Well the bags are packed up again but this time in record quick time 30 mins to wash and pack which is good for us.
So on route to Hue we went to the Marble mountains with Rob and Rich who we met earlier in our trip.these mountains rised up from the sea like well prepared Yorkshire puddings ( there was no need for that simile i know) But the most emphatic moment was searching the caves within the mountains one in particular was massive and had a hug Buddha looking down. The cave itself was beautiful lit and had as much of a spiritual atmosphere as any place we have visited.
We then moved on to the Train station at Da Nang. the wait was made bearable by some amazing Vietnamese kids that wanted to play and seemed to be fascinated by my beard. Understandable as Vietnamese men do not don the beard at all. We scrambled onto the Train and sat back to enjoy the views from our window,This train ride is one of the best in the world snaking through the mountains and by the coast line it made a refreshing change to the bus journey a real treat. Even more impressive was a local man in his 60s/70s all in leather even gloves who sat next Amy im sure he was off to an audition to play Danny Zuko.
At Hue we found a hotel called goggle hotel. Which we thought was ok in fairness i think we just wanted to get out of the cold Hue is freezing compared to the rest of our travels. Everything felt great as we laid back in our room. until my nostrils detected a strong scent of fag ash. We immediately explored the room and found lots of ash and fags hiding in every nook and cranny . This massively disappointed me Its a disgusting habit anyway but the room had obviously not been cleaned. At the start of our trip i would have laughed it off but now i found it hard to except it was in a long line of rooms where something always seemed to be wrong.
Hue itself is very unique and boasts and array of Historic buildings and tombs , the first one we visited was The Imperial City (Vietnamese: Kinh thành Huế) a walled fortress and palace in the former capital of Vietnam,
on this trip we witnessed a lady with black teeth this has mortified Amy for days Amy has been trying to come to terms with the ordeal.
So the next day we thought we would be heroes and walk to Tu Duc temple a 5 hour round trip but it was worth it when we got there very peacefull resting place pictures to follow.
So im sitting here a tad achy and a bit tired so we are hoping this will help us sleep on the 12 hour night bus to Hanoi were me and Amy are staying With a couple called Janice and Abduala. Who have kindly put us up Janice is the sister of Elaine who i worked with in Norwich.....Thank you
well thats all for now here to Norwich beating Manchester united and surely securing our premiership survival
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Saturday, 18 February 2012
more vietnam
Hi,
In the last 2 weeks we have been to Da lat, Nha Trang and Hoi An. Da Lat is a hillstation which was similar to the cameron highland in Malaysia in terms of scenery and weather, although i found Da lat more attractive and another bonus is they produce their own wine. There were plenty of tours to do with the "easy riders" a group of bikers that take you around the surrounding countryside, we decided they were too expensive and also too cool for us so we spent our days walking around the town. There is a pretty impressive lake to walk around, a crazy house designed by some mental Russian and the kings summer palace which was cool. Most nights we ate in this restaurant/cafe owned by a little vietnamese lady who was actually bonkers but really nice and the food was good, we also met a nice couple from manchester - Rob and Rich, we caught up again with them in Hoi An.
Nha Trang was the next stop, extremely touristic beach resort BUT the best beach in Vietnam so happy to spend 3 days there, we then caught the night bus from there to Hoi An which was an odd experience. The bus slept around 30 odd people, adam and i both got a top bunk with some old timers snoring under us and some american girl behind us moaning the whole way, it was really bumpy and we almost collided head on with lorries numerous times but we made it 12 hours later to Hoi An. We immediately loved Hoi An, little winding cobbled streets with old french colonial era houses and lovely little cafes. We have visited lots of little museums and old houses, the japenese peace bridge at night is beautifully lit up with coloured lanterns and push bikes peacefully going past. Today we took a rowing boat up the river with a lady named Chun, she was in her 70's but rowed impressively along. We are planning on leaving tomorrow along with rich and rob, to the "marble mountains" and onto danang trainstation where we head to Hue, the train journey is supposedly the best in vietnam and will make a change to bus rides! looking forward to it.
xxxxx
In the last 2 weeks we have been to Da lat, Nha Trang and Hoi An. Da Lat is a hillstation which was similar to the cameron highland in Malaysia in terms of scenery and weather, although i found Da lat more attractive and another bonus is they produce their own wine. There were plenty of tours to do with the "easy riders" a group of bikers that take you around the surrounding countryside, we decided they were too expensive and also too cool for us so we spent our days walking around the town. There is a pretty impressive lake to walk around, a crazy house designed by some mental Russian and the kings summer palace which was cool. Most nights we ate in this restaurant/cafe owned by a little vietnamese lady who was actually bonkers but really nice and the food was good, we also met a nice couple from manchester - Rob and Rich, we caught up again with them in Hoi An.
