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Published: July 29th 2008
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Nha Trang Beach
I spent a lot of time here, frying my body. The bus system in Vietnam is awful, I don't think I can say that enough. But it's cheap! So we suck it up. It only cost us like $25 to get all our bus rides from the North to the South of Vietnam. However they were long rides where you are shoved to the back and packed in with the foreigners so the locals can have their own double seats at half price. The drivers are insane! And the roads, not the greatest. A lot of people pop sleeping tablets and valium to get them through the night, I wasn't that smart.
Nha Trang was our next stop, I was really excited to get here because I was missing the beaches. Here we did a boat trip, with some uncomfortable snorkelling. There were little tiny jellyfish all over the water that constantly stung you. So I decided that I wasn't getting back in there until they put the floating bar out. Our boat had a little session with a local band, that consisted of the tour guides, they grabbed someone from every country to sing one of their popular national songs. A guy from Australia had to sing the Kangaroo
Partying at the Sailing Club
We somehow swung free drinks for a massive group of backpackers this night. song with them. When they found us Canadians in the crowd they said 'Oh, same same as Australia'. Haha, I don't think I would have known how to sing the Kangaroo Song. I almost forgot to mention, Nha Trang is the city that held the Miss Universe Pageant, so we were always on the watch for the contestants, we saw their official vehicles one day parked at a hotel but never saw them. It would have been cool to watch but tickets were $5000, so that is slightly out of the budget. We got a little too much sun in Nha Trang, by the end of our 6 days there I looked like someone painted a white swimsuit on my red body... ouch. I peeled for 2 weeks after.
Our last stop in Vietnam was Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). This is where the majority of the Vietnam War took place although you'd never be able to tell until you go to the Cu Chi Tunnel and War Remnants Museum. The traffic in this city is the most insane you will ever see, no one follows lanes, it's just thousands of motorcycles all packed in. Being a pedestrian is
Streets of Saigon
This is the most unbusy street you will ever find in Saigon. It took us over an hour to get out of town to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. They have some insane traffic. dangerous business, every time you walk across the street it's pretty much a death wish because there are no lights. You'd be surprised how much you get used to it, whenever there are lights now I don't even notice I just start walking, weaving through traffic. We were in Saigon for a really short time so we tried to fit in as much as possible. First day we checked out the market, they have the nicest knock-offs of everything, I guess because they come from China. I have fallen in love with the markets out here, so much good stuff, it's going to be weird to walk into Wal-Mart and not be able to barter with the sales clerk.
On our second day we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is where the North Vietnamese were stationed during the war. It is full of tiny underground tunnels, that some people lived in for 20 years, we crawled through them for 5 minutes and it was too long. We also got to see a captured American tank, all the weapons they used in the war and booby traps they set up. Some insane things, this was one of my
favourite tours so far, quite informative, and really an eye-opener to what went on. After this we went to the War Remnants Museum. This museum is basically filled with pictures taken by war journalists. It follows their film, the pictures are very graphic and depressing, but I'm so glad we went. The worst are pictures of children who are born after the war with deformities because their parents were exposed to Agent Orange or other toxic war chemicals. It's just so hard to imagine living there in that time. On a lighter note we went to a water puppetry show that night which was really cute, I can not figure out how they do it though! The puppet masters weren't even wet after the show, and the whole time I thought they were holding their breath under water and then going back stage for air.
Well that was the end of Vietnam! Really an amazing country, I was not expecting to stay this long, but I kind of fell in love with the place.
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