Been There, Done That

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

So that’s it then. We’re done. Eight months have passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye and as we write this we’re at 35,000 feet above the Atlantic aboard our nineteenth flight, our last flight, and in the final leg of our complete circumnavigation of the globe…the conclusion of our around-the-world adventure.

What a trip. It has been a truly memorable journey and an experience we will cherish forever.

We’ve seen some amazing places…

We’ve watched the sun rise over the ancient Temples of Angkor in Cambodia and watched it dip below the trees in the African bush. We’ve seen snow-topped mountains, verdant rolling hills, and white sandy beaches. We’ve been lost in the chaos that is Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, we’ve chilled out on deserted beaches in Thailand. We’ve visited some of the most amazing historical sites in the world and seen more World Heritage Sites than you could shake a really, really old stick at.

We’ve done some pretty cool stuff too…

In New Zealand we held on for dear life in a white water raft on Grade 5 rapids and then jumped out of a plane. We camped with dingoes on the largest sand island in the world and then wiped out learning to surf in Australia. We dined on insects in Bangkok and went on an elephant trek in Northern Thailand. In Laos we jumped into a waterfall, went tubing into an underground cave, swung into a river, and fell off of a motorbike. We had our feet cleaned by fish in Cambodia. We motorcycled along the coast from Hue to Hoi An in Vietnam and partied all night with the locals in the tiny fishing village of Mui Ne. In South Africa we went wine tasting on bicycles, tracked the big five on safari, and watched our boys compete in the World Cup Finals.

And along the way we’ve met some wonderful people…

During our trip we’ve visited over 50 places in 11 different countries. Although we were only really passing through on many occasions, we were fortunate enough to meet some amazing people. Like Pop (P-O-P as he would say) the 8-year-old street bookseller from Cambodia who goes to school in the morning and then sells books in the afternoon to help make money for his family. He had the biggest smile you’ve ever seen, a great little personality, and he could teach you more about world geography in 5 minutes than you ever learned in school! And the Vietnamese woman who, after chatting with us briefly one day, invited us back to her home to meet her family over some tea and coffee. We met her mother and father and some extended family over a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee and she told us how she’s trying to help put her daughter through college in Danang by selling nuts and coconut treats that she makes in the streets everyday. And then there’s the 25,000 South Africans that we danced and sang the night away with in Rustenburg to celebrate the opening match of the first ever World Cup Finals in Africa. Black, white, rich, poor all came together to celebrate the World Cup and get behind the Bafana Bafana. Magical.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

Of course, the trip wouldn’t have been the same without some of our fellow travelers that we met along the way, like the slow boat crew in Laos who helped make Lee’s 31st birthday one to remember, Chris, Sarah and Shop-run Gary who we chilled out with in Southern Thailand and who inspired Lee to get some new body art, the cyclists who cycled the length of Africa and then boozed their way around South Africa with us, Foxy/Moonhead/Taff/et al who made the football much more enjoyable even though our teams were terrible, and last but certainly not least are our favorite travelers – our partner’s in crime, our trip buddies, our travel companions, Kate and Lizzie, who we’ve had some brilliant times with over the last 8 months and we feel like we’ve known them forever (we mean that in a good way guys ☺)

It really has been the trip of a lifetime. We already feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to do this but it will be over the coming weeks and months, maybe even years, that it starts to sink in how enriching this experience has been for both of us.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

On Safari

There was no way we could go all the way to South Africa without going on safari.  During the World Cup safari tours were, unsurprisingly, a bit pricey.  So, the thrifty explorers that we are we decided to wait until after the tournament had ended to book our bush adventure.

We decided to go to Pilanesberg National Park in northern South Africa, about 2 hours north of Johannesburg.  Pilanesberg is a massive park (about 220 square miles), has plenty of lodges to choose from and, most importantly, has "the BIG FIVE." Courtney found a game lodge called Pilanesberg Private Lodge (very original) which was located in the northwestern corner of the park on a private reserve called the Black Rhino Reserve.  The price was very reasonable and their website looked great so we decided to give it go.

The lodge was great. It had a main lodge building that included an outdoor deck complete with hot tub and swimming pool and five smaller buildings where guests stay.  The lodge only sleeps ten people so it's quite intimate.  Our stay was even more cozy as there was only one other person staying there during our visit so we were treated to some personal attention from the game rangers.  On our second night there we even had two private game drives.

