So now I am in Siem Reap. Yet again my bus trip was a bit disasterous. I have decided that I am completely utterly, totally incapable of sleeping on anything other than a bed -regardless of what medication (or dosage) I take. On this matter I am yet to be proven wrong. Ah well. My bus trip started out on a bad note as the bus came early and left without me from my guesthouse while I was collecting my bags. So, in a rush I employed the services of a local scooter rider who quickly zoomed me out to the bus station with me on the back thinking "bus please be there please be there please be there please be there....."
After some confusion over seats, we all settled in to try and get some sleep. Emphasis on try. As I had predicted, it was a normal bus with seats that could go back about 40%. I tried everything in my power to sleep and managed to get a little bit at least. I ended up lying on the floor and probably got the most sleep while doing that. When we arrived to phnom Penh at about midnight the bus filled up with new passengers (it had previously been about 60% full). The remaining 6hour drive was one of minimal bouts of sleep and lots of not sleeping. I joined forces with the 4 boys that joined the back seat upon arrival at Siem Reap to organise accommodation and some people to share a tuk-tuk with today while exploring some of the temples.
Anyway, back to Sihanoukville. Unfortunately we didn't experience a huge amount of sunshine while I was there, it was quite cloudy and rained a few times. The beach itself is nothing to particularly write home about (but of course I'm australian and biased as we have the best beaches in the world!!), particularly because it was filthy. There are few rubbish bins and all the rubbish, cigarette buts and who knows what else gets chucked into the ocean so the water is not at all clean (resulting in my infected foot).
I cannot even begin to explain how much you get hassled there, I have seen nothing like it in terms of how rude the hagglers are, and how insistent. The girls in particular. It is extremely obvious (not to mention disturbing) that the sex-trade is still up and running. It was a common experience to see older men with quite young khmer women. The girls selling things on the street (bracelets, massages, manicures) were very crude and suggestive with what they would say. They could not only swear in english, but in french, swedish and who knows how many other languages. Very sad. Everyone speaks excellent english.
On my first night there, me and my swiss mates all got on the back of a scooter for the 300m journey we wanted to take - just to prove that we could do it too!! I've had lots of scooter rides while i've been here in asia. Some where I've been driving, others where I've been driven. I think I've forgotten to mention them previously though. Most of the time when your on a scooter you are helmetless wearing minimal clothing so if anything happens, you'll probably come off second best. Ah well, I'm young which means I'm invincible right??!!! :)
My last afternoon in sihanoukville was quite fun and a bit adventurous. Sam an Australian guy who has been working as a volunteer in Phnom Penh, Garrett a Canadian guy doing a bit of soul-searching and i had been hanging out for and decided to get a tuk-tuk into town where we first wandered the markets. It was fun times, one of them was just saying I wonder if you can buy bb guns here when we immediately discovered some and played around with those for a while. Garrett decided to try and catch the 2pm bus to phnom penh (which he missed) so sam and i hired ourselves a motorbike from the guesthouse and set out on exploring the surrounds of sihanoukville. We wandered blindly (at high speeds) and directionlessly around the dirt tracks and stumbled upon otres beach where we cooled down ith a coconut to drink. We saw lots of Cambodians working, found some wild monkeys by the side of the road, and made lots and lots of cambodian people smile by honking the horn unnecessarily everytime we passed by someone (on a vehicle or foot). I was wearing a helmet this time (but it was two fingers too big)
Another thing that is interesting about Sihanoukville is its extremely lenient view on drug usage (its worse than vang vieng). It is the first time in any country anywhere that I (on my own, as a girl) have been offered drugs. Usually its the guys that get offered them. Drug dealers freely roam the beach, show you what you have and offer it. creepy.
Today I got up very early (slept through my alarm unfortunately and was woken by banging on my door) to get the sunrise for Angkor Wat. Unfortunatley it was quite a cloudy morning so the sunrise itself wasn't all that good. I'll have to do it again (I have a 3 day pass) and hopefully get a better day. I'll write about the temples next time!
Showing posts with label scooters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scooters. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Phonsavan to Vang Vieng
I have learnt a few things over the past few days. Laos PDR means 'please don't rush' and is a pretty typical sort of saying for this country - it is so laid back I can feel my blood pressure and heart rate decreasing even more than it is usually (never been particularly high)!!
In Phonsavan I hired a scooter and never without my adventures and disaster-prone streak, took it for a ride early morning out to see the 3 main plain of jars sights. they are incredible, and very intriguing to say the least so I definitely recommend visiting them. But very little else to do in the area and you can easily cover the jars in a few hours.
