Singapore. Dear for beer

Remembering that Tiger beer is brewed in Singapore - Downtown Singapore, nine pound a pint.  Vietnam it was a pound!!

Prostitutes, Pitstops and Pulau Ubin

What a stroke of luck, the Formula 1 Grand Prix is in Singapore, so are we!!  The upside we booked tickets and get to see the glitz, the glam and fast cars.  The hotels in and around the track are triple the normal price and or fully booked.  So with this said we headed to Geylang, a district just north of the city.  Not only famous for its food but also Singapore's red light district.  Yes there were women of the night on all corners of our hotel but it was fine.  Taxi driver advice on the neighbourhood "if you don't trouble them, they wont trouble you".  All a bit of a laugh, we played spot the looker of the shift (day or night!) and is that the pimp coming - cheeky!  We gave the girls a wide birth but we tried out the local cuisine.  The menus boasted chicken feet or frogs, we opted for noodles!

With a bit of hunting around on the net we managed to find some Friday night tickets for the F1. The Singapore GP is only night street circuit based race on the F1 calender, 'apparently'.   For a sport we don't normally follow we had a hell of a night. 

F1 Stats:-
The race has only been running for 3 years but it has built up into one of the peak races in the season
Cars hit close to 190mph, pretty quick for an inner city circuit. Volumes reach 130 decibels (earplugs all the way!) 44,000 tyres were made for the 2010 season
Each season life on the road will cover almost 200,000 km covering 19 destinations

We didn't manage any celeb spotting but the people watching was just amazing.  F1 fans are of a certain breed.  The whole city centre had gone GP crazy and there were merchandise outlets everywhere.  In between qualifying races Missy Elliott was on stage, but then the Asia electrics got the better of her and she was plunged into silence.  F1 fans didn't seem to be that good at dancing anyway!

F1 is a photographer's nightmare. You've got a moving (very fast) subject, railings between you and it and then not forgetting the race was at night. Yes there was lighting but this just confused the issue on which setting to use as the lighting was only focused on the track area. Should have packed a tripod really !!

The race lasted for 3 days so due to the skyhigh hotel costs we headed to a small island off the north east of Singapore, Pulau Ubin.  The island is a 15 minute boat ride away and is an example of how Singapore used to be 50 years ago.  Less than 100 live on the island, in kampongs (small villages), using electricity from generators and water from wells.  The boomerang shaped island made up of granite used to be 5 smaller islands but the building of bunds for prawn farming now connect all of the islands.

Apart from a few vans on the island to ferry visitors around, bikes are the only mode of transport.  We hired 2 and did tour de Ubin.  The place we stayed had a fish footspa.  We were non too keen to dip a whole foot in let alone a finger!

From coast back to chaos

Well it was going to happen, unfortunately our bus ride from Mui Ne back to Siagon was shared with some of the smelliest travellers at present on offer in Vietnman.  Now we might have missed the odd wash here and there but come on, these lot just get a shower!  In these parts they aren't particularly expensive either!  If that wasn't bad enough our bus had no beds!  Seats only, not great for 5+ hours.  The journey took longer as it clashed with the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Zhongqiu Festival,  a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people dating back over 3,000 years.  This resulted in anyone and everyone being out on the streets celebrating.

During this festival Mooncakes are the thing to eat (a bit like a mince pie at Christmas) They are round or rectangular pastries with a thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste and contain a whole yolk from salted duck eggs. We gave one a go but it was like eating a sweet scotch egg?

You know when you get closer to Siagon as the Honda count increases!  We were only back for one night before heading off to the airport for our next destination.  On checking out of the hotel we got chatting Eddie and Margaret, a lovely couple from Oz.  We shared a taxi to the airport, prior to our goodbyes Eddie gave us his full contact details and insisted that if we go to Melborne he would pick us up and show us around.  So many people we have met have been really helpful in giving advice and wanting to help us as and when we arrive in their country.

Mui Ne Beachbums

After five days based in Siagon Mui Ne was a welcomed rest bite.  Just a 5 hour bus ride from Siagon Mui Ne is the complete opposite.

It has a chilled vibe which you can't help to adopt.  A week here not only restored our batteries it also gave us chance to see a different side to Vietnam life.  Within Mui Ne it was much easier to engage with the local people and a good time spent discussing east v west cultures and Vietnam's chequered past.

