A quick disclosure. My back is absolutely killing me. Not sure what I have done to it, but I am hoping it goes away and is not too serious. This was to be our final stint in Thailand for the trip and would just be some bumming around in Bangkok followed by some beach time down on the Andaman.
The train ride into Bangkok from the border passed through a lot of nice scenery and at one point we almost thought the train might be ontime. We grabbed a McDonalds as it had been a long time since we could and went to out old hostel from the 4000 times we have stayed in Bangkok. When we arrived we almost didn't recognise it as they had replaced the two almost dead computers with an entire internet cafe. Impressive for 3 month's work. They had also replaced the staff with a useless old woman who took about 3 hours to check us in. Oh well.
The next day we did virtually nothing. We went to the same laundry guy we used last time. Disabled guy one road off Koa San. Amazing laundry every time. My clothes are still fresh if I take one a week later. I then did a lot of writing as I was catching up with all the stuff I hadn't written for Vietnam and Cambodia. We watched Gangster Squad, which is quite good and then we met Rob for dinner. It was good to catch up again and we went to the same restaurant we ate in last time, because Cannelle had missed it. It was like a greatest hits tour of the city. Only this time we walked a lot more and enjoyed the canals. We were comparing whether Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City is the better city to live in. Not sure. I like both.
The next day I did a lot more writing and then exchanged some books. I finally managed to buy some hiking shoes from Wenger. Annoyed me a little to buy shoes with the same name as the Arsenal manager, but they seem good so far. We decided that we probably wouldn't have the money or time to do Papua New Guinea on this trip, so we will start the next one there and have 6.5 months for Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines which seems about right. We then got a night bus down to Krabi. I am sure we paid far too much again due to naivety. I hate it when we do that. It cost us 750 baht and I am sure if you go to the bus station its much better. We got rounded up like cattle and driven out to where the bus would meet us, while I hummed the Rawhide theme. I fucking hate the tourist transport. We must have got rid of them by now. Well I hope. Bali is the only super touristy place left I think. Well with the zombie tourists anyway. There was even a real life Barbie and Ken doll couple on our bus. Awesome. We watched Expendables 2 and I think it was watchable. I think a lot of the in jokes are lost on people not familiar with the action films of the 80s.
In the morning we arrived in Surat Thani where we were transferred into a shit bus to Krabi Town. Its a nice place at first impression. We got transferred to a supposed upgrade, but it seemed a bit shitter albeit with a private bathroom. We walked to the bus station to book a ticket for Sungai Kolok for the monday morning. There is an overnight bus, but I wanted to watch the Spurs game on the Sunday. Its cost 468 instead of the 650 in town, so they have some large mark ups. We did the little mangrove walk, which is nice and takes you close to the two limestone hills that are the landmarks of Krabi. We ate in a great Italian restaurant. Really authentic. Then we chilled out and I finished my writing.
The next day we found a place that did welsh rarebit and porridge for breakfast. We were eating really well in Krabi, though it wasn't cheap. We took the local truck to the fossil and it cost only 50 baht to go all the way, as its the last stop. It was super expensive. They wanted 200 baht per adult. Mental, but we had come all the way there. In the end they let us pay just 200 baht for the two of us. I guess the prices depend on how much money they think you have and there are a lot of rich tourists here in the South. The fossils themselves are nice, only because they are unique. In and of themselves they are not that special. We grabbed another truck back to Ao Nang for 20 baht and went for a walk along the beach. Its nice there, but I am glad we stayed in Krabi town. Its much more pleasant. We were bumming around with a holiday in the middle of a holiday. We walked to the national park at the end and waded across a narrow part of the sea over to an island. It was cut off, but not really. We enjoyed a swim there, grabbed some pancakes back on the other side and tried to get a truck back to Krabi for 40 baht. Three came and went before we had to accept the price of 50 baht. Damn it. We watched Argo in the cafe with films and grabbed the burgers there. They are as good as they claim. The film was good, but the ending seemed unrealistic to me, as it didn't make much sense. It seemed to be added for dramatric value and when I checked the review afterwards I could see that it was indeed added. It cheapened the film for me as I felt it was illogical (not calling the control tower or using jets to force it to return etc). Oh well.
The next day we went to Ko Phi Phi. We had booked the tickets for 280 baht each. The island is menatl expensive to stay on, so we decided to just stay for one night. On the way there by boat we saw lots of giant pink jellyfish that looked like huge floating brains. Cannelle was really happy and also loved the birds following the ship. She was a little nervous on the boat, but was getting more comfortable travelling on the sea. While boarding the ship there were some people so lazy that they wanted someone to carry their bag from next to the ship on board. Fuck sake. We were going to be with that kind of tourist. Eventually after nearly 2 hours we arrived and dodged having to pay the 20 baht cleaning fee. Reviewers of our hotel had said it was miles away and up a hill. Yeah fucking miles. I almost thought about putting this review on tripadvisor:
Be very careful. This hotel is miles, I mean miles away from the port. We had to walk for at least 10 minutes. I mean 10 whole minutes. Then we had to walk up at least 15 steps. 15 fucking steps. Not 5...not even 10 which would be just about acceptable... but a whole 15 steps. Fuck sake. No human being should ever have to walk up 15 steps. Its just too much. I may send them my medical bills.
I am sure some of these idiots who use tripadvisor would not detect the sarcasm. It always amuses me how many people complain on that website about things that are clearly written on the hotel description. Perhaps if they read the stuff before they booked it they wouldn't have so many problems. Anyway we arrived and were met by a 'friendly' island local who showed us a map and then took it away when he realised we had a place already. In the end I just grabbed it out of his hand, to which he angrily asked what my problem was. I was sure he could work out that he was the problem. Oh well. The people on Ko Phi Phi are not very nice. Thank God the island is so good you won't care. We checked in and went up to the viewpoint. Wow. Just wow. This island is truly stunning. Cannelle said that she could now understand the hype for the South of Thailand. This is what everyone raves about. The colour of the water is really special and you have the cliffs as well. The view from the top of the two bays (one green, one blue) is really cool. Its really spectacular. We stayed up there for about an hour and a half just looking at the view. Anyone who knows me will know that that is enough of a recommendation. We then went to the beach and swam a bit while listening to two totally moronic American girls talking about super taxing topics. You have to love people who say stuff like:
"People keep telling me I have an amazing body. I mean I feel sorry for Jody because she has to hear people saying that to me all the time right in front of her".
Very true. Her body was not that amazing for the record. Cannelle likes to watch people who lack self confidence trying to pretend that they do. In the evening we ate at Breakers (food is shit) and then went and sat on the wall, looking out over the sea listening to music, just like we had done in Korcula. Eventually we headed back into town and watched some people fight in the Reggae Bar (tourists beat each other up to win some alcohol). Then we saw some people playing beer pong. While we watched a Russian guy drunkenly chatted at me in Russian for ages and then got upset when he found out that I didn't drink alcohol. We eventually found a party out on the beach at Slinkys. They had a lot of shows on, including fire limbo. Cool, but not as good a DJ as Bangkok. Still if you play Everybody Dance Now, everyone will dance. There was a girl who loved herself entertaining the crowd and lots of couples dancing. Unlike the Gulf of Thailand islands, this place had a lot of couples. This was where my back started hurting and it has continued ever since. In fact I feel a little sick while I am typing. Might have to see a doctor in Singapore if it doesn't clear up by Saturday.
In the morning we had decided to take a trip to Ko Phi Phi Leh (location for the Beach) and we had signed up for a tour. God help us. We were picked up in the morning and carried to the loading bay, where the local guy whistled at us and clapped his hands to get our attention. Impressive. We were now so low that people were not even bothering to speak to us. I love the people here. We would take the tour with a bunch of morons. A few couples, an Austrian guy who had been beaten up in the Reggae Bar the night before and recommended that I fight there and some idiotic Americans who loved the monkey feeding. We set off across the Bay and across the sea for 7km in our little longtail. It was a little choppy and it made Cannelle feel uneasy. We went past an average cave, went to a very pretty cove where we could swim a bit. Next came the highlight as they stopped at the far side of the island for some snorkelling. They didn't have a mask quite big enough for me so my nose would suffer, but we saw a lot of fish. Cannelle loved it and had three things as highlights from her time in Ko Phi Phi. We descended through a shoal of colourful fish and saw Angel Fish a Lion Fish and many other colourful fish. It was really cool. Afterwards we went round to the famous Maya Beach. Oh my God was what one of the Americans said. Not because its beautiful, which it probably is, but because it was swarming with people and boats. What a parody. I found it funny. You can almost imagine what it must have looked like and believe me you will need to 'imagine' as you won't 'see'. You can see all the touch ups the film crew did to the beach, including importing trees and using sand bags. The irony lies in the fact that it is the antithesis of the film. They use this beach to escape from the touristy places and find their own place. This then becomes the idyllic beach, so everyone wants to go. So they do and then it gets so full of people that you can't even move. Oooh the delicious irony. Alex Garland was so very right lol. For our final destination we went to Monkey Beach, where the boat crew feed the monkeys and give them bottles of coke to make sure they will pose for the tourists. Bit disgusting really. We stayed on the boat out of a mini protest as it was a bit sickening to see the crack addict monkeys. They are total monkey junkies. So hooked on coke are they, that they will degrade themselves and do whatever they have to in order to get it. One even had coke poured on his head. Its like a monkey version of Requiem for a Dream, only none of them have to cut their own arm off yet. If the tourists ever stop coming these monkeys will die as I am not sure they even remember how to live like monkeys. Very sad, but all the other tourists on our boat loved it. You can see who we were on a trip with. Quality people. Afterwards we got a boat back to Krabi. The seas were quite rough on the way back, but we had only paid 250 for the return trip. Ironically if you go to the port you will pay 300, so something is very wrong with the transport. Its a stunning place. Probably the highlight of Thailand. The people are shitty, but the island is stunning. Its expensive, there are too many tourists, the people are shit, but you still have to go. Its that good. We decided to stay in the place with the films and watched Leon in the evening. Still a classic. We didn't have enough money to go to Railay as we didn't trust the boats, so we should have gone the next day but we had one day to kill. It was time to have a rest.
We did nothing much with our last day. Went to the breakfast place and had welsh rarebit again, then went to the Italian. Bummed around all day, spoke to my mum and watched Django Unchained in the evening, which I really liked. Spurs drew 1-1 with Manchester United in the evening with a last minute equaliser. The luck may be with us this year.
In the morning we walked to the bus station and took a bus all day long to Sungai Kolok. We left at 9am and arrived at the border around 7.30pm which was just in time to cross over as we weren't aware that Malaysia was an hour ahead. We were in Malaysia at last and symbolically for me onto the second half of the trip, though I think when we get to Sumatra its the real halfway point.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Cambodia Part 2 (Koh Kong, Siam Reap and Angkor Wat)
We took an early bus to Koh Kong. It took around 6 hours and passed through the most interesting scenery we have seen in Cambodia so far and it was still just ok. We walked into town from the bus station, which is only around 1km. Paddy's Guesthouse was full so we backtracked and managed to get a place just over the road that was $7 with cable tv and hot water. Really nice hotel. We decided to trek out to Oasis Resort to book a tour for Koh Kong island the next day. When we arrived there, however, we realised that they no longer booked tours from there and they sent us to Koh Kong Ecotours in the centre of town. We grabbed a local lunch at a place where they wrap the food inside lettuce leaves and dip it in peanut sauce. It was quite nice. I did some writing and the evening we went to a cafe where I got a huge portion of fish and chips. The next day we would visit the island.
We arrived at 8am and the tour was full of couples. Couple who had no intention of socialising and had clearly come out here in the hope that they could get some island paradise just for themselves. We took the boat and a few of the guys saw dolphins. Albeit from a distance. I saw nothing and was quite skeptical that anyone saw anything. It could even have been the sun rolling off the waves. We did see a flying fish though. It shot out from under the boat and skimmed along the surface of the sea. Really cool. We arrived at the island after around 2.5 hours and got onto the pristine beach. It is very pretty here. We decided to go snorkelling, but of course they didn't have any flippers large enough for me. They have some semi coral over near one end of the beach and I saw some lion fish, groupers etc and a huge cuttlefish. At first I thought it was a moving rock and then I realised it was a cuttlefish. It scared me a bit as it looked mean. Some of the others saw two cuttlefish mating and Peter said he saw it as well, but that it looked really mean. We floated over the reefs and it was the first time I enjoyed snorkelling. It made me excited for scuba diving again, which I still prefer. Cannelle cut her toes quite badly on some of the rocks and so we left the sea early. She had also got a burn from an internet cafe and the sea water was stinging her. The boat crew got her some antiseptic and plasters and so we decided to wander over to the lagoon. Its really pretty and quite peaceful so we just chilled out there. Chilling out seems to be the Cambodian pastime. They cooked us a barracuda dinner for the beach and we ate that with a huge plate of shrimps. People still weren't really chatting with each other. I was clandestinely feeding one of the dogs around, who seemed to like the fish more than the shrimp. We chilled out on the beach some more and then we left for the boat ride back. On the way back we went to visit the mangroves, which were my real reason for coming on this tour. We arrived and they sent us on a walkway through the mangrove forest. I had been in one before, but it was most people's first time. It was still really cool. We walked through peacefully and saw a kingfisher. They have a few viewing platforms and when you get to the other end they have a lot of picnic platforms as well. It seems a lot of Cambodians come here for picnics. They had a bridge that spanned the water and a tower you could climb to look out over the mangroves. It was not really high enough to see over them, but its still a very pretty place. We then took the boat back and got a stunning sunset over the sea on the way back into town. It was a really cool tour and highly recommended. We decided to sign up for the two day tour in the Cardamom Mountains. We got dinner at the French place with the American girl from the boat as well. They had some weird toilet signs with the man peeping over the top of the woman's cubicle. Quite funny, but clearly designed by a man.
We were up early again and joined our new trip mates. There were two Swiss people, a French woman and a Dutch guy. They were infinitely better companions than the trip before. We took a truck to the river and the French woman stopped to play with some parrots. Then we hiked to the waterfall. Its not really much of a jungle. If you haven't been in the jungle before then its a good transitional trip, but if you have you won't gain much. Cannelle was happy as she could test herself with the first time she was going to stay in the jungle. The trek was not very challenging and we saw a lot of mushrooms. We were never going to see any animals here as this trail is used every day and the animals will know it. You still need to go somewhere which sees human activity maybe once a week to see anything. There were a few leeches, but not many. The Dutch guy had a few little holes in his socks and the leeches bit him through them, but couldn't get through them. We arrived at the waterfall after 3 hours of slowish walking. If you like trekking this tour is not for you. Thank God we had a cooler group of companions so the company was really good and worth it. We arrived at the campsite and went for a swim in the waterfall. Then it started to rain and boy did it rain. It rained and rained. The afternoon was a washout, so we just hung around the campsite and chatted. The Dutch guy agreed with me that travellers in Latin America are much more interesting than those in Asia. Eventually the rain ceased, but now the leeches would be out in force. We had a barbecue in the middle of the jungle and went to sleep. There was a white spider on my bag that the guide did not know if it was poisonous or not. He flicked it off and we slept in military hammocks. I got a decent night's sleep, but some of the others struggled as it was their first time in hammocks and they did not know that you have to sleep diagonally to sleep ok in one.
In the morning we had breakfast and the Swiss guy was sick. Someone said he had drunk the water from the stream, but regardless he was vomiting everywhere and quite weak. They got him some wood drink that was a bit minging but did the trick and he led us back. He was vomiting a lot so it was slow going. The trip had effectively been destroyed by weather and illness, but we still had a good time. I don't think any of the extra hiking would have enabled us to see anything else more interesting. Its more the experience than the scenery here. There were loads of leeches on the way back and I was even bitten for the first time. I had somehow failed to tuck in a little bit of my trousers at the back and one of them had found me. Impressive. They can target weakness. Maybe Spurs should employ one to find weaknesses in opposing defences. David got a moto taxi back to town and we took a boat up the river to a waterfall. Its a nice river and the waterfall was ok, but I think I had started to zone out in Cambodia. I was just keen to leave the place as I wasn't feeling it. The main ATM was dead in town and the other one charged me a whopping $4 to access my money. Fuckers. We were going back to Thailand and the land of the visa charges as well. Lovely. We booked our bus for Siam Reap the next day and went for dinner with Peter for the last time so far. I was so bored with Cambodia and the 'highlights' had proven so disappointing that I said to Cannelle we should just do Angkor and go. I skipped Battambang (that Peter had said was ok) and Preah Vihear Vasat (which I think I would have liked but it was expensive to get there and I am not sure I would have loved it that much).
