My new Thai mobile-number :
+6652229757
New pictures at:
http://www.backpacking.se/PhotoAlbum.asp?TravelId=3785&SubMenu=2
Here is a longer version of the time after my parents came down. Yes, another long diary. đ
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In Bangkok we did several things. We went to see the Royal Palace with it’s temples, we visited Khao San road, MBK (the big shopping mall), we took the riverboat to Chinatown (9 bath each :p), we took a short ride in a tuk-tuk, we walked a lot, we saw the Queen of Thailand passing by in a car near Khao San Road (they cleared all the traffic on that road to let her pass).
It was fun to show mom and dad the life in Bangkok and they were also amazed over the fact that there are 10 million people in this city, 1 million more than whole Sweden. No wonder it’s polluted…
After a few days it was enough and we had already booked the ticket for flying to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
The flight was at 7 am on Saturday, so it was an early ride from the hotel.
We decided to fly to Phnom Penh instead of Siem Reap because of the price. It was cheaper for us 3 to fly there and then get a ride to Siem Reap by road instead.
When we arrived in PP all the taxi-drivers told us that there wasn’t any way to get to Siem Reap the same day, but I didn’t give up. PP isn’t my favorite city, so I just wanted to get out of there. I also didn’t want to waste a day since our schedule was tight. Me and my mom walked to the bus-station close to the market and there we found a private-taxi that could drive us to SR. Perfect!
When seeing the traffic in PP my mom agreed with me to get out of here asap đ
We had some lunch at a hotel and then off we went. I already experienced this ride before but I will never get used to the crazy take-overs they do. Honk the horn until the meeting traffic moves out of the way. That’s the technique they have. My parents were also amazed over the living-conditions of the Cambodian people. We tried to get some sleep since it’s better not to know whats happening on the road and it had been an early morning for us. Up at 3.30.
After 4,5 hours we arrived in SR and we went to Two Dragons, which is the place I stayed at last time, and they even recognized me.
We ordered a tuk-tuk for the next morning to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Another early morning started at 4.30 and at 5 we went out in the dark night with our tuk-tuk driver.
Unfortunately the sunrise wasn’t the best, but when the sun went up behind the clouds the amazing Angkor Wat stood out from the darkness.
I will never get used of seeing that place. It’s totally incredible and my parents agreed.
We walked around there for about 3 hours, seeing all the carvings in the stone, telling us different stories about their Gods amongst other things.
We had some breakfast and then went to the next temple on our list, Tah Promh, which is the temple with large trees growing on top of the stone-walls.
We actually found the place where they took the picture for the Lonely Planet, which is a door with lots of roots around it. Beautiful and very interesting place.
After a lunch-break and shopping-break we went back to visit Angkor Thom, with its amazing Bayon temple. It has about 37 or 39 towers with 4 faces on each of them. Some in better conditions than others but one of my favorite sites here at Angkor Wat.
The sunset was as bad as the sunrise, but we could at least sit and let our feet rest. There was a lot of walking that day.
We had dinner at the guesthouse (amazing food by the way) and then finished the evening with some card-playing.
The next day we went back to PP with taxi and stayed at The Boddhi Three, just across the torture-place S21. My parents made a visit there but I really didn’t want to see it again so I stayed in.
The next day we took the bus to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and that took about 6 hours.
We found a place right away and stayed in that afternoon, since it was raining quite a bit. We did go out for dinner at night though and also booked a trip to the Mekong-delta (the day after), the flight to Da Nang (for the 15/12), and the Cu Chi-tunnels (for the 15/12).
The Mekong-delta tour reminded me of the one I already had done but it is never the same with other company, so it didn’t bother me. đ
It’s a really nice tour with fruit-market, boat-rides and some vietnamese culture.
The day after we went to see the Cu Chi-tunnels were the Vietcong fought. It was very interesting and also frightening to see the traps that had been used by the Vietcong.
They really know how to use the nature and had made awful traps of wood and other materials.
It was also very ”funny” to see that they had tunnels almost under one American camp. The Yankees never knew what hit them.
