Saigon Part 1 - A City A Few Years Ahead Of The Rest (Well In Vietnam Anyway)

Jenni and I reached Ho Chi Minh city, more commonly referred to as Saigon in Vietnam, around lunch time. Pot luck would have it that our bus terminated right next to the street that our accommodation was on, so we were able to get into our cool air-conditioned room within minutes of arriving in the city. 


The first thing that we noticed about this city is that it seems more like the cities we visited in China than the cities we have visited in Vietnam. I don't think that we have mentioned this yet on our blog, but the cities in China were nothing like what we expected. We were expecting the cities to have poor infrastructure and for there to be very few modern facilities such as convenience stores, ATMs and shopping malls. We were instead rather surprised to see that the cities that we visited in China were pretty much on par with most modern western cities. The cities in Vietnam have been more like what we expected; poor road infrastructure, poor plumbing, very few convenience stores, no metropolitan train lines, etc, etc. Even though Saigon does not have a metropolitan train system (although we have heard that they have started making plans to build one over the next few years), it seems to have all of the modern characteristics of the Chinese cities that we visited earlier on in the trip. I would say that the facilities and infrastructure in Saigon would be nearly 10 to 20 years ahead of the other cities in Vietnam.


Still feeling tired from having to get up really early to catch our bus to Saigon, we didn't get up to much for the rest of the day and spent most of it just lazing around in our room. Our accommodation was in the backpackers' area of Saigon, so there were restaurants and bars in every direction. That evening I ventured over to one of the pubs that had a couple of nice big flat screen TVs that we had spotted earlier that day. Being the backpackers' area, I was expecting this place to be chockers with people from all parts of the world, watching the Spain v. Switzerland world cup match. To my disappointment, there was only myself and a couple of other people watching it, but I stayed anyway and enjoyed a beer while watching the game. 


The following day was spent organising an itinerary for the next week while were were in Saigon and booking a couple of sight seeing tours through the travel agent that was conveniently located at the base of our hostel. That afternoon we indulged in visiting a nice cafe in one of the fancy shopping malls where we could sit and read our books while enjoying a coffee. After that we visited a supermarket (the first we have come across in over one month) to stock up on toiletries that we were running low on. In the mall with the supermarket, Jenni purchased a new fancy pants camera to replace her one that mysteriously went missing somewhere between Nha Trang and Mui Ne. We are not sure if Jenni just misplaced it or if it was actually stolen as we only really noticed that it was missing when we got to Mui Ne. Anyway, either way it happened, we are sure the outcome was the same; Jenni ended up without a camera and someone else has ended up with hers. In the end we figured that a camera is replaceable and we glad to have taken off most of the photos before the camera went missing as these would have been irreplaceable.


After the previous evening poor attendance to watch the worked cup match, I had been on the look out all day for a sports bar or something similar where there would more likely be a better crowd to watch the football. When I discovered that there was a football themed pub only ten meters to the right of our hotel, I cursed myself for walking in the opposite direction the night before. That evening Jenni and I visited the pub for dinner and to watch the Argentina v. South Korea match. After the match finished, Jenni felt that she had already had enough football for one night and elected to go back to the hotel while I stayed on to watch the Greece v. Nigeria match. While there, I listened to an English ex-pat tell myself and his fellow ex-pats of his ordeal of being involved in a motor bike crash only 2 weeks prior. After hearing his harrowing story, coupled with seeing the dead body on the road on the way back from Halong Bay as well as hopping over the large smear of blood and accompanying helmet in Da Lat, Jenni and I have been all the more wary of jumping on a motorcycle here in Vietnam.

On our third day in Saigon, we went to see the History Museum and the War Museum. The History Museum had excellent artifacts on display and good exhibits, but it was let down by its lack of information in regards to what was on display. More often than not, we would see an exhibit where the only thing on the plaque was something like "arrow head". We aren't idiots, we can tell it is an arrow head! We want to know how old it is, who used it, what for, etc etc. The rear of the museum had an excellent collection of stone statues (the large stone penis collection was particularly impressive), but again, were let down by the lack of information regarding them. One dark room housed a creepy looking mummy. The mummy was a woman's corpse who died during the 1800s (sorry I cannot remember the exact date, nor have I been able to track it down on the internet). Upon excavation, archaeologists found the mummy submerged in some sort of red goop, which caused the mummification of the corpse. I imagine the archaeologists would have been scared out of their wits when they found this thing as the red goop we saw in the photo looked like a whole pile of fresh blood and guts, making the excavation scene look like it was straight out of a horror movie.

