TravelStream™ news feed for member alanandchris on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/alanandchris en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 29 May 2008 06:31:32 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1212055320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1212055320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1212055320/tpod.html Thu, 29 May 2008 06:31:32 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Candolim, India

It's been a long time between postings and for this we are truly sorry. The problem has been that because we have been here so many times before, we assume that everyone knows about Goa.

However, we now have something new to say and hopefully the blog will be updated a little more often before we arrive back in the UK on June 12th.

I travelled to Mumbai on 25th in order to pck up our daughter Sarah who was arriving for a holiday here with us. It was wonderful to see her at international arrivals, even though it was at 4am. She waltzed through with a smile on her face and told me that the airline (Qatar Airways) had upgraded her to business class. That is something that has never happened to Chris and I, probably because we normally look like peasants, whereas Sarah was fashionably dressed.

After a few hours at the Hotel Accord, where we were again upgraded, we were ready for the short flight to Goa which should have departed at 4:15pm. What fun we had sitting at the airport during the four and a half hour delay. There was only one lounge open to the public that served alcohol and it was the Platinum Mastercard holders lounge. Unfortunately I had left my Halifax Platinum Mastercard back in Goa so we spent the time drinking water. Ugh.

We finally arrived back in our apartment at 11pm, just after all the restaurants closed, so Chris cooked us a traditional Indian meal of Heinz baked beans on toast.

Since Sarah arrived we have gradually started to come out of hibernation and have reached the point where we are now actually moving again. Yesterday we visited Old Goa, once a major place of Christian worship. There are two huge Basilicas built by the Portuguese several centuries ago and now in the middle of nowhere. The population moved out of the area a couple of hundred years ago because they could not then control the spread of malaria.

I have included a few pictures this time because my new memory card works. I will have to wait until we get back home to post the pictures for the last few places.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1210417740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1210417740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1210417740/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 07:41:37 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Candolim, Goa, India

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy. Yes - We are Lazy.

It's been some days since we last updated but that's because we are finally chilling out in the best place in the world. Candolim.

During the winter season Goa is full with approximately 60,000 tourists here at any one time. There are miriads of tourist restaurants, bars, beach shacks serving food and drink, souvenier shops, market stalls and uncle tom cobblys. Now however, there is A bar with limited opening hours. OK - It's not that bad. It is wonderfully quiet and just like it used to be when we first came to Goa many years ago. There are half a dozen restaurants still open and the weather is just as good as in the middle of the tourist season. We can walk the beach without falling over shacks and sunbeds and the lack of beach sellers makes for a very pleasant holiday.

We have a very pleasant two bedroom apartment at the Moonlight restaurant and bar with lots of windows and balconies that when open create a pleasant through breeze. We have a kitchen, large fridge, aircon, multi channel TV with a good selection of English speaking programmes (We still spell programmes the correct way) and best of all, our hosts Santana and Theresa have given me the use of a guitar and both of us the use of a scrabble set and pack of cards. That's the good bit. The bad bit is that the electricity often fails at peak times and even when our electricity is ok, the company sending out the TV signals could easilly have a power cut themselves. It's great watching a good film only to stare at a blank screen for the last ten minutes.

Now a message for Mick Shaw. Yesterday we took a photograph of a red coloured rickshaw with MANU logo livery on both sides. The best thing about it was that underneath the logo it said MICKSHAW instead of Rickshaw. We will send you the photo by e-mail when our memcard works.

Life is hard here. As soon as we leave the iternet cafe we have to go back to our apartment and eat mangoes picked off the trees this morning and costing us nothing. We can't wait to get back home to buy them at a pound each from Sainsburys when they are 3 weeks old.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209466200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209466200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209466200/tpod.html Sat, 10 May 2008 07:09:41 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

Sorry folks. This is another entry without pictures for the moment. It appears that the camera SD memory card that I am trying to use is not very computer friendly so I might have to work on it a bit before I can get any sense out of it.

We are now in the centre of the busiest city we have seen in ages. The whole place is one gigantic termite mound and we are just a couple of tiny little termites.Even after experiencing this city twice before the pace of life and density of population seems overwhelming.

Our hotel is very good value by Mumbai standards at 35 pounds a night but it is very near the flight path of the domestic airport and unlike at Manchester, the flights continue every couple of minutes throughout the night. Included in the price is breakfast and a fairground ride to and from the airport. We love Mumbai and are very upset that we have to leave for Goa after a stay of only twelve hours, NOT.

