I'm glad we didn't miss Saigon

It now seems quite a time ago, Saigon (as the locals still prefer to call it) was our first sign of some real Asian heat with daytime temperatures reaching just high enough for us to really need our cheeky little afternoon naps.

We arrived on the overnight train (a somewhat quieter affair than previous trips allowing a reasonable amount of sleep) at 5.30am, the taxi ride through a waking city was quite remarkable as within the 30 mins it took we saw darken deserted street come to life with mopeds, cleaners, vendors and all kinds of folk practicing their thai chi in the parks. We had some fun with the taxi driver into the city, with the first wanting to charge us $10 and then the second telling us to ignore what the meter said and to give him $3 (3 times the $1 we eventually paid after sticking with the meter and lot's of tutting!!)


Me doing my hot tortoise impression

We sat wearily on a park bench for a while to catch our breaths and then headed to drop our bags at the cute homestay / guesthouse that was our base for 3 nights. In order to make the most of the city we then headed out to explore, taking in 3 of the main sights before an ice cream lunch.

Saigon is a good place to learn a lot about the Vietnam war(s) and we feasted on museums and palaces explaining how the Vietnamese coped with the events and one particular museum display which detailed the work of the war reporters / photographers many of whom perished whilst trying to bring the true stories out of the middle of the fracas! It was very interesting to hear some of their comments about why anyone would do such a job and indeed whether they should even be there. there were also numerous tales of these "civilians" leading rescue parties once separated from their main groups.


The "War Command Centre" complete with matching phones for ladies!


The underground government bunker even had it's own cinema - old school projector room

Continuing the edutainment we headed out on a little trip on the follwoing day (complete with the obligatory stops at the government run jade / lacquerware / silk factory on the way and way back.) It was a boggling mix of war and peace, the main destination was the Cu Chi tunnels which the Vietnamese used to hide during the conflict with a side trip to a temple that is the base for Caodaism which is a great religion that is a mix of Christianity, Buddhism and Taosim and has Victor Hugo as one of it's saints!!


Altar at the temple


Monks and nuns entering for worship - the different colours represent each parent religion


Lots of sitting nuns

Despite the slightly rushed tour of the tunnel complex, it was an fascinating place to visit. We got to see how everyday tasks were carried out whislt hiding as well as some of the more horrendous traps they set for the US forces. The real experience was a short stretch of tunnel which had been cleaned up of creepy crawlies yet still gave a very hot and claustrophobic sense of what is was like to live in the tunnels...we lasted about a minute before heading up for air!!


A non-tourist tunnel entrance


Hot and cramped

On our third day we decided to shift down the gears a little and visit a beach island / outcrop which was so great that we have both forgotten the name...half an hour walk to one of the worst beaches I have been to...you live and learn!!

To ready ourselves for the trip into Cambodia we rounded off Vietnam with a nice meal in a restaurant where you barbeque your own food on a little hotplate in the middle of the table...I have to say that the chef did our little beef skewers to perfection.


Our Chef

All skyped up

By the way we are now on skype...finally.

You can look me up using my full name or username of simonocc!!

A different perspective

This is an experiment, my first beach-side blog entry. Most times I update this I am sat on a wonky chair in front of a flickering screen trying to remember our adventures from the previous couple of days...not really a conducive environment (actually as I am copying this from my notebook the chair isn't wonky but certainly not as comfortable as the couch I wrote this on!!)

Well this is much better...I am sipping tea (yes some things never change) in a place called the Lousiane Brewhouse, a beach club / bar that has a microbrewery, free pool and great sounds.

We are due off later tonight to Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon on our 3rd night train ride and have found that the perfect way to get ready for such an event is to find the right venue and while away the hours reading, playing games as well as the obligatory eating and drinking both for sustenance and to also permit us to remain in said joint.

When in the rather damp Hue we spent a quite impressive 8hrs in Bar Why Not (rather fittingly) comprising 2 full meals, countless pineapple shakes, lessons in othello and pool for Cath, shithead galore (it's a card game) and a fair few beers.

We made the 2am train happy little campers with full bellies and ready to sleep...which is just as well as the entertainment system on Vietnam Railways consists of Kenny G meets Abba piped into the carriage...AAhaa!!

This time around the weather is much better and if we had wanted to we could have visited some Cham ruins or hopped off on an overpriced boat tour of the islands but we again find ourselves trying very hard to be able to honestly say "we just chilled out." I am not sure if this means we are bad visitors or that we are moving slowly from being tourists to travellers...(I haven't got dreadlocks yet although Cath has been dropping hints about me needing a trim!!) I do know however that towards the end of Japan and certainly in China, although that could have been due to the cold, that we started rushing through the temples with one seeming to blend into the other. We both want to make the most of everything we do which has lead to balancing the cultural excursions with the odd days in mud baths or doing not much at all...

