Latest / Wander the World with Pippa Hudson / Wander the World: Discovering Vietnam

Transcript

Wander the World: Discovering Vietnam · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

0:00
Speaker 1: It is time for us to wander the world on
0:02
Speaker 1: lunch with Peppa Hudson. And this feature is brought to
0:04
Speaker 1: you by Standard Bank. Travel Book your next trip on
0:07
Speaker 1: the Standard Bank app and get up to forty percent
0:09
Speaker 1: off your flights. Standard Bank is an authorized FSP and
0:13
Speaker 1: registered credit provider. Now we are casting our travel sites
0:17
Speaker 1: much further afield today because we're doing some travel to
0:19
Speaker 1: Southeast Asia to explore Vietnam, and our tour guide is
0:23
Speaker 1: going to be a very familiar voice to you if
0:25
Speaker 1: you're a longtime Cape Talk listener, because Martin Meers hosts
0:28
Speaker 1: the Business of Entertainment segment on Thursday evenings, but today
0:32
Speaker 1: I've asked him to come in and talk to us
0:33
Speaker 1: about his recent trip to Vietnam and to share some
0:36
Speaker 1: insights on what it is like as a destination for
0:38
Speaker 1: South Africans to visit. If you too have had the
0:41
Speaker 1: opportunity to visit this country, we would love for you
0:45
Speaker 1: to join the conversation. Tell us when you went, where
0:47
Speaker 1: you went, what you saw, what you ate, because I
0:50
Speaker 1: know that's a big part of the Vietnamese experience. What
0:52
Speaker 1: were your favorite moments? What advice would you share papas
0:56
Speaker 1: of WhatsApp voice note or text to seven two five
0:59
Speaker 1: six seven one five sixty seven Martin. You were gone
1:02
Speaker 1: so long and you were clearly having so much fun.
1:04
Speaker 1: I was worried you were ever going to come back,
1:06
Speaker 1: but glad to have you back with us.
1:07
Speaker 2: Thank you. My wife and I were almost in tears
1:10
Speaker 2: when we left on it. We left South Africa on
1:12
Speaker 2: the fifteenth of December and came back on the twenty
1:14
Speaker 2: third of January where we were going to come back
1:16
Speaker 2: on the tenth and my wife said to me, now,
1:18
Speaker 2: but Baba, your birthdays on the twentieth of January one.
1:20
Speaker 2: Did we just add in our long bay? So we
1:22
Speaker 2: added in a long bay and then and then we
1:24
Speaker 2: left after that, but we started right down in the South.
1:28
Speaker 2: If I could give you the backstory, because I think
1:31
Speaker 2: it's really nice. And you went to Barley last year,
1:34
Speaker 2: and I remember we talked about it and that you
1:35
Speaker 2: said never again. And we were having lunch with a
1:38
Speaker 2: friend of mine, J. P. Wilson, and we were talking
1:41
Speaker 2: about our fifteenth wedding anniversary and no, no, no, we're going
1:43
Speaker 2: to go to Barley. And he looked at us like,
1:45
Speaker 2: you guys out of your mind. Why didn't you go
1:48
Speaker 2: to Fuqua. So we said, what the heck is fu Quah? No, no, No,
1:52
Speaker 2: Brett lives in Vietnam. You must go see him. It's
1:54
Speaker 2: just an island of ho Chi Min. Where as he says, HCMI,
1:58
Speaker 2: So I said what. So Razia gets home and starts
2:01
Speaker 2: looking fu Quah. Two thousand, random night, eight hundred, random night.
2:06
Speaker 2: Hang on, we are going to Fuqua, Baba, go get
2:08
Speaker 2: a book. So off I went to get the Lonely
2:11
Speaker 2: Planet Guide. And this is the way we did it.
2:14
Speaker 2: There was no travel agent involved or anything. Totally self planned.
2:18
Speaker 2: JP said, go to Fuqua. It's Mauritius on steroids, where
2:24
Speaker 2: when you go to Mauritius you've got to go for
2:26
Speaker 2: seven days and it's full board, and it's half this
2:28
Speaker 2: and half that. It's very complicated and convoluted. No, in Fuqua,
2:32
Speaker 2: you can stay one day in one resort, then another
2:35
Speaker 2: day and another resort. And the beauty is you've got
2:37
Speaker 2: to check out by twelve noon and you can check
2:39
Speaker 2: into the other resort at two pm, which is invariably
2:42
Speaker 2: read they already at one thirty. So you just move
2:44
Speaker 2: from resort to resort, and we did the entire island.