The Saigon War Museum was setup shortly after the end of the Vietnam war in 1975. Today it is called the "War Remnants Museum", but I think that its original name of the "Museum of American War Crimes" better describes its content. Aside from the spectacular collection of tanks, fighter jets, bombers, helicopters and artillery guns at the front of the museum, all of the exhibits within focused primarily on the atrocities that the Americans committed against the Vietnamese during the war. The extensive collection of photos on display showing the victims of Agent Orange (the collection of chemical weapons used by the Americans during the war) were very disturbing. We saw many horrible photos of adults and children with various types of deformities, caused either by direct expose to the chemicals, or in many cases, passed down through multiple generations in the form of birth defects. After seeing these photos, it is not a wonder that there was such a backlash against the Americans during the war. During our trip to the Saigon markets a few days after, we saw a young man who we presume is a victim of agent orange as his spine was buckled, resulting in him being unable to straighten his body and leaving him to only be able to move around on all fours in a similar fashion to a monkey. Other photos included scenes of soldiers dragging dead bodies behind vehicles, torturing Vietnamese prisoners of war, civilians being burnt by Napalm and many other horrible scenes from during the war. An outdoor exhibit showed many photos and harrowing descriptions of what went on in POW camps. One device which stood out in particular was the inhumane "tiger cages", tiny barbed wire cages, used to contain prisoners by forcing them to lie completely still in the dirt to avoid risking tearing their flesh on the barbed spikes. I am glad that Jenni and I took the time to read a much more objective view on the history behind the Vietnam War as I felt that much of the history explained in this museum was solely from the North Vietnamese point of view. Many plaques used words such as "genocide" and also included phrases which indicated that the Americans only killed civilians. I cannot recall any mention of any wrong doing by the North Vietnamese Army or Viet Cong guerrilla fighters throughout the museum. That being said, after seeing these exhibits, it really did seem like the technology used by the American forces during the Vietnam War conflict was completely over the top, the utilization of chemical weapons in particular was completely inexcusable. 


That evening we decided not to watch any of the football matches on that night because we knew that we would be having a big night out, watching the Australia v. Ghana match. We had dinner on the 2nd floor of one of the restaurant / bars in the backpacker area near our hotel. On this floor, we found ourselves at eye-level with the power lines that line the streets. I feel really sorry for the poor sparkie that would have to patch a new cable into that mass!


On our 4th day in Saigon, we went to arrange our accommodation and transport to our planned destination after Saigon, Phu Quoc island. Unfortunately, due to it being school holidays here in Saigon and Phu Quoc island being a popular holiday destination, we were unable to get suitable transport to and from the island during the dates that we wished to go there. To cut a long story short, we ended up completely rearranging our travel plans so that we would have to split our stay in Saigon into two separate stays and leave the following day to go on a tour that would end up getting us to Phu Quoc island. 

That day we had originally planned to go to the Dam Sen water park, but with half the day already being spent rearranging our travel plans, we elected to save that for our second stay in Saigon and visit the markets instead. After spending over one month in China and nearly one and a half months in Vietnam, you would expect us to be seasoned bargainers by now, but alas, Jenni and I are far too nice and not nearly cheeky enough to weasel ourselves a good deal. Fortunately, the markets in Saigon are much easier to barter in, so we actually managed to go a whole day without feeling like we were ripped off. True, if we were better at bartering, we could have probably got better deals on most of our purchases, but we definitely feel that we got some really good stuff for good prices. One of the best purchases we made was the 100% silk (apparently 100% silk...) thick dressing gowns. Jenni picked hers up for $16 US and mine was a bit dearer at $25 US (although mine is a higher quality one with embroided patterns on both the outside and the inside). I also picked up some really cool (well I think they are really cool... I'm such a nerd!) statues of the aliens from the "Aliens" and "Predator" movies. The statues are made of scrap motor bike parts, making them look really unique. I wish I took a photo of them to show them off on the blog before I packaged them up to be shipped back home. If I spot them again in the markets on our second stay in Saigon, I'll sneak a photo and post it on here. 


We had been looking forward to that evening for the past couple of weeks. It would be Australia's first game in the FIFA World Cup that was on at a reasonable time for us to find a pub filled with fellow Aussies that we could watch the game with. Earlier that day, we scoured the internet to find a popular Australian bar or sports bar in Saigon. To our luck, we stumbled across a perfect candidate, an Australian themed sports bar called "The Blue Gecko". It's Vietnamese manager's name is Lamb, but because he loves the Aussies (we both think that deep down he really wants to be one himself), he calls himself "Simon" and speaks English with a thick Aussie accent. The entire pub was decked out with Australian flags, big TV's playing AFL, AFL guernseys, posters with Australian sayings and many wall mounts dedicated to the Richmond Tigers, Simon's favourite team in the AFL. On the subject of AFL... was the hell is going on over there!?! Jenni and I leave the country for a couple of months and EVERYTHING is a mess! The Dockers are near the top of the AFL ladder, there are mud slides in Kings Park, huge hail storms, female Prime Ministers, Perth getting extended trading hours (not that there is anything wrong with the last two!)..... c'mon people what's going on over there! In regards to the Dockers, perhaps everyone in Australia has forgotten one little fact in our absence... the Dockers are rubbish! May I suggest that someone informs the rest of the teams in the AFL of this so they may resume the week-in week-out demolishing of them!?!

Getting back to the night of our watching Australia play in the world cup... There was probably about 20 other fellow Australians in the pub watching the game with us. When Australia scored the first goal, everyone was so excited that I was amazed that everyone managed to restrain themselves from jumping up and down naked on the tables! Fifteen minutes later when Harry "waste of space" Kewell gave away a penalty, got himself sent off to leave Australia a man down, essentially gifting Ghana the match, the mood quickly turned solemn. Later in the second half an American bloke unknowingly walked into the bar wearing a Ghana football shirt. When he started cheering for Ghana, I quietly informed him that he was not currently in the best choice of establishment to be supporting Ghana and that he may want to keep his cheering down as to avoid getting dirty looks, followed by a black eye compliments of the 20 grumpy Aussies downing their 20th pint of beer for the night. He seemed friendly enough and joined us for a drink, apologising for his indiscretion and embraced the Aussie themed bar by learning about Ned Kelly. We had a bit of a hard time trying to come up with a good explanation to why Australians consider a person who went around killing police officers and robbing banks a national hero. We made sure not to stay too late after the game as we needed to get some sleep before waking early the next morning to go on our Mekong delta tour.


