Hey Everyone,
We have left Vietnam now and are in London - like every good kiwi on their OE but we left on Monday for Devon, South-West England to stay with my Grandma. London was a bit overwhelming. When we arrived we had to catch the tube to Ol's cousin Chloe's place in Hackney, North-East London. While on the tube, the tube voice announced that you couldn't get off at Piccadilly Circus due to a security incident. The woman opposite said that it because they had found a bomb - which they had. Then, when we neared Liverpool Station, the one we needed, the tube voice announced it was closed due to a man fallen under the train. Excellent. But we made it to Chloe's and have been lazying around her flat since, waiting for the banks to open on Monday so we can setup our accounts then catch a train to Devon.
We really enjoyed the rest of the Vietnam trip. We arrived in Nha Trang about 10pm after the day train from Hoi An. Nha Trang is the Gold Coast of Vietnam. Our drive from the train station to the hotel passed the main beach strip with many hotels, restaurants, neon lighting and tourists lining the front. As a result of the tourism focus in Nha Trang, the sellers here were the worst we encountered in Vietnam. They get quite aggressive in their competition for tourists' money. As soon as you leave your hotel the sellers attack. They lie in wait outside the hotel, some even try to sell you postcards through the hotel windows. At the ATMs they queue up behind waiting for you to turn around and spend all your new money on sunglasses. They like to make you feel guilty in Nha Trang, unlike anywhere else, 'my baby is hungry', 'Vietnam have no money' etc. One women pulled the 'my baby is hungry' and the 2 year old in her arms started tapping Sam's arm with a packet of gum chanting 'money, money, money'. There was also an 8 year old Vietnamese pool shark who tried to get the guys to play him in pool, 'I am no good, you will win, we play for 10,000 dong'. Duy, our guide, advised us to ignore them as they use the stories as ploys to get money.
At one of the religious/tourists sites, a girl a bit younger than us started showing the group around saying how she was studying Buddhism there and lived in the temple. She then tried to sell us postcards to fundraise for her schooling. Afterwards, Duy told us that everything she said was a fabrication. We were also warned about the pickpockets and crime in Nha Trang. Everyone was telling stories about how they spoke to someone who knew someone who had had their wallet, passport and ticket stolen from their pocket while eating dinner out.
Nha Trang is different to the rest of Vietnam and was not as fun. Our hotel there, The Rainbow Hotel, (Lisa you warned me never to stay in a hotel with Rainbow in the title - and you were probably right) was one of the worst on the tour. The room was really small and the blanket and towels were filthy. I took a photo of the welcome mat to the bathroom so you can see it later as it was so dirty (I will be posting photos as soon as I can). The Rainbow Hotel was also the only place we stayed where they didn't serve a free breakfast in the morning. So the first morning we headed across the road for breakfast. I ordered apple pancakes with trepidation but was actually served real pancakes with apple and chocolate sauce. I was so happy, especially after all the weird rice and noodle meat-things they like to serve for breakfast.
We also saw a number of beggars for the first time in Nha Trang. Despite what I expected there had so far been very few beggars in Vietnam. I don’t really want to know if the government had done something about them in the North. Also, I don’t think all of the beggars we saw were actually full-time beggars but rather women who liked to collect money in their conical hats when the chance arose.
On our first day in Nha Trang we headed out in a boat to a nearby reef. It would have been really nice except that every tourist boat in the area heads to this one spot. So 8 boats were all tied to together in this one bay. We got to jump off the boat and go swimming and snorkeling over the reef with its Zebra fish, other little fish and purple jellyfish. Later, the crew served us a fresh seafood lunch on board. After lunch though, they cleaned everything in the sea. I was put off swimming again as the food scraps could easily attract bigger fish, or sharks. I was also put off swimming with all the plastic crap they throw into the poor reef with the scraps. After we left the bay they took us to a little fishing village where they farm cuttle-fish and parrot fish. We climbed into the round boats they use that look like giant halves of a coconut shell. A woman and her son paddled three of us around repeating 'you tip', 'Vietnam no money', and 'my son hungry' the whole time. When we got off our guide told us not to tip as he would, but the woman chased us up to our boat and we ended up giving her about 80 cents to just go away. Despite, the tipping issue she was quite nice and it was fun going around in circles in those weird boats.
