Monkey Island and the Mangrove Forest

Monkey news

I went on another day trip on Friday 25th May to a place called Monkey Island with an additional trip to a mangrove forest. I wanted to go on the trip as I thought it would be cool to go to an Island called 'Monkey Island' - I wasn't that interested in the Mangrove forest and in all honestly had no idea what one was. The trip lasted the whole day and took us on a coach trip about three hours south of Ho Chi Minh City.

Mangrove Forest

I had images of getting on a little boat and going across some water to a nice tropical island that had thousands of monkeys on it, however the reality was very different. The Island was only separated from the mainland by a few meters of water which we got to by a bridge which if you looked down you'd probably not even noticed you crossed. We arrived at this place on our coach and went to this park were there were many be a few hundred monkeys. It was pretty cool feeding the monkeys and watching them try to nick peoples stuff.

Mangrove Forest

The more impressive thing was the mangrove forest. Its basically low lying land making it pure mud with trees (mangroves) growing out of it. It also has lots of muddy water ways that you can get down in a boat. We took a boat ride down these water ways through the forest to a place where the VC used to hide in the war. They spent a total of 10 years there and used to make attacks on the Americans back in HCMC.

At a VC style camp in the mangrove forest

It also used to have loads of crocodiles (which have all been relocated to a crocodile farm). The Americans didn't want to go in after the VC (I don't blame them) so as usual just bombed it instead. Lots of the VC were eaten by crocodiles. The boat ride was great fun (see the video below) and I'm told if you stay at this place that at around 7pm you'll open your mouth and be able to eat thousands of mosquitoes.

It was a nice day out and I was pleasantly surprised by the mangrove forest. 'm off to a place called Mu Nui next week with my school, ILA for an annual outing / team bonding session. It's supposed to be a nice beach place.

One year since I left England

Today is exactly one year since I left England. I can't believe it was one year ago on 17th May 2011 that my brother dropped me at Poole bus station early in the morning to get the bus to Heathrow to get a flight to Bangkok. I remember thinking to myself 'what am I doing?' as I boarded the plane. Looking back now, which I didn't realise at the time, its one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Night out on Tuesday

So much has happened in that time. I've seen a part of the world I'd never seen before, I've retrained and become good at a new career, I've met some amazing people, I've seen some amazing things and learnt a lot. Below are just some of the many many things I've learnt.

1. You can make a living from selling sugar cane - all you need is a bicycle.

2. Never underestimate how much you can carry on a motorbike.

2. Cats are just as unlikeable in Asia as they are in England.

4. I will never complain about being cold again... ever!

With some ILA friends

Seriously though I've learnt so much and I'm not in a rush to go back to England although I will try and visit at the end of year for Christmas. There are some thing I do miss, see the list below - one of them however is not true - see if you can guess what it is.

1. Family and friends.

2. Real Ale.

3. Monster Munch (roast beef flavour) and crisps in general.

4. The cold.

5. Banking.

Originally I wanted to stay a year and see how I feel..... and I've done that! I think I want to stay in Vietnam for longer. I'm still keen to work in other countries such as China, Japan, Korea and I'm keeping an eye on Brazil for 2014 but will just go with how I feel. It's nice to know I can work in most places in the world!

Below is a picture of the Bangkok skyline which I took on day one. That place used to scare me a bit but now I'm used to Asia I'd like to give it another visit.

Day one - the Bangkok skyline

Not much else has happened. I'm still having fun, I've had a hangover, the cats stayed away, darts was cancelled this week and the bees are continuing to making honey - albeit very slowly.

Vietnamese Driving Test

Yesterday I took my Vietnamese driving test and I'm happy to report I passed. However in all honesty its not the hardest test I've ever taken.

As I mentioned before it involves driving in a figure of 8 and then driving in a straight line followed by weaving in and out of some lines before finally driving over some small bumps.

The test course

The only time you can take your test is a 1pm on a Sunday, not bad for a city of 8 million people, at a centre about 20 minutes drive outside of town. There was about 80 people there and they read your name out one at a time. There was some confusion with my papers so I had to wait about 2 and a half hours to take my test which was over in about 1 minute. They have a row of 3 judges like in X-factor who mark your paper then after they read out over the tannoy if you've past or failed for everyone to hear.

Most people in Vietnam don't have a driving licence however I wanted to get mine so I am covered on my Insurance. If you get pulled over by police without a licence you have to bribe them to let you go (about 50 dollars is the going rate I'm told). So this is an additional benefit of having a licence.

