Now this bus ride has to go down in the record books. Throughout our travels we have endured some wild careless driving and been pulled over for a variety of deserving reasons. This guy however should have been locked away for his reckless road warring. You have to wonder if many of the locals have a touch of suicidal tendencies with their kamikaze ways. The route was rough and winding and although he was driving a 40-50 passenger bus we weaved in and out of traffic nearly colliding with transport trucks and an array of oncoming and with-going traffic. He clipped people on their motos and checked in his rearview to verify they were still upright and therefore apparently good to go. He didn’t get so lucky with one of the young ladies he hit and swiped alongside the bus as he was pulled over for it shortly down the road. He may have been written up but more than likely things went as they tend to go here, and he paid them a couple bucks before he jumped back in the driver seat to finish his route in record time. Arriving in Nha Trang we were happy to be alive and were seriously re-evaluating further bus travel.
The best way to describe Nha Trang is the “Surfer’s Paradise” of Vietnam. The town is a relatively upscale tourist locale with a long swooping beach which runs the length of the city. There is a well kept promenade and countless restaurants, beach bars, and accommodations to suite any budget. Our main goal here in Nha Trang was to get some more Scuba Diving in. As soon as we arrived, we checked in to a great hotel with a 24hour restaurant, beautiful rooftop terrace, and a room with all the comforts for 12 dollars/night. We were immediately introduced to the range of tours/sightseeing packages available and signed up for some diving for the following day. One thing for sure, you can’t beat the price of diving here. For a mere $35 each, we were promised: hotel pick up, 1 hour offshore boat travel, 2 fully equipped fun dives (for certified divers) with a dive master, lunch, and return. An early start in the morning as we were picked up at 7:30am, we arrived at the harbour to find that the two of us were the only people who had signed up that day. We felt like high rollers buying the whole thing out, having the huge boat and all its crew to ourselves. We dove at 2 different locations off Mun Island and both were great spots. We saw an array of vibrant reef fish and colourful coral. We had a terrific lunch of stir fried beef and veg, tuna, egg omelet, and the staple steamed rice. We had a wonderful day and agreed that for this value we would prolong our stay in Nha Trang and most definitely get out on the water at least once more time before leaving. We thanked our Master Diver, Huan, and arranged to join him again after one day’s rest. We spent our day off walking throughout the city. We visited the Long Son Pagoda where we found ourselves stuck in a wicked afternoon rainstorm. The rain was a welcomed break from the intense heat. The storm and wind were awesome, and according to the monks, this weather brings about good luck. The pagoda was one of the loveliest we’ve seen so far. It has a beautiful temple, huge reclining Buddha, and enormous sitting Buddha perched high in the hills. The views from here were amazing as it overlooks the whole city, definitely a special place. We intended on visiting some Cham ruins but since Thailand, Laos, and Cambodian are celebrating the New Year, we decided we weren’t up for the crowds and enjoyed the remainder of our day lazing on our sunny rooftop terrace.
We were geared up this morning to head out and secure two more open water dives under our belts. It wasn’t a private trip today as there were 6 other divers onboard but it is always nice to get to know divers of different experience levels. We rented an underwater camera so we hoped visibility would be good enough to catch some vivid underwater life. Again we were paired up with Dive Master Huan and had him to ourselves which was great. Huan mentioned that since we had dove with him the other day, he would keep things fresh on this dive by going to a greater depth as well as experiencing our first cavern swim throughs. Our first dive was at a new location, Madonna Rock, although visibility wasn’t great at only 7 meters, we still saw so much life, and were both stoked by the exciting cave. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of fish within the darkness of the cavern. The dive was colourful and cool as we reached a maximum depth of 20 meters. We are finding that each dive is different from the last and variety of locations and dive characteristics makes you hungry for more. During our surface interval on the boat, we munched some fruit and reflected on the highlights of our first dive. For our second dive, we returned to Moray Bay where we had been yesterday. To make things a little more exciting for the two of us, the boat dropped us about 200 meters away from where it anchored and we caught up travelling the distance underwater. This spot had much better visibility with lots of sunlight and we enjoyed another great dive. We gained a whole new respect for underwater photography that’s for sure. Not only are your subjects moving quickly as they swim around but you are battling light, visibility, and your own motion due to water current. Needless to say we didn’t shoot any stunners. After another satisfying day of diving, we have now completed 8 open water dives and look forward to many more to come. We got cleaned up and spent the remainder of our day winding down on the hotel terrace. Dinner tonight was a real treat! We headed down the street to the Buffalo Steak House…Steak is well beyond our budget but we shared a gorgeous salad and cheeseburger with fries. After 2 ½ month getting by on noodles and rice we devoured the New Zealand beef like it was our last supper. Man, was it a refreshingly delicious and satisfying meal. Yummy! Mmm…
