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Published: July 23rd 2008
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So we landed in Ho Chi Minh city and within 1 min of leaving the airport we were already overcharged on our taxi, something we would have to get used to in the coming weeks. The first thing we noticed as soon as we ventured out was the number of motorbikes.....seriously you can not fit them into one picture as it seems anywhere you try to go you have hundreds of them coming from every direction. When trying to cross the smallest of roads you have to look left, to see whether any are coming in the direction of traffic, and then right, to make sure none are traveling down the wrong side of the road (which they normally are), to looking left again as they tend to just appear out of nowhere. Its insane! If you also include trying to answer 'no thanks' to all the people trying to sell you the latest photocopied books, dvd's, sunglasses, jewelery, t'shirts, hammocks, cigarettes, chewing gum, cyclo taxis, motor taxi's etc this becomes almost impossible at times!! Other times there is simply no gaps in the traffic, and you have to just walk out into the onslaught of motorbikes all beeping their
horns (which they do every 5 seconds as a way of letting you know they are there) and they somehow manage to just drive round you. We have however seen 5 motorbike crashes since weve been here, and quite a few near misses!!
The one thing we were well prepared for was the hassle we were expecting to get in generally buying stuff and walking around.....since weve been here we havent really felt hassled like in Thailand and Cambodia and most times after being asked if we'd like to buy something, or walking into a shop, the staff are either asleep, or not that bothered about selling to you. Infact, you feel quite bad getting up at 8/9am as the locals have been up since 6 (beeping their horns), but soon you realise that they sleep most of the day anyway so does this really count? Anyway, the point i was trying to make was that from all of the stories we had heard, we havent experienced any of this and really like Vietnam.
We visited the famous Cu Chi tunnels which are close to the Cambodian border, which is where the VC lived underground and fought the
americans and south Vietnamese army during the war. We got the chance to go down some of the tunnels and entrances to the tunnels (the one that shows Bex in is very small and a tight fit for someone who has enjoyed a few too many spring rolls). Infact, i had to lift Bex out as she got a little stuck and couldnt push herself out! The tunnels we got to shuffle down were 3 times as big as they were during to war and got smaller and smaller the longer you went down them - with no lights and both being claustrophobic we didnt last very long!! We also went to the war museum to find out a bit more about the history - its kinda shocking to hear some of the things the Americans did (like use 73m litres of chemicals during the war and all of the atrocities). It is a little one sided though as im sure the communists werent saints either!
After a few days of being in a busy city we decided to head to the nearest beach resort of Mui Ne, a coach journey that would take 6 hours to cover the
230 kilometers! Mui Ne wasnt the the best place weve been too, and we both burnt quite bad from the malaria tablets weve been taking. Also lets just say driving on the roads is an experience on its own over here, im not sure how the buses weve been on have not had a head on collision but were glad to be here still! The long trips (and they are bloody long) arent that bad though as they have a sleeper bus system over here - basically you can lie down or sit up so alot of the journey you find yourself asleep.
We did two long journeys up to Nha Trang (again another 6 hours and 200km) and ended up staying in Nha Trang for 6days as it was hot and had loads of places to eat once the sun had gone down. Nha Trang is a bit of a dump really - i say this as its just full of rubbish and you know why after observing the way the Vietnamese live. Basically, your standing next to a bin - most people dont use the bin and just chuck their rubbish on the ground. There are some
people that use the bins, only for some Vietnamese person to come along, pull the rubbish out to find cans and plastic bottles (we figure they get money for recycling) and then leave all of the rubbish on the ground which quickly gets blown around in the wind. You also get warned by everyone about being robbed whilst being here, both whilst walking around and whilst on the beach. Basically the locals come and steal your stuff if you venture out to the sea or if you look like your sleeping!! Its not that bad a place really and could be a stunning place.... could being a very loose term!
Now we had got very bored with the road travel (which was cheap, but Russian roulette in terms of arriving safely) so we decided to catch a flight to the next place, which was Hoi An. Hoi An is quite a quaint little place full of tailors, art galleries and loads of good places to eat (the best bit about traveling!). We didnt do alot here except sunbathe, shop and eat partly because it was 39c a little hot! Great place to explore though and we got the first
taste of the really cheap local brew - we found it for 9p a glass at the one place!!
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