Ho Chi Minh City or Formally known as Saigon!!

1/10/12

1922 (localtime)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Written in: Some town near Vinh Thanh, Vietnam. Listening to Black Sabbath.

Wow, another huge day of riding, unfortunately we didn’t get to where we needed to be because it got to dark, but we made it to a hotel and we are all trying to dry our clothes for a big day of riding tomorrow.

I arrived into Ho Chi Minh on the 27^th of September at about 12pm local time, which is the best time to arrive, the city is in full swing!

I had organised my visa before hand, but I still had to pay my $US25, I collected my bag and then headed outside to catch the local bus.

I woke the driver up and hassled for a price 8,000dong which is just under 50cents. I was going to love this country. I met this Spanish guy called Agustin on the bus who had the same plan as I did! We were going to buy a motorbike and drive through Vietnam.

That day we just cruised around the lovely city and had some AMAZING FOOD! And the great thing was, that it only cost about $2AUD! PERFECT!

That night we settled at a local bar type place, and enjoyed several beers at the price of 50cents… pretty dangerous I reckon… but tomorrow we were planning on checking out the Remnants of War Museum!!

Cant wait.

Till next time

Steve

28^th of September -  

We left our lovely hotel to go and check out the Vietnam War Museum but on the way we watched an indoor soccer match sponsored by Tiger beer which was great fun to watch.

After the indoor soccer we visited the Cho Ben Thanh Market where I bumped into to Peter ‘Spider’ Everett, professional AFL Ruckman who played for Hawks! I was star struck!

We finally arrived to the War Remnants Museum and as you can imagine it is all about the Vietnam War. Like always I had a small understanding of what happened in the Vietnam war against the Communists and the Democrats or South Vietnam Vs North Vietnam or more realistic, America vs Vietnam, but I didn’t realise how gruesome it was.

The museum was fantastic, lots of different relics and what now, but some of the rooms and exhibits I had to walk out because it was way to gory for my liking.

It was a horror show, but a real eye opener, now I’m watching an American 6 Part Documentary on the Vietnam to get a different perspective on what happened… Obviously I have to filter out the American bullshit, but it’s still very interesting.

We left the museum and grabbed some more AMAZING food and headed back to the hotel but on the way we were looking for some bikes to buy.

We looked a few, and it seemed like the average price was $300AUD.

Not much else happened that day, more great food and a few cheeky beers and we took ourselves off to bed.

Tomorrow, the HAWKS WERE PLAYING IN THE GRAND FINAL.

Ahh i miss some good ol Saigon Beer! Really tasty banter legend juice!

One of the many small ally ways in Saigon!

the crazy indoor soccer game!

a government building in Saigon!

Outside the War museum!

Not the best photo, but we have Tyler on the Left and Argu my Spanish Com-padre! on the right!

Munich & Dachu

MUNICH

1900 (local time)

16-6-12 (Yves Flat – Zurich - Listening to the lovely church bells in the background, with the sun on my back)

So, I caught a ‘lift’ via this website called Car Pooling.co.uk, its based off this Germany website where you go to this site, tell it where you wanna go, and BOOM! 30+ people are offering lifts to what ever destination you want to go to. All you do, is just chip in for petrol money. It’s a great idea, and I have saved SO much money doing this. For Example –

Trip to Berlin – Munich via Train =                             99Euros.

Trip to Berlin – Munich via Car Pooling =                30 Euros.

BARRRRRGAIN!

Anyway so I got a lift to Munich and I was greeted by a couple that I met travelling through Jordan (in 2009), When I met Bec and Simon we chatted for ages, infact we hired a car and all hell broke loose in Jordan! Anyway, so we kept in touch hopefully meeting one day up in the small town of Bendigo, where my Grandparents live.

So we kept in touch and Simon and Bec decided to do more travelling and live in Munich, rent a flat and use it for a base for their travelling! When I emailed them about coming to Munich they invited me to their flat for a couple of days.

So we set a meeting place and met up in Hungry Jacks, took me back to their lovely flat no more than 10 minutes from the city! PERFECT.

 When I got settled, they then took me out for an awesome dinner at a trendy Hamburger place! Legends!

The first day meant that I headed out and SESSIONED the city! Did the museums and walked around all day! The weather was on and off (like Melbourne) so I was having to walk under shelter, instead of along the river.

So I first visited the “German” Museum, it was very German. The photos will show this…

The German Museum 

Very German!

Anyway, That night was nice and quiet. Simon had to do his Exams, so me and Bec watched a Movie called Run Fat Boy. It was average.

So, the next day arrived and I caught a Train all the way to Dachu, which is 16KM North West of Munich, the reason for this visit, is that I wanted to check out ‘The first concentration camp in World War 2’.

I made some friends with some Indian guys that were heading the same way as me, we mostly chatted about the cricket!

We walked for what felt like ages to find this place, we found it so confusing. I swear all the signs point different directions.

We eventually found it, and WOW. I didn’t expect to see it like this… I never really understood what a Concentrate Camp was. Obviously I saw it as a place where horrible horrific place were a few thousand died. Not correct, Jews alone there was 4.1million!

The structure itself was massive, 4 ‘bases’ huge fences, Watch towers! Everything. Inside the main base, there were museums, and churches cemetery and even a Gas Chamber.

I’ll put some photos up so you can have a look.

That night was rather big, as Germany was playing their first soccer match against Portugal. Simo and myself got on the beers, and I dragged him away from his studies. We went to a nice ‘touristy themed’ bar I’m normally not one for these types of places but, it was literally the only place that had standing space for the TV. Funnily enough the place was mostly filled with Germans, and no tourists.

A beer at that 'no tourist' place! Beer the size of my head!

Beers were drunk, pubs were found… it got late and Simo and myself headed home to a sore head the next morning, where I had to catch another ‘lift’ from Munich to Zurich.

Easy morning! No Dramas, made it to Zurich!! To party with Yves!

NEXT UP! SWITZERLAND! What Zaney Things Will Happen To FIGJAM On His Next Adventures!

Checking out the BMW museum, it was really cool! 

Nice Beamers!

Cant fit much windsurfing kit in this little guy!

This is the front gate for the Concentration Camp in Dachu, the writing on the gate says something like "Work sets you free" They didnt know any better...

Still in Dachu, on either side there used to be the several places where camps were.

The gas chamber, and crematorium 

Gas Chamber

The Indian guys!

The Memorial Shrine.