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Farewell to Dendro hotel for now. They had excellent Internet connections.
The best so far in Vietnam. The beach front of
Nha Trang was nice and warm this sunny morning. |
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Nha Trang railway station. They had the text in
English as well. |
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Geir at the railway station just
before the arrival of the train. It arrived, a
little late this noon. |
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Doi Moi was the name of the
locomotive pulling this train. Geir off to our
coach with two berths in it. Only US $ 11,- was the extra costs for these
two beds. Well worth it. |
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Geir on his berth.
Martin on his. |
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Off we go to Saigon. Watch
the video taken during the
trip. A stone quarry along the tracks. Can also
be seen on the video above.
A stop-over in a little town called Cam Khong.
Just a few of them during the 8 hours plus trip. |
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A river we crossed on our trip.
Rice paddies are always very green in South-East Asia. Vietnam is no
exception. |
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Favorite food for travelers. Corn
on the cob. Very sweet and tasty. Try it. The
cob been peeled for Martin. |
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Martin is enjoying his
cob with a rice-cake and beers. Geir at our
lunch table. |
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Stones and grave. You
find the graves all over the country side in Vietnam. In the most unlikely
places. Preparing meat for skewers to be sold on
the train. |
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The lady is hard on it
as well. Our cabin from the inside. Really
comfortable and worth the money. |
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In Saigon, the
motorbike traffic is incredible. Three happy bikers on one bike.
Lovely street decorations. |
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This happy cab-driver
took us safely to our hotel.
The Sunland Hotel. |
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Martin having a beer at
a street restaurant. It is really crowded and
popular. |
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Making snails next to
the main street. Martin had some local beers. |
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Martin had a mussel
soup as well. |
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Feb 12th, the breakfast
was served indoors as well as outdoors. The
hotel from the inside. |
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To the left, The Russian Market, above picture
from the bustling market of Saigon and Geir & Martin having their morning
beer. |
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Our hotel seen from the
street level.
The amount of motor-bikes in Saigon is
staggering. See this video. |
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Recycling rubbish.
Man hard at work sorting different metals from each other. |
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Nice, big, icy beer
glasses at Quan-An restaurant. Lady selling
fruit. There are hundreds of them in Saigon. |
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Coffins at an
undertaker. The wild boar menu at Qan-An 22
restaurant. Martin tried one. |
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The sign of Quan An 22
restaurant. Details of the restaurant. |
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Collecting rubbish for
recycling. Geir on his way back to the hotel. |
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In the evening, we went
on a short boat trip on the Mekong river.
Downtown Saigon at night. Some impressive
buildings there. |
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Geir with the soup. The
food was very expensive and adequate. Nothing fantastic and the beer was 3
times normal price. But the flamenco dancers
were very good. |
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On the way back to the
hotel, we got ripped off by this taxi. He charged twice the normal rate. February 12th,
our tour guide Jackie for the day. |
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February 12th,
time to visit the tunnel complex outside Saigon. BBQ-ribs display on the
road. Nice house on the way out of the city. |
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Typical Vietnamese
house. Narrow and 3 stories tall. Another
one of them. |
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Nice lady outside a
bar. The ladies are all dressed up in conjunction to the Chinese New Year.
Crossroad out of time. |
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Another narrow house.
Martin is fascinated by these houses. |
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To a factory for
handicapped persons from agent orange. They are
sitting in an assembly line making pottery paintings. |
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Here are some of the
mugs. They are expensive and can be sent to all parts of the world.
A canal next to the factory. |
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An overview of the
underground complex in the jungle used during the Vietnam war from 1962 to
1972. A detailed map. |
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The forest is back.
Part of the underground complex. The complex is on 3 levels. |
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The opening down to the
complex. It is very narrow as can be seen here. |
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The opening is widened
up for tourists. They are not skinny, small Vietnamese that can fit in them.
Here Geir is on his way up one of them. |
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Booby trap.
A set-up of the Viet Cong fighters of the day. |
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An ant-hill used as an
air vent. Derelict American tank knocked out by
the VC or Charlie as he was called by American GIs. |
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The tank with a 90 mm
gun. Another set of booby-traps. Nasty stuff. |
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If you fell into one of
them, your leg is sure to go if not your life.
Booby-traps used in the tunnels. |
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Another trap.
Various American ordnance. |
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More bombs of various
kinds. Jackie on top of a smoke vent. There is
hardly any smoke coming out. Very well camouflaged. |
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Bomb manufacture. The
visit was terminated with a visit to the shooting range.
See the video. Martin bought
some key rings with bullets in them and kept some of the brass after the
shooting. The commies at the airport confiscated everything. Bastards. |
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Back to town, Geir and
Martin went for a walk past these nice flowers.
In the evening, time for some good food. |
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Martin and Geir having
a beer before going back to the hotel. |
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Feb14th,
time for a rickshaw trip around the city. The
two on top of a rickshaw each. |
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With Vietnamese hats.
The guides from Cyclo were nice. |
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In the flower market,
you had plenty flowers all over the place. This
again in conjunction with the Chinese New Year on the 19th of
February, the year of the Sheep. |
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Nice pot plants.
And lots of other plants. Nice they were. |
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Overview of the plants.
Some fancy potplants. |
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Lucky stones.
Goat flowers. |
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Red flowers.
Time to go to the war museum. The mother made out of American sharpnel. |
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American jet fighters,
F5, freedom fighters.
French guillotine left by the French. |
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Tiger cages. Nasty
inventions made by the French and used by the Vietnamese and Americans to
contain prisoners. Rows of them. |
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Prisoner inside one of
these cages. Where is God in all of this? He doesn't care.
After the visit, time for beer. |
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Our Cyclo tour guide
with their distinct yellow shirts. The post
office made by the French in 1886 and finished in 1891. |
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Inside the post office
with Ho Chi Minh in the background. Two lovely,
sexy girls in the post office selling stuff of all kind. |
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A fancy shop we did not
shop in. Too expensive or so we thought. The whole trip can be seen on
this video. It is 20 minutes long and
250 Mbytes of download. It is 3 hours of travel cooked down to 20 minutes.
Martin liked watching it. Some cops are moving a
plant. |
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Recycling center is
active most of the day and night. Menu with goat
meat. Didn't taste much of a goat. |
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Recycling center.
Restaurant street. |
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Street kitchen.
Martin's snail meal. |
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The gay boy we met
earlier the day in the restaurant street. Eels
waiting to be grilled. |
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Eels on the grill.
Eel-meal, tasted like old bicycle tubes. Not nice. |
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The leftover eels.
Martin felt sick. |
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Feb15th, saying goodbye to Mads from Denmark and our gay guy at a local street pub.
Waiting in the reception of the Sunland hotel before going off to Bangkok. |
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Bye to Sunland hotel. It was nice. Our cab
driver that took us to the airport. |
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The cucumber of Saigon.
A blue house in Saigon. |
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Departure hall of Saigon.
Geir getting his beer. |
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Jotun is present as well.
Waiting in line. The opened only 2 hours before departure. Not good enough. |
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Slow starter. Used 4 min per
check-in. Not good enough. Then we were harassed by commie customs. They
took away the souvenirs picked up at the shooting range. They were
unfriendly, unsmiling, unhelpful and basically not nice.
This lady was faster. She used only 2 min per customer. |
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Getting a bite to eat before
rushing off. The customs and security took in total 90 minutes. This by
unfriendly commies.
One airplane on the tarmac waiting to take off. |
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Another plane on the runway. Then
we were off to Thailand, the land of smiles. Vietnam is not worth it.
Thailand is much better in all respect. Somewhat more expensive though. |
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