Adding an Australian component to our 2015 adventure!

Tomorrow we head off on the Australian component of our 2015 adventure. We have plotted our route, re-registered Percy (our car) and packed our (luxury) camping gear. It is going to be great!!

We are most excited that we will be visiting family and seeing friends all up the east coast. Well, when I say east coast, I meant only the southern half of it. The top half will be saved for another time. Beaches and reading are also at the top of our list!

Here's our route:

A coffee and coconut on the Mekong

Relaxing boat ride and we got hats!

We decided to visit Mekong Delta on our way from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh. A short minibus to Vinh Long, a ferry and motorbike to our homestay left us with an afternoon to explore An Binh island. Explore is probably not quite the right word here as we were too hot to get very far. In actuality we took a short stroll to the waters edge, accidentally trespassed on to an angry man’s land, had a Vietnamese coffee at a tiny café and committed ourselves to our hammocks. Our friends at the island café were amused by us and took great pride in explaining how we were to drink our tea and coffee.(Reminding me a little bit of our "THIS is your breakfast" lad from Chitwan.)

Getting the ferry across to An Binh island from Vinh Long

Our homestay (Ngoc Phuong) was peaceful and had possibly the best internet of our trip so far. (Not bad for a silt island in the middle of nowhere.) The kids that lived at the homestay were fun. The little girl decided I looked good with a sieve on my head and that someone else’s glasses were hers to play with. This was after the four year old had run into my room with a giant pair of scissors and threatened to cut my headphone cord! 

Reading "Watership Down" together on hammocks

  

Homes built on silt buildup at the mouth of the Mekong

Dinner was both impressive and tasty…as long as we all sat in the right places. I have found in Vietnam that great pride is taken in how the table is set and everything must be 'just so'. Trying to help create space on a table is often fruitless as you will inevitably just move something to the incorrect spot!

Nothing wrong with taking pride in appearance

On our second day at An Binh we took a boat trip to a floating market. It was rather small and not super busy. Perhaps it was a quiet day of the week. We jumped aboard a fruit boat where the enthusiastic vendor proceeded to cut up every fruit in sight for us to try. She didn’t really have to try hard to sell us her goods. Rob left the boat sipping on a coffee, we each had a coconut to drink from and then eat. For later we had some mango and dragon fruit.

FBI Agent in the fruit boat

Petrol station on the Mekong

Exploring

It was incredible seeing how they transported masses of rice and other items on large boats. They didn’t seem to mind if they lost some along the way. All the boats have the same design on them. Apparently it is of dragon eyes and there to scare of sea monsters. We spent a long time on the boat which was so peaceful that I kept nodding off. Eventually we made it to a few other stops which I believe are routine on such Mekong tours: candy, popcorn and rice wine factory and honey bee farm. At the factory I found a coconut candy that I had tasted before and fell in love with once more. It is a dangerous addiction as they are sold in large packets and I cannot stop!

Transportation, hammocks and clothesline all in one

 

Dragon eyes

Making coconut candy

After some more relaxing at An Binh we again found ourselves on the ferry to Vinh Long. Here, two ladies got great pleasure at the size of my bag. Then I pointed at Rob’s and how they chuckled! Before we knew it the lady was pretending to be backpack and Rob had her up in the air!

Rob's new backpack!

A bumpy bus ride from Vin Long took us to Chau Dac, a town on the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. A walk along the river led us to spontaneously organise a late afternoon boat ride around the fishing villages of the area.  It was interesting to see how they kept the fish and prepared them for sale, though definitely coming toward the end of the day.

We visited a Cham village that largely consisted of people whose ancestors had immigrated from Malaysia/Borneo some 800 years ago.  They have maintained their culture and religion despite being spread across Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand making up the bulk of Islamic people in these areas.  There wasn’t really much to see on our visit except the refurbishment of the local mosque. The highlight was children playing but I suppose it often is!

High jumper highlight

From Chau Dac we took a speedboat to Phnom Penh to begin our adventures in Cambodia.

A FEW TIPS FOR A DIY MEKONG TRIP:
* Many people take packaged trips from Ho Chi Minh. Though this is convenient, we found it simple enough to organise ourselves. If you value the flexibility then we'd recommend it.

* Going from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh via the Mekong was a great way to break up the travel. Mixing boats and buses also helped.

* To organise a homestay you will need to call places directly as they often do not have websites or use email. If you can, have a Vietnamese speaker to help make arrangements.


 

Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Saigon

Saigon is a city that has seen its fair share of change.  At one time part of Cambodia, taken over by Vietnam, France and central to the battle of North vs South and America, its residents have to be used to change.

That's something that I found inspiring while left to wander the streets, coffee shops, parks and embassies while Kat was working at the orphanage.  The entrepreneurial spirit is certainly alive in this town.

