You Weren't There Man!

Today we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are the underground tunnels used by the guerillas (not big monkeys) during the war. Very interesting. We saw a video that showed the battles from their side of things rather than the glossy USA style, and a load of traps they used to kill the US soldiers. It was quite brutal seeing it there in front of us.


About to go into the tunnels - about 3ft high, and very, very dark. Not good for claustraphobics.



A concealable tunnel entrance. Obviously no good for Americans. What are you saying!?


While you're walking around the jungle to see all this stuff, you can hear gunfire in the background, which makes it all very authentic. What we didn't realise though was that there is a firing range on the same site. You shouldn't support them cashing in on war like this but I had to have a go! I couldn't resist, so had a go popping out a few rounds from an M16. They had lots of other guns there, but we're on a budget (and Jodie said we had to go, boo hiss). It was funny, it cost money per round you fired and you could have a go with a machine gun!? Ok, Here's my credit card. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

A very interesting day out. Makes you think.

"I Love The Smell Of Diesel In The Morning...."

"Smells like mopeds." (obscure Apocolypse Now reference by the way). We're in Siagon now, but before I tell all I have to explain how we got here....

If we're honest, we weren't fans of Dalat. Apart from a lake and a market, there wasn't much to see there unless you wanted to go on a tour just out of town. We therefore had to get on one of these - we basically had an entire day to kill in Dalat without falling down one of the gaping holes in the pavement.

So we went ahead and applied for a tour in a jeep, of many waterfalls, which sounded quite nice. When we were waiting to be picked up we were then told that we had to go on a different tour instead (for no reason) and that it was in a minibus with a load of others, rather than the jeep. Sigh.

Our tour took us on an intruiging route to various tourist traps, some of which were not as bad as the others: Truc Lam Meditation center (not bad, quite monk-ey - the spiritual ones, not tree climbing ones, ie. with monks... i'm having to explain this to Jodie); The Datanla waterfall, this was good although Jo came face to face with a snake, which is like me with spiders - not good! Then the Dragon Pagoda, which was a good pagoda, and we've seen a few now.... after this it went downhill. We saw....

• The Valley of Love (and tourism)
  
• Bao Dai's Summer Palace. We had to walk around with smurf-feet on so we didn't make the place dirty. I'll try and explain later.
• Dalat Flower Garden. Like Keydell Nursuries, but with everything out of season, and no flowers.
• The Old Dalat Railway Station. Wow, it's a railways station that they don't use anymore.
  
• The Crazy House. It's written up as "Alice in Wonderland" house. The architech of this place apparently studied architechture in Russia for 14 years. Probably drug experimentation for 14 years, it was half built and you'll just have to wait to see the pictures. Weird. You could stay there as a hotel for $35. Hmmmmmn.
  

So, perhaps it was a problem with our tour guide. Perhaps just Dalat. We don't know. There you go, not big fans of the place.

After that we escaped to Mui Ne, a beach resort with lots of potential. However, we got there and it was cloudy. Next morning cloudy. Without sun, there was not much to do so we planned our route out for that afternoon....... Dammit - sun came out after all and it was super hot. But alas too late for us to cancel our ticket, which means we are now in.....

Saigon!

We arrived yesterday, the first day of 'Tet'. That's their New Year celebrations, which go on for 3 days. Seems to be good for partying, but not much else since everything else is mainly closed. Ah well. We had a decent walk around the place, and like we say, it's good for parties! Although all this sounds a like it sucks, we're still having a great time. Will be working on our tans in Cambodia and Thailand.

Off to bed in a bit - Pompey are playing Liverpool tonight, we need to be at the pub for 2am kick off! Woo hoo! Jodie's well pleased :)

Dalat

Ok, we made it to Dalat in one piece (or two pieces if you're getting technical). These bus trips between places are very exciting. In a rollercoaster stylee.

We arrived yesterday and spent most of the day getting lost. Today we still can't really find much to do - visited the market, mooched about a bit, Jodie got an 80's calculator watch for a few quid.

I managed to NOT buy a brand new acoustic guitar even though it cost less than 4 pounds. Apart from that it's mainly walking around and trying not to fall down the gaping holes in the pavements.

