garyandlinda – Page 15 – saskatoonie.com

January 29, 2019January 30, 2019

Tuesday January 29, 2019

Phnom Penh to Bangkok

Today we got up at 4:48 am and plugged in an electric kettle for instant coffee. We ate our sticky rice with fresh mango for breakfast and washed it down with Nescafe. Ugh. Our driver Mr Sandy was a few minutes late, he seems to have slept in because his alarm failed to work. Our hotel man phoned Mr Sandy and he was there to pick us up in 10 minute. HIs hair was still a bit sleepy looking and trying to button his shirt. In the end we had to wait at the airport to check in. We were there about 15 minutes too early.

The check-in, passport control, security and screening went very soothly. Shoes off, belts off, the usual thing. Once again we had to ditch a brand new bottle of water we got from the hotel.

Our flight loaded quickly, we were off in no time and on the ground in Bangkok in less than 2 hours.

Once we passed through immigration, picked up our bags, hit an ATM for Thai Baht, then we got a SIM card for our mobile phones. The cost was 649 Thai Baht which is $27.50 CAD. Over $1/day each for phone service. We paid $5 USD in Cambodia for up to a month ( but was only there 3 days) and $8 USD for a month in Vietnam (our stay was 20 days).

We hired a cab for 500 Thai Baht for the 45 minute trip to the Centre Point Pratunam hotel. Once we got checked in we crashed. Something about getting up early and flying is hard on the body. It really wears you down. Our Sticky rice was starting to wear thin by then. We got up after 90 minutes of snoozing and walked around and found a Thai restaurant. Back to the hotel to check out the laundry facility and then we went for a walk. By then it was getting dark.

The buildings around here are tall and the roads are narrow. Our side of our hotel is on a wide street but the front is on an streets no wider than a back alley at home. it is cray how narrow the roads are here in places.

The weather is Bangkok is hot. The weather at home is -33C with a wind chill of -46C. There are times when we miss the cold, but only for a moment as we are crowded on a narrow street passing food carts with deep fryers and people smoking cigarettes. Car and tuk tuk exhaust and smoke. We are wandering around Bangkok in flip flops t-shirts and shorts. By 6:30 pm our underarm secret was worn off. Its almost 9pm and we are ready to crash again for the second time today!

January 28, 2019January 28, 2019

Monday January 28, 2019

Phnom Penh - Royal Palace - Museum

Today we took it easy with only 2 things on the agenda. The Royal Place and the National Museum of Cambodia, both located close enough to walk, only a few minutes away.

Admission for each was $10 US. While each was unique we felt that the price of this admission was more expensive than anything we did yesterday and we got far more out of yesterday’s tours.

The Palace has 4 compounds and the public is permitted into two of them. We could look inside the doors or open windows of some of the buildings and some we could walk into. None of them permitted pictures so we only have outdoor shots! There were some exhibits as well towards the exit. One that was particularly interesting was a young women weaving fabric for a skirt. She said it takes 7 days to complete a skirt. The pattern was so intricate and had gold variegated thread that she lines up to make the design. The thread is so fine and there are so many that it was amazing how she shot the shuttle back and forth, lined everything up and managed to keep the pattern so perfect. Definitely no amateur!

The Museum was only a block or two away from the Palace. One of the streets that runs along the one Palace compound wall is blocked off to traffic. It was great to stroll down the street and not be dodging cars and scooters! The Museum, same as the Palace, didn’t permit photos of any of the indoor exhibits. We opted not to do the audio tour that was available for another $5 each. We chose to just wander through the displays and spend time at the exhibits that caught our attention. There were some very intricate wood carvings, lots of metal work and lots of stone sculptures, many from Angkor Was temple in Siam Riep and one from Koh Ker that we also visited 3 years ago. There was an interesting boat cabin all constructed from wood.

The video above was taken in the courtyard area of the National Museum Cambodia. The skirt that she is weaving will take 7 days to complete.

