If I would have written this post 7 days ago it would have probably been titled "I Hate Tours" and while I am still not a fan the people and our tour guide made the 6 day trip end better than it started. I don't think there was anything necessarily wrong with Intrepid (although I will have my issues with them, especially the first 3 days), but for me tours just aren't the kind of traveling I like to do. I have had a lot of time to think about it and between the issues we had in Asia and the first of our thee here in Africa I think it really boils down to two things for me. 1.) You're on someone elses schedule the whole time. Seriously what's the point of traveling if someone is going to tell you you get 20 min to do this or meet back 60 min from now. It just sucks to have the entire trip dictated to you based on some companies timeline. In the end what you realize is that they just don't have the incentive to have you in their best interest. They are looking to get as much money out of you and get you from point A to B in the shortest amount of time. 2.) You are don't get that "oh shit" feeling. You never get to make a mistake or feel vulnerable or uncomfortable. You basically feel like a kid on a 6th grade field trip. You don't get to make mistakes or be out on your own and meet people and in the end that is half the fun of traveling.
That said it is great to be back in Africa and traveling over land is the only way to do it. When you fly it is convenient, but you just miss too much of the good stuff. The other cool thing is that being back has brought a lot of fond memories back of Makapansgat and the time I spent here 5 years ago. I really do think I appreciate how unique the experience was now more than ever. It just is something you can't duplicate. Seriously being in Makapan was totally different than this trip and I doubt no matter how hard I try I will never get to live in a valley in South Africa for two months. I am not saying this one will not be equally as great. I think there is a lot left to do here and I am pretty sure the next 35 days we have here driving across Africa will yield there own unique experiences.
Now that that stuff is out of the way I guess I should try and summarize what we have been up to. I will do my best to keep it short, but 10 days is a long time not to blog. Also we have been taking readings with Mr. Matt's gps. I don't have it with me, but I will try to post the coordinates for each of our camps so that you can go to google maps and see where we are.
Day 1 (August 7th) Departure
After going back and forth across town the night before to the tune of 120 bucks we figured out a way to meet our tour group closer to our hotel. When we arrived at the meeting point there was another group leaving the hostel. They had a huge overland truck and there were about 4 "hot" chics boarding the thing (they were Africa hot, which in the end probably meant nothing to write home about, but it was a shock to see anything resembling a girl boarding the thing). The guide asked if we were on her trip and while tempted to say yes we told her we were waiting for another group. Our ride showed up about an hour later and to our surprise was nothing like the fully geared out truck the other group had. Our ride for the next 6 days looked like an airport shuttle bus with a trailer. You know the kind that carts you from the economy lot to main terminal. All in all we had 14 people on the damn thing not including our guide and the trailer was not big enough to fit all the gear so the entire back row was full of bags.
Once we loaded our stuff up we set out and not an hour into the ride we had a flat on the trailer. It took about 20 min to change and then we were back on the bus. From there we drove another 2 hours or so and then stopped for lunch. Our guide ( his name is Garland) gave one of the group members 400 rand and told us to all go eat together while he shopped for dinner. It worked out ok I guess, but giving 14 strangers money and telling them to just go work it out on their own is a little crappy. After wasting an hour and a half in town we got on the bus and I swear not 20 min later we stopped for gas. At this point I was pretty much pissed. Seriously how does the driver sit around for an 1.5 hrs and not get gas. After filling up we pressed on and shortly after that blew out another tire. Yup two in 3 hours. Obviously the bus we were on was not built for this. I won't go into too much more detail as the trip pretty much went like this all damn day. In addition to all the technical issues we drove 180km out of our way to spend 20 min at the Blyre River Canyon (3rd largest in the world) Honestly, who drives 3 hours out of their way if they are only going to give you 20 min to walk around. On the way back from the canyon the breaks over heated on our way down a mountain on the way to Kruger and we had to stop again. To put it in perspective driving to Kruger from Jo'burg in a straight shot takes about 3.5 hours. In our case we spent 11 hours in a damn van on day one and missed Kruger by an hour. We did not realize it then, but this would cost us our night game drive and possibly an extra hour or two to see animals inside Kruger. About the only thing that went in our favor is we did not camp on night one. Since we missed Kruger we had to stay in a private game lodge outside the park.
Day 2 Kruger
This was probably the low point for me of the trip. We got up at 5:00 am again to depart at 5:30am so that we could stay on schedule and get to Kruger as early as possible. Day 2 was suppose to be our game drive through Kruger Park. Having been there before I was pretty excited to go out there again and get a shot at seeing a leopard and the rest of the big 5. Unfortunately for me Intrepid viewed the "game drive" as a way to add something to our tour while driving 80km an hour down only the main road to the northern most campsite in the park. Seriously our driver would have to slam on the breaks and back up a good 100-200 yards every time we saw something. Seriously having spent 4 days in Kruger in 2002 I knew this was not the way to see anything and as the day went on it just got worse and worse. By the time we got to camp we had seen the usual stuff, but had failed to see lions, leopards, or rhinos. We thought we might get a shot at a night game drive when we got to camp, but our tour leader shot that down quickly saying they would not come out to pick us up at our camp site for the night drive. I have no idea why he could not drive us back to the main lodge himself, but we got the impression it was just not going to happen. After setting up camp we ate and everyone pretty much went to bed having spent another 10 hours in our shitty bus.
