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Mui Ne Beach
Just going for a drink Getting out of Cambodia and into Vietnam was a little bit like coming back to the land of the living. Although far from a western country, Vietnam is lacking the desperation and extreme poverty that plagues Cambodia.
Our first stop was in Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh after the Viet Cong were victorious during the Vietnam war. We found a room on the seventh floor of a hotel that didn't have an elevator. We managed to get more than enough exercise during our stay.
I was expecting to find a beautiful and romantic city but instead found a city overun with scooters. Every sidewalk is used as a parking lot and it's not uncommon to have them parked three deep, meaning that you have to walk on the road to get to your destination. As with many other big cities, I was a little disappointed.
A pleasant and unexpected surprise about Saigon was that there were hardly any beggers. Where did they go? We found out on our tour to the Chu Chi tunnels that the government rounded all the beggers up, relocated them to a factory where then trained them to make handicrafts. They now sell
their wares through the government store and are given a monthly wage. Some of their work is quite good and we bought a small painting as a souvenir.
While knowing that it would never happen and is a bit unethical, it seems it could be a solution for Vancouver's east-end and the Olympics. As a tourist, it was really nice not to be harassed all the time.
Our visit to the Chu Chi tunnels was very interesting. I can now understand why the Viet Cong won the war. Their system of tunnels and their ingenuity was amazing. Any scraps that the americans left behind would be turned into something by the Viet Cong and used against the very people who had discarded it.
I would pity whoever had the task of trying to go down into the dark and narrow tunnels trying to flush them out. We had the opportunity to try one for 100 metres and I only lasted thirty before taking an early exit. Vietnamese were used to squatting to go the bathroom, so they are able to run like monkeys in the narrow 3-4 feet tunnels. You'll see them still squatting today on the
streets while having a smoke and chatting.
Our tour guide was Mr Happy, a Vietnamese born, US veteran of the war. We were accompanied by three Canadian journalists doing a video documentary for the History Channel, as well as a Vietnamese journalist. Mr Bean's story didn't quite seem right to me. He left to work in the US from 65-68, came back and fought for the United States, lost, and then here he was now aggressively proclaiming his love for his country and how great the communists were. I took him as a spy, but after the journalists had left, he tied the dots together for us. The vietnamese journalist was actually a member of the communist secret police making sure that he said all the right things as there was a microphone on him. He had actually been sent to a "re-education" camp after the war for four years before he was fit to become a member of society. Upon release, nobody would hire him as he had worked for the United States, so he eventually became a bicycle taxi person, before getting his current job as a tour guide fifteen years ago. Communists still have strict control
over the country.
We got out of Saigon after three days and headed to Mui Ne, a beach resort 4 hours outside of town. We had a little bungalow twenty feet from the beach and had a wonderful and relaxed time without the pesky vendors. We took a daytrip where we explored some sand dunes and went sand-sledding.
After Mui Ne, we headed to another beach destination, Nha Trang. It's another Phuket, Thailand, but less developed, and therefore much nicer. However, development is coming as a 5 star casino and 6 star resort have been built in the last two years. They built the world's longest cable car that goes across from Nha Trang to Vin Pearl Island and the casino. It looks tacky and wrecks the view of the bay. One day, we took a tour of the local islands. The tour was decent but the only picture we ended up taking was of the boat crew doing a boy band performance. It was absolutely hilarious.
Our bus trip from Nha Trang to Hoi An was memorable for the drunk Czech behind us named Thomas. He thought it was a wise idea to down four cuba
libres before embarking on the bus, and then proceeded to down 10 beers in the next 4 hours. Needless to say, he passed out. No problem with passing out but he passed out with his hands resting on my seatback and my head. I would push him back and he would fall back but then would be leaning forward again within a matter of minutes. He was rather frustrating but eventually I had to chuckle about the absurdity of the situation. He should have taken a tip from the two americans in the back row who popped a few valiums and were out without all the effort and hangover.
Arriving in Hanoi, we saw some water puppetry that was fairly good. We then decided to take a boat trip to Halong Bay. Halong Bay was beautiful at times. At other times, it was raining cats and dogs and we were stuck inside. We took a day tour of the city as the streets are so narrow and utterly confusing that we have gotten lost less than four blocks from our guest house. We saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where we saw an embalmed Ho Chi Minh. Ironically, he
Chu Chi Tunnels
Secret tunnel entrance had requested to be cremated. Not so sure I am a fan of the embalmed look. We also went to the Temple of Literature and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.
Dvd 9s are all the rage here and we purchased the complete ten year series of Friends for $12 US. The quality is about an 8 out of 10. It should give quite a few hours of entertainment.
We are now headed for a short stay in Bangkok before flying into Hong Kong to start our China odyssy. Vietname is somewhat similar to Thailand. They are "same same but different" as Vietnam still has a long ways to develop to catch up.
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Art and Betty
non-member comment
Land of Living
Hi John and Megan: When I read your title, I thought you were heading home. Not a good time to head home, we haven't received any sunshine yet, still cool, drizzley, or cloudy. Also, the Canucks got knocked out of the playoffs in the second round. We love to read your travelblogs, so interesting, and we are so jealous. Enjoy. Love art and bette