2:48
Speaker 2: It's a long string bean and it's off the chart.
2:51
Speaker 2: You need the Lonely Planet Guide. You use booking dot
2:54
Speaker 2: Com the app. Then when you're on the app, make
2:57
Speaker 2: sure where you're booking you look at the map to
3:00
Speaker 2: see where this place is located. Read all the reviews,
3:06
Speaker 2: not just the top five, the good ones and the
3:08
Speaker 2: bad ones. And it took Razia six weeks of planning.
3:12
Speaker 2: Every night you would spend time, I would look in
3:14
Speaker 2: the book, So what about this place? What about that place? Okay,
3:17
Speaker 2: let's see what it says, and so and so we went.
3:21
Speaker 2: I mean, we arrived in ho chi Min. We had
3:24
Speaker 2: one night there at a hotel called the Alagon Hotel.
3:27
Speaker 2: It's in Zone one. If you go to ho chi Min,
3:29
Speaker 2: you've got to stay either in Zone one or Zone three.
3:32
Speaker 2: Don't stay anywhere else. There's everything there to give you
3:37
Speaker 2: an understanding of the size of the country. It's one
3:41
Speaker 2: hundred million people. There's seventy seven million motorbikes.
3:44
Speaker 1: Okay, and one hundred million people and seventy seven million
3:47
Speaker 1: motorbikes squeezed into a space that is I think a
3:51
Speaker 1: quarter of the size of South Africa. That'll give you
3:53
Speaker 1: an idream of the congestion that that that brings, I mean,
3:56
Speaker 1: that's yeah. So it's literally I'm just trying to do
3:59
Speaker 1: the Yeah, that's double our population in quarter of the space,
4:04
Speaker 1: not counting the motorbikes. Okay, so that that is some
4:07
Speaker 1: food for thought there, Martin. I mean, obviously the congestion
4:09
Speaker 1: like that I'm assuming is going to be worse in
4:11
Speaker 1: the urban areass crossing the.
4:14
Speaker 2: Road, you take your life in your hands. You just
4:16
Speaker 2: see these motorbikes descending towards you. You walk, You stick
4:19
Speaker 2: your left hand out and you just keep walking. Don't
4:22
Speaker 2: stop because otherwise you're dead meat. You know you're going
4:26
Speaker 2: to get run over. But we never saw an accident.
4:27
Speaker 2: We never saw anybody hooting, We never saw any any
4:32
Speaker 2: people who were inebriated. It's a massive, massive coffee culture,
4:36
Speaker 2: second biggest coffee export on the planet, biggest Nike manufacturer,
4:41
Speaker 2: even bigger than like America. So you get the most wonderful.
4:46
Speaker 2: They don't call it fakes, they call inspired by. Okay,
4:50
Speaker 2: you can see the Louis Vetona store in Hochium and
4:53
Speaker 2: City to give you a size, it's the size of
4:56
Speaker 2: Constantia village. Woolworths probably bigger than that. Half a k
5:02
Speaker 2: down the road is the market, which is absolutely unbelievable,
5:05
Speaker 2: probably be the size of the Grand Parade, where you
5:07
Speaker 2: can get everything and you realize you're not a sports
5:10
Speaker 2: store until you've got a fake up on the wall, shirts,
5:15
Speaker 2: T shirts, whatever you want. I mean, my suggestion is
5:18
Speaker 2: go with an empty suitcase. Just go with the clothes
5:20
Speaker 2: you're wearing. I wore jeans when I left, and I
5:24
Speaker 2: wore jeans when I left Vietnam, and the rest of
5:26
Speaker 2: the time I was in.
5:27
Speaker 1: Short So that brings us to talking about the weather
5:29
Speaker 1: and the climate, because I mean, I know it's a country.
5:31
Speaker 1: Although it might look, I mean be comparatively small to
5:34
Speaker 1: us used to the south space of South Africa, there's
5:37
Speaker 1: a lot of variety, I know, from coastal level to
5:40
Speaker 1: high in the mountains, from north to south, et cetera,
5:42
Speaker 1: in terms of temperatures and seasonality. You were there though
5:45
Speaker 1: over the dry season.