Tomorrow we've got a tour planned which takes us out of town in a jeep. Should be ace, we'll let you know.

Few more pics from Nhatrang and Dalat posted.

Travel Video, English Lessons

We're still in Nha Trang at the moment. Today the weather is not sunny (can't believe it) so a chance to get in a few updates. I've managed to string together enough technology to post some video's from Hong Kong!

This morning, myself and Jodie were up pretty early because we volunteered at Crazy Kims to help out teaching local kids English. Crazy Kims is a pub - stick with me, it makes sense at the end - out the back they have a room which they use for a school, and rely on visitors helping out. They are building a larger area out the back so they can make the classes bigger. Its really, really good.


"Pompey are the best team
in the Premiership" - not convinced

Obviously I'm possibly not the best candidate to teach english, but they need all the help they can get! Anyway, their English is much better than my Vietnemese. The whole point of the school at Kims is to get more kids educated so they don't stray into dodgy ways to make money - Kim is leading a campaign to stamp out peodophilia called "Hands off the Kids", all brilliant work.



This girl (left) was very bright,
probably brighter than her teacher

Apart from that, not much to report at the moment. Our path takes us to Da Lat tomorrow on a 7am bus. Hooray for 7am busses! I'm being sarcastic.


Man Utd reveal £12.3m profit drop,
start selling random pots of stuff (Actually partially true)

In footballing news, I can't help noticing Pompey are pathetic. The teamsheet is now baffling to me. A 5-0 whipping from Birmingham and now we sit at 19th in the Prem, and that's only because Sunderland don't turn up to their matches anymore. I need to shift my Pompey tops, and fast! At least I should be able to watch them lose this weekend. I think we've got FA Cup defeat from Liverpool on Sunday. That'll be fun.

Update from Nha Trang

Just thought we'd drop a line to let you know we're still about, we've just been soaking up a few rays here in Nha Trang. The beach right outside our hotel is fab, it's long stretch of white sands with palm trees make it a very cool place to chill out. We have also found the Sailing Club, which I do wonder why it's called this as there are no boats to be seen just cocktails and sun lounges!

We are off to teach some kids english tomorrow, ha ha should be a giggle, we thought we could proabably learn more from them!! Then off to Dalat, up in the hills to do some yodelling, keep posted!

Good Evening Vietnam

Righty ho then. Just posted a new load of photo's on the photo bit of the site, check out what we've been up to (tee hee).

It's still great here in Hoi An, but its about time we moved on, otherwise we might never leave. We're getting an overnight bus to NhaTrang, hopefully to do some scuba diving and other James Bond-esque type stuff.

Will check in when we can, chow for now.

"If I don't get to my English class, they'll be a lot of people speaking in short choppy sentences. "

Mr Phong

Yesterday we went out with one of the locals, Mr Phong, to see his village and experience real non-touristy Vietnam. He'd approached us as we were eating one night at the Quang Thang restaurant on the riverside in Hoi An, and with a guestbook of pleased comments, we went along. We're very glad we did!

Mr Phong is one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He picked us up from the Hotel on mopeds and took us to his village, 'Thanh Quit', about 10km down the road. We arrived and he introduced us to his family who were all extremely friendly. He then taught us about the history of Vietnam, the politics surrounding the American War (with personal points of view), and also the religion and culture of Vietnemese people. Totally brilliant - and throughout the day he was able to answer any questions we had, all top stuff.

He then walked us around the village, introducing us to the people on the way. He showed us around the farm and the process involved in making rice wine. Wow, gotta say its strong stuff. The children in the village were all very cute and happy with the coopervision.com pens from Jodie (I thought she stopped the marketing job, maybe not). The differences between life in the village and what we'd seen elsewhere was staggering, and it was great to see villagers going about their day to day business.

At the end of it, his wife made us a feast - THE BEST spring rolls I have ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot. I'm starting to sound like a travel brochure, but this was 100% fantastic.


If anyone ever finds themselves in Hoi An (seriously, once I get the pics from the beach today posted, you'll all be booking flights) then definately visit Mr Phong!

Ask for him at the Quang Thang restaurant, #90 Bach Dang st, Hoi An. He's there between 1900-2130 every night.

BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! (photos now up)

Jodie's just done a post so make sure you read on below about Hoi An.

We found paradise, well Hoi An.

After wasting a day in Hue we travelled once again by scary minibus to Hoi An. What a fantastic village, we have fallen in love with this place and are not in a hurry to leave. It is a sleepy fishing village with plenty of restaurants and bars offering Cao Lau (village special) fresh fish, prawns, crab, white rose (another village special) and cocktails and beer for less than one pound. Why oh why do we live in England????


"You either surf or you fight" (Film geek joke)

The weather is gorgeous, Darren and I cycled to the beach today and tried effortlessly to work on our tans, it's such a hard life! The beach is beautiful, white sands, hardly anyone on it, and drinks service to your sunbed. We enjoyed fresh prawns by the waters edge for lunch. Am I making you all feel sick?!? hee hee.

Ladies - I have to say this is my heaven, I have had a fantastic 3 piece suit made to measure made from cashmere and wool for the grand total of.....30 pounds ha ha and check this out, I had some cowboy boots made especially for my feet out of leather for 20 pounds! I keep asking Darren to pinch me!

These boots were made for
walking (made to measure too)

We have made friends with Huai (pronounced Haway)she is the lady who made our clothes, and a waiter called Hue, Darren has been corrupting him with T-Rex and the Kinks as he is a music fan. The people are so friendly and genuine. We also made friends with Mr Phong, but Darren will tell you about him.


Let's Rex!!!

Our hotel is fab with swimming pool and at only 6 pounds a night, one can't complain!

My sunnies got squished so off to haggle for some "Guchi" or "Prado" replacements, they're going to set me back at least 150 pennies. Then off to our local, the Tam Tam bar where I think every traveler staying here visit most nights.

I'll have a Cuba Libre for you all and send you hot sunny thoughts!

"Chuk mung nam moi" - Happy New Year!


This is how they get places, seriously!!!

Hanoi to Hue, Vietnam

Aaaaaaargh. I just did a massive update and pressed the wrong button and lost it. I'll try to do it again....

Right, we're currently in Hue, Central Vietnam. Yesterday we went on a trip to Halong Bay, where they made James Bond films. The trip consisted of a dangerous minibus ride to the bay, then jump on a boat out to some local fisheries, then onto see a pedestriansed cave which they've added a lot of multicoloured strip lighting. Nice, if you like that sort of thing. Then it was back on the boat for lunch, fresh fish, me and Jodie both ate squid (much better than I thought it would be), and then another dangerous minibus ride back to Hanoi. I'll explain more about the minibus journeys when our parents can't read this and panic! Absolutely nothing to worry about.

Last night we took an overnight train to here, which is Hue. The scenery from the train was exactly as I've seen in films about er, the area, and of course the fantastic Tour of Duty (Bravo TV). All paddy fields and little villages and jungle and mountains. Hue used to be the capital, until all the 'changes' went on, and then after that they don't seem to have done a lot with the place, so I think we're heading off to our next place tomorrow. Not so much going on here. What I can say in its favour though, is (and this is annoying for you guys) its HOT! In HK it was warm enough, when we went to Nanning it was getting a bit chilly, by the time we got to Pinxiang it was proper brass monkeys, and then in Hanoi where we expected it to be warm it was jumper weather. But here - it is Hot and sunny! Brilliant! Jodies broken open her flip flops and I need to find myself some sunnies, since the tragic destruction of my old fake aviators.

In case you don't know where Hue is (and if I'm remotely honest I didn't), you can see on Google Maps like this, or even better download Google Earth and see the planet in spooky 3D! It's really good. Educational too.


Room 101 - not a good sign

I've got to thank all of you who have been keeping me up to date with Pompey events back home... the FA cup match result was a goody, and the russian mafia takeover plan sounds awesome (Ronaldinho and Lampard on the south coast!?) so will be keeping an eye on things from here. If all goes to plan I might even be able to shift my Pompey tops! Everyone I've told I support mighty mighty Portsmouth has responded with either confusion or blankness, do not worry, I will continue to spread the word.

I've got a few more pics to upload, and hopefully a few little movies, but first I need to find some better technology......

