Day 277 - Tet Festival & Dam Sen Park

Happy New Year... again.



So whilst china and the rest of Asia (and every chinatown in every city in the world) celebrates 'Chinese New Year', the Vietnamese had to be different. Tonight its 'Tet', their own version of New Year, and its big business. When we left Ho Chi Minh City over a week ago, they were already clearing the streets, decking them with lanterns and flowers. And even back then the town was geared up for new year with flower markets and yellow-blossomed trees on sale everywhere - their very popular equalivalent of christmas trees.





But we come back on the eve of the Tet festival and the town is manic. Soundsystems blare out Vietnamese music, interspersed with 'Happy New Year' by Abba. Whole swathes of streets are blocked off, covered in flowers, gardens and statues of pigs (it is the year of the pig, after all). People are flocking to have their photo taken with anything they can find from decroated trees, huge terracotta piggy banks or displays of hanging flowers. Its carnage, and its still only daytime.





But, as with most new years celebrations these days, I'm ill. so is sam. so at 8pm when we wave off the london guys, we head straight for our cool, air-conditioned bedroom, climb in, and sleep right through til 11pm. We're rough - i'm bugged with the sweats and some weird headache that makes me want to die, and sam's suffering an evil cold that's leaving her bedridden too. BUT, its new year. So we get up.

And within 45 minutes, we've crawled into a cab, through the heaving carnage of moped traffic into town and are stood surrounded by thousands of vietnamese people staring into the sky, as if waiting for God to descend and wish them happy new year personally.



He doesn't. But at the strike of midnight, amidst the usual fanfare of music and hugging and cheering, a 15-minute firework display lights the sky. There's no real focal point in HCMCity. So the fireworks are being let off by the river, and their view is obscured by the town centre's skyscrapers. But it doesn't bother the people here. Every couple of minutes, they burst into applause at the sight of the fireworks. How mental is that? They are applauding explosives. I imagine like people did when fireworks were first invented. But its sweet.

And after walking back home through the equally hectic traffic carnage - people this time, not mopeds, we take our broken bodies and put them to bed. Happy New Year.

The next week is kinda boring. We're stuck in HCMCity, waiting for our Indian visas to be approved. But its Tet festival, so everything is shut. and they take 4 working days. So we actually have to sit around this city, which isn't the most fun-packed city i've been to, for over a week. But its fine. We kept ourselves busy - hours on the internet; a whole day in a cinema (apocalypto - AMAZING. Persuit of happyness - dull); hours browsing the pirate dvd and cd stores (guys - if you want anything for a quid each, let me know), swimming in overpriced hotel pools; introducing tanning oil to my skin - until now its been factor 15 cream and I'm blacker than my mate angie these days - needless to say my sensitive skin isn't ready for the oil. whoops. We also take a walk along the Saigon river. its grim. probably the nastist river I've ever seen. And the comedy tourist boats don't do it any favours either. grim.



But most notably of the weeks uninspiring events was a visit to the Dam Sen park. Not totally sure what to expect, the park is described as quirky in the guide books, and since the city's only other waterpark is shut for maintenance, we decide to go there instead. A confusing attempt to find a local bus takes about an hour, but we make it on board - don't underestimate how difficult getting a foreign bus is when you don't speak the language and have left your phrasebook at home - and 20 minutes later we arrive at this mental, huge theme park in the suberbs of the city.





Its huge, costs less a quid to get in, and is packed with a huge lake, a rickety monorail, an enormous ferris wheel and a waterpark tagged on to the side. We ride the monorail round and whilst fearing for our lives that its gonna collapse, we see the whole park's beauty. People lounge on the grass, soaking up the sun. Kids scream at every corner, riding the basic and very dated fairground rides. Pedalos dart across the lake, decorated with chinese new year... sorry, Tet... displays. Its SO nice.





And after an hour of wandering around, we throw on our swimmers and attack the waterpark.



Now. The main waterpark in closed, so this one is heaving. But its not just heaving. Its full to bursting. You can bearly walk around there is so many people. And they're all staring - we're the only tourists in the whole complex. But its fun. The water is gross - warm and murky from all the kiddies peeing as they play. But we have a swim in the pool, Eve and I ride some slides, we manage to make some friends with vietnamese kids to share out 3-person raft, and Sam and I float down the lazy river giggling like 5-year-olds again. Its nice.



And a couple of days later, we're picking up our Indian visas, repacking our backpacks, and hopping on a bus to Cambodia. I'm SO excited about Cambodia - its the main place I wanna visit in south east asia, and its just a 6 hour bus away. And before we know it, we're having our passports stamped at the the border, and preparing to cross into 11th country in 10 months.

Day 275 - Cham Island

Does it get much better than this?