5:46
Speaker 2: We were there December January we started. We looked at
5:49
Speaker 2: the weather when we left Hanoi. It was sixteen degrees
5:52
Speaker 2: celsius that it was freezing. And then you can go
5:55
Speaker 2: further north up towards the Chinese border to a place
5:57
Speaker 2: called Sapna and that's where even snow. In January and February.
6:02
Speaker 2: We started right down in the very south ho chi Min,
6:04
Speaker 2: which is time wise five hours ahead of South Africa.
6:07
Speaker 2: So it's early evening now in ho chi Min. Temperature
6:11
Speaker 2: always thirty two to thirty three degrees weather like this,
6:15
Speaker 2: not the rainy season and no humidity, thank Heavens. And
6:19
Speaker 2: summer it can get up to forty five degrees with
6:22
Speaker 2: humidity of sixty to seventy percent. Maybe more air conditions work.
6:28
Speaker 2: The Wi Fi works, the grab app works, but you've
6:33
Speaker 2: got to be adventurous. It's not for everybody. If you
6:37
Speaker 2: want to go and lie on the beach and just
6:39
Speaker 2: not move, then go to an island, go to the Seychells,
6:43
Speaker 2: go to Zanzibar, go to Mauritius. But if you want
6:45
Speaker 2: to experience a different culture and remember where that country
6:49
Speaker 2: has come from fifty years of war.
6:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I wanted to ask if you had an
6:53
Speaker 1: opportunity to explore any of the war related sites Martin,
6:56
Speaker 1: because I know it's possible to go into the tunnels.
6:58
Speaker 2: The yep done at Kuchi Tunnels. The biggest tip I
7:03
Speaker 2: can give anybody doing the Kuchi tunnels is make sure
7:05
Speaker 2: you get the go app and then it's called twelve
7:11
Speaker 2: Go one to Go Asia and look at the trips
7:15
Speaker 2: that are on there, and do the speed boat trip
7:17
Speaker 2: up the Siguan River to the Kuchi Tunnels. This is
7:21
Speaker 2: what Brett, my friend who lives in Vietnam, said to me. Mark,
7:24
Speaker 2: you have to do the speedboat. It's absolutely unbelievable. It's
7:28
Speaker 2: about an hour and a half up the Siguan River.
7:32
Speaker 2: You get there and then you go into the Kuchi
7:35
Speaker 2: Tunnels and you see how they lived, what they did.
7:39
Speaker 2: It's two hundred kilometers of tunnels. Our guide was a
7:43
Speaker 2: young gentleman aged about twenty five. So I said to him,
7:47
Speaker 2: don't you hate America for what they did? And he
7:51
Speaker 2: looked at me. He says, both my parents were VC
7:53
Speaker 2: viet Cong. They fought in these tunnels, which are two
7:57
Speaker 2: hundred kilometers wrong. It was feeding into Saigone from the north.
8:03
Speaker 2: They're still alive today. No, we don't hate America. We've
8:07
Speaker 2: got to look forward. And I just looked at that
8:11
Speaker 2: and I went, my heavens, you.
8:14
Speaker 1: Know, Art, you're the second person I've heard remark on
8:16
Speaker 1: that in the last two days. I happened to just
8:19
Speaker 1: stumble upon a random travel show on TV last night,
8:23
Speaker 1: and I can't even remember what channel it was on
8:25
Speaker 1: or what it was called, but I heard somebody make
8:26
Speaker 1: the same comment that they're for a country with the
8:29
Speaker 1: painful history, and it's not just the American War, it's
8:31
Speaker 1: the French colonial period before that, et cetera. That the
8:34
Speaker 1: country is remarkably low on bitterness and regret, that it
8:39
Speaker 1: is very much focused on where we are going from here.
8:42
Speaker 2: There's a resilience, there's a work ethic that is absolutely unbelievable.
8:47
Speaker 2: If you see. And I've got pictures up on Facebook
8:49
Speaker 2: and I'm happy to share what they have built and
8:52
Speaker 2: what other countries have destroyed in that time. It's earth shattering.
8:57
Speaker 2: We never ever felt vulnerable whatsoever. Weok we look differently,
9:03
Speaker 2: we speak differently, we are taller than them. Never ever,
9:07
Speaker 2: they just want to health, they just want to help tourists.
