This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Saturday, December 31, 2005

2005 - Top 10's

Albums of the Year

01. - A River Ain't Too Much To Love - Smog
02. - You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand
03. - Tender Buttons - Broadcast
04. - Love Kraft - Super Furry Animals
05. - The Great Destroyer - Low
06. - Mother's Daughter & Other Songs - Tunng
07. - The Secret Migration - Mercury Rev
08. - Humming By The Flowered Vine - Laura Cantrell
09. - Ambulance Ltd. - Ambulance Ltd.
10. - Demon Days - Gorillaz



Chris's Songs of the Year

01. A Certain Romance - Arctic Monkeys
02. The Well - Smog
03. Do You Want To - Franz Ferdiand
04. Michael A Grammar- Broadcast
05. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys
06. Anecdote- Ambulance Ltd.
07. Galvanize - Chemical Borthers
08. Carlifornia - Low
09. Cocaine Man - Baxter Dury
10. La Gasolina - Daddy Yankee


Best Movies (we’ve seen in 2005)

01. - Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
02. - Crash
03. - The Assassination of Richard Nixon
04. - Sin City
05. - Old Boy
06. - Machua
07. - The Motorcycle Diaries
08. - Bad Education
09. - Spirited Away
10. - Garden State

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh City

We didn’t quite believe it but when we arrived in Saigon it wasn’t raining, not just that but it was clear blue skies above us with a large yellow blob I remember they used to call the Sun. Saigon has been officially called Ho Chi Minh City since North & South Vietnam were unified in 1975 after the Vietcong swept south, but the centre of the city is still known as Saigon. We had booked into the Yellow House a cheaper hotel for three nights in the backpacker district (Pham Ngu Lao) before we moved into a nice hotel for a few days over Christmas. The Yellow house had all the facilities you need with a decent breakfast thrown in, right in the heart of the busy bars and restaurant district.

That afternoon we wandered down to the Dong Khoi area where we had stayed the last few times we were in Saigon, not too many changes apart from a few new 4 star hotels, some expensive fancy boutiques and a lot more beggars. We had hoped to return to the Majestic Hotel, still our favourite but the prices had jumped well over our budget and if you stayed over Christmas you had to pay for their Christmas Banquet. We had a quick look in but we felt like kids peering through the sweet shop window without any chance of getting our hands on the goodies inside.

We didn’t get much sleep on the bus the night before so after dinner we had a short walk around the night market before heading back to watch the final few episodes in the third series of 24, in case you were wondering Keifer Sutherland saves America from doom. Next morning we walked to Ben Tanh the central market, we didn’t last too long as we got fed up with being pulled at by a string of stall holders as well as being shouted at. The favourite hollers ranged from ‘What you looking for Laydeeeee!!!’ to the downright cheeky ‘Need T-Shirt Sir, We Do Big sizes!!!’ we escaped without opening our wallet or purse not because we didn’t see anything good but more because we couldn’t be bothered bartering in the scrum.

We had lunch in a place called Pho 2000 which sells super sized bowls of real tasty beef soup; once again the place isn’t much more than a glorified canteen but the food brought us back on more than occasion over the next week. Hanging pride of place above us was a framed pic of Bill Clinton and a gaggle of grinning staff. Either Bill has similar tastes to us or he’s got a gang of doppelgangers circling the planet looking for free food as we’ve encountered more than a dozen similar photos on our travels.


We were quite surprised to see all the large stores with massive Christmas displays and gangs of Santa Claus clad staff trying to tempt you in. We saw hundreds of Vietnamese families pulling up alongside the stores in their motorbikes with their young kids dressed in Santa outfits jumping off getting a few photos snapped in front of the shop displays before getting back on their bikes and on to the next store. Some of the displays were quite inventive; my personal favourite was the Santa Band with an Elvis Costello lookalike. The Parachuting Santa was also quite good.


We received an email from Penny & Pete who we’d met at the Chinese/Laos border saying that they were going to be in town for one night before they headed on to Bangkok. We arranged to meet them at the GO 2 bar along the street from both our hotels. Whilst sitting in the bar, the three Irish girls we met on the bus between Hoi An and Nha Trang passed by and we agreed to meet them later on that weekend.
Pete & Penny are trying to see as many bands as possible on their year trip and have been noting everyone they see and rating their performances, so we headed off to Sheridan’s Irish bar which had bands on most nights of the week. When we arrived the only seats available were right next to the singer, so we climbed up on to the high stools and ordered up a round of beers. The singer was an American called Mike and he played a good selection of songs from the sixties and seventies. Pete had requested a few songs and when the singer asked him to sing along to “Behind Blue Eyes” by The Who, Pete was straight up there singing with great gusto obviously loving the moment. We all enjoyed the rest of the set even though it did finish quite early at 11pm.


We made our way back to GO 2 for a night cap and said our goodbyes to Penny & Pete and thanked them for another good night. They had also made up a mix CD up with loads nautical related songs by artists like Neil Young, The Beach Boys, The Byrds and many other acts from the sixties and seventies. We headed back to our hotel, but on our way along we noticed a crowd of guys from Cork we had met in the Sailing Club in Nha Trang, so we stayed out for one more drink. The guys from Cork were obviously having a good night as they started singing, after a few Irish folk songs they dedicated a version of ‘Flower of Scotland’ to us. Next thing they started singing ‘500 miles’ by The Proclaimers so we made our excuses and got to our hotel before they sang any other songs that would embarrass any sane Scottish person.