Nha Trang was the next stop, extremely touristic beach resort BUT the best beach in Vietnam so happy to spend 3 days there, we then caught the night bus from there to Hoi An which was an odd experience. The bus slept around 30 odd people, adam and i both got a top bunk with some old timers snoring under us and some american girl behind us moaning the whole way, it was really bumpy and we almost collided head on with lorries numerous times but we made it 12 hours later to Hoi An. We immediately loved Hoi An, little winding cobbled streets with old french colonial era houses and lovely little cafes. We have visited lots of little museums and old houses, the japenese peace bridge at night is beautifully lit up with coloured lanterns and push bikes peacefully going past. Today we took a rowing boat up the river with a lady named Chun, she was in her 70's but rowed impressively along. We are planning on leaving tomorrow along with rich and rob, to the "marble mountains" and onto danang trainstation where we head to Hue, the train journey is supposedly the best in vietnam and will make a change to bus rides! looking forward to it.
xxxxx
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Mui Ne
Cam on!!! this is Thank you in Vietnamese we are proud to announce that we are completely literate in niceties in 4 Asian countries is it because I iz English?
moving on to more relevant news we are having a cracking time in Mui ne which is best described as a windsurfers paradise. So the whole place ozes a surfers chilled out vibe which is a massive contrast to Ho chi minh. The first 2 days me and Amy opted to take a walk along the beach and around Mui ne one of the walks lasted 4 hours and was very pleasant with the view having a slight resemblence to a small greek town
after trying various places to eat around Mue ne we have set up camp in Mellows which is friendly good price and superb food. The fish here is fantastic and Amy finally had a chance to drink some red wine which is made at nearby Da Lat." it tasted more like sherry but is was alright said Amy
today we fancied chilling by the sea as it was our last day. as we stepped foot on the beach we were greeted with strong winds and sand grains pricking our skin. So we brought a sun bed each for 75p to escape the worst of it. So we spent the most of the day lapping up the sun and watching the fantastic windsurfers which made for an immense sight. It came to the point when we braved the waves ourselves we both walked towards the crashing waves i jumped up in like an excited dog whilst Amy in a more gracefull manner took her time. now these waves were something else they could knock me clean off my feet so i was just about to warn Amy when crash a wave hits Amy and she is submerged i then notice that Amy still has her sun glasses on i was then about to shout then crash the wave comes in again one after the other and the Sea claims the sunglasses forever nooooooooooooooooooo.
on the walk back we met a cyclist from New Zealand i asked where have you biked from, he says from London. This guy has spent 10 months biking almost every country inbetween England and Vietnam absolutley insane. great effort mate!!
so tonight we have been invited to eat a fish bbq with a few German and polish friends then its up early to get the bus to Da Lat
i hope you're not all snowed in back home and the end is nigh as ITV news seems to report everytime a snow flakes is spotted.
thank you for reading
moving on to more relevant news we are having a cracking time in Mui ne which is best described as a windsurfers paradise. So the whole place ozes a surfers chilled out vibe which is a massive contrast to Ho chi minh. The first 2 days me and Amy opted to take a walk along the beach and around Mui ne one of the walks lasted 4 hours and was very pleasant with the view having a slight resemblence to a small greek town
after trying various places to eat around Mue ne we have set up camp in Mellows which is friendly good price and superb food. The fish here is fantastic and Amy finally had a chance to drink some red wine which is made at nearby Da Lat." it tasted more like sherry but is was alright said Amy
today we fancied chilling by the sea as it was our last day. as we stepped foot on the beach we were greeted with strong winds and sand grains pricking our skin. So we brought a sun bed each for 75p to escape the worst of it. So we spent the most of the day lapping up the sun and watching the fantastic windsurfers which made for an immense sight. It came to the point when we braved the waves ourselves we both walked towards the crashing waves i jumped up in like an excited dog whilst Amy in a more gracefull manner took her time. now these waves were something else they could knock me clean off my feet so i was just about to warn Amy when crash a wave hits Amy and she is submerged i then notice that Amy still has her sun glasses on i was then about to shout then crash the wave comes in again one after the other and the Sea claims the sunglasses forever nooooooooooooooooooo.
on the walk back we met a cyclist from New Zealand i asked where have you biked from, he says from London. This guy has spent 10 months biking almost every country inbetween England and Vietnam absolutley insane. great effort mate!!
so tonight we have been invited to eat a fish bbq with a few German and polish friends then its up early to get the bus to Da Lat
i hope you're not all snowed in back home and the end is nigh as ITV news seems to report everytime a snow flakes is spotted.
thank you for reading
Saturday, 4 February 2012
The heat is on in Saigon
Chao,
So we are finally in Saigon! and i can't stop singing that song from Miss Saigon. This place is actually mental busy, there are more mopeds than population of Australia, or something like that.
So far so good, loving Vietnam and the people and.....the bread! Thank the lord the French colonized this place! Although i'll probably put back on all weight lost through copious amounts of carbs.