9:11
Speaker 2: They understand we're where you can look at it. We're
9:14
Speaker 2: either a mosquito or flea on the global map. They've
9:17
Speaker 2: got people flying in by the bucketful from Canada. With
9:22
Speaker 2: our spoke to the Canadians and what do you want
9:23
Speaker 2: to be there for? In January, it's minus twenty. Yesterday
9:26
Speaker 2: was minus thirty from from South Korea, from Hong Kong,
9:30
Speaker 2: from Japan, from India, from New Zealand, from Australia, from Malaysia,
9:35
Speaker 2: from Singapore, Singapore to Hanoi's only a three hour flight.
9:39
Speaker 2: So people come in for the weekends in that business,
9:41
Speaker 2: whole subcontinent that sits there bursting, and the rand goes far.
9:49
Speaker 1: So you're going to do some actual examples here. I
9:52
Speaker 1: just want to say, for anybody who's coming in, halfway
9:54
Speaker 1: through this conversation, you obviously well hopefully will recognize the
9:57
Speaker 1: voice of Martin Myers, our colleague from the Business of Entertainment.
10:01
Speaker 1: Martin's chatting to us about his incredible experience six weeks
10:04
Speaker 1: in Vietnam over December and January, an entirely self planned,
10:09
Speaker 1: self organized, self booked tour that he and his wife
10:12
Speaker 1: did together and which took them all over the country,
10:16
Speaker 1: from south to north, to the beach areas and more.
10:19
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about the cost of things. So okay,
10:23
Speaker 1: the local currency, the Vietnamese dong. I had a look
10:26
Speaker 1: this morning. It's one rand is fifteen hundred dong at
10:29
Speaker 1: today's exchange rate. That means nothing unless you put it
10:32
Speaker 1: into some context. So what do you get for your dong?
10:34
Speaker 1: Tell us what things cost?
10:35
Speaker 2: Martin Well, I bought a let me, let me give
10:41
Speaker 2: you a hotel in Rands, the silver Land Jolee Hotel.
10:43
Speaker 2: If you know where the Cape Talk studios are opposite
10:46
Speaker 2: is Gallows Hill, the Cape Town Traffic Office. That's where
10:50
Speaker 2: the Saigon River was. This was a five star hotel
10:52
Speaker 2: in District one. Bear in mind the date twenty ninth
10:57
Speaker 2: to the first of January. We left on the first
10:59
Speaker 2: of Jainy to go down to the.
11:00
Speaker 1: Mecon New Year's Eve. She peak season.
11:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, bed, breakfast and free tea every day. It was
11:07
Speaker 2: like the Mount Nelson eight thousand, five hundred rand for three.
11:11
Speaker 1: Nights for two of you, yes, what you would pay
11:13
Speaker 1: for one person for one night. Hotel.
11:17
Speaker 2: We watched the fireworks, which was fifteen minutes from our
11:20
Speaker 2: hotel room. The vander Hotel in Danang rights opposite the
11:25
Speaker 2: Dragon which spits fire at nine o'clock at night. From
11:29
Speaker 2: the tenth to the twelfth of January, there were five
11:31
Speaker 2: star properties two thousand, four hundred and fifteen rand and
11:35
Speaker 2: fifty six cents. The Han River cruise that night to
11:39
Speaker 2: go and see the Spitting Dragon. Two hundred and twenty
11:44
Speaker 2: seven rand for.
11:45
Speaker 1: Both of you.
11:45
Speaker 2: Yes, he's for both of us. Razia and myself. She
11:48
Speaker 2: did all the bookings, she did all the work. The
11:51
Speaker 2: Aligon Hotel when we arrived on the sixteenth, one thousand,
11:55
Speaker 2: seven hundred rand for the night, bed and breakfast. The
11:58
Speaker 2: Gold Coast was all in Fuqua, the island right in
12:01
Speaker 2: the north where you need to go and stay there,
12:03
Speaker 2: because then what you do the following morning You get
12:05
Speaker 2: the taxi and you book them for the day and
12:07
Speaker 2: you drive to the Starfish Beach and you swim with starfishes.
12:11
Speaker 2: That was one thousand, six hundred and fifty two round
12:14
Speaker 2: and eighty eight cents all for two people.
12:18
Speaker 1: I mean the round goes a long way, is what
12:20
Speaker 1: you're saying, which is not to stay very oft and
12:23
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world. And do you do you carry
12:26
Speaker 1: local currency or do you need to have dollars on
12:29
Speaker 1: you as well?