Next day we walked over to the Cambodian Embassy to apply for our Visas, this we thought might take about an hour in total. After getting to the Embassy we handed over our passports, photos and completed all the relevant forms in duplicate. We were then informed that we should have brought a photocopy of our passport. The official said we would have to go and get it done somewhere on the main road even though we could see a photocopier a metre behind him. After getting the copies we approached the desk with all the forms and the cash for Visas, when he saw that we had Vietnamese Dong he said we would have to pay an extra £5 each. So we decided to go and get some money exchanged into dollars as we were sure the extra was going straight into his back pocket, this added another 30 minutes to the transaction. Finally we handed over all the forms and money to find out that due to public holidays the next day service would not be available and we would have to pick up our passports up late on Monday afternoon. By the time we had got back to our hotel we had lost half a day and decided to have a quiet night as we were changing hotels the next morning.

We got lots of strange looks from all the streets sellers as we marched through central Saigon with our full backpacks on in the sweltering heat, but it wasn’t too long before we were in our massive room that we had treated ourselves for Christmas. The room in the Bach Dang hotel had a balcony and a free internet connection, so it was quite useful for sending out all our Christmas emails and to watch the Celtic game on Boxing Day. After unpacking we hunted round a few bars to see if we could book Christmas dinner somewhere for Sarah, Jo-Jo, Lorraine and ourselves. We had noticed Sheridan’s were advertising a Christmas dinner with all trimmings, so after a quick look at the menu and a phone call to the girls we managed to get a table booked for 7:30.

Joanne and I then went our separate ways for a few hours to try and get each other some small Christmas presents that we could open the following morning. After dinner we met up for Christmas Eve drinks with the Irish girls who brought along another couple John & Vanessa also from Ireland. We started off in the ?? bar which was quite expensive so we returned to the Eden bar which we had been in the last few nights. There weren’t enough seats for the seven of us but Chin the bar man rustled up a few extra seats and an extra table, and we had a prime spot on the pavement to watch all the nights shenanigans unfold.


The girls worked out that it was cheaper to just order a bottle of Vietnamese vodka and share cans of coke & 7-up, I decided to stick to the beers for the time being. As it approached midnight Chin started bringing out shots and trays of food, which soon disappeared but where soon replaced by even more of the same. Sparklers and cigars were brought out as we lit up the new Christmas morning, Lorraine attempted to start up a chorus of The Pogues’ "Fairytale of New York" on numerous occasions, each time getting slightly further as we were joined by another crowd of Irish girls we had met the following night. It now felt more like Temple Bar than downtown Saigon as John belted out a breathless rendition of the Irish Rover and Lorraine tried to show the street kids her best Riverdance moves. I’m not sure exactly what time the night finished but after escorting Lorraine back to her hotel we jumped in a taxi back to ours.

We still managed to wake quite early the next morning and exchanged the gifts we picked up the previous day. Joanne had managed to pick up all the practical stuff I was needing, things that I always put off buying as well as some brilliant cinnamon tic-tac’s which went down a treat. I wasn’t sure how Joanne was going to react to the bottle of Scorpion wine that I picked up for her, especially as it looked identical to the one that bit her in Mexico. I think she preferred the painting set but it was a fun morning if slightly different from our usual Christmas morning’s back home.
For breakfast we headed to a nearby pub called Underground for their large English breakfast, just what we needed to soak up all the alcohol from the previous night. It was quite strange sitting in the blazing heat and sunshine knowing that it was Christmas day, it crossed my mind many times that day that it was the first time I had ever missed Christmas day at my parents. We both talked about how we’d miss my dad’s bad jokes and his great cooking and all our usual Christmas stuff.

It was strange the build up to Christmas for us, usually back home the shops and adverts are full of it by early November and by early December Christmas nights out are starting to happen but over here apart from the odd occurrence it seemed to creep up on us just a few days before. Everything was opened so we headed for a walk after breakfast but it was so hot and sticky we decided to head back to the hotel to chill out in our air-conditioned room and try to recover for our upcoming meal that night.

Just before we were about to leave for Sheridan’s the skies opened and we had to don our cagoules and keep our eyes peeled for all the rapidly appearing puddles in our path. Once inside we talked briefly to John & Vanessa who had booked their meal for a few hours before ours, but were planning on hanging around until our meal was over. It was a set menu of Pea Soup, Turkey & all the trimmings plus mince pies and ice cream. You also had some Mulled wine on arrival plus as much wine as you wished during your meal and an Irish coffee to finish.

The soup was great as was the massive servings of turkey, I think Joanne was a little disappointed with the mince pies but we were grateful for having anything as we didn’t know how Christmas dinner was going to pan out this year. As the remains of food were cleared away John & Vanessa joined us and we talked about the previous night festivities and filled in some of the blanks before we set about creating a few new ones from tonight. At one point John & Sarah got up dancing but the manager was being quite unhelpful and some of his other customers/friends were becoming quite obnoxious so we decided to head to another bar.


We had one more drink in the Geko Bar but as it was getting late and the girls were heading to Cambodia in the morning we decided to wrap it up early. So we now had the sad but now familiar routine of saying goodbye to new friends hoping that our paths might again cross on our trip now or sometime in the future. Back at our hotel we had a surprise as my brother had taken loads of pics of Christmas day back home and posted them on the web, so it was great to see my niece & nephew with their presents and everybody having a great time.

Next morning after a long lie we went to the War Remnants Museum. We had visited this museum on our first visit but it was only our second day in Vietnam and we wanted to have a second look after knowing a lot more about the country, the places and the people. The Museum shows the Vietnamese side of the war for independence against the imperialist French and American. The first section has lots of stats about the American’s involvement in the war. I’m not sure of the accuracy but I will repeat a few here anyway:

• 7,850,000 tons of bombs dropped over Vietnam
• 75,000,000 litres of defoliants (inc. dioxin) sprayed over Vietnam
• 325 Billion Dollars spent by the US Government on the War
• 58,000 American Soldiers died during the War
• Over 3 million Vietnamese were killed
• Over 4 million Vietnamese injured during the War

The museum quotes a lot from Robert S. McNamara’s (US Secretary of Defence under Presidents Kennedy & Johnson) book “In Retrospect – The Tragedy & Lessons of Vietnam”. One quote from the book was repeated quite a few times throughout the place “Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong, we owe it to future generations to explain why”, maybe someone should invite Mr Bush along.

