Be pleased (Soyez content)...

... that I don't subject you to the good old 'Good Morning Vietnam' title.. a tad too cliche :)

... que je ne vous fasse pas subir le titre 'Good morning Vietnam'... Un peu trop cliche :)

Ok, this time in English first, les francais bientot !

10 days to go and I'm back in good ol' England... I have to say it's gone so quickly, but that was to be expected !

Anyway, I have been in Vietnam for about 3 weeks now, and I have to admit I'm having mixed feeling about the place... It's definitely the most demanding place I have been, you are heavily solicited by people all the time.. and the weather has been pretty bad (I had to wade through 1 foot and a half of water to reach my hotel at one point !). On top of that, it isn't as easy to see and visit things are other countries, first because a lot of it has been bombed to oblivion but also it's quite scattered so everything (or a lot at least) has to be done through organised tours, where you are walked around like cattle. At the same time the scenery is pretty impressive (from what I can see through the clouds and torrential rains !), the food is good and the people not involved in toursm are really nice !

I'm now in Hue, ancient imperial capital, just at the limit of what was South Vietnam.

My arrival in Saigon was like a breath of fresh air after Pnomh Penh.. it's bustling, lively (ok v noisy) but very open (thanks to the French, they built it along the French system of avenues) and quite clean and colourful... I loved it !

Those who have been in Saigon will know, the most impressive things here is crossing the road... The traffic of motorbike is basically constent, and as usual, they ignore stop signs and traffic lights (pedestrian crossing are more like aiming zones to squash some tourists on your way home !). In theory, the only way to cross is to walk at an even pace, not looking at the incoming traffic and hoping that they will avoid you (which they do !).. .in practice, now that there are some cars, you need to actually look at the 100s of motorbikes rushing towards you (!) and stop when a car comes... It's like a jungle, big eats small, so the cars will NOT stop or avoid you..it's your own problem !! (I have to admit, there was one road which I was totally uncapable of crossing and had to rely on following a local if I didn't want bits of Oli smeared all over the tarmac !)

There are quite a few sites in Saigon, the most notable were the Notre Dame cathedral (built in red brick), the post office (looks like the Orsay museum in Paris) and the War Remnant Museum. The museum is composed almost entirely of photographs taken by journalists and Vietcong forces... What was amazing was the captions under the photographs, it's the first time I was witness to crude propaganda where the Americans were the pure evil dudes while the north vietnamese the nice guys. (In most tours, the guides go on about that, which I find pretty funny as they know that as westerners we have a bit more of a balanced view on the subject !). The museum also had a section on the effect of Agent Orange (chemicals used by US forces to destroy crops and stop the Vietcong from feeding themselves), which caused (and still causes) major malformations of foetuses... to prove their point, they had a few 'Alien' looking foetuses pickled in jars for you to look at... !

From Saigon, Serena and I went on a 2 days trip to the Mekkong Delta, pretty interesting (if not as impressive as it could have been after having done the 2 days crossing Thailand-Laos). We saw a real floating market (as opposed to the tourist stuff in Thailand). Big boats all ligned up in the middle of the river, each with a bamboo stick standing at the back of the boat, with the veg they were selling dangling from the top of it.. some of them looked like Tesco with a dozen fruit and veg on display. People (most of the time women, they do a lot of the nasty work here), would paddle from boat to boat to get the stuff they needed.

We also went on a tour of a local village, where I actually found out that the pineapple is actually the fruit from a small bush...

On our day back, we went to the 'Apocalypse Now' club with some of the people we met on the trip. It's one of the oldest club in the country, pretty mixed (foreigners and locals). Nothing amazing but good atmosphere... Seeing the locals lose all sense of pride when the dj put on Kung Fu Fighting was quite impressive !!

The day my beautiful Serena left me (sniff sniff) I went on a day trip to the Cao Dai temples (a weird vietnamese religion with 1 god (the founder of the religion in 1926 - how convenient !) and a few saints (Jesus (!), Buddha and... Victor Hugo !!!!!!!!).. They claimed to have received direct communications from God ordering them to combine the major religions of the world, which he has created. These religions are Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Spritualism (so now everyone is happy !). We went to visit the 'vatican' of the religion, in practice a very tacky structure all in pink and flashy colours and saw the morning mass... Quite funny I have to say. I also went to see the Cu Chi tunnels. Underground structure used by the Vietcong in Southern vietnam during the war (I didn't realise but the whole south was infiltrated by the VC, they would hide during the day (often in these tunnels) and come out at night). The tunnels were used over several years. They are less than a meter high and 50 centimetres large... I had to crawl to go through it, no lights and no idea how long they were... There were 3 exists along the way, I did my macho and carried on after the first exit but was SO pleased to get out at the second one, I was about to scream... It's damp, it smells and you keep going up and down various levels without really knowing where you are going... The fact that people lived in there for years shows the determination (madness ?) of the guys !!

I left the next day for some beach time in Muine (I think I uploaded a photo of the beach). Not much to report there as there is nothing to do but bathe in the sun and sea... I had a bamboo hut on the beach, for $5.. So quaint, I loved it !

I did get up at 5 am one morning to see the sun rise over the red sand dunes... Not sure if it was worth losing my sleep over but the stop at the fishing village next door on the way back was definitely worth it. The fishing boats were still all in, and the colours of their hull together with the lights from the rising sun was pretty cool.