We came across this herd of elephants heading for an early evening visit to the watering hole

This black rhino almost charged us.  Some quick thinking from our game ranger spared us from a trampling.

We interrupted this little guy's breakfast.

Enjoying a beer after a day tracking game in the bush.

We did four game drives in total and although our first outing was fairly quiet overall we were not disappointed.  We saw elephants, zebra, black rhino, white rhino, giraffe, wildebeest, impala, kudu, jackal, and steenbok.  We even saw a pair of porcupines.  Doesn't really capture the imagination like seeing a pride of lions would but apparently they are a pretty rare find.  The most exciting sighting of all though was the leopard we spotted (I had to) with a fresh kill in it's mouth...very cool.  Unfortunately we only caught a brief glimpse of it and then it vanished into the tall grass before we could get any pictures.  On our last drive we tracked a lion for a couple of hours but unfortunately he eluded us.  Overall we had an amazing time and it was a great way to end our stay in South Africa.

The Deciders - Party Time in Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth in South Africa’s Eastern Cape was the venue for England’s last group game, and our next match, against Slovenia.  We opted for a 13-hour overnight bus ride with Translux to get us down there.  The bus was very reasonably priced and comfortable.  The icing on the cake was the entertainment we were treated to.  We must have had a top-notch entertainment director as the line up was truly something – first up was “Phil Collins: The Final Farewell Tour” on DVD.  That was followed by a Patti Labelle PBS special with all the funky 70s soul and disco classics.  The night’s programming was concluded with the action-packed “Mercenary for Justice” featuring none other than pony-tailed puncher Steven Seagal. What a night! 

In PE we met up with a few of the characters from Rustenburg, including the long-distance cyclists.  Daniel, one of Lee’s friends from England was also over for World Cup with his friend Robbie so we met up with them too.  The game was great and England got the win they needed to advance to the knockout stages (as did the US in their game) so it was party time again.  We celebrated into the small hours again as the World Cup party train rolled on.

 

Before leaving the Eastern Cape we took a break from all the football fever to take in some of the natural beauty of the area. Along with Daniel and Robbie, we visited the Sardinia Bay Nature Reserve, an incredible bit of coastline about 15 minutes outside of Port Elizabeth.  There are a number of hiking paths along the coastline collectively known as the Sacramento Trail.  The weather was beautiful and we hiked along the lower path, which takes you along rocky grasslands and beaches, for about an hour and a half before turning around and hiking back along a higher trail that offered spectacular views of the Indian Ocean.  We even spotted a pod of whales making their way along the coast.

USA USA USA!!

The Samba boys’ first match and USA v Slovenia at Ellis Park

After more or less 3 straight days of drinking we dragged our tired bodies back to Johannesburg for some R&R.  We had tickets for two matches in Johannesburg over the next week – Brazil v N. Korea and USA v Slovenia.  Brazil was up first.

Brazil v N. Korea

June is the start of South Africa’s winter and lucky for us the day we went to watch Brazil was apparently the coldest day in Johannesburg since 1994!  Needless to say we were woefully unprepared.  The only thing that saved Courtney from certain hypothermia was the fact that there was a rather large man sat in the seat next to her inside the stadium.  With Lee’s puny body offering little protection from the elements, Courtney nestled into the side of the big fellow’s generous frame and managed to at least keep the frostbite at bay.

Brazil won the match as expected, but the plucky Koreans put up quite a fight.  The most bizarre sight of the game was the group of 100 or so Korean fans sat together on the other side of the stadium from us.  They were all wearing identical red tracksuits and clapped and cheered in perfect unison every so often.  We later found out that these “fans” were actually primarily Chinese nationals who had been hired by the North Korean government to pose as Korea fans for the match.

USA v Slovenia

Later that same week we headed back to Ellis Park for USA’s second group game against Slovenia.  At the match we met up with friends Katie and Ran who had traveled over to watch the first two US matches.

