Day 5 - Chu Chi Tunnels and Mr Bin

We got up at 7:00am on our 5th day so that we could do a half day trip to the Chu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels are 18 miles out Hoh Chi min City and where the Viet Cong fought in the war. Its worth googling to read more about it. We had breakfast and then the bus picked us up at 8:30am. The bus stops at all the other hotels to pick up other tourists before heading for the Chu Chi tunnels. The tour guide on the bus says it will take about 2 hours to get to the tunnels so I think to pass some time I get out my iPhone to listen to some music and read a book on the kindle app. As I am untangling my headphones the tour guide who has been very quiet begins to speak. "Good Morning Vietnam. My name is Mr Bin and I am a veteran of the vietnam war". Im glad that my headphones were tangled because as we are driving to the tunnels he begins to tell us his life story which was simple fascinating.

He mentioned that we were lucky to have him as a guide as most of the guides that go to the Chu Chi Tunnels are students who can simply just give you a theory lesson. He kept mentioning about his first life and second life. His first life he talks about the war and mentions that there are still many nights that he needs to drink to fall asleep. His second life he prefers he says and that being a tour guide is more enjoyable. I can only imagine dodging bullets is not fun.

On the way we stop at a crafts factory where there are many disabled people mainly with disabilities in their legs. A lot of these people were affected in the war because of the Agent Orange that still affects 3 million people today. At this stop I struck up a conversation with Mr Bin. He is very likeable guy and like most vietnamese has a great heart and soft nature. I mention to him that I don't know what the reason for the war was and can he fill me in. We get back to the bus and tells us the whole story of the war. I also learn that Vietnam has some war or the other from 1860-1980.

After a while he mentions we can come back on the bus or we can pay a bit extra ( 7 US Dollars to be exact) to catch a boat back on the river to Saigon. He tells us we will pass the base at which he was stationed in the war and he will tell us where he was on the boat that was ambushed. He also says we can buy ice cold beers on the boat for 60p which for me was a good selling point. We did the return trip on the boat and really enjoyed it. As we passed the american base at which he was stationed he sings the american national anthem and makes the actions of lowering a flag. Mr Bin also tells us about the songs he sang in the war with the american soldiers. He starts to sing a couple of these songs now and again right throughout the day and every time asks us to sing a long with him. All in all he made the day thoroughly enjoyable. I just realised I forgot to mention why he ended up in the war. When he was young he immigrated to the US with his dad who was a doctor. He was training to be a Doctor in Vietnam but the US could use him as he could speak both Vietnamese and English. He was a lieutenant for the US Army at the age of 22. He also said one of the worst things for him in the war was that a lot of the soldiers were 18. Most of them were fighting a war and they didnt understand anything of vietnam and its people.

When we arrived back in Siagon we decided to go past the Ben Thuang market which is one of the bigger markets. Once again you can get all the fake branded clothing, watches etc. There are however other interesting things to buy. In the food hall their are frogs for sale. One woman even had a big bowl with water and fish which are alive. At least its fresh. After that we took a walk around the city as it was pouring with rain the previous day so we could see a little bit more of it. The hustle and bustle is like nothing I have ever experienced. What makes it so busy is the amount of motorbikes. Bangkok has more cars and tuk tuks than bikes where as bikes out number cars in Ho Chi Min City. The vehicles in the city are mainly buses and taxis. What is interesting though if you look at the bikes and the people riding them carefully is that you can almost see the class of the person based on what type of bike they ride. Vespas are a lot less common than hondas or yamahas. Also the attire of the vespas riders seems more swanky. Thats my analysis or basically just having to much time on my hands. We going snorkling now so I have to cut this one short.
Cheers
Jeremy

A tank of the US Army that was blown up in the war.

Entrance to a part of the tunnels.

Mr Bin the war veteran. Living Legend!

Me with a fake smile and a local beer. Beer 1 Dollar.

War Museums & Typhoons - Day 4

So its me again! We are now in Nha Trang which is awesome by the way, but first let me tell you about our first day in HCMC.
We woke up and got ready in our normal shorts t shirt and flip flops combo only to get outside and realise that its not going to work because its raining buckets outside!! So off we went to change :) We later found out that Typhoon Pakhar had hit Vietnam which was the reason for the weather...
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-nasa-typhoon-pakhar-vietnam-landfall.htm
Rainy weather means the perfect time to go to some museums, so that's what we did. First up was the War remnant museum which is a museum that recounts the horrors of the Vietnam war, mostly from the Vietnamese perspective. It was definitely an eye opening way to spend some hours and some of the pictures are quite disturbing. The americans basically went into villages and destroyed everything in site. They also dropped tons of poisonous gasses (Called Dioxin - or Agent Orange) on the country which destroyed all vegetation on the ground. This is still causing birth defects in country some 50 odd years on.
We then stopped for lunch at a restaurant to get out of the rain, which was really good. Traditional Vietnamese food in a cute colonial type building. There were tons of locals there too which is always a good sign. I had my first Pho (a noodle broth soup) which was delicious and we also had some soft rolls (like an un-fried springroll) served with a peanut sauce which was amazing.
After lunch we went off to the reunification palace, which is bascially the Vietnamese version of the white house. In 1962 the palace was bombed and part of it was destroyed beyond repair so it demolished and rebuilt. This means that the entire palace is built in the 1960s style and is frozen in time...It's pretty amazing in a kitschy cool way. It even has a cinema room and a gambling room!
After that we went off to our hotel to chill out for a bit. We then went for dinner across from the hotel( and even that short walk left us soaked) as it was raining even harder by then. We ended up in a place owned by a German guy and his vietnamese wife. So we both went for some western options.A burger for Jeremy and 'beef stroganoff' for me, which was more like a creamy bolognaise! The best part of the night was watching their little girl cockroach spotting. Because of the rain the cockroaches all come out the drains which was pretty gross,but this little girl would shout and point them out to her dad who would have to sweep them away. We named her the cockroach spotter...