12:30
Speaker 2: At the Oligon Hotel, Silverlanjoli Hotel, I had one hundred
12:34
Speaker 2: US dollars the new notes, and I want you to
12:36
Speaker 2: change and they said no, why did you go and
12:38
Speaker 2: change some more? Just down the road walk take your
12:40
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars and you walk in, and you walk
12:42
Speaker 2: into a currency exchange and they just give you notes.
12:45
Speaker 2: It's all in Vietnamese dong or all notes. There's no coins,
12:48
Speaker 2: and they just dished them up. There's no paperwork, there's
12:50
Speaker 2: no nonsense, there's no bureaucracy. And they give you a
12:52
Speaker 2: pile of cash. You put it in your pockets and
12:54
Speaker 2: you walk out and you don't getting robbed on the bothers.
12:59
Speaker 1: You Martin Keith ask you about communication? So I mean, okay,
13:04
Speaker 1: let's talk. Firstly, this is a country that has been
13:06
Speaker 1: occupied and colonized by a variety of countries over its history,
13:10
Speaker 1: including China, France.
13:13
Speaker 2: The Portuguese brought Christianity there. Then it was the French.
13:16
Speaker 2: They call the French the colonialists and the Americans the imperialists. Okay,
13:23
Speaker 2: that's the way. Look at it.
13:25
Speaker 1: French and English at all on the streets or is
13:27
Speaker 1: it many Vietnamese?
13:28
Speaker 2: The older people it's all Vietnamese, The young kids twenty five,
13:33
Speaker 2: the tour guides and working around they will speak a
13:35
Speaker 2: little bit of English. So you load Google Translate on
13:37
Speaker 2: your phone. Can you communicate through your phone? You buy
13:41
Speaker 2: the appaty airport across US. I think it cost Razia
13:44
Speaker 2: fifteen US dollars when we arrived, and this lasted us
13:47
Speaker 2: for a month. At all the hotels, all the restaurants,
13:50
Speaker 2: they've got Wi Fi. I never ever switched over to
13:52
Speaker 2: the local sim. I used to use the Wi Fi
13:54
Speaker 2: wherever we walked in. It's incredibly safe, it's incredibly i opening.
14:02
Speaker 2: If you asked me, how would you describe the country,
14:05
Speaker 2: it was one of wonder and awe. Every corner we
14:09
Speaker 2: walked around, I'm like, oh my heavens, what is this?
14:12
Speaker 2: Where's this? I mean on the one Sunday at the
14:14
Speaker 2: hotel we were staying at, No, you can hire a motorbike.
14:18
Speaker 2: How much is that now? One hundred and fifty rand?
14:20
Speaker 2: I said, for how long? No, the whole day? Sure
14:22
Speaker 2: wired it for the whole day. Rassie and I are
14:24
Speaker 2: learning how to ride motorbikes and drive around. You've got
14:28
Speaker 2: to go to certain places. You've got to go to Huian,
14:31
Speaker 2: You've got to go to a place called the Barnar Hills.
14:34
Speaker 2: That's the famous picture with those hands that you you're
14:37
Speaker 2: at the beach.
14:37
Speaker 1: With it with your hands resting on the Han statue, here.
14:40
Speaker 2: Let's just put it this way. I was also told
14:43
Speaker 2: by JPN and his mom Sharon Enjoy Barner Hills. That's
14:46
Speaker 2: all we were told. You get to the top, it's
14:49
Speaker 2: like euro Disney what they have built and created on
14:53
Speaker 2: top of this, all this mountain. And bear in mind
14:57
Speaker 2: they're sort of forty four cable cars an hour going up.
15:00
Speaker 2: So it's mass tourism on a mass scale. But this
15:04
Speaker 2: beauty within the madness, and if you can deal with it,
15:07
Speaker 2: that's fine. At the one bus stop leaving from Halong
15:10
Speaker 2: Bay to Hanoi, all the busses seemed to stop there.
15:14
Speaker 2: I counted twenty buses, not ten seaters, forty eight seaters,
15:19
Speaker 2: and people were given dog tags with the bus registration,
15:22
Speaker 2: so you knew which one to get on because they're
15:23
Speaker 2: all black.
15:25
Speaker 1: It looked the same.
