Blogs from Ben Tre, Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

Yay, this morning I felt well enough to venture down to the dining room for a very light breakfast. Would I be feeling sufficiently recovered anyway or is it the drugs?! Whichever, I am glad. Back in our room after breakfast we finalized our packing and then headed downstairs to check out about 10.10am expecting to be met my our Pandaw tour operator between 10.30-11.00am. We arrived at the front desk to find that the Pandaw staff had already set themselves up in the foyer. James greeted us all and saw us onto the coach when it arrived - at closer to 11.00am - and then handed us over to our Vietnamese guides, Mac and Giang, which he told us means ‘River’ in Vietnamese. After not seeing any men urinating in public thus far, today was ... read more

Knowing that I could do a days tour back to another area of the Mekong Delta that's what I decided I would do today. So, with an early start of half 7 me and about 30 other tourists were loaded into a coach and on our way. It was about a 2hr drive to Ben Tre so we stopped off on the way to visit a wood/lacquer workshop and to grab a drink. The workshop is run by people with disabilities which have been caused by the nerve agents the Americans spread over the country during the war in the 70's. The nerve agents were also passed on from mothers to babies still affecting generations today. Watching these intricate pieces of art being made from a simple piece of wood through to the finished article was ... read more

On the Mekong... read more

This was more than just an ordinary trip to Vietnam. Not for leisure, nor for backpacking, but to spread love and to appreciate the meaning of the word. Had the honour of leading an awesome team of individuals to a Youth Expedition Program (inspired by my India trip last June), this time to Ben Tre province, one of the comparatively poorer region in Vietnam. In fact, I was pretty caught up with planning of the program that I paid little attention to the traveling details in the lesser known region of Ben tre, but from my recollections, it was a bustling self-sustaining village-city on its own. We stayed in Hung Vuong Guesthouse near the city and had to take a bus, then a cart-on-motorbike to the primary school where we did teaching and concrete-paving of the ... read more

On Monday I went to the Reunification Palace in the morning. In 1975 I was in Matric and did not know much about the War in Vietnam. Perhaps what we were going through in our country was far more important than the war in some far off distant lands that did not really touch our lives. I do remember the pictures of the tanks going through the Palace gates with helicopters leaving from the roof- they were and still are iconic scenes that will forever be shown and relived as they were so dramatic and the end of the Vietnam War. I now had the chance to go inside that building – and its interiors are stylalised formal rooms used for entertaining dignitaries from other countries or for important local occasions. The basement was the Command ... read more