Saturday, April 29, 2006

Goodbye Vietnam

Today is our last day in Vietnam. Tonight we'll be in the sky on our way to Helsinki!

The best parts of Vietnam:
* The people - everyone is so friendly, especially in the south of Vietnam (although sometimes this is because they're trying to sell you something!)
* The prices - beers for under $1, taxis anywhere in the city for $1.50, a huge bowl of noodles for 50 cents, and a tailored suit for $80!
* The beaches - the water is hot, and so is the sun
* The food - the most amazing fresh fruit and seafood we've had anywhere, and that's a big call when we have the Sydney Fish Markets!
* The craziness - traffic goes where it wants, rubbish goes where it wants (usually just in the gutter), it's noisy, people beep at every chance, and you are hassled on every corner. This part of Vietnam took a while for Em to get used to... but you learn to love it!

One of the many groups of people who hassle you are fruit sellers. They carry huge baskets of fruit balanced at each end of a bamboo pole, and the cries of "You buuuuyyyyyyy? Very cheeeeeeeap!" are heard everywhere.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, one of their tactics is to spark conversation by asking where you are from. They are all really familiar with Australia, and always have something to chat to you about, which usually leads to a sale. So we are now officially from Uruguay! They don't know anything about that country, so we are left alone - it really works!

One sales tactic is to offer you a photo opportunity... like this fruit seller did to us with her baskets of bananas!






It worked... and we bought some bananas from her, as well as a bag of pineapple, at an over-inflated price (which was still only $2, but we were later told that a bag of bananas should only cost you 15 cents).

Ho Chi Minh and Colonel Sanders....

After having now spent almost four weeks travelling through Vietnam, and eating vietnamese food most of the way, we started to crave some good old fashion crappy western food! One of our first stops on return to Saigon was KFC! This is the only western food chain we've seen throughout the whole of Vietnam, we couldn't understand why? Then we came to a conclusion...... Colonel Sanders looks like Ho Chi Minh! Vietnam has few national heroes, Ho Chi Minh is it, he is a god here.





Have a look at these two images and decide for yourself.....

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Two days of craziness - Day two

Our second day of craziness began at 4am...

We got ourselves out of bed early to get to the ANZAC day dawn service that was held at the Australian Embassy in Hanoi. The Australian, NZ and Turkish Ambassadors were there, as well as an elderly SAS soldier in full dress uniform and covered in medals! The ceremony was followed by a BBQ breakfast. We had been hoping for some vegemite, but we were more than happy with sausages, bacon, tomatoes and eggs. It was great to be surrounded by Aussies and to be a part of ANZAC day, even all the way from Vietnam. (We couldn't find any 2-up yesterday though! Probably saved ourselves a lot of money! hahaha!)

ANZAC wreaths

After the service, we walked to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (or Uncle Ho, as he's affectionately referred to!). Hi Chi Minh was the president of Vietnam, and when he died he wished to be cremated. However, the Vietnamese people decided instead to embalm him, and put his body on display. He is sent to Russia for 2 months every year for touch ups!

The lines outside Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

The Mausoleum opens at 7.30am, but even when we got there at 6.45 there were crowds of people. It's a very organised and official process. There are guards everywhere in white uniforms, who usher you quickly and quietly (Gwil got shushed!) down a line, past Uncle Ho's body in a glass case, and back out again. There is absolutely no dawdling! They'll grab you by the arm and lead you on if you look like you're about to stop!

After the Mausoleum, we visited the Army Museum. Another example of censored war history! They never show any Vietnamese army or people weakness - there are no Vietnamese victims, and no mention of how awful Napalm was on the country. There are however, loads of mentions of 'enemy' victims - including how many US & French planes they shot down. (The photo below is a sculpture in the Museum made up of parts from downed US/French planes. Mainly B52s.)

US & French aircraft wreckage

And after being excited for more than 3 weeks at seeing the Water Puppets, Em was VERY excited to get front row tickets to that night's performance! The puppets were amazing - much better than we expected. Water Puppets are a traditional Vietnamese art form. It began over a thousand years ago, when rice paddies were flooded, and the farmers began putting on 'underwater' shows, where just the puppets would be visible above the water.

Here is a video from one of the acts of the performance. Press play, then hit pause to let the video load. Once it's fully loaded, press play again.

Two days of craziness - Day one

We have packed us much as possible into the last 2 days so that we could spend today doing nothing! We'll split it into 2 posts, so that it's not too long.

On Monday we checked out Hoa Lo Prison (AKA 'Hanoi Hilton'), which was built by the French in 1896 to house anti-Colonial Vietnamese revolutionaries. It was then used during the Vietnam War for US soldiers. During all our visits to any museums to do with the Vietnam War (which they call the American War), it's interesting to read the propoganda and information that they display.

