Salsa in Saigon, Muggy in Mui Ne and more...

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After I recuperated from my terrible cold I decided to explore Saigon and got sucked into the life of an ex-pat. I think I must have stayed there for three weeks basically walking around trying to avoid the motorbikes and visiting the sites. Of all, the most impressive were the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Obviously both were interesting in that one sees the other side of the war, what the Vietnamese went through and also a lot of anti-American propaganda at both. The tunnels were exceptionally interesting because the guide that I luckily got, my guy got sick half way there, actually fought in the war on the American side with none other than our ex-presidential candidate John Kerry. The Cu Chi tunnels are a series of well yes, tunnels, built by the VC during the war. The tunnels were were they lived, ate, and hid. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu_Chi_Tunnels In any case, Mr. Bill was such an interesting character and it was especially hard to hear the difficulties he suffered after the war ended and he was forced into a reintegration camp and prison for over four years.
On a lighter note, I found a club in Saigon, La Fenetre de Soleil, which featured Salsa night and the best mojitos I have ever tried. I was expecting to walk into a room of Latino ex-pats dancing around and was surprised to find the majority (90%) of the dancers were Vietnamese and moved with the agility and skills of competition dancers anywhere. The place was amazing, hidden on the second floor of a building with a French-colonial feel to the decor. Sold on the idea I returned two other times.
I finally managed to convince responsible Sonja to call in sick for two days before I left which was awesome because we mounted her motorbike and cruised around Saigon, me on the back with my camera on at all times. It sounds pretty uneventful and for the most part it was, but it felt nice to take the city in slowly and with some "locals" and some real locals.
After a tough separation and a farewell party in my honor, I decided to move on and purchased a open bus ticket from HCMC to Hanoi. This bus ticket is awesome because for one set price you get to make a couple of stops all with the flexibility of only having to book your bus the day before you plan to leave.
My first stop was Mui Ne, a small resort area on the beach south of HCMC. Here I must say I kind of screwed myself over by getting the sleeper bus option because nothing will ever compare to these buses. Each person gets there own little bed which can be turned into a seat. AMAZING. In any case, a five hour bus ride got me to the beach, too bad it rained for two straight days. Luckily I met my new Irish combo and have learned a very fun drinking game involving a deck of cards and on one occasion 28 beers and 6 mixed drinks between the four of us!
On the third day, just as we were all ready to give up and book our next bus ticket, the day cleared up and we were able to take a jeep to the sand dunes this area is famous for. Interesting to see a desert near the beach and unfortunately because of the rain, we weren't very successful at sledding down the dunes. It was also nice to give the liver a rest. Although again later that night we played the ring of fire and ended up swimming in a really nice resort's pool. The sunrise was amazing that morning as seen from the warm ocean we ended up in.
From there I split from my friends and headed to Dalat. A beautiful mountain town known for its French architecture which was maintained during the war because both sides had there villas there. The other thing about Dalat is that it is really cold, like wear a jacket cold, which was a nice little change. I had forgotten what it was like to not sweat all day.
Dalat has these men called the Dalat Easy Riders who will take you around on there nicer and more comfortable motor bikes. Rene, my guide, also a South Vietnamese ex-soldier took me to the country side and to the flower plantations, silk worm farms/ silk factories and rice noodle factories while explaining his disappointment when the Americans abandoned the South Vietnamese. He also served time in the reinsertion camp. Regardless of all this suffering he was an upbeat guy and showed me tons of things.
After that I was way too cold to want to stay in Dalat any longer so I booked on and have moved to Nha Trang where I have been enjoying the beach and am looking forward to scuba diving tomorrow! Once I'm done with that I'll be moving on to Hoi An where I hope to have some underwear made and possibly a pair of pants with a button AND a zipper, we'll see how that goes.
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Pictures to come, I'm not allowed to plug my camera into this computer...

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