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Highlands and Sand Dunes
From Saigon we headed northeast to the beach town of Mui Ne. This place is famous for its sand dunes. We hired a couple moto drivers to take us around to the many sights including the local fishing village as well as a trip to the dunes. The dunes were beautiful and we even tried sand sledding. The sledding wasn’t too thrilling compared to home town tobogganing in the snow, but it was still good fun. From Mui Ne we took an incredibly scenic yet bumpy ride to Vietnam’s central highlands. We arrived in the gorgeous lakeside town of Dalat and immediately knew we would be in no rush to leave. The city is small enough to walk everywhere yet big enough that it has everything needed. The people here are incredibly friendly and there is a distinct laid back vibe throughout the city. You could mistake this place for a picturesque village in the French Alps. We paired up with a couple drivers from a popular tour organization called the Easy Riders. These guys are more like “traditional bikers” who offer a range of short and long tours. We arranged to head outside the city on their one day “special tour”. We visited coffee plantations, we saw silk worms busy at work building their cocoons, and we also toured the silk processing factory. We stopped at a hilltribe village where we viewed their traditional methods of weaving and we picked up some intricate hand made silk goods. We made a stop at Elephant Falls which are spectacular, and then we grabbed some lunch at a nearby eatery. Our guides entertained us with an impressive spread. We tried two kinds of chicken, sweet and sour pork, dried fish, pickled bamboo, pumpkin leaf, field leaf beef rolls, spring rolls, and some fresh fruit for dessert. Lunch was great and feeling stuffed to the brim we hopped back on the bikes to see more of the countryside. Our tour ended with a stop in the city at the famous Hang Nga Crazy House. This is a guest house art installation combining Dalat’s Bohemianism and a touch of classic Asian kitsch. We felt like we were travelling through Alice’s Wonderland in this place. It was like climbing through an eerie funhouse and was certainly a one-of-a-kind experience. The following day we laid low, toured the market and picked up some different souvenirs and goods. We were more than happy to rid ourselves of the extra 16 kilos which we had been slugging around, finally shipping them home to Canada. Another good time in Dalat, we enjoyed a night out, drinking and socializing with some other backpackers. We also toured the gorgeous flower gardens as well as spent an afternoon sightseeing around the town lake. With a little resistance we had to move on (we could have stayed here for weeks) so we boarded the bus onwards to Nha Trang.
Tunneling through Saigon
After a hot bumpy trip, and a long day, we arrived in HCMC (Saigon). The bus we travelled in on was not a tourist bus so we couldn’t effectively communicate with any of the locals or people on the bus. We were a little unclear about where we would be dropped off since the city is so large. We tried deciphering the complicated Vietnamese street names but we couldn’t locate ourselves on our map. One thing we did understand was when they shooed us off at the end of the line. So we were stopped at a local sidewalk eatery somewhere in Saigon. The driver motioned, with his hand to mouth, that we should eat so since we were pretty well lost, had been on a bus all day, and had nowhere else to be, we copped a squat Vietnamese style and enjoyed a dinner of pork chop, vegetables, and rice. After our meal we tried orienting ourselves as we walked through the neighborhood. It became clear that we were in the wrong end of town as we were the only 2 white faces to be seen and the locals almost taunted us with snickering “hellos”. Finally, we gave in and hired a couple motos to take us to “the backpacker district”. We still don’t know where it was we started from but we would have been all night on foot as the drivers must have taken us a good 5 km. Our first experience here was extreme as we weaved crazily through the chaotic Saturday night streets. At times like these I like to revert to a childlike innocence by abandoning any knowledge of safe driving and road rules. The best way to get through it without having an anxiety or heart attack is to hand your self over to the rollercoaster like thrills rather than retain any awareness of the recklessness. When we arrived at our destination we were more than happy to follow a timid Vietnamese girl who offered us accommodation for $10. We followed her down an alley and into her family home where we found a quiet and nicely appointed room. We were more than pleased to lay down our heads for the night.
