My favourite take on the Vietnam war was offered up by our local guide in Cambodia, “When America fought with China in Vietnam”, which just leaves you with the feeling that the years of heart ache and trouble these people have lived through was a result of them being the pawns in a worldwide chess game that ended in stale mate. But the people who have seen hard times and still live with many consequences are happy; happy to be alive and happy to be free.
With only 2 nights in Hue, the biggest attraction is the citadel. Most the group had a wander around until the heat of the day had them peeling off back to the hotel to enjoy some aircon and ready themselves for the afternoon. Laos has good infrastructure but Vietnam is leaps and bounds ahead and the bright lights of the shops had nearly everybody parting with a bit of cash. Vietnam is also a country of tailors, custom made clothes are cheap as chips, and although we would be heading to Hoi An next which is the mother of all tailor towns, a few people could just not help but be measured up for that little black dress they had been missing since packing their backpack back in April.
The only way to travel!
A thumbs up from the locals:
After a bit of a wild night at the DMZ bar a slightly worse for wear group arrived at the idyllic sea side town of Hoi An. Hoi An is touristy but nice, a perfect beach stretches for miles just on the edge of town with sun loungers and parasols to relax on or jet skis to get the heart pounding all available on the beach. But first, back to the clothes. Every second shop in this town is a tailor, they make lovely clothes to your shape and size for pennies, as most people were down to a couple of well worn t- shirts and slightly grubby shorts this was the perfect place to stock up on a couple of skirts, tops or whatever you so fancy. To be fair, most of the lads still look like we dragged them through Central Asia behind the truck, but most of the girls are looking rather flash in their new attire.
From Hoi An we head for Nha Trang, but as we hadn’t had the greatest experiences there last year we decided to try something a little bit different. A private beach 60km north of the busy city is a place called Jungle Beach. Built by a crazy Canadian he has created his version of paradise. All construction is from bamboo and palm fronds, you check in to your idyllic beach hut, each one nestled in the jungle so as not to notice the other, they feed you three meals a day, which was an incredible selection seafood salad veg and meats. The beach is wide and sandy, the beach umbrellas are moved every so often by the staff to keep you and your belongings in just the right amount of shade, there are boats to paddle and li-los to float on, fresh fruit is served mid afternoon, they bring it to you. Moving from your hammock to the beach to the restaurant is pretty much all you have to worry about, and the entire place is wi-fi so you can keep up with the world that disappears into an “who cares” haze around you. Bloody brilliant. We had only 3 nights there but some folks have spent more than a month and you can see why.
Tim, catching up on some of the huge amount of admin and organisation that goes into an epic journey like this!
Beach huts:
Stunning beaches, blue skies and sun loungers... just about perfect!
In the evenings the shallow water lends itself to an evening swim with the incredible phosphorescence illuminating your limbs as you move, the bonfire on the beach is the perfect place to relax and chat with fellow travellers as the stars appear above.
Leaving such a paradise is difficult, and on the morning of departure we had to force most people back onto the bus before heading for the complete other side of the coin, Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon as it is called by nearly everybody is a crazy but cool place. Busy 24/7 you can but marvel at the throngs of scooters zooming around the town. To cross a road in this part of the world you just walk, there is no gap in the traffic, you maintain a steady pace and everybody just weaves around you, nerve-racking at first, but the little green man has been made nearly redundant in this city.
Motorcycle mahem in Saigon:
Having three nights here you have to plan your time, just wandering the streets you could take up an entire day, but here is so much to see and do.
One group of us headed off down to the Cu Chi tunnels, this was a strategic area during the Vietnam War and the Vietcong dug an incredible 200km of tunnels in a quite a small area. We had a half day trip with the opportunity to clamber down some of the bigger tunnels and see some of the ingenious if not hideous traps the locals used on the unfortunate GI’s. Our guide gave us a good run down of it all not leaving out any of the gory details. Then a boat trip up the Saigon River until we joined the mighty Mekong once more. Approaching a city as large as this from the water gives you a great new perspective.
Going:
Going:
Gone!
Remnants of the jungle warfare:
Onto the river:
It's not all about the war...
Bowling, Saigon-style!
The War Remnants Museum is another must see, depressing as it is, and told from the other side it brings home the realities of an ugly war. Most folks made the effort to go and take a look, not a happy experience but one well worth the effort.
Unfortunately must-see but not-so-happy experiences were to be a bit of a trend as we headed for Cambodia and its very recent grizzly history.
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