Sorry we didn't post this sooner - powercuts interrupted us (or maybe we were on the beach...!)
Okay, this is where the fun part begins. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon and hereonin referred to as HCMC) in sunny Vietnam on the afternoon of Friday 3rd June 2005. It had taken the best part of 20 hours to get here so we were pretty shattered and very jet lagged, so we were not looking forward to getting into HCMC and hunting down a cheap and cheerful guesthouse for the night. Fortunately for us, and to our delight, we were met at the airport by Cath Jacobs (a friend of Cara's whom I met for the first time at a wedding in the UK last weekend). We were chauffered back to her very nice house north of the river to freshen up and dump the bags before heading off out again to a Vietnamese BBQ restaraunt in the city where we met up with Jake, her husband. We had a superb evening eating the freshest seafood I will probably ever have (!) and drinking far too much beer than is healthy for a human being in this climate. The night ended only after we were castigated by a couple of American teachers for being a bit too loud with our rendition of Elvis songs whilst standing at a bar and wobbling from side to side to confuse the mosquitoes.
After that we retired back to the house where Jake kindly showed me how the careful, scientific application of several variously aged single malts can remove your capacity to speak coherently or function as a biped. After that we slept for a very long time.
So far, so good.
We stayed with Cath and Jake for the next three days and enjoyed their fantastic hospitality, eating and drinking far too much and generally easing ourselves into our new lives. A very big thank you to both of them for everything and we'll see you again in four weeks.
Cath and Jake regularly visit and help out at a local orphanage in HCMC, and we went with them on Sunday morning to see the kids. The ward we visited was for very young infants from newborn to 6 months, and unfortunately they were on a seperate wing as many of the babies were HIV+ or otherwise very ill. They are either orphaned very young or alternately their parents cannot afford to give them the care and treatment their illness demands. A couple of nurses have to deal with a lot of kids, and despite being incredibly efficient, they can't give them all too much time so it's good when others can come in and give them a bit of one on one interaction and stimulation. It was certainly an experience we won't forget in a hurry and one I hope to remember next time I get stroppy and impatient (which apprently happens a lot). Howdyhoo, I managed to feed two very wriggly little fellas and I only got puked on once, which is a ratio I'm particularly proud of given my track record with babies. The nurse managed to feed about nine kids in the same time it took me to do one, but she's a professional so I don't feel too inadequate. Cara didn't get puked on at all, but I reckon that was beginners luck.
Despite an obvious lack of resources, the orphanage seemed to be very well run, and by staff who, like nurses everywhere, are probably under-payed and under-valued. Thanks to them for their patience with the tall pasty white guy and thanks to Cath and Jake for letting us tag along with them that day.
Monday morning we had to up at some ungodly hour to catch the bus from HCMC to Mui Ne, a small coastal village 4 hours to the north. We had been booked into a very nice beach hotel by the Jacobs who got us a cracking rate, so we are still to actually start living rough. This backpacking lark is a doddle ! Okay, so we haven't exactly immersed ourselves in the local culture yet, but we have months of that to come so why make life difficult for ourselves. So far we have basked in the sun, swam in the pool and enjoyed Vietnamese cuisine, which is fantastic by the way. The traditional breakfast here is a dish called pho, which is a beef broth filled with noodles, meat, vegetables and fresh chillies. I could eat it 3 times a day and not get bored (I had two for breakfat today and it'll be lunchtime soon !). Even Cara likes it - she just doesn't add the chillies!
Anyway, I've managed to while away most of the midday sun, so back to the pool before the rains come in (Cara's been in the sun since breakfast but she's not the pasty white/green colour I am and tans a little easier)
Below is a link to some of the photos we've taken so far. I'll probably be putting them on this website rather than this one so the pages don't take too long to download.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23354326@N00/sets/425015/
Bye for now
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