Day 4- Photos

We haven't done a lot today so instead of not writing at all we thought we would post some photos...


We just got back to the hotel after walking back in the rain :)


Kristian coming out of one of the Tunnels - Cu Chi


An abandoned American tank


Cu Chi Tunnels


Inside one of the tunnels - made bigger for westerners


One of the millions of street stalls



Fruit


Layout of Ben Thanh Market


Cool moth


This is worth 2.5 Australian cents

Hope everyone at home is well... and have fun at Bright mum and dad!

xoxo

The Cu Chi Tunnels

We started our day bright and early (well not really it was more like 8am) to head off to the Cu Chi Tunnels about 60km north of Ho Chi Minh City. We were picked up by a local tour bus which was nicely air conditioned however as the roads in Vietnam are not to the standard to which we are accustomed to back home, it was more like riding a horse the whole way. Every bump in the road would send us a meter in the air with more substantial bumps giving us hang time!

When we arrived we noticed the change in temperature from really hot to even hotter as we were in highly vegetated areas that trapped in the heat and raised the humidity to an inhumane level. We started the tour off at a simple whole in the ground which to everyone looking at it, looked like not even Kate Moss could squeeze herself through. However nonetheless I thought I'd (Kristian) try assuming failure, but against all odds (and scrapping both shoulders whilst almost having to dislocate both my shoulders) I slid into the hidey hole. Most of the other sites included ventilation ducts and the likes which were all cool to see, however reaching the first tunnel that you could actually crawl through was what was on my mind. Now after we painfully crouched and hobbled (imagine getting in the fetal position and penguin walking through 100m of tunnel in the pitch black with only the light from your phone/camera) through various tunnel systems with quite a few people sitting out due to claustrophobia. After hobbling through the tunnels and emerging sore after just 5 minutes down there, the tour guide shatters our efforts by firstly reminding us that the Vietnamese LIVED in these conditions for days to weeks only coming up to go to the toilet at night. Secondly and the most devastating to our merciless efforts is the fact that it is a known fact that western tourists are considerably larger than your typical Vietnamese and as a result (due to increases in tourism since 1982) they had widened these sections by 300% of their original size (and I thought I did well getting through the ones we crawled through). The guide further explained that to get through these original tunnels you had to drag yourself through with your elbows and push with your knees like a commando crawl, however she went on and told us there were tunnels that you basically had to squirm your way through like a worm.

Now I must say one of the most exciting events of my day was what I did next. This gave me the ability to cross off another checklist item on my 'things to do in Vietnam' Checklist, [] (tick) shoot a gun in Vietnam. However not only was it just a gun, it was an M16 and I had a very romantic 10 bullets to annihilate the red target placed before me. To sum it up, it was awesome. Nothing more, nothing less. The noise was no less intense, I honestly don't know how the soldiers had any rest during the war seen as though someone accidentally rang our hotel room last night at 12:30am and scared the crap out of us let alone gun fire in the middle of the night.

We stopped shortly after the firing range to eat the typical Vietnamese snack which was basically raw potato, which to say the least I probably wouldn't go back for seconds. After watching a movie that probably predates the war itself it was that old, we headed back to the bus for our exciting trip back to the hotel (your probably wondering why it was exciting? well every car/bus journey in Ho Chi Minh city is exciting just to watch the manic traffic and just keep count of how many times it looks like someone is going to smash into us).

After arriving back to the hotel we had a short rest before heading out to our much anticipated Gloria Jeans visit to compare the Vietnamese counterpart to the Australian original. To our amazement, it trumped the Australian standard Original Iced Chocolate by a long shot, and while Lauren was cautious as the ice was made using Vietnamese water (and your not meant to drink it) I was guzzling like it was out of fashion. It was delicious.

After dinner (and an awesomely cheap 3 tiger beers for $3) went ventured back to the hotel to recuperate and re-venture out into the streets for the Ben Thanh night market. It was an okay market (not as good as its indoor counterpart that closes at 6ish) although as it was on the streets and the Vietnamese don't take the initiative to close the actual street off to traffic you had to keep one eye out for the market stalls and the clothes whilst another out for the motorbikes flying past you. Pretty crazy all-in-all. The market stall owners are pretty desperate though, while this is considered a tourist market (when there are virtually no tourists) they had ridiculous prices and have a very hard time selling things. This one girl saw me looking at some shorts and literally would not let go of my arm for about 10 minutes begging me to buy them at ANY price! It was actually quite sad.

Well it is now the morning of the 4th day and we are deciding what we can do today, nothing has come up thus far. But we might just go walking and see what hits us (hopefully not a motorbike, but most likely that sewerage smell that is sometimes ever so pungent).

We will post our doings tomorrow just before our first train journey of approximately 10 hours to the coastal town of Nha Trang.
Until then everyone stay safe and I will speak to you all soon.
Kristian & Lauren.

Ho Chi Minh - Day two

Hi everyone,

Today was a much better day than yesterday!
In short we did all the main touristy things... we went to the war remnants museum which was an eye opener.
The museum was full of old U.S planes, bombs etc. All over the walls were images of soldiers & civilians and what happened to them. It was very confronting and like I said a real eye opener. You really have no idea what they went through but seeing some of these images really shook me.
We did learn about what went on in the war so it was a very good thing we went there.
Also Kristian was mobbed by school kids who were just gorgeous.... they all wanted there photo taken with us.

After the Museum we headed to the Independence Palace which of course was closed for a couple more hours. To kill the time we headed to Diamond Plaza where we found Lotteria (Vietnam's equivalent to McDonald's). After some yummy french fries and a bowl of Pho we had a quick look at the general post office which was huge!

