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Published: November 23rd 2006
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Im just over halfway through my trip and about to leave Vietnam for Laos. We've had a pretty hectic dash through the country as we only gave ourselves three weeks but managed to see just enough i think. Vietnam has some stunningly beautiful scenery, especially around Halong Bay and im not complaining about the more comfortable hotels!
We started out in Ho Chi Minh City. The city is chaotic, incredibly busy, noisy and dirty, and very hard to find a decent hotel in. After trudging up hundreds of stairs to see small dirty rooms we eventually found a slightly less souless box than the rest. We had decided on only one day in the city so we started early with a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a network of underground tunnels used by the Vietcong during the war. They are in a wood and you are taken round to see the various traps used by the Vietcong on the American GIs, which are pretty horrendous. We were able to go through the tunnels, which are on 3 levels at 3, 6 and 9 metres deep and are almost unbearably hot, cramped and claustrophobic. 5 minutes was too long. There
Sand Dune in Mui Ne
About as exciting as Mui Ne got. was also a shooting range there with AK47s, M16s, M60s and loads of other big guns i dont know the name of. Knowing my safely record i decided to give it a miss but Tom shot a M16. In the afternoon we visited the War Remnants Museum which has an impressive collection of tanks and guns in the courtyard but the exhibitions were shocking, incredibly graphic and more than a bit biased against the American army. We concluded our day with a visit to Reunification Palace, the centre of the South Vietnamese government. It feels like a very large office building but has been left exactly as it was when it was taken over in 1975.
After a rather hectic time in HCMC we decided to retreat to the coast for a few days relaxing. All the travelling had taken its toll so we headed to Mui Ne, a beach resort to sit on the beach, eat, drink coffee (very strong with condensed milk and ice, delicious) and visit a sand dune. All very nice apart from the smell of rotting fish that would blow occasionally blow over the resort as its the production centre of the fish sauce
thats used everywhere in Asian cooking. After a couple of days recouperating we headed to Nha Trang, a more touristy resort further north for more of the same (without the sand dune) and a slightly odd boat trip with enforced dancing and music supplied by the on board boy band, with the most impressive home made drums.
We then headed to Hoi An, a gorgeous old historic town, with 19th century architecture, old streets, pagodas, museums and hundreds of tailor shops who can make any clothes you want in just a few hours. I love it there. After Toms initial reluctance and insistence that he would only buy a suit, we spend 3 days shopping almost solidly and sent home a rather heavy package of lovely new clothes. 4 days of going to fittings, museums and amazing restaurants -definately a lifestyle i could get used to!
Next was Hue, a rather large bustly town further north of the coast. We were travelling with a Canadian guy we'd first met in Nha Trang, which made a nice change of company as Tom and i are slowly running out of things to say to each other which is understandable after
9 weeks of constant company. Hue is known for an abundance of pagodas and tombs of the Vietnamese Emperors, two of which we duly visited.
We decided to get the night train from Hue to Hanoi to make a change from long cramped bus journeys. The train left from Hue station in the early evening and we climbed on (or rather unceremoniously pushed in my case as i couldnt climb the stairs with my backpack on) and found our cabin. The three of us had a soft sleeper cabin which has four beds and which we were sharing with a Vietnamese businessman who went to bed at about 7. After some truely foul grey dishwater soup and cold rice we had a few drinks to numb the pain, had a few games of cards and followed the businessmans lead with an early night. After a quite uncomfortable night we were rather abruptly woken up at 4.15am by the ticket inspector and after a long wait at the train station we were eventually picked up by our hotel.
After a day in Hanoi, in which we visited the Prison Museum, were ripped off by a taxi driver and told
by our hotel that we had to leave the room at 7am, we went to Halong Bay for a three day boat trip. Halong Bay is made up of over 3000 karsts which rise up out of the sea and are quite stunning. We had gorgeous weather on the first day and quite a smart boat full of people to chat to. The first day we visited a huge cave full of amazing natural rocks and bizarrely a huge amount of bins shaped like penguins and spent the night on the roof of the boat enjoying the local beer. Quite a lot of it. Which made the 7am start the next day rather difficult although the 2 hour trek through forests on one of the karsts soon sorted out any hangovers. We'd been transfered to another junk boat which fully lived up to its name, the squat toilet with no door being a particular highlight but the rest of the day was spent reading and admiring the view from the top of the boat.
We headed back to Hanoi. Tom had booked a two day trek to Sapa so i had a couple of days to explore the city
on my own. We were staying in the Old Quarter which is a maze of streets full of every kind of shop you can imagine and packed with motos who alll seem on a mission to run you down. There is an art to crossing the street her, no one stops for you so you have to walk very slowly across and keep an eye in every direction for bikes heading straight for you. Adds a bit of excitement to the day. Anyway, i managed quite well on my tod and visited the Museum of Women, the Cathedral and spent quite a lot of time watching the world go by on the lake. This morning we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum which was quite an experience and incredibly busy.
We are flying to Laos tomorrow morning for a couple of weeks. Sorry this is a bit long, ill try and be more efficient on the blog writing and cut down the essays!
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