Saigon here I come!

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I met a motorbike guide from Da Lat while waiting for the taxi ti the airport. Lots of people have told me thatb Da Lat and the Cental Highlands are the real Vietnam. Pete says so too - he does tours all the way from Da lat straight up into the mountains and jungles up the Ho Chi Minh trail, up past Khe Sanh and onto Ha Noi through the mountainous route. Sounds like I've really missed out not doing this - he says you can do Vietnam along the coast (which I've done) but you won't see the real Vietnam unless you do the length of the country along tthe HCM Trail. He gives me his card for next year. The taxi arrives and the hotel owner gives me a packet of biscuits, a bottle of water and a small silk bag as presents and she and Peter wave me off. The Vietnamese are like this if they like you - the old man on te train a few weeks ago did the same when I left the train at Hue. It's very touching.
Anyway we set off for Da Nang and I start to notice that almost every rooftop has large rocks and sandbags on them - the driver says this is to stop the roof sections blowing off when the typhoons hit! The closer we get to Da Nang, particularly in the Marble Mountain district the beach resort developments are being built all over the place - it's a very large building site! In few years this is going to look like the Thailand beach resorts. Da Nang itself looks like it's built on a giant sand dune - no red clay here. We get to the airport and there's veryb little to suggest it was ever a US Airforce base except the concrete hangars on the perimeter - they are open both ends so I've no idea what they may have been used for.
Saigon airport is huge and here there are old concrete bunkers left over from the War - one has an ancient CND symbol painted on it! They needed these bunkers as the VC were on the perimeter all the time sneaking in from the Cu Chi tunnel complex to assasinate and blow things up.
I'm visiting Cu Chi tomorrow and doing a day trip around the Mekong Delta the day after. the rest of my time here will be spent wandering around Saigon. By the way the traffic here makes Ha Noi look like a walk inn the park! It is maniac and around 16:30 the whole thing gets grid locked - it can takes 2 hours to move 2 miles! I have dinner in the restaurant next to the hotel - it's over priced and tourist orienatted but the Mango pudding (like blancmange) was very nice and genuine Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk in the bottom of the cup was great - very strong but not as bitter as the esspresso we get in the UK. I bottled having the durian with sticky rice for adessert - but I can't come to SE Asia and not try Durian once. It is a green melon type shape which you cut the top off and reveal the thick creamy flesh in the centre - this smells to high heaven but tastes like caramel apparently - you either love it or are sick from the smell which some describe as badly rotting meat. I'll write this episode upm in detal when I've plcked up the courage to order it! But for now I need some sleep as I'm off to Cu Chi at 07:50 - rush hour will already be underway - it starts around 06:30!!!!

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Comments

[Mum]

A smell you never forget!
The smell of ripe Durian fruit is something that you never forget. It can be smelt from 4 blocks away. Try it for me as I never plucked up the courage in 21/2 years in Singapore.