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Published: October 20th 2007
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HCMC is a pretty busy city, we arrived in the middle of a storm but were able to witness lightening like we’ve never seen before. Really nice guest house that had a great view of the city. The first morning we decided to do a walking tour of the city, we took it from one of our travel books and it allowed us to take in the main attractions of the city. Vietnam is very rich in history as until recently it has been involved in a war of some kind. A lot of the history is based on the “American War” as they refer to it. We visited the Reunification Palace, world famous pictures were published when tanks drove through the gates upon the fall of the South. The walk took us all day, it was interesting to see how more developed the city is and the apparent wealth of those living in the city compared to outlying towns. We just managed to miss the usual afternoon shower however we are always ready with our trusted ponchos! The city has so many mopeds and bikes going around that the roads become gridlocked, when space runs out on the road the
use the pavements! Crossing the road is an interesting one also, generally walk slowly and they’ll dodge you - a great new extreme sport!
The following day we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, the area was heavily bombed during the war and the scars are still apparent in some areas but generally the scars have been left for tourists - bomb craters etc. The tunnels themselves were interesting, originally they measured W80cm H50cm, they were small and nimble people! We viewed the original tunnels but for obvious reasons could not enter them. They do have a tourist tunnel though, measuring 80 x 110 initially reducing to 80 x 80, that was tight enough but gave us a feel for the real thing. After we visited the war crimes museum, basically a hit at the Americans all a bit one sided but interesting, a fair few war remnants.
In the evening we traveled to Dalat in the central highlands, our bus arrived an hour late (arr.1230am) and the town was ghostly on arrival, even the hotel was tightly shut. A kind local assisted and we managed to get our room. The climate in the central highlands is similar to
Breakfast time in Vietnam
"Come to me my animal friends" a British summer, warm but with regular rains making it ideal for growing most things! When we got up in the morning a tour guide offered to take us on a trip of the local area, after looking at what he had to offer we opted for a two day trip to Nha Trang taking in the sights of the central highlands on route. They’re called the Easy riders as it’s on the back of a motorbike, but it was very informative and allowed us to see parts of Vietnam we couldn’t do on our own. Vietnam is the 3rd largest grower of coffee in the world - their coffee is wonderful, just the thing to wake one up in the morning! They have weasel coffee (allegedly!) the story is - the weasels eat a coffee bean, can’t digest it as it’s too hard then poop it out, the locals pick these up, clean them, roast them and it makes for a great tasting coffee. We haven’t had any yet but we’ll keep you updated! We saw allsorts on the two day trip from the coffee and tea groves to silk worms and the manufacture of the silk and the
flower growers which Helen particularly liked (Roses and Gerberas mostly)!! Overnight we stopped in another minority village, this time in long houses on stilts (they keep their animals under the house at night to keep them safe from wild animals), we were so tired that after dinner we went straight to sleep, on another hard floor! In the morning we took a walk around the village looking at what the villagers got up to in a typical morning then made tracks for the road. Again stopping at many attractions on route, the most interesting being the hot springs the run out of the rocks, we were able to boil eggs the water was so hot - amazing! The locals have made wells to catch the water and use it for everything.
We finally made it to Nha Trang at 7pm tired and with sore behinds a fun and recommended trip but it took its toll!!
That takes us up to today (20/10)(just found out that England are in the final - good stuff!!) a really nice seaside resort but it hasn’t stopped raining! However they do have hot springs and mud baths so we did that today…update soon
the shop is closing (nothing opens after 9pm in Vietnam)!!
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Clare
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Its true about the coffee....
Hey guys - was just catching up on you adventures! I have heard about the weasel poo coffee before - apparently it is one of the most expensive coffees in the world because it is so difficult to produce!! Anyhoo - just thought i would share that with you - just in case you managed to drink any!