Mui Ne

After 3 nights in Saigon, with sauna, jacuzzi and breakfast, we took the bus to Mui Ne. Everybody told us to get a motorbike, it’s the best way to travel in Vietnam. I’m not sure they’ve seen this busses.

Ok, they are slow, it took 4-5h for 200km. But you don’t need t worry, just lay down and relax.

Mui Ne looked like a resort for Russian tourists, but they must have become poor meanwhile because there were only few of them. Shops and restaurants sold mostly things Russians would buy.

One day we took a tour and we got the crappiest “jeep” in the whole village.

Then we went to the Fairy Stream

And then we witnessed the invasion of Vietnam... fishermen village

Then we got lost in the desert 

This was the first holiday from holiday, we relaxed and did almost nothing the 4 days we stayed here. 

Now off to DaLat.

Museum of War Crimes

WARNING! THIS IS A SAD POST!

The other point of view or what you don’t read on Wikipedia.

Nice French colony, brought with it some friendly inventions from the brother French nation.

And they (and their american friends) treated the locals very nice.

But as the americans themselves say: the first rule of colonization is the extermination of the indigenous population.

International treaties are for suckers only.

Now, some few insignificant nations protested against those war crimes. Maybe some significant others too. To deaf ears.

And when they fled, they forgot some things, they were in a hurry.

I don’t even want to go into the agent orange story.

Saigon

We arrived in Saigon, passed the visa control, and now we had to take a taxi to the city. Looked like that was the only way. Some guy came to us, we negotiated 120000 dongs, he said he had a taxi, but he didn’t, so we go back to the place where taxis came. Louise said we could only trust 2 conpanies, V and M, so we tried to take one, they chased us away, saying we needed membership card. What?!? So much bullshit. Anyway, we went to the “not agreed“ taxis, a woman directed us into one, and here we go.

Busy traffic in Saigon, but in about 1h we arrived in front of the hotel. The taxi driver asked 750000 dongs plus tip! Hahahaaaa... the meter showed far less, he said something about parking and other invented taxes that he had to pay, bla, Louise gave him 400k and we’re out. I still felt that was a bit too much, but the next taxi trip with one of the “agreed” companies proves that was quite fair.

The hotel looked nice, a guy opened the door for us, we got a key and went into the room 112. Surprise, someone was living there! We went back to the reception and got the 312 room, 2 levels above, and that was much better!

Ho Chi Minh City Hall

Vietnamese coffee


Vietnamese pancake Banh Xeo, exactly like the one we eat back home in Istanbul, äähntschuldigung, Saigon...äntschuldigung again... Bärlin.

Interesting combination, must have been a famous architect.

I need a visa... again

As a proud citizen of the most beautiful country, I also need a visa for Vietnam. Louise didn’t need a visa, probably because her country gave the world ABBA. And IKEA (btw, Ingwar Kamprad just moved on to the next world). What did mine give to the world? Anyway...

When we are about to checkin the big bags, problem again. I can’t just get a visa on arrival, it seems that I need one more paper from vietnamvisaorg.com some application request. 2h before the flight. Luckily, for idiots like me, they have an emergency service, $90 and you get it in your email in 15 mins. Yeeeeey, problem solved.

Now out of Thailand. I paid the fine for exceeding the visa time for Thailand, 500baht/day, it will not happen again, promised to myself.

Short flight with Vietnam Airlines, they have nice tradional clothes. 

We landed and headed to fill in the arrival paper. Louise said someone was yelling my name. Ok, maybe she’s tired. We filled the paper and then I heard it too. Who the **** knows me in Saigon? It turned out that I paid VIP visa services, so a woman took my passport and disappeared. Confused and not knowing what to think, I sat down and waited. In less that 5 mins the woman comes back with my visa! Nice service. 

Huge waiting lines at passport control, but they have many workers, so we’re soon out to Saigon.

Chom tong, Pai, and Chiang Mai

We stayed two nights in Chom Tong after the meditation course was over, to get some rest but also so we could visit the National Park Doi Inthanon. It was a nice day trip, we went there with taxi and then the hike was around 3 km on the top of the mountain. We visited Thailands highest point which is about 2465 meters.

We were advised to try the eggs, very tasty

On the 21st of January we went with taxi to Chiangmai to catch a bus to Pai from there. The taxi went slow and I thought it was good because usually they drive like they stole the car. But then Radu noticed that the driver was constantly looking at her phone instead... The bus ride to Pai was three hours and we arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. Our hotel was lovely but it was cold there. Probably because it was just next to the river. Anyway, in the evening we both had long trousers, jackets and was still feeling cold haha. 

Pai was very relaxed, mostly backpackers and hippies.

Found a craft beer bar

After two nights in Pai we went back to Chiangmai. We checked in to our hotel located in the old town. It turned out it was a party place, the French owner seemed pretty stoned most of the time and they played loud music by the pool. The water in our room didn't work the first day so we had to shower in another room but it was fine :) I really liked Chiangmai, it's a city but still small. The old town had many temples and cosy small streets. 

