Leaving Vietnam

Vietnam is great! We visited Ho Chi Minh City, Hué, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Mui Ne in the space of 2 weeks. It has only stopped raining now after 3 days being stuck in our resort. Chris was ragen we could not get out to the famous sand dunes but we will see plenty on our Aussie travels. The highlight of the trip was definitely Hoi An. Our hotel was amazing and the people were so friendly. The town itself was beautiful. We would love to come back again if they ever have cheap flights from home.

The photos are at the usual place...and here!







http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dougalbaa

Hoi An

Hoi An is great!

The town is nice and small and the streets are old and full of atmosphere. But what we love the most is our hotel! We could not believe our luck. When our bus arrived in the town we saw a man holding a piece of cardboard with the name Mr DAVID. He brought us via motorbike to the hotel and handed us juice. All the staff are so friendly and helpful. Our room is really beautiful and the food is class, especially the Spring rolls and the Vietnanamese Beef Curry. Chris is contemplataing getting a pedicure because her feet our disgusting but is nervous as she has never had one before and she will only get them dirty again on her next trip.


Hoi An is full of old buildings and character as you can see from the photos. After walking through the manic market we saw the cutest Vietnamese hat for Dougal that we could not resist. When we were sitting out having a drink at the river one Vietnamese woman saw him wearing the hat and thought he was lovely and offered to buy him for her son! But we would never sell wee Dougs even though Dave did think about it!


All our photos are piled together for this one but you can click on Dougal's Gallery for the rest of them.

Hué

We just about survived a short but painful plane journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Hué. The people on the flight were really loud and about 10 babies screamed the whole journey time. One spewed near Chris and another one kept knocking against her chair. Everyone nearly had a fit when we were 'queuing' to exit, impatiently hitting us in the back to make us hurry up. This seems to be a feature in Vietnam, people crowd around you for tickets or anywhere else where you might find a queue back home.

Hué has an incredible Imperial City and royal tombs because the royal family moved here from Hanoi at the beginning of the 1800s. A lot of the old sites were sadly destroyed in the French and American Wars. The Hué arts festival, held every 2 years, coincidently was on when we were there so there was a carnival atmosphere. Parties took place inside the walled citadel all night.

Hué was a welcome relief from the noise and pollution of Ho Chi Minh City. For one it is much smaller and the pace of life is much slower and the Perfume River is pristine and does not smell. We ended the day on cyclos driven by two naughty cyclo drivers. Mind you, Dave drove his most of the way back to the hotel. We were only slightly ripped off. They tried to ask for $8 each. Never gonna happen!


Photos here!

Cu Chi Tunnels

We spent the second half of The day at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We had a great time. It was fascinating to learn about the ingenious ways in which the Viet Cong guerillas fought against the French then the American army and remained undetected so close to Saigon. Dave went into the tunnels for the longest section that tourists can take, around 100m. It was pretty horrible down there, so claustrophobic and hot and these have been enlarged and cleaned up for tourists.


We watched a documentary film about the Cu Chi struggle from 1969. They referred to the successful guerillas as American Killer Heroes which suppose is a good description as any and no worse than the body count methods that the US forces used. Still though it must have been a little uncomfortable for the American tourists.


The group we took the trip with were great, really good fun. One American guy was even a Paul Anand lookalike if a little rounder.

Photos

Cao Dai Temple

As part of our second trip we were taken to the Cao Dai temple which is of a religion set up in 1923. They worship 4 times a day. We watched part of the noon ceremony but we had to leave as the smell of the incense was overpowering. It was an interesting, colourful spectacle though and one of the guys looked really cool with shades on. Not sure if he was the leader but he should have been.


Photos here

Mekong Delta

Took a one day tour to the Mekong Delta about 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City to get a feel for what life is like outside the city. 80% of the people in Vietnam are still engaged in farming, they need to get some call centres here.


Dave held a big snake, a python we think. The photo has him looking scared but it was fine really. We tasted some honey tea and rice wine but we didn't go for any of the snake or scorpion wine.


We were taken on a short boat ride through the canals, the water is brown but it's not dirty just full of the goodness that plants crave. Mind you we did see a dead kitten, not sure if this is a regular practice.



We took a speedboat back to Saigon (which is what the South Vietnamese call it). It was an interesting journey as all the kids in passing boats and on the banks waved at us like we were famous. A big storm came in too which reduced visibility for the driver but he got us back safe and sound.

Photos here

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City is pretty belter.


It's hot, sticky, smoggy, there's people trying to sell you sunglasses and making motorbike gestures to you wherever you turn but the place overcomes it all cause it's got bagloads of character. The people are amazing, so kind and helpful and you can't turn around without seeing something unexpected or unique.


As we said it's really hot and the internet is kind of slow at times so we'll not type much but we did manage to get some pictures up.

See here!