Day 39 and 40: Priscilla Queen of the desert: Kick off in Australia (28 and 29 Dec 2008)

Day 39 and 40: Priscilla Queen of the desert: Kick off in Australia (28 and 29 Dec 2008)

Though his fever was almost gone, August ate only a little, so he was not recovered yet. On the plane Singapore he did not eat much either. So what I did is I smuggled part of the breakfast we got served in the plane to Adelaide with me in the luggage, in the hope that he would eat a little later that morning. Unfortunately the customs use dogs to sniffle at every luggage item, and a little dog discovered my illegal cakes. We got a little sermon by the immigration authorities, but luckily no fine

After a short trip with an Indian cab we left our luggage in the hotel and walked to the city centre. After only a few meters August visited his first public playground in a Australian park, again he was fitter than the both of us after our overnight trip and another 3,5 hours time difference..

Adelaide on a Sunday is quite, no is deathly quit. After three weeks Vietnam we could stand in the middle of a road and look around without hearing or seeing any moving vehicle: a nice feeling. In the evening we decided eat some meat: steak with potatoes and a nice bottle of wine. We missed that for 5 weeks. When August said 'check please' we realised that this diner equals about twenty meals in Vietnam, but it was worth it.

We walked back to the hotel and could not resist to enter a liquor shop that we passed by for a decent bottle of Ozzie beer. The owner gave us 2 cooling wraps for bottles, and was very pride to pose for the photo.

De volgende dag mochten we onze mobilhome (campervan, busje) ophalen. Mijn zoektocht naar een betaalbare camper in Australië is vanaf het begin moeizaam verlopen. We hadden beiden uitgemaakt dat het toch wel opportuun was om niet in een tentje te slapen met de vele beesten in Australië. Toen ik dan eindelijk beslist had welke camper we zouden nemen, bleken er geen meer beschikbaar te zien en kon mijn zoektocht opnieuw beginnen. Uiteindelijk heb ik dan toch nog een 'Budgetcamper' gevonden. Wat nu volgt zal/moet ik (Steven) zelf beschrijven aangezien het trauma nog te vers is voor Veerle. Het afleveradres bleek een gewone car rental te zijn die de camper toegeleverd krijgt en aflevert aan de huurder, maar verder dan ook niets over de camper weet. Al snel bleek dat de camper niet was voorbereid op drie personen: bestek, borden, kampeerstoeltjes en dergelijke was slechts voorzien voor twee personen. Na enkele telefoons met de echte verhuurder ('Howard') in Sydney werd ons bevestigd dat we alles mochten bijkopen en alles zou terugbetaald worden bij het binnenleveren van de camper. De reserveband bleek compleet waardeloos. We mochten na ontvangst onmiddellijk de bandencentrale binnenspringen om deze te laten vervangen. Ondertussen was August zijn maag nog steeds niet in orde. Terwijl Veerle binnen stond te discussiëren moest hij overgeven tegen de garagepoort (een beetje braak als wraak). Ondertussen was de camper buiten gereden en raakte Veerle in shock door de binnen toestand. Blijkbaar was enkel de buitenkant proper gewassen, zelfs de banden blonken van de wax. De binnenkant was.....voor Veerle onaanvaardbaar. Het moet gezegd het was inderdaad smerig, zie zelf maar naar de foto's van de keukenhanddoek die ze mee leverden maar die precies van de garage kwam! Dus Veerle is in zachte furie zelf aan de telefoon in discussie gegaan met onze Howard en na een korting van één dag en de garantie dat het poetsmateriaal wordt terugbetaald konden we op stap. Eerst de band vervangen, dan naar K-mart voor kampeermateriaal, dan levensmiddelen indoen (en veel alcohol om het trauma te verzachten) en dan naar de dichtstbijzijnde camping voor een Total Make Over van de camper. Een volledig dag verloren!