From a sign inside the prison:
"From August 5, 1964 to January 24, 1973, US Govenment carried out two destruction wars... against North Vietnam. The Northern Army and people brought down thousands of aircrafts, captured hundreds of American pilots... Though having commited untold crimes on our people, the American pilots suffered no revenge... Instead they were well treated."

I'm not sure that the US soldiers would necessarily agree...

Near the prison we were mobbed by school kids on an exursion, who were very excited to be able to practice their limited English on us. We walked past lines and lines of them, all yelling out "Hello! What's your name?".

School kids4

That afternoon, we stumbled across an out-of-the-way market. We've found lots of amazing surprises in Vietnamese markets - incredible fruits, clothing and jewellery. But the first thing we found when we stepped into this one was a table covered in dead dogs! We'd heard they eat dog in northern Vietnam, but really had to see it to believe it. This was the most disgusting thing we've seen in Vietnam so far. Needless to say, we didn't explore this market any further!

We also had the most hilarious cab ride on this day. The traffic here moves very slowly, as it's so congested, so accidents are usually not very bad. Our cab driver hit one motorbike and a pedestrian in the few blocks we travelled. He later revealed that it was only his 3rd day of driving! When you have accidents here, no one swaps details... I'm not sure if they have car insurance.

The only thing we really dislike about Vietnamese food is the amount of MSG they use. It's been giving us both really crazy dreams, and headaches! The only problem is... we don't know how to say MSG in Vietnamese, so we can't request they don't use it! This was one attempt...

Gwil: "Do you have MSG?"
Waiter: "What??"
Gwil: "M....S....G" (drawing the letters on his hand)
Waiter: "Um..." (looks at a sign above our heads, which is advertising free Wireless internet) "No. We only have Wireless."
Gwil and I both looked at each other and laughed!

Monday, April 24, 2006

Hanoi and Halong Bay

We got to Hanoi on April 20, but only spent 1 full day there before heading out to Halong Bay.

The night before we left for Halong Bay, we ate at what is supposedly Vietnam's Oldest Restaurant - Cha Ca La Vong. They serve only one dish, called Cha Ca, which is described as 'snake fish'. The snake fish is really nice, you get a charcoal brazier on your table, which has a pan on it with cubes of fish. You add herbs (dill, mint, schallots and corriander) and cook it yourself.

Cha Ca

We finished dinner with icecream by the lake. Em played it safe with coconut, but Gwil tried Taro icecream, which was bright purple!

Taro ice cream

The lake in Hanoi is really pretty at night, but it turns into a complete couples area! All the benches are covered in couples, both young and old, staring out over the water.

Fairy lights by the lake

Halong Bay was also great. It is thousands of little islands, only a few hours from Hanoi.

At the top of Ti Top island

We went on a 3 day/2 night cruise on a boat that was just like a floating hotel! We had a room with a private bathroom, air con, a double bed, and food was incredible - crab, prawns and fish for lunch and dinner every day! We kayaked around the bay, and went on a private boat to visit Cat Ba Island so that we could go for a trek, in the hope of seeing monkeys... Unfortunately, I think Gwil's pace was too much for our guide, and he was ready to go home about one hour into it! So we didn't see any monkeys, but we got a great work out!

Cat Ba trekking

We are now back in Hanoi again, and will stay here for a few more days before flying back to Saigon and then on to Finland.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Barbers, Tailors and Bottle-opener makers

I know we had plans to head to Laos and Cambodia... but we've loved Vietnam so much that we're going to spend the rest of our time in Asia here before we fly to Helsinki in just over a week.

We haven't posted for a while, but finally have access to our blog again! We're in a little hotel in Hanoi, whose internet doesn't have all the restrictions that we've found everywhere else.

We spent much longer than planned in Hoi An (just like we've done in almost every stop so far!). The place was beautiful, and all the clothes we had made in Hoi An were amazing - so Em went back and had more each day we were there. We had to post home 16kg of clothing! (there are a few shots of the clothes on Flickr, but the rest will have to wait until we come back home... we've both lost weight in Vietnam, so we're hoping that we don't put on too much weight in Europe, and that all the clothes still fit when we get back!)

Two happy customers

Em wasn't going to get a suit made, but she might need one eventually... and the prices were so cheap.

There are a couple more street shots of Hoi An below. Our tailor is right in the Ancient town, and she was telling us that it's much better there now that Hoi An is World Heritage listed, than it used to be. Her family has lived in the same house for 8 generations, but they used to own 8 houses in Hoi An. The communist government confiscated 7 of the houses after the war, leaving her with just the one she's in now. The heritage listing means that it's less likely her last house will be taken by the government as well.

