Vietnam so far!

---

Hello from Vietnam,



We have continued our trip by crossing the border from Cambodia to Vietnam by coach. This involved us taking a 6 hour coach that stops on the edge of Cambodia and the edge of Vietnam. The security men checked our passports and made sure that our visa’s allowed us to visit the country. With everything ok, we climbed back on the bus and headed for Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as it used to be called).



We spent 4 days in Ho Chi Minh City – exploring some of the area and getting a feel for what Vietnam is like. It appears more developed than Cambodia. Straight away you notice stone houses everywhere, rather than wooden houses and the roads have pavements. There are also LOADS more moped’s!!! They are everywhere! In fact there are more mopeds than there are cars, everyone weaves in and out of each other beeping their horn and letting others know they are overtaking.



They are also a lot more used to tourists as well, which means there are lots more people coming up to you, trying to sell you things like sun glasses, books, taxi rides or moto hire. It can get a bit tiring at times saying ‘no’ over and over again but we keep smiling and they eventually understand that we are not going to buy anything. We find it really difficult as it is their way of making a living, it is their job, so we feel bad not supporting them, but there are so many people selling things, that we soon realised we could not buy from everyone. In Cambodia we ended up buying things we didn’t really want or need just because we felt bad, so we decided we had to stop doing that!



Just like Cambodia, Vietnam has had a history full of war, although the war here was very different to the genocide in Cambodia. There is a lot of information explaining what happened in the war and museums to explain the history. One of the places we visited in Ho Chi Minh City was called ‘The War Remnants Museum’. This is a large museum that has been built to show all the old guns, tanks, planes, bombs and everything in between, left over from when America were attacking Vietnam. The bit I was interested in though was the photographs taken around the time of the war. These showed how children still went to school, although the schools were built in the ground with large holes dug and a roof put over to protect the children. The school’s also had a network of escape tunnels so that the children could run away if there were any attacks. As we moved further along the museum the photos started to get really graphic, showing scenes of fighting and war. In the end, I didn’t want to look at anything else so I had a sit down whilst Reubs finished looking. I have always tried to imagine the pain and torment that goes with war, all the individuals and innocent people who get caught up in it, but it is a very different thing to actually see it in the photos.



Whilst in Ho Chi Minh City we visited a few of the key historical spots. One was the ‘Reunification Palace’. This palace is a new palace that has been built on the site of an old palace. The old palace was bombed so they built this new palace in its place. It was the last place to be seized by the Viet Cong in the war. Two tanks crashed down the palace gates and claimed back the palace; this act brought an end to the war. The 2 tanks are left in the palace grounds as a reminder. Another place we visited was the Norte Dam (this has been built as an Imitation of the Norte Dam in Paris).



As well as exploring Ho Chi Minh City, we had a day cruising the Mekong Delta. This was a great day as we go to see locals trading produce off their boats. The locals come from all the tributaries in the Mekong to sell whatever they have; they show what they are selling by placing an example on the top of a bamboo pole. So for example, if you are selling bananas you put a bunch of bananas on top of the pole. They live on the boats so it is like a mobile home; they travel around selling in different areas. We also explored some of the little villages by bike and were rowed down a bit of the river by ladies in a dug out canoe. It was a fun day although it was really touristy; it allowed us to get to see places that without the tour we would not have been able to do.



Another activity that we undertook was to visit the CuChi Tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City. These are a large network of tunnels that were used in the war to escape the Americans. The tunnels are very interesting and have a huge network. They spread for over 200 km and have 3 levels. Each level is a bit smaller than the one above but all are only big enough to crawl through. The first level has rooms for different purposes: storing equipment, hospitals, schools or communication rooms. This meant that if they had ‘disappear’ from the view of American’s, they could still live underground. They couldn’t stay down their forever though as they need fresh air so it was a place to stay in emergencies. Because the other levels were even smaller, these were literally escape tunnels. The bottom level was incredibly small and in some of the tunnels they filled sections with water so that they were protected from gas attacks. We were able to crawl through a small section of the first level. Apparently they have made the tunnels bigger so ‘western’ people can fit through, but it was still very small and very dark. I would not have liked to use them at all.



From Ho Chi Minh City we headed up the coast. We visited a town called Mui Ne. This is a little town on the coast that has a fishing village close by. We hired bikes and explored the area, watched the fishermen and ladies at work went to the local market and visited the sand dunes. The sand dunes were incredible – one was bright red and the other was white. At the bottom there was a tiny stream called ‘Fairy Stream’ and this had both colours of sand as well as big stalagmite style formations in the river bed. It was a really interesting place to explore.



From Mui Ne we headed to the mountains and a place called Dalat. It was a beautiful drive to get there; we weaved through farming communities, fruit farms and coffee farms. We also explored a waterfall near by called Elephant waterfall! It was incredible. It was a huge waterfall that was so powerful that the spray got you wet. The most exciting bit though was climbing through some rocks to get to the back of the waterfall. You could then stand behind the waterfall. I have never experienced this before and it was so exhilarating. You got soaked in seconds.



We are now in Nah Trang and I am hoping to book onto a days diving course. We are not sure what else we will do, we will have to wait and see, but our plan is to work north to Hanoi.



Hope you all have a great last term.



Take care and be happy,



Miss T

---