We got the bus early to Phnomh Penh. We ate, went online and then went to a French supermarket to pick up a picnic for the bus, as we had 3 hours in town waiting for our connection. We then took the bus to Siam Reap and I finally finished Black Book. Its a good book, but its nowhere near the level of My Name is Red. When we arrived in Siam Reap we went to leave the bus terminal and realised that they had locked us in. What the fuck. They had literally locked the tourists in so that we had to negotiate with tuk tuk drivers. Bastards. I searched for the lock and pushed the gate open. Noone challenged me. Possibly because they are all tiny here. I broke out of their cage and went walking. That let in a flood of cheaper tuk tuk drivers and I have no idea what happened after we left, but I imagine a West Side story fight between the insiders and outsiders. We decided to walk into town. Some tuk tuk drivers told us it was 8km and then offered us a ride for $1. If they offered $1 I knew it could not be far. It was about 2km. We got hassled mercilessly by tuk tuk drivers. They would not take no for an answer, so we were forced to be rude in the end. My God they are dicks here. Some of them are super rude. We decided to check into the first cheap hotel and find a place with bikes in the morning. They wanted $15 for an aircon room, even after we had specified the $8 fan room. Arseholes. So we made them give us a receipt to prevent any problems and it was only when we did that they confirmed they had given us the wrong key. Cheeky. I want out of this country. The woman even said 'shit' when I asked for a receipt. I have been continuing my policy of paying in advance to avoid any problems.
In the morning we went looking for a hotel and then didn't do much. We found a bus to Poipet for $3.75 with capital travel. Don't bother with the stupid $10 ticket to Bangkok, as they drop you off at the border and you are picked up by another bus anyway, so you may as well go independently. We had lunch in a cheap Japanese place. We walked the 3km to the ticket office of Angkor, only to be informed that you can't buy tickets in advance. Shit. What a waste of time. So we went back and I did a lot of writing. We had problems getting a bicycle as I am too tall, but we eventually found one that was ok. We took it around 9pm for 24 hours. The tuk tuk drivers were super annoying. They were asking about 500 questions after you say no. Fuck me. We watched Wild Things and went to sleep as we would be up early the next day.
We took the bikes at 5am and set off for Angkor. We picked up the tickets on the way and the queue moves quickly so it took about 10 minutes. We were going to do the whole place in a day. We got to Angkor Wat and waited for the sunrise. Lots of people, but not as many as I was expecting. A little tip. When the light breaks, go and visit the temple. We went round all of Angkor while people waited for the sun to appear and then got the same photo as them on the way out. Angkor is nice, but overrated as I don't think its the nicest of the temples. We decided to cycle out to the West Baray which was a mistake and a super waste of time. We ended up going around 8km, meeting some local kid who seemed to only be bombarding us with phrases he had learnt. He said he had to stop his studies because he had no money, yet he couldn't say what his studies were. He said he wanted to realise his dreams, but he didn't know what his dreams were. It seemed like a way just to get some money from tourists. Bit shitty really. We cycled into the sandy area and realised we weren't going to find the lake so we went back. Next up was Angkor Thom. The gate is really pretty and we were well and truly with the stream of package tourists swarming around the ruins. We went up Bayon, which is nice but was full of busloads of tourists. Took away from the atmosphere. We went around and visited all the rest of the sites here, with Cannelle being denied entry to one because her shorts weren't long enough. Be careful to dress appropriately though this was the only temple where they said anything. We decided to get lunch. A girl showed us an expensive menu. We said it was expensive so she gave us a $1.50 discount off every dish. That easy. The food was super shit though. We paid half price for everything in Angkor as they were willing to drop to supermarket prices instantly. If they ask for $1 just offer 2000 Reals and so on etc. Very easy. They just want to fleece the rich tourists. The food was really shit by the way. Just take a packed lunch. We saw some pretty temples such as Thommamom (possibly the prettiest) and some others like Ta Keo as we did the grand circuit. We went to Ta Prohm which is the famed jungle temple. Its really atmospheric and very pretty with the trees cutting through the rock. Cannelle was tired now and we had a fight as I thought she was abandoning me to go back, but she cycled back. I decided that I was going to complete the loop. Damn internet cut out so I have to write this part again. I went to all the temples on the Grand Circuit, including Preah Khan. You get pretty tired and templed out by the end, but I could have made it to Banteay Srei as well and would have done if I hadn't wasted my time going to the West Maray. I was finished around 3.15pm so its quite comfortable. There seemed to be a few other people who took bikes and completed Angkor in one day. I would recommend it unless you are a serious temple buff. The best were the main ones and I really liked Thommamom as well. It was a nice and pretty day. Not amazing. Not even our highlight of Cambodia, but still worth the trip. Tikal is still my favourite ruin and probably always will be. I can say Koh Kong was probably our highlight of Cambodia. I came back and we went and grabbed some pizza and ice cream before I watched Spurs draw 0-0 with QPR. That game was effectively a microcosm of Cambodia. It had a few moments, but mainly it was quite dull and lacked much to keep your attention.
The next morning we took the bus to the border and had to wait almost 3 hours to get across. We chatted with a Polish couple and a Quebecois guy. Once we crossed the border I had problems with the ATM so Cannelle drew with her card. We got a tuk tuk for 50 baht (they wanted 80) to the train station as we didn't have much time to get the 1.55pm train. It cost 96 baht for two in third class to Bangkok. So instead of paying $10 and being herded like cattle, we paid only $6.25 all included and had a much more pleasant ride in by train. We were back to Thailand. Thank God. Cambodia was nice, but there is almost nothing to do and so it is by far my least favourite of the countries in South East Asia so far.
We arrived at 8am and the tour was full of couples. Couple who had no intention of socialising and had clearly come out here in the hope that they could get some island paradise just for themselves. We took the boat and a few of the guys saw dolphins. Albeit from a distance. I saw nothing and was quite skeptical that anyone saw anything. It could even have been the sun rolling off the waves. We did see a flying fish though. It shot out from under the boat and skimmed along the surface of the sea. Really cool. We arrived at the island after around 2.5 hours and got onto the pristine beach. It is very pretty here. We decided to go snorkelling, but of course they didn't have any flippers large enough for me. They have some semi coral over near one end of the beach and I saw some lion fish, groupers etc and a huge cuttlefish. At first I thought it was a moving rock and then I realised it was a cuttlefish. It scared me a bit as it looked mean. Some of the others saw two cuttlefish mating and Peter said he saw it as well, but that it looked really mean. We floated over the reefs and it was the first time I enjoyed snorkelling. It made me excited for scuba diving again, which I still prefer. Cannelle cut her toes quite badly on some of the rocks and so we left the sea early. She had also got a burn from an internet cafe and the sea water was stinging her. The boat crew got her some antiseptic and plasters and so we decided to wander over to the lagoon. Its really pretty and quite peaceful so we just chilled out there. Chilling out seems to be the Cambodian pastime. They cooked us a barracuda dinner for the beach and we ate that with a huge plate of shrimps. People still weren't really chatting with each other. I was clandestinely feeding one of the dogs around, who seemed to like the fish more than the shrimp. We chilled out on the beach some more and then we left for the boat ride back. On the way back we went to visit the mangroves, which were my real reason for coming on this tour. We arrived and they sent us on a walkway through the mangrove forest. I had been in one before, but it was most people's first time. It was still really cool. We walked through peacefully and saw a kingfisher. They have a few viewing platforms and when you get to the other end they have a lot of picnic platforms as well. It seems a lot of Cambodians come here for picnics. They had a bridge that spanned the water and a tower you could climb to look out over the mangroves. It was not really high enough to see over them, but its still a very pretty place. We then took the boat back and got a stunning sunset over the sea on the way back into town. It was a really cool tour and highly recommended. We decided to sign up for the two day tour in the Cardamom Mountains. We got dinner at the French place with the American girl from the boat as well. They had some weird toilet signs with the man peeping over the top of the woman's cubicle. Quite funny, but clearly designed by a man.
We were up early again and joined our new trip mates. There were two Swiss people, a French woman and a Dutch guy. They were infinitely better companions than the trip before. We took a truck to the river and the French woman stopped to play with some parrots. Then we hiked to the waterfall. Its not really much of a jungle. If you haven't been in the jungle before then its a good transitional trip, but if you have you won't gain much. Cannelle was happy as she could test herself with the first time she was going to stay in the jungle. The trek was not very challenging and we saw a lot of mushrooms. We were never going to see any animals here as this trail is used every day and the animals will know it. You still need to go somewhere which sees human activity maybe once a week to see anything. There were a few leeches, but not many. The Dutch guy had a few little holes in his socks and the leeches bit him through them, but couldn't get through them. We arrived at the waterfall after 3 hours of slowish walking. If you like trekking this tour is not for you. Thank God we had a cooler group of companions so the company was really good and worth it. We arrived at the campsite and went for a swim in the waterfall. Then it started to rain and boy did it rain. It rained and rained. The afternoon was a washout, so we just hung around the campsite and chatted. The Dutch guy agreed with me that travellers in Latin America are much more interesting than those in Asia. Eventually the rain ceased, but now the leeches would be out in force. We had a barbecue in the middle of the jungle and went to sleep. There was a white spider on my bag that the guide did not know if it was poisonous or not. He flicked it off and we slept in military hammocks. I got a decent night's sleep, but some of the others struggled as it was their first time in hammocks and they did not know that you have to sleep diagonally to sleep ok in one.
In the morning we had breakfast and the Swiss guy was sick. Someone said he had drunk the water from the stream, but regardless he was vomiting everywhere and quite weak. They got him some wood drink that was a bit minging but did the trick and he led us back. He was vomiting a lot so it was slow going. The trip had effectively been destroyed by weather and illness, but we still had a good time. I don't think any of the extra hiking would have enabled us to see anything else more interesting. Its more the experience than the scenery here. There were loads of leeches on the way back and I was even bitten for the first time. I had somehow failed to tuck in a little bit of my trousers at the back and one of them had found me. Impressive. They can target weakness. Maybe Spurs should employ one to find weaknesses in opposing defences. David got a moto taxi back to town and we took a boat up the river to a waterfall. Its a nice river and the waterfall was ok, but I think I had started to zone out in Cambodia. I was just keen to leave the place as I wasn't feeling it. The main ATM was dead in town and the other one charged me a whopping $4 to access my money. Fuckers. We were going back to Thailand and the land of the visa charges as well. Lovely. We booked our bus for Siam Reap the next day and went for dinner with Peter for the last time so far. I was so bored with Cambodia and the 'highlights' had proven so disappointing that I said to Cannelle we should just do Angkor and go. I skipped Battambang (that Peter had said was ok) and Preah Vihear Vasat (which I think I would have liked but it was expensive to get there and I am not sure I would have loved it that much).
We got the bus early to Phnomh Penh. We ate, went online and then went to a French supermarket to pick up a picnic for the bus, as we had 3 hours in town waiting for our connection. We then took the bus to Siam Reap and I finally finished Black Book. Its a good book, but its nowhere near the level of My Name is Red. When we arrived in Siam Reap we went to leave the bus terminal and realised that they had locked us in. What the fuck. They had literally locked the tourists in so that we had to negotiate with tuk tuk drivers. Bastards. I searched for the lock and pushed the gate open. Noone challenged me. Possibly because they are all tiny here. I broke out of their cage and went walking. That let in a flood of cheaper tuk tuk drivers and I have no idea what happened after we left, but I imagine a West Side story fight between the insiders and outsiders. We decided to walk into town. Some tuk tuk drivers told us it was 8km and then offered us a ride for $1. If they offered $1 I knew it could not be far. It was about 2km. We got hassled mercilessly by tuk tuk drivers. They would not take no for an answer, so we were forced to be rude in the end. My God they are dicks here. Some of them are super rude. We decided to check into the first cheap hotel and find a place with bikes in the morning. They wanted $15 for an aircon room, even after we had specified the $8 fan room. Arseholes. So we made them give us a receipt to prevent any problems and it was only when we did that they confirmed they had given us the wrong key. Cheeky. I want out of this country. The woman even said 'shit' when I asked for a receipt. I have been continuing my policy of paying in advance to avoid any problems.
In the morning we went looking for a hotel and then didn't do much. We found a bus to Poipet for $3.75 with capital travel. Don't bother with the stupid $10 ticket to Bangkok, as they drop you off at the border and you are picked up by another bus anyway, so you may as well go independently. We had lunch in a cheap Japanese place. We walked the 3km to the ticket office of Angkor, only to be informed that you can't buy tickets in advance. Shit. What a waste of time. So we went back and I did a lot of writing. We had problems getting a bicycle as I am too tall, but we eventually found one that was ok. We took it around 9pm for 24 hours. The tuk tuk drivers were super annoying. They were asking about 500 questions after you say no. Fuck me. We watched Wild Things and went to sleep as we would be up early the next day.
We took the bikes at 5am and set off for Angkor. We picked up the tickets on the way and the queue moves quickly so it took about 10 minutes. We were going to do the whole place in a day. We got to Angkor Wat and waited for the sunrise. Lots of people, but not as many as I was expecting. A little tip. When the light breaks, go and visit the temple. We went round all of Angkor while people waited for the sun to appear and then got the same photo as them on the way out. Angkor is nice, but overrated as I don't think its the nicest of the temples. We decided to cycle out to the West Baray which was a mistake and a super waste of time. We ended up going around 8km, meeting some local kid who seemed to only be bombarding us with phrases he had learnt. He said he had to stop his studies because he had no money, yet he couldn't say what his studies were. He said he wanted to realise his dreams, but he didn't know what his dreams were. It seemed like a way just to get some money from tourists. Bit shitty really. We cycled into the sandy area and realised we weren't going to find the lake so we went back. Next up was Angkor Thom. The gate is really pretty and we were well and truly with the stream of package tourists swarming around the ruins. We went up Bayon, which is nice but was full of busloads of tourists. Took away from the atmosphere. We went around and visited all the rest of the sites here, with Cannelle being denied entry to one because her shorts weren't long enough. Be careful to dress appropriately though this was the only temple where they said anything. We decided to get lunch. A girl showed us an expensive menu. We said it was expensive so she gave us a $1.50 discount off every dish. That easy. The food was super shit though. We paid half price for everything in Angkor as they were willing to drop to supermarket prices instantly. If they ask for $1 just offer 2000 Reals and so on etc. Very easy. They just want to fleece the rich tourists. The food was really shit by the way. Just take a packed lunch. We saw some pretty temples such as Thommamom (possibly the prettiest) and some others like Ta Keo as we did the grand circuit. We went to Ta Prohm which is the famed jungle temple. Its really atmospheric and very pretty with the trees cutting through the rock. Cannelle was tired now and we had a fight as I thought she was abandoning me to go back, but she cycled back. I decided that I was going to complete the loop. Damn internet cut out so I have to write this part again. I went to all the temples on the Grand Circuit, including Preah Khan. You get pretty tired and templed out by the end, but I could have made it to Banteay Srei as well and would have done if I hadn't wasted my time going to the West Maray. I was finished around 3.15pm so its quite comfortable. There seemed to be a few other people who took bikes and completed Angkor in one day. I would recommend it unless you are a serious temple buff. The best were the main ones and I really liked Thommamom as well. It was a nice and pretty day. Not amazing. Not even our highlight of Cambodia, but still worth the trip. Tikal is still my favourite ruin and probably always will be. I can say Koh Kong was probably our highlight of Cambodia. I came back and we went and grabbed some pizza and ice cream before I watched Spurs draw 0-0 with QPR. That game was effectively a microcosm of Cambodia. It had a few moments, but mainly it was quite dull and lacked much to keep your attention.
