Tatt's life (Russian Dave)

30th August

When it rains, it doesn't drains

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Welcome to Saigon! The city is a clean one at that, with a fine selection of eateries and shops for anyone to gaze at, and spend their hard earned cash. So be careful if your budget is a little tight. As for us well, we window shopped for a good few hours, and got some delicious Pho (Beef noodle soup, with star anis as the main ingredient), definitely Davids favourite from Vietnam. We then found out of how to get out of here, as it is one of the first things you do as a traveller, you check out your options for tours etc and further travel.

Next, well what followed next is as spontaneous as it gets folks. We got caught in a shower, luckily we were at a massage place, where we got massage raped (as such, but in a nice way). Let me explain, they used every part of their bodies to give us a massage. They did a nifty knee trick, as they get on our backs with their knees, and kick their legs about in the air, Nice nice, indeed. So the rain continued, and we had little option but go to Pepperoni's Pizza next door, they had a nice offer on, of all you can eat salad buffet for a 43,000 dong price. Little did they know that David is a) a salad monster b) all you can eat is his favourite past time, and c) well there is no c, but you get the point. After a delicious three plates of salad, we paid with a fake voucher from Hanoi (God loves a trier). It was for the same chain, but only to be used in Hanoi, but they accepted it, so its their bad.

Full of food we ran towards home, and popped into Tony's Tattoo studio. Well Tony made us feel at home, and to add his mother was there anyway, so we definitely felt at home. We picked out our art work which we tought about for a while now. He fitted us in a 10pm slot. No turning back. The butterflies were recindled from 5 years ago, as thats how long its been since our last tattoo's. We got down to business. Dzzzzzzz Dzzzzzz and 1 hour each later we have a result. We should be featuring on his website he said so check it out. He was very professional and super clean studio. (www.xamsaigon.com) The rest is told in the pictures below......... It was a fun day, to say the least. Sorry mums and dads but tatts life!

Angela and Tony getting ready for action.

(I do trust him, I do...........)

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Tony and David doing their bit.

(No, it didn't hurt that much. Try it and see)

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Guess who......end result

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Scan me, I dare you.....
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Angela & David

Asian pop balads, Fuck Off!

29th August

No costumers, what else would they do??

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An early morning yet again. This morning we had to take another looong bus journey, but this time we went down to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) 8 hours on a bus that is less comfortable than Ryanair, was very tough. Plus the bus driver kept stopping every few minutes trying to make some extra cash by picking up random people. And the horn on the bus...oh dear lord, i wish i would have had some earplugs. Even though they overtake someone and there is a car in their way on the other side, he will beep at them like they're in the way or something.

I had just dozed off when i could hear the spekers pumping, and it wasn't like normal music or anything...this was like squeeling asian pop balads, making your eardrums want to dig in to the brain and take cover. And it doesn't stop here. We got off the bus for a toilet brake and i was dying for a coffee, so i went up to the lady behind the counter and asked if i could have a coffee with fresh milk. All she does is to look at me for a few seconds and then she looks away again while saying "No, don't have". Ok there miss Rude, i can see packets of coffee all over your shop and there is coffee machines behind you. One more try, but no, she doesn't have any coffee for me, even though the two busdrivers are sitting there drinking coffee. BIATCH, I JUST WANT A BLOODY COFFEE!! Well, i didn't say that out loud, but i wish i would have.

After 8 long hours on the bus we finally arrived in Saigon. We got a room in a guest house...on the 5th floor, 100 steps to heaven. (Not really though, screaming turquoise walls that burns your eyes so much you think you're in hell) Only after 1 hour me and David decided we love this city.

Tonight was a relaxed night. Tomorrow, another adventure.

Angela & David

Golf Day

28th August

David

driving at the speed of light

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First morning in Dalat started with a lay in until an ungodly hour of 10 am, it would have been more only for the sunshine illuminating the room to its maximum not even the eylids could keep it out. So we sprung up fresh as daisies, ready for the cool weather to work its magic. We wnet to get some breakfast in the same place as yesterday, as the limitless supply of tea was a selling point. We surfed the net, we wrote some postcards and went on the search for a golf driving range. You see it was recommended to us by the drunken Swede/Auzzie/USA/arthritis stricken guy, hope you remember him. We were offered a motorbike for 40,000 dong, which we gladly accepted, but had to go back to get the licence first. So I stayed behind as David rode off up the hill. What he didn't know was that the woman jumped up on her bike immediately and went after him to see whether he was coming back or not. I don't know what it is but heavy metallers always look like they are going to steal things, what in fact its us that have to watch them. (ha ha ha).
Golf course was hard to find, well the entrance to it anyway. But we did eventually, and got our just rewards. We hit, we missed, we swung, we putted.........well all good attempts at it anyway. Had an hour of golf, and entertained our caddy too, as she admitted to having fun while driving us back to base.

