Last day of the holiday. Bangkok then home
Well, it's finally coming to an end. Tonight was our last overnight on holiday...we leave tomorrow evening for the airport at about 9:30. So we have most of the day to sightsee tomorrow. We got in a fair bit today, although it wasn't until about 1pm that we had got ourselves settled in the hotel as disembarkation from the cruise ship was held up by immigration. We grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel, then headed out straight to a tailor. I had decided to get a suit made here in Bangkok, having heard good things about the tailors here. They picked us up from the hotel and whisked us over to the store. They had a good range of cloths and ended up talking me into getting 2 suits and a tuxedo made, along with spare pairs of trousers for each suit, 3 bespoke shirts and 3 silk ties.After that, they dropped us off at the temple of the Golden Buddha, and we did a bit of sightseeing there and at the Golden Mound (I've probably gone and gotten the name of that wrong, so forgive me if I have). We then took a taxi back to the hotel, had a swim, and then got picked up by the tailor in the evening for the first fitting. After that they dropped us off at the nice Vietnamese restaurant that we had recommended to us, so we ended up getting driven around by the tailor most of the day!Of all the restaurants in Bangkok we could have gone to, we ended up in one that's owned by someone who was on the same cruise as us, and that had invited a bunch of other people we met on the cruise to the restaurant that night. Everyone was rather surprised to see each other - small world.
Seedy street in Bangkok - neon, girls and old western men - you can see two couples walking towards me
Dinner in the Vietnamese place
Inside the restaurant
Graves/memorials at the base of the Golden Mound
The tip of the mound
Under the tip inside
Buddhas galore
View from the top
Bell-ringing monks on their way down
Me ringing a bell
Lots of bells
A pretty cool statue
Kitties
A rather nicely done door to a temple
Assorted Buddhas
The Golden Buddha - 5.5 tonnes of solid gold...was originally disguised in plaster years ago so it wouldn't get stolen. Only revealed to be gold when it broke the crane it was being lifted on and it fell down and cracked the plaster off a corner of the statue, revealing the gold...
Statues at the temple
Grounds of the hotel
View from the top
Easter on board ship
Overdue update on Vietnam
Apologies for not having updated this at all in the last few days but I haven't really had much of a chance to. In between hopping on and off the ship I've been partying rather too hard with a few people I've met on board. The availability of free alcohol and 24 hour room service on board has resulted in us having rather late nights the past 2 nights. 3 am last night, 4 am the night before. To put this into context, I had to be up at 6 am this morning to get out for a 7 am tour of the Mekong Delta.With water-volleyball to be played during the afternoons, it has left me lacking on time to do a concerted update of the diary.Anyway, since the last update we've been in Nha Trang and the last two days in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Nha Trang was a nice seaside town which I can see being a very popular destination given a few years of improvements that are in progress right now. We had a tour of the city, and then we had a great authentic local Vietnamese meal. Two of the people from the ship also picked up some cooked crabs, clams and other assorted shellfish from a hawker on the beach. Incredibly tasty!We got into Ho Chi Minh the day before yesterday in the morning. I had a lie in and then we went out on a tour of the city. It was pretty interesting, and I bought a few lacquer enamelware things from a factory we stopped at. Beautiful inlaid mother-of-pearl and eggshells...We were in port overnight, and had a very enjoyable Vietnamese cultural evening last night at a local hotel. Lots of dancing and music from various parts of Vietnam, and also a great meal of local food.This morning was the 7 am start for a tour of the Mekong Delta. We had a two hour minibus drive each way which I was happy to sleep through after last night's excesses, but the tour itself was very interesting. We got out of the buses and got on boats for a tour of the delta, going up winding canals and to a floating market. We stopped at a few other places which had local handicrafts and products like popped rice, coconut candy and snake wine...Pictures are below.
Nice action shot of the rice being popped. The black stuff in the pan is actually sand - it spreads the heat and also stops some of the rice flying away. All sieved out after it's popped.
Cheers! Snake wine...
Just to elaborate, this is rice wine with dead snakes soaking in it - there's an adder in each bottle along with a few other types of snake. It's supposed to cure any number of ailments from rheumatism to paralysis. And it actually tastes quite nice...
A church in the middle of nowhere...
Part of the floating market
Building a bridge...
Getting onto the boat
Ho Chi Minh central post office - a picture of Uncle Ho up on the wall
On a pedal-cab...note the cheesy pose of the driver...
In a museum - a statue of Uncle Ho
In the covered market - all sorts of dried things...no idea!
Again in the market
Outside the market - Pho being cooked and eaten
At a temple in Ho Chi Minh
Ditto - this is a painting of the Goddess of the Sea who saved the Vietnamese people from tsunamis and the such
Porcelain roof ornaments
Incense cones burning - a wish or prayer is attached to them. They take several days to burn through
Our ship
And again
Our nice meal in Nha Trang...well what remained after
In a temple in the towers at Nha Trang
A funky caterpillar
One of the Cham towers in Nha Trang
Port view
Fishing boats
Countryside scene
Inside a giant buddha statue in Nha Trang
The buddha - plus scaffolding.
Neon religion
Reclining buddha
Temple from the front
Water Volleyball on board
