Aug 2007

Dear blog

Well we didn't make it out clubbing on Saturday night, old gits that we now are. We had a few beers and were in the mood but then we made a mistake going for a mexican. Well it wasn't so much a mistake, it was lovely, just that we were too full to drink let alone dance afterwards. So we phoned Lynn's Mum and also spoke to her brother and got to bed around midnight. Party animals!

Sunday August 5th
We had a day with absolutely nothing planned - magic! We had a relatively long lie and wandered down our street to book a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels for Monday. Cost was $4 each for a guide and bus ticket. More about Cu Chi shortly. We wandered down town and decided to venture down a narrow lane - where Vietnamese life really happens - people are cooking on the street, children play and you can see inside peoples small and cramped apartments. The reason they spend so much time on the street is because they don't have enough space to cook or play or chill inside their apartments. Families of five or six can live in 9 square metre flats.

Just as we started wandering down the heavens opened and we hadn't brought our cagoules with us! We bought two plastic ponchos from a local shop for only 5,000 dong! We wandered back on to the main street, turned a couple of corners and found a shopping mall with a cinema attached. As it was chucking it down we decided to go in and see Oceans 13 - although I wanted to see Die Hard 4, but as Lynn was coming out to watch the Charity Shield at night I thought I'd better go with the Pitt/Clooney option!

Thankfully it was miles better than Oceans 12, which was appalling. The patter was good, they obviously looked good, and although the ending was predictable it was a highly watchable movie.

We came out and the rain had stopped, as it tends to do here - rain for a couple of hours and then stop. We wandered back uptown towards our hotel and stopped to watch some guys playing football in the park with a bamboo ball - playing keepie uppie. Three girls approached Lynn and I and asked if I would play badminton with them. They were probably around 9 or 10. It was a 'money can't buy moment' as I played with two of them while the third attempted and failed to get Lynn to have a go of her hula hoop! It was a nice moment.

United beat Chelsea 3-0 on penalties after the match finished 1-1. We watched the game ina very narrow and busy bar, with seats at the bar and I ended up quite pissed. I got a few strange looks when I yelled abuse at Frank Lampard after he missed his penalty. Go on United!

Monday August 6th
We get up at 7.30am as our bus to Cu Chi tunnels leaves at 8.15am. I am a little rough on the bus but chat to a nice Canadian guy, an Italian guy and an Irish girl while Lynn attempts to sleep.

The tour was fantastic, very interesting. The Viet Cong used an intricate tunnel network of 256km in the Cu Chi area (an hours drive from Saigon) to live in, fight in and basically confuse the shit out of the Americans during the war. We watched a documentary when we arrived featuring some fantastic footage from the war. We then walked through the jungle and looked at traps that the Viet Cong lay for Americans, a hideout (that Lynn could fit in but I couldn't - check out some great photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

We then went on to the shooting range where Lynn fired 5 bullets from an AK47 for $7. We bumped into Seth from the Easy Rider tour and he had spent a small Vietnamese fortune on all kinds of guns. I decided not to bother, guns are not for fun!

We carried on through the jungle to the entrance of two tunnels. We crawled through them both - it was quite an experience! They were dark, narrow and lit only at a couple of points (as they would have been during the war). You basically had to feel your way through and I bumped into the girl in front of me's backside a couple of times - unintentionally of course! No wonder American soldiers were scared to go into the tunnels!

We got back to Saigon at 2pm and had some lovely French baguettes before heading for a snooze. We wandered downtown at night for food and discovered a Thai restaurant called Silver Elephant that Lynn had read about. It was a little pricey but we decided to treat ourselves. The food was deeeeeeelicious. Thai food is a lot spicier and tastier than Vietnamese food. We shared scallops, sea bass and king prawns, washed down with a bottle of Chilean wine - Castillo De Mollina. The cost was 888,000 dom - nearly a million for a meal! Still it was well worth it and the service was out of this world. The waiters couldn't do enough for you and when I asked where the toilet was I thought one of them was going to come in with me!

Tuesday August 7th
Another day with nothing planned - just what we need before we start our 3 day/2 night tour in the Mekong Delta that ends in Cambodia. Wandered down to the market again and then found another cinema that had Die Hard 4 on. We went in and both really enjoyed it. It is cheesey and action packed - like all other Die Hard films.

We went back to the market for a late lunch and then back to the hotel for a siesta as we were both a bit tired. The sun had his hat on today, which was nice. Fingers crossed for the next few days!

Just going out for a bite to eat and then an early night as we will be up around 7am tomorrow. So I guess I will update the blog in Cambodia when we reach there on Friday.