The second section had hundreds of photos from the conflict mainly reproductions from glossy American magazines from the sixties, along with exhibits from other photo journalists who shot the conflict. There are also accounts of journalists, photographers and television news crews caught up in the action. Outside there are US tanks, helicopters and Jet planes all either caught by the Vietnamese or left behind when the Americans went home in 1975.


The last exhibit room examines the legacy of the US Air Force spraying large areas of Vietnam with defoliants. Alongside jars with horrifically deformed foetuses are dozens of photos of children who were born with physical and mental defects due to the effects of defoliants in the food chain. The museum also recreates the cells that the Americans kept their Vietcong captives in; this was a bit Madame Toussuds and didn’t really add anything to the overall experience. The museum is very one sided but it says it’s purpose is not for inciting hatred, but just for learning lessons from history. The museum’s pamphlet optimistically but probably slightly naively says “Human beings will not tolerate such a disaster happening again, neither in Vietnam nor anywhere on our planet.” The museum is well worth visit and probably shows the other side of the war we’ve seen in the Hollywood movies.

Later in the afternoon we arrived at the Cambodian Embassy after taking a few wrong turns, probably just as well as we still had to wait for our passports and Visas. We then headed back to Pham Ngu Lao to book the bus to Cambodia, once again it started to pour so after hiding in a Restaurant for an hour we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel. We had a lazy night in drinking a cheap bottle of sparkling Wine we had bought for Christmas and snacking on cheese and biscuits, while I watched the Celtic game and Joanne caught up with her diary.

Next Stop Cambodia

Ringing in the Rain

As we drove to Hoi An we soon realised that it was very much still rainy season, a full month and a half after it usually ends. It was quite funny driving past all the scooters and motorbikes being ridden totally covered in cheap plastic Macs not seen since the temporary stand was still being used at Celtic park. It was just before lunch when we got to the Green Field hotel but since it was so wet we decided to catch up with the sleep we missed on the train.


As Joanne mentioned in the last blogger entry this is our third tour of Nam and we last came to Hoi An almost three years ago. One of the main reasons for coming here apart from it being a beautiful World Heritage town is for its thousands of small family run tailors & dressmakers who will knock you up made to measure clothes in one day for a fraction of the price back home. One of the hazards of so many competing small companies is that it’s difficult to walk down the street without being harassed by some over zealous teenager trying to get you to her mother or aunt’s shop. Joanne decided to wait until the following day before going to get her clothes made up so we decided to brave the rain and head into the old town and have a wander.

When we got to the market the front street was under about 3 or 4ft of water as the river had burst it’s banks and started edging it’s way into town. After about 20 minutes we abandoned the walk and headed to a bar for some spring rolls and a beer. We went back to the hotel and began watching the third series of 24 which we picked up in China, this was the first of the series which switched to Sky in Britain. So the next two days when not running from puddle to puddle we were holed up in our room either watching Keifier Sutherland run from one disaster to the next or catching news updates on Roy Keane’s move to Celtic.


Next day Joanne returned to the same dressmaker she went to three years ago and blew a big part of her Christmas money on three skirts, two blouses, a pair of trousers and a Chinese style dress. The girls in the Nhi Trung dressmakers remembered Joanne and where very glad to see her again but I’m sure they were just glad to see her money. It still hadn’t stopped raining so it was another day of avoiding puddles and far fetched storylines. We spent a bit of time in a bar which had free internet for my laptop and really nice spring rolls, they also had a Christmas tree made from Heineken bottles.

We decided to go by bus for the next leg of our trip and managed to get two tickets for the 512km journey to Nha Trang for $13 which didn’t seem too bad at the time. The rain hadn’t stopped once since we arrived in Hoi An and we don’t have too many photos from this visit, but if you click here you can look at some of the photos from our previous visit. The bus journey to Nha Trang should take 12 hours but I had a feeling with the weather that it might take a bit longer and it all seemed to be going quite well until about 2:30 in the morning. After driving without any problems for 6 hours we suddenly stopped and were part of a huge convoy of very stationary vehicles.

Well we sat in the same place for a good four hours and not once did anyone think to tell us what was happening up ahead and when any of the westerners asked we just got a nervous laugh back and a soft shrug from the driver. We moved meters rather than kilometres in the next few hours. After another few hours some of the passengers got off and headed to a small café up the road which was having an extremely profitable day with hundreds of buses and trucks stopped on it’s doorstop. The local kids also noticed an opportunity and were round all the buses with small baskets filled with drinks and snacks hoping to make a tidy sum out of the gridlocked travellers.

I decided to go for a walk and headed down the hill towards the front of queue, after about 10 minutes down the hill I noticed in the distance that the convoy had started moving again and had to run back up the hill and get on the bus. I managed to get back on the bus but quite a few passengers were still in the café, the bus didn’t want to lose it’s place in the queue so it headed off without half a dozen of them. An argument then broke out between quite a few of the passengers when a stroppy woman told the driver to keep driving as it was their own fault for leaving the bus, we stopped after driving about five minutes and all the stragglers managed to get back on the bus. The journey could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for a good crowd of passengers sitting around us, this made the long stops slightly more bearable.

We eventually arrived in Nha Trang at 3.30am on the Sunday morning, 32 hours after leaving Hoi An. The bus pulled up at the Khan Duy hotel and we managed to get a decent room for the next few days. Next morning when we awoke it was still raining, so once again it was on with the cagoules and we spent the next few hours dashing from one café to the next café checking weather report son the net. Later in the afternoon the rain stopped for a few hours so we walked along the beach watching the massive crashing waves smash upon the shore. The water was a murky brown colour and flotsam was strewn across the promenade and what we could see of the beach.