By then our feet and stomachs were starting to complain. Gary googled nearby restaurants and we found the Cocina Cartel only a block or two away and the reviews were good. We shared an order of chips and guacamole and a plate of 3 shredded chicken tacos. We decided to really splurge and had 2 Corona beer, far more expensive than the local beer! Altogether our meal was $16. From there we headed back to the hotel to change our of our “respectable” gear. You have to wear pants below your knees and shirts with sleeves (no bare shoulders) to visit the palace and museum (also many temples). Once changed we headed off for a 90 minute massage for $15 each. The bed in our hotel room is great, the pillows not so much, plus with all the walking we’ve been doing a massage felt pretty good. Came back to the hotel and enjoyed a Mango IPA beer crafted locally. It was not cheap, $.4.95, but we love mangos and were interested to see what the beer would be like. You could taste the mango and it was pretty refreshing. The view from the 3rd floor terrace bar at the FCC Hotel is pretty impressive. We sat overlooking the Mekong River and watched all the boats, people and traffic! It’s never dull.

Supper tonight was back at the little restaurant a couple doors down from our hotel where we ate our first night. Food was awesome, we both had cashew chicken, steamed rice and a 50 cent beer! We found they had mango sticky rice for dessert so shared one of those. Our entire supper was only slightly more than our two mango beers!

We have a car booked to head to the airport tomorrow morning. It will be here by 6 am to pick us up so we’ll have an early morning. After multiple conversations with the front desk about getting something for breakfast before we leave (they don’t start serving till 6:30) they finally said they could make a take-away breakfast but it would be bread only. We said thanks but we’ll pass, did also ask if we could get juice and extra water but that seemed like a major conundrum so not sure if there will be any at the office in the morning or not. Linda ran back to the restaurant and bought two orders of mango sticky rice to go and squished them in our little fridge. Gary bought a 1.5 L bottle of water for 68 cents. We have a kettle in our room and some instant coffee so we should be set for morning. We are off to bed early, so glad we packed ear plugs!!

January 27, 2019January 28, 2019

Sunday January 27, 2019

Killing Fields & S-21 Tuol Sieng

Phnom Penh Cambodia

The Killing Fields

and

Tuol Sieng Genocide Museum

Up until now you have seen some disturbing pictures and heard horrid tales of killing. The purpose of the Killing Fields, also known as the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre is to record this for the history books so it will never be repeated. Sadly there have been mass killing not far from Cambodia in the former country of Burma now known as Myanmar. The 2017–present Rohingya genocide in Myanmar began on 25 August 2017 when the Myanmar military forces and local Buddhist extremists started attacking.

We walked along the river promenade down the street to the Night Market. Linda. bought two new shirts and Gary bought one, total price $11 USD. We has a fun visit with the lady selling the clothing. She asked how to pronounce (and pointed at a feather on a T-shirt) We tried for several minutes to teach her to say “th” sound as in “the”, “feathers”. Something we take for granted, but it was very difficult for her to place her tongue in the correct position. We all had a good laugh! Her little baby was 2 years, 2 months old and sleeping in the rack of clothing on a hammock. Just totally out of it, in all the noise!

The video below is the partial trip by tuk tuk to the FCC Hotel in Phnom Penh. Everyone drives in random madness ! Sometimes its enough to drive you nuts. There is no road rage here!

January 26, 2019January 26, 2019

Saturday January 26, 2019

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We packed our luggage and met the airport shuttle driver in the lobby a few minutes before 10 am. We had to allow one hour for the trip to the airport. We actually took only 15 minutes. Traffic still seemed slow but we never actually stopped in gridlock so we got to the airport about 30 minutes faster than expected.

We actually got to the airport before our airline was accepting check ins for our flight. We sat and waited. Finally 3 hours later we were sitting at the gate with frozen Mocha drinks to combat the dehydration. We aren’t getting enough liquids. This will help. Did we mention the cluster flick they have going on at Saigon’s airport security? It was the most unorganized thing going. Very few trays and no place to set them if you managed to fight the mass to grab some when they became available. And no long conveyers into the scanner. We may have been x-rayed as bystanders, by standing to close to the scanners. There was no direction from security staff, no place to load trays, open laptops or take off your shoes. Basically mass confusion.

