South Vietnam

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We are in Vietnam for the last leg of our trip. We started in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and worked our way up the coast stopping at Mui Ne and Nha Trang.

In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) we had our first experience of the infamous Vietnamese traffic. It may have been a little over-hyped (one guy told us people take tuk tuks just to cross the road!) but we did see several people mount the pavements! In fact one time we were almost ran over by a motorcyclist who was accelerating round a blind corner on the pavement, he just laughed! Other than that we found that as long as you don't hesitate or look at oncoming traffic they are able to anticipate your movements and swerve around you, which makes for some fun "matrix" style slow motion crossing.

We saw all the sights, which are mostly war-based, including the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Museum was really harrowing detailing the effects of the "agent orange" chemicals and the actions of soldiers. It was quite propagandist (as expected) but interesting nonetheless. Jamie was amused by a section entitled "Historic Truths". The tunnels were fascinating. Neither of us can begin to imagine how the Vietnamese people spent so long in these tunnels. They were tiiiny and extremely hot. We were able to go through 100 metres of tunnel where it had been specially widened for tourists, and it was like a really cramped oven! By the end we were crawling on hands and knees, and sweating buckets!

In HCMC we bought an "open tour" bus ticket. This means we have prepaid and booked tickets, but we can choose which day to use them on. We used our first ticket going to Mui Ne. In Mui Ne we did nothing and it was great! We sunbathed, slept, ate (mainly fish), and watched people kite surf. Mui Ne is quiet and relaxed and exactly what we needed as we were both feeling a little run down. After getting the much needed boost, we continued on to our next beach location: Nha Trang.

We had a terrible journey to Nha Trang as the bus was delayed by holiday traffic (big holiday weekend here, liberation day on the 30th and international workers day on the 1st) and so we sat on a stool outside the bus office for 3 hours thinking we could be spending this time on the beach! When the bus actually arrived it was a sleeper bus, but during the day, which was weird because you're lying down but not sleeping!

We were a little more active in Nha Trang. We put our brand spanking new diving qualifications to good use and went on 2 fun dives. The water was beautifully clear and calm. The coral was much more colourful and varied than we saw in Koh Tao and we were able to see some different sea creatures including a puffer fish, lion fish (which were poisonous), slugs and eels! The next day we took a snorkelling trip. We went to three different sites, all different and had an amazing buffet lunch and 'fruit party' (the party is that they give you fruit) and saw a fishing village. The water was a beautiful shade of turquoise which was great to swim in.

We are now Hoi An and heading to Hue tomorrow, which we'll write about at a later date.

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