Vietnam

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April 14th 2007

Published: April 14th 2007

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Dave Pen

Water Buffalo - Hoi An

Pen's favourite Vietnamese animals in a beautiful rice paddy.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

After our bumpiest bus ride to date (felt more like we were riding on a horse than a bus) from Cambodia into Vietnam, we arrived in HCMC, formerly called Saigon.
The traffic here was insane - thousands & thousands of motorbikes. To cross the road you just start slowly walking and this gives the bikes time to navigate around you.
We visited the War Remnants Mueseum which shows some of the suffering people endured during the "American War", as it is called in Vietnam.

Cu Chi Tunnels

These are an amazing network of tiny tunnels used by the communist Viet Cong during the American war thetunnels ultimately assisted in their victory. There is a 90m stretch of tunnel that has been widened to 120cm by 80cm for us tourists to crawl through. Pen managed to crawl the full 90m's but I only made it to 30m before suffering from claustraphobia as the tunnel descended even deeper under ground! Incredible to think people lived and fought down there for years.

Mui Ne

The reason I has been lugging my kitesurfing equipment through SE Asia was for the wind on the Vietnamese coast - and

Crabs

Loads of seafood on display at the markets.

it didn't disappoint! I had a great 3 days of kitesurfing in Mui Ne where our accommodation was on the beach, next to the windsurf centre.(for $12 per night!) I saw a few jelly fish but no stings this time!

Nha Trang

We didn't think much of Nha Trang when we first arrived, but by the afternoon of our first day, the wind had picked up nicely and I was the only kitesurfer out on the water all afternoon. There was a large group of kids on a school excursion who cheered me on everytime I came near the shore!

We caught the overnight train from Nha Trang to Danang. We booked the 2 top bunks of a 4 berth sleeper cabin, so we were very surprised to see 6 Vietnamese faces as we opened the door to our cabin! We got them to move off our beds and the 6 ladies (2 of whom were pregnant) slept on the 2 beds below us... almost as cramped as the Cu Chi tunnels! They were very quiet and apart from the cabin being about as cold as a meat locker, we slept pretty well.

Hoi An

The old

Frogs' Legs

We watched as the man cut the legs of the frog off and only then proceeded to cut off its head!

colonial town of Hoi An is a world heritage site and we spent 4 days relaxing here and having a couple of suits etc. made for our return to the working world. The beach has a few small waves and some dangerous rip currents as we discovered. As we arrived on the beach 2 french tourists were caught in the current and couldn't get back to shore. So I grabbed a boogie board and pulled the hysterical lady to safety while her boy friend was saved by a local guy.
We took a trip to see the My Son ruins which weren't quite in the same league as the Angkor ruins in Cambodia.

Hue

Stopped here for a day and wondered around the citadel and Imperial Palace ruins before flying from there to Hanoi.

Hanoi

The Old town is fascinating, seeing how people live and eat on the side walks. We attended a water puppet show which was very amusing.

Halong Bay

We spent 3 days on a traditional "Junk" boat cruising through the 1000's of island that make up Halong Bay. There are a few too many tourists who do this trip and it was a

Chu Chi Tunnels

The entrance to a tunnel used by the Viet Cong during the American/Vietnam war.

bit too organised for us independent travellers, but it is a beautiful and unique part of the world.

All in all we found Vietnam interesting and the kitesurfing was great but the constant haggling to avoid being ripped off, and the, "excuse me where you go?", or "you want motorbike?" got a bit tiring.

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