March 30 2012

We were with our guide all day today. It was hot, humid and tiring, but really interesting. First, we were driven out to the Chu Chi district, a few miles to the north west of Saigon city centre, where a whole system of Vietcong tunnels has been preserved. They weren't just tunnels, either. They had conference rooms, kitchens, living quarters and even hospitals underground. Jen and I were persuaded to go down into one of the tunnels, and travelled about 20 metres before deciding that we'd had enough. It is pretty claustrophobic down there and you have to admire the VC's enterprise and guts.

Following our tour of Chu Chi, we were taken back to the city for a traditional Vietnamese lunch of noodles in broth - really nice, even though the restaurant was pretty grim (especially the loo!) We then visited the former South Vietnam Presidential Palace, now called the Reunification Palace, before going on to the War Remnants Museum. This must be the most distressing museum in the world. It consists mostly of exhibitions of photographs, and there is no doubt at all that the Americans are painted as the aggressors in the Vietnam War (which the locals call the American War, by the way). The atrocities inflicted on the local people, including the most appalling variety of torture and well-known bombardments with things like napalm and agent orange, are almost too much to contemplate. The Americans were not the only aggressors in this part of the world, however. Before them it was the French colonial powers, and the actual guillotine used in those days is on show in the museum.

The basket on the right was used as a receptacle for the body after decapitation.

Just as our tour was drawing to a close, our guide pointed out the building in the middle of the next photograph. It's quite near to our hotel, just along from the central Post Office. As the Vietnam War was drawing to a close, a photograph was released to the press showing a helicopter rescuing people from a rooftop. This was it...

The photograph was wrongly captioned, claiming that it showed US Embassy staff being rescued from the roof of the Embassy. In fact, this is the roof of a block of flats which housed CIA agents and Vietnamese people who had worked for them. The people in this photo are, apparently, those Vietnamese folk.

This is the same building today, with a modern skyscraper behind it.

There won't be a post tomorrow because we will be on a boat overnight in the Mekong Delta with no internet access, so check back in a couple of days.

Jenny's bit:  The traffic is truly terrifying, its bad enough being in a car but as a pedestrian it appears to be suicide.  The safety of our hotel is appealing but I suppose we just have to go out to dinner...  Jx

March 29 2012

Last night, our last in Hong Kong, we wandered up to the Temple Road night market. Frankly, we didn't think it was up to much. It was bright and lively, but was selling the usual tourist tat. The guide books told us that we could find fortune tellers there, which we quite fancied for a laugh, but we couldn't find a single one. It was just the tourist rubbish and a few dodgy-looking massage parlours (which weren't mentioned in the guide book!).

We then strolled back down Nathan Road and turned into Kimberley. We found the Mongolian Restaurant that Kelvyn and Dave had both mentioned, but didn't feel especially adventurous after our earlier experience with the uncooked prawns, so walked up the steps to Knutsford and ended up in an Autralian joint where we enjoyed some wagyu beef!

Here's one for Ethan - on the way back to the hotel after supper, we bumped into this 10-feet tall robot on a street corner...

This morning we had a couple of hours to fill before needing to leave for the airport, so we visited the Hong Kong History Museum, which we both thought was really interesting. Actually, we could have used more time there, but never mind. Here's a dragon's head from one of the halls...

In the afternoon we caught a Cathay Pacific flight to Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh city, but our guide quickly explained that people who hail from below the 17th parallel - i.e. the old South Vietnam - still call it Saigon, and only the northerners use the official name).

Our guide, by the way, is a lovely chap named Hai (pronounced 'high') and he told us quite a bit about the city on the way in from the airport. This place is mad! The roads are jammed with manic traffic, but hardly any of it has four wheels. It's mostly motorbikes, mopeds and scooters - THOUSANDS of them! Hai explained that this is gradually changing as people become more affluent, but because two wheels are cheaper than four, most people still have only two!

Our hotel is gorgeous (the "swankiest"in town, according to Hai) but we are tired, so off to bed soon. Tomorrow morning Hai is taking us out to see the tunnels that the Vietcong used to outwit the Americans, and then we are haveing a city tour of Siagon in the afternoon. Haven't had a chance to take many photos yet, but grabbed this one with the phone on a brief venture into the night.

It's very hot here - 33 degrees C after dark!

March 28 2012

Before I talk about today, I just remembered that I took a photo with my phone during the taxi ride in from the airport a couple of days ago. Check this out!

