Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 263

excerpts from the online article, Visit the Vietcong's World: Americans Welcome, By Seth Mydans,July 7, 1999: Following the man in green fatigues, the tourists arrive at an open-sided hut, where the women in black show them to their seats. There, on a big-screen television set, the Vietnam War plays on: B-52's drop strings of bombs, villagers run for cover, communist guerrillas fight back. -- For those who still don't get the message, a narrator says: "Cu Chi, the land of many gardens, peaceful all year round under shady trees ... Then mercilessly American bombers have ruthlessly decided to kill this gentle piece of countryside ... Like a crazy bunch of devils they fired into women and children ... The Americans wanted to turn Chu Chi into a dead land, but Cu Chi will never die." --- ... read more

i'm in vietnam at our cousin's house...le vin dung. mom's sister, mai's son. mai passed away 10 yrs ago. mai's husband is in LA. her other 2 boys are in LA. + 2 girls also in LA. youngest son in new zealand. dung is the only one remaining in vietnam. he is 45. his wife cuc is 47 (she's beautiful and reminds me of mom when she was that age). they have 2 kids nguyen (17 boy) + uyen (16 girl- she's so tall she can be a model for sure, just needs a talent agent nearby to discover her). cuc has her sister here, and her brother's daughter (18 girl) staying for tet (vietnamese new years). ofcourse i'm brutalizing all the names. come one...nguyen + uyen...that one's killing me! so fun to practice though and ... read more

Hi there...! Been a slight delay since the last blog due to lack of time and access to PC's (and to give you all a break!!) We left Hue and moved down the coast 4 hours to an old provincial capital called Hoi An.. another 'quaint' and relatively small coastal town. This was a nice 3 days and we deliberately didn't book any trips or tours to give us the opportunity to just chill for a minute - things had been a little hectic to say the least up till then.. Hoi An's main asset is its 'tailoring' facilities on every corner so we just couldn't resist...after 2 days and 3 visits for re-fits we walked away with a Linen suit, cord jacket and a couple of ties for me and trousers and 3 silk tops, ... read more

Had the most quintesential Aussie send off in Syndey - 4 essential ingredients: people, beach, booze and nudity (no not mine). I was prepared for Vietnam to be quite terrifying first couple of days (particularly as i have arrived on the days preceding the BIGGEST event of the Vietnamese calendar 'tet' aka NYE celebrations).... but (while somewhat daunting) the pace and filth of HCMC failed to raise my stress levels.... This has lead me to realised that sitting on a beach for the next 3 weeks may actually be what the doctor requires. Have booked into actual hotel for the evening, to lighten the load as i haven't properly slept since the 6 hrs in Sydney and any further pressure may turn me from content to freaked-out. Have intentions to either get the train tickets sorted ... read more

So, here we are in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on our way to the beach. Spent a few days in Hue and Hoi An. Hoi An is charming all right - at night. During the day you get so sick of touts - "please buy something" and people following you around to speak english (i.e. pretend to be interested where you are from then ask if you want to buy clothes) or get you to go into their shop. We just happened to be in Hoi An for their lunar festival once a month. It was very cool to see all the games played in the street which they close to traffic. ALso lots of dancing and singing. Saw a weird game like Bingo where the announcers were singing, it was like a performance/dance. Very ... read more