I want the gun of rambo

We're still in Vietnam. We've been here for over a month now. We're sorting out visa issues as they've had to be extended since they expired a few days ago. Hopefully we get our passports back in the next couple days.. We're looking at maybe spending a couple days in the mekong delta before taking a boat up to Cambodia. It's either the boat or we just take a plain old bus up to the capital of Phnom Penh.




We've been in Saigon (HCMC) for almost a week now and we're slowing running out of stuff to do. Saigon as far as asian cities goes, is pretty good.. It's surprisingly clean, easy to get around and so far we haven't had any negative experiences that we've been warned about. It's nothing like Bangkok or Manila. We didn't plan to do much shopping but there are many wicked deals to be had so we've broken down and unleashed our wallets. The only crap thing is that it seems to rain every day here in the late afternoon to evening and one day it pissed down so bad that the neighbourhood we're staying in was flooded causing a big blackout and forcing us to walk in over a foot of water. Kids were even swimming in the streets which is...ummh gross! The photo's above were taken around town. We're staying in the Pham Ngu Lao area which is kind of the budget traveller ghetto. It's good though and full of deals. The area with all the nice hotels is a ripoff as everything is so expensive in comparison.



A couple days ago wevisited the Cao Dai temple in Tay ninh and then went on to the tunnels at Cu Chi. The Cao Dai religion is a little unusual as its a combination of a few religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucism (spelling?). The temple was... a temple. Kinda cool but on to the tunnels.

Checking out the Cu Chi tunnels was much more interesting than the Vinh Moc tunnels we saw further north in the DMZ area in Vietnam. They were also bloody small and my large dimensions were not helpful inside the tunnels. I had to shuffle through them in a squatted position, Uriah on the otherhand was doing just fine in her small Filipino body. It doesn't help that its over 40 degrees in the tunnels either! In the pictures we're soaking wet because it was pissing down rain, not become we were perspiring.



Check out the secret dugouts. Just big enough for those clever little vietnamese dudes but hardly big enough for my feet. Theguy in the picture was our guide Thang.



The picture below is an example of the various types of booby traps they had on display. Many were very much like meatgrinders for human bodies.



So, they have a shooting range at the tunnels and the opportunity to shoot an AK-47 and an M-16 (Rambo!) was on offer. How can I refuse that! Its a bit expensive and for $30 US dollars I bought 10 AK-47 bullets and 10 M-16 bullets. The guys at the range don't even speak to you.. They are very serious dudes. You just point at what you want and give them money. I was waiting for this part all day.



Oh yeah!!! Fired up son... Thats me with M-16 bullets.. Already fired the AK at this stage.



Giddy like a 10 year old boy! Those aren't even sound proof headphones. They're friggin old broken DJ headphones! Nice.



I started off with the AK and it was pretty cool. Loud as hell and with a fair amount of recoil. Much less than what I expected though. The gun jammed a couple times so I couldn't shoot all the bullets at once. The M-16 on the otherhand was bad ass and a lot louder. No jamming whatsoever.. Just pull the trigger and bbrrraaaaaap... 10 bullets in like 1 second. Fastest money Ive ever spent.

Bang bang.
-Derek

Dalat and Mui Ne

Derek and I visited Dalat which considered to be the jewel of Vietnam's Central Highlands. A very green, hilly place surrounded by mountains and the temperature is perfect (no sweating). It is honeymooner's paradise. To fully enjoy Dalat's beauty you need to hire a motorbike and ride around the outskirts of town to see the countryside. We went about 16Km out......

With this motorbike adventure Derek and I found ourselves a great little town called Trai Mat Village which had THE best pagoda we've seen by far called Linh Phouc, that's about 60 years old. The exterior of the pagoda is very detailed and it was enjoyable to explore every corner of it. On the very top of the pagoda we were impressed by the view overlooking Trai Mat Village's beauty and the colour of the landscape.

Within Dalat, it's hussle and bussle as always in any asian city. Women working hard selling fruits and men hungry to take travellers on motorbike trips.

From Dalat, we caught the bus again for another 6 hours in total to Mui Ne beach. After the first 3 hours we got transferred from the big bus to a mini bus where we were the only two to travel to Mui Ne as all of the others in the big bus were heading to Nha Trang. Once transferred, Derek and I were spoilt having our very own air- conditioned mini bus all the way to Mui Ne. We continued to be spoilt while being driven along some of Vietnam's diverse natural beauty of mountains, deserts, lakes, ocean, sand dunes and well... cows..... The drive from Dalat to Mui Ne was gorgeous.... this in itself was a highlight.