This guy had no fewer than SIX mobile phones - four regular and two smartphones - fixed to a rack on the top of his dashboard. You can clearly see them in the photo. They are all plugged in and the driver has an earpiece/microphone stuck in his ear. All the way in from the airport he was chattering away on one or other of the mobiles, all of which seemed to be linked to his earpiece. People were calling him, he was putting people on hold, making calls and generally switching from one to another the whole time. Astonishing!

Last night was great. On Dave's recommendation I had made a reservation at Aqua Roma/Tokyo, which is a dual cuisine (Japanese and Italian) restaurant on the 29th floor of the Peking One building, right near our hotel. The tables are on terraces within the restaurant, so wherever you sit you can admire the view of the harbour and across to Hong Kong Island. The bar is on the highest terrace of all, and our dining table was right at the front, next to the windows. My phone camera doesn't really do it justice, but to give you an idea, this was the view from our position in the bar...

Lovely meal, too. We both chose Japanese food and really enjoyed it. By the way, I now realise that I made a mistake with the exchange rate in yesterday's post. That breakfast in the hotel was £36, not £54!

Today, we completed the two legs of the tour bus route that we didn't get around to yesterday, one of them here in Kowloon and the other over on the island, which took us as far as Stanley and Aberdeen. The Kowloon sector was just as I imagined Hong Kong to be when away from the skyscrapers, and this photo taken from the top deck of the bus gives you an idea of what I mean...

First thing this morning we took our dirty clothes to a little Chinese laundry in this area, and they washed and folded (but didn't iron) 12lbs of laundry for about £3.60! We could have had it ironed for about double that, but they couldn't it back to us in time. After the bus tours, we returned to collect the laundry and then popped into a local cafe for a snack. To be honest, it wasn't up to much. We each had a different variation of prawns with noodles, and the prawns were virtually transparent, so we just scoffed the noodles and left the prawns on the plate. I don't know what they must have thought, but we weren't prepared to take the chance!

The last leg of the bus tour took us to the south side of the island, where we saw the resort of Stanley and then took a sampan ride around Aberdeen harbour. This next photo was taken by the guy driving the sampan, and the "building" in the background is a huge floating restaurant moored in the middle of the harbour.

This evening we're off to the nearby night market and will try to summon up the courage to try another local restaurant - hopefully with better luck this time.

Jenny's bit: A lot of sitting on buses today so looking forward to a long walk up to the night market its a bit overcast so no lovely sunset like last night. Jx

March 27 2012

Our first full day in Hong Kong and we did what we always try to do on day one in a new city - took the tour bus. Actually, there are three routes (red route on the island and green and blue here in Kowloon)and we only managed to get through one today, so that leaves two more to do tomorrow. We'll also have some time on the last day, because we're not due at the airport until about 3pm on Thursday.

The Star Ferry terminal is right next to our hotel on the southern tip of Kowloon, and there's a tour bus depot there, so we started the tour by taking the ferry across to Hong Kong Island to join the red route.

The Star Ferry terminal (with two ferries in view) as seen from our room.

The high-rise skyline is impressive, and it was interesting to drive through at street level, although not everything is high-tech, as evidenced by the bamboo scaffolding we spotted on one building!

I guess it must work!

We got off the bus a couple of times - once to wander around some of the side streets, and once to jump on the Peak Tramway. The Tramway is a funicular railway with two carriages, built by a Scottish engineer in the nineteenth century to encourage people to build homes on the high part of the island. It travels up to the observation point at a disconcertingly steep angle, but the views are well worth it once you get to the top.

It was a bit hazy, but you get the idea.

As you would expect, the observation point at the top of the ride is actually a shopping mall built on about six or seven levels and you trundle up and up on banks of escalators to reach the viewing platform on the roof. After a coffee break, we took the tram back down and rejoined the bus to take us back to the ferry. On the way I spotted the Hong Kong equivalent of the Occupy protest camped under the headquarters building of HSBC. Nice to see that peaceful protest is tolerated here.

The tour bus commentary didn't mention this! You can just make out the tents under the building, and the sign on the black box-shaped structure on the left reads "Make Banks Pay"

This evening, I have a treat lined up for Jen (another Dave Sweet recommendation) so I won't say any more now in case she reads this! Full report tomorrow!

