Saigon, the Mekong and Muine

We touched down in Ho Chi Minh City after the three flights it took us to get there from Goa. Despite having slept on the floor in Bangkok airport we were still feeling excited to be somewhere new. Unlike our arrival in India, we were successfully collected from the airport by a man holding a card with Lucy’s name (which we were very excited by). We had arranged to meet up with Chad and Matt (our Canadian friends) who were also spending the night in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon. It was so nice to see some familiar faces, although we definitely missed not having working mobile phones when we were waiting around for them for about an hour unsure as to what was going on. We were extremely tired and didn’t end up having the big night out that we had planned but went for a little look round Ho Chi Minh and got our first taste of Vietnamese style food in an American bar. After this we bought some cans of beer for about 20p and went back to our hostel to catch up. 

The next day we were seeing another familiar face- Katy who we had met in Indonesia and seen again in Thailand. It was really good to see her and her two friends, Sandra and Jill. We decided to go together to visit the war museum in the city. This was a pretty harrowing experience because there were a lot of pictures and information depicting the cruelty of the Vietnam War. The mood was a bit low when we came out so we spent the remainder of the day booking a trip to the Chu Chi Tunnels and going out for a meal.

We had to get up at 7.00am for our trip so on the bus I slept through most of the talk on the tunnels, but I do know that the Vietnamese used them during the war, they are very small and people lived in them. I also had a picture in one that has been widened for Europeans. We had quite a good day at the tunnels and our guide was very entertaining. Despite this, the tour had been somewhat over commercialised and we all felt slightly surprised that you had the opportunity to shoot a gun at the end of the experience. This seemed a little ironic considering we had spent the day being shown all the damage done through this brutal and violent war.

That evening was our last in Saigon so we went out with Katy and her friends and drank buckets of alcohol on the street for £1.20. We also got thrown out of a club for not buying a drink so ended up going back to where we started and dancing in what I think was a cafe all night. I did leave at about 4.00am because someone jumped on my toe and (I think) broke it.

The next morning was not fun because we had to be up at 6.00am for our trip to the Mekong Delta. Later on an Irish lad from our bus admitted that we had looked a little worse for wear when first getting on.

Our Mekong trip was really good and a complete contrast to Saigon. We had gone from a metropolitan city full of coffee and karaoke bars to the Vietnamese countryside. I immediately bought a rice hat so I could look like a native on the water.   

The first part of our trip was to go on a motorboat across the Mekong River to a 'honey bee farm'. When we got there our guide pointed at a tree that had a couple of bees near it and took us for a cup of honey tea. Not exactly your typical bee farm. On the way back to our boat he showed us a couple of interesting things, including a gigantic lychee fruit. As well as this we went on a tiny wooden boat along a small side river which was really pretty. We looked the picture of Vietnam while doing this; all wearing rice hats. We had opted to stay at a homestay as part of our trip which we took another boat to get to. I’m really glad that we had chosen to stay here instead of a hotel; we were staying in cosy little cabins that you crossed a small bridge to get to. In addition this we were given an introduction to Vietnamese cooking through the opportunity to stuff and fry our own spring rolls. After eating these we were served the main course of fresh spring rolls; this involved making our own wraps from the Elephant Ear Fish in the middle of the table and adding rice noodles and vegetables from the other bowls. It was an interesting new novelty because we were eating the whole thing with chopsticks, including picking away pieces of fish.

The next morning was another early start as we met at 6.00am to go to the local market. This was really interesting because it wasn’t a tourist market, but a place where the locals went to barter in the early hours. While here we saw a live duck in a carrier bag. This was obviously quite a novelty for us and while we were staring a little boy thought he'd give us a bit of a show by jumping on the poor duck. We left the market and went on to a school where we saw little children arriving from boats to school with lifejackets attached to their bags- all part of living life along the Mekong River. Later that morning, we visited a floating market used by the locals which was extremely interesting; each boat sold something different, for example, pineapples, vegetables and they demonstrated what they were selling by tying it to a long wooden pole sticking up from the boat. This meant that we saw boats with poles sticking up that had onions, carrots and fruit on the end. It was a different experience entirely from the floating market in Thailand which mostly does a tourist trade, this market had local shop owners arriving in boats to buy produce in bulk. As well as this, while on the water, other boats sped up to us trying to sell us coffee, soft drinks and pineapple. Later on, we went to a rice factory, rice noodle factory and heard some Vietnamese music. We got back to Saigon at 6.00pm and waited for our bus to Muine at 8.00pm. We were very excited to get on our first sleeper bus, complete with beds.