The next morning we took the bus to the border and had to wait almost 3 hours to get across. We chatted with a Polish couple and a Quebecois guy. Once we crossed the border I had problems with the ATM so Cannelle drew with her card. We got a tuk tuk for 50 baht (they wanted 80) to the train station as we didn't have much time to get the 1.55pm train. It cost 96 baht for two in third class to Bangkok. So instead of paying $10 and being herded like cattle, we paid only $6.25 all included and had a much more pleasant ride in by train. We were back to Thailand. Thank God. Cambodia was nice, but there is almost nothing to do and so it is by far my least favourite of the countries in South East Asia so far.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Cambodia Part 1 (Sihanoukville, Kampot, Kep and Phnomh Penh)
We took the bus early to cross the border. We arrived and were treated like cattle at the border. Ah how I missed being treated like a cow. Back to the tourist route. We arrived in Phnomh Penh eventually and were dropped in the middle of nowhere. We were yet to realise that Cambodia doesn't actually have any bus stations. All the buses to Sihanoukville were full. Shit. Cannelle was super pissed at me, because we should have booked. We had a bit of a fight and then went looking for other buses. We headed to the market place and got a bus to Sihanoukville for $7.50. We ended up paying just a little bit more and we were off after grabbing a Lucky Burger. I had to get money, but I didn't understand why all the cash machines were only issuing US dollars. I wanted local currency. They told me that I could draw dollars and then change them. I had a quick flick through the guidebook and realised that US dollars were effectively the only currency in Cambodia, with the local currency being basically the coins. I guess noone has any money and this was the only way to make a profit. Cannelle was feeling homesick and we weren't initially feeling Cambodia very much. A Scottish guy said he had booked the last place online in Siahnoukville, so Cannelle was panicking that we would not find anywhere. I tried to reassure her that Cambodia is a poor country and not all accommodation would be online. Besides Peter may have reserved us something. We arrived in town very late and weren't sure exactly where we were. Some tuk tuk drivers called us disrespectful because we did not want to use them. We hit the main road as we had been smart enough to look out of the window on the way. Using the map we worked out where we were and we were halfway between the beach and the town centre. Some tourists are so stupid they just arrive blind and grab a tuk tuk. We asked one guesthouse and they wanted $30 for a fan room. Fuck that. It was new year, but that's ridiculous. We found an internet cafe and they let us check for free. Peter had reserved us a room and paid in advance for $15 by the beach, so we walked down and checked in. It was probably the cheapest room in all of Sihanoukville for that night. He had gone searching all around the town for us and found a really cheap guy. He really is a nice guy. We owe him one for that. He also gave us a guidebook for the temples at Angkor. Our hotel was supposed to charge us $20 for the next night, but ended up charging us $15 again. They must think we look like gypos. They charged the other $25. We met Peter and went out for a meal. Laura and Jessica had arrived as well, but they ended up spending a lot more than we did.
The next day was new years eve. We met Peter for breakfast and walked around to Victory Beach. The town is pretty uninspiring and the Kao San Road of Cambodia as Peter calls the beach area is pretty shitty. Overall its not too impressive. Victory Beach is nicer though as its mainly full of Russians and families. We got some food and drink and went for a swim in the sea. Laura and Marti joined us there and the five of us went to Airport Bar. We played some pool and found out that Jessica was seemingly with a Malaysian guy now. It was a relaxing place, but the accommodation was mentally expensive for New Year. We walked back and booked our bus to Kampot. It seemed like there was not a lot to do in Cambodia and it was a huge contrast from Vietnam. We met everyone for dinner and went to a really nice French restaurant. There were fireworks at the beach and everyone was lighting lanterns and releasing them over the sea. We went to a few dance clubs, but not everyone was keen on dancing. There seemed a lot of people fucked up on drugs as there were a lot of zombie tourists dancing or shuffling around. At midnight they launched loads of fireworks and a French girl was going round kissing everyone for new year. We left the beach around 1am and Marti and Peter got cigars to smoke. We sat in a cafe as it was our last night together. It was a nice new year.
We got an English breakfast with Peter in the morning. They took ages to make it. They took even longer with the coffee. Then they dropped it. Ah its like Laos again. We took the bus to Kampot and got a $3 room over the bar. It was shitty but cheap. They even gave us two free beers. Not sure how they make any profit off a $3 room with 2 free beers, but nevermind. We went to have a look round the town. One hour later, having seen the bridge, prison and some houses, we realised there is nothing to do here. Its very peaceful though. Then again so is all of Cambodia. There really isn't anything to do. I did lots of writing and spoke to my uncle, dad and mum. My Granny was in hospital and they thought she wasn't going to make it, though she recovered the next day. Its tough when you are away from home. We went to a wooden 'Italian' restaurant for dinner. It was a bit shit, but I had the Kampot pepper sauce for the first time. I listened to the first half of the game and then had to leave. Turned out we won 3-1.
We took an early bus to Kep next. Its a quiet place as well. We got a $7 room and it seems like noone lives there. Apparently there are 30,000 locals, but I assume they live in holes as I didn't see anyone. It just seems like a resort town. We decided to go to Kep National Park. You have to look for stuff to do with your days here. I was already getting very bored with Cambodia. its all very nice, but meh. At least the locals are nice. We went to Led Zep cafe and got a route guide and a cheddar sandwich (the cheese was not cheddar). We decided to walk around the perimeter of the park that has some ok views, but nothing special. You can see Kampot from the distance. We hiked up to sunset rock. Its nice. Cannelle liked Kep more than me. I was suffering from Nicaragua disease. Look up my old blog to see it, but you can just read = boring country, with nice but mediocre scenery, nice people, fuck all to do and everyone loves it because its cheap and you can live like a king. There was no internet in town. Shame as I could have written here. We walked round to the crab shacks, saw a lot of monkeys, which was cool. We relaxed in some hammocks. Fuck it. This is not my style of travel. I am not cut out for lounging around doing nothing. We had an exceptional dinner in the place LP recommends. I had crab with the chilli/coconut sauce and Cannelle had the fish with kampot pepper. Excellent. We went to sleep early.
The next day we met two Americans at the bus stop and chatted about teaching English. Then we got a bus to Phnomh Penh. 'Would you like a tuk tuk?' became the phrase we would hear every 2 minutes. It got very annoying, very fast. We went for a walk around the city. It has some pretty parts, but its mostly just uninspiring and boring. We went to Tuol Sleng Prison Museum. Its ok, but they could do a better job with the presentation. It was still good as a basic intro to the Khmer Rouge rule. We met Jessica and her Malaysian man for dinner. The street food is much more expensive than Vietnam. Then we watched Les Miserables, which I liked, but apart from Anne Hathaway it lacks the passion of the stage version. Cannelle was stressed for my birthday the next day.
She had booked us into a hotel with a private swimming pool. It was a nice day. We got a picnic of stuff from home and went to the grassy area near the palace. Then we checked in and finally got to have sex in our own swimming pool. Highly recommended. We lounged around the hotel all afternoon and just took it easy (not that Cambodia is taxing). We went to China House for dinner and had excellent Latin American tapas in an old Chinese house. It was a very nice birthday and we had an excellent time.
The next morning was darkened by the news that my Granny had passed away. It is always difficult to deal with when you are travelling as you can't be there for your relatives and it seems very surreal. Her funeral is tomorrow and it is still a little upsetting. Peter had come to town and we were going to see the Killing Fields that day. Well I now had the perfect mood of sombreness to visit. We eventually rented some bikes for $1.5 for the half day. they told us it would take 90 minutes to get there, but it took us around 40 minutes. I doubt its 18km like they say. I reckon its around 12 or 14km maximum. Some tuk tuk drivers were insulting us and some even wanted to offer us tuk tuks when we were cycling. Seriously... I doubt they even engage their brain before they use their mouths. The Killing Fields were really interesting and after a week in Cambodia it was the first thing that I really thought was worth visiting and was informative. The audio tour is really in depth and amazingly well put together. We sadly missed the free video. Its a must see and there aren't many of them in Cambodia. I read about the French Embassy who had handed over all the locals to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Bravery that wasn't. They should have been ashamed as I doubt the Khmer Rouge would have attacked the Embassy if pushed. Babou had met a guy in Amsterdam and luckily it wasn't Cyril again. Good for her. Maybe she will get back to herself. We went to watch Jack Reacher at the cinema, which was surprisingly really good and much better than we were expecting. Spurs won 3-0 in the FA Cup against Coventry. We were going good. Cambodia so far was unbelievably underwhelming. Not sure why so many people love it. Nicaragua disease, which is also applicable to Bolivia. Oh well. We were off to Koh Kong in the morning and we still had Angkor, so I was hopeful.
The next day was new years eve. We met Peter for breakfast and walked around to Victory Beach. The town is pretty uninspiring and the Kao San Road of Cambodia as Peter calls the beach area is pretty shitty. Overall its not too impressive. Victory Beach is nicer though as its mainly full of Russians and families. We got some food and drink and went for a swim in the sea. Laura and Marti joined us there and the five of us went to Airport Bar. We played some pool and found out that Jessica was seemingly with a Malaysian guy now. It was a relaxing place, but the accommodation was mentally expensive for New Year. We walked back and booked our bus to Kampot. It seemed like there was not a lot to do in Cambodia and it was a huge contrast from Vietnam. We met everyone for dinner and went to a really nice French restaurant. There were fireworks at the beach and everyone was lighting lanterns and releasing them over the sea. We went to a few dance clubs, but not everyone was keen on dancing. There seemed a lot of people fucked up on drugs as there were a lot of zombie tourists dancing or shuffling around. At midnight they launched loads of fireworks and a French girl was going round kissing everyone for new year. We left the beach around 1am and Marti and Peter got cigars to smoke. We sat in a cafe as it was our last night together. It was a nice new year.
We got an English breakfast with Peter in the morning. They took ages to make it. They took even longer with the coffee. Then they dropped it. Ah its like Laos again. We took the bus to Kampot and got a $3 room over the bar. It was shitty but cheap. They even gave us two free beers. Not sure how they make any profit off a $3 room with 2 free beers, but nevermind. We went to have a look round the town. One hour later, having seen the bridge, prison and some houses, we realised there is nothing to do here. Its very peaceful though. Then again so is all of Cambodia. There really isn't anything to do. I did lots of writing and spoke to my uncle, dad and mum. My Granny was in hospital and they thought she wasn't going to make it, though she recovered the next day. Its tough when you are away from home. We went to a wooden 'Italian' restaurant for dinner. It was a bit shit, but I had the Kampot pepper sauce for the first time. I listened to the first half of the game and then had to leave. Turned out we won 3-1.
We took an early bus to Kep next. Its a quiet place as well. We got a $7 room and it seems like noone lives there. Apparently there are 30,000 locals, but I assume they live in holes as I didn't see anyone. It just seems like a resort town. We decided to go to Kep National Park. You have to look for stuff to do with your days here. I was already getting very bored with Cambodia. its all very nice, but meh. At least the locals are nice. We went to Led Zep cafe and got a route guide and a cheddar sandwich (the cheese was not cheddar). We decided to walk around the perimeter of the park that has some ok views, but nothing special. You can see Kampot from the distance. We hiked up to sunset rock. Its nice. Cannelle liked Kep more than me. I was suffering from Nicaragua disease. Look up my old blog to see it, but you can just read = boring country, with nice but mediocre scenery, nice people, fuck all to do and everyone loves it because its cheap and you can live like a king. There was no internet in town. Shame as I could have written here. We walked round to the crab shacks, saw a lot of monkeys, which was cool. We relaxed in some hammocks. Fuck it. This is not my style of travel. I am not cut out for lounging around doing nothing. We had an exceptional dinner in the place LP recommends. I had crab with the chilli/coconut sauce and Cannelle had the fish with kampot pepper. Excellent. We went to sleep early.
The next day we met two Americans at the bus stop and chatted about teaching English. Then we got a bus to Phnomh Penh. 'Would you like a tuk tuk?' became the phrase we would hear every 2 minutes. It got very annoying, very fast. We went for a walk around the city. It has some pretty parts, but its mostly just uninspiring and boring. We went to Tuol Sleng Prison Museum. Its ok, but they could do a better job with the presentation. It was still good as a basic intro to the Khmer Rouge rule. We met Jessica and her Malaysian man for dinner. The street food is much more expensive than Vietnam. Then we watched Les Miserables, which I liked, but apart from Anne Hathaway it lacks the passion of the stage version. Cannelle was stressed for my birthday the next day.
She had booked us into a hotel with a private swimming pool. It was a nice day. We got a picnic of stuff from home and went to the grassy area near the palace. Then we checked in and finally got to have sex in our own swimming pool. Highly recommended. We lounged around the hotel all afternoon and just took it easy (not that Cambodia is taxing). We went to China House for dinner and had excellent Latin American tapas in an old Chinese house. It was a very nice birthday and we had an excellent time.
The next morning was darkened by the news that my Granny had passed away. It is always difficult to deal with when you are travelling as you can't be there for your relatives and it seems very surreal. Her funeral is tomorrow and it is still a little upsetting. Peter had come to town and we were going to see the Killing Fields that day. Well I now had the perfect mood of sombreness to visit. We eventually rented some bikes for $1.5 for the half day. they told us it would take 90 minutes to get there, but it took us around 40 minutes. I doubt its 18km like they say. I reckon its around 12 or 14km maximum. Some tuk tuk drivers were insulting us and some even wanted to offer us tuk tuks when we were cycling. Seriously... I doubt they even engage their brain before they use their mouths. The Killing Fields were really interesting and after a week in Cambodia it was the first thing that I really thought was worth visiting and was informative. The audio tour is really in depth and amazingly well put together. We sadly missed the free video. Its a must see and there aren't many of them in Cambodia. I read about the French Embassy who had handed over all the locals to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Bravery that wasn't. They should have been ashamed as I doubt the Khmer Rouge would have attacked the Embassy if pushed. Babou had met a guy in Amsterdam and luckily it wasn't Cyril again. Good for her. Maybe she will get back to herself. We went to watch Jack Reacher at the cinema, which was surprisingly really good and much better than we were expecting. Spurs won 3-0 in the FA Cup against Coventry. We were going good. Cambodia so far was unbelievably underwhelming. Not sure why so many people love it. Nicaragua disease, which is also applicable to Bolivia. Oh well. We were off to Koh Kong in the morning and we still had Angkor, so I was hopeful.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Vietnam Part 8 (Dalat and Ho Chi Minh City)
We took the shitty tourist bus again to Dalat. Luckily it was the last time we had to take one. I broke my arse on the way as the bus was super uncomfortable. We again passed through some very pretty scenery. The thing I love about travelling in Vietnam is that the scenery is constantly changing all the time. We went up a very nice mountain pass and after the bus drove round the houses (I only realised when we took a bike ourrselves) we arrived in Dalat. Twice before we got there I thought we had arrived and thought the town was nice but not what I was expecting. Luckily when we arrived properly it was exactly what I was expecting and was a cool little mountain town. You could feel like you were in Andorra. It looked like it would be a good place to spend Christmas. On the bus Cannelle was hit on by a Dutch guy as I was sitting at the back and it made me laugh listening to his lame attempts. They dropped us at a hotel where the bus always drops people so that they can monopolise guests. The woman said a price and then raised it afterwards so we decided to look elsewhere. We eventually got a very cheap place and grabbed some vegetarian food. There we met a Dutch couple who reinforced that everyone thinks people in Laos are amazing and people in Vietnam are shit. We can't be the only people to think the reverse surely. Our cheap hotel kept trying to sell us a tour and the Easy Riders will jump you everywhere you go here. Other than that its a nice town.
The next day we grabbed breakfast at a cool bakery and set off for the palace. On the way we came across the Crazy House. Damn LP. They have it marked in the other direction on their map. It was pure chance that we found it. So if you head here, go in the direction of Bao Dai Palace and keep an eye out on your right for the crazy house. It does have a Gaudi esque feel, though it is also much more plastic in its layout. Guess who we met in the house again. Yep the Spanish guy. Five times on one trip. We finally got a photo together this time. The house is really cool. Its fun to wander around and try to visit as many nooks and crannies as you can. After we headed to Bao Dai Palace. Its not expensive, but it really is shit. What a waste of a walk. The cheap entry fees are an advantage here though as you never feel too bad if the thing you go to see turns out to be super shit. We visited the church and were still searching for a restaurant for christmas. Most of them were too expensive or insisted in serving turkey (traditional I know, but I don't like it much). We went to the bus station and got an excellent noodle soup just before we got there. The buses to Ho Chi Minh City were very expensive, so we would have to take a night bus. We wanted to visit Cat Tien National Park from Dalat and all the things along the road before coming back and heading to Ho Chi Minh City. I wanted to find the train station, but the taxi driver was being a dick and not telling us unless we took his taxi. They really aren't as nice in the South. We went down to the lake and took a walk around until we came to the flower garden. Its a nice place and well worth a visit. New Orleans were finally eliminated. It had been coming. Shit season for us. We found a restaurant for Christmas and met my friend Laura, who I hadn't seen since we were in Panama together. She was there with her boyfriend. We had a really nice meal at a restaurant by the lake. They put the music on a little high though. Cannelle was able to ask her about travelling with Tom and how it was to raft down the Amazon. Here is where you can see the real contrast between a normal experienced traveller and Zoltan. While Zoltan would have tried to make out that it was superhuman and only he not some mere mortals could make it, Laura was super modest and passed it off as nothing. Cannelle said it was difficult to get her to admit that it was even remotely challenging. Breath of fresh air and that's how travellers usually are. It was really good to catch up after so long and it was a really nice meal.
