Ho Chi Minh City, Tim Burton, on the Terraces & up the Bassac.

Asia » Vietnam
May 10th 2008

Published: May 12th 2008

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Batboy Batgirl

Jannie & Edwin

In Jannie & Edwin's kitchen in HCM City.

Ho Chi Minh City

Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City around tea-time from Mui Ne. We follow Jannie's instructions; hail a taxi & ask for Phu My Hung. We have to keep an eye out for a KFC (phtoo!). We find it & find Jannie sitting outside with Edwin & a couple of her colleagues. We head off to her apartment. What a lovely place; 2 bedrooms (one is en-suite with a walk in-wardrobe!), a spacious living area & kitchen and another bathroom. So, what to do in HCM City? We spend the next week doing some sightseeing: The War Remnants Museum, which used to be known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes (talk about subtle), The Binh Soup Shop (the headquarters of the VC in HCM City during the American war and where the storming of the American embassy in 1975 was planned), Reunification Palace (which actually looks like a sixties town hall), the Opera House & the Peoples' Committee building (beautiful examples of French-era colonial architecture), Propaganda Lives (a fantastic shop that sells copies of the old propaganda posters from the American war & some very fine clothes), Mr Fashion (a rather chavvy-type clothes shop

Mariammam Temple in HCM City

One of a couple of Hindu temples in HCM City.

that has a weekly changing window display. It actually becomes a damned good landmark), dine on some of HCMC's finest Indian food courtesy of Jannie's Indian friend Robin and visit brew-pubs (three). We watch "The Quiet American" and then go out to the locations in the film-all good fun. We have drinks at sunset on the roof of the famous Rex Hotel and enjoy some great Pho Bo (the national dish of beef soup with noodles, lime, chillies and fresh herbs.) Speaking of Pho Bo, we attempt to use our new-found language skills by the river near Jannie's one day. We sit at a little place and order two bowls of this lovely dish thinking the pronounciation was correct but the young lady comes back with two bottles of coke. Obviously we have a long way to go yet.

Whilst we're in HCMC Jannie shows us photos of the school trip to Sa Pa and we think we CANNOT leave Viet Nam without visiting. We find out that if you fly to Ha Noi from HCMC after 8pm it's really cheap... A couple of days later on our flight to Ha Noi I am seated next to a Vietnamese

Saigon Opera House

French colonial in style. A beautiful building.

businesswoman (Phuong!) who owns not one but THREE day spas! I can tell that Graham is highly excited. He's already thinking of a full-body massage. Phuong is fascinated by our trip and asks all kinds of questions about our budget, money etc. that no British person would ever dare ask. She shows me one of her company brochures - it's all very upmarket, dermabrasion etc. She gives us her card and we promise to call her the next day.

back in Hanoi

The next day proves interesting as we try to find a new bar called "A Phu", owned and designed by film director Tim Burton. We eventually find it down a narrow passageway. It's very small and VERY dark. It also has a spiral staircase to get up to the main bar on the first floor. Some of you may know of my fear of spiral staircases. The thought of having to ascend one in near darkness is pretty daunting. I cling to the handrail and with much coaxing from Graham, get to the top and find myself a seat in the gloom next to another couple. I say a cheery "Hello" and realise a few seconds later

Binh Soup Shop

This unassuming building was the VC headquarters in Saigon during the American war. The taking of the American embassy was planned here.

that the other couple are actually us reflected in a huge mirror! I felt a bit of a fool I can tell you. There are black and white footprints on the floor to guide you around the place and a hangman's noose in one corner. The Vietnamese barman motions toward a booth with floor cushions at the back thinking we might want to be even more secluded! In the far booth, a young Vietnamese couple are listening to The Carpenters on their laptop! Easy listening in a Gothic nightmare; words fail us.
After morning coffee in Tim Burton's bar we make our way to Phuong's day spa and are treated like royalty. We both have a fantastic Swedish massage and come out feeling fantastic.

Sa Pa

We have come back to Ha Noi as it is the departure point for trains to Sa Pa. We take the overnight train and share a sleeper compartment with two Australians who are good company. The beds are tad short for Graham, which is actually an understatement. We are awoken at dawn by the guard to announce our arrival in Lao Cai, which is close to the Chinese border. We share a mini-bus

The Jade Emperor's Pagoda.