Lots of love and lemonade
Murray and Lynn
xxx

PS check the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

Well we made the right decision booking a bus to Saigon the day after arriving in Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a small fishing village but has 10km of coastal beaches so it is rapidly turning into a holiday resort.

Our accomodation was right on the beach and we had a lovely walk along it late on Thursday 2nd August but on Friday 3rd it was chucking it down. Our bus was due to pick us up at 1.30pm but eventually arrived around 2.15pm and after a few more pick ups we were on our way to Saigon.

As usual I stuck my Nano on for the bus ride and was rewarded with a number of excellent tunes. One of the great things about music (and there are many) is that certain songs/bands remind you of certain people, moments or times.

'As I Watch You In Disbelief' by The Charlatans came on as I looked out of the window at the coastline. This song always reminds me of T In The Park a few years ago when me, Ross and Carla were watching The Charlatans. They laucnhed into this song and Ross started bouncing around declaring 'I f**king love this song' much to the amusement of Carla and I!

Other top tunes on the drive to Saigon (now named Ho Chi Minh City after the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, but still referred to as Saigon) included 'Being Around' by The Lemonheads, 'In My Life' by The Beatles and 'She's A Rainbow' by The Rolling Stones. I also made Lynn listen to The Jackson Sisters marvellous 'I Believe In Miracles' on her Nano after it came on to mine. Tuuuuuuuune!

We arrived in Saigon around 6.30pm and were dropped off in the backpacker district across from a bar called Guns'n'Roses that we immediately vowed to go to for a drink after finding a hotel. The first one we tried looked a little plush but we thought we would chance our luck. Unfortunately the cheapest room was $55. Not to worry as we saw another nice hotel round the corner and treated ourselves to the top price room at $20 a night. Well, we haven't had a nice hotel for a week or so, so why not?

We headed round to the Guns'n'Roses bar and we were greeted with 'Sweet Child O' Mine' blasting out of the speakers followed by 'November Rain'. After a couple of beers and a few games of pool we head out to find some food. We discover a superb bar just down from our hotel called Eden that is playing Oasis 'Don't Go Away' so we head in. We treat ourselves to our fist western food in ages. I have the special pizza and Lynn has a Chicken Burger. The DJ plays some top music and after I buy him a Red Bull he plays the Roses 'Adored', 'She Bangs The Drums' and 'Fools Gold' as well as 'True Faith' by New Order.

Our table is by the door and as New Order come on the heavens open and there is a torrential rain storm. The wildest we have seen. People scurry into shops and bars and the rain is almost horizontal. I wish we had taken our camera out with us!

After quite a few beers and a bit of singing from the two of us we head back to our hotel for a good nights sleep.

August 4th - Saturday
It's raining today, but only lightly, so we put on our caguls and head to the market where I intend to buy a new t-shirt and trousers. I get a Diesel t-shirt, a funky pair of white trainers and a Saigon Beer t-shirt for 500,000 dom. We have a bite to eat at one of the stalls and chat to a lovely Canadian couple who now live in Ko Samui. They have also travelled in Brazil and we swap tips on a few things and exchange e-mail addresses.

After that we head back to our hotel to dump my ourchases and then head out to visit a couple of museums. Our first visit is to the Reunification Palace. The highlight is a photo gallery and video at the end with some amazing footage from the war - more of which later.

We then head to the War Museum and I have to say it took my breath away. The museum is mainly a collection of photos documenting the war, as well as replicas of tanks and planes, parts of bombs and clothing etc from the war.

The photos are absolutely stunning and every politician in the world should be made to visit this museum. They graphically document the horror, devastation and terror caused by war. We had already learned quite a bit about the war from our museum visits in Hanoi and from our Motorcycle guides who showed us areas of the country affected by the Americans use of Agent Orange - a toxic chemcial that they liberally sprayed all over Vietnam - 72 million litres of the stuff - wiping out crops, destroying rainforests and causing absolutely shocking effects to people.

The effects of Agent Orange are still being felt to this day in Vietnam - kids are being born with no legs or arms, with horrific abnormalities to their faces and bodies. It's almost too disgusting to look at but we do. Some of the photos of the war crimes committed by the Americans sicken me. The photos are truly special though and many were taken by award winning photo-journalists from Time magazine. Do a google search for Agent Orange to find out about the effects. Even adults that look normal have been affected and their kids are born with horrific abnormalities.

We're just checking our e-mails, updating the blog and uploading some photos on to the flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

Tonight we are going to go clubbing! I'll update the blog again soon.

OK so the title was a little predictable but hey ho.