We specifically wanted to go snorkelling. That much I remember clearly. We should have known we were being lied to - the day before when booking our cookery course, we were told *explicitly* we would be cooking our own meals - this was a lie. instead we watched someone else 'prepare' our meals, and we weren't even sure the end result was the food we watched being prepared. But it was great.



So here we are, booking our snorkelling tour, handing over the cash and being told the next day we would be picked up 8am. Which we were. An hour long, very choppy and vomit-inducing boat ride out to sea from Hoi An, and we're approaching Cham Island. Its big, high-rising with sweeping clouds billowing over the highest peaks, and the sun-drenched stretches of sand along the shoreline are calling us.



Sam's relieved to be on land - she genuinely thought we were gonna die on the journey over - and within minutes we're wandering across paddy fields towards some ancient pagoda. Ady, being a bit of knob, manages to lose his footing and step into one of the deep paddy fields, losing a flip-flop which he carefully fishes out with the other foot.



I get to be an idiot inside a chinese new year dragon as well, which was great. I love horsing around in animal costumes.





But aside from that, we're wandering around the local village, through gorgeous back-streets waving at small, scrubby children playing with sticks, and skimming stones on the gently lapping waves on shorefront as we wait for a boat to take us to the snorkelling site. And after we've boarded the boat, within minutes we're in sight of one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen - and I've seen hundreds.



Ady's wetting himself with excitement, snapping photos at every opportunity, as we shore up on the beach, drop anchor, and try to clamber onto the sand without getting our feet wet. And just minutes later, we're goofing around in the warm waters, lying on the beach soaking up the (hotter than the sun) sun. Its SO nice, and we're the only 12 people on the whole beach. Cat and I jump in one of these little round boats and try and row our way along, but its not working, and we're sinking. So we ditch it for some swimming and sunbathing, before tucking into some fish for lunch.



And the afternoon is spent snorkelling in the warm waters at the end of the beach, laughing at how nasty the chavvy couple are that are on the trip too and wandering the surroundings in search of the monkeys we can hear. There's not much to see underwater here, but we're pulling out starfish all over the place and as the sun starts to set across the water we pack up our stuff and ride the roof of the boat back to shore, making use of every last ray of light.



What ensured after this was my favourite valentines day...ever. No cards for the duncs, but bonnie and ady bought us all a rose each, which I wore on my shirt for the rest of the day. and much drunkenness with the australian family we met at the cooking course. Shots of tequila (Cat!), campagne bottles, too much beer, and a an exceptional showing of my skills at the pool table (whoop whoop). The night was ended with Renee, australian daughter of the coolest australian mum ever, showing profanities at the top of her voice down the street as an 'australian goodbye'. mental.





And for our last day we all dropped ourselves poolside at a local hotel and soaked the sun (again) until it had officially dropped out of sight. My constant diving around the pool (I'm like an 8-year-old around a swimming pool) seems to have done me some damage, as I've gone down with some illness. Its LIKE flu, but without the sickness and with the ability to follow the others to a restaurant although failing to eat anything worthwhile. Still, star movies keeps us occupied (some film about ice dancing which had skating-fetish Ady glued to the set). And early the next morning we're back on a flight, heading home to Ho Chi Minh City where we while away the day, you guessed it, but the pool, before wiping the tears from our eyes as the guys headed off home to London.



Its been awesome. Its been a holiday. Its been my perfect distraction and kept me busy enough to ignore my blogging duties for a full two weeks. I've got to know Cat and Bonnie better than ever, and spent some much-needed time with best boy-mate ady, who's been missed more than most. And now they're gone, on the day of Chinese New Year (which is called Tet in Vietnam), and I'm still sick, as is sam now. Its bedtime for both of us.

Day 272 - Hoi An & My Son Ruins

This place is SOOO pretty...



Hoi An is kinda famous. I dunno if you've heard of it, but I hadn't. Until I realised it was the place that I HAD heard of. Because EVERYONE who's been to SE Asia seems to talk of this promised land where you can have a suit made for 30quid. and its AMAZING quality. If you didn't guess already, Hoi An is that place.



Anyway, Ady, Cat and Bonnie have kindly prearranged a little excursion for us out of Ho Chi Minh City, so after a brisk flight north for an hour and a 45 minute drive from the airport, we arrive in the sleepy market/fishing village of Hoi An. Its 10pm and almost everything is closed. But we wander out, find this cute restaurant with just 4 tables, order some food and are blown away at how amazing the food is. Fish wrapped in banana leaf, fried spring rolls with shrimp, these amazing fried wanton's covered in salsa just to name a few. this town would prove to yield no surprises on the food front - every restaurant would feed us EXQUISITE food. You should come here for that alone, forget about the suits.