As I had to meet some friends in Nathrang, I only stayed in Muine a couple of days before heading off to Dalat, ancient mountain resort used by the French when the weather was getting to hot for them to handle in the plains. Not much left of the French villas (a few ruins), but the place is considered one of the most romantic place in Vietnam (and frankly, I don't know why, it's rather ugly !) (mind you they have their very own replica of the Eiffel Tower, which lits up at night, like the real one !). The surrounding scenery was very impressive tho (shame that I had shitty weather the whole time so couldn't see much !).

I had a day trip on the back of a motorbike with a guide, which turned out to be the most interesting I have had so far. Tin was about 30 and spoke good English, which allowed us to chat quite freely about the situation in Vietnam and how his life is. (as a guide he earns $1.5 a day ! and they have to pay for healthcare and education (from $5 a term in primary school to $150 a term a university... interesting for a socialist economy !!). He spared me the mountain of love (yes I know) and took me to some cool sites ('crazy house' for instance, a hotel designed by some mad woman, in a Gaudi gone bonkers style.. very cool). We had lunch in a student joint ($1 for 2 people), not quite sure what I ate, but I didn't get sick from it.. so guess it was ok !

From Dalat, I went to Nathrang, Ze beach resort in Vietnam... Well, that's the theory as i had the shittiest weather of my whole trip there, one night I had to wade through 1 foot and a half of water to reach my hotel !! The town itself is ugly but the beach looked stunning (didn't sample it at all :( and the night life was amazing. I met up there with my friends from Laos and we spent 3 nights partying on our dear old buckets in the coolest bar I have been in a while, The Sailing Club. Hard to describe, suffice to say that the atmosphere was amazing there and gave me a few sore heads.

As the weather wasn't improving, we decided to sign up for an island trip (the area is scattered with small islands), thinking it'd be a bit of a lazy day... Well.. it turned out to be the weirdest thing I have ever been to so far.. but great laugh !

We were rounded up about 9 am to go to the boat, where the main guy introduced himself as Crazy Monkey and urged us to have our first beer of the day ! We arrived at the first island and did some snorkling among the corals there (saw some pretty cool fluorescent blue fish there !). As we came back on the boat, they had turned all the benches into a flat table, gathered some pots and pans at one end of the boat, brought a guitar out and started playing a meddley of Abba, Queen and god knows what else.. At La Bamba, we were forced to go and stand up on the table for a bit of a boogy (it was 10.30 at the time !!), all looking at each other wondering what was going on !

After breaking a good sweat on the dance floor (!), Crazy Monkey started singing Unchained Melody, with his back at us and, pretending to have his girlfriend around, started having his hands caressing his back........ by then we had all given up on making any sense of what was going on !

The rest of the day is a bit hazy as after the girl friend thing, they opened a 'floating bar' on the side of the boat, with us around... making sure everyone was drinking Dalat wine (main wine you find here, made from Mulberry.. awful frankly !) and plenty of it.

All I remember of the rest of the day is that we spent an hour playing beach volley ball at one point (loved it, I SO have to start playing volley ball again). I was due to take the bus that evening for a 12 hours journey to Hoian, but didn't think that a night in a bus with a nasty hangover was such a good idea so delayed my plan so that I could enjoy a few more buckets ! (yeah, what better to fight hangover hey !)

The last day in Nathrang was pretty relaxed (There's nothing to do there anyway) and we went to the local mud bath, smearing (and throwing at) each other poo smelling mud hoping it would actually do some good !

My 12 hours bus ride to Hoian was pretty uneventful, i managed to squeeze in a few hours sleep so that when I arrived there i wasn't totally zonked !

Hoian is Ze taylor town in Vietnam and South East asia, there must be about 150 taylor shops in there. On top of that, it wasn't bombed at all during the war so is totally intact. It is by far the prettiest city I have been to on this trip. Narrow streets and alleyways, all houses painted a warm yellow, with hanging wooden balconies and facades... Charming and beautiful... And pretty good shopping too ! I got myself a taylor made suit, 3 shirts, a pair of trousers and a winter coat. (on a side note, I have becomme a pro at packing.. my bag was full before I bought all that stuff.. but I managed to squeeze everything in !!).

I was hoping to have some beach time there, but the weather wasn't really up to it so left for Hue after a couple of days. (but not before renting a bike for a day and driving it around, very proud of myself here as I hadn't done that before and it's not the protection you get here (ie none) or the quality of the driving (ie none) which helps ! Dave, I hope you are proud too !

I have to say I was expecting a bit more from Hue, but it was heavily bombed and there isn't much to do there. (and the weather is awful... you get the idea by now I guess !). I spent the day yesterday at the back of a motorbike touring the sites here (some superb Nguyen Imperial tombs) and witnessing a praying session at a local pagoda by the monks (pretty cool).

I was due to stay another 2 days, but am already bored of the place (the only other thing to see is the DMZ, the zone which separated North to South Vietnam, and some of the highlights are (I'm quoting the leaflet here) 'shell of a church' and 'pile of rocks'... hummm.. wonder why it doesn't appeal to me ! )

I'm off tonight for a 15 hours bus journey straight to Hanoi.. longest journey yet, should be bearable (well I bloody hope so), even tho I'm stupid enough to have lost my mp3 player.. so no entertainment for me on the way other than my neighbours snores ! I'll have about 9 days there, so plenty of time to see Along Bay and Sapa, mountain town which is supposedly stunning.

Well, as usual, hope all of you are good and looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks or so !

Take care

Oli