Tomb Raiders

Luckily we arrived at Ho Chi Minh airport to check in for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia rather early as it meant that when we discovered our flight had been cancelled, they still had space on another flight for us.  Transferring us to the new flight however seemed to be the most convoluted process and took an hour.  But we were on the flight!

Upon arrival in Siem Reap Sam and I were reminded of when we went travelling.  Firstly, our taxi driver tried to get us to hire him for some hugely inflated price, secondly Siem Reap had such a third world feel on the outskirts that we were reminded of India and Africa and finally, our guesthouse was complete backpacker heaven where our room for four, including breakfast, was about £15 for the night.

                                       

                                      

Rather than pay our taxi driver vast sums to be driven around in the heat, we ate lunch and relaxed by the pool.  In the evening we headed in to Pub Street where we had cocktails watching the sunset, followed by a traditional Khmer curry for four for £10.  Sam and I realised that we were nearly achieving our daily budget per person that we had set ourselves when travelling fourteen years ago.

      

      

The following morning we were up bright and early and headed off to the famous temples of Angkor.  We hired a tuk tuk and driver for the day which was much more comfortable in the heat than a car and handy to dodge the traffic.

       

No sooner had we set off than we pulled in to a roadside stand.  I thought maybe the driver needed breakfast and then realised it was, a rather rudimentary, petrol station.

       

Sam and I have had the temples on our list to visit for ages and were worried that they wouldn't live up to the hype. 

      

      

      

 However, they were amazing and William and Oliver enjoyed them as much as we did and even understood the religious aspect of them.

                                       

                                         

Our favourites were the less restored ones where nature has been allowed to take over.  

                                      

                                      

        

The final temple we visited was the famous Angkor Wat.  It was very hot and pretty crowded but very worthwhile. 

      

                                  

                                     

 Unfortunately, children under twelve were not allowed to climb to the highest point.  However, William and Oliver, although disappointed, declared that we would just have to come back in six years. Instead, they enjoyed exploring the temple and finding bits that seemed far more risky.

                                  

Upon arrival at the temple complex in the morning we had asked our guide to take us straight to the point for an elephant ride.  However, despite being pretty early all the elephants were booked up.  There are only a certain number of rides allowed a day in order to give the elephants time to rest.  We were told that more rides would happen in the afternoon.  Sam and I promised the boys that we would make those rides, therefore, after looking around the temples and having lunch, we headed to the location about an hour early.  I positioned my self right by the table and chairs where the ticket people would sit, to hold our place in the queue.  Living in Shanghai has taught me well!  William and Oliver enjoyed trying out the hammock in our tuk tuk and even driving it.  They were also entertained by a local monkey.

      

      

      

       

Eventually the elephants arrived and after negotiating a discount in exchange for the four of us going on one elephant, we were off.  

       

Oliver and William really enjoyed the ride and it was a great end to a wonderful day.  We returned to our hotel where we cooled off in the pool, had dinner and headed to the airport for the final leg of our trip.  

    

        

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

The eve of the Luner New Year passed fairly peacefully in Ho Chi Minh compared to Shanghai.  The Vietnamese government banned firecrackers several years ago and fireworks have to be part of an official display.  Therefore, we all had an undisturbed nights sleep.

We had a fairly leisurely morning compared to our first two and after breakfast went off to see a bit of the city and enjoy the first day of the Year of the Horse celebrations.  

      

On the way back to our hotel the night before we had noticed that the people from the shop next door had set up a dinner party on the street which was still in full swing the next morning, including large glasses of red wine!

      

In keeping with our normal family routines we found a perfect place for coffee and people watching.  Afterwards we looked at the floral displays celebrating the new year.  

                                     

It was a scorching day and we headed for shady spots as often as we could.  During our wandering we stumbled across the Ho Chi Minh Museum.  William and Oliver enjoyed looking at the canon, aircraft and tanks and trying out the Ack Ack gun.  

                                      

        

They were especially pleased to discover the underground bunker.  It seems the Cu Chi tunnels have inspired a desire to do most sightseeing underground.

One of the things we had been keen to try out in Ho Chi Minh was the Vietnamese street food.  On recommendation we went to a restaurant in the old French Quater which specialised in street food.  The restaurant, although busy, was an oasis from the hot, crowded, motorbike ridden streets.  It was in an old villa set around a glorious courtyard. 