Footpath salad

The three main stories I want to share where from a food tour, a simple bookshop and a group of enthusiastic first-year English students at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City.

Local Motion
Tim and Steph promised that we could go with them on a local food tour, Vietnam style - on the back of a motorbike.  With Mum in town, being wined and dined by every colleague every night, she was keen to experience some street food Vietnam-style "as long as it is safe!"

Mum, staying safe with Bom

Local Motion are an amazing group of people, who came to pick us up from Mum's hotel, all 5 of them, dressed in black shirts with bright traffic light colours.  Ridiculously, less than 6 months ago, this same group took my brother Tim and his girlfriend Sal on a tour.  With Mum jumping on the back of Bom's bike, we joked that all we needed was Dad and they would have met our whole family.

Feeling comfortable the entire time (except for a brief mis-step where Kat's driver took a wrong turn) we enjoyed 4 meals at amazingly different locations.  Salad on the footpath by the park, ostrich, crocodile and squid barbecued on a roofing tile, Vietnamese pancakes at a street stall and coffee or ice-cream in an exquisitely up-market venue we were truly satisfied.  We traveled more of Ho Chi Minh City in 4 hours than we had throughout the entire day, and we were fit to bursting. 

Kat tries to avoid spitting oil and flames while Steph is hankering for some ostrich

Mai and her crew spoke fantastic English, to the point that we were arguing over the meaning of "splitting hairs", we loved being in their company and I can't think of a more welcoming or clever way to be introduced to Vietnam. 



It was so good to have a unique night out, not only with Tim & Steph in their adopted home, but with Mum visiting Saigon at the same time as us was like a free ticket to a show you didn't know you wanted to go to!

 






BOA Bookshop - The Book of Awesome
During a more-delightful-than-expected visit to a doctor, I was flipping through a magazine and found an article about a unique English bookstore in downtown Saigon.  Annoyed that I didn't get to finish it, I had to wait after my appointment for the lady who had since picked up the magazine to leave, so that I could finish reading it.  In all, I spent more than an hour hanging around the clinic.  One of the secretaries came up to me and said, "you know we are finished?  You can go now".  I actually wonder how long she had waited before coming up to say that.

To get anywhere by taxi or xe om in Vietnam, you need the address written down.  Don't even begin to believe that you might have a handle on how to pronounce Vietnamese words, let alone be able to explain them to your driver.  With the address copied from the article in order to show to random strangers should I become lost, I marched off immediately in the wrong direction, eager to find it before heading home.

Apparently they had started up simply as a box of books.  They left it out on the street, for anyone to drop off or pick up a book.  Like a communal library.  Until someone stole them all, but that's another story.

The Book of Awesome Bookstore is behind a restaurant, up two flights of stairs and down a blank hallway with encouraging signs telling you "...almost there..." on the way.  From the street, there is a half fallen down cardboard sign with "BOA bookshop" hanging in the window that you can see only if you are looking for it, and I certainly recommend you do.  The store was neat and tidy, with someone napping on the makeshift bunk above the door and another woman working behind the cash register.  As I was dripping with sweat from the walk and the stairs, she immediately turned on the fan and took my bag, while inquiring about what I was looking for.  Bizarrely, of the first two books she recommended, I had read one and Kat the other in the last 2 months ("Speaker for the Dead" and "The Giver" if you are interested). The story behind how they've started up this shop and the enthusiasm with which they run it were inspiring.  If you live in or are visiting Saigon and need a new book, check out BOA, they have new and used and will even do trades.

The English Club

While Kat was exploring the unknown: doing strange versions of the chicken dance, creating innovative new games to teach English and singing with the children at the orphanage, I was trying to find a productive way to spend my time besides drinking coffee and arranging visas.

Kat asked her colleague, Gene, a physio at the orphanage, about volunteering opportunities. He suggested that I could easily hang out at the university across the road and speak English with the students, who he said were always enthusiastic about learning, particular with a "real" English-speaker. He was actually able to rattle off some statistics about how much more successful university graduates can be if they have a good command of English.

As it happened, after sharing a lunch with Kat nearby the orphanage one day, a group approached us asking if they could talk to us for a little while.  Unknown to us, we had stumbled upon the Technical University's English club!  This was a committed group of students (many of whom majoring in English) who get together to study and speak English. I met up with them as many days as possible, we talked about politics, religion, how to meet women, local and Australian customs and travel.  Hanna, one of the women in attendance actually had the best advice in the relationships department, but I'm not sure how many of the guys took the advice to heart.
  

The group really seemed to get something from hanging out, just as I did. I really enjoyed spending time with a group of committed individuals while getting to learn more about them, where they were from and about their country.

While I guess this doesn't really fit into the category of entrepreneurship, I found their commitment to learn striking, and that they recognised how important a good command of English could be in their future careers despite the obstacles that organisations and other students might put in their way. I just wish I had met them earlier.