Anyway. So I had my scooter and I had successfully located jar sites 1 and 2 when i started having engine trouble, the scooter died and refused to restart. uh oh! This one was an electric start (but had a manual override which still failed). I had no idea what was wrong with it, it just would not start. And as far as I was aware it still had (according to the petrol gauge) half a tank of fuel. So, I pushed the bike up hills and then neutral rode it down hills for probably 3km until i reached the next village town. I was passed by a few times on the way by people on scooters, but no one stopped to my rescue :(. So I managed to push it to a scooter repairer who had a bit of a look around ( no english spoken here) and then it ended out that the bike had no fuel! arghh.. So I pushed it the next 50m to the petrol station, filled the bike up where i learnt that in actual fact, half full means empty, full means half full, and way above full is actually full. So moral of the story is don't trust any of the gauges on these machines in asia!
While I was in Phonsavan, I met a lovely young man at the MAG office (which i mentioned last time) who was working on his English skills in preparation for the English test as he wants to go and study in Australia. Apparently there are quite a few Laos students in Brisbane and Perth studying. I also was invited to go to a Laos edding, but this was after I had already purchased my ticket to leave Phonsavan and I would have gone crazy with nothing to do for another day (as it had only taken half a day to explore all the sights on offer).
Grr I'm currently having camera issues. If anyone knows how to change a memory card off 'write protect' via a computer I'd be much obliged (No, it doesn't have a sliding thing on the card itself).
Now I am in Vang Vieng. Caught a mini-bus yesterday from Phonsavan here and as we arrived with plenty of time and lots of sunshine and warmth a couple of us decided to hit the river and the 'tubes' although we by-passed the actual tube part and just swam along the river to make the most of the high swings and fire-foxes that propel you into the water. I made the mistake on the fire-fox to hold on for a bit too long and as i wasn't prepared to do a backflip, ended up back flopping with a massive back slap and red back.
This however was later enhanced by some lovely red spray-paint of a 'kangaroo' (looked nothing like). Its amazing how much mischief I can get up to when I have water, swings, slides, big jumps, spray paint, water guns at my disposal!!. ;)
Today I joined a group and went caving and kayaking. First we took a tuk-tuk to the water cave where we jumped on inner tubes and into the cave we went, a few kilometres in there I think. Awesome experience. At first we were pulling ourselves along a rope, and then further in we all joined ina big convoy of tubes and arm-paddled our way up this massive tunnel inside the middle of the mountain until we arrived at the end. At this point we turned off our lamps (I'll get to them in a sec)to listen in silence to the drips of water falling off stalactyles (or is it stalacmytes??). Beautiful. Anyway, you wont' believe what our head lamps were - highest technology Laos style. They were, no joke, small battery packs (like the ones you put in a car) attached to basically a light globe with a head band to put on your head! Dead serious! To turn them on/off you just twisted the globe. :)
Then we kayaked down the river - about 10km I think, stopping along the way at the swings for about an hour of fun before cruising the rest of the way back into Vang Vieng town.
In Phonsavan I hired a scooter and never without my adventures and disaster-prone streak, took it for a ride early morning out to see the 3 main plain of jars sights. they are incredible, and very intriguing to say the least so I definitely recommend visiting them. But very little else to do in the area and you can easily cover the jars in a few hours.
Anyway. So I had my scooter and I had successfully located jar sites 1 and 2 when i started having engine trouble, the scooter died and refused to restart. uh oh! This one was an electric start (but had a manual override which still failed). I had no idea what was wrong with it, it just would not start. And as far as I was aware it still had (according to the petrol gauge) half a tank of fuel. So, I pushed the bike up hills and then neutral rode it down hills for probably 3km until i reached the next village town. I was passed by a few times on the way by people on scooters, but no one stopped to my rescue :(. So I managed to push it to a scooter repairer who had a bit of a look around ( no english spoken here) and then it ended out that the bike had no fuel! arghh.. So I pushed it the next 50m to the petrol station, filled the bike up where i learnt that in actual fact, half full means empty, full means half full, and way above full is actually full. So moral of the story is don't trust any of the gauges on these machines in asia!
While I was in Phonsavan, I met a lovely young man at the MAG office (which i mentioned last time) who was working on his English skills in preparation for the English test as he wants to go and study in Australia. Apparently there are quite a few Laos students in Brisbane and Perth studying. I also was invited to go to a Laos edding, but this was after I had already purchased my ticket to leave Phonsavan and I would have gone crazy with nothing to do for another day (as it had only taken half a day to explore all the sights on offer).
Grr I'm currently having camera issues. If anyone knows how to change a memory card off 'write protect' via a computer I'd be much obliged (No, it doesn't have a sliding thing on the card itself).
Now I am in Vang Vieng. Caught a mini-bus yesterday from Phonsavan here and as we arrived with plenty of time and lots of sunshine and warmth a couple of us decided to hit the river and the 'tubes' although we by-passed the actual tube part and just swam along the river to make the most of the high swings and fire-foxes that propel you into the water. I made the mistake on the fire-fox to hold on for a bit too long and as i wasn't prepared to do a backflip, ended up back flopping with a massive back slap and red back.