We got to Muine at 1.00am and luckily they dropped us right outside the accommodation we had booked. The next morning we woke, excited to go and see the beach that we had heard wonderful reports of. Unfortunately Muine was a wash out, literally. It was so wet that we sat inside most of the day, eating and drinking Vietnamese coffee. The most exciting thing we did here was to take a local bus where I gave the Vietnamese a laugh by wearing my rice hat. 

Goa

Our final stop in India was to Goa. We were staying in Anjuna and looking forward to a couple of nights out. Unfortunately we realised upon arrival that it was low season which meant the resort was virtually deserted so we had no nights out but plenty of relaxing. We found a nice guest house run by the nicest lady who looked after us like a mum for the next three nights. We weren’t sure whether or not it would be raining as Goa was due to come into its rainy season. However this didn’t happen whilst we were there and it was blisteringly hot each day. The beach was boiling and I couldn’t even step on the sand without burning my feet. As a result, we decided to pay to use a swimming pool the next day and all burnt to crisps. That night we had chosen to go to a restaurant that we had spotted earlier in the day. On our way, however, a dog started following us. This wouldn’t have been an issue except that as soon as we got onto the road packs of dogs began running out at the one that had attached itself to us and going completely mental. We kept walking- I was completely terrified- but more and more dogs were running out and two were attacking the dog that was with us. We were starting to worry about getting to the restaurant when a lady said “Ah this dog bite many people”. This was the final straw and we gave up and went in the opposite direction. The dog still followed us and when more came running out a man came from his shop with a big stick saying “which way do you want to go girls?” He may have been about eighty with a beard but at that moment, when he started swinging his stick and shouting at the dogs, I was in love. We made it away but the stupid dog waited outside the restaurant while we ate- luckily it attached itself to some other people while in the mean time we began walking about a foot behind two locals for ‘protection’.

That was the end of our India experience. The only thing left was our flight- which was cancelled and re-arranged for two hours earlier. Apparently they didn’t feel as though they should email us to explain this but luckily we were very early and didn’t miss it.

       I really enjoyed my time in India but it was definitely a lot more work than the other countries we went to that were more accustomed to backpackers. I don’t think I’ve ever been stared at so much, or held so many babies for pictures before or ever been surrounded by groups of people who would just look at us. India was certainly a different experience.

Beaten by a bad chapati

We arrived in Haridwar after a gruelling ten hour journey in a sweaty car on the bumpiest road in.the.world. It seemed as though Karam was also on a mission to put us through the roof when my head bumped it for the fifth time. Things had also turned a little sour with the one CD we had bought so that 'who let the dogs out' skipped on every other (awesome) word. No matter how much Karam spat on the CD and rubbed it on his trousers it just wouldn't work (shocker). The journey did take a more positive spin after we convinced Karam to find and stop at a McDonalds for us; it had been almost three weeks of curries by now. 

As Haridwar wasn't included in our tour we had to book our own accommodation. Because we are extremely stingy we wanted to pay no more than £2.50 each. Considering how much we had paid the rooms weren't too bad. We did have to wash under taps and use a hole in the ground but apart from that it was a delight. We were very excited about being in Haridwar, partly because of the Ganges- pronounced gang-ies- and partly because we were on a mission to find the one armed and elephant babas (featured in Karl Pilkington’s, 'An Idiot Abroad'). That night we left to go to the Ganges at prayer time. When we began walking down to the river I was shocked by how busy it was. There were already thousands down there an hour before prayer time. People were lining the sides of the river and swimming in it as well as drinking the water. Karam told us that it was especially busy as it was a weekend and people would travel there from around India to come and pray. They were also filling up tubs of water to spread around their homes for good luck. We felt a bit too self conscious to get in the water here because we were the only westerners there. We also weren't sure what the clothing protocol was; the women seemed to go in, in their pyjamas while the men were taking a dip in a vast array of transparent underwear. The amount of men happily strolling around, half-naked with erections, was also at a disturbing level. 

