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Cambodia was a special place, the people, the scenery, the history just an amazing country to experience. The next leg of our journey would take us over the border into Vietnam, another country with a very interesting history.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and forget all the traffic I have written about in South America and South East Asia, this place has got to win the award for most death defying and outrageously bonkers drivers.
We were greeted by a million motorbikes and mopeds all driving in different directions, cutting across the main roads , doing u turns, randomly stopping for no reason, using mobile phones whilst negotiating a hundred other mopeds all using their mobile phones. All laden down with everything from five people families, to fridges, massive blocks of ice melting on their laps, great big trees, chickens and mopeds!!...yes mopeds on mopeds!!...totally crazy!!...the rules of the road appear to be that there aren't any rules of the road except don't crash into the person in front of you, don't worry about what's going on behind you and use your horn once every 3 seconds...I asked the guy at the hotel if they had to do a driving test and he laughed at me and said "no, they don't mind if they die, in fact they are looking forward to it"….so with this frenzied chaos in mind we decided that we would sight see Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on foot and not hire mopeds..so that we wouldn't die!
Our first point of interest was the War Relics museum, a really interesting place. In the courtyard at the front there is a collection of American fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and artillery all abandon on an airbase by the Americans during the Vietnamese war in the 60's and 70's and claimed by the Vietnamese and bought to the museum. Inside on the walls were photographs not only of very graphic scenes of war including the iconic one of the burnt naked little girl running towards the camera after a chemical bomb airstrike obliterated her village but also photos of the effects of the Americans using Agent Orange and Napalm to weed out the Viet Cong from the jungles. Just appalling what a destructive affect these chemicals had and continue to have on mankind. In the next room we saw more photographs of deformed babies born in recent years their deformities attributed to their mothers eating contaminated fish from the rivers still affected by the chemicals.
On a happier note we decided to visit the famous Rong Yang Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre in the city. Inside the little theatre the audience sits in front of a misty pool lit with coloured lights. An authentic Vietnamese orchestra with singers sitting both sides of the pool, accompany the story as the puppets appear from the waters. Lots of dragons, Chinese lions, golden sparkling fish, farm workers and princess and emperor puppets all splashing about as the story unfolds, joss sticky smells, jingling finger symbols, loud bangs, Chinese violins and flashing lights. It was mesmerizing and although we didn't understand what they were saying it was easy to follow the story. At the end the puppeteer's swam up into the misty pool to take a bow....just lovely and not just for the kids!
We decided to buy a jump on jump off bus ticket and travel up the east coast of Vietnam first stop and beach resort called Mui Ne. As we said goodbye to the people at the hotel who had been really nice to us, Ray turned around to leave and his back pack knocked a large jar of flowers off of the reception desk which sent it crashing to the floor spilling water all over the computers and the people sitting next to the desk. I was incredibly embarrassed and scuttled away, Ray was cross that the vase had been place where people with back packs could knock it off and the whole thing became very awkward.....but as we left the owners said "thank you, come again soon".........yeh thanks but we probably won't!...bless em, we couldn't wait to get out of there!!
Arriving in Mui Ne we found our hotel and thought we'd stumbled into a ghost town. No life, few buildings and just a handful of people....really disappointing but as we started to explore it became apparent that this area is up and coming, beach resorts are being built, hotels being constructed and give it five years and this coast of Vietnam will be the next big tourist spot, matching Thailand. The beaches are beautiful, the sunshine is almost guaranteed but the waters unlike the tranquil blues of Koh Chang are really rough and the warm winds blow between a bracing Skegness and hurricane force most days. We soon realized that the target audiences for these beaches are kite surfers. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, that's why the village was so dead. They were all at the beach kite surfing! Ray and a watched transfixed as these guys hurtled through the waves at top speed and with one launch of their bodies flew up into the air over the sea to be carried a fair distance before landing back on the ocean to start the process again. Great to watch, so exhilarating..would love to have a go!!
Our wanderings took us up away from the beaches and into the sand dunes behind the dusty roads, a place called the Fairy River. This little river winds its way down to the sea through the sand dunes but remains shallow so that you can walk all the way to a beautiful waterfall about a mile upstream. Nice little jaunt in the heat.
The rest of our time in Mui Ne was spent on mopeds zipping about exploring and stumbling upon more kite surfing beaches...oh and Russians, Russians everywhere. The Russian Tourism department have clearly done a fab job at promoting Vietnam as the holiday destination of choice for the Russians....they are buying beach space as we speak............MueNekiteski ?? Watch this space!!
Back on the night bus again and this time headed for Nah Trang. A fairly big town a bit like Blackpool. This time we did hire mopeds and chanced it as the traffic was crazy but not on the scale of Ho Chi Minh. After zipping up the mountian our pay our respects to a very large white Buddha who over looks the city we headed further up into the mountains for a mud bath.
Nah Trang is famous for the mineral waters and cleansing properties of the mud there and they have really cashed in creating a lovely spa. We bought one large bucket which they duly filled with the squidge and plopped ourselves in. Our bucket over looked the surrounding forest and as we sat there wallowing it was surprisingly pleasurable. Once we had marinated ourselves for 30 mins we laid on a deckchair in the sunshine and allowed in to bake on!...once baked you walk like a zombie to the freezing cold showers to wash off.....conjures up a very glamorous picture eh?...hee hee great fun and did it work?..........yes it did....we very felt ..smooooooooth!!....
- comments
Wendie Dougherty A good account,Lor, I know what you mean about the traffic, it is the same all over the Far East. It must have been a bit harrowing to see the area known as the "Killing Fields", but a must when in that part of the world. Will see you soon. xxx
john oliver wonderful lor , the little girl who was running burnt is well and grown up i saw great interview with her dad xxxx