15:25
Speaker 2: They all look the same. So that's what you've got
15:28
Speaker 2: to deal with. But there is an inordinate amount of
15:32
Speaker 2: beauty and wonder in that country. I urge every South
15:36
Speaker 2: African before you leave this planet, go don't look at
15:42
Speaker 2: when you're there and you come back, then look at
15:45
Speaker 2: the Vietnam the history of the war. Let me give
15:48
Speaker 2: you an idea. Full metal jacket the movie. We went
15:51
Speaker 2: to Hoi. It's the ancient citadel going back to fifteen hundred.
15:55
Speaker 2: That Battle of Horoi was part of the tet offensive
15:58
Speaker 2: in the war. They talk about it. And we've got
16:02
Speaker 2: home that evening and there was a documentary on Apple TV,
16:05
Speaker 2: and I said to Razia, let's just watch it.
16:07
Speaker 3: Oh.
16:07
Speaker 2: Episode two was on the city of Hoy. We've just
16:11
Speaker 2: been there, to the citadel, and you watch this and
16:13
Speaker 2: you look, my heavens, they've rebuilt this thing completely, and
16:16
Speaker 2: there's this perfume river that's there, and wonderful French restaurants
16:19
Speaker 2: and everything else, and you look, my heavens, and you
16:23
Speaker 2: sort of look at yourself and go and no animosity,
16:27
Speaker 2: just looking forward.
16:29
Speaker 1: Martin. We mentioned it at the start, but I want
16:31
Speaker 1: us to dive a little bit deeper into the issue
16:33
Speaker 1: of the food, because the one thing I hear consistently
16:35
Speaker 1: from anybody who's been to Vietnam is they come back
16:37
Speaker 1: and say, it was the most delicious trip we ever took.
16:39
Speaker 1: The food was amazing, and you mentioned it as well
16:43
Speaker 1: in our pre conversation. You've already touched on the coffee culture,
16:46
Speaker 1: but this is not sort of your typical Western cup
16:50
Speaker 1: of coffee or latte. Tell us a little bit more
16:52
Speaker 1: about some of the unusual coffees that you tasted, and
16:54
Speaker 1: then we'll talk about the actual food.
16:56
Speaker 2: Everything comes hot or it comes cold, So you get
16:59
Speaker 2: egg coft that's made with egg. You get salt coffee
17:02
Speaker 2: that has salt in it, You get coconut coffee, you
17:05
Speaker 2: get iced coffee with condensed milk, and you get yogurt
17:10
Speaker 2: coffee and they add condensed milk to all the coffees.
17:13
Speaker 2: Then you also get weasel coffee, the animal, the weasel.
17:16
Speaker 2: They make coffee using the weasel. It's very very cruel,
17:20
Speaker 2: so people are trying to stop that, but you still
17:22
Speaker 2: steer it. In the shops, you can buy weasel coffee.
17:25
Speaker 2: It's sort of more expensive than any of the other coffees.
17:29
Speaker 2: The food is unbelievable. There's ban me, which is a
17:32
Speaker 2: French buguette with fillings. Then there's the fresh spring rolls
17:36
Speaker 2: that you get Vietnamese spring rolls, which is wrapped with
17:38
Speaker 2: peanut sauce and everything. And then the big one is
17:41
Speaker 2: Fa Pho. It's a beef broth with noodles and spices
17:46
Speaker 2: and everything else that you eat with your chopsticks. And
17:50
Speaker 2: that at all the hotels. It's quite funny they say
17:54
Speaker 2: Western food. And then you have your steamed rice and
17:58
Speaker 2: shrimp and whatever else you want. And the Vietnam eat everything.
18:02
Speaker 2: If there's a shrimp there, they eat the whole thing,
18:04
Speaker 2: head and everything, whereas we will only eat the tail.
18:06
Speaker 3: And that.
18:09
Speaker 2: I would say, avoid street food.
18:12
Speaker 1: Oh it's it's you are.
18:15
Speaker 2: You might get sick. I got sick for two days.
18:17
Speaker 2: But you take your tablets and if you go, you
18:21
Speaker 2: can also when you're doing your research, consider a homestay
18:24
Speaker 2: where you stay at someone's house, at a home near
18:27
Speaker 2: the area where you want to go. But again use
18:30
Speaker 2: booking dot com, use that map there to see where
18:32
Speaker 2: you want to go. And then the Grab app is essential.
