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Published: January 31st 2012
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After our little hiccup, we settled nicely in Savannakhet. Leena's guest House had a nice gathering place where backpapers exchange stories, it was a nice change for us. Only about 1/4 of the merchants are open during this holiday, wich will last until Jan 29.12. I guess Laos celebrates the Lunar year also. ( we should have done a little more homework) At least we found a local bus that will take us to the Vietnam border (lao bao) for tomorrow morning 7.00 am they tell us . we rented bicycles again and travel around Savannakeht 100 000 population, the mekong river seperates laos from thailand, and you can see thailand from this side. As most places were closed, we ate at the leena's guest house. good food and company.
In the morning we arrived at the bus station early enough 6.45 am and were told no bus , maybe 9.00 am. we waited it out, at 10.00 am we finally got on and departed. This bus was like a ratty old school bus , for a 6 hrs bus ride to Lao Boa. It was a 2klm walk to the border crossing. Cold and windy and no bus to
the coast, we had planned on getting to Hue that day. We mannaged to get a small van (we think local bus), 4 rows of seats, fits about 12 , will pack in 18 to 24 for 150 000 dong (7.50 cad) that went to Don Ha, about 100 klm north of Hue. The drive was spectacular, with extraordinary scenery. The road bordered the Ben hai river that served as the dividing line beween south vietnam and north vietnam, also known as the DMZ (demilitarized zone), it consisted of the area on 5 klm on either side of the line, it saw some of the fiercest fighting in the american war. The mountains were exactly as you'd expect by watching war movies. We we're so crowded in the van with only locals , that we did not get a chance to take pictures. The Van dropped us off by a hotel, for 7.00 usd we had a bed and hot shower. Finally made it to vietnam. In the lobby of the hotel, a Mr Ho was telling us about a DMZ tour that he does for 30.00 usd.
In the morning we took him up on it, and offered
25.00. Which we knew was to high. But it would be personalized , by car with just sean and I and him. He spoke good english and seem to be quite knowledgable on the subject. We later found out , he fought for the south in the war. The tour consisted of a stop at the Truong Son National Cementary, a memorial of the tens of thousand North Vietnamese soldiers killed along the Ho chi minh trail. row after row of tombstones stretch across the hillside. The highlight of the tour is the Vinh Moc Tunnels - an entire village hid in these Tunnel for 7 years, 73 families lived here , 13 babies were born in the tunnels and most of them survive and live today. There's 3 levels to the tunnels, Because of the Holiday we were fortunate , as no tour buses . We basically had the tunnels to ourselves and Mr. Ho was able to take us to the 3 rd level, usually not part of any tour. This has been one of the highlight of our trip . Murphy's law- our camera's battery died , but manage a few pics.
Still no buses were
running, none from dong-ha. Again another decision was made and we took another mini-nus (the van) as far south as it went to Danang (4 hrs), pop 1.2 million,we now want to head as far south to the warmth. From Danang we took a sleeping bus to Nha Trang, left at 7.00 pm arrived Nha Trang 5.30 AM. This was a long day. I wish a could describe the sleeping bus, nothing we've seen before. its like a sleeper on a train, but your in a bus. We would have taken pictures but our batteries needed re-charged. From the bus station, we managed to ask where the ocean was, and we started walking toward it. It took some time before we got a guest house, they were all booked up. A Vietnamese family run guest house ( I think felt sorry for us and took us in and made room for us) at a cost . Nha Trang is a holiday destination for vietnamese , there is also many, many russian.
Finally, the ocean, it turned out a nice sunnyday, we had the entire day walking , sean swimming, a little shopping. The vietnamese family invited us to join
dividing north and south
mother and child looking north waiting for the men to come home them for different new year assortment of finger food with some tea, we joined them a few times juring the day, dont ask what we ate. Crossing the street is like an art, we think we mastered it to a T. Vietnam is quite different then laos or thailland, we like it so far. About the food, both Laos and vietnam have french colonial history so very easy to find a nice fresh baguette at each corner, which makes it easy to make vietnamese style subs. sean and i purchase a small kettle for boiling water to make our own coffee in the morning. a jar of peanut butter and jam and we are set for the day. a bowl of vietnamese soup for lunch or diner , yummy.
While walking , we stumbled on the Nha Trang Catherdral church, it was quite beautifull , a nice change from all the temples we've been seeing, on sunday i tried to go to a service, but must of noted the wrong time , as i missed it by 2 hours.
We spent 4 days in nha trang before taking another mini-bus (Small van) to Mui Ne a small beach
side town further south, 200 klm from ho ch minhn ( Saigon ). That night we had a seafood diner on the beach.
PS: All the pics that show laos to vietnam are taken in Nha Trang,
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Melodie
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Love this pic.. Very nice!