Whirlwind tour of Vietnam

Since our last real blog we've traveled the entire length of Vietnam, between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

We had heard before our trip that Veitnam is Beautiful, but we had never expected it to be so amazing.

You all saw pictures of Halong Bay and that trip still remains one of the most enjoyable of the last month.

We were extremely happy that we decided to fly to Nha Trang, because it saved us a binch of time and cost only slightly more than other forms of transportation.

We only regret passing over Hoi An, the tailors village, where Elinor was looking forward to having a heep of clothes cutom made dirt cheap. there are tailors in almost every town and city here so we figured it would not be a huge loss to fly directly to Nha Trang.

Nha Trang was beautiful and Elinor could have stayed there until we go home. (see pics) Nice beaches and the weather was impecable. Blue skies and steamy hot beach weather. Top that off with some very exotic looking beach bars/restaurants and it's a perfect little vacation paradise.

We booked a very nice party boat trip (Mama Linh boat trip) for $5 per person that included: a band, lunch, snorkleling, visiting several islands, volleybal, floating bar, and a fruit party with Pineapple, dragon fruit, Durian (stinky fruit), Lychees, and some leechee looking fruit.
We met some nice english people and a cool South African guy who I could talk to in Dutch (he spoke Afrikaans).

We almost booked a tivket top go directly to HCMC, but some people told us (and the Lonely Planet verified) that Dalat in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, is a very nice place to visit.

So, Dalat it was. On the way over we stopped at the P Klong Garai Cham Towers, the Ngoan Muc Pass, and the Dragon Pagoda just outside of Dalat. (see pics)
When we arrived in Dalat at about 3 pm it was pouring and it didn't stop until about 7 pm (it was also "freezing" cold because of the altitude). It was so depressing to have traveled for 5 hours from a beautiful sunny beach just to sit in your room while it rained for 4 hours straight.
Supposedly (according to the Lady who ran our guest Hotel - Dreams Hotel) it only rained in the afternoon, while in the morning it was warm with a nice crisp breeze. We found ou the next day she was right. The weather was so refreshing after the humidity we have dealt with for the last month. About 25 degrees Celsius with a nice gust mouintain air contantly cooling you off just enough to be comfortable.
We took a nice tour around Dalat with a very nice guide, who knew great English and seemed to know quite a biot about the Area. Dalat is the home of many of the vietnamese artists and avant-garde types. It makes for a pretty nice atmosphere.

After the tour we decided to get a ticket directly to HCMC. With only about 19 days left in our trip and Cambodia and some of Thailand still undiscovered by us, we needed to seriously start thinking about time.
So after spending last night at Allez Boo (a nice bar here in HCMC - Saigon) and today at the market and wondering around the city, we are doing half a day at the Cuchi tunnels (the Vietcong used these to stay hidden from the Us troops) and shoot some AK-47s tomorrow. We will visit the war museum and do some last mionute partying and planning befoire we take a 2 day, 1 night Mekong Delta trip to Pnom Phen, Cambodia. We found a nice travel agent in the Lonely Planet (Delta adventures) and they organized an all inclusief (except for drink and food) trip for $18 p.p.
That's boats, tours, buses, accomodation, that's incredible.

Well, it feels (to me) like we have so much to see in so little time. Elinor's having a great time, but wouldn;t mind sleeping in our own bed for a night or two.

It's been very heartwarming to receive all your comments and messages so far. If we don't respond please don;t take it peronally. These internet cafe's are cheap but they still charge money and the fingers get a little numb after a while. Again no spell check this time.

Enjoy the pics,

Keep the comments coming,

We love and miss you all,

Elinor and Ishai

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