Our flight landed and we were at immigration with our photos applying for visas. 10 minutes and $60 USD later we were at the luggage carousel grabbing our bags. We went out the doors, found our driver and bought 2 SIM cards for $5USD each. From now on we are talking USD in Cambodia. I think the US lost the war but won the currency battle.

We’re staying at the coolest place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Foreign Correspondence Club Hotel. We have the first floor corner room. If you watch the movie “Killing Fields” with Sam Waterston, the hotel is centre stage when Phnom Penh fell in the Vietnam era war. The hotel Is old but seriously cool. And the rooms are big! We have a corner patio outside with chairs and ceiling fan overlooking the river and street. Life here before air conditioning must have been pure hell, thus the ceiling fans outside. We are sitting out side as we write this blog, the noise is earth shattering and exhaust fumes are occasionally strong. We are getting a nice breeze from the ceiling fan. We left the air con on in the room and its too cold now.

We went for a sunset cruise down the Tonlé Sap River and joined into the Mekong river. Linda was accosted by 2 Cambodian girls for pictures. It’s only beginning! After the cruise we ate at a restaurant behind the hotel down the side street. It was cheap and very good. We finished off with a cappuccino coffee.

January 25, 2019January 25, 2019

Friday January 25, 2019

Day 2 in Saigon

Today we had breakfast with Andrew, said good by at 10 am and headed to our room to look after some bills online.

We headed out at 11 am and hit the big market. There is so much stuff under one roof, its easy to get lost. Gary bought another watch as he dropped his watch from Hoi An yesterday and smashed the crystal.

We went to the mall for lunch and had chicken skewers with lemonade soda. It was ok.

We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post office. They are right next to each other. The post office was designed by the famous Gustave Eiffel.

We then walked to the Bitexco Tower where we paid to go up to the 49th floor observation deck. Then at 3:20 we got in on the first Heineken tour of the day which was an extra charge as well. We went up to the 60th floor from there we worked down to the 55th.

We had 3 glasses of Heineken beer and they sent us home with a special bottle of our our beer.

We walked by the Elbow-Room Bistro where we had originally thought to go to last night but gave up when we could not get a Grab vehicle after 10 minutes of waiting. Grab remember is the Uber of Asia

We walked home in heavy traffic and made it to the hotel tired and hot. We visited with Anh the young lady at the front desk. She was kind enough to offer us an orange juice when we arrived and happy to practice her English on us. We had a very interesting conversation about the two languages of English and Vietnamese. She has excellent English and has learned it all on her own. She is a smart gal! Her English is as good as we have heard spoken in Vietnam by a local person. We headed to the Jacuzzi for a cooling dip, and then showered to be ready for bed on time.

As we are sitting here updating our blog at 8:30 pm there is loud music playing down the street. Very LOUD! We have a car booked for 10 am to make our flight from Saigon to Phnom Penh 1:10 pm tomorrow.

It was 33 C today but felt like 34C. It’s still 26C. The evenings here are so warm and comfortable. It’s a great time to get out and walk with the other over 8 million people in this city. During the daytime you can see the smog, even smell it. It was clearly visible from the observation deck.

A 2016 statistics record over 2 people per day are killed in traffic accidents. That year saw 4,200 new cars and 9,000 new motorbikes being registered monthly.

January 24, 2019January 24, 2019

Thursday January 24, 2019

Saigon

Today we went for breakfast in the lobby of our little hotel. Breakfast was good however the coffee seems to be limited to one cup each. While we were eating our fruit, eggs, toast and cappuccino Linda noticed a rat running along the cement wall outside our hotel. It was a healthy looking rat and high speed too. You have to realize there are rats, and cockroaches in the tropics! The only place that advertises a rat free world is Alberta, Canada. Believe what you want. As long as the rats don’t come any closer to our room, we’ll be ok. Linda said the windows definitely stay closed now! I’m wearing running shoes today! I’m sure the rat traps you see outside the doors at Costco are used to catch kittens too. We just don’t see our rats at home, they know better.

