ColinMatt.com/Blog

Wow - what a cliff-hanger Babs left you on… ‘tell them about the cyclos’ she said. So I’d better do what I am told.

A Cyclo is basically a bike with a seat infront for a passenger. We were off to see a water puppet show in the evening in Hanoi and the whole of our group travelled there in style. It’s a nice enough idea, but - as we may have mentioned before - the traffic in Hanoi is some-what.. erh.. interesting. What the Cyclo seat does is give you a view of this choas from uncomfortably close quarters. There’s nothing better to get the blood racing than to be sat on the front of a cyclo that is heading towards a T-junction with unusual gusto as you watch the various trucks buses and motorbikes scream past on the road you’re approaching. Usually as we approached such a junction I would glance behind me to my ‘driver’ who would be smiling as if to tell me “what’s the matter? Have you never been driven into 5 lanes of uncontrolable traffic in a tiny wire cage that’s two foot off the ground?” Before I could remember the Vietnamese for ‘do you have public liability insurance’ we’d be plunged into the choas and - despite my fretting - always survive (just).

Babs: At one point my driver stopped to have ‘words’ with another driver and then went the opposite direction to what the others had, so I was slightly concerned I was being kidnapped….after about a minute (that felt like 10) I spotted Jan ahead of me, I have never been so pleased to see him!

This is nowhere near as busy as it was when we were in the cyclos, but we still found it fascinating to eat lunch on this top floor restaurant and look down on this 5-point-junction where every vehicle fights for itself…

Back to Matty: We then left Hanoi and travelled down for a night in Hue (which is apparently said Hoi) before completing our journey to Hoi An the next morning. Hoi An is a beautiful little town on the coast of mid-Vietnam. But it’s not the culture, or the architecture that people come here for… it’s the shopping, and more specifically the tailoring. There are tailors everywhere in this town, standing at the doors of their boutiques with tape measures at the ready to russle up pretty much anything you could dream of. Most of them have a large amount of littlewoods catalogues, celeb-trash magazines and the like, so that you can litterally go through the magazine and choose a style of dress you like, then you go to a vast wall of fabrics and choose what type of material you’d like, and then they measure every last inch of your body. You come back the next morning, and there’s your new beautiful skirt/dress/suit/trousers… anything! But here’s the key - it’s amazingly cheap. None of this is slave-labour-type stuff - you can see the rows and rows of ladies hunched over their sewing machines at the back of most of the shops - but it is still mind-blowingly inexpensive. Silk skirts for 4 Great British Pounds, Trousers for 10GBP. Babs got a gorgeous dress for 22GBP (the same in the UK would surely be nearly 100 minimum) and a smart work suit for 27GBP! Tailored to perfection to fit really well. Well… we just couldn’t resist.

Another factor that has made us hit the shops for the last couple of days is the fact that it has just kept raining and raining here! The river the cuts through the town has spilled over and flooded a lot of the streets nearby. Many of the shops and restaurants that would normally be open have been underwater, and many of the trips we had planned to get out of the town and see some of the sights have sucummed to the weather too. Well - when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, and we have just finished packaging it all up to send back to the UK. It’s quite a haul, but it’s been worth it because we’ve bought some really nice bits and bobs… and did I mention it was quite cheap

We did walk to the beach, but the weather wasn’t up to much…

We’ve also put some pics on the flickr site of the flooding in the town…

Anyway, we’re just about to head off to the airport to catch a plane to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon to you and me). Before you know it we’ll be in Cambodia! Very exciting.

Finally, a big thanks to everybody who has sent us emails, facebook messages and commented on this blog. It’s really cool to keep up to date with all the gossip from back home and we can’t wait to see you all.

Matty

Hello from Vietnam!

I have loads of stuff to tell you about: currently have a bit of a dicky tummy, so I’m in an internet cafe just by the hotel so that I can dash between the two…..ok, ok, too much detail, but it is a fact of life that it was going to happen at somepoint out here and that you would have to hear about it - you get it all in this blog! - anyway…

Matt and I experienced our first massage whilst in the Capital of Laos: Vientiane. We had spent the morning exploring the city in the heat. My favourite part was walking up the Laos equivalent of the Arc de Triumph. It was built in 1969 to commemorate the independence of Laos from France. Rather cheekily they used cement that had been donated by the Americans that was meant to be used for airport improvements, and therefore the locals have named it the ‘vertical runway’ - genius I think! Anyway, back to the massage story…