 Katie and Ran

Before the match with Katie

We had rubbish Category 3 tickets for this match but Katie and Ran had Cat 1s (much better seats) so we snuck in with them and squeezed into their section. We were in the biggest section of USA fans so the atmosphere was awesome.  After going 2-0 down it wasn’t looking good for the US team, but an early second-half goal from Donovan and then a late equalizer from Bradley and it was game on.  The crowd was going nuts.  If you watched this match on TV you know what happened next.  For a few seconds it was pandemonium in our section as US fans celebrated what we thought was the match winner.  Unfortunately the dodgy referee saw something that nobody else in the stadium saw and the goal was disallowed.  2-2 was the final and, after England’s terrible display against Algeria, it was all still to play for.

Some first half action

After the match we grabbed dinner and drinks in Melville, a trendy little suburb of Johannesburg, before saying our goodbyes to Katie and Ran who were headed back to Philadelphia in the morning.

Hodge Podge...DODGE!

Rustenburg for the England v USA match

England v USA was the opening match for both teams in the tournament and also our first game.  The game was held in Rustenburg, a small town a couple of hours north of Johannesburg that is famous for it's platinum reserves (apparently something like 86% of the world's platinum comes from the area).  As a result, the Royal Bafokeng Nation who own the mining rights up there are filthy rich.  As far as we can tell, that's the only reason Rustenburg was chosen to host any World Cup matches...the king paid for the privilege.  

Getting to and from the place was a nightmare, there was nowhere near enough accommodation (more on that later), and the stadium was not exactly world cup standard, and certainly not the ideal venue to host England v USA, the two countries that brought the most fans to South Africa.

Phokeng ridiculous!

So, back to the accommodation.  We booked our accommodation for Rustenburg way back in December 2009 as soon as we knew England would be playing the US up there.  We booked a cabin at a place called the Hodge Podge Lodge.  The name should have been fair warning that this place could be a bit dodgy but it was all we could find so we went with it.  What a nightmare!  This place was miles out of town, our cabin had no lock on it whatsoever, the family that owned the place tried to rob us every chance they got by overcharging for everything, and speaking of the family...what a bunch!

In spite of all that we had an absolute blast up there.  There were hundreds of England and US fans staying at Hodge Podge and we met some great people who we would end up hanging out with again at other England matches.  We partied the whole 3 days.

For the opening ceremony and match we headed to the FIFA Fan Fest in town.  The atmosphere was unbelievable.  There were close to 25,000 fans there to watch Bafana Bafana (South Africa) take on Mexico in the opening match.  The noise from the now infamous vuvuzelas was almost unbearable but they certainly created a unique atmosphere.  When Bafana scored the whole place erupted.  There were spontaneous outbreaks of fans singing traditional African songs and dancing together.  It was amazing.  Unfortunately Mexico’s equalizer dampened the spirits somewhat but that didn’t last long.  After the final whistle the party was in full swing again with 20,000 plus people celebrating the start of the tournament.

 Enjoying the opening match with some Bafana Bafana fans

Back at the lodge we continued the party and met some of the other Hodge Podge guests.  Among them were a group of guys and girls from England who had cycled from Egypt to South Africa for the World Cup.  That’s right, Egypt to South Africa…on bicycles.  If you’re not sure how far that is feel free to have a quick look at a map and you’ll see that it’s REALLY FAR!  And there we were thinking we were all clever because we’d taken a couple of flights to a few countries around the world.

We also met a great group of English lads and some American guys who we had a lot of fun with.  The Americans had had some look-a-likes among them too…

We knew Clinton was there but "dubya" and Sampras too?!?

On match day the England v USA clash kicked-off at 8:30pm so we had time to get in the mood beforehand.  Not wanting to get too boozy we opted for a sensible start time of 11am.

Courtney singing the national anthem

England goal!

The game was great!  Courtney’s first ever, live football match and it was England v USA in the World Cup finals!  Not bad.  (Lee’s first ever match was Arsenal v Norwich at Highbury…not exactly the same).  The 1-1 final score meant that we were still on speaking terms after the 90 minutes and after a couple of hours of total chaos trying to leave the stadium area, we made our way back to Hodge Podge to continue the party. 

Round-the-world in numbers: the story so far

Most of the counting we have been doing on this trip has been related to money - how much is this hostel room?  What is the exchange rate? Lee you've already spent this much on beer already, Courtney if we forgo using moisturizer we'll save this much money, etc, etc.