Unicorn time by the pool

Wat Chedi Luang

Khao Soi at Kat’s. If you miss it you were not there.

-Louise

9 days of meditation at Wat Phra That Si Chomtong

We arrived with the bus from Bangkok early in the morning, tired after around 24 hours of traveling in total. We managed to get some sleep on the bus, but it was difficult on the bumpy mountain roads. We were supposed to check in at the meditation center at 13 but decided to check if it was possible before, and it was no problem! So before 10, we had moved in to our rooms, had our first meeting with our teacher and already got the introduction to the first steps of the meditation. And this is where it started.. from this on I meditated 5-8 hours per day.

 I could have never imagined that it could be so tough to meditate! It was NO holiday. The days started 4 (although I overslept until 5-6 a couple of days) then breakfast at 6. Every morning we also met individually with our teacher to report on how it was going and to get further steps to practise. I really liked the teacher, she was very kind, motivating and knew how to support in the best way. I always felt better after theese meetings. 

It’s funny, all the stuff I was nervous about, not being allowed to eat solid food after 12, not reading, no internet, going up early, was actually not that hard. Not compared  to the hours of meditating. It was exhausting. But also rewarding in the end. I'm very happy I did this, it was a detox for mind and body. The last day after we had left our donation to the center and had the last meeting with our teacher etc, we were introduced to a german monk who is in charge of a meditation center that just opened in Germany. Its outside of Cottbus so not far from Berlin. She (yes, it's a female monk, I just learned that this exists haha :)) said we are welcome to come there and practice when we get back home, or we can also just contact her if we have questions. We intend to keep meditating every day so its super nice to know we have the possibility to get support. We also got a nice little Buddha statue as a gift from the center :) 

Kitler and his brothers kept us company in the breaks

I tried not to look too happy, because it wouldn’t be representative 

-Louise

Chom Thong around the temple

A Yogi meets his Kamma

Gubbvolvo Monk

Buddha statues factory 

Kitzler wants a boid 

Trip to Chiang Mai for visa extension

They told me I could get 1 week visa extension at the immigration office in Chiang Mai, so I wake up as usual and at 7 I hop on in the bus that didn’t really stopped, a woman shows me to sit in the back between 2 monks and gets 34 baht for the ride. The doors are open, they don’t close. Another woman wants to sit in the back with us. We get rearranged, the monks cannot sit close to the woman.

There’s 2 rules: no smoking and everyone for himself.

But what am I talking? Safety?

Ok, now my bus seems safe, I’m relieved. It reminds me a bit of how I went to school, hanging on the stairs of the tram outside. It could start with the doors open.

The bus goes to terminal 1. From here I take a red pick up to the immigration office via railway station. He asked 100, and he got it.

10:00 gave the papers and 1900 baht, hoping for a 7 days visa extension.

Meanwhile got hungry, found this lady on a side street. She wanted 35baht for the food. Less than 1€. 

Ok, it was simple but tasty. 

Then went back to the immigration office. Here I spent 75 for a coffee...

4 Numbers before mine... lunch break 1h...

13:20 got my alien extension visa for 7 more days. The fine will be smaller when we leave the kingdom...

13:43 sitting in another taxi for another 100, hoping to get to a yellow car that hopefully drives to Chom Thong.

14:11 transferred directly into an yellow car that seemed like it was waiting for me, and I’m on my way back to Chom Thong.

4 o’clock landed in Chom Thong. Now back to searching.

Koh Chang to Chom Thong

We booked some tickets with a van to Mo Chi bus terminal in Bangkok, 700baht/person, including ferry. It came and picked us up from Sabaidee bungalow around 8:30. If you’re lucky to be the last ones they pick up, you will understand how our backpacks travel.

The driver didn’t have any idea about keeping distance, it was like described somewhere, pretty crazy ride, no rules, often overtaking on the emergency lane, but around 16:30 we arrived at Bangkok bus terminal Chatuchak. Right next to Mo Chit bus terminal. For 470baht/person we got tickets to Chom Thong with the government bus 19:30, pretty cheap for about 12h ride.

We bought the tickets at number 24-25 and got on the bus at platform 120. Nice bus. Hope we get some sleep.

6 days on Koh Chang

We’re walking to the Klong Plu waterfall. On the way we see the Muay Thai “club” and we book a lesson in the evening, for 500baht/person.

We see elefants, after all it’s the name of the island, but Louise says that when they are moving like that it means they are depressed. We agree to disagree on what’s happening to them and not to ride them.

We turn right from the main road and it looks like the jungle, even though we’re the only ones walking, everyone else has some engine under their bottoms.

We arrive at a gate, pay 200baht/person and we continue through the forest to the waterfall. 

We go in the water like the others and there are fish eating from our feet. It tickels a bit. The slightly cold water help us cool down a bit, it’s 30C and no clouds.

On the way back we stop at a place to eat, and I get coconut with a straw and a Thai soup with prawns.

Now off to the Muay Thai training.

Dangerous, huh?

We felt very good on this island, we’ve met some nice people and will hopefully come again.