*** Warning: The entire next paragraph is a rant about how rubbish Harry Kewell is and that he shouldn't even be playing in the squad. I won't blame you if you decide to skip it if you are not a crazy football fan like myself :) 


Why Kewell was playing in that game is beyond me. I believe that the ONLY reason he was on the squad was because bloody Pim (the imbecile manager of the Socceroos who will now be referred to as "The Pimbecile") felt that he needed to bow down to the Australian publics outcry of "why wasn't he playing in the first game". The Pimbecile knew that after a such a big defeat at the hands of Germany that if he didn't do something to please the Australian public, they would lynch him when he got back to Australia. So... the Pimbecile played him. What drives me nuts, is why the hell would a professional football manager listen to the Australian public about football. The Australian public knows SQUAT about it! If the Australian public knew anything at about football, then they would know that Harry Kewell is about 5 years past his due date, has only played TWENTY MINUTES of professional football over the past 12 months and is actually not a football god... he doesn't even compare to Australia's best player, Tim Cahill and even he isn't comparable to the football greats! If they knew that, then MAYBE they would have kept their uninformed, stupid ass, big mouths shut and MAYBE the Pimbecile wouldn't have felt the need to play a sub-standard player AND MAYBE AUSTRALIA MIGHT JUST HAVE WON THAT MATCH!!!! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mui Ne - Not Much To Write Back Home About

Despite our booked hotel's recommendation of a particular bus company, Jenni and I settled for a bus ticket to Mui Ne with a different company that was sold to us from our hotel in Da Lat. The bus that arrived to pick us up was considerably smaller than the tourist buses that we have been catching throughout Vietnam, not even having space allocated for luggage (well the space allocated was the front couple of seats in the bus). Usually the way that the long distance buses work here in Vietnam is that all of the passengers are usually picked up in mini-vans and all taken to a central location where they all pile into the single big bus that will take you to the final destination. Instead of filling the bus via this method, this dodgy little bus instead drove around Da Lat in circles for nearly one and a half hours, picking up everybody individually. The bus driver must have been picking people up in a nonsensical order (such as alphabetical order, order of date of birth, grouped by favourite ice-cream flavours, etc etc) rather than geographical order, as we drove back and forth through the same areas of Da Lat several times before the bus was actually full and ready to set of in the direction of Mui Ne. People were not the only thing being transported by this bus, as the bus driver was also picking up bags full of fruits, vegetables and other various goods that we assume were intended to be sold or used in Mui Ne.


The first half of the journey to Mui Ne was rather spectacular as it was mostly spent driving down the mountains from Da Lat to lower ground. Our journey in the bus became rather harrowing as we reached the halfway point in the journey where the bus made the final descent down one of the mountains into a valley where we were to stop for lunch. The mountain's face that the bus was driving down was extremely steep and the road had to snake back and forth about 20 times to get from the top to the bottom. At each U-turn, many without barriers to stop cars flying off the side, we could peer out the window, all the way down to the bottom of the deep valley. Upon reaching the bottom and stopping for lunch, we were surprised to find out that even though the bus was now travelling on mostly flat ground, the last half of the bus trip to Mui Ne was not to get any less hair raising. The heavens had opened and the road on which we were driving had deteriorated badly. I do not think that any of the roads in this area of Vietnam have had their bitumen laid over a properly flattened and compacted foundation. The last couple of hours spent in the bus were travelling at no more than an average speed of about 15 kms per hour, trying to avoid the rain water filled, 1 foot deep, 2 metre wide pot holes in the road. Some sections of the road had been completely up rooted, large pieces of the road lying at odd angles with each other due to the soil collapsing underneath the bitumen. At times the bus felt that it was about to tip over as a front wheel entered into a deep pot hole.


To our relief, we arrived in Mui Ne, safe and sound in the early evening. Mui Ne is essentially a single stretch of road along the beach with hotel beach resorts, side by side along the whole road. Jenni and I stayed at one of the mid-range hotels that was right on the beach and had a swimming pool. Considering its location and facilities, it was a bargain at only about $40 AUD per night.


We only stayed in Mui Ne for 2 nights (to allow ourselves 1 whole day to enjoy ourselves at the beach). There isn't that much to report back about I'm afraid. All we really did for the entire day was take a few swims in the ocean and pool, while in between, lazing around on a couple of deck chairs that were setup on the grass next to the hotel pool that overlooked the beach. It was great!


The one thing I do regret about Mui Ne is not organizing a kite surfing lesson while we were there. The beach in Phan Theit where we stayed had perfect conditions for wind surfing and kite surfing and there were stacks of people kite surfing along the entire stretch of beach from early morning, all the way into the late afternoon. If we ever return to Mui Ne in the future, I will do one for sure.


The following day we had to check out of our room early, so we could catch our bus to Saigon. Even though this journey took the same amount of time as the bus trip to Mui Ne, it seemed to breeze by as we could relax and not have to spend the entire trip fearing for our well being!  

Da Lat - Same Same But Very Different

As our bus made its way to Da Lat I noticed the scenery gradually changing. Everything became a lot greener, the rice fields were replaced with greenhouses and the flat ground gave way to rolling hills. As soon as I stepped off the bus I noticed that it was considerably cooler, I was even slightly chilly in my shorts and T-shirt. This was a nice relief and also gave us the freedom to be able to walk to our hotel rather than relying on a taxi.