After just 2 days in New Zealand we realized that we were going to have a tough time keeping track of our daily expenditures, and therefore our budget, so we invested in a cheap calculator to help.  With the assistance of that same trusty little number crunching device, we decided to look at some other numbers related to this trip and the result is the following summary.  Our trip by the numbers...

5 number of continents visited
11 number of countries explored
144 number of days traveled
43 total number of places that we've stayed in
2 number of motorbikes rented

before the "incident"

50 percentage of rented motorbikes that were crashed
20 number of books read
18 number of flights taken
4 number of different cameras used (so far)
2,195 number of photos taken
10 different modes of transport used

One of the higher quality buses we rode on

35,317 number of miles traveled
24,901 distance in miles around the world at the equator
1 bag of insects eaten

Yum

15,000 height in feet from which we jumped out of a plane
15 number of beaches laid on
3 number of public rallies/riots/protests we have witnessed (civil unrest seems to be a theme on this trip)
9 number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites visited

Sydney Opera House - UNESCO World Heritage Site

190 cost in US dollars of one speeding ticket in Australia
26 number of bus journeys taken
23 percentage of bus journeys where we feared for our lives

This was a contender for worst bus trip

65 percentage of bus drivers in New Zealand named "Peter"
10 number of capital cities visited
8,500 approximate weight in pounds of the elephant we rode in northern Thailand

53 current age of former England captain and all-round footballing legend Bryan Robson, who we saw hanging out near our hotel in Bangkok
171* number of canadians met while traveling (*estimate.  actual number unknown but it felt like at least that many
27 number of new facebook friends
8 average cost in US dollars of a beer in Australia
0.45 average cost in US dollars of beer in Vietnam
15 number of dorm rooms stayed in
36 percentage of dorms that had smelly and/or noisy roomies
7.5 size of the flip flops Lee inherited after his were stolen from outside an internet cafe in Laos (they are a bit snug)

With only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup, we'll likely have plenty more statistics to think about over the next 4 weeks.

Athens on a Shoestring

After 2 amazing months in Southeast Asia we were headed for Europe, first stop Greece.  We really wanted to hit one of the Greek Islands for some more fun in the sun but, still reeling from our Australian spendfest, we decided not to splurge on the extra travel costs and instead hang out in Athens.  We had a week in Greece and two main goals: (1) spend as little money as possible, (2) see and do as much as we could.  Now, these two goals may seem at odds with one another but through some effort and a little bit of luck we did pretty well.  And so, we bring you our guide to Athens on a Shoestring:

Ride the Metro (or the bus, tram, or trolley).  The Athens Metro is pretty snazzy, no doubt due to the piles of money that was used to upgrade it for the 2000 Olympics.  We purchased 7-day travel passes for only 10 euros each that allowed to travel anywhere in Athens on the Metro or on any bus, tram or trolley.  It even got us out of town to the beaches along the southern coast.  Compare that to London where you’ll pay 4 pounds to go one stop!

Stay at Hotel Neos Olympos.  We found this place after reading some favourable reviews on TripAdvisor.  It’s located pretty close to the Larissa Train Station so getting to and from the major attractions in Athens is really easy.  We decided to get a private room but with a shared bathroom which saved us about 5 euros a night.  The room was nice and comfortable, if a little basic.  Also, as we were staying for 6 nights we were able to negotiate a 10 percent discount on the room.  Where this place really paid off for us budget travellers though was the free breakfast.  Each morning we filled up on cereal, boiled eggs, crusty bread, ham, cheese, and tea and coffee.  They also had these huge oranges which was great as we ended up sneaking a few extra oranges into our bag each day so that we didn’t have to spend money on lunch! Oh, and they had free internet.  Check ‘em out:  http://www.hotelneosolympos.com/

Visit the Acropolis on the first Sunday of the month.  We found out through TripAdvisor (again) that the Acropolis is free on the first Sunday of every month (that might not be accurate so if you’re going check beforehand.  It was definitely free on the first Sunday in May though).  The normal price of admission is around 12 euros so it was a huge savings.  Of course, as it was free the place was completely crawling with tourists but then the Acropolis is generally quite busy.  If you really want to beat the crowds the best time to go is probably early morning.  We just went at midday as we’re too lazy to get up that early.  If you’re not lucky enough to be in Athens on the first Sunday of the month and don’t want to pay to see the big ruins you could always just hike up Filopappos Hill.  It’s free, there’s a nice view of the Acropolis, and you can even have some fun with cameras as evidenced by this piece of photographic wizardry.

