After a comfy stay in a nice hotel/inn we went for breakfast. The front desk could arrange tours for you so we asked about a couple of tours that looked interesting. With the language barrier it was a bit of a toughy but we managed to find out that- the city tour that was $8pp was a motorbike taking you from site to site whilst you got off and paid entry fee and the floating market tour along the Mekong Delta didn't have a floating market..... I challenged the name of the tour and his reply was 'yeah I don't know why it's called that'.... So we decided to sort our own tour out.
We used the map, taken from reception, to plan where we'd want to see. All of the sites are within walking distance. We were a little Bit giddy after our breakfast kerfuffle (I had asked for egg on toast, Lee asked for bacon and sausage on toast- we both got a plate of egg bacon and sausage no toast.... This wasnt an option on the menu but it turns out you make your own toast and they'd combined our orders - it was funny at the time, just remember the language barrier) anyway back to us being giddy... So as we were on our way to our 1st stop a nice lad stopped us to stroke Lees arm (we're kinda used to it now - men don't feel
the invasion of personal space over here in the same way Lee does as they feel his tattoo up his arm) The boy did the usual 'England?, ahhh football, lovely jubily' then he started saying how much the rod weighed (the one he carries around, on his shoulder, with coconuts either side) next minute he'd passed it to Lee and was telling me to get a picture.... Then he went to put it on my shoulder, from Lees face I guessed it was kinda heavy, so I declined his offer. Yeah he didn't really listen n plonked the 10 tonne stick on my shoulder. From the pic, that Lee was then told to take, you can see my legs giving in. I can confirm, Lee isn't a wimp, it is heavy! Next minute (and seriously this boy was like a whirlwind) he'd cracked open 2 coconuts and was asking for 150,000 dong (about £4.50) - this was the 1st person we'd met, in Vietnam, who could speak English and was nice to us- so we paid said our thank you (for the 2 coconuts we didn't want - I had a bottle of water in my hand, I didn't need a drink) then walked away. As we were crossing the road we realized how much we'd paid. 2 coconuts cost approx 30,000 dong.... Oh I was FUMIN. We went around the revolutionary museum, the one he had scammed us in front of, but if I'm honest all I did was rant to Lee. Lee spotted a gym in the park, across the road and suggested we take our anger out on that. Deal! We had a go of the cross trainers (which faced each other- so me and Lee could compete for the outdoor fastest cross training champion) then a bike, then some pull up bars (that I can't do) then finally sit ups. Nope didn't shift my mood. I stomped on to our next site when we bumped into a massive shopping mall with everything from Designer to high street, food to jewellery. We went in and after a little look around came out with 2 iced coffees. I decided I wasn't going to smile at people anymore because if they see you happy they try and rob you blind.... (please bare in mind this is my thoughts at the point of ranting and is not actually true - well on most accounts)
The iced coffee cooled me down so we made our way passed the people committee hall up to cathedral Notre-Dame to the post office. We posted some of the bits and bobs we'd picked up. Lee was amazed with the post office. Outside there were tourist police who were genuinely asking if you needed any help - they weren't selling anything or asking for money, just giving advice. After the post office our faith in the Vietnemese population felt restored so we booked some water puppet show tickets for later in the day and made our way to the war remnants museum. Crimany! You think you know about the Vietnam war then you see the pictures. Pictures speak a thousand words! Underneath each picture was a little description (just incase you didn't see the brutality at first). We felt like there was a biased angle taken against America.... Its stressed how in humane the Americans were - that part there's no doubt about but the museum is one sided. I'm not sure 'liked' is the right word but we didnt to see how the Viet Cong managed to defeat the US...
After a quick look at Xa-Loi pagoda we made our way to the water puppet show. Well that is basically Wooden puppets on water. The whole thing is in Thai and it was quite funny, in a simple kind of way. It lifted our spirits! We were starving so we took a walk to find food!! We found the most amazing little restaurant called Chans. The staff were really friendly and spoke perfect English. Well me and Lee are not the best cooks in the world so we nearly had heart failure when the brought the cooking utensils out once we'd ordered (we ordered what was suggested) I went for seafood, lee went for beef so that's what we got, raw, on a plate in front of us with the veg to go with it and a bit pot for our broth. We told them we didn't have the foggiest what to do so they helped us (laughing constantly at our special-ness). They told us when it was done (apparently we should have been checking that but neither me or Lee would have a clue what to look for?) The next challenge de shelling the shrimp. After more giggling from the staff they came to help us rip the head off the shrimp and the legs and body shell stuff. All Lee kept trying to explain was he wanted to know how to get the poo line out of it. Ha fun times! It was delicious, fun to make and super cheap. It was 250,000 dong (£8) for food and drinks. They gave us cold tea and hot tea for free too oh and fruit. They couldn't do enough! We loved it there :)
The day took a complete turn. We met loads of lovely people after that stupid coconut boy. The next lovely person was the man at the bus booking office. We booked our bus to Mui Ne and sat chatting to find out where was good to go. He told us the way to 'backpackers alley'. We found it! It's full of people sitting on plastic seats in the street and outside people's houses. People put a fridge at the front of their house and fill it with beer for 10,000 dong per can (30p). We met some travellers, had a few drinks then made our way back. A fully productive day!