Ho Chi Minh City part 2 & darwin (english version)
Door: Patty
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Patty
27 November 2011 | Australië, Darwin
Terwijl ik op het vliegveld van Darwin zit te wachten op mijn vlucht naar Cairns misschien nog net even tijd om wat in het Engels te vertellen over mijn belevenissen in Ho Chi Minh Stad..
Hello guys!
I'm waiting at Darwin airport now for my flight to Cairns, when I realized that I didn't write you anything in English about Ho Chi Minh City!
Most days I just walked around the city, I visited some markets, went for dinner in a really good indian restaurant, did some shopping (again haha) and that's it actually.. I wanted to visit the war museum but when I arrived there at 12.15 I saw that it's closed from 12-13.30 grrr. I didn't want to wait over an hour in the heat, and there were not so many things around, so I walked back to my hotel and yay, I found a supermarket on the way there! Supermarkets are realy hard to find in Vietnam, so everytime I walked into one I was sooooo happy!! Otherwise you can buy some things on the street or in really tiny minimarkets, but there's almost no choice there! (you must be lucky to find a coke hahah!)
In the biggest market place, the Ben Thanh market, I met the australian people I met in the train from Da Nang to Saigon. Because it was way to hot at daytime (especially in that market) to stand still and have a chat we decided to go for dinner together that evening. Was very nice, and after dinner we went for ice-cream, and after ice-cream for a drink in a very nice rooftopbar at a very luxury hotel (quite expensive for vietnam, that will say the prices were like in a normal bar in europe:P)
One of the days I did a daytour to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels.. The Cao Dai is a religion, for the people that didn't know that (I had never heard of it haha). It's a mix between buddhism, confucianism, taoism (?) and christianity. They have many gods and three saints, one of them is Victor Hugo hahaha! The temple was nice with lots of colours everywhere. The Cao Dai people are all dressed in white dresses, so very easy to recognize!
Then the tunnels.. Actually I didn't want to visit tunnels again, because I knew I couldn't go in them haha! But the tour to the Cao Dai was just togetehr with the Cu Chi tunnels.. Those were must more touristic than the Vinh Moc tunnels, but still nice.. We saw a kind of a short movie about the vietnam war, some boobytraps that the Vietcong (the vietnamese guerillas from south vietnam, that fought for the nord..) and then we could go in the tunnels. Those were not that deep as the Vinh Moc tunnels, 'just' 3-8 meters.. And there were more exits than at the other ones.. There were also some belgian people and the girl wasn't sure either if she wanted to go into the tunnels or not.. We tried.. Her boyfriend went first, and all the time we asked if he could see any exit haha.. Actually we just decided to go back (after just 2 meters, that's where we were waiting!) when he saw an exit!! Soooo, we walked into the tunnels to the first exit!! Wow, I'm so proud of myself that I did that!!!
On Thursday I had an evening flight to Darwin, Australia!! I was very worried about the flight of course, but it was fine actually! There was nobody sitting next to me, so I had three seats and I could lay down and try to sleep some! The flight was just 5 hours instead of the 7,5 I thought.. I didn't realize that it it 2,5 hours later in Darwin than in Vietnam haha..
Darwin was nice!! Veeeeeery hot and humid though, like Ho Chi Minh City! (humidity 90%!!!!!)
You can't swim in the sea here, because there are some deadly jellyfish here during wet season (wet season is during summer, so now..). The weather was actually not that wet until now! It was sunny every day, and just in the evening some short thunderstorm..
What else to say about Darwin haha.. It's actually quite small, so there's not much to see. Most people come here for the national parks around it.. So that's what I did, visiting one of the national parks. I didn't have time for all of them of course, so I just went on the Litchfield tour. That park is soooo beautiful!!!! We visited four of the waterfalls and they were all great!! In two of them we could swim in the pools under them! Great!! And ve visited some termite mounds too.. I can't believe that termites can make those things, they're sooo big!!!
