World Trip Update # 6 – Vietnam

Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006

Jow again,

We are currently in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as the Vietnamese still call it). Since last email, we cruised around Halong Bay which was really spectacular. Phil got his hair cut for US$1 on the street in Hanoi – not bad. We then took a 16 hour overnight bus (so overcrowded that some people had to sit on the floor in the aisle – luckily not us, although our seats weren’t the most comfortable anyhow) to Hue.

If you ever want the thrill of your lives, take a bus ride at night in Vietnam – more thrilling than Skydiving or bungy jumping!! So close to having head-ons with trucks that many times, we just had to look away in the end and try to sleep, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it through the night with the adrenalin rush.

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World Trip Update # 5 – Vietnam

Thu, 23 Mar 2006

Jow (Hello) from Hanoi,

We have arrived safely in Vietnam (farewell China – woo hoo) and it’s strange how different the 2 cultures are even though they are so close to each other.

Finally, we can read the characters on road signs to know where we are, rather than trying to work out the Chinese characters which are too detailed to figure out. There is less English translation on the signs, but it’s not important as we can at least read the Phat Son Long Phuc (or equivalent) signs on the road and the maps to know exactly where we are.

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