Vietnam

Its been too long cant remember yesterday never mind last week
So flew from Siem reap to Saigon...actually we just showed up at the airport with nothing booked and hoped for the best, so we got a flight and put our bags thru only to discover we had no money.... Cambodia = cash city, tried every bank in the place only to discover none worked...at this stage our bags were on the plane, lots of panicking followed but luckily it worked out ok after we talked round the security to let us get money in arrivals area!! phew
So when we arrived at Saigon we had the usual problems of all the taxi drivers fighting over us! One of them pretended to be an airport official and moved us right along, then we asked him how much his taxi was...$20...we both laughed and told him where to go! we got a meter taxi for $5 and were ripped off at that! Maybe we're still too white and innocent looking!
So Saigon is lovely, except for the traffic and the crossing of the road! I have never seen so many motor bikes, mopeds zooming around the place! apparently the best way to cross the road is close ur eyes and walk slowly! Running = DEAD! the first few times it was terrifying and all u really want to do is run but after a bit you get a bit of a rush at having made it alive to the other side!!!
First attempt at Vietnamese food was in the Bi-Saigon...the kitchen was literally on the street, seriously! it was great tho! loved it! Denis is even eating all his veggies!
Went on great city tour with guy called Gusta! Saw most of the main sites including the war museum - which was a bit eerie and the renumerfication palace, some markets, temples etc! really enjoyed this helped that the tour guide was really knowledgeable and had great English!
That evening we decided to book our trip to Mui'Ne and also got persuaded into a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta! to celebrate such a productive day we thought we would have a beer or 2!!! Met with a spiritual french couple Stephan and Anna who were on their Honeymoon! obviously we had to stay to help them celebrant...they had just bought their wedding rings! Lovely couple that are ski instructors and acupuncturists/herbal medicine practicioners! very interesting conversations, All stephan had to do was take our pulses to tell us we had bad livers and problems sleeping! he prescribed lemon juice every day for 21 days and tiger balm on forehead to sleep!! Turned into very late night!
Next day had to be up at sunrise! OUCH! followed by a 4 hour bus journey( in Vietnam this means 7 ) No air con, leather seats!painful experience, but made it to a lovely beach resort just after lunch time! found a place to stay just down the road from where we were dropped off, bungalow with pool out front and beach bar ... lovely view of the ocean.


Mui'ne lovely place just to relax for 3 days, good seafood and entertainment on the beach at night - Fire boys!
lovely view of the trawlers at night...looking out to sea was like looking at a village lit up! We did have a visitor on one of the nights in the bungalow! Fecko the Gecko we called him! locked myself in the bathroom while Denis tried to get him to leave!!! he did eat a big spider tho so not all bad!
Return bus journey to Saigon was pretty much what we expected...long and uncomfortable! but at least we knew Saigon this time and our guest house lady welcomed us back when we arrived! Early rise again the next day to head for the Mekong Delta tour! On first day of tour saw floating villages, Coconut candy village and went on bike ride around binh island! ( bikes with no brakes ) Denis's Mum was right about the ginger for sore tummy they swear by it here... we bought a big bag!!! Went on village row boat down some narrow canal oh and saw a not so baby python....both of us refused to hold it! Chickens!

Arrived at our luxury cruise ship that evening which actually wasn't bad we didn't no what to expect as we stopped at a random guest house and were told to shower before getting on!!! Dinner on board at sunset was lovely followed by a lightening show! met up with some lovely people - Doug and Alison from San Fran and Nick from New Zealand!Catherine and Anna from Norway! had few cans of half evil (Beer 333) on the upper deck, was good fun! Great people hope to see them later on in our travels!

surprisingly lovely sleep that night but another early morning!!!
traumatic day the next day....2 crappy small boat journeys ...wooden seat for 4 hours at the time, border crossing, hairy ( to say the least) bus journey from ferry drop off back to Phnom Penh! lots of really near misses involving big digger and cement trucks! no such thing as tarmac! Denis had to actually hold the bus door closed! We made it in one piece with extremely sore asses!
Stayed in different side of Phnom Penh, the castleknock area, totally different place...everyone not begging and all just wanting a chat! Gave the guys that owned the guest house an earful about the spiderwebs and aircon! later made them clean it! very funny
Flew to Bangkok after another early morning! staying in Siam Square Bangkok at the moment lovely guest house (Wendy guest house) close to the shops which might not be such a good thing Denis has already bought 2 suits! totally different side to Bangkok, heading off on the overnight train to Surat Thani later on after that who knows but hope to make it Koh Samui at some stage! hope all is well at home, send on all the news!Sorry about the lack of pictures...never have enough time!