March 25 & 26 2012

We've now completed our time in Malaysian Borneo, but we were late back to our hotel on the 25th and had to check out by noon on the 26th before flying to Hong Kong (at 8pm). There was no time to write the blog on those two days, so here goes with a catch-up.

On the 25th we had a wander round Kota Kinabalu's Sunday morning flea market before being collected at the hotel and taken on a two-hour drive into the country to join a river cruise through rain forest, looking for more monkeys and whatever else we could find (actually, we only found monkeys). The flea market was hot, crowded, and pretty average, but at least the monkeys turned up in the afternoon!

Sunday morning flea market, Kota Kinabalu

We thought that one of the sad sights in the market was puppies being offered for sale. The stalls in question had "No photos/video" warnings on them, but I managed to sneak one.

I think these poor little fellows were labelled as "Chinese Terriers"

It was a long drive out to join the river cruise, but refreshments were laid on when we arrived at the jetty and we were out on the water for about two hours. The boats were fairly simple and pretty uncomfortable, as we were sitting on wooden benches, but they were fast and the drivers would speed from point to point (they seemed to know where the monkeys would be) and that created a very welcome breeze.

This was the type of boat used on the river cruise.

We saw loads of monkeys, although they were often only just visible in the undergrowth, so photo opportunities were hard to come by. This family group of long-tailed macaques obliged us, though, by perching high in a tree with very little foliage...

We returned to the jetty as the sun was setting, and our driver stopped in mid-stream to give us the chance of snapping the scene...

Dinner was laid on, although the smell of the food (which was not unpleasant) was almost masked by the smell of the mossie repellent which all us tourists were smothering ourselves with! After dinner, we got back in the boats and went a little way upstream to watch fireflies in the trees. It really is an astonishing sight - it looks rather like a Christmas tree looks when you set the lights to twinkle mode - but defies all efforts to be photographed. This didn't stop some of the half-wits amongst us repeatedly taking photographs of the trees using flash (I ask you....)

On Monday morning we had to get packed and check out, but then had several hours to kill before it was time to leave for the airport, so we wandered down to Jesselton point, where all the island-hopping boats gather, and just watched the world go by for a while. Eventually, we caught our Dragonair flight to Hong Kong, where we arrived on time at 10.50pm and took a taxi to our hotel, the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel. Good recommendation from Dave Sweet - it's really lovely here (although £54 for two breakfasts resulted in a sharp intake of breath!)

The view from our room in the Marco Polo

Will report on our first full day in Hong Kong in the next post!

March 24 2012

We had a very lazy day today after the exertions and unwanted late night yesterday, starting about 10am with room service breakfast...

...followed by catching up with the blog for the day before...

 ...and then off for a walk down to the waterfront. According to our tourist map of the town, there's a ferry service across to the biggest of the five local islands which make up what is known as the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, but when we arrived at the jetty we discovered that the islands are mostly divided up between privately owned resort hotels and the only boat services were either for guests staying at the hotels (free shuttles) or tourist boats visiting all five islands over a whole day for about £60 a head, so we didn't bother. The waterfront views were nice, though.

After mooching around for the rest of the afternoon, we had supper in a Chinese restaurant within our hotel (didn't fancy any of the local restaurants, frankly) and then sat at the outside terrace of the hotel's nightclub/bar for a nightcap. I spotted that a bar across the road was showing the early Saturday kick-off between Chelsea and Tottenham, so I asked our barman if they would be likely to show the Arsenal/Aston Villa match at 11pm local (3pm UK). He immediately announced that he was an Arsenal fan and I could watch the match on the TV in the nightclub. Jen went to bed, and I returned to the nightclub. It was very noisy, alternating between a live band and disco music, but the TV was in the entrance lobby, a little bit away from the dance floor. The barman was unbelievable, bringing me a table and chair which he positioned right opposite the TV and returning every ten minutes or so to see if I needed anything. Drank a few Tiger beers and watched the boys win 3-0!