Day 3 Road to Polokwane
It was another 4:45am wake up for us on day 3. After packing up we piled into the bus for a 3 hour drive through Kruger and then another 4 to Polokwane. On the way out of Kruger we actually came upon a huge group of people who had seen a big cat in the tall grass. They were all stopped and waiting for it to re-emerge. So what do we do, we stop for 5 min and then roll on slowly so that we could make it to Polokwane by 2pm. I guess that is just how it is in the end. Your experience comes second to the schedule, even when you have a real shot at sitting for 20 min and seeing a big cat. Honestly, I saw a lion just about every damn day the last time I was in Kruger and with Intrepid we saw none. I know there is a lot of luck in seeing game, but there is a certain patience to it as well and our guide had none. We left Kruger around 10am and continued on to Polokwane. We got dumped in a shopping mall for an hour while our guide shopped again. I get that he had to shop, but he could at least take us into a town where we could get on the internet or look around instead of leaving us at a strip mall. From there we went to camp, set up and ate lunch. We probably sat around camp for 3 hours waiting for our bus to come back from getting new tires. Clearly after day 1 it needed it. We did a late evening game drive in a private park to see rhinos. Of course we did not see any, but I will say our group was the best group of shadow and rock spotters I have ever seen. The night ended with dinner and another early turn in since we had another 4:45am wake up call
Day 4 Road to Nata
According to our guide this was our first official long drive day. I am not sure what he considered the other 3, but that was the way he described day 4. We left camp at 6am and the day was pretty much all driving. About the only cool thing that happened was we stopped in a small village on the side of the road to visit with the people who lived there. It was pretty cool to see all the kids running around and take their pictures and show it to them. They really got a kick out of seeing themselves. Chris showed them some of the video's we had from Asia, but none of them were as big of a hit as the video he took of all of them and their village. They literally burst out laughing as each one of them appeared on the screen. From there we made the rest of our trip to Nata. The roads were complete crap and covered in pot holes. It really is hard to describe, but we probably average about 30 miles an hour for a good stretch. In the end the drive took about 8 hours. At camp that night there was a bar at the place we were camping and everyone took some time to unwind after 4 straight days on the bus. I have to say this was probably the turning point for the group. Everyone began to open up at this point and the group began to gel a little bit. Everyone stayed up a little bit later that night since we were getting a reprieve the next day. Chobi was only 5 hours away and we did not have to leave till 8am the next day.
Day 5 Chobi
We got up late on day 5 and made the 5 hour drive across pot hole covered roads to Chobi. We set up camp and got a chance to order a customized t-shirt for our trip that we would pick up in Livingstone. They turned out pretty cool and show our entire trip from Jo'burg all the way to Nairobi. That evening in Chobi we got to go on a sunset river cruise. This was clearly the highlight of the trip and really raised everyone's spirits. It really reminded me of how cool it is to be traveling in Africa. We boated for about 2 hours and got within 10 ft of some of the animals on the banks. We saw everything, but big cats and at one point could see 7-8 different species of animals all in one place. The whole trip Chris snapped photos with the SLR like a National Geographic photographer. I must admit there are some cool shots. I wish the internet did not suck so bad here so we could put some of them up. After the cruise we went back to camp and lucky for us our guide had arranged a dinner at the lodge so we did not have to cook at camp. We all ate and then went to the bar again. I think everyone was finally having a good time. Too bad the trip was set to end the next day when we got to Livingstone.
Day 6 Livingstone and Victoria Falls
We got to get up late again and made the boarder crossing around 10am. It really was like something you see out of a movie. Once we finished border formalities we had to get on a small ferry that could carry one big truck at a time and then a bunch of people. Our guide arranged for us to meet up with another guy who lives in Zambia so he could take us to the falls while our guide and driver waited to get the bus across. It was a short ride across the Zambezi, but it was pretty crazy. The boarder was packed and people were sitting all over the place with huge bags of stuff. Once we got across we were taken by some our new crazy guide to Victoria Falls. Seriously it was some British expat who had lived there for 20 years, looked like he had not bathed in weeks, and was missing his front teeth. He drove us in a 1968 British double decker bus to the falls blaring the Beetles all the way. He was unique if nothing else. It was about an hour ride and we spent about another hour and a half at the falls. They were pretty impressive, although I must say I was expecting more. After the falls we headed back to Livingstone. We checked into our hotel quickly and then met the group for a booze cruise (35 usd for dinner and free drinks). The cruise lasted about 2 hours and then we spent the rest of the night till around 11 hanging out with everyone. After that we set out to walk back to our hotel, which was only about 10 min away. On the way out the guard said to be careful. Of course we asked of what people and he said no elephants. We both smiled to ourselves as we walked out the gate. Seriously elephants, watch out for elephants.... we must be in Africa
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Turn for home
After spending an entire afternoon in Singapore homeless we headed for the airport around 9pm for our 2am flight. The train ride took about 40 minutes so we were there in plenty of time. Usually that would be a bad thing since waiting in airports is pretty miserable, but no tin Singapore. I mean this place was like a small city and after you went through security everything was open until 1am or something ridiculous like that. I mean there was the usual duty free stores, an entire mall, free internet, 24hour dinning, an entertainment zone with a movie theater, online games and xbox's. If I would have know the airport was like that I would have gone there as soon as we checked out. After about 4 hours of hanging around we boarded the flight to Joahannesburg eager to get some sleep.
We arrived in Johannesburg on Singapore Airlines, which once again was awesome. I promise I won't say anymore about it, but Singapore Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown. We made it through customs pretty quick and headed to meet up with our ride to the Hyatt. Of course the guy was no where to be found and after looking around we finally found someone who was from the Hyatt who was there to pick someone else up. He called and they had no record of us needing a ride so we were basically SOL. Got to love Africa. Not off the plane 45 min and we were already having our first Africa moment. We finally got a cab and got to the hotel around 9am. The ride was a little interesting. All the walled in homes and barb wire always look strange to me. Between that and the ADT security signs all over the place that say "armed guard response" you would think we are in a war zone. We checked in to the Hyatt around 9am and after about an hour wait our room was ready. Not much else happened that day. We eventually ventured out to find the mall. Ironically it was Rosebank mall, which is where they always brought us the last time I was here with ASU.
The next day we spent more time walking around the area and trying to get a hotel in Livingstone. Honestly trying to find a hotel in Livingstone has been horrible. Aside from it being a busy time of year, just about everything there is a resort and costs 400 USD a night. Not really in our budget. We finally gave in after trying the internet, STA and a few other places and decided to go with a company we had contacted from Vietnam. It wasn't cheap, but we could not see ourselves going to Livingstone without a reservation. That night we hired a cab for about 100 USD to take us out to pay the travel agent and go to the Carnivore restaurant. It ended up being a really good night and the game meat at the Carnivore was delicious.