We have booked the same hotel for the 25th May when I travel back to Mumbai to pick up our daughter Sarah with the short hair who used to have long hair.It will be a good introduction to the madhouse we fondly call India.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209363900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209363900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1209363900/tpod.html Tue, 06 May 2008 03:01:13 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Singapore, Singapore

On 25th we flew from Penang to Johor Bahru. Most of out friends and family will say "Where is Johor Bahru?" It's another place that I had never heard of before starting to plan our trip but it's the ideal airport to fly into in order to cross over from Malaysia into Singapore. It was an hours bus ride from the airport to the city of Johor Bahru and after a change of bus we travelled over the causeway into Singapore. We got off the bus at Malaysian customs for our exit stamps and after a further few hundred yards we again got off the bus at Singapore immigration and joined a long line awaiting customs formalities. Chris sailed through customs but I was stopped at passport control and asked to accompany someone to the office. It didn't sound good but at least Chris was allowed to accompany me. After a long wait and a bit of a grilling I was allowed into the country. Apparantly, my machine readable passport was unreadable when scanned by the most sophisticated equipment in the modern world.

From the bus station we took a taxi to our hotel, the Fragrance Emerald. The hotel was good value in a city renowned for expensive accommodation. We paid 28 pounds per night for a three night stay. The only problem with the hotel was that it was right in the middle of Geylang, the infamous Singapore red light district. The hotel across the road was surrounded by Chinese prostitutes and pimps at night but luckilly our hotel seemed to be a prossie free area.

During the first couple of days we travelled by bus into the city centre and did the usual sightseeing. We visited Chinatown and the Chinese Heritage Centre, Little India and some of the many temples, Sri Mariamman a Hindu temple, then Jamae Mosque followed by St Andrews Cathedral. In the middle of all the highrise buildings and with the cathedral as a backdrop, the Singapore cricket club were playing a home match.

We visited the harbour, Raffles Place and Raffles Landing. We also saw the spouting lion fountain across the road from the Fullerton hotel and took a walk to the big wheel.

We were planning on seeing the famous bird park and Singapore zoo on our last day and after leaving our hotel room we got as far as the lift. It happened again, my famous gout kicked in and within a dozen steps I was unable to touch the ground with my left foot. It took a few tablets and a twelve hour rest before I started to feel ok again so the last day was a complete waste of time.

I will post some photos to this entry asap. The current internet connection does not have a USB port.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208937000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208937000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208937000/tpod.html Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:14:39 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia

We arrived by air from KL on 20th for a five night stay. This short stay is a long awaited little bit of luxury because we are booked into the Evergreen Laurel, an excellent 5 star hotel. Our room is a superior sea view and from our seventh floor room the view is truly superb. Unfortunately when we leave the hotel and cross the road towards the sea, the beach is non existant and the smell of drains entering the sea, especially at low tide, is truly awful. However, the hotel is everything that we hoped it would be at a fraction of the price we would pay in Europe for comparable quality.

Everything about the hotel is superb except for the minibar prices and the cost of internet access. They charge five pounds per hour in the business centre so we walk a mile or so to an internet cafe that charges 30 pence per hour. A can of beer in the minibar is almost 3 pounds so we obtain the same beer from the shopping centre at 5 pounds for 6 cans or go to a local bar and pay just over 2 pounds for a very large bottle.

The weather here is a little cooler than in Cambodia and very pleasant at the moment. However, every time we leave the hotel we borrow a large umbrella from the concierge because we are approaching the rainy season and showers are common..
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208593800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208593800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1208593800/tpod.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:55:06 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After a few more days in Siem Reap, we flew to Kuala Lumpur and were picked up at the airport by Walter Howell from Jawardene Guest House where we had booked for 2 nights. We did not know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised when Walter spoke to us in impeccable American English. He was an ex US marine who now, together with his wife Janet, owned and ran a guest house the likes of which we have never seen before and will probably never see again. It was of ultra modern design and would probably have sold for 5 million pounds if built in Cheshire. The interior design was tastefully done and every room had different decor. There was a large outdoor deck with a swimming pool, hot tub and ultra modern outdoor barbeque equipment and the whole place was surrounded by beautiful gardens. We had the Rangoon room. The cost to us per night was 25 pounds for B&B.

The one slight drawback to the place was the location which was a half hour train journey from the centre of KL. This was not a problem because Walter took us to the trainn station and collected us again after a day out in the city.