Day 36 until 38: Goodnight Saigon (25 until 27 Dec 2008)

Day 36 until 38: Goodnight Saigon (25 until 27 Dec 2008)

Last stop in Vietnam: Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. HCMC is huge city of about 8 million habitants, and far more progressed than Hanoi in the North, regardless the strict communistic regime that was applied by the bureaucratic North as from 1975. The streets are full with scooters, still, but more and more cars tend to appear. The streets are broader, more open, and you have real pedestrian walkways which are not always fully parked with scooters like in Hanoi. However, if they are not full of scooters, than the motorized Viets used them to drive on, so the poor pedestrian still faces as survival hike when walking through the city. Western marks and goods are available (Esprit, D&G, Gucci, Shiseido,..) though not for the common Viet who earns a couple of million Dong a month (1 Mio Dong is about 40 EURO).

Basically we did not do a lot in HCMC. Main objective was to shop in the different markets to collect some souvenirs, to stroll around the city and to visit the war museum. The first 2 things were accomplished more or less: we had to look quite some time before we found what we were looking for in the shops and on the markets. Secondly it was very hot and humid, worse than in Bangkok (we agreed both on that). And on the last evening August developed a fever, we did not make it to the war museum on the last day. The only thing we did was to bring all goods, we wanted to send to Europe, to the main post office. The employee who helped us in the post office sais that he would pack all goods for us, we did not have to worry about boxes or tape. Turned out that they asked unofficially 100.000 Dong for this 'service' after the fact was done. Vietnam...

We enjoyed for the last time the fine Vietnamese cuisine in 'Lac Thien', related to the restaurant with the same name that we have been to in Hue. The restaurants are established by a deaf-mute family. The restaurant in HCMC is founded by one of the daughters. It is very odd, but she understood us much better than any other Viet, even than the ones that speak relatively fluently English. The numbers of times we got a wrong dish served... regardless speaking slowly, pointing at the words and the pictures....

In the evening we took the flight to Adelaide, with a stop in Singapore. We had a pretty good view of the town when we were heading off: a remarkably colourful sight, with a lot of neon lights, a little bit Las Vegas style. Goodnight Saigon!

Day 35: Last Christmas (24 Dec 2008)

Day 35: Last Christmas (24 Dec 2008)

On the next morning we got up at 6:00 AM in order to catch the sampan on time to get to the floating market of Can Tho before the heat fell down as blanket on the city and river. This time we stayed on one of the main river arm. The Mekong Delta is full of live: boats of al size and kind, a lot of houses at the shore and activities ongoing at the river banks. People live and work around the river, the Mekong is the beating heart of the South of Vietnam. Not to mention that they use the water for everything: it is used of cooking, bathing, cleaning vegetables and all kind of utensils. We saw little kids cleaning the cadaver of a little dog in the river, probably their Christmas meal (unfortunately Steven was too much in chock to take a picture).

The floating markets are very attractive: wooden boats of all kind are selling different kinds of fruits and vegetables. They advertise by hanging the item(s) on top of their boats on a mast, so you can easy recognize it. Now is dragon fruit and water melon season. Coconut, pineapple and bananas are always 'in season' . I was particularly interested in the rice boats, transporting the bulk rice from/to the warehouses on the shore. I just wonder whether they ever heard about dust explosions... Talking about safety, I could take enough pictures in Vietnam to fill in the opening safety minutes for all meetings at Jacobs for the next year (worldwide). I particularly would like to mention the boat driving engines who run without any protection of the moving parts. However the boat 'captain' rolls up the trousers' pipe close to the engine as a personal protection mean (what a relief). In Thailand at least they were talking already about 'safety first' at construction sites along the road.

After the boat trip and lunch we took a little siesta. The temperature rose again above 35 °C, we just cannot agree whether it is warmer than in Bangkok or not. We have to be in good shape for Christmas eve however, since the travel agency invited us for a Christmas dinner in Can Tho to compensate for our complaint about the train. Turned out that it was in the same restaurant where we had dinner last night, but we didn't gave a wink and now we got the full menu and we sat at the balcony, a perfect spot to observe the X-mas crazy Viets. The travel agency said previously that Christmas is not really celebrated in Vietnam, but we can confirm that they are X-mas crazy (though the fact that the Asia Cup was on the television on the same evening, Thailand against Vietnam helped as well). People are massively on the streets, whole families on their scooters, little kids disguised as father Christmas, young couples stroll at the river banks, 'last Christmas' from Wham is shouting outside the speakers of a bar. The Christmas shops are doing big business, and particularly the little shops in the park where you can take a picture of your child in a Christmas scenery. We took a picture of August and headed off, without to pay for it. Too bad (a little revenge for all the tricks the Viets tried on us);

Back in our hotel we realized that the Viets are taking this holiday really seriously, and that they will probably would go on celebrating the whole night long. So goodnight to you too!!!

