Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 228

From Hoi An we travelled down the coast, staying at beautiful (and extremely good value!) beach resorts in Qui Nhon and Nha Trang. Very little to report here, other than that the most strenuous activities of the day were T'ai Chi and Yoga on the beach and we spent an awful lot of time in the pool, very relaxing indeed. We don't want to make you too envious but the resort at Nha Trang did treat us to a candlelit dinner on the jetty to mark our honeymoon...aah! From Nha Trang we travelled up into the mountains to the Vietnamese honeymoon favourite and former French hill-station, Da Lat. There were some beautiful lakes to walk around but other than that we expect the main attraction for the Vietnamese is getting away from the heat of the ... read more

We left Mui Ne and got a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (although it is locally always referred to as Saigon). We wanted to leave Mui Ne in the morning so that we arrived here in daylight, but the only way we could do that was to take the 'local bus'. This conjured up lots of images as to what we could possibly letting ourselves in for. As it turned out we were pleasantly surprised, with a bus that had the same number of passengers as available seats, and not too much random baggage. This bus went significantly faster than the tourist buses, and stopped frequently to let locals off in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. As this was a local bus it didn't take us to our final destination, but dropped ... read more

Hanoi - China Beach - Hoi An - China Beach - Quy Nhon - Kon Tum - Saigon Hoa is a legend. He runs a small guest house near China Beach on the central Vietnamese coast. His wife Giao prepares a nightly feast for guests & is famous for her unique spring rolls. They are undoubtedly two of the friendliest people in Vietnam. Hoa's grasp of the English language is great, he's one of the few people that can say 'man' after every sentence & pull it off. Spend a few hours in his company & you too will be able to do nothing but 'Take it easy, man' When we arrived in Danang after our overnight train ride from Hanoi, we hadn't entirely decided where we were going. If the weather was nice we'd go ... read more

Well i normally don't enjoy the big cities as much as the smaller ones but this one was different. My favorite city so far! It is complete and organized chaos! The buildings are all really nice. In HCMC they tend to build up instead of outwards. Most of the buildings are really high but with only one room on each floor, leading to climbing a lot of stairs! On the roads there are very few cars but millions of bikes! There is not much traffic control and the police officers and Vietnamese have to help the tourists across the streets because it is so busy and there are no lights controlling the intersections. Everyone just honks and gos! The city itself did not have a great deal of stuff to see or do but just being ... read more

Hello All, It's been five days since my last post, two days past my intended update. I am writing to you all from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam District 1, otherwise known as Saigon (before the Commies came into the city after we left in the 70's). After we left, they supposedly busted into South Vietnam, rolling their tanks right into the center of the city, now known as "Reunification Plaza". I was there earlier today; it is pretty much a shrine to the defeat of the 'dirty' Americans. However, even though they may have won the 'battle' (The Vietnam War), it is evident from walking around the city that we have won 'the war', through capitalist ideals and the new 'global economy'. As I have noticed throughout East Asia, they equate success with the emulation ... read more