I spoke to one of my friends who took his test last week who paid a $15 bribe to one of the judges to guarantee he passed his test. He thought it was good value for money so paid it although after he said he would have passed it anyway.

Not much else to report. I saw the cat the other day and chased it again - its a fast runner. I think it knows its done wrong but frankly I don't think it cares and will take great pleasure in doing it again given half a chance. We have been extra vigilant with locking both sets of doors at night so it doesn't repeat the senseless crime.

Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple

Inside the Cao Dai Temple

This week I've been on a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple which are both about 3 hours outside Ho Chi Minh City.

The trip started with a visit to the Cao Dai Temple which is home to the Cao Dai religion. Which was started in 1920. These people pray at the temple 4 times a day every day at 6am, 12pm, 6pm and 12am for about 45 minutes. This works out that they spend about 45 days a year praying. I'm not really sure what else to say on this one.

Cao Dai Temple

I got told off for forgetting to take off my hat and there was a big eye at one end of the temple like the one in Mordor. Also we all had to take off our shoes at the entrance and as there was over 150 people in the temple finding my shoes took a few minutes and as the floor was really hot from the sun you had to keep jumping to stop your feet burning. We stayed to watch about 10 minutes of the 12pm praying session before moving onto the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Giving us information on the tunnels

The Cu Chi Tunnels were pretty cool. There are over 200k of tunnels built by the VC in the war with America and we were given a tour around one of the areas and given information on the area, the tunnels and the war. I've uploaded some pretty cool videos below. We were shown a small secret escape hatch which the VC used to hit and hide the Americans, which was very small although I'm pleased to say I managed to fit into it.

Inside the tunnels

We got to go into some of the tunnels although these were specially built for tourist as its unlikely many Western people would fit into the holes as the VC were alot smaller than us. It was a great trip.

Apart from my trip, I played darts again last night and lost. Can't complain the guy was really good and I'm please to report the cats not been back to the house.

Check out the Videos below as they are pretty good.

This first video is of a secret hatch hidden in the ground. Its very well hidden and very small.

The second video is of one of the traps they set for the Americans. They used lots of different types. All of them were pretty nasty.

Phu Quoc Island........ and the cat

Ive just got back from a trip to Phu Quoc Island which is off the south west coast of Vietnam. We took a coach to the port of Rach Gia and then took a hydrofoil the 2.5 hour journey to Phu Quoc. Its a lovely Island surrounded by beaches. It's great as it's quiet with not many tourists too.

We booked into a nice resort on the Island at a place on 'long beach'. The resort was amazing with a bungalow right next to the sand.

View from the room

Its a great place to relax but also there are a number of things to see. There're a number of Islands in the south so we took a day trip to explore them and do some snorkeling and fishing before being taken to some of the other beaches on the Islands. The rest of the time we spent relaxing. There was a great night market which offered lots of local BBQ'd food, mainly fish which was all very very tasty. Sadly we could only stay for four days as I had to get back to HCMC for work.

Sunset on the beach

As you can see there was the opportunity to get some amazing sunsets in the evenings. We were lucky with the weather as it wasn't too hot but still good enough to enjoy the beach. They also did BBQ's on the beach which was a great way to watch the sun set.

The Island itself is 80% jungle which is really cool as it makes it like the place on 'lost'. I've added some video footage below.

The above video I took on the back of the bike on the way to our resort. It shows the Jungle area and the roads which weren't the best I've ever seem.

The next video is of the beach in Phu Quoc, our room was literally 30 seconds from where I took this.

Finally, this video is of food being BBQ'd at the night market. It was cheap and really really tasty. I could have happily ate there every night.

 

CAT UPDATE!!!! CAT UPDATE!!!! CAT UPDATE!!!! CAT UPDATE!!!! CAT UPDATE!!!!

Takes my mind away from the cat

Finally just to update on you on the cat situation - its not good news. It broke into our house agian the other night and did a real number on our sofa. It did a runny dump on the floor but not content with doing that it then put a cushion on top of it. It also scratched our sofa and just to put the icing on the cake it pee'd on two cushions. Sadly my decision to get up early to watch the baseball meant I discovered and therefore had to clean it up.

Pho Quoc Island from the Hydrofoil

Cleaning up mess that isn't yours isn't nice at the best of times. Cleaning up an animals mess which isn't yours and which you don't like for this very reason just fills me with rage. Due to this task taking so long I also missed the baseball which is what I got up early for in the first place.We have spoken to our landlord who is going to speak to the nightbour to see what can be done. Other options have been discussed. The most humain is glueing its bum shut.