18:35
Speaker 2: It works really really well, so much so that when
18:38
Speaker 2: you arrive in ho Chiman and you want to go
18:40
Speaker 2: and get your cab, there's a grab man standing there
18:44
Speaker 2: who will explain. And then you see your car arrive
18:46
Speaker 2: and you get in and off you go. It's better
18:48
Speaker 2: than Uber. It was an app that was developed in Malaysia
18:51
Speaker 2: and it is absolutely essential. Grab app, Google Translate, change
18:57
Speaker 2: your sim and off you go and carry cash.
18:59
Speaker 1: And you said anim was fine, okay, okay, So just
19:04
Speaker 1: going back to the food, somebody's just asked her saying
19:07
Speaker 1: that those spring rolls are to die for the email Martin.
19:10
Speaker 1: When you say fresh spring rolls, it's not the deep fried,
19:12
Speaker 1: crunchy one that you used to getting in a Chinese restaurant.
19:15
Speaker 1: It's a fresh rice paper wrapping around this. I mean,
19:19
Speaker 1: it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever tasted.
19:22
Speaker 1: And the first time I ever tasted it was at
19:24
Speaker 1: Saigon Restaurant in Cliff Road or wherever it is in
19:27
Speaker 1: Gardens and you know, I'd ordered spring rolls and his
19:29
Speaker 1: plate arrived. I was like, this is what I was expecting.
19:32
Speaker 1: One of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in
19:34
Speaker 1: my life. So did you just binge on those days
19:37
Speaker 1: and down?
19:38
Speaker 2: And then there was beef this, and you try that
19:41
Speaker 2: and then you try this. I mean we saw one
19:46
Speaker 2: Kentucky Fried Chicken and one McDonald's. They both had lanterns
19:49
Speaker 2: outside them in a way on so we went in
19:52
Speaker 2: for a laugh, just to go and order some chicken.
19:55
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, Kentucky had Korean chicken. No no, no, let's
19:57
Speaker 2: try the Korean chicken. Yeah, you know so, but no
20:01
Speaker 2: fast food, very little mango lassies and mango smoothies. I
20:07
Speaker 2: used to have those morning, noon and night with ice
20:09
Speaker 2: and they make them and fresh fruit. The produce is really,
20:13
Speaker 2: really amazing. I cannot emphasize it more that for rand
20:19
Speaker 2: and for value. But you've got to be prepared to
20:22
Speaker 2: experience things. I mean, when we were frying flying from
20:25
Speaker 2: de Nang, which is in the delta to I'm not
20:28
Speaker 2: from d Nang, sorry, from from the Mekong delta up
20:32
Speaker 2: to d Nang, the plane was delayed. Yeah, so it
20:35
Speaker 2: was a three hour bus trip back to ho Chi
20:38
Speaker 2: Min and then from ho Chi Min the flight to
20:41
Speaker 2: d Nang and we got to the place where we
20:43
Speaker 2: were staying at a three in the morning. But you're
20:44
Speaker 2: on holidays, so there's no crisis. Everybody's in the same boat.
20:48
Speaker 1: Part of the experience and experience have you really traveled
20:50
Speaker 1: if you've not had the experience of having a flight
20:52
Speaker 1: delay or missing the bus in Paris as I did,
20:55
Speaker 1: and almost missing your flight. We've got a voice note
20:57
Speaker 1: in from one of one of our listeners who's also
20:59
Speaker 1: I think there. Let's take a quick listen to what
21:01
Speaker 1: he has to say.
21:04
Speaker 3: I'm absolutely loving this discussion about Vietnam. I was fortunate
21:07
Speaker 3: enough last year my partner and I have to go
21:10
Speaker 3: to Vietnam. She absolutely loved the shopping and the food,
21:13
Speaker 3: and I have to concur the food was just special.
21:16
Speaker 3: It is absolutely amazing food. Lots of French inspired things
21:19
Speaker 3: like the ban Me. It's basically a mini consonant, but
21:22
Speaker 3: with their their version of things in it. The food
21:25
Speaker 3: is off the charts were definitely going back in.
21:28
Speaker 1: Evin, thanks for that. Yeah, I mean, yay yay. It's
21:32
Speaker 1: gone straight to the top of my bucket list. Listening
21:35
Speaker 1: to all of this, Keith asking a very important question.
21:37
Speaker 1: We haven't spoken about getting there, and Keith wants to
21:39
Speaker 1: know do you need a visa? As a South African, Absolutely.
21:42
Speaker 2: Need a visa and print it out before you go.