We were lazy and slow moving this morning so it was just after 10 am when we finally got organized. We got out to the street and we were hit up by the bicycle rickshaw guy to take a tour. We said no, he insisted! We said, we the two of us were too big to for the seat. He offered for one of us to ride in the rickshaw and one of his friends scooter. Nope, that wasn’t happening so he phoned another rickshaw who magically appeared. We ended up going to War Remnants Museum here in Saigon by rickshaw. We paid 300,000 VND ($17.27 CAD) for the 10 minute ride. It was pretty cool to be peddled around the busy streets at the same speed as the cars and motor scooters. Anyhow, next time we’ll just walk, At the end of the day we did walk back to the hotel. It was quite warm today, likely about 34C and bright sun.

The War Museum is as advertised, communist propaganda. Its original name was Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes. It was changed in the 1990s when USA and Vietnam normalized relations. It’s a pretty biased tale of evil and all the blame falls on the USA. There are lots of USA aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, bombs, guns and other weapons on display at the museum. One of the best exhibits was likely the photos taken by foreign and local photographers during the war. Although many were heartbreaking the images depicted didn’t have any agenda or one-sided story to tell, they were simply trying to show the horror at the time. Sadly many of the photographers were killed and over 17 are still missing to this day having been captured/killed in Cambodia.

After enough horror at the museum (it is very depressing) we walked to the Independence Palace which is interesting but nothing too exciting. It’s also known as the Reunification Palace. It’s nice the country is reunited, but the people of Vietnam have had a hard life between the French colonization and American war. Everyone had their hands in the cookie jar and as usual the lowly people suffered the most.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a mini mart and bough 4 cans of beer for $2 and spent the rest of the $15 on cashews and peanut brittle. Cashews are a mainstay here, albeit expensive. We’ll eat some of the local food but we’re pretty picky about where we dine. Beer and cashes go well together in hot weather.

We’re meeting a guy tonight that Gary worked with in 2005-2008 with BJ Services. Andrew is passing through Saigon on his way to his next job, after his latest hitch on an offshore rig in the South China Sea. Gary contacted Andrew shortly after Christmas when Andrew posted on Facebook that he was travelling to Vietnam. What are the odds you can pull off a meeting on the other side of the world with a month’s notice? It just happened. We had a great supper and good visit. Facebook made it possible. The irony of it all, we walked to TNT BBQ for supper and they were closed for a staff member’s wedding. By some stroke of luck we found a pizza and ribs place nearby.

It was a pleasant walk back to our hotel at 8:30 pm. The sidewalks were crowded with football fans with a few big screen TVs on the street, people sitting on plastic chairs or their scooters watching and drinking. Vietnam was playing Japan.

January 23, 2019January 23, 2019

Wednesday January 23, 2019

Travel from Nha Trang to Saigon

Today we wasted another day travelling. We departed our hotel, An Vista in Nha Trang at 8:30 am. Our one hour flight from Nha Trang to Saigon took the majority of the day! There was a 45 minute trip to the Nha Trang airport, a flight delay of 90 minutes, then a 7 km trip from the Saigon airport which took 45 minutes in absolute grid lock traffic. We didn’t arrive at our hotel until after 3 pm. According to google maps walking wasn’t much slower, than our car ride, getting across the streets though would have added hours to the walk in 32 degree temperatures. As the pilot said on our last flight 32 degrees above zero. LOL

We checked into the La Luna hotel. Our room while smaller than most we’ve stayed in so far is clean and comfortable. There is something about travelling that wears you down! The bed was calling our name so we took it easy for a bit, did some unpacking and figured out the safe. Every safe has its own trick to open and close. We always try to have it figured out before we start locking our stuff in it!

While relaxing we found an email in the SPAM folder from Cambodia Angkor Air notifying us of a flight time change on Saturday. We now leave at 1:30 pm instead of 8:30 am. I guess we’ll be sleeping in. That means leaving the hotel by 10 am.

We googled a place to eat supper and found a restaurant called TNT Barbecue. It’s only 300 m from our hotel, if we hadn’t taken the wrong street. We got there in 10 minutes, 3 near misses on the sidewalk, one car and 2 scooters. Traffic here is hell. Blocks of scooters stopped in gridlock and rogue scooters driving down the sidewalk in a steady stream. Yes and we met a sedan on the sidewalk. If a pedestrian is in the way they honk. The city of no rules, Saigon Vietnam. The communist government wants you to call it Ho Chi Minh City, but considering the people of the south call it Saigon, we rest the case.