It's like Amsterdam, but with Mopeds!

Ok well we've settled in Hanoi and have mastered the crossing of the roads! Check out the mopeds, in the words of Michael Caine there's "founsands of 'em".

We have found a bar close to us that sells the local brew for 36p a pint, so we are happy as Larry.

Hanoi is chaotic but a different chaos to HK, this is a random chaos whereas HK was organised! There are so many shops that sell the same goods that it's very easy to haggle. If you want designer trainers it's all here, well the fakes anyway.


We are planning to go to Halong bay tomorrow to visit the famous lime stone islands and caves, known to you all via the James Bond film "The man with the golden gun". We are then travelling overnight to Hue as our next destination. We are seeking warmer climates - I NEED A TAN!!!

Hong Kong to Vietnam

What did you do for your 30th birthday?...

Well, when it started we were on an overnight "sleeper" train from Guangzhua (China) to Nanning (also China), although it wasn't easy to get a lot of kip on there. From there we had another train to catch to the border, then went through extreme anarchy to get through border control. After a few 'hairy' Taxi rides later, we're safely in Hanoi, Vietnam.

All our photo's for Hong Kong are now available here....
http://www.darrenwatt.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=24


A bit more about what we got up to in Hong Kong - after New Year night we decided to go and visit a temple. It was all very chilled out, but quite odd since it was in the middle of what appeared to be a council estate, but its basically just one of their churches which makes a bit more sense.

We also visted a lot of markets in Hong Kong, its unavoidable, everywhere you go there are markets which specialise in one thing or another (Jade market, Ladies market - I have no idea..., Fish market - both for looking at and eating, and many more....).





Another day we visited Lantau Island - home of the Big Buddah and large replica of the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is a bit overly complicated to explain on here, but hey! It looked good. I'm glossing over it really, but it was very impressive.

Quick attempt to climb to the peak showed that we might not have been in tip top condition.

We then saw the Big Buddah - It's not a joke name, its very big!


Another day saw us take the tram to the top of Victoria Peak, which overlooks Hong Kong harbour. The best views are found round the corner from the main lookout point, which luckily we read about, so went on a walk and saw some of the best views ever. We were also lucky with the weather - in the morning when we went it was nice and clear, but in the afternoon it all got a bit misty. Good Stuff.

Then we just had a bit of a rest before starting our journey towards Hanoi. I can't convey the sense of achivement you get when you've barged your way through 2000 chinamen, to a sign which you can't read, to a window with someone who can't understand English, and successfully buy train tickets to the right place! Twice (needed to do this at Guangzhau and Nanning).

Although it sounds like we're hardend travellers now, I should probably point out that we did stay at a 3 star hotel in Guangzhau......... for 26 quid! Dinner was a fiver. Vietnam's looking good too - beer last night cost 50p, hooray!

Happy New Year!

All is still going well in Hong Kong, we've been well busy running about the place. I've spent hours looking for pubs in Kowloon (mainland, where we're staying), and as we found out just in time last night, all the pubs are on Hong Kong Island!! Now you tell us!

New Year in Hong Kong was awesome, they had a big lightshow across the harbour, with cheesy music, and fireworks. After that, we wandered down to the Star Ferry to get to the island. We then made our way to a known pub hotspot, Lan Kwai Fong, where it was extremely packed and beery. We tried to get something to eat and got caught up in a complicated one-way people traffic jam, bizzarre, organised by the police (their crowd control), seemed to work because there was no trouble.

We had a quick meal before midnight, where we were able to look over a big crossroads of people, all cheering a lot and letting off balloons, before rushing to buy their first icecreams of 2006!? Its true!

Anyway - feet hurt, other than that everything is still ok (3 days, count em) the food is amazing. They have little shops thingys where you can buy pigs-in-blankets on sticks for 50p! Woo-hoo! Jodie had beef balls, enough about that.

More to come soon, but here's some pictures of the story..... so ..... farrrrrr......



Darren and Jodie setting off for adventures.



Navigation not too much of a problem with this pocket sized map.



Fireworks, lights and cheesy music. All you could want.



New Years 2005-2006 - lots of clapping and shouting.