SAIGON - 21st October - AFTERNOON Even though we don’t like this city, we stayed there for the third time. We don´t have any other choice. We flight the very next day at 9:30 am to go to our next DESTINATION: THE PHILIPPINES How to conclude 6 weeks in Vietnam? Modelled on the inhabitants of the country, we don´t know, we keep quiet.
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Which country did we like the most? Ingrid (I): it is a very difficult question as every country we visited is unique i.e. : food, people, culture sometimes "same same but different". Önder (Ö): it is difficult to answer. I liked and disliked differents things in every country. I felt very well in Bosnia and Thailand. I liked the food in Vietnam and the nature in Laos. I was exhausted in India because of the very long and unconfortable journeys. |
I: It is a great experience, we are a good team! but being 24/7 it is too much (sometimes)! We would like to travel separately but we can’t, isn´t it a paradox?
Ö: It would be different to travel alone, I think until now we are a good travelling team! We are in harmony together. It is true that being 24/7 is too much!
Do we miss a routine or a comfortable flat? I: kind of. When I am sick, I miss sleeping in my own bed and bathroom. About the routine? not really this is one of the reason we left! Ö: At some points, I miss my own bed to sleep well and my own kitchen to cook and bake! |
When will we come back? I: I don´t know, we plan a two year world tour. It could be longer or shorter. We might come back or not. We will be in Europe to visit our family and friends. Ö: I don´t know, really. We think to travel in Europe for a while, as well. Otherwise I don´t have so many reasons to come back to Germany except to visit my family and my friends. |
Is the world tour as exciting as when we started? I: The first three months were very exciting after we can say that travelling became a routine: to come and stay a month or longer in one country and then leave to face new challenges and live new adventures. It is still very exciting to discover a new country: new customs and habits, new language, new currency, new people, culture and food. Ö: No, it is not. It is tireing to move every 2 or 3 weeks from one place to another. But to discover different country is motivating and keep me going. |
I: well, I did not really expect anything as it was a totally different type of life. It was unknown. I thought of taking things as they came/come and adjust(ed) them regarding our wishes. The only expectations so far were to visit the Taj Mahal in India and Angkor Wat in Cambodia!
Ö: I thought that I will be more in the wild and be closer to the nature. I wish to live in a jungle for a while without civilisation and have no human contact. I know it is difficult to survive in the wild without any experiences. We travel more in cities and countrisides.
What do you think about volunteering after one year experience? I: Volunteering is a great way to travel, meet locals, be in remote areas and work in different fields: movie theatre, kindergarden, guesthouses and building constructions! It is such an experience! In comes to a limit when hosts do not respect “volunteering rules” and implement their own such as: pay 10€ per day for food and accommodation, or if you work 6 hours you get one meal, 8 then 2 meals and 9 3 meals. We decided not to apply for such jobs. Volunteering rules are work 5 or 6 hours a day against food and accommodation, one or two days off. Ö: It is a nice way to travel and to come in contact with locals. It costs a lot of energy as well because of the different mindsets and working mentalities. |
I: the same but different! lol to find a place to settle, to carry our own project or keep on going for a third year or going back to Europe? who knows anything can happen!
Ö: to be in a countries where we can stay longer than one month to recover from long journeys and maybe in countries where the mindset is more similar to ours.
THANKS FOR FOLLOWING US !
We apprehended the situation with the animals. On the day of our arrival, the porcupine and the monkey were released, they have been in cage again, for how long????
They are 10 new animals: 2 cats, 6 puppies and 4 chicks. We were so surprised that even the new cats were in the cage. We´ve been told that they were quite wild. The only reason is that they were starving!! They have been fed but they had to share a bowl with a dog! No chance for them! Another issue is the porcupine: it digs and escapes again…The rest of the animals (pigs, ducks) are getting fatter and bigger!
A part from that we had fun working in the field with the family and Sam: sowing salad and water morning glory, planting lemon and guava trees, protecting guava trees from bugs, trimming the trees and scrubbing the moss out etc. We also played with the kids, took care of the animals and helped cooking. We only gave one English lesson, the kids and teens are tired after one day at school. They go to school from Monday to Saturday leaving home at 6am, the school is round the corner, they come back late afternoon. We can understand that they do not feel like learning English at 7pm!
On Sunday we had a cool day: we worked in the morning preparing pots for the new sowing and then in the afternoon we spent our time with Dat and Ithien!