We spent 5 nights in Nha Trang in April 2003 and had a great time, but one of the main reasons we wanted to come back was due to the work being done by Crazy Kim’s Bar. We only found out on the last night of our previous trip that most of the proceeds from the bar goes to helping the local street kids and to the promotion of measures to rid Nha Trang of paedophiles. The bar also asks for English speaking volunteers in the morning to help the street kids with their lessons. If the kids go to the class they also get a lunch which might be the only meal they get some days.

That night before we headed to Crazy Kim’s we went to back to our favourite restaurant in Vietnam, the Cyclo Café On D Trang Quang Khai. The place hadn’t changed much and the food was still brilliant, we ate here most nights on our first visit and every night this time. Their specialities are pork in a clay hot pot and barbeque beef grilled at your table, but to be honest everything we have tried in this place has been brilliant. In Crazy Kim’s we sat at the bar and we got talking to Neeyun and Duyen as we managed to get a few cocktails before happy hour came to an end. Neeyun spent most of the night talking to us and didn’t seem to do much work, she kept asking us questions about Scotland and why men wear kilts and what happens at Hogmanay.


There was a big Christmas party being organised for the kids on the 22nd and unfortunately we were going to miss this as were heading straight to Saigon as the weather didn’t look as if it was going to improve much. The bar was selling presents for the kids, so we bought one for a for a girl and boy which were wrapped and put alongside the already huge pile. We also bought some raffle tickets, but as we weren’t going to be in town we put the girls behind the bar name’s on the tickets. The bar also had a desk with information on all the work done at the morning classes and on trying to educate the locals about the dangers of paedophiles targeting the street kids in Vietnam. As well as a large wanted poster with Gary Glitter’s face there was a folder containing press cuttings of his time in South East Asia. We also signed up to help in the two classes the following morning, so we decided to head back to the hotel early so that we would be fresh for the next day.

After dropping off some laundry we headed to Crazy Kim’s, when we arrived there were only kids and one other volunteer. So at 9:30 the kids dragged us into the classroom at the back of the bar and they started handing out their jotters. The first class was for the younger kids and had about 14 kids ranging in age between 8 and 16, after 5 minutes the teacher came in and we sat beside one or two of the kids as they started working on some exercises from the books and blackboard. The young kid Phuock about 11 or 12 sitting next to me was very good at writing English and copying from the board but wasn’t great at stringing too many words together, but I guess that’s why we there to help them out.

After an hour the kids packed up and another group came in, this group had kids up to twenty years old but luckily quite a few more volunteers came for the second class. There were actually more volunteers than kids in this class and the next hour went in quickly with the kids each taking turns of writing on the black board and answering questions from the teacher. Quite a few of the kids had noticed my Celtic top and were asking me questions about Roy Keane and Gordon Strachan, almost everywhere you go in Vietnam you will see someone watching Premiership games and the kids all have fake strips… I’ve even seen a few Celtic one’s for sale in Nha Trang. The young boys were definitely more interested in talking about football than finer points of English grammar which was fine by me as you can tell if you read much of my blogger.

After the class the kids go back to their full time jobs of harassing tourist to buy their postcards, some of the volunteers never made it out the class as they were swarmed by manic kids when they showed more than the slightest interest in the postcards. Even though it was only a few hours it did feel great helping the kids and we would urge anybody who travel in this area to pop in and maybe help for a few hours. Check out the website for more information on all the good work done at Crazy Kim’s.

That night after dinner at the Cyclo we headed back to Crazy Kim’s and got chatting to the girls again, as well as all the good work done by the bar they also play some good music and have quite a nice place. Later on we headed to the Sailing Club on the beach which we went to for a few drunken nights out on our last visit. The Sailing Club is probably Nha Trang’s busiest bar and usually has people up dancing from 10 onwards, the place had a lick of paint since our last visit and was looking quite swish in the evening rain. We bumped into a few girls who had also volunteered at the school in the morning and also Lance from California who we had met in the internet café the day before.


We got talking to loads of people at the sailing club and had a really good night and when the lights came up for the end of the night we decided to try and find another bar with Lance and a couple from Greenland and Iceland. We had been tipped off that the Why Not? Bar opened later so we wandered about for a bit before finding it. When we got into the bar an Australian guy Lance had been trying to shake off found us and was being a bit of a pain, and was been quite racist to the guy from Greenland. Joanne stepped in kept the guy talking whilst I went with the couple to the other side of the bar and had a good laugh talking about Glasgow where they lived for awhile and about Henrik Larsson who they had named their son after. The only problem now is that after a few weeks I can’t remember their names, I will really need to start writing things down when I get back from bars.


When the bar closed we headed off with Lance and ended up talking to him under the awning of a shop trying to shelter from the now torrential rain. On first impressions Lance looks like your typical Californian surfer with more brawn than brain, but he’s actually a teacher and knew his stuff about America politics and was interested in other cultures and was a privilege to meet. We said our good byes as the morning light started to appear and we had a quick look at the market setting up for the morning rush. We eventually made it back to the hotel for 6:30 am and we had still to pack out bags as we were due to book out at 12.

We woke at 11:30 and quickly showered and packed our bags and just about managed to get out the room in time, I’m not sure how we managed it but we did. After catching some lunch with the rain still hammering down we headed further into Nha Trang to return to another place we went to on our previous visit. Long Thanh is an internationally known photographer who won many prestigious photographic awards and has been photographing the people of Nha Trang and the surrounding areas for the last thirty years. His Black & White photos really capture the spirit & kindness of the local people and we could easily have spent thousands of pounds on his work, we restricted ourselves to one print to go alongside the one we bought on our previous visit. This took us quite a while to choose as there was so many great photos in his studio, but we went for one that had stuck in my mind from the last visit. The last time Long Thanh also gave us some great tips for where to go and take some great photos and when to catch the best light, which gave us some of our favourite photos from Vietnam.