David

Playing golf in the viking socks my mom gave him for Xmas
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Angela

Trying my BEST

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David

I don't know either what he's up to
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SWE=Daggmask

Sorry, just had to

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Coffee time followed, and for the first time we had to use our animal noises to aquire certain things in the coffee shop. "Two coffees please" we said. "Koh Pe" the boy replied, so we added gently "with milk, please". "Miewlk", he replied. He looked stunned, and not understanding what we ment, so I tried "moo moo moo" noises while David tried to milk a cow in mid air as an example, hoping that the universal language will work. However, few seconds later he is still standing there looking at us, "miewlk" he says. Happy ending followed when he got his father to help us out, but not without another round of "moo moo moo" and air milking scenario. Fun times, and the coffee was delicious.We got hungry after all that club swinging so we checked out the central market while we had the bike. Boy does it smell, rotten veg, rotten fish, you name it. But you can find anything in there if you really need something that is. We dropped the bike off and grabbed some street food to feed our empty stomachs. The rain had strated then, so we retired back to the hotel to sort out a few emails etc. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in the morning. Another 8 hour bus ride.

Busy streets of Dalat

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The Market
Maybe she was the reason for the smell...or David?!

Angela & David

The bus broke down

27th August

Up up, rise and shine at another 6.45 am start. Its nice to have a long day once in a while, although this one was spent sitting on a bus. The funny thing is that things could have started off a hell of a lot worse for us this morning. I shall explain. While we got on the bus to go to Dalat, David suddenly jumped up from his seat and said "oh s**t, we forgot our passports", the bus was about to move off, so we asked the bus man kindly to wait five minutes. He obliged and David set off down the road faster than any other vehicle there......and all this while wearing crocs. He ran and ran to the hotel to find the woman sitting there going "oh you forgot your passports" well daaaaaaa! So off he went back then to catch the bus again, all at the speed of light. All was well when seated in his seat, although he did lose a lot of sweat while sitting there catching his breath. (All those months of not playing football are catching up on him, plus he is nearly 27 years old).
All the problems over with, or so we thought. As the bus was driving along the mountainous road close to Dalat, suddenly the wheel blew on the back and we were going nowhere fast. We then waited for them to change the tyre, and until we could get on the road again. Not to fear, as its better to be safe than sorry, epecially on a road at the side of a bloody mountain. We reached our destination after a 6 hour bus ride, and we could feel the cool air hit our faces immediately. Very very very nice feeling indeed. We booked a place to sleep, and took a stroll around to find some food for our empty stomachs. Stumbled upon a great place where the jasmine tea keeps coming and coming for as long as you feel like sitting there, we played many games of cards and drank many cups of jasmine tea until it was time to return and settle into our humble abode in the hills.
Tomorrow, awaits something else that we don't even know about it yet. Stay tuned.

The weels on the bus does not go round and round

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But soon they will

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Angela & David

USELESS Diving in Nha Trang, Vietnam

26th August

Early rise this morning at 6.45am. We have a boat to catch and I will do two fun dives for the first time in Vietnam (very exciting). We cruised for the first 45 mins before reaching our first dive site. The weather was overcast but nice all the same. I went through the procedures and got kitted out with my wet suit and oxygen tank and jumped right in, the water was warm and very very clear, so I was very excited to see some beautiful marine life. The dive itself went ok, but I was very disappointed with the dive master (who was Vietnamese) He touched everything and they all semmed to love chasing the fish. Swimming after him i could se him braking corals here and there with his finns and after a few times i just wished i could have had longer arms to grab his balls, the rest you can figure out yourselves. You see when I did my course none of these things were allowed, and its common sense that things should be left alone down there. But not for these guys I'm afraid, they have no respect at all. So Vietnam diving will not survive too much longer unless something is done about it and the people are educated a bit more at least. I was down there for a good 55 mins, while David was swimming in a cloud of jellyfish on the surface, and even got bitten by one or two of them, so he didn't really enjoy the first stop as much.

Angela

I always enjoy a cup of coffee before a dive

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Angela..

..and my so called "Dive Master"

Braking the coral like that....i hope you DIVE to HELL!

