Wednesday, November 17, 2010

We made it to Quy Nhon in a little under 5 hours. The road wasn't too bad however I did get up the courage to sit in the suicide set (that's the seat at the front of the bus where you can see everything). I only had to close my eyes a few times. Not much in Quy Nhon. Nice beach, lots of fishermen and loads of boats. We are basically using this town as a stop over on our way to Hoi An.

Although I love traveling I hate living out of a suitcase. I couldn't find any undies this morning. Maybe more than I thought dropped out of my laundry bag back in Nha Trang. At least some poor family will have some blankets now.

There are not many foreigners in Quy Nhon and after dinner last night we passed a local supermarket. Myself, Ian, Damien and Lucy decided to check it out. It was hilarious as we totally stuck out, which is not hard when you are white and 2 foot taller than anyone else around you. There were people pointing and lots of laughter from the kids. Personally I think they were laughing at my man shoes. We did find Kit Kats, this was very exciting.

 

All the hotels that we have stayed in over here have door bells on the front door of each room, weird! Ian decided to ring ours which caused every light in the room to turn off....... And don't let me get started on the bathroom, it was open plan. Which is cool, this I could have dealt with except for the fact that when you have a bathroom that's only 1.5 x 1.5 metres which includes the vanity and toilet it's no surprise that EVERYTHING gets wet when the shower is turned on! aarrrggghhhhhh

 

Off  to Hoi An today, can't wait it's suppose to be fabulous.

Best thing seen on a bike today, 3 bird cages including birds.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Nha Trang, tick.

Nha Trang was beautiful. Big sandy beaches, coconut trees, boats, sea food, you get the picture. After being on the go for 10 days, yesterday was the first day we could really relax. We hopped on a boat and cruised to a local fishing village where we spent half an hour exploring and interacting with the locals. We then moved onto another spot to snorkel and play around in the water. After another enormous lunch we headed for a tiny island with deck chairs all ready to go. Here we swam, had ice-cream, beer, I got my nails done and had a massage. And the best part was that we had the whole island virtually to ourselves. We arrived back in town about 3pm where we preceded to walk across the road to a lovely bar, located on the beach, where we spent another few hours watching the world go by.

 

As we were staying practically on the ocean there was an enormous array of sea food to choose at meal times. Ian ordered a seafood platter for the outrageously expensive amount of $5.50 AU. It was nothing like our seafood platters at home. They bought it out in courses. First we got ½ dozen oysters, pipis and mussels. Then a plate of grilled squid arrived, followed by tiger prawns, a whole fish and of course rice! After dinner Ian and a few others went to the ‘ice-bar’, yep they have everything over here. He had a great time, I went shopping J

Today we drive to Quy Nhon, It’s normally a 4 hour drive but we have been warned that it could take up to 6 hours because of the condition of the road after the typhoon.

There was another wedding reception at the hotel last night. We were very excited, we felt like we were invited guests, we heard all of it!

Best thing seen on a bike today, a family of five! They are small, but not that small……   

Sunday, November 14, 2010

We left the mountains today and headed for the ocean town of Nha Trang. They had a typhoon over here a couple of weeks ago which caused extensive damage. We had to go the LONG way…. Even taking the detour was hairy. There were mud slides, trees over roads and even parts of roads were missing. It was like being at Dream World without paying the entry fee! We did pass and stop in some lovely villages along the way though.




Coming down out of the mountains, heading towards the coast...

 

We finally made it to Nha Trang about lunch time, after lunch we checked out the beach then headed to Cham Temple which was built in the 7^th Century, it was quite extraordinary.

  

 

This area is also famous for its natural springs and mud baths. So when in Rome….

OMG the mud baths were so muddy, go figure. It was gross but somehow kinda cool, in a good way. After we were covered in mud, left to dry and rinsed off, we then got to swim in the hot springs, oh that was nice. We are back to 30 degrees with humidity of 89% so the jumper has been packed away again woo hoo.  

  

We have a different issue at our latest hotel. It hosts wedding receptions. And they don’t just have one reception area they have TWO, located either side of our room. So if you see on the news, ‘women arrested in Vietnam for shutting down wedding receptions’. That’s probably me. 

