Miss Siagon

Next stop Siagon/Ho Chi  Minh. 

There was a small hurdle before we even got there....our first flight with Jetstar Pacific (and our last I hope) as they decided that the rules regarding baggage weight were not actually made for breaking.  With our bags still sitting cumulatively 7kg overweight (ok so its mostly mine but it sounds better if its split between us!!) and the check in person keen to charge per kilo we were in bother.  The usual tactic of wearing as many clothes as you can just wasn’t possible as you would have died from the heat.  Then a lovely English lady standing beside us said that her bag only weighed 12kg and would we like her to carry some stuff...she even apologised for over hearing our problems – I nearly bit her hand off!!! So with 7kg of my bag in the ladies bag we were finally en route to Siagon – a small hurdle overcome phew!!  Thank you English lady whoever you are!!!

Siagon is much more Westernized with high rise buildings, lots of office blocks and many multinational companies having a base here.  There are proper shops and shopping centres and not just street stalls.  In some situations you could have been in any busy city although there is still the poverty and crazy driving to remind you of what country you really are in.  A large difference on the roads is that they actually adhere to the traffic light system in most circumstances, although zebra crossings are still completely meaningless!

Stories of the war are a huge part of this city and in the middle of one of the main squares there is pictures and stories of how people have been affected. 

On our first day we headed out to the Cu Chi Tunnels – this is an underground world basically where the Vietnamese soldiers and their families hid and lived.  It took 20 years to build the tunnel network and it covers 250km around the country, stretching across to Cambodia.  The tunnels were so small that the majority of Americans could not fit into them.  We were shown one of the original entrances to the tunnels and our Vietnamese guide fitted into with his hands above his head – my size 8 trainer covered the width of the entrance...totally mental! For the purposes of giving tourists and westerners an appreciation of the size inside the tunnels they have made a wider entrance and escort the tour groups through a stretch of tunnel  either 20, 30 or 50m.  I decided to be brave and went for the 50m...omg it is tiny we were going along either on hands and knees or on our honkers – given the size of my hockey thighs I thought I would opt for honkers- flip me give my 100 squats anyday lol!! I could barely go downstairs afterwards.  But it was fascinating to see the size, width and especially heat in those tunnels – also it was totally pitch black which sounds obvious when you say it but before you enter you just don’t think of that – well i didn’t anyway!! Quite a scary and slightly claustrophic experience but I am glad that I did it.  See some pics below.

A bamboo trap - underneath is lots of spikes so the enemy would fall in and die!

The Vietnamese entrance!!

My trainer covering the entrance - giving a bit of perspective on the size!

James on his knees in the tunnel - it was totally dark except for the flash!

Me on way out of the tunnel!

At the site that they have opened to tourists at the tunnels they have set up a shooting range with real guns that were used in the war – the noise of them was deafening.  But I shot 3 bullets out of a M1 Garand gun – see pictures below.  Quite scary and they are very heavy!!  Hopefully I will not need to shoot a gun anytime soon because I was pretty pants at it!

More natural than me!!

I didnt even know how to stand!!

Posing instead!!

Very serious - no posing!!

This day really was a history orientated day because in the afternoon we went to the War Remnants Museum.  I have to say (from someone who really hated history at school and really in general) it was very interesting.  It is easier to relate to the stories when you can see some evidence of it etc rather than sitting at a desk and teachers firing all these dates at you!! We saw lots of tanks and planes/helicopters used during the war and they had recreated some of the cells that prisoners of war were kept in and tortured in etc.  Some of the stories are horrendous and very harrowing and some of the pictures made me feel a bit nauseous but James says it was a bit one sided – refer to his blog I am sure he will go on about it a bit!  The citizens of Vietnam are still suffering the after effects of the war because the Americans sprayed a defoliant called Agent Orange in vast quantities across the country and it has caused horrific birth defects and illness in people who were exposed to it and have passed it down through the new generation.  It really is very sad and there is nothing they can do about it.

Anyway the next day we spent wandering through the city and sightseeing.  We visited the Post office, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Reunification Palace, the Opera House and almost the best of all we visited New York Desert Cafe – YUM!! It’s a bit like every city in that they have a coffee house on every street corner only in HCMH its called ‘Highland Coffee’ rather than Starbucks!

Siagon is a cool city we enjoyed seeing everything, the people are really friendly and its nice to visit the odd shopping centre – even just to benefit from their air conditioning or wc facilities – a luxury not found in Hanoi anywhere. Here our some fun pics from our few days :

A trip on a cyclo

Cut in a thunder storm - VERY heavy rain!

