Day 6 - Our trip to Vietnam

Ugh. 4:30am wake ups are NASTY. Especially since I went to sleep after midnight. We had to get up, shower, pack and pick up my sister's friend along the way to the airport. Stuffing whatever food we could stomach down our throats, we hopped into a cab and was at my sister's friend Rachel's place within minutes. From there, it was a 15min drive to the airport with no traffic whatsoever.

We check in with over 17kg of luggage between the 2 of us, whilst Rachel had 5kgs. Talk about travelling light!! We quickly do some duty free shopping before boarding. I made a big move not to bring my laptop. But when I got to the airport, I had a panic attack that 9gigs worth of memory wouldn't be enough for the 4 days I'm gone for. I ducked into a duty free shop to grab another 4 gigs of memory when I heard a Jetstar paging for a Rachel. I thought we were late for our boarding call and ran through the airport with my sister and Rachel behind me. We got to the gate only to see a massive line trying to get through security.

We get on board without much issues, except for the fact that the Jetstar international flights are INCREDIBLY tight and uncomfortable. I felt like I sat there with a rod shoved up my butt the entire trip. Luckily, we land in Ho Chi Minh City in 2hours time. Otherwise known as Saigon.


We grab a cab and off we went to the airport. 2mins into the traffic, and my sister is almost hyperventilating from the chaos. Me? After Italy and Turkey, plus countless trips to China, I'm not that fussed.

These are considered "neat" power lines

Most people have to wear masks when riding because of the pollution

Surprisingly, it only took us 20mins to see our first accident.


The 2 women in the photo was going the opposite direction to us, when she did a U-turn right infront of our taxi. Another scooter comes tearing up the side of our taxi, and plowed right into them. However, they all got up, patted themselves down and off they went. No screaming or ranting and raving. Very civilised actually.

We pull into our hotel, the Park Hyatt and we're greeted by 5-star service. You know how you need to lug your suitcase into the lobby and then the bellboy takes it up to the hotel room for you? Nope. We get out of the cab, the concierge opens the boot and asks us if thats all our suitcases and gives us a ticket. He's going to unload and deliver the bags to our room. As we walk towards the entrance of the hotel, the double doors are swung open simultaneously, just like they do when you enter a large grand ballroom.


We check in at reception, where we're told we're given a whole host of complimentry stuff (Not really considering how much we paid for the hotel). The receptionist then walks us up to our room, then gives us an explaination as to the service and features of the room. Which includes complimentry fresh fruit every day and bottled water. Bathrobes and slippers. Toiletry of all kinds, including toothbrushes. Can't forget the complimentry tea and coffee etc. Something you don't get in Europe, even in the 5-star hotels.



We unpack and lock our belongings in the safe, and off we went in search for breakfast. But first, we had to learn how to cross the road. The one thing that confuses me in parts of asia is how they drive on the other side of the road and I don't know which direction to check when I'm crossing. Not that it matters in Vietnam. Line markings mean nothing. A red light is a SUGGESTION that you should SLOW DOWN. And the footpath is also the road. The first street we crossed saw 3 chicks, grabbing each other whilst squealing across the road. By the 3rd street we had to cross, we had it down pat.

There are 2 basic rules of crossing the streets in Vietnam.

1. Don't run
2. Avoid eye contact

Basically, look for a "break" in the traffic. Once you spot the break, keep your eyes looking forward and cross SLOWLY. AVOID EYE CONTACT. If the driver sees you making eye contact, you've acknowledged their existence, and it is your responsibility to avoid getting hit. When you put on your tunnel vision, the driver will have to avoid hitting you, IF you don't run. Keep at a slow constant pace. Run, and they miscalculate and run you over.

We were exhausted after a few streets and we were all ravenous. The plan was to go into the first Pho place we find, and the first one we find was Pho24! haha Pho24 is a massive chain of restaurants throughout Vietnam and internationally. What a great chance to try it out.

Young coconut juice

Herbs for the Pho

Pho Duc Biet (Combination Pho Special)

Spring rolls

The pho was much better than I expected, especially after talking to friends who comment on how the flavour isn't as strong in Vietnam compared to what you get in Sydney. True, the meat wasn't as good quality and a lot fattier, but it still tasted really good. I cleared the whole bowl! My only thing with the Pho24 pho is that they us a thin rice noodle, almost as thin as vermicelli. I much prefer the normal rice noodle you get in Sydney and other pho shops.

We were planning on walking to the Ben Thanh Markets, but of course, no one would listen to my directions and we got completely lost on the other side of town. We decided to just hop into a cab to get to a tour agency not far from Ben Thanh. Through the recommendation of a few friends, we booked a 1 day Mekong and floating market tour with a company call Sinh Cafe. We ducked into a close by coffee shop for a glass of Vietnamese Ice coffee.