That afternoon we had also agreed to meet Duyen one of the girls from Crazy Kim’s bar for a coffee to help her with her English before she started work that night. We learnt that she went to University every day for four hours and then worked in the bar at night to pay for her English lessons which was very expensive for the locals. We found it quite difficult at first to help as she was quite shy although she seemed glad that we had agreed to meet her and soon sat chatting to us. After our final meal in the Cyclo we headed back to the hotel so we could catch the overnight bus to Saigon and unlike the last time we had no problems and arrived at the pre-arranged time without any hitches.

Sunday, December 25, 2005




Merry Christmas Everybody

from Chris & Joanne

in Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh City

Check out our Christmas Photos

Monday, December 12, 2005

Tails of the Unexpected

After a short flight we landed in Hanoi, quickly went through immigration and were picked up in our free taxi from the hotel. We then drove into Hanoi via the hair raising highway and the ’Jesus’ handles were constantly used as not one single car, truck, motorcycle or bike drove in one lane but toddled along in between the lanes with our taxi driving about 2 foot at high speed from the vehicle in front frantically tooting his horn and flashing his lights. We were surprised when we arrived safe and sound in our hotel Thuy Lam and we managed to get a huge room with satellite TV and two huge beds.

We headed out towards the lake to see whether Hanoi had changed much since our last visit (almost 3 years ago) and what struck us was how much louder Hanoi was since then. The main culprits being the many motorbikes tooting their horns whereas previously the main mode of transport was the bike. We had a quick walk and bite to eat before turning in for the night.

We woke up after 9 in the morning and thought we’d missed our free breakfast, but when we went down to reception they took us through into the dining area and gave us two huge baguettes with cheese and a tea and coffee. The other plus point about this hotel was we were also allowed free internet access and all for a little over 5 quid a night!! We couldn’t believe our luck.

We then went into the ‘Women’s Museum’ which owed it‘s many displays to the Vietnam’s Women‘s Union. The exhibits gave information on the heroines throughout the numerous years that Vietnam was at war with the French and USA, how women worked in the fields, different traditional dresses of the hill tribes and also various exhibits on the Women’s Union. One display had a list of reasons why a man could divorce his wife two of them being if she didn’t produce a son as the first born and she didn’t keep a clean home, thankfully things have now changed a bit. One of the best things I saw was a picture of a tiny Vietnamese woman pushing a gun against a huge American GI Prisoner of War twice her size.

We strolled around and stumbled on a small market and everything was going fine until we spotted the local delicacy - spit roasted DOG!! Honestly there were whole and chopped cooked dogs sitting on the counter. What we also noticed was how clone like the dogs all looked, breeding dogs for eating, whatever next!! Once our stomachs had stopped churning we went towards St Joseph’s Cathedral which was an ugly concrete building and here we found ‘La Place’ café for lunch. We had some spring rolls washed down with lashings of beef Pho (a noodle based soup eaten any time, any place, anywhere by the Vietnamese). This place also had paper table cloths with crayons provided for us big kiddies to sit and draw for a bit….Picasso eat your heart out!! At night we went to bar street where we chilled out over a few Hanoi and Tiger beers.


The following day we decided that since we had been so lazy of late that we would walk the 10km from the centre of Hanoi to the Museum of Ethnology. We had another grey, cool day and weren’t in any hurry so we wandered in and out of shops on the way. There were a couple of great exhibitions describing the Tet festival (Vietnamese New Year - Usually Late January, Early February) and showing video clips of families preparing for this. The other exhibition we liked was 100 years of Vietnamese Weddings, in Vietnam the groom is chosen by the bride’s family and provided both families agree to the wedding then they will be married. The stories told of how apprehensive many of the girls were about leaving their own home and living with not only the groom but his family as well. Numerous pictures showed how nervous both the bride and groom were. There was also a huge exhibition on every single hill tribe in Vietnam down to one which has less than 1000 people and explained how they lived, farmed, what dress they wore, which religion they practised and how they were married and buried. Within the grounds were also exhibits of traditional tribal buildings and contents and we even saw a couple having their wedding pictures taken there.

We took our time getting back and by this point both of us were ravenous. It was well after the ‘lunch hour’ so we ended up spying a few spring rolls and thought that these would see us through to our dinner. The lady owner told us to sit down at the table and this was the first laugh. The stools were small enough for a three year old and I managed to get down fairly quickly but Chris being that bit taller struggled to get down. He also had to stretch his legs across the small room avoiding the numerous motor bikes parked inside the house to get comfy. We were then given a bowl of soup, some noodles and veg which was to go along with it. Now all we wanted were our spring rolls but it seemed rude not to try some of the soup so we started to add the noodles and veg into the bowl. Two seconds later and the woman was back frantically waving some cooked meat nuggets at us from her chopsticks. “Dog” she smiles wickedly at us and then plonks it down into my bowl just as I scream “No!!!” at her and then puts another into Chris’s bowl. Well my stomach must have churned but the woman stood over us menacingly and I felt that I had to at least give it a try. To be honest I took one bite and couldn’t tell you what it tasted like. I then asked Chris what he thought “Mmmm” says he and the lady gave him a knowing smile putting the remainder of the pieces on the table for him to munch away at. She then put down the spring rolls and I had a couple but since there was unidentified meat in it I was starting to feel a little ruff and left Chris to lick the bowls clean.


We went back to the Spotted Cow a bar we’d been in the last time and met a guy called ‘Mac’ who showed us how to play “Mickey Mouse Darts”. We had had such a laugh that night and reminded of us both going home rather worse for wear in two cyclos with each of the drivers frantically taking over each other so that we could get some pictures. This time there wasn’t much of an atmosphere with several old expats supping their pints and one English guy whooping at the top of his voice when the TV was turned over to Miss World in their bikini’s with his wife right by his side. So we ate our burgers had a couple of drinks before heading to La Place for a night toddy.