Anyway, after an early night in the sleepiest town in the world, we lazily get up the next morning to explore. The town's central focus is its bustling market place, selling everything from souvenir chopsticks to every vegetable you could imagine. Its heaving with people, the steamy heat trapped beneath the tarpaulin covered stalls. The alleys between stalls are just big enough for a single-file line of people, but mopeds come speeding down them, beeping people aside as they go. Its exciting and vibrant and so authentic - tourists are overwhelmingly outnumbered by locals doing their regular shopping. I love it.



The town is beautiful - so picturesque - and that alone is the killer selling point of Hoi An. You can wander for hours along the beautiful calm waters of the river, around the narrow streets. Unfortunately, the only 'key' sight is a Japanese Bridge, which seems to appear in every guide book and poster for the place when in fact it doesn't capture the magic of the place at all. The town is about atmosphere and vibrancy and almost like you're sneaking into a local town, disguised as one of them.



Of course, its not. Wherever you walk, someone shouts 'Hello' at you, others try and drag you into their shop for a fitting or to make a dress for you. Others follow you, pretending to me interested in you, only to reveal they own a shop and they need your money to feed their kids. I'm a jaded traveller though - the london guys seem torn by some of their comments, but I just walk by, a quick shake of the head and a firm 'NO' and they seem to get the idea.

The rest of the day was spent wandering, ordering dresses, finding an ATM that works and watching our new favourite cable channel - Star Movies - which always seems to show a rubbish but GREAT film.

And the next day we're up early, dousing ourselves in suncream despite the overcast skies, and are taking a taxi 10minutes down the road to the nearby beach. Its rubbish weather, but that doesn't stop us, and with our towels laid down, the frisbee out and the swimmers on, we're almost ready to catch some sun when it comes out. Which it does about 2 hours later.

There's loads of hassle on the beaches. I've not had this before - so yeah, brazil maybe a little. People come up and try and sell you stuff. but they usually walk off when you say no. Not here - here, in hoi an, if you say no, they take a seat next to you and silently sit and wait for you change your mind. sometimes 15 minutes will pass, with just the odd yawn from them, or a poke with a stick (I reckon I got that cos the old woman fancied me). Its a bit annoying, but with no-one else on the beach, what are they supposed to do. Favourite moment - walking in other people's footprints with Ady and Cat along the beach. Then trying to push ady in the water. good times.



The next day, the guys were heading off to some mountain to climb, but needing a little 'alone' time I booked myself on a tour of the local ruins - apparently some of the oldest ruins on Vietnam's map. Now, I'm going to Cambodia in about 2 weeks, and if you don't already know, Angkor Wat is apparently THE place to see ruins. Its amazing. More on that in 2 weeks. But until then, I thought I'd whet my appetite with these bad boys, at a site called 'My Son' about an hour from Hoi An.



So leaving at 7am (urgh!) I take the late-arriving bus to a bus stop, where i get on another late-arriving bus, which then takes longer than expected and drops us at the foot of some small, tree-covered mountains about an hour and ahalf later. Its midday, and the sun is scorching. I'm sweating buckets, and my red t-shirt is doused a dark maroon from the sweat pouring from my back and chest. I look like I've been working out, its embarrassing.



But within minutes I'm on a jeep darting through the mountains, hanging out the side with wind blowing across my face and dust going in my eyes. Its exhilarating, and 10 minutes uphill drops me at the site of the first ruins. I'm aching to get exploring, despite the number of tourists, so stick my iPod headphones in, choose some ambient electronica to ease myself into the history, and casually stroll into the ruins leaving my guide and the rest of our group of 40-somethings behind to hear the details.





The place is pretty small, but its special. Its lush and green and overgrown and crumbling. I like the atmosphere - the symmetry and the sense of purpose. The buildings fit the landscape and ooze character and charm. I'm wandering round, trying to get photos without tourists in them, as Four Tet pounds in my headphones. I'm sure people are staring at me - in the sanctity of these temples with my tinny headphones blaring into my ears.





I wander the site for about an hour before there's not much else to explore, and slowly take the long walk back to the car park, hitching a ride with a jeep for the last stretch. Being alone is a novelty for me, not one I particularly enjoy, but this time its nice. the silence gives me time to think when I'm not being barraged by children shouting, french couples arguing or trying to understand the ramblings of the spanish guy with dreads on her mobile phone.





And after the air-conditioned return journey, I wander the streets of Hoi An back to the hotel, before meeting the others and discussing our various days adventures. It seems I missed a cracking day trip to the mountain, but I'm not upset.

And the evening was punctuated with a highly entertaining, if not exactly what I was after, Cooking Course. Held in one of the best (we were to find out) restaurants in the town, we're talked through the rolling of spring rolls and the the chopping of squid until we've all made some food for us to eat. Our chef is hilarious and embarrasses me by implying I'm too rough in bed (with reference to my inability to mix a salad gently). Its fun, and we get to meet a wicked Australian couple and their daughter Renee.