Whilst here we met some great fellow travellers from the UK, Germany, NZ and of course Ozzies.  Those folk down under can't get enough of these parts of Asia what with short flights and their dollar certainly stretches a long way here.  Whilst at our first hotel, Shades (http://www.shadesmuine.com/)  a fantastic spot right on the beach the manager seemed a keen golfer (must have been the daily sand iron practice on the beach that gave it away).  Over a few beers a round was set.  Vaughan being a Kiwi, the round was fairly competitive but with plenty of banter.  Graham, a Scot, and fellow player soon levelled the scores via banter and handicaps.

It was the hottest round I have ever played, even though we started at 6.30am.  By 11 am the sun was roasting.  Even with the knowledgeable caddies that would line up every put, drive the buggy and arrange cold drink stops it was really heavy going.  Obviously the Kiwi won but I was happy to say I didn't come last!



Miss:

D - One dollar, one dollar as it goes a long way
F - Local girls loving old drunken Ozzies one time

Won't miss:

D - Honda bloody clunks
F - Jellyfish

Mui Ne Coast

Our bus to the east coast cost about 3 quid for 5 odd hours.  This journey didnt seem too appealing therefore we both weren't really looking forward to it until that is it turned up with beds on-board instead of seats. Yes a coach filled with beds, what a result. It was great, National Express are missing a trick here.  Even though we'd just had 10 hours kip the night before within 10 mins of boarding it was eyes-down-lights-out. We arrived at the coast bright as a button!

Mui Ne is a coastal resort town in the Binh Thuan province.  Mui Ne Beach is a popular tropical beach, strong sea breezes make it very popular for kitesurfing and windsurfing. Alas with the amount of jellyfish that were in the sea, we were staying firmly on the beach.

No guess what's on the agenda for the next few days...... not a lot!

A meander on the Mekong

The Mekong Delta river bustling with trading ports and canals which date back as early as in the first century C.E. Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the river, and many of the villages are often accessible by smaller rivers and canals rather than by road.

We took a bus from Siagon and then transferred onto a boat where we zig-zagged through ocean sized vessels that bring everything from fruit to steel into the area so that it then can be traded locally via smaller boats. Where possible trades are done via boat to boat resulting in workers and their family spending many days on-board their vessel.

The region is famous as a large rice growing area. It produces about half of the total of Vietnam's rice output. Vietnam is the second largest exporter of rice globally after Thailand.

As we worked through the network of canals and river ways we them transferred to a smaller rowing boat so we could gain access to one of the riverside villages. Transferring from boat to boat was a little interesting as if you didn't plant your first step in the centre of the small boat there would be a fair chance you'd be going for a swim and given the colour of the water noone really fancied it. Venice it wasn't!

At the village we got to see and experience different styles of living either via cooking or general trade practices. As it was the weekend there were plenty of locals around to banter with.  Lunch was a cook-up at a local homestay. Basically small restaurants that are attached to residential small holdings. Within the main entrance there was a huge, and I mean huge snake. If you so desired, or if you're mad enough, the owners would drape it around you whilst you had you photo taken. Thankful all were too keen to eat and the snake was duly kept in it's unlocked cage!  After lunch we took some bikes out and cycled up and down the village before we had to head back to the boat and home to Siagon.

Vietnam - love you one time but not longtime....

Vietnam. The one place on our list that hasn't fully enticed us but equally intrigued us enough to make the list. You only have to pick up any guide book on this place and it normally heads up more negatives than positives. Hence why then we researched it the least.

Thoughts again are compounded further regarding the state of this country as on arrival it doesn't take long for the first stranger to advise you to be careful of "everything" whilst your here ! It's pick-pocket central. Handbags are a no-no, designer hooky ones or real aren't advisable, as the all too many Honda clunk riding thieves here ain't choosy.

We arrived in the evening, not particularly late, but it's crazy mad busy. In Milo terms it looks 'totally nuts'. Mopeds are the main transportation for locals, millions of them! By now this just seems the Asian way for city life and weirdly enough you do become at ease with it.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is crazy, totally crazy. Way too many people just not enough space to go round.  50+ Honda clunks line up at every red light prior to the green for go. The traffic seems to be following in every direction. In one guide book under top ten things to do when in Vietnam "cross the road" was listed! Sounds like a hit place hey, you'd think one to avoid. You know, leave

 it to others but no, the place is rammed with tourists of every type, the most we have seen so far on our trip. Like us we guess, curious to see what's really on offer.
Within another travel guide I picked up it stated that if Vietnam doesn't straighten it's security and corruption out soon there is a strong chance that visiting tourists will most definitely miss out on the real Vietnam which should by now be very much available to all.
Saigon is just crazy, like i said way too many people and just not enough space. We've seen families of 4 on one bike. Step ladders, many sacks of rice, plastic cups that nearly reach overhead cables, a double bed and the best so far, 7 crates of beer! All on the one faithful Honda clunk.

