Singapore....

... is quite a change when you have been in Cambodia and Vietnam for the last 4 months :-). A superclean and sterile city, everything is very clean cut, traffic rules, hundreds of shopping malls, thousands of restaurants and Cafes, people dress to impress and you can get about anything you envision on this planet though for ridicoules prices.

So the first impression you have of the city is a bit emotionless but staying in town for 12 days allowed me to see a different side of Singapore and I have to say it got its flair with the local food markets, you get used to all its shopping malls and appreciate the convinience of them and it got quite a good night life :-). Even though Singaporians won`t like to hear this but it is like a small and clean version of HongKong :-).

 

P.S.: Sepp this one is for you ;-)

Vietnam experience wraped up!

4 weeks of traveling in Vietnam are over and if you'd ask me to wrap it up in one sentence then I would say "The opposite of Cambodia".

Meaning Vietnam has a beautiful countryside and landsacpes, some great food just like in Cambodia but unfortunately the majority of Vietnamese we have met in our day-to-day life left us with a unfortunate bad impression of being rude, dis-honest and having the talent to be persistantly annoying. The times we have been not left alone by people trying to sell us just anything (for example sunglasses while I was wearing my pair of sunglasses), deliberately given back the wrong change, having been quoted prices easily 300% over what regular tourist prices are, ignored us when we had a question, etc. is uncounted for and unfortunately that is the major impression we left Vietnam with.

Nevertheless we met some great people, ate some great food and had a good time throughout the travels. The highlights were the 2 weeks driving on our Motos through central Vietnam, some great creative sea-food omlets in Nha Trang, the Ha Long Bay sorroundings (not particularly the Party-Boat-Trip we had booked) and the people we meet in Saigon.

By now I arrived in Singapore, where I am staying with my friend Matt and his family and all focus is on the Marathon preparation. 9 days to go before the event starts. Due to the fact that I haven't been able to keep up a regular running regime throughout the travels and the humidity here in Singapore this marathon is going to be a real challenge.

Wish me luck

Joe

3 weeks into the Vietnam journey....

... and today we sold our Motos. After the first couple of days in Nha Trang, Chris and myself bought 2 Motos to tour the country the Vietnamese way. It started off with buying two local used semi-automatic "Motos" which were already registered, as you can not register a Moto under your own name if you are only 1 month in the country. The process was pretty smooth and
we were counting on the foreigner bonus of not being stopped by the police (which worked out perfectly). After some more shopping for Moto gear and for me getting used to actually driving a Moto we set off north on the coast line to travel to Hanoi.... 
Despite the fact of non-existing traffic rules, mad bus drivers and bad roads it was a lot a fun. 
Traffic in Vietnam is a bit more reckless than in Cambodia but still follows common sence rules such as - whomever is bigger than you has the right of way, what you can't see does not exist and therefore needs to watch out for you, who stops "looses" so keep flowing. 


The result of the first 30 minutes of our travels... we lost our "beat-box" which was supposed to entertain us while driving and had a flat tire. Not particularly a good start - but the drives the first 2/3 days along the coastline was worth it. Beautiful views, a bit of reckless truck-driver driving which kept one on its toes and a lot a fun with the Motos. Well at least for me as it was my first "Motorbike" experience... Chris is actually driving a racing bike at home, so I am not sure
how he felt about the 110cc of his Moto. He will tell you in a guest-entry once we are in Saigon. 


After 3 days of driving, the Motos started to wear off on us as making 130 km a day took us easily 4 hours, so we took some more off-riding days and enjoyed what Vietnam had to offer. Unfortunately not to much other than a beautiful coast line. We made our way over a couple of days/stops up to Hue, where we put the bikes on a night-bus and made the last 700km up to Hanoi that way.


Hanoi is a overwhelming place, which is super busy and I am sure it would be a great place to visit if you know local people, but as we don't it feels a bit to busy and annoying so we took the bikes out again and went to Ninh Binh a more peaceful place to see some more nature and tomorrow we are setting off to Halong Bay apparently a stunning site. Well we booked a party boat trip with other young tourists so it should be interesting.


More updates are coming soon 
Cheers