That was Darwin;-) Now I'm at the airport waiting to go to cairns.. I'm quite concerned about the flight because there are horrible thunderstorms here, for hours and hours now!! The whole airport building moves all the time (it's true!!!)... The flight is delayed for half an hour now, but it can be more...
Kisses,
Patty
Hello guys!
I'm waiting at Darwin airport now for my flight to Cairns, when I realized that I didn't write you anything in English about Ho Chi Minh City!
Most days I just walked around the city, I visited some markets, went for dinner in a really good indian restaurant, did some shopping (again haha) and that's it actually.. I wanted to visit the war museum but when I arrived there at 12.15 I saw that it's closed from 12-13.30 grrr. I didn't want to wait over an hour in the heat, and there were not so many things around, so I walked back to my hotel and yay, I found a supermarket on the way there! Supermarkets are realy hard to find in Vietnam, so everytime I walked into one I was sooooo happy!! Otherwise you can buy some things on the street or in really tiny minimarkets, but there's almost no choice there! (you must be lucky to find a coke hahah!)
In the biggest market place, the Ben Thanh market, I met the australian people I met in the train from Da Nang to Saigon. Because it was way to hot at daytime (especially in that market) to stand still and have a chat we decided to go for dinner together that evening. Was very nice, and after dinner we went for ice-cream, and after ice-cream for a drink in a very nice rooftopbar at a very luxury hotel (quite expensive for vietnam, that will say the prices were like in a normal bar in europe:P)
One of the days I did a daytour to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels.. The Cao Dai is a religion, for the people that didn't know that (I had never heard of it haha). It's a mix between buddhism, confucianism, taoism (?) and christianity. They have many gods and three saints, one of them is Victor Hugo hahaha! The temple was nice with lots of colours everywhere. The Cao Dai people are all dressed in white dresses, so very easy to recognize!
Then the tunnels.. Actually I didn't want to visit tunnels again, because I knew I couldn't go in them haha! But the tour to the Cao Dai was just togetehr with the Cu Chi tunnels.. Those were must more touristic than the Vinh Moc tunnels, but still nice.. We saw a kind of a short movie about the vietnam war, some boobytraps that the Vietcong (the vietnamese guerillas from south vietnam, that fought for the nord..) and then we could go in the tunnels. Those were not that deep as the Vinh Moc tunnels, 'just' 3-8 meters.. And there were more exits than at the other ones.. There were also some belgian people and the girl wasn't sure either if she wanted to go into the tunnels or not.. We tried.. Her boyfriend went first, and all the time we asked if he could see any exit haha.. Actually we just decided to go back (after just 2 meters, that's where we were waiting!) when he saw an exit!! Soooo, we walked into the tunnels to the first exit!! Wow, I'm so proud of myself that I did that!!!
On Thursday I had an evening flight to Darwin, Australia!! I was very worried about the flight of course, but it was fine actually! There was nobody sitting next to me, so I had three seats and I could lay down and try to sleep some! The flight was just 5 hours instead of the 7,5 I thought.. I didn't realize that it it 2,5 hours later in Darwin than in Vietnam haha..
Darwin was nice!! Veeeeeery hot and humid though, like Ho Chi Minh City! (humidity 90%!!!!!)
You can't swim in the sea here, because there are some deadly jellyfish here during wet season (wet season is during summer, so now..). The weather was actually not that wet until now! It was sunny every day, and just in the evening some short thunderstorm..
What else to say about Darwin haha.. It's actually quite small, so there's not much to see. Most people come here for the national parks around it.. So that's what I did, visiting one of the national parks. I didn't have time for all of them of course, so I just went on the Litchfield tour. That park is soooo beautiful!!!! We visited four of the waterfalls and they were all great!! In two of them we could swim in the pools under them! Great!! And ve visited some termite mounds too.. I can't believe that termites can make those things, they're sooo big!!!
That was Darwin;-) Now I'm at the airport waiting to go to cairns.. I'm quite concerned about the flight because there are horrible thunderstorms here, for hours and hours now!! The whole airport building moves all the time (it's true!!!)... The flight is delayed for half an hour now, but it can be more...
Kisses,
Patty
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