We visited the Vietnam war remnants museum. Which was something else. We always knew that it wasn't America's finest hour but on reading and viewing some of the exhibitions we wouldn't be too sure if Americans still to this day aren't, and in some eyes wont ever be, too welcome in these parts.

There was a whole floor dedicated to photography. These were taken by 14 serviceman photographers, none of which made it home.

Some of the photos were in colour which really emphasised how recent these atrocities took place.

We found the Tsunami museum in Sri Lanka moving but that was mother nature, this lot was all man made.

Some shocking Vietnam war stats:

72 million litres of toxic chemicals were sprayed by the Americans. Known as agent orange this herbicide was used for ten years, from 1961 to 1971. To defoliate the forests of Vietnam and hence make the Viet con (Vietnamese communists, or VC) visible from the air and to eradicate the enemies food source by the destruction of crops.

In total 24,000 sq km's or 6 million acres were sprayed in Vietnam. The after affects of this chemical usage are still visible today by with many handicapped Vietnamese (also photos of American war veterans with deformed children too).

Vietnam war compared with WWII:

Length of war:
WWII - 3 yrs 8 mths
Vietnam war - 17 yrs 2 mths

Tonnage of bombs & artillery shells used:
WWII - 5 million
Vietnam war - 14 million

Cost:
WWII - $341 billion
Vietnam war - $676 billion

Next we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels and form part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters.

On route to the tunnels we stopped at what you could say was your typical tourist trap where the locals take your hard earned dollars but this place seemed to have a different feel as many of the workers are suffering from disabilities as a result of chemical warfare imposed by the American. We'd not expected this stop off so we had very little funds but would you believe it the tour guide lent us £25 so we could in turn buy and support such a worthy cause.

Our tour guide was very animated when discussing the tactics and actions of the Americans within this region of Vietnam. Obviously any country will tell a one sided story but this guy certainly wasn't holding back on this opinions on the atrocities that were carried out by both sides. It was a tough call on whether he was pro communist or against.

He kept stating that let your camera remember the memories and not your minds. He stated that his first couple of tours that he carried the evenings that followed he just couldn't switch his mind away from what had taken place over many years. But he constantly told himself that the past was in past and it's now time for the country to move on. He also constantly thanked us all for visiting his country as tourism was aiding the change of opinion and moving the country into a new phase.



Ho Chi Minh former president and Vietnamese Communist who formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War until his death. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh in his honour in 1950s after the Fall of Saigon.

At one point there was a chance to access sections of a tunnel. Wow they were small, (apparently the tunnel sizes have been increased so that us tourist types can fit) dark and very hot - and that's without someone trying to kill you via various methods ranging from gazing, flooding, booby trapping. The drive to win the war seemed bigger than ever given these conditions.

Hong Kong mainland - Kowloon district

Although being based on the island has been good we always knew that at some point we would like to be based in the main mix of it 'downtown'.

After doing the main touristy things which came to a head on the open top bus, which frankly was rubbish. I'll tell you why, the driver seemed to think it was the sort of tour that needed executing at warp speed. The g-force on top deck was neck crunching. The old camera needed to be permanently fixed on sport mode to capture any of the whizzing highlights on this tour. Unless the bus company employ some calmer drivers I would not recommend it.

The next couple of days we opted for amore slower pace of life as would you believe it within a city that is so germ obsessed I actually picked up quite a bad cold, some, one included, would class it as flu.  You known lying in the park watching tai chi and sipping tea at local cafes. The people watching in HK is absolutely epic.

To further kick back we opted for a day at the beach, Repulse Bay. By getting out and about I was hoping to pass this cold (flu) onto anyone who wasn't wearing a surgical mask. The bay is beautiful and a real contrast to the city and only 20 mins away. HK an island itself, is surrounded by another 260 islands. These islands were created at the end of the ice age following billions of years of previous volcanic eruptions. So the amount of coastline is pretty high compared with its overall land mass of 1090 sq km's total. Once you are out of the city it's quite a green place. Hiking is pretty big within the cooler months as vista views are far clearer at these times. Beacon Hill being one of the more frequently trekked peak.