Supper was fantastic and also the most expensive meal we have had in Vietnam. We left 600,000 VND which converts to $34.50 CAD including tip. We tipped American style in a restaurant that is owned by an American! The TNT BBQ Restaurant owner, Logan came to Vietnam is 2009 to teach English and he’s still here. He’s from rural Oklahoma, and Gary knew it as soon as Logan started talking to us. Logan knew more than any city raised kid would ever know – custom harvesters from Canada, grain augers and cattle. We had the best brisket we have ever tasted, hands down, period. We shared brisket, ribs and vegetable skewers along with 3 beer (not each).

We walked back to the hotel to wait for the spa jacuzzi to get up to temperature. Its a warm evening and there are food vendors every inch the way along the 4 blocks we walked between our hotel and the TNT BBQ Restaurant.

While we have been blown away by the traffic and sheer volume of scooters we’ve seen to date, everyone kept telling us, “wait until you hit Saigon”. They weren’t kidding! The city is a hive of activity, much it zooming by on the streets, some on the sidewalks. Tonight the congestion was unimaginable and many businesses have someone hired who sits outside of the business and parks scooters on the sidewalk. They jam them all together and when the owner comes back they carefully extract it from the mass. See the traffic below as we viewed it out of the car window this afternoon.

Needless to say pedestrians are not much of a consideration and you dodge around holes in the sidewalks, broken pavement or bricks and scooters, both parked and moving. We did have a major intersection we had to cross tonight and thankfully there were traffic lights which helped slightly. Otherwise you take a deep breath and step off the sidewalk and slowly start crossing the street while the cars and scooters work their way around you. Thankfully we had watched some YouTube videos before we left home and learned a few tips about crossing the streets. Even at that, it is still a bit unnerving. The honking never stops, we can even hear it from our hotel room faintly. Thank goodness our hotel is down an alley and not on the main drag! While our hotel is located in the downtown and one of the most congested traffic areas it is well located and we will be able to walk to a number of the sites. The hotel promotes a number of tours you can do of which the majority use a scooter as the mode of transportation. That’s not going to happen!! Thank goodness we can walk to pretty much all of the spots we want to see!

Good Night Vietnam

We’ve had a long day

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019

Tuesday January 22, 2019

Nha Trang - rain at the beach

Today we reserved the hotel’s beach beds at the beach. Our allotted time was 11 am to 2 pm, which would have been more than enough sun on a normal day. It rained. We got partway to the beach, it started pouring. We ducked into a coffee shop along the way. You can never get tired of Vietnamese coffee, especially one that is sold as chocolate flavoured.

After it stopped raining we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool bar, and eventually sitting on lounge chairs by the pool, reading or in Gary’s case snoring slightly.

While it was raining we looked for options for March after we leave Thailand. We are having trouble coming up with a plan. Anyone reading this with a good idea should email us! Our places we want to visit are throwing road blocks in the way. Coron, Philippines is restricting the weight of our checked luggage to 10 Kgs. On Philippine Airlines there is no option to pay more for extra luggage. Cebu Pacific Airlines had a non functioning website, we wonder how they stay in business! Sky Jet was too expensive. The search continues when we have spare time and good internet connections.

We went for supper at Tuans Vietnamese Restaurant and it was busy tonight! The serving size was smaller than last night, so we managed to clean our plates off. We spent $12 on beer and food. Amazing! Once again, as usual, Russians were out in full force for supper. We met a Russian in the elevator and Gary asked him where he lived. Yakutsk! It was colder there than Saskatoon by only 4 degrees. Yakutsk is in Siberia and there are direct flights to Nha Trang. We don’t feel so large with all the Russians around town, they are typically well fed and tall like we are. In other words, we fit in well with the Russians. We just cant communicate too well!

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019

Monday January 21, 2019

Wake up!