This room depicted the varying levels of hell one would go through if they'd been naughty. But I liked the shafts of light.

to Sa Pa with a French family who sing songs at 6am. I'm impressed. Sa Pa sits at 1645m. We climb higher and higher through the mist. Graham can feel pressure changes in his nose. The mist clears and the scenery is spectacular. It's just as I imagined; tiered rice paddies, lots of trees and looming mountains. We see the first of many hill tribes we'll encounter throughout the coming days.

We stay at the Sa Pa Summit Hotel and have a room with a balcony at the top of the building with good views. We can see Fanxipan, Vietnam's highest peak at around 10000 feet or so. The mist comes in and out and the temperature fluctuates wildly. We intend to go for a short walk but the rigours of the overnight sleeper and the dawn start have done for us. We get into our bed "for a short nap"at 9am and wake at 3pm! We emerge from our duvet and head into town. We book two full-day walking trips with one of the oldest and most repected guiding companies. That evening while we are sitting in the Red Dragon (a British pub upstairs & tearoom downstairs) there

Outside the war Remnants Museum

This museum used to be known as the Museum of Chinese & American War Crimes. An interesting museum with a fantastic exhibition by photographer Sean Sutton on landmine clearance in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos.

is a storm with thunder, lightning and torrential rain. The sky is lit up every other minute. We can only hope that we won't be trudging through endless rain the following day.

Hooray! The day is sunny and dry. We meet our guide Hao at 9.30 and are also joined by a group of H'Mong women clad in indigo. They are very short and slight and their skin is stained blue and green from the natural dyes used to colour their clothes. We are walking to Lau Chai at least 600m downhill. We descend the steep slopes of Sa Pa into the valley and end up walking along by the side of the river. As you descend the mist comes in & out at different levels. The only problem is that this is one of the most popular walks and at times the walk becomes a bit of a human crocodile. I can see that Graham is a bit annoyed by the other groups of tourists but there's nothing to be done. It's a bit treacherous in places and two of the H'Mong women give me a hand as I come close to twisting an ankle and end up

Post Office.

The central post office in HCM City. As beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

walking like a victorian lady. One of the women has a baby on her back, which she breastfeeds whilst walking! I am full of admiration. They're obviously used to an incredibly physical life and trot over the land in plastic sandals while we have walking boots. A large French couple have a couple of scary moments going down one particularly slippy bit and are nearly over. As we cross rice fields on the terrace edges the French woman decides that balance is not her forte & just begins walking through the irrigation channel. The H'Mong women stay with us until we stop for our picnic lunch. They are going on to their village. I buy some of their indigo handicrafts because they rely on tourists to supplement their farming income. After lunch we lose most of the other tourists who may have been on half-day trips. Hao takes through some villages where we see schools, a clinic and a maternity room. UNICEF fund a lot of projects in this area and we notice the children have the UNICEF logo on their school bags. Hao explains that condoms and health talks have really helped with birth control in these villages. The

A... Phu Cafe

Strangely, this is in a cafe owned by film director Tim Burton in Hanoi. It's so dark inside that when Gaynor said hello to people at the other table, she didn't realise that she was talking to her own reflection in a mirror.

overall impression of this area is stunningly beautiful. It is becoming swamped with tourists but this depends on the time of year. We see some photos of it clad in snow & it looks very winter-wonderlandish. You get back into Sa Pa & are immediately accosted by tribeswomen (mainly Black Hmong) asking you to, "Buy something from me?" We go for a coffee & decide to sit outside. Bad decision. Gaynor looks at one woman's cushion covers & soon has a crowd of Black H'mong ladies around her. Wee G examines them closely but none come up to scratch. When she finally manages to disperse this motley crew, a wizened old granny asks if I would like some marijuana. I say no thank you. Then she asks whether I would like hashish, I say no. Then her crowning statement is, "You want opium?" and she doesn't mean the perfume. I politely decline this most generous of offers. Time for a shower & clean up. In the hotel there is no electricity. Is this another power-cut? Yes, it is but not your normal kind. For four days of the week the power is shut off to the town between 5-8pm. This

Scottish Cup

I did not expect to see a replica of the famous football trophy from back home.

means that wherever you go after 6pm it's dark until the power comes back on.

