South Vietnam

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South Vietnam

The highlands of Dalat was getting a little too cold for my liking. It was time to head back down from the mountains and into warmer climate....the coast line again. I arrived on an 11km stretch of beach outside the fishing village of Mui Ne where the sands are white, the skies are blue and conditions very hot...just right for some R&R on the beach and perhaps a little swimming combined with an day excursion to explore the amazing sand formations along a water stream known as Fairy Creek and a 30km bike ride out to the enormous sand dunes this area offers before making my way into Ho Chi Minh City.



Ho Chi Minh City or as Saigon to many of the older generations who live here - is a city on constant fast forward, every thing is quick here; the locals are quick to make a deal, touting motorbike rides, selling of books, watches and sunglasses or even providing shoe shine to the unexpected dinner at a cafe unaware he is just having his shoes shine before he could say "No" and "Go away". This is a city with all the comforts of home, a setting where just watching the street is more fascinating than any film. The heart of the city center and where I stayed, is known as District 1 - where trees shade shop houses and the narrow alleyways are over powered by the tall slender guest houses of some five to seven storeys high. Riding a bike can be a daunting experience, but you get the hang of the traffic very soon. I quickly learned you just need to worry whats in front of you and only that, judge distances and anticipate the locals know that your a foreigner on a bike and to stay clear - behind you the locals are doing the same..watching in front of them...they have being doing this for such a long time, who am I to tell them how to drive. My excursions took me to visit the War Remnants Museum which displays the relics of war and heartbreaking array of photographs of the victims of war. Then onto the famous tunnels of Cu Chi, a full day affair, some 70km outside the city, the tunnel system extends some 200km beneath the sub-terrain in an intricate network of tunnels combing hospitals, kitchens, armories and bunkers which once stretched from Saigon to the Cambodian boarder.



I completed my tour of Vietnam after five weeks, the longest time in any one country in my travels thus far. Heading towards the boarder town of Chau Doc to make my crossing into Cambodia, I decided to side step and head into the Mekong Delta region of this country. Here the country side comes alive, buffalo drawn ploughs, plough the rice paddy fields, farmers harvest the rice by hand and then wait for the murky Mekong to flood the farmlands and renew the soil again, only to repeat this process again - time after time - the wheel of life. Whilst on the main river course the floating markets come alive every morning - like the congested traffic in Saigon, the river becomes a tangle of boats, trading their produce from one boat to another. The bigger boats buying to distribute to city markets up river and the smaller boats loading up what they can carry to sell onto the remote villages deep into the Delta accessed via the narrow network of canals. Then there's your family boat squeezing their way in amongst the others like shopping trolleys in a supermarket navigating for the best buys. This is truly an amazing colorful spectacular to witness, as I have come to learn that the mighty Mekong River is very much a support life line in many ways for the most part of Southeast Asia.

Vietnam, certainly a place to visit...

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Photos

Mui Ne - Main Street
Main Street which stretches for 11km, lined with homes, restaurants, shops and hotels along the beach shore.

Fairy Stream
A majestic walk upstream encountering amazing sand formations.