Duckies on a joyride

I caught sight of this while riding on a motorbike so i pulled out my camera to snap this - the ducks are still alive by the way, and probably on the way to the market!




I haven't been posting for awhile because this week has gone by so quickly!! i've spent most afternoons doing some volunteer teaching at the orphanage and it has been great. I really enjoyed interacting with them - what i've found is Cambodian kids can be so shy at first but once they warm up to you, there's no stopping them!! i will try to write/post more next week.

Lost lambs and Lexus

Seen at a street just round the corner from my guesthouse. These big cars are really popular here! i've seen so many of them in the city.

Lost in Translation -me no speak engrish!!

Today was my day off. I went to see a couple of films at the French Cultural Institute - there was a film festival and best of all, it was free! i also went to a bookshop trying to look for handicraft books -but look what i found!


I had a field day reading canned English-Khmer love letters (how very handy!) which seems to be geared towards writing to your husband/ boyfriend for money, or to visit in Chiang Mai - which is in Thailand, strangely enough. Thailand-Cambodia same same?


"My darling husband, how is life over there? i think you'll be surprised as i have never written to you before" (??!!) No matter, perhaps signing off with "Yours passionately"might just convince him wire me some cash?

This one has generous doses of exclamation marks to bring home the point that she reeeeallly loves you. and she reeeallly doesnt want to work again at the same pub in Patpong, which is , again in Thailand.

Ok and this one is by far my favourite -so i've put this as a big photo as a treat. I stood at this aisle for a really long time, giggling to myself the entire time! And because i was trying to photograph these without the staff knowing, i had to crouch down and do it really quietly.

Chau Doc

Chau doc was the last Vietnamese town i visited in the Mekong delta.



At Chau doc, i was woken up from my sleep at 5am in the morning by a strange, loud noise. sounded like someone trying to hack a wall -repeatedly. Looked down from my room and found a woman hacking large chunks of ice on the road with a cudgeon and shovelling them into a bucket! I didn't take any ice drinks for the rest of the day.



View from atop the Sam mountain in Chau Doc. You can supposedly see Cambodia from here but its all the same to me - rice fields and more rice fields! i love that colour of green though.

Mekong Delta

So here are some pictures of the towns i visited in the Mekong delta -the last leg of my Vietnam travels.

At the floating markets in Cai Rang. The farmers put their produce in small boats, and paddle them out to the Mekong to sell to the bigger boats. This is the pineapple aisle by the way, because you can see the pineapples stuck atop the poles!

Someone taking off with alot of durians ...

Most villages/ towns are built along the river. Everyone has a boat in their backyard.

Trying my best to blend in... naturally i succeeded. Actually, i think i can possibly look Cambodian too. While i was at an internet cafe the other day, another customer came up to ask me how much to use the terminals :-)

Phnom Penh

So here i am in the Cambodian capital, ater spending 2 idyllic days floating in the Mekong delta. I made it to Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon on an express boat from the Vietnamese town of Chau Doc.

Everything went smoothly at the Mekong border control and the best part was, i didnt have to fork out US$22 for a visa! Free entry for Singaporeans -yayyyy! I took quite a few photos of 'kampung" life in the Mekong - visited floating markets, fish farms, fruit orchards, and some small villages that are accessible only by small canal boats.

The internet here is quite slow so i guess i'll post my pictures some other time.

Today was my first day at the orphanage where i will be spending my next 3 weeks - i got to meet the kids - they were really shy at first but we went crazy playing games by the afternoon! i am really looking forward to interacting with them and hopefully learning some Khmer.

Cao Dai Temple

Today, i took an excursion out of Saigon to go to the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh town, and the Cu Chi tunnels.

Cao Dai is a religion founded in Vietnam in the 1920's and takes in elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism and Catholicism.
The Holy See (in the above picture) is really interesting to explore and somewhat bizarre in design! You have to be here to truly appreciate the east-west-and everything else blend!

Inside the temple, the ceilings are painted baby blue with white clouds and stars (but no cherubs). And the pillars have dragons wrapped around them!

And the windows are kind of Buddhist-ish with lotus flowers all over it. But there's the Divine Eye in the centre.

Female Cao Dai worshippers in their white robes. Some of the males were in bright red, yellow or blue ones.. depending on hierarchy, so my guide says.

i'll post the Cu Chi pictures later. these take an awfully long time to upload! yawn...