Sampling some coconut juice!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Yay for the Jess clan!!

Trying the Vietnamese trade!

This is way way heavier than it looks!!

On the last afternoon I really splashed out and treated myself to a full body massage for 1hour for £3.50!!!!!!! It was unreal – James says he is going to send me every day as I came back so chilled out and relaxed!! (He stayed in the pub for a burger and a pint!!) Ah it was so so good!!

We also finally managed to find somewhere to do our laundry so we left them 4kilo of laundry and got it back 24 hours later with pants and boxers ironed and it cost us £2 – amazing!!

We are heading on a 4 hour bus trip to another beach resort called Mui Ne where we will stay for 4 nights.  It has been really interesting learning and understanding more about Siagon but I am excited to get back to the beach and chill out for a bit.  There is not that long left now in the Asian part of our adventure – here is the schedule of our final few days (a little bit varied from the original itinerary from those who were using it!!)

Thurs – Mon22nd :          Mui Ne beach resort

Mon :                                    4 hour bus from Mui Ne back to Siagon

Tues – Wed:                       Travel from Siagon to Chau Doc, Wed morning boat to Phnom Phen (Cambodia).

Wed – Fri:                           Phnom Phen

Fri:                                          6 hour bus to Siam Reap

Fri – Mon                             Siam Reap – Ankor Watt

Mon:                                     6 hour bus to Phnom Phen, 5pm flight to Bangkok

Mon – Tues:                       Bangkok 1 night

Tues pm                               9pm international flight to Christchurch!

So we better make the most of the short time left in Asia.  Hope everything is going well at home,  I think today is Alevel results day so good luck to all those who that affects!  Hope work, hockey, life etc is going well for everyone – send me some emails people J  Hope you find the blogs interesting and not too boring – I am quite enjoying doing them, James says its because I like talking and this means I get to talk more haha!! Miss you all, Lots of love x

Beautiful Hoi An

After the manic craziness of Hanoi/Halong Bay we headed towards a coastal resort called Hoi An.  Many people had told us before we left (including my parents) that this had been their favourite place so we had high hopes – and it didn’t disappoint.  We loved it here.

For a lesson on the history of the town and its purpose during the war refer to James’ blog but at a very basic level (all that I really need to know) it has a massive coastline called ‘China Beach’ so it proved a good landing place for troops.  It also served as a fabulous place to lie and read my book and finally start working on the tan and basically just chill out.

As you all know I am quite the bargain hunter (I had a good teacher in my mum!!) and it’s no different while travelling.  We stayed in a beautiful beach side resort for a hugely discounted price thanks to some online discount research!! So we were pretty happy ‘backpackers’ staying in a gorgeous resort with private beach, mattresses on the sun loungers, hammocks swinging from the palm trees – you get the picture?  Heres some photos to rub it in further!! Hehe!

Hamock swinging

Beautiful beach and scenery

Swimming

The resort was about 5km from the town so we went into the town for dinner each evening.  Hoi An is famous for its tailoring and every other shop wants to make you a suit/dress/shirt/shoes/bag etc!! It is fantastic and some of the finished products look great but going round on a budget and already 7kg over the allowed baggage weight for domestic flights we decided against it.  They promised they would ‘ship it home’ but the likelihood of my dress/shoes actually making it from Hoi An to Hillsborough seemed relatively slim so I saved my pennies and had another cocktail on the beach instead!! (It’s a hard life!)

We found a lovely restaurant which we ate in twice called Morning Glory Street Food restaurant – we highly recommend it if anyone is visiting.  They have basically taken the local specialities that would be sold from the street vendors and made them suitable for restaurants – very tasty!  Hoi An is a really old town which is much quieter and calmer than Hanoi although there are a lot of motorbikes it’s much more relaxed and we enjoyed walking through the streets without the risk of being run over every 30 seconds.  The town is on the edge of a river and there is a lovely intricate bridge called the Japanese bridge to cross it...see pic below.

Japanese bridge

Posing on the bridge

Maybe I should reconsider my wedding dress?!

On the Saturday evening on our way into town the place was completely hectic with people and we found out that it was a festival of lanterns and lights for the full moon.  We dutifully got ripped off by purchasing a piece of folded paper with a candle in it to float down the river and ‘bring us and our family good luck and happiness’ – not sure what will happen to me as mine crashed into the side and went up in flames!! Hopefully it’s the thought that counts!!  We finished the evening off in a lovely pub called before and now who were showing the first Liverpool match of the season so James was happy – the pub had a good atmosphere and we ended up bumping into 3 Irish girls who had been on our Halong Bay tour so we enjoyed a few drinks with them.