Phan Thiet and Mui Ne

This little guy thought we were very interesting

We took our first train journey of our round the world adventure aboard the Phan Thiet Express as dawn broke across Ho Chi Minh City on Friday morning.  The experience of getting tickets was not as simple as one might have thought.

Most advice we received about booking train tickets in Vietnam was not to try and do it ourselves.  Too regularly, this seems to be the advice dished out to all tourists, for fear that we will be ripped off, overcharged, or that the tickets themselves would not even exist.  In retrospect, for buying tickets from the train station, it probably could have been one of the easier things we have had to do on our own.  However, I say this in retrospect.

We picked one of an apparent two choices.  Ms Anh, one of Mum's former Ho Chi Minh City/USQ graduates, who comes from Phan Thiet, offered to buy us the tickets, and there was an agency that could print the tickets in Hanoi, send them to Ho Chi Minh City, and then have them delivered to us in District 2.  Given the ridiculous logistics, Ms Anh won - but only came out about 10c cheaper per ticket.  

In the end, while we were at the station, there was plenty of English signage, and I am sure that we would not have had too many problems buying the tickets for ourselves, when armed with the actual price.

Comfortable seats on the Phan Thiet Express
 (with power outlets)

Number 9 bus leaves from the Phan Thiet Station 
and stops regularly along the beachfront all the way to Mui Ne

Of course, buying the tickets was just the start of the weekend.  Phan Thiet is a popular destination because of its proximity to a giant (and comparatively newly constructed) reclining Buddha, beautiful White and Red sand dunes, the Fairy Spring/Canyon, its seafood options and markets and its beachside location, perfect for kite surfing on the south-east coast.

We were picked up at 4.30am on Saturday morning by a revitalised US jeep and a group of other tourists.  

Sunrise at the White Dunes

With little communication from our driver, our jeep was off, flying northwards towards the smaller town of Mui Ne, with the beach somewhere off to our right, invisible in the darkness.  We screamed past other jeeps packed up with tourists, our driver was apparently keen to be there first.  It probably took us a little under an hour to get to the White Sand Dunes where we had to pay the entrance fee (despite paying for the tour), luckily, we had fair warning on this from a guidebook - it's certainly worth other travellers trying to confirm these sorts of details at the time of booking, so that there's no nastiness.

Meandering through the White Dunes

With few instructions, we had no idea where it would be best to see the sunrise, so we had to make it up for ourselves.  Opting to move away from the noisy 4x4's many used to explore the dunes, we found ourselves a nice place, all to ourselves, with others less keen to walk far from the dropoff point. The white dunes were definitely worth a visit, even if you have visited sane dunes elsewhere.

Kat awaiting the sunrise

Our second visit was to the Red Dunes.  Much closer to town and more popular with tourists and locals alike for that reason.  

Many more locals (and touts) at the Red Sand Dunes

Apparently the sands' colour change with the seasons, which I think is pretty incredible.  For the record, I think they're red at the moment, Kat yellow. You can sandboard at the Red Dunes if it takes your fancy. As the ride down is rather short we left it for others to enjoy, although it was interesting to see an elderly lady doing it herself, to convince us how much fun it could be.  Although the dunes appeared tame, Kat's 2011 temporary blinding-after-a-sand-board-stacking-experience in Peru is still fresh in her mind. If you had to choose between the dunes, Kat would opt for the White Sand Dunes.

Anything and everything a fisherman can unload

Our jeep also took us to a fishing village where the catch is shelled, gutted, traded or all three right there on the beach, before being thrown on the back of a motorbike and driven off to it final destination - even if the motorbike needs to drive up the cement embankment overlooking the beach.

Fishing village (with escaping motorbike, 
racing up the concrete embankment)

We were taken by the Fairy Spring, our next stop on this journey of the coast.  This is an innocuous little stream that is only 1 or 2 cm deep and you can walk up it.  While at first it just seems like a little tourist trap, after you turn a few corners, you are faced with an amazing scene of red sand combined with exposed limestone stretching away in front. It was certainly worth the minuscule entry fee. There is also a cafe that looked quite nice and you could easily spend some restful time here.

The Fairy Spring

Unfortunately Kat became sick following the tour (which finished about 11am) and spent a rather miserable 6 hours lying down in our hotel room. We had been sharing food so we had to put it down to a smoothie she had consumed the evening before. Luckily our hotel (Hai Yen Family Hotel, booked through Agoda) was very comfortable and before long Kat felt ready to jump in the sea and then spend some time in the pool. 

View from our room

There we met a large Vietnamese family that were very keen to take photos of us (some surreptitiously, and others more conspicuously) - they had rented a van to bring the whole lot of them to Phan Thiet for the weekend.