This was absolutely delicious. But it was 90% ice and 10% liquid. I literally finished all of this in 3 sips. After loading up on the caffiene, we went straight to Ben Thanh market for SHOPPING!!!!!

Ben Thanh Markets

We literally made it into the door of the Ben Thanh markets before we started shopping. The stall RIGHT next to the door make a heap of money off us. I did keep telling my sister that the prices INSIDE the markets are cheaper and lets you negotiate. Does she listen? Pffffft. We still got a good bargain though. Especially once we got further into the market, you can actually start bargaining.

It was a real challenge at first, trying to convert the Viet Dong to Aussie Dollar. I decided to go with the Singapore currency, where 10,000 Viet Dongs is 1SGD, vs 14,000 Viet Dong being $1AUD. The only problem was, we kept thinking 10,000 dong = $1. And when you ask the shop keeper how much things are, they always try to give you the USD price, which is in dollars. So a few times, my sister will bargain with them in "dollars", except they're talking USD and she's talking SGD. I had to step in a few times, especially when one woman was trying to charge me 14,000 dongs and my sister barges in and goes "I'll give you 100,000 dong!!". *smacks head* It also took her the entire day to sort out the differences between the notes. I almost had to confiscate her money at one stage because she was getting dangerously out of control!

Coffee!

Fruit stalls

"Food court"

Look at all the tropical fruit!

Big plump durian!

A woman getting her baby hair shaved off - Just like in China

Shopping only last about 1.5hrs because we actually ran out of money. This is after we exchanged money for plenty of Dong. We needed more money and fast! On our way back to the hotel to get more money, we went past an ice cream place where we had a pit stop.

Cold lotus tea

Logan ice cream

Iced ginger milk tea

Jackfruit

When we got back to the hotel, we took turns have a nice loooooong hot shower to completely relax and de-grime.

We decided to head back to the Ben Thanh Markets at night as the streets are closed off and turned into a night market. We also went to the hotel reception and changed mass amounts of money for shopping!!

Me and my sis

Noodle stall on the streets

We got to the night markets, where we walked up and down until we spotted a restaurant full of locals. Looking at the menu, some dishes sound familiar, some we've never heard of. So we basically took a stab in the dark and ordered a few random dishes and a few favourites:

My favourite pennyworth drink

Viet Iced coffee

Round 1 of summer rolls

Round 2 of summer rolls

Sugarcane prawns

Fried spring rolls

MmMmm fried spring rolls.... *drool*

Grilled spicy fish with mint salad

"Glutinous vegetable with garlic" - I think its Chinese spinach??

Our mystery spicy and sour soup - with a whole fish served with noodles

Glutinous rice ball - completely hollow inside

After we finished eating, we walked back outside past the grill section where they were busy cooking meals for the rest of the customers. My sister pointed at these hanging frogs. I stepped closer to take a photo, and just as the flash went off on my camera, the frogs all twitched and struggled in unison! Scared the bejeeezus out of me! THEY WERE ALIVE!

We took a nice long walk later, where we bought quite a few things at rock bottom prices. Thanks to all the bargaining I've done in Hong Kong, China and Turkey, I'm a real pro at it! LoL

Day 33 - Istanbul, the ride, the smoke and the Turkish Night

We've been meaning to go to the Princess Island for the past few days. Every day we aim to get up at 9am to catch a ferry to the Princess Island and spend the day there. Every day, the alarm goes off, we open one eye and look at each other before going back to sleep. Today was no exception. It was way after 2pm by the time we got ready. As usual, no hotel breakfast for us. Only berocca and cough syrup. We did make it across the road to Maestro for breakfast/lunch again.

Stingey on the bread again

Morning tea to wake me up

Waiter guy on the streets

New potential for Christine

Guvec for my breakfast

Turkish rice

Breakfast plate for Moishii

After we paid for our meal, we struck up a conversation with waiter. He offered to show us the upstairs part of the restaurant, which we've never seen before. We walk upstairs when next thing you know, he practically shoves me onto a bench and told me to stay there. Then he grabs Moishii and drags him to the other side of the room. I knew something wasn't right, so I immediately took a photo.


My initial reaction was that he's trying to convince Moishii to go to a brothel or organise a hooker for him. Well was I wrong or what. Apparently, he's a complete religious nut, and started questioning Moishii's faith. Whether he goes to the mosque, whether he reads/memorized the Koran and.......whether....... *cough* he's had the snip. Who the hell asks such a question?

After his 15min of preaching, they both come back over, and suddenly he starts giving me a lecture about how I needed to learn how to speak Turkish, but it was important and essential that I spoke Turkish. WTF?