You can't visit Mui Ne without visiting the red and white sand dunes. In addition, you can't escape without allowing one of the local children (in our case 3 kids) to convince you to slide down the dunes with one of their sledes. There goes another 50 000 Dong. Kids, you can't escape them. Mui Ne has a miniture version of the Grand Canyon only theirs is called the Red Canyon.

I enjoyed our little break from travelling and Mui Ne is definetly the place to do that. You can just lay on a hammock in between swaying palm trees and listening to the sound of the ocean's waves from a distance.... it's hard work but someone has to do it..

Derek has fallen in love with motorbikes and we literally drove up and down Mui Ne beach five times and it is a 22km stretch.

We had to say goodbye to Mui Ne early as our 30 day Vietnam visa is expiring today (we're extending it).... We are now in Saigon (HCMC) and so far, a great clean city.

-Uriah

Nha Trang

We like Nha Trang.

We found a wicked place to stay. $13 bucks for a large air-con room (with tv, fridge & nice bathroom) that is as big as a studio apartment in a brand new hotel (1 month old) and with an ocean view!! The picture of the sunrise below was taken from our window facing the south china sea!!



We did a boat cruise checking out the outlying islands.. Didn't really see too much of the islands but we did drink really undesirably nasty red wine while floating in the ocean. Probably not safe but hey, this is vietnam.



We rented a motorbike a couple days ago and braved the insane vietnamese traffic. Overall, I think I did good. We didn't die. It can be very tense driving here but there were some nice strips of road that let me unleash moped power and I clocked 60km/h on the open road!! In town, the traffic is too thick so everybody and their grandmother passes me - im such a wussy. Today we handed over driving duties to the infamous "easy riders" who are a local group of freelance bikers who take tourists to see the "real" vietnam... They didn't disappoint and they took us to some places that we didnt find on our own. We saw lots of the countryside and visited Monkey island and Baho waterfall among other smaller things... Hardly any tourists in sight too. Very nice. We got helmets and Uriah rocked hers very well with her cop shades.




We've loved Nha trang... Good value for money and thats what im all about. Tight-asses can rejoice and enjoy the good life for a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. We've had some wicked meals and they got everything here - Indian, Turkish, Italian etc... Tonight Uriah and I took it to the streets and had dinner for 0.60 cents a plate (pictured below).. Pork and rice does a body good (Im feeling quite plump and squishy at the moment).



We're going to miss this place... We would stay longer but we've already made plans to move on... bummer, but we got to keep it moving. Tomorrow we'll be embarking on a 3 day trip through the central highlands.. Its going to be pretty rural for the next few days so we'll be unplugged.

ps. We are steadily gearing up for our next destination: Cambodia... We met a really cool (and wealthy) New Zealand couple the other day who just came from there. They really liked it. The guy (Byron) blew up a cow in cambodia... Yes a cow... What does it cost to do such a thing? Try $1000 USD. Mostly thats because he shot it with an RPG (rocket launcher) and missed TWICE!! (you pay per missle). He then followed up with a machine gun (you pay per bullet) and shot it about 5 times (out of 100 or so)... After that, he went to inspect the cow and it was still alive so he had no choice but to clobber it with a rock. This is a true story, I saw the video footage his wife took.. insanity. He was happy though because he said the locals got to divide and eat the meat from the cow.

see ya for now.
-derek

Danang & Hoi An Photos

Photos as promised.

Here is Danang's brown river water. This picture was taken from the view of Glory and Ron's balcony. While the other picture is Hoi An during the day.



Hoi An at night is magical. Most of the local shops glow with colourful home made lanterns.



Hoi An is known for its tailoring frenzy and most tourists leave Hoi An with something whether it'd be a suit,dress or even custom made shoes... you just can't escape Hoi An without being sucked in.... Derek got a bunch of stuff. As for me, got me 3 autumn jackets, one summer dress, one pair of shorts and 3 t-shirts with "Uriah" embroidered on two and "McIntosh" on the other... all for under $120Aus. Should have designed some more.....



My Son Holy Land Quick Fact:
The World Heritage archaeological site of My Son was a Cham dynasty capital, between the 4th and 12th centuries AD. Located in Quang Nam Province some 70 kilometers south of DaNang, My Son has the distinctively eclectic architecture of the Champa kingdom, with architectural elements from China and India. The most famous tower at My Son stood 24 meters (75 feet) tall, of sandstone carved with lions and elephants and other images. It was destroyed during US bombing in 1969. Amazing place. We did the sunrise tour to My Son. Got up at 5am... So worth it.