The next day we spent getting things organized for our trip and doing a little shopping. We decided to do as much of our big shopping in Jo'burg so that we could ship it before we left on our trip. The market in Rosebank was pretty cool and both of us got a good amount of stuff. after we were done shopping we headed to the Post Net shop across the parking lot to ship our stuff. Of course it cost a ridiculous amount to ship the box. It probably cost more to ship the damn, box than the stuff inside cost us, but it is always nice to lighten the load and not carry a ton of crap around. Once we had everything shipped we had to catch another cab across town to meet our Intrepid group. The place was impossible to find and our driver had no idea where to go. It took about 1.5hrs to find the place and it was a lucky find since the sign was not lit at all. We paid our on ground fee of 280 bucks to Intrepid then hopped back in the car to head home. The round trip once again cost us another 100 bucks. I swear the lack of public transportation is a killer in Africa. All said we probably spent 300 dollars just on taxi's in our 3 days in Jo'burg. The only good thing that came out of the night is that we arranged for Intrepid to pick us up closer to our hotel the next day. Once we got back to the Hyatt we pretty much went to bed. We had a 5:30am get up and we were both pretty beat.
We arrived in Johannesburg on Singapore Airlines, which once again was awesome. I promise I won't say anymore about it, but Singapore Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown. We made it through customs pretty quick and headed to meet up with our ride to the Hyatt. Of course the guy was no where to be found and after looking around we finally found someone who was from the Hyatt who was there to pick someone else up. He called and they had no record of us needing a ride so we were basically SOL. Got to love Africa. Not off the plane 45 min and we were already having our first Africa moment. We finally got a cab and got to the hotel around 9am. The ride was a little interesting. All the walled in homes and barb wire always look strange to me. Between that and the ADT security signs all over the place that say "armed guard response" you would think we are in a war zone. We checked in to the Hyatt around 9am and after about an hour wait our room was ready. Not much else happened that day. We eventually ventured out to find the mall. Ironically it was Rosebank mall, which is where they always brought us the last time I was here with ASU.
The next day we spent more time walking around the area and trying to get a hotel in Livingstone. Honestly trying to find a hotel in Livingstone has been horrible. Aside from it being a busy time of year, just about everything there is a resort and costs 400 USD a night. Not really in our budget. We finally gave in after trying the internet, STA and a few other places and decided to go with a company we had contacted from Vietnam. It wasn't cheap, but we could not see ourselves going to Livingstone without a reservation. That night we hired a cab for about 100 USD to take us out to pay the travel agent and go to the Carnivore restaurant. It ended up being a really good night and the game meat at the Carnivore was delicious.
The next day we spent getting things organized for our trip and doing a little shopping. We decided to do as much of our big shopping in Jo'burg so that we could ship it before we left on our trip. The market in Rosebank was pretty cool and both of us got a good amount of stuff. after we were done shopping we headed to the Post Net shop across the parking lot to ship our stuff. Of course it cost a ridiculous amount to ship the box. It probably cost more to ship the damn, box than the stuff inside cost us, but it is always nice to lighten the load and not carry a ton of crap around. Once we had everything shipped we had to catch another cab across town to meet our Intrepid group. The place was impossible to find and our driver had no idea where to go. It took about 1.5hrs to find the place and it was a lucky find since the sign was not lit at all. We paid our on ground fee of 280 bucks to Intrepid then hopped back in the car to head home. The round trip once again cost us another 100 bucks. I swear the lack of public transportation is a killer in Africa. All said we probably spent 300 dollars just on taxi's in our 3 days in Jo'burg. The only good thing that came out of the night is that we arranged for Intrepid to pick us up closer to our hotel the next day. Once we got back to the Hyatt we pretty much went to bed. We had a 5:30am get up and we were both pretty beat.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Is this Heaven....... no it's Singapore
We arrived in Singapore yesterday via Singapore Airlines around 5pm and I have to say Singapore Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown... hands down. I had heard rumors it was nice, but it was ridiculously nice for an economy ticket. Maybe we just got lucky because we were on a newer 777, but the seats were wider than usual, I had at least 6 more inches of leg room than I could use (that never happens), the seats had lumbar and recline controls, and best of all we had in-headrest TV's. We both fired up Kung Fu Panda, which was pretty crappy, and kicked back to enjoy our 2 hour flight. I can only hope our 11 hour flight to South Africa will have all the same amenities.
Overall Singapore has been exactly what we needed even if we didn't know we needed it. I think we both were expecting another Hong Kong. Nothing against Hong Kong, but it is still distinctly Chinese, while Singapore is very modern and very diverse city. Honestly, after traveling across the developing world for 2 months, Singapore feels like heaven. I know traveling is all about the adventure and culture shock, but every once and awhile it is nice to take a time out. I swear when we ate at Burger King I almost shed a tear... I got to order it my way; I did not have to pick off anything and that is a first since we left home. After eating we went to see the new Batman at 12am. It was pretty decent and is about a thousand times better than the last one. It was about 3am by then so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
I don't envision us doing much of anything, but relaxing and enjoying the city and all its conveniences. I imagine we will stock up on books, mail another box of souvenir crap and get ready to head to Africa on Monday.
FYI New Pictures are up from Thailand up to Singapore
Overall Singapore has been exactly what we needed even if we didn't know we needed it. I think we both were expecting another Hong Kong. Nothing against Hong Kong, but it is still distinctly Chinese, while Singapore is very modern and very diverse city. Honestly, after traveling across the developing world for 2 months, Singapore feels like heaven. I know traveling is all about the adventure and culture shock, but every once and awhile it is nice to take a time out. I swear when we ate at Burger King I almost shed a tear... I got to order it my way; I did not have to pick off anything and that is a first since we left home. After eating we went to see the new Batman at 12am. It was pretty decent and is about a thousand times better than the last one. It was about 3am by then so we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.
I don't envision us doing much of anything, but relaxing and enjoying the city and all its conveniences. I imagine we will stock up on books, mail another box of souvenir crap and get ready to head to Africa on Monday.
FYI New Pictures are up from Thailand up to Singapore
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Vodka buckets for the lose
After a good day of touring temples, on our first day, our second day got started a little slower... actually a lot slower...