We were hot and tired so we thought we would treat ourselves, after all it ain’t cheap…..one hour cost us 60,000 kip! (that’s about 1.50 pound each! :-)). We asked if we could go in the same room, and that was all fine, but as the guy led us off to the double room a lady started shouting at the him and he explained they only had one room for two, and that we couldn’t have it. Not sure why, but fair enough - we headed our seperate ways….Inside the room we had very sexy outfits to put on (not!): cotton shorts and shirt. According to our discussions afterwards (I’m really gutted we weren’t in the same room for me to witness it!) mine fitted slightly better than Matt’s, whose shirt just came around his sides! he, he, he…

There was no oil involved and the girl started at my feet and worked her way up and almost from the start it was painful, she pressed SO HARD! She made all my toes crack, so I was glad when she got me to turn over and she massaged the front of my legs which was actually nice and I started to relax a little. The only english she could speak was “ok? madam ok?”, to which I just grimised and nodded or genuinley smiled and nodded according to what she was doing to me at the time! At one point she was pushing my legs and arms in the air and at all angles that my body was not designed to go… by the end I was glad it was all over and to be honest I don’t think I’d try it again.

Meanwhile, Matt was feeling pretty similar about the whole experience. His masseuse (also female) also spoke no english, but was keen to communicate in a unique form of sign language instead. To start with he tried to ask if he could ditch the shirt, as it obviously wasn’t really doing what it was designed to do, but no - he was to keep it on! Next she commented about the size of his legs (obviously quite a large area for her to massage and quite hard work). This was shortly followed as what Matt could only interpret as ‘but I suppose you need them to support your large torso!’ - I think he was feeling this was all getting very personal already!!! Like me, he tried to lie back and relax, but his mind was racing the whole time, especially when her hands were getting higher and higher up his legs and he was getting slightly concerned that he hadn’t properly thought about the concept of ‘full body massage!’…! At this point I would have liked to have been in the same room to keep an eye on her! Anyway, he luckily didn’t get more than he bargained for, although he still felt his personal space at been some-what invaded. Needless to say, we both came out agreeing that perhaps we won’t be in a hurry to experience that again!

Entering Vietnam has been quite a shock and not what either of us expected. It is not nearly as calm, clean and pretty as Laos. On our first night in Hanoi Andy took us for a lesson in crossing the road and it some what differs from the green cross code!

* Rule 1: you don’t necessarily have to wait for the traffic to stop - you may just be waiting forever! (Bearing this in mind, the following rules apply in order for the traffic to navigate it’s way AROUND you.)

* Rule 2: don’t run! (they will be judging your speed as they approach and any sudden moves could prove fatal!)

* Rule 3: Don’t ever, under any circumstances, go backwards. (This is apparently the worst offender of the code - and will also take the locals by surprise!)

That taken on board both Matt and I have found that putting your head down and not looking (I know what you are thinking - why the hell would you do that!?!?) seems to work wonders and makes the who experience less daunting. Yesterday Matt witnessed an old lady, huntched over at a right angle, just walk straight out into the road (she probably couldn’t bend to look up and look for a green man that they ignore anyway!) and he said it was a biblical scene, as the sea of traffic parted and she reached the other side unscathed!

The fact of the matter is that there is so much going on in Vietnam that I haven’t got time now to tell you all about it… but I hope to speak to you again soon. Remind me to tell you about the cyclo story!

lots of love - Babs

Morning! We were up at 5.15 this morning (it didn’t really matter too much because we were already awake at 4am, when the Monks bang their drums to wake the town!) to go and see the locals give the monks their food for the day (known here as Alms) before they go about their daily business. The main stable of their diet is sticky rice and they are all very slim, I could just imagine the younger monks going along the line waiting for their food praying that they might get a chocolate bar or something exciting today!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about our visit to a little hilltribe village on the Mekong the other day because it was magic! We were about an hour from Luang Prabang in Loas and we pulled over to have a look around the village with our guide Sing. We were immediately greeted by smiling, inquizative kids, only too happy to pose for a photograph. As we walked into the village we met an old lady trying to sell some needle work that Sally was interested in, but as the older generation of the tribe she didn’t speak Laoatian, so even Sing couldn’t help Sally barter and we think the lady got a very good deal. As we walked on into the village we were suddenly surrounded by more children as they were leaving school for there lunch break and it was great fun, many of them just stared as it is probably very unusual for them to see white westerners. We took a few pictures and they all crowded around to see themselves on the digital screen, fasinated. Just before leaving the village we met a guy who spoke Laoatian that Sing could chat to and translate. The first thing the guy did was put his hands arounds Matt’s wrist, he then stroked the hair on matt’s arm and leg and just whooped and laughed with amazement, compairing his thin and comparitively hairless arms and legs in amazement, it was very funny.

