Yes, we have made it now to the land of the Mekong Delta and the DMZ, but we have not said ‘Good Morning Vietnam to anyone yet - mostly because they all get up so bloody early here it's frankly inhuman!! The motorbike horns and Vietnam Radio all kicks off at about 5.30am 6.00am, and regardless of whether you have a front or back room in the hotels, you cop an ear-full!
Spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon depending on your political persuasion), and found the city to be absolutely mad! There are 8 million people living here, of which 2 million of them own motorbikes! That certainly makes crossing the road a lot of fun. No-one will stop for you so you just have to step into the road and watch them all part around you! Have only seen one accident so far, so I guess they know what they’re doing!
Looked around the sights of Saigon, taking in various markets selling super cheap stuff all of it fake but who cares when you can get CDs for 60p, ‘designer T-shirts for a couple of quid (without even haggling), and photocopied books for a few dollars!!
Have also been to a couple of the museums. First was the Re-unification Palace, which is the equivalent of the Winter Palace in Moscow and equally as significant to the Communist movement here. However, it’s not really as grand as I expect Moscow’s to be, as it was only completed in 1963, and is therefore about as architectually stunning as Romford Library! We also went to the War Remnants Museum, which is a collection of grim stories from the American War (they don’t call it the Vietnam War here which is obvious I suppose when you think about it!) Of course, it’s all from the Viet Cong viewpoint, documenting South Vietnamese and U.S. Army attrocities. Some of the text accompanying the exhibits are blatantly inflamatory, and some are down-right exaggerations, but the upshot of it is that you get to realise just how a modern War can effect your ordinary civilian, on both sides of the ideology. Deep stuff.
We also hired a couple of wee chappies for the day to ferry us around in cyclos. Hieu had it easy peddling Tracey around, but poor old Quang got the fat bloke and had to get off and push at most traffic lights to get some momentum going! No hills in HCM City either to give him a down-hill breather!
Spent a day out at Cu Chi to see the Viet Cong tunnels - used to scare the bejesus out of the French and U.S. forces. These tunnels have been specially widened for tourists to fit down, and still they’re a tight squeeze! I just about managed to get my, ahem, lithe body down the holes, but once in had limited movement! Managed to maneouvre through about 200m of tunnels, but how the V.C. managed it with full packs and big guns is beyond me!
14th Jul 2001 Mekong Delta
Have just spent 3 days in the Mekong Delta region, taking an intensive tour around the many rivers and tributries. Had various trips on all types of different craft, visiting villages, local industries such as rice husking and noodle making (doesn’t it grow on trees?) , and also a former Viet Cong base where the VC top brass used to live, almost literally under the U.S. Army’s noses. All along the river, the people were mostly really friendly some smiling at us, some waving, some just staring, and it was hard not to try to imagine what it was like for U.S. patrols along this stretch back then, the same people that just waved at you could quite easily have followed it up with an AK47 hidden in their rice sacks. Quite spooky, and clear to see just how hard it was for the U.S. to fight this war.
Sampled some local delicacies in the town of Cantho - Snake Vietnamese style, which was an interesting dish tasting not unlike Pork. Quite nice, but wouldn’t rush out particularly to buy it again. However, given that they do not possess any legs, surely they’re immune to Foot and Mouth and ripe for the UK market!?! We also went to the local Night Club in Cantho the ‘New Music Club They should be done under the Trade Descriptions Act, as we certainly did not hear any new music! Some Western tunes were recognisable, some Vietnamese pop, but most worrying was the raved up versions of classical music and that Russian favourite of ‘Kalinka Good to see Communism alive and kicking still in da Delta!
17th Jul 2001 Da Lat
Spent a few days in Da Lat, a small(ish) town in the Central Highlands. The weather is a lot cooler there so a nice respite from the sweat of Ho Chi Minh, but no less noisy and no fewer motorbikes! Decided that if you can't beat 'em, you should join 'em, and jumped on the back of two motorbike taxis for a day's touring around the area. Saw the standard Asia fare - temples, villages, rice paddies, waterfalls etc. but had one notable addition here of the Chicken Village. So named not for any sane reason such as their ability to produce juicy plump birds, but for the fact that they have a bloody great 20ft concrete chicken gracing the entrance to the village!!! Something to do with a woeful love story of a bride-to-be gathering a nine fingered chicken as a gift, and consequently dying in the woods as such a ludicrous thing doesn't exist . So instead they built one. Out of concrete. Nice.