...I think I can live with that.

Kick back and relax!

From rainy Hue to very sunny Nha Trang.... we like this place a lot. Our 2am train journey from Hue down here meant we gathered a Danish friend Rune (neither of us can say it properly). He is very interesting and told us many tales of crazy adventures he has had - mainly in Eastern Europe to some fairly obscure locations.

Nha Trang is a beach town and the dive capital of Vietnam. With the beach comes long stretches of beach bars, lots of gorgeous seafood and an array of dive shops and boat trips on offer. So happy to be here we walked up and down the length of the beach about 3 times to feel the sand between our toes before we stopped to register that it was 4pm and we had not had any lunch (breakfast was a box of Oreo's and some Pringles as we didn't want to brave any of the train food on offer)

Lets just say this picture sums up how we have spent our evenings in Nha Trang.


This bar is actually a little brew house on the beach (there behind the palm trees are the waves) and the band starts at 8pm - really, really tough to make big life decisions about which beer to try next under these conditions!



The daytime in Nha Trang yesterday was spent in the Thermal Springs Mud Baths - Thap Ba. I am still not sure about the sitting in mud pools, but Simon was happy as a pig in ....
I was however amused at the enthusiasm with which Simon threw himself into the whole thing....I am not sure if it was the 'cleansing effects' or playing mud monster that really attracted him!

Thap Ba is very cool and we spent most of the day either in mud or hot springs or having a massage - it was a rather warm day too, so we are both a little pink today!

With seafood being right on the doorstep, there are lots of sellers touting fresh lobster, crab, conch .... you name it! We were not brave enough yet to buy from them for fear of 'bad belly', but the picture of them wandering down the beach with their steaming crab, conical hats and baskets was worth a photo.




Another day of long, palm-tree-lined beaches awaits - hope you are all having fun.

Conical hats and card games

Reading Simon's blog entry below I had to giggle - a moving traffic island is the only description for crossing the road.

Simon did fail to mention the overnight train ride from Hanoi to Hue. Splashed out and travelled first class ('soft sleeper' they had a cheek to describe it as....that is just a blatant lie) and the journey was an education to be sure. I didn't leave my bunk for the 11 hour journey for fear of inadvertently touching anything!

Along our journeys we are greeted with a graceful countryside of paddy fields running in picturesque contour lines. Each field is in a different state of picking or growing and every spectrum of green was used in painting them. Conical hats are obviously still the rage here and they dot the fields, towns, shops etc with little pale pyramids.

I will say that my card game skills are improving immensely from the last two rainy days and I have finally found the time/nerve to attempt a game of pool - Simon is a great teacher until you start winning! We have been out to adventure and even found some local art to buy.

Hue itself is right on the 17th parallel and borders the Demilitarised Zone, so it saw lots of action in the Vietnam war. This does mean a fair number of sights are still scattered with bullet holes and the once glorious Imperial Palace is not much more than a few houses. It felt a little strange to read the museum literature and then stand in from of rows of tanks and artillery they captured from (and with) Americans.... and this was only in the 70-ies.

Another overnight train journey to look forward to tonight.....wish me luck!

We didn't get run over!!

Our series of Playstation like drives from airports doesn't seem to have stopped, the road rules in Vietnam seem even more relaxed than Beijing with only the ratio of mopeds to cars the difference. Where our high speed introductory trip in China was like a rally game the Vietnamese equivalent was a cross between Grand Theft Auto (if you have played it remember how much fun it was knocking someone off of their bike!!) and Dance Station (given the number of times you stamp on the floor in the vain hope there is an extra brake pedal in your taxi!)

Mopeds really have replaced the bicycle as the transport of choice. In Hanoi with a population of approx 4 million there are an estimated 2 million on the roads, you will see everything carried around from the husband with his wife and two kids, to a chest of drawers to terrified tourists on the xe om tourist taxi moped (translated as hug vehilce!!)

The roads become even more fun when you are a defenceless pedestrian removed from the safety of a car. The Lonely Planet guidebook advice is to engage in eye contact and walk slowly across the road in order to give the riders time and space to go around you...no sudden movements and certainly don't break out into a run to get to the other side. With these pearls of wisdom we set out on an adventure to discover the city, the first flaw comes when you realise it is quite difficult to engage the riders of 10 mopeds simultaneously particularly when they are coming from both directions...so you just have to hop off of the pavement and hope that it works...and it did, it is a bit like being a moving traffic island.

