Bangkok & Saigon Day 3 Candice

After our night out we both wake up feeling a bit worse for wear so decide to take it easy before our flight to Ho Chi Minh City.
One last everything you could wish for breakfast and one last dip in the pool and we are off.
Our flight was with Air Asia which is like easyjet. The flight was ok although Jeremy did not enjoy it as we had to fly through some clouds which meant turbulence. At one point we even had some lightning- not great for someone that doesn't like flying... Luckily we don't have to fly anywhere for the next 2 weeks as it will be trains from here on out :)

Arriving in Saigon we had to get visas on landing.I had already arranged a letter through an agency here to get us our visas but they process this at the airport. Funny thing is we had to fill out some forms and apparently needed photos too, but after handing in our passports and then filling in the forms we got the passports back with the visas - no forms handed in and no photos taken...Not sure what happened there but oh well not complaining.

First we had to draw some money, which should be easy enough. But when you get 33 000 vietnamese dong for every pound, choosing how much to draw becomes a bit more interesting. Somehow drawing 2million of any currency just seems wrong!

Outside the terminal building you have someone coming up to you every 2mins offering their taxi. We knew from experience to always get a metered taxi so we stuck to our guns and made our way to the taxi stand. One guy was so persistant that he followed us all the way to the taxi stand insisting he was the taxi supervisor and that we should come with him. Once we insisted that we want a metered taxi he left us alone. It was quite a welcome to HCMC.

Driving in to our hotel was quite an experience. The first thing you hear is the blaring of hooters, you feel the heat blasting your face through the open window of the taxi and all you see is bikes. Scooters of all shapes and sizes whizzing past the taxi. There doesn't seem to be any rules of the road except don't get run over. It's like a antheap has exploded open. So unbelievable and exciting.

After checking in to our hotel Duc Vuong we went out to explore and get something to eat. We are staying just off the main backpacker street so there are a fair few western restaurants blaring music and selling cheap drinks.
I couldn't wait so we went into the first bar we could see and got some beer and stir fry beef for me to eat. The food was suprisingly really good especially as it only cost about 3 quid.

Jeremy didn't want to eat yet so after I was done we went for a walk around to soak in the atmosphere. Eventually getting hungry we decide to stop for Jeremy to eat. We found the cutest place which seems like it was someone's house you were eating in. We sat upstairs on a balcony which only had 2 tables. Jeremy asked the girl if he could just have some stirfried beef with noodles (which wasn't really on the menu) but they happily made for him. It was delicious and made me wish I had waited.

After all that we were exhausted so went straight to bed.
Today we are off to see war museum and the reunification palace.




Aircon blasting in the plane - made an eerie mist!





Crazy streets




Dog on a scooter- thats a first!




Beer on a busy street corner

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Location:Saigon

Day 2 Bangkok Jeremy

Day 2 in Bangkok started off a lot slower. Bangkok is not only 35 degrees but also incredibly humid. Your body definitely has to acclimatise and whatever you doing out and about the sweat is constantly dripping off your face. After a long breakfast we decided to relax by the pool for a bit. We would miss the midday sun and then head out on our adventure. We left the hotel about 1:30pm and head for Wat Po or the reclining buddha. Quite an impressive statue of a buddha lying down and huge in size. We wandered around the area looking in the various small temples with more buddha statues and people praying. By this time the heat is getting to us so we stop at a local joint nearby for some Pad Thai and a big beer. This works out quite well sharing the beer and its quite surprising that Candice is drinking beer because as most of you know she is a wine person. In the 12 years odd we have been together Ive see candice drink beer twice.

From here we took the ferry across the river to Wat Arun for 3 baht. 3 baht is 6p. You can climb to the top of this temple and you have quite a nice view of Bangkok. Going down is little eerie as its quite steep. Its very touristy and you have the locals selling all the usual paraphernalia. All we can think about now is getting back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Just before we get back on the ferry to cross the river again there is a sign feed the fish for 10 baht.
Looking down there are loads of fish all swimming with there mouths pointing towards the surface waiting to be fed. I find this interesting cause I though fish only have a memory of 7 seconds. I didn't want to disappoint the fish so I fed them. The fish go absolutely crazy as you start throwing the bread and the force of the fish trying to get to the bread first means other fish our literally pushed out of the water. Good entertainment for 20p.

We head back on the river taxi which if you ever go to Bangkok is very cheap its 10-15 baht a trip. Its a good way to see the city. There is also the sky train and the traditional taxis and TUK TUKS to get around. After a swim to cool off we decided to head out to Khoa San Road. This area of Bangkok has loads of hostels and is the very touristy spot. It has loads of watering holes,shops and vendors selling just about anything. Candice had a ball in a shop called pvssy pink. Rings,Bangles,necklaces and loads of jewellery. Loads of tanned tourists everywhere you look and the locals trying to get you to buy whatever it is they are selling. We decide to stop and have a drink. I fee like something other than a beer so we order a Barcadi Bucket. A 180ml bottle with one RedBull. Its a tad bit strong so we order a Sprite and add it to the bucket. As one table empties another one fulls up and we get chatting to the fellow travellers. We met awesome People from Ireland, Canada and Sweden. I had a good laugh with the Swedish guys. Its there last day and they are eating every type of insect you can think of. Grasshopers, Scorpions, Coackroaches and array of different bugs. He uses the phrase "Once in a lifetime" but watching these okes eat something and then chase it with beer puts me off a bit. Candice is a little bit more adventurous and eats one of the bugs. One guy says it tastes like potatoes, another says peanuts and candice said it tasted roasted even a bit like popcorn. After the bucket we are getting into the vibe and with the music blaring we order another bucket. People are drinking beer out of massive keg type tower things. Its 11pm and Im still sweating it does not cool down in Bangkok.



Wat Pho


Wat Pho


Wat Arun


Kho San Road


Guy doing a funnel upside down


Bug eating looks like it tastes interesting



They ate those



The adventurous wife.