Once we had finished our first day of touring we had our guide drop us off down near all the bars and restaurants so that we could get dinner. We ate at the same place as we did the night before since it had decent food and we were starving. It was around 9:00pm or so when we finished and we decided to stop into another place and get a drink to relax... that was our first mistake. Our second mistake came when we read that if you buy any two buckets of alcohol (not beer) you get a free t-shirt (The t-shirt has the name of the place on it and in quotes says "promoting irresponsible drinking since 1998"). Nothing like a good deal on alcohol and t-shirts to get us going. I am not sure what we were thinking, but Chris ordered red bull and vodka and I ordered vodka and tonic. When the drinks came we got our t-shirt.. and our "buckets." They were literally buckets with about 6 straws so you can share with friends. You know the kind you get for the whole table at Howl at the Moon. So we did the only thing you could do, we drank them. And when we finished them we did the only other thing you could naturally do. I mean there are two of us and we only had one t-shirt. So yup another round of the same.. At this point the place was getting going pretty good. People were stopping off at our table. Who knows how many people we talked to or met. Then Chris started dancing... never a good sign (remember Vegas..) We finished the second two buckets and I thought we were done, but then out of the corner of my eye I see Chris ordering another round. Two more buckets.. one more t-shirt. The night did not get much better than that. Chris kept dancing and we kept talking to people. It was pretty crazy. About halfway through the third we finally did something smart and called it a night.
Once home we made another stupid decision to drunk dial Melissa. Most expensive drunk dial ever and I apologize in advance for anything we said. Honestly, I have no idea what we said, but I am sure it was not that good of a conversation. All I really know is the night ended with Chris blacking out and me forcing myself to puke before doing the same.
The next morning.. or should I say afternoon was not pretty. I felt pretty good, but Chris was screwed. I guess puking the night before helped me out more than I thought. Around 1pm we were up and I went out to let our tuc tuc driver know we would not be able to make 1pm and asked if he was cool with 2:30. He said it was no problem.. of course he would we were going to pay him the same no matter what time we got out there. After a crappy lunch I finally convinced Chris to get moving. We met up with the driver at 2:30 like we agreed and headed to Angkor Wat and a few of the other larger temples. On the way it started to pour, which in the end was a blessing since it kept both the dust and temperature down. When we got to Angkor Wat it was raining pretty good and we had to buy two ponchos from a mob of kids that rushed our tuc tuc as soon as we stopped. The ponchos sucked. The arms on it were way to short and as usual it only covered down to the top of my pants. Other than that Angkor Wat was pretty impressive. Not sure what else to say than that. After Angkor Wat we saw a few more temples that were not as heavily restored. I think I liked them best since one was in the middle of the jungle and had trees growing out of it.
By then it was 5:30 and the temples were closing so we jumped in the tuc tuc and headed back to town. It was a pretty slow night after that. Neither of us had any interest in drinking and we were still pretty beat from the night before so we just ate dinner and headed back to the room.
We got up today around 10am to catch our flight. About the only surprise was the fact we had to pay a 25 dollar exit fee to leave Cambodia. Not sure how we missed that one, but it sucked. Good thing we had USD on us since that is all they would take. The flight was short and we got back to Saigon around 4pm. We leave tomorrow for Singapore and then head to Africa on the 3rd.
Once we had finished our first day of touring we had our guide drop us off down near all the bars and restaurants so that we could get dinner. We ate at the same place as we did the night before since it had decent food and we were starving. It was around 9:00pm or so when we finished and we decided to stop into another place and get a drink to relax... that was our first mistake. Our second mistake came when we read that if you buy any two buckets of alcohol (not beer) you get a free t-shirt (The t-shirt has the name of the place on it and in quotes says "promoting irresponsible drinking since 1998"). Nothing like a good deal on alcohol and t-shirts to get us going. I am not sure what we were thinking, but Chris ordered red bull and vodka and I ordered vodka and tonic. When the drinks came we got our t-shirt.. and our "buckets." They were literally buckets with about 6 straws so you can share with friends. You know the kind you get for the whole table at Howl at the Moon. So we did the only thing you could do, we drank them. And when we finished them we did the only other thing you could naturally do. I mean there are two of us and we only had one t-shirt. So yup another round of the same.. At this point the place was getting going pretty good. People were stopping off at our table. Who knows how many people we talked to or met. Then Chris started dancing... never a good sign (remember Vegas..) We finished the second two buckets and I thought we were done, but then out of the corner of my eye I see Chris ordering another round. Two more buckets.. one more t-shirt. The night did not get much better than that. Chris kept dancing and we kept talking to people. It was pretty crazy. About halfway through the third we finally did something smart and called it a night.
Once home we made another stupid decision to drunk dial Melissa. Most expensive drunk dial ever and I apologize in advance for anything we said. Honestly, I have no idea what we said, but I am sure it was not that good of a conversation. All I really know is the night ended with Chris blacking out and me forcing myself to puke before doing the same.
The next morning.. or should I say afternoon was not pretty. I felt pretty good, but Chris was screwed. I guess puking the night before helped me out more than I thought. Around 1pm we were up and I went out to let our tuc tuc driver know we would not be able to make 1pm and asked if he was cool with 2:30. He said it was no problem.. of course he would we were going to pay him the same no matter what time we got out there. After a crappy lunch I finally convinced Chris to get moving. We met up with the driver at 2:30 like we agreed and headed to Angkor Wat and a few of the other larger temples. On the way it started to pour, which in the end was a blessing since it kept both the dust and temperature down. When we got to Angkor Wat it was raining pretty good and we had to buy two ponchos from a mob of kids that rushed our tuc tuc as soon as we stopped. The ponchos sucked. The arms on it were way to short and as usual it only covered down to the top of my pants. Other than that Angkor Wat was pretty impressive. Not sure what else to say than that. After Angkor Wat we saw a few more temples that were not as heavily restored. I think I liked them best since one was in the middle of the jungle and had trees growing out of it.
By then it was 5:30 and the temples were closing so we jumped in the tuc tuc and headed back to town. It was a pretty slow night after that. Neither of us had any interest in drinking and we were still pretty beat from the night before so we just ate dinner and headed back to the room.
We got up today around 10am to catch our flight. About the only surprise was the fact we had to pay a 25 dollar exit fee to leave Cambodia. Not sure how we missed that one, but it sucked. Good thing we had USD on us since that is all they would take. The flight was short and we got back to Saigon around 4pm. We leave tomorrow for Singapore and then head to Africa on the 3rd.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
American Killer Hero
We arrived in Cambodia yesterday and after figuring out a few logistic issues (finding a new place to stay since the first one sucked) we settled in and have been having a pretty good time. Something about Siem Reap just seems more manageable and your not at the mercy of the hotel or some tourism company. However, before I get into the details about our time here in Cambodia I should probably go back to our last day in Saigon, which we spent getting screwed by yet another tour.