I am really, really enjoying this trip, it’s amazing. We are seeing and doing loads, but I could just as happily sit and watch the world go by all day. Bicycles have largely been replaced by mopeds, they are driven by children from about the age of eight, but can be passengers on them from a few days old - in a sling around the parent or toddlers proped up infront of the parent pressed up against the handlebars. None of them wear protective clothing or helmets (Dad you would have a fit!). Often there are three or four of them on one bike and the girls often drive one handed, with one hand over their nose to stop the dust and pollution going up it or with a umbrella to keep the sun off. We haven’t seen any accidents yet, but I fear it may only be a matter of time…

We are off to meet the rest of the group now to look around a museum and then we are flying to Vientaine, so better say bye for now!

Speak to you soon

Love Babs x

p.s. - here is a video Matt took as we made the border crossing from Thailand into Laos over the Mekong River: quite a unique border crossing.

Well, things couldn’t be more different from when we last made an entry! We met up with our group and tour leader, and I really started to feel much more at home. Our group consists of our leader and 5 passengers: Jan a Norwegian late-twenties experienced traveller, Sally & Neil an Ozzie couple with two grown-up kids and us. Our leader is Andy (Andrea) from New Zealand (which provides some interesting but good-humoured banter between her and the Oz couple).

We haven”t even gone a week into this trip but we have already travelled quite a way and experienced some amazing things. We sped up Thailand on a sleeper train and made the crossing here to Laos a few days ago. I’ve never had a border crossing quite like it - you sign out of Thailand on one side of the river, then hop in a kind of motorised gondala over to the otherside where you join this kind of organised chaos to sign into Laos. It’s only just over 10 years ago that this country was completely closed off to the world and that trip would have been impossible, which I find amazing.

Transport has been incredibly varied (it was always going to be compared to a month using just a campervan), but we’ve ridden on Tuk Tuks (sometimes nothing more than a pick-up truck with seats in the back), Elephants (quite high-up and nerve-wracking at first, but they are amazing creatures) Train and foot. Foot is always the most amazing way to travel for me, especially if you’re trying to cross the road. There’s no real knack to it, but we find there is safety in numbers and that you just need to… well - step out into the chaos and hope for the best. Disconcertingly one guide book I read said you shouldn’t run (no matter how scared you are of crazy oncoming traffic) you should just ’stride purposfully’… It’s a test of your nerves certainly!

We’ve only had one mis-hap to speak of… and that was today, and (you guessed it) it involved me. We were walking through some stunning Laoation countryside - past rice fields and pineapple fields, all contained within a magnificent backdrop of unapposing but steep mountains on either side. We then walked through a period of bushland, along a narrow path (Babs says it wasn’t that narrow, but she has smaller feet!). I really can’t remember what happened, but one minute I was walking along the path, and then the next moment I was clinging onto vegitation on the side of a very steep slope, a couple of metres from the path. The slope was very steep and every movement I made to try to pull myself back up sent me sliding further down, and away from the path. I didn’t look down, but I’ve been assured that it looked quite scary.

Quick as a flash the guy who had been guiding us on the walk - a local called ‘Sing’ - was reaching down beside me trying to help me up. In only a couple of moments there was a lot of shouting and calling from the path that seemed, to me, further than ever. There were lots of outstreched arms nowhere near me and lots of advice being shouted down… but I’ll be honest, it was all a bit of a blur. All I knew is that I was just not going to move for a little bit so as not to fall down any more, call up to say I was ok, and then try and work out how to get up. I glanced at Babs’ face, and… well… I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my time with her, and I have never seen her look half as worried as she did at that moment - her mouth and eyes were just wide open! I decided that this wasn’t going to give me the confidence I needed to get back to the path, so just got my head down trying to work out what to do.

By this time there was a human chain forming of people holding onto other people with outstreched arms (I was now that far down the slope). The distance itself was only a couple of metres, but to me at the bottom it looked like a long long way.

In the end, a combination of pulling, careful foot placement and shear heave-ho-ing from about three people dragged me back onto the path: shorts and shirt ripped, whole body full of dirt and grass stain, and my legs and hands covered in scrapes and scratches. The whole thing must have lasted 90 seconds from beginning to end, but it felt like a lifetime. I don’t think I really had time to be scared, but it certainly got my heart racing, and I was shaking for a long time afterwards.

Thankfully, it proved (if proof were needed) that we have a good team here. Men to haul me out of holes, and women (one of whom is a trained nurse - I know, not even I can believe my own luck sometimes!) to patch me up afterwards. I’m fine now, despite a few sore scratchs and a couple of plasters. It could have been worse, but me and Babs just seem to have agreed not to think about that and be thankful that I’m able to write this to you now.

