It would be unfair to summarise what I have experienced in few words. The things I witnessed and felt everyday can only be explained by the experience itself. At the end of the day though, its about the culture, the locals that have made my journey, Halong Bay, Hoi An, Sapa was nice, but there’s nothing more fantastic than sharing stories over a bottle of rice wine with the locals!

I highly recommend these two countries to everyone, but don’t just do the tourist attractions, spend some extra time here and take in the things off the ‘tourist’ trail, I guarantee you’ll be quite impressed.

I journeyed over to the reunification palace for a quick peak at where the country of South Vietnam was run for the years before the war. The underground bomb shelter complete with war rooms and intelligence equipment was particular interesting to see, but apart from that nothing else in the palace stood out.

I met a local tourist guide on his way to the airport who gladly offered to show me the way. No tourists take the airport us, it is just too confusing, so his help was really appreciated. A former Vietnam veteran, he shared his life story with me and how he got to where he is today, perfect English as a result of talking to US soldiers during the war. This kind of sums up my favourite thing about my trip, getting to talk to the locals and sharing stories, good or bad.

The view from the Reunification palace

The underground bunker command post

When you first enter the Cu-chi complex you hear the loud firing of gunshots, as a result of the shooting range they have on-site. I found this rather distasteful given the atrocities that occurred here and for the second time of my trip decided against it, despite it being extremely cheap and them having a M60 machine guns in additional to the usual weaponry.

The Cu-chi tunnels themselves are an amazing network of tunnels, in a huge area just on the outskirts of Saigon. The US controlled the Cu-chi area by day but during the night it was under the control of the Viet Cong who only came out when it was safe. So extensive were these tunnels that the US built a base right above some of the network and wandered why they were getting shot in their tents at night.

On visiting the tunnels, its easy to understand why the US never got a stranglehold of the area. The entrances are well hidden, the size of openings only large enough for smaller female guerilla fighters. Entrances were also hidden in rivers, trees, and if the US did find the tunnels, they were often mined at the entrance or it they got around that, they would have to crawl the right way or run into booby traps. In all the Cu-chi tunnels are the most, bombed, shelled, napalmed area of the world, even the chemical warfare and the deadly agent orange gas could not flush the guerillas out from the area.

I got a chance to crawl through an expanded part of the tunnel (for tourists). Even with the expansion it was quite a tight fit, in one area I had to slither though like a snake! It was quite an interesting experience and I’m glad I managed to fit the Cu-chi tunnels in before the end of my trip.

Notice the size of the trap holes

One of many fighting holes

Hidden hole in the stream

This mound is actually an air hole

An expanded part of the tunnel

Smoke arising from the underground kitchens

Luckily for me, the tour went to places I have not been before, namely My Tho and Ben Tre, once again, most of the day was spent on the water. Got to visit the coconut candy making place to start off the day, and I bought about 1.5kg of the candy since I have no other souveneirs from my trip and I have no where else to go, one problem will be my baggage limit however as I have a carry-on luggage only ticket, I might have to dump some clothes or something (The candy takes about 20% of my allowance).

The rest of the day was rather unexiciting, rowing on small rowboats, larger motorboats, through canals, visiting bee farms and traditional sining performances. To be honest I was quite happy just to sit back and relax. One exciting thing I did like however was being able to have a python wrapped around my neck, I also tried some snake wine after that, a rather pungent drink, although it is suppose to have good medicinal properties.

Back to Saigon, I decided to have dinner at a nicer establishment for once, one with walls! I walked into a rather nice pho place, and to my suprise, the pho there was exactly like the ones back at home in Australia, every other place I have been quite different. It was nice however to eat in a clean bowl, with clean utensils and not have hairs or flies floating in my food for once!

The coconut candy factory

One of the many canals around Ben Tre

You don’t need protective clothing here, we sat down for tea right next to it!

Luckily the python is well fed

Our really pretty boat paddler

With the night free to explore Saigon, I had dinner at yet another street stall (I haven’t eaten at a place with walls for many weeks now) before walking to the Dong Khoi area. Although it doesn’t have the charm of Hanoi, Saigon is an absolute economic powerhouse, the Dong Khoi area was beautiful with its tree lined boulevards, paved pathways, grand buildings, 5 star hotels as well as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Armani stores! As impressive the powerhouse cities of Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and even more so than most Western cities!

