susy Dan and Ange headed off to a mud bath. Nah trang didn't really have much to offer on the old beach front so other activities were greatly snapped up! these mud baths were impressive. Mud bath was so odd, and it took ages to clean it all off! luckily one of the showers was like a fire hose!! we followed this with an all angle hot shower, and hot hot herbal bath. We got the chance to swim after our long day soaking. imagine a swimming pool full of bath hot water! swimming was just to hard!

the day before we tried to book a train to Saigon, having found all were booked for 3 days to come we had to fall back on the sleeper bus again!!! our worst enemy of the trip so far! but this time we had a plan! we wanted a few drinks to get that little bit sleepy! Thankfully for the 3rd time Dan and Ange decide to join us for the drinks! good support! but we met at 5pm thinking our bus was at 6.... soon realized it was at 8! 2 drinks became 4! and after no booze for months this took its toll!

Bus was by far the easiest journey.... funny!

next stop Saigon/Ho Chi Min City!

Love lots xx