Although it was expected, it was still quite a shock to find that not many places sold alcohol and where it was sold the prices were on par with those in the UK. Not nice at all.

We did have a great day in the city and saw the National Mosque, the Masijd Jamek, the Petronis Twin Towers, Chinatown, Little India (beer here cheap at 7 ringitts (a little over a pound) for a small can.Beer prices aside, we really liked the city and the multi national atmosphere. The infrastructure here in Malaysia is much more like the West than South East Asia and most people speak at least a little English. If Derek Brown reads this we can understand why you love the country so much that you come here twice a year. All in all we had a great stay and we will definitely stay for a longer time on our next visit if we are tea total by then.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207976460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207976460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207976460/tpod.html Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:36:59 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bus is probably our preferred mode of travel in this area. We arrived in Siem Reap after a reasonably pleasant journey of about 6 hours in the front seats on the top deck of a luxury VIP bus.

We were picked up at the bus station by a tuk tuk driver from our hotel.His name was Sambo - Honestly! We engaged him for the next three days for our visits to the Angkor temples.We soon found a street full of restaurants with extended happy hours and were able to buy Angkor beer at one dollar for 2 glasses - 25 pence per glass - and very drinkable.

On our first evening we were driven to the entrance gate in order to purchase our 3 day us$40pp tickets and were allowed in free of charge to see the sunset from one of the temple vantage points. After that it was threedays solid of temple visits. We were soon templed out in the tremendous heat of the day but because the sights were so wonderful we carried on a long time after the 40 degree temparatures told our bodies that they had had enough.

Angkor Wat, built in the 10th century is the worlds biggest religious structure and together with the temples of Angkor Thom and in particular the Bayon built two centuries later were so amazing that we would have paid several times the entrance fee. Day one was a long day and we still didn't see all that there was to see there.

On day two we travelled to some of the outer temples. Everywhere we went there were kids trying to sell things to us, postcards, shawls, drinks, guide books etc... but by far the most unusual salesman was one I met in a quiet spot within an outlying temple. He was a policeman in full uniform and asked me if I was interested in purchasing a souvenier. The item for sale was his police badge. I didnt buy it because I was apprehensive that I would be arrested further up the road for possession of a policemans badge.

The morning of the third day consisted of another fairly long journey to see more temples, mainly 9th century Hindu. Then it was another tuk tuk ride to a gigantic lake where we paid for a cruise. We were told that it would be one of the highlights of our stay in Siem Reap. The tuk tuk took us along a road that progressively deteriorated until it was so bad that even I would have been more comfortable in a sports bra. We were eventually dropped off at a crowded jetty where our ticket was taken from us and we were led to our boat, a small motor launch large enough for perhaps six passengers. It looked as though it was built at about the same time as the temples but was still awaiting the first part of its restoration. We embarked after climbing onto several other boats in order to get onto ours. After about five minutes we heard an almighty bang coming from the propellor. The driver shrugged and carried on for a few minutes until the engine stopped. He couldn't start it because the battery was flat so he had to stop another boat and borrow a battery.He was so pleased that the engine had started that he forgot about the propellor problems and carried on into the middle of the lake where the boat lost all forward momentum. After two further stops where the driver actually went up to his neck into the water to fix the prop, we managed to reach a floating village. The first thing we noticed was that it wasn't only the village that was floating. We smelt it from a fair distance away and suddenly it was floating all around us. No prizes for guessing what it was.After all, we are in the turd world. A good piece of advice I will give to all travellers who visit this area is "Never even think of eating the catfish!"

The worst was over although we did break down again with prop problems and on two occasions the engine water pump started emptying into the boat. At least we were on our way back. Last but not least the water pump failed altogether and the engine started to smoke. The driver completely disregarded this and motored on without a care in the world until we reached the dock. As we departed, the driver, guide and cabin boy asked if we had enjoyed our trip and hoped that we could see our way to giving them a tip. Guess what they got.

There were many boats on the water, some with twenty or thirty Korean or Japanese tourists on board, all smiling and taking videos and pictures while floating in S**t. The oriental mind is definitely very different from ours.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207571400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207571400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207571400/tpod.html Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:12:18 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Our three days in Phnom Penh , the Cambodian capital have been very enjoyable apart from the price of the beer. It has now shot up to 50pence a can .