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Angela

ready for the first dive

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After grabbing a basic bread and cheese sandwich, we arrived at dive site number two. And off I went again, as before, jumping off the boat into the deep blue sea grabbing on tight to my mask and regulator. The dive itself was also nice this time, I saw some unusual sea eels and trumpetfish, and some lionfish too. This time things didn't get better with the dive master either as they tried grabbing the eel and playing with it, picking up sea stars and sea cucumbers, not a good idea. So I was down there again for another 55 mins with once again a bad impression left in my mind about Coco Divers and how they don't have a care for the environment that they are in. David on this occasion had a better snorkel and he got some nice pictures of beautiful fish and coral there, and the jellyfish didn't bother him too much this time either. So he concluded his morning with a leap of the top of the boat.

Angela

Ready for a 2nd dive

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David

Enjoying the peace and quiet on the sundeck

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We got back before 2 pm and after the dive log got a little bit filled we enjoyed a lovely lunch with a drunk Swede/Australian/ American/Vietnamese/arthritis stricken man, but he was fun for a little while at least.
Next plan was to book the bus to Dalat, so we headed to TM Brothers cafe/Camel Travel to do just that. On getting there they told us that we didn't have a ticket to Dalat on this open bus ticket, even though when we bought it we paid for it in Hanoi. So a stand off began, we were not leaving without the ticket, and we sure as hell were not prepared to pay for it a second time. We sat, we argued, we made demands and eventually got through the thick heads of theirs that they are a joke of a travel company, so to get rid of us they cracked and gave us our tickets free of charge. (Success). To celebrate we did the laundry, and had a fine meal in Rainbow Divers bar, where I asked many questions about how they treat their marine life here. And to tell you the truth I wish I went with them on the dive as they seemed more competent and far nicer people. Oh well, moral of the story is to never go with the cheapest dive school, even if they do have a bigger boat.
More happy beers followed in La Cabanon bar while we waited for the laundry to get done. We met a sweet poor girl selling cigarettes, she didn't have any parents, so we bought her a soft drink and talked to her for a bit, so hope she will be ok. Sleep followed after that, as we had another early start in the morning.

Angela & David

Than Ba Sexy Mud Bath

25th August

Uh la la. We'r all mudded up and clean!

We had a splendid day! The day started off with a kiss and just about to get better. (not to say that being all mudded up is better than a kiss, but hey lets face it, it sure is :) We grabbed a quick lunch in Cafe de Amis (don't go there unless you like garlic, cause its in everything), and rented a motorbike from a lady across the street. She was very very explanatory about how to start the bike, how to ride the bike, how to sit on the bike and how to stop the bike. But all useful info, at the time.

We set off in search of a petrol pumps as no motorbike ever comes with petrol, so we went in the wrong direction as directed by her good self. Got the petrol and had to drive back, and then some extra k's to reach the place. When we got there eventually we signed up for some mud bathing, and mineral treatment. It was a treat, with some mud fooliry and frolicking in the hot sun with the rest of the gang and then some extra mineral bathing, so all in all a fantastic day.

We then stopped off at the post office to enquire about packages to send home, and we found out that the girl at the local post office was full of s**t, and tried to rip us off. (this however is not susprising as the whole of Vietnam is like this), but we were smart enough not to fall for it this time. Although in the past we definitely got ripped off. We concluded the day with a meal at an Italian Restaurant and booked a dive for me for the next day. So early start in the morning, so we can check out the marine life of Vietnam. On a final note, as David was trying to get the bike back to headquarters he noticed that it wasn't starting, so his initial reaction was that oh oh oh its out of petrol.....but lord behold it was just that he wasn't holding the brake before starting.. so the moral of the story is that you should always listen to women telling you how to ride a bike, and especially in Vietnam. (Happy ending though as the bike was returned safely).

Angela and David

(beep beep, here comes trouble)

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Angela

(Mudasauraus Rex)

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Angela
(Mud, what mud, I'm clean)

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David
(mudder of god)
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David

(yes he is wearing pants, I promise)

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Angela and David

(muddly in love)
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David and Angela
(Happy to be in the mud)

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David

(Squirt, no more mud)
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Boats

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Angela & David

Seating Buddha

24th August

Waking up after a few cold beers the night before is always a challenge, but when you have a lot of time on your hands then its not so bad. So breakfast became lunch and our day began in the afternoon. We were determined to check out the Thanh Long Gallery (he is a famous photographer from Nha Trang), he captures the everyday life of Vietnamese people and sells them for a very high price. My thinking is, that I hope some of the proceeds go to the people, but probably not. We hired a cyclo-taxi and went on our search for the gallery. We checked out his work and it was very very good, but as expected slightly out of our price range so it was more of look and don't buy. We then enjoyed a coffee with our cyclo driver at the side of the road, for local prices for once and had a chat with him. And when I say chat I mean a lot of smiling and nodding and pretending to understand. But it was nice all the same.

