sai-gone

Four days in Dalat and we can't wait to get home. One afternoon in Saigon and suddenly we're in no hurry. We found (were shown by a crazy lady in a blue shirt with a badge on it) an awesome little guesthouse down three alleys, each one smaller than the last. We're up three flights of tiny ladder stairs (I have no idea how we're going to get our bags back down!) in a room with cable tv and hot water and a tiny balcony from which we can jump to three of the neighbouring buildings. Two opposing fans create a nice tornado above our bed. This is good as it is really hot again. Saigon apparantly has two seasons, wet hot and dry hot. There are two long term guests staying in the other rooms, a Canadian on the second floor and an Australian on the first. Tomorrow we will eat as much Pho as possible and maybe take a sun sauna. Good for the complexion. Bec, Saigon

Watch in HD A few days ago in Saigon.

Wednesday morning we'll be catching the cop out bus all the way to Phnom Penh. It should take about 5-6 hours but we'll see! I have had multiple assurances that we'll be going through the Bavet/Moc Bai border crossing, which is equipped to take our e-visas, but we'll see! Paul and I spotted a whole convoy of very flash double decker buses, with a super bling paint job stating that the buses make the Saigon-Phnom Penh run daily. Hopefully we'll be on one of these babies but we'll see! I hope you all refresh the blog hourly in nervous anticipation of our safe arrival! Bec, Saigon

Squirrel! This little guy was very entertaining. Here is Paul enjoying some vegetarian Pho at our super favourite Pho 2000. This place is seriously the best ever! They have about 100 staff members on at any one moment. Our guesthouse's little alley. Coolest boy ever. This lady was incredibly silent. It was either no English or no voice - couldn't tell! But she checked out some photos on my camera, and got me to point out the original location for each one. She thought Paul was hilarious because I think he was a little grumpy at the time. That's right people - I might have to start the princess diaries up again. However, he is doing very well for four days in. :P

So Paul and I spent all day yesterday in the big park in Saigon. It has really beautiful trees all in a grid, and each one has a number painted on it. We sat in the 128-36 section and read books and Paul drew pictures. Of course after about half an hour of sitting still, we were approached by various people asking us where we were from and how much did we love Vietnam etc. One boy (very trendy lookin) stole Paul's trendy hat and sat there smoking cigarettes and drinking iced coffee. After about and hour of his company we gathered that he didn't know a word of English. Another boy was an English student and needed to borrow our pen. His name is Thau (will check spelling later) and is planning on getting a job as a translator. He spent all afternoon chatting with us about things and stuff. He said he was meeting up with a friend who was from Korea, and asked us if we wouldn't mind meeting him too so he can practice his English pronunciation. This guy's name was Alex (not ...

Hello! Well i am sad to say that we will be leaving the wonderful city of ho chi minh tonight and venture off north to the beach town of Nha Trang. Today we spent visiting the meekong delta, it was amazing. We canoed through mangrove canals, held a python and listened to some traditional vietnamese music. The Delta is so big that is has over 4 islands 3 of which we visited. i am having writing block at the moment so i will have to cut my entry short but i see over my shoulder that bec and paul have both written extensively so i am probably just repeating anyway. oh yeah, my ankles and feet have swolen up to twice their size, if anyone knows of a cure please help as it is very uncomfortable, i hope it is because of the heat and humidity and not because i have caught some deadly tropical disease, though i am on the look out for and further symptoms. bye for now Claire - saigon

We have successfully organised train tickets to Nha Trang, which we have been pronouncing SO incorrectly that Paul's family member Ngân, whose name we can barely pronounce either, laughed at us for about five minutes. She is lovely and treated us to a fantastic dinner with all the extras: coconut jelly drink stuff and wine drinken sticky rice for dessert. We are disappointed we only met her the night before we are leaving Saigon, and would love to see her again, but we have to keep moving etc. Our tickets are for the night train, which leaves at 11pm. We went for the air-con soft seat as it was cheaper than the hard and/or soft sleeper. Our ticket tells us we will arrive at 6am in Nha Trang, but we won't count on it. We already checked out of our Saigon guesthouse so as not to pay for the day, and they are kindly holding our packs for us so we didn't have to cart them too and from the Meekong. Which was fabulous! $7 got us an air/con bus there and back, about eight boats to...

We're all at the internet cafe killing time before we go back to pick up our bags and get a taxi over to the train station. This is our last night in Saigon, tomorrow morning we'll arrive at Nha Trang and wander around looking for new accomodation. I've given up trying to control my hair as it has taken on a life of it's own. I now have a full on afro. Last night (as I'm sure the others are explaining simultaneously) we visited Peter's relatives at their home and went out for dinner with Ngân (Teresa) at a proper fancy restaurant. Everyone was very friendly and we got on incredibly well with Ngân especially. We were having trouble trying to pronounce her name properly, so we stuck with using 'Teresa' for the most part. She gave us each a ride on the back of her Scooter through the streets of Saigon, which was the single most exhilirating moment of my trip so far. Although the streets are utter chaos, no one ever gets up any speed so it's really very ...

Hi there all It is approx 11pm and we have just arrived back to our hotel. This evening we spent with the lovely Theresa, a relative of pauls. We visited her family at their home and she also took us to their shop where we met some more of her family. We then went out to dinner at a beautiful coconut-themed restaurant and we ate the most amazing vietamese food. Theresa suggested we try the braised snails but apparently it is a very popular dish and they were all out tonight, damn! It is a shame we have to leave saigon tomorrow, we would have loved to spent more time with Theresa and her family. Well it is off to the Meekong delta tomorrow at 8am then the night train north to continue the next leg of our journey. I am sad to leave saigon, it is such a huge city and i feel like we haven't even scratched the surface, but there is plenty more to see in the rest of the country. bye for now Claire - Saigon

I honestly thought I would be able to come up with some really good literature to post once I got here, and that I would even have time to do so. So far I've been too exhausted to even think, let alone write a blog. We've spent only two nights here so far and basically we've all just crashed into bed at the end of the day and slept. But there is stuff to write about, so much has happened in a day and a half, I just don't have the time or energy to sit down and go through it all. It's the heat, and the humidity. My brain just can't take it. The brief moments of rain are welcome when they come, and they do come randomly. The weather here is probably even more random than Melbourne, which is nice. My hair has gone weird, it's never been curlier, it's like a basket of noodles on my head (sorry about the simile, we had fried noodles last night). Thankyou everyone who commented, make sure you guys keep reading this! I promise it will get more interesting. - Pa...

So we successfully navigated our way around three airports and made it to our guesthouse in Saigon. It's down a small alley which is frequented by people on bikes singing about what they have to sell. Water bread fruit etc. Not far from a park where heaps of kids play a mutated form of hackey sack involving springs and feathers. I know I've seen this doo-hicky somewhere else either Nepal or Melbourne . . . It is hot hot hot and who would have thought? My fingers are sticking to the keys. The rain we heard so much about has come and we might need to buy an umbrella or maybe a garbage bag. Our room is nice and there IS room to swing a cat, so we're happy. Navigtion is a bit wierd, but we're only new so we might catch on. Inter-district travel is our next hurdle. Hot and Sticky, Bec, Saigon

So we are in Vietnam... there is so much to say; When we arrived we were picked up by our a driver and taken to our hotel....and it was CRAZY!! there were bikes flying everywhere, no 'right' side of the road, the only road rule is drive moderatly slowly and beep your horn because no one looks where they are going. We saw one accident and no one seemed to care. As i speak, a monsoonal rain has just drifted over...and now it has finished...oh it has started again...well at least i feel at home with the weather! love Claire Saigon.