Hanoi is a very pleasant city sitting at the top of Vietnam making it a very useful starting point for backpackers following the north - south route down towards Cambodia as we are, it also has a large student population. These factors combined mean that it is quite a hectic place with a whole host of people whose sole purpose it is to ask you if you would like to hire or buy something, it is not the kind of place to go for a quiet stroll but having said that Cath and I fell in love with it. There is definitely a slightly european feel in both the architecture and food but also the lifestyle with couples sitting around the central lake and a decent cafes scattered accross the city.

After settling into our hostel we went off to book a trip out to Halong Bay where we were expecting to float around thousands of stunning limestone islets in the sun whilst sipping on cocktails. The only problem is that the tour company had failed to book the weather and after our bus ride we boarded the boat and chuckled with the three other couples about the fact that it might be a bit of a damp trip (James, a Spurs fan, was even missing the cup final for this!!!) The cruise was nice enough (yes I used the nice word) but not what we were hoping for although it could have been a heck of a lot worse if we hadn't persuaded the captain to switch off the karaoke.

The weather has now been with us for a few days and we are hanging out in Hue, a small city about half way down Vietnam. We have watched snowbaording movies, caught up on some sleep, started out pool playing, read some and generally mucked about with each other which has been very cool. It is nice to sit and talk nonsense all afternoon!!

Good food, great friends and laughter - lots of each....

What a contrast from Beijing. To be honest, I could not have left Beijing quickly enough and to have Hong Kong next on the itinerary only made the contrast of the two more extreme. To start with we were greeted with efficient service, trains on time and a smiling friendly face (of the one and only Aidan Campbell) at the other side. Falling in love with Hong Kong was instant for both of us. The smart city and slick service still has an edge to it that is tangible. And neatly tucked between the high rises and designer boutiques is life...rough, real and tasty. I am not sure if we overstayed our welcome, but spending 7 days in HK was brilliant - much needed downtime, washing (done for us) and time to prepare for the next leg of the journey.

Aidan was a brilliant tour guide. Within minutes we knew how everything worked, where to get what, how it all worked and what to avoid. Discovering their (Aidan and Carla's) eating spots was a treat and our first night we were delighted to share in their sushi spot (local style) Ladies and Temple street night markets (new Gucci wallet for me!) and all contained within the bright city lights - always look up, otherwise you miss it.

In fact LOTS OF FOOD should be the title of this blog as we seemed to do a lot of eating out. Sat morning we started with dim sum - again we were the only gwailo (Westerners) in the place and thanks to Caroline and Carla for the tour of the menu. More please! Followed by a wander through Hong Kong Park and their very cool free aviary. We also marveled at the fish and terrapins in the pond for ages.

The evening entertainment was Lan Kwai Fong with all the bars packed with stylish bankers - my jeans and a t-shirt was a stretch for "smart"!!

The week highlights were:
Stanley Bay - in 45min you are in a totally different world and would guess you were in the Med. Winding roads, bargain hunting and noodle bars dominated the day.

Markets, markets, markets - Ladies, Temple street, Jade.... you name it we went there and there are bargains to be found. A t-shirt and handbag were the only purchases and anyone who has been here knows how restrained that is. Simon also managed a purchase (but not in a market) and a new camera lens was invested in (expect GREAT pics from here on)

Foot massages - aaaahhhhh...... although a little ticklish at first.

Happy Valley races - horses running through the high rises at night... very popular with the locals and expats alike. No money was won, but the bets were small.

Lama Island - and no there are not actual lama's there!! Wonderful day on one of the islands south of the main island. Hot, hot, hot and the 5km hike across it was rewarded with spectacular views at the top and a cold beer and FAB seafood at the end.


Food - of every kind. Dim Sum, Sushi, Noodles, Thai and the best burger in years (not McD's)


Meeting cool people - Aidan and Carla have lots of friends in HK and over various evenings of drinks / dinner / lunch we met most of them. Our final night was spent at Jaspas for some good Aussie grub and a cocktail or two. Aidan - how was that 'Salty Dog'?

View of HK Island from the bay - especially over a cocktail or two at the Intercontinental!! Bright lights, big city!


Sadly we departed Hong Kong, but ready for the next adventure with backpacks full of clean clothes and a plan (all be it a rough one) I do have a feeling we will be back though.... more than once. Easily 'movable to' if we could find the jobs!