We did not have too much trouble finding our hotel, since it is a lovely pink 4-storey colonial house on top of a hill, appropriately named Villa Pinkhouse. Michael and I were soon introduced to the hotel's flamboyant and eccentric tour guide called Rot. He is famed for his motorbike tours of the country-side and for taking guests out for drunken karaoke. Unfortunately we didn't get to take him up on those offers but he was very helpful in pointing out the sites and good places to eat. He also gave us an ENORMOUS room with 3 double beds, since they had overbooked and did not have any double rooms left. This was fine by us since we decided we would sleep in a different bed for each night!

We didn't really do anything worth mentioning on the first afternoon, apart from trying some interesting meals for lunch. Rot had given us a map of the immediate area, with a bakery, a vegetarian restaurant and a Vietnamese restaurant marked on it, and we had intended to go to the Vietnamese restaurant. When we saw beef, chicken and seafood on the menu we thought we were in the right place. Apart from a slightly funny taste, Michael's marinated beef was spot-on, however my fake prawns and chicken were a dead giveaway. Sure enough, we double-checked Rot's map and realised that we were in the vegetarian restaurant!

The next day we started off with a scenic train ride on the Cremaillere, which is a partly restored cog railway that was built by the French between 1903 and 1932. It used to go all the way to the coast, but was closed in the 1960's, due to either American bombing or sabotage by the Viet Cong, depending on who you listen to. Now the train ride and the beautiful colonial station building serves as a tourist attraction. It was quite pretty with views of the hills and greenhouses, but nothing spectacular. The train line stops at a village called Trai Mat which we were planning on seeing, however a torrential downpour kept everyone confined to the old-fashioned carriages.

After the train we went to the Hang Nga Guesthouse and Art Gallery, better known as the Crazy House. I don't know quite how to explain it, kind of like a Disney movie made into a hotel. Designed by a Vietnamese architect who studied in Russia, there are about 12 rooms spaced out around the complex, which is a crazy construction of ferro concrete, reminiscent of an enormous, sprawling tree-house. The rooms have different themes based on various animals, like the bear room, the termite room etc. One even had a really creepy kangaroo with glowing red eyes. Here are some pictures so that you can get an idea of what it is like, but the photos don't quite do it justice.

After the crazy house we walked into the centre of town to get something to eat. Looking down onto the street from the restaurant, we could see a mass of people further down the road. After dinner we went down to see what all the fuss was about, and found a giant pedestrian market which took up a few blocks. Apparently this happens every weekday at nighttime, and all of the traffic is blocked off which must be a nuisance for local businesses.

On the way back from the markets, we noticed a commotion ahead of us on one side of the street. Not wanting to get involved, we crossed to the other side of the street. I noticed a large oil spill on the road as we were crossing, and as I stepped over it I saw a motocycle helmet. Before I had finished stepping over the puddle I realised that it was actually a very large pool of blood, and that the commotion on the road must have been due to an accident. I turned to tell Michael but he also had just stepped over it. Later he mentioned that he had also seen a pair of motocycle goggles on the ground. Until we got to Vietnam we had not seen a single accident during our travels. Now, in the space of nearly 6 weeks we have seen 2 very serious accidents, which makes us believe the statistic that 35 die every day on the roads in Vietnam.

The next day, Michael had intended to do one of Rot's famous motorbike tours, however we had not been able to get hold of him, so had the day to ourselves. We started off with an unfortunate incident where we were refused entry to a local restaurant for being foreigners. Michael had a go at the manager as he refused to admit that we were not allowed in because we were Caucasian. He left with the remark that it was their loss and we would take our money elsewhere. Imagine if I opened up a restaurant in any western country and refused entry to all Asians?? I would probably be sued and then lynched - and rightfully so! What makes them any different??

After that, we took a taxi up to the local cable car for a spectacular view of the town and surrounding countryside. On the other side was an interesting looking temple which we walked up to. However, there was a giant drawing out the front of a scantily dressed Caucasian couple with a huge red cross through it, which we took to mean that we were not welcome.

Feeling a fair amount of ill-will toward Vietnam in general, we made our way back to our hotel and did not venture out until dinner time, where we headed toward a western restaurant reviewed in the Lonely Planet. I tried the BBQ deer, which was very tasty but a bit chewy.

The next day we boarded a bus to Mui Ne, having somewhat enjoyed our stay in Dalat. However the discrimination left a bad taste in our mouths, and I would say that the only worthwhile thing worth seeing was the Crazy House. Normally it would be a very attractive city as there is a beautiful lake with nice restaurants and pathways etc. However, when we were there the lake had been drained so that they could build a new bridge. It was a real shame as the enormous hole in the middle of town is a real blight on the landscape. Overall I would say that Dalat is probably not worth the extremely long, dangerous and very bumpy bus ride required to get there.

On a side note, the heading of this article is a reference to a popular saying over here; "same same but different". It can be used in many contexts, for example, when asked whether a watch is a real Rolex, the salesman might reply "yes, same same but different". It can mean anything, but usually means that something is similar but with certain differences. With typical Vietnamese humour, if something is completely different they will call it "same same but very different".

Nha Trang - God Help Me If I Have To Eat Another Pringle Or Oreo Again!