We were brought down to earth with a bang when we visited to Killing Fields and the Cambodian genocide museum which was housed in an ex prison. It was less than 30 years ago when Pol Pot was torturing and killing literally millions of his small population. He completely irradicated the educated classes in his quest to enslave the population and take them back into the stone age. The killing fields, a few kilometres outside the city, were where the imprisoned innocents, men women and children, were taken to to be tortured and murdered. There was a huge glass pagoda full of thousands of human skulls and there were lots of other reminders of how it used to be in the years up to and including 1979. The Prison museum in the city had thousands of photographs of chained and tortured victims to the persecution. The whole day was not exactly a barrel of laughs.

In contrast to the above, the main city museum was full to the brim with Khymer religeous art and the Royal Palace and pagodas were truly magnificent.

Apparantly, although Pol Pot killed the entire Cambodian royal family, the country still has a King. Our hotel rules and regulations were headed by the words "The Kingdom of Cambodia. Religïon - King". We think the Buddhist monks might have something to say about that.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207442220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207442220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207442220/tpod.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:25:05 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Chau doc, Vietnam

The past 3 days have been really hectic. We have been on a Mekong Delta trip which took in about six different sized motorised boats, two canoes, three buses and a bicycle ride.

We left Saigon at 7 am and bused to the docks where we embarked on a fast boat for the first five hours.Then it was a smaller boat, then an even smaller boat and canoe as we travelled through smaller and smaller tributaries. We stopped off a few times, once for lunch and once to visit a village where everyone was a bee keeper. They let me hold a snake which I have done before on several occasions, then a piece of the hive which had about 5000 bees crawling all over it. It was great and Chris enjoyed holding the bees as well.

We were eventually dropped off on a small island for a homestay with a local familly. With us were two others, Stephen a really nice young man from Singapore and Nadine, a young girl from Germany who reminded us both of our daughter-in-law. We had cooking lessons and then I cooked the stirfry part of the meal. We slept in a large room divided into four sections. Chris and I were in one of the sections. They provided us with mosquito nets which I thought were for decoration only so I didn't use mine. Next morning I woke up looking like I'd come second in a fight with Mike Tyson. Naughty insects. Very naughty insects.

On the morning of day 2 we took another boat and visited a floating market and a sweet factory. Then it was a bicycle ride to our lunchtime restaurant because the river tributary was too shallow at low tide for a boat to enter. After being in the saddle for about 15 minutes Chris went through some soft sand and fell off into a bed of water hyacinths. Instinct told me to pick her up and luckilly she was OK. I should have ignored instinct and taken a video - it would have been hilarious. Chris then swore that she would never travel on two wheels again so our guide kindly took away her bike and provided her with a motor bike and driver for the rest of the journey.

We spent the night on a boat in a large cabin full of curtained off bunks full of other tourists of all ages and background. By about 10pm. most people had retired for the night including all the ladies. I thought that I might not be able to sleep very well on a boat so I joined a couple of Australians, a German and a fellow Englishman in a can building excercise. After a lot of effort we managed to build a pyramid of empty cans right up to the ceiling. Next morning Chris said we were pretty noisy so I'm glad I was one of those in the bar and not trying to sleep.

Day 3 was the best. After another floating market visit we embarked on another boat with some of our fellow overnight passengers and cruised to the Vietnam exit post. We had to pay one dollar to obtain a Vietnamese exit stamp and 21 dollars for a Cambodian visa. We had lunch while we waited and pondered about the reason for the little wooden hut marked Änimal Processing Centre. Considering that dogs, cats, cows, hens, ducks, oxen etc.. had completely free access to each side of the border it seemed superfluous to requirements.

A Cambodian boat took over and we travelled to their immigration in order to obtain a stamp on our passports, then it was back on the boat for another 5 hours. This boat was to take us to a small town in Cambodia where we then took a bus to Phnom Penh. By day 3 we had many new friends and most of them were fellow drinkers.We emptied the boat of beer within 2 hours so our captain pulled up alongside another tour boat and emptied their fridge. By that time we were a little unruly and because none of the passengers on the other boat appeared to be drinking there were cries of "Lighten up - you're on holiday and boring b'ds as we pulled away. An hour later there was no beer left so the boat stopped at a village and a crew member came back on board with beer. From then on it was downhill all the way. We pulled in just before a headland after the captain circled the boat seemingly aimlessly about half a dozen times. Tarpaulins were dropped over the open windows and the crew settled down to wait. Ten minutes later we were treated to a thunderstorm which would definitely have sunk us if we had been in the middle of the river. By then nobody cared and it was the start of the rugby songs. Most people joined in, including a couple of British guys well into their seventies.