Saigon was a typical bustling city with tons of bars, restaurants, and the huge Ben Thanh Market. One of the highlights in the Saigon area was the day trip which we took to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This network of tunnels was used by the Viet Cong during the war. We saw original weapons, tanks, and shelters which were used to fight against the Americans. We learned that the VC were simply people living in the village of Cu Chi. They worked the land in the day and they used the tunnels to evade the American fighters as well as for surprise attacks in the evenings. The entrances to the tunnels weren’t much bigger than a household heating vent and the space inside would have provoked claustrophobia in most. There are 125km and 3 levels of tunnels with an enlarged section for tourists to crawl through. All and all, it was a very informative morning.
Saigon was a typical bustling city with tons of bars, restaurants, and the huge Ben Thanh Market. One of the highlights in the Saigon area was the day trip which we took to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This network of tunnels was used by the Viet Cong during the war. We saw original weapons, tanks, and shelters which were used to fight against the Americans. We learned that the VC were simply people living in the village of Cu Chi. They worked the land in the day and they used the tunnels to evade the American fighters as well as for surprise attacks in the evenings. The entrances to the tunnels weren’t much bigger than a household heating vent and the space inside would have provoked claustrophobia in most. There are 125km and 3 levels of tunnels with an enlarged section for tourists to crawl through. All and all, it was a very informative morning.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Final Joys of Cambodia
A bittersweet departure the next morning, beginning with a quick bus ride to the nearby town of Kompong Chhnang. Stepping off the bus we immediately realized how much slower the pace of life was here. Where we were dropped off, there were only a handful of moto drivers to be seen. These guys actually let us walk away without harassing us for our business. Again, we hooked up with a local who would show us the sights around town the following day. This guy was a far cry from Philay (perhaps quite drunk during our first conversation on the street), but his transportation was reliable and we took in the sights we had in mind. We found some beautiful clay work in a village at the foot of a huge mountain and visited some other great places like floating villages and enormous riverside markets.
Thanks to the advice of our moto-driver, we stood on the side of the road leaving town and waited for some cheap transportation to come to us. We hitched a ride in a minivan towards Oudong, the next town in our path. Rolling through town we second guessed our choice and decided to push on another 30km to Phnom Penh to stay one night. Now a little Phnom Penh savvy, we checked into a nice hotel on the Tonle Sap riverfront and treated ourselves to a great mid-day breakfast. We arranged a bus to Sihanoukville for the next day. A pleasant surprise in the morning, our 7$ bus ticket got us a plush, reclining seat on a modern bus with perks like sweet bread and bottled water. Six hours to Sihanoukville and about 30 minutes into it the driver pops in a Khmer Karaoke VHS tape. The “music” was cranked to a volume level any Metallica fan would approve of. 5 straight hours of this definitely helped us understand the frequently used term “CRAZY KHMER MUSIC”.
Upon arrival in Sihanoukville we met a mild mannered taxi driver and jumped in his Corolla. After the rundown from him, we cruised to a quiet end of a beach front road. Only 13$ for the night, with A/C, hot water, and only 200m away from Occheuteal Beach. We made the most of being located on a breezy and quieter section of sand and stayed 6 nights. Sihanoukville is a classic bustling beach town offering up entertainment including the red-light district, clubs and nightlife, a casino, and 4 km of beach to sleep it all off on. This was a nice place to hang our hats for awhile and work on our tans.
From here, we pushed on entering a new province, Kampot. This province is famous for its salt flats, and world renowned first-class peppercorns. The van dropped us at Kampot Guesthouse. Soon after check-in the resident baby kitty quickly latched on to us and joined us for an afternoon nap in the room. The guesthouse was complete with an inviting garden café and tasty food for a good price. Kampot was even more relaxed and stunning than we anticipated. We watched smiling locals leisurely peddle around town amongst the old French-era shops. The town is centered on a stunningly atmospheric riverfront where an endless supply of fresh seafood is available. We couldn’t help but feel like we were in the middle of a movie-set in this picture perfect location.
Next, we were on to Kep the “City of Ghosts”. This French coastal town, once booming and full of big money, is now dotted with the blackened shells of luxurious homes, owned in the 60’s by Cambodia’s high rollers. Even to this day, the destruction left behind from the Khmer Rouge is obvious. Although only ruins of homes, these places are all inhabited today by people who have no where else.