To get from Hoi An to Dalat, Jenni and I took a 10 hour train that travelled during the day. Unfortunately there was no dining car that we were aware of and all we had to eat was Pringles and Oreos. These are the most common western foods you can find in Vietnam as pretty much every street seller stocks these in abundance. We would have loved to buy something else to eat, but after our little bout of Gastro in Sapa, we have not been game enough to try anything that we don't recognise. 


The train arrived around 9pm in Nha Trang and we jumped into a taxi to get to our hostel in the center of the beach area. Nha Trang has got the reputation of being a bit of a beach party town, very similar to Kuta in Bali, so Jenni and I had decided that we would forego staying at one of the nicer hotels and stay in a proper backpacker hostel so we could better experience the party life. Upon arrival, we discovered that one of the most popular night clubs / bars (the "Red Apple") is located on the first floor of our hostel, and to our delight the placing was JUMPING! The party had pretty much spilled from the bar onto the road, with tables all setup along the adjacent sidewalks, all packed with a crowd around the same age as us, drinking up a storm. One popular style of alcoholic beverage here in Vietnam, is the "bucket" which is basically a really large plastic jam jar or small bucket, measuring about 600ml that is filled with a combination of various liquors such as vodka and white rum, mixed with fruit juice or soda. Pretty much everyone at this place had one in their hand and there was plenty of empties on the tables. Having only Oreos and Pringles to eat for the entire day, we were ravenous, so we went to the restaurant at the back of the hostel for some food first, before cashing in our free drink upon arrival at the club. 


So far on our trip, we haven't been down to the beach for a swim, so the second day in Nha Trang was our first visit to the beach on our trip to do just that. Similar to Hoi An, the beaches in Nha Trang were nice, but not as nice and clean as the beaches in Australia. Unlike Hoi An, the beaches were a bit more crowded, so we didn't get pestered by too many people trying to sell us things. The water was a beautiful temperature and very refreshing. We spent most of the day lying on our deck chairs, under a straw umbrella while reading our books. That afternoon, we walked further along the beach to a beach-front restaurant and micro brewery called Louisianne. This place has a bakery, micro brewery, restaurant, pool and private beach area with deck chairs and straw umbrellas with security guards to shoo away the hawkers. To use all of their facilities, all you need to do is buy something small from the bakery or the bar. We purposefully did not bring much cash with us to the beach (in fear that the hawkers would pressure us into spending our money), so we didn't have too much to spend on lunch. We felt bad about mooching off the place while not spending too much money, so we only spent a short time there, but vowed to come back with more razoolie to make a day of it another day.


That evening we treated ourselves to a fancy barbecue seafood dinner. For about AUD $15 (that is VERY expensive for a meal in Vietnam), we were each served a plate about 1.5 foot in diameter. Filled with grilled squid, oysters, muscles, scallops, prawns and mini clams. Accompanying this enormous plate of barbecue seafood was a whole marinated fish each as well as a selection of dipping sauces, each sauce to be used with a specific seafood item on our plates. After dinner we decided to give the downstairs nightclub a miss as we were so full from dinner and we had already planned to get up early to go on a booze-filled island hopping tour the next day.


The island hopping tour that we booked had an itinerary that involved a lot of snorkeling, lounging on beaches drinking cocktails, visiting floating bars and generally drinking up a storm. We (along with the rest of the foreigners on our tour) were rather surprised to arrive at our tour boat to find it completely chokers with Vietnamese people of all ages. At first us and the other 8 foreigners were rather apprehensive as there were about 40 Vietnamese people on our boat, but as the day progressed, we all agreed that the day was a blast. Our guide was a rather interesting character, claiming at the start of the trip that he could sing songs from any country in the world. He wasted no time on the boat in treating the crowd to a hilarious rendition of Celine Dion's "My Heat Will Go On", re-enacting the famous scene from the movie "Titanic" while standing with his back to his audience at the front of the boat, arms held high and singing into his microphone with great passion.


Our first stop was Mieu island where we visited a walk through aquarium. Being spoilt by previously visiting fancy walk through aquariums such as AQWA in Perth and Ocean Park in Hong Kong, we weren't that impressed by the aquarium itself. However we were very impressed with the boat shaped structure that housed the aquarium. Later on, the boat anchored just off Mun island where we were invited to jump into the water and go "snorkelling on the extraordinary coral reefs which are covered with the multicoloured fishes" (taken right out of the itinerary - you've gotta love the bad English and incorrect spelling - although mine is probably not much better!). The coral reefs must have been really "extraordinary", as they must have somehow evolved to an evolutionary state where they can turn themselves completely invisible. The same goes for "the multicoloured fishes" because I could not see a damn thing anywhere! Jenni and I were amused to see that most of the Vietnamese people on our boat swam in the water while wearing life jackets. If you did that at Cottesloe beach and were not under th age of 4, I am pretty sure you would be the laughing stock of the beach. Disappointed with the snorkeling, the group of foreigners took the opportunity to float around in the water on inflatable tubes, while getting to know each other. In the group there was Shaun, an Aussie from central Queensland; Stella, Friederike, and Andy from Germany; Kim and Jill from Scotland; and Richard and Grace from England.