What we did note was that there was no tourist accommodation beachside, with only residential, very nice at that, seeming to be ex-pat dominated. We found it funny as we watched the tour buses roll up with the Chinese lot on board. Dressed for what we'd class as clubwear, stilettos and Gucci, always a strong look at the beach! Fe was pleased to see signage for shark nets in place as she entered for a dip.

Our trip to the beach did the trick as the flu eased so we spent a evening in our hotel bar know as 'the pub'. An eastern stab of what pubs are deemed to be like. Duly we entered into a game of darts, the soft tip type.  What really pleased Fe was that no mental arithmetic was required, it did it all for you. What made us laugh was that even if the darts didn't stick in the board the score still seemed to count. With this said Fe claimed the high score of the night of 140.  (hmmmmmm). We called it a day when one of Fe's tips actually snapped off and got stuck in the board.

The main thing that gets me in HK is the lack of chairs ! There's just no where to grab a quick pew. It's probably one of the factors to why the whole place is running at such a pace !

We had a massive thunder and lightening storm last night. Our first "big" storm really, going on this morning papers 40mm fell in just 30mins. This made our night at the races even more exciting. Racing is pretty big in HK, there are two race tracks and the season runs from September to June with meetings twice weekly and we happened to be at the first Happy Valley meet of the season. The Happy Valley track is famous for its downtown location being bang slap in the middle of residential sky-scrapers.  There did seem to be a slight racket around who could actually gamble or not. We had a few cheeky 10$ bets 'on the nose' but no lady luck to be had this night. Now this is a place to hang out if your an ex-pat. It was full of 'em.

Following half an hour of spectacular thunder and lightening the heavens opened just as the tenth and final race ended. This seemed to flush out the 40k plus crowd pretty swiftly which then resulted in a mad scramble to get out of the ground and onto any passing mode of transport. We opted of the tram, as you can guess it was rammed steamy.   As the rains fell it reminded us of nights in the van minus the 98% humidity !! There were some big lightening strikes pretty close by and at one point I'd even say the locals seemed slightly concerned at what must be a common occurrence. A fun time had for our last night in HK. Next onward to the Nam.

Miss
D - The feel of being somewhere that is totally different from the west
F - The surgical masks

Won't miss
D - Highrise blocks - a harsh way to live
F- Eating noodles with 2 sticks - come on thats just silly!

Hong Kong baby! (the island)

Flying from Sri Lanka to HK has seemed to have acted as

some sort of time travel, almost like we have been transported into the future. HK really runs at some pace in every aspect. You could wonder when do these people actually sleep?

The crowds remain the same from day till night. All only difference at night is that the whole place takes on a odd new charm as every shop, restaurant and street vendor lights up like they are the last shop in town open.

There are whole streets dedicated to the sale of fish, cats, dogs, anything that can be salted and dried you name it it's on sale here by the shop-load. Along side these shops are plenty of restaurants selling various 'meats and fishes'. We wonderd what happens to the few animals that don't sell?!

Then there's getting around the place. On day one, we caught the tube and couldn't help think "'wahoo this could be interesting" but by day two we were experts! Mainly because it all works as it should. No eating or drinking allowed on any public transport so you can imagine how clean it all is. Us Brits are definitely missing a trick here.

Fe is loving the hygiene levels here.  Everything gets sprayed with antibac, telephones, lift buttons, hand rials!  Locals are loving the surgical masks too. 

We went up to Victoria Peak, named after QueenVictoria, on a tram, 396 metres above sea level.  The stylish architectural icon has been running for over 120 years.  Unlike in the UK where you exit via the gift shop, here you enter via the gift shop.  Alas the 'gifts' are complete tat.  Great views of the city below, unfortunately there was a bad heat haze so visibility was not great but we did walk around the peak, all 2.8km.

Following in the high up sight seeing mode, next was the Ngong Ping 360 cable car.  Last time we were in a cable car it was minus 4 and we were wearing thermal vests and had those bloody stupid boots on.  The ride takes you 5.7km out of the city and up into the mountains.  Again the heat haze slightly spoiled our view.  At the top was Tian Tan Buddha statue, the largest Buddhist monastery in HK.  Up 260 steps to reach the 100ft tall seated bronzed buddha.  We thought we were getting close to  being all buddha'd out but even in the heat this was worth the trek up.