The next day we met up to climb the nearby mountain. Laura was a little sick and the three girls decided they would go by bus. Marti (Laura's boyfriend) and I went looking for bikes. Being the city of love for Vietnamese people, we could only find tandem bikes. Not quite what we were looking for. So we figured we would take the bus as well. UIt was very cheap. 12,000 one way I think. Everyone takes jeeps to the top, but we decided to walk. You hike up through the pines and it is quite pretty. Not amazing and not worth going out of your way, but if you have a spare day why not. You get some nice views of the lake from the top. We met a Dutch carpenter and four of us decided to hike to the top of the other mountain for some exercise and also for the view. Cannelle and Jessica went back to Dalat. We had a good chat and a good laugh and chilled out at the top for about half an hour before the clouds rolled in and we headed back. We went looking for motorbikes for 3 days to go and visit Cat Tien. Problems. Lots of problems. When we wanted the bikes for more than a day, the prices either doubled or we were told that we could not have the bikes. I think you would have better luck from Ho Chi Minh City, but I think here they want to protect the Easy Riders. They told us that it was a security issue that they couldn't give us bikes. I said they had our passports. They said that we might have two and could steal the bike. I pointed out that if that was true (unlikely) we could easily do that if we had them for only one day. Checkmate. Still they did not budge. If we took a 'guide' with us for $70 a day we could have the bikes. Fuckers. Oh well. We would just take the bikes for one day and blitz the road as far as we could. That'll teach them. It meant that we were unlikely to go to Cat Tien though. We had told Peter that we would not make Sihanoukville for New Year. That all changed now as it was much more likely we would make it. Jessica had met a couple of French guys in our hotel and they wanted to join us for dinner and the next day. First impressions were not good. I thought they seemed like dicks. One asked if there was any reason why we were speaking English. Cannelle and Jessica pointed out that they wanted to keep their English up and that we would not speak French together (unless they could not understand something, when we used it). While we were eating one of the French guys was late in receiving his beer so he asked the waitress 'are you brewing my beer?'. I couldn't believe he said that. It was so rude. I think he meant it as a joke, but in English it did not come across well. Cannelle said that it doesn't work in French either. The other French guy was telling us how he had made a lot of money through fruit picking in Canada. I thought that maybe we could try it in Australia then, but he said you didn't earn much for the first few months while you became an expert in it. Oh well. We did not have that many months to fuck about, so it would have to wait. The meal was nice in the Art Cafe and we agreed to meet at the bus station the next day with our bikes.
We got up early and took the four bikes. We were going to try to do as much of highway 20 as we could. We went to the bus station and waited for Laura, but she didn't make it. We gave it half an hour and then decided to set off without her. We started off by heading to the pagoda and lake about 5km out of town on highway 20. Its a very peaceful place just on the right and we spent about 20 minutes walking around. One of the French guys was suffering from flu and the wind from the bike was too much for him so he had to abandon the day. The other guy left his camera on his bike and when we came back two guys were sitting on our bikes. He couldn't see his camera and then one of the guys handed it to him. I am not sure if they were protecting the camera or stealing it. It split opinion. You can really see the cynics and the optimists in this situation. Oh well. At least he had it now. In the car park Jessica fell off her bike in slow motion as well. She just started to fall, couldn't hold the weight and ended up on the floor. We set off on the road again and the first stop was Pongour Falls. I had google imaged it the day before and I figured someone had tagged it wrong as that could not be the waterfall. If it was, why wasn't it in any guidebooks. We arrived and through the trees you could just see a trickle. Ah I was right. You can walk across the top of the waterfall, jumping from rock to rock and you can see where the water drops off, but we couldn't find the way down at first. Eventually we did and wow, just wow. It is that waterfall. This is one of the best waterfalls we had seen on our trip and it is mentioned nowhere. You really have to check this place out. Its only about 42km from Dalat. I think the nearby dam may have robbed it of some of its power, but it is still a really impressive waterfall to see. Its in a canyon and cascades down over rock terraces as if its a rice terrace of water. I can't do it justice. Just go. The setting is super picturesque with a lagoon off to the right that is ripe for swimming. The path down has a cool tree that has crushed the barrier and cut off the path. You get the feeling that this was a top tourist attraction that has now been neglected. All the better, as you can have the place to yourself. The French guy fell into the water on one of the little terraces and then lost his motorbike keys. Fuck sake. Luckily for him he had left it on the bike again and the car park guards had found it and kept it for him. After we set off again on route for Dambri Falls. The day was already a great one. We stopped in the town near the waterfall that's 120km from Dalat and had an amazing lunch. Really, really good. If you are riding highway 1 look for the turning to the left to go to a lake (you will see the signs) and the place we ate is just round the corner on the left hand side. Really nice. Great people as well. We asked for directions to Dambri and got directed bit by bit to the road to the waterfall. I think the locals sent us the quickest way, but it was not the easiest as we didn't know the area. I am sure there must be a sign off highway 1 so hold out for that. Its another 18km off highway 1, but the road is really beautiful, cruising round lanes and past coffee and tea plantations. Both of the roads off the highway are really nice and the road itself is also really cool. We eventually arrived at the waterfall and bumped into Laura. They had been trying to catch us after having problems with their bike and had actually arrived before us. We went round the lake and down to the waterfall. Its really pretty, though its not as cool as Pongour. Its worth the drive, though it makes it a long trip. While we were down at the waterfall a local guy came and just started talking to us. His friend said he was crazy and he just kept talking even though we didn't speak Vietnamese. I laughed at the French guys facial expressions and choked on my coke. Which made all the locals laugh as I was dying. We spent some time at the waterfall and then went on the little toboggan ride they have here. Its very cool as you control your speed. You brake when you feel like it. This adds to the excitement but also the danger. How far can you push it? There are places that tell you to brake but are they advisory or compulsory. I broke most times, but started to let it ride. There were some guys standing on the sharpest bend so maybe that was to catch people. I let it slide a bit, but it got a bit scary so I broke again. Fun ride though. Push it as far as you dare. There is a shitty little waterfall on the other side and we had gone for the ride 2 ways. The French guy got on and they didn't fasten his seatbelt. I heard him shouting no as the guy pushed him off. I fought to get mine on. Shit that was dangerous. Or so we thought. It turns out that the ride back is not a real ride and that you are just towed round the track to where you started from. Oh well. If you are not too lazy then just take the one way and walk back. After we had to head back. 140km in one guy. Cool lol. We would end up riding nearly 300km in one day which is a new record. We hammered their bikes because they did not rent them for more than one day. Jessica's bike was burning petrol as it had the same engine cut off problems that our bike had had in Hue. In the town a woman pulled out in front of us. Bitch. I slowed down and kept looking for the turning when she just stopped. Bitch. I couldn't hold the weight from braking and the bike fell on my knee. It was ok, but I was bruised again and again we had another incident with a motorbike. I was not having any luck with bikes and I think my knees were always taking a beating. Other than that it was an uneventful ride back, but everyone was uncomfortable in the dark. We had the most amazing sunset with pink and purple skies. Stunning. I was getting distracted by the beautiful scenery in my rear view mirror so we stopped for some photos. As the sun came down, the insects came as well. I think I have never been so blinded or eaten as many insects as I did on that ride. Lovely. We got the bikes back around 8pm or so and had dinner with Laura before heading to the bus station. This time from Dalat we took a local night bus and unlike the monkey circus that is with the tourist buses, we had assigned seats, everything was civilised and we even swapped seats with some locals so we could get the longer seats at the back.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City really early and went for a coffee in a local cafe while we waited for places to open. We found a really cheap hotel. The people were really pushy though and wanted Jessica to take a room as well. We had no hot water but it was cheap. Cannelle hated it and had a little bit of a tantrum, but sorted it out. Jessica got a dorm next door. We ended up staying there for the three days. We had thought about visiting Cao Dai and the Melong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City, but we decided that we might just stay in the city and enjoy it for a few days instead. We went to the Cambodia Embassy first to get our visa. It is a small building and the embassy staff were lounging round a pool outside. Hmm. I don't get the impression Cambodia will be a stressy country. Again they didn't give a shit that we didn't have a photo. It seems totally irrelevant. They said come back the same day and we paid $22. We went to the Jade Temple which was ok and saw the huge pool full of far too many turtles. Then we went to the history museum, which is in a really nice building and because it is so cheap its nice to visit as well, but nothing special. We were getting the impression that Ho Chi Minh City was not really about the sites. We bumped into Ronny and Stanny outside and as they saw us first they would have to pay for dinner, but we had forgotten about that. In the afternoon I pissed the others off so I went off on a Burger King hunt. I had seen signs near the very impressive Notre Dame copy of a cathedral and I wanted to find it. I eventually did and then went to meet the girls at the poolside Embassy to pick up the passports. The downtown is super rich and this looked like a city where we could live. Super modern. We managed to avoid the shitty backpacker area for the time we were here as well. We watched some music performances in the square, involving some traditional dance, girls spinning flames while on bikes and various other cabaret style performances. There were even some people doing dance gym sessions and a photo exhibition which was very Parisian in style. Looked like a city with a good cultural scene, which we need to live in. We went to find a Mekong Tour, but all the recommended agencies were super expensive. Also the tours looked very meh. They reminded us of Inle Lake and it didn't look like you see anything really special down there. Lots of factory tours. We decided not to go. We found one company who told us not to go for the floating market in one day as we would arrive too late to see the market, which is very true as it had been very early at Inle Lake. I trusted this guy so Jessica booked a one day tour for Sunday. We also decided to book our bus tickets to Cambodia. Jessica booked all the way to Sihanoukville, but I got us tickets just to Phnomh Penh as I didn't trust the connection would work. You'll see how good my decision was there later. Spurs won 4-0 against Aston Villa and we were on our way up the table. We were too tired to do anything in the evening.
In the morning we grabbed breakfast overlooking the road. I did some writing, while Cannelle went for a haircut that included a long massage. It ran a little long and we didn't really have enough time to go to the water park that we had wanted to go to, so we decided to go to the art gallery. Its really cool. Better than the one in Hanoi, which we had also liked. We went for dinner with Stanny and Ronny and it was really nice. We found an English place and I had cereal and cheese on toast. Missing all the things from home. They paid for us, which was really nice and then we went to see the Hobbit. Good film, but not as good as Lord of the Rings. Kimberly was in Cambodia as well and we may be a lot for new year, though she never actually replied to me, so we didn't meet up.
It was raining in the morning and it was our last day in Vietnam. We decided to take the bus to district 7 and see the rich district in the south. We walked around the crescent which is really nice. Lots of weddings down there with the photographer getting them to do stupid poses. So glad we didn't have a photographer for our wedding. Its really nice down there, but super lifeless. In the future, if it gets some character, it may be a good place to live. We went to pizza hut for lunch and bought the Malaysia book, which was a gamble, but it was cheap and we could start planning. We decided that if we needed too much time in Indonesia then we would drop either the Philippines or Papua New Guinea and do them next trip. That would depend on Tom. If he is coming we will drop Philippines if we need to. If not then it will be Papua New Guinea, but we will see how we go and we will start the next trip with the missed one. We went and watched the Vietnamese film Cold Summer. It was an odd film. The style is different to the west but it was worth watching, especially seeing the clearly cultural stereotype of Cambodians that had the audience laughing. Ah prejudice. Alive and well. We were really enjoying the city though. I could live here. More than Bangkok maybe. Jessica had been to the Mekong Delta. She said it was ok, but nothing special. We figured. No loss there then. Spurs won 2-1 against Sunderland to continue our run and we decided to head out clubbing in Apocalypse Now for the last night. They always hassle you with 'would you like a beer?' which is annoying and still most people stand around, but at least some people dance in Vietnam. More than in the others. There were some fat Aussie guys who kept trying to hit on Jessica and it seems like everyone was just hitting on her. Does not seem like many people go clubbing in Vietnam just to dance. Oh well. The DJ was not as good as for Bangkok, but we still had a fun time. Nice way to sign off. The next day we would take the bus to Phnomh Penh and we were off to Cambodia. We were really sad to leave Vietnam behind. A great country and the only one we would definitely go back to. Yesterday while crossing the border I realised why I prefer travellers in Latin America to Asia. Not just that they are younger, less experienced and less interesting here. Its also a matter of vibe. It seems like with the exception of people who want to see everywhere, most travellers travel in the region that most identifies with their personality. Well Asian travellers tend to be quieter, more hippy, like personal space and be less expressive and slower, more peaceful. Like Asia. Not my style. Latin American travellers tend to be very energetic, full of life, love dancing, love socialising and like tactile people. Much more my kind of people. Funny that. I still love Latin America much more than I do Asia, but Vietnam is the closest in terms of being a place I like. Much more energy, more in your face and more interesting. Then again they are the antithesis of what the introverted Asian travellers like.
The next day we grabbed breakfast at a cool bakery and set off for the palace. On the way we came across the Crazy House. Damn LP. They have it marked in the other direction on their map. It was pure chance that we found it. So if you head here, go in the direction of Bao Dai Palace and keep an eye out on your right for the crazy house. It does have a Gaudi esque feel, though it is also much more plastic in its layout. Guess who we met in the house again. Yep the Spanish guy. Five times on one trip. We finally got a photo together this time. The house is really cool. Its fun to wander around and try to visit as many nooks and crannies as you can. After we headed to Bao Dai Palace. Its not expensive, but it really is shit. What a waste of a walk. The cheap entry fees are an advantage here though as you never feel too bad if the thing you go to see turns out to be super shit. We visited the church and were still searching for a restaurant for christmas. Most of them were too expensive or insisted in serving turkey (traditional I know, but I don't like it much). We went to the bus station and got an excellent noodle soup just before we got there. The buses to Ho Chi Minh City were very expensive, so we would have to take a night bus. We wanted to visit Cat Tien National Park from Dalat and all the things along the road before coming back and heading to Ho Chi Minh City. I wanted to find the train station, but the taxi driver was being a dick and not telling us unless we took his taxi. They really aren't as nice in the South. We went down to the lake and took a walk around until we came to the flower garden. Its a nice place and well worth a visit. New Orleans were finally eliminated. It had been coming. Shit season for us. We found a restaurant for Christmas and met my friend Laura, who I hadn't seen since we were in Panama together. She was there with her boyfriend. We had a really nice meal at a restaurant by the lake. They put the music on a little high though. Cannelle was able to ask her about travelling with Tom and how it was to raft down the Amazon. Here is where you can see the real contrast between a normal experienced traveller and Zoltan. While Zoltan would have tried to make out that it was superhuman and only he not some mere mortals could make it, Laura was super modest and passed it off as nothing. Cannelle said it was difficult to get her to admit that it was even remotely challenging. Breath of fresh air and that's how travellers usually are. It was really good to catch up after so long and it was a really nice meal.