The next day we got back on some more scooters to ride to the mud baths. The scooters were great fun again and a good way to see smaller Vietnamese communities. This time we rode to religious and historically important places, including to a giant white Buddha but we also got to go to places where they make clay bbq pots and woven mats. At the mud baths a group of about 6 of us jumped into a small pool which they then fill with very liquid mud. You soak in the mud for about 10 minutes, covering your face, hair and body. Then you dry, shower and walk through a stone corridor of water jets, before getting in 38 degree water. They recommend you sit in the hot water for 45 minutes. I lasted about 5. Afterwards your skin feels fantastic and soft, though you find mud all over yourself days later.
That night we took our final night train at 7pm to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it is mainly referred to as. This train was the worst yet, it must have been constructed at least 30 years ago and cleaned once since. When we got on board a number of ladies followed us trying to sell us 'cold water, Coca-Cola, beer' and trying to con us into believing this train didn't have a drinks cart as the other ones did. Except, as we soon realised, they were right. At least with no water to drink i did not need the toilet again and just went to sleep early on. We got a rough wake up at 6am with 10minutes to organise our stuff and get off.
It was another one of those days when we got to our hotel and had about an hour to shower, get ready and head out again. We soon set out by bus to the Mekong Delta. The bus was a good way to see a bit of the city. It is a huge city, with 8 million people, lots of shops, more modern than what we found in Hanoi, and dirty, but also less dirty than Hanoi. There are, as was expected, millions of scooters but with more cars on the roads and these big green army vans that serve as police cars hooning round the city with their sirens on. The traffic jams here were spectacular to see.
When we arrived at the Mekong we set out on a boat across the wide Delta to one of the islands. On the island we transferred to smaller 6 person boats, put on the conical hats provided and travelled down a skinny river with palms overhanging either side and very muddy water below. This looked like the Vietnam of the movies, especially when it started to rain and we saw two Vietnamese boys swimming in the muddy water. We also got to try some tropical fruits, listen to Vietnamese music and do other touristy stuff. We got served a traditional lunch with springrolls, again, and Elephant Fish. Elephant fish is served whole and upright on a big plate and is not appetizing but terrifying.
The next day our tour went to the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Vietnamese made an extensive network of underground tunnels to escape and surprise the Americans during the war. Ol went through one of the 150 metre tunnels. Its pitch black in there and, despite the tunnels having been widened for fat Americans, Ol only just fit through some parts. So I wussed out and don’t care that I did! We also got to see replicas of the hospitals, weapon-making rooms, kitchens and more that they built underground. The next morning the tour ended for 4 of us and we waved off the rest of the group who were heading to Cambodia.
Ol, Phil and I then headed to the War Remanents Museum, which use to be known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. The museum focuses almost solely on photographic material from the Indochina War and American-Vietnam War. It was a pretty horrific experience. There were photos of massacres, American soldiers, bomb damage, grieving Vietnamese, then, after the war, the victims of Agent Orange, napalm, pellet bomb damage, people with deformaties and everything else you can imagine. It was incredibly hard-hitting having travelled the country where all this happened and seeing the multitudes of gravesites on the way. Additionally, specifically in Saigon, you see people with missing limbs and beggars with missing faces, burned by napalm and also the next generation of children born with deformaties who go out begging. I was really impressed with how the museum showed the real effects of the war and was not focused on politics or propaganda or anything but the Vietnamese people.
That night Ol, Phil and I had dinner in the revolving restaurant on top of our hotel. I got stir-fried beef inside a half pineapple with a Tiger beer. The food is good and cheap so I will miss it but I am pretty sick of rice. On our last day we headed down to the Ben Thanh Markets where we got real touristy souvenirs included wooden coasters with an inlaid Vietnamese woman design and some chopsticks. The sellers in this inside market were full-on, grabbing your arm as you walked by and not letting go. 'T-shirt miss, many colours, many sizes. You like Roxy?'. I was glad my watch was glued on to my wrist as I often walked off leaving them dragging on my arm or you would never get away.
At 6pm we were picked up by our airport transfer and taken out to the airport to fly to Bangkok at 9pm. Everything went fine except for when they said our names over the airport loud-speakers, luckily it was only because they forgot to right down our passport numbers. We arrived at Bangkok airport an hour and 25 minutes later and waited until 1.10am for our flight to London. We had an excellent time in Vietnam and will miss the crazy traffic, crossing the roads, the fruit and everything being so cheap and safe there. We won't miss the smog, the smell or the rubbish though. From Sophie and Ollie.