Day 33 until 34: The River (22 – 23 Dec 2008):

Day 33 until 34: The River (22 - 23 Dec 2008):

Another day on the road with our private driver. Does not sound that bad, but if you remember what we wrote previously about Vietnamese roads and traffic, it is not something to look forward to. To not completely waste the day, we decided to get up early to watch the sun rising from the sea (5:30h) and take a last swim in the waves. Magnificent, as the pictures will reveal. A Vietnamese bride and groom got up early as well, to take the obligatory wedding photo's with this beautiful scenery at the background. Weddings are abundant now in Vietnam - December is the preferred wedding month. In every town we saw wedding parties so far. The Viet attach a great deal of importance to the married status, if you are not married or if you don't have kids, you are to be pitied!

After 8 hours we reached our destination, a hotel at the riverside of My Tho in the Mekong Delta where, how can it be otherwise, another very noisy wedding party was going on. Also the first occasion upon which I saw a Viet man drinking a beer ad fundum as part of a contest. Men never change! The restaurant in town was not our best selection for diner as we found out afterwards. We were alone surrounded by 5 or 6 rude, impolite and non English speaking waiters who tried to play their tricks on us. This time we had to pay for the ice to cool the beer bottles. I had to look for chop sticks and bowls myself. The fried noodles with beef that Steven ordered changed all of a sudden in some seafood dish, I had to bring the plate back to the kitchen myself. And of course it is always nice to enjoy your food when you see rats running around at 2 meter distance of your table. Luckily they didn't had the guts to the list the wrong seafood dish on the bill.

But the stroll through the streets of My Tho made up for the disappointing dinner: People were much friendlier than in the beach resorts, and August was again the shining star of My Tho.

On the next morning we got a lift to Cai Be, where we boarded a the little sampan for the tour in the Mekong Delta. We got our private little sampan with a very friendly and English speaking guide.

After we paid a visit to the Cai Be Floating Market, we visited a family owned factory to make rice paper (for the little nems) and all kinds of candies with local fruit. Very interesting, moreover since none of the people were pushy to sell something, which was a relief. Popped rice is produced by heating small charcoal particles inside a huge wok pan, and adding the rice grains. Due to the efficient heat transfer of the hot charcoal to the rice, the popping process goes incredibly fast and efficient, much faster than with corns. Afterwards the popped rice is separated from the charcoal and the empty hulls with a big sieve The popped rice is then bounded with a mixture off caramelized sugar cane, ginger, fruit and herbs. The result is a kind of Nougat as the one you can buy in the South of France. We could taste all the different sweets; August favourite was the dried coconut, and mine the ginger candy. Steven was not that enthusiastic since his favourite snack stays the (Pringle) chips. We bought a little bag with the coconut candy for August (and ourselves) and enjoyed it until I found some human hairs inside the bag. GMP is one goal too far in this country for the time being. We bought also some flip flop shoes with dolphins on it for August, since we noticed that he did not fit in in Vietnam without it. He is very proud of them and walks around as a real beach boy (strand jeanet)

We were crossing one of the 9 Mekong delta river arms with our sampan, and we entered the little canals of the islands of An Binh and Binh Hoa Phuoc, that are unlike the majority of the Mekong which is dominated by rice culture, dedicated to fruit culture. After an introduction into the tropical fruit of the island, we took lunch in a local house. They served a.o. grilled river fish, nicely presented standing upright with a chilli pepper in the mouth.

The overall relaxed atmosphere of the Mekong Delta reminds us of the national park Kao Sok in Thailand. At the time being we would like to come back (once) for a boat and/or bike tour to the Mekong Delta, and since Pnom Pen is only 7 hours away by ferry , to include Cambodia as well (an Laos?) But that is for next time. In the mean time we continued our touristic boat tour to an ancient house where they presented the local Viet operette (a 4 man orchestra of ancient instrument players and various singers). My mother (Oma) would enjoy this! Our guide was translating the essence of the songs, so that we had at least an idea what they were mooning about. After the session I was heading for the Viet 'guitar' player (to collect a signature of course), and he gave us a solo performance on his one string instrument that would made Metallica blush in all embarrassment. We would have to work on his looks though if we would bring him on stage (we need a good dentist to start with).

