SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT…

Arriving in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, because the North Vietnamese Army invaded, the Americans gave up and the country was unified as one socialist state by Mr Ho Chi Minh himself, it was to our surprise at how developed it was, especially coming from across the boarder in Cambodia, a country you would definitely class as 'Third World'. It was nothing more than a couple of drinks that night so we could be up early the next day to take in the sights. We wandered around Ben Thanh Market, did some shopping, visited the Re-unification (Independence) Palace and finally the War Remnants Museum, documenting the atrocities of the war in Vietnam. It was particularly interesting to see the devastating effects the US left behind largely due to their use of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange and the hypocrisy of the US Declaration of Independence, considering the mass war crimes committed by US leaders and individuals, most of which have still not come to justice. Most of all it was interesting to see the effects of the war from the Vietnamese perspective and not just what you see in films. With a lot to reflect on we headed to a fancy ice cream parlour for some expensive flavours and then some dinner at the night market.

The following day we took a tour out of the city to the Cuchi Tunnels, a camouflaged, underground network, totaling 250km, which Vietnamese guerilla fighters used to get the American bombers out of the sky and their soldiers onto the ground to fight. They were tiny tunnels and our little 50m scramble through one of them left me in a sweaty mess as I came out from under the ground. That night feeling energetic we went to the gym…needless to say, I am very unfit!

The next day we did some lazy wandering before catching a night bus north to Nha Trang, which sits on a 6km stretch of sandy beach. Here we met up with one of Claire's friends, Emma, and we all stayed in Nha Trang for far too long (6 days!), doing relatively little.We did however do a couple of activities worth mentioning. We took a relaxing day at the mud baths and hot springs and a boat trip off the coast where we snorkeled, ate a massive and very tasty Vietnamese lunch, drank free wine from a make-shift floating bar (basically a guy in a rubber ring), listened to some terrible karaoke with music from the boat band and finally visited an aquarium on a neighboring island. That night we hit the town, made some new friends and unsurprisingly woke up with a sore head. Once the hangover had worn off (late afternoon) we did venture out, and feeling adventurous we all decided to get our ears cleaned. A more painful experience than necessary and they didn't seem any cleaner after, but we only had to part with $1 each so it wasn't too bad.

Once we had finally left Nha Trang, Claire and I headed to Dalat, right in the middle of the central highlands, where the air was a little cooler, a welcome change from the heat of the city and beach. Here we wandered the town and the market and visited a 'crazy house' which was something you could imagine to be in a fairy tale rather than on the side of a main road and next to a hotel. The following day we jumped on a couple of 'easy riders' (motorbikes) and our two guides, Ted and Trang took us to Dalat's biggest sites. They were Paradise Lake, the Buddhist Meditation Centre, a coffee plantation, a light walk through the forest, Datanla Falls and finally Prenn Falls. We caught a bus out of Dalat to Danang that night, arriving early the next morning, and then a public bus back on ourselves to our next stop Hoi An. Hoi An is a very laid back, pretty town, with a couple of beaches and some nice restaurants.What it has become famous for is the streets of tailor shops that will make you a suit, shirt, dress or anything else you want, for one of the cheapest prices around. With a couple of tailor made shirts for myself and half a new wardrobe for Claire, we carried on north to our next stop, Hue. Arriving in the evening we just grabbed some dinner and had an early night. The following day we took the DMZ tour 100km out of Hue stopping at Dong Ha town, Ben Hai River, a minority village and the famous American Khe Sanh Base before reaching Vinh Moc Tunnels, similar to the Cuchi Tunnels but not quite as impressive. After a long day we had another one booked for the next, as we took a city tour visiting the Old Citidel, Thien Mu Pagoda, Minh Mang Tomb, an Incense stick making shop and finally a dragon boat back along the river into the city.

Leaving central Vietnam we were heading further north and Ninh Binh was our next stop. Apart from a nice river boat ride along Ngo Dong River in Tam Coc, where huge rock formations jutt out of vibrant green rice paddies, Ninh Binh was rubbish and we wasted no time getting out of there. Hanoi, the capital city was next and we took a couple of days wandering around, relaxing before heading to Halong Bay for a three day tour. Our trip consisted of a boat trip around the 1500 odd islands, visiting some caves with impressive stalagmite and stalactite formations, kayaking around the floating fisherman's village, jumping off the top of the boat into the water and swimming. We spent the night on the boat and got off at Cat Ba Island the following morning. Here, we embarked on what was supposed to be a light trek, but with slippery flip-flops, humidity and a ridiculous amount of rocks to clamber over and down I wouldn't have called it a light trek, I was ringing out the sweat from my t-shirt by the end of 2 hours.We then spent the afternoon at a couple of beaches acting like kids in the sea, as some massive waves broke and followed it with a night out at some bars with a few of the group from our boat. An early start the next morning and a lot of waiting around later we had boarded the boat, cruised through some more scenic big lumps of rock (supposedly islands) and were on our way back to Hanoi.

Arriving back in Hanoi, we caught a night bus a couple of hours later to Sapa, right up in the north of Vietnam. We actually crossed through Lao Cai, the boarder town 3km away from China before reaching Sapa. Sapa itself is a very scenic city, within the mountains. Hill-tribe women with colourful head gear, and some with retro-looking leggings, dye and sell fabrics on the street while their children chase tourists. Hill-tribe men wear black petticoats with high collars and silver chainlink necklaces. This city in the clouds made a good base to explore an impessive waterfall named 'silver falls' and take in the surrounding mountains and views from ahigh. Leaving Sapa, we headed back to Hanoi, and did our final piece of sightseeing within the capital. We visited Ho Chi Minh's embalmed corpse at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and finally the Temple of Literature.

With the heat soaring, Vietnamese people becoming increasingly annoying, rice and noodle becoming a little tedious and having exhausted Vietnam, I am looking forward to moving on to Laos...not that I didn't enjoy myself here!