Hester
Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City – So, we arrive at the bus station, climbed off the bus and were immediately surrounded by people trying to get us to go on their scooters, in their taxis, etc etc – the first response now is “no thankyou” any time anyone asks you anything, regardless of what it is, as its become an automatic way to deal with the hassel. From the map we had, we were pretty sure that the place we wanted to stay was not that far from the bus station, so we felt very smug that we had told all these people to leave us alone, and smug that we had not fallen for their ploy of telling us that the centre was really far away. Hah, as if!! So, we started walking. And walking. And looking at road signs, none of which were on the map we had. Perhaps we had come out of a different exit from the bus station and were not going in the direction we thought?? Well, we’ll just keep going a little bit longer, just to see…
Finally we decided that we probably didn’t know where we were, so hailed a taxi. Whilst in the car, I found another, larger map, which showed not 1 but 4 bus stations. Bugger!! After a 10 minute taxi ride, we realised that perhaps we had been a liiiiitle bit foolish trying to make it on our own!
Anyway, made it to the hotel, had to wait a while while a room was being cleaned, dumped our stuff, and went for a Indian (yes, another one). Veeeery tasty. Its probably clear that we are not losing any weight on this trip.
The next day we wandered through the city a bit, and went to the War Remnants Museum. This housed various photos of the Vietnam/American War, some really amazing ones, pulizser prize winners etc. In addition there were photos of the after affects of the American use of Agent Orange – photos from vietnamese maternity hospitals of deformed fetuses in jars, photos of vietnamese children and adults with severe deformities, whose parents had been involved in the war. Shocking, really really shocking. More shocking –hearing a couple of american teenage girls looking at the war photos saying “this is boring, when to we get to see the pictures of all the gross stuff”.
After this, we walkied round the city a bit more, went to the travel office to see about flights out to the island (we could fly there but there were no flights back for over a week, so we booked flights to Nha trang instead).then headed out to dinner. We went to a restaurant that had seating on the roof, 4 storeys up. Here we had a table with a hot plate in the middle, so that we could cook our own dishes. Was really cool. Bren had these little rolls of beef wrapped in leaves, which he then put into a pancake, and I had wild boar with lemongrass and chilli! Nom Nom Nom.
The following day, we wandered through the city again, and went to the market as we both felt fed up with the clothes we bought – wearing the same stuff every day might be fine in terms of the weight you have to carry, but it gets pretty dull. And smelly. So we managed to buy some t-shirts and a dress for me, and Brendon got called “monkey man” by one of the girls on the stall – she couldn’t believe how hairy his arms were – I think vietnamese men are obviously smooth all over, as I wouldn’t say that bren is particularly gorilla-like.
That evening, out for thai food, and ready to leave for Nha Trang the next afternoon.
It took us about three hours to get from HCMC to Nha Trang, a little shorter by plane than the 8-10 hour bus journey would have taken. Went for a walk and then had dinner at a vietnamese place, and shared the dining experience with a couple of rats that kept running past our table. Lovely. Went down to the beach afterwards and lay on the sand chatting, and listening to the waves.
The following day was a beach day, lazing around all day, pretending to get a tan, but in fact hiding under the parasols and sweating. The sea water was so so warm so had a bit of a frollick, although of course I didn’t do too much swimming due to my fear of the water and sharks (see below..).
We booked a snorkling trip for the next morning, so got up early and got taken out to a really beautiful island. I should probably explain my sea phobia. I think I was ok in the sea as a kid, but as I’ve got older I seem to have grown more pathetic and more afraid to the point that I very rarely swin in the sea. Something about the shadows under the water, and watching “Jaws” when I was too young. I once broke someones toe by jumping on them to escape the shark that was attacking my foot whilst I was standing in the shallows (turns out I had kicked a rock). So, is was a big deal to be snorkling, I had a little panick at first but after that it was pretty awesome (I’m so brave!! : ) ). We both really enjoyed it, saw some amazing fish and coral, even saw a scene straight out of “Finding Nemo”, with a mother and baby in an anemone, the baby just like Nemo, and the mother swimming out to scare us away. We had about 3 hours out there, then got taken to another island for lunch – they gave us about 8 dishes!!! Our wastlines are not improving!!