The next day we met up to climb the nearby mountain. Laura was a little sick and the three girls decided they would go by bus. Marti (Laura's boyfriend) and I went looking for bikes. Being the city of love for Vietnamese people, we could only find tandem bikes. Not quite what we were looking for. So we figured we would take the bus as well. UIt was very cheap. 12,000 one way I think. Everyone takes jeeps to the top, but we decided to walk. You hike up through the pines and it is quite pretty. Not amazing and not worth going out of your way, but if you have a spare day why not. You get some nice views of the lake from the top. We met a Dutch carpenter and four of us decided to hike to the top of the other mountain for some exercise and also for the view. Cannelle and Jessica went back to Dalat. We had a good chat and a good laugh and chilled out at the top for about half an hour before the clouds rolled in and we headed back. We went looking for motorbikes for 3 days to go and visit Cat Tien. Problems. Lots of problems. When we wanted the bikes for more than a day, the prices either doubled or we were told that we could not have the bikes. I think you would have better luck from Ho Chi Minh City, but I think here they want to protect the Easy Riders. They told us that it was a security issue that they couldn't give us bikes. I said they had our passports. They said that we might have two and could steal the bike. I pointed out that if that was true (unlikely) we could easily do that if we had them for only one day. Checkmate. Still they did not budge. If we took a 'guide' with us for $70 a day we could have the bikes. Fuckers. Oh well. We would just take the bikes for one day and blitz the road as far as we could. That'll teach them. It meant that we were unlikely to go to Cat Tien though. We had told Peter that we would not make Sihanoukville for New Year. That all changed now as it was much more likely we would make it. Jessica had met a couple of French guys in our hotel and they wanted to join us for dinner and the next day. First impressions were not good. I thought they seemed like dicks. One asked if there was any reason why we were speaking English. Cannelle and Jessica pointed out that they wanted to keep their English up and that we would not speak French together (unless they could not understand something, when we used it). While we were eating one of the French guys was late in receiving his beer so he asked the waitress 'are you brewing my beer?'. I couldn't believe he said that. It was so rude. I think he meant it as a joke, but in English it did not come across well. Cannelle said that it doesn't work in French either. The other French guy was telling us how he had made a lot of money through fruit picking in Canada. I thought that maybe we could try it in Australia then, but he said you didn't earn much for the first few months while you became an expert in it. Oh well. We did not have that many months to fuck about, so it would have to wait. The meal was nice in the Art Cafe and we agreed to meet at the bus station the next day with our bikes.
We got up early and took the four bikes. We were going to try to do as much of highway 20 as we could. We went to the bus station and waited for Laura, but she didn't make it. We gave it half an hour and then decided to set off without her. We started off by heading to the pagoda and lake about 5km out of town on highway 20. Its a very peaceful place just on the right and we spent about 20 minutes walking around. One of the French guys was suffering from flu and the wind from the bike was too much for him so he had to abandon the day. The other guy left his camera on his bike and when we came back two guys were sitting on our bikes. He couldn't see his camera and then one of the guys handed it to him. I am not sure if they were protecting the camera or stealing it. It split opinion. You can really see the cynics and the optimists in this situation. Oh well. At least he had it now. In the car park Jessica fell off her bike in slow motion as well. She just started to fall, couldn't hold the weight and ended up on the floor. We set off on the road again and the first stop was Pongour Falls. I had google imaged it the day before and I figured someone had tagged it wrong as that could not be the waterfall. If it was, why wasn't it in any guidebooks. We arrived and through the trees you could just see a trickle. Ah I was right. You can walk across the top of the waterfall, jumping from rock to rock and you can see where the water drops off, but we couldn't find the way down at first. Eventually we did and wow, just wow. It is that waterfall. This is one of the best waterfalls we had seen on our trip and it is mentioned nowhere. You really have to check this place out. Its only about 42km from Dalat. I think the nearby dam may have robbed it of some of its power, but it is still a really impressive waterfall to see. Its in a canyon and cascades down over rock terraces as if its a rice terrace of water. I can't do it justice. Just go. The setting is super picturesque with a lagoon off to the right that is ripe for swimming. The path down has a cool tree that has crushed the barrier and cut off the path. You get the feeling that this was a top tourist attraction that has now been neglected. All the better, as you can have the place to yourself. The French guy fell into the water on one of the little terraces and then lost his motorbike keys. Fuck sake. Luckily for him he had left it on the bike again and the car park guards had found it and kept it for him. After we set off again on route for Dambri Falls. The day was already a great one. We stopped in the town near the waterfall that's 120km from Dalat and had an amazing lunch. Really, really good. If you are riding highway 1 look for the turning to the left to go to a lake (you will see the signs) and the place we ate is just round the corner on the left hand side. Really nice. Great people as well. We asked for directions to Dambri and got directed bit by bit to the road to the waterfall. I think the locals sent us the quickest way, but it was not the easiest as we didn't know the area. I am sure there must be a sign off highway 1 so hold out for that. Its another 18km off highway 1, but the road is really beautiful, cruising round lanes and past coffee and tea plantations. Both of the roads off the highway are really nice and the road itself is also really cool. We eventually arrived at the waterfall and bumped into Laura. They had been trying to catch us after having problems with their bike and had actually arrived before us. We went round the lake and down to the waterfall. Its really pretty, though its not as cool as Pongour. Its worth the drive, though it makes it a long trip. While we were down at the waterfall a local guy came and just started talking to us. His friend said he was crazy and he just kept talking even though we didn't speak Vietnamese. I laughed at the French guys facial expressions and choked on my coke. Which made all the locals laugh as I was dying. We spent some time at the waterfall and then went on the little toboggan ride they have here. Its very cool as you control your speed. You brake when you feel like it. This adds to the excitement but also the danger. How far can you push it? There are places that tell you to brake but are they advisory or compulsory. I broke most times, but started to let it ride. There were some guys standing on the sharpest bend so maybe that was to catch people. I let it slide a bit, but it got a bit scary so I broke again. Fun ride though. Push it as far as you dare. There is a shitty little waterfall on the other side and we had gone for the ride 2 ways. The French guy got on and they didn't fasten his seatbelt. I heard him shouting no as the guy pushed him off. I fought to get mine on. Shit that was dangerous. Or so we thought. It turns out that the ride back is not a real ride and that you are just towed round the track to where you started from. Oh well. If you are not too lazy then just take the one way and walk back. After we had to head back. 140km in one guy. Cool lol. We would end up riding nearly 300km in one day which is a new record. We hammered their bikes because they did not rent them for more than one day. Jessica's bike was burning petrol as it had the same engine cut off problems that our bike had had in Hue. In the town a woman pulled out in front of us. Bitch. I slowed down and kept looking for the turning when she just stopped. Bitch. I couldn't hold the weight from braking and the bike fell on my knee. It was ok, but I was bruised again and again we had another incident with a motorbike. I was not having any luck with bikes and I think my knees were always taking a beating. Other than that it was an uneventful ride back, but everyone was uncomfortable in the dark. We had the most amazing sunset with pink and purple skies. Stunning. I was getting distracted by the beautiful scenery in my rear view mirror so we stopped for some photos. As the sun came down, the insects came as well. I think I have never been so blinded or eaten as many insects as I did on that ride. Lovely. We got the bikes back around 8pm or so and had dinner with Laura before heading to the bus station. This time from Dalat we took a local night bus and unlike the monkey circus that is with the tourist buses, we had assigned seats, everything was civilised and we even swapped seats with some locals so we could get the longer seats at the back.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City really early and went for a coffee in a local cafe while we waited for places to open. We found a really cheap hotel. The people were really pushy though and wanted Jessica to take a room as well. We had no hot water but it was cheap. Cannelle hated it and had a little bit of a tantrum, but sorted it out. Jessica got a dorm next door. We ended up staying there for the three days. We had thought about visiting Cao Dai and the Melong Delta from Ho Chi Minh City, but we decided that we might just stay in the city and enjoy it for a few days instead. We went to the Cambodia Embassy first to get our visa. It is a small building and the embassy staff were lounging round a pool outside. Hmm. I don't get the impression Cambodia will be a stressy country. Again they didn't give a shit that we didn't have a photo. It seems totally irrelevant. They said come back the same day and we paid $22. We went to the Jade Temple which was ok and saw the huge pool full of far too many turtles. Then we went to the history museum, which is in a really nice building and because it is so cheap its nice to visit as well, but nothing special. We were getting the impression that Ho Chi Minh City was not really about the sites. We bumped into Ronny and Stanny outside and as they saw us first they would have to pay for dinner, but we had forgotten about that. In the afternoon I pissed the others off so I went off on a Burger King hunt. I had seen signs near the very impressive Notre Dame copy of a cathedral and I wanted to find it. I eventually did and then went to meet the girls at the poolside Embassy to pick up the passports. The downtown is super rich and this looked like a city where we could live. Super modern. We managed to avoid the shitty backpacker area for the time we were here as well. We watched some music performances in the square, involving some traditional dance, girls spinning flames while on bikes and various other cabaret style performances. There were even some people doing dance gym sessions and a photo exhibition which was very Parisian in style. Looked like a city with a good cultural scene, which we need to live in. We went to find a Mekong Tour, but all the recommended agencies were super expensive. Also the tours looked very meh. They reminded us of Inle Lake and it didn't look like you see anything really special down there. Lots of factory tours. We decided not to go. We found one company who told us not to go for the floating market in one day as we would arrive too late to see the market, which is very true as it had been very early at Inle Lake. I trusted this guy so Jessica booked a one day tour for Sunday. We also decided to book our bus tickets to Cambodia. Jessica booked all the way to Sihanoukville, but I got us tickets just to Phnomh Penh as I didn't trust the connection would work. You'll see how good my decision was there later. Spurs won 4-0 against Aston Villa and we were on our way up the table. We were too tired to do anything in the evening.
In the morning we grabbed breakfast overlooking the road. I did some writing, while Cannelle went for a haircut that included a long massage. It ran a little long and we didn't really have enough time to go to the water park that we had wanted to go to, so we decided to go to the art gallery. Its really cool. Better than the one in Hanoi, which we had also liked. We went for dinner with Stanny and Ronny and it was really nice. We found an English place and I had cereal and cheese on toast. Missing all the things from home. They paid for us, which was really nice and then we went to see the Hobbit. Good film, but not as good as Lord of the Rings. Kimberly was in Cambodia as well and we may be a lot for new year, though she never actually replied to me, so we didn't meet up.
It was raining in the morning and it was our last day in Vietnam. We decided to take the bus to district 7 and see the rich district in the south. We walked around the crescent which is really nice. Lots of weddings down there with the photographer getting them to do stupid poses. So glad we didn't have a photographer for our wedding. Its really nice down there, but super lifeless. In the future, if it gets some character, it may be a good place to live. We went to pizza hut for lunch and bought the Malaysia book, which was a gamble, but it was cheap and we could start planning. We decided that if we needed too much time in Indonesia then we would drop either the Philippines or Papua New Guinea and do them next trip. That would depend on Tom. If he is coming we will drop Philippines if we need to. If not then it will be Papua New Guinea, but we will see how we go and we will start the next trip with the missed one. We went and watched the Vietnamese film Cold Summer. It was an odd film. The style is different to the west but it was worth watching, especially seeing the clearly cultural stereotype of Cambodians that had the audience laughing. Ah prejudice. Alive and well. We were really enjoying the city though. I could live here. More than Bangkok maybe. Jessica had been to the Mekong Delta. She said it was ok, but nothing special. We figured. No loss there then. Spurs won 2-1 against Sunderland to continue our run and we decided to head out clubbing in Apocalypse Now for the last night. They always hassle you with 'would you like a beer?' which is annoying and still most people stand around, but at least some people dance in Vietnam. More than in the others. There were some fat Aussie guys who kept trying to hit on Jessica and it seems like everyone was just hitting on her. Does not seem like many people go clubbing in Vietnam just to dance. Oh well. The DJ was not as good as for Bangkok, but we still had a fun time. Nice way to sign off. The next day we would take the bus to Phnomh Penh and we were off to Cambodia. We were really sad to leave Vietnam behind. A great country and the only one we would definitely go back to. Yesterday while crossing the border I realised why I prefer travellers in Latin America to Asia. Not just that they are younger, less experienced and less interesting here. Its also a matter of vibe. It seems like with the exception of people who want to see everywhere, most travellers travel in the region that most identifies with their personality. Well Asian travellers tend to be quieter, more hippy, like personal space and be less expressive and slower, more peaceful. Like Asia. Not my style. Latin American travellers tend to be very energetic, full of life, love dancing, love socialising and like tactile people. Much more my kind of people. Funny that. I still love Latin America much more than I do Asia, but Vietnam is the closest in terms of being a place I like. Much more energy, more in your face and more interesting. Then again they are the antithesis of what the introverted Asian travellers like.
Vietnam Part 7 (Danang, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Mui Ne)
We were up early and went to get the train to Danang. Its a really pretty ride, even if you are locked behind chicken wire in the hard seat carriage. If you want a clear view for photos then I would recommend taking the soft seats for once as the price difference is not amazing, but if you just want to see it then the hard seats are fine. Its a different view from down below, but is also very beautiful. You can't see the sweeping vistas, but you can see a little more of the island as the train passes in a wider arc. We arrived and checked in and immediately got the sense that we made the right decision to stay in Hue rather than here. I don't think you really need to stay in Danang and certainly not for more than one night. We got accosted by some Easy Riders who wanted to take us to Hoi An. We said I didn't like riding shotgun etc, but they said they could take us for the same price as the bus. I said for 20,000? and they laughed, saying that it was now 80,000. Of course it is. I had had friends who had told me that Danang was not a friendly place and I would have to say that it was the least pleasant of the cities we stayed in. It was where we first started to notice that the people were not as friendly in the South of Vietnam as they were in the North. We did spend more time in touristy places in the South as we were running out of time, but I would say that I preferred Northerners on the whole. We walked down to the Cham museum past the nice cathedral. I went in, but Cannelle didn't have any interest. If you have an interest in Cham culture and are heading to My Son then I really recommend that you visit this museum. You could always see Marble Mountain and the museum from Hoi An if you don't fancy staying in town. They have a large proportion of the temple statues here as they have removed a lot of them. The statues are quite cool. Meanwhile Cannelle was having a chat with an old Dutch guy outside. He was on a cruise. They got almost no time in places and he was complaining. What did he expect from a cruise exactly. He said they had gone to Ho Chi Ming City and asked a taxi driver to take them everywhere worth seeing in 2 hours and he didn't know where to go. Hmm of course. Then here in Danang he had done the same and the taxi driver had brought him to the museum, but he didn't like museums. Then why did he come here? So he was just waiting for another taxi. Sounds like its a thrilling trip. Cannelle asked him what he liked and he said shopping malls but he couldn't find any good ones here. For fuck sake. Why do people like him even travel. Could he not find any shopping malls in Holland. Cannelle wasn't feeling too well, but we decided to walk towards the marble mountains and grab a bus when it came past. Only they wanted 30,000 just to go to the mountain which is 10km on the way to Hoi An (a route that is only 20,000 in total). Fuckers. I had read they routinely overcharged tourists, but that was taking the piss. It was enough for Cannelle and she decided to go back. I carried on and settled in for the 10km walk. On the way I was accosted by a guy whose stuff had fallen off him motorbike. I helped him steady himself and then put the stuff back for him. He was happy and shook my hand. Then a little further I noticed some locals struggling with some boxes on top of a trolley and they were too short to correct it, so I fixed that for them as well. Nothing like a few odd jobs to pass the time on the way to the mountain. The marble mountains looked very unspectacular from a distance. Shit. What a waste of a long walk. When I got close they asked me to come to visit the temple, but I decided to walk around the bases of the mountains first for some photos while I weighed up whether to go in or not. I had noticed some locals coming out of an entrance not far before the turn off and it looked like it went in. Why not try it. For those who want to get in for free just look out on the left for a little path from the main road that enters just after the first mountain on the left but before the left hand road. If you get to the turnoff you have missed it. I crossed past a little pond to some Gaudi esque temple sculptures. You must come this way to see them. Then I climbed up the mountain and entered some pagodas. There I met a guy and asked him how the rest of the place was laid out. Cool I got in for free. I visited the caves and climbed up to the two vantage points. Don't miss any of them. You can climb up one through the cave, but you can equally take the stairs up for an easier time. From the top you have very impressive views over all the land around Danang. I got chatting with some locals. one claimed to be from the States, but understood nothing when we chatted lol. Was fun. Its also really cool to realize that you are walking on marble. Hmm the blog is autocorrecting me into American English now. Interesting. Its well worth the trip, even coming from Hoi An and trust me its much better than it looks when you climb up. I walked back and was quite tired as the sun came down. I was offered a free ride back by a local woman, but I said it was ok. I met up with Cannelle and Jessica, before going to see Life of Pi, which is a really impressive film.