The tour ended in Vinh Long, where out driver waited for us to get us to Can Tho. We had to take the car ferry to cross (another) arm of the Mekong river, and there I had the Mumbai déjà-vu: disabled people who where scaring the waiting cars to beg: people without legs knocking on the doors, blind people 'looking' through the windows of the car with glazed eyes, etcetera.

Back in the hotel in Can Tho Steven got a challenge from me: to install our mosquito nets. Last night I was hunted by the f.. beasts until the morning, and since we forgotten our electrical mosquito apparatus in one of the previous hotels, we were exposed to the little cruel insects in the Mekong delta. Luckily we could span a cord through the room, on which we would hang our nets. So we fell relieved asleep.

Day 30 - 32: Verhaal Steven beach (19-21 dec 2008)

Dag 30 is goed begonnen. Het is mooi weer en we mogen Nha Trang verlaten. We worden opgehaald door een schone jonge gespierde Viet met een jeep. Veerle en August zijn uiterst tevreden.

Het landschap is prachtig: de rijstvelden worden groener en we rijden verder naar het zuiden langs de kust.

We zijn een maand onderweg, het gaat snel maar we hebben reeds enorm veel gezien en beleefd. In Mui Ne komen we terecht in een mooi klein resort recht op het strand - oef. De mappen van de touroperators zoals Neckermann liggen aan de receptie, eigenlijk niet echt iets voor rugzaktoeristen zoals wij. Maar dat laten we niet aan ons hart komen. Het is immers kerstvakantie. Er zijn ook mensen die thuis zitten in een koud land zonder regering.

De omgeving voelt een beetje aan zoals Turkije. Er zitten ook veel Russen (Matroeskja's met tanga's in hun dikke r...) en Duitsers. Als je hier je vakantie doorbrengt, heb je niets van Vietnam gezien. Maar August geniet 200% van deze dagen rust: opstaan, ontbijten, ons installeren op het stand, zwemmen, (zand)kasteel bouwen, 's middags een hapje eten en na de middag alles opnieuw. Twijfelen tussen een duik in het zwembad of de branding trotseren. Het gaat ons goed!

De restaurantjes in de buurt leven enkel van de toeristen. Het moet gezegd nu werden echt alle middelen boven gehaald om ons geld af te troggelen:bij aankomst vochtige doekjes aanreiken of fruit van het huis aanbieden en nadien op de rekening zetten, bij het bestellen melden dat de prijs op de kaart helaas met 20% is gestegen....maar als intussen ervaren Viet reizigers zijn wij gehard in al deze lepe technieken en ontmaskeren we gezwind de oplichterij.

Twee dagen en half hoogzomer en onze batterijen zijn weer helemaal opgeladen.

Morgen hebben we een zware rit voor de boeg. We gaan naar My Tho in de Mekongdelta zo'n rit van +- 7u en dan is Veerle terug aan het woord (in slecht Engels alweer, haalt allen uw woordenboeken maar weer boven of kijk op een Indische vertaalsite).

Day 28 and 29: Verhaal Steven deel 2 (17-18 dec 2008)

Nu de verslaggeefster terug met haar voetjes aan het stand ligt, mag ik weer een deel van ons verhaal vertellen.

Na ons avontuur van gisteren hebben we direct klacht neergelegd bij de Nederlandse organisatie, een kwestie van ons even mondig te gedragen als een Nederlandse klant. En meteen werd ik opgebeld door de touroperator in Vietnam die zich excuseerde en ons verzekerde dat we de rest van de trip perfect begeleid zullen worden. Wow dat noem ik een service. Eigenlijk beginnen we na een maand te verlangen naar Australië en NZ waar we alles zelf mogen regelen en op ons eigen tempo kunnen reizen, zelf rijden, slapen in de natuur......