Located only a 25 minute boat ride south across Kep Bay lies Koh Tonsay, “Rabbit Island”. This place is rustic and undeveloped to say the least. Without any common comforts such as a fan, electricity, or even a toilet, we settled in to a super basic bungalow for a minimum of one night to start. After a quick walkabout we discovered that the shores weren’t the paradise we expected. Other than the main beach where we slept, trash and fishing nets covered the remainder of the coast. There were herds of local livestock grazing freely as well as wild hunting dogs and free-range chickens. We truly enjoyed the peace and quiet though, without any motors or noise. We watched the day float away as we lounged in hammocks reading and enjoying some time for reflection. Late in the evening as we lay on our bungalow mat surrounded by protective bug netting we heard a storm brewing in the distance. Soon enough the island was roaring with the most incredible thunder and lightening either of us have ever experienced. We sat out on our porch and watched the show. The intensity of the storm was so great that for a moment, we questioned our safety in our little shack in the middle of the sea. The flashes cracked right beside us lighting up the whole area as though it were daylight. After a while the storm moved across the water and faded into the distance. When we woke in the morning we were comforted by the light of day. Seems that the storm wasn’t the only close call we had through the night. As we un-tucked our bug net we found a LIVE SCORPION which had made its way through the net and right under our mat below our pillows!! A little shaken we swatted the scorpion through the slats of wood and decided that one night of “island paradise” would suffice…We relaxed for the day until the afternoon taxi boat returned to Kep mainland.
Since Kep had really made an impression on the two of us, we decided that we would cut out our next stop and would remain here the extra few days. Another 4 nights in Kep, we took in some of the local sights and enjoyed staying put for awhile. We rented a Honda Dream and day tripped on our own. We also took a tuk-tuk tour to some local farms including the famous Kampot pepper fields, cashew and mango farms, as well as the local salt flats. Our Vietnam visas became valid on the 3rd of April so we arranged for transportation to take us to the border. We weren’t really sure what to expect as this entry point was newly opened to foreigner crossings and we had been warned that the road becomes very rough and people often get ditched by their ride, basically we just had to hope for the best. Our driver picked us up in the morning and drove us the 30km towards the border by tuk-tuk. We were both very sad to say goodbye, not only to Kep but also to Cambodia. We experienced so much in our time here. The scenery we took in, knowledge we gained, and most of all the human interactions we had will remain with us forever. After a wonderful month here, we couldn’t have asked for a more sentiment-filled final morning. As we travelled towards the border, excited children popped up in every direction. They shouted “Hello” and “Goodbye” waving and running happily alongside, this was totally emotionally overwhelming. This was something we experienced here from day 1 to day 30 and it truly was the most suiting send off. Once the road became only a trail in the middle of nowhere, we transferred to 2 motorbikes for the rest of the journey. It was a little dodgy as we were quite vulnerable but the guys pulled through and delivered us safely. The extent of customs at the crossing was a stamp in the passport and then 2 more motos drove us about 10km to the town of Hatien. Not much to see or do in Hatien but we decided we would stay one night in order to break up the distance to Ho Chi Minh City. We sipped coffee along the river enjoying our afternoon and took a stroll through the night bizarre.
Thanks to the advice of our moto-driver, we stood on the side of the road leaving town and waited for some cheap transportation to come to us. We hitched a ride in a minivan towards Oudong, the next town in our path. Rolling through town we second guessed our choice and decided to push on another 30km to Phnom Penh to stay one night. Now a little Phnom Penh savvy, we checked into a nice hotel on the Tonle Sap riverfront and treated ourselves to a great mid-day breakfast. We arranged a bus to Sihanoukville for the next day. A pleasant surprise in the morning, our 7$ bus ticket got us a plush, reclining seat on a modern bus with perks like sweet bread and bottled water. Six hours to Sihanoukville and about 30 minutes into it the driver pops in a Khmer Karaoke VHS tape. The “music” was cranked to a volume level any Metallica fan would approve of. 5 straight hours of this definitely helped us understand the frequently used term “CRAZY KHMER MUSIC”.
Upon arrival in Sihanoukville we met a mild mannered taxi driver and jumped in his Corolla. After the rundown from him, we cruised to a quiet end of a beach front road. Only 13$ for the night, with A/C, hot water, and only 200m away from Occheuteal Beach. We made the most of being located on a breezy and quieter section of sand and stayed 6 nights. Sihanoukville is a classic bustling beach town offering up entertainment including the red-light district, clubs and nightlife, a casino, and 4 km of beach to sleep it all off on. This was a nice place to hang our hats for awhile and work on our tans.