Jenny's bit: Am liking Kota Kinabalu more, it's still smelly down by the waterfront and in the town markets but the people are lovely. Jx

March 23 2012

We got up at the crack of dawn today for a 7am flight across the island to Sandakan, where we were collected by a guide called Ronnie and his driver Amad. Another English couple and three Swedish girls were in the same party and we started our day out by taking the 45-minute drive out to the Sepilok Rain Forest Reserve where Orang-Utans who have been orphaned or injured are cared for before being released into the wild. It was the ones who have been released that we came to see, because they tend to make their way back to the Reserve twice a day for feeding time! We weren't allowed to take bags (or food or insect repellent) into the Reserve, so I grabbed my cameras but soon regretted not taking my long lens with me, because the feeding platform where the orang-utans pitched up was about 20 metres from us, so I wasn't able to get close-up shots of them. The video was much better with its 28x zoom, but you'll have to wait to see that! Luckily, the macaques who were all over the place came right up to us, so the photos of them are much better.



The orang-utan is sitting next to the ranger, with a macaque climbing the tree in the foreground, waiting his turn.

A baby macaque, wondering where his mum is?

A family get-together

 This was our first experience of a tropical rain forest, and even though we had the advantage of touring around on an elevated walkway (which at least kept the leeches away from us) all other aspects of the experience were for real - the steamy heat, the noise of (mostly unseen) birds and other creatures and the occasional rattling of branches by god knows what just behind you!



Sandakan Water Village

After a couple of hours in the jungle we were driven back to Sandakan for lunch and were then taken on a tour of the town. The first stop was a water village, where all the houses are out in the sea on stilts. At first we felt a bit embarrassed walking around on the boardwalks which connect all these dwellings, wondering what these apparently poor people thought of these bloody tourists with their camera peering into their homes, but astonishingly the residents were really friendly and welcoming, even though they got nothing from us. The children, especially, seemed really excited that we had come to see them!

After leaving the water village, we were taken to the central market, a local church, then up to the hills above the town to a Buddhist temple. The views from here were lovely, although it was slightly odd to see reverse swastikas everywhere. Nothing to do with the nazis, of course, but an ancient Buddhist symbol. You can see it in the topiary in the next picture.

View of Sandakan from the courtyard of the Buddhist temple.

Our final stop was at the site of the Sandakan prisoner-of-war camp just outside the town. This was where the Japs incarcerated British and Australian troops, as well as some locals, during the Second War. Something over 2500 of them were imprisoned here and only six survived. The lucky six only managed to get away with their lives by escaping. The rest died either of starvation or maltreatment in the camp, or on the "death march" across the island as the Japs tried to escape their pursuers towards the end of the war. The whole site is now a dedicated memorial and although none of the original buildings survive, you can still get a feel for what it must have been like.

The memorial at the highest point of Sandakan POW Camp

On a final sad note, we got back to Sandakan airport (I call it an airport - actually it's a shed) to discover that there had been some confusion with our online booking and our flight had already left. We therefore had to sit around for four hours waiting for the next one. Happy days!

Jenny's bit: Not sure what to say about today, reckon you see more of the animals in the zoo but I guess that's not the point.  It was lovely having a guide to explain not just the animal stuff but also how people live here - there were some very posh stilt houses!  Can't get over how friendly everyone is, the taxi driver seemed desperate to practice his English which was sweet. Came back hotel hot, sticky and exhausted. Jx

March 22 2012

Made the short flight (2 hours) from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo this morning, and will be spending the next four nights here. It's warm - 31degrees C apparently - but not so humid as Singapore, and we can see blue sky for the first time on this trip. Frankly, the town doesn't seem to have much to recommend it, but the people, as in Singapore, are very friendly and our hotel is fine. We're staying at the Hyatt Regency (below).

There's no beach in the central part of town, but we have a nice pool and we're told there are some wonderful beaches nearby and also some islands only about a mile offshore with great beaches and snorkelling. We may try some of that on Sunday.

Tomorrow we are taking a 45-minute flight across the island to Sandakan and then being escorted into the rain forest to visit the orang-utan sanctuary at Sepilok, before flying back here tomorrow evening. We've been warned to take plenty of mossie repellent and not to wear anything brightly coloured. Not sure if that's because the apes don't like it or because it attracts bugs!

The quaint bar/cafe on the ground floor of the Hyatt Regency

We had a walk around the town centre this afternoon and were struck by the tattiness of it all - so different from Singapore, which is spotless and beautifully manicured. The photo below shows a typical street scene - you can see the contrast between the local people's homes and the high-end hotel at the end of the street.

It's a 5.30 start tomorrow, so supper and an early night are on the cards. The apes are waiting for us!