Love
Candice




US Fighter jets outside the war museum




Lunch




The cockroach spotter :)




After the rain...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:HCMC

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.

Bangkok Day 1 Jeremy

Hello People
Jeremy here this is my first blog post. So we are on honeymoon and we decided that our first couple nights should be spent in luxury.
Its no secret we will spend most of the 5 and a half weeks in hostels and quite frankly I wouldn't do it any other way. At our age its great to meet fellow travellers of the same age on the same mission. However for now we making the most of the Hotel. Were staying in Lebua State Tower. A scene from the movie hangover II was shot here. The hotel is pretty spectacular and if im honest the best I have ever stayed in. Its 08:23 Bangkok time. I've worked out how to use the filter coffee machine in our room and a pot of coffee is brewing as I type. The hotel has lots of finishing touches like that. Everything about the hotel is very personal. You hotel staff knocking at your door frequently asking if you need laundry done. Someone knocked yesterday just to check that everything was okay. Strange but cool at the same time. You get out the lift someone to greet you and show you the way etc.
The hotel has sixty odd floors. We visited the Sky Bar last night and its truly spectacular. The view of bangkok is incredible. Ive been to the top of the rock in New York and its quite similar although bangkok to me looks bigger. I read in the rough guide to Thailand book there is at least 9 million people. Standing there last night I had an interesting thought. If you teleported someone into Bangkok and stuck them on the top of the building they would think wow awesome city. There is fine dining and the bar serves almost any drink you can think of with awesome views. However you take the same person onto the street level and they will most like likely initially think what the HELL at first.








If im honest I love the electric feel on the streets. Its truly is manic. TUK TUKS rushing about taxis buzzing their hooters, hundreds of street vendors and people jostling along the side walks trying to get to where ever they are going. Its also pretty rundown or poor looking compared to say the streets of New York. We went for a walk through patpong last night the infamous Red Light district of Bangkok. Hawkers on the street trying to get you in to watch a sex show. I took a rain check on that quite frankly Im not over excited to watch a thai woman shoot ping pong balls from her vagina and do other various crazy things with her bits. The markets are good though and you can buy many fake branded products. There is also some other nice things to buy like paintings and handmade goods. We had supper right in the middle of patpong street at a place called TIP TOP. The food was great and very inexpensive. Thai Green Curry is always a winner.
Its breakfast time now again or luxury breakfast time building on what I mentioned earlier. The breakfast selection is like liquorice allsorts. The pastry selection is like a bakery but you can also have sushi, 20 different types of fruit, 10 different flavours of juices, cereals, meets and cheese, english traditional breakfast or someone to personal cook you an omelette whilst you choose the ingredients and much more. The selection never ends. Yesterday I was also reminded that in life you can never make everyone happy. I'm standing watching the friendliest guy in the world cook me an omelette when a very posh English woman comes over to me and says "Where did you get those sausages my husband was complaining there were no sausages". I felt like saying these were made especially for me and there are none left. I mean come on you have all the choice in the world and he was really complaining there was no sausage. The breakfast buffet was quite spread out but maybe you should learn to look properly. I don't fit in well with the snobs.
Anyways time for breakfast now again. Whilst typing this the coffee finishing brewing and its pretty awesome. A staff employee also just knocked on the door asking if they can clean.Told them to come back in 20 minutes. Until next time which will be from Siagon/chi min city in Vietnam.
Cheers
Jeremy
Bike I saw on one of bangkoks side streets

Bangkok

Hello World :)
I am typing this using our Ipad paired with a wireless keyboard we bought in Bangkok...quite fitting really.
We arrived safe and sound to a 35 degree at 7pm Bangkok,bit of a temperature shock.
We got upgraded at the hotel so the room is suitably massive and has an amazing view Bangkok -well it should have its on the 54th floor! Eeeck I have not been more than a few steps out of the balcony because its so high, prefer to see the view from the safety of the room :) They also left us a cute card and a chocolate cake to say happy honeymoon which was very sweet.



Went to the Grand Palace today which was beautiful. Also went in to see the Emerald Budha. Such an amazing temple and so different to the cathedrals etc we are used to seeing in Europe.


Getting used to the budget thing too....Jeremy and I wanted to take the water taxi to the palace so started making our way to the pier closest to the hotel. A kind hotel employee met us on the street and started chatting to us and told us the pier we wanted was closed and we should go to another bigger one. We hopped in a tuk tuk to go there. Tuk Tuk driver - probably trying to make a quick buck took us to another pier with private boat tours for 1500baht a person. They told us there were no other boats and we almost believed them. anyway we decide to take some time to figure out if we want to spend that much (in which time the price had come down to 1500baht for both of us). They eventually told us there was another pier 5 minutes walk away. So off we go and end up getting a local water taxi for 15baht per person...what a saving!








So now we are off to the Sky bar for a drink and then going in search of a green curry (which is all Jeremy has been talking about since we landed!)

Love
Candice

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Location:Bangkok Thailand

Getting ready to go!

So we are busy packing up and getting things ready before we head off on the big adventure!
The first casualty? Angkor Wat....
Let me explain. We worked out an original itinerary and planned to go to Siem Reap to see the temples. But yesterday we sat down and re-looked at it and realised that in order to go to Siem Reap for 2 days we would need to travel for 2 days and spend a lot more money on flights than we can afford!
So we re looked at things and decided to rather spend the time on a beach in Thailand and hopefully see our friends Philip and Estie who are there at the same time :)
So for those of you that are interested this is our rough plans... The days might change as nothing besides the first few days and last few days are booked. But it gives you a rough idea!

x