The next morning Hao comes to our hotel to collect us for our second walk. Today's destination is Taphin, a Red Dzao village. A beautiful day heralds us as we walk out of Sa Pa & onto a quiet track. We have around 12km to do today. There are no other foreigners on this walk so far as many choose to take a bus to Taphin. This bodes well. After a few km we come to a Black H'mong village called Martra. We walk into the village and we are greeted by the following: Children sitting on the family buffalo, two kids running around half naked (one of whom is albino), we pass the local primary school where a couple of laddies hit Gaynor with whippy-type sticks, then cross a rice field where another young lad comes running up carrying a live snake he has caught by hand for lunch. It's all slightly different than going for a walk on the moors! The scenery round this area is not as steep but just as beautiful & it's much hotter than yesterday. We pass more

What's up Pussycat?...Whoa, whoa, whoa, wo wo.

Relationship made in heaven. Sa Pa in northweest Vietnam.

Black H'mong houses & villages, people tending buffalo & getting on with what they do on a daily basis. A million miles away from what we are accustomed to. We stop for lunch at a shop. Hao knocks up some instant noodles in the kitchen of this mud-floored shop. The owner's wife is a school-teacher here & is busy nursing her baby. There are three mutts running round and we're sitting on garden furniture for gnomes again. Outside stands an old Soviet-era Minsk motorcycle. These became rather popular here as there is a club devoted to them in Ha Noi. It's chunky & looks just like it can cope with the terrain round these parts. After lunch we walk into Taphin. First stop is a cave. On the way up to the cave we have gathered three Red Dzao women, who will want to sell us something. Three kids come running up trying to rent their torches. They keep shouting, "Compare, compare." There is electricity but you still need more then the paltry light the lights themselves cast. Gaynor is not going in but I do. A chap turns on the electricity & I take one of the kids with

View from the room

The view from our hotel room in Sa Pa.

me. Crikey! It's dark, wet, muddy, slippery and very close at times. A lot of bending and scrabbling around is done. I only stay in for 15 minutes or so but apparently it runs for 10km exiting in another province. It was apparently used by Vietnamese soldiers in some conflict with China. I am led to believe that there are multiple ways through. Jannie's school party went in there when they were here & the kids all came back out with scrapes & scratches. I have a few. When I get out I find Gaynor getting ready to have a herbal bath, in a barrel, of all things. There are three of these, which are curtained off. Each is filled with very hot water & secret medicinal herbs, which bubble up like super-bubble-bath. It's straight out of an old western. I peek round the curtain & there's my beautiful wife chewing her knees in a barrel. Hao, the guide, is in another one behind another curtain. Both of them seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. They both emerge glowing & feeling rather giddy. It's on through the village & we purchase a few bits and bobs from our ladies &

Play misty for me

The first of two walks in Sa Pa. The mist would come in, go out, come in, go out...

one invites us into her sister's house for tea.

We are leaving the next day on the night train back to Ha Noi. We share our compartment with two Vietnamese teachers who have been on a field trip. An awful night's sleep is had and we arrive in Ha Noi at 04.15 in the morning. You know what it's like folks when you have had a crap sleep & not enough of it. Everything feels slightly surreal as we walk through the dark, dark streets towards the lake. Our flight back to HCM City is not until lunch-time. We get to the lake as darkness is very slowly changing to light. It's incredibly humid & people are out taking there morning exercise. The lighter it gets, the more people there are. They jog, walk briskly, do Tai Chi, martial arts or just swing their arms around and wiggle their hips. This happens at the end of the day as well. We both think it's great. A part of the national consciousness. A FIT POPULATION BUILDS A STRONG NATION. It's definitely a reminder of times gone past. You saw this in Russia & Germany. We get back to HCM City

Black Hmong women

These women follow you all the way down from Sa Pa town (600m) hoping to sell you something when you get to th bottom. One of a number of ethnic minority tribes in the area.