WORKING IN THE FIELD | TAKING CARE OF THE ANIMALS |
ACTIVITIES AT SUNNY FARM | COOKING & ENJOYING GOOD FOOD |
READY FOR THE SECOND WEEK !
when we arrived in Ho Chi Min, we missed the last bus (7:30pm) and the last bus to go to our host... well it cost 15€ and took 90 minutes to arrive in District 7 - Era Town from the airport - 18 km.
SAIGON 30th - 4th OCTOBER
We went back to Hoa´s place, our couchsurfer host in HCM during our first stay. She had a bike accident few days before we arrived and she could not walk or do anything. We took care of her: cooked, cleaned a bit her flat etc. We even asked Sam, the owner of Sunny Farm to pick up one day later. We needed to do some shopping: headphones (forgotten in the taxi the day before), mattress, trousers etc. In one market a seller got very angry as we did not buy the trousers! She shouted at us three times that she lost her time meaning wastes her time... I could not resist to answer back : it is part of her job... We decided also to walk to Cholon, district 5. (6km return from the center). It is not so different from district 1 just a bit more in a bad state. After 4 days, it was time to leave ... |
Unfortunately we had to rest from a 6 days journey and we were not really into capture Hanoi ´s life.
To find a hostel in Hanoi was quite easy and we immediately understood that there are two types of hotels: either room for 16€ or a bed for either 3 or 7€ in a minimum 10 bed dorms. This time we went for a comfortable version! We were satisfied with the local restaurant across the street where once a family talked to us in English and another time a guy served us schnapps! The food was delicious and it was nice to be with locals!
In the old quarters,where we stayed, the pavements and the streets are like a theatre: mornings, afternoons and evenings we could see different scenes. Early morning street food sellers were preparing breakfast and then in the afternoon they left the place to other sellers who were replaced late afternoon with restaurants and bike parkings! We sat in a café and enjoyed the street life!
On the day of arrival, it was the moon festival where kids go to a market and buy some Chinese toys! It is a special day in Vietnam. We were so tired to go to the night market which takes place only on weekends.
We had fun discovering the old town thanks to an itinerary recommended by Lonely Planet (LP). We usually avoid using LP but this time it was very useful! The very next day we copied the idea and used an APP Triposo – Vietnam and we prepared our own itinerary, we went to visit the governmental area: Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the presidential palace and we walked in the street where the current institutions are. A long avenue with massive buildings where a guard must greet every time an official delegation or the bus which drives by. We were a bit disappointed as Ho Chi Minh went to Russia for two months, he goes every year to have a new face! The other days we visited temple one of those was the literature pagoda or the first university Hanoi. We met a group performing traditional music, we enjoyed a long chat with them and even took a video. My mobile decided to delete the video without any notice!
The day before leaving Hanoi (on Tuesday) we planned to go to the theatre to see traditional dances. We had this leaflet written From Monday and Thursday, we read it once and too quickly. I thought it would be From Monday to Thursday and Önder Monday and Thursday. Well it was nice to see the theatre for a second time without a performance. Instead we went shopping for our hosts in Saigon. It was such a pleasure, we also went to the posh part of Hanoi!
We had the pleasure to meet Holger and Marina – a German Russian couple who live in Kiel (Germany) with who we spent a nice evening and a morning talking mostly about travelling!
LITTERATURE PAGODA | STREETs OF HANOI |
OLD QUARTER - one day exploring the neighbourhood
We witnessed a scene a daily scene in Hanoi, it could have taken place anywhere else on this planet.
We had a rest and sat for a while in a square in front of a nice fountain. We observed people: friends talking in one side and a family with their daughter. The mother was dressed up and was busy with her brand new smart phone, her daughter was playing with a plush toy a dog. We gave a closer look and the toy was a real dog! She handled it as a puppet, holding it as a teddy bear and swinging it, dropping it on the floor when she was bored of it. It was a non-ending story until Önder saw a skinny man wearing only a short on our left. He told me not to look but it was too late, I spotted the man who was having a poo. On our right side, the little girl was still playing with the dog and the mother was deep into her mobile while the man was approaching the fountain and jumped in in front of us and started to bath. He left his broken bike next to the fountain.
On one side a proud family and on the other side this poor man ashamed of his condition.
That brought us back to a sad reality.
Chilling in the evening ! | The governmental area |
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