Fun day in Nha Trang

Nha Trang is Vietnam's beach party town - kind of like Phuket but minus the sleaze. Lots of dive shops, boat cruises out to neighbouring islands, and a laid-back relaxed atmosphere. Even local Vietnamese come to Nha Trang for their share of the sun, sand and sea and there was a sizeable crowd during the weekend so i had some trouble finding a hotel.

I went on a boat cruise that took us round a few islands for swimming and snorkelling. Lunch and entertainment included - all for US$6! There were more vietnamese on my boat than foreigners.

"We won't drown, and we WILL stay cool under the sun!"

when our boat stopped, this man (in the straw hat) paddled by in his giant glass-bottomed bathtub. For a small fee, he'll paddle you closer to the corals to let you see the fish swimming underneath.

someone caught a sea urchin - it was still alive. (no, this wasn't on the lunch menu)

After lunch, the floating bar opened. The little rubber dinghy was leashed to our boat by a rope to ensure the bartender didn't try to swim away with all that red wine.

strange moment when half the sky/beach was grey and cloudy, and the other half was sunny.

24

Friday (yesterday) was a total nightmare. I'll start by telling you our initial plans for the day -and then tell you everything that went wrong in between!
The plan was: To cycle to the beach at 6am and get some sun, and then followed by a quick visit to the tailors for Helena to collect her clothes before going back to the hotel for breakfast (ends 10.30am!). She'll then head for the train station at noon, while i would have 6 more hours to idle until my bus to Nha Trang in the evening.

We started off on target at the beach but everything went awry for Helena right after that. The 2 women at the tailor shop turned nasty and intimidating when she rejected 1 item that was poorly made. They insisted that it was already done and there was no changing of minds and she'd have to pay full price for it. After an hour of haggling and cajoling and argument they still wouldn't bulge. (we had paid them for the rest of the items and they refused to hand them over!) Thugs! One thing led to another, and i had to threaten to go to the police (and carry it out!) to ask for help because our hotel "would really like to help but we are sorry we can't interfere", as they told me apologetically. "The police might help but they don't speak English". Rights.

With a bit of luck, i found myself at the police station trying to explain to a very sweet and patient cop (who was one of the 3 out of the100 police officers that could speak English in Hoi An and happened to be on duty) how we were being bullied by some nasty women -just as well i played up the damsel-in-distress bit -hey i had to! :-). Anyway, even with the gallant policeman on our side, it was easier said than done trying to summon them to the station as they gave all sorts of excuses such as "i'm not dressed for the police station" - great irony and humour from a tailors shop??!!, "my boss is not here" etc or simply ignored our phone calls!

2 hours later at noon, we finally emerged from the police after reaching a settlement! Then it was a mad rush back to the hotel so Helena could rush to the train station for her trip back to Hanoi. Just when we thought we had all the morning's stress put away, we hit more problems with Helena's train ticket - the booking office booked her a wrong seat and she had to end up paying more even though it was no fault of hers - poor girl, it just wasn't her day!

Anyhow, that left me with only a couple of hours to get packed up and ready to leave Hoi An. After much faffing about with the bus going round the whole of Hoi An to pick up passengers, we were finally on our way.

13 hours later, i arrived in Nha Trang on saturday, 7am. I had survived a hot and stuffy 13 hour bus journey sandwiched between 2 big, lanky caucasians and enduring some really loud this-is-my-lifestory type conversations between a couple of Canadians in front of us -ugh. Didn't sleep a wink. Too squeezy! but hey - only USD$8!!

I've never been so glad to get off! So how's that for a budget bus ride? You really pay for what you get
;-)

so anyway, its been exhausting - its been the most stressful, and dramatic 24 hours i've had for a long time so i'll be sleeping early tonight.

Vietnamese cooking lesson

Helena suggested going for a cooking class held in one of the cafes in Hoi An so i went along for the ride. For $5USD, we learnt how to make the following items:

1) Grilled fish in banana leaves
2) Vegetable spring rolls
3) Squid salad

and we get to eat them too (obviously, because they probably won't want to serve it to anyone else!)

We didn't take too many pictures because we were busy preparing the ingredients (really!) but here's a picture of the unfortunate fish being being prodded with stuffing by Helena :-)

Posing with the chef Mr Bup and MY spring rolls!

If anyone is coming to Hoi An, let me know and i can give you the name/addy of the cafe. They serve up some really good food!

exhibit A

Note to self:

I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.
I will watch for the exhaust pipe when i get off a motorbike.

see Exhibit A for evidence of bad motorbike burn/blister if you don't.