Footprint is run by a team of travelers, who love to explore, not just within our beautiful Vietnam but also love very much traveling outside Vietnam, leave more than just footprints to the outside lands - the world is awesome and waiting for our discovery. In this summer 2009, seven of us had an interesting tour 6 days 5 nights in deep of exploration on the Angkor land, the land of temples.
Archive for July, 2009
Local tour operators don’t think a new BBC ad campaign can reverse the sector’s downturn.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, a 30-second TV commercial promoting Vietnamese tourism has been running during British Broadcasting Corporation news programs since June 11.
The commercial, produced by BBC, will be broadcast for a total of eight weeks in the Asia-Pacific region and six weeks in Europe and North America.
We spent about a week in the Mekong Delta and visited three towns, Ben Tre, Can Tho and Chau Doc.
Ben Tre was the first and was a very odd experience for us. We were literally the only westerners ther! This was exactly what we wanted but we didn’t think of the consequenses like language barriers, difficulty getting food and , worst of all, constantly being stared at. We made things worse by visiting an even smaller village where the fruit orchards are. The experience was only a bit uncomfortable and we enjoyed the visit but we’ve decided not to go that far from the beaten trach again…
Happy liberation day! This is our last morning in Hanoi, so while we still have a guarantee of a free internet connection we thought it would be a good idea to update you on our journey so far…
Over the last few days we have: visited dead dignitries (Ho Chi Min Mausoleum), learned more about the “French colonialists” and the “invasion of the American imperialists”, eaten “morning glory” (some kind of green veg), visited the Hanoi Hilton (and seen lots of pictures of McCain’s time there), been stroked and pinched by passers by, had women pose their children with us for photos and been followed by people with camera phones, ridden on a cyclo, been called “lady” and “madam”, seen beautiful pagodas and temples, inhaled so much incense that our lungs will never be the same again, visited a floating village, been touring in caves, eaten the yummiest food possible, learned how to put up mosquito nets (not so much for Jess!!), learned to think of money in terms of thousands and millions (probably not a good idea to get to used to that!) and generally had a fabulous time.
Well its our 4th day here and we are still enjoying the peaceful life here. Night times are just simple amazing because of how old the town is and how much character the buildings hide! There is a river that runs through the center of it and at night if you had landed here out of nowhere you would think its little Italy or something. The town is full of tailor shops and if you do have time and a little spare cash then we would defiantly recommend getting so clothes made. Jemma has had some dark jeans made with silver stitching and her name subtly embroidered on the back pocket in the same color. As if she designed them herself. Plus a awesome dress that you will not come across anywhere else in the world! I, myself have had some wicked cashmere silver/grey pants made with a personalized shirt! A timeless classic !!
Yesterday we arrived in Da Lat after a bearable but long bus journey (that we left our mozzy net on). The bus was a little like a tour in its self. We passed houses with tin roofs that looked more like sheds with small herds of cattle in the garden, people watering their huge rice fields by hand (2 very large watering cans attached to a pole which is carried across the workers shoulders) and then you’d pass a tourist town or a posh looking school and it was a different world… Huge mansions built next door to tiny wooden houses. There’s a big contrast between rich and poor. It affects you in different ways on different days. Some days you feel a little ignorant and nothing sinks in because you’re used to seeing it. Yesterday I soaked it all up like a sponge!
Today went a little bit unplanned. Originally we headed to the bus station with our swimming stuff for a day at the water park. We asked which bus we should get and the people there told us that it was closed and tried to take us to a different water park that I’ve heard is nothing special once you’re aged over 10 so I was a bit annoyed and we gave it a miss. So we had nothing planned and were just stood there outside the bus station when it started to pee it down, monsoon style (like the one that canceled the grand prix in Malaysia this weekend). We ran over the road to Ben Thanh market for a few hours. After a browse we got some cheap food in there and Taz got an ace prezzie for his dad, small enough to carry until we get home 
So here we are in Vietnam…
We will miss thailand! Our last night was another brilliant night. We spent the day recovering (apart from trying to go climbing but it was shut- probably a blessing in disguise) and got a few beers around 9 after an amazing amazing Indian. Then the 4 off us ventured round to Khaosan Road where all the action was going on. The night was well underway and after smuggling quite a few more beers into some of the pubs we topped the night off with an hour of two of dancing in a nightclub that was thankfully free to get into. I think it was called Le Club or something. Sarah E you will god damn love it! I imagine this is what Ibiza feels like - hot, lots of dance music and the place was rammed. It’s a night I don’t think any of us will forget! We left at the more reasonable time of 2.30am. There was no sign of the night slowing down for Craig and gaz though, they stayed well into the morning. All we’d paid for was 80p beers from the 7 eleven all night. Bonus.