Hoi An street shot

Vietnamese flags

Emily 042

Jade, who works at B Lan's (our tailor), took us CD shopping in Hoi An, as I was determined to find some good Vietnamese music to send back to FBi. Before I left Sydney, Stuart (who not only runs the station, but also presents the world music show - Fat Planet), told me that good Vietnamese tracks were really hard to find - so I set off on a mission. But Stuart was right... I listened to lots of CDs, but couldn't find anything. Finally I bought 3 CDs without listening to them on Jade's recommendation (they were 40c each).

I don't know where you go in Vietnam to buy 'real' CDs (non-pirated). Even in the CD stores everything is copied - DVDs, CDs, VCDs - and really cheap. But because it's pirated, you're not allowed to post them out of the country, so we have a small pile of DVDs and CDs to carry to Finland with us now!

Music shopping in Hoi An

After leaving Hoi An, we caught a bus to Hue and spent a day there. We did some sightseeing in the walled Hue Citadel, inside which is a walled Imperial Palace, inside which used to be the walled Forbidden City. The emperor allowed only his concubines and eunuchs in the Forbidden City, and the eunuchs were not a threat to him. The entire Palace area was bombed in 1947, and most of it is now in ruins.

Gwil got brave just before we left Hue, and got a haircut from a barber whose store was in a courtyard behind some chicken wire. It was pretty dirty, and Gwil looked pretty scared more than once!

Vietnamese Haircut in Hue

The barber wore a face mask through the whole haircut!

Also in Hue, we met Lac, who is deaf and mute. He is one of 3 deaf mutes who runs a Vietnamese restaurant on a street just outside the Hue Citadel! You order using sign language (which was SO much easier than ordering in Vietnamese). The food was amazing, and at the end of the meal he made us a bottle opener to take travelling with us. In his restaurant he has 3 photo albums, and a photo wall, which are full of photos of his customers, with their bottle openers, in front of tourist attractions around the world. We're going to try to get a photo of us with it in Russia and send it to him - as that was a country he was missing from his collection.

The bottle opener

After one day in Hue, we got the plane to Hanoi, and have just today gotten back from 3 days on a boat in Halong Bay... we're both still rocking as it's strange to be on still land. I'll put up some info on the boat trip later on.

Hope all is great at home. Nerys is having a baby soon, we're very excited and we hope that everything goes well. We know it will be another very cute kid!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Hoi An

Hoi An was recommended to us by a few people, and it's even better than we thought it would be.

Traditional dresses in Hoi An

Our hotel is right near the Hoi An Ancient Town - which is like an old preserved city, but is full of tailors and jewellery sellers and shoe makers. Yesterday we went to see a tailor who was recommended to us by our friend Daz. We went a bit nuts, and are getting 3 dresses, 2 tops, a suit, a coat, a shirt, some shorts, plus 2 pairs of shoes, and I think there are a couple more things... we pick them up in a few hours, so fingers crossed that they end up looking how we imagined them.

We went out last night for drinks with two girls from Melbourne who we've met over here - Emily and Hayley. There are so many Aussies in Vietnam, and having your home country in common seems to make you instantly click with them all. After drinks we stumbled across the filming of a live outdoor broadcast for VTV - Vietnam's TV channel. They were shooting a game show, that also had traditional singing and dancing in it. Of course, we got ourselves on camera - so we've now been on Vietnamese TV!

Vietnamese game show outdoor broadcast

This morning we did a Vietnamese cooking class which was great. They taught us how to make rice paper from scratch, and then to make fresh spring rolls using the rice paper. We made about 5 dishes and then sat down and ate them all. (I learnt that Gwil makes a mean garnish - he can turn a tomato into a rose like a pro! Expect them to be turning out at every dinner party from now on!) Luckily everyone in our group was a good cook, so the food ended up being fantastic.

Nice garnish!

We still can't access our blog. Keep leaving comments though - we'll check them when we get access again.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Nha Trang

We finally packed up our beach towels, and hopped on a bus to leave Mui Ne.



The plan was to finish our beach holiday, and start exploring Vietnam again. But then we found Nha Trang.

It's only 4 hours north of Mui Ne, but it's a much bigger city, right on the beach. It's a little bit Gold Coast, and a little bit Saigon. Massive resorts with roof top pools line the main strip, in front of which an old lady sells cobs of corn off the back of her bicycle. From the beach, you look our onto a dozen or so islands, which we are yet to explore.



We really really really love it here. If we hadn't booked an onward flight, we could easily spend the next 6 months in Nha Trang - lying in the sun, drinking Ca Phe Da (iced black coffee with sugar syrup), and listening to the constant honking of the Vietnamese traffic.

There are a few funny things we've noticed as tourists in Vietnam. The first is that people are fascinated with Gwil. They think he's a muscle man! The boys laugh at the size of his shoes, and point at his nipple ring. The little girls run at him and tug his shirt. The number of stares we get though are declining as we become more tanned - we were so white when we first turned up at the beach!

