Monday, November 07, 2005

Dalat, Mui Ne, Saigon

Right, it's been a while since i regaled you with tales so here's the lowdown.

We travelled from Nha Trang to Dalat on the open tour bus and found that in order to see any of the sights in Dalat one has to either hire bikes or get a guide. We'd never ridden bikes so we got a guide, an Easy Rider to be precise. They hang around on the streets and don't have an office to avoid tax but they're good guides. We did a 1 day tour around Dalat and enjoyed it so much we decided to do a 2 day trip to Mui Ne with the same guys. When we did the longer trip we had our big packs strapped on the back so it was like being in an armchair, very nice for seeing the Vietnamese jungle and hills. We got out in the sticks and saw some of the real Vietnam where it isn't designed for tourists and it was very refreshing. It would be nice to do the whole country like that but the costs would rack up quite badly, i do now have dreams of buying a bike and touring South America though i still haven't actually ridden one so i might do that first.

The guides left us at Mui Ne which is a sea side town 5 hours from Saigon. We decided not to stay the night so we booked a 1am bus and then went sand surfing, basically get a large piece of plastic and shoot down a large sand dune with some vietnamese children helping you out (and pulling Suze back up the slope!)

So we got to Saigon at 6am, lovely. Walked around and saw the city, i wasn't particularly impressed, it's no Beijing or Bangkok, but there was a few things to see. Today we went to the Cu Chi tunnels where you can go through the tunnels the vietcong used when they were fighting the yanks and then we went to the war remnants museum which had captured aeroplanes and howitzers outside which you could look around and touch, very cool. Tomorrow we get the bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia so we'll have spent precisely 3 weeks in Vietnam, marvellous!

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ash, i was looking in my Thailand guide book for info about the climate. Apparently December to April is the height of the tourist season and the best weather. The monsoon season ends in November, so depending on when you get there you may get some heavy rain, but hopefully no major tropical storms. It does warn that accommodation for this time in popular areas is very busy and it is best to book in advance.

Hope you have a cool time in Cambodia. If you're still in Thailand in January me and Kat might catch you up. You shall have to let us know when you're departing and where you're heading.

Monday, 07 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tish tosh, Bangkok will never run out of rooms, I'm sure people would rent their own beds out to you if they thoght they could make a few pennies and if you don't catch a real monsoon then you'll have missed out (hopefully you've caught a couple already)

That China wall isn't very flat is it? Not very practical for the toursits. Why didn't the old chinese masons cut tunnels through the hillside, then they'd be able to build the wall straight and flat with no need for strenuous ups and downs.

You're not alone Freerider, I've been considering learning to ride a motorbike ever since I rode around the countryside on one too. I've also had my eyes set on buying one in South America.

--bending hither, bending thither

Monday, 07 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you two are the least original knobends i've ever seen - why don't you just change your name to 'che guevara' and 'fatboy'. pricks.
o yeah ash, Civ 4 is the most disgustingly addictive game i've ever played, i just can't stop playing the fecking thing.
sob.

Wednesday, 09 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Duffy stop being so jealous and just wax lyrical about your huge telescope...

I would like to confirm that Civ 4 is addictive, but I can't as none of my computers will run it due to the lack of half decent graphics card. That's probably a good thing at the moment as I'm meant to be spending my spare time on my course doing job hunting (fun...). Of course that hasn't stopped me watching family guy.

Wednesday, 09 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(I see Duffy's testicles are suffering in Aafke's absence.)


Here's a quick couple of questions for the numerous techno nuts, I'm in need of a little assistance.

I'm thinking of getting one of the nice new ipods (play videos and all fancy shit), but I reckon it'll be cheaper to buy one in America, and as I'm passing through soon....

is there a difference between ipods sold here or in the US? I just wondered about power conections and stuff, but don't they charge the battery via USB sockets?

What's the name of those really nice ear phones that Ash is always raving about, I guess if I'm buying the ipod I might as well get a good headset.

And are Ipods okay at being bashed about during exercise? I'd rather like to listen to some music when I dashing about useing my devil sticks but I'm not sure if it's healthy for the hard drive.

Cheers fellas

-- Bendy

Wednesday, 09 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know Tom. That photo looks just how a physics phd should. Stuck in an underground cave with a vacant expression on your face...

Friday, 11 November, 2005  
Blogger Ash said...

Lol, i'm guessing the rest of that picture which tom has so elegantly cropped is me and al staring at the 'lesbians' across the room, we need to get the full version on your site tom, very pretty by the way. Your research interests section sounds soooo bored, i Have to spend 2 years on management courses, haha.

Dave, i'm leaving Thailand on Dec 18th, 1 day to recover on full moon, lonely planet always says to book ahead but its not really a problem, there's always a moto driver who knows a decent place which has some vacancies.

Al, you're lovely as always, i want civ 4 waiting on my doormat when i get back, bendy knows the address. Has the new system album come out yet? (Hypnotize) Is it any good?

Matt, stop being a pikey bastard and buy your poor shuttle a 3d card, it's wondering what it did to deserve this.

Bendy, iPods are good for charging off any power supply, you'll need an adaptor if you buy an american one but it doesn't need to transform the voltage, just plug it in. They charge through USB as well but it takes a bit longer. I dont know about other companies products but apple's are very flexible on power demands. My earphones are Sony MDR-EX71's but if you want flash ones check out Shure EC3's and EC5's.

Saturday, 12 November, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ash I would buy a graphics card but I have no income at the moment and so I'm actually worse off than when at uni...

Also I really don't need the distraction at the moment of Civ4. My course might be on the easy stuff at the moment but I'm trying to read ahead. This is helped by lack of internet in my accomodation so evenings are all about books.

You can check my blog if you want to see how bored I am during the day (click my name above). Most of my posts so far have been done during boring presentations about 8bit ISA ports and the like.

Also, as I knew Civ4 would be hard to resist I deliberately spend a few days (or was it weeks) playing Civ3 to try and get it out of my system!

Saturday, 12 November, 2005  

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