All fun and games.

Thanks for all the emails, comments and facebook messages you’ve sent me and Babs - it’s really appreciated to be kept in the loop. We’ll try and catch up again once we’ve crossed into Vietnam in about 4/5 days time.

Lots of love from the both of us…

Matty & Babs

Babs:
I knew I was in for a culture shock in Bangkok, but it is incredible. The hotel we have stayed our first two nights in is basic, but clean and nice. Breakfast yesterday was veg and noodles, with deep fried egg, crisp things and salad…..I managed most of it (minus the salad as you aren’t meant to eat anything that’s not cooked or peeled!), but it was really hard to stomach for breakfast. Today we had branflakes with meusili, apple and then pankakes ans eggs, I scoffed most of it down much easier (was much more beakfast like)- i’m sure i’ll get used to it though (I’ll have to).

Yesterday we took the ferry down the river to visit the grand palace. Our hotel told us where to catch the ferry and that it was walkable, so that is what we did. The last bit of the walk was through a few stalls selling everything from bread and flowers to live eels, the place stank of vomit and I couldn’t move fast enough to get through it. When we got to the jetty there was very little info, the first ferry we tried to ask if they were going that way didn’t give us a chance to even get close, the lady just shook her head and waved us away. The next one as we asked the guy said yes, yes and waved us on and the ferry and was pulling away as I lept on (I did not want to go in the brown choppy water!). Anyway, we made it to the palace. Matt had shorts on, which is not allowed, so he got to borrow some sexy blue tracksuit bottoms (very fetching), luckily I had worn trousers and sleeves, so I was fine :-).

The grand palace is in fact a number of temples and buildings used by the government. They were absolutley spectacular, very intricate and sparkly! We took our shoes off and went in the temple to see the emerald budda (much better than your budda head I’m afraid dad) and there were lots of people praying, it was very relaxing. On the way back we decided to walk and take in a bit more of the hustle and bustle.

Matty
I have found it very weird walking around this city. Your instinct says that you want to look everywhere and stop to take everything in, but - as I found to my cost - if you do this infront of some people they will think you’re inviting them to approach you. There are a thousand different scams that we’ve read about or heard word of - it’s weird, and can have the effect of making you slightly mistrusting. What I keep telling myself is that 99% of the people are just being very friendly in order to attract some business and that that’s just the way it is.

When some guy approached us outside The Grand Temple and started chatting to us about where we’d been and ‘bigging up’ what we’d see inside he seemed very nice, but in a matter of moments he soon started the hard sell on a tour he was flogging via a Tuk Tuk for the bargin price of 10Baht (about 15p). These tours take you out to distant markets where all the sellers give commision to the drivers for getting rich westeners to them. As soon as we made it clear that we weren’t going to be taken in by the scam our new best friend left us quicker than you could say Thai Green Curry. I’m sure we’ll see him again though.

I’ve also had birdseed forced upon me in a park, and no matter how polite and English I was I couldn’t shake this persistant women. In the end I took to crossing my hands across my chest, shaking my head and backing away. Babs was right behind me all the way on that one (about 30m down the road!).

I’m learning to look past it all though. I remember what somebody told me before I came out here. ‘The first 24 hours it’ll seem like everybody in that city is trying to sell you something, but then after that you learn to love it’. Love may be bit of a strong word, but I am deffinately one who can appreciate the beauty of the old city much more than the haggling of the new.

I think the basic way to sum up my feelings is that I feel out of my depth. Even travelling in Europe when I didn’t speak the language I’d be able to pick up a few key phrases/words, make educated guesses at signs and smile my way through the rest. Here, all I have is the smile. I’m stuggling to remeber ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ never mind ‘No, I do not wish to purchase a fried cricket’, and the signs - forget about it: looks like they were painted on a very very bumpy bus ride and make no sense to me. So, all together I am torn. I love going out and exploring places, and seeing new things… and yet, deep inside of me I have that little release of relief when I arrive back at the hotel with it’s bottled water and staff with pidgen english.

We’re off today to meet up with our organised intrepid tour this evening, and I think this will help us. If nothing else, 10 other clueless people around us will at least make us feel marginly less stupid… but hopefully there will be people there who can really help us cut through to see and experience some more things. It comes with a guide person for the duration as well, which is brill.

We return to this city in a month’s time, and I hope by then my attitude will be totally different - I will know much more about this region and it’s customs and rather than feeling so alien I hope that it will start to feel just that little bit more managable.

Babs:
I concur

Matty:
Anyways, time to head off. We’ll speak to you all soon no doubt.

M & B