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Published: October 22nd 2008
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Vietnam
Vietnam is a pretty interesting place. After Cambodia, Vietnam seemed like a much more developed and populous country, but to be honest not quite as friendly. The latter could be due to the long and bloody history Vietnam has with the west (from Colonial French to Interventionist Americans/ANZACs) or could be due to the increasingly large numbers of tourists in the country?? However, the sights, experiences, and good times continued over three weeks - all the way up from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to Hanoi in the north.
Ho Chi Minh City
HCMC (surprisingly still called Saigon by the locals) was our starting point in Vietnam after a long bus ride from Cambodia. The city is Vietnam's largest, with what seemed like more motorbikes than people at times! Crossing the road in HCMC could be likened to wading through a river of tooting and swerving motorbikes and the occasional bus (Jane experienced countless near death experiences every day!) But once we got over our fear of blindly stepping into the flow of traffic (a handy skill in Vietnam - just follow the locals) we started exploring the city. There
Jane in tunnel
These tunnels were enlarged for tourists!!! are a few sites owing to European influence, such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, a French Colonial style post office, and the Presidential Palace (now a museum). An interesting site is the War Remnants Museum, which is focused on the human costs of what the Vietnamese call the 'Anti-American War'.
While staying in HCMC we also checked out the Mekong Delta and the Cu Chi Tunnels. We arrived at the Cu Chi Tunnels early in the morning to beat the tourist crowd. The Tunnels were used by the Viet Cong to shelter from aerial bombings and mount attacks during the war. We were obliged to watch a documentary about the life of the Viet Cong in the tunnels, which turned out to be a propaganda film made during the war, but was interesting nonetheless (we learnt how to make and place landmines to destroy American tanks). The Tunnels themselves were pretty cool. We even went through one, but later found out that it was enlarged so that tourists could fit inside!! After our tunneling fun Sam also had his own personal 'Nam experience with an AK-47 at the firing range. For those with deeper pockets, this could be
extended to firing a bazooka and a heavy machine gun!!
We also headed out for a day trip to the Mekong Delta. This trip was obviously a state-run operation, and although it was really touristy, it was interesting; we visited a coconut candy factory, went on a horse cart ride, paddled down the river and ate a very interesting lunch, tasting types of seafood we never knew existed!
Nha Trang
After a few days of HCMC and surrounds we headed off on our first of many overnight train journeys. We had a typical start by bribing the conductor to let just 3 of us share a 4 bed cabin, the third being Richard, another person on our Intrepid trip. Overnight trains in Vietnam are quite an experience. They travel at a maximum of 50Km/hr and always arrive at the destination at around 5am in the morning!
Nha Trang was a nice stop over. We headed out for a day trip to do some snorkeling and went for a bit of a row in basket! We also spent a day in the sun at the beach and enjoyed some good seafood! After our night and two
days in Nha Trang we were off on our second overnight train to Hoi An.
Hoi An
Hoi An is a small coastal town that was the main trading centre in Vietnam a few centuries ago. Now it is a holiday destination due to its beach, the historic town, and also its tailoring. We spent nearly our entire time in Hoi An shopping and bargaining! In fact we bought so much in Hoi An that we had to purchase a new suitcase for all our new gears (check out the photos with the styley new suitcase!) While in Hoi An we had a few good bargaining experiences:
* Our best bargaining was buying a suitcase for less than half the price we managed to get everywhere else!
* Our worst bargaining experience was getting chased out of a shop by a very angry Vietnamese man with no shirt on - possibly because he thought we were bargaining to hard?
* Our longest bargaining experience was the purchase of some coconut and eggshell bowls, this went on for about an hour, involved three walking out the door maneuvers, and resulted in a 40%!d(MISSING)iscount from the
original price.
Sam did quite well for himself with a new suit, 3 pairs of trousers and a coat. Jane had an unnatural and unusual lapse of shopping inability, and only ended up with one pair of trousers and one coat. All of these were tailored to our measurements which is great! While we weren't shopping in Hoi An we spent our time at the beach (swimming in a tropical storm, which was fun!) and cycling around the country side.
Hue
After Hoi An we caught the bus to Hue, Vietnam's former capital city. In the centre of Hue is the old Citadel containing the former imperial court, city walls and some cool buildings. A lot of the citadel was bombed by the Americans but recently many of the buildings have been re-built allowing one to get a glimpse of the city's former glory.
Surrounding Hue are a series of royal tombs, containing the graves of former emperors, and sometimes the unlucky people who built the tombs! We visited some of the tombs and a famous Buddhist Pagoda via a river boat cruise up the Perfume River (which didn't smell like perfume). This was
great fun, and involved some good moto-taxi rides to and from the river!
Hanoi & Halong Bay
After another 14 hour overnight train ride we arrived in Hanoi at about 4.30am (overnight ay?!) We ended up spending a couple of nights in Hanoi between our trips to Halong Bay and Sapa. Hanoi is a very cute, yet buzzing city - it’s not as big and hot as HCMC, and has a beautiful old quarter. While in Hanoi we also had a run in with the stars of Top Gear... Well actually, they came and sat next to us at a cafe on the lake front. We sat and stared at them for AGES and managed to sneak in a photo!
In Halong Bay we enjoyed a boat cruise around the islands, and stayed on Cat Ba Island, with a very nice beach, and enjoyed more tasty kaimoana. Halong Bay is as stunning as all the pictures we had seen, and the beaches at Cat Ba Island are great.
Sapa
After another night in Hanoi to break the journey, we were yet again on an overnight train to Sapa. Sapa is a small mountain
Mekong Delta
Row row row your boat gently down the Mekong... village in the highlands near Vietnam's border with China. Sapa was quite different from coastal Vietnam. The air was cooler and the scenery was extra stunning. While in Sapa we enjoyed some short hikes into the surrounding hills, and had a good squizz at the locally made wares at the weekend street markets. The view from our mountain top hotel (literally on the summit of a hill!!) was beautiful! We also found out a lot about rice production, and saw some pretty impressive rice terraces.
After a couple of days in Sapa we caught the overnight train back to Hanoi (yup, that's train number 5!), before leaving for Malaysia to meet Pam... :o)
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mystery guy
non-member comment
"Row row row your boat gently down the Mekong" That's gotta be a Sam comment