& return to Jannie'& Edwin's hoose for a few days before we head into the Mekong Delta. Jannie takes Edwin off to Phu Quoc for a well deserved holiday & we head off to Vinh Long on the banks of the mighty Mekong. before we leave, we decide to have a massage at the Foot Massage Club. What an experience. Prior to the massage I go the loo. As I come out, one of the masseurs slaps another across the bum. I chuckle to myself and as I go back into the foyer, she slaps me across the bum. Does this bode well or not is the question? After changing into shorts & a T-shirt, we are led into a darkened room along with about eight other fortunate souls. The masseurs spend an hour gently massaging your feet & legs. Then the pain begins. For the next thirty minutes you are twisted, pulled, knees in your back, generally manhandled and someone walks up your back, in Wee G's case it's a bloke & in my case a woman. Wee G steals a glance & the pair of them are holding hands as they walk up and down. We think it's

Feet

A skinny bamboo bridge with an old fellow at one end charging you 5000 dong to cross.

for the sake of balance rather than romance. There are many huffs, puffs, groans, giggles & other noises from the room. It's the best massage yet, especially in terms of experience. When they are finished with you, you change & outside they ply you with jasmine tea & sweeties. All of this for a fiver or thereabouts.

Mekong Delta

We decide to head for Vinh Long as it is said to be a good base from which to explore the Mekong Delta. A shortish bus ride from HCM City. We go for the cheapest ticket & it's a local bus. I barely fit in the seat. There are no rules on these buses. You can eat, smoke, make noise; pretty much anything really. We are deposited at a bus station & I have to go off with a moto driver to find a place to stay. We pull up at one hotel and the flunky in the monkey outfit basically shoos us away. We only wanted directions! We find a guesthouse above a fruit market, overlooking the Mekong. I love the way they advertise luxuries such as tv and then you switch it on and it's all Vietnamese.

Rice Fields

The landscape here is just covered in these terraced fields.All dug out by hand & buffalo and way up on some seriously steep slopes.

There is a cafe opposite & it does the best iced-coffee ever. You could drink loads of it but you'd probably give yourself nightmares or wet yourself. We nip into a supermarket where I seem to be the centre of attention. It's ok folks I had my clothes on! We reckon it was my height. Gaynor finds a Sloggi stall & gets excited at the prospect of a new bra. It's not to be as the sizing is far too difficult to work out. Gaynor does try to explain our sizing system for bust size but it is as impenetrable to them as their system is to us. Gaynor thanks them very much but they really want to help her. We get away & back to our room, which is SO hot, that neither the a/c nor the fan, even together, manage to cool the room sufficiently.

We don't do much the next day but take a ride to see a Confucian temple & get my sandals fixed. We book a tour for the next day to go to a floating market and round and through Anh Binh island in the Mekong. We are up relatively early & breakfast

Black Hmong village.

Second walk in the Sa Pa area. We cut through this village, where there was an albino kid, then down past a school where kids hit Gaynor with sticks and then across a rice field where a boy came running up with a snake he'd caught (by hand) for lunch. Radical eh!

is beef noodle soup (Pho Bo) in the market. We meet our guide Han & we're off down the Mekong towards Cai Be floating market. This market is on Anh Binh island which sits in the Mekong. The island has a population of around 55,000 and dissected by hundreds of channels from wide to very narrow. Water is a huge part of people's lives in this area of Viet Nam. 70% of Viet Nam's rice is grown in the Delta region. As you go along houses are slightly raised and sandbags are used to protect against rising waters during the wet season. On the way to the market, rice barges pass us, as does a wedding party. Please bear in mind that it's only 08.00am. Travelling across a section around a mile wide towards Cai Be shows you just how big the Mekong is here. We get to the market and you can tell what people are selling by looking at what's on their bamboo pole. They stick a bit of their produce on the end of a stick so you know what they sell. It's quite a sight as the market place is a junction (huge) in the water.

Clothes Drying

These are dyed with indigo (home-grown) about three times before being worn. as the dye is unfixed, your skin turns a lurid green.

There are channels going off in all directions through the island. We move off as we are going to see how they make sweeties & pop-rice (pop-corn but with rice). The sweeties are chews & the base recipe is; coconut milk, rice powder & malt. They also use colourings & other secret ingredients too. My dad would have liked this as he was a sugar-boiler when he was a young man. It's just like watching rock being made. After all the mixing, it's all stretched out, then cut to the required lengths, left to cool & then wrapped up. Except for one difference. When they make rock at home they don't let a toddler walk on it after it's stretched out as they did here. We get to sample some as they want us to buy. We then move onto the pop-rice. The chappie has a huge bowl full of sand sitting on a longan-fruit-shell-fired stove. He pops in a little palm oil into the sand then stokes the fire. His experience tells him when it's hot enough and he pops in a shovel of rice. He stirs it about in the sand & when it's ready he sieves it

Gimme, gimme, gimme...