Jenny's bit: Kota Kinabalu is quite smelly. Jx

March 21 2012

Had a lovely evening yesterday with Andrew and Veronica.We started with the inevitable drink in the Long Bar at Raffles, which was an experience, although Andrew told us that the hotel has been extensively remodelled in recent years and the original Long Bar is long gone. Good fun, nonetheless.

As you walk into the bar, you realise that there is something crunchy underfoot. Dotted around the bar are square wooden containers of monkey nuts and it is, apparently, a tradition in Raffles that you eat the nuts and drop the shells on the floor. This makes it the only place in Singapore where you can drop litter with impunity. If you are caught littering anywhere else, it's a S$300 (£150) fine for the first offence and community service for the second offence. Not many people are convicted a second time, because they make you wear high visibility clothing which is clearly labelled to identify you as an offender, and you spend time picking up litter around the city. The shame and loss of face is so unbearable in this culture that most people avoid it at all costs!

After leaving Raffles, we wandered down to Harry's Bar on the waterfront and had another sharpener before settling in at a Thai restaurant for supper.

This morning we had breakfast in the hotel and set off for a cruise on the river, but soon discovered that the cruises don't start until noon, so we rode the Singapore Flyer instead. This is very similar to the London Eye, but bigger! The views are outstanding, but sadly the weather has continued to be a bit humid and misty - we've seen hardly any blue sky at all - and the murkiness continues to degrade the pictures.



View from the top of the Flyer across Marina Bay to the financial district

 After our circuit on the Flyer, we walked across to the far side of the financial district and joined a guided walking tour of Chinatown. This wasn't quite as interesting as we had hoped, because Chinatown is packed full of shops selling tourist tat, and as the guide herself was quick to point out, very little of the area is old or original. Nevertheless, it's a busy and colourful district and we managed to find a couple of spectacular temples - one Buddhist, one Hindu - which were interesting.

A section of the roof decoration on a Hindu temple in Chinatown

Tonight we have to pack and be ready for an 8.50am flight to Kota Kinabalu in the morning, so the next post will be from Borneo.

Jenny's bit:  A very nice man helped up to jay walk across a busy street so we could catch a cab.  We waited behind two people who hailed the first free one but he refused to take them so we took it instead - I guess they were going south of the river. Jx

March 20 2012

Arrived in Singapore yesterday evening after a comfortable flight from London. Those flat beds in business class make all the difference, and we both managed to get some sleep. A handy tailwind reduced the flight from 13 hours to 12, but we were delayed at Heathrow by refuelling delays for an hour, so arrived on time at 6.30pm local time. It's warm and humid here, although overcast and slightly misty, as you can see from the early photos. Our hotel is lovely (apart from rubbish TV reception). It doesn't look much from the outside...

...but once you get to the 4th floor (we're on 17) it opens up into a spectacular atrium and the lifts are glass bubbles which look down into it. The staff are very friendly and helpful, as are people on the street. A couple of times this morning people saw us standing on corners looking at a map and came over to offer help!

On the first evening we had a Singapore Sling in the hotel bar (well, I did - Jen preferred her usual glass of wine) and then went for a walk. We found a Chinese restaurant on the waterfront and had a light supper, by which time we were feeling tired. The eight-hour time difference was taking its toll, so we headed back to the hotel and slept for nine hours straight - jet-lag sorted!

Today we took the usual city tour on a double decker open top bus to get a feel of the place. It's much as we expected - very clean and populated by extraordinarily cheerful and friendly people, but perhaps a bit soulless? The cityscape is crammed with ultra-modern buildings...

...but the wierdest one of all is the new Marina Bay Sands Resort hotel down on the waterfront, which consists of three towers. Straddling all three is a giant "boat" which contains a rooftop swimming pool and other facilities. Quite astonishing!

And, as you can see from this view, it's a bit of a bendy boat...

We're off to supper this evening with Veronica and Andrew Higham, who are in town.

Toodle-pip!

Jenny's bit:  Am liking Singapore, its very safe, nobody wants to nick your bag and they drive on the same side of the road so no chance of being mown down (they're too polite anyway). Walking is very hot but they have zillions of huge shopping malls so you just walk in and make use of the air con every now and then,  The ladies' loos are amazingly clean and fragrant!  Jx

Almost ready to go!

Jenny and I will be setting off on the first leg of our round the world trip on Sunday March 18, flying with Qantas from Heathrow to Singapore. I'll be blogging as often as possible after that date, so check in any time and keep up with what we're doing!