This however was later enhanced by some lovely red spray-paint of a 'kangaroo' (looked nothing like). Its amazing how much mischief I can get up to when I have water, swings, slides, big jumps, spray paint, water guns at my disposal!!. ;)
Today I joined a group and went caving and kayaking. First we took a tuk-tuk to the water cave where we jumped on inner tubes and into the cave we went, a few kilometres in there I think. Awesome experience. At first we were pulling ourselves along a rope, and then further in we all joined ina big convoy of tubes and arm-paddled our way up this massive tunnel inside the middle of the mountain until we arrived at the end. At this point we turned off our lamps (I'll get to them in a sec)to listen in silence to the drips of water falling off stalactyles (or is it stalacmytes??). Beautiful. Anyway, you wont' believe what our head lamps were - highest technology Laos style. They were, no joke, small battery packs (like the ones you put in a car) attached to basically a light globe with a head band to put on your head! Dead serious! To turn them on/off you just twisted the globe. :)
Then we kayaked down the river - about 10km I think, stopping along the way at the swings for about an hour of fun before cruising the rest of the way back into Vang Vieng town.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Scooters and Mud :)
The last few days have on the whole been relatively uneventful. I have been completing a scuba diving course which has been alot of fun - successfully gained my open water scuba divers license today. Love it!! Been some big days to fit it all in, all these videos I had to watch and a day session in the navy pool practicing plus the 4 open water dives which I finished this afternoon.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I had a very eventful afternoon/evening which was definitely an experience and a half! About 5km out of town there is a natural hot springs/ and mineral mud place called Thap Ba which I was keen on visiting. I met a girl called Jessica during the dives yesterday and as she had the afternoon free we decided to go together.
After some discussion on the matter of transportation, we decided that we would hire a scooter ("motorcycle") for a couple of hours to get ourselves out there. This in itself wasn't a particular drama, they were happy to view my drivers license and rang up thehotel to confirm they had jessica's passport and here-you-go there's a scooter for you to ride for 40,000vnd (approximatley 2.50 which we split between us).
Dilemna number 1. Manual scooter, no clutch! I have a motorbike at home so figured yeah no problem it'll be easy to ride a scooter. Hmm, think again. Everything was different!! Everything! Firstly, the lack of clutch was a bit baffling, secondly the gears are entirely different to a motorbike. For example, a real motorbike you would tap down for first gear, and then lift up for 2nd thru to 5th gear and then tap down to go down through the gears using the 1 pedal for all.
These scooters, they had 2 pedals (thankfully on the same side). You tapped down on the front pedal for gears 1-4, then tap down on the back pedal (meaning you have to move your foot) to go down the gears. but you could also tap down on the back pedal to end up in 4th gear. How that works exactly I have noooooooo idea!!
Third difference - driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. I actually didn't find this really difficult, its more a matter of trying to remember which way to look when crossing the roads! Fourth - I'd never ridden with a pillion passenger before so that made things a bit different.
Finally and probably the most significant of all is the traffic and the rules (or seemingly lack of) when driving/riding through Vietnam!! The section of town we are currently located in is basically a tourist domain and is very very quiet in comparision to the other end of the town!! There are cars everywhere, bikes everywhere crossing pretty much everywhere and anywhere!
So there we were, 2 white girls in singlets, thongs, and relatively mid-thigh skirts/shorts (very normal attire for the other end of town...). The road to the centre was off to the side and ende up in the country by the river so we began to feel a bit underdressed as the only foreigners around. We must have made an interesting sight trying to navigate our way around the main roads to our chosen destination. We went a bit too far along the main road due after we misunderstood the sign, so it probably took us about 30 minutes to get there (including about 5 minutes time teaching myself how to use the scooter) while about 15 on the way back with a more direct route with fewer traffic lights and roundabouts!
But we made it! And boy, if you are ever in nha Trang you MUST go to the mud baths they are awesome!! for 100,000 dong (about AU$7-8) you have the basic treatment. Firstly, you have a shower in hot mineral water followed by a 15 minute soak in a tub full of mud, which smells amazing with a slight hint of ginger and cinnamin!! It is not really thick, a bit runny. we had a communal tub (there are probably about 30 tubs in the complex for mud) and we were joined by a Swedish couple who we also saw today on a boat trip on the harbour! After you have soaked (I think they forgot us so we soaked about 30 min), you go and sit in the sun and bake for 10 minutes.