From here, we pushed on entering a new province, Kampot. This province is famous for its salt flats, and world renowned first-class peppercorns. The van dropped us at Kampot Guesthouse. Soon after check-in the resident baby kitty quickly latched on to us and joined us for an afternoon nap in the room. The guesthouse was complete with an inviting garden café and tasty food for a good price. Kampot was even more relaxed and stunning than we anticipated. We watched smiling locals leisurely peddle around town amongst the old French-era shops. The town is centered on a stunningly atmospheric riverfront where an endless supply of fresh seafood is available. We couldn’t help but feel like we were in the middle of a movie-set in this picture perfect location.
Next, we were on to Kep the “City of Ghosts”. This French coastal town, once booming and full of big money, is now dotted with the blackened shells of luxurious homes, owned in the 60’s by Cambodia’s high rollers. Even to this day, the destruction left behind from the Khmer Rouge is obvious. Although only ruins of homes, these places are all inhabited today by people who have no where else.
Located only a 25 minute boat ride south across Kep Bay lies Koh Tonsay, “Rabbit Island”. This place is rustic and undeveloped to say the least. Without any common comforts such as a fan, electricity, or even a toilet, we settled in to a super basic bungalow for a minimum of one night to start. After a quick walkabout we discovered that the shores weren’t the paradise we expected. Other than the main beach where we slept, trash and fishing nets covered the remainder of the coast. There were herds of local livestock grazing freely as well as wild hunting dogs and free-range chickens. We truly enjoyed the peace and quiet though, without any motors or noise. We watched the day float away as we lounged in hammocks reading and enjoying some time for reflection. Late in the evening as we lay on our bungalow mat surrounded by protective bug netting we heard a storm brewing in the distance. Soon enough the island was roaring with the most incredible thunder and lightening either of us have ever experienced. We sat out on our porch and watched the show. The intensity of the storm was so great that for a moment, we questioned our safety in our little shack in the middle of the sea. The flashes cracked right beside us lighting up the whole area as though it were daylight. After a while the storm moved across the water and faded into the distance. When we woke in the morning we were comforted by the light of day. Seems that the storm wasn’t the only close call we had through the night. As we un-tucked our bug net we found a LIVE SCORPION which had made its way through the net and right under our mat below our pillows!! A little shaken we swatted the scorpion through the slats of wood and decided that one night of “island paradise” would suffice…We relaxed for the day until the afternoon taxi boat returned to Kep mainland.
Since Kep had really made an impression on the two of us, we decided that we would cut out our next stop and would remain here the extra few days. Another 4 nights in Kep, we took in some of the local sights and enjoyed staying put for awhile. We rented a Honda Dream and day tripped on our own. We also took a tuk-tuk tour to some local farms including the famous Kampot pepper fields, cashew and mango farms, as well as the local salt flats. Our Vietnam visas became valid on the 3rd of April so we arranged for transportation to take us to the border. We weren’t really sure what to expect as this entry point was newly opened to foreigner crossings and we had been warned that the road becomes very rough and people often get ditched by their ride, basically we just had to hope for the best. Our driver picked us up in the morning and drove us the 30km towards the border by tuk-tuk. We were both very sad to say goodbye, not only to Kep but also to Cambodia. We experienced so much in our time here. The scenery we took in, knowledge we gained, and most of all the human interactions we had will remain with us forever. After a wonderful month here, we couldn’t have asked for a more sentiment-filled final morning. As we travelled towards the border, excited children popped up in every direction. They shouted “Hello” and “Goodbye” waving and running happily alongside, this was totally emotionally overwhelming. This was something we experienced here from day 1 to day 30 and it truly was the most suiting send off. Once the road became only a trail in the middle of nowhere, we transferred to 2 motorbikes for the rest of the journey. It was a little dodgy as we were quite vulnerable but the guys pulled through and delivered us safely. The extent of customs at the crossing was a stamp in the passport and then 2 more motos drove us about 10km to the town of Hatien. Not much to see or do in Hatien but we decided we would stay one night in order to break up the distance to Ho Chi Minh City. We sipped coffee along the river enjoying our afternoon and took a stroll through the night bizarre.
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