And tomorrow we're off to a local island about an hour away, snorkelling - one of my new favourite hobbies. It surely can't be as good as the Great Barrier Reef, but I'm not a snorkel snob... i don't think. We'll see. Until then its a dose of star movies and some cheap beers from our minibar.

Day 269 - The Mekong Delta

Actually, I'm crapping myself...



When we still lived at the amazing 5-star Windsor Plaza Hotel, the guys from london booked up a load of stuff for us to do while they were here. And one such activity was a day trip to the world famous Mekong Delta.... hang on. Did i say 'world famous'? I meant never-heard-of-by-anyone Mekong Delta. The guide books are running away with themselves there I think.

Anyway, i'm excited - i love deltas, being a geography kid - so charge my camera to the max and get poised to take pictures of the whole thing. We're grabbed by Lily, our amazingly sweet guide for the day, who whisks us the hour out of Ho Chi Minh City to the frontier of the delta, and chucks us on a boat bound for the other side of one of its many channels. The river itself is filthy - grey and silty and overloaded with barges carrying sand and boxes from one side to the other. Within seconds we've crossed the channel and are on dry land again.

This tour isn't the sort of thing we normally do. Its a fixed format, guided group tour. They usually include numerous trips to places where you can spend your money on local produce, a multitude of activities which involve tipping local people, and a nice meal at a generic 'family-run' business before a comfortable, air-conditioned bus home. OK, I'm being a bit of a prick. This tour was actually SO great - its not my usual style, but its nice to put your feet up and just relax through the sightseeing. And that's what I did.

In the course of just a few hours on the delta, we visited 2 coconut-chew-sweet factories, complete with girls making coconut-chews. We walked around some stalls, selling tacky tourists presents hand-made by the locals. AND we saw a local band perform a few songs while we ate fruits from the delta too.



One of favourite moments was when we got to carry the same weighing-scale styled carrying tools that everyone uses here - its a fact. I've seen these bad boys in action on the streets of HCMC.


[note how two pineapples weigh exactly 2 green things]

we also walked across a tiny bridge, which seemed quite stupid and pointless at the time, but I'm writing this over 2 weeks later and I can safely say guys, vietnamese people take this act quite seriously. I've seen them queue in the streets to do this at one in the town centre, so its not as stupid as it looks. although, it its actual purpose still means nothing to me.



anyway, we then went downstream a bit further, and saw all those things again - coconut chew making, handicrafts, a little band - but at a different location. before mounting a cart, attached to a horse, and riding through the streets of the delta. That was kinda fun. which was followed by me getting to hold the massive python above. which was more fun. No jokes about me handling snakes please - i was actually pretty scared. Its heavy and cold and moves A LOT (for a sedated snake) and kinda launched at me at one point, prompting me to scream a bit and everyone to laugh a lot.



And once that was done, we took a trip up the river in this tiny boat which some women rowed for us. I felt guilty so grabbed an oar about 10 seconds before we got off. sorry girls.





and then we stopped for lunch, where I took one of my all-time favourite and most entertaining photos. Bonnie and the enormous fish we devoured for lunch. which was amazing. and with full bellies and tired feet, we wandered back to out boat and headed back towards HCMC.



OK, so it was super touristy, which I hate. Honestly, I hate it. It feels staged and misleading. After just a few hours on the delta, I have no idea what the real thing looks like. Nor do I know what the real people do there (I believe its a massively fertile land which hosts 3am food markets for the countries south every day - you wouldn't know this from our tour). But I honestly DID have a great time on this one. Just being with the guys was enough to spark the magic, even if I did have too much sprite for one day. And that's all that matters really. Maybe on the way into Cambodia in a couple of weeks we'll see some more of this 'world-famous' delta. who knows.

Anyway, scattered amoungst day trips, days by the pool and wanderings around town are distinctly drunken nights - mostly on the charge of Cat - getting wasted on roadside bars and stumbling around Ho Chi Minh City in search of an open club (we never found one) or somewhere cheaper to drink tequila shots. And then bundling our double room and rolling around laughing hysterically for an hour before skulking off to bed.



And on our last day before heading to Hoi An, a small fishing village in the centre of Vietnam's enormous coastline, myself, Cat and Ady decided to venture into the suberbs and find a pagoda to wander around. This didn't prove as easy as it looks, since the Lonely Planet map shows a dot not actually attached to any roads, and no vietnamese translation for the name of the place to show a cab driver. But a 15-minute cab ride towards the dot and 15-minutes of walking and we found it. Billowing with jostick smoke and with every wall covered in figures of gods, we soaked up the relaxed atmosphere before heading back to the bustling streets.

And just 12 hours later we're at the airport again, this time going 2 hours north on a domestic flght to Hoi An, where we're staying for 6 days before the guys head back to London.