Mekong Delta

Did a trip out to the Mekong Delta area. It was awesome. A beautiful area of Vietnam. We traveled between several different islands also saw various cottage industries and had a lovely lunch out there. We got to try many

different fruits. We hated our coconuts and spent an hour or so working out where to leave them behind without anyone noticing. Looking forward to our last day in Saigon tomorrow. There were various Vietnamese women who sang to us in between cleaning the tables and setting up for the next group of tourists. Everyone

works super hard here for very litte. Despite this the whole city is looking forward to celebrating Uncle Ho's 35th year of 'liberation'. Everything is being 'spruced up' no end.

Cu Chi Tunnels

We went out to the Cu Chi tunnels today. 250 km of tiny tunnels by which the Viet Cong moved all around this area. It is incredible to think that they lived down there for so many years. Children were born down there. we went down an enlarged version but I still felt claustrophobic and had to get out after 10 metres or so. John got stuck and is still down there!!! After the tunnels they show you how the VC lived and trained. Josh had the opportunity to fire off a real AK- 47 machine gun. Off course like a good mother I said, "okay, why not? You don't get to do this every day'. It was truly loud and not much fun for anyone except Josh. The kids loved the propaganda movie which they showed at the end of the tour, NOT!

Playing Frogger

Well we didn't get to the Cu Chi tunnels today. We have booked a tour for tomorrow and another tour out to the Mekong Delta, which I think Stacey recommended, for the following day. The fitness centre at our hotel turned out to be a single exercise bike built in 1958 so John and I decided to go walking this morning. It was a heart stopping exerience as we played frogger with the traffic crossing major (and minor) roads for an hour. We had fun finding all the historic sights around Saigon. We bought a bootleg Lonely Planet Vietnam for about $4.50 AU which has been invaluable. (Complete with photocopied notes from the original owner...) Our hotel is in a great location. Every time you turn a corner there is some famous landmark or other. The hotel is not luxurious for what we are paying (welcome to communism) but it is so quirky!!! Josh likes the buffet breakfast which is a feeding frenzy of an ethnic group which John has forbidden me to mention. The shopping here is very cheap. We are getting a great exchange rate of Dong to the Aussie dollar. Food is good too. Not as spicy as Thailand but you can't have everything. Kids are looking forward to getting home. Josh wants to see Issy and Maggie wants to see the animals. I can't wait to see Nikko!!!!! I have a picture of him on the camera which gets me through...

Good Morning Vietnam!!!

Left Bangkok yesterday for Vietnam using Asia air which is budget but okay. I met found m and m friends at the airport which made the transition for Thailand to Vietnam easier. When we got into Saigon it was almost dead, spooky experience to be in an almost shut down airport. Don't know if that is because of volcano in Europe or what is going on. John Loves Saigon. It is Thailand on steroids! It reminds me of Thailand 20 years ago before Thailand became safe and sanitised. Maggie absolutely hates it. She screams every time she has to cross the road which is admittedly a hair raising experience. There are so many scooters here and no lights to cross the roads. They swarmed around the taxi from the airport like a million ants. Our hotel is fantastic, The Palace Hotel, right in the centre of the historic old part of Saigon. I am reliving every minute of the Quiet American also Saigon, the Caravelle, Intercontinental and the Rex all near by. We walked to the Ben Thanh markets today. So hot and very crowded. They grab your arms and pull you into their stalls. Hard to believe people live and work in these conditions every day. Tomorrow I want to see the Chu Chi tunnels and the American Embassy. Loving Vietnam!

Back in Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok. It was touch and go leaving Jungle Club and making our ferry connection in time. We thought the bus we'd booked wasn't going to arrive despite numerous phone calls to the travel agent who kept reassuring us it was just on it's way. When we knew it couldn't possibly get around the island to the ferry on time (last one for the day) we were sick with worry. John was having a coronary by the side of the road. Even the evil taxi mafia were being helpful trying to ring our travel agent and see what was going wrong. Anyway, long story short it turned up, VERY late. They told us they would hold the ferry for us and guess what? Being Thailand, they did! I bet the other passengers had no idea why they were so late leaving. It was the usual hoo ha getting from ferry to train involving bus switching, songthaew and finally PUBLIC bus (yes you read right, I couldn't belive it either) for the last leg to the railway station. I took a photo of it.
Anyway early yesterday morning we got into Bangkok. We arrived by the night train which is really good and comfortable. Better than many European trains. We were able to check into our hotel straight away. It is called the Chateau de Bangkok which is a ridiculous name for a Thai hotel. I have rechristened it the Chateau de Chatelet (you need to know your Monty Python). It is near Sukhumvit Road which is an area of Bangkok I don't know so well, near sky train too. We went into the centre of Bangkok but kept being impeded by Red shirt protesters wherever we went. There are signs all over the hotel about the declared state of emergency and warning to stay away from the protests. This is hard to do as they are all over the streets and have gathered in momentum since we were last here. In fact we had to walk through the rally to get to our destination yesterday. This was not funny, especially with the kids in tow. There has been violence and killings a couple of days ago so althjogh I feel relatively safe I feel no where near as safe as 2 weeks ago. Bangkok is quiet (well as quiet as this city gets.) I assume people don't want to risk coming into the city. Our hotel is practically empty.

Finally I have taken a photo of the keyboard with Thai/English character which is a bit confusing (especially when the characters have worn off.) The Thai is the 'squiggles' in the bottom right hand corners.

Water!

Yesterday was SongKran proper. We spent the day hidden away at Jungle Club where we were safe from water bombers!!! Not quite all of us. Josh went up and down with the guys to collect the new guests. He got water bombed heaps. They also throw coloured talc. He had red all over him. It was noisy even up here. There were fireworks and lots of excitement. Josh is loving it here. It is a laid back rasta type place and is mostly run by young hip guys. He thinks it would be great to work here. (He mightn't like the wages too much...) I am going to have another go at uploading my video. I am not too hopeful as it is HUGE.

Song kran

We went down to Chaweng for the day to shop and check out Song Kran. I think Song Kran officially begins tomorrow but everyone is going wild already today. This is Thai new year. It is a water festival and is celebrated by throwing water onto unsuspecting passers by. Foreigners are the number one target. The water is ice cold. Sometimes they follow it up with talc to really leave you messy. It is SOOOOO HOT today. Muggy too. Kids stalk you with giant super soakers. Shop keepers indulge in across the street water battles. You have to laugh as it is all meant to be fun. Last time John got his passport soaked so this year we are being more careful. I am also going to try and upload a video of Jungle Club which I took on our new camera. (I'm getting cocky now!!!) We are at JC for a couple more days before taking the night train back to Bangkok. It's BK for a couple of days then on to Vietnam, yay! Having trouble uploading video. will that bit again later