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

Tin Tin and Snowy in Vietnam!

After our adventure in Hue we moved onto another old town called Hoi An. This town is situted in the old South Vietnam. Having heard great things from my parents we decided to extend our stay here to three nights! We were not to be dissapointed!

We decided to book a train for the first time on our tour of asia, it was our first journey but not through lack of trying, they are so cheap that we can't seem to book tickets most of the time! We took the train from Hue to Danang and it was gorgeous view after gorgeous view. Anyway back to Hoi An, having arrived and looked for accomodation, having arrived on the verge of a Vietnamese holiday we had trouble finding a room at first! And struggled with our bags out of the main town to finally settle in the only place we could find, a little out of town but it offered free bikes! An offer we couldn't refuse! It even had a pool!!!

Beautiful Hoi AN!

After some much needed recovery time we set out to explore the nearby town of Hoi An on our trusty steeds.... these bikes were just plain shit. Looked about 25 years old but despite her previous 2 wheeler mishaps Susy soon fell in love with hers. She's a little bit odd. Having only the late afternoon to look around, that's pretty much all we did. All our plans were for the next day!

Susy and her "bike"

See the vietnamses lady in the background... don't they look alike!

After an early wake up we decided to hop back on our "bikes" and set off on a day of adventure! On our tour of Hoi An we were set to buy an old town ticket and see all the sights but having realised early on that it was just possible to have a look for free we took the slightly cheaper option. First stop was one of Hoi An's museums. Small place with some amazing relics!

Susy in front of a 11th century electric fan..... (it was desperately hot ok!)

Cannon and Ball!

We then headed off to look for the Japanese Bridge and after some miscalculations we ended up at Hoi An Old Town Heratige Centre type place where it was possible to see a wide range of old working techinques, including silk spinning and pottery.

Silk Spinning!

They did the pottery a little differently to most but it sure was a good way! One older lady was shaping the clay whilst another would turn the clay table with her foot!

Pottery!

We then left our "bikes" behind and headed through the old towns art galleries. these streets were so colourful and full of sellers. and finally we found ourelves at the japanese bridge!

For all you history buffs (or that's just me), it was built by the japanese settlers in Hoi An. As the fable goes, a large monster (whose head lay in China, body in Vietnam and tail in Japan) would move about and everytime he did he would cause a flood or an earthquake.... for this reason they built the bridge on where his weakest point would be and therefore killed him. The Vietnamese took pity on this and built him a museum inside the bridge. Another cool fact was that they biult the bridge to be earthquake proof..... who knows?

Me in front of the bridge!!

After a spot of food on the river front, we called it a day and relaxed back at the hotel, knowing what we had planned for the next day. During our day out we booked ourselves into a sunrise

tour to an ancient champa relic ground. We decided on the sunrise tour to miss the crowds but it came at a 4.30am wake up call cost!! The Champa Relic Ground was called My Son (pronoced me sun). Having woken and arrived so early we were blessed with an empty(ish) veiwing of the relics. Built between the 5th and 12th Century the champa people rulled Vietnam for over 1000 years and they were very fond of reproduction and the art of sex. Goes some way to explain the next picture! yes that is supose to be a penis........

We positivly sped back from My Son, unbeknown to us the driver had to pick another group up and we arrived back at 9am, strange thinking we had already done a days sightseeing. Back to bed!! After a cat nap we were back out into Hoi An old town and got a little old lady to take us on an hour boat trip up and down the river, so peaceful and easy going. Even though we did stop a few time for her to pick up garbage?!?

Susy and our little lady!

We finished up with Hoi An and headed overnight on another sleeper bus to Nha Trang, a beach side resort town, just a way of breaking up a very long journey to Saigon!

Love lots Gethin and Susy xxx

DMZ

Having studied History throughout school and University, Vietnam and the 'Vietnamese war' has always intrigued me! Having spent our first week in the North of Vietnam (old communist regime) we had only experienced Old Vietnamese life, on our trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) we encountered something new. Another early start set us up for a 13 hour round trip from Hue (ancient capital of Vietnam) to our destination slap bang in the middle of Vietnam. Along Highway 1A

For a little bit of history, after the French had left Vietnam in 1954 they decided alongside Ho Chi Min at the Geneva conference to split the country temporally along the Ben Hai river, allowing the Vietnamese people to decide whether they wanted to live in the north or the south. The south canceled the following elections, and during the Vietnam War the DMZ became the site of some of the most famous televised battles of all time.

We began our tour travelling to Dong Ha for breakfast, this would not be the only time we visited Dong Ha...... after food we started on our way to the monument which was built in honour of the North Vietnamese armies who lost their lives, in an ambush on the TET holiday. a swift ambush attack which diverted the Americans away from the TET offensive, the turning point of the war. In the middle of the Statue is a lady fighter! over 20% of the Vietcong army were ladies! It was really big! Back on the bus (3 hours already....) to cross the Ben Hai River, for all those paying attenition in my first lecture (see above) this is what separated the north and south. There were sets of loudspeakers on both sides of the river used during the war to shout abuse at each other. Childish.

Vinh Moc Tunnels was next on the long trip! but this was well worth it! The tunnels were used by the North Vietnamese to shelter themselves from the American bombing Campaign. There were three levels 10m deep, 18m deep and 23m deep. included in this was a medical room, in which 14 babies were born during the War, family rooms, and a conference room which doubled as a school..... it was truly amazing to be down in the tunnels. They even opened up onto a beach!

But unfortunately it was time to get back on the bus! our next stop was Dong Ha! again! this time it was for lunch, off Highway 1A and onto Highway 9! We didn't bargain for our next 2 hour trip! Firstly we went to see the Rockpile, a very tall Rockpile which the Americans used as a look out point over the DMZ, we got about 2 km away and then had a look...... you guessed it a pile of rocks. I really looked forward to our next destination. Ho Chi Min trail! after some more time on the bus we arrived at a new Highway. The Ho Chi Min highway..... well the trail isn't there anymore because the built a big new road on top. again we looked from a far and left........ gutted. Getting a little fed up with looking at roads now!!!!!

Our last attraction was the Khe San Combat Base, this site included old war helicopters, Guns, Clothing and mortar bombs.... i had a read through the sign in book, and it was moving to see old war veterans writing about re visiting this was site. (500 Americans and 10,000 North Vietnamese died on this battle field). A fitting end to our trip! then back to Dong Ha!!!!!AGAIN! for a drop off then back to Hue! 13 Hours later!

Having finished with the Ancient Capital of Hue, we set course for Hoi An! Luckily this time we took the train, quite a spectacular experience with some incredible views of the coastline, I'm sure in a few year Vietnam will get the reputation of becoming a stunning beach holiday! Having heard good things about Hoi An, this was one town we looked forward to exploring!

Gethin and Susy

xxxxx