David and our cycler

having a small chat

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Angela, David...and the cycler.

Why was everyone looking at us so funny??

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Next stop was the Long Son Pagoda and the seating Buddha statue. W climbed the 150 steps to see the Buddha close up and got some fine views of the city from there. We were guided around by a little girl while up there, she was quiet bossy and telling us where to go next, but hey she was nice all the same. The sun was going down at this stage and it was time to return and grab a bite. We stopped at Cheers Cafe for some ok food.......well I had some pasta with blue cheese (delicious) and David sampled the noodle soup. The rest of the evening was a leisurely one, and books were read and tv was watched. David even stayed up to watch Liverpool play, at 2 am, and he wishes he didn't though as the result was not the best for a Liverpool supporter. So thats how the day ends......a mud bath spa treatment to come tomorrow. Should be interesting indeed.

Angela

Meditates before going to the loo

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David and the lying Buddha
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Angela, little tour guide & Sitting Buddha
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Overlooking the town

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Angela & David

Arrival in Nha Trang

23rd August

We arrived this morning at the sunrise to the beach town of Nha Trang. The overnight bus journey was rough as expected and we had an old bus with narrow seats and not at all comfortable. Also to add to our fun, the bus driver was a very angry little man, with no sense of humour or any other good qualities for that matter. Example: Its 8 pm and all the lights on the bus are switched off, so David goes up to the driver and asks "Is it possible to have the lights turned on for another hour or so, please?" reply comes very swift "No, sleep well" and he carries on driving. Example 2: The toilet is broken on the bus so we make many stops along the way, as we stop the driver notices that a blanket has fallen on the ground. He pushes through the people quickly and bends down to pick it up. He slaps a girl on her leg to show his frustration, the girls does not like this and is much bigger than him, so he appologises. But very very angry little Vietnamese.

Anyway we arrive safe and sound, at our destination. We find a nice hotel to sleep in, and I mean a "Nice Hotel" thats the name of it, you see. We grab some breakfast with our new found friend Richard. We take a snooze and get slightly re-energised for the day ahead. We pop out for a stroll and grab a bite while out there. We went to Rainbow Cafe, where they have a dive club too. We eat some delicious mash potatoes and pie and check the prices for the dives. They are expensive, so we leave to shop around the many dive schools here and lord behold we get one. They are caled Coco Divers and they brag about having the biggest boat.....and the prices are good too. Only $40 for two dives, and small lunch too.......so we got a winner. We check out the beach area, which is very busy indeed compared to where we just came from, and we sample some Italian ice cream for a treat.

Ice Cream Cafe in Nha Trang

(sure why not, we are on holidays)

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David and the fruit stall

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Angela and the angry fish

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We then met up with Richard again and went to visit the "Happy Hour Bar", they are everywhere here so not a problem finding one. And we get down to some serious drinking business. We enjoy our night with the bar staff, who try everything to get us to buy stuff, even themselves at one stage......but they say they were joking but who knows eh. So the night finished with six beers each and a bar bill of a staggering €3 each......happy hour indeed. All in all a great start to our stay in Nha Trang.

Angela, David, Richard (Canadian) & Waitress

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Angela & David

Last Day in Hoi An

22nd August

Garden of Tranquillity in Hoi An

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We woke up this morning with a busy schedule ahead of us. First we needed to go into town and take out money to pay for our enjoyable stay. We managed to pick up more gifts for ourselves while there, and cycled back at great speed to make the 12 pm check out deadline. After all the bills got settled we chilled out in the beautiful garden and took a dip in the pool for the very last time in Hoi An. We ate a lunch by the poolside and read our books like good relaxing tourists do. And now we are ready for our overnight journey to Nha Trang. It is gonna take 11+ hours on the sleeper bus, and hopefully in better comfort than the one from Ha Noi. Well time will tell I suppose. So see you all tomorrow when we arrive in Nha Trang.

Angela

(the dive master)

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David & Angela

(chillin in the pool)

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Angela & David

Happy Birthday Linda

21a Augusti

Linda's Dag

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Skål mamma Linda

Grattis mamma. Hoppas du har haft en underbar dag med massa tårta.

David önskar att han kunde vara med på kortet, men det är det enda fotot vi hade innan jag svimmade! Många många grattis pussar och grattis kramar från Dotri och svärsonen

Ocksa många kramar till Mormor, Tessan, kusin William, Christer & Anders.

