Last Updated 18th August 2001

We arrived in Hanoi on 2 July. It's hot (34C) and humid. (This is the story for most of Vietnam from here on). We spent a few days there checking out the sights. We saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, The Ho Cho Minh Museum, Ho Chi Minh's old house and gardens. We went to an Art Gallery (it was raining), the army museum, the "Hanoi Hilton" where the downed imperialist US airmen were held during the American (i.e. Vietnam) war. We wandered around the Hoan Kiem lake where we watched people doing their morning stretches, playing badminton and generally lepping around to get the blood flowing before going off for breakfast. We stayed in the old quarter of the city which hasn't changed for 600 years. Ok there have been a few changes like the increase in volume of motorbike traffic and appearance of twenty or thirty travellers cafe's with internet access but the other stuff is the same. You still see people squatting having breakfast bowls of Pho (noodle soup) or Com (rice) at open pavement cafes, men gambling on goldfish fights, a dentists chair complete with patient and spectators, all sorts of stalls hawking their wares with vigour indirectly proportional to how much you actually need the stuff they are selling. The streets have specialities, such as a silk street, a tin ware street, a shoe street, a toy street etc etc. This is great as it makes it easy to find your way around...until after everything shuts and it's boarded shutters everywhere and all your landmarks are gone..! Then you find our that the name of your hotel's street has at least three other similar that must be visited in your cycle rickshaw before finding the right one ages later !!

Our first tour was out to see the beautiful Ha Long bay. The bay is full of limestone islands and is very picturesque. We did the boat trip, swam in the warm waters and stayed on one of the islands for the night before returning to Hanoi.

Then we headed off to the far north of the country, a full days journey to Sa Pa near the border with China where we saw the famous market and visited with the hill tribes. They must be sick of tourists traipsing through their villages at this point but they put a brave face on it. Especially if you buy some of their handicraft items that they are weighed down with! It's a beautiful part of the country and the scenery is spectacular. We moved on to Bac Ha to see another market, less touristy, basically a local market e.g. a whole street full of people selling cucumbers. Lots of hill tribe people in their colourful costumes. The following day a bus back to Hanoi. 1st Puncture.

We left Hanoi for Hue, an old Imperial city with a citidel and forbidden city a la Bejing. However the citadel has been damaged over the years and got a particularly bad pasting after the tet offensive in '68 so a lot is flattened. What has survived and been restored is very impressive. Hue also has the mausoleums of the emperors along the Perfume river which are also very impressive with beautiful peaceful gardens and lakes with fantastic temples and statues. Hue is also where we did our tour of the DMZ, one of the biggest zones of conflict during the American war. We visited Khe Sanh, the rockpile, saw a bit of the Ho Chi Minh trail. Most sites are now being used for growing rice or coffee and there is not much left to see, the odd burnt pill box or tank, bits of bombs, but you still get the idea anyway. We say the Vinh Moc tunnels are where the villagers escaped underground during the B52 bombardments. You can go into them 13m below ground and see how they lived through it.

From there we went to Hoi An, a world heritage site. It's an old trading town where the local and Chinese, Japanese and European merchants used to trade a few hundred years ago. We saw the Japanese covered bridge, the temples and assembly halls and the houses of the merchants which are still occupied by descendants of the original traders. It's a bit of a tourist trap as it become famous for it's tailors who will run up anything for you (Marge got some silk dresses) but it's a nice relaxing place with some great restaurants. It's also got a nice beach ! We did a day trip to My Son to see the Cham (Hindu influenced civilisation) temples. These also took a pasting when some guerrillas hid out there in the war and had some B52's pay them a visit.

From there on to Nha Thrang via night bus. 2nd Puncture. Very tiring journey. Nha Thrang has a nice beach but the only thing we really did was take a boat trip to see the local islands in the bay and did some fantastic snorkelling, lots of nice fish and coral.

Next we went to Buon me Thuot in the cool, cool hills. Ahhhhhhhhh. Big coffee growing area. Did a motorbike pillion trip to see the Dray Sap waterfalls and a local hill tribe village with longhouses shared amongst the villagers. 15 of them for 200 people ! A bit like an australian Youth hostel (next episode). 3rd Puncture.

Next day we headed over the hills via a rough road and having avoided getting stuck in a few mudslides we arrive at Da Lat. This was the ride where we stopped at a roadside cafe and saw the usual rice wine jars with snakes in them (it's a medicinal tonic). No big deal but hey what's in that one..a crow and some voles.. mmmmmm. Anyway Da Lat is an hill station developed by the french when they ran the show. It provided them an escape from the humidity of the coast in the old days and still performs the same function today. First day there we walk around the lake, see the old colonial villas and the huge local market. The next day is our wedding anniversary so we check into the Da Lat palace Hotel as a treat. It's been expensively and expertly restored to it's colonial era glory, making a change from our usual accommodation. We enjoy ourselves immensely not doing anything in particular. We met the General Manager and some of his staff over drinks in the evening and when he heard it was our wedding anniversary he generously gave us dinner on the house! We had a superb dinner in the great French restaurant. Thanks Wilson and Sofitel! They also have a great golf couse that we never got time to play, maybe next time. Check it out... Sofitel Dalat

On to Ho Chi Minh city..Saigon in past times. A busy city of 7 million with lots of 2 wheeler traffic. 2 Million motorbike, 1 million bicycles. Crossing the road takes nerves of steel. Basically you go for it walking straight across and if you keep a steady pace they will swerve around you. However if you hesitate, slow or stop you are not doing as expected and the consequences can be fatal! We managed this trick successfully and saw a few sights. The war remnants museum (yes the one with the deformed babies in formaldehyde), the cathedral, the markets, chinatown, a day trip to see the Cu Chi tunnels (like the Vinh Moc earlier but for fighters) and the Cao dai holy see. This is the HQ of a religion which is unique to Vietnam and which tries to unify Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholisism, Islam and probably a few more we missed! The Cu Chi tunnels have a great collection of medieval man-traps made by the VC including one called "the souvenir"... i.e. it goes with you to the hospital! We declined the offer to shoot M-16's so we never found out whether the target was a cut-out of Nixon or not.

After all that war a few quiet days was called for so we headed for the Mekong delta where we spent 4 days crusing around on various boats and generally enjoying the aquatic scenery, seeing a few less touristy sights (the rice crispie factory and the mausoleum of the second general secretary of the socialist republic spring to mind). We had one night staying in a village house on an island in the river. We cycled around seeing village life at close quarters and really enjoyed ourselves. Then back to HCM, stocked up on counterfeit CD's at $1 each and flew out early next morning. We were sad to leave such a friendly place, easy to travel, good food and beer, great scenery, beaches and history. I can't do it justice in these few lines here. Go visit it yourselves !