We quickly made a get away and headed towards the supermarket to grab more water, tissues and cough lollies. Of course, the perverted restaurant owner guy had another perve at me and practically pulled a muscle to check out my chest.


We went back to the hotel where we booked a Turkish night for tonight. Originally we had asked Bellboy to find out how much it was, and he quoted us 120euros for the 2 of us. I had a COMPLETE fit and refused to pay that much! The last time we did the Turkish night, it was 35euros! We asked the reception guy who quoted us 40euros each. Bellboy found out that we busted him trying to rip us off, which was why we got the room swap yesterday.

With that booked, we grabbed our DSLR and headed off towards the Blue Mosque. We wanted to do the horse drawn carriage ride around Sultanahmet. We had a bit of time before the ride to do a bit of sight seeing and photo taking.




Between the short tour and the deluxe tour, it was $5 difference. We figured we might as well go out all out and do the deluxe tour. When we told the tour operator, his jaw practically dropped to the ground. I don't think ANYONE has ever requested the delux tour.

We hop onto the carriage and off we went for a ride around town:

Horse fighting the traffic

I felt like a complete celebrity on the horse drawn carriage. Everyone started waving at us!



Well, almost everyone. A few people looked at us as if we had killed half of their family! I should've thrown this at them:

Look VERY closely...

After our ride ended, we headed back to Sude Konak where we were going to meet up with Vural. We even managed to stop to get our fortunes told by the bunnies:


I also decided to quickly jump on the net to do our online flight check in whilst we were waiting. And we decided to keep ourselves amused:


Vural finally showed up so we could grab a quick photo before we ducked across the road to Maestro to give the Turkish Bong a go.


Tea, coffee, Turkish bong, what else do you need? :P

The setup

*puff**puff*

After about 30mins, I started getting head spins. The funny thing was (Yeh it WAS FUNNY), it was making our throat better and helping my cough!

We finally decided to walk it off and also grab some tape for tonight's Turkish Night. The puffing has made us hungry and we knew dinner won't happen til about 9pm, so we decided to share a Kokorec. We never figured out what Kokorec is from our last 2 trips, so we just dived right on in:

Buns warming in the oven

Kokorec

Well.....2 bites into it and I figured out what Kokorec is. It is seasoned lamb intestines that have been skewered and BBQ'd. I actually really liked it and would order it again. The intestines were finely chopped up with some herbs and onions and shoved into a warmed roll. MmMMm

We went back to the hotel to rest up and got ready for our big night out. The bus came and picked us up and it took us an hour to get there because of the worst traffic jam ever. The guide ended up jumping off the bus to try and find the hotel to pick up other people and the bus continued to drive down the road. This meant the people who were already late, had to run the 500m to get back onto the bus.

We finally got to the restaurant "Sultana's" where we were escorted to our front row seats! This is NEVER a good sign. We never get good seats. If we get something good, it means something will go HORRIBLY bad pretty soon.......We decided to just enjoy ourselves for now.

Hot and cold Mezze

Side Salad

Grilled chicken with rice and chips

Fresh fruit

Fresh Helva and cakes

And the show begins!!

Bellydancer

Folk dancing

More belly dancing

The shoes they dance in

The face is the guy's belly!

Another belly dancer

Cheers!

So the night ended for us around 10:30pm. I think there might be more shows, but the bus was leaving and we were both exhausted. We walked outside to wait for the bus and spotted this next door to us:


I don't want to know what type of show it is........just as we were debating about the place, the started raining. Luckily the bus came and we hopped on. Then we started going around the block again and again, circling the prostitutes on the streets. After 20mins, we finally found the first hotel to drop people off at.

15mins later, we come to a grinding halt. Its bucketing down rain and we're not moving. 15mins later, we've moved about 500ms. Lightening. Another 10mins and we've gone another 200m. Its complete gridlock and utter chaos. It wasn't until about 1:30am that we FINALLY got dropped off at our hotel. And we were the last people to get dropped off. What are the chances of that? About the same chance as us getting a front row seat.

We got home so late, even Maestro had closed. We tried banging on the door to get some soup, but nope. We walk into the hotel and the reception guy is there. Seeing my DSLR, he told me to go to the terrace to get some night shots since the rain had stopped. However, he forgot one minor detail. The terrace was closed!! FFS!

I decided to jump on the net whilst I was still awake. Reception guy gave us a glass of wine each when we decided to act on a little plan we concocted whilst we were stuck on the bus. What the plan? Well, you'll find out soon. But it involved the internet, my USB key and wine.

We went back to our room to finally crash, when next door started going for it again. There was laughing and running around the room followed by some....errrrr.... peculiar "noises". What a great way to end the night.....