The river with all the lanterns floating down!

Liverpool on tv!

With my tan suitably developing and having extended our stay by 2 nights because we enjoyed it so much we sadly packed our bags on Sunday evening ready for a flight on Monday morning to Ho Chi Minh.   Hoi An has definitely been my favourite place and I was sad to leave it – I look forward to the next place but this will be hard to beat.  Time will tell.....

The Mawhinney moto lives long in Vietnam!

James hiding from the sun!

Market made for short Vietnamese people!!

Until Siagon...x

Hanoi and Halong Bay

So we arrived in Hanoi and nothing could have prepared us for how mental and crazy this place is...mum and dad had warned us and so had a few friends but really you don't appreciate the scale of the carnage until you witness it yourself.  A few of the common sightings in this city are...

• No lights at junctions cars and bikes just beep their horns to say they are coming through and basically its every man for himself.
• Millions of motorbikes everywhere
• Motorbikes with 4 ppl on them, 2 people and a child standing on the seat at the back, a cage of alive ducks, a man and a pig, a man and a fridge, 2 men and 2 ladders....the list is endless, think of the most random and unexpected thing to see on a motorbike and we probably saw it the people are mad (see some sample pics below!)
• Chickens/hens walking up and down the street like pedestrians
• A car doing a Uturn in the middle of the motorway with rest of traffic just driving around him
• Cows walking up the side of a road
• A family of geese trying to cross a road between motorbikes
• Cars just overtake things on the wrong side of the road and beep their horn expecting the car coming towards it to veer into the hard shoulder/dust on side of the road.

This is jsut a sample that I can think of now - you took your live in your hands every time you crossed a road but all in all it was a scary but fun experience.  

A sample of a small junction

Spot the people in the background with 4 ppl on their bike

3 people on motorway with a child about 4/5 on the front

A girl casually sitting sideways with 6 inch heels on the motorway going approx  50.60 mph!!

We visited the outside of a few museums as monday seems to be their day of rest and everything was closed we couldnt venture inside (no big loss im not a big museum person!!).  We sampled delicious food at a restaurant called KOTO (Know one teach one) which is a Jamie Oliver esq restaurant where they take in street kids and educate them in cooking and teach them English - the food is fab and its a lovely charity - hihgly recommend it if anyone is planning a vietnam trip soon!

We booked on the Hanoi Backpackers trip to Halong Bay for 2 days and 1 night, I was slightly apprehensive about the overnight thing on the boat after the recent death of people when one of the junk boats sank but apparently after that accident they pulled in all the boats and 350 were pulled in and only 120 were allowed to go back out again!! So we felt safe enough.  The boat was a banter boat really, during the  day we sailed out to swimming spot and did some jumping off the side of the boat - flipping scary as it was very high but it was fun - the water was salty which was wierd lol!! Then we went kayaking to a fishing village and caves it was fun but hard work!! In the evening we had a nice fish based meal and then some beverage orientated banter on the bus...it brought back old school dundee memories as they were very strict about the left hand drinking rule - it was good fun and a late night but enjoyable and nice to meet new people and have a bita craic.  The weather unfortunately was a bit dull and rainy on our trip but the place is still beautiful and gorgeous scenery we were really glad we made the trip out to see it.

Halong Bay

The boat we were on (and height we had to jump from - see the people at the top deck!!)

James and me pre jump! Lookin nervous!! 

We look a bit gay but we made it!!! 

Lovely scenery!

The next day we travelled back to Hanoi and late in the evening we flew to Danang ready to head out to Hoi An a beautiful beach resort and small town - we are loving it this is our first night here so more news on this will follow...but this is a taste of what we are going to wake up to tomorrow...its a tough life I know!

The private beach at our hotel

J got in the Hamock and it hit the ground...later in the evening the tailor in the suit shop said he should drink less beer and fit into suit better haha!! Very funny - he thinks this country is built for smaller people!

This picture is deceptive I actually did not hit the bottom surprisingly lol!! Those were our loungers on the beach beyond me!

So from a very happy NWJW I will check out for a couple of days sunbathing...hopefully the next pictures you will notice a difference in my skin colour (after the application of factor 30 on a regular basis of course!!)

Love

xx

There is a FIRST for everything.....

So we enjoyed our final day in Dubai visiting the private beach and pool linked with our hotel - no such thing as a refreshing swim the water was the temperature of a bath (if u ever choose to lie in ur own dirt in a bath haha!!) It was roasting but the place was gorgeous and we enjyoed it for the 90 mins at 10 am that we could tolerate!! Dubai was defo an interesting place and somewhere we are glad we have visited - if anyone ever needs a big shopping spree it is the place to head.