After all the enjoyment of the Ganges we decided we wanted the take a boat ride along the river. Karam (as per usual) completely misunderstood this and tried taking us to a white water rafting centre in a place called Rishikesh. This wasn't a complete loss though as Rishikesh was beautiful. It is right in the foothills of the Himalayas so we were totally surrounded by mountains and the Ganges runs through the middle. It was a more relaxed atmosphere here than in Haridwar and we had a really good day looking around the town, climbing a path up the Himalayas and swimming in the Ganges. We also managed to find a honey cafe with some nice, non-curried, food. 

After leaving Rishikesh we spent a few more days in Haridwar, unable to find a single baba. I was seriously disappointed about this but after walking round asking a number of locals and sticking my arm in the air to try and imitate the baba we clearly weren't getting anywhere. But I will include a picture for those of you who aren't familiar with Karl Pilkington...

Our last stop before our tour was over was at our driver’s village where he had invited us to stay for the night. We were less keen on the idea of this than when he had originally invited us as he kept asking Lucy if it was going to happen with him and 'Goonda'. He was also generally irritating because he couldn't understand a word we were saying (I sound mean saying this but after three weeks of trying to explain every tiny little thing my patience was wearing thin).

Anyway we still took the trip to his village and had quite a mixed night there. It was soon apparent that our visit had caused some excitement as people kept turning up at his house to see us. However, everyone was really nice and he had a cute little niece who we taught to play snap. His sister in law cooked us a lovely meal which we ate before everyone else as is customary for guests in India. The downside to this was that our driver was completely hammered; he was and his mate, who had come round to the house to fix their computer were both so drunk. We were quite used to seeing Karam drunk by this point because he would sink back a fair bit of whiskey each night but his friend was a complete pest. He kept saying Soph's name but couldn't speak anymore English than that. He also offered me a piece of soggy, yoghurt covered onion when he was eating his dinner. 

In the morning things also took a turn for the worse. I had woken up feeling a bit queasy but ignored it until Gwend said she had been sick in the night and Soph complained that she had been feeling ill too. After this we were all running to Karam's little hole in the ground. This was a complete nightmare because not only were we all feeling horrendous but we were flying that day and had to sit through a two hour journey to the airport as well as the flight. Luckily we got through the flight without any emergencies. 

Gez, Jaz, Gilbert and Gary cross the Indian desert

Before leaving Pushkar we had some post to send. It took a LOT longer to send than we thought and so I went to wait outside because I had left my passport in the car. Waiting outside anywhere in India is always an experience and after five minutes a skinny Indian dressed in a toga with a lot of white hair came up to me and played a weird kind of recorder in my face. I let this go on a little longer than I should have because I was hoping Gwend would come out and see so it took quite a lot to get rid of him in the end. When Gwend did come out we also got surrounded by cows because a man came and scattered grass around us (he kept putting it on my feet even when I moved). 

When we finally left Pushkar we were heading on another long journey towards Khuri, near Jaisalmer which is in the desert and borders Pakistan. As soon as we got out of the car I could feel the heat difference; it was forty five degrees and I could barely breathe. Luckily it cooled down a lot at night which was good because we were off on our camel trek. We arrived at our accommodation which was two huts in the middle of the desert; although our driver had told us that we could sleep outside for a more authentic desert experience if we would like.

We got ready for our camel trek and were all a bit unsure about how it would go; we named our camels Gerard (renamed Geri aka Gez, upon discovery that she was female), Gilbert, Gary and Jasper (renamed Jasmine). Luce and I had nice well behaved camels; Gwends- Gilb was a bit more weird; foaming at the mouth. Sophie's camel, on the other hand, was insane. For some reason, my guide decided he wouldn't lead me but attached me to Gary who had his tail tied out of the way of his rear end which was not in a good way. For quite some time I thought Gary had a lump of shit hanging from his tail until I realised that it was actually the biggest, shittiest ball I have ever seen. This earned Soph's camel the name, Gary shitty balls.

