Where on Earth is Imogen? : Dubai

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2 August 2014

Travelling through Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

This is the final post about our journey through Vietnam which ended on the 5th February 2014. We travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City - the North capital to the South capital - and stopped at Ninh Binh, Hué, Hoi An and Nha Trang along the way. We travelled the whole way by sleeper bus which turned out to be an interesting experience (see other posts)!

The three of us had flights booked out of Ho Chi Minh City on the 5th February so, by the time we were in Nha Trang, we were running a bit short on time. We had originally planned to stop in Mui Ne but decided against it as we preferred to spend longer at our final destination rather than at the beach resort. We travelled overnight from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh and arrived ridiculously early in the morning (I forget the exact time). Again, not wanting to get ripped off by taxi drivers, we made our way to our hotel on foot. When we got there, however, we found that it was completely shut up - doors closed and shutter down! We ended up having to wake up the family who ran it to let us in. To be fair to them, we had booked for that night and we arrived so early that we had to pay for another so they weren't expecting us! It was also during the festival and it seemed that there were not any other guests in the hotel.

Ho Chi Minh seemed different to anywhere else we'd been in the country, more European than the other cities. There is evidence of much more European-style and modern architecture, as well as wide roads and statues. However, there was still evidence that we were still in Asia. There were still loads of scooters. Everywhere. We walked down a more traditional market street and the Benh Thanh Market near where we were staying was full of people trying to flog fake goods for the best price.

The roundabout in front of Benh Thanh Market

Lights celebrating the new year and lots of scooters!

Market street

Meat stall

One of the things that Alex had been particularly looking forward to in Ho Chi Minh was going to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, a vast network of connecting tunnels from during the Vietnam War. We booked a half day trip to go out to see them having decided it would be difficult to make our own way there. It was a good thing we did, as everyone there seemed to be with a tour group and our guide was good. He had been in the Vietnam War himself and showed us his gunshot wound. However, he spent most of the day singing which didn't really fit the setting! "Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen, You come from different countries, To Vietnam on holiday, Come along and sing with me" (or something like that!). We were able to walk around the forest looking at various exhibits of weapons, a tank, underground rooms etc. as well as the gruesome traps the Vietnamese made for the enemy. There was also a shooting range where tourists could pay to fire various guns. The gunshots added to the atmosphere of the forest. Tourists were allowed to get into a replica tunnel opening for photo opportunities and crawl through one of the tunnels, which had been made bigger and had lighting installed to accommodate large Western tourists! The tunnels are definitely worth a visit..

Me in the entrance of the tunnels

One of the traps

A tank

Another trap

They must have been lethal!

Exploring the tunnels

Alex in the tunnels

We seemed to visit Ho Chi Minh at a good time as the flower festival was on to celebrate the new year. There were thousands of colourful flowers for people to look at, some of them in different shapes, with lots of horses to celebrate the new year.

Pretty flowers

Colourful

This was all the way down the street for at least 500m

We enjoyed wandering around the city and seeing the various sites.

Modern buildings (with Alex and Chloe)

Municipal Theatre

Statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of City Hall

Notre Dame Cathedral

Reunification Palace

On the 4th February, our last full day in Vietnam, it was my 21st birthday. We discussed various options for what to do, thinking we ought to do something special, but realised that we'd been doing so much over the three weeks that it would be nice just to have a relaxing day. We considered visiting the Mekong Delta but were sick of being herded around on organised tours by then and preferred the idea of a lie-in! After some research, we found that Ho Chi Minh had a bowling alley and some Indian restaurants so we decided it would be a day of home comforts instead. The night before, we went to a really nice Thai restaurant (in preparation for mine and Chloe's next destination!), followed by a few bars late into the night, so a lie-in on my birthday morning was just what I needed. It was fun to go bowling, something I hadn't done in a few years, and hadn't done on my birthday for even longer! I did have a bowling birthday party for my 10th birthday though. It is often joked that the typical food of Britain is Indian and at home we enjoy our Indian takeaways and occasional meals at Indian restaurants, so it wasn't difficult to choose which cuisine I wanted to celebrate with.

Action shot!

Results of the first game

Enjoying our Indian

Birthday girl!

The next day, I went with Alex early in the morning to get a taxi to the airport from one of the travel agents. He was setting off to fly from Ho Chi Minh, back to Hanoi. Then from Hanoi to Xiamen via Hong Kong (the same way we came). Then from Xiamen to Dubai via Hong Kong. Then from Dubai to Denmark! That's an awful lot of travelling but I'm glad he arranged it so that he could be there to celebrate my birthday. Chloe and I left later on that day. On the way to arrange our taxi, we saw a lion dancing show as part of the new year festivities. That evening we flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand, via Bangkok. It was sad that our time in Vietnam was over and that we no longer had Alex with us, but we were looking forward to our next adventure!

