Delicious food

Now That's what I call service!

The Cititel Central hotel in Saigon has many things going for it.  For a city centre hotel in one of Asias capitals it's insanely cheap by western standards.  In common with most staffs in Asia the crew here are incredibly polite and willing to assist with any problems. While it's not "multi storey" our room is high enough above the street such that the worst of the traffice noise doesn't reach us.  It's around 500 meters from a craft brewery and as I've mentioned another 5 minutes gets you to a great street food market.  Also just across the road is a "Travel bureau".  

 

In fairness these are everywhere here, a huge industry has grown up to serve the travel needs of folk travelling through S.E.Asia.  Basically anywhere you want to go, any local experience you want to enjoy these people will set it up for you.  Granted you can find most of it on the internet yourself but where these people exel is in being able to pick up the phone and use some local knowledge to make sure you get just what you want, when you want it, in the most efficient manner, in our experience the mark up is also insanely small.  Therefore when considering bus tickets we have a quick check on line to understand the pricing then pop across the road to this tiny booth.

 

In short a 4.5 hour bus trip booked on line will cost us 140k dong each.  We'll also need to get ourselves to the bus station, according to our Grab app this will cost another 200k dong in a taxi. So around 480k dong in all for us both.  The little old lady in the booth gets on the phone and for 500k dong we get picked up at our hotel, taken to the bus station, our bus trip, picked up at the other end and transferred to our hotel door, all for the total cost of £12.22 for the both of us.

I've no idea where they get the margin but we never bother to book this stuff ourselves anymore.

 

We're picked up in the morning, by 10:30, it's alreeady very hot.  A taxi takes us to a small bus office and garage where by sign language we're led to understand we need to wait 10 minutes.  Outside they are already lighting the barbeques, which with parked scooters and rubbish burners tend to block all of the pavement (I can just imagine this taking off at home?) on both sides of the street all of the time.  Smoke is thick in the air and a flat bed tuk tuk delivers a basket of fish, and scoops live shrimp, crayfish and small lobsters from a large barrel into waiting bowls at the roadside ready to be cooked on demand.

 

When our transfer bus arrives it drives straight into the garage, the garage is so snug the driver can't open his door, we struggle into the sliding side doors through a scrum of fellow passengers and bystanders, having bundled the rucksacks into the back.  With half a dozen or so staff members blocking the road screaming advice, waving signals and generally rolling around with laughter, the bus, reverse signals howling, backs without hesitation into the frantic streams of Saigon traffic.

 

The main bus station is on the outskirts of the city.  Pretty much only a lunatic would try to get a 60 seater coach into central saigon. As our transfer van turns across 6 lanes of traffic, having driven part of the last mile on the wrong side of the road, our bus is already gunning it's engines.  We bundle out into the searing, wavy aired heat, collect our bags and bung them into the luggage hold of the main bus.  On entering the bus we need to remove our shoes.  The Bus is a double decker, not the London sort but a sleek coach which has three rows of "seats" on two levels, each of which reclines into a kind of "sleeping pod". We have to access our "seats" via small ladders with no shoes and the bus has already started moving, Kim was not amused.  Once we scrambled up to our beds and and shown how to operate the recliner mechanism, (At first we think we have to lie down the whole way there and Kim again was not amused and starting to feel a little sick at the thought) it's really very comfy.  Once in a comphy sitting with legs up position we get issued some fresh bottled water and hand towels and off we go.

 

The drive is pretty fantsatic apart from the constant blaring of the bus horn.  Saigon traffic, like Paris is endlessly fascinating.  Not only is it incredibly busy but it's also so varied.  A  moped with 2 pasengers holding a 6 foot sheet of plate glass, another with a basket of pigs, one with a 20 foot ladder, the usual entire household stacked onto a motor scooter, all howling with laughter as they weave through gridlocks. 

 

Outside of the city we're treated to a wonderful drive through rural Vietnam and the Mekong delta area.  Bullock carts loaded with god knows what all, endless paddy fields, great swathes of palms, it's really, very beautiful.  As we get to the delta area proper water is everywhere.  Tributaries of the Mekong flow beside and under the road everywhere and everywhere are clustered small villages.  God knows what they would do out here without corrugated iron. Every home, shop, business seems to be constructed from it, propped on bamboo over the water.