Once your mud pie is nice and dry you wash it all off under the mineral showers again. Next stop the hydrotherapy jets. I must say, these were definitely designed with the Vietnamese people in mind as the top of the jets tended to finish around the waist of us westerners!! Next, you jump into a spa tub freshly filled with hot mineral water and you soak there for 30-40 minutes. amazing!! After that, you are free to spend as much time (unlimited) in the multiple pools and waterfalls in the rest of the complex. It is really really well set up!! there were a few hot pools -imagine a full resort size swimming pool at 38 degrees... mmmmmmm :) as well as cooler mineral pools. It was awesome for sure. We left feeling very clean refreshed with silky smooth skin! Definitely get your money's worth at this place for sure. all up we were there for about 2 hours, could have stayed longer but wanted to be back before dark.
Anyway, i should go in search of some food before catching the bus - off to hoi an tonight, arrive about 5am tomorrow I think... It's a sleeper bus and i believe some sleeping tablets will be an extremely wise investment here! :) Tomorrow night is new years eve for TET so we'll see how I go. I haven't booked any where to stay as of yet, and it is likely that many shops will be shut. I like living on the wild side, the worst that can happen is I have no food for a day.... :)
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I had a very eventful afternoon/evening which was definitely an experience and a half! About 5km out of town there is a natural hot springs/ and mineral mud place called Thap Ba which I was keen on visiting. I met a girl called Jessica during the dives yesterday and as she had the afternoon free we decided to go together.
After some discussion on the matter of transportation, we decided that we would hire a scooter ("motorcycle") for a couple of hours to get ourselves out there. This in itself wasn't a particular drama, they were happy to view my drivers license and rang up thehotel to confirm they had jessica's passport and here-you-go there's a scooter for you to ride for 40,000vnd (approximatley 2.50 which we split between us).
Dilemna number 1. Manual scooter, no clutch! I have a motorbike at home so figured yeah no problem it'll be easy to ride a scooter. Hmm, think again. Everything was different!! Everything! Firstly, the lack of clutch was a bit baffling, secondly the gears are entirely different to a motorbike. For example, a real motorbike you would tap down for first gear, and then lift up for 2nd thru to 5th gear and then tap down to go down through the gears using the 1 pedal for all.
These scooters, they had 2 pedals (thankfully on the same side). You tapped down on the front pedal for gears 1-4, then tap down on the back pedal (meaning you have to move your foot) to go down the gears. but you could also tap down on the back pedal to end up in 4th gear. How that works exactly I have noooooooo idea!!
Third difference - driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. I actually didn't find this really difficult, its more a matter of trying to remember which way to look when crossing the roads! Fourth - I'd never ridden with a pillion passenger before so that made things a bit different.
Finally and probably the most significant of all is the traffic and the rules (or seemingly lack of) when driving/riding through Vietnam!! The section of town we are currently located in is basically a tourist domain and is very very quiet in comparision to the other end of the town!! There are cars everywhere, bikes everywhere crossing pretty much everywhere and anywhere!
So there we were, 2 white girls in singlets, thongs, and relatively mid-thigh skirts/shorts (very normal attire for the other end of town...). The road to the centre was off to the side and ende up in the country by the river so we began to feel a bit underdressed as the only foreigners around. We must have made an interesting sight trying to navigate our way around the main roads to our chosen destination. We went a bit too far along the main road due after we misunderstood the sign, so it probably took us about 30 minutes to get there (including about 5 minutes time teaching myself how to use the scooter) while about 15 on the way back with a more direct route with fewer traffic lights and roundabouts!
But we made it! And boy, if you are ever in nha Trang you MUST go to the mud baths they are awesome!! for 100,000 dong (about AU$7-8) you have the basic treatment. Firstly, you have a shower in hot mineral water followed by a 15 minute soak in a tub full of mud, which smells amazing with a slight hint of ginger and cinnamin!! It is not really thick, a bit runny. we had a communal tub (there are probably about 30 tubs in the complex for mud) and we were joined by a Swedish couple who we also saw today on a boat trip on the harbour! After you have soaked (I think they forgot us so we soaked about 30 min), you go and sit in the sun and bake for 10 minutes.
Once your mud pie is nice and dry you wash it all off under the mineral showers again. Next stop the hydrotherapy jets. I must say, these were definitely designed with the Vietnamese people in mind as the top of the jets tended to finish around the waist of us westerners!! Next, you jump into a spa tub freshly filled with hot mineral water and you soak there for 30-40 minutes. amazing!! After that, you are free to spend as much time (unlimited) in the multiple pools and waterfalls in the rest of the complex. It is really really well set up!! there were a few hot pools -imagine a full resort size swimming pool at 38 degrees... mmmmmmm :) as well as cooler mineral pools. It was awesome for sure. We left feeling very clean refreshed with silky smooth skin! Definitely get your money's worth at this place for sure. all up we were there for about 2 hours, could have stayed longer but wanted to be back before dark.