After a fantastic time camel trekking we got back to our charming huts. Gwenda and I decided to go for the authentic approach and slept outside. This was a nice idea but the reality wasn't quite so lovely. As soon as we had settled down we heard a voice saying 'Goonda, you want to go for a walk with me?' This was the voice of our driver, Karam, who was no longer sweet but had turned out to be massively annoying and in love with Gwenda. In the morning we also realised that he had been lying when he told us we wouldn't get bitten in the desert as 'Goonda' was absolutely covered in bites. The next morning when Karam asked his regular question 'good sleeping'? He was met by more than one scowl.

Our next two destinations weren't particularly exciting because they were stop off points on the way to our final destination in north India, Haridwar. This was quite a low time in India as we stayed in two of the hottest rooms imaginable and spent the next two nights tossing and turning drenched in sweat. We did, however go to see a miniature artist who drew a whole picture on Gwend’s nail along with all our names.

Honking Hell- Only in India Would You See a Monkey Crossing the Street Eating Naan Bread

So India;
We got to the airport and soon realised after boarding the plane that there were only about five other Westerners on board- we were leaving backpacker territory....
We arrived, clueless as usual, in this crazy and diverse country. For once, we had arranged an airport transfer; however, after waiting for an hour at the gate and not finding anyone there we eventually took a taxi to the hotel we had booked. Our driver had no English and didn't quite seem to grasp where we were going so when he pulled up outside a travel shop to get directions we were all quite relieved to be confronted with a young man who had perfect English.... long story short; he told us that the hotel we had originally booked was in a slum and a car couldn't even get down there so we ended up booking quite an expensive tour with his company instead. Fortunately for us our original hotel owner then got in contact with us encouraging us to get in touch; he believed we had been scammed. After visiting another travel shop we soon realised we should have paid half the price that we had paid for our tour. We were confused and decided to let the original hotel owner guide us- this was the best move we have made as he helped us to get the money back from the tour we had booked, found us a much cheaper option and gave us lots of helpful advice.

After all the drama of getting our money back (including a trip to the local (corrupt) police station and several tears) we were ready for some sightseeing round Delhi. We went to see several temples- the second was a bit of a shock. We had to take a rickshaw ride to get there which I felt terrible doing as there was the skinniest man pulling Gwenda and I along on his bike- I felt like offering him a hand. When we arrived at the temple we had to walk through a market to get to the steps; once inside I saw a man walking around with bare feet- he had no toes on one foot and a cut that looked like it had an insect living in it. As well as this, the entire time we were inside there was a little chianggar (our name for a child Indian beggar) following us around. He kept telling us his name and asking for money, it’s heartbreaking when the little children do this but you can't give them anything because the moment you do more beggars immediately swarm round you. I felt quite intimidated here and didn't really have time to enjoy the temple. However, the next one we visited was my favourite- it was called Humayun’s tomb and is said to be the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

I won't lie and say that Delhi was my favourite place but it was very interesting to watch such a different culture in motion. Whilst there we saw lots of monkeys roaming the streets- one casually eating a naan- we were also given a huge amount of attention, people asking for pictures and money, we saw cows everywhere, rickshaw drivers and tuks tuks. There is so much noise- they have no lanes in India, just a system of honking that they use to pass other vehicles. I think it will feel extremely quiet when we leave.

We left Delhi to go to Agra where we were all excited about seeing the Taj Mahal. It was so nice to get out of the city and after a four hour drive, through motorway, villages and across dirt tracks; we arrived at our hotel located five minutes from the Taj. Our lovely driver Karam took us to dinner and introduced us to a dish called Thali which is a mixture of different curries, breads and rice. The food is incredible, it’s so full of flavour but not too spicy, although I think the locals take it a little hotter.

We woke up and got ready to meet our Taj Mahal guide at 6.00am (ouch) and walked through a nice little park to get there. Our guide was very informative but may have been a strict teacher in a former life because he kept telling Gwenda off when he thought she wasn't listening and he wouldn't let us see the Taj until we had repeated back to him what he had just told us. Despite the early start we were grateful to arrive at that time because our first view of the Taj was unspoilt by tourists. It was magnificent to see it up close and appeared huge until we walked around it and got inside. After leaving the Taj (closely followed by our guide until we tipped him) we left for Ranthambhore. This journey was exciting to start with but after our second flat tyre it wasn't so fun. Our nifty driver had changed the first within minutes but with only one spare tyre we had to roll for five minutes and found a place where they could repair it. To get the weight out of the car we had to all get out which was funny as we were in a tiny village where they're not used to seeing white faces and at one point there were sixteen men sat on a bench just watching us.