The reaction you get when you mention that you are from Australia is also funny. In the really tourist areas, lots of people respond with "G'day mate, how're ya going". Others mention as many Aussie symbols as they can... "Kangaroo! Koala! Sydney Opera House!". While most of the young guys here relate everything back to football.. "Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell!"

There are some more photos up on Flickr now. I'm hoping that this blog post works. We can't seem to access any blog sites anymore. We've been told it's because the further north you go in Vietnam, the more the Communist government controls the internet - and apparently they've blocked all blog sites.

If anyone didn't get the email Em sent out to all last week "Good Morning Vietnam", can you please email her... we're missing lots of email addresses of our friends.

Em and Gwil x

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Mui Ne

18 kms of beautiful beach, our own private bungalow right near the sand, massages being offered by beach hawkers, 35 degree heat, and fresh fruit plates brought to our room each afternoon.

It's pretty nice here!

We caught a bus to Mui Ne from Saigon yesterday morning. The ride takes about 3 hours normally, but ours took about 5. Our bus broke a few minutes after leaving, and the driver got out his spanner and his spare timing belts, and set about fixing the problem himself. We made it here fine, so I guess he did a good job!

Em's first taste of Vietnam-belly set in yesterday afternoon, but she's much better today. And if there's anywhere in Vietnam to be sick, this is the place, as there's not much else to do except laze around in the sun. We've done lots of lying in padded chairs on the beach, drinking mango juice, and we've been swimming in the South China Sea (but the water is HOT!)

We're going to see the sand dunes tomorrow (you can toboggan down them), and we're going to try to check out a restaurant down the road where you can buy your seafood live from the tank and they cook it right there (I know you can do this in Sydney too... but it's all so cheap here!)

Monday, April 03, 2006

Some Saigon photos....


Gwil made a friend outside one of the bars we went to with Darren. This little kid had been trained by his mum to drop packets of gum down the back of our chairs. He'd then refuse to take them back, making you feel like you had to give him some money! So cheeky! The kid took a liking to Gwil and ended up wrapping himself around his arm.


Em's birthday dinner at Xu in Saigon. The food was amazing (and the bill was almost 3,000,000 dong!)


We shot AK47's at the Cu Chi Tunnels! No training or ear protection were necessary -according to the guy who loaded our ammo.



The AK47 isn't a ladies gun... apparently the M16 is much more Em's style (but I stuck with the AK47 still)



In the tunnels. They are only just over a metre high, and the Vietcong lived in them for years during the war. They used them for hiding, fighting and living. There are 250kms of tunnels in total. We didn't last long in them - they're very dark, and you get a little bit claustrophobic.

There are heaps more on Flickr, but these are some of our favourites.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Crazy Town

We're in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Safe and well.
And, it's my birthday!

Before leaving Sydney, we had to do a Kath & Kim style duty free shop. Check out our Coogis! (we didn't actually buy them - don't worry!)



Our first night here was a massive culture shock! We got off the plane, and were blasted by the Vietnamese heat and humidity.. haggled with a cab driver to get us to our hotel.. settled in, and decided to go for a walk before meeting our friend Darren...

We posted a video a little while ago about the traffic in Saigon. Watch that video and then imagine it being night-time, with some drunk moto drivers, and two terrified Aussie tourists! There are traffic lights, but no one pays attention to them. There are pedestrian crossings, but again - no one pays attention to them! We were left standing on the edge of the footpath of a major intersection before practicing crossing on a smaller road, and finally giving up!

Darren had to come and meet us at the hotel the next morning, to teach us how to cross roads. We checked out Ben Tham markets (which are amazing! They sell everything you could possibly want, for next to nothing), and then went on a Xe Om (motorbike) tour of Saigon. You don't wear helmets in Vietnam when you're on a moto, unless you're riding on a national highway... and it's pretty scary to be on the back of one of these things, zipping and dodging in and out of traffic. The only road rules seem to be:
- you give way to something that's bigger than you (motorbikes give way to cars, which give way to buses)
- when you get to an intersection, don't stop, just beep your horn to let people know that they have to get out of your way

My birthday today has been fantastic. We were taken out for breakfast by Darren to a French cafe "Au Parc". Gwil and I then walked around Saigon being tourists for a little while, before having Pho Bo from Pho Pasteur for lunch (raw beef in a hot soup with rice noodles), and then booking our onward travel and doing some more shopping (authentic Prada sunglasses - only $10)!

We have seen both the amazing poverty and opulence that Saigon has to offer. Tomorrow we are going to check out the Cu Chi Tunnels, and then on Tuesday we leave Saigon to get a bus to Mui Ne.

We'll post photos soon.