Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
This evening we headed off on our first sleep bus of the trip!! i was very excited. It was brilliant we were allocated little pods which i jumped straight into and curled up for a few hours sleep. After a comfy 14 hours we arrived in Hue with Katie and Carl we found a hostel and booked into a 4 man room for $2 each. Me and Katie decided to hire bikes out so that we could get around the city and see the sights. I thought i might have forgotten how to ride a bike but i managed pretty well, even though all the locals seemed to find it hilarious that two westerners were joining in with the chaotic traffic. First we visited Thien Mu Pagoda which is where a buddist burnt himself in protest of the policies adopted by the president. We saw the car and the famous picture of him in the act, which was quite disturbing. The next stop was Bqo Quoc Pagoda where the monks are taught. Unfortunately the rain started up so we had to make a quick exit and peddle back to the hostel.
Headed off for Hoi An the following day. As soon as we got there we dragged Carl around the shops with us looking for some tailor made dresses. I think he quite enjoyed it! After a few hours shopping we decided to give Carl a break and hired some bikes out and set off for the beach. The weather was still pretty rubbish and the wind was picking up so we only spent an hour or so at the beach before having to retreat. Went out that night and got stuck in a bar for 5 hours as a storm hit hard and the bar lost power so we drank the night away under candle light, nice!!! The rain was still powering down the next day so we decided to book our ticket out and try find some sun. We had heard that the typoon was due to hit the city so thought it best to leave. As we were collecting our stuff we bumped into the boys again, who had just arrived and were getting suits made up.
On our way to Nha Trang i got talking to two guys who the boys had made friends with and it turned out that they had met Craig and James (Who we met in Ko Pha Ngan) very small world!!! Arrived at 6 in the morning so checked into a hostel- we got the whole top floor and it had a balcony so while the guys had a sleep i caught some rays! After a power nap we decided to do a bit of culture before hitting the beach- we didn't last long!!! Went to see the budda, which was white this time and looked pretty similar to all the other Budda's!!! Spent the afternoon on the beach followed an evening in a very cheap bar!!! it was happy hour pretty much all night and i spent a grand total of $1 all night as double vodkas were 15p- Brilliant!! had a lot of fun that night. Had another day on the beach the next day and another cheap cheap night out with Tim, Carl, Dan, Abbi and Katie. Following day we had booked ourselves on a booze Cruise (did not need more alcohol!!!) which set off at 8 in the morn!! It was a great day though. First we spent a bit of time jumping off the boat and snorkeling around the reefs. I got back on the boat and an Auz guy we had met asked me why i had chosen to swim with a group of jelly fish.... oppps my goggles were rubbish and i couldn't really see where i was going and apparently got caught up with them. I looked down and sure enough they had left their mark all other my legs-Nice!!! it went down after a few hours though. We stopped off for lunch at a different Island where we also got a bit of entertainment from the Vietnamese Westlife!! it was fantastic, all the crew dressed up and gave us a good old sing song, The floating bar came out next so we all jumped in with our rings on and enjoyed a few glasses of grape wine (which was vile) and some pineapple. The rest of the day we sunbathed on a few different islands and enjoyed the sights.
Saigon.... that evening we left everyone : ( and we and Abs headed on our way to Saigon on another sleeper bus. Unfortunately i had started to take a turn for the worse and a fever set in so this trip wasn't so much fun! Once in Saigon, which is a really nice city! we booked on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Vietnamese gorillas had lived while fighting the Americans. The tunnels were tiny!!! even though they had been 'widdened' for westerners they were still small. We got to go down one of the tunnels and i was almost crawling so i can't imagine how they lived in these tunnels for so long. Saw some very horrible traps which made we feel a little faint! after this we were advised to go to the War remnants museum as it had more information about the war so off we went. It was really interesting and i came out not liking the Americans much esp after hearing the stories about the orange gas which was dropped and still causes deformities in ppl today!
Off down the Mekong Delta (still feeling rubbish) first we saw the floating markets in Cai Be before stopping to see how the locals made popcorn and cocanut candy which was really tastie. The boat was traded in for a rowing boat and we got taxied down the river to An Binh Island for sme lunch. That night we stayed on a floating hotel where i had to have a very early night and try to recover before making our way to Cambodia.
- comments