Time for Vietnam

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So no sooner was I getting to know Cambodia than it was time to leave and head to Vietnam. When I was leaving England, I was very looking forward to visiting Vietnam from everything I had heard and read about. Unfortunately along my travels I had met many people who had very mixed reports about the country and so after being very relaxed and trustworthy of the people of Cambodia and Nepal, I felt that it might be time again to put my guard up a little much like India.

My trip to Vietnam from Cambodia on christmas day was a very cheap and good bus journey which lasted just 7 hours courtesy of Capital Tours and hey presto I was slap bang in the middle of Saigon AKA Ho Chi Minh City.No problems.

My plan was to stay in Saigon for a few days and then head into the North of Hanoi and Halong Bay. Originally I was to travel the length of the country courtesy of the excellent bus service the vietnamese run but my plans changed as this is a very long distance, much of this area is beach time which I had recently spent in Cambodia anyway and also because I wanted to meet my friend Jav in Hanoi to spend the new year there.

Saigon was nice. I based myself in the backpacker area which felt much like Koasan Road and which I began to regret after a few days but soon the 5 days would pass and it would be time to move to Hanoi.

Great shopping, absoultely millions of scooters, great food , best baguettes in the world without doubt and a rapidly expanding and buzzing city is how I would best describe Hanoi. Very nice place to visit and grab yourself a new wardrobe full of clothes and enjoy the lovely markets and food available pretty much everywhere. Saigon was indeed rammed packed full of tourists who are doing exactly this!

The Vietnamese people are most certainly different however. Neither Polite or Inpolite. Some of them are a bit too quick to overcharge or try and overcharge tourists as I found out but certainly not in such a way as to put you off going there. The people are certainly a little regimented when you compare them to their Thai counterparts but this is unsurprising considering their past. Vietnam has had it hard from everyone and has battled very hard to become the country that it is and fair play to them.

Vietnam I understand is a place that is happening right now and I can understand why.

Whilst in Hanoi, I went on a couple of very well organised and none too expensive tours to the Chui Tunnels and to the Mekong Delta which were enjoyable and I would highly recommend. Amongst other things I also visited the Vietnamese war musuem in the city centre and as usual, going to these places is just such a reminder of the crazy things that went on in this world in its recent past..and of course continue to go as i write and you read this blog. What is mad is that when you spend a little time reading into these things, you are always surprised about something new that you learn every time.. for example I certainly did not know at how badly bombed Cambodia and its people were by the Americans in the Vietnamese war in an attempt to oust out the VC and how much this assisted the Khmer rouge in Cambodia.

And so after my 5 days I was off to Hanoi via a 2 hour plane journey on Vietnamese airways. Funny, this plane was without doubt one of the worst planes I have ever been on, in Vietnam it is still impossible to book a Internal flight on the Internet and believe this or not many people were using their mobile phones whilst sitting on the plane waiting for take off. Ha Ha.. I am sure that all this will change as time moves on and they attempt to catch up with their neighbours, Thailand.

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Photos

Disabled Workers
A stop on route to the Chui tunnels.

Chi Chui Tunnels
The tunnels here were one of America biggest problems.

B52 Bomber
The permanent crater formed by an American B52 bomb.

Destroyed Tank
This tank has been left in place for the pleasure of all tourists especially Americans.

AK47
Deafening...

Mekong River Tours
There were just a few tourist about..