Wee piggies noshin'. We're starting to get a thing about pigs.

to get rid of the sand & then sieves it again in a finer sieve to get rid of husks & any un-popped rice. Then it goes to a couple of guys who have been mixing up a sweet syrup & in goes the rice. Once mixed they tip it into a wooden mould & proceed to flatten it out. I'm glad they wear gloves. Then it's chopped and bagged. It's a cottage industry, which is normal here. If you did this at home how they do it here, you'd be closed down immediately on health & safety grounds. We move on to a smaller channel where we change boats & a wee wifie rows us for a bit. It's lovely: Quiet, pretty and you get a fairly intimate view of how people live. We moor up & go to visit a bonsai garden. We are heading for a restaurant where lunch will be taken but also where we pick up our bicycles. Please bear in mind dear readers that Wee G has NOT ridden a bicycle for 35 years. I'm well chuffed that she has decided to have a go. We try in the car-park. On she gets &

Guide Hao & Us.

A sole French fellow passed & took this for us. Quite a nice backdrop don't you think?

needs to change her bike immediately as the current one is not to her liking. She gets another. On she gets & she's off. She's heading towards two very large storage jars. I say, "Use the brakes." but she uses her feet to stop & goes into the one of the jars. I ask her why she did not use the brakes and she tells me she can only do one thing at a time and that was watching her feet on the peddles. She doesn't give up yet, bless her. We get onto the road & off she goes. Feet at ten-to-two, eyes firmly fixed on her feet & moving in a snake-like pattern across the road. After five yards she's off the bike saying I'm going back to see the snake (there was a python at the restaurant). I thinks she's done rather well considering her absence from cycling. I go off for half an hour & on my return I find out that Gaynor asked for some water for the python & then put it into it's cage & spent a wee while chatting to it. Lunch consists of Elephant Ear fish. This is presented to you

Groovy Shapes

The rice fields can make some fantastic groovy patterns.

standing up & you make your own spring rolls with it. Lovely! We begin to head back to Vinh Long & Han asks us if we are busy for the rest of the day. We say no & this surprises him. He asks us if we would like to visit his family in their village & make pancakes. We're up for that. Back at Vinh Long, Han's lined up a friend with another scooter to take us both the 40km to his parents. I go with Han & Wee G with his friend, who has a pink Mini-Mouse scooter & a helmet decorated with Mini-Mouse stickers. On the way to the village we stop to buy some cake as it's customary to bring something. We pull off the road, go along a dusty path & stop at a neighbour's house as you cannot go any further on the bike. All around you there are verdant green rice fields, one of which has two graves sitting in it which are brilliant white against the bright green. We have to cross a monkey-bridge. You do look like a monkey as you cross as it's only a single bamboo pole, a couple of

Minsk

You don't see as many of these as you once did apparently. A Soviet era Minsk built for men!

supports stuck in the river-bed & some wire. We have to cross it later after imbibing in a fair bit of rice wine. We get to the family house and are very warmly welcomed. It's like an extended family as neighbours are there as well as immediate members and a couple of cousins thrown in for good measure. We are given tea & coffee. We give the cake. Yes, Gaynor does help to make pancakes as I watch a duck being slaughtered, bled, plucked & prepared (they use the blood as an ingredient in a soup of some sort). they don't waste any of it really. This is all turning into a major do. We are sat at a table with dad & sundry other menfolk. Out come the prawn pancakes, rice, stewed duck and stewed pig's skin. I try it all, even the duck's lung. Out comes the rice wine and we share two small glasses between 6-8 of us. Neither glass is empty for long & this stuff's stronger than your average spirit. There are many cries of "Yo!"(a toast) & you down half a glass in one go then pass it on. It comes back to you

Texting

the picture that most want to capture these days. Tradition co-existing with hi-end technology. Red Dzao woman checking her messages.

fairly quickly. We have to leave shortly after, as it will be getting dark. Group photos are taken, there is much hand-shaking & cam ern (thank you in Vietnamese), lots of waving as we leave & have to encounter the monkey bridge again. We are off back to Vinh Long when Han gets a puncture. Gaynor shoots off into the night & we have to find a puncture-repair man. We leave for Chau Doc tomorrow as that is where we catch the boat for Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

We are up, packed & find ourselves on the back of two scooters on the way to the bus stop fro Chau Doc. There is no bus stop. The drivers wait with you & flag the bus down. It's a small bus & I cannot actually fit into the seat & Gaynor has difficulty with this too. It's meant to be a four-hour journey. We doubt this somehow. We stop around an hour later & told we need to change buses. We are befriended by a lady who buys us some sticky rice as we wait at this bus-station cum petrol station. After many false starts our new bus comes along.