Now being on a first name basis, the rounds of Tiger beer started to get purchased and the alcohol consumption began. The boat anchored off the side of Mot island where all of the boat's bench seats had their backs folded down to create a large table. Here we were served a variety of dishes for lunch. While lunch was going on, two more boats filled with Vietnamese people anchored beside ours and the crewmen proceeded to rope all three boats together. All of us figured something funny was up when after the lunch dishes were cleared off the make-shift table, all of the people from the other boats pilled onto ours, with many people hanging off the sides to peer in. At this point, one of the crewmen of our boat emerged from his cabin to the top of the table and setup a homemade drum kit, constructed with a bamboo frame, plastic garbage bins of various sizes and a rusted tin garbage lid as a cymbal. He was joined on the "stage" by a fellow crewman who had an electric guitar as well as our guide and another crewman on the microphone. The crowd of about 80 people, all clapping, cheering and singing along was serenaded by this quartet to a couple of popular Vietnamese songs as well as one English song, "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes.


Our guide's previous statements about being able to sing songs from any country in the world all made sense as soon as he finished singing "What's Up" and called for one of the Australians to join him on the stage. As the crowd all cheered and Jenni cowered in the corner, I reluctantly stood up to represent the Aussies. Not to leave a fellow countryman in need, Shaun bravely stood up as well and joined me on the stage. As we both stood side by side to our guide, the crowd had a good laugh as both Shaun and I towered over him by about a foot. After a quick introduction of our names, Shaun the quick thinker claiming he was "Croc (Mick) Dundee", we joined our guide and his band in giving our best rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" by Banjo Patterson to the crowd of cheering Vietnamese. When it got to the second verse, Shaun and I looked at each other dumbfounded as we couldn't remember all of the words, all the while our guide singing strong. We finished up the song on the second chorus and both Shaun and I were given a loud applause by our crowd. Following the Aussies, Richard was called up to represent the English in a rendition of The Beatles', "Yellow Submarine", Stella and Fredreika were called up to sing a German song and Kim and Jill were called up to shake their booty and sing along to "La Bumba" (the guide couldn't think of an appropriate Scottish song, so figured that this would do).


After the "concert", everyone on the boat was in a good mood and the "floating bar" opened in the water, off the side of the boat. In true Vietnamese style, all this encompassed was one of the crewmen, floating around in the water on an inflatable tube, handing out plastic cups, filled with looked and tasted like homemade red port to everyone that cared to jump into the water. It was great fun! After clambering back onto the boat from the floating bar, the boats all departed their separate ways. We anchored off Tranh island where we were invited to go onto the beach for a "fruit party". Our group didn't feel the need to pay the USD $1 entrance fee to the beach and elected to stay aboard the boat, drinking, playing cards and chatting. We arrived back in Nha Trang in the late afternoon and all agreed to meet up for a night out at Shaun's fancy pants Novatel hotel room that evening. 


The whole group rocked up to Shaun's Novatel room in the early evening, after having a quick break from the boozing and having a much desired shower and rest. We all had plenty of drinks, pizza and nibblies before taking to the streets to find a club / pub to settle at for the rest of the evening. Shaun, Fredreika and Stella suggested a place they had visited the previous night called The Sailing Club. The Sailing Club was on the beach, only a few hundred metres down from Louisanne were Jenni and I had visited the previous day. Upon arrival, the English manager recognized Shaun as "that rowdy Australian guy from the night before", but had a laugh about it and kindly escorted our group to one of the VIP reserved tables, located right beside the beach. The place was packed with people, with tables spanning from the bar all the way from the club onto the sand on the beach where a bon-fire was roaring. Glad to have an audience, the manger all told us about how he had started off as a backpacker passing through the area and had ended up working at The Sailing Club as a fire dancer and eventually the manager. He then joined us for a round of shots on the house. The rest of the night involved plenty of beer, cocktails, dancing and generally having a good time hanging around.


On our last day in Nha Trang, we awoke rather late in the morning to a roasting room (the air-con had switched off a few hours earlier as, like Hue and Hoi An, Nha Trang has to endure rolling blackouts on a regular basis). Fortunately, we were both sensible enough the previous night to drink plenty of water and pace our drinks at the club and managed to avoid a hangover. We spent the day at Loiusianne where we enjoyed a nice lunch, followed by drinks by the side of the pool (we actually brought a reasonable amount of money with us this time). Jenni had a massage while I had a swim in the pool. I tried a pint of the micro brewery's pilsner, but it tasted rubbish. If it wasn't so bad, I might have been inclined to try some of the other beers on offer, such as the passion fruit pale ale.  


That evening, Jenni and I met up with Richard and Grace for dinner, which we had organised the night before. The four of us had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant and after went for a drink at the Why Not Bar. We all enjoyed cheap drinks until 11pm, were treated to a free round of shots upon arrival and all given another free drink an hour later. The owners of the bar were determined to get as much alcohol into us as possible, even to the point where the bar staff refused to allow Jenni to cash in her free vodka and lemonade, for a lemonade with no vodka. In the end, we just payed for a lemonade and Richard and I tipped half a glass each of the free lemonade and vodka into our Why Not Buckets. Over the course of the two nights out, we had all discovered that we shared a similar taste in music, Jenni and Richard were both Harry Potter mad and we all had plenty of stories to share about our previous travels. As the night drew to a close, Jenni and Richard quizzed each other on Harry Potter trivia and a random drunk guy felt the need to entertain his friends by rubbing his bare hairy arse cheeks up and down the window that we were all sitting beside. Aside from copping an eye-full, all in all it was a really good night out.


The following day Jenni and I checked out of our hotel and jumped onto a bus to take us to Dalat. Pretty much every traveller has some story about being on a bus that broke down halfway to its destination and this time it was our turn. Our bus stalled and wouldn't move while attempting to turn a tight corner in one of the small towns about halfway to Dalat. All of the guys had to jump out of the bus and push it backwards, out of the way of the intersection which it was blocking. Fortunately we were only stranded for about 20 minutes, before the driver managed to get it going again after having a tinker with the engine.