A quick walk later we were back at Independence Palace where we had a guided tour around the old Presidents Palace.

So basically I can't be bothered writing that much so instead I am going to post some photos of what we have been doing......




Kristian on a Cyclo


Our Super lovely hotel room


All of this for $2!

The grammar isn't that good.....


Lovely school kids at the War Museum


The War Museum




This is good traffic....


One of the street vendors gave Kristian a go at holding this


Hot & bothered.... and in need of water!


Best iced milo ever!


Kristian's bowl of Pho, which looked like it had a some form of animal testicle in it


Independence Palace


Anyway its nearly dinner time here so we better go scope out somewhere to eat.
We are off to the Cu Chi Tunnels tomorrow on a half day tour which will be nice... plus it is our 2.5 year anniversary. There aren't any restaurants around so I think Kristian will be taking me to KFC... we are super classy.

Talk to you all soon.
Much love.
xoxo

The drug that is Ho Chi Minh City

Hello to everyone from Vietnam,

Our flight went well. My (Lauren) ears didn't play up at all which was a big relief. Plus both of us managed to sleep most of the way to Kuala Lumpur which was also a big relief as we were both exhausted.

After a couple of hours stop over in KL we were on our way to Ho Chi Minh City. It was only an 1.5 hour flight so it went really quick.... plus we met a Guy from Penang on the plane so we spent most of the time talking to him.

As soon as we landed in HCMC we could already see remnants of the war. As we were taxiing to the terminal gate we went past old army plane hangers which still had rusty guns mounted to them, we knew straight away this would be a trip we would never forget...

And so it has been (only so far)! Our expectations of our first stop and Vietnam's second largest but arguably most definitive city were effectively eaten and swallowed, spewed up, consumed again then coughed up with the furball that was our naivety of this up and coming metropolis (our experience with Kuala Lumpur and its progression to westernisation presumedly caused this). I've (Kristian) decided only after a day in the city of Ho Chi Minh, that in all its craziness and glory it resembles somewhat that of a drug addiction. Let me explain, first you get your fix from the hilairiousness of some of the calamities the locals face when transporting goods on motorbikes/scooters rangeing from 5m high boxes to babies and whole flower shops. One of the biggest highs is the rush you get when crossing the road dominated by around 30 bikes, buses and (expensive) cars. That swift feeling when a motorbike brushes your arm as you feel the driver breathing down your neck is beyond anything normal.

At this point life is pretty good, adding to the fact that we are literally millionaires with just over a million dong to spend each day, everything in this city is within easy reach. For example a simple trip to the grocery store for bottles of water, ice tea, apple juice, cookies and chips costing no more than than 40,000 dong ($2) considering we had budgetted over a million.

So I bet your wondering when the downfall and great lows of the addiction to Ho Chi Minh? Here it comes, while the city oozes soul and character, it lacks in substance (apart from the abundance of war montages). While the cyclo people with their bikes might seem to mean well when helping you across the hectic roads, they will guilt you into a free trip and drop you off at "the best Vietnamese restaurant" in HCMC. after painfully backtracking, you find quite a few people stare at you because there is very little tourism in Most parts of the city thus your the odd one out. While the cyclos claim they know the best restaurant (ignoring the fact its a shed with plastic kiddie seats) they are probably right. There are no, and I mean no proper restaurants around the city area! We searched hours just for a nice place to sit and have a drink and a snack and ended up at a nice bakery (thank you french colonization).

However all this aside, everyone is very nice. Just random strangers helping you across the street and asking where your from to really friendly (and well spoken) hotel staff.
Also a big relief is that our tickets for the next 3 train journeys arrived in the afternoon which you would understand is a Big releif as we booked them over 3 months ago (no ticket means no next destination and no beach and theme Parks!).

Overall it has been a pretty good day (seen as though we are pretty tired and agitated). In the end the cyclos were an experience, sitting in the middle of an intersection gives you a feeling you have to experience to believe (the kind if high I described before).

I was just about to finish up but I forgot to mention the market, well what can you say, its called Ben Thanh market and it is of epic proportions! It covers about 12 blocks and ranges from souvenirs to fish guts on display to all (simmering in the 33° degree heat, lovely hey). We havnt had a chance to have a proper look but we will get round to it tomorrow.

Well I think that's about all for today so make sure you leave a comment if you wanted to ask anything as its easier than email. Well everybody stay safe and that's it for another full on day.
Speak later, stay well.
Kristian & Lauren.

P.s. again like the blog before this, I've written this on my phone so I have limited edifying capabilities so I do apologise for any (or many) errors you may find!

safe and sound

Just a quick note to let everyone know we have arrived safety in KL.
we both slept most of the way which was a suprise and my (Lauren) ears didn't play up at all.

Anyway we are going to Burger king to get some food then get on our way again.

We will try and post again in the next day or so just depends on internet.

Love you to everyone! Xoxx

Packing!

Our bags are almost pack.... though I can't seem to shake the feeling I am forgetting something super important.

Pretty much everything is organised... we are off to Kmart etc etc tonight to grab some final bits & pieces. Plus my ears are slowly getting better (touch wood). Fingies crossed they will be okay in the plane.

Anyway our next post will probably be from KL or even Ho Chi Minh City.

Stay safe everyone, and we will try and post every day or so..... depending on our internet access.

xoxo

2 weeks!

Two weeks today!
How exciting.

Everything is slowly coming together... though there seems to be a million things we have to do before we actually go away.

One of the main things to do is print off all the vouchers for the hotels we are staying at..... its going to take a while considering we are staying in 11 different hotels and we needs 2 copies of each voucher.
I'd better get printing.

Anyway just thought I would do a quick post on here.
We shall update everyone again soon

:)