21:45
Speaker 2: When you get there, you'll understand if you're flying into
21:48
Speaker 2: either Ho Chi Minstroke Saigon or to hand Nooi, it
21:53
Speaker 2: will make Cape Tan International Airport look like Uppington. It's
21:57
Speaker 2: really there will be police therein and slim and take
22:02
Speaker 2: no sh one t that. I can tell you. I'm lucky.
22:05
Speaker 2: I've got a metal pin in my leg, so I
22:06
Speaker 2: pointed and I said, now can I go where the
22:08
Speaker 2: wheelchairs were and they said, yes, you go. Otherwise you
22:11
Speaker 2: can do on one of the apps. You can do
22:13
Speaker 2: what's called fast track, which pay you pay ten or
22:15
Speaker 2: twelve US dollars and then someone will pick you up,
22:19
Speaker 2: collect you and guide you through this maze of people.
22:21
Speaker 2: And I'm talking thousands of people Vietnam in my opinion
22:26
Speaker 2: and JP's opinion. And Brett, this friend of ours who
22:29
Speaker 2: went for six months and now lived there for ten years,
22:33
Speaker 2: said it's on the cusp of the rest of the
22:35
Speaker 2: world suddenly finding out about this country and everybody descending
22:38
Speaker 2: on it on mass. So go you can fly either
22:42
Speaker 2: via the sandpit, but not today. So now you would
22:45
Speaker 2: fly via Singapore, and then you should go and maybe
22:48
Speaker 2: spend two or three days in Singapore, and then you
22:51
Speaker 2: can fly in to ho Chi min or you can
22:53
Speaker 2: fly into Danang and then go down to Hoyan, or
22:56
Speaker 2: you can fly into Hanoi. That would be the way
22:58
Speaker 2: round to avoid the conflict.
23:01
Speaker 1: In the Middle East. But you guys at the time,
23:03
Speaker 1: for you emirates, Okay, so those two options exist. Thank
23:07
Speaker 1: you for that. Bridget saying the best is in Hanoi's
23:12
Speaker 1: city to get up really early to walk around Juan
23:14
Speaker 1: Kim Lake. Locals of all ages are doing exercise, dancing, badminton, walking, laugh, therapy.
23:21
Speaker 1: It's like a different world, is Bridget's description. Thank you
23:25
Speaker 1: for that adding to the list of things to experience, Martin.
23:29
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope we haven't just set the hordes
23:33
Speaker 1: loose on Vietnam with this conversation, because I'm also going
23:35
Speaker 1: to get there before it becomes the next overcrowded party.
23:39
Speaker 1: But it's been wonderful listening to you talk about the
23:42
Speaker 1: experience so authentically and with such breadth of experience because
23:45
Speaker 1: you have the privilege of being there for so long.
23:47
Speaker 1: Thank you very very much for joining us today, and
23:49
Speaker 1: I hope we don't lose you to now permanently.
23:52
Speaker 2: Just remember when you go there, you're from numb Fee.
23:55
Speaker 1: Numb fee Is that how you say South Africa?
23:57
Speaker 2: South Africa fee? In other words, you need to learn
24:00
Speaker 2: is sinchao, which.
24:01
Speaker 1: Is hello, sinchaw? How is till goodbye?
24:04
Speaker 2: Zim? Low is excuse me? And come on see um
24:07
Speaker 2: n is Thank you?
24:08
Speaker 1: Come on, thank you, so come on, come on, Martin,
24:12
Speaker 1: come on, Martin meers. Thank you so much for joining
24:14
Speaker 1: us this afternoon. Keep your messages coming I'm happy to
24:17
Speaker 1: share a few more of them after the news. If
24:19
Speaker 1: you've also had the experience of traveling at Vietnam, but
24:22
Speaker 1: right now, if you're ready for your next adventure, Standard
24:24
Speaker 1: Bank Travel makes booking, paying for, and managing flights easier
24:28
Speaker 1: than ever, all straight from the Standard Bank Banking app.
24:31
Speaker 1: Enjoy up to forty percent or flights for friends and family,
24:34
Speaker 1: plus complimentary travel insurance and lounge access when you book
24:38
Speaker 1: with your qualifying credit card. Download the Standard Bank App
24:41
Speaker 1: and book your next flight via Standard Bank Travel. Standard
24:44
Speaker 1: Bank is an authorized FSP and registered credit provider t's
24:47
Speaker 1: and c supply