The beach city of Nha Trang Vietnam

We started out our day with breakfast on the first floor of the hotel in the breakfast room. Breakfast was good, with a mixture of European and Vietnamese foods. There were 3 dry cereal options, corn flake, rice crisps and coco-puffs. The coffee was hot and weaker than other places we’ve been. The watermelon was once again delicious. There was also dragon fruit but no passion fruit today. We took a picture of the work of art on display for breakfast. We’re not sure who gets to eat the flowering watermelon sculpture. Someone has talent on the kitchen crew! The breakfast included Pho, or eggs to order if you wish. So many choices and no room to store the food!

As we were leaving the breakfast room, we were approached by Maria, an associate with the hotel. She knew our name! We are an anomaly in Nha Trang. She asked us; how was our room? Was the A/C working ok? Did we have plans to tour the city? We could borrow bicycles if we wanted or rent a motor scooter…. Another very warm welcome to us as foreigners in Vietnam. Very nice! We did mention the one reading light by the bed was like a strobe light and she called maintenance right away and they were in our room and had it replaced in minutes!

Yesterdays trip from the Cam Ranh airport took about 45 minutes. The drive is literally through desert like costal highway. Sand dunes and hotel construction are the only thing you see besides the ocean. It looks like a Las Vegas hotel strip on steroids. We must have passed by 20 or 30 huge buildings under construction along the highway, and that was before we entered the city of Nha Trang. The main reason we even looked at coming here was the cost of flights, cheap! $95.04 USD for 2 tickets from Da Nang, a one hour flight.

There is one road (many kilometres in length) along the the beach in Nha Trang and we are one block off the beach on a side street. The side street is cool, with stores and vendors for the whole block. We may wish we had allocated more time for this city. We’ll see. We are on our quest for the perfect location. We are not the whitest skinned people here in Nha Trang, there are many Russians and the signs everywhere indicate that they are a huge tourist component here. Menus, please keep quiet signs, directions etc, all in Vietnamese, Russian and English.

Thank Google for Google Translate! We use it on a daily basis. Another interesting fact, we purchased two sim cards for our phones for $8USD each when we arrived in Vietnam, they are still working and have a 2Gb data limit per day. I have made several local calls and received a few as well. We have also used local SMS. They have excellent Data 3G, 4G and LTE speeds here. The cost of living hasn’t caught up to Vietnam yet. By the way they are building hotels in this area, it will happen eventually. The hospitality industry here is so polite and accommodating, it is quite overwhelming.

Here are some pictures from the beach and walk back today.

January 20, 2019January 20, 2019

Sunday January 20, 2019

Hoi An to Nha Trang

Today we checked out of our hotel at 10:30 am and headed for the airport in Da Nang. The trip is about 45 minutes and the cost was about $20 USD. Our vehicle was at tToyota 4 Runner which was powered by a diesel engine. It was the nicest vehicle we have been in on this trip. I don’t think we travelled over 70 km/h.

We checked in to VietJet and proceeded through security. Gary had an unopened battle of water and the security guy placed it under the laptop in the plastic bin. We passed through security fine. Todays theme was no shoes, so we had to remove our shoes.

We ate a light lunch at the Heineken Bar on the air-side departure lounge. Basket of chips, 45.000 VND, 3 chicken skewers 45,000 VND and 2 Larue beer also 45,000 VND each. Total $10.25 CAD which for an airport is pretty low cost. The trick was only one food item per beer purchase.

Our flight was late departing Da Nang, but it eventually did get us to Nha Trang about 30 minutes late.

Our pick up car was also late so by the time we got to the An Vista Hotel in Nha Trang it was almost 5pm, our whole day was shot travelling on a one hour plane flight. The good news, the weather seems to be perfect in Nha Trang, food is cheaper than anywhere we have been and the beer is even cheaper than water.

We ate supper at a Vietnamese restaurant across the street, then walked to the beach one block. Crossing the street to get to the beach is not easy. No street light, just a crosswalk marked on the pavement. You must wait for a lull in traffic to get across! 2 lanes of traffic in each direction with a median in the middle to wait.

We came back to the hotel and left our valuables in the safe and went for a massage. We paid 180,000 VND for 1 hour body massage. $10.25 CAD each. We left a 50,000 VND tip and the girls were very happy. We feel good too, their massages are a bit wacky, but they literally hit the spot.