So our flight was due to leave Dubai at 11pm on Sat night and 6hours later arive in Bangkok 8am (local time).  We arrived at the airport in Dubai to check in and the guy said that one of us had been placed on standby therefore we had lost our seats together (because we are on seperate bookings!).  Obviously we protested and I said we had deliberatly reserved seats in advance to sit togehter and that we had booked 6 flights with Emirates and this was very poor.  He made a few phone calls and said no no sorry the flight is totally full we can not change you you must sit separately.  I did my sad face and puppy dog eyes...no tears yet tho and he called his colleague over and I said we want to sit together (white lie coming) we are on our honeymoon and do not want to sit beside other people. (I didnt feel so guilty because ppl always said we are having a pre wedding honeymoon so I am going along with that story-rude not too!!) 
He said he wold make a few calls but that the chances were slim and we should continue through security and speak to the staff on the desk - so we went on a bit disheartened but with a glimmer of hope - it was a long flight to be sitting with randoms.  When we arrived at the gate the girl said the same thing sorry no the flight is full we can not change...i said but your colleague on check in said you would try to help us we are on our honeeymoon please see if you can ask someone to swap with us....she went away for AGESSS and ............... came back with 2 business class tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I even photographed it to prove it :

 So yeh - l;life is good haha and I have defo found something I would like to do again in the future haha!! We flew business class ffrom Dubai to Bkk and it was unreal....the chairs went down to a full bed and they gave u a matress to put over the seat, menu with drinks and food of your choice etc etc (including cocktails!) - it was epic!! I slept most of the way so didnt totally make the most of it but it was still class - we got champagne on arrival at our setas too haha!! I can tell you we were pretty pleased with ourselves!! See the happy smiling faces below and a bit of evidence of our relaxing haha!! We defo looked like we didnt belong taking all the pictures but I didnt care lol!! 

So on the next flight I will defo be flashing my ring and fluttering my eye lashes and pleading for a free upgrade on the 14 ish hours flight to Christchurch....a bed would just be perfect on there so fingers crossed.!!


My next blog will be about the mentalness of Hanoi and Halong Bay so watch this space!


Love to all at home xx

Sticky toffee pudding on the plane!

Hey hey - so my first blog from abroad...very exciting!! Going to skip the part at Belfast airport....mainly consisted of hugs, tears, hugs, tears, doors shutting causing final wave goodbye and 5 seconds later hsyterical tears haha!! James produced tissues he had brought (he knows me too well)...I calmed down slightly until I beeped at security which made me ball my eyes out again...what a way to look suspicious haha!! By this stage James was ready to disown me!....Anyway eventually made it to Heathrow and onto the Emirates flight to Dubai.

Very pleasantly surprised by the plane...plenty of leg room nice seats and 250 films, 15 tv programs (with lots of episodes) and endless bits of music all on personal touch screen tvs...James was in heaven.  I watched the Kings Speech - it was great!!
Anyway the best bit of the plane....the pudding!! Usually I am the one going boke yuck get it away i am NOT eating plane food but when i saw the menu (yes we got a menu!!) I had to try sticky toffee pudding on the plane...and it did not disappoint....the day was looking up!!!

We landed in Dubai at 3am local time and the captain announced ''welcome to Dubai where the current time is 3am and the temperature is 35 degrees...'' delayed reaction then AHHHHHH 35 degrees at 3am there must be a translation error....sadly not!! We got up the next day to start our dubai adventure and it was 45 degrees.... see picture below for proof for all you doubters haha!!

So yeh its unbelivably hot - u can barely stay outside for more than 10 mins!!

Day 1 : We went on the big bus tour of the city after a few recommendations from friends at home and from the concierge here...it took us everywhere and we saw some cool things old and new...Dubai is unbelivable, in every shopping centre its like every country u have ever been to combined into one...u name it they have it....next, h+m, debenhams, harvey nicks, zara, mango, marks and spencers, massimo duti, american eagle, carre four etc etc its class - no wonder its a pretty amazing place to go shopping - sadly not for us on our travellers budget but its interesting none the less.  The architecture and crazy shapes of buildings basically built into a desert are fascinating...the whole place is man made around the tourism and international companies creating a base here.
In the evening we went to the mall of the emirates for James to learn to ski...the tears were tripping me even watching him get the salopets and ski boots on but I took up my seat at the window as the dedicated fiance to watch his beginners lesson....hilarious is not the word BUT he did really well and grasped it well by the end and is defo a skier in the making.  He was very lucky he ended up with a 90 min 1 to 1 lesson instead of a group lesson as noone else showed up...by the end he was doing mini parallel skis so all in all a great experience and he enjoyed it...bring on new zealand for real skiing!!!