We have now arrived in Dalat, the place where we will be for the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I can't wait!


COMMON THE AUSSIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO IT FOR YOUR COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hoi An - Tailored to Please

We are currently staying at the Phuoc An Hotel in Hoi An, which is about halfway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as everyone still calls it over here).

The hotel is very nice, although slightly pricey at a whopping $42 per night for a double room. However, the pool, freshly cooked omelets and banana pancakes and well appointed rooms with dark, lacquered furniture and gold silk pillows goes some way to justifying the price. The location is great, only a couple of blocks from the main restaurant strip. However, it is tempting to not even bother with the restaurant strip when you have Cafe 43 right next door.

Let me explain... Cafe 43 is a restaurant which has attracted something of a cult following here in Hoi An. It is not much to look at, when compared with the other places across the road, with it's folding tables and mis-matched chairs. We knew that we had to go in when we walked past and saw that it was packed, even though the other restaurants were completely deserted.

We soon found out why. The food is fantastic (especially the stuffed squid, white rose and coconut ice-cream), the service is friendly and the beer is very, very cheap. It is called "fresh beer" and is basically a home brew which costs roughly $0.25 for half a pint. It almost made me wish that I was a beer drinker... almost. It is so good that you see the same people coming back every day, sometimes more than once a day!

On our first day we shopped around to find a good tailor. This is what most people do here in Hoi An, a city which is famous for its cheap, tailor-made clothes. You can get a suit knocked up within 24 hours for as little as $50! However, you definitely get what you pay for, so if you want something spiffy in cashmere with silk lining you can pay anywhere up to around $400 (I'm not sure whether it would be real cashmere/silk but at least it is a good imitation).

I decided to get a suit with matching skirt and a knee-length winter coat with satin lining and a hood, in preparation for Scottish weather. Michael wanted to get a suit with 2 pairs of trousers and a fake leather jacket.

After shopping around for half the day we were pretty exhausted by the heat and went back to the hotel to chill in the air-conditioning. That evening we discovered Cafe 43 and had a fantastic multi-course dinner that cost about $10 for the both of us.

The next day we eventually decided to go back to the first place that we visited. It is called Nguyen Tailors and, having seen the finished product after three fittings, I think it was a good choice. We saw some return customers, so hopefully that means that their clothes don't disintegrate after the first wash. Also, the girl that we dealt with (Phu'ong) was very nice and had great English. She suggested alterations without us having to even ask for them and was happy to accommodate any request, no matter how trivial.

That evening we returned to Cafe 43 and also organised a trip to the ruins of My Son for the following day, where we saw the remains of a Hindu temple complex built by the ancient Cham empire.

The temple site was used between the 4th and 14th century AD, however most of the buildings still standing date from about the 10th century. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is considered to be the most important site of its nature in Southeast Asia. It was abandoned around the 16th century and then rediscovered in 1898. Restoration began in 1937, however the Americans bombed the hell out of it in 1969, destroying many of the buildings. The craters are still visible as a lasting reminder of the atrocities of war. From what remains you can imagine how spectacular it must have looked before.  Nice work Nixon - destroying one of the most important archaeological sites of an extinct civilisation - thanks a lot. Apparently the surrounding area is still considered dangerous due to unexploded land-mines although we were not told this by our guide and only found out afterwards. Lucky that we did not decide to stray from the path!

While walking around the ruins we struck up conversation with a German backpacker called Daniel. He was really interesting and a veritable mine (pun not intended) of information, as he has already been to nearly all of the places that we are planning to go (southern Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). After seeing the ruins we said goodbye, as we were taking a boat back to Hoi An and he was staying on the bus. Turns out he was the only person not taking the boat, so he had the whole bus to himself! The boat ride was very pleasant, as it was a hot day and the cool breeze on the river was very refreshing.


That evening we had our first fitting and were very impressed with how the clothes turned out. My suit pants were a perfect fit first time, which is impressive since I am usually very fussy and find it hard to find trousers that fit. After that we returned to the hotel and Michael got a haircut. The hairdresser actually came into our room and cut his hair in the bathroom, as you can see from the picture opposite.

The next day we had a a fitting at the tailors in the afternoon and then another one in the evening. After seeing my coat in the afternoon, Michael was so jealous that he decided to get one as well. They said "no problem, come back in 6 hours". We were a bit sceptical, but sure enough, when we returned, there was Michael's coat, perfectly fitted and exactly as he asked for! There are so many people producing clothes in this town, that our tailor said that it actually only takes one and a half hours to make a suit! You might think that this would result in poor quality and I've heard that this is the case in some places, however we were very happy with our purchases. My suit is the same quality as my Portmans suit which I bought in Australia for $350 (and that was on sale!). However, my new suit fits perfectly and was less than half the price at only $130.

In between the fittings we did a bit of sightseeing around the old buildings in the main part of town. We borrowed a couple of bikes from the hotel, which is mostly how we have been getting around recently, as walking for any longer than 5 minutes in this heat is not fun. It is also a great way to get around the city because you get the breeze and also you get to see heaps more than walking. I think that it is also a better way to see the city than a motorbike, because there is more time to look around. I did feel a bit silly wearing my helmet though, since nobody over here wears them except when on motorbikes (and that is just because it is the law). A few people have given us funny looks, but it's a small price to pay for not being dead, so I try not to let it worry me too much.