On Sunday our weather was much the same so we went into a really good shop which sold lots of Propaganda posters and mugs before heading to La Place for our customary bowl of Pho (minus the dog this time!!). At night we went back to the Hoan Kiem Lake for some night time pictures.


We were leaving on Monday evening and decided to post some things home and like all the other countries in Asia we had about 40 forms to fill in with a customs check before we were able to send it. We wandered in and out of the shops and stalls to kill some time before having our final meal in bar street. We then headed to the train station for what we thought was to be a hard sleeper. Turns out the hotel had cheekily charged us for a soft sleeper which was much better and even included food. We shared our cabin with two young Oz guys who fell asleep at 8pm. So around 9ish we turned out the lights and tried to get some sleep.

We were woken at 6.30am with plastic containers of noodles being thrown at us and about 10 minutes later the two boys left as we were now in Hue. The weather was becoming more miserable the further south we went rather than better with the wind and rain bouncing off our window. Neither of us had slept very well and were dozing when the door opened and we were given two containers with rice and odd assortments of salty meat and veg. We ate a little of these and then about 10 minutes later we were told we were arriving at our destination Danang, 2 hours earlier than we expected. This was a first for Asia and quickly jumped off and into a taxi for our 20 minute journey to Hoi An.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Chris Up in a Brewery

After our nightmare trip from Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang we chickened out and decided to get the VIP bus south to the capital Vientiane, for only a few pounds extra each. I would hardly say the bus was luxurious but we didn’t have to climb over any sacks or share our seats (yes I even got a seat this time) with any livestock. The bus even left five minutes early which was a major improvement on our last two bus journeys. The bus showed some movies which were either Laos or really bad American movies so I just turned up my MP3 and delved into my book. Once again the scenery was outstanding as we wound up and around some amazing looking mountains that came straight from a 70’s dinosaur movie set usually starring Doug McLure who you might remember from such movies as The Land that Time Forgot and the epic mini series Roots.

A lunch was thrown in as part of the price of the trip, so we stopped off for some noodles and had a chance to stretch our legs before getting back on the bus. For the rest of the journey they showed Karaoke videos which I gladly ignored but Joanne said they were all terribly over dramatic and ended with the main character been killed or killing themselves. We then also saw another set of hills in the distance that looked like a famous English football panellist from the 70’s and after referring to the map in our guide book I found that this range of mountains were called the Jhim-ee Hills and that they’re known locally for spewing rubbish on regular basis.


We arrived early into Vientiane which was just as well as we had to trek round quite a few guesthouses and hotels before finding somewhere with an available room. After unpacking our bags we headed out and had a look round the main bar and restaurant area which sadly was nowhere near as nice as Luang Prabang. After dinner we had another scout about before we headed into an internet café to watch the Aberdeen vs. Celtic game but we could only get the BBC tickertape and updates from the Celtic forums. Luckily after the Dons went ahead Celtic came alive and won 3-1 which meant that Joanne could get to her bed without me moaning too much.

Next morning after our now routine baguette for breakfast we went out to see some of the sites in town. The first we passed was That Dam a large black stupa which was well on it’s way to falling into disrepair. This decay seemed to add a bit of gravitas to the stupa (a Buddhist shrine that usually houses a relic or marks the location of an auspicious event) but we couldn’t find out much more information about this particular one. After a trip to the post office we came across the Patuxai which was Vientiane’s ugly interpretation of Paris’ Arc-De Triumph, the concrete for the monument was donated by the American’s for a new airport runway but the Laos government in 1969 thought it would be more beneficial to have a large imposing monstrosity in the middle of the busiest street in town.


Next stop on our tour of Vientiane’s hotspots was Pha That Luang the most important national monument in Laos which is a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty. The construction of the beautiful golden stupa was started in 1566 and stands within a high walled cloister which has hundreds of images of Buddha as well as a selection of art by local artists. But the shimmering golden stupa steals the limelight and your eyes are constantly drawn to it’s many towers dazzling in the azure above. We chilled in the cloisters for a while, sketching and updating our journals.


Our hotel was right next to the national stadium so we sneaked in and had a wander round. The place was quite run down but there were crowds of people who seemed quite happy running round the track and playing football behind the goals. The Laos relay team really need some coaching as the baton was dropped nearly every time they had a change over and then a few of the runners would start arguing with each other over who let it go.

It was quite cloudy on the Tuesday so we headed to the large morning market to scout out a few things we had been looking for over the last few weeks. Joanne eventually managed to get one of the local skirts that she’d been admiring since arriving in Laos. After a good bit of bartering she got 2 meters of material and a seamstress to turn it into a fitted skirt for the price of Big Softee in Gregg’s Bakery back home, but I’m not sure what she would rather have at the moment. I wasn’t to be out done in the bargain front so I picked up one of the straw footballs I had been playing with a few days earlier in the village near the waterfall.

The weather was a lot better on the Wednesday so we decided to hire bikes, head out of town and maybe work off some of the beers from our previous nights. After consulting our guidebook we decided to cycle to the Beer Lao factory 12Km out of town, so maybe pointing our bikes in direction of the biggest beer factory in the country wasn’t the best idea. We steered ourselves through the busiest part of town no problem and everything was going well until we came to a fork in the road but we never had a clue which road to take as it wasn’t on our map. A few of the locals must have seen our puzzled looks as they came over, asked us where we going and when we told them they laughed and pointed down to left. After another fork in the road and with more locals helping us on our way we arrived at the factory just after 12.