We lay in the following morning and watched Hemmingway and Gellhorn on tv, which we liked even if it has been panned on imdb. Then we went to get the bus to Hoi An. We knew with two days we would have more time than we needed so we could relax. They wanted 40,000 for the bus. I said 20. They went to 30. I insisted on 20,000 and that's what we paid. Don't pay anything more than that, whatever they say. Then the guy hid everybody elses transactions on the bus as he knew I was watching him and I can't say for certain, but I am 90% sure the real price is 15,000 and 100% certain its less than 20,000 as I saw people get change. You can try sticking to your guns for 15,000 and see how it goes. I quite often find LP pays more than they should, so I guess they have some really pussy negotiators. Arsenal are being destroyed by Man City at the moment, so its amusing me. We arrived in Hoi An and were offered a moto taxi for the '4km' into town. We knew it was 1km and walked round the corner to see a road km marker saying 1km. Nice try guys. We went to find a hotel and bumped into the Spanish guy from all those other times once again. 4 times in one trip now. We headed to the old town and they had raised the price for a ticket. Shitty. So we decided to get one and split it, so we could visit five places between us. Its probably best as none of the sites are that great and the city itself is worth walking around. Everyone loves the place, but I think its nice but overrated. Seeing the untouched houses up in Ha Giang was more impressive for me and I hate the colour yellow, which doesn't help when every building is yellow. Its nice, but not amazing. Both Jessica and Cannelle liked the place more than me though. We went to the Assembly Hall Fujian (nice), the Tran Family Chapel (shitty), Cantonese Assembly Hall (nice), Tan Ky House (ok but crowded) and the Chaozhou Assembly Hall (nice). None of them was jaw dropping and one house and one assembly hall is probably ok and then use the fifth for whichever one of you is not yet bored. Five places for one person will kill you with repetition. Seriously find someone and split the ticket if you bother at all. Zoltan had disappeared at this point as he had to leave Vietnam, so Jessica was back travelling on her own, but we often met for dinner. The whole town is just a tourist playground as well and feels like it is a bit of a toy town. Like Prague only worse. I was very sick in the stomach all the time here, so I didn't even get to sample the famed local cuisine. Shame. Jessica met us for dinner and told us how she had met an Easy Rider who took her from Danang to Hoi An, including waiting at Marble Mountain for only 20,000 and then they had lunch together. I can only assume he fancied her, but she got a good deal.
The next day we were up late as we only had My Son to visit. I was sick so Cannelle went and bought some croissants to have in bed. We got a motorbike for 100,000 and set off for My Son. Really you could do My Son and Hoi An in one day comfortably and I would recommend it. No more than a day and a half anyway, but we were waiting for our bus to Nha Trang. We kept our record of overtaking and being overtaken by the locals. it got ridiculous when for around 20km us, a dude on a bike and a truck just kept nip and tucking each other. I was having a lot of fun on the bikes by now. We got to the ruins in 90 minutes or so and promptly broke down. Fuck sake. Its 100,000 now and quite expensive for what it is. We rang the woman and she said she would come and get us. Yet another bike problem. I am cursed. We decided to visit the ruins while we waited. They are nice if unspectacular. I am not sure they are worth a special visit unless you really like ruins. If you are indifferent at best then stay away. Cannelle liked the location. If the price goes up too much more then it definitely won't be worth it. When we came back out a girl wandered round (the place you pay is about 2km from the ruins) and asked us where the ruins were. We told her they were where she had come from, but she said her guide had sent her this way, even though they had already visited the ruins. Weird and it made no sense. Oh well. Ten minutes after we finished the woman arrived and gave us her bike. Five minutes after we left she was back alongside us and said something had been knocked. We felt like morons. Oh well. We dovetailed behind her, almost getting flattened by a crazy taxi driver. By the way a 50,000 tank is enough to do the ruins and back from Hoi An so don't fill the tank. Vietnamese scooters will do around 160km on a full tank. Maybe a bit more. She took us the cool backcountry way back to Hoi An and was super smiley so it improved the journey massively. Then came our time to get the bus. Along came two moto taxis. Shit. We could ride them to the bus station. I don't do moto taxis and they hadn't told us, so the motorbike guy had to walk us to the bus station pushing his bike as I refused to ride it. Must have been shit for him but it was only 10 minutes. It was our first experience of tourist open buses. Fucking hell they are awful. No seat allocation, herded like cattle, no one gives a shit and everyone has to fight for a seat. So different to public transport. Fuck that. DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE GODFORESAKEN TICKETS UNLESS YOU REALLY HATE YOURSELF. The cheapness is not worth it. Jesus. There was no space and the sleeping seats are only ok if you are around 5 foot tall (1.52m). My feet stuck out of the compartment and there was no chance of sleep. I am 6 foot 3 (1.87m) and its hell on Earth. Ironically I was reading Black Book by Orhan Pamuk and the first chapter I opened to was entitled 'Can't you sleep'. Oh the irony. No not at all.
Following a bullshit bus ride and being attacked by the tuk tuk mafia (as they know where you will be with these buses) we checked into our hotel in Nha Trang. I think the guy wanted to charge us for the wrong night and not the right price, so I made him give me a receipt and put the date on it. Nothing like nipping a problem in the bud before it happens. We went to the cathedral and found out that both trains and buses were too expensive to Mui Ne and we would have to take the shit tourist buses again (its the only way in and out of Mui Ne realistically as they bullshit the prices here). I miss the North. Nha Trang is underwhelming unless you love beaches, in which case its ok. We went to some art galleries and chatted with one of the local artists. He told us about his photos and chatted away, but I think he was disappointed when he realized that we didn't want to buy anything. A little awkward. He said how he used to have to do shitty party photos to make money, but after being in LP he sells to foreigners and doesn't have to do bullshit jobs anymore. Good for him. The little Cham Towers in town are worth the trip and are probably prettier than My Son. We couldn't upload photos again. I hate facebook and couchsurfing for dicking around with their websites when they were perfectly fine. Spurs drew Lyon in the Europa League. That is going to be difficult. Grabbed dinner in Lotteria and turfed in early.
I have written 'I like it so much' in my diary. No fucking idea why. I need to stay more up to date with my blog. When I catch my tail I will stay ahead. They wanted to check the minibar when we left. Annoying, but we waited while they verified that we hadn't had any of their overpriced stuff. Good job I got that receipt on day one. I always pay in advance when I arrive, so they can't change prices on you or anything, because if they do you won't check in. Much more secure than when you leave. On the bus to Mui Ne we got a Victoria's Secrets models video. Cannelle and I chatted about how the models were so much better than the sticks you get on normal catwalks. The scenery in Mui Ne is really stunning and so is the route to get there. I am so glad we went there. I wanted to come back with the motorbike the following day and yes that lake you see on your way in is Lotus Lake and yes it is that pretty. There are a lot of Russians in Mui Ne, which meant that we got great Russian food for lunch. Blinis, borsht and everything you could want. Good stuff. We were the only non Russian speakers in the restaurant though. We walked out to the Fairy Spring for the afternoon. They told us we needed a guide, that the water was too deep or you can't find the waterfall. All total bullshit. We just took off our shoes and waded down the creek. This is a very, very beautiful place. Don't miss it and don't take a shitty tour either. It needs to be savoured. Who needs a guide to follow a stream. Just follow the water. Its hardly rocket science. The colours are exceptional. Pink, white, orange and a full spectrum in between. Wow. I was impressed. Part way you can climb up on the left to get a view over the creek. You have to climb the dune for that. Amazing stuff. You can follow it to what looks like the end, but carry on and you will eventually get to the waterfall. Its not that amazing, but its the end of the trail. It is not that deep either, unless you are 0.5m high. Then you may get waist height at some points :-) We rented a motorbike for the next day, but they told us the police were super corrupt round here and often stopped foreigners, so we decided to park the bikes and walk to the mini golf for the evening. Its a really pretty little course that is atmospheric in the evening. We had fun playing even if I whacked my head on the same bunch of bananas about 4 times. Cannelle ended up winning when Jessica and I both took the maximum 10 shots on one hole and Cannelle got a hole in one. Its not possible to come back from that. She was happy as it was the first time she had won. We walked along the beach and saw a skinned crocodile. They grabbed some waffles. Apparently there was a spider. Not sure where, why or how. Spurs drew 0-0 with Stoke. Shame.
We left early to see the sun rise over the dunes. We got to the red dunes and everyone was there. Anticlimactic. The dunes were still really cool, though they are really orange. They only get that red look around sunset. There were loads of kids trying to sell stuff to slide down the dunes on. We couldn't find the canyon. I am not sure it even exists. We found something that looked like a canyon, but it doesn't look the photos in town. If anyone finds this canyon can you tell me where it is. The road that winds itself along the coast is very beautiful. We had a great time just cruising along and checking out the scenery. Its a nice area. We found the white dunes and then the lotus lake which we reached along a shitty bumpy road. Its very peaceful and picturesque out here. If you want some beach time come here and not Nha Trang. Nha Trang is an average beach town, Mui Ne is a stunning dune location, with the beautiful Fairy Spring, that happens to also have great beaches. I know which one I would choose. Hand down. We dropped off the bikes and it was time to head to Dalat.
We lay in the following morning and watched Hemmingway and Gellhorn on tv, which we liked even if it has been panned on imdb. Then we went to get the bus to Hoi An. We knew with two days we would have more time than we needed so we could relax. They wanted 40,000 for the bus. I said 20. They went to 30. I insisted on 20,000 and that's what we paid. Don't pay anything more than that, whatever they say. Then the guy hid everybody elses transactions on the bus as he knew I was watching him and I can't say for certain, but I am 90% sure the real price is 15,000 and 100% certain its less than 20,000 as I saw people get change. You can try sticking to your guns for 15,000 and see how it goes. I quite often find LP pays more than they should, so I guess they have some really pussy negotiators. Arsenal are being destroyed by Man City at the moment, so its amusing me. We arrived in Hoi An and were offered a moto taxi for the '4km' into town. We knew it was 1km and walked round the corner to see a road km marker saying 1km. Nice try guys. We went to find a hotel and bumped into the Spanish guy from all those other times once again. 4 times in one trip now. We headed to the old town and they had raised the price for a ticket. Shitty. So we decided to get one and split it, so we could visit five places between us. Its probably best as none of the sites are that great and the city itself is worth walking around. Everyone loves the place, but I think its nice but overrated. Seeing the untouched houses up in Ha Giang was more impressive for me and I hate the colour yellow, which doesn't help when every building is yellow. Its nice, but not amazing. Both Jessica and Cannelle liked the place more than me though. We went to the Assembly Hall Fujian (nice), the Tran Family Chapel (shitty), Cantonese Assembly Hall (nice), Tan Ky House (ok but crowded) and the Chaozhou Assembly Hall (nice). None of them was jaw dropping and one house and one assembly hall is probably ok and then use the fifth for whichever one of you is not yet bored. Five places for one person will kill you with repetition. Seriously find someone and split the ticket if you bother at all. Zoltan had disappeared at this point as he had to leave Vietnam, so Jessica was back travelling on her own, but we often met for dinner. The whole town is just a tourist playground as well and feels like it is a bit of a toy town. Like Prague only worse. I was very sick in the stomach all the time here, so I didn't even get to sample the famed local cuisine. Shame. Jessica met us for dinner and told us how she had met an Easy Rider who took her from Danang to Hoi An, including waiting at Marble Mountain for only 20,000 and then they had lunch together. I can only assume he fancied her, but she got a good deal.
The next day we were up late as we only had My Son to visit. I was sick so Cannelle went and bought some croissants to have in bed. We got a motorbike for 100,000 and set off for My Son. Really you could do My Son and Hoi An in one day comfortably and I would recommend it. No more than a day and a half anyway, but we were waiting for our bus to Nha Trang. We kept our record of overtaking and being overtaken by the locals. it got ridiculous when for around 20km us, a dude on a bike and a truck just kept nip and tucking each other. I was having a lot of fun on the bikes by now. We got to the ruins in 90 minutes or so and promptly broke down. Fuck sake. Its 100,000 now and quite expensive for what it is. We rang the woman and she said she would come and get us. Yet another bike problem. I am cursed. We decided to visit the ruins while we waited. They are nice if unspectacular. I am not sure they are worth a special visit unless you really like ruins. If you are indifferent at best then stay away. Cannelle liked the location. If the price goes up too much more then it definitely won't be worth it. When we came back out a girl wandered round (the place you pay is about 2km from the ruins) and asked us where the ruins were. We told her they were where she had come from, but she said her guide had sent her this way, even though they had already visited the ruins. Weird and it made no sense. Oh well. Ten minutes after we finished the woman arrived and gave us her bike. Five minutes after we left she was back alongside us and said something had been knocked. We felt like morons. Oh well. We dovetailed behind her, almost getting flattened by a crazy taxi driver. By the way a 50,000 tank is enough to do the ruins and back from Hoi An so don't fill the tank. Vietnamese scooters will do around 160km on a full tank. Maybe a bit more. She took us the cool backcountry way back to Hoi An and was super smiley so it improved the journey massively. Then came our time to get the bus. Along came two moto taxis. Shit. We could ride them to the bus station. I don't do moto taxis and they hadn't told us, so the motorbike guy had to walk us to the bus station pushing his bike as I refused to ride it. Must have been shit for him but it was only 10 minutes. It was our first experience of tourist open buses. Fucking hell they are awful. No seat allocation, herded like cattle, no one gives a shit and everyone has to fight for a seat. So different to public transport. Fuck that. DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE GODFORESAKEN TICKETS UNLESS YOU REALLY HATE YOURSELF. The cheapness is not worth it. Jesus. There was no space and the sleeping seats are only ok if you are around 5 foot tall (1.52m). My feet stuck out of the compartment and there was no chance of sleep. I am 6 foot 3 (1.87m) and its hell on Earth. Ironically I was reading Black Book by Orhan Pamuk and the first chapter I opened to was entitled 'Can't you sleep'. Oh the irony. No not at all.
Following a bullshit bus ride and being attacked by the tuk tuk mafia (as they know where you will be with these buses) we checked into our hotel in Nha Trang. I think the guy wanted to charge us for the wrong night and not the right price, so I made him give me a receipt and put the date on it. Nothing like nipping a problem in the bud before it happens. We went to the cathedral and found out that both trains and buses were too expensive to Mui Ne and we would have to take the shit tourist buses again (its the only way in and out of Mui Ne realistically as they bullshit the prices here). I miss the North. Nha Trang is underwhelming unless you love beaches, in which case its ok. We went to some art galleries and chatted with one of the local artists. He told us about his photos and chatted away, but I think he was disappointed when he realized that we didn't want to buy anything. A little awkward. He said how he used to have to do shitty party photos to make money, but after being in LP he sells to foreigners and doesn't have to do bullshit jobs anymore. Good for him. The little Cham Towers in town are worth the trip and are probably prettier than My Son. We couldn't upload photos again. I hate facebook and couchsurfing for dicking around with their websites when they were perfectly fine. Spurs drew Lyon in the Europa League. That is going to be difficult. Grabbed dinner in Lotteria and turfed in early.
I have written 'I like it so much' in my diary. No fucking idea why. I need to stay more up to date with my blog. When I catch my tail I will stay ahead. They wanted to check the minibar when we left. Annoying, but we waited while they verified that we hadn't had any of their overpriced stuff. Good job I got that receipt on day one. I always pay in advance when I arrive, so they can't change prices on you or anything, because if they do you won't check in. Much more secure than when you leave. On the bus to Mui Ne we got a Victoria's Secrets models video. Cannelle and I chatted about how the models were so much better than the sticks you get on normal catwalks. The scenery in Mui Ne is really stunning and so is the route to get there. I am so glad we went there. I wanted to come back with the motorbike the following day and yes that lake you see on your way in is Lotus Lake and yes it is that pretty. There are a lot of Russians in Mui Ne, which meant that we got great Russian food for lunch. Blinis, borsht and everything you could want. Good stuff. We were the only non Russian speakers in the restaurant though. We walked out to the Fairy Spring for the afternoon. They told us we needed a guide, that the water was too deep or you can't find the waterfall. All total bullshit. We just took off our shoes and waded down the creek. This is a very, very beautiful place. Don't miss it and don't take a shitty tour either. It needs to be savoured. Who needs a guide to follow a stream. Just follow the water. Its hardly rocket science. The colours are exceptional. Pink, white, orange and a full spectrum in between. Wow. I was impressed. Part way you can climb up on the left to get a view over the creek. You have to climb the dune for that. Amazing stuff. You can follow it to what looks like the end, but carry on and you will eventually get to the waterfall. Its not that amazing, but its the end of the trail. It is not that deep either, unless you are 0.5m high. Then you may get waist height at some points :-) We rented a motorbike for the next day, but they told us the police were super corrupt round here and often stopped foreigners, so we decided to park the bikes and walk to the mini golf for the evening. Its a really pretty little course that is atmospheric in the evening. We had fun playing even if I whacked my head on the same bunch of bananas about 4 times. Cannelle ended up winning when Jessica and I both took the maximum 10 shots on one hole and Cannelle got a hole in one. Its not possible to come back from that. She was happy as it was the first time she had won. We walked along the beach and saw a skinned crocodile. They grabbed some waffles. Apparently there was a spider. Not sure where, why or how. Spurs drew 0-0 with Stoke. Shame.