But this all comes at a cost of course, my guesthouse now all of a sudden double to triple what I usually pay, breakfast rolls almost 4x the price, even my usual street dinner was triple what I’m used too. Yet even the locals seem to be able to afford it, Saigon is not out of place when it comes to Asian supercities that’s for sure.

One negative, or possibly positive if you like that kind of thing, the traffic is maddenning, I thought I was pretty good at crossing roads till I had to cross a massive intersection, about 100-200m crossing, which made my heart skip many beats too fast!

It think this is the town hall

Dong Khoi district

The Vietnam open bus system is actually a great system. You prepurchase your individual journey vouchers, which allow you to hop on and off between destinations whenever you feel like. All you have to do is confirm your journey the day before (although I have done this 30mins before departure with no problems) and they come pick you up from your guesthouse. The ticket is cheap too, only catch being they make lunch, dinner stops at ‘participating’ restaurants on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere charging double the usual prices and the buses drop off passengers out the front of their own guesthouses (however your free to find your own).

Dalat itself, you could be excused in thinking your in a small town in the French Alps, especially when you witness the vineyards and French style villas.

As the bus arrived in Dalat more than 2 hours late (it ran out of gas!). I never got the opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside. Dalat town itself was quite nice, the bad weather had scared away all the tourists and the food here is unlike the other Vietnamnese towns and has a french twist too it.

Pitch dark outside because of a power failure, and the rain pouring down, it still wasn’t enough to deter me from eating as much street food as my stomach can handle, hopping from place to place. It would be interesting to note how much weight I have put on since I’m here, always constantly eating. I don’t know how to say ‘yes’, ‘no’ or even ‘hello’ in Vietnamnese, yet I can pick out what I want from a menu entirely in Vietnamnese!

Its a shame I had to leave Dalat the very next morning, I would of loved to trek to some nearby tribes, but Dalat is certainly not the place to be in when it is raining like this everyday.

The beautiful French style villas in a hilly setting

My attempt at creating a slow shutter photograph

My first port of call was the diving store, just my luck that the weather is unpredictable, strong winds, and dirty waters means they could take me diving, but I probaly won’t enjoy it. Oh well, I was really looking forward to trying something new, windsurfing would have been a good idea, except I didn’t see anyone else doing it, so decided against that too. So I decided to spend the rest of the day lazing around on a deck chair catching up on some reading.

Nha Trang itself is quite a nice town, plenty of restaurants and bars, clean streets and plenty of 5 star resorts both already built and under construction. Just a pity with the rain that comes in every hour or so, making me have to hide out in internet cafes while I wait for it to clear again. Having no chance to do any laundry I have had no clean clothes for the last week or more (Feeling very itchy!), now is not a good time to get wet.

Strolling the town at night, there are people grilling food on the street floors everywhere, and unlike other Vietnamnese towns so far, the choice on offer was seafood, lobsters, crabs, crayfish, snails, prawns… I joined a couple of Australians (Every second tourist in Vietnam is an Australian!) and sat down on a small stool on the road side and tackled a lobster (about 30-40cm) and some prawns, this was the best food I have had so far on my trip, the sauce they use, the lobster was still moving while being grilled, the streetside setting, amazing, all for a total of 80,000 dong (roughly $7AUD), and thats most likely a tourist price too!

The not so beautiful beach at Nha Trang

Cooking my seafood dinner

Street food at its very best

I stayed on the bus pass Hue, all the way back to Hoi An once again, for a 6 hour layover waiting for the connecting bus down to Nha Trang, This was probaly a blessing, not having to continiously travel for the full 36 hours. This also have me an opportunity to visit my favourite eats in Hoi An for a second round. Once again while strolling around town, there sitting in a corner cafe, the same Australians I met when I was on my Halong Bay boat with, small world indeed.