We set up the tour through our hotel with one of the local companies to go out and see the Cu CHi tunnels, which were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. The tour ended up being the second worse yet.. a very close second and is probably only second because it cost 6 bucks instead of the 40 bucks it cost in Thailand to ride elephants in a circle around tortured monkeys in 98 degree heat. The tour had a lot of the usual crap you get on a tour and honestly I could have tolerated the 4 hours of anti American rhetoric; we were in Vietnam and we were going to a Viet Cong site so it goes without saying. I probably could have even tolerated the fact that the trip had hidden costs (the tickets to get in cost 10,000 dong more than advertised) and we stopped at a local handicapped craft factory on the way out to the tunnels to get ripped off. Hell, I probably should have even expected those since I have yet to go on a tour that has not had a hidden cost and that has not stopped us at some local factory that tries to rip you off selling cheap goods. I let the factory stop get me twice in China, I will be damned if I ever buy anything on another tour again. Honestly, all of those things would have made it just another tour in Asia. What really put this trip over the top was the fact that we spent 5.5 hours out of the 7 hour tour on the damn bus ( 30 minutes went to the handicap handcraft factory). Yup, we basically paid 6 bucks for a round trip bus ticket from Saigon to Cu Chi. The first 3 hours were the worst. We spent them listening to a bitter old man grumble through a microphone, which made it sound like he was screaming, about how he got the shaft during and after the war. I am not saying he did not have anything to be pissed off about. He had driven swift boats for the U.S and after he chose to stay at the end of the war had ended up in a government prison for 4 years. I am sure it sucked, but I really did not want to hear about it at 8 o'clock in the morning. In addition he contradicted himself constantly and was sure to tell us that all Americans are arrogant and everything written about the war was bullshit. After 3 non stop hours of this and a short stop at the handicapped factory we finally arrived at the actual site we paid to see. It cost roughly 5 bucks each to get in ( not included in the tour) and we had about an hour to see it. Honestly, the hour was probably more than enough, there was not all that much to see. The tour started with a nice short 1960's propaganda film about the evil American empire. I think I counted the words "American killer hero" and "killing Americans" about 300 times in the 15 min film. It was so over the top that everyone on the tour could hardly keep a straight face.. even the Europeans. Once we had our fill of that the group split and thankfully we got a new tour guide. Best part about the guy is he did not talk much and even made fun of the other tour guide for talking about himself all the time.
From there we made quick work of the rest of the place and after a short break to shoot some automatic weapons we headed for the grand finally, a chance to crawl through the tunnels. Lets just say at 6'3 it was no small feet to get into a tunnel that came up to Chris's waste and were designed for 5ft Vietnamese people. I tried to video it best I could, but it was way to dark. The tunnel ran 100 meters, but you could get out every 15... of course we got out after the first 15. I figure once you have seen one tunnel you have seen them all and I had no desire to crawl another 85 meters sweating my ass off. After that it was back to the bus, where else, and we headed back for Saigon. This time we were free of our favorite tour guide, but not of annoyances. I had not noticed it earlier, probably because the old guy never shut up, but our bus driver loved his horn. It is common practice to honk as you pass hear in Asia, but this guy just laid it on every time we got close to another car or motorbike and since there were motorbikes about every 15-20 seconds the honking basically never stopped. It was great.. a nice 2 hour ride listening to the horn non stop. Finally, back in Saigon we got the last surprise. We were picked up at the hotel, but apparently our 6 dollars did not buy drop off service so everyone on the bus was just dropped in the park near the hotel. I swear if I can avoid it I will never take another tour. They suck. Even the best ones make you conform to someone else
schedule and the worst ones make you feel stuck while you spend most of your day looking at your watch wishing it was over. Honestly, the real issue here is the tour companies know they have you and there is nothing you can do if you actually want to see the sites. Very few things are in the actual city and unless you know the language or have a means of transportation you have to go through them. Thus you get 6 hours of shit to see the one thing you paid to see.
After the torture finally ended we grabbed some dinner. It ended up just being one of those days since the food sucked, the waitress got Chris's order wrong, and then finished it off by trying to over charge us by two meals. I was pretty much at the end of my rope by then when on the way home we ran into the two Aussie guys (David and James) we met on our Ha Long Bay boat trip. I know my first impression was not the best, but they ended up being pretty nice guys and we grabbed a drink with them for about an hour. We exchanged some stories and warned them against a few of the tours. We also made plans to try and meet up with David in Nairobi. He is doing some internship there for 6 months and should be there when we get there. After we finished up there we headed back to the hotel to just relax. It had been a pretty shit day and the next day we had to fly out to Cambodia.
Yesterday we got up and headed for the airport around 1:30. No real rough spots other than the plane we flew on was a prop plane not a jet. We got to Siem Reap (Cambodia) around 5pm I think. Our hotel pickup never materialized so we had to pay for a taxi. The taxi driver tried to convince us the hotel we were going to was not good, but we thought he was trying to scam us so we ignored him and told him to just drop us off. That ended up being our first mistake. The hotel was awful. They managed their reservations by a white board and while Chris was checking in the clerk had some guy head up to our room with an AC remote and a can of raid. The rooms ended up being disgusting with mold and dirty sheets. You could see where he had sprayed the raid in the bathroom and washed everything down the drain. At that point we made the decision to get the hell out of there. We left our stuff behind and headed for an internet cafe. Once we found a hotel we grabbed a tuc tuc driver and explained we needed him to drive us across town, then back to the hotel and then back to our new hotel. He ended up being a pretty nice guy and got us where we needed to go. The only real loss is the new hotel is fairly costly and we had to give the other place 10 bucks for the 4 hours we did not use the room. In the end I am not sure what we were thinking checking into the other place. With the going rate here around 25 bucks a night, we were paying 10, they were going to pick us up for free, and when we got there no one else was staying there.
We grabbed some food after that and made a deal with our tuc tuc driver to take us around the next day to some of the sites. He had helped us out and had been pretty honest with his price earlier so we figured he would be a good choice to take us around.
It has ended up working out pretty good and we paid him 20 bucks to drive us around all day today. We saw the land mine museum and several of the smaller temples today and he will pick us up tomorrow around 1pm so that we can do the sunset tour at Angkor Wat, which is one of the larger temples here. The land mine museum was not much to write home about, but it seems to be a good cause trying to clear the mines here in Cambodia. After 20 years of war they estimate millions of landmines are all over the country. The temples were really cool... finally. They were actual ancient ruins.. not something where the paint was still wet from being rebuilt 30 years ago like most of the palaces and temples we have seen here in Asia.