Anyway, i should go in search of some food before catching the bus - off to hoi an tonight, arrive about 5am tomorrow I think... It's a sleeper bus and i believe some sleeping tablets will be an extremely wise investment here! :) Tomorrow night is new years eve for TET so we'll see how I go. I haven't booked any where to stay as of yet, and it is likely that many shops will be shut. I like living on the wild side, the worst that can happen is I have no food for a day.... :)
Friday, February 5, 2010
the learning of bargaining skills
Well, fancy that! i am writing to you from sozo cafe in hi chi minh city - check out www.sozocentre.com some of the keys on the computer are sticking so please excuse my grammar! i thought i would check out this cafe as it featured in the lonely planet book i had - turns out it much be a christian place as well as they give thanks to God on their website. i am drinking a vietnamese coffee which is amaaaazing!! the coffee here is awesome i definitely recommend it.
my trip to the mekong has been one of adventure and learning. i am learning to improve my bargaining skills, and be less of a pushover. I have been very grateful for Phung's help over the past few days, but i have determined that he was requesting alot more than the going or usual rate. It is very much a struggle as to how much to pay someone a certain amount when you know that back in your home town that would be peanuts, but here it is multiple days (weeks perhaps?) wages in one hit. Ideally you want the money to be going to the people who need it most, rather than a specific individual or middle man. Hmmm. definitely a challenge! which brings me back to my current location - sozo here employ disabled vietnamese, help to improve their english skills and give them opportunities that otherwise they probably would not have. for example, i ordered my coffee from a boy who is unable to speak. just then i had another waiter who with the help of one of the volunteers at the cafe practiced his english skills on me while testing out a new chocolate cake recipe to see which is better. mind you he did tell me which one was better to start with, but practice makes perfect!
Anyway, today i have learnt a few new things, some better than others. i have learnt (with some difficulty) how to master a toilet-paper-less toilet as is the norm in most areas here, how to barter and bargain a bit better and stand up for myself more, that i really really love cold showers, that vietnamese coffee is amazing, that pho bo (beef noodle soup) actually tastes really good for breakfast,that the vietnamese looooovve karaoke and it can go on for hours in the night and that you can fit a scooter in the middle of a bus!
i was stressing a bit over these things last night (resulting in me not sleeping much after 2am) and found parts of psalm 131;1-2 that i was reading just before that i need to take into account more, handing things over to god instead of clinging on and stressing to them.I am looking on the bright side. i may have been ripped off a bit, but i was shown the customs of the land in a way that i probably would not have seen on a tour bus, ate local food with local people and i can hope for the best that the money was distributed amongst all the people i saw! plus, i was treated and looked after well - that is a definite blessing!!
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
today was a good day, a long one but a good one. it is good to be off the back of the scooter though - it does tend to hurt your bottom after many many hours!! i went on a tour of the floating markets on the river and also the food markets of the town. i love fruit and vege shopping (not that i bought any this time, just observed and took some photo's with permission of course!!) and there are so many foods here that i have never seen before, plus many exotic ones you do see in aus but not all the time. the meat section of the market is very interesting - live fish, octopuses shrimp etc in buckets, chickens and ducks tied up on the ground and other meat products chopped up on display for weighing and purchase. i tried to explain how different it is in australia, not sure if phung understood how different but i tried!!
anyway. plan for tomorrow is to go to the cu chi tunnels (this time i have booked with a reputable tour group who charge the correct going rate!) followed by an open bus trip of 7 hours i believe driving up to da lat.
my trip to the mekong has been one of adventure and learning. i am learning to improve my bargaining skills, and be less of a pushover. I have been very grateful for Phung's help over the past few days, but i have determined that he was requesting alot more than the going or usual rate. It is very much a struggle as to how much to pay someone a certain amount when you know that back in your home town that would be peanuts, but here it is multiple days (weeks perhaps?) wages in one hit. Ideally you want the money to be going to the people who need it most, rather than a specific individual or middle man. Hmmm. definitely a challenge! which brings me back to my current location - sozo here employ disabled vietnamese, help to improve their english skills and give them opportunities that otherwise they probably would not have. for example, i ordered my coffee from a boy who is unable to speak. just then i had another waiter who with the help of one of the volunteers at the cafe practiced his english skills on me while testing out a new chocolate cake recipe to see which is better. mind you he did tell me which one was better to start with, but practice makes perfect!
Anyway, today i have learnt a few new things, some better than others. i have learnt (with some difficulty) how to master a toilet-paper-less toilet as is the norm in most areas here, how to barter and bargain a bit better and stand up for myself more, that i really really love cold showers, that vietnamese coffee is amazing, that pho bo (beef noodle soup) actually tastes really good for breakfast,that the vietnamese looooovve karaoke and it can go on for hours in the night and that you can fit a scooter in the middle of a bus!
i was stressing a bit over these things last night (resulting in me not sleeping much after 2am) and found parts of psalm 131;1-2 that i was reading just before that i need to take into account more, handing things over to god instead of clinging on and stressing to them.I am looking on the bright side. i may have been ripped off a bit, but i was shown the customs of the land in a way that i probably would not have seen on a tour bus, ate local food with local people and i can hope for the best that the money was distributed amongst all the people i saw! plus, i was treated and looked after well - that is a definite blessing!!