The bus company that I was suppose to get the bus with obviously didn’t have enough customers to run a full bus, and so consolidated me in with a rival company on their buses. This was suppose to be better news as the other companies bus had much nicer sleeper beds as each bed was seperate from one another, however having been consolidated at the last minute meant no choice of beds and I got stuck with the worst one on the bus, not enough legroom, not enough decline! Somehow, someway I managed to find comfort to the ammusement of those around me and woke up a few hours later in the seaside resort town of Nha Trang.

Typical place for breakfast

Started out early in the morning, opting once again for the bicycle, little did I know I would be doing over 100km on the bike today. My first visit was to Tam Coc, the famous Halong Bay on rice paddies, I got there pretty early, and was suprised to find there were only a small handful of tourists there, despite it being a big attraction.

I jumped into a small rowboat with an elderly woman who started rowing me though the Tam Coc region, in total an one hour journey through water caves, georgeous marble formations, something really out of a movie. I had a whole boat to myself, and basically the entire area, and sat back enjoying the ride. On the way back, I decided to give rowing a go, rowing for a hour is exhausting so the woman glady let me have ago, 10 minutes and i had moved only a few metres, it was time to give the oars back to the woman. What is amazing is if they get tired, they can row with their feet as well! When I got back to the dock, the tourist buses started to arrive, and the place lost its tranquility, very glad I did it early when Tam Coc was still majestic.

I spent the next 8 hours trying to find the ancient capital of Hoa Lu, apparently the Vietnamenses chose this place as their capital because of the strategic surroundings, its surely well hidden thats for sure! I never ended up finding it, but what I did get to see in the meantime was the ‘real’ Vietnam. There were no signs, no roadside stalls, no tourists, just farms, all in a setting with the rocky formations in the background. The people smiled as you rode past, not trying to sell you anything, this is the land ‘Tourism Vietnam’ forgot, and probaly my favourite part of Vietnam so far. I was abit concerned when the sun was setting and I was stuck 25-30km away from the highway on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, but somehow pedalling the fastest I could, I reached the highway before dark.

If I wasn’t so short on time, and knew how beautiful the area around Ninh Binh was beforehand, I would definetly plan for another day or two here. A 36hour bus ride to Nha Trang awaits…

There are no motor driven boats here, only rowboats

When your arms get tired you row with your feet

One of many caves we rowed through

It started getting busy on my way back

I decided to take the road less travelled to see what I could find

It seemed like a good idea to climb this hill I found

Halong Bay on rice fields

Tam Coc from up high

Local fisherman

Houses are very simple here

Off the tourist trail

Around every corner is something just as spectacular

I decided to go for a stroll around Hanoi today, even if it ended up being a 10-15km stroll. Started out at the lake, watching the locals exercise amongst the tranquil lake. My first stop was Hoa Lo prison, which served as a concentration camp during the French reign, and later as a POW camp during the Vietnam war, John McCain being one of the famous POW’s held here. Having very little knowledge of the French occupation and the Vietnam war, the prison was a nice learning experience, especially since their were very few tourists here.

My next destination ended up being the temple of literature, a place where all the tourists in Hanoi seemed to end up at the same time. It didn’t help that it is a Sunday, as their were just as many local tourists as foreign ones. Nothing too exciting here. I walked along the train tracks next, and witnessed some amazing living conditions, funny enough, there were no tourists in this part of town.

On the way back to the old quarter, I couldn’t help myself and had a quick bite at Colonel Sanders, there are no Micky D’s in Vietnam, only KFC’s, probably because the Colonel has a remarkable resemblence to Ho Chi Minh himself. I did make up for this a few hours later while wondering the old quarter, I popped into a street side stall for some rice, only to walk out 30mins later and eat again right next door, this followed yet again by some drinks at the place directly across the road. I could of done this for a few more hours, but decided I better stop eating.

The old quarter is quite a pleasant place, you just have to ignore the horns, and traffic, and the place certainly has some charm, unlike other big Asian cities.

Exercising in the morning on Hoam Kien lake

Structure right in the middle of the lake

They escaped the jail through this tiny sewage gate

Traffic in Hanoi goes in all directions