City tour and Cu Chi Tunnels (again)

For the past two days I've taken my friends around the city. Yesterday we did a lot of walking around the city and today we went to see the Cu Chi Tunnels.

James and Sarah taking in the sights

Yesterday we visited the war museum, the reunification palace, the opera house, the financial district, ate lots of different local food and saw lots of other smaller things. The weather has been hot but they have coped very well and most of the time better than me!

James and Sarah with some Vietcon

Today we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is about a 90 minute drive north off Ho Chi Minh City. Last time I only crawled through 20 metres of tunnel as some of it was shut but today we all did the full 100 metres, it was very tiring but good fun.

Me in a Cu Chi Tunnel

Tomorrow morning we fly to Hanoi to start a 5 day trip to the capital city and Ha Long Bay. I'm looking forward to this because although I've been in Vietnam for 18 months, I've still not been to the north. Our flight is at 6am which I'm not looking forward to as it means I have to get up at 3:30am.

Friends have arrived

Their flight details

So earlier this evening I picked up my friends, James and Sarah from the airport. I only had to wait an hour which wasn't too bad.

Beanie and Sarah arriving at the airport

I managed to get them home safely and due to my small knowledge of the city and with help from the little Vietnamese I know without the taxi driver taking too much of a detour. They're staying at mine for the next few days before we fly to Hanoi. Tonight we have been for a meal (which they loved) and played darts but now its bed time before a big day of sightseeing tomorrow.

My favourite munchies

Some more good news is that they bought me a lot of my favourite munchies from England - see the picture above... Its beautiful! I told Beanie I'd give him my run down on the local munchies here at some point over the next few days. I have become a bit of a connoisseur of the Vietnamese munchies.

Friends from England

Good news! today two of my friends from England are coming to Vietnam for three weeks. James and Sarah are arriving at 6:30 tonight. I will pick them up at the airport.



My chum James (aka Beanie) with a snowman

More good news is that I have 7 days off work which I will be spending with them. The first two days I will show them the sights of the city and visit Cu Chi Tunnels. On Sunday morning we are flying to Hanoi for a few days before visiting Ha Long Bay. I will then fly back to Ho Chi Minh City whilst they will make there way over the following two weeks down Vietnam before flying back to England. It will be great to show some of my England chums around Vietnam and spend quality time with them.



Random city photo



Before James left he said he was looking forward to getting some hot weather due to the cold in England. Today its about 38 degrees and ridiculously humid, I'm giving him about 2 hours before he starts complaining and wishing for the cold again.

View from my school of the city

I'm looking forward to taking them to the local eateries that I've got used to and seeing if its a culture shock to them, like it was for me. I will also look forward to getting some new photos because, as you can see from the pics on this blog, I'm getting pretty desperate for some new ones.

Working hard and hospital visit

It been a month since I updated the blog. I seem to be getting a bit slack with the updates compaired to last year but I will try harder in the next few months to update things.

So whats been happening? Not too much. I had to visit the hospital about my knee I hurt when playing football back in January. It was a private place and a little journey outside the centre but it was good on the bike. I saw a knee specialist and had an MRI. The good news it that it should heal without surgery but I will have to rest it for a couple of months.

Lady selling stuff to tourists

A couple of my mates are coming to visit me at the end of next week and then we're going to Hanoi and Ha Long bay for a week. I'm looking forward to this as it will be good to see the north of the country. I can only take a week off work which means I'll have to do another trip as some point as theres not enough time to see it all in one week.

The weather is starting to get hotter now. Its pretty much in the late 30s every day and very humid.

Notre Dam catherdral in HCMC

Not much else to report but I'll blog before my trip next week.

Hon Tre (Bamboo Island), Vietnam

I've just got back from my TET holiday break from a place called Hon Tre. I went with some Vietnamese friends. The Island is just off the coast of south west Vietnam and not on the tourist route. Hon Tre means Bamboo Island in English.

 

The only road around the Island

 

Only about 1,000 people live on this small Island and during my trip there I was the only western person there. I don't think they get many western visitors at all as everywhere I went everyone stopped and stared at me and ever ran into their houses to bring out their families to have a stare.

 

It only take about 10  minutes to go around the only ring road on the Island on a motorbike, there are no restaurants or hotels or Internet and no one speaks English. Most people live around this road and in the middle of the Island is a big hill and jungle.

 

Trekking up the hill

 

The only things to do were to go around the one road on the Island, trek up the big hill or relax in a hammock. My kindle came in very useful!

 

We trekked up the big hill one day which was very hot and sweaty but gave a great view of the Island. There is so much fruit that grows here, Mangos, bananas, pineapples, dragon fruits, star fruits, jack fruits, all of which we were picking off the trees and eating. It was good to see how people live and really eat off the land. The only other food was seafood which obviously they catch themselves.

 

View from my room with offerings to Buddha

 

My bedroom was nice and had a great view of the sea. I needed a mosquito net for sleeping and could hear the sea all night which was lovely. It was a nice relaxing holiday. One thing that was strange was that the Island had a speaker system set up all around the road on the Island, one was outside my bedroom. Every day they broadcast the news with various communist information with stuff about what great things the government are doing and how lucky everyone is. There are also a few communisit tunes too. Sadly this came on a 5am every morning! Yes, 5am! I was still pitch black, was really loud and went on for an hour. As there was no Internet I was hoping they'd have the football results but they didn't even have them.

 

You can see the 5am speaker in the middle of the picture.

 

On the last day I looked out my bedroom window and saw some poor chaps boat had sank (see the picture) They were trying to fix it or rescue stuff from it, I felt sorry for the man but watching it killed an hour or so.

 

Sinking boat

Below are a couple of videos I took when on the Island, onw is on the back of a bike and the other is up the big hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TET Holiday, Vietnam

I've now finished work until a week on Friday because of the Vietnamese holiday of TET. Tomorrow I am taking a night busy to Rach Gia on the south west coast of Vietnam where I will take a ferry to a place called 'Bamboo Island' where I will be for the next 6 days. Its supposed to be very remote (no internet access) whith not much to do except relax. I shall get some photos for the blog when I'm back.

 

As its TET they sell lots and lots of flowers in the park. I went and looked at some today and they were very nice. It did present a good opportunity for taking pictures with people getting them home on bikes so below is a load of photos I took this morning for people carrying stuff on bikes.

Tall flowers on the back of a bike

 

Flower delivery man

Traditional bike threesome with flowers

No room on the bike so this box is on the womans head

 

Check out this guy - paper for the office??

 







Nearly time for TET

I'm well back into the swing of working. I've got lots of classes at my school and I'm busy. At the end of this week however is the Vietnamese holiday of TET which is a bit like their Christmas where they also celebrate the Chinese new year. This means my school will be closed to 6 days!!!!

 

My school logo viewed from our teachers room balcony

 

During this time I'm going to a very small Vietnamese Island to the south west of Vietnam. There won't be much to do except relax. I'm going with some Vietnamese people and not may western people have been to this Island. I'm also told I maybe the first Englishman to visit the Island.... I'm not sure if this is true though.

 

The post office, a nice building and also a tourist attraction

 

I'll try and get a picture of the Island. I looked on google maps but it doesn't even show it on there so it must be pretty remote.