We zijn nu 14 dagen in Vietnam en we hebben ons al aangepast aan de gewoontes van het land. We bieden sowieso niet meer af. Dat duurt veel te lang: we lachen hen eerst uit, vriendelijk en met respect, bij het geven van hun prijs en zeggen dan zelf de prijs ( schrijven het op/ typen het in op hun rekenmachine). Ze hebben dan direct door dat ze deze wereldreiziger niet moeten proberen op te lichten en je krijgt meteen respect terug.

Ook August heeft zich aangepast: hij mag de rekening vragen op restaurant 'sjeck pliese' en hij antwoordt nu automatisch aan iedereen die hen baby noemt ' NO, BIG MANNNN!!'. Ineens vinden ze hem toch iets minder schattig. Ook naar alle mogelijke verkopers, bedelaars en riksjarijders heeft hij reeds een basis 'GO AWAY' zwaaitje zodat we rustig over de straat kunnen lopen.

Wat een rustig dagje aan zee zou worden in Nha Trang, werd een heuse trektocht. Het weer zit de laatste dagen niet mee. Hoor ons klagen: het is hier bewolkt, 25° met af en toe een bui. Niet echt strandweer, dus we zouden even naar het stadje wandelen. Veerle had zich echter de Chamtorens aan de andere kant van de stad als doel gesteld en dan volgen de mannen. August volgde zonder zeuren. Ik heb hem nog geen enkele keer deze reis horen zeggen dat zijn beentjes te moe waren. Op de terugweg langs het strand werden we weggespoeld door de regen en de golven.

Ook de volgende dag geen strandweer, dus we besloten weer een fietstochtje te maken. Vietnam Journey (reisorganisator) heeft ons verschillende fietsroutes overgemaakt en tot op heden hebben deze ons niet teleurgesteld, al is het soms wel wat zoeken en puzzelen om niet verkeerd te rijden, maar dat is dan weer de uitdaging die het spannend maakt.

Nu zien we echt echte Vietnam, weg van de boulevards en de drukke straten. Hier zijn we voor gekomen: vriendelijke mensen op het land, in eenvoudige huisjes, allen op brommertjes en de schoolkinderen op fietsen. In elke stad lijkt de fietstocht helemaal anders. De grote toeristische attracties stellen eigenlijk een beetje teleur, maar die fietstochten (+/- 25km) maken veel goed. Ook vandaag zijn we weer geen enkele toerist tegengekomen. De mensen kijken meestal verbaasd als ze die grote blanke man en die baby met een motorhelm zien aankomen. Maar al snel volgt een vriendelijk 'hello' en soms een 'where are you from?'.

We beginnen nu toch echt te verlangen naar enkele dagen vakantie aan zee en lekker niets doen. Morgen verhuizen we naar Mui Ne daar moet het gebeuren.

Dag 27: Inbetween days (16 dec 2008)

At 7am the driver picked us up in the hotel. We were surprised, our train was leaving round 13.15 in Da Nang 'central station'. So Steven showed the tickets in the hope to get some answers but he got just an Asiatic smile.

After a short drive and a stop at the Cham Museum the driver dropped us at the station round 9 am. We looked at the board and the SE3 was confirmed 13:15! We had 4 hours to go in the station. August was rather pleased unlike we were: there was an aquarium and he had plenty of space to play with his cars. So we settled on the plastic chairs and waited for the train....

Day 25 and 26 : Japanese Whispers (14 and 15 Dec 2008)

Hoi An : Hanoi on a small scale but without the traffic. Indeed very cute: the little streets with wooden houses, the river banks with the fish market, the Japanese quarter on the other side of the bridge, the temples and shops. Again nothing spectacular. We visited on of the old houses, owned by the mandarin family for over 2 centuries. Some nice Viet-French speaking lady showed us around, but as we are used to by now, the visit ended in the souvenir shop where they tried to convince us to buy something. So back to our stroll to the streets then. The Ancient House Hotel made up a lot for the lack of sights in town. Because previously other clients of Vietnam Journey, our tour operator, complained about the Glory hotel, we were moved into a luxurious resort with enormous rooms with a bath in stone, rain shower, laptop and DVD player in the room. We could enjoy the swimming pool only the day of arrival, the rest of the days the weather was not good enough.

Nearby we discovered a nice little restaurant where the owners were very friendly. They rented bikes, so the next day we were back on the bike cruising the country and the sea side.