We left early to see the sun rise over the dunes. We got to the red dunes and everyone was there. Anticlimactic. The dunes were still really cool, though they are really orange. They only get that red look around sunset. There were loads of kids trying to sell stuff to slide down the dunes on. We couldn't find the canyon. I am not sure it even exists. We found something that looked like a canyon, but it doesn't look the photos in town. If anyone finds this canyon can you tell me where it is. The road that winds itself along the coast is very beautiful. We had a great time just cruising along and checking out the scenery. Its a nice area. We found the white dunes and then the lotus lake which we reached along a shitty bumpy road. Its very peaceful and picturesque out here. If you want some beach time come here and not Nha Trang. Nha Trang is an average beach town, Mui Ne is a stunning dune location, with the beautiful Fairy Spring, that happens to also have great beaches. I know which one I would choose. Hand down. We dropped off the bikes and it was time to head to Dalat.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Vietnam Part 6 (Dong Hoi, Paradise Cave, Hue and Hai Van Pass)
We arrived in the morning, dodged the tuk tuk men and walked into town. Its only around 4km. We found a hotel in the centre and it turned out that everyone who comes to Dong Hoi seemingly stays there. We even bumped into Jessica and Zoltan, but it was fleeting as they were leaving when we arrived. We figured we would run into them in Hue. We took another motorbike and set off for Paradise Cave. This time we would be riding down the famous Ho Chi Minh highway. Its about 70km in total to the cave. We had decided not to do the other cave as it sounded like Kong Lo and these caves were expensive. The road to get there is really beautiful and I did most of it at 50km/h to savour the scenery. We arrived at the National Park entrance and didn't know where to go from there. We didn't have a lot of petrol, but it was apparently 12km away so we decided to go for it. If you arrive on the highway and see the sign on the hill (a tacky Hollywood touch to the Park), just carry on for another 12km and take a left. Here its another 16km or so through really beautiful scenery to the cave, with the last 5km in a river valley, with stunning turquoise water. Its really photogenic and you kind of want to stop all the time. The ride here alone was worth it. We were almost in the red about 5km into the last road and we still had no idea where the cave was at this point. Useless LP. We kept asking locals and in the end we got some petrol from some random women who were curious to know if we were married. Everyone we met out in the countryside on our bike rides were really nice. Damn this piece of shit computer from crashing twice now. Once you get to the cave, you have to ride over and down some steep little parts and then you are finally there. Its quite expensive (120,000) and you have the option of walking to the cave entrance or taking a golf buggy. The buggies are expensive and the walk is around 10-15 minutes and not tough, so the choice is yours. You then walk up some steep stairs to the entrance and finally we were there. We entered and the cavern is huge. Really big. You descend down some stairs and that's when you realise how pretty the place is. What a riot of colour. There are greys, blues, oranges and all sorts of other colours. The colours almost blur into purples and pinks. The stalactites and shapes are wondrous. It is truly breathtaking. This is by far the prettiest cave I have ever been in and one of the undoubted highlights of Vietnam. What a wonderful place. You can only visit around 1km of the caves unless you pay a lot of money, but I would be tempted to see more. When they open up the newly discovered largest cave in the World I will come back again for another visit. The scenery is stunning on the way and the cave will blow you away. Well worth the trip. Cannelle still continues to say that she will stop doubting me as to what is worth visiting, but she still questions my choices all the time lol. We took the bikes back at a faster clip as we had seen the scenery already and went and got a really nice dinner. The city itself is also a really cool place. Very pretty. Cannelle especially liked it. You have the beaches and also some former walls and a hollowed out church. Pretty place. We could get a very cheap train at 6am the next day, but we were too lazy and decided to get the bus around 8am to Hue. The hotel wanted 108,000, but its only 80,000 from the bus station. Those commissions will add up and we still like the local buses.
So naturally the next morning we walked the 1km and grabbed a bus to Hue at 8.25am. The bus was full of only locals as it was not the one that also goes to the hotel. Some local guys offered us some free beers on the bus. I love the people here. Shame I don't drink anymore, as I could have got quite drunk on all the free alcohol offered to us in Vietnam. When we arrived in Hue, we followed our route on the map and leaped off at the hospital. Much less hassle. We had been warned that in Hue you get hassled everywhere so we were prepared. We had booked into Valentine Hotel in Hue from hostelbookers, as it had a good reputation and it is by far the best place we have stayed in on our trip so far. I can't recommend it highly enough. Go there, You won't be disappointed. We had planned to spend just the one night in Hue and leave for Danang the next afternoon, but we had the pressing problem of the visa extension. Jessica had submitted her passport for one, but it was saturday and they would need 2 days they said (though she got it done on Monday as well) and had paid $28. Our hotel said he could do it in one day on Monday and for only $20. It ended up being $22. We were skeptical, but we had read online that there were some seriously corrupt police in Danang. We decided that we could do Hai Van Pass from Hue and looked around for more stuff to do. Ok we were going to have to spend 3 nights in Hue so we decided to just visit the Citadel on our first day. We arrived and were told we had to go the long way round. Don't listen to the stupid fucks around the Citadel. You can use either bridge to enter and you can walk through the barriers that are just for cars and get in. Don't do what we did, which was to walk all the way round the outside of the citadel and come back round on the right, because we believed the stupid tuk tuk drivers. At least they did not get any custom from us. At the back there is another entrance and if you sneak in past the guard (which Zoltan and Jessica did) then you don't have to pay at all. If you are on a tight budget you could consider it. There is a third entrance on the right hand side, but this is well patrolled. The citadel is nice, but quite samey. Most of the places look the same. It is just about worth the entrance ticket, but if they raise it too high you might want to reconsider or use the 'economical' back entrance. We met Jessica and Zoltan and arranged to meet them for dinner. They did everything so slowly that having arrived a day before us, they had done exactly the same things. They had done what we did in Ninh Binh but it had taken them 3 days and Dong Hoi had taken them 2. We had met a young rickshaw driver outside and he had chatted with us for around 10 minutes and asked us to teach him some French for his customers. Never once did he ask us for a ride. We then met an older guy, who accompanied us to the free military museum, chatting away and only offering a ride at the end. We were finding the people really friendly, except for the dicks who sent us round the Citadel. Lots of tourists were treating the locals like shit though. Reputation preceding them. They all said we were nice and smiley. I think your predisposition affects your response and your response affects your interaction. We try to stay friendly until they try the sale, but here in Siam Reap they are really pushing my limits of toleration. At the museum (which is crap) we met a guy from LP who was one of the Easy Riders. Really nice guy. He chatted away with us for 20 minutes and even worked out that we were perfectly matched for each other due to our Buddhist calender, with Cannelle being a snake and I a rooster. This year is a good one for us apparently as we could have kids. We said too early, so he said in 4 years or in 2021 which would be the best as the kid would be a buffalo and we would have the full set. Cool, I thought. Perfect timing. We were looking to have kids in 8 to 9 years and there was the perfect excuse to wait. We would have a buffalo. It would leave us with a dilemma though as we would then have to wait another 4 years or the second kid would not be in harmony. I guess we need twins :-). Anyway he eventually asked us if we wanted a tour, but I told him I don't like riding shotgun on a motorbike and that we preferred to rent our own ones. He said they could show us back routes. They could, but its not that difficult. Just find out where all the best sites are and plot a route to find them and if you want some off the beaten track riding, just head off the beaten track and ride. Its not rocket science. They have some nice parks along the waterfront of the river in Hue. Its a very pleasant town. Much better than we had been told. Too many tourists focus only on how fucked up they can get at night and don't appreciate the day time. I miss the travellers in Latin America. They were so much more interested in visiting the places around them. Here the drinking comes before the visiting. In Latin America its the reverse. We met Zoltan and Jessica for dinner. He seemed like a bit of a dick. Everything revolved around him telling stories of his greatest hits of travel. By the end of the evening I knew everything he had done that was cool, but he knew none of mine. I mention them when they are relevant to the conversation, while he will start conversations to make them relevant. 'Have you ever been to Africa' . 'No well let me tell you of the time I climbed a volcano there....etc...etc. Also while most travellers who do risky things tend to emphasise how easy they are for the ordinary man, he was keen to show how amazing he was and how it was such a godlike feat. I had mentioned how it was good Cannelle had walked 15km with her pack at Ba Be. He asked how heavy they were. I said around 12kg and he said his pack was 34kg and he carried it up every mountain with him. I asked him why he would do that. I mean what idiot climbs a 5000m plus mountain with 34kg, to which he admitted that he left it at the camp and did the climb without it. He didn't like being called out and he was clearly keen to impress everyone. Peter reckons it is game theory and he uses his stories to bag and impress young female travellers. I think its possible. Cannelle doesn't think so, but neither of us liked him much. He did have some cool stories amongst the bluster though. He had camped in the middle of Africa with a spear to ward off lions, he had climbed a volcano in the Congo with soldiers for guards and had had to carry his own weapon, he hikes back trails in parks (though in places that are still touristy) and he had climbed a mountain in a lightning storm and almost died. I am sure if you ever meet him he would be keen to tell you the details. Just make sure you show the appropriate awe at his achievements and you should be fine. I will contrast exactly why I think his style is shit in part 8, but I don't want to jump the gun. Half impressive, half dick, he certainly leaves an impression and Jessica had been travelling with him for a while. I don't think in South East Asia he came across many travellers with a lot of experience and who can call him out on some of his absurdities. I also am a little resentful at someone who is so patronising as to tell me when I get to Indonesia I will find it very difficult to Vietnam and Thailand and its not as easy as here. Fuck. Really? Thanks for the advice, but at 72 countries I am aware of that (having been in the Darien, Haiti, the Guyanas and many places with not much tourist infrastructure). Next I expected him to tell me that you get wet when it rains or that water is good for you when you are thirsty. Who travels with a 34kg pack? and what the fuck is in it to make it that heavy? Anyway enough of him. Back to Hue.
In the morning we got our scooter on time to set off around Hue. I love this hotel. They even give you free glasses of ice tea whenever you are using their computers. First of all we set off for the Japanese bridge east of town. Its about 12km and not to hard to follow. Follow the road they recommend, then when it ends go north and east at the next junction. Then you follow a progressively smaller road until you eventually get there. Not too difficult. Lots of people were helping us with directions again as normal. The bridge is quite a cool little place and we grabbed a drink there. Walking around town a small old woman just started chatting with us in perfect English. Really nice. I love the countryside here. After we headed across town and west to the Que Nguyen fighting pit. This is ok and not too impressive, but worth a quick drive. We stopped off at the esplanade on the way to the Tu Doc tomb. Its ok and there is a little forest pagoda on the way as well. All of these sites are worth visiting. They wanted us to pay for parking at the forest pagoda so we just drive through the agte and visited the whole site from the back of the motorbike. Suckers. Eventually we got to Tu Doc tomb and parked the bike up for free alongside the wall. Again this place can be visited for free as Zoltan and Jessica climbed over the wall. Zoltan claimed that it was ok to enter these places for free as the Vietnamese didn't really do any maintenance on them. Of course, because why would UNESCO make them do that? The tomb is better than the citadel in my opinion. It was the only tomb we visited, but it was really pretty and we were really glad we went. Well worth the constantly increasing entrance fee. People were complaing, but really how can you. We spent $4 on the tomb and $4 on the citadel. The palace in Bangkok is $13 and its so much shitter than these two. Well maybe not than the citadel. In the tomb there was a caterpillar being savaged by ants. We decided to save him and carried him away from the ants, but they were everywhere. We had to keep rolling the ants off and moving him all the time. Eventually we got the ants down to one dead one that was hanging onto him and he could get away from the fight. We had saved a caterpillar and probably killed about 20 ants, but it wasn't a fair fight. I hate bullying. We grabbed lunch at Lotteria and then went to the pagoda west of town. Its nice, but again nothing special. We had finished all that by 1pm and decided to head out of townn to the hot springs 26km North of Hue. They are on wikitravel for the city. Our hotel had even written the directions in Vietnamese as a question so that we could get help on the way. They are that good. It was a long drive out there, around 12km out of town on highway one you head west and then its another 15km or so. The scenery is again really nice, passing a cool iron bridge, rice fields and a stunning cathedral (not sure what its doing in the middle of nowhere). We had to stop at one point to check and a local guy stripped off his top to tell Cannelle we were 3km away. He spoke impressive English for the middle of nowhere and Cannelle thought he was cute. Our motorbike was sputtering a bit and if you didn't keep the accelerator down then it died in the middle of nowhere. Quite irritating and revving the engine burnt petrol. This was a problem in the city as we had to stop and start a lot. I was getting very Vietnamese in my driving though and handling all the traffic effortlessly. We eventually arrived at the centre and went in. Its really cool and we went in the escalating temperature pools. The final one is really hot. I loved it, but it was too hot for Cannelle to enter. She had left her t-shirt on as we didn't want to offend locals, but right at the end a local girl came in with only a bikini on. The place was full of just locals. Really cool. A local kid kept trying to creep up on me and splash me. We played along (he was only 3 or 4) and had some nice interaction with the locals. When we came out an hour or two later our bike smelt of petrol. It was low when we got on, but now it was virtually empty. Either someone siphoned off our petrol or it drained away. The bike was too shit to tell. We needed petrol and we needed it fast. We eventually found a local guy while running on fumes. It looked empty in the tank. We put in 20,000. Its great that you can put in as little as 10,000 at one time in Vietnam. It should get us back. Then again it looked a bit watered down. Lets try it. We were riding back and the tank was getting lower and lower. In the red, under the red, way under the red. We were close. I didn't want to buy any. We were coming into Hue. Just a bit to go. We had done 16km under the red. How far could it go? There was the river. Putt, putt, bang. Slowing down. That far....16km is what a bike could do in the red. Great. Good to know, but we were now at one of the busiest intersections with no petrol. My record of getting bikes back in one piece was again 50-50. We had to buy a bottle of petrol from the side of the road. It got us back though. Spurs won 1-0 against Swansea and we were on the up again. New Orleans won, but it was fairly irrelevant by this point. We needed all the results to go our way next weekend to have any chance. Basically we had to win both games and everyone else (five teams) had to lose both games. Odds were long.