Doesnt he look like quite the pro HAHA!!

Day 2: We went to wild wadi water park - if uve been to america its not really as good but it was still fun with lots of different and exciting rides - we spent the day there until just after sunset...this let us see the burj from the top of the tallest slide as the sunset which was pretty epic...pictures will follow currently cant find the lead of our waterproof camera lol!! It was class fun tho and a nice way to spend a very hot day! We even ventured home on the metro...very brave as I was practically the only woman in sight and we were definately the only white people for at least 2/3 stops lol!!

We have managed to land ourselves in Dubai during Ramadan which has its own little quirks however was served to provide the funniest moment of our trip so far....walking through a shopping mall with James eating a chicken wrap (he needed sustenance prior to his skiing) a security woman comes rushing over and says you can not do that no eating in public and hurried him off into a dark corner to finish it...we were totally confused but later discovered that you are not allowed to eat or drink in public during the month of Ramadan and that he could have been fined or arrested....so yeh he is basically lucky not to be in some Arabic jail!!

Anyway tomo we have most of the day here where we are heading to the infinity pool and palm beach (at 10am for as long as we can survive the heat) then to the fish market (i have a cloughey boy with me remember) and the golden souk which is famous for gold and pearls where no vat is charged (i can dream!!!).  We fly to Bangkok and then straight onto Vietnam arriving on sunday afternoon...fun times!!

I will write again soon and promise more pictures that time....

Final Farewell weekend

Well...my bags and packed and im ready to go....well 6kgs overweight but i will try my charm on the girl at the aerlingus desk and hope for the best...the alternatives are minimal because I definately could not do without the 12 pairs of shorts, 6 dresses, 15 tops...etc etc!! u get the picture - and that is after 4 practice packs where the volume was cut down a little bit each time and taking the hoover to the bag to suck the air out as thats bound to add more space!!

On the plus side I had a fantastic final weekend at home - I feel very lucky to have such great friends and fantastic family...it really does make the goodbyes even more emotional but at the same time I am very fortunate to have all these people with guaranteed good craic to come back to (excited for talk of the hen do already haha!!)

On friday night we headed to cafe vaudeville for the final farewell to all our friends.  I was so delighted to see so many friendly faces (minus the cross dressing dancers who took up their regular dancing slot!!)  There was plenty of jaegerbombs, cocktails, shots and bubbles for everyone and spirits were very high and the craic was great - I really did have a fun night which was continued into the small hours in rain...my feet were definately paying the price for this the next day (never mind my head!!)

Here are some of my favourite pictures from the evening :

Thank you very very much to everyone who came along and made such an effort to make this a brilliant final fling in Belfast... its great to have the nice photos and memories to take with me round the world!!


The second part of my weekend was filled with family Jess time, can't beat it! - everyone knows that I LOVE my family and that we are very close so I was really looking forward to a Jess family wkend in my favourite place ever....Portballintrae.  It was great craic and there were lots of laughs and a few tears....I will find it hardest to leave these guys as they really are the best family ever (gay i know haha!!)  James jokes because he says I am both a Daddys girl and Mummys girl (basically the perfect child!!!) It will be a struggle mainly because rarely a day goes by when Mum and I are not on the phone at least 3/4 times a day....remember mum 'Always my mum, forever my friend' I will miss you guys so much but for a while emails and skype and this work of art blog will have to do - in a way roll on Dec 20th!! So here are a few pics from our family time....we dont scrub up too badly!! (apart from Richard obvs - couldnt even shave for the occassion haha!!!)

Yay for family Jess haha!!


So in summary this is my final message from the mighty Province....the next posting will no doubt be from somewhere more glamorous and hopefully more sunny but I guess the bottom line will always be...there is nowhere quite like home and for all you concerned observers with your jokes about me never returning..i can assure you 'Home is where the heart is'!! Although slightly aprehensive as the inevitable tearful (ok i mean hysterical) hugs at the airport draw closer I am also extremely excited for what will no doubt be a once in a lifetime trip full of fun filled adventures and memorable experiences with my hubby to be :)  I promise to live up to my reputation as the paparazzi and bore you all with lots of photos on a regular basis!!

If you are reading/hate/enjoying my blog please leave comments so I feel less like I am going mad and just talking to myself!!

Love to all in the province, I will definately miss you all :)

xxxx