Surprisingly, Hoi An has a gorgeous beach (Cua Dai Beach). It is about 4km from Hoi An town. We just rented a couple of bicycles and cycled our way down to the beach and just enjoyed every minute of it... apart from seeing a couple of dead rats on the side of the road (wanted to cry as I am sooooo terrified of them).




We are soldiering on, have had a few unfortunate experiences early on however, looking back now i guess its all part of the fun of travelling...

Until our next blog,
-Uriah

Danang & Hoi An.. and super sloooow Internet

Man, the Internet connection here is so bad... It's like sharing a dial up connection with 10 people at once. No photos now but will put some up when we find a decent Internet cafe.

From Hanoi, we caught the train to Danang. Thanks to our friend Alex who lives in Hanoi, we had some good fun and some really good Vietnamese food. He knows his stuff and our stomachs were happy. The train trip was pretty good and we managed to sleep quite a bit. The views between Hue - Danang are stunning from the train as the tracks are near the ocean and travel through some mountains.

Central Vietnam is looking like its our favorite part. The north has its charm but around here the people seem to do things differently around here. We spent a couple days in Danang and had lots of fun. Maybe it's because our close family friends Ron & Glory were very hospitable. Taking us to nice places to eat and even a 5 star resort where we enjoyed a day faking the rich life and using the resort's facilities. The health club was fun as I had my own very private sauna and steambath... Walked out feeling like a million bucks. We used the gym which is the first time we've used one in a few months. It really just made us feel wimpy and soft. Oh well. 5 stars baby, once you've had a taste its hard to go back.

From Danang, Glory & Ron's driver took us to Hoi An, just 30km south. Hoi An is a really nice place. Its clean, got that old historic feel and is a shoppers paradise. Lots of tailors and the norm is for visitors to walk away with tonnes of custom made clothes that sometimes they didnt even want to buy in the first place. Like me, I walked into a shop just asking how much a jacket cost. One thing led to another and I was being sized for a jacket, a couple of suits, shirts and custom-made leather shoes!! They even stenciled my feet and measured my toes! Uriah helped me pick the materials & colours and the tailor did the rest. Uriah's no stranger to the tailor shops either. In fact, within a couple hours of arriving in Hoi An, she already bought 3 jackets, a dress, 3 shirts! The ladies in the tailor shops are good at what they do and that is sweet-talking you.. My hats off, they got skills. We're going to have to make a stop by the post office before leaving this place as we are so far beyond the limit with our backpacks that its not even funny.

- Derek

Hanoi, Tam Coc and Halong Bay

Ok..... so Hanoi, Vietnam has been a strange city for me so far. Don't know exactly how i feel about it just yet... or perhaps I have not prepared myself enough for the constant hussle and bussle of motobikes riding and parking everywhere and anywhere. Or the norm of pushing and shoving of anyone that comes your way, or knowingly being scammed everytime you take interest in buying something whether it be food, a bracelet, fruit, postcard or a plain simple doughnut that should cost you 1000 Dong instead as a tourist you would pay
10 000Dong.... All i have to say and learn to do is "Let it go Uriah, just let it go!

All this mixed emotion of how i feel about the city however, diminished after we visited Tam Coc (a few hours south of Hanoi). It was our first time to be amazed by Vietnam's natural beauty. Riding in a sampan on a stormy day through the Ngo Dong River and just soking in the beauty of the lush rice fields (not sure if they were rice fields but really pretty nonetheless and that is all that matters), local women herding cows, watching and greeting other sampans and other people floating along the river. It's even more amazing when the person that is paddling the sampan you see looks like a Vietnamese version of innocent Santa Claus. Love this shot!

The next day, i was put at ease even more about how i was feeling when i was charmed by one of Vietnam's world heritage sites- Halong Bay. The junk we where in was comfortable and Kenny our tour guide made me appreciate the genuine kindness of Vietnamese people. Kenny is a short, super skinny guy, weighing in at 40kg, with a squeaking voice, and is a 24 year old economics graduate who just wants to improve his english. To me he was my little ferret tour guide. Very hyper!

So, thanks to Kenny my views on Vietnamese people is that they are ambitious and are just trying really hard to make a living, so that even if i get ripped off by quadruple amounts everytime, they mean well (sort of). "Whatever makes me feel at ease"

Tonight, we train it down to Danang.

See you then,
Uriah