Lion dancing in the street

The lion

17 January 2014

New Year 2014 in Hong Kong

After a lovely 9 days in Dubai for Christmas it was time to go to Hong Kong. Our flight was at 00:05 from Dubai and unfortunately neither Alex or I got much sleep despite trying. When we arrived in Hong Kong we decided to get the Airport Express rather than a taxi to save money and they offer a free shuttle bus service from train stations to the closest hotels. It cost 140HK$ to get the train from the airport to Kowloon for the two of us but unfortunately there was a bit of a wait for the shuttle bus from there.

We stayed at Pearl Guesthouse in Mirador Mansion on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, a strange place with various shops and cheap accommodation. There are four different lifts depending on which floor you want to go to as each one went to a different set of floors. We were on floor 15 which meant that we always managed to get in the lift on the way down but sometimes had to queue on the way up. The room was very small and basic but fine for what we needed it for. Enough space for a double bed with storage space underneath and a bedside cabinet with fridge and safe. We also had a tiny bathroom with just about enough space to stand in for a shower. It was all very clean and there was a communal water dispenser and microwave available for us to use as well as free WiFi which just about worked if you stood by the door of the room.

When we arrived we crashed in the room for the afternoon from lack of sleep before venturing out in the evening for a walk down to the harbour where we saw the Symphony of Lights show, getting something quick to eat and then going to Ned Kelly's Last Stand, a jazz club where I'd been with my mum and brother, Fraser, 4 years previously. We only stayed for one drink as we were still tired from the journey but it was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I used to play the piano in my secondary school swing band so really enjoy listening to that type of music live. Alex caught onto this and bought me the house band's, China Coast Jazzmen, album as an early birthday present!

The next day was new year's eve and as we didn't really know what we were doing to celebrate in the evening, struggling to contact our friends who had come down from Xiamen, we didn't do too much. We took the Star Ferry over to Central and have a wander around before getting the ferry back, having dinner at an Irish pub and getting ready to go out. When we left the hotel to go and meet the others it was unbelievable how many people were already out on the streets at 9pm! The new year fireworks took place at Victoria harbour so thousands of people flocked to Tsim Sha Tsui (mainland side of the harbour) to see them. We were meeting our friends at IFC mall on the other side of the harbour and with the amount of people on the streets, police everywhere and MTR (Hong Kong's underground system) stations closed off we were worried we wouldn't be able to get there. Thankfully the Star Ferry was still running and we made it to the roof of the mall before 10pm. This seemed to be a popular place to go as many people had turned up, bringing their own drinks with them, to wait for the firework display. There was also a DJ, bar and ice sculpture which was slowly melting. We decided to claim our spot early as we wanted to be in a good location to see the fireworks. When it was finally time for the display it was very impressive. The fireworks were let off from barges in the harbour after a countdown to 2014 which we unfortunately couldn't see from where we were. We'd already seen them testing it earlier though so knew what it looked like! After the fireworks we went along to a club to continue celebrating.

The next day we attempted to go up the Peak but the queue for the tram was 3 hours so we wandered down to the Mid-Levels escalator instead before heading to Temple Street Night Market in the evening. The day after we finally made it up the Peak after queuing for an hour. The Peak is somewhere you must go to if you visit Hong Kong and we paid the little extra to go onto the Sky Terrace viewing platform. When we were in Dubai I had kept telling Alex that although Dubai's skyline is impressive, Hong Kong still beats it. He did have to agree with me in the end.

That evening we met up with one of my childhood friends, Marisa, for a meal at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was really nice to catch up but made me realise how long ago it was that I left Hong Kong. I mentioned my youngest brother, Ethan, in conversation and then realised that she'd never met him. He was born when we moved to the UK and he's almost 14! It was similar when we met up with another school friend, Hayley, the next day. I am thankful that after all these years we still remain friends despite the distance.

Unfortunately it was then time to go back to Xiamen. Alex and I were booked on different flights back so I went off to the airport on my own, leaving him in Hong Kong. It worked out well though as my uncle who lives in the US was in Xiamen for business but was leaving the next morning to go back to the States. We had a few hours overlapping which meant I got to meet him at his hotel and have dinner before heading back to Xiang'an campus. It was a really good two weeks off from classes and is a bit strange that I'm already off again!

9 January 2014

Christmas in Dubai

I was lucky enough to be invited to Dubai to spend Christmas with Alex and his family rather than stay in China where Christmas doesn't really seem to exist! Xiamen University doesn't have a holiday for Christmas meaning that classes continued almost as normal throughout Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I think my teacher gave the class the morning off on Christmas Day itself but that was it. I'd prepared myself for a strange Christmas in China eating noodles without my family, the first Christmas I'd spent without them, so it was lovely to find out I could still have a family Christmas outside China but with Alex's family instead.