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
today was a good day, a long one but a good one. it is good to be off the back of the scooter though - it does tend to hurt your bottom after many many hours!! i went on a tour of the floating markets on the river and also the food markets of the town. i love fruit and vege shopping (not that i bought any this time, just observed and took some photo's with permission of course!!) and there are so many foods here that i have never seen before, plus many exotic ones you do see in aus but not all the time. the meat section of the market is very interesting - live fish, octopuses shrimp etc in buckets, chickens and ducks tied up on the ground and other meat products chopped up on display for weighing and purchase. i tried to explain how different it is in australia, not sure if phung understood how different but i tried!!
anyway. plan for tomorrow is to go to the cu chi tunnels (this time i have booked with a reputable tour group who charge the correct going rate!) followed by an open bus trip of 7 hours i believe driving up to da lat.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Mekong via moto
So if you are offered the chance to ride a moto to the Mekong Delta, I would say you will have quite a sore bottom afterwards, but it is definitely the way to go. It is the end of day 2 in Vietnam and I have seen (as in literally seen) a max of 10 tourists, 2 of whom I had a chance to speak with. Everyone else I have talked and seen is Vietnamese.
I am currently staying in a 'hotel' in Ben Tre, a big island on the Mekong Delta. It is basicallly a guesthouse of a family that live here, complete with canals, fish farms, chickens, ducks and pet dogs.
I arrived here about 11.30 this morning after quite a long trip on the back of phung's scooter. He picked me up this morning from the hotel in HCMC and we took a ride to his house where I met his mother and got my first taste of Vietnamese coffee sweetened with condensed milk. The streets aroud have got venders and women selling chicken, fruit, vegetables and all sorts of food/non food items.
We then started the long, and i mean long drive to Ben Tre! However, it is quite pleasant and you get a great view from the back of a scooter. I will have to introduce you to the fashion of moto helmets - it is fascinating! Everyone does wear a helmet, and alot of the women particuly also wear masks to cover their face. I though originally the masks were to protect from dust etc, but was informed this afternoon its more to keep their skin pale and away from the sun! Anyawy, helmets. Street venders and the markets all have these helmets for sale which are mbasically a bowl-like hat, but there are all decorated ones, some to look like hats, very fashionable!
We did stop halfway thankfully at a rest stop on the side of the highway. These stops have hammocks in them which are very comfortable after a 1.5hr moto ride! On arrival you receive a nice cold wet towel to clean you face. its amazing how grubby you get, or maybe it was just me that got grubby! This pic shows me on our rest break... all tired and dirty!
When we arrived at Ben Tre I got lunch at the hotel which was a big fish and some fresh herbs and vegetables to make into rice paper rolls. i literaly got a whole fish on a plate which i'm guessing was fried (gutted but complete with scales)and standing up on a plate between some posts. It is a case of guess work sometime as to what to do-whether to use hands and fingers or chopsticks. I tend to wait a bit for example so I don't do the wrong thing! The mother of the house came and took the meat off the fish with a chopstick (scraping the scales off) and i ate half of the fish, the rest of which she put together into rice paper rolls with noodles, mint, basil, tomato and cucumber. yum! I was very full after this - I don't think i've eaten a full fish before. I then tried ice coffee - it literally is more ice than coffee but they do the same with tea.
After lunch we went into town to go on a boat ride through the Mekong Delta. This ended up being quite a bit more expensive than I had anticipated (also its confusing when Dong ends up in the millions and figuring that out in dollars!) but as I discussed with them later, it is because I'm on my own. When there is a group, the tours cost less per person as you share the cost around. The money bothered me a bit, but I grew to be okay with that as I know it was being shared around the people on the many sights I got to see.
I saw the 4 major islands of the area, visiting the coconut temple, saw coconut candy being made (i liked the one with ginger added, but too much and i felt a bit sick), wandered around the fruit gardens seeing where alot of the fruit grew. It is interesting to comprehend how alot of the things we apreciate in the west, are highly ikely made by hand by people in countries like Vietnam. For example, ladies were embroidering intricate patterns on shirts, tablecloths and things by hand, and the coconut candy was all cooked, moulded and wrapped by hand!
I also got to try alot of the local fruits, including dragon fruit which interestingly enough inside is white with black spots (I never knew that!). There was a bee farm on this particular island. Bees in vietnam are very nice! Not like australia where they get a bit aggro and will sting you, the vietnamese bees were quite happy for me to stick a finger into the honey comb to try!