When we approached the reception we were told everyone was on their lunch and we would have to come back after 1 o’clock, so we sat about in the sun and ate the remainder of our baguettes. After lunch we were ushered into a plush reception room with fancy leather sofas and display cabinets fully of trophies and awards from all around the world. After a short wait a young lady appeared with a Beer Lao gift pack for each of us and asked if we would like a tour of the facilities. As Joanne stood up she soon realised that she must have sat on some chewing gum outside, but the problem now wasn’t that it was on Joanne but all over the expensive looking seats. Joanne quickly asked for some ice and the both of us were rubbing furiously over the gum trying to get it off the leather upholstery. Luckily we managed to get it all off the seats and the guide was most impressed with our knowledge of stain removals, Joanne said she become so good at this due to her living with me.


The tour lasted for a grand total of 12 minutes as we were whizzed round the bottling plant churning out 60,000 bottles and 12,000 cans of Beer Lao every hour. 99% is sold in Laos and only a tiny fraction makes it out of Asia. Maybe since I won’t have a job when I return home I should buy an export licence and try and conquer the Scottish lager market. After the tour we were taken into a plush lecture theatre and offered a complimentary beer or water, as we were cycling we decided to stick to the water. OK only joking we had the beer, as if we were going to knock back a free beer.

On our cycle back into Vientiane we stopped off at a few Wats, at the first one Haw Pha Kaew we had a young monk escort us round but his English wasn’t great and never gave us any real insight into the temple or the many exhibits in it’s small museum. The next was Wat Si Saket and this was well worth a visit, built in 1818 the temple has some unique features. The interior walls of the cloister are riddled with small niches that contain more than 2000 silver and ceramic Buddha images, there are also 300 stone Buddha’s resting on long shelves in front of all the niches.


It was our last night in Vientiane so we decided to head to Nazim’s Curry House, after really enjoying it’s sister restaurant in Luang Prabang. We didn’t think the nans were off the same high standard but we both loved our curries. We then headed into a bar called Sticky Fingers for their half price cocktails which slipped down very nicely. After bumping into Michal & Camilla again we ended up in the busy Kop Chai Deu Food Garden watching Chelsea v Liverpool play out a boring Champions League 0-0 draw. This Champions League is not all it’s cracked up to be, it was so much better when it only had Champions in the tournament.


Our two weeks in Laos didn’t last long and we both enjoyed our time especially in Luang Prabang, we now wished we had applied for 30 day Visa but maybe next time. All that was left to do on Thursday was to pack our bags, pick up some Dong for our next destination and make our way to the airport in a tuk-tuk.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Boom Bang a Luang PraBang

Arrived in darkness, took a short tuk-tuk ride into the centre and after wandering around quite a few guesthouses we managed to find a large room with a window for under a fiver. We were both ravenous and after dumping our bags headed towards a busy restaurant for some well deserved food. We hadn’t even finished eating when the family started to cart the tables and chairs inside and it was only 10pm!!

I didn’t have a great sleep as the wooden floor between us and reception had light coming through the cracks and the fan whirred away for most of the night underneath us. So we spent most of Sunday morning finding and transferring our things to the Mano guesthouse which had a great room (ensuite) for less than the night before. We decided to go for a wander and made it as far as Wat Wisunalat which had a Lotus Stupa built in 1514. I sat sketching for a bit in the shade whilst Chris sat in the sunshine writing up the blogger. I looked up at one point and there were about 20 young kids all crowding around him with one wee boy trying desperately to fit into a space to see what was going on - I only wish I had the camera!!


Later we wandered along the night market with the goods on blankets on the ground and uncovered light bulbs at every stall. We ate dinner that night in the market with a lovely jovial lady who laughed at everything. Dinner consisted of a bowl that could be filled with as much as you liked with noodles, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetable assortments for only 27p!! It was delicious and washed down with a Beer Lao what more could one ask for. We spent more time wandering around the market which sold some gorgeous bed linen (hand stitched), cushion covers, paper and woven lanterns, t-shirts and the usual trinkets galore. They also sold machetes and knifes in sheaths (would like to see them get away with that in Glasgow!!).


We knew that Pete and Penny were arriving sometime today and had heard earlier in the day that George Best had died. So we figured that Pete would be upset and as we were walking along we spied them both in the internet. Pete was just as we’d thought, although he was extremely pleased that the press were writing about him as a footballer and not as in his later life as a celebrity alcoholic. Chris and Pete reminisced about the times that they had seen him play live (well Chris was only 7 so I don’t know how much he really remembered). We had a drink with them and they told us about their two day boat trip which seemed a much better choice than our bus journey. Afterwards Chris & I went into a place called the Hive for a beer, which had some good music and also some red bottles hanging from a tree.

We decided to climb up Phu Si which had several wats and plenty of steps for us to climb. Most of the Buddha statues were quite new but they also had a Buddha foot imprint which had curved toes although it looked as though it had come from this world. We then went further up and saw some monkeys tied with a piece of material around their waists which was attached to a hoop. The hoops were through bamboo stalks and the monkeys ran up and down these trying to work out away to escape. One of them kept falling off and dangling by it’s waist, it would do this time and time again and then jump up using the material to bounce back onto the bamboo. At the top we saw great views over Luang Prabang and the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers and sat for a while enjoying the sunshine before heading down for a well deserved Beer Lao. In the evening we had a grilled fish, which was really tasty as it was stuffed with lemon grass, and a bowl of food in the night market.


On Tuesday we decided to get our Vietnam visa from a travel agent in town, so as we were taking our things we bumped into Donna (from the plastic stool journey) and her boyfriend Marc (from the posh part of Manchester). So we had a blether over a coffee and then did our admin things. We had arranged to meet them later that night along with a German guy called Flo. They all fancied the idea of a Laos hotpot, after our experience in China we really didn’t want another crap meal but Donna (having been to China herself) assured us that this was nothing like the Chinese one. So we all walked along by the river and went into the Lao Lao Restaurant.