We were extremely excited when we arrived because we had lovely rooms and a huge garden that we played cricket in with our driver and some of the hotel staff. It was crazily hot outside- about forty degrees so was strange not to be sunbathing but having to be fairly covered in such hot weather. We went on the safari in the afternoon and about five minutes after we got inside we were lucky enough to see a wild tiger. We were excited because she was really close and we had been told we would be very fortunate to see one at all. We carried on into the dry, hot jungle and saw lots of monkeys, deer a crocodile, peacocks and a kingfisher and were soon so lucky that we saw our second tiger. This one was sat down so we were able to take lots of pictures. The guides also know the tigers really well as there are only thirty five so they told us that this one was the oldest female in the park. We were extremely hyped up by the time we got back and ended our night playing card games in the garden with our driver whilst drinking some kingfishers and whiskey.

After Ranthambhore we left for Jaipur which is known as the pink city because it's full of pink buildings. I was really excited to be visiting this city as we were having an elephant ride here. Unfortunately we didn't really get to stroke the elephant or anything but it was still good because we rode on it up to the famous Amber Fort. The view was really good although our guide was quite crazy and kept humping the elephant.

In the afternoon we decided to strike out on our own and go to the markets- after five minutes of leaving our driver we were debating calling him back. As soon as we stepped out of the car people were hassling us but we held our own. We also had a bit of a treat when we saw a naked old man walking down the street playing with his bits. We had to deal with a lot more chinaggars but I now have a system for getting rid of them- saying "Ne Heeng" (no) with a scowl on my face, followed by "go away"! Seems to do the trick...

Whilst in Jaipur our driver took us to his cousin’s shop where he said we could buy whatever we wanted with discount and then we would share a home cooked meal together. I have one thing to say about his cousin- the man was a moron. He kept pressuring us to buy things and told us about a million times how their textiles were made; I was actually quite interested in this the first time he explained it as they use old clothes to make new fabrics. Despite this I couldn't complain about the meal, it was probably the spiciest food we have had but really delicious- our first Indian takeaway... in India.

Before leaving Jaipur we decided to get some henna tattoos; I got a Ganesh up my arm. It looked good but we were a bit limited in what we could do with our wet henna and Gwenda had smudged hers within about five minutes. We didn't really know what to do after it had dried but luckily the lady in our hotel helped us out. Then she asked us for a tip. 

We now had another long journey to a place called Pushkar. We were looking forward to staying in the hotel here because our driver told us it had a pool- we were not disappointed as it was a really nice pool and, after double checking we were allowed to wear swim suits, we were straight in. We did go and see the village though which was really nice as it has a big spiritual lake in the middle where we watched the sunset. We also got some Italian food which was quite welcome after eating curry for an entire week. The next day we spent entirely by the pool and soon noticed some Indians peeking through their curtains at us. We decided that we would climb up to the temple before we left; it was a hot walk but really well worth it when we saw the whole of Pushkar on arriving at the top. It also meant we could see how far into the desert we have now come.

Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and back to Bangkok

After leaving Krabi we took another boat ride across to the party island of Koh Phi Phi. As I've said it is a big party island so there's not a huge amount to say about what we did in the day because we were mostly hungover... It was my birthday whilst there though and a big group of us did a snorkelling trip to Maya Bay for it. Maya bay is infamous for being the location where 'The Beach' was filmed. It was a really spectacular beach and the trip, combined with the night out after definitely made it a birthday to remember.

After five nights of partying in Phi Phi we finally said a sad goodbye to Bryce, Brian, Jon and Robbie and went off to relax in Koh Lanta where we were lucky enough to find accommodation for £5.00 a night which had its own pool and gardens. We didn't see much of Koh Lanta because it was quite expensive to get around but we had a bit of a stroll along the beach and it seemed quite a quiet place. After two nights here we had another tiring journey all the way from the south of Koh Lanta up to Bangkok. There was a bit of a contrast in the room we paid a fiver for in Bangkok... we were down rabid dog alley which I hated walking through.