 

Everywhere is busy, chickens, pigs and what have you running around, kids scampering about or diving into the river, lines of washing, oldsters sitting in the sun or waving fans over barbeque coals. It's a fascinating glimpse of life here. The bus passes through the small riverside town of Cai Be, then to Ben Tre, Vinh Long with it's cathedral, and water starts to take precedence.  Big bridges have been made here and more are coming and we start to understand the "Mighty Mekong".  14 Killometers at it's widest it's a vast waterway and all of life and commerce here depends on it and hugs it very tightly.

 

Kim and I arrived in Can Tho 10 years ago by boat.  Our memory is of a very poor town, a vast food market, raw meat sitting out, fly covered in the sweltering heat.  That bit of town is still there, but further along the shore the French Colonial section of town has been endowed with a wonderful walking bridge that explodes into a pyrotechnic light display every night and which seems to be the popular first date venue with the locals.

 

Our hotel is really very nice.  We have a great room with floor to ceiling and wall to wall windows along one side that looks out over a huge confluence of the river.  To our left is what anywhere else, would be a very large river, it flows into and joins another to the right.  A much larger stream, It's crossed by car ferries and traffic up and down it is constant.  Directly in front, the river is divided by a large island and town but beyond that, the further shore is so far away as to be lost to sight.  At night as the ship lights go on, and junks with search lights pick their way through floating debris and the countless fishing boats, each with a lantern it's a wonderful view.

 

Out in the sticky heat we take a wander over the bridge and back.  In town we walk the night markets, the usual mixture of utter crap and absurdly cheap "knock off" clothes aimed at tourists, and the hoover repair booths, soap shops and fresh fish and meat stalls for the locals.

 

Sitting at a first floor window surrounded by French "Indochine" memorabelia we enjoy a glass of French wine and something to eat in candle light, looking out through the balcony doors, framed by louvred shutters, across a riverside park, lit like it's still Christmas, to the huge river flowing with life and interest.  One of those days I guess.

On route to Can Tho

On the very pretty bridge

What's Up (Chau) Doc?

We have a great couple of days at Can Tho.  The hotel has, what looks like, a brand new swimming pool.  It would be rude not to, right?  We make our way to the pool.  It's a wonderfully designed area.  Friezes of tile work depicting suns setting, and storks flying above the river, while fishermen cast nets.  There's a fantastic block for showers and changing. 

 

We get the distinct impression we may be the first people to use it.  This is reinforced when no sooner have we plonked our towels on a couple of pool beds than an army of staff emerge, to clean the poolside, wipe the chairs, a gardener arrives to artistically arrange pots of palms, they're too heavy, frantic phone discussion, much pointing at Kim and I as we bob in the pool, some labourers turn up, the pots are man handled into a "pleasing arrangement", would we like anything? A crowd of staff are on the hotel steps watching as we scull back and forth, an endless procession have a sudden urge to walk past the end of the pool to another block, someone turns up to clean the impeccably clean shower blocks, huge play is made of the rummaging about for, locating of, and obvious deployment of a single bright orange life belt.

 

We spotted today a restaurant at the waterfront.  In the evening they place tables and lanterns along a wharf jutting out into the river which is otherwise unused at night.  As our neighbour says "It's like eating on a boat" and it is. We also start to come across snake restaurants here.  You can pick your serpent, rather like a lobster, from a tank, it's despatched and brought to your table, grilled or steamed as you like.  There are options here that will also serve you a little of the venom mixed with some of the blood.  We also spot a place which serves turtle.  Ok, we're not too comfy with the idea, but the picture of the dish is really disturbing.  It's a complete turtle just sliced width ways into 4 or 5 slices.  Two back legs and tail, two portions through the body (shell and all) then the head and front leg section, it's tough to imagine anyone looking at it and going MMMMMMmmmmm.

 

A group of American students arrived today, they're on a 29 day trip through Vietnam to Cambodia.  Puts my one weekend in the new forest in perspective!  We chat to the "Professor" Nice guy, you get the impression that this, teaching literature and swanning around Asia (It's his 9th trip)  is what he calls work.  They're from Lynchburg and fascinated to learn that a few months ago we drove through town, visiting nearby Witheyville and Charlottesville....small world huh?

 

From here we have another 4 hour bus to the border town of Chau Doc.  Again we let the locals deal with it and for about what we would pay for the bus, we get the bus and transfers at either end.  This bus is smaller, it's for more local traffic but the drive is no less mesmerising, I absolutely love it here.  The landscape, flow and simplicity of life is intoxicating.  We spend what seems like 80% of the trip crossing water and the glimpses of life are never less than fascinating.