In a Barrel

That's where she is. Sitting in a herbal bath in a barrel. I had just been down a dark cave (literally not metaphorically), came up & she's behind a curtain sitting in a barrel. Whatever next?

It's already packed. There are vendors getting on as well as we pass our sacks over the heads of other passengeers & take our seats in the gangway on garden gnome stools. I hope it's not going to be like this all the way but become resigned to it. We stop again as we have to board a ferry. A Buddhist nun beckons us to her side & tells us to hold on. There is a small crowd around us and we are certainly the centre of attention. However, it's Gaynor who's the major player here. One woman is talking to everyone & to Gaynor and stroking her own nose. Gaynor says, "Yes, I do have a long nose. Thank you for pointing this out to me". It's all very funny indeed. We eventually get back on the bus & we are told to sit at the back. We're off again. We shed other passengers and 10 minutes before we get to Chau Doc, the heavens open. The driver can barely see out of his window & the bus leaks. We pull in around six & a half hours after we left. We don't yet have a hotel, it's hammering

Red Dzao Lady

She invited us into her sister's for a cuppa, but no biccies.

it down, we are definitely going to get soaked. We find two moto-drivers, get thoroughly soaked and find a fairly comfy hotel.

Next day we get our boat tickets. We choose the fast boat (only 4 hours compared to 9 hours for the slow boat) & pay an extra few dollars. Gaynor visits a pharmacy to see if they have her her asthma medication, which she ran out of in Thailand & has been making do with something else. Now Gaynor has asked in EVERY pharmacy in both north & north east Thailand and all over Viet Nam for this medication & has been knocked back every time, with a, "Sorry, we no have." She asks in this one & by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin they not only have it but they have it in jumbo size. Wee G staggers out deliriously happy & we have to sit down. It's all too much to cope with.

D-Day. We are leaving Viet Nam today. We've had eight weeks here & have enjoyed it immensely. It's a very very beautiful, exciting & warm country. Poohman knows what I mean as he was here a few years ago. We are

On the Hoof

Not much of this left. Market in Sa Pa

up, get breakfast & change our dong for dollars with a shopkeeper. A wizened old geezer takes us to the hotel from where we catch our boat. He pedals his cyclo slowly & carefully & very kindly carries our bags down to the wee dock. We tip him generously of course. We fill out exit forms for Vietnamese immigration and are given visa application forms for Cambodia. The boat comes. It's a small 12 seater launch. On we get & go off to pick up the rest of the passengers. We pick up some Australian chaps where the slow boat leaves from. Well thank the lord we're not on that boat! The seats are cramped, there are lots of people and it's slow. One of the Australians said he took the slow boat before but never ever again. There are some things that are just not worth putting yourself through to save a few dollars. We scoot off up the Bassac river at a cracking pace & half an hour or so later we pull up at Vietnamese immigation. There is a half sinking flimsy wooden dock, a metal ramp & a steep muddy hill. Women come at you brandishing

Very Early at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi

At about 04.45 just after we got off the night train back from Sa Pa. Just another six hours or so towait until our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City.

fistfuls of dong, dollars & riels (this is the foreign exchange counter) and bunches of bananas! A chap takes everyones' passports to be stamped out. Yes, we don't have to take our bags up that muddy slope. Oh yes we do! We get our bags after wrestling them from kids who automatically take them off the boat for you cos they want you filthy lucre. We tramp up the ramp, struggle up the slope & walk twenty yards, put bags through the x-ray machine, pick them up & take them back to the boat. This done we are off.

As a final comment, we did see a man who, if it were possible, could easily be the grown up son of Andy Jeffs & Dr Neil Brownlee. He was not Vietnamese though.

Farewell Viet Nam - Hello Cambodia

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