As we had arrived in Bangkok at 6.00am we had a pretty full day in the city and spent some time taking a tuk tuk around- lucky we had time on our side here as he kept taking us to shops where if we bought something he would get a free gas coupon. It was a good time to be in Bangkok because it was a bank holiday so there was a mini celebration happening at a big temple. As a result of this when some people gave us food to feed the pigeons for "good luck" we believed it was part of the celebration, not that they would snatch ten pounds out of my hand to pay for the corn.




We spent our last day in Bangkok visiting the famous floating market which was really interesting. We were fairly spent out by this time so didn't buy a lot but it was good for the novelty. Another positive was that we had a free lunch included and there were some really snobby people on our tour who didn't want any so we got double- jackpot. In the afternoon we went to visit the River Kwai Bridge. It was really good because they run a train across it but you can still walk along at the same time.

This was pretty much the end of our Thailand experience; once again it was a country I was devastated to leave because of all the friends were made there and the beautiful and unique sights that we saw.

Cracking Krabi!

After leaving Koh Samui in we headed towards Krabi. I didn't really know what to expect about this place as it was inland and, apart from Bangkok, we had only visited islands.

We spent our first night at a hostel and met two nice girls from Rugby; Nic and Jess who we ended up spending all our time in Krabi with. I loved Krabi because we did so many activities there. On our first night we climbed up to Tiger Temple which is 1327 steps to the top. It only took us half an hour but we were absolutely exhausted when we got to the top. It was completely worth it when we took in the view and witnessed a gorgeous sunset. We had also taken beers up there to celebrate when we got to the top... we didn't realise the entire thing was a temple until a lady walking by told us off and said  it was as bad as drinking in church- oops. On our way back down (which we thought would be the easy part) we got caught in torrential rain and ended up wading through calve deep water to get back to our bus.

The following day was the start of the Thai celebration of the New Year that they call Songkran. The first day of this is basically a nationwide water fight- what could be better?! So we spent the morning standing on the corner of the hostel throwing buckets of water at people passing by and getting equally soaked by the locals. At lunchtime we went to Railay beach which was a short boat ride away and is absolutely beautiful. We got further soaked when we arrived and had our faces covered in clay. I wish we had a festival at home like this, it was great fun.

The next day, after listening to a tip from one of the guys at the hostel, we hired bikes and cycled to a small fishing village. We cycled about 14km to a five star infinity pool we had been recommended and were lucky enough to use it for free. The village was such a contrast from what we had seen of Thailand so far- there were goats everywhere and little children running out to wave and shout hello to us. After leaving the pool we decided to go to a fish restaurant that we had seen signs for. This was a real novelty because it was one of those restaurants that I have only ever seen in pictures that float on water. The tables all surrounded a netted area where they kept the fresh fish. I think the staff could tell it was a first for us so fed the fish while we were there which meant we were able to see small sharks jumping out of the water and a huge blow fish. The only thing the restaurant wasn't built for was the torrential rain we then had as we were eating our dinner; luckily it eased off enough for us the get the boat and cycle back.

The last activity we did in Krabi was rock climbing. This had been recommended to us as its one of the top ten places in the world to do it and you are climbing on real limestone cliffs. I really enjoyed this and would probably say it’s one of the best things I've done whilst travelling. I was also thrilled because both Gwend and I succeeded in climbing a thirty metre wall. It was so tough and at one point I was clinging to a flat piece of rock like a lizard moaning that I couldn't do it, but with a bit of encouragement I got there. I was so glad that I did as the view from the top was beautiful and I whooped excitedly the whole way down.

The following day, before we left Krabi we had a real treat. One of the boys from the hostel (they had become a bit of a family as so many people had stayed there weeks longer than planned) cooked twenty four of us a roast dinner. It was a welcome change from noodles and we also got the chance to catch up with the three girls who we had met on our Whitsundays sailing trip in Australia who were staying in Krabi at this time.