 

Chau Doc is real border country, here, we are about an hour from the Cambodian border point.  Once checked in we walk through the steaming heat to the riverside.  The river views here are no less stunning, if anything locals are even more relient on what the river brings.  Small craft are rowed back and forth from where the ramshackle housing clusters at and over the rivers edge; by mostly women who, stand in the stern rowing with two long "oars" looking more like punting poles, wearing the typical Viet conical hats and bright trousers and tops.  The sunset is turning the water pink, rose and copper by turns, at the waters I'medge people are tending crops of flowers which grow right down through the river margins. Luxuriating here with a couple of Saigon beers we chew over what has been an amazing month in Vietnam and look forward to Cambodia.....Tomorrow, Phnom Penh, Pearl of the orient.

Bridge view from our window

Mr Ho Chi Minh

All this money amounts to $1.00 / 77 pence!

Leaving Phnom Penn at sunrise

Border control leaving Vietnam

Boarder control entering Cambodia

From Puppys to Kittens

For the last week, ten days we've been mailing a boat company who will take us up the Mekong for around 5 hours, excluding stopping off for an hour or so to deal with the border formalities.  As I've probably mentioned everything needs to be done in $US and so here we sit in a Chau Doc hotel lobby, counting bucks over, while someone else takes photos of our passports.  They'll pick us up tomorow at 06:30.

 

05:30 and after a quick coffee we make our way up to the roof top breakfast area.  The view across the delta is stunning, temples backed by a patchwork of part submerged paddy fields all turned to silver and gold by a sun rising through early morning mist like the yolk of a new laid egg.

 

Without exception, every hotel in Vietnam has offered a buffet style breakfast.  The bread is invariably fresh baked and there's normally the option of some cheese or ham and we plan to grab a sandwich and run.  Today however we're approached by a tiny serving lady.

 

"What you want for brayfas"

 

"Oh we need to order?"

 

"Ess"

 

"We only have 10 minutes, can we get two eggs?"

 

"Ess"

 

"how long?" we pantomime, gesturing to our watches.

 

"15 minutes"

 

"we'll just have water then please"

 

She brings a plate of fruit and a glass of 'hot' water, as we stand up to leave she brings over 2 fried eggs!

 

On the dock a number of boats are tied up and tired passengers are making their way down the slip way with the usual assortment of luggage, sleepy "good mornings" in the golden early light.  Our bags stowed the boat pulls away, we're handed our Cambodian Immigration forms to complete and we're away churning through the river lined with villages where it's apparent they've all been up for hours.  The boat trip is a genuinly wonderful experience, riverside life, vibrant, endlessly fascinating.

 

After an hour we tie up and our passports are collected and disapear up to a riverside track on a moped. We have to scramble off the boat and walk up a treacherous slip way. 20 sweltering, sweatsoaked minutes later they're back and we now have to negotiate the treacherous slipway back onto the boat.  2 minutes later we all need to troop off again into the Cambodian border post.  We have our forms and our passports back and queue in ridiculouse heat waiting to stand in front of the unsmiling border officials who will "stamp us in"  A couple of new born pups are cavorting in the dust in the middle of the quadrangle which forms the border post.  You can't help but wonder what their life here is going to be like.  We stand there for maybe 45 minutes in the sweltering sun, then into one end of a timber hut, fans are swiveling but just move the torpid heat about, flies ride on the ceiling fans, sunlight beams in through the barred windows, our finger prints are taken then we're out in the baking sun walking back to the wharf.  A guard is posted at the exit from the quadrangle, he slouches in a small red  plastic patio chair, hand resting on the peace catch of his revolver.  As we approach he stands puts on his cap and insists on re-examining everyones papers while sweat drips down knecks and backs and  a woman, presumably his wife tries to sell us cannisters of a pringle like product called sliders.

 

The boat pulls back out into the stream and off we go.  Lunch is provided, dry bread, a pack of nuts, a triangle of cream cheese, some rice cake and a ham sandwich.  This is amusing as our fellow travellers are Jewish with a very vocal hebrew guide. To be honest I think most of them ate the stuff.  As I read somewhere,

 

"God is God but eat brothers eat"

 

At the rivers edge now we can see some typically cambodian temples.  They seem huge given that they're surrounded by tiny villages all of whom presumably eke a living from what the river brings.  Paddys line the river here and every now and then a pump has been lowered into the stream and water is being hosed in huge streams onto the crops, it flows back in muddy torrents, the punctured hoses are sending spouts of water skyward, shining in the sun, great clouds of swifts and swallows cluster here preying on insects disturbed from the fields, they fly along the river dipping their throats and breasts into the water for relief from the sun, or maybe as I've have read to take water back to baking nests to cool their young. A young lad leads his bullocks up the river bank after cooling themselves in the river. All so beautiful.