The waiters came and removed a tile from the middle of the table and then dumped a large iron bucket with hot charcoals in its place. Then came the hotpot dish which had a place for the meat at the top with a lip around the side which is where you put in water and initially veg with some stock to make a tasty soup. You also added two raw eggs and noodles to this. So the waiter put some stuff on for us and then it was a free for all with us all sticking bits and pieces on. This was delicious!! We then sat next to an open fire and had a few more beers at 11.00 it was last orders and then we had to leave at 12 as the licensing laws in Laos are a little strange.

We had arranged to meet up with the guys the next day and head out to a waterfall so off we went to the Tad Sae waterfall in a tuk-tuk for about 20 mins and then a short boat ride to take us to the waterfall. The only disconcerting thing about the boat was that they kept on removing water from it with a plastic tub. The waterfalls were beautiful with different levels of water cascading down. There were tables and chairs in the water for you to sit on, so we went in for a dip - it was absolutely freezing but once you get your shoulders in (that is according to Mr Reilly anyway) everything will be fine . There weren’t that many people around so it was easy just to sip a beer, have a swim and chill for several hours in this really scenic spot.


Later we all decided to head for a cheap meal in the market, Marc and the woman had a thing going whereby she tried to squeeze past him and would giggle like a school kid. We weren’t disappointed with the food again. We went back to the place we were in last night for drinks and also decided that we were going to try a Lao Beer Bomb. So firstly we had a cocktail, then a Lao Beer Bomb which consisted of Lao Beer, Lao Vadtka (vodka), M-150 (a red bull type drink) and a dash of 7up. Well I really didn’t like mine so Chris got almost two. Several drinks later and Donna stands up with the guitar everyone thinks - yeah someone’s going to play, but we knew that Donna couldn’t as she had told us earlier - “It’s out of tune” she said whilst we all fell about laughing.


We all suffered for it the next day and decided to go to a posh hotel and laze by the pool. The pool was even colder than the waterfall but it was worth it for a dip in the sunshine. Chris went to watch footie with Flo & Marc, it was a “Worthless Cup” game between Liverpool vs. Sunderland. Later on we all went to the Hive bar for a few ‘quiet’ drinks since the others were leaving the next day. So it was Beer Lao and several Shots all around. The conversation got round to the fact that Chris wore a ‘skirt’ for his wedding and I explained to Marc how the kilt actually worked. Flo then pipes up that he has a full lederhosen outfit back home which he brings out for special occasions. Flo is over 6 foot and I wouldn’t say that he is that well built (but not as skinny as Vinny) so he has promised to send us some pictures! After finding this rather amusing Marc then tells us about two of his “English” mates back home who regularly visit the pub in the full lederhosen garb and sip their pints. Before we knew it our time was up and we said farewell to our new friends.


On Friday we went more Wat hunting and spent some time in Wat Sop. Chris was taking some pictures and got chatting to a young monk who wanted to practise his English. At the same time another monk asked me to help him with a speech he had to do and he was struggling with some of the words. So I spent some time with him and Chris came round and we all sat chatting. Turns out he is building many Buddha statues and Stupas for his temple. He is also learning English so that he can teach it and become a tour guide in later years. We must have been there for over an hour at least and it was a nice way to while away some time. After this we wandered around several more Wat’s and in particular Wat Xieng Thong which was built in 1560 and remained within the royal patronage until 1975 when the royals were exiled to the north where after they were never seen again.


We’d both been feeling a little ropey for a couple of days and at night we decided to have an Indian in Nazim’s restaurant. After we ordered we heard fireworks going off to mark the end of the National Laos day and the only other celebrations we heard were several cars going by about 4.30am that morning with folks banging drums and singing. The locals and tourists all stood in the street to watch them. The food in this place was almost as good as the New Annand’s (our local Indian restaurant back home) and reminded us of the many delicious takeaways we got from there.


On Saturday we were both feeling a little chirpier and decided to head to another waterfall called the Kuang Si falls in the afternoon. So we paid to go on a minibus and sat back and watched as the fields went into small villages, the road wasn’t too bad apart from the many precarious wooden bridges that we had to drive over. We then arrived at the falls. To “entertain” their guests they also have a tiger and some bears.


We saw the tiger lazing in the afternoon sunshine enclosed with a metal fence with a sign saying Don’t put you fingers in Tigers BITE. We then made our way to the waterfall which had a huge drop but there weren’t as many tiers cascading into each other. We both went in for a dip and yes again it was fine once you got your shoulders under - so I did this rather quickly to get it over and done with. You had to manouvre across several tree trunks to get in.

It was our last night and what better way to finish it off than to wander through the market. I was so tempted to buy one of the bed linen sets but in the words of Mr Reilly “You don’t have a home to put it in!”, so instead I opted for some more light shades. We met up with Karen (who we’d met at the waterfall) and she also brought along a couple of odd French guys. One of them could hardly speak as he was a little worse for wear, and they told us their names but we couldn’t make them out with their thick French accents. We all headed down towards the Mekong River to a traditional Laos barbeque restaurant and ate away to our hearts content. The other French guy regaled us with hilarious tales of living in a squat in Amsterdam, his numerous tattoos (including wanting to have his whole body done) and piercings.


To end our last night Chris and I had a couple of Beer Lao in the Maylek pub whilst watching some football and eating peanuts, crisp dried bananas and rice that tasted like popcorn. We watched “Revolver” on DVD and set our alarm for an early rise the next day.

Got up at 5.15am and finished our packing (so before any of you guys say it some times it is a hard life travelling!!). We then went out to watch the morning ritual for the monks who wandered around the streets near their temples receiving offerings of food from the locals. It was dark when we went out, but within half an hour the light started to come through. It was a humbling sight watching about 60 or so monks filing by in their orange robes receiving mainly rice from the locals. We were told by the monk we met a few days ago that this is their daily meals (they eat twice a day).


We then said goodbye to Luang Prabang and took a tuk-tuk to the bus station.