My Son to HCM

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My (pronounced me ) Son is an area of brick hindu towers from the Champa kingdom...very similar to the Prambanam in Indonesia..this is due to trade links with india and Indonesia. Huge areas of History which is just ignored in the western world. The best temples were bombed by the US because they thought VietCong were hiding there. UNESCO is restoring some of the towers but there are visible bomb craters. It was nice and shady with a breeze making it less hot. There was a small museum and some Hindu carvings including ligmams and yoni.

We went back to Hoi An partly by bus but eventually caught a boat for a cruise down the muddy river. It was fairly interesting seeing the overloaded river craft and duck farms on the bank until ominously the engine cut out...not a problem except that we were booked on a bus for Nha Trang. Eventually it got going and then they "hijacked" us to visit a wood carving village.

The "night" bus was very interesting. Three rows of double bunks with you feet sloting under the person in front. We were lucky to get the rear upper bunks which meant we could store our gear behind us and stretch out down the aisle. There were 2 very large German guys beside us but they seemed to fit. It was a bit disconcerting for the little Vietnamses guy who had to squueze between us in the middle berth. Every couple of hours there was a toilet /food stop but I actually slept for most of the night.

It was quite lovely seeing the islands of the Nha Trang bay in the very early morning but it was a bit of a tourist town and the beaches looked grotty so we transferred to a mini bus for the trip up the mountain to Dalat. They packed as many people as possible into the bus so we could barely move .

The driver has ADHD and spent the trip turning round to talk to us , driving on the wrong side of the road, constant horn beeping, and overtaking around blind corners. Fabulous views down the valley and evidence of huge landslides. It got a lot cooler as we climbed and there were huge greenhouses for vegetables and flowers as well as coffee plantations and some minority tribal houses

Didnt think much of Dalat...its mainly a busy town with a lake down the hill and a busy market. We stayed at the Nice Dreams hotel for $8. Had a nice dinner at the Wild Sunflower..superb service, chicket and mushrooms and pork in a claypot with creme caramel and a bottle of local red for $10.

Spent the next day travelling to Ho Chi Minh. LOts of traffic so very slow. Some nice loo stops. Catholic churches with statues of zoo animals in the grounds. Near Dalat there were pine trees and then rubber and teak plantations. Saw a motor bike with 10 deead duks draped from the handle bars.

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