I must say Cambodia has been quite refreshing after Thailand and Vietnam. Not to take anything away from those places, but everything here is just more relaxed and manageable. That and you can get your own driver to take you anywhere you want on your schedule. Overall it was a pretty good day and I am actually excited about seeing the larger ruins tomorrow.
We set up the tour through our hotel with one of the local companies to go out and see the Cu CHi tunnels, which were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. The tour ended up being the second worse yet.. a very close second and is probably only second because it cost 6 bucks instead of the 40 bucks it cost in Thailand to ride elephants in a circle around tortured monkeys in 98 degree heat. The tour had a lot of the usual crap you get on a tour and honestly I could have tolerated the 4 hours of anti American rhetoric; we were in Vietnam and we were going to a Viet Cong site so it goes without saying. I probably could have even tolerated the fact that the trip had hidden costs (the tickets to get in cost 10,000 dong more than advertised) and we stopped at a local handicapped craft factory on the way out to the tunnels to get ripped off. Hell, I probably should have even expected those since I have yet to go on a tour that has not had a hidden cost and that has not stopped us at some local factory that tries to rip you off selling cheap goods. I let the factory stop get me twice in China, I will be damned if I ever buy anything on another tour again. Honestly, all of those things would have made it just another tour in Asia. What really put this trip over the top was the fact that we spent 5.5 hours out of the 7 hour tour on the damn bus ( 30 minutes went to the handicap handcraft factory). Yup, we basically paid 6 bucks for a round trip bus ticket from Saigon to Cu Chi. The first 3 hours were the worst. We spent them listening to a bitter old man grumble through a microphone, which made it sound like he was screaming, about how he got the shaft during and after the war. I am not saying he did not have anything to be pissed off about. He had driven swift boats for the U.S and after he chose to stay at the end of the war had ended up in a government prison for 4 years. I am sure it sucked, but I really did not want to hear about it at 8 o'clock in the morning. In addition he contradicted himself constantly and was sure to tell us that all Americans are arrogant and everything written about the war was bullshit. After 3 non stop hours of this and a short stop at the handicapped factory we finally arrived at the actual site we paid to see. It cost roughly 5 bucks each to get in ( not included in the tour) and we had about an hour to see it. Honestly, the hour was probably more than enough, there was not all that much to see. The tour started with a nice short 1960's propaganda film about the evil American empire. I think I counted the words "American killer hero" and "killing Americans" about 300 times in the 15 min film. It was so over the top that everyone on the tour could hardly keep a straight face.. even the Europeans. Once we had our fill of that the group split and thankfully we got a new tour guide. Best part about the guy is he did not talk much and even made fun of the other tour guide for talking about himself all the time.
From there we made quick work of the rest of the place and after a short break to shoot some automatic weapons we headed for the grand finally, a chance to crawl through the tunnels. Lets just say at 6'3 it was no small feet to get into a tunnel that came up to Chris's waste and were designed for 5ft Vietnamese people. I tried to video it best I could, but it was way to dark. The tunnel ran 100 meters, but you could get out every 15... of course we got out after the first 15. I figure once you have seen one tunnel you have seen them all and I had no desire to crawl another 85 meters sweating my ass off. After that it was back to the bus, where else, and we headed back for Saigon. This time we were free of our favorite tour guide, but not of annoyances. I had not noticed it earlier, probably because the old guy never shut up, but our bus driver loved his horn. It is common practice to honk as you pass hear in Asia, but this guy just laid it on every time we got close to another car or motorbike and since there were motorbikes about every 15-20 seconds the honking basically never stopped. It was great.. a nice 2 hour ride listening to the horn non stop. Finally, back in Saigon we got the last surprise. We were picked up at the hotel, but apparently our 6 dollars did not buy drop off service so everyone on the bus was just dropped in the park near the hotel. I swear if I can avoid it I will never take another tour. They suck. Even the best ones make you conform to someone else
schedule and the worst ones make you feel stuck while you spend most of your day looking at your watch wishing it was over. Honestly, the real issue here is the tour companies know they have you and there is nothing you can do if you actually want to see the sites. Very few things are in the actual city and unless you know the language or have a means of transportation you have to go through them. Thus you get 6 hours of shit to see the one thing you paid to see.
After the torture finally ended we grabbed some dinner. It ended up just being one of those days since the food sucked, the waitress got Chris's order wrong, and then finished it off by trying to over charge us by two meals. I was pretty much at the end of my rope by then when on the way home we ran into the two Aussie guys (David and James) we met on our Ha Long Bay boat trip. I know my first impression was not the best, but they ended up being pretty nice guys and we grabbed a drink with them for about an hour. We exchanged some stories and warned them against a few of the tours. We also made plans to try and meet up with David in Nairobi. He is doing some internship there for 6 months and should be there when we get there. After we finished up there we headed back to the hotel to just relax. It had been a pretty shit day and the next day we had to fly out to Cambodia.
Yesterday we got up and headed for the airport around 1:30. No real rough spots other than the plane we flew on was a prop plane not a jet. We got to Siem Reap (Cambodia) around 5pm I think. Our hotel pickup never materialized so we had to pay for a taxi. The taxi driver tried to convince us the hotel we were going to was not good, but we thought he was trying to scam us so we ignored him and told him to just drop us off. That ended up being our first mistake. The hotel was awful. They managed their reservations by a white board and while Chris was checking in the clerk had some guy head up to our room with an AC remote and a can of raid. The rooms ended up being disgusting with mold and dirty sheets. You could see where he had sprayed the raid in the bathroom and washed everything down the drain. At that point we made the decision to get the hell out of there. We left our stuff behind and headed for an internet cafe. Once we found a hotel we grabbed a tuc tuc driver and explained we needed him to drive us across town, then back to the hotel and then back to our new hotel. He ended up being a pretty nice guy and got us where we needed to go. The only real loss is the new hotel is fairly costly and we had to give the other place 10 bucks for the 4 hours we did not use the room. In the end I am not sure what we were thinking checking into the other place. With the going rate here around 25 bucks a night, we were paying 10, they were going to pick us up for free, and when we got there no one else was staying there.
We grabbed some food after that and made a deal with our tuc tuc driver to take us around the next day to some of the sites. He had helped us out and had been pretty honest with his price earlier so we figured he would be a good choice to take us around.