So just to start off with, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh city absoulutely knackered from the bus journey from Cambodia, over the border (straightforward) and into this bustling place - tired, hungry and riddled with bedbugs. Some dirt hole in Cambodia gave us that freebie before we left, i shall name and shame in case anyone ever is in the area - "Sunday Guesthouse" Phnom Pehn. Anyways, Adam has suffered this before in Oz (maybe he never got rid of them.....) jokes, but i have never had the joys. I transformed into Kim from How clean is your house? or...Aggy, whichever the skinny one is.....and bypassed another bug ridden hostel to find a clean place on Bui Vien street. We put ALL of our belongings into the wash, all clothes and bags, and scrubbed ourselves clean. So far no sign of the critters, 17 quid later in laundry bills that is.
First day was spent walking around and getting our bearings, which is what we always do in the cities, we visited 3 museums, fairly interesting albeit slightly repeatitive. The second day we visited the war museum which was very good, completely anti american and french, gotta love that right? I don't know ALL the facts of the Vietnam war so it may have appeared one sided but i'm pretty sure from what i've learnt - it was all america's fault and they are dumb/ignorant fools. The museum had some of the old war aircraft and tanks outside, took some photos for my grandad to look at, may post them on here later.
Today we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, this was an amazing trip. The tunnels were dug out actually when the french began colonizing but were fanously used during america-vietnam war and when you see them, you realise how they mananged to outsmart the GI's and endure the war. We saw old boobytraps they built and learnt how they survived in the tunnels, they lived for periods of up to 3 months down there without coming to the surface once. All together they occupied the tunnels for around 2years, men and their families lived down there. I'm claustrophobic so i didn't venture into the tunnels which some have been widened for tourists but you still have to crouch and its very dark. Adam went down these ones and then went on to the original tunnels which he had to crawl through on his hands and knees. Apparently the air is very stuffy, its pitch black in places and scary! I can't imagine going down there for 5 minutes let alone living there for 2 years, but thats how the people of Cu Chi survived the war and good on them.
Tomorrow we head off to Muine, on the coast, more beach time! Then Da Lat (hillstation in the mountains) then Na trang which has a beautiful coastline apparently.
We are in 'Nam for a month and have a new SIM card therefore a new number whilst we are here, if you want the number the just inbox us on FB.
Until next time......platoon......over and out
Amy xxxxx
So we are finally in Saigon! and i can't stop singing that song from Miss Saigon. This place is actually mental busy, there are more mopeds than population of Australia, or something like that.
So far so good, loving Vietnam and the people and.....the bread! Thank the lord the French colonized this place! Although i'll probably put back on all weight lost through copious amounts of carbs.
So just to start off with, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh city absoulutely knackered from the bus journey from Cambodia, over the border (straightforward) and into this bustling place - tired, hungry and riddled with bedbugs. Some dirt hole in Cambodia gave us that freebie before we left, i shall name and shame in case anyone ever is in the area - "Sunday Guesthouse" Phnom Pehn. Anyways, Adam has suffered this before in Oz (maybe he never got rid of them.....) jokes, but i have never had the joys. I transformed into Kim from How clean is your house? or...Aggy, whichever the skinny one is.....and bypassed another bug ridden hostel to find a clean place on Bui Vien street. We put ALL of our belongings into the wash, all clothes and bags, and scrubbed ourselves clean. So far no sign of the critters, 17 quid later in laundry bills that is.
First day was spent walking around and getting our bearings, which is what we always do in the cities, we visited 3 museums, fairly interesting albeit slightly repeatitive. The second day we visited the war museum which was very good, completely anti american and french, gotta love that right? I don't know ALL the facts of the Vietnam war so it may have appeared one sided but i'm pretty sure from what i've learnt - it was all america's fault and they are dumb/ignorant fools. The museum had some of the old war aircraft and tanks outside, took some photos for my grandad to look at, may post them on here later.
Today we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, this was an amazing trip. The tunnels were dug out actually when the french began colonizing but were fanously used during america-vietnam war and when you see them, you realise how they mananged to outsmart the GI's and endure the war. We saw old boobytraps they built and learnt how they survived in the tunnels, they lived for periods of up to 3 months down there without coming to the surface once. All together they occupied the tunnels for around 2years, men and their families lived down there. I'm claustrophobic so i didn't venture into the tunnels which some have been widened for tourists but you still have to crouch and its very dark. Adam went down these ones and then went on to the original tunnels which he had to crawl through on his hands and knees. Apparently the air is very stuffy, its pitch black in places and scary! I can't imagine going down there for 5 minutes let alone living there for 2 years, but thats how the people of Cu Chi survived the war and good on them.
Tomorrow we head off to Muine, on the coast, more beach time! Then Da Lat (hillstation in the mountains) then Na trang which has a beautiful coastline apparently.
We are in 'Nam for a month and have a new SIM card therefore a new number whilst we are here, if you want the number the just inbox us on FB.
Until next time......platoon......over and out
Amy xxxxx
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