We had just one more stop to fill up with beer and then the final landing stage which was just one muddy landslide. Everyone managed to climb the banking except for one person. That persons name began with a C. Again no injuries were incurred but she looked like she'd been mud wrestling.

I've saved the best till last. There were 16 of us and a little mini bus turned up. Surely that's not ours"" we all said. 'No was the reply, this one is a private hire for 2 people' Relieved we watched 2 people depart and then another minibus pulled in, even smaller than the first. 'That is your bus' we were informed. It had 12 seats including the driver and somehow 14 backpackers managed to squeeze into it with 14 large backpacks and several day packs. Luckilly we managed to take the two seats next to the driver. We almost had a small Frenchman lying across us but in the end they managed to squeese him inside the main cabin. We had an hour and a half drive through the worst thunder storm we have seen for many years and for the first half hour we followed behind a drunk driver in what was obviously a new car. He almost killed at least a dozen motorcycle drivers but finally managed only to injure himself and fellow passengers when he ploughed into a concrete barrier which put huis front end 5 feet in the air. Our driver just shrugged his shoulders and drove on. What a larf.

We finally arrived in Phnom Penh in one piece and although we were soaked to the skin at least the rain was warm.

Thought for the day. We have seen many life jackets on the various boats but one vessel had jackets marked "Fashion Designer Wear". Does that mean that when the captain says abandon ship, there are cries of 'Does my bum look big in this' or 'Doesn't little Amy look pretty in fluorescent orange' or 'There's only one pink jacket. We didn't realise that there were so many gentleman of your persuasion'.




































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207127520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207127520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alanandchris/2006-2007/1207127520/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:58:22 -0400 Alan and Chris's gap year for wrinklies. Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and India

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Today is our fourth day in Saigon. The bus ride here from Da Lat was relatively uneventful. We only saw one upturned car during the whole journey.

Our hotel here is not as good as the previous two or three but it is clean and functional and in a great location. The price is only $17 and if you like bread, butter and jam for breakfast then the breakfast is great.

On our first day we found a bar with excellent beer at 5000 dong per glass so, of course, we celebrated this find in great style.

Yesterday we travelled 100 km on a trip to a temple called Cao Dai and were present at one of the four daily one hour services attended by the 600 or so local monks and nuns. They dress in bright coloured robes and each section of worshipers wears the same colour. The temple was huge and ornately decorated and the whole spectacle was awesome. Our guide told us that the different coloured robes represented slightly different religions, all of them worshiping together. The robe colours were Red, Blue, Yellow and White and we were told that they represented Buddhism, Taoism and Confucuism and the white ones were novices. I told the Vietnamese guide that my religion was Aloholism and he actually got the joke.

On the way back we stopped at the Cu Chi tunnels, a vast underground network where the Vietnamese freedom fighters hid out during the US bombardment. It was a hands on experience. I got down into a snipers hide and later travelled down a very claustrophobic tunnel which was extremely narrow and with a very low roof. Even so, this tourist section of the tunnels had been specially widened to fit the western frame. Anyone who was prepared to spend approx four pounds had the opportunity to fire live ammunition from their weapon of choice. Anything from an MK30 or MK47 assault rifle to a Machine Gun. The noise was absolutely deafening and no-one who tried it could hit a barn door.

Today we have been on and off a bus on a city tour. We should have been picked up at our hotel but instead the tour company in their wisdom decided to send a motor bike. Chris refused to get on so we walked behind the motorcycle to the pickup point for the bus. Ten minutes later we were informed that the bus would pick us up at our hotel so once again we followed the motor bike on foot. What a great start to the day. The highlights of the tour though were very good. They were the Reunification Palace and the War Remnant Museum. The museum had US planes, tanks, field guns, hue helicopters and other large items of war but the most horrific and moving part of the museum shows the results of American chemical weapons such as the infamous agent orange which was used as a defoliant. It is incredible that the US politicians have such a short memory that they have already started two major wars in the twenty first century.

Did you know that there are six million motor scooters in Saigon, a city of 10 million people? We do because we saw about half a million when we tried to cross the road this morning! Did you know that a Vietnamese workman can work his entire life as an electrician without knowing anything about electricity? Check the wiring anywhere in Saigon and you'll know the answer to that one.
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