 

Some older temples sit at the waters edge, stone steps leading down to a docking place flanked by undulating Naga. (Water serpents) The snake like bodies flow down either side of the steps and raise 3,5 or 7 fierce heads, mouths agape, filled with teeth at the base of the stairs to disuade evil spirits from entering.

 

Fishing boats are everywhere, kids, men and women casting nets from the prow and winding in the glistening fabric, at the shore cook fires are smoking, the odd cargo barge sloshes by, big evil eyes painted on the prow.

 

As  phnom Penh comes into sight it's clear it's grown in the last 10 years. There's a lot more multi storey building here than there were.  As we ride up past Diamond Island with it's new blocks under construction, looking for all the world like Melacca and Penang in Malaysia we get to the bits we can still recognise.  The royal barge dock, elaborate and guilded backed by the staggeringly beautiful Royal palace, it's golden eaves curving down and back up ended in stylised serpents, antelope heads and horns in layer after layer.  It's incredible intricate and centred around a steepling stupa.

 

Further along Watt Phnom , again incredibly inticate, sparkles, glisters and glistens in the afternoon sun, beautiful!

 

All docked we manhandle our stuff off the boat and head up what feels like a vertical climb to dust clouded street level.  It's incredibly searingly hot and smelly.  The Tuk Tuk mafia await but we've done our homework and for $1 US we're barrelling through the densely clogged, exhaust and dust choked roads to our hotel.  Kim has, in fairness, done it again with this place.  She makes her customary fuss about our first room, which was lovely, but overlooked the road.  We're moved to a suite!  I don't know how she does it.  It's a wonderful room.  We have a roof top bar/restaurant and infinity pool which overlooks the gilded rooves of the palace on one side and the ornate independence monument on the other, down toward the river, Phnom Penhs' very own Hong Kong nightscape  starts clicking into gear.  Neon waterfalls tumble 30-40 floors earthward, and half a dozen or so huge developments project kaleidascopes onto the faces of the buildings, lasers and spotlights arc across the night sky as Fruit Bats flit heavily by heading to the mango trees in the park.

 

Just up the road is the Freebird bar and grill.  Perfect for some comfort food when you have a slightly dicky tum and crave something familiar.  Outside the owner gestures to a small plastic chair on which lies a cover, lifting it, there are two tiny kittens, eyes not quite open, they fit into the palm of one of Kims hand.  Mum lays there knackered, a small pile of picked chicken wings next to her.  The guy has saved the new family from god knows what fate.  It's a nice thing to find in this city which sometimes seems full of such poverty.

 

We waste a day trying to organise Thai Visas.  We have the forms, the dollars, the passports, the copies, the photographs, all of which has taken almost two days to get.  The sniveling little shit refuses us entry in order to get our visas because we don't have air tickets in and out of Thailand.

 

"We're not travelling by air" we say.

 

He shrugs and points in the general direction of away.

 

Kim calls him crazy, I'm not crazy he yells, not wanting to get arrested Kim shouts back maybe not you, but the system, waving her arms about and we quicky walk off.

 

The little wanker is fueling an entire black market here, there's an agent who for an extra $10 on top of the visa fees will furnish you with "rented" flight tickets and bring back your visa and passport in a few days.  We consider it but decide to wait till we get to Laos where it seems things may be better.

 

We have such a wonderful pool area that we spend some much needed time plotting our next moves.  To the coast at Kep, then to Battambang, Siem Reap Stung Treng and then the border with Laos. It's a combination of exciting and worrying plotting the final moves up into Laos, it looks pretty "quiet" there and lord knows what the transport or accomodation will be like.  We stay at the stunning roof top infinity pool and have a drink at the bar.......

 

A sunset cruise out onto Ton Le Sap is pretty much a must here and it's wonderfully scenic as we watch from the far side of the lake as the sun drops, a vast orange ball, behind Watt Phnom which blazes in response.  All the fisher boats are out and the water reflects the dropping sun as the adhan, the evening call to prayer echoes across the lake from the stunning white mosque at the shore side.  Each evening we have listened as the Budhist monks chant their prayers from the temple below the hotel pool, wonderfully atmospheric.  Surely there has to be room in the world for us all doesn't there? Do we really need fat, orange, over priveledged, twats telling us we need walls? 

Captain John on a sunset cruise, well..... I say cruise!!

Officer Kim at the Freebird Bar

Our lovely pool at Penh House Hotel Phnom Penn