                                    

 And even better the food was fantastic.  The meal was a holiday treat from Grandma and Grandad and there was even change for an ice cream!

      

Meandering on the Mekong

On our second day in Vietnam we had an early start of 7.30 in order to visit the Mekong delta.  The Mekong river is the 7th longest river in Asia and the delta, the area where it approaches the sea occupies a vast 39,000 square km of  Southern Vietnam.  It is a biologically rich area with 10,000 new species having been discovered there.  It is Vietnam's most productive agricultural region especially in rice, of which it produces three crops a year.  

As we set off in our boat we were all fascinated to see the buildings lining the river and were able to imagine the way of life for these people.  

       

       

It was easy to see how, at times of flooding or worse that whole villages could be destroyed.  It made us think of the Tsunamis in 2004 and 2011 and it was clear how they caused such devastation.  We recalled how villages sought shelter in the buildings that withstood the flooding such as churches and mosques and it was clear how that was possible.

                                         

Our first stop was at an eighteenth century house which was fairly interesting, but seemed mainly to be half restaurant and half furniture storage!  However, we did see some women making rice pancakes to use for spring rolls and lots of bananas and other fruit growing.

                                     

      

                                       

       

A little further along we stopped at a sweet 'factory'.  Here we learnt how to make puffed rice and coconut sweets.  

      

William and Oliver also met the pet.  Although he might have been on his way in to the next bottle of home brew!

      

      

As seems to happen with all organised tours we randomly stopped off at a house where we were served a fruit platter and sung to by the family living there!  Oliver and William were quite disappointed as they thought we were stopping for lunch.

When we finally reached our lunch destination it was well worth the wait.  The restaurant was set over water which the boys loved and William wished he could live there!

      

The food was fresh fish and prawns caught that morning and cooked as we arrived.  We were given a demonstration on how to assemble our spring rolls too.

                                  

      

After an early start and a busy morning we were all hungry and polished it all off!

      

     

      

      

                                    

After lunch we headed off of the main river and changed to a punt, which took us down some smaller rivers which felt miles away from anywhere.

      

                                      

On the way back in to Ho Chi Minh  we stopped at a 'service station' for a traditional Vietnamese coffee.  All along the roads we had seen the pit stops serving coffee and providing hammocks for weary drivers to rest in.  

                        

The boys relaxed in a hammock whist Sam and I enjoyed a coffee with condensed milk.  

                                     

      

Apparently when the French introduced coffee to Vietnam there was a shortage of milk but not condensed milk!

       

Good Morning Vietnam!

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh a couple of evenings before the lunar new year.  The route from the airport to the hotel gave us a taste of what traffic in the city was like.  The driving was better than in Shanghai but the number of motorbikes was about 1000 times more!

                                   

On the first morning we were picked up by a guide at our hotel and we headed off to the much anticipated Cu Chi tunnels.  The Cu Chi area is to the North West of Ho Chi Minh and appears at first to be an area of countryside.  To discover the truth about the area you have to go underground - literally!  The network of tunnels were built over a twenty five year period starting in the 1940s during the war with the French.  However, they gained their fame in the 1960s during the war against the USA  when they enabled the Vietcong to control a large area close to the US controlled Saigon.  US ground offensives were unsuccessful and resulted in the USA using huge fire power to bomb the whole area.  It is now a place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese.  

The tour began with a black and white film about the area and the tunnels which was basically anti-American propaganda!  Our first exploring was done above ground looking at the tunnel entrances and traps that were laid to catch US forces.  

     

     

Some of the holes that the Viet Cong squeezed in to were tiny and very hard to spot.

                                    

      

                                  

                                  

                                  

Finally, much to the satisfaction of the boys, we headed underground.  I hadn't been looking forward to that section enormously but I told the boys I was up for it.  William and Oliver were in the lead and had it easy due to their size.  

                                       

                                       

They shot off ahead and Sam and I were scrabbling around on all fours or bent double trying to keep up! At a couple of points we were not sure we would make it through!

                                       

                                       

In the evening we headed to the night market where we put our bartering skills, finely honed in Shanghai, to the test.  This involved our first experience of the night traffic and crossing the road.  Many people had advised us that there would be no gap in the flow of bikes so the best thing to do was to start crossing and maintain place whilst signalling to the traffic your presence.  This we did and, miraculously, it worked!