Anyway, the route that we took was recommended in the Lonely Planet, although I think that some of the sites were not that impressive. We had to buy a ticket that admits you to five of one of the many old buildings, shrines and museums around town. Some of them were a waste of a ticket, such as the Japanese covered bridge. That was pretty unfair, since essentially you are having to pay to cross a bridge, even though the locals don't have to. It was not even that much to look at, and much prettier from the outside anyway.

The Chinese Assembly Halls were pretty cool though, we went to one which was built in the 17th century and is still in a great condition. The statues and carvings were very colourful and intricate and the hall itself was impressive with the incense spirals hanging down from the ceiling. People write their prayers and hang them from the spirals made of incense and then they are set alight to slowly burn and leave the whole place smelling amazing. I think it would be awesome to get mozzie coils made like this, so that you could hang them around the patio. It would be decorative and would definitely keep the mozzies away! If doing a tour of the Old Town I would recommend saving your tickets for three of the Chinese Assembly Halls (there are like 10 of them), plus a cultural performance and maybe one of the restored old French houses such as the Museum of Trading Ceramics.

Yesterday afternoon we went next door to have lunch at Cafe 43 but alas, we forgot that they have closed up shop until the 13th! We were devastated, but hopefully someday we will be back in Hoi An so that we can go back (One customer even went so far as to suggest kidnapping the chef, but decided against it as it would be difficult to explain to customs officials why you have a bound and gagged Vietnamese person in your suitcase). Instead we decided to get lunch near the tailor's, where we were headed to finalise our purchases and arrange for them to be shipped ahead of us to Scotland.

That cleaned out our wallets, so we went next door to take out some money from the ATM. It was then that the scariest thing occurred, probably the scariest experience of the whole trip... the ATM ate my debit card!!! I was frantic, since it was a Saturday and we were leaving on Monday morning. Luckily however, I managed to get hold of the guy who operates the bank branch/currency exchange office directly behind the ATM. I think he actually lives there because when I went inside there was a bed in the office. I am just lucky that I managed to catch him when he went outside. He organised for someone to come and unlock the ATM so that I could get my card back, for which I was extremely thankful, because if this had happened in Perth I would have had to wait until Monday! So it changed what could have been a catastrophe into a mild annoyance, since we had to wait around for nearly two hours.

This ruined our plans of taking the scooter, which we had hired for the day, down to the beach which is about 5 kilometres away. Instead we (when I say we I mean Michael with me hanging on at the back) just took it around town and then a bit out of town for a good view of the rice fields. It is great for me as I get to look around, but probably not so much for Michael since he has to keep his eyes on the road to watch out for bicycles, other scooters and motorbikes, cars, trucks, people burning rubbish and cows (not people burning cows, just cows in general).

Since Cafe 43 was closed we had to make do with one of the other places downstairs for dinner. Except that they weren't deserted last night! It was really funny to watch people walk up to Cafe 43, realise it was closed and walk reluctantly over to the other side of the road. One group of guys actually walked straight in and started greeting the family who runs the restaurant, not realising that it was closed. In fact, the first place that we passed was completely full and we had to go to the restaurant next door. It was one of the worst dinners that we have had so far and it was also more expensive than Cafe 43. In particular the fish was extremely hard and dry so we only had a couple of mouthfuls. I don't think that the lady believed our explanation that we just weren't that hungry, so she gave us a discount. I don't know what we are going to do for dinner tonight, but we definitely won't be going back there!

This morning we hired another scooter and finally made it to the beach. We are completely spoilt for beaches in WA, so we did not find this beach particularly impressive. It's actually the nicest beach that we've seen so far on the trip, with clear-ish water and sand that was fairly clean. Picture the worst beach that you've ever been to in WA... this beach was like that. It was still very enjoyable though to sit on deck chairs sipping our cocktails while reading our books. We also had some blue sky and a nice breeze, so we ended up staying until late afternoon.

Unfortunately our peace and quiet was slightly ruined by all of the people that kept coming up to us trying to sell us stuff. We ended up buying a couple of things, in the hope that they would leave us alone. This did not really work, because buying one thing is never enough and if you buy from one person then another will use that as leverage to make you feel guilty that you haven't bought anything from them. When they figure out that you really don't want anything they start with the whole guilt trip about how they are so poor and trying to support their family and send their children to school. It breaks your heart, but unfortunately if I started buying something from everyone who approaches me I'd go bankrupt. It's especially horrible when they send little children, because you know that you shouldn't buy anything, but how can you say no to a 6-year old who pleads with you that she doesn't have enough money for breakfast?? As soon as you buy something you know that it was the wrong thing to do, since you don't want to encourage the exploitation of children in this manner. I've read that they don't actually see any of the money from the sales and their future would be better if they were spending the time in school instead. We have slipped a couple of times though, but I know that we will have to get get used to it before we get to Cambodia, where things are much worse than a bit of tourist exploitation.

After we left the beach we went to a nice restaurant, right on the river, that we had spotted on the way in. The food was just ok, but the setting was very peaceful and there weren't any more people trying to rip us off. Now we are back at the hotel, trying to decide where to go for dinner on our last night in Hoi An.

Tomorrow we head to Nah Trang, which we are really looking forward to. The beaches are apparently really nice (we shall see!) and it seems to have something of a reputation for being a party town. Well, our hostel seems to have that reputation anyway...

Stay tuned for Nah Trang!