It has ended up working out pretty good and we paid him 20 bucks to drive us around all day today. We saw the land mine museum and several of the smaller temples today and he will pick us up tomorrow around 1pm so that we can do the sunset tour at Angkor Wat, which is one of the larger temples here. The land mine museum was not much to write home about, but it seems to be a good cause trying to clear the mines here in Cambodia. After 20 years of war they estimate millions of landmines are all over the country. The temples were really cool... finally. They were actual ancient ruins.. not something where the paint was still wet from being rebuilt 30 years ago like most of the palaces and temples we have seen here in Asia.
I must say Cambodia has been quite refreshing after Thailand and Vietnam. Not to take anything away from those places, but everything here is just more relaxed and manageable. That and you can get your own driver to take you anywhere you want on your schedule. Overall it was a pretty good day and I am actually excited about seeing the larger ruins tomorrow.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saigon
Our last night in Hue ended up being fairly interesting. Around 6pm we were in the room cooling off and the power went out on for most of the city on our side of the river. It did not take long for the temperature to rise in the room so we decided it was best to head to dinner. We walked down to the river and walked around for about an hour again. Everyone in town seemed to have generators running to keep the lights on so I figure the city wide brownouts are a regular occurrence (it actually happened 3 times just while we were there). We finally settled on a place called the DMZ which had a good mix of foods, a bar and a pool table.
After dinner we decided to play a little pool. No point in going home with no AC. It wasn't any cooler in the bar, but at least we had something to entertain ourselves with. About half way into our second game we got challenged by what looked like a father daughter couple... it wasn't. It ended up being an Australian guy (named Chris) and the daughter of his a guy who he had just met on the overnight bus who was sick as a dog back at the hotel. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I am not so sure I would let my daughter hang out with a guy I just met on the bus. Anyway we played them in pool. Chris was talking to the girl and she seemed to be into staying and hanging out with us.. too bad she was 16. After a few games they headed home and we decided to head home and get some sleep before flying to Saigon the next day.
We arrived in ho Chi Min City/Saigon around 4pm yesterday and it was not quite the modern mecca we had hoped for. I am not sure where we got the idea, but for some reason we seemed to think Saigon being the largest city would be the most modern. The city is pretty much like Hue only a lot bigger. The architecture is pretty much whatever the French left behind and then there are some modern buildings sprinkled in. We did not do to much yesterday other than get caught out in a huge storm. The rain was nuts and I honestly don't think I will ever get used to it. All the streets flooded 3-4 inches deep and kids were running around playing in it just getting soaked. We tried to wait it out for a good 1.5 hrs in an internet cafe, but it never let up. Finally we gave in, took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. Since all it did was rain the rest of the night we spent most of our time inside watching TV and getting some dinner.
Today has been our day to tour the city of Ho Chi Min. Around 11:30 we got out and walked toward the Revolutionary Museum. it cost about a buck to get in and the exhibits detail both the revolution against the French and Japanese and the resistance against the American invasion (i.e the Vietnam War.) All I can say is it is quite... i guess the best word is interesting. I won't say much more than that, but lets just say we are not the good guys. After that we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the Reunification Palace. We didn't go in. I don't think either of us could take another hour in a museum. A short walk from there is Notre Dame Cathedral. It is basically a miniature version of the one in Paris made out of brick. Nothing all that impressive and it ended up being closed for the weekends. Lucky for us not all was lost and we spotted an indoor mall with AC. It really was just one big store and had an arcade in the top. We walked around too cool off and then walked back towards our hotel, stopping along the way at a big market. It really was nothing new. One market in Vietnam is as good as the next and they all seem to carry the same crap and after the Fedex issues we had in China buying large scale souvenirs is out. Actually for me buying any souvenirs seems to be out, since most of the stuff they sell is cheap crap that will break or shrink as soon as you get it home.
Tomorrow we are going to see the Cu Chi Tunnels just outside the city. It is supposedly an area of heavy fighting during the war and you can crawl through some of the tunnels. Not sure we will be doing much of that since they are designed for people half my size, but we will see.
After dinner we decided to play a little pool. No point in going home with no AC. It wasn't any cooler in the bar, but at least we had something to entertain ourselves with. About half way into our second game we got challenged by what looked like a father daughter couple... it wasn't. It ended up being an Australian guy (named Chris) and the daughter of his a guy who he had just met on the overnight bus who was sick as a dog back at the hotel. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I am not so sure I would let my daughter hang out with a guy I just met on the bus. Anyway we played them in pool. Chris was talking to the girl and she seemed to be into staying and hanging out with us.. too bad she was 16. After a few games they headed home and we decided to head home and get some sleep before flying to Saigon the next day.
We arrived in ho Chi Min City/Saigon around 4pm yesterday and it was not quite the modern mecca we had hoped for. I am not sure where we got the idea, but for some reason we seemed to think Saigon being the largest city would be the most modern. The city is pretty much like Hue only a lot bigger. The architecture is pretty much whatever the French left behind and then there are some modern buildings sprinkled in. We did not do to much yesterday other than get caught out in a huge storm. The rain was nuts and I honestly don't think I will ever get used to it. All the streets flooded 3-4 inches deep and kids were running around playing in it just getting soaked. We tried to wait it out for a good 1.5 hrs in an internet cafe, but it never let up. Finally we gave in, took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. Since all it did was rain the rest of the night we spent most of our time inside watching TV and getting some dinner.
Today has been our day to tour the city of Ho Chi Min. Around 11:30 we got out and walked toward the Revolutionary Museum. it cost about a buck to get in and the exhibits detail both the revolution against the French and Japanese and the resistance against the American invasion (i.e the Vietnam War.) All I can say is it is quite... i guess the best word is interesting. I won't say much more than that, but lets just say we are not the good guys. After that we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the Reunification Palace. We didn't go in. I don't think either of us could take another hour in a museum. A short walk from there is Notre Dame Cathedral. It is basically a miniature version of the one in Paris made out of brick. Nothing all that impressive and it ended up being closed for the weekends. Lucky for us not all was lost and we spotted an indoor mall with AC. It really was just one big store and had an arcade in the top. We walked around too cool off and then walked back towards our hotel, stopping along the way at a big market. It really was nothing new. One market in Vietnam is as good as the next and they all seem to carry the same crap and after the Fedex issues we had in China buying large scale souvenirs is out. Actually for me buying any souvenirs seems to be out, since most of the stuff they sell is cheap crap that will break or shrink as soon as you get it home.