We crawled through a 30 meter tunnel on level one, but my dad went also a step further and crawled 50 m more and on the second level, which was about 5-6 m under ground. I think the lowest level is on 8-10 meters. They were very small and I feel pity for the people that had to live like this for so long.
The tunnels were first built at the war against French in the 1940s.
A visit really worth the time.
In the afternoon we went out to the airport with the slowest taxi-driver ever. Well maybe he knew already that our flight was at least 2 hours late, but we sure didn’t until we got there, so I was quite worried that we wouldn’t make it in time.
Fortunate for us we had the deck of cards, so we had no problem wasting time.
Vietnam Airlines also invited us to have a meal in the restaurant on the house.
3 hours late we lifted from HCMC and arrived in Da Nang about 1,5 h later.
The people that booked our flight also helped us book hotel (Thanh Phat, same as last time I was in Hoi An) and taxi so everything went smoothly the rest of the evening.
It was raining cats and dogs, which we had heard from several people that had been in Hoi An, but we didn’t lose hope.
The people at the hotel remembered me and we had a big nice welcome. The room was perfect with 3 beds and it was very roomy.
The next day it was still raining but we went out anyways. Hoi An is a town that everybody likes and so did mom and dad. Despite the rain it really charmed them.
We went past loads of tailors and everybody wants you to go in to their shop and have a look.
Hoi An is also a town with many galleries and really nice restaurants, so there are lots to do.
We went to Hai Scout, which is one of my favorite restaurants since the last time I was here.
We booked a cooking-class which is held at a place called Red Bridge for the day after the next.
The days in Hoi An passed by with rain, more rain and even more rain except for the day we went to cooking-class. Then we even saw the sunshine. đ
We got to cook a lot of different Vietnamese specialities and one of them is fresh spring rolls. We even got to make the rice-paper ourselves and that was big fun. We also learned how to make decorations with cucumber and tomato.
After the class we got to eat the food we made and it tasted great. đ
Our stay in Hoi An was also made extra nice because of the staff at Thanh Phat. They made us feel special by really making an effort to make us feel at home.
Long, a 19 year old boy, was a bit of a joker and he did lots of things that made us laugh a lot.
Also at the breakfast-buffet we got extra service. 7 people stood around and helped us with everything that we needed.
I can also report that Lucky, the little puppy dog I met there last time, is alive and kicking. She isn’t staying at the hotel anymore but at one of the staffs home.
We took our Xmas-photo here and even got Long to join in with his Santa-hat on. đ
The 20th of Dec we went by train to Hanoi. We had booked soft-sleeper but got 2 beds in one compartment and one in another. We swapped with a dutch couple though and spent the evening playing cards and looking at the view. The train took about 16 hours (delayed 2 hours) and we all slept really well.
When arriving in Hanoi we had a taxi waiting for us to take us to our hotel, Prince 1.
We checked in and then went out in the crowded Hanoi.
It wasn’t raining and that felt great since it had been quite cold and wet in Hoi An and most of our luggage was moist from it.
The amount of motorcycles in Hanoi is incredible. It’s also incredible that the side-walk is for parking them, cooking and eating food sitting on plastic-chairs. We were forced to walk on the street most of the time. :p
Even though it’s crowded I like Hanoi a lot. It got a certain charm about it and the Vietnamese people are great (well not only in Hanoi, in all of Vietnam really) but I guess my lungs aren’t that happy about it. I really need to detox after Asia.:)
We also booked a 2 day boat-tour to Halong Bay for the following day.
At 8 Thursday-morning we went with a mini-van for the 3 hour trip to Halong Bay. In the group was also a French family, 1 French/Vietnamese couple and 3 Australian guys.
We arrived at the boat and what a boat it was. The lower deck was the cabins, the middle deck was the restaurant and 2 single rooms and then there was also a sundeck.
Our guides name was Hanh and he took good care of us.