 

Although I love the food over here I’m not very good at ordering it. Every time I pick a meal from a menu I get something different from what I think I’ve ordered? I don’t know whether the chefs just decide they don’t want to cook that particular dish that day, or maybe they just decide that I look like I really didn't want that dish? It’s become a bit of a joke as everyone around me seems to be getting what they ordered, so it’s ‘I wonder what Heidi will get today’, yes it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…… 

6.30am Sunday morning and I’m typing on Ian’s iPhone on the beach, it’s a hard life. Badminton is HUGE over here, everyone plays it. So the boys got up bright and early to have a game before our daily activities. I still don’t understand why there are so many people up, I really don’t think anyone sleeps over here.

I dropped a load of laundry off this morning at a place down the road and around the corner. Little did I know the plastic bag I was carrying our cloths in had a hole in it. You can see what’s coming. My nickers in a small Vietnamese persons hand running after me, yep can’t go into that one any further………

We board a boat in an hour to cruise around the islands all day, love, love, love , can’t wait.

Best thing seen on a motorbike yesterday, a large glass mirror.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

I need to explain why it’s do difficult to turn off the lights in our hotel room and NO my brain hasn’t fallen out. Picture a typical hotel room anywhere in the world. You have your bed, bedside table and usually a lamp on top. Vietnams version is similar, except located on the front of the bedside table are lots of switches, not as many as in a cockpit of an airplane, but you get the picture. Now some of these switches do absolutely nothing. Some just turn random stuff on. I often wonder if they turn on other peoples lights in different rooms and that’s why the reception staff keep smiling at us! Anyway you see my dilemma. I couldn’t just keep flicking switches while my beloved lay fast asleep next to me…… Much easier to just unscrew the globe. 

Some people on our tour have gotten sick from the local food. We have been pillars of health although every time I go to the toilet and do a solid ‘poo’ it’s like a gift from god. I know my days could be numbered…….

We have had a full-on day today. Left at 8am and didn’t return until 6pm. Dalat is beautiful and very mountainous. The region grows most of Vietnams fruit and veggies so there are plantations everywhere. First stop today was the Royal Family’s summer palace (there isn’t a royal family anymore), then onto the ‘Crazy House’, can’t explain this one, you will just have to look at the photos. Then we visited a lovely waterfall, with an equally lovely Vietnamese name, that I can’t remember.  

The waterfall was a long way down, a very long way down, with many, many steps. There was a Vietnamese lady walking up and down the stairs selling drinks, I bet she could crush you with her thighs if needed. They would have to be some very strong thighs.

After this we went to another pagoda and caught a cable car across some mountain range to another mountain range, spectacular. Who knew there would be cable cars in Vietnam.

  

After all of this Ian needed a beer. So while the boys went in search of a pub, myself and another girl walked around town. We came across a little tiny stall selling trinkets. The next thing we knew they had put seats out for us to sit on. Well not really seats, more like midget stools, they were approximately 10cm from the ground and I was worried that all four legs would go in each direction once my big fat bum landed on one. We were laughing so hard that the stall owner started laughing then all the locals joined in . I’m not sure if they were laughing at me or with me? Anyway they then told me ‘I have beautiful fat face’, like Budda.  Apparently this is a compliment but I’m still not convinced that they were just taking the piss! Tonight we tried porcupine and ant-eater. Anything you can catch , you can eat.



Look at the size of those chairs, are you kidding me.....



Tomorrow we drive to the sea side village of Nha Trang. 

Best thing seen carried on a motor bike today, a ladder and not a step ladder.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Well nothing to report today. We left Ho Chi Minh and headed north to Dalat. Although Dalat is only 300km from Co Chi Minh is took 8.5 hours! The roads are sooooo dodgy and narrow and there is absolutely NO road rules......

I sat toward the back of the mini bus behind someone who has a big head (yes apparently there are other people in the world who have big heads, it's not just  me) anyway getting back to the story, I sat behind the big-headed person so I couldn't see out of the window as it's terrifying....... These people are crazy......

We visited some beautiful villages along the way and saw a statue of a giant chicken, I kid you not! But mostly we just sat on a bumpy bus with our knees around our heads (our mini bus was built for midgets, poor Ian) and saw many strange things being transported on the backs of motor bikes. The winners for today were: a bike with 3 live pigs strapped to the back (my personal favourite), followed closely by a fridge. And we aren't taking about a bar fridge, this was a full size fridge. Finally I saw someone transporting a wardrobe, wow.