Tomorrow we are going to see the Cu Chi Tunnels just outside the city. It is supposedly an area of heavy fighting during the war and you can crawl through some of the tunnels. Not sure we will be doing much of that since they are designed for people half my size, but we will see.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Chillin in Hue
After checking into our hotel yesterday we decided to grab some lunch and then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit. The overnight train had really taken it out of us and it was boiling hot outside. We ended up watching a movie and hanging out till around 2pm. At that point we figured we better do something, so we headed for the Forbidden Purple City/Imperial Palace, which is situated just on the other side of the Purple River and is the Vietnamese equivalent of the one in China.
It was about a 10 min walk over there and cost us 50,000 dong to get in, which is roughly 3.50 usd. Unlike a lot of the palaces we have seen the majority of the Forbidden Purple City has been completely destroyed and is just now being restored. It was pretty cool and surprisingly there were not a lot of people around so it was pretty relaxing to walk around. We spent most of our time sitting in the shade just taking it in and watching some of the construction. Honestly,it was kind of nice to be on our own and get to do things at our pace instead of being on a tour. We walked around a little more, got some ice cream and then headed back to the hotel. It was getting a little late and we wanted to cool off before dinner.
Once it started getting dark we decided to go look for food. Since neither of us was all that hungry and it was finally cooling off we ended up walking all over the city before dinner. It really is probably one of the things we do best, just wondering off down the streets to see whats in the neighborhood. It seemed pretty safe, especially for two huge dudes like ourselves, and most everyone was waving and smiling or just saying hello. I don't care what the tour books say about the Thai smile being infectious, for my money everyone here has been far nicer and doesn't seem to be trying to scam you at every street corner. Sure people ask you if you want a motorbike ride or to come into their store, but once you say no they leave it at that and walk off smiling. We walked for about a good hour and half and got to see all kinds of things including what we termed the family sedan. The family sedan is a motorbike with two adults and two kids. It really is amazing how they just pack everyone on. One kid in the front and one in the middle.
Around 7pm we stopped at a restaurant and got some food. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it did the job and when we were done we headed back to the hotel. Both of us were still pretty tired from the train and the walking had not made us any less tired so we called it an early night and went to bed.
This morning we got up around 10:30. It was nice to get up when we wanted to and not be at the mercy of a tour. Last night we decided we would see the sites on our own if we wanted to and not do any of the tours the hotel was trying to sell us. I think it was a good choice; it is hot as crap here again today and getting up at 7am is probably the last thing we needed. By about noon we were up and out the door. We grabbed some food and then headed over to a local market to check it out. It was unbearably hot and we did not last long in the confined spaces of the market. It was the first non tourist driven market we have found and was just packed with people and local goods. Having our fill after about 30 min we headed for a small outdoor seating area in the shade along the river. The breeze was great and it was cool in the shade. Honestly I can't even begin to describe how relaxing it was. We must have sat there for a good hour just looking out across the river enjoying a drink and some ice cream.
From there we made our way back to our side of the river. I doubt we will do to much more today. The city of Hue does not have too many places to see and I think we have seen all the ones we can without taking a tour to the DMZ or Hoi An, which are outside the city. I must say after the two sick days in Hanoi and the strict schedule of the tour to Ha Long Bay it has been really nice to just get out and walk around on our own here in Hue.
As for tomorrow we leave for Ho Chi Min City.. aka Saigon, which is our last stop in Vietnam.
It was about a 10 min walk over there and cost us 50,000 dong to get in, which is roughly 3.50 usd. Unlike a lot of the palaces we have seen the majority of the Forbidden Purple City has been completely destroyed and is just now being restored. It was pretty cool and surprisingly there were not a lot of people around so it was pretty relaxing to walk around. We spent most of our time sitting in the shade just taking it in and watching some of the construction. Honestly,it was kind of nice to be on our own and get to do things at our pace instead of being on a tour. We walked around a little more, got some ice cream and then headed back to the hotel. It was getting a little late and we wanted to cool off before dinner.
Once it started getting dark we decided to go look for food. Since neither of us was all that hungry and it was finally cooling off we ended up walking all over the city before dinner. It really is probably one of the things we do best, just wondering off down the streets to see whats in the neighborhood. It seemed pretty safe, especially for two huge dudes like ourselves, and most everyone was waving and smiling or just saying hello. I don't care what the tour books say about the Thai smile being infectious, for my money everyone here has been far nicer and doesn't seem to be trying to scam you at every street corner. Sure people ask you if you want a motorbike ride or to come into their store, but once you say no they leave it at that and walk off smiling. We walked for about a good hour and half and got to see all kinds of things including what we termed the family sedan. The family sedan is a motorbike with two adults and two kids. It really is amazing how they just pack everyone on. One kid in the front and one in the middle.
Around 7pm we stopped at a restaurant and got some food. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it did the job and when we were done we headed back to the hotel. Both of us were still pretty tired from the train and the walking had not made us any less tired so we called it an early night and went to bed.
This morning we got up around 10:30. It was nice to get up when we wanted to and not be at the mercy of a tour. Last night we decided we would see the sites on our own if we wanted to and not do any of the tours the hotel was trying to sell us. I think it was a good choice; it is hot as crap here again today and getting up at 7am is probably the last thing we needed. By about noon we were up and out the door. We grabbed some food and then headed over to a local market to check it out. It was unbearably hot and we did not last long in the confined spaces of the market. It was the first non tourist driven market we have found and was just packed with people and local goods. Having our fill after about 30 min we headed for a small outdoor seating area in the shade along the river. The breeze was great and it was cool in the shade. Honestly I can't even begin to describe how relaxing it was. We must have sat there for a good hour just looking out across the river enjoying a drink and some ice cream.
From there we made our way back to our side of the river. I doubt we will do to much more today. The city of Hue does not have too many places to see and I think we have seen all the ones we can without taking a tour to the DMZ or Hoi An, which are outside the city. I must say after the two sick days in Hanoi and the strict schedule of the tour to Ha Long Bay it has been really nice to just get out and walk around on our own here in Hue.
As for tomorrow we leave for Ho Chi Min City.. aka Saigon, which is our last stop in Vietnam.
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