HCMC family on a weekend in Phan Thiet

Costs for things that matter:

• $US32.80 (656 000VND) for 2 return tickets HCMC-Phan Thiet
• $US5 for a xe om driver to take me to meet Ms Anh and home again
• $US21 per night - Hai Yen Family Hotel

The rest of the weekend we spent beached, eating or reading. As it turns out, I'm better at these things than I am at buying train tickets!

The Red Dunes of Mui Ne

Phu Quoc Island

After less than a week in Ho Chi Minh City we took our first mini-trip to Phu Quoc Island. Still adapting to Vietnam's heat, post-Nepali freeze, we thought it was smart to take to the water. Phu Quoc is a southern Vietnamese island that sits just below Cambodia. It is a short one hour flight from Ho Chi Minh. One of those flights were you aren't cruising for long.

As we flew into Phu Quoc, I debated whether to wake Rob up from his nap. The sea around the island looked beautiful as was lit up by many boats. I let him sleep and wake up as we hit the tarmac. (This is not as mean as it sounds. We have established the same rule goes for buses and planes, Rob would prefer the sudden jolt of landing or stiffness in his neck to being woken.) 

We chose to stay at a guesthouse listed on airbnb called The Venue. It was a good location as long as you don't mind a 400 metre walk to the beach. There were lots of food options at the end of the street and on the beach nearby. 

For a fair chunk of the weekend we beached ourselves. The island has some nice beaches,

though as always, it depends on your point of comparison. The beach closest to us did not have much of a coast but we were away from the main strip and it was peaceful. The lack of sand didn't really matter as it was too hot for us to lie in the full sun for a lot of the day and we preferred to be near the smoothies, fruit platters, spring rolls, cocktails and other delights. Reading, swimming and eating was the order of the day! That evening we enjoyed a sunset and saw my Mum's youngest brother's doppleganger. (Hi Peter if you happen to read this!)

Enjoying the beach near our guesthouse

Yoga at sunset

On our second full day at Phu Quoc we rented a motorbike from a restaurant. We were advised by their owner that under no circumstances were we to speak English, French or Vietnamese if pulled over by the police. "Pretend you don't understand anything", we were told. There have been tourist accidents in recent years on the island and the police have been cracking down on foreigners riding bikes. (Later, upon reading and thinking more on the subject we decided we probably wouldn't rent a motorbike again whilst in the country. After all, we don't ride motorbikes back home and aren't really on top of the Vietnamese road rules.) 

Anyway, on this particular day we set off with the idea that we would encounter small amounts of island traffic and if we drove safely would be okay. This turned out to be the case and we didn't spot the police anywhere. We stopped off at a cafe for a morning coffee before heading to the north-east part of the island. It took longer than we thought to get there and navigating the island wasn't quite as straight forward as we thought. Eventually we had lunch on a quiet fishing beach.

Child playing in the sand on a Northern beach

After lunch we found a bumpy dirt track that took us to a beach on the north-west side of the island. I made the ride more fun/dangerous by driving us slightly too fast at one point. Riding wasn't too comfortable but it was nice to be able to travel independently for awhile. Some of the island's resorts were on the north-west coast, perhaps positioned here more for the peace than the beach itself. We went for a nice afternoon dip before jumping back on our bike and heading south for the wet market. Though the market was interesting to see, Rob had a challenging time navigating us through the sea of motorbikes and stalls whilst suffering an overpowering stench of fish. After further wanderings we found the night market just in time for dinner. 

Something fishy in a market full of motorbikes

On our last day we journeyed to the southern beaches to spend more time reading on the beach. The beach was nice but very busy with large groups and lots of beach chairs covering the sand. (Yes, I know we are spoilt in Australia with quiet, often "untouched" beaches so this will always shade my thoughts on beaches overseas!) Towards the end of the afternoon people cleared off and it began to look like paradise! 

Reading on the beach

South-facing beach

All of a sudden everyone left!

We would recommend Phu Quoc as a great choice for a relaxing beach weekend trip from Ho Chi Minh.


Phu Quoc Costs and Tips 

Flight: AUD$346 return for two people

Accommodation: AUD$30/night for a double room at the Venue

Motorbike hire: ~70,000 dong (~AUD$4.40) for a day

Sun lounge hire: ~100,000 dong for a day (Or just got a few metres back on the sand and order a drink or some food and use their lounges. We were never made to feel like we should leave or continue to eat!)

Choosing a beach: There is something to like about most of the beaches but if you don't feel like exploring what each has to offer, we would recommend the east facing beach. If you walk a little south of the main bar and restaurant area it is both peaceful and beautiful.

General tip for Vietnam: Don't forget your passport! Everywhere in Vietnam requires your passport to register it locally and many keep it during your stay. Try not to be like us and leave it at the hotel!