We flew with Cathay Pacific/Dragonair which meant a stopover in Hong Kong. This worked out perfectly as we planned to spend new year there so it was just a longer stopover than usual with no change to the price of the ticket. Our flight to Hong Kong was on 20th December so we left Xiang'an the evening before and went to Siming on the island as it would be easier to get to the airport. We had a last Chinese meal at a DongBei (northeastern Chinese food) restaurant near the main campus which was really good.

Alex enjoying our last Chinese meal for a while

The journey went well and we managed to watch a couple of good films on the main flight from Hong Kong to Dubai. I, as a languages student, watched a French film "Les Femmes du 6eme Etage" which I thoroughly recommend. The film was about Spanish maids living in Paris so there was some Spanish in there as well! We chose our seats in advance so that I could have a window seat which was definitely worth it as we could see the lights of Dubai as we arrived at about 11pm on Friday evening. Alex's parents and sister were there at the airport to meet us and take us to their apartment.

First sight of Dubai from the air

The next day Alex decided to show me round the marina and take me out to the palm.

Driving round the marina

We went out to Atlantis which is a big ocean themed hotel with a water park and shopping centre at the very top of the palm

Driving up to Atlantis

In front of Atlantis

On the Palm with the marina in the background

On Monday we decided to go on desert safari which is one of the main touristy things to do in Dubai. We were picked up at 3:30pm by our driver for the evening in a 4x4 before picking up the rest of the passengers, an Indian family, and making our way to the desert. It soon became clear that it was not just our car doing this trip. The driver stopped in a car park by a couple of small shops where a lot of similar cars were parked so that people could use toilets, buy snacks/drinks and so that the drivers could take some air out of the tyres before going over the sand dunes. We got back in the car for a short way until we reached the desert and yet more cars. It seemed we were waiting for the rest of the Arabian Nights (tour company) cars to turn up before going over the sand dunes together. We used this opportunity to walk around in the desert sand and take photos. Once all the cars had arrived we started going over the sand dunes in a line, not something I'd recommend to anyone who gets car sick! I really enjoyed it and they even stopped so we could get some pictures of the sunset.

On the way to desert safari

Cars waiting to go over the sand dunes

Going over the sand dunes

Sunset over the desert

Me in the desert

We ended up at a camp in another part of the desert where we stayed until 8pm. At the camp you could ride a camel, go sand boarding, ride quad bikes (for a price), dress up in traditional Arabic dress, an eagle, get Henna tattoos and get photographs taken. There was also a buffet and a stage in the middle for live entertainment consisting of a guy who span around for about 15 minutes (actually quite impressive) and a belly dancer. I enjoyed the evening and would recommend it to anyone going to Dubai.

Riding a camel

Sand boarding

Some locals

The camp

Queuing for food

He just kept spinning!

His dress had lights on it

Buffet

Belly dancer

Eagle

On Christmas Eve we went to the beach because we could and it was warm enough to! We brought Santa hats and took photos wearing them with our swimwear. Danish people begin celebrating Christmas in the evening of Christmas Eve so we went back and smartened up for the Christmas meal afterwards.

Christmas Eve at the beach

God jul! (Merry Christmas in Danish)

Chinese Christmas tree decorations

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Alex's family which was really nice. Eating, opening presents, eating, watching Love Actually and going out for a coffee in the evening on Christmas Day. I had a phone call with my own family as well meaning I got to talk to my parents, two younger brothers and Gran which was lovely.

On the Friday we went out to Friday brunch. I don't really know what I was expecting, a buffet containing breakfast and lunch items maybe, but what Friday brunch actually was, definitely wasn't it. There were several rooms containing buffets with all kinds of food and drink as well as an outside area with live band. Alex and I avoided the Chinese food room but made sure we filled up on other things! The waiters made sure that our champagne glasses were always full which was quite strange considering it was early in the afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the food as I was too busy admiring it, but I got some photos at the end when they were clearing up.

Burj Al Arab in the background

Chinese lanterns leading to the Chinese food room

Boats

Christmas tree

BBQ Pit

Over the course of the week I got to meet Alex's friends from sixth form and experience Dubai nightlife. They all seemed like really nice people! On the Saturday though I met up with some friends from Southampton, something I hadn't thought would happen on my year abroad. Caitlin, Josh and Ali's parents all live there and Rebecca was visiting Caitlin so it was nice to meet up at a beach bar for a catch up whilst also being a bit surreal.

Alex's parents got us tickets to go up the Burj Khalifa on our last day in Dubai. I can now say I've been up the tallest building in the world! We went up at 5pm so managed to see both a day and a night view from the viewing platform, the sun setting while we were up there. It was a nice way to end the trip as I could recognise places I saw below. Afterwards we had a last family meal and wandered around Dubai Mall (largest shopping centre in the world) before going to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong where we spent new year. Thank you to Alex's family for making my time in Dubai so enjoyable.