I am finding that I feel at home here. It is strange how I feel more at home in a foreign country where i know no one and nothing, than i do in my 'homeland'. I don't quite understand how that is. It seems that change is necessary for me.
Anyway I have been unsocial by updating for long enough.. Tomorrow back on the moto and heading back up to Can Tho and the floating markets and Saigon again.
I am currently staying in a 'hotel' in Ben Tre, a big island on the Mekong Delta. It is basicallly a guesthouse of a family that live here, complete with canals, fish farms, chickens, ducks and pet dogs.
I arrived here about 11.30 this morning after quite a long trip on the back of phung's scooter. He picked me up this morning from the hotel in HCMC and we took a ride to his house where I met his mother and got my first taste of Vietnamese coffee sweetened with condensed milk. The streets aroud have got venders and women selling chicken, fruit, vegetables and all sorts of food/non food items.
We then started the long, and i mean long drive to Ben Tre! However, it is quite pleasant and you get a great view from the back of a scooter. I will have to introduce you to the fashion of moto helmets - it is fascinating! Everyone does wear a helmet, and alot of the women particuly also wear masks to cover their face. I though originally the masks were to protect from dust etc, but was informed this afternoon its more to keep their skin pale and away from the sun! Anyawy, helmets. Street venders and the markets all have these helmets for sale which are mbasically a bowl-like hat, but there are all decorated ones, some to look like hats, very fashionable!
We did stop halfway thankfully at a rest stop on the side of the highway. These stops have hammocks in them which are very comfortable after a 1.5hr moto ride! On arrival you receive a nice cold wet towel to clean you face. its amazing how grubby you get, or maybe it was just me that got grubby! This pic shows me on our rest break... all tired and dirty!
When we arrived at Ben Tre I got lunch at the hotel which was a big fish and some fresh herbs and vegetables to make into rice paper rolls. i literaly got a whole fish on a plate which i'm guessing was fried (gutted but complete with scales)and standing up on a plate between some posts. It is a case of guess work sometime as to what to do-whether to use hands and fingers or chopsticks. I tend to wait a bit for example so I don't do the wrong thing! The mother of the house came and took the meat off the fish with a chopstick (scraping the scales off) and i ate half of the fish, the rest of which she put together into rice paper rolls with noodles, mint, basil, tomato and cucumber. yum! I was very full after this - I don't think i've eaten a full fish before. I then tried ice coffee - it literally is more ice than coffee but they do the same with tea.
After lunch we went into town to go on a boat ride through the Mekong Delta. This ended up being quite a bit more expensive than I had anticipated (also its confusing when Dong ends up in the millions and figuring that out in dollars!) but as I discussed with them later, it is because I'm on my own. When there is a group, the tours cost less per person as you share the cost around. The money bothered me a bit, but I grew to be okay with that as I know it was being shared around the people on the many sights I got to see.
I saw the 4 major islands of the area, visiting the coconut temple, saw coconut candy being made (i liked the one with ginger added, but too much and i felt a bit sick), wandered around the fruit gardens seeing where alot of the fruit grew. It is interesting to comprehend how alot of the things we apreciate in the west, are highly ikely made by hand by people in countries like Vietnam. For example, ladies were embroidering intricate patterns on shirts, tablecloths and things by hand, and the coconut candy was all cooked, moulded and wrapped by hand!
I also got to try alot of the local fruits, including dragon fruit which interestingly enough inside is white with black spots (I never knew that!). There was a bee farm on this particular island. Bees in vietnam are very nice! Not like australia where they get a bit aggro and will sting you, the vietnamese bees were quite happy for me to stick a finger into the honey comb to try!
I am finding that I feel at home here. It is strange how I feel more at home in a foreign country where i know no one and nothing, than i do in my 'homeland'. I don't quite understand how that is. It seems that change is necessary for me.
Anyway I have been unsocial by updating for long enough.. Tomorrow back on the moto and heading back up to Can Tho and the floating markets and Saigon again.
the moto view
The Hotel I stayed at last night had issues with cookies or something so I was unable to post until now....
What a day. I am enjoying life in Vietnam. I got to sleep in a bit, had breakfast and then a massage compliments of the hotel I was staying at last night! Checked out with my backpack all set up at 12 and hit the streets in search of a backpackers place to stay at for the next few nights while in HCMC. As I was walking, a few taxi's or scooter riders approached me to see if I wanted a lift but me being indendent me was determined to do it myself. It is quite warm and quite humid here so after probably 30 minutes of walking around I think I was on the verge of heatstroke!!
Another scooter rider spoke with me then and we chatted for a while, asking where I am from where I was going. There were 2 streets I was intending to walk to as they were full of backpacker's places and I was about 3/4 of the way by this time. but with the heat and fluid loss I started to get a bit lightheaded and sat down on the side of the street and decided I'd give Phung a go, giving me a ride. I knew that chances are there was some sort of commision involved and that it woud end up with other tours being offered and things, but i thought why not support the local people in the tourist industry rather tahn paying the money to big companies.