After some lunch the cruise started for real and we got closer to the lime-stone rocks. We stopped at some caves and it was a big one. It was very touristy but still impressive to see. Our guide had problem with saying water, so it came out as weather. I asked him ”Do you mean water?” after thinking about what he just said because it didn’t make sense and he answered ”yes, weather!” . OK! đ
When coming back at the boat we had some free time and then it was dinnertime. We had a really good time and then Hanh came dressed in a typical Vietnamese dress and told us that he had a music show for us.
He sang typical songs from all different parts of Vietnam and then he wanted us to sing a typical song from our countries.
Well me and my mom aren’t very fond of singing in public so we sent up dad. He sang a typical ”snaps-visa” (schnapps-song :p) and did it really well. đ
The Aussies sang Waltzing Mathilda of course, but the Frencies was a bit shy. After this we thought the music show was over, but no. Hanh really liked the attention so he sang a couple of more songs. :p
After that we went outside for a while to sit and enjoy the calmness of the sea and the lights from the other boats.
We went up early the next day to have breakfast before the kayaking! Yes, you read it right. I was about to sit in a really small, plastic boat. The sea was really calm so I never felt worried.
Me and my mom sat in one boat and dad with one of the Aussie-boys, Adrian.
Hanh was a bit worried when he heard that we were 2 women in one boat. He thought it would go to slow… Well he was wrong. đ
We handled it really well and didn’t have a problem keeping up. It was the French/Vietnamese couple that had the problems just after 5 minutes of paddling. Jeff and Jaime (the two other Aussies) had to get back and get them and then tow them the rest of the time .
We paddled under big lime-stone rocks and I felt one with the nature. Very impressive indeed.
After this the boat went back towards the harbour, and we got a nice lunch before heading back to Hanoi.
On Christmas-morning the Santa had visit us by hanging two clean socks with presents for my parents.
I already got presents from my parents every day on the trip. đ
My dads old smelly sock, he hung up the night before, didn’t have a present in it, and I wonder why? :p
We went out walking in Hanoi, making stops at cafes here and there, and also did some shopping.
In the evening we had booked a table at a restaurant where we had roasted turkey with Xmas potato and cranberries. As close as it gets to Xmas-food in Hanoi I guess. đ
After that we had a web cam-date with my brother and his family. Was great seeing them all and Tilde and Maja was blowing us kisses. Cuties. đ
We took a walk down to the lake and there was lots of activity. It’s amazing how the traffic runs here without any major accidents (well there are accidents but we never saw any fortunately). Motorcycles, cars and people crossing the street here and there. People respect that and let them pass before driving on.
We saw it all from the 6th floor of a restaurant having a cold beer in the quite warm evening (about 22 degrees).
We played cards to finish of the Xmas-celebrations and then slept really well our last night in Vietnam.
Sunday-morning at 10 we took a taxi out to the airport and then we flew back to Bangkok. It was very sad leaving Vietnam but my parents say that they will definitely come back to see Hoi An when it’s sunny. I might join them if I can, since Vietnam is one of the nicest countries in Southeast Asia, according to me. I really like the people there and it has lots of interesting things to do and see.
In Bangkok I checked in at Rambuttri and my dad rested in my room (he had a really bad cold, during the trip, that turned out to be pneumonia when seeing a doctor in Sweden!) while my mom and I went to burn Cd’s with all the photos from the trip.
We had a last dinner together for this trip and then they went back with the airport-bus at 8.30 pm, flying home to Sweden just after midnight.
It was really hard seeing them go but we had an amazing trip and we will soon meet again.
I will fly home the 15th or 21st of Jan, not decided yet.
Tomorrow I will hopefully take the nightbus to Phuket and meet up with the NL-couple from Laos, Lisa and Cedric. I just got a mail from them asking if I wanna join them in Khao Lak and that sounds great. I was thinking about going to Phuket tomorrow-night anyways, so close enough. đ
I wish you all a Happy New Year (if you had the energy to read this far. :p) and I will report from the beach the next time. o/ <— me doing the wave
Hugs to you all.
Gott Nytt Ă r!
Vi ses snart. đ
Kram!