Lynn and I have just finished a 3 night/4 day motorcycle tour of southern and central Vietnam. We saw loads and learned even more about Vietnam. I'll attempt to summarise for you now.

July 29th
Our one day in Nha Trang was spent lounging on the beach reading and eating Crocodile steak at night, as well as booking our Easy Rider tour.

July 30th
Lynn turned 32! What a way to celebrate - at 8.30am our two motorbikes and drivers arrived. Our bags were strapped on the back, we got fitted for helmets and off we went! Lynn had Jing as her driver and I had the younger(age 22) Duon. We were also joined by a 22 year old from Doncaster in England called Seth who had bravely decided to rent his own bike and join us.

We sped out of Nha Trang along the coast, the sun sparkled on the water, we had our shades on and the road was ours! I suddenly began to understand why my good friend Kenny Byers is so in love with his motorbike - the sense of freedom, the power, the fresh air.... We headed out into the country passing a colourful graveyard (so nice that people are dying to get in) and then stopping to view a fishing village. After a further ride into the country we stopped at a brick factory, staffed by women, that churned out 10,000 bricks per day. This may sound unremarkable but there was only 4 women working there, the conditions would not meet many health and safety standards in the UK and the equipment was basic to say the least.

For lunch we stopped at a small roadside cafe that received low marks for cleanliness but top marks for taste and we demolished our chicken and fried rice, washed down with a cold pepsiand water -all for 50,000 dom (under 2 quid).

On the afternoon route we stopped off to see a coffee plantation (Vietnam is the third largest exporter of coffee in the world), a rubber tree farm (also aleading exporter) and a pepper tree farm. Vietnam has a vast variety of resources and they are starting to realise their worth after years of underselling.

We arrived at our homefor the night at 4.30pm - a traditional Vietnamese longhouse that we would share with other travellers. It was basic - a mattress, covers and a mosquito net but it did the job. Dinner was nice and we chatted to a nice Canadian couple and Seth before heading to bed at 10pm. Didn't sleep too well as it started raining heavily during the night.

July 31st
We woke at 8.30am and left at 9am after a quick breakfast. The sun was out and we made our way to a national park and a waterfall you could supposedly walk under. The waterfall was incredibly powerful and although you could get under it there was no way we were going to risk walking all the way through.

The rain started again and we got soaked. although we were already wet after our trip under the waterfall.The falls were lovely, as was the park. The only downside being a major one throughout Vietnam - litter. It kind of ruined the park and there is no way that Thailand or Laos would allow their parks to be treated in that manner.

So far we have been very lucky with the weather but the rain started to chuck it down. We put on our raincoats and sped through small towns that had turned into mudbaths. Just as we were starting to tire of riding in the rain we stopped for lunch and had some amazing fresh spring rolls - rice paper, cucumber, green banana, star fruit, fried pork, garlic) - it was DIY and it was amazing. Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious!

The rain was off and our spirits were lifted as we headed back on the road. We stopped to watch people sifting sand and breaking granite stone to sell. We then arrived at the Lak resort at 3.30pm and checked into a nice lakeside bungalow for the night - immediately making useof it's hot shower.

At night the locals put on a music show for us in a traditional longhouse with all kinds of percussion instruments before we had dinner at the lake. The band were fantastic, a real highlight for me.

August 1st
We had breakfast at 8.30am and left at 9am to a minority village at the other side of the lake where life is incredibly simple and it's like going back in time. After that we headed to a silk worm factory that was ver interesting. We headed up into the hills toclimb to Dalat (1,500 metres above sea level). The rain started again and we were pretty wet and cold by the time we arrived at our hotel. After a hot shower wewandered around the picturesque town before having pizza and an early night.

August 2nd
Left at 9am and sped out in the rain to a minority village where I bought a silk scarf and Lynn a bag (surprise surprise). It was quite funny as the women all said I was very handsome! We had 240km tocover today so there was no messing. The waterproofs were on and we headed to Mui Ne.

This afternoon Lynn and I had a lovely stroll along the beach - our roomis about 20 yards from it. The weather is dry but overcast so we booked a bus to Saigon for $4 each for tomorrow. We've been in Vietnam for 3 weeks now so it will soon be time to head on to Cambodia.

We've literally just finished alovely seafood dinner with the highlight being the hotpot I ordered. Our bus doesn'tleave until 1.30pm tomorrow so we intened to have a long lie and hopefully some time on the beach if the rain stays off. It is now officially monsoon season! Our bus takes 4hours and wewill probably spend 3 nights in Saigon as there is a lot of history to find out about.