20th Jul 2001 Nha Trang
We are now in Nha Trang, Vietnam's premier beach resort! Yes, you did read correctly - Vietnam has a "premier beach resort" ! We have nicknamed it the Costa Del Nam as it is just bars, restaurants and hotels along a strip of beach front! So not much doing here then, which is nice. Got another couple of motorbike taxis though to check out the local surroundings, but the next couple of days is going to be us doing sweet fanny adams. I think we've earned it - it has been a busy few weeks!!!!
26th Jul 2001 Hoi An
Hoi An is heaven on earth for Tracey. Wall to wall tailor shops, churning out copious amounts of made-to-measure dresses, trousers, shoes, shirts, skirts, suits and boots, and all for nought pence. Well almost. They can copy anything you bring, or measure you up and copy anything from any photograph or catalogue. Tracey stopped after a (mere?!) 15 items, I succumbed to the lure of the shirts and got 7 items, plus a pair of leather sandals that make me look like a reject from an unsuccessful boy band! It's ludicrously cheap and you could go on for weeks just ordering more stuff. Thankfully we leave tomorrow!!
Hoi An is also a really nice and sleepy little town. There is less noise from the motorcycle hooters, and they do actually go to bed here and don't wake you up at 4am unlike other towns in Vietnam. It's all jolly lovely!
31st Jul 2001 Hue
And so to Hue, an older city in Central Vietnam where all the old Emporers used to hang out before it became distinctly unfashionable to be an Emporer! Took a long walk around the Citadel where they all used to live, but sadly a lot of this is now completely destroyed courtesy of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Also took yet another motorcycle tour (we'll be growing beards next and wearing faded knackered leathers!) out to the Tombs of the Emporers and saw where they were all buried. Or in some cases just where they pretended to be buried so as to confuse would-be thieves (and confuse the tourists too!)
Yesterday, we spent a whole day out in the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) looking at some of the locations of the major battle fields of the American War. This was very interesting if you like that sort of thing (which we do), but at the end of the day you are just looking at fields and hills. Of course, all the traces of war have long since been cleared, but the Vietnamese are beginning to build monuments and museums depicting what went on. Unfortunately, as with the museums in Saigon, some of the accompanying text is inflammatory at best.
Moving further north later today on the Re-unification Express overnight sleeper train. It just gets hotter and hotter the further we go - we are now sweltering in 38 degree C heat - and it's all just a tad sweaty! And we hear Hanoi is even more humid!
We took a most pleasant overnight sleeper train from Hue to Hanoi. We'd gone top banana and had an air-conditioned soft sleeper car, which we shared with one other older Vietnamese chappie. A very kindly bloke, didn't speak too much English but enough for us to get by, but snored like an absolute trooper! No matter though, as the rocking of the train reminded us of days of old being half cut on the Liverpool St line home, and so sleep was not a problem (only if we'd overslept on this one, who knows where we'd have ended up!?!)
Hanoi is nice enough - nothing too much to spend your time on here, except perhaps to go see Ho Chi Minh's stiff in his Mausoleum. He was cannonised after his death and was not cremated as he wished, but stuffed and put in a glass goldfish bowl for all to see. Still he looks OK for 111 years old (even better than the Queen Mum!) He would turn in his bowl though if he knew what was going on outside - the Baggage handlers are on the take just yards from the entrance, charging all Johnny Foreigner for phoney tickets or bag handling, when it is all free. We didn't fall for that one though. Is that what the Communists mean when 'redistributing the wealth' ?!?
Hanoi has been very wet. We are on the tail end of Typhoon Bob (or something) and it has been regularly chucking it down while we've been here - so much so that our road flooded and we had to wade through knee deep water to get out! Not too bad, but with a lot of rubbish about it meant we kept getting attacked by banana skins, paper bags and other random things that we'd rather not know about!
3rd Aug 2001 Halong Bay
Spent a couple of days on a boat out in Halong Bay - a spectacular network of 3000 limestone cliffs and island jutting out of the sea. Of course, it lashed with rain on the first day but that did give it an altogether eerie feel which was actually rather nice! Slept overnight on the boat in the middle of one of the bays and finally got some sleep completely uninterrupted by motorcycle hooters!
5th Aug 2001 Hanoi
And so back to Hanoi and our last day in Vietnam. We've really enjoyed it here - the place is manic and the people are crackers, the food is good and the beer is cheap, and we will be quite sad to leave.
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