Unfortunately, depite wearing factor 45 waterproof sunscreen, we both got really really burnt on our backs so spent the afternoon having a siesta. That evening we went to a scuba diving place (so brave, so brave!!) and booked a “Discover Diving” course for the next morning, then went for another Indian meal.
So the following day, up early again, and joined with a big group going scuba diving. Everyone else had done dives before, so of course we both had to hide the fact that we were a little nervous. We sailed out to the same island we had been to the day before only a slightly differennt area this time, i.e. deeper!!! I was pretty much convinced I was going to get eaten by a shark, pertified is not even close. But you have to face your fears, so I dived first. We had one instructor between the two of us, and he took us down one at a time. It took a while for me to actually get under the water (hyperventilating) but once down there, well, I can’t say I enjoyed it exactly, but it was good to be doing it. The whole time the instructor held onto my shoulder, which I really needed to stop me from panicking down there. There were loads of cool fish, and it was definatly better to see them whilst diving, than snorkling, although I was always a little preoccupied with breathing and not being eaten. Once I came up, Bren went down for his dive. And he loved it! He came back up with the biggest grin on his face, and jabbering away about everything he had seen. So cool. We had a break for some food and to chill, and got talking to another Dutch guy on the boat.
After lunch we sailed to a different area, and now came dive number two. I was a lot less nervous this time, although still panicked a bit when I first went into the water. But I have to say, this time it was amazing!! There were actually moments when I forgot where I was, and forgot to be scared and was just enthralled by all the fish and the corral. It even got to the stage where the instructor wasn’t hol;ding onto me any more and I hadn’t even noticed. The fish were awesome. When swimming over a bunch of fish, they would sometimes dart into the coral and hide , but a couple of times, one fish wouod swim towards me, as though squaring up for a fight or something,. So funny. And I saw more nemo’s with their mothers. And at one point I was looking down at the coral then looked up ahead of me, and there we a long thing fish directly in front of me, just staring at me before darting away. Geweldig!! I actually didn’t want it to end, something that I never thought would happen. Bren wnet down after me again, and he was mush more adventurous than me, deciding which way he wanted to go, rather than just being directed everywhere. Again, he thought it was amazing - I think he may have found his new sport – slighltly more expensive than hockey…..
Whilst were were on a high from the scuba diving, we decided not to stop there – in the afternoon we went down to the beach and had a go at parasailing and jet skiing. Absolutly amazing. I think as I had already faced my biggest fear that day, the idea of parasailing didn’t bother me too much. It was such a buzz, being so high up, and cool that we got to do it together this time, unlike the scuba diving. It was awesome, even getting dunked in the water!! After that came the jet ski – we went on together, Bren in front first. It was a little scary being on the back, but so cool, especially when bren turned with the biggest beaming smile on his face. And then it was my turn. Turns out I am a speed freak. Or to use bren’s word, a maniac. It was awesome, I loved it, and pushed it to the top speed. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun. I had told Bren off for trying to do truns at top speed, but then when I was driving, all I could think was “why not?!”. Awesome awesome awesome. Afterwards we actually had to take a picture of the smiles on our faces, as they were so huge and stupid!!! Best day of my life!!!
After that, we thought the only way to end the day was to get a lobster. We got the the restaurant and there were crowds of people lining the street. Vietnam is hosting Miss Universe this year, and all the Misses were in town, about to parade through the streets on floats. Our waitress got a bit over excited, and ran off to watch, forgetting to put our order through, so it was a bit of a wait, but we got to watch the floats go by in the meantime. Then our lobster arrived. Nom nom. It was good. And definatley the perfect end to a brilliant (expensive) day.
Gotta run, got a 21 hour bus journey now, but will continue once we arrive in Laos……
