#beerscheers&tears

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A Taylor Family Reunion – Beers, Cheers & Tears!

Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Quoc Island, 4 March – 16 March 2017

We flew from Tokyo to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) via Hong Kong.  We arrived at the hotel where we were meeting Mum & Dad (Jen & Les) and went to the room knocking on the door shouting “room service!” After surprising Mum and Dad and a very teary reunion, we realised that Dad had booked us all to stay in a penthouse apartment in the Somerset Chancellor Court.  This was pure luxury for us and we were totally spoilt, the penthouse was huge and had beautiful views over the city.  It felt a shame to go out for dinner and leave it!

Catching up

We spent the next couple of days exploring the crazy, hectic, moped mad HCMC.

Policing the streets of Saigon is tiring work…

We visited the War Museum which was very insightful into the war and the atrocities that took place.  It was very moving and left us feeling quite sombre.

On 8 June, US troops dropped napalm bombs on Trang Bang District, destroying pretty much everything in their path.  It also caused 9 year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc to get burned terribly.  The photo of “Napalm girl” was taken by Vietnamese reporter Huynh Cong Ut (Nick Ut) and won many international awards.  It was also ranked 41 over 100 most influential photos in the 20th century.  On 29 March 2013, Nick Ut presented this photo to the War Remnants Museum.

Here it is

Lightening the mood, we also found an interesting chain of coffee shops…

We sampled our first Vietnamese food which was delicious.  We also tried out a BBQ style place where we cooked out own food at the table, much like in Japan, however, Mum got the shock of her life when one of the prawns we had ordered actually jumped across the table.. yes it was still alive!

“Did he just move!”

We flew to Phu Quoc island where we spent the next 9 nights.  We stayed on Long Beach at The Terrace a lovely little resort close to the beach and with extremely comfortable beds, something very rare in Asia.  Phu Quoc was also turning out to be incredibly cheap.  We headed out to dinner on our first night, a local restaurant a stone’s throw away from our Rik (Uncle Jim’s phrase, Ricardo Villa, footballer, villa, you with me :-)) where they had happy hour on all drinks from 6-10pm, making beers 30p and cocktails £1.20! How cheap is that, it was ridiculous! So in true Taylor style, we took total advantage.

We soon realised that Phu Quoc was still very much a traditional Vietnamese island with locals going about their daily lives, very much unlike the islands in Thailand.  Reportedly the Vietnamese are trying to make Phu Quoc a party island like Koh Phangan, I am glad we got to experience it before it changes.  

We went to a local market in the main town on the island, Duong Dong.  This was quite an eye opening experience… I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Catfish, eels and…frogs

Local butchers

Counter service

Winner winner chicken dinner?!

Tesco’s delivery eat your heart out!

It was a world apart from the cleanliness and hygiene we experience in the first world, with everything freshly laid out in supermarket counters.  But I suppose that’s what you get when things are so incredibly cheap.  We didn’t buy any goods from the market… But, I did get my hair cut in the local “salon” for 40p! 40P! And I most probably paid a tourist price… soooo cheap and it didn’t look like it had been cut by a lawnmower.  

We hired a couple mopeds and explored the island… Yes you did just read that right, my safety conscious mother that fears pretty much everything, including crossing the road, authorised us all to go out on mopeds for the day, and not only one day, we hired them for two days! It was worth the risk hey Mum :-)

We cruised around the island, visiting an idyllic beach in the south of the island, Sao beach, but were reminded that we were on a third world island, riding passed a rubbish dump where people were living and working by hand… it was something you only see on the TV, but it is a reality for some.

We visited a bee farm which was really interesting and informative and we also tried the yummy honey.

Honey fritter

Bee keeping

Can you spot the queen bee?

Vietnamese Taylors & Tylers

We went on boat trip and visited some small neighbouring islands where we tried our hand at fishing. 

All aboard

One of the paradisal beaches we snorkelled at…

We had a lovely time relaxing and catching up on Phu Quoc island.  It is a very rural place that hasn’t yet been taken over my mass tourism.  I mean where else can you get a two course meal for 4 people, drinks included for £14!

We headed back to HCMC and remember I said that my Mum was even scared of crossing the road? Well to be fair, in HCMC it was quite an ordeal, to the extent that a hotel we stayed at gave us this information sheet as part of our welcome pack!

We reluctantly said our teary goodbyes to Mum and Dad, we had a brilliant time with you both, thank you so much for coming to see us. Memories made to treasure forever.

Next up for Team TT was to see what the rest of Vietnam had to offer, riding across the country from HCMC to Hanoi on a Honda  XR150.  We had just under 3 weeks to do it, could we make it and beat Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.  Stay tuned to find out!

Lots of love Team TT xxx