View the Temple of Olympian Zeus from afar.  These ruins are pretty cool and definitely worth seeing but do they really look that different whether you’re looking at them from 5 feet or 500 feet?  We decided to enjoy the Temple from outside the fence and save ourselves 2 euros a pop.

 Looks just as old from here

Walk around the famous Plaka.  That’s right, walk.  Don’t buy anything, that’ll cost money.  Just walk.  It’s quite a nice area and you might find yourself enjoying watching other people spending their own cash while yours stays safely tucked away in your pocket.

Watching these guys do their thing (whatever that is) was free too

Eat gyros.  They’re traditional, delicious, cheap, and fat free (well, maybe not the last one).  Throw in a Greek Salad to share and you’ve got a tasty meal that won’t break the bank.  This was our dinner every night, we couldn’t afford anything else.  Stupid Euro.

Things Seen on the Back of a Motorbike in Southeast Asia

4 Upside down dead pigs
1 television
1 family of five
50 dead ducks
1 full size refrigerator
1 six foot ladder
100 plus coconuts
1 Courtney
4 five foot tall porcelain vases
1 glass display case full of pastries and danish
1 large spool of chain link fencing
2 ironing boards
1 sleeping child
1 Lee
100 plus sheets of rice paper
1 Monk smoking a cigarette
10 large truck tires
60 plus pots and pans

Koh Lanta

After 7 weeks, 4 countries, 20 towns/cities, and over 3,000 miles our Southeast Asia adventure was nearing it's end.  After so much traveling, and with a week left before our flight to Greece, we decided to head to southern Thailand for some beach time.  We chose to go to the island of Koh Lanta as we had heard that the beaches are beautiful and it's a little quieter than some of Thailand's other islands.  Koh Lanta is on the west coast of southern Thailand in Krabi Province.  From Phnom Penh we decided to grab a cheap flight to Bangkok and then another to Phuket and from their we hopped on one of the numerous boats that ferry visitors to and from the islands in high season.

On the boat from Phuket to Lanta

 

We had one thing in mind when we decided to go to the Thai islands - bungalow on the beach!  After a bit of comparison shopping (we spent the first night in a place called Moonwalk Resort.  Nice bungalows and swimming pool but the owners weren't very friendly or helpful and it was a bit pricey) we found our happy place - Lanta Emerald.  Bungalow 30 feet from the beach, swimming pool, awesome beachside bar and friendly family running the place.  Perfect.


For the first couple of days we hung out on the beach and by the pool.  By the third day we were ready to do some more exploring.  At this point, we've been moving around so much that neither of us are very good at staying still for long.  Having learned nothing from our experience in Laos, we proceeded to rent another motorbike to get us around.  Bit of a risk given Lee's motorbike driving record (experience: 1 day/ accidents: 1) but it really was the only way to get around on the island.  That or forking over about $10 a ride to a local tuk tuk.  It only cost $7 to rent the bike for the whole day so we decided it was more important to save our money than our skin.  Fortunately there were no spills this time and Lee now considers himself an expert motorbike driver (experience: 3 days/ accidents: 1.  A much more respectable record).

Lanta Old Town

 

With the bike we were able to visit Lanta Old Town on the other side of the island and we also discovered some stunning secluded beaches along the southwest coast.  On a couple of occasions we attempted to find some markets to do some shopping but nobody quite knew when they would be open.  We received several tips that a rather large market would be open on Sunday up by the ferry pier,  We were even told the best time to go (3pm apparently).  So we scooted up there mid-afternoon only to find that it had finished up earlier that morning.

Secluded beach

 

In the evenings we tried a few different restaurants/bars for dinner and drinks but the best one on the island seemed to be our very own beach bar, the Ting Tong Bar.  Run by a friendly group of Sea Gypsies (there's actually a Sea Gypsy Village on Koh Lanta.  Seriously, look it up. ok here you go: http://www.koh-lanta-hotel.com/attraction.htm) the Ting Tong Bar was hopping every night.  "Toffee" seemed to be the main man and he spent each night making sure everyone was enjoying themselves.  The food was pretty good too.  Our favorite dish was probably the seafood Mussaman Curry, delicious!  We also met a nice couple from London, Chris and Sarah (they were actually our bungalow neighbors) and their friend Gary who we hung out with for a few days.