Angela & David

Buffalo ride

21st August

Believe it or not... another day at the beach.
Today we arrived late and only stayed for a few hours though. Because David woke up this morning with half of his tan on his face gone. He looks like a giraffe, with brown and white patches on his face. But still gorgeous :)
So we decided to stay in the shade and read our books. David finished his book "A walk in the woods" by Bill Bryson and he says it's a good read if you like sarcasm, like David.

Angela and her book

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David

Taking all the precautions not to get sunburnt again
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On the way back we were cykling along the road while suddenly this man jumped out on the road, waving franticly at us and pointing at his buffalo which a deaf man was riding. So we thought, what the hell.
David was the first one to get help from another man to get up on the buffalo, which wasn't easy, and then me. Of course riding a buffalo has it's price, 30.000d But well worth the money.
Cycling back home I said to David, "I think that man really grabbed my ass when plluing me up on the buffalo" and David answered back "I know, my privates got the same treatment" That was a good laugh for the rest of the trip home.
At home, as usual we had a dip in the cold pool to wash off the buffalo dirt.
Then we cycled to the old town for dinner in our favourite restaurant called "For You" We had a lovely meal and one beer each to celebrate and cheer for my mums birthday. She's now 33years old .....+10 :)
Right before we were going to pose for a picture to put up on the blog for mum, my sight blacked out. Everything was spinning and i could feel my body getting very weak. I layed down on the stoned floor and could just feel my sweat pouring. Scary business. The nice lady took me in to her bed next door to the kitchen and i layed there for a while before the taxi came. David cycled home with 2 bikes, the poor thing.
I was in bed when David came running in the room, now he was pouring with sweat and nearly feeling faint.
It's got a happy ending though, as i'm now feeling much much better.
Now we're just going to relax and watch a movie and fall asleep.

Angela, Deaf man & Buffalo

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David, Deaf man & Buffalo
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Angela & David

Happy Birthday Tatyana

20th August

Tatyana's day

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To David's mum, my future mother in law; HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
This evening after singing the happy birtyday son to Tatyana we went to the old town and had a beer, cheering for Tatyana. So hope you have a great day and celebrated a little bit. Love you.

David & Angela toasting for Tatyana

Happy Bday

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Angela & David

On a serious note

20th August

We went to the beach today again, yes go on, call us beach bums.
It's a quiet beach with not many people, so spending time there is precious to us as we travel around so much.
There are so many old ladies and old men with plastic legs, hopping around on their cruches on the beach, in the sand, in the heat. You can see how weak they are and all they depend on are tourists to buy something from them. At the moment i'm reading a book given to me by Megan whom I met in Thailand, called "Mao's last dancer". It's about a little boy and his family in the early 60s in China. The 6th son of the family tells his story about his life and being brought up in terrible poverty. There was never enough food for all members of the family. And the parents and the older brothers worked so hard every day to get enough money to buy food.
So while reading this book i see these old people hopping the beach, hoping to sell enough. One thing i got out of this trip so far is, i appreciate life so much more now. I know it happens everywhere, not just where we've been on our trip. But at home it was like i was always too busy to think about it too much. Here, you see it all the time, everywhere...and i've got a lot of time to think now. It's heartbraking. I just wanted to let all my readers know, that even though we might have it tough sometimes, we should appreciate life more and tell yourself that you could have had it worse. We know that we cannot solve all the problems of the world but we are trying to give little, even if it is on the beach, and if only buying peanuts, or newspapers, or whatever else they sell.

Angela & David

Another Lazy Day

19th August

View from a Bridge

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This morning David woke up at 6.15am to go to the hospital, again for his ear problems. Another $37, and more tablets to take for poor Dave. So once again no beer for 5 days to come, so today we decided to have another session on the beach, even though we slightly got burned the previous day, but not much else to do in Hoi An unless you are on the beach. I managed to bargain a lot today on the beach Suncream that was 400.000d i got down to 200.000d + a packet of playing cards :) Not bad at all me thinks .

Angela and her new best friend
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David and his best friend

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Later on we went to the old town again for some happy hours in the bars and some shop browsing. We cycled around the whole of the old town in search of some fine art and other little bits and pieces. We met many happy and many angry Vietnamese sellers, (you think they would be used to bargaining by now, but some are still bitter). I bought an nice bag, a nice hat, David got one too, and some lovely green apples. All in all we got what we wanted for a reasonable price, so we are happy and well, they should be happy too. So back to the hotel for some sleepy time, thats one thing we seem to do very well is sleep here........more of the same tomorrow I guess. You have to wait and see.(I miss my granny's meatballs!!!)

A lantern lit up town
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David and Angela

(thats what a day in the sun does to ya)

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Angela & David