He took me to a little hotel in a side street alley somewhere in District 1 (which i have just discovered is pretty much the street i was trying to get to anyway)where I left my stuff and then he took me out sight seeing for the day. Its fun whizzing around the city (at like maybe 5km/hr max) with a million other scooters going crazy with their traffic rules (or lack of). I was trying to figure out why sometimes people stopped at traffic lights and other time's they dont. It seems this rule is a bit flexible or up for interpretation. The traffic lights in the city centre itself has a little countdown for both green and red telling you when it will change - but it appears that you can go through red lights if you want to...
First stop was the war remnants museum. Definitely worth going to - they have tanks, helicopters, warships and a few different kind s of US military fighter airplanes out the front, Very eye opening as to the impact the war had on the Vietnamese people here. Next stop was the independence palace, I had a quick wander around here. i believe it is where the president used to do all his business - there were specific meeting rooms for specific people in government. Very grand and impressive to look at. In the basement downstairs they had all the control rooms where during war times they had meetings, controlled radio centres and the like.
Phung (my moto guide) then took me to the hong kong markets, which are the older ones. I've barely seen another european face the entire day - saw I think 2 people during this market. There are the odd curious people wanting to know what I'm doing but on the whole the local Vietnamese in the market let me wander around without any notice.It would be very easy to get lost but luckily this market seems to be separated into sections where they all sell specific things, theres the shoe section, the fabric section, the shiny sparkly hair clip section, the plastic container section, the makeup section, the pots and pan section..... i particularly enjoyed the food markets. During this time i started to question myself, wondering what is appropriate culturally and what isn't. For example, photographs. I want to take photos of this experience, but how appropriate is it? i mean, if i was at home in australia doing my own business, would i appreciate random people coming up and taking a photo of me in the midst of my usual work? It is a challenge trying to fit into this society.
Next stop was a couple of the major temples in the city. This reminded me of how futile life is without Christianity. The sacrifices here are never ending. outside the temples there are people selling goldfish, turtles and incense (which i was offered to buy).
On my travels today i have tried a few different new foods, some better than others. All meals have been on the street and yes I have been having drinks with ice in them... so we'll see how strong my stomach is in time! Lunch was a rice dish with a sort of egg omellette and a chicken bean dish. I had some durian which is a bit sloppy but not awful, a fruit shake and soem sort of roll which had processed meat (you may be aware of my dislike of processed meat...), cucumber, mint and chili sauce. Minus the meat it was not a bad meal. THe breads here are amazing!!!
The city is busy in preparation for TET (Chinese new year) with lanterns and beautiful decorations everywhere. As the city got dark they all light up and make for a spectacular view.
I have managed to get myself a mobile phone SIM card so I am contactable, not sure exactly of the service or how much credit I have on it or what it costs for me to send messages but I can definitely send and receive to Australia.
Another thing that has challenged me today is who I want to meet while I am here. I want to have a truly cultural experience, however when looking for accommodation I was wanting to meet other backpackers like me - made me question what I was really looking for. Phung has been very helpful, showing me the sights of the city. Tomorrow we are off to the Mekong Delta for a few days.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Safe in Saigon
Well I made it, a couple of hiccups at the airport on the way including me not reading my flight itinerary properly and thinking my flight left at 12.30 when it actually left at 2pm and ending up at the airport super early, then waiting even longer with plane delays due to having to balance up the weight distribution.
But, I am now here. It is 11:17 local time, no idea what time it is in Australia, about 1am I'm guessing. I'm probably still running on adrenaline as I don't feel tired (yet) even with only 2 hours sleep last night and a brief nap on the plane to Darwin. I'll probably crash tomorrow though. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that my plan of staying up till its late here will help me avoid as much of jet-lag as possible. We'll see!
I had no drama's with getting through customs and found a taxi that took me to my hotel which is very nice. So definitely thanks to God for all of that. Met some nice people on the plane from Darwin so good chats there.
So far, what I've seen of HCMC is a very busy, bustling city with many many MANY motorbikes and scooters! Its amusing to watch the lack of roadrules - you drive on the 'right' side of the road here, but the traffic does have a tendency to go all over the place.
Some things remind me of living in Africa - random things like white paint around the bottom 1m of the trees on the side walk (why is that??!), men sitting on the sides of the road playing games. But there are so many other different things as well. Scooters are parked by the hundreds all over the footpaths in front of shops - which happen to be still open at 11pm at night selling clothes and things, and people sit on their scooters like a chair, cross-legged or lying on top of them.
Anyway, sleep time. Plan for tomorrow: start exploring the city and getting my bearings! Night!
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