Dalat is beautiful, it's high up in the mountains and it's cold, arrggghhhh.... Can you believe it's only 20 degrees. Ian is very smug as he packed jeans, guess who didn't. However I do have my very fashionable 'man shoes' on with socks. As they now hurt my feet. This however is something that we can't mention and I can guarantee there will be no photographic evidence of them.

View from our hotel room....

We had a lovely dinner tonight and I'm glad to report that my fashion sense improved dramatically over the course of the evening. This was due to the fact that it started to rain slightly so I had to complete the look with a pink poncho. At least my hair isn't frizzy as there isn't any humidity up here. Thank god it only rained for about 20 minutes as I was starting to look very special.

Our accommodation has improved as we now have hot water, however we are on the second floor of a 3 story hotel and the ceiling is wood. Very thin wood, so we can hear EVERYTHING above us. I did warn everyone about this at dinner just in case they wanted to read out loud or something......

 

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Mekong was everything I expected. After leaving our home stay we cruised around the river for about 2 hours, we visited floating markets, a fruit orchard and some local factories. They call them ‘factories’ but they are more like people’s homes. One was making fish sauce – very stinky, another rice paper. The processes here are so incredibly time consuming and labour intensive. The last one we stopped at was making local sweets, this was my favourite. They even made popcorn from rice, yum, yum. Of course Ian somehow found the local moonshine, AKA ‘snake wine’. Basically a huge jar of fermenting snakes yuk… At this stage he appears not to have suffered any lingering effects from drinking it....

After leaving the Mekong Delta we headed back to Ho Chi Minh where we spent the afternoon wondering around. It’s nearly time for dinner then a shower. I haven’t been able to have one for 2 days and I wasn’t using the bucket and river water. No point having one before dinner as you get filthy as soon as you walk out onto the street. Tomorrow we have a 7 hours journey to Dalat.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wow what a day, we got up bright and early and left Ho Chi Minh and headed out of the city to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi tunnels are a system of tunnels created in the war by the local people to fight the Americans. The tunnels go on for more than 250km…… It was an incredible and heart wrenching site to visit. Some of the tunnels have been widened so that western people can fit down them, poor Ian still had trouble fitting as his shoulders kept scraping the sides.

 

After seeing the tunnels we travelled to the Mekong Delta where we went on a 45 minute boat ride to our home stay. We were guests of Mr Moi and his family.



It was a lot better than I expected, I thought we would be sleeping on the floor. Instead we had camp stretchers and our own mossy nets. We were divided in half to accommodate everyone and we slept in two big dorm rooms. That night we helped the family cook dinner, the kitchen certainly wasn't like home but the food that was produced was outstanding. We had ‘elephant fish’ ugliest fish I have ever seen but surprisingly tasty, tiger prawns and a few things I couldn’t distinguish….



Hi, Mr Moi

I slept better than anticipated, I think it’s the heat and all the good food. It was lovely listening to the sounds of the river and the fishermen that seem to fish all night? No one ever seems to sleep in this country. The constant hum of all the bugs was annoying and if I ever find the bloody roster that's been crowing since 5am I'll ring it’s friggin neck! It was a bit hairy going to the loo this morning as it was still dark and the house is literately over the water, thus you have to walk over a gang plank to get onto solid ground – not so good at 5am in the dark. The gang plank is approximately 10cm wide which is challenging when your 5 foot 7, weigh (lets just say a considerable amount more than the locals) and have enormous feet. Of course it would be no 'biggie' if you fell into the Mekong River given that the water is in such pristine condition. This is me being facetious, if I didn't immediately get washed away or was mistaken for something the locals could kill and eat I'm sure some weird arse disease would take me out within 24 hours......

 

Elephant Fish

Today we spend the whole day exploring the river. Oh! How funny, before we left Ho Chi Minh I bought a pair of thongs from the market. The only pair I bought with me got wrecked in the torrential downpours of Saigon. The lady on the street sat me on a tiny stool and bought over a pair of shoes that were about size 6. When she saw the size of my feet she said ‘oh your feet too big will need ugly man shoes, no nice shoe for you’ she then gave me some ‘ugly man shoes’ and proceeded to invite all the local woman that she could find over to have a look. She was so stunned that I was going to buy them that ‘she gave me big discount as poor nice lady has to wear ugly man shoes’. Thank god I didn’t try on any cloths…..