View of sunset from the Ting Tong Bar

 

Koh Lanta is definitely on the list of places we have to go back to.  To be honest, most of the places we visited in this part of the world are on that list.  Until next time.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Welcome to Cambodia - land of temples, daytime pajama-wearing, and naked babies!

From Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon if you're old school) we hopped a bus across the border to Cambodia's captial, Phnom Penh.  We arrived bang in the middle of the Buddhist New Year celebrations so a lot of things were closed and overall it was pretty quiet.

First impressions of Cambodia, or at least Phnom Penh, were that it is much more developed than we thought it would be.  There are not as many taller buildings as we saw in Bangkok and Saigon for example, but the city seemed to be spread over quite a large area and there's a pretty strong western influence, particularly in the restaurants and bars.

Another thing that struck us was the incredible number of really young children selling a variety of things from books to bracelets.  It was quite sad really.  There is obviously quite a significant amount of poverty throughout southeast Asia and we've seen children working in each country we've visited, but there seemed to be so many more of them here in Phnom Penh and they were so aggressive.  It becomes clear pretty quickly that the kids receive some training in the art of selling to tourists, each one running through the exact same sales pitch trying to encourage you to part with some cash.  These kids are so smart too.  If the initial sales pitch doesn't go well they ask where you're from.  Once they know they start to rattle off facts about your country - current president/PM, total population, capital city, last year's GDP - they know more about where you live than you probably do!

We would see the same kids over and over again and would try to make them smile and have some fun with them.  Our favorite little guy was called "Pop".  He had a great personality, gregarious and very smart.  He would hang out with us for a bit each day when he would come by selling books.  On our last day in Phnom Penh he gave all the girls hugs, you could literally see Courtney's heart melting.

Lee and Pop

Although the children selling things was pretty sad, we saw some genuinely happy sights.  There seemed to be a lot of young babies all over the place in PP and parents weren't too concerned about putting any clothes on them either!  Not surprised really, it was so hot when we were there.  Everywhere we'd go we'd see little babies without a stitch on, running around with big smiles on their faces, having the time of their lives!  "Oh my God!  That baby is sooooo cute!!" was heard on more than a couple of occasions.

The mystery we never quite got to the bottom of in PP was why a not insignificant number of people were out and about at any given time of the day, fully decked out in flannel pajamas!  Those things are hot even when it's minus 3 outside and you're on top of the covers with the AC on so wearing them while sweeping the sidewalk in 40 degree heat must be murder!

 A particularly fetching set of PJs on the back of a motorbike

Saigon

Unfortunately, due to our schedule we were only able to stay in Saigon (now named Ho Chi Minh City after Uncle Ho) for one day, but what we saw of it made us want to come back for more.  We arrived in the evening after a 5-hour bus ride from Mui Ne and the streets were bustling with all sorts of activity.  Saigon has a pretty cool vibe with tons of bars and restaurants to fit every budget and taste.  The night we arrived we actually ended up having some pretty good Mexican food at a place called Cantina, just off of Pham Ngu Lao Street in District 1 (one of the main backpacker areas).

The following day we visited the War Remnants Museum which contains artifacts and photographs from the Vietnam War (referred to as the "American War" in Vietnam).  The displays are graphic and pretty shocking and, unsurprisingly, very one-sided.  Up until the mid-90s the museum was actually called "Museum of American War Crimes."

One of the most interesting parts of the day for us was meeting a group of American Marines who organize tours to Vietnam several times a year for veterans.  We asked them what they thought of the museum and they said that what is displayed is real and happened during the war but is less than one percent of the full the story.  They pointed out that there were atrocities on both sides and it is the unfortunate reality of war.  We were also surprised to learn that on their tours they regularly meet with North Vietnamese veterans to give presentations about certain events during the war and engage in a dialogue.

After the museum we went to Reunification Palace but it was closed for lunch so we took a few snapshots and grabbed some lunch ourselves.