Our hotel were so nice. They left in the morning and came back at 8am with the paperwork for the visa extension. We paid for it and he said it was highly likely we would have it that night. In the end he stayed for the full hour to make sure it was done. We took the bike again (same pile of shit) and we were off to Hai Van Pass. Not sure how much petrol this gas guzzler was going to need for this trip. We took the bike east to start with and did the 13km to the coast and nearest beach town. Its quite nice there with the pine trees running along the sand. We then drove all the way down the coastal highway until it reconnects with highway one. This is apparently where the Easy Riders come for the back way to Hoi An. Yes, its such a backway. Can't be found by a normal tourist. How they get away with charging so much is beyond me. Especially when its so much more fun to ride it yourself. We rode through green rice fields and graveyards filled with white sand, finally coming over a bridge and winding round a beautiful body of water over some rolling hills. Its a really nice ride. We then linked up with highway one, which is scary with the lorries and buses, but they always leave you a motorcycle lane to hide from them in. I find the lorries are quite good drivers and ok, but the bus drivers are nuts and dangerous. They will almost run you off the road sometimes. They usually give you a beep of the horn when they are close though so that you know they are coming. We carried on down a very pretty highway one. On the way back we took highway one all the way to Hue and its a very pretty road all the way as well and its good to have too different routes. We eventually arrived at Hai Van Pass and took the road over. Its really pretty. Really, really pretty. Well worth the trip. In fact the whole ride is really cool. You wind up with the sea and the cliffs to your left and the railway line below, you crest the hill and ride down with the bay and Danang before you. The view over Lang Co on one side is beautiful and the view on the other side over to Danang is equally beautiful. You can do this route by train as well, though its lower down and you don't get exactly the same view as from the bike. Buses go through the tunnel. This was another one of our highlights in Vietnam. We decided to take the train the next day as well to see another angle. You can really race the road as well and it feels great to fly round the curves on the road. I was really enjoying it and Cannelle loved it. On the way back we stopped in Lang Co and rode over to the beach. White sand with noone there backed by pine forests. Really nice. We got some food (I had some great squid) and rode back. On the way back we stopped at Elephant Springs. There is a 4km road or so to the springs, but it feels much longer as it is total shit. Bumpy, up and down, potholes, rough, full of rocks. You know. Shitty. I bounced the bike all the way there. Rough on the suspension but ok. When we got there you can bathe in the pools, but the water was really cold. The elephant part of the rocks is overplayed but its a nice spot. Not worth a special trip, but if you are passing by why not pop in. Back on the road we powered back to Hue. The locals really don't like being overtaken by foreigners in Vietnam, so often you pass them, they speed up pass you and then slow down again, so you pass them again. Repeat about five times and you get the idea. Passing back into the city there was a lot of traffic. We weren't really sure why and then we saw a body in the middle of the road, trailing a streak of blood across the road. Someone got hit and hit hard. They weren't getting back up. I was more careful after that. We put in some more petrol and picked up our visa extension. Knowing that we could leave, we went and booked a seat on the 8am train. It was only 46,000. A bargain to go to Danang. Hard seats are so cheap in Vietnam that if you travel in the day its the only way to go. Not sure why LP only ever includes the soft options so the train always looks expensive. Its much cheaper than the bus in hard seat. We met Jessica for a sushi dinner and would meet her the next day, but she was going by bus. She was going to miss the pass which was a shame. One more thing on our hotel. The price of $12 included breakfast and the night before you chose your order and your time so it was ready bang on time for you. I love that hotel. Anyway we were off to Danang the next morning and would see the pass again from the train.
So naturally the next morning we walked the 1km and grabbed a bus to Hue at 8.25am. The bus was full of only locals as it was not the one that also goes to the hotel. Some local guys offered us some free beers on the bus. I love the people here. Shame I don't drink anymore, as I could have got quite drunk on all the free alcohol offered to us in Vietnam. When we arrived in Hue, we followed our route on the map and leaped off at the hospital. Much less hassle. We had been warned that in Hue you get hassled everywhere so we were prepared. We had booked into Valentine Hotel in Hue from hostelbookers, as it had a good reputation and it is by far the best place we have stayed in on our trip so far. I can't recommend it highly enough. Go there, You won't be disappointed. We had planned to spend just the one night in Hue and leave for Danang the next afternoon, but we had the pressing problem of the visa extension. Jessica had submitted her passport for one, but it was saturday and they would need 2 days they said (though she got it done on Monday as well) and had paid $28. Our hotel said he could do it in one day on Monday and for only $20. It ended up being $22. We were skeptical, but we had read online that there were some seriously corrupt police in Danang. We decided that we could do Hai Van Pass from Hue and looked around for more stuff to do. Ok we were going to have to spend 3 nights in Hue so we decided to just visit the Citadel on our first day. We arrived and were told we had to go the long way round. Don't listen to the stupid fucks around the Citadel. You can use either bridge to enter and you can walk through the barriers that are just for cars and get in. Don't do what we did, which was to walk all the way round the outside of the citadel and come back round on the right, because we believed the stupid tuk tuk drivers. At least they did not get any custom from us. At the back there is another entrance and if you sneak in past the guard (which Zoltan and Jessica did) then you don't have to pay at all. If you are on a tight budget you could consider it. There is a third entrance on the right hand side, but this is well patrolled. The citadel is nice, but quite samey. Most of the places look the same. It is just about worth the entrance ticket, but if they raise it too high you might want to reconsider or use the 'economical' back entrance. We met Jessica and Zoltan and arranged to meet them for dinner. They did everything so slowly that having arrived a day before us, they had done exactly the same things. They had done what we did in Ninh Binh but it had taken them 3 days and Dong Hoi had taken them 2. We had met a young rickshaw driver outside and he had chatted with us for around 10 minutes and asked us to teach him some French for his customers. Never once did he ask us for a ride. We then met an older guy, who accompanied us to the free military museum, chatting away and only offering a ride at the end. We were finding the people really friendly, except for the dicks who sent us round the Citadel. Lots of tourists were treating the locals like shit though. Reputation preceding them. They all said we were nice and smiley. I think your predisposition affects your response and your response affects your interaction. We try to stay friendly until they try the sale, but here in Siam Reap they are really pushing my limits of toleration. At the museum (which is crap) we met a guy from LP who was one of the Easy Riders. Really nice guy. He chatted away with us for 20 minutes and even worked out that we were perfectly matched for each other due to our Buddhist calender, with Cannelle being a snake and I a rooster. This year is a good one for us apparently as we could have kids. We said too early, so he said in 4 years or in 2021 which would be the best as the kid would be a buffalo and we would have the full set. Cool, I thought. Perfect timing. We were looking to have kids in 8 to 9 years and there was the perfect excuse to wait. We would have a buffalo. It would leave us with a dilemma though as we would then have to wait another 4 years or the second kid would not be in harmony. I guess we need twins :-). Anyway he eventually asked us if we wanted a tour, but I told him I don't like riding shotgun on a motorbike and that we preferred to rent our own ones. He said they could show us back routes. They could, but its not that difficult. Just find out where all the best sites are and plot a route to find them and if you want some off the beaten track riding, just head off the beaten track and ride. Its not rocket science. They have some nice parks along the waterfront of the river in Hue. Its a very pleasant town. Much better than we had been told. Too many tourists focus only on how fucked up they can get at night and don't appreciate the day time. I miss the travellers in Latin America. They were so much more interested in visiting the places around them. Here the drinking comes before the visiting. In Latin America its the reverse. We met Zoltan and Jessica for dinner. He seemed like a bit of a dick. Everything revolved around him telling stories of his greatest hits of travel. By the end of the evening I knew everything he had done that was cool, but he knew none of mine. I mention them when they are relevant to the conversation, while he will start conversations to make them relevant. 'Have you ever been to Africa' . 'No well let me tell you of the time I climbed a volcano there....etc...etc. Also while most travellers who do risky things tend to emphasise how easy they are for the ordinary man, he was keen to show how amazing he was and how it was such a godlike feat. I had mentioned how it was good Cannelle had walked 15km with her pack at Ba Be. He asked how heavy they were. I said around 12kg and he said his pack was 34kg and he carried it up every mountain with him. I asked him why he would do that. I mean what idiot climbs a 5000m plus mountain with 34kg, to which he admitted that he left it at the camp and did the climb without it. He didn't like being called out and he was clearly keen to impress everyone. Peter reckons it is game theory and he uses his stories to bag and impress young female travellers. I think its possible. Cannelle doesn't think so, but neither of us liked him much. He did have some cool stories amongst the bluster though. He had camped in the middle of Africa with a spear to ward off lions, he had climbed a volcano in the Congo with soldiers for guards and had had to carry his own weapon, he hikes back trails in parks (though in places that are still touristy) and he had climbed a mountain in a lightning storm and almost died. I am sure if you ever meet him he would be keen to tell you the details. Just make sure you show the appropriate awe at his achievements and you should be fine. I will contrast exactly why I think his style is shit in part 8, but I don't want to jump the gun. Half impressive, half dick, he certainly leaves an impression and Jessica had been travelling with him for a while. I don't think in South East Asia he came across many travellers with a lot of experience and who can call him out on some of his absurdities. I also am a little resentful at someone who is so patronising as to tell me when I get to Indonesia I will find it very difficult to Vietnam and Thailand and its not as easy as here. Fuck. Really? Thanks for the advice, but at 72 countries I am aware of that (having been in the Darien, Haiti, the Guyanas and many places with not much tourist infrastructure). Next I expected him to tell me that you get wet when it rains or that water is good for you when you are thirsty. Who travels with a 34kg pack? and what the fuck is in it to make it that heavy? Anyway enough of him. Back to Hue.
In the morning we got our scooter on time to set off around Hue. I love this hotel. They even give you free glasses of ice tea whenever you are using their computers. First of all we set off for the Japanese bridge east of town. Its about 12km and not to hard to follow. Follow the road they recommend, then when it ends go north and east at the next junction. Then you follow a progressively smaller road until you eventually get there. Not too difficult. Lots of people were helping us with directions again as normal. The bridge is quite a cool little place and we grabbed a drink there. Walking around town a small old woman just started chatting with us in perfect English. Really nice. I love the countryside here. After we headed across town and west to the Que Nguyen fighting pit. This is ok and not too impressive, but worth a quick drive. We stopped off at the esplanade on the way to the Tu Doc tomb. Its ok and there is a little forest pagoda on the way as well. All of these sites are worth visiting. They wanted us to pay for parking at the forest pagoda so we just drive through the agte and visited the whole site from the back of the motorbike. Suckers. Eventually we got to Tu Doc tomb and parked the bike up for free alongside the wall. Again this place can be visited for free as Zoltan and Jessica climbed over the wall. Zoltan claimed that it was ok to enter these places for free as the Vietnamese didn't really do any maintenance on them. Of course, because why would UNESCO make them do that? The tomb is better than the citadel in my opinion. It was the only tomb we visited, but it was really pretty and we were really glad we went. Well worth the constantly increasing entrance fee. People were complaing, but really how can you. We spent $4 on the tomb and $4 on the citadel. The palace in Bangkok is $13 and its so much shitter than these two. Well maybe not than the citadel. In the tomb there was a caterpillar being savaged by ants. We decided to save him and carried him away from the ants, but they were everywhere. We had to keep rolling the ants off and moving him all the time. Eventually we got the ants down to one dead one that was hanging onto him and he could get away from the fight. We had saved a caterpillar and probably killed about 20 ants, but it wasn't a fair fight. I hate bullying. We grabbed lunch at Lotteria and then went to the pagoda west of town. Its nice, but again nothing special. We had finished all that by 1pm and decided to head out of townn to the hot springs 26km North of Hue. They are on wikitravel for the city. Our hotel had even written the directions in Vietnamese as a question so that we could get help on the way. They are that good. It was a long drive out there, around 12km out of town on highway one you head west and then its another 15km or so. The scenery is again really nice, passing a cool iron bridge, rice fields and a stunning cathedral (not sure what its doing in the middle of nowhere). We had to stop at one point to check and a local guy stripped off his top to tell Cannelle we were 3km away. He spoke impressive English for the middle of nowhere and Cannelle thought he was cute. Our motorbike was sputtering a bit and if you didn't keep the accelerator down then it died in the middle of nowhere. Quite irritating and revving the engine burnt petrol. This was a problem in the city as we had to stop and start a lot. I was getting very Vietnamese in my driving though and handling all the traffic effortlessly. We eventually arrived at the centre and went in. Its really cool and we went in the escalating temperature pools. The final one is really hot. I loved it, but it was too hot for Cannelle to enter. She had left her t-shirt on as we didn't want to offend locals, but right at the end a local girl came in with only a bikini on. The place was full of just locals. Really cool. A local kid kept trying to creep up on me and splash me. We played along (he was only 3 or 4) and had some nice interaction with the locals. When we came out an hour or two later our bike smelt of petrol. It was low when we got on, but now it was virtually empty. Either someone siphoned off our petrol or it drained away. The bike was too shit to tell. We needed petrol and we needed it fast. We eventually found a local guy while running on fumes. It looked empty in the tank. We put in 20,000. Its great that you can put in as little as 10,000 at one time in Vietnam. It should get us back. Then again it looked a bit watered down. Lets try it. We were riding back and the tank was getting lower and lower. In the red, under the red, way under the red. We were close. I didn't want to buy any. We were coming into Hue. Just a bit to go. We had done 16km under the red. How far could it go? There was the river. Putt, putt, bang. Slowing down. That far....16km is what a bike could do in the red. Great. Good to know, but we were now at one of the busiest intersections with no petrol. My record of getting bikes back in one piece was again 50-50. We had to buy a bottle of petrol from the side of the road. It got us back though. Spurs won 1-0 against Swansea and we were on the up again. New Orleans won, but it was fairly irrelevant by this point. We needed all the results to go our way next weekend to have any chance. Basically we had to win both games and everyone else (five teams) had to lose both games. Odds were long.
Our hotel were so nice. They left in the morning and came back at 8am with the paperwork for the visa extension. We paid for it and he said it was highly likely we would have it that night. In the end he stayed for the full hour to make sure it was done. We took the bike again (same pile of shit) and we were off to Hai Van Pass. Not sure how much petrol this gas guzzler was going to need for this trip. We took the bike east to start with and did the 13km to the coast and nearest beach town. Its quite nice there with the pine trees running along the sand. We then drove all the way down the coastal highway until it reconnects with highway one. This is apparently where the Easy Riders come for the back way to Hoi An. Yes, its such a backway. Can't be found by a normal tourist. How they get away with charging so much is beyond me. Especially when its so much more fun to ride it yourself. We rode through green rice fields and graveyards filled with white sand, finally coming over a bridge and winding round a beautiful body of water over some rolling hills. Its a really nice ride. We then linked up with highway one, which is scary with the lorries and buses, but they always leave you a motorcycle lane to hide from them in. I find the lorries are quite good drivers and ok, but the bus drivers are nuts and dangerous. They will almost run you off the road sometimes. They usually give you a beep of the horn when they are close though so that you know they are coming. We carried on down a very pretty highway one. On the way back we took highway one all the way to Hue and its a very pretty road all the way as well and its good to have too different routes. We eventually arrived at Hai Van Pass and took the road over. Its really pretty. Really, really pretty. Well worth the trip. In fact the whole ride is really cool. You wind up with the sea and the cliffs to your left and the railway line below, you crest the hill and ride down with the bay and Danang before you. The view over Lang Co on one side is beautiful and the view on the other side over to Danang is equally beautiful. You can do this route by train as well, though its lower down and you don't get exactly the same view as from the bike. Buses go through the tunnel. This was another one of our highlights in Vietnam. We decided to take the train the next day as well to see another angle. You can really race the road as well and it feels great to fly round the curves on the road. I was really enjoying it and Cannelle loved it. On the way back we stopped in Lang Co and rode over to the beach. White sand with noone there backed by pine forests. Really nice. We got some food (I had some great squid) and rode back. On the way back we stopped at Elephant Springs. There is a 4km road or so to the springs, but it feels much longer as it is total shit. Bumpy, up and down, potholes, rough, full of rocks. You know. Shitty. I bounced the bike all the way there. Rough on the suspension but ok. When we got there you can bathe in the pools, but the water was really cold. The elephant part of the rocks is overplayed but its a nice spot. Not worth a special trip, but if you are passing by why not pop in. Back on the road we powered back to Hue. The locals really don't like being overtaken by foreigners in Vietnam, so often you pass them, they speed up pass you and then slow down again, so you pass them again. Repeat about five times and you get the idea. Passing back into the city there was a lot of traffic. We weren't really sure why and then we saw a body in the middle of the road, trailing a streak of blood across the road. Someone got hit and hit hard. They weren't getting back up. I was more careful after that. We put in some more petrol and picked up our visa extension. Knowing that we could leave, we went and booked a seat on the 8am train. It was only 46,000. A bargain to go to Danang. Hard seats are so cheap in Vietnam that if you travel in the day its the only way to go. Not sure why LP only ever includes the soft options so the train always looks expensive. Its much cheaper than the bus in hard seat. We met Jessica for a sushi dinner and would meet her the next day, but she was going by bus. She was going to miss the pass which was a shame. One more thing on our hotel. The price of $12 included breakfast and the night before you chose your order and your time so it was ready bang on time for you. I love that hotel. Anyway we were off to Danang the next morning and would see the pass again from the train.
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